Feast of the Holy Name- January 1

This was first published in Holy Trinity's Sunday Bulletin, 2nd Sunday of Christmas, 2017

Philippians 2:9-11    Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 The Feast of the Holy Name is commemorated on January 1 (New Years Day), the eighth day after the birth of Christ, when Jesus is given His name and circumcised.   

Luke 2:21- “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel [Luke 1:31] before he was conceived in the womb.”

 Under the Law of Moses, all male infants were to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth (Leviticus 12:3).  At that time , he was named Jesus as God had instructed through the Angel Gabriel. Jesus in Hebrew is Joshua, or Yehoshuah, meaning "Yahweh will save." 

The Collect for the Feast Day of the Holy Name of Jesus

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was circumcised for our sake in obedience to the Covenant of Abraham, and given the Name that is above every name: give us the grace to faithfully bear his Name, to worship him in the Spirit given in the New Covenant, and to proclaim him as the Savior of the world; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Isaiah 6: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty"

 

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”

These words from Isaiah 6 have been a permanent part the Eucharistic Liturgy in much of the God's Church since the 4^th Century AD.  They would seemingly pull us toward a posture of praise, but note that upon reciting this scripture, the Celebrant at the Lord's Table is bowing toward the ground.  This is because the context of these words is Isaiah being confronted with the awesome holiness of God, upon which he says, “Woe is me, I am lost.  I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  Isaiah falls on his face in humility and awe before the Lord.  In the Eucharist, we too are awed by the presence of God in our midst, and we, like Isaiah, humbly bow before our God.

                         Fr. Rob

How Much More God has for Us

First published in the Sunday Bulletin of Church of the Holy Trinity, 6th Sun. after Pentecost, July 1, 2018. 

During the summer of 2018, a group of us from Holy Trinity attended a conference at Kanuga Conference Center, Hendersonville, NC.  The Conference speakers were the Reverends John Barr and Mike Lumpkin, long-time priests in the Diocese of South Carolina.  Their presentations were based on Luke 11:13, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 Mike and John challenged us with this:  

• Today is a day we have not lived yet- how do we live it well?  
• How do we learn to live each day with un-frantic, joyful and peace-filled purposefulness?  
• How do we fill each day with what God has for us that day?  
• And a quote the Early Church Father, Irenaeus, “The Glory of God is a life fully alive.”

We explored Scripture with these thoughts in mind, looking particularly at the early chapters of the Gospel of Mark and Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.  What we discovered in these scriptures, and what we as Christians should already know, is that the key to living each day well is having God’s Holy Spirit infuse that day with God's power, purpose and plan.  Without this, we can easily live ordinary lives focused on the wrong things.  With the Holy Spirit and "the great freight train of God’s grace," to quote John, there is no such thing as an ordinary life.

Sermon Fourth Sunday in Advent, 2020 “Being Ready for Christmas.”

Here we are at the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and the Feast of the Incarnation, Christmas Day, is this week!  In the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations, Advent seems to slip by quickly almost un-noticed, so much so that it is easy to miss the great message of this Advent Season and what it really means to be ready for Christmas. 

The heart of the Advent message is that the Lord is coming, and He wants to act decisively in your life and mine.  We need to prepare ourselves to receive Him, because when we truly receive Christ into our hearts, then everything changes.  To receive Christ means that our lives are given purpose and meaning.  We have new direction, and maybe for the first time, we know what life is really all about and where we are headed.  When Jesus comes into our hearts, He opens up grand vistas before us that reach into eternity.  Receiving Him is to become a new creation, just as Jesus tells us we will be.  All you and I need to do is be prepared, receive Him, and say yes to His invitation when he comes at Christmas.  

So, what does it mean to be prepared to receive Christ?  Let’s look at what our Advent pilgrimage has revealed to us thus far:

·     On the 1^st Sunday of Advent, the Prophet Isaiah told us we should be ready and expectant because the Lord is going to tear open the heavens and come down, he writes.  When He does, expect God to act, to make things different, to transform your life your life and mine.

