The Marks of True Christian Faith

The Rev'd John R.W. Stott, M.A., D.D.

Our Wednesday morning Bible study at St. John's is currently focusing on the Epistles of St. John.  Many volumes have been written on these well organized and practical books, but I am regularly drawn back to the writings of the late John Stott in the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries and in Men With A Message, his brief introduction to the New Testament.  I have always found his "tests of assurance" to be particularly helpful as I evaluate my own faithfulness to Christ.

1. First is the "christological test" - "This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (I John 4:2)"
2. Second is the "moral test"  - "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God. (I John 3:10)"
3. Third is the "spiritual test" - "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. (I John 3:14)" "This is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (I John 3:24)"

By applying these tests to my life, I can pretty readily determine whether or not Christ is making a difference in my life.  And from the evidence, I can gain a rather high level of assurance of the reality of my walk with the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But the Rev'd. Mr. Stott also points out that St. John reversed these same affirmations to name and define the spiritual liars such as the Cerinthians who sought to lead the faithful and unsuspecting astray.

1. "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. (I John 2:22)"
2. "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie. (I John 1:6)"
3. "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. (I John 4:20)"

"These are the three proofs of genuine Christianity. John brings them all together at the beginning of his fifth chapter: 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.  this is how we know that we love the chldren of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands' (5:1f.).  Unless Christians are marked by right belief, godly obedience, and brotherly love, they are counterfeit. They cannot have been born again, for those who are 'born of God' are those who believe (5:1) and obey (3:9) and love (4:7)."

Well said Brother Stott.  You leave little space or time for some of the stark denials of the faith received that are in the world today (No more than did St. John the Beloved for those same stark denials which abounded in Asia Minor in the first century.)  Might we all apply the truths revealed by God to Blessed John the Evangelist to our lives this day.  If we find in that application vindication and proof of our faith, might we give thanks with humility and purpose to continue in the faith received.  If we find ourselves wanting in the application, might we humbly submit to God's Word written and ammend our doctrine, and our behaviour, and our lack of love.

all quotations and paraphrases are drawn from Men With A Message by John Stott as revised by Stephen Motyer in 1994.  Published in the US by Eerdmans Publishing Co. in Grand Rapids 

Sermon for Pentecost, AD MMXII

The Descent of the Holy Spirit, by Anthony Van Dyck

Pentecost Year B
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster, 27 May 2012

Acts2:1-21
Psalm 104
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-16:15

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. AMEN.

The Logo of Shriners International

Friday night Danny Meenach, Pete Martin, David Mowrey, and I donned our rhinestone encrusted red fezzes and descended on the main entrance of Wal-Mart to solicit donations for the Shriner’s Orthopedic and Burn Hospitals for Children. It is a worthy charity, and the “people of Wal-Mart” gave generously. Many of them did not appear to have a lot of extra cash, and their donations of one or two or five dollars reminded me of that widow whom Jesus commended for giving her two mites. “Because she has given all that she has, she has given more than all of them.” There was a time when I used to watch people a lot. And then time and circumstance limited that past-time, and so my three and a half hours at Wal-Mart provided a welcome opportunity to watch people again. I was a bit disturbed by what I saw. There were more people in the general population who seemed to be burned out on drugs than I had remembered. In the same way, there was a higher concentration of people who seemed to suffer from the ill affects of poverty than I had remembered from the days when I did most of my people watching in Lexington, Kentucky back in the 70’s. If the eye is the window of the soul, and I believe it is for most of us, I think it is safe to say that many of the people I saw were living in that shadowy land between faith and hope, where uncertainty and hurt can so easily lead to distrust and despair.

Perhaps you have visited that land at some point in your life. You believe that there is a God, a God who loves you. Your faith has led you to respond by giving your life to Him and calling out for his deliverance, but as hours blend into days and days into weeks, your prayers seem to go unanswered, and your soul wavers. The hope you had entertained seems so far away, and your loved one still suffers from cancer, and that person you love so dearly seems as unresponsive as ever, and you watch your balances dwindle as markets fluxuate and you are forced to draw down more and more capital to meet your regular expenses. Your faith is intact, but hope seems an unrealized dream.

