Trinity Sunday

This week I will not be preaching a sermon at St. Benedict's because we will be visited by our Diocesan Bishop, who is also our Archbishop, the Most Rev. Mark D. Haverland. If you want a sermon for Trinity Sunday (as I know that some laymen charged with leading Morning Prayer in the absence of clergy use either these, or the Sermons for Lay Readers that features the work of Rev. Canon John Hollister), my offerings for Trinity Sunday may be found here and here. Certainly, no one can go wrong using Fr. Wells' excellent Bulletin Insert directly below. 

But, I do want to say something about Trinity Sunday for our readers. Put very simply, when God revealed the doctrine of the Trinity in Scripture, He did not do so by inspiring a writer to explain it. Neither did He do so by raising up someone to teach it in philosophical terms. Neither did this revelation come by "Doctrinal Development" as merely the product of consensus (and no doctrine ever did or could come that way). It was not revealed as an intellectual proposition, or as an abstract formula.

The simple fact is, the revelation of the Trinity came to us by Divine action (and you really must read Fr. Wells' insert in the post directly below). To begin with, it is indicated in the Biblical account of creation, and then it became a very clear revelation in the Biblical account of our salvation. And, when I say Biblical account, I mean the Scriptures are the record of God's revelation; in this case, the written record of His actions. It is in the Divine action of God coming into the world by the Incarnation and then on Pentecost, that this revelation was given.

As I wrote in the sermon from 2009:

"The formula for baptism is 'In the Name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit).' The revelation of this Name, indeed, this One Name, is the end result in Matthew's Gospel, of all that Jesus did and said. Now, we know God. The revelation of this One Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, could not be given to us before the Incarnation of the Word; the Name could not be revealed before Christ's atoning death in which he took away the sins of the world; the Name could not be revealed until after he defeated death itself and rose from the grave. The Name could be revealed only after we see the full picture of the Son, in his complete victory for our sakes over sin and death, having cast out the prince of this world in his Passion and Resurrection. And, it had to be revealed right then, just before the Ascension and the ten days when the disciples were about to stand on that bridge between the coming of the first Comforter and the coming of the other Comforter; that is, between the coming of Christ our Advocate (παράκλητος, paraklētos I John 2:1), and the coming of "the other Comforter" (same word, παράκλητος, paraklētos, John 14:16,17), the Spirit of Truth.

"God the Father has been perfectly (Heb. 1:1f) revealed by the Son; and the Father and the Son are known only through the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). Therefore, the revelation of the Divine Name is also the revelation of our salvation, for the revelation of the One Divine Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit came only out of the mouth of Jesus Christ after he had accomplished all things, and was ready to go back to the Father in order to send the other Paraklētos. The new life, into which we are born again in baptism, is eternal life; that eternal life is to know the God of this revelation intimately.


"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ..And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 14:16,17; 17:3) 

"Eternal life is to know the Spirit of Truth, for he alone reveals the Son. It is to know the Son, for he alone reveals the Father. It is to know the Father. Our salvation and eternal life is to know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

The revelation of the Trinity could not have been invented by human imagination. Indeed, it humbles human intellect. Can we even begin to ponder it? The name given by the Risen Lord was revealed on His lips; but this was not simply a teaching for the human mind to ponder. The words spoken by the Risen Christ ("baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost") did not come in a vacuum, as words isolated from experience. 

Those words came on that bridge between God's two great revelations thus far, the Incarnation and Pentecost - or between (if I may dare say it) the two Incarnations of the Word made flesh, and the Church made into the Body of Christ (the final revelation will be when Christ returns on the Last Day). The Name was revealed in the context of Divine action, specifically the redemption and salvation of all who are in Christ, and their mission to spread that salvation in the world.