·        On the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, we are told by St. Peter why the King of the Universe would choose to come and dwell among us.  2 Peter 3 says that God, simply, wants none of us to perish.  The reality is that God did not create us to experience the curse of death and pass into oblivion.   God loves us too much for that.  God’s plan of salvation involves God Himself coming and dwelling among us, being one of us.  St. Paul uses the image of Jesus as the new Adam, a new prototype for humanity, a humanity that is unblemished by the world and worthy to move into the full presence of God forever.  That is the ‘what’ of salvation. Easter gives us the ‘how.’

·        On the 2^nd Sunday of Advent and again on the 3^rd Sunday of Advent, we are shown the centrality and necessity of repentance in preparing our hearts for Jesus’ coming.  John the Baptist, quoting the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah, says we need to fill in all the valleys and make all the high mountains low that stand between God and us. “Make straight the pathway for our God,” Isaiah says.  This is what repentance is all about.

·        And that brings us to this Sunday, the 4^th Sunday of Advent.  Today we meet a teenager girl who brings us a final message for our Advent journey, which is, when God comes to us, be prepared to submit to His good and perfect will for our lives.  Mary says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; “let it be with me according to your word.”  Through Mary, we see what it means be a people who once again bow humbly and obediently before our God.   

So then, how’s your Advent going so far?  Have you made your heart ready to receive your Messiah when he comes?  Are you doing the hard work of repentance, as John the Baptist says you must?  Are you submitted to God’s will and plan for your life, as Mary shows us that we must?  

In other words, are you really ready for Christmas?  You may have done all your Christmas shopping. The Tree may be trimmed and all the presents under it, but the Season of Advent tells us what it really means to be ready for Christmas.

Father Rob Hartley

The Power of America's Founding Documents

 First published in the Sunday Bulletin of the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, 7th Sun. after Pentecost, 2020 (July 8) 

From the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence… “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

From the Preamble to our Constitution… “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I think we all agree that the “Perfect Union,” the “Blessings of Liberty,” and the assurance to all of the “Unalienable Rights” endowed by our Creator, are noble ideals and have been a work-in-progress for us over these last 244 years, but these ideals upon which this nation was founded, along with American democracy and free enterprise, have produced the greatest, freest, and most prosperous nation the world has seen.  Millions have been lifted to new standards of living.  

The Founding Fathers generally believed that such an enterprise was dependent on the providence of God and maintenance of Judeo-Christian principals.  As Christians, we heartily agree.  May God continue to “stand beside her, and guide her.”       God Bless America!                                  The Reverend  Rob Hartley

The Apocrypha

The Apocrypha are Hebrew writings that date from the intertestamental period of approximately 400 to 200 BC.  They are considered canonical in many parts of the Church, but not considered so within Protestantism.  Protestants have recognized these apocryphal books to be edifying for Christian living, even though they do not meet the criteria that would lead Protestant Churches to consider them to be the Authoritative Word of God. 

St. Jerome in his Latin Vulgate translation in 406 AD made such a distinction between canonical and non-canonical, as did Martin Luther in his Biblical translation during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century.  The King James Version of the Bible was written with an intertestamental section (those books written the Old and New Testaments) for the Apocryphal books to make this distinction.  

Because they are edifying, we Anglicans have included the Apocrypha in our lectionaries. The current edition of our Eucharistic Lectionary [Book of Common Prayer 2019] has only a few readings from the Biblical Apocrypha.  At times the Lectionary offers an alternate reading from the Old Testament canonical books of the Bible.  In the Daily Office Lectionary [used at daily morning and evening prayers], the Apocrypha is more prevalent, particularly during the long season of Pentecost.

