Glad to be Anglican

Moule on Preaching

2010-05-01T10:17:00.005-04:00

H. C. G. Moule, Bishop of Durham

Yes, I'm still blogging at Solid People instead of here, but this was so good I had to post it:

In the name of the Bible, in the name of the Ordinal, in the name of prophets and apostles, and of an innumerable company of witnesses and messengers of the Lord all down the long walks of Christian history; in the supreme name of Him who from Capernaum to the very crisis of His Sacrifice was the Preacher of Himself; are we not right in making all the appeal we can to the Church, and all the prayer we can to God, for a great revival of the pulpit?

Well and nobly does Dr. Arthur Mason write (Faith of the Gospel, ix. 2): "First among the appointed means of grace comes the preaching of the Word of God. There is a truly sacramental grace and power in preaching." "The words are not mere words, but vehicles of something beyond words." "If preaching is not reckoned among the Sacraments, but parallel with them, it is because it is more, not less, than a Sacrament. The gift conveyed through it indeed may not be greater, but it more immediately influences the springs of thought and will."

pp. 22,23, My Brethren & Companions.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

The future of this blog

2009-11-10T14:31:00.002-05:00

Dear Reader:
I am changing things a bit and gradually transferring my blogging from "Glad to Be Anglican" to another blog: "Solid People". Eventually I will shut down this blog. If you want a peak at how things are going you can go to Solid People by clicking here.

Benedict XVI on Justification by Faith

2009-11-02T19:18:00.005-05:00

Protestant friends, there's much about the Roman church I still cannot go along with, but this is HUGE! Read these two "Audiences" by Benedict XVI and tell me how you can disagree with them. From my reading, his teaching is right in line with what Protestants typically say when trying to understand Paul's issue in Romans, how grace and law relate in Galatians, and how Paul and James are talking about the same saving faith, only in different ways.
19 November, 2008
26 November, 2008
Well, yes, I'm a year behind on this!

The Feast of All Saints

2009-11-01T16:48:00.005-05:00

The Epistle Revelation vii. 2f.

This day is the feast of All Saints. Be sure to emphasize the word “all”. It as a time to remember a particular aspect of the identity that all Christians share. All believers are saints and we are part of the body of the saints of all time. We are one “communion of saints”. Through our union with Christ by God’s grace, we all share the same divine life, be we saints who have already gone before, those alive today, or those who have yet to be born. And this is the rationale for the Book of Common Prayer setting before us on this day Chapter 7 of the Revelation to St. John. In this chapter, we find insight into what a saint is and what a saint does. After all friends, it does us no good to know that Christians are saints if we don’t know the point of it all. We need to be always growing in our understanding of all the great blessings that are ours in Christ and being a saint is one of those blessings.

So, what is a saint The words for saint in the Bible, and the use of these word in the Bible, teach us that a saint is basically two things – like two sides of a coin: a person set apart for God’s ownership and, inseparably from that, a person who is made holy by God’s grace through His Son, Jesus.
In our passage in Revelation, we learn three things about the saints:
1) They are sealed by God,
2) They stand before the throne of God, and
3) They serve God day and night.

Now let us look at these three descriptions of the saints in their turn as we seek to know just how blessed we are to be Christians. First of all, the sealing of the saints of God. What is that about?

If you will look at the Epistle reading for today, you will see that it begins with a description of an angel with the seal of the living God and it goes on to describe those who were sealed as being 144,000 people out of the tribes of Israel. Now we know that this passage has been misunderstood by people in the past, who have believed that only 144,000 people in the world will be saved. But the people who are sealed are called “the servants of our God” and these same servants are described in the following verses as a great multitude, which no man could number. We must remember that Revelation communicates realities in the spiritual realm by the use of symbols and some of these are numbers. In the Bible, the number 1,000 symbolically represents completeness. We read in the Psalms that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Does that mean that He does not own the cows on hill number 1,001? Of course not. It is symbolic language, meaning that he owns all the cows on earth. Here in Revelation 7, a multiple of 1,000 is symbolic of the fact that all God’s servants, who are His saints, are sealed by Him; all of them. The number is multiplied to 144,000 because it is associated with the tribes of Israel because all the Church is spiritually related to Israel through the faith of Abraham.

So, we learn in this part of Revelation 7, that all God’s servants, all the saints, are sealed. Now what is a seal? It seems that from time immemorable a seal has been used to show ownership. You can dig up a pot in the Middle East and, if it was made to hold anything of value, it will have a stamp on the handle indicating to whom the pot belonged. We all understand what it means for something to have someone’s seal upon it. Well, the saints are here said to be given the seal of the living God upon them. This is easily understood as a sign of ownership. The saints are God’s possession. They are separated unto Him that they might belong to him.

Fellow saints, we are, figuratively speaking, sealed by God. But how is this so? How is it that we belong to him? For two reasons: 1) we are made by him, so that he owns us as our Maker; 2) we have been purchased by him with the blood of His Son, so that He owns us as our Redeemer.

Stephen Olford used to tell the story of a little boy who had built a small sailing boat. He spent hours and hours crafting his little vessel, with excited anticipation of being able one day to sail it on the little river that went through his village. The day finally came when the boy was able to take the boat out, gently placing it into the water, and then, with a string attached to it, with great delight he watched his little boat sail and bobble along on the water. But suddenly, a gust of wind came up, and through some weakness in its attachment, the string came loose and the boy, heartbroken, had to watch his boat sail away until it was out of sight. He had lost his precious boat. Weeks later, however, he and his parents were in the market and in a window of a pawn shop he saw his boat! “My boat!” he cried out. He ran into the shop and told the proprietor, “That’s my boat in the window.” The man said, “It may have been your boat, but it is mine now and you are going to have to pay for it.” The little boy had brought all of his money to the market and put it all on the counter and, though it was much less than what he had hoped to get for it, out of his kindness, the proprietor gave the boat to the little boy. As the boy left the shop, he was heard to say, “Boat! You are mine twice-over! First I made you! Now I’ve bought you! You are mine twice-over!”

Friends in Christ, we are God’s twice-over. We are his because has made us and we are his because he sent His Son Jesus to suffer cruelly on the Cross of Calvary that His life’s blood might be poured out of His body to pay the price for our redemption; that we might be His by purchase. Praise the Lord for his wonderful love for us! Aren’t you glad you are a saint today!

But let us not fail to recognise what knowledge of our being sealed – our being owned – by God brings to us. If we belong to Him, then it is our duty to live like it. We need not fear God remembering that He owns us; it is we who need to remember that we are owned by Him. And we should do so by the way we live each day; in the way we spend our time and our talents, our money and all our resources. Our lives should be a continuous witness: “I belong to Jesus; I am His and He is mine!” It is the least we can do for Him.

But let us now proceed to the second part of our text: The saints are not only sealed by God, but they stand before the throne of God. If you continue in your Epistle reading, you read the verses about the saints who stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, praising God.

Now this may strike you a little funny. If, as I have said, we are all saints, even those of us here today, then how is it that we living before the throne of God; looks like we are sitting in pews in a building on earth instead! Remember, dear friends, that our salvation is a spiritual thing that has benefits in the present, but there is yet much to be fulfilled. All the saints, at some time or other, do stand before the glory of God’s throne!

But I also want you to recognize how you stand before the throne already. We are told in the book of Hebrews that, as Israel became the people of God by approaching Mt. Sinai with Moses, so we have become the new covenant people of God by approaching the throne of God in heaven through Christ. Here is what he writes:

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.... 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

Saints of God, by virtue of the blood of Jesus, you have access straight to the heavenly throne of God which we read about in Hebrews and Revelation. Someday we will be there in body, but even now we can come in prayer and join in the worship of our Creator and the Lamb of God Himself. Indeed, the traditional liturgy of the Church is constructed in such a way as to represent an approach to divine royalty. Why do we have a procession at the beginning of the service? That procession represents the people of God as a whole, coming to the throne of God, to worship Him and to hear Him and to commune with Him. People who take away the procession from the service do not realize what is being lost. It is a wonderful, visual presentation of the amazing privilege of the saints of God to come to the throne of God at any time to pour out their love and their prayers to Him and to receive even more benefits from Him than they have ever had before.

But whether we approach God’s throne in prayer at church or at home, we must never forget that the only reason we sinful people can do that without being slain is because of the blood of Jesus. We read that these saints who stand before the throne are clothed in white robes – robes of righteousness – that have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. A saint is not only someone sealed and set apart to God’s ownership. A saint is a holy person. But a saint is never holy because of anything he or she has ever done; that’s impossible. Saints are washed sinners! Saints are sinners, made righteous and holy by the power of the blood of the Lamb. Never forget that, and rejoice in it and use this wonderful washing every day and every hour, that you may know continual access to the throne of God for everything that troubles your heart, until the day when we will all stand fully, bodily, before the throne.

But let me now close with the third and last description of the saints in Revelation 7. The elder says, 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. Oh, there are many more blessings the saints possess in the verses that follow, and I wish I had more time to talk about them, but let us recognize that the saints who are sealed and who stand before the throne are there to serve the Lord.

The saints have always complained about life being busy. It is amusing sometimes to read books written one or two hundred years ago, complaining about the rush and business of their lives. Of course, the saints in Alfred’s day could have complained about the business of life in England, trying to keep out of the path of the Danes! Life has always had its temptations of earthly pressures. Did not Jesus say that the cares of this world can choke out the word of God in our hearts?

It is for this reason that we must remind ourselves that we should never be too busy to worship God. Our worship of God is not something we do primarily for ourselves. It is our duty to God. I’ll never forget how this came home to me one day while I was pastoring in the Caribbean. I was reading Andrew Bonar’s commentary on the book of Leviticus. As he commented on ch. 5, v. 17, he spoke of how serious is the sin of ignorance. God’s people were to be informed in how they worshipped Him so that the worship was performed in a manner pleasing to God. If the people tried to worship God ignorantly, it would be a case, said Bonar, in which “the Lord was defrauded of what was due in His worship.” What hit me between the eyes was the idea of what we owe God in our worship. Worship is the dutiful service of the saints. That is why it is not an option as to whether we should come to church to worship or not. It is our duty, whether we think we are going to get anything out of it or not! That is why we call it a worship service; it is a time for serving the Lord.

Dear saints of God, it is also our amazing privilege to worship our Maker and our Redeemer! Look at all he had done for us. He has taken us miserable sinners and rebels and made us His own, sealing us with His Spirit for eternity. He has opened the way for us to be able to enjoy His personal kindness in our lives every day – forever – by washing us in the most precious thing in the whole universe: the blood of the Lamb. And He gives us the privilege of having the most important purpose for which anyone could possibly live their lives: the service of God. Are we not blessed today?! Is not the truth of Christianity the most joyful and good news this world has ever heard?! Brothers and sister, then seek grace and have grace to live it! By faith in Christ and His promises and His blood, live like those who belong to Jesus. Use your access to the throne for your needs and the needs of the whole world. And serve Him faithfully in all He gives you to do, being sure to especially not neglect your duty to worship Him, the only living and true God.
Amen.

The Feast of St. Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles

2009-10-28T06:20:00.001-04:00

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast built thy Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the head corner-stone; Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple acceptable unto thee; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Amen, Bishop Lawrence

2009-10-25T11:37:00.001-04:00

From his address yesterday:

I fear our leaders have succumbed to emotion not reason. I’ve heard clergy in this Church, after casting votes that would alter our Church’s teaching on human sexuality, say “I am humble enough to acknowledge I may be wrong.” Let’s not cloak such actions with the garment of humility. Such action may be misguided compassion, but it is hardly humble. If one recognizes one may be wrong, would not humility suggest that one give the balance of weight to the plain reading of Holy Scripture? To two thousand years of the Church’s reflection upon those Scriptures? To the expressed mind of the Anglican Communion—and to the four Instruments of Unity? To the counsel of Christians around the world—Roman Catholic, Orthodox and the vast majority of Protestants? To what even the Natural Order reveals? Would not humility suggest one should…well, why bother to say it? This is not about, nor ever has been about, excluding some from the grace and forgiveness of God. It is about is what the Church has the authority to recognize as authentically Christian, and what is appropriate for ordained leadership.

Reform UK on Apostolic Constitution

2009-10-20T21:08:00.000-04:00

MEDIA STATEMENT
20th October 2009
REFORM INITIAL RESPONSE TO 'APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION' ANNOUNCEMENT

Revd Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, makes four points as an initial response to today's announcement from the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster:

“Anglicans concerned about protecting the basic Christian faith need not go to Rome, because we now have the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA (UK)) which holds together those who want to stop the orthodox faith being eroded. We can remain Anglican. Furthermore, the FCA Primates have recognised that problems with episcopal oversight are arising here in the UK. They have expressed the hope that these will be solved locally, but if not, they are willing to step in.”

“This development highlights the need for robust legislative provision to cater for those who cannot agree to women bishops, such as that recently suggested by the Revision Committee.”

“If priests really are out of sympathy with the C of E's doctrine (as opposed to the battles we are having over women's ministry and sexuality), then perhaps it is better they make a clean break and go to Rome. However, when they do, they will have to accommodate themselves to Rome's top-down approach to church life, whereas the C of E has always stressed the importance of decision making at the level of the local church.”

“It is illusory to pretend that this development is an outcome of ecumenical dialogue. It illustrates the difficulties the C of E faces and the need for stronger leadership, rather than the 'softly softly' approach so far taken to those holding liberal views who are splitting the church.”

A Good Article on the Pope's Recent Announcement Re: Anglicans

2009-10-20T11:52:00.002-04:00

An AP at the NY Times.

Thoughts on Union With Christ - H. C. G. Moule

2009-10-19T08:36:00.003-04:00

Ridley Hall Chapel

Chapter I.
In Christ.

In the Christian's view and hold of the Truth of Christ, it is his duty and his strength to see and grasp central truths as such. There are suns, planets, and satellites in the system of the blessed Gospel. And as in the ancient astronomy the great error about the soul's relation to our system occasioned manifold other confusion, so it may be in the astronomy of the upper skies. To put a planetary truth into a solar place must be a mistake fruitful of mistakes. To put a solar truth in the centre, and its planetary truths around it, and in connexion with it, will surely be good both for mind and soul; that is to say, if the adjustment is made "in spirit and in truth," not as a matter of mere theory of discussion, but for translation, by the grace of God, into the life of faith.

Assuredly the planets will not lose in lustre, nor their movements in majesty, for such a recognition of the place and function of their sun.

The supreme Sun of the spiritual universe, the ultimate Reason of everything in the world and work of Grace, is the Glory of God. Whole systems of truth move in subordinate relation to this; this is subordinate to nothing. But we are thinking now of one subordinate system, and of its sun, supreme within that circle. The system is the revealed way of fallen Man's salvation. The solar truth of that system, ruling and harmonizing the rest, is the Union of the Lord Christ and His People. It is the truth conveyed in the phrases "in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," "Christ in you," "joined unto the Lord." It is the truth of the Head of the Body, the Limbs of the Body, the Branch and the Root; words which are but shadows of the solid and eternal realities behind them.

And thus all views of Gospel doctrines which take no account of this are inadequate....

Peter Kreeft's site

2009-10-11T19:06:00.001-04:00

You may want to check this out.

A Little Further on Plano

2009-10-02T20:36:00.007-04:00

I've been ill and have not been able to deal with the Plano statement as I originally desired. I can say that all the space they take about the mission of the church may tug on peoples' sympathies but it does not add to their argument. Their argument is the "same ol' same ol": appeal to a cultural interpretation of the New Testament instead of using the analogy of Scripture. The cultural interpretation allows the eisegesis of sentiment and turns the Scripture into a wax nose. It's a Pandora's box which is filled with anything that chronological snobbery can come up with.

Of course we are for the mission of the Church, but there will always be some aspect of our message which is offensive to the world. We cannot help that and must live with it - not try to change it. The plain teaching of Scripture on the offices of the Church is not a cultural matter that can be changed willy-nilly because someone is afraid someone else outside the Church may not like it. I'm sure we can find a lot of things in the Church the world does not like. Since when is women's ordination any more important of a thing to change in order to appease the world than anything else - like sexual perversion, for example?!

Besides, if we wanted the culture to think of the Church as "pro-women," there are whole swathes of Scripture and tons of historical precedents to demonstrate the truth. We do not have to change our offices for the sake of Church apologetic.

BTW, their disapproval of arguments against women's ordination based on passages pertaining to family life is well taken. However, there is much to be said for Biblical teaching on patriarchy in general. Oh, how we need theologians who have studied some Logic! This is one of the reasons why we need a revival of the traditional curriculum (Classical education) in our country. It's for the sake of developing Church leaders that know how to argue well. God help us.

The Biblical Concept of Private Property

2009-09-29T21:13:00.005-04:00

Text: St. Matthew 20:1-16

It is common in churches to use a prayer during the offering which includes the words, “All things come from thee, and of thine own we have given thee.” We Christians readily recognise that everything in this world, everything we own, everything everybody else owns, the whole universe, ultimately belongs to God. If we have it in our hands for our use, it is because of His providence. He is the Creator. Everything comes from Him. And when He made man, he made him to have dominion over his creation – this small part of this creation, the earth. In this way, we reflect God’s image of sovereignty. God rules over all, he delegates the rule, the dominion, the management of this earth to us, as his representative. To the end that we may exercise this dominon, in his name, he has also granted us to mirror his ownership of the world. He who owns everything has delegated ownership – trusteeship might be a better word – of those things in this world he has placed in our hands that we may use them as we exercise our dominion over the earth.

He has also given us direction concerning this ownership in His Word. In the Ten Commandments, we read:
15: Thou shalt not steal.
17: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

We find here, in the Law of God, that private ownership is assumed. “Thou shalt not steal” makes no sense at all unless it is assumed that the property a person owns is really his own private property and it cannot be taken away from him in a righteous manner without his consent.

We observe this kind of thing throughout the Bible. For example, the parable about the landowner Jesus tells us in Matthew 20. The lesson the Lord is teaching there seems to be that God is free to do what He will with His own. He is not under any kind of legalistic obligation to dispense his grace to anyone, and certainly not according to their own idea of what he ought to do. The Pharisees could think that God owed them salvation as if it were a wage due to them for their righteousness. This parable certainly speaks to that kind of thinking. But it more directly applies to the disciples. Jesus had been dealing with them about their attitudes and concepts previously. In chapter 19, we see him trying to teach them through the children around him and in the words about how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. It was afterwards, that Peter said,
Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
28: And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29: And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
30: But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Hopefully, your ears stood up when you heard those last words, because you remembered that they were also at the end of the parable about the landowner. In 20:16 Jesus says, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” The parable in chapter 20 is a continuation of what Jesus is trying to teach Peter in 19. There will be a reward for the disciples, but it will not be according to some idea of wages they may have. They are instead to be humble and recognise that there may be others who will get more honour than they. God is under no coercion to do what he will with his gifts. As the landowner says in the parable, “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?” The whole lesson is founded on the recognition of the righteousness of owning private property.

We have both positive and negative examples in the story of Ahab and Nabaoth in I Kings 21. You will remember that Ahab knew the vineyard belonged to Nabaoth and offers to buy it from him. Nabaoth knew it belonged to him as an inheritance and refused to sell it, as it was his right to freely decide to do. Ahab then, steals it from him, murdering him in the process and the terrible justice declared against him by Elijah begins with the words, “Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?” Ahab is punished for both murder and violating the right of private property. Private property is a God-given, inherent human right supported by the plain teaching of Holy Scripture.

Now none of us likes poverty. We do not like being poor. We do not like to see other people poor. Every Christian not only has a duty to care about the poor but should have a heart that cares for the poor as well. The question is what is to be done about the poor? For a long time, in the west we’ve had lots of people who think that we have the power to eventually eradicate poverty. Jesus disagrees with that, as you know. Not everything is bad about poverty, by the way. Remember that Jesus said riches can keep you out of the kingdom! Of course, he cares about the suffering of the poor and he alleviates it, but he does not, in his providence do away with it. And if He, the Lord of Creation says, “the poor you will always have with you,” then it is utterly useless to think we can eradicate poverty. But we have a duty, in light of the Golden Rule, to do all we can to help our neighbour who suffers. The question arises, however: how are we to do it?

For a long time now, in the west, people who have sincerely cared for suffering – and people who have only cared about political power – have believed that the answer to relieving economic suffering is through the economic ideal of socialism.