Whitsunday, more commonly called the Feast of Pentecost, is the festival of our Holy Mother the Church which addresses the discouragement of that in-between land perhaps better than any other. It relates the historic fulfillment of the outpouring of the Blessed Holy Spirit in the lives of the early Christians. Jesus had ascended into heaven, and had told the disciples to go into the city and wait for the fulfillment of that which had been foretold by the prophets, the coming of the Spirit upon the people of God. He had said, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it unto you. All that the Father has in mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15)

And now, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, is come into the world to guide the Ecclesia, the Church of God, into all truth. He fell upon them in power that day, and the world has never been the same. Common lives were filled with a confidence beyond what they had ever known. In many ways their situations did not change, but they were now aware of the infilling of God, and their transformed perceptions led to new outlooks, new callings, and new realities of faith and experience. They bore witness to the fact that Jesus Christ had defeated death and the grave, and had changed their lives forever. The boldness of their insistence led to persecution and radical transformation of culture, of institutions, and of lives. All of this because the Gift of the Holy Ghost had come upon them just as the prophets foretold. “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I shall be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:24-28) Because the gift of the Holy Spirit was theirs, their outlooks and their realities were transformed. The grayness of that in-between land gave way to the Technicolor certainty of the realized hope of the kingdom of God in their lives.

Have you experienced this ushering in of the Kingdom of God? Certainly it is a reality in the history of the Church, but have you known it in your own heart? Has His Spirit borne witness with your own spirit that indeed you are a child of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ? Has the grayness and uncertainty of life’s reality been reinterpreted and understood in that new light, that fuller truth and understanding which is the gift of God to all who believe?

On this feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church, I urge you to receive those gifts that God has prepared for you, and which Jesus promised were ours if we would wait for the fulfillment. By coming today to this holy place to receive the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, you have in a very real way gone into the city to await the coming of the gift. You have believed that Jesus is the Christ, the one who did what the Bible says he did, and is who the Bible says he is. You have come to this place in faith, believing in the promise. Now I urge you to cast yourself upon his grace and mercy, praying earnestly that on this day, you might know that truth which He has promised. On this day, pray earnestly to him that the faith of the Church might be your own, and that the experience of the Church my be known in your life with power, and intimacy, and transforming reality.

God may change your immediate situation. It is much more likely that your situation will stay the same, but that he will transform your mind and your outlook. The miracle, you see, may not be in the physical healing, or the changed reality. It may be in that spiritual understanding which comes from what Wesley and others have called “the heart strangely warmed.” When we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we have been with God, and that He loves us, we are guided into that deeper truth which only comes from knowing Him, for the Spirit of God speaks to us that which the Father has delivered to the Son. Jesus said, “I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord does. But I call you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Friends of Jesus, receive today that truth, that understanding, that knowledge that our Lord and our Saviour, our brother and our friend offers us through the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. As it transformed the Empire of Rome, so will it transform our outlooks and our reality, and men and women everywhere will know the reality of the power of God’s love. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.

Palm Sunday 2012

Our Lord Enters Jerusalem

Our Lord Bears the Cross

 

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose

Palm Sunday Sermon
Preached at St. John’s Lancaster 1 April 2012
Mark 11:1-11 and Mark 15:1-39

What are we to make of today’s Gospel lessons? The first is so full of hope and anticipation. The King has come into his own! As he rode into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophesies, the people ran to acclaim him as King David’s long awaited heir. Surely the Kingdom of God was among men, and it was just a matter of time until “justice rolled down like a mighty river.” But then there is that second reading which recounts the Passion and Death of our Lord. Pain and suffering, alienation and loss, disappointment and fear are everywhere. The contrast is absolute. I for one would rather just talk about Jesus coming into our lives today, but that is not what the Scriptures or our Holy Mother the Church call me to do this day.

A wise man has said that some of the most wonderful things which happen in our lives often occur “in the shadow of a cross.” The architecture of our Church echoes that statement. At the very apex of our beautiful east window, the mythical pelican gives life to her chicks by shedding her own blood willingly. Just below her is the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world- by himself becoming the sacrifice for our sins. On the font where so many of us were baptized is carved the cross and crown, an ever present reminder that only the person who lays down his life will receive it again. Only the one who goes to the cross with Jesus will reign with him in glory. And perhaps most poignant of all is the cruciform nature of the path we walk as we gather at the Lord’s Table to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as Chesterton says, “to eat the flesh of our God and to drink his blood.” And then we arise and walk again in the way of the cross as we go forth into the world to bear his love to everyone we meet.