The Anglican Protestant Reformers in the 39 Articles of Religion (1571 AD) clarified this distinction between canonical and non-canonical:

Article 6:  "In the name of Holy Scripture, we do understand those Canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.  The names and number of the Canonical Books:

Genesis	Judges	1 Chronicles	The Psalms
Exodus	Ruth	2 Chronicles	The Proverbs
Leviticus	1 Samuel	1 Esdras	Ecclesiastes,
Numbers	2 Samuel	2 Esdras	Songs of Solomon
Deuteronomy	1 Kings	The Book of Esther	4 Great Prophets
Joshua	2 Kings	The Book of Job	12 Lesser Prophets

All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive, and account them canonical.

And the other books (as Jerome said) the Church reads for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet it does not apply them to establish any doctrine. Such are these following:

3 Esdras	The Book of Wisdom.	Of Bel and the Dragon
4 Esdras	Jesus the Son of Sirach	The Prayer of Manasses
The Book of Tobias	Baruch the Prophet	1st Book of Maccabees
The Book of Judith	Song of the 3 Children	2nd Book of Maccabees.
The rest of Esther	The Story of Susanna"

The Christian Pilgrimage

The Christian life is a journey that begins at Baptism and ends with eternal life in the glorious presence of God forever.  It is a life guided by the Spirit of God Himself, and Jesus walks the journey with us.  

A life in Christ is therefore not a random sequence of events stitched together by the elemental forces of this world; rather, it is a life under the umbrella of God’s grace and providence.  When we allow Him, God takes the the events of our lives- the good and bad, the sorrowful and joyful, the wilderness times and abundant times, the mountain-top experiences and the times of slogging through the valleys,- and He crafts it all into a joyful pilgrimage of continuity, purpose, and direction.  

If we allow Him, Jesus carries us through the tough times and rejoices with us in the good times.  There is a story familiar to many of us that goes something like this:

One night a man dreamed he was walking along a beach with the Lord.  Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.  For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him; the other to the Lord, but at his darkest times, he often saw only one set of footprints. 

He questioned the Lord: “You said that once I decided to follow You, You would always walk with me.  Why only one set of footprints in my most troublesome times?”

The Lord replied, “My child, I love you and would never leave you.  During your times when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I was carrying you.

Sundays

This was first published in the Church of the Holy Trinity Sunday bulletin, 11th Sunday after Pentecost (Aug 5), 2018

The 4^th Commandment is “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. ...  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:8, 9)."  

For us Christians, however, our holy day of Sabbath rest is not the 7^th day of the week, Saturday, but Sunday, the 1^st day of the week.  Why is this?  The simple answer is that the Resurrection of our Lord was on the first day of the week, and we Christians are Resurrection People.  Sundays became Resurrection celebrations, each Sunday being a little Easter.  Very early in the life of the Church, Christians could not help but make Sundays their holy day of worship and rest.  This is first mentioned in Acts 23:7-  “On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread…”  Sundays came to be known as The Lord's Day.  This is first mentioned in Revelation 1:10- “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day.”

Rather than thinking of Sunday as the 1^st day of the week, it is useful to think of it as the 8^th day, a day that represents new beginnings and new creation.  This thinking comes to us from the Early Church Fathers who understood the Resurrection as opening the door to a new life and a new time.  Our lives in this world and our hope for the next are centered on the 8^th day of the week, the Day of the Lord's Resurrection.  All Sundays are our day of feasting and celebration, and feasting at the Lord's Table and breaking bread together on The Lord’s Day is the single most important thing we do together as the New Testament People of God.

Father Rob

 

Choosing a Church Family

            It is hard to speak to why or how others choose a church family, but I can tell you how I choose.  I desire a community who will  be fellow travelers and with whom I can make my pilgrimage heavenward.   A church family should be a hospital for sinners, a place where everyone can be healed of the consequences of their sins and nurtured back to spiritual health.   I want a church family that loves unconditionally, without judging, and seeks to love and serve people right where they are.  Finally, I want a church that lives the Great Commission [Matthew 28] because the greatest thing we can do for another pilgrim is point the way. 