Unbelievers start with themselves and their own resources to answer the problem of poverty, which they call “inequality of wealth”. They start by denying the principle of private property. They see this principle as one of the main causes for inequality. They can deny this principle with ease because they do not believe in the God of the Bible. Instead of individuals owning property, the society owns the property – thus the term socialism. Everything belongs to everyone.

The question then arises: how to get everything so distributed that everyone has their fair share of all that belongs to them. Who determines the size of the fair share? Who is going to administrate the parcelling out of the fair share? Usually, socialists put this into the hands of the government as a representative of the will of the society as a whole. The result of this is that, if this governing body takes anything from one individual and gives it to another, this is not stealing. The property didn’t belong to the individual in the first place. In fact, the individual should feel morally obligated to cooperate with the confiscation of his property because he should want the wealth he has to be part of the even distribution.

But you can see what is wrong with this. This whole idea of how to deal with unequal ownership of property and wealth is based on a denial of the truth about humanity and of God’s sovereignty. It denies that God ultimately owns everything and has distributed, in His providence, as he sees fit with his own. It denies that He has endowed human beings with the right to private personal property and that taking things from people without their consent is the sin of stealing. It is this foundation of falsehood that is one of the reasons why socialism has always failed where ever men have attempted to practice it.

It is therefore quite evident that the Bible squarely comes down against socialism. Instead, the Bible comes down squarely on the side of what I’m going to call “good capitalism.” Capitalism is the belief that property and wealth belong to the private individual, or a self-constituted body of people. We know there is bad capitalism. Anything men set their hands to is going to be corrupted in some way. The Bible also comes down squarely against bad capitalism, with its greed and other faults. But the very fact that there is a bad capitalism assumes there is a good, and there certainly is. Good capitalism will understand private property the way the Bible teaches us to understand it and use it as the Bible teaches us to use it. It will not neglect the Golden Rule.

But what about "Christian socialism"? Frankly, Christian socialism is a misnomer. There cannot really be a Christian socialism, as socialism is defined above. There can be Christians, like Hughes, who think that socialism is the answer to economic inequality. They may think it’s biblical. But they are mistaken. Socialism, by definition, is beyond the pale of Biblical truth and ethic.

From my experience, people have argued for a kind of Christian socialism by referring to the early church in Acts 2, which we read earlier. What we see there, however, is not Christian socialism in practice but Christian capitalism; good capitalism. If you read the passage carefully, you will observe that the believers were giving up their own goods out of their generous hearts. There is no evidence of the idea that their property did not belong to them but to the community as a whole. There is no evidence that they were coerced. In fact, the opposite is very plainly the case. When Ananias and Sapphira give their gifts to the Church, as we read in chapter 5, Peter rebukes Ananias by saying, in verse 4: “Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?” He and his wife were not punished for failing to give to the Church’s society the goods that belonged to it. They were punished for lying about what they were giving to God. The church recognized their right of private property. They didn’t have to give anything. The mutual sharing of goods in the book of Acts is not any kind of socialism in practice. It is good capitalism in practice: private property freely distributed to those in need as a free act of compassionate, loving generosity.

This fact teaches us that, if any people wish to be free with their property, they must be free from socialism. Socialism robs us of our economic freedom. And if we do not have economic freedom, we are not free to serve God with our goods. We are not free to give them to whomever we think ought to have them, but are instead forced to do with our goods what we may not think is right.

Do not think I am saying all taxation is wrong. If a body of people found a social institution, some governing agency, with particular tasks to perform that require funding, it only makes sense that they will contribute of their wealth so that it can do the job they have given it to do. In that case, the people are acting freely and taxing themselves, as it were. This is the ideal of taxation with representation – having a say so about how the government is going to use those taxes.

But should we not pay our taxes if our wishes are not represented? Our government has been running according to principles of socialism for a long time and it is getting worse. We constantly see our money being wasted and given to things that we would never want it to go to. Should we not pay our taxes then? No, we should still pay, even though their taxing of us is ungodly. Paul plainly teaches this in Romans 13. Even though the government is running according to unbiblical principles, it is nevertheless, in God’s providence, the government He has given us and we are to pay our taxes. That does not mean we cannot try to improve the situation, but we do not improve the situation by withholding our taxes. But you see that we are paying our taxes out of a recognised duty to God. By no means would we consent to paying taxes because we think our society already owns our property and may do with it as it sees fit through the government.

The idea of private property is important for our calling to have dominion over the earth. It is certainly important for our society. Without it, we lose a substantial amount of our freedom. We become slaves of the government and whoever makes the decisions about our government, from the mob that votes to the dictators in power. It is because of the Golden Rule and our Christian concern for our neighbour that we, as Christians, need to understand the principle of private property and help others to understand it, because socialism is filling a vacuum in the West. The West has lost a vibrant, Christian understanding of biblical economics, and we are reaping the result. We must work to recover our freedom.

It is important for the Church’s mission. The witness of the generosity of the Church in Acts was powerful. The generosity was also necessary; people had needs. God does not have to have money to build the Church, we know that. But he also uses general means and money can be a determining factor at times in what we can and cannot do in this world.

But let us never take some aspect of biblical truth and turn it into an end in itself. Remember what Habbakuk said? 17: Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Whatever may happen to our earthly private property, we can always find joy in knowing that we are God’s personal property. We belong to him, eternally. We are his by right of creation, by right of redemption, and by right of our own self-surrender to him. We are not our own. We belong to him. And he cannot fail to take care of his own.

Our concern is not whether he will take care of us as his property. Our concern is whether we will live as his own property! Will we continue to seek to live only for him and his will for our lives since we belong to him? Or will we lower ourselves to be all taken up with mammon and politics and social concerns for self-centered reasons. The cares of the world choke out the Word in our hearts as the thorns choke out the seed in Jesus’ parable. Yes, let us, as I have today, be concerned about biblical truth in every area of our lives. Let us do whatever we can righteously do to help our neighbour by alleviating his suffering, which can include social injustice due to the peoples’ ignorance about private property rights. But let us keep things in perspective, let us keep the balance, let us keep the knowledge of Christ in this world and in our hearts the chief thing, for its own sake, and for the glory of our wonderful God.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Workers_in_the_Vineyard

Ad Orientem

2009-09-23T13:12:00.006-04:00

We in the EMC face the Lord at the table, not the people. I really think this is more theologically proper than the '60's ideal of everyone facing each other around the table. Here are some links on the issue I picked up at Stand Firm:

People, Look East, by Tobias Haller, BSG

RC: Bishop of Tulsa Abandons “Mass Facing the People”

Anyone have any more articles on the subject they would like to recommend via comments?

St. Paul's Cathedral Virtual Tour

2009-09-20T21:21:00.001-04:00

Thanks, Matt.

http://www.sphericalimages.com/stpauls/virtual_tour.htm

Plano Statement on Women's Ordination

2009-09-06T14:34:00.005-04:00

I'm still reading this thing, and want to understand it thoroughly. I have read enough, at this point, to note that they disdain biblical exegesis of implied meaning as "weak" and therefore insufficient to counter their arguments for women's ordination. At one point, they quote the esteemed Jefferson Davis on slavery as a way of arguing their point. It is evident that their thinking is clouded.

First of all, it is the Reformed position that Biblical truth is equally authoritative be it expressly stated or derived by "good and necessary consequence."* Now, the reformers knew the laws of Logic; they were classically educated. They knew that there was such a thing as a bad use of Logic. They believed that if something in Scripture could be proven by "good and necessary consequence", not just any consequence, then it was to be held. In this, they follow the example of the Lord Jesus Himself in Matthew 22 when he confronted the Saducees for not knowing the Scriptures. Jesus quotes a verse that has nothing expressly to do with the Resurrection and holds the Saducees at fault for not seeking the appropriate "good and necessary consequence" of God's word.

Secondly, the irony of the Jefferson Davis quote is that Davis is listing express statements of Scripture! The Bible expressly affirms what Davis is saying. Therefore, to use Davis as an example of the weakness of implied meaning of Scripture is for the authors of this paper to turn their argument upon its own head. Indeed, it was the implications of Scripture that lead to the Christian position against slavery! The authors of this paper on women's ordination are failing to use "good and necessary consequence" in their arguments and therefore - at least in this portion of their paper - failing to prove their position.

* Vide The Westminster Confession of Faith, I. vi.

A Moule Treasury

2009-09-06T13:53:00.003-04:00

Ten years ago, AMG Publishers, here in Chattanooga, compiled three books by Bishop H. C. G. Moule into one, and titled it Thoughts for Sundays. Each of the three books contains a short devotional meditation for every Sunday of the year. The first two, originally entitled Thoughts for the Sundays of the Year and From Sunday to Sunday follow the calendar year. The meditations, in a general way, follow the seasons of the Christian calendar. The third book, which was entitled The Sacred Seasons, follows the Christian calendar. I've spent some time comparing the passages Moule uses for this third book and it is plain that he is following the Prayer Book. I suspect he was using these chapters for sermon material that year. He either uses the propers for Holy Communion (usually on high feast days) or the propers for Matins and Evensong. There are a few places where he seems to deviate, particularly during the Trinity Season.

If one wanted to do it for the discipline, one could use the third book for the core of his sermons through a particular year. He could certainly do a lot worse.

Needless to say, this is a volume very rich in Christian devotion and, since you can get a copy pretty inexpensively, I encourage you to do it.

Wilson's Blenheim Lectures

2009-09-04T12:50:00.001-04:00

I just listened to Doug Wilson's Blenheim Lectures in the UK and thought them very thought provoking. Do give them a listen. You can download them here.

How God acts when we suffer

2009-08-23T19:21:00.001-04:00

Everybody needs to hear this sermon (or one like it): How God acts when we suffer. It's by Rev. Joe Novenson of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian.

God's Story

2009-08-18T17:17:00.003-04:00

This was for my ethics students today. It's a way of understanding the Gospel that helps young people to understand the narrative in which they live and to help them turn from their self-centeredness. You can let me know what you think about it.
***

The Christian life is a part of the story of Jesus. God has a plan to glorify His Son. He is to be His King - the Redeemer-Saviour King, who has a kingdom by rescuing it and cleansing it for himself. He did the work 2000 years ago on a cross, rising to victory and his throne.

We come in later.

We are conceived with a nature that could care less; our puny minds can only think of our selves; we are out of touch with what's really going on; in the Matrix. God steps into our lives and begins to make what Jesus has done for us to start to work - to do things to us.

First, subconsciously, he changes our hearts. Then, he calls us, normally through his Church in some way, to follow Jesus (with the change in our heart, we are awake, we can hear); to use Jesus' words: "take up your cross and follow me; enter the straight gate and the narrow way that leads to eternal life; come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."

God has made us with responsibility and so he takes our responsibility seriously and asks us to use it: to say "no" to our selves and to say "yes" to him. He calls us to believe he really does love us that much and to step out into a life of letting him love us and of our loving others in return. We step out - we respond in faith and obedience.

What happens next? We fail; we give into our old ways and start being self-centered again. We thus learn more and more of how, not only would we not be following him if he had not changed us and called us, but we cannot follow him unless he helps us. So, we pray for help, get back up, and continue on the road.

We thus find ourselves starting to get it; we grow more and more awake to how the story is all about Jesus: Who He is and what He has done, does do, and will do for us. We start to sing the song that the rest of the universe has been singing for ages past. We get more and more absorbed in the God-side of the story.

Part of that story is that we get to have a part in what Jesus is doing to grow his kingdom before he returns to usher in the new world to come. He allows us to serve him by calling others to him, as we were called. In this way, we get to have a little experience fighting Evil, like he did - though there's really no comparison.

As we thus suffer, mysteriously, in our own little way, we share the reward of his glory. God gives us the privilege of really doing something; of really being a part of His great story of glorifying His Son. (think of how Aslan gives the Pevensies a chance to fight the White Witch).

In the end, we become more fully human; more fully what we were made to be. We become more really ourselves after all ("he that loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it") and we find ourselves strangely happy (though in this world we still weep), with the promise of being happy forever.

Now, have you answered the call? Not sure? Are you on the road (humbly trusting and obeying)? Then you must have. Simply look to Jesus. He is the Saviour, from beginning to glorious end.

Why Remember the Transfiguration?

2009-08-05T11:29:00.010-04:00

Tomorrow, in the Anglican calendar, is the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration. As we have read, this is the occasion in which Jesus appears before the apostles in the glory He would have after his work on earth was done. God the Father also speaks to the apostles directly, identifying Jesus as His Son – which was synonymous with his being the King of God’s kingdom – and commanding them to “hear him;” to take heed to all that Jesus would say to them.

One of the main purposes for the Church calendar is to help us to remember the basics of the Christian story; the Christian faith. Remembering is a very key ingredient to saving faith throughout the Bible. If we forget what we believe, we certainly cannot live by it, can we. In the Old Testament, the LORD had to frequently reprimand Israel for failing to remember things they had once known. Their failure to remember would lead them to unfaithfulness and idolatry and thus to the loss of their covenant blessings. The apostles in the New Testament also make much of the importance of remembering.

Peter does this at the beginning of his second epistle. He starts the letter by describing how God has abundantly blessed us with all we need for life and godliness through Jesus. He then goes on to tell the Church to diligently keep seeking more and more spiritual blessing in their lives so that they may know Christ better and strengthen their own assurance of their salvation in Him.

He then writes this:

12: Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
13: Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14: Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
15: Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
16: For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17: For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18: And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
19: We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21: For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Peter is a man of duty. He recognizes that, as an apostle, one of the main things he has to do is to keep the Christian faith, the gospel, in the minds of God’s people lest they forget it. He says in these verses that he is going to keep his duty; he is not going to be negligent and fail to remind them of those things they already know. And he is especially concerned about his duty because he knows he will soon be martyred, as Jesus had said he would be. But as he talks about his duty to remind them, he tells us that the reason he reminds them of these things is because of their quality. There is a particular quality to the story of Jesus that Peter points to as the reason remembering these things is so important. And what is that quality? They are real, solid, true historic facts.

Human beings cannot escape being religious. It’s part of their nature. Sadly, being fallen, they will believe just about anything. You may have heard in the news recently the havoc that the environmentalists are making in California, ruining the farming industry there. Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent for the Washington Post, recently explained that the reason the environmentalists in California do not care about the damage they are doing to our country is because environmentalism is, for them, a religion. While we Christians have much sympathy with environmental concerns, we have to say that certain fundamental beliefs of the environmentalists are not true, but are like the “fables” that Peter talks about people believing in the pagan world of his day. They are fictions, not facts, and therefore they will eventually lead to destructive behaviour, as religions based on fictitious fables have always done.

The story of Jesus is not a fable. It is historic fact and Peter wants us to not forget that. To prove his case, he recounts his experience at the Transfiguration. He says, “I was there! We were there! We saw Jesus, the King, in his kingly, divine, glory! And we heard God command us to accept Jesus’ words with divine authority.” The story of the Transfiguration, then, for us, is a reminder that our faith is founded in fact. And just as Jesus really did do and say those things in history, so he will also come again in history and do all the other things he said he would do as well, and we must be ready for that coming by being diligent in our seeking God’s grace in our lives.

But Peter, interestingly, goes on to say something else about our religion. He says that we have a more sure word of prophecy. What does he mean by that? He is saying that our faith is actually founded on something even more sure than any account that any man may give of what Jesus said or did. God has revealed the truth we are to believe in something more certain, more solid for our faith, than historic accounts. What is that more sure revelation? Peter tells us: it is Holy Scripture.

Please do not misunderstand me or Peter here. Peter is not saying that the apostolic accounts of the life of Jesus are not to be trusted. Indeed, it is his own account that he is expecting them to believe here in this chapter. But we must remember that, at that time, the only Scripture for the apostles was the Old Testament. The New Testament was still being written. He is simply doing what all the apostles did: pointing us to the written, divinely inspired Word of God, for our authority. In our time, that would also include the New Testament as well.

So what are we to learn from this? We are to know and remember that the Christian faith is a faith based upon the Holy Bible. And the reason our faith is based on the Bible is because of the nature of the Bible. It is not a merely human book; it is a book given to us by God. When it was written, God did not leave men up to their own ideas as to what would be written. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are told that God breathed on these men. The Spirit of God, in Scripture, is the breath of God, the “wind of God” (John 3) and God breathed on these men and thus “inspired” them as they wrote so that what was written would have His divine authority.

Peter uses a maritime image of this process in his last verse in this chapter. When he says the prophets were men “moved by the Holy Ghost,” the word in the Greek refers to the sails on ships that catch the wind and make their way across the sea. It was as if the writers of the Bible hoisted the sails of their spirits and minds and God’s Spirit breathed, God’s wind blew upon those sails, and guided them in what was written.

Thus it is, my friends, that you hold in your hands a book unique in all the world. It is a book, but it is a divine book, carrying with it the authority of God himself because of how he guided its composition. And this book tells us from cover to cover that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and it is only in Him that we are to believe in order to have eternal life.

The presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has recently said that how a person comes into the Church doesn’t matter. That is a flat contradition of God’s inspired Word. As it says in the Bible, there is no other name given among men than the name of Jesus whereby we must be saved.

So, then, friends, let us hear Peter today as we remember the Transfiguration. Don’t forget what you have received from the apostles. Jesus is the King. He is risen from the dead and become the author of eternal life, and if we believe in him, we shall not die, but have everlasting life. And let us remember where we learned this from: the Holy Bible. Let us keep the Scriptures as the foundation for all we believe and do, that, walking in its light, we in turn may be light in this world of darkness, until the dawning of Jesus’ return.

Image: http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/1389291

Eschatalogical Cross-Bearing

2009-07-30T10:33:00.007-04:00

We all know that we cannot follow Jesus unless we follow him along the path of the cross. We have to die to ourselves, which dying includes denying ourselves those things which hinder us from joyful obedience and faith. When facing something that must be shed away from my life, it helps me to consider the fact that there is coming a day when I will be living without this thing anyway. This world, this age, is passing away. It will someday be gone. I, however, will be raised to live a new life in the world to come.

Now, faith realizes the future (Heb. 11:1). By faith I can imagine being utterly happy in another time (very weakly, of course, since, as Lewis reminds us, our desires are too weak). Why not go ahead and start celebrating? You will leave that sin behind someday anyway; go ahead and do it now. You will leave that pleasure behind someday anyway; go ahead and leave it now. You get the idea.

This is not contrary to the intent of our Creator for us to enjoy and be thankful for all the good he has given us in this world. This is not the same thing as practiced by those who want to leave off responsibility in this world and stand on a hill waiting to get "raptured." But, being sinners in this age (we will not be in the one to come), there is going to have to be a degree of self-denial. It's unavoidable. I find keeping the history of my life in the perspective of what has been revealed about my future, coupled with the eye of faith, to be a great motivation to enter now into the joy of the Lord by leaving particular things of this world behind.

What do you think?

Attack on Christians in Pakistan

2009-07-27T15:07:00.000-04:00

Read the news here.

"C. S. Lewis Weekend" November 20-22

2009-07-27T15:04:00.000-04:00

Check out the news.

ABC Williams responds to TEC GC09

2009-07-27T15:01:00.003-04:00

http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/
Even though The Episcopal Church has officially denied the faith and the Anglican tradition, the Archbishop of Canterbury still wants to keep them in the Communion in some fashion. The only way I can understand this is that AB Rowan simply agrees too much with TEC on their positions. Very sad. Dear Queen Elizabeth, please give us an ABC who holds to the Faith once received.

Unpublished C.S. Lewis manuscript Found

2009-07-20T11:24:00.001-04:00

Go here for the news:
http://cslewischatt.blogspot.com/2009/07/unpublished-cs-lewis-manuscript-found.html

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Princely Bishop of Durham rides to the rescue

2009-07-20T07:50:00.001-04:00

Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG: Princely Bishop of Durham rides to the rescue

Shared via AddThis

Amen! to Bishop Nazir-Ali

2009-07-12T11:24:00.001-04:00

Christian Feelings - 2

2009-07-09T15:55:00.003-04:00

John R. W. Stott preached a sermon on Christian emotion in 2005. It is a good basic statement on how our feelings are to be a part of our discipleship. He quotes Bishop Moule, too! Good for him!

Download the sermon from All Souls by clicking here.

