Wednesday Bible Study from St. John's Lancaster

I've been asked to post my notes for Christian Education classes this year, and so I start with many good intentions.  The Wednesday studies, at least initially, will consist of a directed discussion on the assigned Epistle Lesson for the coming Sunday.  Here are my preliminary notes for  Proper 21 C Revised Common Lectionary: I Timothy 6:6-19.

St. Paul in Prison, perhaps writing to Bishop Timothy?

Introduction:
I Timothy is a Pastoral Epistle from what today we might call an archbishop (Paul), to a young Bishop (Timothy.)  All of the book up to today's lesson constitutes a necessary prequel to today's admonition.  In this prequel, St. Paul illustrates the basic nature of orthodox, catholic, apostolic belief and practice.
1. Christ centered doctrine and a call to and definition of faith constitute the bulk of chapter 1.
2. Prayer and moral example dominate chapter 2.
3. Chapter three is about qualifications for ecclesial office.
4. Chapters four and five, and the opening verses of chapter 6, provide admonitions about how to deal with controversies involving devotional practices, extra biblical doctrines, monastic practice, clergy compensation, and social order, and Timothy is admonished not to back down from those who would reject his authority.
 5. Chapter six opens by characterizing the foregoing chapters as a description of Christian faith and practice, and goes on to reject the authority of those who deny or resist such teaching and practice. Then follows a very specific discussion of what constitutes real Christian motives and piety.  Health and wealth gospels are rejected out of hand, and believers are called to model and seek more spiritual virtues to adorn their character: justice, piety, fidelity, love, fortitude, and gentleness. Then comes a final Christocentric statement of faith and exhortations to seek spiritual rather than material wealth, and to avoid vain chatter and false intellectual pretense.

Questions:
1. What are the virtues listed in 6:11-12 called in different translations of the Bible?
2. Are you surprised that the book begins and ends with exhortations to right belief about Jesus?  What constitutes this right belief? (cf 1:15-17 and 6:13-16)
3. What are the "orders to be obeyed" referred to in Chapter 6 verse 14?
4. What elements of the Creeds do you find in the doctrinal portions of chapters one and six?

Outline for This Year's Rector's Forum

Attached is the outline for the rector's forum this year at St. John's.  Please excuse the formatting, I had some trouble moving it from power point to blogger.  I hope to see you there!  Thanks, Bill+

Rector's Forum 2013-14

-Meets 2nd,3rd,4th,and 5th Sundays at 9:15 -Meets in the Long Class in the Education Wing -Will focus on Intro to the Old Testament

Purposes of the Rector's Forum

1. To provide resources which will help to strengthen faith and deepen the student's relationship with Jesus Christ.
2.To teach the "Faith Received" from Christ and his Apostles

Methodology of the Forum

1. Lecture to provide factual data
2. read to provide further background.
Scroll down for rest of outline

 

 

 

 

 

 

October and November: The Pentateuch

Creation Narratives: Purpose, Order, and Love The Nature of God and of Man  Providential History of Israel
 Formed by God through Trial and Deliverance
The Meaning of and Reason for Holiness  The Gift of hope and Land of Promise

December and January: Historical Books

God works through people to accomplish his will

 God's response to human failure

How God even works through bad things

Faithful people in good times and bad

The nature of God's community on earth

 

February: The Poetic Books

Nature of Praise
Good and Evil
Wisdom
Honesty with God
 

March and April: Major and Minor Prophets

Hope of Israel
Getting our Attention
Christ Prophesied
Unpopularity of Truth

 

May: The ApocryphaWhat it is and how we use it Overview of Revelation Before Jesus

Keeping Sabbath, Even When We Don't Want To

Rector's Rambling: October.

Sometimes, our wives need to protect us from ourselves. A bit over a month ago, Rebecca pointed out that I had not taken any vacation this year, and informed me that when Oscar came home from the trainer's, I would be taking some time off to “do whatever it is the two of you do together.” Well, I did, and we have, and it has been wonderful. Vacation, or Sabbath if you will, is something that forms a real part of my theology, but it is so easy to ignore. There is after all so much to do, and so often it is easier to do it yourself than it is to allow someone else to employ the gifts that God has given them. Taking time off from what we usually do is so necessary, because it brings us refreshment and new insights, but it is so easy to justify putting it off, especially when we need it the most.

Oscar by the way, is magnificent. As most of you know, he is a coal black English Cocker Spaniel, field bred, with estate bloodlines. All of that means that he is from a long line of hunting dogs who have proven their mettle over the decades, if not over the centuries. He is an instinctive little guy, but no one could say that he was overly intelligent. That is considered a good thing in the gun dog world. Like all working dogs, he is a joy to watch, and even more of a joy to work. 

Oscar finds absolute happiness in flushing and retrieving game of all types, and he lives to please his people. I cannot help asking as he works if I understand my vocation, my calling in life, as well as he enjoys his- and how I might find that consistency of joy which seems to characterize this beautiful little black dog, Vacation has allowed me a bit more time to read and study than I usually find, and most of that time was spent in the poetic books of the Old Testament, the Pauline Epistles, selected writings of the Caroline Divines, and John Ruskin's Oxford lectures on sculpture. I also read some of William Wordsworth's early poetry. 