Trinity Sunday

From 2009

Isaiah 6:1-8, Psalm 29, Rev. 4:1-11 (i.e. the entire chapter), John 3:1-17

It is fitting that we should read about new birth on Trinity Sunday, and be reminded that, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Nicodemus asked the question,"How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" The answer that Jesus gave him was about the invisible work of the Holy Spirit. Invisible and yet observable in effect; for the Holy Spirit's working cannot be seen, but his work can be seen when a man is born of water and of the spirit; for he is a new man in Christ, literally a new creation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Cor. 5:17) Adam was a creature, and his offspring are creatures, but not individually created as much as creatures by derivation, in that each new human being is the result of a man knowing a woman (one hopes, his wife). But, in the new birth, each person is a new creature, individually created by the breath of God with that new life that we receive from the Risen Christ, that new life that is eternal and will survive our death, so that our mortal nature becomes a seed planted to be raised as Christ is risen, that is life immortal. "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." (Rom. 6:9)

Currently, among the Reaaserter camp, we find that some who call themselves "Anglican" do not understand that John chapter three, where Jesus speaks of the new birth, is referring to baptism. No doubt, they have never learned the genuine Anglican Catechism, embracing, as they do, over the last thirty years a book that has new things instead. But, here is what the authentic Anglican Catechism says:

QUESTION. What is your Name?
Answer. N. or N. N.
Question. Who gave you this Name?
Answer. My Sponsors in Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

In baptism we were adopted through Christ, born of water and the Spirit as children of God.

This is clear from the sixth chapter of Romans:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (vs. 1-4)

Well I understand why the Evangelicals interpret the new birth as that moment of conscious conversion, for in a sense it really feels like a new birth of sorts: This I know from my own experience. And, it likely completes something valid and real that was planted in baptism, even though it may appear to unsympathetic critics as merely subjective. I understand why they resist the ancient teaching of the Church that the new birth is in baptism, because their experience of conversion just had to be what Christ spoke of. But, the new birth is objective, and we must interpret John chapter three by Romans chapter six. The new birth is into the newness of life, having been buried with Christ by baptism into death, and raised to walk in the newness of life. That is objective and real; and for an Anglican it should contain no contradiction that we accept the teaching of the Catholic Tradition regarding the meaning of Scripture, and that we rejoice when a person's dormant faith comes so alive in his soul that he can mark it as a beginning. But, it is the grace of his baptism awakened by the Holy Spirit, so that his conscience, with all his heart and soul, renders him like the prodigal son who came to himself, and went home to his father.

And, baptism brings us to the nominal theme of Trinity Sunday.

We must look at the words of the Risen Christ at the close of the Gospel According to Matthew, where we read the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach (μαθητεύω, mathēteuō, make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt.28:18-20)

This new birth involves the full revelation of the Name of God. And, before proceeding, we must answer yet another objection some have. They have noticed, as have we, that in the Book of Acts baptism was said to be in the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38), or the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:16, 10:48, 19:5). But, they do not understand. They make the mistake of assuming that Luke's designation of Christian baptism reveals the formula, or the actual words that were spoken, which is not at all what the text actually says.

When the Book of Acts reveals what happened in those earliest days, Luke is making clear that the baptism was not that of John the Baptist, but rather it was Christian baptism. Since the word "Christian" appears only once in that whole book, as something that came about after many people were baptized (11:26), it was not yet customary to say "Christian baptism" as opposed to "the baptism of John." But, that this is the meaning is clearly drawn from the nineteenth chapter. "Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." Would those who think they are using the formula of Acts by rejecting the commandment of Christ at the close of Matthew's Gospel, not have made the same argument if "Christian" had been a more fully established word from the start? Would they not likely insist that the formula should be "I baptize thee a Christian?" Dom Gregory Dix discovered an ancient baptism liturgy in which the Trinitarian formula appeared as part of a long prayer that was, as a whole, in the Name of Jesus Christ. This makes perfect sense.

The formula for baptism is "In the Name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit)." The revelation of this Name, indeed, this One Name, is the end result in Matthew's Gospel, of all that Jesus did and said. Now, we know God. The revelation of this One Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, could not be given to us before the Incarnation of the Word; the Name could not be revealed before Christ's atoning death in which he took away the sins of the world; the Name could not be revealed until after he defeated death itself and rose from the grave. The Name could be revealed only after we see the full picture of the Son, in his complete victory for our sakes over sin and death, having cast out the prince of this world in his Passion and Resurrection. And, it had to be revealed right then, just before the Ascension and the ten days when the disciples were about to stand on that bridge between the coming of the first Comforter and the coming of the other Comforter; that is, between the coming of Christ our Advocate (παράκλητος, paraklētos I John 2:1), and the coming of "the other Comforter" (same word, παράκλητος, paraklētos, John 14:16,17), the Spirit of Truth.