Venables at FCA, London, this week

2009-07-09T11:35:00.003-04:00

Christian Feelings

2009-07-09T11:00:00.007-04:00

I'm reading R. L. Dabney's The Practical Philosophy, which is a book on Christian ethics. The beginning chapters are very important and I cannot help but relate them to "youth ministry".

His thesis is that a person's feelings play an absolutely critical role in how he lives. The feelings are the motivating part of our hearts. Unless feeling is involved in an intellectual decision, there will be no action following the decision. Indeed, without the feeling, there would be no motivation to do the thinking in the first place. Without feeling, writes Dabney, "man would be reduced to both apathy and idiocy."

Here is an excellent passage:
"The feelings practically make the man. Intellect is the cold, feeble magnetism which gives the ship its compass to steer by. Feeling is the motive power, throbbing within the vessel and propelling it; without which the ship, in spite of the needle pointing with its subtle intelligence to the pole, rots in the harbor and makes no voyage any whither." (p. 3)

Now let us consider the way we are bringing our youth up at home and in church. We feed them information: Bible knowledge, tradition, whatever. But, if the kids do not have the feelings that are appropriate for those subjects and necessary in order to bring that knowledge into fruition - in decision, action, pursuit - it does them no good. Without proper Christian feeling, they will not pursue Christian living.

What are we doing to develop in them proper Christian feelings? Feelings cannot be taught, they have to be nurtured. What feelings are we nurturing in them? Lets consider the Church. What else are we doing with them beside teaching them the Bible? Are they in "youth church" and not worshipping with the rest of the family of God? What kind of feelings about the Christian life does this cultivate? Are they in youth meetings which are entertainment based? Are they in schools that are based more on academics or sports than on community worship and learning? All these various activities are like a particular kind of gardening. Their potential is specific to the tools being used. Frankly, I cannot help but question whether some of these things do not cultivate feelings that are more in common with secular America than historic Christendom. It's no wonder so many of our youth do not stick with the Church. Their feelings are more for the things of American culture.

We need to spend time thinking about this and re-evaluating.

Excerpt from Sermon today on Psalm 19

2009-06-22T00:11:00.006-04:00

May I take this image of the sun lighting up the world and relate it to our duty to be spiritual examples? The image reminds us that, as the sun is the light of the earth, you and I are to be the light of the world – the light of the people who are around us. According to David, the sun moves through the sky and shines upon us all because God wants to make Himself known. He has also made us the light of the world so that He might make Himself known. Are you as zealous for God to be made known to the people around you as God shows himself to be by giving us the sun? We all should be. The creation not only declares the glory of God but it reveals the zeal of God that all the world should know that glory. It is a reminder for us to carry the light of the knowledge of God to all the world, as the sun carries its light of the glory of God to all the world.

Wherever we may be, with whomever we may be, especially when we are with our families, we should be like the sun to them. We should always be ready to declare to them the glory of God which we have learned from our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. And this does not have to be hard. You probably have heard St. Augustine's summary of living the Christian life: "Love God and do as you please." May I adapt that statement and say simply let yourself enjoy God and then be yourself. People all around you enjoy all kinds of things and are ready to tell you about the latest event, or experience they have had with what they enjoy: the latest game, the latest story they’ve heard, the latest tomato from their garden. It is only natural for us to share what we enjoy. Let your enjoyment of your walk with God naturally spill over in your conversation with your families – be a sun to them, declaring the glory of God in your life.

But how may we so enjoy our walk with God, that we will have things to tell people; that we will have something to spill over? Well, David is spilling over in this psalm with the glory of God which he is experiencing from the Word of God. Having spoken of how God reveals himself through creation, he now lays out in Psm. 19, in poetic language how God reveals himself to us in his Law. As he does so, he has six different titles for God’s law, each with its own characteristic, and with its own effect upon our lives. Let’s look at a few of them....

Now you see what I’m doing with these verses; I could go on, but for the sake of time, I’ll leave the rest to you. The main point of it all is that God reveals himself and he does so for a purpose. He wants the whole world to know his glory, so he shines the sun upon them. He wants you, his children, to know Him so that you may be whole, and so he shines the light of his glory in your heart as you hear his word. He wants you to know Him in His Word because it is only in knowing Him that you may be healed and delivered from your sin and that you may have eternal life.

Do you see how valuable the Bible is for you?

Evangelical/Reformed Anglican Yahoo Group

2009-06-17T11:12:00.003-04:00

Reader: A couple of years ago, a few friends of mine initiated a Yahoo Group with the stated purpose:
This group is dedicated to compiling literary resources after the Evangelical tradition in the Anglican Church. Both printed and on-line entries are desired. All those interested in the nourishing of this tradition in the Anglican Communion are welcome to join.
The group has been inactive for sometime, but there's no reason that it cannot be revived. If you are interested in being a part of this group and part of its rejuvenation, then feel free to join.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evang_ang_lit/

Image: Bishop J. C. Ryle

Socialism Fills a Vacuum

2009-06-15T09:13:00.003-04:00

Socialism, of any kind in any country, has proven to not alleviate any of socialism’s ideals. Nevertheless, socialism in this country has taken the moral high-ground in many minds because capitalism became secularized and the servant of greed. For many reasons, the Church – in both conservative and liberal forms - has failed to foster the biblical assumptions behind the ideal of private property, leaving the public square open to the ravages of sentimentalism and misinformation. Americans have turned away from biblical truth in preference to their idol of Mammon. They have thus sewn the seeds of the destruction of the foundation upon which their idol has stood. Hopefully, the pain of their loss will lead them to repentance and a return to a biblical world-view.

I recommend that everyone hear Greg Bahnsen's series on Economic Ethics, available here. It's going to take generations for us to correct our ignorance, so we better get started now.

Steve Wilkins on the Christian Calendar

2009-06-05T15:48:00.002-04:00

Rev. Steve Wilkin's, Pastor of Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Monroe, LA, gave a great lecture on the nature and importance of the Christian calendar this past April. He spoke at St. Mark Reformed Church in the Nashville area. You can hear the lecture, entitled "I've Got Rhythm: Getting in Sinc with Time" by going here.

Monday in Whitsun Week

2009-06-01T06:38:00.002-04:00

SEND, we beseech thee, Almighty God, thy Holy Spirit into our hearts, that he may direct and rule us according to thy will, comfort us in all our afflictions, defend us from all error, and lead us into all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

Christ's Wisdom Displayed at Pentecost

2009-06-01T06:33:00.004-04:00

Descent of the Holy Ghost (Pentecost), Durer, c. 1510 Woodcut, 12.7 x 9.6

An excerpt from my sermon yesterday:

Now Jesus established His kingdom in the hearts of those thousands gathered in Jerusalem on that Pentecost with the purpose that that kingdom should be spread throughout the world in the hearts of men everywhere. And as Jesus displayed His reign in the Pentecost event, He also displayed his wisdom in the circumstances of it – which He had engineered. In that this was to be the beginning of a world-wide spread of His kingdom, we see the practical wisdom of Jesus in setting things up so that this Pentecost would have its desired world-wide effect.

First, note the timing of the event. There was a distinct, symbolic timing to Pentecost. Pentecost was essentially a harvest celebration. The word pentecost is Greek for the number 50. The day was the fiftieth day after from the first Sunday after Passover and the first day of the wheat harvest. There was no better time in the Jewish calendar, as given in the law of Moses, for the harvest of the gospel age to begin. Peter’s sermon was the first stoke of the scythe in this harvest of love and salvation.

So we see Jesus’ wisdom in the timing of the event, Next, we see his wisdom in the practical circumstance of Pentecost. The law of Moses stated that the people were to assemble in Jerusalem for this feast. Due to the scattering of the Jewish people throughout the Roman empire, the result was that, at Pentecost, there were representatives of the Jewish people from all the provinces of Rome and beyond in the city on that day. These people already had made their plans for when they would be going back home. See the wisdom of God in this! Christ’s intention was for the news of His work and exaltation to go throughout the world and on this day, and the few days to follow, he equips thousands of messengers, who are all ready to start on the journey, to go throughout the Empire with the news of salvation in His name.

It is easy for us to think that the Church spread throughout the known world of that time by the efforts of the twelve apostles and Paul as they journeyed throughout the empire and beyond. But it did not. The growth of the kingdom of Christ did not begin with a small spark but an explosion. Thousands of people left Jerusalem within days of Pentecost to go throughout the world taking the name of salvation in Jesus’ name with them. Jesus knows how to accomplish the mission of his church! He has all the practical wisdom of how to get the job done, and we see it here displayed at Pentecost.

Indeed, consider another way His wisdom is displayed at Pentecost. Consider the practical means by which he gathers the pilgrims together to hear Peter. If it takes a miracle to do what needs to be done, God provides the miracle. God gives the disciples the ability to gain the hearing of the pilgrims by putting his praises on their lips in the native languages of the pilgrims. The pilgrims were absolutely flabbergasted! They were more than ready to hear Peter’s explanation of what they were witnessing.

We thus see Christ, in his masterful wisdom, engineering a world-changing event if there ever was one: unmistakably miraculous events combined with the proclamation of a world-changing message, entrusted to thousands of people zealous for the religion of their fathers, scattered throughout the Roman Empire. How brilliant!

Brothers and sisters, this same Jesus is our king today. Let us have great confidence in His wisdom to lead us in our duties as we seek to fulfill our mission to the world. Let us pray for His engineering of our circumstances that we may have those open doors to tell others of the wonders He has done for us, that, in lifting up Christ through word and deed, He may draw all men to Himself.

Image: http://happycatholic.blogspot.com/2009/05/novena-to-holy-spirit-day-4.html

Bishop Orombi on Current Anglican Issues

2009-05-26T09:20:00.001-04:00

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T07:44:00.001-04:00

Memorial Days.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

N. T. Wright Reviews Planet Narnia

2009-05-23T12:08:00.000-04:00

http://cslewischatt.blogspot.com/2009/05/n-t-wright-reviews-planet-narnia.html

Thou Art the King of Glory!

2009-05-21T16:50:00.003-04:00

Hear the Ascension-tide Evensong Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 from Lincoln Cathedral this past Sunday. Lovely! You can hear it by going here.

Image: http://www.stmatthewsnj.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/Ascension.jpg

Liturgical Chit-Chat

2009-05-19T17:16:00.005-04:00

I appreciate the idea of leading a congregation through the liturgy of one's church in an explanatory way so as to make them feel more welcome and to simply assist them. If I had a congregation that was full of unchurched people, I would do at least a little of it for a while, especially being sure people knew where we were to be in the Prayer Book. But otherwise it is not a good idea.

To begin with, plenty of neighbourliness can be expressed as people help newcomers follow along. The priest need not do it.

Secondly, people should expect to have to "come up to speed" with a cultural phenomenon with which they are not familiar. They do in everything else.

But especially I do not think it should be done because of the destraction. A sanguine, talkative priest can wind up spending more time explaining what is being done than actually doing it.

I find a lot of this kind of problem in some presbyterian churches, by the way (to address my presbyterian friends). The different stages of the liturgy wind up being different opportunities to preach some mini-sermon on why we do this or that. You sit there, ready to, say, confess your sins, and you have to wait and wait until the minister is through chatting about it before you can do it and then, when you do, blink twice and it's over. Isn't instruction in the liturgy one of the things to be covered in the "inquirer's class"? If there are unchurched people in the congregation, let them ask what this or that is about instead of weighing the liturgy down with talk.

Brethren, just do the liturgy! It speaks for itself.

Advice on the Eucharist

2009-05-10T11:50:00.007-04:00

In the four Books of De Imitatio Christi by Thomas a'Kempis, one is dedicated to Holy Communion. It should be read by all. Here is an interesting excerpt:

Any devout person may at any hour on any day receive Christ in spiritual communion profitably and without hindrance. Yet on certain days and times appointed he ought to receive with affectionate reverence the Body of his Redeemer in this Sacrament, seeking the praise and honor of God rather than his own consolation.

For as often as he devoutly calls to mind the mystery and passion of the Incarnate Christ, and is inflamed with love for Him, he communicates mystically and is invisibly refreshed.

Be neither too slow nor too fast in celebrating but follow the good custom common to those among whom you are. You ought not to cause others inconvenience or trouble, but observe the accepted rule as laid down by superiors, and look to the benefit of others rather than to your own devotion or inclination.

What I like about this is the focus on partaking for the honour of God and with consideration of the customs of the parish. One should not be mindful solely about his own spiritual blessing in partaking and in the frequency thereof.

The Comprehensiveness of the Lord's Prayer

2009-05-03T20:43:00.002-04:00

"I have always been comforted by this thought, that whatever I may forget in my own private prayers, as long as I pray the Lord's Prayer I have at any rate covered all the principles." D. M. Lloyd-Jones.

Dr. Peter Toon

2009-04-27T12:37:00.006-04:00

I just found out that Dr. Peter Toon passed away on Saturday. The Anglican Church has lost a fine teacher, apologist and supporter of the Anglican Tradition. But he is not lost to the Body of Christ, for he will ever be our brother in Christ and we will see him again. Thank God for the resurrection of Jesus!
The Prayer Book Society of USA

Why the Traditional Liturgy

2009-04-13T06:56:00.013-04:00

Join in and list the reasons why you believe - or one of your favourite authors believes - the traditional liturgy is appropriate for what the Church and the world need today. If the comments feature doesn't work for you, send me an e-mail and I'll list it for you.

[26 April: Yes, I'm keeping this one up for a while]

Here's why:
1) Its reverent form confronts us with the holiness of God.
2) The implicit hierarchy represents a biblical world view.
3) Its classic formality and beauty beats the weekly attempts at trying to come up with an order of service hands down.
4) It connects us with the universal church across time.
5) The presence of variety in certain elements engages one's interest.
6) The presence of sameness frees one from distractions so that one may focus on the devotional spirit.

See the first chapter in Letters to Malcolm by C. S. Lewis. Lots of good comments there. For example:
[...the traditional liturgy] "works" best - when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it.... The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don't go to church to be entertained.... A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant.
I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put.
Good stuff.

Neuhaus quote on "Public Ethic"

2009-04-06T06:53:00.001-04:00

"Further, I believe ... that the God in whom we trust for the fulfillment of the promise is also the Creator of the universe and Lord of history in a manner that assures a certain correspondence, albeit disordered by sin, between His will and human reason and the laws of nature. As a result, ethics grounded in and thoroughly compatible with Christian faith is “accessible” also to non-Christians. It is, in other words, a public ethic. The Christian tradition provides various ways of describing such an ethic—e.g., natural law, common grace, orders of preservation, the twofold kingdom. This is the ethic that is pertinent to the right ordering of the earthly polis, and Christians are not “compromised” when they employ it. Indeed they have a Christian duty to do so. Why there should be such a public ethic is itself part of the Christian story about the nature of God’s world."

Source: http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=5704

Household baptism

2009-04-02T16:18:00.010-04:00

Peter addresses Cornelius

I had another conversation recently with some folks regarding "infant baptism." Those of us who belong to churches that baptize infants need to quit using that term. It gives the "Baptists" - to use a generic term - a foot in the door. To begin with, arguments for baptizing infants are usually pitiful: "Jesus said to not forbid the children and surely there were infants in the household baptisms in Acts." Such arguments do not prove the position. The Baptists are correct that the Bible does not anywhere state expressly that infants of believing parents are to be baptized. What they cannot deny is that it does speak of Christian households that are baptized. When we point that out to them, then they are on the defensive and argue from silence ("they must have all professed the faith"), not us.

One cannot understand the doctrine of baptism without understanding accompanying doctrines, such as the doctrine of the Church and the nature of the covenants, especially the Abrahamic covenant. Once one understands those things, and then refers to Colossians 2 and the book of Acts, the issue is not whether a particular class of people is to be baptized or not. The evidence is that households are to be baptized. This was the case with Abraham and this is the case in Acts. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether there were babies in the households mentioned in Acts or not. Anyone, including babies or slaves or whoever, was to receive the sign of the covenant.

The term household baptism helps the paedobaptism position and it is a more biblical expression. Let's use it.

Image: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Image:Peter-teaches-Cornelius%27-household.jpg#file

Temptation

2009-03-14T16:22:00.006-04:00

On the night of His betrayal, our Lord gave the apostles very important instruction regarding temptation. He told them, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

We need to take time to meditate on these words. Let us ask ourselves, "Am I concerned about temptation?" We are concerned about mistakes. We are concerned about those things that we might do that may be embarrassing. We are concerned about habits that may not be socially acceptable. We are concerned about doing something that may get us in trouble with our employers, the leaders of the church, or the law of the land. But is this concern rooted in our faith or in our fear of people's opinions or our own discomfort? We should have a healthy fear of temptation because we should be afraid to sin.

Are you afraid to sin? Do you fear sin? Or are there perhaps some sins you fear, while there are others you sort of live with? How often do you reflect upon the horror of sin? Consider all the pain, all the injustice, all the suffering, all the foolishness, all the grief and fear in this world. Then, recognize that it is all the result of sin. It is all a result of the separation from the life and purposes of God which sin brings. Each and every time you give in to sin, you contribute to your own misery and the misery of the world around you. Do we not see this? And does it not cause us to tremble lest we sin?

And what of our heavenly Father's chastening? He will not allow His children to persist in sin. Are we not afriad of God's chastening? We should be! And if all this were not enough, it was sin that nailed our loving Lord to the cross of Calvary. We who claim to be the sons and daughters of the living, holy God should hate sin passionately! God does, and we are to be imitators of our heavenly Father.

Dear friends, let us examine ourselves to be sure that we have a right attitude toward sin and consequently toward tempation.

Image: http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Yonge-ReligionInTheHome/

Natural Law and Homosexuality

2009-03-09T13:53:00.002-04:00

An excellent article at Anglican Mainstream.

Samuel Johnson on the Fear of Death

2009-03-09T08:02:00.005-04:00

We spoke of death. Mr. Johnson gave us a short discourse worth any sermon, saying that the reflections of some men as to dying easily were idle talk, were partial views. I mentioned Hawthornden's Cypress Grove, where it is said that the world is just a show; and how unreasonable is it for a man to wish to continue in the show-room after he has seen it. Let him go cheerfully out and give place to other spectators. "Yes," said Mr. Johnson. "If he's sure he's to be well after he goes out of it. But if he is to grow blind after he goes out of the show-room and never to see anything again; or if he does not know whither he is to go next, a man will not go cheerfully out of a showroom. No wise man will be contented to die if he thinks he is to go into a state of punishment. Nay, no wise man will be contented to die if he thinks he is to fall into annihilation. For however bad any man's existence may be, every man would rather have it than not exist at all. No, there is no rational principle by which a man can be contented, but a trust in the mercy of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ." All this delivered with manly eloquence in a boat on the sea, upon a fine autumn Sunday morning, while every one listened with a comfortable air of satisfaction and complacency, had a most pleasing effect upon my mind.

James Boswell, Tour To the Hebrides, 12 Sept. 1773

Image: https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Dr-Samuel-Johnson-Posters_i1002291_.htm

Embracing the Cross

2009-03-03T12:49:00.008-05:00

Thomas a'Kempis

This morning I shared some passages from The Imitation of Christ with the CCS faculty. They were from the last chapter in Book II, "The Royal Way of the Cross." The first paragraph hits you like a brick!

That seemeth a hard saying to many, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me. But it will be much harder to hear that last sentence, Depart from me, ye wicked, into eternal fire.

Immediately we are straightened out and ready to take up the cross! There are three points I especially emphasized.

1) No matter how we may try to plan difficulty and challenge out of our schedules, the Lord will not let us escape them. A'Kempis:

Dispose and order all things according to thine own will and judgment, and thou shalt ever find something to suffer either willingly or unwillingly, and thus thou shalt ever find thy cross. For thou shalt either feel pain of body, or tribulation of spirit within thy soul.

That's actually good for us.

2) The cross also does not leave us because we cannot escape the need of it for our own spiritual health. It delivers us from ourselves.

The Cross therefore is always ready, and every where waiteth for thee. Thou canst not flee from it whithersoever thou hurriest, for whithersoever thou comest, thou bearest thyself with thee, and shalt ever find thyself. Turn thee above, turn thee below, turn thee without, turn thee within, and in them all thou shalt find the Cross; and needful is it that thou everywhere possess patience if thou wilt have internal peace and gain the everlasting crown.

