Sunday, November 30, 2008

Advent 1 Comments on Christus Victor

A Chapter Talk sent to the Company of Jesus on November 30, 2008.

Grace to all on this first Sunday of Advent!

Since we have talked about using the Rule of Christus Victor for a special Advent intention, I thought it might be well to pass along some quotes each week from a famous book by Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulen. His “Christus Victor” is actually a series of collected lectures and is “An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement”.

Normally we think of Advent as being primarily about the Incarnation and the Atonement as dealing with the Easter events, but we shall see as we proceed that the two stand in the closest possible relation to one another. Chapter Two of Christus Victor (CV) deals with the thought of Irenaeus, the earliest of the Fathers to deal with the topic of the Atonement. We’ll start with his question about the Incarnation and then work backwards.

“Ut quid enim descendebat?” (Against Heresies, II, 14.7), asks Irenaeus. For what purpose did Christ come down from heaven? (CV pg. 18) …Answer: ‘That He might destroy sin, overcome death, and give life to man’ (AH III,18.7). …”Man had been created by God that he might have life. …through the Second Man He bound the strong one, and spoiled his goods, and annihilated death, bringing life to man who had become subject to death.” (CV pg. 19)

‘In Irenaeus’ thought the Incarnation is the necessary preliminary to the atoning work, because only God is able to overcome the powers which hold man in bondage, and man is helpless. The work of man’s deliverance is accomplished by God Himself, in Christ…The Word of God was made flesh in order that He might destroy death and bring man to life; for we were tied and bound in sin, we were born in sin and live under the dominion of death.”’… the Word is God Himself, who has entered into this world of sin and death… to accomplish victory over both. (CV, pgs 20, 21).

These thoughts reflect the ‘Classic” view of the Atonement, explains Aulen, which is both “dualistic” and “dramatic” - the forces of Evil are arrayed against God, and the Atonement is seen as a “Divine conflict and victory; Christ – Christus Victor – fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the ‘tyrants’ under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in Him God reconciles the world to Himself. …the victory over the hostile powers brings to pass a new relation, a relation of reconciliation, between God and the world.” (CV :pgs 4, 5).

Aulen asserts that ‘Christus Victor’ was the primary view of the Atonement for the first thousand years of the Christian Church. Over against this view is the “Latin” type, promulgated by Anselm of Canterbury, who is actually the first theologian to attempt a thoroughly thought-out doctrine of the Atonement. His “Satisfaction” Theory became synonymous with the Roman Catholic view and held dominance until the Reformation. This view teaches a deliverance from the guilt of sin, and an ‘objective’ Atonement in which God is the object of Christ’s atoning work, and is reconciled through the satisfaction made to His justice.”

While the differences between these two views may seem those of relative emphasis, the practical effects are huge. While the religion of Christus Victor centers around the Mysteries of Redemption and the Sacraments, The Satisfaction view leads to a System of Christianity in which “man’s way to God was interpreted as a way of justification by works and by human merit.” (CV, Translator’s note pg. xxv).

Luther’s protest against abuses engendered by this System of works righteousness “was an endeavor to deliver the Christendom of the West from the domination of a system, which had entangled the gospel of salvation in a rationalized theology and a moralistic ethic.” (op cit).

Ironically, Aulen claims that Phillip Melancthon actually went back to the Satisfaction view leading to as much legalistic bondage as did mediaeval scholasticism. One hears Paul saying to the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal.5:1).

Ideas have consequences; sometimes huge consequences. I’ll stop here with this gloss on Aulen’s magnificent work. I’m sure I’ve done enough damage to it by now. (But that won’t stop me from trying again over the next few weeks.) Thanks for your patience.

Oh that You Would Rend the Heavens

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on the First Sunday of Advent, November, 30, 2008 @ The Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Hungtington, WV and based on Isaiah 64:1-9

Isaiah and the Contemporary Experience
Sometimes we read a portion of Scripture and it just jumps out at us. The language is so contemporary and so vivid it grabs us and captures our imagination. I think that's the case with today's reading from Isaiah. When we compare what is happening in the world with the situation that Isaiah was speaking into, we can easily relate. Basically, we're in trouble. The world economy looks as if it's headed into serious crisis. The world political situation is unstable. The attempts that people are making to fix things seem as if they're getting us in deeper and all the while, the world seems to be moving farther and farther from God. As Christians, we long for God to intervene.

