Community

Last night our pastorate teaching was on community. It was a hard one for me to focus on because I was taking care of Ike during it and he was not in his snuggly, sit still and relax mood as he usually is when Rach takes care of him.  However, one thing that Steve said caught my attention and has me ruminating a great deal.

He mentioned how community doesn’t really happen until some type of crisis occurs in a group.  He looked at Acts 11 and how it wasn’t until God scattered the church in Jerusalem around that they began accomplishing his work to bring the Gentiles into the church as a group.  You had Peter and others who went out and followed God’s lead and brought non-Jews into the church, but there was not a concerted effort until the church got scattered that they all started to live this kind of faith in front of the Gentiles.

That got me thinking more specifically about individuals and maybe Steve dug into this a bit, I honestly can’t remember because I was so in and out of the teaching last night.  Crisis and tragedy are a catalyst for us as individuals to enter a community of others!  What drives us to depend upon someone else?  Often, we cling to our own ropes so hard that we won’t let go.  We get to the end and somehow weave a bit more onto that end so that we can cling a little longer.  A little crisis here, a little crisis there gets us back to the bottom, but we add a little bit more so that we don’t have to let go just yet.  But then, something huge comes along (and the “huge-ness” of that event varies from person to person) and we finally quit trying to add onto our rope and we let go and fall.

Then we fall and fall and fall.

And fall some more, maybe….

But that bottom hits us hard and we are broken and battered and bruised.  And we wallow there for a while...

But eventually, somehow, we finally open our eyes and discover a bunch of other people gathered around us, reaching out to us to join them.  We think, “Where’d they come from??” Really, they have been there for a while waiting on us to open our eyes long enough to notice them.  These other people are people who have done the same thing too.  They fell down to the bottom of the pit and discovered someone else waiting on them.  What you do then is in many ways up to you.  You can close your eyes again and continue laying there or you can recognize that they want to help you get up, to hear what happened, to sit and listen for a while and when you are ready to share out of their own experience how they got there.  

And something we discover as we listen to them, instead of ourselves, is that Someone else is in the midst of them.  And we find out that He sent them to us to bring us to Himself. 

Yes, at the bottom of that pit with all of those other messed up people, we can find Jesus waiting for us that He might heal us and use us to bring him to other hurting people in that pit.  We get pulled into that community through our own crisis and find ourselves among others who have dealt with one crisis or another.  And in the midst of all of that we find the Church who is the one who brings us to Jesus when we need Him the most.

Confirmation Opportunity

I've gotten the opportunity to teach our youth about the faith in preparation for some of them to be confirmed later this year.  It's a pretty awesome opportunity for me.  I've avoided involvement with youth for a few years now after feeling like I botched everything in my internship during my early seminary career.  I probably didn't do as bad as I feel, but I certainly do as well as I could have for the most part.

Anyway, I've done one class which was more of an introduction to the concept of confirmation.  The one thing that I didn't get to mention was this great quote that AnalogReigns put me on to: We are reborn in baptism for life, and we are confirmed after baptism for strife (quote comes from St. Faustus of Riez, which is printed in the article "Children, Confirmation, and Communion" published in The Anglican Way Summer 2013 issue found here).  However, I think that I captured this concept well in what I said which is posted below:

 

There are two questions that I want to answer tonight. What is confirmation? Why confirmation? The reason I ask them back to back is that they go together. The what of confirmation gives us the why of confirmation; the why of confirmation gives us the what of confirmation. Really, these two questions are two sides of the same coin.

I’ll start with the first one: Confirmation is a rite, or a ritual, you might say, in which the bishop lays hands on someone and prays for them to receive the strengthening work of the Holy Spirit. The reason the bishop does this is because he is our primary spiritual authority. God has given him charge for our care. The reason that Randy is our priest at King of Kings is because the bishop has delegated aspects of his authority to Randy to provide our immediate pastoral care, but ultimately, that care rests with the bishop. Because that care ultimately rests with the bishop, he retains the care in regard to confirming you. When he confirms you, he is recognizing and blessing your faith and in doing that he seeks God’s mercy to maintain that faith throughout your lives.