The fact is that death and hardship and sin and evil are ever present realities in our world. I may by good fortune, sound investing, and skilled medical practice be able to avoid most of those things for a while, but eventually even the most protected and privileged of us run afoul of the evils of this world. Death comes to one we love at an early age. Divorce strikes in what seems like the most secure and loving relationship. Disease stalks in the food we eat and in the lifestyles we adopt, even when we try to do our best. War claims our sons and daughters in the prime of their lives, and even those who survive are never quite the same.

I would submit to you today that these realities which are all around us are the reason today’s odd combination of Gospel lessons is so very, very important. You see, we are not as those who hope based on what seems right, or on some philosophy we pray might be true. God has come among us and carried the cross. He has laid down his life willingly to demonstrate for us that he has the power to take it up again and claim the crown that is rightfully his. This is not some mere fantasy or novella of a good man’s life. The Bible names the names of eyewitnesses as if to say, “ask them if you don’t believe me.” The New Testament accounts were circulating widely during the lives of so many who were there, and the authors, guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, invited their hearers and readers to check the facts before they believed. People are pretty much the same in every historical era. Since the fall, our world has been plagued by sin and people have lived with its consequences. We have yearned for the happy times, and for a while, at least occasionally, they come to us. But there is always that shadow of the cross, that harbinger of the place of suffering. When Jesus Christ came among us and took up the cross and died for us, he entered into our world that we might know we are not alone in the midst of our sufferings. When he died for us, he became our great high priest and our sacrifice and our king. And because of what he accomplished in the midst of his suffering, we, like him, will live forever. Through his cross, we shall gain the crown of life which is offered to all who believe in him. Because he embraced the cross, we all might wear the crown.

One of my heroes has long been the gallant Montrose. Condemned by a perjured king to fight a battle that could not be won, he was defeated by his foes and betrayed by his friends. The poet Aytoun, late professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at Edinburgh, translated this good man’s words into verse in “The Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers.”

“There is a chamber far away
Where sleep the good and brave,
But a better place ye have named for me
Than by my father’s grave.
For truth and right, ‘gainst treason’s might,
This hand hath always striven,
And ye raise it up for a witness still
In the eye of earth and heaven.
Then nail my head on yonder tower-
Give every town a limb-
And God who made shall gather them:
I go from you to Him!"


My hero understood the nature of the cross, and the promise and reality of the crown. Jesus made it clear to all who will believe, and that includes you and me. The darkness of pain and tragedy will come to us in this life, but we are not like those who are without hope. For with St. Paul we can say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” Pain is a reality in this world, as are death and loss and suffering and injustice. But our God is greater, and as he has come among us to bear the cross, so has he opened the way for us to reign with him in glory. May this be the reality of our lives in this world, and in the next. AMEN.

Rector's Report 2011- St. John's Lancaster

The numbers look good this year at St. John’s.  Eleven Baptisms, a good list of confirmations receptions and transfers, a strong pledge base and small surplus going into December, and an Average Sunday Attendance (there is the real number for any church) of 110, up 15 from last year.  But cautious thanksgiving, not jubilant self-congratulation is in order.  After all, we have buried some very active members and seen good friends and members of our parish move away.  And our ASA is significantly skewed by the fact that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year and the fact that we had excellent attendance at both Christmas Eve services, which count toward Sunday attendance.  All the same, good things are happening at St. John’s.  We offer three Communion Services each week in our Church, all of which are well attended.  Two regular Bible studies are joined by a strong EFM program to provide Christian Education opportunities for our members.  We have a regular presence for Prayer and Communion distribution in two nursing homes.  We offer weekly lay led evening prayer at the church and also at the chapel at Pickering House, the home of our local tri-county hospice program.  We have a regular presence in the county jail, the transitions center, and in SEPTA- the tri-county jail in Nelsonville (Bill McCleery, assisted by Chuck Canter even baptized two men there this year!)  We have had good participation serving meals to the poor in Jackson and Hocking counties, and the support of our parish for the local Lutheran Social Services food pantry continues.  We continue to support missions ranging from Haiti to Liberia to East Asia and beyond, and youth work in Pennslyvania.  We support work among single mothers in our own community and provided hats and mittens to needy children in our own public schools.  Our building is used by AA and Alanon, Fairhope Hospice, the Lancaster Festival Art Walk, and a group of local elementary school cheerleaders regularly.   Special needs students from Lancaster High School come to our church every week during the school year for on-site job training experience.  All of these things and more are supported by all of the administrative and service structures such as altar guild, choir, office volunteers, and the like that make up the daily labour of the people of God at St. John’s.  We support the ministries of the Episcopal church directly through Episcopal Community Services Foundation,  Support for the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem on Good Friday, support for the Dohn's- medical missionnaries in the Dominican Republic, and direct giving to two Episcopal Seminaries at Nashotah House and in Ambridge PA.  This year, we saw one of our own families, the Canters, graduate from the House and accept a church appointment in the Episcopal diocese of San Diego.   We have been pleased to support the Good Earth Farm and Common Friars, our relatively new Episcopal Monastery in Athens.  Our own Emily Crawford served as a summer intern there during her break from Washington and Lee.  .We also pay our diocesan Mission Share fully and on time this and every year.  These are a few of the highlights of who we are and what we do here at St. John’s, and there are many more things we do to serve God and our fellows here and around the world.  Thank you all for your generous support and service.