So when Isaiah cries out, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down...we can relate. We say “Yes, Lord! Come Down! Just like you did at Mt. Sinai when your presence caused the mountain to quake. Make your Name known to your adversaries. Cause the nations to tremble at your presence! Come and reveal yourself! We are desperate for you! Reveal yourself; Just like at Sinai...

Yes...that was when God told Moses to bring the people to the foot of the mountain to meet Him. God descended on the mountain in fire and smoke. He spoke to the people in thunder, flashes of lightening and with the sound of a trumpet. He gave Moses the Ten Commandments. ...And the people thought they were all going to die! They said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Ex. 20:19).

Moses tries to comfort the people by telling them not to be afraid, and tells them that “God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. (v.20). But in spite of his attempts to calm them, “the people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.”

...Well, maybe on second thought that wasn't such a good idea... Sounds pretty scary. God seems to be pretty serious about this Sin thing.

Grief over Sin
Just as the people of Israel were aware of the danger of approaching a Holy God face to face, so too the passage from Isaiah reflects an awareness of not measuring up. While God is happy to meet the righteous person who obeys Him in all His ways (Is. 64:5), yet he is angry with sin...'Speaking for the people, Isaiah continues, “and in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? Acknowledging their woeful condition. Isaiah says, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” (vv.6,7).

Sounds pretty contemporary doesn't it? As we apply this to the situation in our nation right now, we don't have to look much farther than the newspaper- or Internet headlines to see that we're pretty much in the same boat.

Our entire financial system is on the verge of collapse because of the desire to get something for nothing. Politicians have set us up for failure in order to get power. Financial brokers have milked the system for fat commissions, and people have tried to buy properties they could not afford – all the while thinking that the laws of nature have been suspended, that gravity had somehow taken a holiday. Greed has driven the system and now we're about to commit idolatry on top of it by looking to government to be God and deliver us from our travail.

If this weren't bad enough, we are a promiscuous people who demand to have unfettered sex, and we have the blood of millions of innocent unborn children on our hands – our pathetic attempt to get rid of the inconvenient limits to our own freedom. All this and more... and shall we be saved?

Fasting and Preparation for the Coming of Christ
But Isaiah recognizes there is a basis for mercy: “O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter. We are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” (vv. 8,9).

If the people of Israel had a basis for mercy in the Fatherhood of God, how much more should we as Christians, who have been redeemed with the blood of the Lamb, trust in God's mercy and plead with him for deliverance?

Each Sunday we come to this table, confessing our sins and partaking of the body and blood of our Lord in the confident expectation that our sins have been forgiven and that God does indeed feed us with the spiritual food of the body and blood of His own dear Son. But that does not let us off the hook completely as a people. We are still in need of God's grace in regard to our own personal struggles with sin, as well as our corporate sins as a nation, and even as a global community. We are no where near ready for God to rend the heavens and come down to this sinful world of ours. We would be just like the Israelites – quaking in our boots for fear of the righteous God and His judgment on our sins.

That's why, during Advent and Lent, we make time to prepare ourselves for His coming, to fast and to pray, to rend our hearts, so that when He does come, we may be ready. It's also possible for us, as God's people, to avert disaster in our nation through our prayers and intercessions. The much quoted verses from II Chronicles chapter 7 still apply today: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (vv. 13,14).

Keep in mind that these verses were spoken in the context of Solomon consecrating the finished Temple for the worship of God. The prayer referred to in the passage is the prayer offered in the Temple; prayer that God promises to see and hear.

By extension, that means that we, as the worshiping people of God, have a particular responsibility to intercede, not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors and our nation.

Mission and Evangelism:
“If MY people, who are called by MY name...shall pray... The responsibility rests upon us who pray! Therefore we should pray!

We should pray for our own cleansing, and to become increasingly more like Christ. We should pray for our national, state and local leaders. And we should pray for our families, our friends, and for those of our acquaintances who do not know the Lord. After all, you know people whom I will never meet, and vice versa. Those people are your mission field, the ones for whom God expects us to pray and to whom He expects us to witness.