I'm always amazed how God ties so many disparate threads together to help me make sense of life, and he has done so again. I can't really say how, but he has brought me a renewal over these past two weeks which fills me with peace and gives me an energized vision of what it means to be a priest. I do look forward to the work of the immediate future, to the honour of presiding at Holy Communion, of catechizing in the faith received, and of working to encourage us all to live as did Jesus. It is good to be a part of this work in this place, and I am blessed by your friendship and by the opportunity to labour with you to the greater glory of God, to the extending of his kingdom, and to the building up of his people. Thank you Rebecca, for looking out for me so well.

Bill+

Sermon: Luke 14:12-14; Proper 17C RCL

Sermon for Proper 17C RCL
To be preached at St John’s Lancaster, 1 September, 2013

Luke 14:12-14

Jesus tells three stories about dinners in Luke 14, and today I would like to focus on the second of those stories. The first story talks about how we should be humble. The third points out that many religious people will not find a seat at the heavenly banquet because they do not put God first in their lives. But the second examines our motives for doing good, and alone among the three makes each of us the thrower of the party, and not an invited guest. Jesus points out that often when we throw a party, we are prone to invite those people who are likely to return the favor. He calls us to branch out and invite people who don’t have the resources or the ability to return the favor, and then God will recompense us on their behalf.

I think in all likelihood our Lord is talking about our motives for doing the things we do. In short, why do we help a person of limited means or opportunities, or a person who is economically poor or marginalized, or a person who is pushed aside because of their looks, or their associations, or the choices they have made in life? I would suggest that the reasons people help others are many and complex. Some of them are good and some are not. Jesus calls us all to examine our own motives as we go about doing good, and where those motives need to be made more holy, to give them over to his redeeming grace. Walk with me today through some of the motives we sometimes share for doing good, and examine prayerfully your own motives, even as I examine mine.

Some people do good things because it makes them feel good about themselves. Now, all of us feel good when we help another person. That is in our nature, and there is nothing wrong with that at all. But if that is as far as it goes, it can lead to a very selfish way of living in the end. It could lead one to do only that good which they enjoy or in which they are interested, leaving those people or situations considered unpleasant to fend for themselves. So we might say that while it is perfectly fine to do good because it makes us feel good, questions arise when we do good primarily or exclusively because it makes us feel good.

Some people do good because it provides them with the opportunity to control other people. Such a temptation is particularly present in a democracy, where I can force my own values on others, or confiscate their wealth, or induce people to support my vision through patronage or cronyism merely by obtaining a vote of fifty percent plus one, or even through a minority plurality is some instances. This is not to say that democracy is a bad thing, or that our values should not have an impact on our politics, or that taxes are bad or unjustified, or that political patronage, or even rewarding supporters is always a bad thing. It is to say that pragmatic reasons for doing good are not enough. There must be, as Jesus implies in this passage, some true altruism, some real desire to do good merely because it is the right thing to do!

Perhaps that is why Jesus advises the party giver to invite those people who could never hope to return the favor: the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. I am called to do good not because of what it can do for me, but simply because it is the right and good thing to do. Whether anyone else even knows that I have done good is not important. Whether it nets me a return invitation, or a vote, or influence, or access, or feelings of self-actualization or self-esteem, or any other thing real or imagined, is not important. As Christians, we are called to merely do what is right because it is right. We are called to so open our hearts and minds to the transforming redemption of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that we start doing things for the same reason that Jesus did things when he walked this earth- for the same reason that he still does things. We are called to do things just because they are the right thing to do- because they are the true expression of our character. We are called to see all people as Jesus sees them, indeed as he sees us. We are called to do for others as Jesus does for them, indeed as he does for us. We are called to seek peace and plenty, and redemption for all people merely because God our Father has decreed them to be right, and we are to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who lived on this earth to among other things give us an example of how we ought to treat each other.

And this leads us to one of the most disturbing considerations of all. Jesus says that if we do good for those who cannot recompense us, if we do good for its own sake, God himself will recompense us at the resurrection of the just. I would suggest that sometimes, in our religious zeal, we are prone to do good because of our belief that it will bring heavenly reward. Now, good motives which arise from hope of heaven are not all bad, but if they never mature beyond the hope of reward, they scarce exhibit the example of Jesus, and practiced for reward over many years, they tend to become a faith based in legalism or magic. That is, if I do good, then God must bless me. Or more piously put, if I do good, then God will certainly bless me. In the end those are very similar sentiments, and they both put the cart before the horse. I once found myself in the unenviable position of putting the cart before the horse. I was driving Squirt, our pony, and a piece of the harness, a side line, broke quite unexpectedly. She lunged to the side and then began to back up, but without the harness properly in place, the cart buckled and sustained rather severe damage. Fortunately, the horse was uninjured, but the cart was beyond repair. It does not do to get the cart before the horse. The proper order for our motives as Christians is to be redeemed through the Grace of God through the blood of the everlasting covenant. The transformation effected by this redemption purifies our hearts by the agency of the Holy Ghost and leads us to see others as God sees us all. We see in each other the potential of what God would have us to be, and are able to forgive and forget those things that we did of late to each other. In short, our relationships with each other are healed even as is our relationship with God. From such forgiveness and love flows a genuine desire to live and do as Jesus lived and did. The upshot is good deeds because of who we are, and because of our feelings of forgiveness and love to all people. Every day, as we walk with God in prayer and in the fellowship of his church, we grow to be more and more like Jesus. And then, when we die, God receives us as his own, which is the natural outcome of our being one with him.

I hope you will join me in examining your own motives as we approach the altar of God today. Might we honestly look within our hearts, and in this sacrament offer ourselves anew to God in lives of pure motives and good deeds towards all men. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.