        These things are what good churches do, but none do it perfectly.  The reason is  that churches are communities that are full of redeemed sinners just like me.  

        It occurred to me a number of years ago that heaven is a community (we call it the Communion of Saints) and God Himself is a Community of Three; therefore, it should be no surprise that Christians are called into community with one another in this life.  It is like church families are dress-rehearsals for eternity.  Thus, ultimately, there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian.  

Bearing Fruit as a Response to Our Salvation

Bearing fruit is indeed the mark of the Christian, but it is not the source of our salvation.  It seems to be human nature to think that we are earning our redemption with good works that offset and hopefully outweigh our sins.  Bearing Fruit is not earning our salvation, but rather, it is responding to it.  

Our relationship with Christ through God's grace is the source of our salvation.  I once heard this allegory (source unknown) that salvation is like a powerful and magnificent ship built by God’s own loving hands.  But the ship is not useful to God if it stays in the harbor.  Our Life in Christ is therefore a response to our salvation.  It is to be lived to the glory of God, to the furthering of His Kingdom, and for the salvation of those who have not yet heard the Good News." 

Salvation is Christ doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  Christ comes offering to impute his perfect righteousness onto fallen, imperfect, unrighteous humanity.  Our personal righteousness is never righteous enough to wash away our sins- only God can do that. Therefore, our only hope is a relationship of love, faith and fidelity with God made possible by the Crucified Christ.  In Christ, both God's judgement and His deep desire to extend mercy are satisfied.  A pretty good plan for our salvation, wouldn't you say!  That is why it is called "Good News."

Having to earn salvation greatly distressed Martin Luther because he knew he was not worthy or capable of doing so on his own righteousness.  Thomas Cranmer, the great English reformer, felt a great burden for the average medieval peasant who had a mortal dread of going to hell and felt no hope of salvation, because he knew his own fallen human nature all too well.   But the Protestant Reformers wanted to share the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)  This sparked a Reformation in the Western Church that has brought peace and blessed assurance to countless Christians who have been bearing fruit for the Kingdom ever sense.

Christ in the Bread and Wine- A Mystery

        A sacrament is when we do something, and God is doing something in return.  What we do in the Holy Eucharist is break bread and share wine together.  What God is doing is make Himself uniquely present in the bread and wine, and it is a mystery to us as to how this takes place.

        The Holy Eucharist is indeed a great mystery, and us Anglicans are pretty good at letting God's mysteries remain mysteries.  The Church over the centuries, however, has tried to doctrinally and dogmatically explain this mystery.  The medieval understanding was known as Transubstantiation, which is that the very substance of bread and wine becomes carnally and actually the flesh and blood of Jesus.  Unfortunately, this led to superstitions and misuse of the Eucharistic elements (the Bread in particular), and since Transubstantiation could not be derived or proved directly from Scripture, the 16th Century reformers (Cranmer, Zwingli, Calvin, Luther) felt this needed to be corrected.  Each came up with a different way of speaking about this mystery: Luther- "Consubstantiation," which is Christ in, around and through the Elements; Cranmer- Christ simply being "spiritually present" in the Elements; Calvin and Knox- the doctrine of "Real Presence"; Zwingli- no mystery at all, it's just a memorial.

            

        Here is what the Anglican Reformers say about this in the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Article 28):  "... the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise, the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ.     Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.  The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only in a heavenly and spiritual manner.  And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is through Faith.  

So, which is it- Transubstantiation? Consubstantiation?  Spiritual Presence? Real Presence?  Since Scripture isn't telling, perhaps we should be content to leave a mystery a mystery.

The Sanctity of Life

 This was first published in the Church of the Holy Trinity Sunday bulletin, Feast of the Epiphany, 2019.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…  Jeremiah 1:5

As Biblically-informed Christians, we believe all human life is sacred and must be protected from the moment of conception until natural death.  Jerimiah 1:5 tells us that in the womb God knew us and consecrated us as His own.   Psalm 139 says that God Himself  knit us together in our mother's womb and that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made."   