An excellent adjunct to our prayers of Advent preparation is fasting. Though we as Christians are not required to fast as the Old Testament believers were, yet it seems clear that Jesus expected his disciples to fast (Mt. 6:16). Fasting is a discipline that builds our character and our faith. By not eating for a specified time, we are telling God that we seek His kingdom and his righteousness first, ( Mt. 6:33) putting our bodily needs second. ( After this past week, our bodies can well afford to be put second for a time!)
In this way, we show God we are serious about our prayer intentions.

In the Western tradition, Wednesdays are a day of fasting and Fridays are a day of abstinence from meat. I suggest that we include some fasting in our Advent discipline this year, either according to this traditional formulation, or one that might work better for you personally. Perhaps you would also want to abstain from some aspect of the World during this time, such as not watching a TV program you enjoy, or cutting short your sleep so that you can get up earlier and pray. Any of these things fulfill the spirit of Fasting.

By leaving off something, we make room for Jesus and for the prayer to which we are called as God's people. It's not too much to suggest that this prayer is the basis for our Evangelism program. Join me in this discipline and let us know how it goes for you. I'm sure that if observe a fast as unto the Lord, that you will be blessed. Also let us know how it goes as you pray for those around you. Let's make this a time of not only making room for Jesus ourselves, but for helping others to do so as well. AMEN.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thanksgiving, Our Reason for Being

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center on November 23, 2008, based on Matthew 25:31-46

Coming up this week on Thursday is Thanksgiving Day – just in case you might not have heard… We’re very happy and excited to have our daughter Leah and her husband Scott, along with Lewis and Benjamin and Abigail with us for the whole week. We get to be face-to-face grandparents for 7 days and then we send ‘em right back to Texas. It’s just great! …well that didn’t come out just right…but you know what I mean. It’s wonderful to be able to gather as a family to celebrate the Holiday.

Today, I would like to talk about Thanksgiving as our Reason for Being, and then tie this in with our Scripture readings for the day.

So, I’d like to start off by saying that I think Thanksgiving is the single most instructive national Holiday when it comes to understanding ourselves as Christians. Thanksgiving is not just a day, but our Life. It represents what we as Christians should be doing day by day, that is: giving thanks, or as the Greeks would say, making ‘Eucharist’.

On Thanksgiving, we gather as family to Thank God for the Harvest. Psalm 67 says it quite well: “The earth has yielded its fruit, for God, our God, blesses us….” We receive the Good gifts of Creation and offer Him Thanks for the increase of our labor. This theme is reflected during our worship service in our Offertory. Together we say, “All things come of Thee O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” The hymn says it this way: We give Thee but Thine own, whatever the gift may be…” But we bring our Labor to God as well, and this is seen visually as we bring the bread and the wine forward along with our gifts of money.

God gives us the gift of wheat and grapes, and we add our labor and they become bread and wine. When these gifts are brought forward we see the visible representation of our vocation as a nation of priests. That is to say, a priest takes the gifts and offers them to God with thanksgiving, just like Jesus did when he took bread and gave thanks…

This priestly action is seen as we offer our gifts to God in Thanks. As the Priest prays the Eucharistic prayer, the great AMEN at the end of the prayer signals that All the people are in one accord and that we are all praying together. The Priest says the words but we all work together in Giving Thanks.

Now this is a picture of Life. This is what Life is all about. When we come together to Worship God and give Thanks, we are doing what we were created to do. Worship (especially the Eucharist) is not something we just do on Sunday, it IS our life. We were created for Communion with God. And so as we bring our gifts to God, our thought should be that we bring Him all we have and all we are. This sacrifice of ourselves – the offering of all that we are – is symbolized by the offering of a tenth of our income to God. The offering is meant to be a TOTAL offering, and we show our devotion to God as we bring the Tithe – which Scripture insists belongs to the Lord.

So when you sit down to write your check for the offering , you must always keep in mind that the first 10 percent does not belong to you. It belongs to God. You may say, “Well, my finances are tight right now, the economy is in the tank, and God knows I can’t afford to Tithe…” But keep in mind that Everything you have comes from God and belongs to Him, especially the tithe. We give him but His own…

And as it pertains to Worship itself, the Lord’s Day belongs to the Lord. He bought it by virtue of the Resurrection. Our “bounden duty” is to Worship Him on His day. If we say that we are too tired or have too many other things going on, we are really saying to God that we don’t really belong to Him, we own ourselves and worship is an optional weekend activity that we fit in if we’re not too busy.