2011 has also seen some big changes about how we do business at St. John’s and in the look of the Church.  First for the capital projects: We have new roofs on both buildings which should serve us for years to come.  A major masonry project was conducted on the west end of the church which included the rebuilding of both towers.  Many thanks to Glenn Newman, a long-time friend of this parish for doing the work.  He saved us substantial amounts of money with his patient and careful workmanship.  Thanks also to Martin Taylor, our good neighbor, who cooperated with us and Fairfield Federal to stabilize and reconstruct the wall that marks our property line.  Last year, our vestry decided to adopt a plan of “Common Ministry” or increased lay involvement in the running of the church.  A significant component of that plan was the replacing of our Church secretary with volunteer workers.  It has been a learning process, but the transition has been made successfully, thanks to the hard work of Tom Hammer, Schyler Crawford, and all of our office volunteers.  We hit a milestone in 2011 when our treasurer, Lowell Stallsmith, celebrated his  twenty fifth year in that position.  Thanks Lowell for a job well done.  We continued to get to know each other better thanks to the monthly fellowship breakfasts organized by Mark and Mary Alice Perrine and their crews.  Suzie Cork and the folks at Shaw’s continued to conduct the popular cooking classes which have brought joy to so many and raised a considerable sum for our parish.  Many thanks are also in order to the Fairfield Anglican Fellowship, an independent mission support agency and registered 501c3 for their continued substantial support of our mission through the payment of utilities and support for individual projects of our parish and their support of the Common Friars in Athens.  Thanks to all who support St. John’s by their labor, their giving of money and time and prayer, and by living the gospel every day.  We are truly blessed, and if 2011 is any indicator of who we are, I anticipate a great 2012 here on behalf of the kingdom of God.

Faithfully,

Bill+

Mid-winter Musings

Fairfield County is now firmly in the grips of winter.  The truck thermometer read 22 degrees Fahrenheit when I did my chores this morning at the barn.  A light dusting of snow covers the ground, and the horses are very glad to be out of their stalls now that the ground is frozen (they tear up too much pasture when things are muddy and therefore have to stay in the barn until the ground is frozen.)  Just last weekend, Tristan, Chuck, Leo the fat Labrador and I were shooting pheasants in fifty degree weather at Federal Valley.  We bagged six birds, missed two embarrassingly easy shots, and watched one beautiful cock bird glide into the treeline when Leo got excited and galumphed out of range.  It was a good day with lunch at the local ma and pop restaurant, Cardhu, and Dominicanas.  The slower pace of mid-winter life in the countryside always calls me to consider those things that are truly important, and this year is no departure from that rule.

Monday night, Kathy Heim (our organist) conspired with me to offer evensong at the church.  It is a fitting service for the countryside in mid-winter.  After the sentences and confession, we proceeded directly to Phos hilaron by Robert Bridges and Louis Bourgeois, The lessons from the Feast of the Circumcision were answered by Crotch's Mag and Whitneys's paraphrase of the Nunc set to Orlando Gibbons' Song 1.  There was enough plainsong, simplified Anglican chant, and incense for even me, but the most amazing thing about this lovely service was its spontaneity.  I was in the throes of laryngitis, and so was unable to sing or read my accustomed parts.  Kathy chanted, Ivan led the canticles, Frankie and Ann read the lessons, Ivan and Kathy offered thoughts on the lessons, Paul led the state and church prayers,  Ivan offered those prayers requested by members of our congregation, and I merely received the gift of worship from my friends.  I was helpless in a sense, but through my friends, I met God.  The liturgy was truly the work of the people here at Saint John's, and the experience got me thinking about what might be.