The beautiful thing is that the love of God is in all those directions as well, motivating us and encouraging us as we bear the cross after our Lord, our Brother, and our Friend. As St. Paul says:

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:14-19)

3) Lastly, a'Kempis uses an idea that is found elsewhere in his work. It is of the difference that our attitudes make in the trials we face. For the sake of my Ethics class, I likened it to how one responds when they are told to do the dishes. If you do them reluctantly, unwillingly, you do not do them well, probably have to redo things, certainly take more time, and possibly get into trouble over it. But if you do them willingly, with energy, you get them done, done well, and done quickly, and you, and your parents, will be happy about them being done. A'Kempis says it's like that with the cross.

If thou willingly bear the Cross, it will bear thee, and will bring thee to the end which thou seekest, even where there shall be the end of suffering; though it shall not be here. If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest a burden for thyself and greatly increaseth thy load, and yet thou must bear it. If thou cast away one cross, without doubt thou shalt find another and perchance a heavier.

While the cross is never appealing to our flesh, Brother Thomas makes the cross sound very appealing to our spirits.

Why fearest thou then to take up the cross which leadeth to a kingdom? In the Cross is health, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection from enemies, in the Cross is heavenly sweetness, in the Cross strength of mind, in the Cross joy of the spirit, in the Cross the height of virtue, in the Cross perfection of holiness. There is no health of the soul, no hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. Take up therefore, thy cross and follow Jesus and thou shalt go into eternal life. He went before thee bearing His Cross and died for thee upon the Cross, that thou also mayest bear thy cross and mayest love to be crucified upon it. For if thou be dead with Him, thou shalt also live with Him, and if thou be a partaker of His sufferings thou shalt be also of His glory.

With this last quote I concluded.

Thinkest thou to escape what no mortal hath been able to avoid? Which of the saints in the world hath been without the cross and tribulation? For not even Jesus Christ our Lord was one hour without the anguish of His Passion, so long as He lived. It behooved, He said, Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead,and so enter into his glory. And how dost thou seek another way than this royal way, which is the way of the Holy Cross?

The quotations from The Imitation are from Project Gutenburg and hence their archaic nature!

No New Province, Say the Primates

2009-02-09T17:18:00.004-05:00

From Virtue On-Line:
"Both Primates [Venebles and Orombi] reiterated that there was no recognition of the new North American Anglican Province (ACNA). There seems little likelihood of this happening because it would have to go through the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), which totally toes the liberal line and so it would never happen. Williams had earlier pointed out that there was no official request only a Common Cause partnership. Both men said, however, that ACNA is thoroughly Anglican and would be in fellowship with Anglicans like themselves, but they need to propose something."

See: ALEXANDRIA 2009: Orthodox Anglican Primates Offer Clarity on Primates Meeting

Archbp. Orombi Covenant College messages

2009-02-09T15:55:00.002-05:00

Archbp. Henry Orombi was here in Chattanooga at Covenant College a year or two ago and his messages can be listed to via i-Tunes. Go here for the Covenant College i-Tunes link. Look for Neal Conference on True Spirituality, Fall, 2007.

Interview with Bishop N. T. Wright

2009-02-08T20:53:00.001-05:00

A very interesting interview with Bishop Wright at Trevor Wax's blog.

It's snowing in Cambridge

2009-02-02T15:41:00.000-05:00

Just had to share this.
(If only my ca... on TwitPic">

The Bishop's Hymns - VI

2009-01-31T07:18:00.005-05:00

Ridley Hall Chapel

“On Him: From Him: By Him.”

Hail, glorious Head of all Thine own,

Our equal cause of peace and power!

Thou for our sins didst once atone,

Thou art our life of life this hour.

On Thee were our transgressions laid,

On Thee the Law’s pure lightnings shed;

The members’ debt of doom was paid

By unknown sufferings of the Head.

And now in toil, temptation, strife,

Still from their Head’s exhaustless well

The members draw new streams of life,

The world, the flesh, the fiend to quell.

Deep through the springs of mind and soul

Thee the great Comforter inspires;

Thy sovereign thoughts our thought control,

Thy love our love divinely fires.

To know, to do the Head’s commands –

For this the Body lives and grows:

All speed of feet and skill of hands

For Thee is spent, and from Thee flows.

Then, Lord, in strong communion still

Oh, faster bind us to be free;

Thou working out by us Thy will,

We working out Thy will by Thee!

H.C.G.M.

Oct., 1885

Thanks for the picture, Jeremy.

Mere Christian

2009-01-25T18:44:00.002-05:00

The source of C. S. Lewis' phrase "mere Christianity," according to Walter Hooper:

"You know not of what Party I am of, nor what to call me; I am sorrier for you n this than for my self; if you know not, I will tell you, I am a CHRISTIAN, a MEER CHRISTIAN, of no other Religion; and the Church that I am of is the Christian Church, and hath been visible where ever the Christian Religion and Church hath been visible: But must you know of what Sect or Party I am of? I am against all Sects and dividing Parties: But if any will call Meer Christian by the name of Party, because they take up with meer Christianity, Creed, and Scripture, and will not be of any dividing or contentious Sect, I am of that Party which is so against Parties: If the name CHRISTIAN be not enough, call me a CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN; not as that word signifieth an hereticating majority of Bishops, but as it signifieth one that hath no Religion, but that which by Christ and the Apostles was left to the Catholic Church, or the body of Jesus Christ on Earth."

The Revd. Richard Baxter
Church-history of the Government of Bishops (1680)

Important words from Bishop Iker

2009-01-19T09:23:00.003-05:00

"It is for this reason that I have given my support to the initiative of the Common Cause Partnership in forming a new Province, the Anglican Church in North America. Though we have our continuing differences over the issue of the ordination of women, Bishop Duncan and the CCP lead bishops have given assurances that there will be no women bishops in the new Province and that the historic, traditional theological position on this matter will be protected, respected and welcomed. Anglo-catholic participants, while grateful for this attitude, have called for a thorough theological and biblical study of the issue of the ordination of women as a top priority in the new province. It must give due consideration to the reality that the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which together comprise over 80% of the world's Christians, have already spoken on this issue and that unilateral actions on our part have already seriously damaged ecumenical relations for the future. Are we willing to submit to the mind of the whole church? Are we really committed to abiding by common consent as determined by general councils?"

Source

The Bishop is absolutely right. The women's ordination idea originated from sinful worldliness and bad hermeneutic. Christians have been worldly when they have allowed the world (think radical Christendom-hating feminisim) to squeeze them into their mold (Rom. 12:2) and they have used bad hermeneutic when they have accepted and acted upon the idea that the moral principles in Holy Scripture have been culturally tainted. The whole momentum behind this hermeneutical assumption is based, not on history, but on politics and a desire to self-will. The world - especially the academic elite - believe that radical egalitarianism (Scripture is hierarchical) must obliterate patriarchy (which is also a Biblical concept). It was not an attempt to understand truth but to continue the radical humanistic revolution. The Reconstruction marches on.

The Church has already spoken.

Romans 12:1-4 - First Sunday After Epiphany

2009-01-15T21:19:00.002-05:00

A lot of us western Christians approach Christianity like we approach a subject at school. Indeed, in many of our churches, what is called a worship service can be little different from the college lecture hall, save that there are a number of hymns or other songs sung by way of introduction. We believe that our sole duty is right thinking and the acquisition of Bible knowledge; that if we walk around with the right notions in our heads, we are serving God. We may read the verses in our Epistle today, for example, about being kind-hearted toward one another and think, "Well, that makes very good sense and I agree with it," but go on being anything but kind-hearted.

The apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-4 has a different view. For Paul, the Christian life is not something academic; it is a sacrifice to God. Having presented to the Romans the wonderful work of Jesus Christ on our behalf in chapters 1-11, he begins chapter 12 with the words: I BESEECH you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. When we survey all that Christ has done for us, when we view Him dying on the cross for the sins we have committed, ultimately because he loves us and wants to see us bring glory to our Creator, we are so moved by his sacrifice on our behalf that we desire to render our appreciation to him in kind. The right response is not, "Now I must become a Bible student." Instead, we sing,

Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

It is because his love demands our all that Paul tells us to present our bodies to him. Love for God is not expressed merely by holding to a creed. We are to have loving affection for Him and especially loving action, loving obedience expressed in physical and tangible ways. Our love for God is to be lived out through our bodies, for it is through them that we do the will of God in this material world.

Paul speaks of this in chapter 6. Having written of our death and resurrection with Christ through our baptism, he says,
11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
19: I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

You see how he expects our new life in Christ to be lived out through our bodies; not just thought about in our minds.

When Sheila and I were in Cambridge a couple of years ago, we visited Ridley Hall, an evangelical college there. One of the students told me that the principal was all the time quoting Bishop Hanley Moule, who was the first principle of Ridley Hall, later becoming the Bishop of Durham in 1901. When he said that I thought, "Ah, here is a kindred spirit, because I'm quoting Moule all the time myself," in fact, the last time I preached here I quoted him. I want to do so again today. Bishop Moule, in one of his commentaries on Romans, wrote of how Jesus served men through His body, "walking to them with his feet; touching them with his hands; meeting their eyes with His; speaking with His lips the words that were spirit and life. As with Him, so with us." As we look, speak, hear, write, nurse, travel, and so forth, we carry out the will of God in this world in relation to our neighbours. We thus render God service.

Let us now note, however, that as soon as we are dedicated as sacrifices to God, what does Paul say we are to do? He says we are to care about how we think! I have not been saying that thinking is not important; it is absolutely critical in fact. What I have been saying is that right thinking does not comprise the whole of our duty, nor is it the starting point of Christian living. The Christian mind is not Christian simply because it thinks Christian thoughts. It is Christian and it thinks Christian thoughts because it has been sacrificially dedicated to Christ. We give our minds to Christ as we give our whole beings to Christ and then, following Paul's instructions here, we work on our minds. We seek to develop a Christian mind.

Working against our effort to develop a Christian mind is the world around us. There is always pressure on us to conform our words and actions to the ideas and ideals of the current age in which we live. Paul tells us we are not to be squeezed into its mold. We are not "of this world," or "of this age." In us has already dawned the age to come. If any man be in Christ, he is new creation. Our thinking is to be governed by the ideas and ideals of the age that was inaugurated with the resurrection of Christ and which will one day replace this current age.

Now this present age encourages pride and self-centeredness. Not so the age to come. Paul tells us that we are not to think of ourselves more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Instead of exalting ourselves in pride, we are to think accurately about ourselves; to think no more highly than what is true to fact. As for self-centeredness, our thinking about ourselves is never to be wholly individualistic. We are to always think of ourselves in light of the Body of Christ to which we belong. We thus learn that we are to be people of humility with a mutual concern for one another in Christ.
If we make humility and mutual concern major issues in our thinking, in time, as our minds are gradually molded by these ideals, we will live out in our actions and speech the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God. In other words, we will love God and one another as we ought.

And what will this look like? In our families, we will think about the feelings of others and the consequences of our words and actions in their lives, and try to say and do what is helpful to one another. It is possible for us to be too relaxed about our discipleship in the comforts of home. We can let down the guard over our speech and actions that we tend to keep up when we are in public. In fact, it is in the family where some of our greatest challenges to discipleship may come.
We should not think that we have a right to indulge our anger or selfishness or peevishness with family members because "they are family." They are still our neighbours - indeed our closest, with therefore the highest demand upon our being faithful in Christian charity, not the lowest! The apostle Paul, more than once, tells us who are heads of our homes, not to lay down our lives for the company we work for, but to lay down our lives for our wives. Our wives are told, not to complain about their husbands, but to honour them and obey them. And our children are taught that the beginning of all respect for authority begins with respect and obedience to one's parents at home. And these duties are to be carried out with our bodies - our speech and what we do for each other with our hands and our feet. We are not to merely love and obey with intent. We are to really do it. We are to think about what we should be doing and do it.

If we love the Church we will care about the atmosphere and habits of our homes. Our families are to be mirrors of the Church. And as they come together in the Church, the Church will be a composite of the whole of our families. The quality of the life in the family, in that respect, becomes critical for the overall sake of the Church herself.

In our churches, if we are humble and caring for each other, our life together will look like that described in the rest of this letter, which you may read later. Therein you will find that the Body of Christ, infused with the spirit of self sacrifice unto Christ, will function with mercy and affection and beauty - each recognizing his own place and being concerned to be faithful in it; love, joy, and peace will reign in the hearts of all the believers, who follow the path of humility, kindness, and patience.

But, you may say, that will require sacrifice. Indeed. It's comfortable to keep our religion on a merely intellectual level. But when it comes to "fleshing it out," to actually doing what we believe and think is true, we find that we no longer have the time and energy and resources for ourselves that we once enjoyed. We must lay down our lives in sacrifice.

But, as believers, we are glad to do so, for, as Jesus says, he that loses his life for the Lord's sake will find it. We lay our bodies upon the altar of the gospel of Christ and we find a fellowship of love that answers the longings of our own hearts. We find ourselves not just knowing about the mercies of God, but living in them. We don't just read the story of Christ, but we find ourselves living inside the story with Christ. We are the offering of the gentiles to the LORD promised by prophets of old. We are Christ's living sacrifices, alive more than ever, destined to live for evermore. With such a wonderful calling, let us follow our Lord who has gone before us on the path of sacrifice, and get up on Monday morning, engage our minds to remember what we know is true, and start loving and hoping and believing and serving the people God has placed in our lives.

Newman on Lessons from the Nativity

2008-12-30T10:18:00.003-05:00

Salisbury Cathedral Nativity

From his sermon on Religious Joy, Luke ii., 10,11; Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 8, No. 17

THERE are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the acceptableness in God's sight of that state which most men have, or may have, allotted to them, humble or private life, and cheerfulness in it. If we consult the writings of historians, philosophers, and poets of this world, we shall be led to think great men happy; we shall be led to fix our minds and hearts upon high or conspicuous stations, strange adventures, powerful talents to cope with them, memorable struggles, and great destinies. We shall consider that the highest course of life is the mere pursuit, not the enjoyment of good.

But when we think of this day's Festival, and what we commemorate upon it, a new and very different scene opens upon us. First, we are reminded that though this life must ever be a life of toil and effort, yet that, properly speaking, we have not to seek our highest good. It is found, it is brought near us, in the descent of the Son of God from His Father's bosom to this world. It is stored up among us on earth. No longer need men of ardent minds weary themselves in the pursuit of what they fancy may be chief goods; no longer have they to wander about and encounter peril in quest of that unknown blessedness to which their hearts naturally aspire, as they did in heathen times. The text speaks to them and to all, "Unto you," it says, "is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Nor, again, need we go in quest of any of those things which this vain world calls great and noble. Christ altogether dishonoured what the world esteems, when He took on Himself a rank and station which the world despises. No lot could be more humble and more ordinary than that which the Son of God chose for Himself.

So that we have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons—instead of anxiety within and despondence without, instead of a weary search after great things,—to be cheerful and joyful; and, again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which the world passes over and thinks scorn of.

Image: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/image_galleries/salisbury_cathedral_nativity_gallery.shtml

Joseph's Challenge - First Sunday After Christmas - '08

2008-12-27T19:45:00.004-05:00

In Acts 26, we read Christ's words to Paul while he was on the Damascus road concerning the mission given to him. It was Christ's intention to give to Paul's hearers forgiveness of sins and the inheritance of all those sanctified by faith in Him. However, these wonderful gifts would only be given on two conditions. The first is that their eyes would be open, that is, that they should understand the spiritual truth which Paul would preach. The second is that they would turn from darkness to light. That is the message of repentance. The blessings of Christ are in His light. All those who would have them must leave their darkness behind. They must leave their sins and their idolatry if they would have Christ.

This is always the challenge of Christ to us. Will we have Him or will we hang on to what we have without him, namely sin and death? As the angel proclaimed to Joseph, Jesus came to save His people from their sins. This is a message much grander than merely going to heaven when you die. Christ came into the world to change us; to change our condition, both in our standing before God and in our very characters. To introduce people to Christ was Paul's mission because this is the church's mission. The mission of the church is to bring people into confrontation with the person of Jesus Christ. And when we do so, He challenges the character of our hearers.

The Church has done this for us. We ourselves have been brought face to face with the risen Christ and His claims on our lives. Our character has been challenged: will we repent or will we not? What we have discovered is that this initial challenge to our character was only that, an initial challenge. Christ continues to challenge the character of His people for we are not yet in this life completely free from all our sins as we will be in the resurrection. We are not yet perfectly sanctified in Christ. Rather we are progressively sanctified as He challenges our characters and we respond in faith and repentance to his challenges.

As I have said, this is what Christ always does. We have just read in Matthew 1 of the challenges He brought to Mary and Joseph. Jesus is not even out of the womb yet and He is challenging the character of his servants! In Matthew 1, we see Mary and Joseph in the middle of the awkward situation that the Lord has put them in. We are told that they were espoused to one another. The marriage agreement has been established and they were both surely looking forward to their wedding. However, Matthew says that Mary "was found with child of the Holy Ghost." The language here is of human observation, not divine revelation. She was found with child. We are simply told the fact of her condition. This is because the narrative continues from the perspective of Joseph. He had not been present at the annunciation of Christ's conception. All he knew was that the woman he loved was with child and that had to be very painful and disturbing. I think we can safely assume that Mary told Joseph about the origin of the child and her cousin Elizabeth may have also added to the evidence. But, still, Joseph was being asked to believe in a remarkable miracle.

Let us pause to consider what all of this meant to Mary. What has the coming of Jesus meant to her? It has meant the possible misunderstanding and loss of her husband. If he could not believe the miracle and were to leave her, she would be in an even worse condition, for she would eventually have a child out of wedlock. What an incredible challenge this must have been to her faith!

Our narrative, however, is, as I have said, about Joseph and the challenge to his character. What does he do? We are told that he shows himself to have a just or righteous character. He is not thinking primarily about himself but Mary. Many men would have taken this situation as an affront to their egos or their reputations and have sought to take out their frustrations on poor Mary. They would have made as big a deal out of it as they could, and tried to be sure that the whole community knew that they rejected this woman who had obviously been unfaithful to them. But Joseph does not do that. He determines to annul the agreement privately and to save Mary as much suffering as possible. This had to have been painful for him, but he thought more of her than of himself. He shows himself righteous in character, keeping the command to love our neighbour as our self.

The story goes on to speak of Joseph’s thinking. We picture him alone somewhere, reflecting on his situation and Mary’s, considering his plan of action and their broken hearts. Suddenly the angel appears and tells Joseph to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. This word of the angel tells us something of what Joseph had been thinking about, does it not? He was afraid of something. What was there to fear in taking her as his wife? Surely it was the stigma of the birth of this one child that would go on for the rest of his life. Though his wife may believe in her innocence and though he may in time come to believe in it, the rest of the community would not. He and Mary would have to live a misunderstood life. Joseph was afraid of the pain of this. But now the angel assures him that he need not be afraid, for this is God’s doing. That did not, however, take away the stigma and the slander. The challenge to Joseph’s character remained. Would he believe God, marry this young woman, and endure the social discomfort? Again, Jesus is still in the womb and yet his presence in the world is bringing huge challenges in the lives of people.

Thankfully, Joseph took the challenge. He refused to fear the pain his marriage would bring him, choosing rather the joy of being a part of God’s plan for the world. Like Moses, he chose the reproaches of the world that He might share in the glory of Christ.

We need to ask ourselves tonight where Jesus is challenging our characters. He has not sent us angels with messages - I wouldn’t think - but He does challenge us in other ways. He challenges us through His Word as we read it and hear it taught and preached. He speaks to us through the admonitions of other Christians - which can be a very difficult challenge for us to accept. He challenges us through the still small voice of our consciences. He also challenges us through His providences. As we follow him in the path of duty, as Joseph was doing, we find things coming across our path that call us to sacrifice and humility. God has brought these things to pass to challenge us - will we trust him or be afraid and forsake the path of duty? In times like those, we may wish for an angel to speak to us! But really all we need to do is to keep our eyes on the very one who challenges us, Jesus Himself.