But God gave the best He had, His own Son Jesus, in order to redeem us as his people. Christ emptied himself of His divine prerogatives to buy a People for God the Father. Indeed, we can say that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world in order for God to have a people for Himself.

God had us in mind from the beginning, and then He created the universe so that he could actualize the Church. The created world and everything in it are meant to be a vehicle for us to have communion with Him. When we Commune with God on Sunday, we are doing what we were made to do!

The act of leaving our homes and coming to this chapel is a Proclamation to the World System - a political act of defiance. It says, “This world system is not all there is. Our primary allegiance is to God and all of our Lives and all our Labor is meant to support us in our relationship with God. When we Give Thanks, we are saying to the world system, “You don’t own me, God does.” I am a pilgrim on my way to my resurrection home in Christ. I am fulfilling my purpose as a Human being when I come to Worship God and offer Him back my Life and Labor as a Thank Offering.

Now when we sit down as family at our Thanksgiving meal, we renew our family bonds and we ‘become what we are already’ – Family. Sometimes we also invite others to join us at the table – especially the lonely person and the stranger in our midst. We extend an invitation to that person to come and be a part of our family – at least for a day. The invitation is to come and join us at the table, to feed on food that will sustain and encourage them, to forge ties of friendship and family and then to be sent out with full hearts – and tummies.

This is the pattern of our worship as well. We as the Church come to the Communion Table every Sunday. It’s a Thanksgiving meal - a family reunion in which we are fed with the Body and Blood of our dear Savior. In eating this meal we become what we are – the Church, the Body of Christ, held together by the power of the Holy Spirit. We fulfill our destiny by becoming the total Christ – the Head joined together with His body by the Spirit, to fulfill our destiny – Communion with god.

At the Thanksgiving Table, God feeds us, nourishing and strengthening us for our task in the world – to bless the World through our Giving, by being the body of Christ to the world – the Presence of Christ in the world.

The task of embodying Christ means that we also seek to minister to Christ in every person we meet. Our task is not to be a Social Service agency, but to minister to Christ in the poor person, the sick person, the widow, the orphan and the prisoner. It is required of us to do this - to take the Blessing we are given at the Table into our World and minister to Christ.

So Thanksgiving should be a pattern for our whole life, not just something we do one day a year. Thanksgiving is what we do on Sunday, but is that which sustains our very lives.

People can ignore God, they can worship their Stuff and keep all they have for their own pleasure, but they will miss the very reason they exist! Folks, don’t let this happen to you! Be truly alive. Be what you were meant to be. Receive all that you have with gratefulness. Offer it back to God with Thanksgiving. Be strengthened for the journey and be sent out in power to be the Presence of Christ in the world. Don’t just celebrate Thanksgiving Day, Live Thanksgiving! AMEN.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Be Ready

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on November 9, 2008 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, based on Matthew 25:1-13.
Ten Virgins

25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps [1] and went to meet the bridegroom. [2] 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.


As most of you know, we’re thinking about a wedding at our house. Our daughter Leslie will be getting married in July of next year and we’ve been talking about all the preparations and choices that a couple makes – where to have the wedding, what to serve at the reception, paper or plastic plates….

In our text today, Jesus tells the story of ten virgins who are part of a wedding. In Jesus’ day, a Jewish wedding had two parts: first the bridegroom went to the bride’s home to obtain the bride and to have the religious ceremony, and then the whole party would go to the groom’s house for the wedding feast. The ten virgins in the story may have been charged with going ahead to the groom’s home and lighting the way for the party as they approached or it may simply have been that like everyone else in a middle-eastern town, they had to have lamps to light their way in very dark streets.
At any rate this is a parable.

And a parable, by definition is a story with one main point. So we have to be a little careful about attributing too much meaning to each of the details of the story. In general, we can say that the main point is “Be Ready”. Beyond this, the challenge is to interpret the meaning of the details.

The most precise meaning of this story probably applies to the Jewish people in the Tribulation. After all, Jesus was a Jew, talking to a Jewish audience about a Jewish wedding. The Ten Virgins were waiting on the “bridegroom and his bride” so this is not really a story about the Christian Church, the bride of Christ, waiting for her bridegroom, the Christ.