Until this past century, the sanctity of yet-unborn human life was the clear teaching of the Church.  In the second-century document called the Didache, it is written that "you shall not murder a child by abortion."  (Did. 2:2.)  In this age of individualism and self-determination, we have as a society discarded this sort of Biblical understanding.  

Modern advocates of abortion have insisted that ending a life in the womb is a personal, individual, and morally neutral choice of the mother.  With the courage of our convictions as Christians, we must, however, proclaim the inherent evil in this.  From a Christian understanding, abortion is contrary to the will of God and the sacredness that God has assigned to human life.    

We know that Satan’s objective is to destroy all things sacred.  We may someday look back on the current Abortion-on-demand Movement as one of Satan’s greatest successes.   Abortion can destroy the life of a child and the soul of a mother, all at the same time.  In our "Woke" culture we have claimed the right to judge and condemn previous generations for their sins and tainted worldviews, while we stand outside the context and norms of their time.  I wonder if future generations will look on our practice of ending millions of unborn lives as genocide, and do the same to us. 

Even though abortion-on-demand is the prevailing societal norm and is considered politically correct, we Christians cannot be silent.   Being the Church in this increasingly pagan culture is a challenge, but we must pray for the grace and strength to be faithful witnesses to the fact that God alone is sovereign over life.

Father Rob

Being Christian in a Non-Christian Culture

First published in Holy Trinity Sunday bulletin, 1^st Sunday after the Epiphany, “The Baptism of our Lord,” January 13, 2019.

Since the founding of this nation, the dominant moral and ethical framework from which the American society drew its norms, behaviors, and even its laws, was the Protestant Christian Worldview.  Those times are gone.  Multi-cultural Secular Humanism is now the dominant moral/ethical framework.  Some would even say it is the dominant “religion” in America today. 

There is no reason, however, for pessimism or hand-wringing.  God is in charge and is still growing and caring for His Church.  In fact, with this cultural shift comes opportunities for the Church to be what she was commissioned to be by Christ, which is a light in a dark world and the source of “Good News” for a people who desperately need to hear it. 

Christianity has always flourished as a minority worldview.  There is something right at the center of the Christian Faith which says we are to love and accept right where they are people who live and believe differently from us.   Jesus always did!  We do not need to agree with worldviews that are contrary to God’s truths nor “hide our light under a bushel” when it comes affirming the truths of the Kingdom.   Jesus never did!  Our calling is not to be politically correct. Jesus never was! 

We should not expect this to be easy, because the dominant culture is not moving in the direction of openness and tolerance of the Christian Worldview; in fact, it is moving in the other direction.  Much more needs to be said about living as Christians in a non-Christian culture, and Holy Trinity needs to think through the issues related to this in order to be effective ambassadors of Christ in today’s world.  This year I intend to lead us into doing this.

                                          To God be the Glory!    Father Rob

Make Your Life Count- Sermon on Pentecost 28A, November 15, 2020

The Venerable Bede, the famous historian of early British Christianity, records the story of a monk named Paulinus who accompanies Ethelburga, the sister of the King of Kent in Southeast England, on her journey north to marry Edwin, the king of Northumbria. The year is 625 AD.  King Edwin is not a Christian, and Edwin is told this story in his meeting with Paulinus:

One evening, a sparrow flies into the king’s great banquet hall through one of the open doors, coming in from of the dark and cold, staying only briefly in the warmth and light of the hall, and then flying out of another door on the far side.  It is the same with humankind, Edwin is told.  We are on this earth for only a brief while; what goes on before this life or what follows it, we seemingly know little. 

Like the sparrow, few of us stop to consider the meaning of this curious journey we are on, this brief span of consciousness we experience in this  life, nor do we consider where we are headed as we, like the sparrow, fly out through the door into whatever lies ahead. 

