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

The Bitter Fruit of Modernism

If we want to be Christ to our culture, we need to better understand our culture.  Edwin Lutzer in his book, The Church in Babylon, writes about our culture today becoming infected and bitterly altered by Modernism and Secularism.  He outlines three sources of the moral and spiritual disarray and the consequences we are seeing from them.  He calls these consequences “bitter fruit:”  

1.    The bitter fruit of the sexual revolution- From a Christian perspective on sexuality, Western Civilization is in open rebellion.  Like many revolutions, there are consequences and causalities, such as stable biological families, the sacredness of life both born and pre-born, the divine beauty and integrity of life-long, monogamous marital relationships, the virtues of a life sacrificially lived for others rather than for instant self-gratification, and then, finally, loss of God’s moral absolutes in the face of man-made relativism. 

 

2.   The bitter fruit of the technology revolution- Television and instant media have proven to be allies the sexual revolution.  Technology has been a blessing in many ways, but it requires the exercise of Godly virtues to counter its poisonous fruit.  

3.  The bitter fruit of the anti-Christian revolution- Secularism has grown intolerant of the Christian worldview.  Alasdair MacIntyre writes in his book, After Virtue, that Western Civilization has lost its ethical and virtuous moorings.  It is up to the Church to carry the virtues of Godly living through these spiritually dark times and throw a lifeline to those who want to join us. 

To God be the Glory, Father Rob