Rather, our attention is drawn to the young women, who likely symbolize Jews who believe in Christ during the Tribulation and who wait for Christ to return from Heaven to earth, with his bride, the Church, after the Tribulation. In the so-called, Pre-Millennial, Pre-tribulation rapture understanding, the Church is taken out of the world before the Tribulation and stays with Jesus in heaven before returning with him at his Second Coming.

But again, the main theme of this parable is to ‘Be Ready”, “Be Watchful”. Jesus draws a contrast between the five foolish women, who “took no oil with them, and the ten wise women, who took “flasks of oil with their lamps” to carry them through their wait.

In both the Old Testament and the New, oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The most common symbolic use of oil in the Old Testament was to anoint Kings, so that they might have the power of God, the Holy Spirit, to guide them in their leadership. The Holy Spirit came upon people individually and for specific purposes, such as to prophecy or to know how to build the Temple. And it would lift off the individual if the job were done, or the person was unfaithful – such as King Saul, who lost God’s Spirit when he disobeyed a specific command to destroy an entire town and didn’t do so.

In the New Testament, we understand from Romans 8:9, that Oil also represents regeneration and infilling with the Holy Spirit: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” The Spirit of God regenerates a person so that he or she may believe, then “infills’ them. The Spirit does not leave believers, but we can be more or less full of the Spirit, more or less obedient, more or less guided by the Spirit.

Some scholars cite Zechariah 12:10 as a verse that pertains to the regeneration of Israel in preparation for the return of Christ:

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

The spirit of grace, is the Holy Spirit, who brings about conviction of sin, and grace to repent. It is represented in our parable by the Oil in the lamps. The basic message is that one cannot make it through the dark times without the Holy Spirit to light the way. Jesus faults the foolish Virgins for not ensuring that they had enough oil - Holy Spirit - to see them through until the return of the Bridal party.

An odd detail of this story is that after the foolish gals return from buying more oil, they are not allowed access into the wedding feast. This is a signal that there is something strange going on.

“If this were an actual wedding party”… the host would simply welcome them in with some pleasantry such as …”We missed you, where were you? Come on in…”

But here the other virgins return to the party saying, “‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’” This is reminiscent of the Lords’ teaching that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you don’t get the infilling of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have the ‘oil’ of the Holy Spirit, you don’t get admitted to the wedding feast – that is Heaven.”

So Jesus’ message to the Jewish people of his time was to accept the Messiah - Himself - and to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they could be empowered to wait for his return during the dark times. Again, the basic message is “Be Ready”.

Now having said that the message is primarily directed to the Jewish people, we also know that Gospels were written by Jewish Christians, for a Christian audience, and that all the stories of the Gospels have a specific message for us. I think that message has something to do with ‘trimming our lamps”

Looking at this parable from a Christian standpoint, we are like the Virgins, waiting in the darkness for the return of the Bridegroom.
While it’s true that we live in the ‘8th Day of Creation, the Day of Christ’s resurrection, and “… we are God's children now, [yet]… what we will be has not yet appeared ;
… when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (I John 3:2).

That is, when he appears… Until then, we wait. And while we are waiting, we would do well to practice what the believers did after the day of Pentecost:

“…[they] were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayers…the believers were selling their possessions and sharing with one another, taking meals together in each others’ homes, worshipping together in unity at the temple, and rejoicing as the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were being saved…” (Acts 2:42-47).

In other words, they were practicing a disciplined corporate and individual spiritual life in four basic areas: Worship, Community, Formation and Mission. For convenience sake, we have dubbed these The Four Practices for 8th Day Life.

The 4 Practices are based on answering yes to four foundational questions about the Christian Faith:

1. Do I trust in God’s grace revealed in Jesus Christ?
2. Do I believe the tenets of the Apostle’s Creed?
3. Have I been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
4. Do I seek to pick up the cross and follow Christ daily?

All who answer yes are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Throughout the history of the church, believers have followed Christ as disciples by developing a Spiritual Plan, or “Rule of Life” that incorporates spiritual disciplines from these four practice areas.

