Illustration by Gustave Dore'
I Corinthians 4:1-5
Matthew 11:2-10
Our
Collect today contains this petition: “Grant that the ministers and stewards of
thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the
hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming
to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight.” These
words remind us that the prophet, St. John the Baptist, prepared the way for
the Lord’s ministry in Israel by preaching repentance from sin, and by inviting
the people to come into the waters of a mikvah, a ritual bath of
cleansing that the Greek New Testament calls baptisme, that is, baptism.
It draws from two sources, the book of the prophet Malachi and the Gospel of
St. Luke. Malachi said: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”1 In the Gospel of Luke the angel
Gabriel expounds on this passage of scripture when he announces to Zechariah,
the father of John the Baptist, about John: “And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit
and power of Elias (i.e. Elijah), to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord.”2
We need to understand why the Lord told Peter, James and John, as they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration that Elijah had already come and suffered the fate that would be dished out to the Son of Man. He tells the crowd to whom he speaks in today’s Gospel reading (a little further on), “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”3 To understand this we have to pay attention to what the angel said. John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy, because it was not really a prediction that Elijah would come himself, but that this other prophet would come in the spirit and power that had rested on that Old Testament prophet. Only this time, the Ahab and Jezebel of the period, namely Herod and Herodius, would kill the prophet, John, who confronted their sin; something that the Old Testament king and queen could not do to Elijah.
We need to understand why the Lord told Peter, James and John, as they came down from the Mount of Transfiguration that Elijah had already come and suffered the fate that would be dished out to the Son of Man. He tells the crowd to whom he speaks in today’s Gospel reading (a little further on), “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.”3 To understand this we have to pay attention to what the angel said. John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy, because it was not really a prediction that Elijah would come himself, but that this other prophet would come in the spirit and power that had rested on that Old Testament prophet. Only this time, the Ahab and Jezebel of the period, namely Herod and Herodius, would kill the prophet, John, who confronted their sin; something that the Old Testament king and queen could not do to Elijah.
Where does this phrase come from: “and he shall turn the hearts…?” The very concept of a prophet who turns the hearts comes from that story in the first book of the Kings where Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal. The people of the Northern kingdom of Israel were filled with terrible confusion, having the religion of Baal worship all mixed up with the worship of the true and living God of their fathers (and seemed to have forgotten the golden calves of Jeroboam). Baal worship is the same as the worship of Molech, the god to whom agonized parents would offer their own children in sacrifice, because by this religion they were deceived into a dreadful compulsion. We need to understand something very important. All religions are not the same. We need to understand something else. Whenever Paganism is properly researched we learn of its unspeakable cruelty. I know why the Law of Moses commands that the altars and groves of idols must be torn down. Whether it was the human sacrifice of the so-called peaceful Celts (and the idea of “peaceful Celts” is a historical absurdity), or simply the indifference of the Norse gods who offered no blessings, but only the darkness of fate; whether it was the human sacrifice of Aztecs, or the impersonal nothingness of some far Eastern mysticism into which individual consciousness and identity is, at best, swallowed up and lost; whether it is the violence of Islam (that pagan version of monotheism with its god who is alone), or the cruel caste system of Hinduism with its Suhtee ritual banned by the British, in which widows were burned alive at their husband’s funerals (in front of their children and everyone): Paganism is often darkness in which Satan has longed imprisoned and tortured the human race due to its ignorance and fear. And, only the worship of the True God has ever set people free from this cruel tyranny of mind and spirit. That is historical fact, and as such a theme oft repeated in various times and places of human experience.
The
people of the Northern kingdom of Israel
in Samaria were
lost in Baal worship due to the evil queen Jezebel and the weakness of her
husband Ahab. Elijah called together the prophets of Baal and challenged them
to a supernatural contest. They agreed, and the contest was to see who had the
power to bring down fire from heaven to consume an offering. From morning until
noon the prophets of Baal called on their god, finally waxing so desperate they
resorted to cutting themselves. Elijah called a halt to the spectacle, and
summoned the people to gather to him. He made it hard on himself by pouring a
large amount of water in a trench around the altar and the dead animal, just to
show that no fire could be lit by natural means. Then he prayed:
“LORD
God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art
God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things
at thy word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art
the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”4
There
we see that phrase about the turning of the hearts, the work that God did
through his prophet Elijah. The scripture goes on to say:
“Then the fire of the LORD
fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the
dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people
saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the
LORD, he is the God.”
This
is how their hearts were turned back by the prophet Elijah, back to the God of
their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Some
modern Bibles have quite dishonestly rendered the Hebrew word for “fathers” in
the book of Malachi as “parents.” This is completely unjustified. The word does
not mean parents, it means fathers, specifically and clearly. When the
ideology of the zeitgeist is allowed to interfere with Bible
translation, the results cannot be good. Nothing is more disastrous than loss
of fatherhood from homes, and in a larger sense, from a society. The father is
the protector and provider, above all, the God appointed head of his family. In
this case, when the prophet Malachi speaks of the hearts of the fathers turned
back to the children and of the children to the fathers, and the angel expands
that to include the turning of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, we
dare not lose the meaning, for it is to our loss.