Who is He? Why did the angel tell Joseph to call his name Jesus? Because somehow there was a connection between that name and His mission to save us from our sins. What is this connection? The name Jesus is our English for the Hebrew name Joshua. We should therefore remember that Jesus’ name was really Joshua and all the images of which that name reminds us from the story of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan should be present in our minds. This is the connection. To be saved from our sins is to be brought into the Promised Land of the salvation of God. The book of Hebrews, 3 & 4, speaks forthrightly about this connection. Our salvation in Christ was pictured by the victory over their enemies and the rest from warfare which the children of Israel were to have in Canaan under Joshua‘s leadership. Sin is our enemy; it brings death and destruction into our lives. We, however, are just as helpless in ourselves to conquer this enemy as the children of Israel were to conquer the giants in the land of Canaan. But we have Joshua with us. We have a leader; he is the captain of our salvation. He is the one who fights our enemies for us. On the cross of Calvary he defeated both Satan and sin that we might enter into His promised land of rest. Therefore, we who believe in Christ enter into His rest, his victory for us. Thus, Jesus, Joshua, saves us from our sins.

Now here’s the point: the very same one who challenges us to trust Him and obey Him in the difficulties of this life is the one who will enable us to do so victoriously. As Joshua challenged the children of Israel to enter the land and fight their enemies and win their victory, he also lead them into that fight and victory. Our Joshua does the same for us. Therefore, we do not look at the challenge, thinking of how we are going to get through it; we look to Him who is going to lead us through it. Our faith is in our Captain, who has never failed us and will never fail us.

Where is this Jesus challenging you this evening? What have you learned from the Scriptures? What have you been told by others What has your conscience been speaking to you about? What is the unexpected but plain duty that now lies before you? What have you, like Joseph, been thinking about, that you are afraid to act on. Fear not. Trust and obey this Jesus. He is with you. Joshua is also Emmanuel; God with us. And as it also says in Hebrew, ch. 13, He will never, ever leave us. Therefore, we may boldly say, the LORD is my helper. I will, by His abundant grace, accept His challenge.

Jesus, Stand Among Us - St. John 1:19 - Advent IV

2008-12-20T06:19:00.004-05:00

We may not have thought about this before, but both John and Mark do not write about the birth of Jesus in their gospels. Those stories are found in Matthew and Luke. John does say more than Mark about his origins, but they both jump right into the days of Jesus' ministry, bypassing the Christmas story. After John's introduction to Jesus as the divine Word made flesh, he takes us to the public confession of John the Baptist under the interrogation of the Jews. This confession took place after the baptism and temptation of Christ. How do we know this? The next day, John declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God and that he knew he was so because he had already seen the Spirit come upon Him in His baptism. Also, since Jesus went immediately to His tempation after his baptism, then He is obviously back from the temptation, ready to begin His ministry.

Now John tells the Jews, in effect: "There stands one among you whom you do not know and he is more important than I am." That had to be disturbing to the Jews. John was highly respected. He was recognised by the whole nation as a true prophet of God. He has now told them that there is already in their midst someone who is the Messiah, or Elijah, or the prophet foretold by Moses. Yet they do not know who he is. Imagine the excitement that these words would bring. Would there not be an uncanny feeling among them, a fearful feeling, a suspense. "Who is it then?" they would ask. "When will He show himself? Why has he not done so already?" "What is he thinking? What does he have up his sleeve?" The questions started by John's words would go on and on.

John, however, was exulting in all of this. The Messiah has come! He's been waiting for him all his life and now he knows who he is: Jesus of Nazareth. Of all people! John's purpose for coming into the world is now being fulfilled before his very eyes. The fact that this One foretold now stands among his people is not something foreboding, not something eerie, but something strengthening, something assuring, something wonderful. It's what he's longed for all his life.

John told the Jews about Jesus standing among them, and we can speak today, as the church of Jesus Christ, of our Lord standing among us. There are two senses in which He stands among us. One is simply the truth of his constant presence, established by the Father. The word "stand" leads us to think of an established position. Jesus Christ, by virtue of His faithful fulfillment of His mission given Him by the Father, now is established as the head of the Church. As He promised in the Upper Room to his disciples, He has come to us by His Spirit and He promises never, ever, to leave His people. We are His temple. We are His dwelling place. He is therefore always present. This is very comforting, is it not? There are times when we feel he has left us, for whatever reason. But we are never to believe that. We are to always remember that leaving us is the last thing He will ever do.

The other sense of standing, though, is the occasion of His manifestly helping us when we are in need. There are times when he stands with us in a special way; when he manifests his power on our behalf. Paul speaks of this experience in 2 Tim. 4. He tells of the first time he had to stand before Nero in that last series of his appearances before him. He writes to Timothy:

At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Thus the Lord stands among us, both in the sense that he is always present with us and that he also aids us when we are in need.

While all this is true and encouraging, there is nevertheless something of the same uncanniness about it which the Jews must have felt at John's words, for, after all, He is who he is. He is the Lord. He is the Holy One of God. He is present with us to bless us, but he does have His own agenda. He's not for us the way we normally think of people being for us.

Recall His conversation with Joshua. In Joshua 5, the children of Israel have passed over the Jordan river and encamped at Gilgal. Here they keep the Passover and the mannah ceases, for they begin to eat of the fruit of the land. At some time during this, Joshua was near Jericho - we suppose reconnoitering the city - when the Bible says a man appeared before him with a drawn sword. Joshua approaches this man and asks, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" And what is the answer? "No, but as Comander of the army of the LORD I have now come." In other words, I'm not necessarily for either; I serve someone else. Now, if we had been Joshua, would this have been comforting or threatening? It's comforting if we know we too serve the LORD, but it is also threatening because it runs against the passion of our sense of self-interest and self-survival. We are suddenly aware that the one who stands among us may have an agenda that is not always safe for us. We may find his higher purposes leading us to sacrifice.

There's another aspect to the uncanniness of Jesus standing among us and that is the fact that there's always a sense in which we, like the Jews of John's day, do not know him. We certainly know Him better than they did! He has revealed Himself to us and we have the New Testament and hundreds of years of biblical learning to delve into and the ever present Holy Spirit to teach us how wonderful and good He is and all the wonderful things He's done for us. Yes, we know much, and hopefully we are continuing to learn, for after all, we are to be always growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. But, at the same time, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 8:2, no man knows anything as he ought, and, as Moses said, the secret things belong to God. No matter how much we learn, our thoughts are still not His thoughts in an absolute sense. Jesus can stump us just as much as He ever did his disciples. He is always about things of which we know nothing and do not understand. And there are always things about ourselves that we have not yet recognised that He is trying to bring to our attention. Thus, there stands one among us whom we do not know. Yes, we know who he is, we know a lot about him, but we do not have absolute knowledge and that's the thing that can bother us. That's the thing about Him that can bring an uncanniness to the way we feel about His presence. We can find ourselves asking the same kind of questions the Jew's asked: "What is he thinking about us?" "What does He have up his sleeve?" "What is there that He knows I should know by now but I keep on being hard-headed and dull about it? What is there that he's trying to teach me that I ought to be doing but I still haven't gotten the idea? Where is he being patient with me because I still haven't seen myself in this or that light or because I still have all these heretical ideas that I think are so wise and biblical?" Our Lord stands among us, and that is wonderful - it's a blessing without which we could not live. But, being who He is, and our knowledge of Him being limited, there is something uncomfortable about it that we have to get used to.

This aspect of our relationship with the Lord is the same which C. S. Lewis tries to bring out in one of his Narnia novels. When a Narnian is asked if Aslan was safe, the creature answered, "He's not a tame lion." This fact lends an edge, as it were, to all the other nice things we learn about Aslan in the story. There is a degree of unpredictability added to his character, and even danger, for wild lions are not what we would call safe. And he may do something or ask someone to do something we feel is a little wild.

In the same way, there is one who stands among us, who is who he is and the way he is, and we do not really know him. He is not what we would call predictable. Merely compare the grand expectations of the Jews for the Messiah and the scene in the manger in Bethlehem. That was not the way men thought the Messiah would come.

This fact gives us a great reason to keep humble and open minds. We never know when we will find ourselves so very confident in what we are thinking or doing, only to find Him rebuking us and challenging us.

Therefore, when it comes to our doctrines and our convictions, we hold them with a humility that is ready to be instructed. We are ready for our doctrines and convictions to be improved. And we always know they need improving in some way or another and we are ready to have our Lord intervene in our lives to bring about these improvements. And we certainly never take pride in moral achievements. After all, He's been standing there the whole time and we know he knows the real story behind it all. We know that we would have gotten no where in service or in grace unless he had not been present with us, if he had not heard our cry and speedily helped and delivered us as we ran, in a fashion, the race that He has set before us.

Living in the presence of this one who stands among us is something we really cannot fully comprehend but it is the most important thing in the world to do. Yes, it can be scary at times, but it is also the most blessed thing, for in the presence of the LORD is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Jesus, stand among us In Thy risen power;
Let this time of worship Be a hallowed hour.
Breathe the Holy Spirit Into every heart;
Bid the fears and sorrows From each soul depart.
Thus with quickened footsteps We pursue our way,
Watching for the dawning Of eternal day.

W. Pennefather, c. 1855.

Behold the Lamb - Advent III - '08

2008-12-14T09:24:00.008-05:00

The Advent season is the beginning of the Church calendar for the year and rightly so, for the earthly story of our Saviour begins with His coming to us, born as a child in Bethlehem. Because Advent is the beginning of the year, it is thus during this time that we observe the first of quarterly Ember seasons. During these times, three days of prayer and fasting, the Ember Days, are set aside in preparation for the following Sunday on which ordinations of deacons and priests of the Church traditionally take place. In this manner, the Church expresses her deep concern that her ministers be men of spiritual quality and duly ordained. This is why we have the prayer and Bible readings in our prayer book on this Sunday. They all have to do with the ministers of the church and they prepare us to participate in the first Ember season.

The Scriptures teach us much about the qualifications for the clergy, through both instruction and example. In our Gospel reading today, one of the best examples of a faithful minister in the Bible is set before us, and that is the example of John the Baptist. What are we to learn about a faithful minister of the Gospel from this passage in Matthew 11? We learn primarily two things:

1. A faithful minister prepares the way of the King, by calling people to repentance; and

2. A faithful minister encourages people to trust in this King by pointing them away from himself to Jesus.

In Matthew 11, Jesus quotes the prophecy by the prophet Isaiah of the mission which would be given to John when he said, For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. John was the harbinger of the Messiah, He who would be the Prophet, Priest and King of God’s people. How was John to fulfill this task? By preaching a message to the people – the message of repentance from sin. Now, why that? How does a message of repentance toward God and away from sin prepare the way for the coming of Jesus? Quite simply, our sin is rebellion against the King. To receive the King, we have to reject our rebellion. If we are to have someone as our king, by the very nature of the relationship, we must vow allegiance to that king. We cannot have our rebellion against Him and own Him at the same time – that would be nonsense.

Now as John called Israel to this repentance that they might be prepared to receive their King, he was famous, and still is, for acting and even looking very much like the prophet Elijah who had lived in the days of King Ahab and the infamous Queen Jezebel. Elijah’s message had also been a message of repentance. We thus find John, not only dressing and acting like Elijah, but also preaching repentance like Elijah. John seemed to be another Elijah or even Elijah back from the dead. What is interesting is that the prophet Malachi, who lived hundreds of years after Elijah, and hundreds before John, foretold that Elijah was going to come back to Israel to turn their hearts. The prophecy was the last thing we find written in our Old Testaments, leaving us on our tiptoes wondering what is going to happen in the New Testament. Was John the Baptist the Elijah who was to return? What do we make of this?

The issue has been debated through the centuries, but let me briefly explain what the bulk of Protestants understand about this. What seems to be the biggest problem with thinking that John was the person intended by the prophecy is that it looks like reincarnation, and we know the Bible is against that idea. But perhaps more important, when John was asked if he was Elijah, he flat out said he was not. These facts discourage some from thinking that John was the Elijah foretold and convince them that the historical Elijah is still to come, apparently before the second coming of the Lord.

But there is a huge problem with thinking that John was not Elijah. That huge problem is that Jesus said He was! In fact, we would have read of Him doing so if our Gospel reading this morning had been a few verses longer. Jesus says, 14: And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. We also find others plainly identifying John with the Elijah prophecy. The angel announcing John’s birth to his father actually quotes the Malachi prophecy. The angel says,

16: And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
17: And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Thus John’s father, Zacharias, says of his son later:

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; which is the verse Jesus quotes describing John the Baptist.

So was he or was he not? It seems best to conclude that John was indeed the Elijah prophesied and that the prophecy was to be taken figuratively. The same historic Elijah was not to literally come back, but God would send someone who would be another Elijah to His people. He ministered in the spirit and power of Elijah.

What about John’s statement that he was not Elijah? Well, in that the Jews were looking for a literal return of the historic Elijah, for John to say he was Elijah would have been to confuse the issue. He was not the Elijah they were asking him about, so he said, “No.” This must be the interpretation, otherwise we accuse Jesus of not knowing what He was doing with His own servants. He was the one who had given the prophecy to Malachi; he was the one who had sent the angel to proclaim John’s birth, and he was the one that had brought John into the world to prepare His way before Him. He said He was Elijah and that should settle it.

Let us go back to John’s message. He preached repentance to prepare the way of the Lord for his people. He did not preach to prepare his own way into the lives of the people. The whole story he was involved in was about someone else – not him. It was about the Lord. He was there, preaching, so that the Lord could come into the peoples’ hearts. This is what a faithful minister, and a faithful church, will do.

Brothers and sisters, this is all we are to be about. The Church is to be gathered in the name of the Lord – not someone else’s name. This is what bothers me about people who advertise their churches by pasting their own faces on the advertisements. It’s as if these people are presented in the advertisement as the reason for coming: Come to our church so you can see and hear us. It’s just like a musician’s picture appears on an advertisement for one of their concerts. The advertisement is an appeal of people to come and hear the musician. The church advertisements seem to be an appeal to come and hear the preacher and apparently also his wife. That’s probably not what people intend with such advertisements – I give them the benefit of the doubt –even though we know that there are churches that are indeed centered around some personality – but it’s what the advertisements seem to say nevertheless. It’s the impression they give.

The Church is not to gather in the name of any man; we are to gather in the name of the Lord. It’s all about Him. It is His way we want prepared, not someone else’s. We want Him to have His way – His reign – in the hearts of the whole world, that He might be honored and loved and glorified and that the world may be delivered and healed. John is such a wonderful example for us. His fulfillment was in knowing that people were getting to know someone else.

The Importance of Educators for the Sake of the Church

2008-12-10T06:41:00.005-05:00

From Martin Luther’s "A Sermon On Keeping Children in School" (1530):

At this point I should also tell how many scholars are needed in medicine and other liberal arts, concerning which a great book could be written and about which one could preach for a half year. Where would the preachers and lawyers and physicians come from, if we had not grammar and the other sciences of speech? They must all flow from this spring. But the task would be too long and too great. I would be brief and say that a diligent and pious schoolteacher, or master, or whoever it is that faithfully trains and teaches boys, can never be sufficiently rewarded, or repaid with any money, as even the heathen Aristotle says. Nevertheless, this work is as shamefully despised among us as though it was nothing at all. I myself, if I could leave the preaching office and other things, or had to do so, would not be so glad to have any other work as that of schoolmaster, or teacher of boys, for I know that this is the most useful, the greatest, and the best, next to the work of preaching. Indeed, I scarcely know which of the two is the better; for it is hard to make old dogs obedient and old rascals pious; and that is the work at which the preacher must labor, often in vain. But young trees can be better bent and trained, though some of them break in the process. Let it be one of the greatest virtues on earth faithfully to train other people’s children; very few people, almost none, in fact, do this for their own.

Source: http://www.godrules.net/library/luther/NEW1luther_d12.htm - (If anyone knows the name of the artist who painted the picture, I'd like to know).

A Church of the Book - Second Sunday in Advent, '08

2008-12-05T17:11:00.005-05:00

Archbishop Cranmer

I thought I'd post this sermon ahead of the day this week, since I remain without a cure and am not preaching anywhere this week.

On this second Sunday in Advent, our Collect and Scripture readings have concerned the Holy Scriptures and their value to us. It is only fitting that, during this season when we remember the Word become flesh, we be reminded of the wonderful treasure that the Lord has given to us in the Bible. As Christ became a human baby, so weak to human sight, so His Wisdom revealed to us is enclosed in a book that looks much like any other book. However, by faith, we recognise that therein lies the knowledge of our salvation, of Christ Himself. Thus Christians heartfully sing words such as those found in Mary Lathbury’s hymn “Break Thou the Bread of Life” wherein she writes:

Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee Lord:
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!

Historically, the Anglican Church has been a Church of the Book. The shape of the church handed down to us from our Anglican forefathers - and though I have been a Methodist and a Presbyterian, I do indeed have Anglican forefathers! - has been one in which the Scriptures have pervaded everything. The Anglican Church has plainly testified that the Bible alone contains all things necessary for our salvation. As much as we value the sacraments in our worship, they are sacraments only because we read in Holy Scripture that God has made them such and it is therein that we find our understanding of them that we might rightly receive them.

Last night during our discussion around the table, we talked somewhat about the Homilies of the Anglican Church. The Homilies are sermons appearing in two “books” which originally were to be read in the churches that did not have a qualified priest to preach sermons. In the 39 Articles, it says that Ministers are to read these as well. The first book was written in the time of Edward VI and the second under Elizabeth I. Of all the Homilies, the first, written by Thomas Cranmer, is entitled “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture.” It is no surprise that the church would have published a sermon on the value of the Bible before all others.

What does Cranmer teach us about the Scriptures in this homily? For the most part, he writes much of the same kind of thing we have said already. He uses a good deal of space listing for us the many wonderful virtues of the Scriptures which we find written in the Bible itself. These are such things as those we read earlier in our service in Psalm 119. Indeed, the Bible is full of wonderful testimony and imagery regarding the worth and necessity of what is contained in its pages. The doctrine of Holy Scripture according to Holy Scripture is quite an extensive study.

But this is not all that Cranmer does. He speaks to our hearts. He tells us that, since the Holy Scriptures are necessary for our salvation, “Therefore as many as bee desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God, must applie their mindes to know holy Scriputre….” We must labour, as it were, to know that which God has revealed to us. Of course, for the spiritually minded Christian, this is something he enjoys doing. Cranmer writes,

And as drinke is pleasant to them that bee drie, and meate to them that be hungrie: so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of holy Scripture, to them that bee desirous to know GOD or themselues, and to doe his will.

If anyone does not find the Scriptures pleasant, it is because their hearts are filled with the vainities of this world. He writes:

And their stomackes onely doe loathe and abhorre the heauenly knowledge and food of GODS word, that be so drowned in worldly vanities, that they neither fauour GOD, nor any godlinesse: for that is the cause why they desire such vanities, rather then the true knowledge of GOD.

In light of the importance of our learning the Bible, Cranmer says,

Therefore forsaking the corrupt iudgement of fleshly men, which care not but for their carkasse: let vs reuerently heare and read holy Scriptures, which is the foode of the soule (Matthew 4.4). Let vs diligently search for the Well of Life in the bookes of the New and Old Testament, and not runne to the stinking puddles of mens traditions (deuised by mens imagination) for our iustification and saluation.

The condition of our hearts, writes Cranmer, not only affects our attitude toward the Scriptures, but also how much we are able to profit from Scriptures. The person who would profit from the knowledge gained in the Bible must be someone who is willing to change. His heart must be so inspired by the Holy Spirit that his life will conform to what he reads. He will be someone that is, as Cranmer continues:

…dayly lesse and lesse proud, lesse wrathfull, lesse couetous, and lesse desirous of worldly and vaine pleasures: he that dayly (forsaking his old vicious life) increaseth in vertue more and more. And to bee short, there is nothing that more maintayneth godlinesse of the minde, and driueth away vngodlinesse, then doeth the continuall reading or hearing of GODS word, if it be ioyned with a godly minde, and a good affection, to know and follow GODS will.

This all reminds me of what St. James says in the first chapter of his epistle, when he writes of the two ways that people hear the Word of God.

22: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25: But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

It is obvious that the difference between these two men is that one came to the Scriptures ready to change, caring about change.