So, we have an explanation for what Confirmation is, but why should we submit to confirmation? Why does the bishop seek God’s mercy on our behalf; with regard to our faith? The reason is because it is God who gives you that very faith and thus only God can maintain it. We don’t presume upon God’s grace by acting as though we can do anything we want after God gives us faith. Instead we seek after God’s mercy, always recognizing that in ourselves, left to ourselves, we would always forsake God, but by the Spirit he has given to us. How did God first give us His Spirit? The Holy Spirit was given to us through the Word and Sacrament. Paul says in Romans 10:12-17 that

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Here we see that it is through the hearing and preaching of God’s word that we are enabled to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. We also see though that this salvation is connected to the sacraments as well. In Acts, Peter tells the people to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and the people would receive the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is also referenced as a place where forgiveness of sins is known. There is nothing inherent in the actions in and of themselves, but they are means that God has chosen to work in us. Hence through hearing God’s word and receiving his sacraments, God works faith into us and when we abide in those things, he strengthens and enlivens that faith.

Confirmation is not a sacrament in our church. It is an important even though. In it we acknowledge that the faith we have is a gift of God and being a gift of God, only God can maintain it, only God can preserve our faith that we might persevere in the faith he gave to us. We acknowledge this preservation nearly every week in the Collect of the Day. Listen to them and hear about how we are always asking the Father to keep us in Christ, to fill us with His Spirit that we might forsake sin. For example last weeks collect asked God to graft or put in us love for Him, to nourish us with His goodness and to bring forth the fruit of good works. Today’s collect asked God to grant us to trust him with our whole hearts and tells us that God will never forsake those who boast in his mercy. The psalm that I read to start this spoke of the same things and even confesses that God can give us faith even before we are born! Faith is God’s gift to us and He is the one who keeps us safe in it.

To sum up the what and why of confirmation, I give you this final definition: Confirmation is a recognition not only of a need to publicly acknowledge one's faith, that has been freely given from God, but a deep recognition of one's need for the work of the Holy Spirit, freely given through Word and Sacrament, in one’s life for strength, continuing renewal, and increase in faith that we might never forsake our Lord Jesus. 

A Word about Bishops

 

As everyone who has ever looked at this blog can figure out, I'm an Anglican. One of the things that Anglicans have that a lot of other churches don't have are bishops. Why is this

 

Well, most people argue for bishops simply from history because they say that bishops don't really have scriptural support or that the bishopric was not very developed in the New Testament, so we have to look at history to discover that bishops are an acceptable form of church government. This is a little annoying because many want to understand why we have bishops from the Bible! In the next few posts, I am going to talk about a scriptural basis for having a church led by bishops. I'm doing this because it is important for those who aren't Anglican to know why we do what we do. But it is also important for those of us that are Anglicans to know why we do what we do also!

 

So, I am going to be doing a few blog posts about this and maybe you'll agree…maybe you won't, but at least see that we Anglicans do have a truly biblical argument for out use of bishops as opposed to some other form of church government.

 

image h/t: stthomas.edu

A departure from the theme and yet not...

I found this on another blog tonight:

And by justice sin must have death,- death, our death, for the sin was ours.  But if we had died to sin, we had perished in sin; perished here, and perished everlastingly.  That His love to us could not endure, that we should so perish.  Therefore, as in justice He justly might, He took upon Him our debt of sin, and said, as the Fathers apply that speech of His, Sinite abide hos, “Let these go their ways” (Joh 18.8).  And so that we might not die to sin He did.  We see why he died once.