God the Father has been perfectly (Heb. 1:1f) revealed by the Son; and the Father and the Son are known only through the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). Therefore, the revelation of the Divine Name is also the revelation of our salvation, for the revelation of the One Divine Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit came only out of the mouth of Jesus Christ after he had accomplished all things, and was ready to go back to the Father in order to send the other Paraklētos. The new life, into which we are born again in baptism, is eternal life; that eternal life is to know the God of this revelation intimately.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ..And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 14:16,17; 17:3)

Eternal life is to know the Spirit of Truth, for he alone reveals the Son. It is to know the Son, for he alone reveals the Father. It is to know the Father. Our salvation and eternal life is to know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Hear what the Prophet Jeremiah foretold, as the substance of the New Covenant:

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer. 31:31-34)

This is salvation and eternal life.

This is also universal, to be proclaimed in all nations; for it is in all nations that we are to make and baptize disciples. "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. 2:14) In recent years we have read of false teachers (such as one Bishop Swing of the Episcopal "Church") tell us that Christianity should no longer be a missionary faith, and that we should respect the alleged right of all people to have their ancestral gods. Thank God St. Patrick did not think so, or my Irish ancestors would have continued the practice of human sacrifice, burning people in the Wicker Man. The Gospel is not a form of oppression, but the only way out of the darkness into the light. "But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire...And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. " (Deut. 7:5, 12:3). It is a service, it is compassionate, to liberate people from the cruelty of paganism, and to bring to them knowledge of the true God. When the Church built its new shrines on the sites of old pagan shrines, it practiced wisdom; for the old ways of darkness were replaced by the worship of the loving God of salvation. In the old places of dread and darkness the Church built new places of joy and light.

We have been given a mission, whether or not the world and its defeated prince approve. The Church has that same mission in all the world that Christ gave in a special way to St. Paul: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." (Acts 26:18)

Baptism in the One Name, revealed by the Risen Christ, is entrance into the New Covenant, into death to sin and the newness of life, into the knowledge of God. It is for all nations. To proclaim the Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is to proclaim our only hope and our only salvation. Only the Risen Christ could reveal it, and so prepare his Disciples to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We know the Name not in some academic or theoretical sense, but rather because The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have been revealed in the coming of one Paraklētos, Christ our Lord who defeated sin and death in his passion and resurrection, and the coming of the other Paraklētos, the Spirit of Truth who gives life and power to the Body of Christ. The revelation of the Trinity is the seal of our salvation history and it is our life here and now.

From 2008

THE REVELATION OF THE TRINITY AND SALVATION

We are given glimpses and indications about the Trinity all throughout the Old Testament, beginning with the fact that God is one, but is spoken of in the plural nonetheless. For the word translated most often as God is rendered in the plural. Elohim (אלהים), the plural, is used rather than simply El (אל), which is singular. This is consistent with many things that appear quite mysteriously in the Book of Genesis, and continue throughout the writings of the Old Testament. The most famous of statements that declare this truth, that there is only one God, is in the Book of Deuteronomy: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." (Deut. 6:4) When the holiness of God is proclaimed to the prophet Isaiah by angels in the temple, he is "Holy, Holy, Holy" (Isaiah 6:3). Nonetheless, we are told many times that God is one, and there is no other beside him. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." (Isaiah 43: 10, 11). In this same book God often reveals his relationship with Israel in various triads, such as: "I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King"(43:15). God is one (אחד) and plural (אלהים). God is invisible, and yet was seen in visions by prophets.

But, let us never imagine that the Trinity presents us with a problem of mathematics. The mystery of the Trinity is not a mystery of how he can be three in one, and one in three. That, in itself, is really not so hard to understand; and so St. Patrick used something as simple as the shamrock, one leaf that is also three leaves, to illustrate the unity of the Trinity.1 Without being mathematicians, we can understand that one may equal any number. That is not the mystery. The mystery is God, a mystery so great that the joy of eternity is growing in the knowledge of God forever, ever deepening knowledge that cannot be exhausted, for "his greatness is unsearchable." (Psalm 145:3) Infinity is too small a concept to weigh against God.