Since Cranmer in his sermon is trying to get people reading and memorizing and listening to the Word carefully, he addresses a couple of excuses that people used in his day to stay ignorant of the Bible. One was that the person thinks himself so ignorant that, if he read the Scriptures he might misunderstand what was said and thus fall into error. His answer to this excuse is basically that it’s a silly one. The whole point is to learn to avoid error - not to remain ignorant to avoid error. If someone thinks that way, they may as well not do anything at all out of fear of doing something they shouldn’t do. They should never take a step anywhere lest they fall into the mire, nor eat any food lest they get too full. But having answered this excuse, what he says to encourage the ignorant to learn Scripture is really beautiful, because it reminds us of the spiritual nature of God’s truth in the Bible. If we have humble hearts, if we seek the glory of God, if we pray for enlightenment, God will help us understand what He is saying. "Presumption and arrogancy is the mother of all error: and humility nedeth to feare no error."

The second excuse used by those who would stay away from the Bible was that the Scriptures are too hard to understand and require academic learning in order to rightly comprehend them. Here, Cranmer speaks tenderly of how “God leaveth no man untaught, that hath good will to know his word.” He then describes the varied truths in the Bible, some being easy to learn and some being more difficult, as a landscape through which we walk: "And the Scripture is full, as well of low valleyes, plaine wayes, and easie for euery man to vse, and to walke in: as also of high hilles & mountaynes, which few men can climbe vnto."

And as it takes physical exercise to be able to climb the mountains, so Cranmer says that, given time, those who are weak in the Scriptures, if they keep reading, will “wax stronger.” And if they need help, God will provide it. He reminds us of how God sent Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch who did not understand a passage in Isaiah. What a lovely picture this is of the kindness and care of God for the least of His people. He is indeed able to help us with whatever we need for our salvation, and He will give that help, either indirectly, as through Philip, or directly by His Spirit as need be. Cranmer states: "...if we lacke a learned man to instruct and teach vs, yet GOD himselfe from aboue, will giue light vnto our mindes, and teach vs those things which are necessary for vs, & wherin we be ignorant."

As a rule for study, Cranmer just simply says in his own way, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. He refers us to the words of Christ when he said, “Ask and it will be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you,” and helps us realise that these words apply to understanding the Bible as much as to anything else.

Finally, when dealing with the issue of what is easy or difficult in Scripture, Cranmer tells us that we are responsible before God to learn all we can, and what we cannot understand we should just be content to not understand until God sees fit to help us to do so. What is more, just because certain passages are hard to understand, that does not give us leave to ignore them. We should continue to read through the whole of Scripture, and not those parts we find easy. After all, how will we ever understand the more difficult parts if we never visit them.

Cranmer ends the sermon with words that remind us of Deuteronomy 6. We are to be contemplating God’s word day and night. And as we do so, we must do it in a spiritual manner. I use his closing remarks as my own:

Let vs pray to GOD (the onely authour of these heauenly studies) that wee may speake, thinke, beleeue, liue and depart hence, according to the wholesome doctrine, and verities of them. And by that meanes, in this world we shall haue GODS defence, fauour, and grace, with the vnspeakeable solace of peace, and quietnesse of conscience, and after this miserable life, we shall enioy the endlesse blisse and glory of heauen: which he grant[s to] vs all that died for vs all, Iesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost, bee all honour and glory, both now and euerlastingly.

Amen.

Rev. Robertson's Obfuscation

2008-12-03T20:32:00.004-05:00

"And we reiterate what has been true of Anglicanism for centuries: that there is room within The Episcopal Church for people with different views, and we regret that some have felt the need to depart from the diversity of our common life in Christ," the Rev. Charles K. Robertson said in the written statement.

The problem with Rev. Robertson's "regret" is 1) it is hypocritcal - the Episcopal Church is very intolerant of diversity, because it is persecuting and excluding the orthodox, and 2) the diversity which is supposed to be of the common life "in Christ" as it is found in the Episcopal Church is not "in Christ," but in the modernistic, anti-Christian revolution. If Robertson and his ilk were so doggoned concerned for what has "been true of Anglicanism for centuries," they would cease their innovations, repent, seek the new birth, return to a Biblical world-view and ask the orthodox to forgive them for their apostasy and to pray that God would forgive them as well - plus tons of other stuff they'd have to do!
Robertson and his friends in the Episcopal Church are true liberals - they do not know the truth, nor do they recognise the truth, nor do they speak the truth.

Come, Lord Jesus! Advent 1 - '08

2008-11-30T07:10:00.004-05:00

Today we begin the Christian year. It is the first Sunday in the Advent season and as we enter into this new year, our hearts are moved with anticipation of what the coming year will hold of the blessings of our Lord. But let us not rush through this Advent season - it will pass soon enough. Let us take time to reflect upon Advent and its meaning and allow the Lord time and space to bring these lessons home to us.

Advent is primarily the season of anticipation of the celebration of the birth of Christ. But how are we to anticipate this celebration?

Advent is really a complex event. Throughout the Church and throughout history, Advent has been a time, not only of listening to the joy of the angels and the shepherds and the wise men, but of listening to the call of John the Baptist to make ready the way of the Lord with repentance, and the cry of the Spirit and the Bride in Revelation, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus,” for we, like those Jewish believers who awaited the first coming of the Messiah, have our own coming of the Messiah to look forward to: the second coming, with all that that means of both joy and fear.

This multifaceted understanding of Advent is reflected in the Collect and Propers for today, the first Sunday in Advent. In them, we are reminded that we who believe in Christ are to live in the light of the coming of Christ which we will experience, His coming on the Resurrection Day, the Day of the fullness of our salvation.

In Romans 13, Paul speaks of us as those who have been asleep, spiritually asleep. In times past, we have lived our lives on this earth as if it would always be night and we could indulge ourselves in living that is displeasing to God, violating His moral law. We have lived dreaming that there would be no consequences to our actions. But this was all a lie and God has opened our eyes to recognise that the Day is at hand. God has raised His Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead, the firstborn of the new life to come, and He is coming again to bring us into the fullness of the salvation He has purchased for us. Things have changed. We are now the children of Light, destined for the Day, and the Day approaches. Therefore, it is only fitting that we live in the Light of that Day, the Light that is already ours and that will be ours. We should not only wake up and get out of the bed of self-indulgence and self-centeredness, but we should put on our clothes, the armour of light, and get ready to enter this Day that is dawning.

Advent is a time to remember all of this. Christ’s first coming foreshadows His final coming, in which we shall share. Yes, we do rejoice in those special aspects of His first coming, and are glad to look back to the baby born in the manger and recall the amazing condescension of the Son of God in His taking on human flesh. We too sing the Magnificat and revel in the fulflilment of ancient prophecy and the fullness of the times come to pass and the salvation God then brought to His people. But when are we living? We are not living in those days and a lot has happened since then! We are in the days of a new waiting and anticipation of a new coming: the final coming, to bring to consummation the purposes of God. We should therefore live as those who find themselves in such an exciting and meaningful time.

This, of course, necessitates self-examination. Paul challenges us to ask ourselves the question: are we living in a spiritually sleepy manner or are we awake? Do we live in the light we now have and anticipate the light to come, or are we indulging our selves in the thinking and habits of darkness. This is a time of the year to examine ourselves to be sure we are ready to receive our Lord’s coming with good conscience and gladness, for the whole point of Christ’s coming in the first place was to save His people from their sins.

As we examine ourselves, the natural place to begin is with the basic, fundamental morality of the ten commandments. According to Paul in Romans 2, this is the law by which Christ will judge us when he returns. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit has been given to the church that we might be able to keep the Law of God. Here in ch. 13, he tells us of the motivation that enables us to keep the law, and that motivation is love. Love fulfills the law for it is a motivating power that leads us to loving action.

So, how are we doing in the way of God‘s commands? As we ask ourselves this question, we must avoid our modern tendency to sentimentalism. It is common in our day for people to think that if they intended to do something right then their failure to do it doesn’t matter. But this is wrong; it demonstrates an impoverished understanding of morality and justice. Paul does not say love fulfils the law by giving us good feelings about our neighbour. He says that love fulfils the law because it does no harm to one’s neighbour. It does what the law says we are to do. The point of Romans 13 is right motivation worked out in right action.

Are we keeping God’s commands? As we seek to be ready for his coming, surely an examination of ourselves in the light of His Law is the best place to start.

But we have presented before us in our Scripture readings another means of examining our selves. This is by asking ourselves if we are attending to prayer. Let us beware that we are not in the same position as those Jews were when Jesus came to Jerusalem to present Himself publicly as the long awaited Messiah, as we read in Matthew 21. This coming of Christ, like His birth in Bethlehem, is another foreshadowing of the final coming that is before us. When He comes again, He comes to judge the earth, and, as Scripture reminds us, God’s judgement begins with house of God. The Jews cried Hosanna in the Highest and rejoiced at his coming as He rode into Jerusalem on that day, but they found themselves hearing His rebukes in the Temple, for they had not been ready for His coming by watching for that coming in prayer. Rather, they had been indulging themselves in the things of this world.

It is by living a life of prayer that we live spiritually awake. As we attend to prayer privately, in our families, and in the congregation, we are paying attention to spiritual affairs. We are spending time thinking about our spiritual condition and the spiritual needs of our neighbours. Instead of spending our time in this world preoccupied with our own little concerns, we involve ourselves in the grand, eternal concerns of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, we join with the Holy Spirit and the universal church in whom He dwells by expressing our longing for the Kingdom of God to come and for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Our waiting on God is a kind of passive obedience. We are willing to let God have His time in our lives and in our concerns. But there is also an active waiting; a waiting that contributes to the thing for which we wait. Our prayers are a means of waiting actively. We are doing something about the kingdom of God. We are bringing the kingdom of God to earth, now and in its final denouement, as we ask God to act and bring this kingdom into our lives.

But while prayer is a means of actively waiting on God, it is also a means of passive waiting. As we pray and our vision of our Lord and of His grand purposes for His kingdom are thereby enlarged, we find the grace of patience which we so desperately need to endure those hardships that are ours in this world as we must wait for our salvation to be complete. We find the patience we need with our own sins and failures; we find the patience we need with other people; and we find comfort in the patience of God. We breathe that calm spirit of heaven, that knows no hurry, but only the perfect will of God. Prayer then is both an active and a passive way in which we stay awake in the sleepy world and keep at the ready for the coming of the Son of Man.

In the gospel of Luke, we learn that there were believing Jews who did attend the Temple for the right reasons and in the right spirit. We know the names of some of them: Simeon and Anna. These two, and I’m sure there were more, lived their lives in light of that first coming of the Lord. They were awake. They were both obedient to God’s law and prayerful. And when He was presented to them in the Temple by his parents, they recognised Him and delighted in Him and were not ashamed.

Let us take these old Jewish saints as our examples this Advent season, by living in the Light of the Lord’s coming. Instead of thinking of ways we can indulge our flesh, let us love one another, keeping God’s commands, and continue steadfastly in prayer. Let us join the cry of the Spirit and the Bride in Revelation, saying, “Come, Lord Jesus,” keeping spiritually awake and ready, for the Day we long for is at hand.

The Bishop's Hymns - V

2008-11-28T14:46:00.002-05:00

This cup is the new covenant. Luke xxii.20

Before Thy Table, Lord, I kneel
And clasp the cup of holy wine -
The great New Covenant's royal seal,
Authentic, visible, divine.

Thy two-fold grant, it all is here,
The death-bought peace, the cleansing power;
Sure is Thy seal, my title clear;
I claim the whole this blissful hour.

H.C.G.M.

Image: Thanks to Sarah Harford of Ridley Hall, Facebook Group - lovely shot!

Our Need of Patience - Sunday Next Before Advent

2008-11-23T11:41:00.001-05:00

In the Epistle today (Jer. 23:5f), Jeremiah spoke of wonderful spiritual blessings that God would bring His people in “the days to come.” Jeremiah surely delighted in the prospect of these blessings, but he never saw them. Indeed, he knew he would not see them for he knew that seventy years were appointed for his people to be under God’s judgment in Babylon. In the years that followed Jeremiah’s prophecy, Daniel knew the days that Jeremiah had foreseen were approaching and prays for the Lord to fulfill his promises. The angel Gabriel, in reply to Daniel, told him that the spiritual aspect of the prophecy of Jeremiah, the coming of the Branch, the King, the Messiah, would not be fulfilled for seventy times seven years - hundreds of years later. By the time of Jesus, the Jews had been waiting for Jeremiah’s prophecies regarding the Messiah to be fulfilled for almost six hundred years.

Why does God sometimes wait so long to do the things we wish He would do? Oswald Chambers, when writing about walking with God, once spoke of the difficulty Christians have of “getting into stride with God.” He outstrips us. His whole approach to our day by day existence is different from ours. The oft spoken, “God is not in a hurry,” is really an understatement. God does everything in His appropriate time, according to His perfect wisdom and purpose. Being imperfect and unwise, plus being Americans, we are often filled with impatience, fretting and frustration. We are not like God when it comes to how we think our circumstances should be dealt with or our lives scheduled.

Now if you couple with these observations God’s revealed purpose to renew His image in us through the sanctifying work of His Spirit, it is easy to see how the issue of patience looms before Christians so largely. We are regularly confronted with a need for patience. God wants us to be patient as He is patient, and so He endeavours to teach us patience and to develop patience in us. He is determined to do this, knowing precisely how undisposed to patience we naturally are. He does it all for our good, as a wise, loving Father.

How often have we had to deal with impatience in our children? We know what it is like to have a different perspective than they, to know things they do not know, and to purposefully withhold things until the time is right, simply because of the nature of the matter, or to just teach them how to be patient and to wait for things. We know it is good for them. How much more does our perfect Father in heaven know the value of patience for us.

In Luke 21:19, Jesus says to us, “In patience possess your souls.” He says this in the middle of a discourse in which he is telling his disciples about the future destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. That was something they could fret about! Yet, he does not want them to fret. He wants them to possess their souls; to be in control of their spiritual condition.

Many circumstances in our lives bring stress and difficulty, tempting us to all kinds of strong emotions that can lead us away from the path of faith and into sin and unbelief. We can find ourselves fretting and anxious to do various vain things to deal with our problems. I recall one time, when we lived in Columbia, SC, while I was finishing a degree, that I received a letter from the IRS saying I owed some large sum in unpaid taxes. We didn’t have much in those days and I was immediately threatened by this. I couldn’t understand how this could happen. Later, I was able to confirm that our church treasurer had simply made a mistake, but in the meantime I was really troubled. My peace, which was so vital for my spiritual heath, went right out the window. But there was nothing I could immediately do to alleviate this threat. That was so frustrating! I believe God allowed this to happen to help me see how easy it can be for strong emotions to trip us up in our walk with Him. He allowed this to teach me patience; to teach me how to possess my soul and not let it get distracted by unexpected troubles.

When problems arise, we must not lose our faith, lest we injure our souls. Here in Luke, our Shepherd tells what will help us to possess our souls: patience. Patience acts as a watchful guard over our faith and obedience. Patience is very important for us. We dread having to be patient about things, but patience is of great value for our lives. Our Father’s disciplines to teach us patience make our souls richer and, as Jesus’ words remind us, safer as well.

Consider the life of Christ. How was it that He became our complete Mediator? Hebrews tells us that He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Christ was both active and passive in his obedience to His father. He actively did the things He was given to do, but he was also obedient by what he did not do. We speak of this as his passive obedience. He was willing to let things happen to Him and to wait upon the LORD to help Him. This is the path of the cross. We do not put ourselves on crosses; others do that. As people afflicted Christ, He did not fight back at them but committed his soul to his Father. Just as both his active and passive obedience made him a perfect Mediator for us, so our active and passive obedience makes us complete Christians. Aquinas considered patience the root of all our graces. It enables us to endure in every aspect of our duty. As one Puritan put it, “Patience bears all, and quiets the soul, and in so doing removes the evil of our trouble, that it becomes no impediment to our graces.” Christ calls us to become like Him: patiently bearing all those difficulties that come in the path of obedience. It is by patience that we become more like Him. It is by patience that our Father‘s image is renewed in us. It is by patience that we keep our feet upon the narrow road to the Celestial City, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord.

We especially need this grace in light of the turbulence of a fallen world. The future is always uncertain. We feel threatened by it at times. In patience, we are to possess our souls. The LORD knows what He is doing and all authority in heaven and earth lies in the nail-pierced hand of our Saviour. Let us have faith. Let us be a believing people. Let us be a praying people; let us ask for the patience we need. Let us wait on the LORD and He shall strengthen our hearts and fulfill all His wonderful promises to us.

Articles Removed from Elizabeth's Booke

2008-11-20T16:37:00.004-05:00

In case you are interested. Numbered in accord with the 1562 edition, which only had 38 Articles:

XXXIX. The Resurrection of the Dead is not past already.

The Resurrection of the Dead is not past already, as if it belonged only to the Soul, which by the Grace of Christ is raised from the Death of Sin, but is to be expected by all Men in the last Day: for at that time (as the Scripture doth most apparently testify) the Dead shall be restored to their own Bodies, Flesh and Bones, to the end that Man, according as either righteously or wickedly he hath passed this Life, may, according to his Works, receive Rewards or Punishments.

XL. The Souls of Men deceased, do neither perish with their Bodies.

They who maintain that the Souls of Men deceased, do either sleep, without any manner of sense, to the Day of Judgment, or affirm that they die together with the Body, and shall be raised therewith at the last Day, do wholly differ from the Right Faith, and Orthodox Belief, which is delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures.

XLI. Of the Millenarians.

They who endeavour to revive the Fable of the Millenarians, are therein contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and cast themselves down headlong with Jewish Dotages.

XLII. All Men not to be saved at last.

They also deserve to be condemned, who endeavour to restore that pernicious Opinion, That all Men (though never so ungodly) shall at last be saved; when for a certain time, appointed by the Divine Justice, they have endured punishment for their Sins committed.

Stir up the gift of God that is in thee

2008-11-13T09:49:00.008-05:00

For which reason I remind thee to fan into flame the grace-gift of God which is in thee through the layong-on of my hands.... (2 Tim. 1:6; HCGM)

"St. Paul is writing to a man of the gentlest and most sensitive spirit, one to whom at the best of times difficult duty was a formidable load, and who was now about to suffer a deep bereavement, to face a hostile world alone, and to try to do his pastoral duty still. Timothy would be tremendously tempted to yield to the 'cowardice' which fails and sinks in prospect of the evil hour....

"What should he do? where in his bewilderment should he turn for courage, and for the power to labour on? The Apostle takes a method perfectly practical; he directs him to a concrete fact, an event not only of his inner but of his outward life; he reminds him of the laying of his hands on Timothy's head and of the spiritual import and issue of that act. We cannot reasonably doubt the exact reference here; it is to Timothy's Ordination to the ministerial office. Turning to the First Epistle (I Tim. iv. 14) we find a manifestly illustrative passage.... And we gater that the compelte account of that memorable hour was that the Apostle, perhaps at Lystra, perhaps at Ephesus, had called around him a circle of presbyters; that their hands with his had been laid on the young designated pastor, and that a 'prophet' of the Church, perhaps the Apostle himself in his prophesying character, conveyed the eternal Master's message of power to the ordained man's soul, and, it may be, foretold to him 'what great things he should suffer for the Name's sake' and what victories, in the strength of the Spirit, he would win.

"If I read that scene at all aright it meant no mechanical or as it were magical injection. Rather it was what Richard Hooker says that the holy Sacraments are, a 'moral instrument of salvation'; it demanded for its efficacy the yielded will, the living faith, the receiving action of Timothy himself. But on the other hand it was no merely emblematical or pictorial performance; it carried with it a real efficacy to the man who really in his soul received what God, through just that 'laying on of hands,' then offered him. Such was that deed to Timothy that for ever afterwards he might say to himself that, in and through that Ordination, he held a perfectly definite guarantee that special spiritual power for special spiritual work was his; his to claim to draw upon, to use. He possessed the warrant; let daily faith turn it into the current gold of ministerial power.

"May Ordination to the ministry of Christ in His Church to-day be, by the man who bears it, ever viewed, and ever used, as St. Paul bade his son in the faith view and use his Ordination then. So the ministry will be a ministry of power indeed. It will be no mere discharge of a round of duties, however laborious, however important; it will be the conveyance of a divine influence to men through consecrated man, in whom the Spirit's fire is 'fanned into flame' by faith. 'Power, love, discipline' of self, and a wonderful faculty for disciplining the lives of others for God and holiness, will work in and from such a ministry...."