We
can speak of the fathers as the fathers of our whole Jewish and Christian
heritage, a line dating back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that continues
through Moses and the prophets, right up to that Man that Isaiah called “the
everlasting father,” our Lord Jesus Christ; the last Adam by whom comes the
whole spiritual seed of the redeemed, the Church of the living God to be
granted eternal life by means of, and following the pattern of, his
resurrection.5
We
see the fathers of the Church, and among them the holy fathers who gathered for
the Ecumenical Councils. In terms of today’s Collect, which is based on the
meaning of today’s Epistle, we must see the fathers who stand in Apostolic
Succession, those of us, unworthy as we are apart from the grace of God, who
have been ordained to be fathers among the people of God. So writes St. Paul to St. Timothy, “if a man know not how to rule
his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?”
6
Today’s
Epistle says: “Let a man so account of us,
as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it
is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” This is what the
Collect draws from also, for it says: “Grant that the ministers and stewards of
thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the
hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming
to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight.” To some,
the ministry of the priest takes place only in functionary terms. He fulfills
his religious role in services, and does all those social and religious things
that they require of him, such as weddings and funerals, and some community
things from time to time, like praying at civic events, and so on.
The
priesthood is not only the ministry of the altar. To reduce anything to one
function, no matter how important, at the expense of its entirety is a serious
mistake. A priest is always alter
Christus, not only when he offers the Eucharist. And, this gives a
special sacramental charism to his teaching, his advice, and his fatherly love
for the people of God. An individual priest may fail to exercise all the gifts
of his office, but he does not lose the sacred character implanted in him. So
we do not agree with those who say that the priesthood is only about the ministry at
the altar and nothing else. Rather, as the ministry of the Church extends the
grace of the Incarnation among mankind, the priesthood extends the graces of
the Incarnation among the people of the Church, and does so at all times by the
sacramental charism of the indelible character added to the man who is ordained
to the priesthood.
It is our responsibility in this Advent season to call upon the people of the Church to be holy, and to attend to their own salvation, to walk with God in all purity of conscience. What we do is not simply about feeling good. It is far more than a warm and fuzzy feeling that we seek to impart.
It is our responsibility in this Advent season to call upon the people of the Church to be holy, and to attend to their own salvation, to walk with God in all purity of conscience. What we do is not simply about feeling good. It is far more than a warm and fuzzy feeling that we seek to impart.
As
part of my own stewardship in the mysteries of God, for your benefit, I want to
plant a thought in your minds. For some of you, this new year that began on the
First Sunday in Advent is a good time, especially during this Penitential
season, to come and make your first ever private confession. The sacramental
power to absolve sins is so important in Anglicanism that it is mentioned
directly in our Ordinal. When a priest is ordained, the bishop speaks the words
of Christ (that is, he is Christ’s own mouth, through whom the Lord speaks)
words from the Gospel of St. John.7 The bishop says these words:
“Receive
the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God,
now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost
forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained.
And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God, and of his holy
Sacraments; In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."
Confession followed by Absolution hurts before you do it; but it feels very good after it has been accomplished. When I have gone to another priest for confession, I have had to remind myself that I am there to appear for the prosecution. Jesus Christ is my Advocate, and he pleaded my case with his own blood as he poured out his soul unto death for me on the cross.8
Quite
often people come to church without realizing the wonderful gift imparted to
them here. Have you ever wondered why the Church of England added to the list
of names that already had been given to this principal service of the Church?
In addition to the names “The Holy Eucharist,” “The Divine Liturgy,” and “The
Mass,” the English Reformers came up with the name, a name taken directly from
scripture, “The Holy Communion.” As St. Paul
wrote: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body
of Christ?”9 The
English Reformers were not rejecting the word “Mass.” But, they wanted to correct a false
understanding among the common people, namely that their religious duty was to
come and “hear Mass.” So, in that first English Book of Common Prayer in 1549,
they named the service: THE SUPPER OF THE LORDE AND THE HOLY COMMUNION,
COMMONLY CALLED THE MASSE. The Anglican message about this service is that you
come here not simply because it is your religious duty to attend; you come here
to receive from God that grace by which he meets the deepest need of
your soul. You have that need whether you believe it or not, whether you see it
or not, whether it presents itself to your conscience or not. The Holy
Communion is not where you come in order to affirm that you are a good person,
but where you flee to Christ as a sinner in need of his grace. You have come
here today to receive the food and drink of eternal life.
Jesus said:
“I am the living bread
which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the
life of the world…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not
as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall
live for ever.”10
In the comedy, Life with Father, Clarence Daye, played by William Powell, had a great line: “If there’s one thing the Church should leave alone, it’s a man’s soul.” Well, as “stewards of the mysteries of God” who must give an account for your souls,11 we simply have to meddle. As much as I still encourage you to make a private confession (and to do so without fear, “early and often”), consider the grace that is offered even in the General Confession that comes up shortly. If you want to appropriate what God offers you in the General Confession followed by the General Absolution, then take time before you come here to ask the Holy Spirit to show to you your own sins, not to be morbid, but in order to make a good and sincere confession. Remember the lesson I had to learn for myself: You are, when you confess, appearing for the prosecution. Jesus, your Advocate and the propitiation for our sins, has already appeared for you. He appeared for you on the cross. He ever liveth to make intercession for you at the right hand of God. 12 Finally, to summarize the responsibility that stewards of the mysteries of God have within the Church, I quote St. Paul:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him."13
- Malachi 4:5,6
- Luke 1:16, 17
- vs. 13, 14
- I Kings 18:36, 37
- Isaiah 9:6, 7, I Corinthians 15:45f
- I Tim. 3:5
- John 20:22, 23
- Leviticus 17:11, Isaiah 53:12
- I Corinthians 10:16
- John 6:51-59
- Hebrews 13:17
- Hebrews 7:25
- II Corinthians 5:17-21
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