Like all revelation, the doctrine of the Trinity is filled with mystery to such an extent that we can be sure of one thing: No human mind dreamed it up. No human mind can contemplate God except by some use of created things, for the human mind is part of creation, lives in creation, and cannot leap out of that into the uncreated reality we call God. We can know God, nonetheless, because God has taken the initiative to reveal himself. And, this revelation cannot be separated from our salvation from sin and death.

The salvation which we celebrate, as God has given it to us, is historical and it is future. It is also iconic and sacramental. We must turn to readings for the Mass of Christmas on this Trinity Sunday, to grasp the point.

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-14) 2

The Fathers who gathered for the second Council of Nicea knew that the heresy of the Iconoclasts was very dangerous indeed. The Iconoclasts failed to understand the difference between Christian icons and pagan idols. Christian icons are based on revelation, especially the ultimate revelation, the Incarnation: "The Word was made flesh." Pagan idols are a deception, taught by human imagination at best, by demons at worst, to lure men away from the true God. The true God is known only through the Son (John 14:6, 17:3). The Fathers at that Second Council of Nicea (787 AD) knew that if the Church rejected icons they would reject the iconic nature of revelation, the truth that the Word was made flesh. In time, they could refuse to believe in the Son, as he has been revealed through his human nature. In time, the knowledge of God could be lost, if the Iconoclasts were to prevail.

Iconoclasm had come from a new religion, a brand of Unitarianism known as Islam. A god who is alone cannot understand love, because he is not the One-Elohim of Israel, known more fully by the Church as "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that "God is love," as St. John put it (I John 4:8,16). But, about a god who is one and only one, through and through, with no plurality of Persons in him, we cannot speak of love; rather of an emptiness, a void in which eternity knows no compassion. G.K. Chesterton contrasted the God of revelation against the god of Islam very well:

"To us Trinitarians (if I may say it with reverence) -- to us God Himself is a society. It is indeed a fathomless mystery of theology, and even if I were theologian enough to deal with it directly, it would not be relevant to do so here. Suffice it to say here that this triple enigma is as comforting as wine and open as an English fireside; that this thing that bewilders the intellect utterly quiets the heart: but out of the desert, from the dry places and the dreadful suns, come the cruel children of the lonely God; the real Unitarians who with scimitar in hand have laid waste the world. For it is not well for God to be alone."3

Our salvation is iconic, because to know the Son is to know the Father also. Apart from the Word made flesh we cannot know God.

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (II Corinthians 4:3-6)

We know God because we know the Son, and we know him because he is also a man.

The Word is spoken of by St. John in the Trinitarian opening of his Gospel, where God is thrice named, and where, when God is named the second time, "the Word was God." Further on we see, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." What did we behold, even as it was disguised in his human features? We beheld "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (II Cor.4:6) And, what we beheld in that face was compassion, such compassion as a lonely god would not have. We beheld love, the love of the Father in the love of the Son, expressed most clearly on the cross when he poured out his soul unto death to redeem fallen mankind, to save us from sin and death. And, we behold him, after death, rising again and forever keeping our own human nature within the very Godhead. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is entwined with the revelation that God is three in one and one in three.

Our salvation, as revealed, is sacramental. It stems from the Incarnation, and depends on the death and resurrection of Christ, from which flow the power and grace that are given to us by the Holy Spirit, as he uses the means of grace through his Church. Without the atonement Christ worked for us on his cross, and by his rising again, we would have no absolution, no baptism, no Communion. Without the Holy Spirit present and active in the Church, this grace would never be imparted through the preached word and through the sacraments. For, it is the Holy Spirit, the other Comforter (παράκλητος, paraklētos), who imparts every grace that flows from the Incarnate, crucified and risen Son.