The purpose of these practices is to allow ourselves to be formed into the image of Christ and to do what He himself did, and even greater works…John. 14:12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

But again, if we come back to our parable and the admonishment to ‘Be Ready’, the first thing to do is to Believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to follow Him, allowing God to direct and control us by having our lamps filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
The next thing to do is to ‘work the plan’ and do it daily until He returns. Participate actively in weekly public worship. Spend time with God daily in prayer, Bible reading and Study, Participate in our 8th Day Life Groups. Take on a discipline of spiritual formation such meeting with an Anam Cara, or spiritual friend, to help you develop your faith. Get involved in an outreach, such as Mission Tri-State and plan to participate in the Divine Experiment coming up January 11-Feb 1, in which we join together with believers from other churches to observe a ‘Daniel Fast, and pray for a Transformational Revival. We’ll have more on this later…

These are examples of how you demonstrate that you are a ‘wise virgin’, a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, one who does not let the lamp of faith go out. Jesus wondered whether or not He would find Faith on the earth when he came back (Luke 18:8). I urge you to be found among the wise and the faithful who are prepared with a full measure of God’s spirit to carry you through the tough times.

If you haven’t done it already, get a copy of the 4 Practices for 8th Day Life, work through it and develop your own spiritual plan.
Father Mark and I are both available if you would like help with this.

Following the pattern of the early church in which instruction, or Catechesis was given to ‘Catechumens’ during Lent, we will be focusing on these plans during our Lenten observance next year, and we will culminate our instruction with a voluntary “Liturgy of Public Commitment” on Easter Sunday, similar to the ancient practice of baptizing new converts on Resurrection Day. In this way, we hope to bring ourselves in line with the historic traditions of the church universal and to make known to all that we have our lamps trimmed and are prepared for the return of the Lord Jesus.
AMEN.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Humility

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on November 2, 2008, at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, WV, based on Matthew 23:1-12.

How many people attended the largest funeral you have ever attended?
1,000?
20,000?
100,000

What do you think your family might say if, after you had received your last rights lying on your death bed, thousands of people trooped through your hospital room touching your hands and feet with religious articles and asking you to remember them when you get to heaven?

Or how about if after you died they laid your body out in the church and a million people came to see it. Sick people were getting healed, sinners getting saved and there were so many people milling around that not even an archbishop could get close to the coffin?

What would it take to receive the following accolade during your funeral homily: “No prince of the Church or of the State could have a funeral such as this…” (Cardinal Villeneuve, speaking about Br. Andre. Pg. 135 in God’s Doorkeepers).

The person we are talking about, Br. Andre of Montreal, Canada, was neither a prince of the Church nor of the State, but a lowly doorkeeper at the College of Notre-Dame, someone who was so sickly, and had such modest gifts that when he tried to enter the Congregation of Holy Cross, which operated the college, all the brothers could think to do with him was to make him a doorkeeper and messenger boy – someone to go find the brothers or the students when they had visitors, someone to sort the mail, someone to run errands – and someone to pray.

And pray he did! This man of humble origins and gifts was a ‘prayin’ fool’. He would get up at 4:45 am to pray and stay up half the night praying after his chores were done late at night. He would become so engrossed in prayer, that he lost total awareness of his surroundings and the students at the school would make fun of him for being so oblivious.

His piety took the form of devotion to St. Joseph and he was largely responsible for the construction of a multi-million dollar Basilica dedicated to St. Joseph – yet this Br. Andre owned nothing. He lived in such simple surroundings that if he were around today someone would call Adult Protective Services on the school to get him better provisions.

And this same person of such humble circumstances became known for his piety and began to receive an amazing number of visitors, who would tell him their darkest secrets and ask him to pray for their sicknesses. Hundreds of them did in fact recover – often at a rate of more than one miraculous healing per day – to such an extent that crutches littered the walls and corridors of the basilica where Br. Andre prayed.

If he were alive today, somebody would surely try to hook him up with a television show, a multi-book publishing contract, a line of best-selling videos entitled, “Your Most Humble Self Now”, T-Shirts emblazoned with his picture and jeans pre-worn at the knees in imitation of the great man of prayer.

I hope, in this little bit of foolishness, that you can see what we’re up against when we compare ourselves to someone who is truly humble. I don’t know about you but when I think about God’s standard of Greatness, I think about someone like Br. Andre – or his contemporaries, the Italian Franciscan, Padre Pio of stigmata fame, or Solanus Casey, another doorkeeper/ healer similar to Br. Andre, whose academic gifts for theological study were so slight that the Roman Catholic church would not even allow him to preach full sermons or pronounce absolutions after hearing a confession. And of course, there is Mother Teresa, of blessed memory, who for many of us seemed to embody and personify Christ in her humility and faith.