We Christians, however, are not totally in the dark about such things. God reveals to us the purpose of this life and the realities of the next.  We have a God who not only chooses to reveal these things to us, but also invites us to seek after these things, because these things are what endure and are eternal.  “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you,” Jesus tells us in Matthew 6.  The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:18 writes, “Look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

On these final Sundays of the Church Year, our lectionary always takes us on an exploration of these “things eternal.” The readings tend to be about the Last Things and the End Time when you and I will fly from this life into the next. The ancient Hebrews called this time the “Day of the Lord,” and we Christians know the central event of the Day of the Lord is the second coming of Christ.  Christ’s first coming, which we celebrate at Christmas, is all about God coming among us to offer forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.  Christ’s second coming is to judge the living and the dead, as our Creeds say.  At His second coming, Jesus will usher in God’s kingdom which will have no end.

Let’s look again at today’s readings and see what they tell us about the End Times and this great and often dreaded “Day of the Lord:”

·       The Prophet Zephaniah this morning (Zeph 1:7, 12-18) tells the people of Jerusalem that the “Day of the Lord” is nearer than they think, and that it is going to be a day of judgement and doom. Why Doom? Have the people of Jerusalem not been faithful or obedient?  The answer is no, they have not.  At Daily Morning Prayer over the last several months here at Holy Trinity, our lectionary has taken us through much of the history books of the Old Testament- 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.  If you have been tracking these morning readings with us, then you know that the Israelites have not been faithful and they have lived life on their terms, not God’s terms.  We have read about the great consequences of this.

 

·       Moving on the Psalm 90, the psalmist writes in v.4, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past …”  v.8- “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”  The psalmist sees God’s judgement as coming surely and swiftly and appeals to the Lord in v.12 to “teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom.”  The palm is about our need for Godly wisdom to live rightly and make the most of this brief and fleeting life God has given us.

 

·       Looking again at our Thessalonian reading today (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10), Paul says that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  We need to be alert and ready.  We need to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of hope and salvation.  In v.9, Paul reminds the Thessalonians that God has not destined them for wrath, but for the redemption from their sins through our Lord Jesus.  In the broader context of his letter, we see that Paul reveals that one of the weaknesses of the Thessalonian church is that they tended to be too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good; so, Paul reminds them that they have God’s work yet to do in this life.

 

·       And finally, in our Gospel reading (Matt 25:14-30), Jesus gives us the Parable of the Talents.  This parable is grouped with other sayings and parables in Matthew chapters 24 and 25, all dealing with the End Times. Chapter 25 has 3 of Jesus’ very powerful and poignant parables: They are The Parable of the Ten Virgins; this parable today; and The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.  If you want to know some of what Jesus has to say about the age to come in relation to our present age, then take a few minutes and read these two chapters in Matthew. 

Looking at the Parable of the Talents allegorically, we see that:

• The master, who is going on a journey, is Jesus himself.

• The five, two, and one talents given to the three servants represent the blessings and talents given to all of us in this life, whether big or small, whether financial, intellectual, physical, or spiritual gifts, whatever.

• The master’s journey is Jesus’ ascension into heaven following his First Coming. The master’s return from his journey is Jesus’ Second Coming.

• And finally, the master’s judgement of his servants is Jesus judging you and me for what we have done or left undone in this life.   For two of His servants, the master says, “well done, good and faithful servant, but the third He tells that he will be cast into outer darkness where there will be “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (This passage always reminds me of the cartoon strip in which a young boy comes home from Sunday school and informs his mother that Jesus said there will be time when there will be wailing and snatching out of teeth.)

At this point, you might be thinking “Hey, wait a minute preacher, I thought forgiveness and salvation were free gifts of God’s grace.  So, what’s all this talk about being judged for what we do or don’t do in this life?”  Are we earning our salvation?