Why but once?  because once was enough, ad auferenda , saith St. John; ad abolenda, saith St. Peter; ad exhaurienda, saith St. Paul; ‘to take away, to abolish, to draw dry,’ and utterly to exhaust all the sins, of all the sinners, of all the world.  The excellency of His Person that performed it was such; the excellence of the obedience that He performed, such; the excellency of His humility and charity wherewith He performed it, such; and of such value every of them, and all of them much more; as made that His once dying was satis superque, ‘enough, and enough again;’ which mae the Prophet call it copiosam redemptionem, “a plenteous redemption” (Ps 130.7).  But the Apostle, he goeth beyond all in expressing this; in one place terming it huperballon, in anotherhuperekperisseuon, in another pleonazon,- mercy, rich, exceeding; grace over-abounding, nay, grace superfluous, for so is pleonazon, and superfluous is enough and to spare; superfluous is clearly enough and more than enough.  Once dying then being more than enough, no reason He should die more than once.  That of His death.

Lancelot Andrews, “A Sermon Preached Before the King’s Majesty at Whitehall, on the Sixth of April MDCVI, Being Easter Day on Romans vi 9-11″

I think that sums up a great deal about where we are going over the next few days in our lives as we come to the end of Lent and enter into the Easter season.  Thank the Lord that Easter is not just one day, but is celebrated for seven weeks and thank the Lord that every Sunday can be termed a "little Easter."

Quote courtesy of http://awakeninggrace.org/2012/03/27/lancelot-andrews-the-grace-of-christ-clearly-enough-and-more-than-enough/

Theological Revolution

I have been blogging a lot lately about the various and diverse reasons that led me down the Canterbury trail.  I am something of a mutt when it comes to theological breeding and that does not really bother me.  In fact I think that it gives me something of a reflective nature on the nuances of theology, but also, a kind disposition toward those who are "inconsistent" in their views.

The one thing that led me away from Lutheranism of the conservative brand (besides the seminaries being in Fort Wayne, In and St Louis, Mo, both of which are cooooold), was the hard line on theology.  It was an all or nothing approach to the Book of Concord.  That is wonderful.  They are a confessional people.  They love their Lutheranism (and I love quite a bit of it too!), but I knew that I couldn't commit all the way to Lutheranism…I mean, this blog used to have the tag "Too Lutheran for the Calvinists and too Calvinist for the Lutherans" for a reason.

Liturgical Formation

 



And I believe what I believe is what makes me who I am. I did not make it, no it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.--Rich Mullins, from the song Creed

Rich Mullins knew what he was talking about with the lyrics posted above. While he was speaking of the Apostles' Creed, I believe what he ways really applies to the whole of liturgy.

Liturgy plays an important role in our worship in many ways, but I think that the most important is how it forms us into "better" believers. Everything that I have said before danced around this notion. Liturgy gets into us, it is habitual and repetitious, it teaches us theology and practical prayers for life. All of these things are formation. Liturgy forms us into who we need to be.

Liturgical Theology

So...I couldn't really find a picture to put on this post...so there...

Liturgy is theology applied to worship and even to all of life. What do I mean? What we all believe is encapsulated in how we worship. This is part of the reason the so called "worship-wars" have happened in the church throughout the past two generations. There has been a struggle to determine if how one worships affects how one believes. I think that in the long run, it does. If you water down the worship, it will be extremely hard to overcome what you are indirectly teaching (or learning). If worship is flippant, then our view of God becomes flippant. If worship is all about experience, then we become convinced that the Christian life is built on experience or how I feel that "my faith" is doing today.

Of course, my use of liturgy here is narrow. When I use it, I mean an explicit liturgy, one that follows the contours inherited from the church of the first 500 years or so. Because, as I said previously, all churches have a liturgy. It's just that some don't have an explicit one.

Liturgy in Me

Let me talk about the aspect of liturgy getting into me (and you too, when you experience it!):

The use of the same prayers is important because you learn them by heart. It is important that we learn them by heart because they connect us to one another and also to all who have come before us in the Church. In fact, many of them that are used in the traditional liturgy (like that of the Book of Common Prayer) date back to the first 500 years of the church.

Anglican Fever~

Great video. Much of what is said here actually meets with my previous post and the next post that is coming! Enjoy!