The risen Christ gave commandment to baptize "in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) St. Basil reminds us, in his book On the Holy Spirit, that this trinitarian Name is one Name, not three names. We do not baptize in the names, but in the name. Comparing the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John to the 28th chapter of Matthew, we see a progression. In John, before his death, he says: "Father...I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26) And, in Matthew, the Name of God is more fully revealed when he commands the Church to baptize, by telling us the name into which we baptize. "The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." This ultimate revelation of the name of God came from the mouth of the risen Lord Jesus Christ after he had perfected the work of our redemption, salvation and justification. (How fitting that we read the conversation between the Lord and Nicodemus on Trinity Sunday, since baptism, the new birth, is part of the revelation that God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost).

The correct pronunciation of the mysterious Name of God has been lost, despite fruitless efforts to figure it out. We may have an indication from the prophet Jeremiah that this loss was God's own work, a loss indeed, but to the end that we gain something greater (Jeremiah 44:26). For in place of a name that is only mystery, we have a greater revelation of a name that declares who our God is. We may not know how to pronounce the name spoken by Moses and the prophets; but, we know the God of Moses and the prophets more fully by the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And, we have learned this name through the human life of the Son of God, his personal history of being conceived in the womb of his mother, Mary the Virgin, the Theotokos. We know his history of going about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God, preparing his disciples, dying for the sins of the world, rising again from the dead, ascending to the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit. We have learned the revelation of the Trinity because God is our salvation.

1. See my article Threefold Chords about how J.S.Bach used music to present a theological demonstration of the Trinity.
2. John used the phrase "in the beginning" to remind us of Genesis, and to get behind the opening of that first book of the Bible. What we call "Genesis" is called, in Hebrew, בראשית (B'Rasheet). It is simply the first word, which we translate into English with three words: "In the beginning." John used the Greek translation that opens this same first book of the Bible in the LXX. It was popular years ago to emphasize the first four words of the English translation. "In the beginning God." But, in fact, the word for "created," ( ברא, bora) is the second word in the Hebrew text, and the word we translate as "God" (that plural word, אלהים, Elohim) is third. In the Hebrew syntax the word for "created" directly follows "In the beginning." It is the opening of John's Gospel that moves the emphasis from the work of God to God as God. The apostle goes behind the scene of Genesis 1:1 to draw our attention from creation to God. This is because the New Covenant gives the knowledge of God in greater glory.
3.From Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton. (chapter VIII)

Trinity Sunday

Readers may wish to refer to last year's Trinity Sunday sermon for theological study. (That was written when the blogger html still accepted Hebrew letters).

Isaiah 6:1-8, Psalm 29, Rev. 4:1-11 (i.e. the entire chapter), John 3:1-17

It is fitting that we should read about new birth on Trinity Sunday, and be reminded that, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Nicodemus asked the question,"How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" The answer that Jesus gave him was about the invisible work of the Holy Spirit. Invisible and yet observable in effect; for the Holy Spirit's working cannot be seen, but his work can be seen when a man is born of water and of the spirit; for he is a new man in Christ, literally a new creation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Cor. 5:17) Adam was a creature, and his offspring are creatures, but not individually created as much as creatures by derivation, in that each new human being is the result of a man knowing a woman (one hopes, his wife). But, in the new birth, each person is a new creature, individually created by the breath of God with that new life that we receive from the Risen Christ, that new life that is eternal and will survive our death, so that our mortal nature becomes a seed planted to be raised as Christ is risen, that is life immortal. "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." (Rom. 6:9)

Currently, among the Reaaserter camp, we find that some who call themselves "Anglican" do not understand that John chapter three, where Jesus speaks of the new birth, is referring to baptism. No doubt, they have never learned the genuine Anglican Catechism, embracing, as they do, over the last thirty years a book that has new things instead. But, here is what the authentic Anglican Catechism says:

QUESTION. What is your Name?
Answer. N. or N. N.
Question. Who gave you this Name?
Answer. My Sponsors in Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

In baptism we were adopted through Christ, born of water and the Spirit as children of God.