Good question, and the answer is no.  We are not earning our salvation but responding to our salvation.  Let me share another allegory I heard that may offer us a Godly perspective:  Our salvation and our relationship with Christ is like a powerful and magnificent ship built by God’s own loving hands.  The ship, however, is not useful to God if it stays in the harbor.  Our Life in Christ is to be lived to the glory of God, to the furthering of His Kingdom, and for the salvation of those who have not yet heard the Good News.  In the case of the third servant who is cast out, I would conclude that his disobedience was a sign that he did not have a faith relationship with the master to begin with.

So, in summing all this up, let me say the following:

• ·   Like the sparrow’s brief flight through the banquet hall, our lives in this world are transient and quickly passing away. Our focus needs to be on things that will not pass away.

·       Secondly, Jesus is clear that what we do or don’t do here in this life has eternal consequences.

·       And finally, we, above all, are to be faithful and productive followers of Christ.  We have work to do in this life.  Our talents, resources and circumstances are different for each of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all called to use them to God’s glory and to the spreading of God’s reign here on Earth.

Therefore, beginning today, make your life count for the Kingdom; after all, you only have one brief shot at it.

The Word of God for the people of God. Amen

Thankfulness and the General Thanksgiving in the Daily Offices

 Rt. Rev. Edward Reynolds

The only possible path to being restored to a right relationship with God is through our faith that Jesus Christ has indeed opened teh way.  In terms of our redemption from our fallen and sinful human nature, Christ did for us what we could not possibly do for ourselves.  All that is left is for us to do is receive the gift and be thankful.  

Thankfulness is, therefore, a central tenant of the Christian experience, and this is reflected throughout our Anglican Book of Common Prayer.   A prayer that has been a favorite of mine from my very young years is The General Thanksgiving found in the Daily Office (daily prayers).  This is a prayer composed by the Rt. Rev. Edward Reynolds, then Bishop of Norwich, first included in the BCP in its 1662 revision.  The Puritans in the Church of England at the time had complained that there were not enough prayers of praise and thanksgiving in the Prayer Book.  Here is Bishop Reynold's response:

The General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, 

we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks 

for all your goodness and loving-kindness 

to us and to all whom you have made.  

We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; 

but above all for your immeasurable love 

in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; 

for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.  

And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, 

that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, 

not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, 

and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, 

be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Originally published in the Sunday bulletin of the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, 7^th Sunday after the Epiphany, 2019.  

Eugene Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, explores our understanding of the Christian life as a pilgrimage.  The Christian pilgrimage is the Holy Spirit placing our feet on the path that leads to the Father, a journey made possible through the person and work of Christ who has opened the door to heaven for us and the Holy Spirit of Christ who walks the journey with us.  Jesus tells us that He will show us the way; in fact, He tells us that He is the Way; that is, the path back home to the Father.  In John 14:5-6, Thomas says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus says to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  So central was this reality to the early Christians that they were called "The People of the Way” (Acts 9:2, Acts 24:14). 

Our traditional worship space through the ages has reflected this idea of being a people on the way to the Father.  As we enter the church, the first thing we encounter is the Baptismal Font.  It is here that we are born again by water and the Spirit into the Family of God, dying to the world back outside the door through which we came, and being born anew as children of the Kingdom of God.  The center isle of the nave is our path from the font to the throne room of God, symbolized by the Altar and Cross at the front of the church.  Our journey up the isle is supported by our church family on either side, by the Word of God read and preached from the podium, and the Lord’s Table from which we receive strength and nourishment for the journey.  The Lord’s Table also reminds us that we do indeed have a place at the great banquet feast of the Lamb at the end of our pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage suggest movement.  The Christian pilgrimage is pressing forward with obedience and perseverance into the Christian life, always focused in the same direction.  Paul expresses this in his letters: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12);” and “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).” The author of Hebrews also writes, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

Growing in the knowledge, love and service of our Lord is not optional for the Christian pilgrim.  It is neither easy nor is it, at times, politically correct, but it always requires a “Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” 

Soli Deo Gloria, Father Rob