Imagine a place where the Holy Communion was the basis of our life together.  What would it be like for the ancient devotional societies of the church to cooperate in prayer with the more functional modern mission agencies which labour in our parish?  Could it be possible that evangelical commitment to study God's Word might be blended with the devotional practices of the church catholic such as confession and stations?  Could the personal devotional practices of the modern west be coupled with fasting and the disciplines of another age and another part of the world?  And could God, would God, work through such a mix to send his people out in the power of the Holy Spirit to 'preach good tidings unto the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.' (Isaiah lxi. I)? 

These are the sorts of things I think about in mid-winter.  Perhaps in the days to come, God will unite our hearts to see such a miraculous fulfillment of the prophesies of Isaiah.

More Wisdom from Margaret

Three year old Margaret's catechesis at the hands of her mother is coming along very well. Like her Mother and Uncle Tristan, she is growing up with the solemn understanding that the great men and women of the past were near associates of her family. My children really did believe for a time that Scipio Africanus, Cincinnatus, Horatius, Our Lady, and St. Paul were not that far removed from their grandparents in time and space, and that most of them had probably helped Little Grandpa and Uncle Jake defeat the combined armies and navies of Imperial Japan. And so it is really no surprize that with her mother's help, she is developing a view of the immanence of our Lord's humanity which is most refreshing. Here are her recent comments on what Christmas will be like in "The California."

"...and then we will have a party and have cake and ice cream and we will go to the playground and Jesus will go down the slide with me at the playground and we will have decorations and go to church and have a party and it will be fun and we will have presents for Jesus for his birthday and it will be in December and Mama and Papa will be there and I will play with Jesus on the playground..."

As daughter Ashley wrote, "A clearer version of heaven I have never heard."

Rector's Rambling: December 2009

Christmas joy is a wonderful thing. Several years ago, when Ashley graduated from high school, many of our friends at St. John’s took up a collection and bought her a Crosby bridle. She used it almost every day while she was in the equine program at Ohio State Wooster, and has treasured it ever since. This week, she called home and asked Rebecca to look at a saddle on e-bay. It was a beautiful Crosby with wool padding and dark German leather. She excitedly told about how it was out of production, and that it was a perfect match for the rest of her Crosby leather. As she spilled out her plans to pay for it, it became rather obvious that the timing of the sale was likely to be a problem. There were only 18 hours left until the auction was over. Rebecca asked me in hushed tones what I thought, and we did what most parents do, we agreed to enable a temporary asset transfer through a sale listing. As Rebecca said “Merry Christmas” to Ashley, I could hear my daughter on the other end of the line absolutely giddy with joy. She was as a little girl again.
As I reflected on the wonder of the joy a saddle could bring, I thought of other Christmases, when Tristan was in theatre, and Brad, and Matthew, and Chris, and now Stuart. My mind often wanders to them. Generally I cry and I breathe a simple prayer,” O God, give them strength and courage, watch over them and help them to do their duty.” I remembered my dad and how happy he always was to give to others, and I thought of one Christmas in particular when he bought toys and clothes for a poor family in our neighborhood. He crept onto their porch in the dead of night on Christmas Eve and left the wrapped boxes to be found the next morning. I don’t think he ever told anyone what he did, and I don’t know if he even knew that I had seen him that night. One year when I was in College, I took a job ringing bells with the Salvation Army in Chicago. We had initially been told that we would not be released in time to get home for Christmas day, but when that news changed, I grabbed my kit, jumped on the first train I could get for Muncie, and headed home. I called my cousin Carroll from the station, and he drove from Parker to pick me up. When I arrived home just before midnight on Christmas eve, I walked in and found my folks sitting at the table drinking coffee, looking like they had lost their last friend. It was a wonderful and unexpected reunion, and our joy was genuine that night.
There is something about the celebration of the birth of our Saviour that seems to deepen every emotion and to heighten every perception. Our depressions are more sinister, and our joys are more absolute. As our appreciation deepens for those we love, our longing for those from whom we are separated grows ever more painful. Perhaps it is fitting that in this time of our deepest and most passionate outpourings, when we are the most vulnerable in so many ways, that Jesus should come into our lives. “So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…,” and he is still giving him to us today. As the light of Christ comes into the world, might we all welcome him with joy beyond knowing, and might we receive this gift of God who loves us, and calls us all to himself.

Merry Christmas!
Bill+