This is clear from the sixth chapter of Romans:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (vs. 1-4)

Well I understand why the Evangelicals interpret the new birth as that moment of conscious conversion, for in a sense it really feels like a new birth of sorts: This I know from my own experience. And, it likely completes something valid and real that was planted in baptism, even though it may appear to unsympathetic critics as merely subjective. I understand why they resist the ancient teaching of the Church that the new birth is in baptism, because their experience of conversion just had to be what Christ spoke of. But, the new birth is objective, and we must interpret John chapter three by Romans chapter six. The new birth is into the newness of life, having been buried with Christ by baptism into death, and raised to walk in the newness of life. That is objective and real; and for an Anglican it should contain no contradiction that we accept the teaching of the Catholic Tradition regarding the meaning of Scripture, and that we rejoice when a person's dormant faith comes so alive in his soul that he can mark it as a beginning. But, it is the grace of his baptism awakened by the Holy Spirit, so that his conscience, with all his heart and soul, renders him like the prodigal son who came to himself, and went home to his father.

And, baptism brings us to the nominal theme of Trinity Sunday.

We must look at the words of the Risen Christ at the close of the Gospel According to Matthew, where we read the Great Commission:

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach (μαθητεύω, mathēteuō, make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt.28:18-20)

This new birth involves the full revelation of the Name of God. And, before proceeding, we must answer yet another objection some have. They have noticed, as have we, that in the Book of Acts baptism was said to be in the Name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38), or the Lord Jesus (Acts 8:16, 10:48, 19:5). But, they do not understand. They make the mistake of assuming that Luke's designation of Christian baptism reveals the formula, or the actual words that were spoken, which is not at all what the text actually says.

When the Book of Acts reveals what happened in those earliest days, Luke is making clear that the baptism was not that of John the Baptist, but rather it was Christian baptism. Since the word "Christian" appears only once in that whole book, as something that came about after many people were baptized (11:26), it was not yet customary to say "Christian baptism" as opposed to "the baptism of John." But, that this is the meaning is clearly drawn from the nineteenth chapter. "Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." Would those who think they are using the formula of Acts by rejecting the commandment of Christ at the close of Matthew's Gospel, not have made the same argument if "Christian" had been a more fully established word from the start? Would they not likely insist that the formula should be "I baptize thee a Christian?" Dom Gregory Dix discovered an ancient baptism liturgy in which the Trinitarian formula appeared as part of a long prayer that was, as a whole, in the Name of Jesus Christ. This makes perfect sense.

The formula for baptism is "In the Name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit)." The revelation of this Name, indeed, this One Name, is the end result in Matthew's Gospel, of all that Jesus did and said. Now, we know God. The revelation of this One Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, could not be given to us before the Incarnation of the Word; the Name could not be revealed before Christ's atoning death in which he took away the sins of the world; the Name could not be revealed until after he defeated death itself and rose from the grave. The Name could be revealed only after we see the full picture of the Son, in his complete victory for our sakes over sin and death, having cast out the prince of this world in his Passion and Resurrection. And, it had to be revealed right then, just before the Ascension and the ten days when the disciples were about to stand on that bridge between the coming of the first Comforter and the coming of the other Comforter; that is, between the coming of Christ our Advocate (παράκλητος, paraklētos I John 2:1), and the coming of "the other Comforter" (same word, παράκλητος, paraklētos, John 14:16,17), the Spirit of Truth.

God the Father has been perfectly (Heb. 1:1f) revealed by the Son; and the Father and the Son are known only through the Holy Spirit (John 15:26). Therefore, the revelation of the Divine Name is also the revelation of our salvation, for the revelation of the One Divine Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit came only out of the mouth of Jesus Christ after he had accomplished all things, and was ready to go back to the Father in order to send the other Paraklētos. The new life, into which we are born again in baptism, is eternal life; that eternal life is to know the God of this revelation intimately.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ..And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 14:16,17; 17:3)

Eternal life is to know the Spirit of Truth, for he alone reveals the Son. It is to know the Son, for he alone reveals the Father. It is to know the Father. Our salvation and eternal life is to know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Hear what the Prophet Jeremiah foretold, as the substance of the New Covenant:

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer. 31:31-34)

This is salvation and eternal life.