These are examples of people that God says are truly Great. In God’s kingdom the truly Great are never loved for their great knowledge , fund-raising or administrative skills. No, they are known for the depth of their devotion to Christ and their absolute commitment to serving their fellow men. Jesus says it in our Gospel text today, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

St. Benedict’s Ladder of Humility.

St. Benedict used the example of Jacob’s Ladder to describe this phenomenon. …”if we wish to reach the highest peak of humility,” says Benedict, “we must, by our good deeds, set up a ladder like Jacob’s, upon which he saw angels climbing up and down. Without doubt, we should understand that climbing as showing us that we go up by humbling ourselves and down by praising ourselves.” RB. Chapter 7. “The Ladder represents our life in the temporal wolrd; the Lord has erected if for those of us possessing humility.” And the practice of humility demands discipline: “We may think of the sides of the ladder as our body and soul, the rungs as the steps of humility and discipline we must climb in our religious vocation.”

Benedict goes on to create the first Twelve-Step program. See what you think:

1) Obey all the commandments – never ignoring them, and fearing God in your heart.
2) Forget your own self-will; Do not please yourself, but follow the Lord’s example: “I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me”: (Jn. 6:38).
3) Love God and obediently submit to a superior in imitation of the Lord.
4) In obedience, patiently and quietly put up with everything inflicted on you.
5) Humbly confess and disclose to a superior (or Anam Cara) all the evil thoughts in your heart and evil acts you have carried out.
6) Accept all that is crude and harsh and consider yourself poor and worthless in it all.
7) Not only confess that you are inferior and a common wretch, but believe it deep in the depths of your heart.
8) Only do that which your superiors command.
9) Practice silence, only speaking when asked a question.
10) Restrain yourself from laughter and frivolity.
11) Speak gently, without jests, simply, seriously, tersely, rationally, and softly.
12) Show humility in your heart and your appearance and actions. Think of your sins, keep your head down, eyes on the ground and imagine you are on trial before God.

Benedict concludes this daunting list by saying, “When you have climbed all twelve steps, you will find that perfect love of God which casts out fear, by means of which everything you have observed anxiously before will now appear simple and natural. You will no longer act out of the fear of Hell, but for the love of Christ, out of good habits and with a pleasure derived of virtue. The Lord through the Holy Spirit will show this to you, cleansed of sin and vice.


I don’t know aobut you, but I’m not there. I’m nowhere near fulfilling this list. In fact, just the opposite. In the AMIA application questionnaire I recently completed, one of the questions was:

“Provide an honest evaluation of your life and character …:

I answered in part, “Before I became a Christian, my character could accurately be described in terms almost as stark as Romans chapter one; I was arrogant, boastful, self-centered, disobedient to parents and to all authority, self-willed, promiscuous, intemperate and ambitious, militant against God and disdainful of Christians.”

After becoming a Christian, God burned away my grosser sinfulness immediately, but you know what? Even after 30 years of submitting myself to God’s transforming process I still struggle with pride and self-centeredness – and there are times when I almost despair of ever overcoming these flaws. I’m very glad it is God who is at work in me, because if were only up to me, I would make very slight progress indeed.

Of course, Jesus is our great exemplar of humility. Consider the lyrics of this song, The Servant King by Graham Kendrick:


Verse 1
From heav'n You came helpless babe
Enter'd our world Your glory veil'd
Not to be served but to serve
And give Your life that we might live

Verse 2
There in the garden of tears
My heavy load He chose to bear
His heart with sorrow was torn
Yet not my will but Yours He said

Verse 3
Come see His hands and His feet
The scars that speak of sacrifice
Hands that flung stars into space
To cruel nails surrendered

Verse 4
So let us learn how to serve
And in our lives enthrone Him
Each other's needs to prefer
For it is Christ we're serving

Chorus:
This is our God the Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to the Servant King

This is a picture of true Humility. Not to be served but to serve. Not to call upon legions of angels in the time of dire struggle, but take the sins of the world; submitting to the cross for our sake, surrendering the same hands to cruel nails that flung starts into space. This is what it means to be truly humble.