I think that they did a good job with all that they had to say...a couple of minor errors in reporting, but it's a complicated situation right now in the formation of the new province.

Liturgically Experienced

And I believe what I believe is what makes me who I am. I did not make it, no it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.--Rich Mullins, from the song Creed

After spending a year attending a Lutheran church, I had truly fallen in love with the liturgy. I remember that we had talk about having a contemporary service at the church and it had so many people upset. They were primarily concerned that we would lose our liturgy, I think (at least some of them were). The liturgy is highly important to those of us who take seriously the entire purpose of it.

So why is liturgy so important??

Lutheran and beyond

After Rachel and I joined the Lutheran church, we eventually felt a weight lifted off of us from having been at our previous church. The traditional liturgy freed us from the never-ending circle of getting excited and feeling like we worshiped God on any given Sunday. We could just go to church and fall in line with everyone else and worship. The sense of needing to have some type of emotional response to worship was gone! I feel like people don't understand what this is like because many have never realized how much their worship is really centered on how they respond to the "uplifting" music and how worship leaders work and work the crowd to get them to have this response. Of course, many have never had the experience that Rachel and I had while at our previous church.

Another Step Along the Way

My journey continued forward. My future wife, who's name is Rachel, and I finally began dating in late 2002. This would last for nearly a year before we completely broke up due to our various struggles. It was mostly that I still didn't have my head on straight from all the stuff that was going on inside of my mind. In the following months, we had as little contact as we could with one another, which was especially hard since we had virtually all the same friends! Along with this, I had to find a new church since we always went to church together...

The Continuing Journey

As my life continued, I found myself at a new college in the fall of 2000.  I had dropped below my required GPA to remain with my scholarship, so I transferred to a new school and hoped to have something of a new start to my life after so many tumultuous events prior.

I pursued the faith that I had come back to after two years of fleeing from it.  Though there were ups and downs in the days preceding East Tennessee State, I was being led forward by the Spirit in His so mysterious providence.  I eventually began attending a Baptists church just before Spring of 2001.  Here I was shaped in the college ministry and through its minister discovered my love for philosophy.  I had also become involved with Campus Crusade for Christ during this time.  I had made some good friends and was growing in my oh so small faith.

A Continued Story

Picking up where I left off last night....My siblings and I became involved in the Methodist church that we had attended very infrequently after my mom's stroke.  In our little town, it was very Baptist in my ways.  I wouldn't have known that there was much of a difference between my church and any other except that our sign said we were Methodists. That and we baptized infants, but we didn't have very many of them because we were a small, old church.  When I say small, I mean 35 tops on a good Sunday!  And when I say old, I mean that we were the only family that wasn't over 50...or at least it felt that way. But I didn't care too much about that because it was my church and I loved the people there!

The Beginning of the Journey

As stated in my last post, I've decided to discipline myself for Lent by blogging about various reasons that I became Anglican.  I'm going to start with a few days of briefly sketching out the contours of my life.  I do this to give some context and background because nothing is without some context in life.  

And now I begin....

One of the most formative moments in my life was a night in 1988.  Sadly, I would need to ask my siblings what day it was as I haven't thought about the specific date in a long time, but the event is burned forever into my psyche.  It was the night that my mom had her stroke.

Something for Lent...hopefully

So...I've been quite quiet for a while on here.  I've just struggled with what to say and what to do with this blog.  I used to enjoy writing so much, but have been overwhelmed of late with doing it....

It is a sad state.

I hope to remedy this during Lent and maybe be able to get a habit going for the future.

During Lent, I hope to blog about why I ended up in the Anglican camp.  There are various categories that go into this.  I don't guarantee that everything will be accurate according to the various theological representations within Anglicanism that seem to believe that their particular vision of it is exactly what Anglicanism was 450 years ago.  But this is purely from my perspective, how I have observed and understood Anglicanism through the back drop of a "theological mut," so to speak.  It is true, I am a "mut" of sorts or maybe to put it more nicely, "a bit eclectic" theologically, as I said the other night to a friend.