Bishop H. C. G. Moule, Studies in II Timothy

It is fascinating to reflect upon how the Lord commands us to do things only he can do. He commanded the Israelites to circumcise their hearts and he tells Nicodemus he must be born again (which to things are the same). Here, Paul tells Timothy to stir up the gift of God in him, which is nothing but divine grace present through and because of the indwelling of the divine Spirit himself, who alone can effectually bring divine grace into life in us and through us. We know these expressions do not allow us to believe the divine will is subservient to our own will or exertions thereof. But they do tell us that, in the divine economy, we are, in some measure, responsible for our spiritual health. At least we can understand that we are to take ourselves in hand (as David would speak to himself in the Psalms - "why art thou cast down within, me, O my soul," et in alia loca), and 1) apply ourselves to the means of grace: mainly, the Word, prayer, the sacraments, and 2) with all humility and prayer, DECIDE that we will lay hold of God's promises concerning our lives and BELIEVE them, act upon them, rejoice in them, hope in them.

As I said in my sermon last Sunday, we are surrounded with the song of the Lamb. We are redeemed to join that song. Get singing. Stir up the gift that is in you - the regenerate heart that is truly yours, by God's great Gift. Employ the imagination mixed with Scripture - take your place in Hebrews 11, see the assembly in Hebrews 12, hear the song of Revelation 5, and hope still in God, for He has promised He will never leave us or forsake us, so that we may boldly say, the LORD is my helper, and I will not be afraid, especially of men (Isaiah li, 12, 13). Let us also boldly take our stand with Habbakkuk (iii. 17-19), and refuse to follow American idolatry. Let us rejoice and give ourselves to the duties before us: the Lord is King!

The Bishop's Hymns - IV

2008-11-11T12:33:00.004-05:00

Actually, some of these posts are just poetry - not hymns - but here we go.

He that is joined unto the Lord. I Corinthians vi.17

Dear is Thy presence with Thy friends
To faith's glad eyes reveal'd -
Their sun when sorrow's night descends
In battle's hour their shield.

But oh, when inmost spirits faint,
'Tis life to clasp the Word
That tells of Thee with every saint
For ever one, dear Lord.

Companions may converse and go;
But what shall now divide
Members and Head, above, below -
The Bridegroom and the Bride?

H.C.G.M.

The Bishop's Hymns - III

2008-11-03T20:19:00.005-05:00

Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. Psalm xxv.15.

A voice, a call from glory, cries
"Watch, Christian, watch, at eve, at morn,
Lest open violence, or surprise,
Defeat thy soul forlorn."

My Saviour, Master, it is Thou!
Thy voice awakes me to the strife!
Yes, let me watch - each passing now,
Each conscious pulse of life.

Yet how can this unready will
At once, at every point, repel
The heart's own traitors, aided still
By energies of hell?

A sinner's watch against his sin
I keep, with weary sighs, in vain;
In vain on evil deep within
This aching gaze I strain.

But now a better hope is mine;
Jesus, 'tis Thou, my life, my own;
Bid through the Word Thy Spirit shine,
And show Thyself alone.

To see the glory of Thy Name,
Eternal Son for sinners given;
To embrace Thy cross for aye the same,
Thy gift of peace, of heaven;

To welcome Thy great light at length,
Thy love unknown to trust, to know -
This brings a tenderness, a strength,
Nought else can give below.

Then to my soul each anxious morn,
Each toiling noon, each wearied eve,
The sweet, the blissful thought be borne,
"Thou livest - I believe."

Thus shall I learn a wakeful power,
Within me felt, yet not of me;
Thus meet the foes of each new hour
By looking unto Thee.

H.C.G.M.

The Bishop's Hymns - II

2008-10-30T09:54:00.003-04:00

The Ridley Hall Quad

I will come in to him. Revelation iii.20

Come in, O come! The door stands open now;
I knew Thy voice; Lord Jesus, it was Thou;
The sun has set long since; the storms begin;
'Tis time for Thee, my Saviour; O come in!

Come, even now. But think not here to find
A lodging, Lord, and converse, to Thy mind:
The lamp burns low; the hearth is chill and pale;
Wet through the broken casement pours the gale.

Alas, ill-order'd shews the dreary room;
The household-stuff lies heap'd amidst the gloom;
The table empty stands, the couch undress'd;
Ah, what a welcome for the Eternal Guest!

Yet welcome, and to-night; this doeful scene
Is e'en itself my cause to hail Thee in;
This dark confusion e'en at once demands
Thine one bright presence, Lord, and ordering hands.

I seek no more to alter things, or mend,
Before the coming of so great a Friend:
All were at best unseemly; and 't were ill
Beyond all else to keep Thee waiting still.

Then, as Thou art, all holiness and bliss,
Come in, and see my chamber as it is;
I bid Thee welcome boldly, in the name
Of Thy great glory and my want and shame.

Come, not to find, but make, this troubled heart
A dwelling worthy of Thee as Thou art;
To chase the gloom, the terror, and the sin,
Come, all Thyself, yea come, Lord Jesus, in!

H.C.G.M.

The Bishop's Hymns

2008-10-28T09:38:00.007-04:00

Entrance to Durham Castle

Bishop H. C. G. Moule wrote some beautiful and very edifying hymns. Sadly, there are none in the 1940 Hymnal! I wish to share some of these gems with you, starting with the following.

Yield yourselves. Romans 6:13

My glorious Victor, Prince divine,
Clasp these surrender'd hands in Thine;
At length my will is all Thine own,
Glad vassal of a Saviour's throne.

My Master, lead me to Thy door;
Pierce this now willing ear once more:
Thy bonds are freedom; let me stay
With Thee, to toil, endure, obey.

Yes, ear and hand, and thought and will,
Use all in Thy dear slavery still!
Self's weary liberties I cast
Beneath Thy feet; there keep them fast.

Tread them still down; and then, I know,
These hands shall with Thy gifts o'erflow,
And pierced ears shall hear the tone
Which tells me Thou and I are one.

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Durham_Castle_Eingang.jpg

Vote Pro-Life!

2008-10-24T08:09:00.002-04:00

I've had to pull off the video from the Mccain website; looks like lots of people have been having trouble with it.

Please Pray for Orissa, India

2008-10-23T07:54:00.005-04:00

Update from a former YWAM'er:

Thanks for your concern for the India YWAMers. There is an email
currently circulating about YWAM India, but it is not actually written
by YWAMers or about YWAMers, so we haven't been able to verify the
specific details of that email. However, the persecution is very real,
and we do know that about a dozen of our staff have been physically
assaulted, and both private and ministry property belonging to our
teams has been damaged or destroyed. One couple had their house burned
down. In addition, though over 50 believers have been killed, and 50
churches damaged or destroyed, so the issue is much bigger than YWAM;
in fact our staff specifically asked that the whole body of Christ
there, particularly in Orissa and Karnataka state, be lifted up in
prayer. The best resource for up-to-date information on this situation
can be found on the website of the Evangelical Fellowship of India
(www.efionline.org).

Thanks again for praying for this issue, and if people ask, do be sure
and tell them to pray for all the Christians there!

Dated Oct. 20
This is a request for prayer for YWAM missionaries and their churches in Orissa, India. The request came from her friend, MH, an associate of HCJB Global. Please read and make this a matter of urgent prayer..

Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India.

We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage.... And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media ..... Let me explain.... A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and 'reconverting' people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up...'Kill the Christians!' And the horror began.... In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have be en slaughtered.

For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ.

Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and 'finish the job.'

Our kids and staff are locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer.

More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.
All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled i nside and police outside.
The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in house and burned them to death.

Many believers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road.... even women and children. At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: 'We stay with our kids.... we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do.'

More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen. This will continue for another 10 days.... suppose dly the 14 day mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down.

The Federal government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times.

Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children. Orissa will be saved... that is our heart's cry. If we can take these thousands of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations.... Prayer works!
____ Col 2:2 MBI Team Facilitators to YWAM frontlines

George Will on the Communion

2008-10-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

Washington Post, Sunday, October 19, 2008; Page B07

Nihil Sub Sole Novum

2008-10-16T13:31:00.007-04:00

There is an "exceptionalism" about these United States, but, at the same time, there is really nothing exceptional about how the country is deteriorating along with the rest of the West. However the upcoming election pans out, it will be business as usual as far as history is concerned. The principles of freedom will still exist and they will still work. God will still reward righteousness with its precious fruits. But men, because of their evil hearts, will turn their backs upon them. Men with little responsibility in this world will harm little more than themselves. Men with great responsibility in this world will harm multitudes.

I, along with others, keep thinking about the 1930's. I keep hearing Churchill's words ringing in my ears. Such words as, "So we go on preparing more months and years - precious, perhaps vital, to the greatness of Britain - for the locusts to eat." [Nov. 12, 1936] The same kind of selfish and foolish actions of politicians in his day, which brought about horrible consequences, we see in our own.

The cultures of our world will continue to change. We complain of the rapidity with which American culture has changed in the last one hundred years. The culture of a middle European county could change just as rapidly with the invasion of the latest version of the barbarian horde. "There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man."

Nothing about our lives in this world is certain and perhaps many of us in the Church need a bit of a shake up to remember our true purpose in life. What are we the most concerned about with this election? Is it the economy? The threat from Islam? As important as these are, we Christians must not forget the millions of innocent lives murdered every year in the womb. We cannot forget the threat from the radical "left" to religious freedom for our descendants. We must be concerned for these things, and we must fight for them as any decent citizen would for any just cause. We must especially fight with our prayers - our greatest "weapon." Let our concerns be dominated, not by the media, but by our own world-view, by Holy Scripture.

It is right to love one's country. It is right to love the good things that are in one's culture. It is right to be grieved when truth, goodness and beauty are on the scaffold. But let us not forget who we are, by definition, by redemption. We are the sons of God. And we are here to serve Christ, whatever the world around us does. Let us not be too shocked when the country we love deteriorates. Let us rather, with the eyes of faith, fix our eyes on the One who always leads us in triumph. While not shirking our responsibilities as citizens, let us be more happy to be citizens of heaven than of any earthly "State." Let us endure, seeing Him who cannot be seen, but will be seen, when He comes to make everything right, good, and new.

Keep the faith! Fight the fight. He that endures to the end will be saved.

Image: http://www.myhero.com/myhero/heroprint.asp?hero=winstonchurchill

A Few Thoughts on Hope

2008-10-08T15:16:00.003-04:00

Our hope is critical for our survival and our effectiveness, usefulness, and testimony. We must recognize our hope as not in a hopeful frame of mind. It is a Person, unchangeable, and He is in us. Our Hope is always, therefore, with us, though all other hope is gone. So, we rejoice, yes, and will rejoice (Hab. 3:17,18).

The reality of our joyous hope displaces an idolatrous obsession with unhappy things in our life, enabling a more wholesome reflection upon the affairs of life in general, with the varied benefits obtained thereby.

Packer on AnglicanTV

2008-09-30T14:47:00.002-04:00

Don't miss the recent posts on AnglicanTV of Dr. J. I. Packer in Virginia this past weekend.

Joy in Our King

2008-09-25T19:39:00.005-04:00

In the midst of all the troublesome stuff in the news, I've been meditating on the kingship of Christ. There is a man, who is just as much a man as any other head of state alive today, that sits on the throne of the universe. All these other people in their various offices who struggle with serving the country or serving themselves are all answerable, right now, to this King. They themselves live in this monarchy! And someday they will answer for what they have done with the positions that have been given to them.

The kingship of Christ is not a merely spiritual truth. It is a historic fact. All the nations of all the earth, whatever they may think of themselves, are literally subordinate to the divine monarchy. This king is daily active - in office - ruling over the affairs of mankind, directing them according to His Father's will.

When the King was with us, he spoke of his kingdom in spiritual terms: "the kingdom of God is within you." This is still true today. Yet, as he sits on the divine throne of David, "all authority in heaven and earth" having been given to him, he fulfills that kingship which is over the nations, as declared by David in Psalm 2 and elsewhere in Scripture. And all his political rule, if you will, is exercised for the good of his spiritual rule. He works "all things together for good for them that love God and are the called according to his purpose." In it all, he has his Bride on his mind.

Thus, we live in a world ruled by the King of Love! Whatever the tin pot tyrants of this world think they are doing, however they may be in rebellion against this king and abusing their offices, they are in a very tentative position. It is God who puts down and raises up another, and he will have his way among the nations.

As our medieval fathers believed, and believed rightly, the whole universe still moves with love in response to the love of God in Christ. In a fundamental sense, we in this country are not in as big of a mess we think we may be in. There are many things beyond the control of men - if only they would acknowledge it! - but there is nothing beyond the control of the King. And He is our King - our Friend - forever.

Rejoice! The Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Mortals, give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore.

In the joy and hope of our King, let us be content under his benevolent rule. Let us be thankful for his benevolent rule. Let us be confident in his wisdom in the affairs of men and his readiness to see that justice is done. Let us be glad in our dutiful worship and service of this glorious king. Let us demonstrate faith in him and not be moved from our peace, our victory, our hope, and our daily duty.
Amen.

Image: http://shepherdstudy.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/why-celebrate-ascension-part-ii/

North American Anglican Article

2008-09-21T08:32:00.002-04:00

A new periodical is coming out for orthodox Anglicans called The North American Anglican. I have written an article for the periodical, and you may read it on their website. It is about the importance of biblical, expository preaching for the renewal of Anglicanism. In the midst of all the reorganizing, realligning, and attempts at continuing former programs under new auspices, little is being done to renew the Anglican pulpits in our country. We can little hope for real, lasting renewal without it.

Motivation and Desire For Comfort

2008-09-08T06:24:00.004-04:00

By Phillips Brooks on 2 Cor. i. 3,4:

The desire for comfort may be a very high or a very low, a noble or a most ignoble wish. It is like the love of life, the wish to keep on living, which may be full of courage and patience, or may be nothing but a cowardly fear of death. We know what kind of comfort it must have been that St. Paul prayed for, and for which he was thankful when it came. We have all probably desired comfort which he would have scorned, and prayed to God in tones which he would have counted unworthy alike of God and of himself.

And the difference in the way in which people ask comfort of God, no doubt, depends very largely upon the reason why they ask it, upon what it is that makes them wish that God would take away their pain and comfort them. The nobleness of actions, we all know, depends more upon the reasons why we do them than on the acts themselves. Very few acts are so essentially noble that they may not be done for an ignoble reason, and so become ignoble. Very few acts are so absolutely mean that some light may not be cast through them by a bright motive burning within. And so it is not merely with what we do, but with what happens to us. It is not our fortune in life, our sorrow, or our joy; it is the explanation which we give of it to ourselves, the depth to which we see down into it, that makes our lives significant or insignificant to us.

All this, I think, applies to what St. Paul says about the comfort which God had given him. He gave to it its deepest and most unselfish reason, and so the fact of God's comforting him became the exaltation and the strengthening of his life.

Image: http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/por/brooks.htm

An All Time Favourite: Bridges on the Ministry

2008-08-24T21:49:00.004-04:00

May I highly recommend Charles Bridges' volume on the Christian ministry for all interested in that calling. It never ceases to challenge and edify. The Banner of Truth website has the following:
Description: One of the best and most comprehensive books ever written on the work of the ministry. The revival of the Church seems to be closely connected with the condition of its ministry. Bridges sub-titled the study of the Christian Ministry, 'An Inquiry into the Causes of its Inefficiency', and, rightly used, it is well suited to promote a faithful and effective ministry. Bridges begins by considering the general and personal cause of ministerial ineffectiveness, and goes on to examine comprehensively preaching and pastoral work. This book was one of the few which the godly Robert Murray M'Cheyne took with him to the Holy Land, and, in its field, it is without an equal. Charles Bridges (1794-1869) was one of the leaders of the Evangelical party in the Church of England in the last century. He was vicar of Old Newton, Suffolk, from 1823 to 1849, and later of Weymouth and Hinton Martell in Dorset. "The Christian Ministry" is Bridges' best-known literary work, but his expositions of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Psalm 119 are also highly valued. "To enlighten the mind and affect the heart are the two main ends of the Christian ministry. The first demands wisdom and plainness, the second fervency, as the spirit of scriptural preaching. This combination exhibits the minister as 'a burning and a shining light' ... imparting the spiritual light of divine truth, as well as the spiritual heat of divine fervour ... Nothing, says Baxter, is more indecent than a dead preacher speaking to dead sinners the living truth of the living God." CHARLES BRIDGES, in "The Christian Ministry," p. 318.

His Cross and Ours

2008-08-24T18:26:00.004-04:00

The following is the bulk of my sermon today from Galatians 5:24. The stuff about Bishop Moule will be no surprise for readers of this blog!

One my heroes for the last 30 years has been Bishop Handley Carr Glynn Moule, born in Dorsetshire, in 1841, and died in Cambridge, in May of 1920. The son of an Anglican priest - who, by the way, was of French extraction; his mother was Welsh - he became the dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, the first president of Ridley Hall, Cambridge - which is where I would have liked to have studied if I had done my schooling in England. A friend of mine is currently studying there, and I'm a bit envious of that. Eventually Moule was consecrated the Bishop of Durham, following on the heals of two other great Bishops of Durham, J. B. Lightfoot, and B. F. Westcott, both of whom remain still today, like Moule, giants in New Testament studies. Though raised a Christian, it was not until September the 18th, of 1884, that Moule seems to have gone through a spiritual crisis which was a defining point in his commitment to Christ. The rest of his life as a Christian could be considered as a progressive growth from that particular time. Now, Moule was a poet and author, and has given us some beautiful pieces - sadly, none of his hymns are in the 1940 hymnal. One of his pieces is connected to that moment of commitment to Christ to which I have referred, and it is called the Morning Act of Faith. Let me read it to you:

I believe on the Name of the Son of God.
Therefore I am in Him, having Redemption through His Blood, and Life by His Spirit.
And He is in me, and all fulness is in Him.
To Him I belong, by purchase, conquest, and self-surrender.
To me He belongs, for all my hourly need.
There is no cloud between my Lord and me.
There is no difficulty, inward or outward, which He is not ready to meet in me to-day.
The Lord is my Keeper. Amen.

Now it is that line, where he says, To Him I belong, that I want us to note. Every Christian belongs to Christ.

Why do we belong to him? Bishop Moule tells us, summarising what the Bible says. First, we are his by purchase. Paul says in I Corinthians: 19: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20: For ye are bought with a price.... Peter tells us what that price was in his first epistle: 18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, ... 19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. We belong to Christ by purchase. And when did He purchase us? When died on the Cross, and shed His blood for our payment.

But Moule also says we belong to Christ by conquest. We don't talk like this much in our day of disdain for empires and our talk of international laws - which don't work, by the way - but it used to be that a conqueror was considered to have right over those he had conquered; right by conquest, we say. Well, Christ has conquered us, has he not? We lived in rebellion against him; we were part of that humanity, under bondage to the devil, that raises its fist to God and cries "We will not have the LORD to reign over us," and seeks to build its own kingdom for its own glory. But Christ came, born of Mary, riding on a donkey, suffering under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead, and buried, that he might on the third day rise from the dead as Christus Victor - Christ the Victor - as He himself had said, "Be not afraid, I have overcome the world!" How? Through the cross, as we are told in Hebrews 2: 14: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15: And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

And now all authority is given to him in heaven and earth, and the words of God, spoken through King David in the second psalm, are fulfilled in these last days: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion - ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces, like a potter's vessel." And then David tells the kings and rulers of this rebellious globe - admit your defeat! Reverence and submit to this new king, the Son of the God of the Universe, lest you be destroyed should he get riled with you, even just a little bit. And when this great King, who is also a Lamb, called us ever so kindly to come to him and turn from living in our rebellion against him, and to bow our knees to him and acknowledge him as king and Lord over our lives, we were conquered - not by His sword, but by His love and grace - that love and grace so wonderfully displayed and powerfully effectual on the Cross of Calvary. We now love our Conqueror, because He first loved us.