The chorus of this song gives us the right response to Jesus’ gift of himself to us: to follow him, to bring our lives and all that we have - not just the tithe - but all to God as a daily offering of worship.

This is our high calling; the calling to lowly humility that imitates the Master, our Savior Jesus Christ.

And here’s The Acid Test: Forgiving our Enemies

Bishop John Rucyahana lost many family members during the genocide in Rwanda. When he returned to the country after the genocide, he was asked to serve as the chairman of Prison Fellowship and was invited to preach at one of the prisons that house some 110, 000 genocide related inmates nationwide. As a Christian and an evangelist he knew that the perpetrators of the crimes were guilty of great sin before the Lord and that they needed to repent of their sins or perish in the flames of hell.

He was in the middle of proclaiming this message at one of the prisons and the inmates started to cry aloud under conviction. At that moment he had a terrible crisis of faith himself. When he realized that the Holy Spirit was bringing people to faith in Christ, he was stopped cold in his tracks and could not bring himself to go on with the message.

Like Jonah, he knew that if they repented, the Lord would save them. He relates how he literally ran out of the meeting room where he was preaching, out of the prison and up onto the hill overlooking the prison.

“Tears were streaming down my face,” he says. “Pain was gripping my heart. I couldn’t believe the depth of anger I felt against them. It shocked me. It overwhelmed me.”

“They killed my niece, Madu,… and her mother, and her brother also. What was I doing preaching to their killers?”

“I tell you the pain was too great for me. I fell on my knees and wept. I thought I wanted those men to know Jesus, but it’s not true. I wanted them to pay. I opposed them, and I opposed the Lord. Whey was He reaching out to save those men? How could He forgive them for what they did to me and my family?”

“I could not stop the crying. I didn’t understand it. But I knew this truth: The confusion and pain was coming from within me. Bitterness had taken root. The desire for revenge was choking me. If anybody needed to run to Jesus and repent, it was me. I needed Jesus. I needed Him to forgive me. I was no different than the prisoners. I was locked behind bars of resentment and unforgiveness and I knew it.”

He goes on to tell how the Lord gave him the grace to forgive the killers of his family, realizing that the Lord forgave his enemies while he was still on the cross, while he was still in pain.

After this excruciating wrestling match with himself and with the Lord, John forgave his enemies and went back into the prison to finish preaching the message of salvation. Although it was terribly difficult and he still struggles with bitterness, yet his face lights up when he says, ‘You can’t believe it! The Lord is performing miracles in the prisons. We are seeing men and women cry out to the Lord like never before. They are coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ and then they’re becoming evangelists! They are winning fellow prisoners to Jesus. We are seeing repentance catch fire from prison to prison. It is true. It is miraculous. It is the glory of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is healing Rwanda from inside the prisons of the killers! Who would ever imagine that?” (Quoted in Never Silent by Thaddeus Barnum)

Friends, this is the picture of Humility par excellence – being able to forgive those who sinned against you – while you are still in pain!

Last week, when we were at the Anglican Awakening conference in Akron it became clear again to me that there is still much pain among us over the divisions that have torn us from our long time church homes, from our family members and our friends. We are angry at what has been done to us. I am angry at the heresy that has been tolerated and promulgated. But I also know that we have a huge challenge still remaining – to forgive those who have hurt us and despitefully used us.

You may be sitting there this morning thinking that you’re OK, that you don’t have that issue bothering you – and you may be right. But one thing I’m sure of is that someone somewhere has hurt you and that hurt still plagues you at some level.

Right now, I’d like to challenge us to humble ourselves like John Rucyhana did, to bring our hurts, bitterness and resentments before the Lord and let Him heal us. There are thousands of people in our Tri-State region that need God, just as the murders of Rwanda do, but we can’t really effectively take the gospel out to them unless we are well ourselves.

It’s also very important spiritually for us to be as well as we can be before we go to stand before God. Make it your goal to be so well – so known for your humility and Christlikeness, that when you die people will flock to your funeral and not even be able to get close to the casket for the crush of the crowd.

In order to give God some time to heal us, I’m going to ask you to take some moments and just be quiet now, asking the Lord to bring to mind any lingering hurt, pain or bitterness that you may be holding on to. I urge you to humble yourself and let it go right now. Let the Lord heal you so that you may be free…AMEN.