We belong to Jesus. We belong to Him because He has bought us, because he has conquered us, and because we have gladly surrendered ourselves to him. This surrendering of ourselves to Him is depicted, here in Galatians 5, by Paul, with the imagery of crucifixion. 24: And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

We belong to Christ because we have given ourselves to Him. And this giving of ourselves to him is a kind of dying. We cease to live our life for ourselves and begin to live for him. Hear what Paul says earlier in Galatians, in ch. 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Note this idea of replacement through crucifixion: my life is given up for His. Christians are disciples who follow Christ. Christ went to the cross so that he might remove all that would hinder us from joining with him in his new resurrected life. But in order to share in his new life, we must share in his death. In order to rise with him in the Spirit, we must die with him on the Cross.

Do you remember, in the gospel of Mark, when Peter tried to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem and being crucified there? It's in chapter 8. It says that Peter actually rebuked Jesus for having such an idea. Right after that happened, Jesus called all the people around him together and then he said these words: Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. 36: For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Having just talked about dying in Jerusalem, Jesus now talks about losing one's life. He would lose His life in Jerusalem on the cross. He's talking about losing your life by dying on a cross. He kept using this imagery of the cross in his call to people to follow him at other times. When he met the man who said he had kept all God's commands, Jesus told him, "Sell what you have, take up the cross, and follow Me"(Mark 10:21). And after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, Jesus said to all his disciples, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."

So you see what is happening here. A Christian is someone who follows Jesus; who "comes after Jesus." Where was Jesus going? To the cross. Where does he say we must go if we are going to follow him? To the cross. Why? To die on it, like he did. Becoming a Christian is the equivalent of taking in hand our natural selves, dominated by the desires and affections of our evil hearts, which we inherited from Adam, and which are stirred up by the rebellious world around us. And having taken ourselves in hand, we nail ourselves on a cross to die to our old selves. We determine that we will not be that kind of person any more. We will put away from our lives the things that characterise our fallen condition, such as the things which Paul listed earlier in the Epistle reading. We will stop living for ourselves - give up our life - so that we may follow Jesus - to death - to the end of all we have known in this world up to this point.

Now if we consider the horrible damage that our sins do to us - the sins we naturally love so much - it should sound wonderful that we can die to all that garbage! What a wonderful thing! I can stop being the person I have always been - messing my life up all the time and hurting all the people around me. I can be free from sin - by dying to it. But, at the same time, that sounds rather threatening. Death? Crucify myself? Die? How can I lose myself? The idea of going on, dead to myself, does not sound very inviting. Ah! But the death is not all there is! Remember the principle of replacement. Jesus said, we must lose our life to save it! Just as Jesus' own cross was the way to His own day of resurrection, so our own cross is the way to a new life in Him: He dwells in us and we dwell in Him. Death to living for self is not the end, but the means to an end. It is the way to follow Jesus - through death, past the cross, unto resurrection and newness of life. Taking up our cross - turning from living for ourselves - surrendering ourselves to our King - ceasing to try to own ourselves and beginning to live, owned by someone else - by Christ, is the path to the glory and joy that Jesus already knows in heaven and wants to give to us today. And in place of a life dominated by the works of the flesh, having left that life behind, we now can know a life filled with the fruits of His own Spirit. Instead of a life of hatred, we can have a life of love. Instead of a life of anger, we can have a life of joy. Instead of a life of strife, we can have a life of peace. And we have all these because those who belong to Him are those to whom He gives His Spirit, that right now, we might know the power of the saving and redeeming work of Jesus' Cross in our lives. He died, that we might live - in the power of His Spirit - freely by His grace. And, having taken up our own cross and died on our own cross by self-surrender, we now live a new life, raised with Christ - not for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us, our Loving King and Saviour.

Friends, this life of love and joy and peace is yours - if you will have it. It is free - completely paid for by your Saviour. It is yours every day. As Bishop Moule said: To Him I belong, by purchase, conquest, and self-surrender. "To me He belongs, for all my hourly need." Yes! The path of the cross - of losing your own life - is the path of gaining the life of Christ Himself. He gives himself to you, with all his glory and grace, for everything you need, until the day when he brings you home to himself, perfectly.

Neither Here Nor There

2008-08-17T16:57:00.009-04:00

In the path of duty, many of us have left behind lovely places with artistic elements which inspired our worship. One year, Boswell wished to be able to visit London that he might worship at St. Paul's Cathedral, as had been his wont annually at Easter. However, this year he could not afford it. Johnson's comment to Boswell on the matter was written as follows:

"Your last reason [for wanting to come to London] is so serious that I am unwilling to oppose it. Yet you must remember that your image of worshipping once a year in a certain place, in imitation of the Jews [Boswell had said it was like going up to Jerusalem], is but a comparison; and simile non est idem [the likeness of something is not the same thing as itself]; if the annual resort to Jerusalem was a duty to the Jews, it was a duty because it was commanded; and you have no such command, and therefore no such duty. It may be dangerous to receive too readily, and indulge too fondly, opinions from which, perhaps, no pious mind is wholly disengaged, of local sanctity and local devotion. You know what strange effects they have produced over a great part of the Christian world. I am now writing, and you, when you read this, are reading, under the Eye of Omnipresence.

To what degree fancy is to be admitted into religious offices, it would require much deliberation to determine. I am far from intending totally to exclude it. Fancy is a faculty bestowed by our Creator, and it is reasonable that all his gifts should be used to his glory, that all our faculties should co-operate in worship; but they are to co-operate according to the will of him that gave them, according to the order which his wisdom has established. As ceremonies prudential or convenient are less obligatory than positive ordinances, as bodily worship is only the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration, so Fancy is always to act in subordination to Reason. We may take fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide. We may allow Fancy to suggest certain ideas in certain places; but Reason must always be heard when she tells us that those ideas and those places have no natural or necessary relation. When we enter a church, we habitually recall to mind the duty of adoration, but we must not omit adoration for want of a temple; because we know, and ought to remember, that the Universal Lord is everywhere present; and that, therefore, to come to Iona, or to Jerusalem, though it may be useful, cannot be necessary."

(c. 15 March, 1774; 1946 Doubleday edition of Boswell's Life, pp. 281-283)

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:St_Paul%27s_-_the_final_design.jpg

Son of Hamas Leader Converts

2008-08-14T12:52:00.001-04:00

If you've not seen this, it's very interesting.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402483,00.html
I've lived in Israel - I've been to his home town - and I agree with his assessments.

The Personal Heresy Available Again

2008-08-11T20:53:00.002-04:00

The book by C. S. Lewis and E.M.W. Tillyard entitled The Personal Heresy has been reprinted by Concordia! For news, go to the website of the C. S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga.

Orombi and Anglicanism Today

2008-08-05T06:10:00.001-04:00

Bishop Orombi says some really good things in response to a query from AnglicanTV.
'Attaway, Henry!

The Shack Book

2008-08-04T17:37:00.011-04:00

Well, here's my 2 cents. Overall, I liked The Shack and would recommend it, not so much for a study in theodicy as an example of how the imagination can be used to communicate truth. At the same time, I do believe it is good for those who are hurting and concerned with the "why?" question.

I admit that when I first heard that God the Father is represented as a black "mammy" (I love classic black mammy's by the way) I was a bit put off because of the gender issue. Having now read the book, I realise that he is not trying to advocate a feminist position. Instead, he abides by the patriarchical revelation. Even as a "mammy," he (she?) is still called "Papa." Once the main character is emotionally able to respond to the Father as a father, The Father is represented in a pretty mocho male fashion.

I do have a serious problem with his blanket denunciations of hierarchy and "institutions." Young obviously needs some tutoring in the dialectic nature of God's revealed truth and in the problems of generalization and accidens. The condemnation of the name "Christian" is really bad. It is apparent from some comments that Young has at least read Lewis or Tolkien on myth - I wish he had read more of their works and less of whatever has mislead him.

The issue of the use of narrative, representing Jesus speaking on particular issues, is an interesting question. There is an authoritative power that comes across to the reader when, with imagination engaged, he reads Jesus saying this or that. It seems like an author should not put himself in the position of representing God saying something in an imaginative narrative because it really does come across as revelation to the reader - unless one is keeping up their attempt at discernment. However, when one preaches a sermon, he is also saying "thus saith the LORD," in a mediated fashion, which carries its own sense of authority. So, I would say that the narrative is much the same kind of thing as a sermon and in both cases one should keep asking "what saith the Scripture?" while under its spell.

As Lewis says, for any one new book, read three old ones (it was three, wasn't it? Maybe more). I'm sure Lewis's immediate recommendation would be Boethius and I must agree. But considering the sad state of literacy in this country, I would recommend The Shack, with some heavy caveats and a promise to follow up the book with a discussion so the errors could be ironed out.

Chilling

2008-07-28T21:06:00.001-04:00

Yes, the maneuverings of the liberals at Lambeth are chilling, but I'm referring to my "chilling out" on my blog until the shenanigans are over.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
God bless you, gentle reader.

BBC post on World-wide Anglicanism

2008-07-18T08:59:00.002-04:00

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3226753.stm

Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XLV - H. C. G. Moule

2008-07-14T15:28:00.002-04:00

Ridley Hall, Cambridge

Conclusion of Chapter XI

v. Lastly, and let this reflection touch and attune every other, let us "walk in love, for love is of God." Even the few pages of this little book, dealing with topics of the inner life, have led me to definite statements of conviction on many points of truth and doctrine. My whole soul is sure of the importance of clearness and firmness in such things. Nevertheless, there is no region of Christian life in which the need is more constant and more strong to remember how to walk in love, than the doctrinal region. It is easy, very easy, as we have observed more than once already, to disguise to ourselves a jealousy for our own views as such under an aspect of jealousy for the revealed truth of God. There lies the danger; there lies the need. And the remedy, the supply, lies above all things in a deepening personal acquaintance with "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

In the divine serenity of His presence we can, so far as our personality and sensibility go, read in peace the page from which we differ, perhaps the page which takes ourselves severely to task, and can ask in peace and candour where lies the truth. Walking by the side of Jesus Christ, we can with joy and love see His image reflected in the life and labour of the Christian man with whom, perhaps on no unimportant point, we are at issue. "In the covert of His wings" we can love, as well as watch. Ambitious and jealous not for ourselves but for Him whose property we are, we shall find more attraction in the least sign of genuine loyalty to Him than we can find repulsion in almost anything else. For this also His grace is sufficient.

Our series of thoughts is over. To that Master of Whom we have just spoken - absolute, merciful, beloved - I now humbly commit the things written. Whatever among them are indeed "the things of Christ," He can bless, forgiving the rest. And for us, writer and reader, "the next thing" shall be to step forward into the realities of to-day, putting thought into practice, seeing in circumstances God's will, receiving amidst them His Spirit, living through them upon Jesus Christ, who is our Life. To Him be glory, now and always. Amen.

"Certainly, the more the Christian is acquainted with himself, the more will he go out of himself for his perfecting and establishing.... Never shall we find heart peace, sweet peace, and progress in holiness, till we be driven from natural independency, to make Christ all our strength; till we be brought to do nothing, to attempt nothing, to hope or expect nothing, but in Him; and then shall we indeed find His fulness and all-sufficiency, and 'be more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us.'"

Archbishop Leighton, on I Peter. v. 10.

Image: copyright Cambridge 2000, cambridge2000.com; used by permission on the site.

The Rt. Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr. on "Where do we go from here?"

2008-07-07T10:03:00.005-04:00

If you have not read Dr. Roger's statement on the future of the Anglican Communion, I highly recommend it. David Virtue posted it today, and you can read it here. I believe the bishop is spot on, at least for the most part. There is going to have to be some structuring that allows continued argument against women's ordination and that would allow this to be corrected in the future. I'm also concerned about the practicality of people aligning themselves with bishops that agree with them on this matter. It may be that those who cannot approve women's ordination will eventually be their own constituency and hopefully the rest of the otherwise orthodox will see the error of their ways in generations to come. The fruits of the last century in western Anglicanism may be more bitter for a longer time than we think.

Thoughts on the Spiritual LIfe - XLIV - H. C. G. Moule

2008-07-07T09:30:00.002-04:00

Chapter XI, continued.

iv. And one remark let me make here on the study of the Scriptures, which are the Word of God. On the duty, privilege, and method, I am not going to enlarge. It is in special connexion with the life of Christian Holiness, the life of new Obedience, that I speak of Scripture study; and specially in view of the fact that Scripture is the one articulate account, by the Lord Himself, of His "will in Jesus Christ concerning us." For you, believing friend, who long to know and to do His will, as at once your rest and your goal, let the Bible bear this aspect of sacredness very specially, that it is the one definite and articulate utterance of that Will by our Master Himself. From this point of view how singular is the value of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm! It has been beautifully said that the essence of the thought of that Psalm is, the sacredness and sweetness of God's Will, to be known and done by His bondservant; so that we may reverently read, as it were, the word "will" into it, as a synonym of "law," "stautues," "jugments," "precepts," &c. Try this holy gloss, and see how the verses shine with the glory of a loving surrender to the will of God. But then, on the other hand, beyond all question, the Psalm in its direct purpose is one long strain of prayer, and praise, and self-consecration, over the Bible. The saintly soul's thirst after the will of God leads it not to the mirage, but to the water-spring of the Word. With every access of love and longing, with every step in conscience and obedience, he feels new need of the Book, he bends over it, he bows to it. So be it with you and with me.

The image of Bishop Moule above was found via Yahoo image search; the source page of the image seems to be no longer available.

Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XLIII - H. C. G. Moule

2008-07-03T10:17:00.005-04:00

Chapter XI, Concluding Thoughts, Continued.

iii. In the practice of daily life, in the derivation from the risen Lord of the power of “new obedience,” let me and my reader recollect steadily, and weave into one cord - a cord that at once binds and knits - two sacred facts of our state as believers. First, we BELONG to the Lord; secondly, we are JOINED to Him.

“Whether we live, we live unto the Master; whether we die, we die unto the Master.” Let the words “I BELONG” be written, in redeeming blood, across your whole life. Wake up with that fact in recollection; not that feeling but that fact. Carry it into morning, noon, and night. Lie down upon your bed with it. We have dwelt on this side of truth already, elsewhere.* But let it be pressed home on heart and will once more. Everything else tends to fall abroad and into pieces without it. Nature fears it, but when by the grace of God a man has looked it in the face, or far rather has looked in the face THE MASTER who makes the claim, it is peace and rest to surrender, quite at discretion, to that Ownership. “To this end,” that He might be Master, “He died and rose again.” This must be, this is, a very blessed “end” - for Possessor and possessed!

“I love, I love my Master; I will not go out free;
For He is my Redeemer; He paid the price for me.”

Happy, happy, the human will that is bound with this chain. It is free indeed. Make proof, on the Master’s warrant, and “thou shalt know.”

But again, we are “JOINED to the Lord,” So says the Spirit. The passage and context are full of the essence of the new Life and its exercise. We gather there, that the believer belongs to Christ not merely as a man’s watch, for instance, but as his hand, belongs to him. And observe that this is true for every “limb” of the blessed Head; not for the highly developed member only, but for the member; yes, as the whole passage shows, even for the member struggling with the force of the crudest and basest temptation. For the disheartened, aye, for the falling Christian, this word is written: “you are joined to the Lord” now; you are “one Spirit” now. It is not reward of obedience, but gift of God. The word is not “you ought,” but “you possess.” It is not “you feel it,” but “thus it is.” What have you, thus united, to do with sin? What need temptation do against you, thus united?

The man who recollects his belongingness to Jesus Christ, his irrevocable lot and state of bond service to Him, and who recollects along with it his living union with Him, is the man who may humbly, calmly, and with restful expectation say with St. Paul, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me." "Nothing shall in any wise hurt him." Shall we take our place, in the name of the Lord Jesus, among these people, and go forward in this blessed double recollection, not into some imagined path of duty and patience, but into our own?

Very real, very great, is the power and preciousness of the holy Supper of the Lord, in the light of this combination of truths. Our redemption to be the property of our beloved Saviour, and our mystical Union with Him as our Head, are there, in the same divine act, "visibly signed and sealed" by HIMSELF, the true Master of the Table, to each true disciple. What certainties of assurance, what warrants of strength and peace, lie in that fact!

* In the author's "Thoughts on Christian Sanctity," ch. iv.

GAFCON messages

2008-06-25T13:49:00.002-04:00

Just in case you are not aware of it, Kevin at anglicantv.org has several addresses to the GAFCON assembly on his blog. I highly recommend you to view them.

A Successor Collection?

2008-06-20T13:30:00.001-04:00

I appreciate Bishop Duncan’s address to GAFCON this past week. The text may be found here: http://www.acn-us.org/etc/2008/anglicanism-come-of-age.pdf
Much of what he says is helpful and I recommend it to my readers. My only question, at first reading, is about what he says regarding the need for the Anglican Church to develop “some successor collection to the 1662 Book of Common prayer….” He is right to say that there needs to be liturgical uniformity in the Communion and that much uniformity has been lost (thanks, as I understand it, to the innovative service books of the West – there may be other influences of which I am uninformed). However, must some new “collection” be the answer?

I do not believe there is anything wrong with the 1662 tradition. It has, theologically and liturgically, what we are concerned to be maintained in the Communion. Provision is already made in the rubrics for “occasional services” which allow creative use of the Prayer Book. Why not find the answer in a re-affirmation of the 1662 tradition? It is very hard for us modern westerns to critique our tendency toward the chronological snobbery fallacy.

Of course, Duncan may have in view simply a Prayer Book that is 1662+. By that, I mean a prayer book that keeps the 1662 tradition but provides guidance for other services, such as Compline. There does need to be some kind of direction given by the church for other services beyond those currently in the 1662 tradition to guard against the innovations that the more creative, but less theologically astute, among us always have an itch to develop.

Below are Duncan’s words, in the place I am addressing, with my comments in brackets.

Prayerbook Christians

One of the great losses of Anglicanism in the 20th century was the Book of Common Prayer [well, it has been lost in certain bodies]. We were [and still are] what we prayed. Lex orandi, lex credendi. Until the 1960’s everywhere in the world we prayed the same words, even if in translation. The theological and ascetical [does he mean aesthetical? Surely.] foundation of Anglicanism must be recovered in the 21^st century. There can be no Global Settlement without it. How we can have widely varying liturgical texts across the Provinces of the Communion, and still have a common language for prayer and a consistent and reliable theology, is one of the greatest challenges before us [I think the matter for these is already present; is it that great of a challenge? It seems to me most are in basic agreement. I keep thinking, though, that ECUSA people, and their friends in Canada and England, like their 1979, et. al., and don’t want to give up things they’ve grown to like].

Like the emergence of a new Instrument of Unity adequate to a Global Settlement of Anglicanism, some successor collection to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer must emerge [it is this “must” that I question], to guarantee Anglicanism’s coherence and glorious (and reliable) life of worship. But how this shall come about is in God’s gift alone, yet come about it must [yes, something must be done, but must it be altogether a successor?]. This, too, is the future of 21st century Anglicans who are themselves at their best.

I hope you will comment on my post, especially if you see how I might be enlightened in some fashion.

Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XLII - H. C. G. Moule

2008-06-13T11:37:00.005-04:00

Gates to Trinity College, Cambridge.

Chapter XI, continued.

ii. As one part of this general subject, I lay it upon myself and my reader, as we seek to live day by day in the strength of the risen Jesus Christ, all the more to lean our experience before God wholly, solely, upon the finished Work of our redeeming Sacrifice, “the Lord our Righteousness.” The holy thirst and hunger to please God is a radically different thing from the anxious effort to reconcile God. Blessed be His name, that work is done, is completed, for us, by the obedience of One. In the deep words of the Second Article, “Christ, very God and very man, truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice not only for original guilt but also for all actual sins of men.” And in the words of the Eleventh, never to be separated from those others, “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith (per fidem).” Such words, technical as they may sound, speak a truth inexpressibly restful to the fully awakened conscience. Do you see the depth of the demand of God’s law? Do you believe what His Word says, speaking, remember, in the person of an inspired saint, “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified”? Do you see the sin (to speak of nothing else) of the least inadequacy in your love to God, in your love to others? Then, in true proportion to the spiritual reality and fulness of such insight, you will prize, you will adore, you will submit yourself to, you will learn yourself upon, the finished Satisfaction, the imputed Merit, of your Redeemer. In the words of a departed saint, to whose soul the truth of saving love in this aspect was singularly real and sweet, you will rejoice to feel that “the bed is large enough to lie down upon, the covering ample enough to wrap around” the awakened soul.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93451647@N00/300955696/in/photostream/