This is also universal, to be proclaimed in all nations; for it is in all nations that we are to make and baptize disciples. "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." (Hab. 2:14) In recent years we have read of false teachers (such as one Bishop Swing of the Episcopal "Church") tell us that Christianity should no longer be a missionary faith, and that we should respect the alleged right of all people to have their ancestral gods. Thank God St. Patrick did not think so, or my Irish ancestors would have continued the practice of human sacrifice, burning people in the Wicker Man. The Gospel is not a form of oppression, but the only way out of the darkness into the light. "But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire...And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. " (Deut. 7:5, 12:3). It is a service, it is compassionate, to liberate people from the cruelty of paganism, and to bring to them knowledge of the true God. When the Church built its new shrines on the sites of old pagan shrines, it practiced wisdom; for the old ways of darkness were replaced by the worship of the loving God of salvation. In the old places of dread and darkness the Church built new places of joy and light.

We have been given a mission, whether or not the world and its defeated prince approve. The Church has that same mission in all the world that Christ gave in a special way to St. Paul: "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." (Acts 26:18)

Baptism in the One Name, revealed by the Risen Christ, is entrance into the New Covenant, into death to sin and the newness of life, into the knowledge of God. It is for all nations. To proclaim the Name of The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is to proclaim our only hope and our only salvation. Only the Risen Christ could reveal it, and so prepare his Disciples to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. We know the Name not in some academic or theoretical sense, but rather because The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have been revealed in the coming of one Paraklētos, Christ our Lord who defeated sin and death in his passion and resurrection, and the coming of the other Paraklētos, the Spirit of Truth who gives life and power to the Body of Christ. The revelation of the Trinity is the seal of our salvation history and it is our life here and now.

Trinity XIX

Ephesians 4:17-32
Matthew 9:1-8


“…Jesus seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, ‘Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.’ ”

A common complaint in our society is that at times judges in our courts of law tend to see things in the Constitution that are not there, and that they fail to see things that are there. And, I believe that this has happened in history- cases like Dred Scott and Roe vs. Wade. Well, this is easy to do when someone approaches a case with an ideology that overrides everything else. So we criticize some legal decisions because judges sometimes see what’s not there, and are blind to what is there. On a less serious level, people notice this in umpires and referees. When a bad call, or at least an unwelcome call, is made, it is easy to hear those words “are you blind?” Usually, these words are spoken with great fervor, and by the home crowd.

As important as this is in the case of jurisprudence, and as trivial in the case of sports, it is of ultimate importance in religion. I have often wondered why people who know that doctors are the experts in medicine, lawyers are the experts in law, and plumbers the experts in plumbing (or so we hope), have decided that they know as much as the most godly and learned clergy; and, with or without learning- usually without- appear to be convinced that on the subject of God and salvation, they have it all figured out. It is amazing to me that people can read the Bible, read it faithfully, and yet see in it things that are not there, often failing to see what is there. Of course, this only proves the point that the Bible is impossible to understand without the Holy Spirit and His revelation in the Church by its Tradition which has been handed down since the times of the apostles. It was never meant to be separate from the Church, never meant to stand alone as sola scriptura over against the Church, but instead as simply the scripture of the Church. It is the Word of God that “contains all things necessary for salvation;” but not by itself alone, because the Bible has never existed alone and was never meant to be taken away from the Church within which it was written and compiled, expressing from the earliest times the same teaching that we find in sacred Tradition.

I say all of this because if we assume that an individual can understand the Bible without the input of the early generations of Christians down through the ages, we can be misled by sincere but erroneous assumptions. Were we to ask about today’s Gospel, many sincere Christians would demonstrate early on that the people they agree with, in this story, are the enemies of Christ who wanted to kill Him. I say this, because quite often I have heard from sincere Christians the refrain spoken by the Pharisees, as Luke and Mark both tell us in their account of the same event: "But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?”

I am not saying that these Christians are hypocrites like the Pharisees. I think they are honest, and that they believe that their notion is in the Bible. In fact it is in the Bible. The problem is, the doctrine that only God can forgive sins, and that men cannot forgive sins, is expressed by the enemies of Jesus Christ, and only by them. In the Bible, yes, but look who says it. Many times I have heard such people tell me, “the Bible does not say that I should confess my sins to a priest, but only to God.” They are sure that the Bible says this, somewhere. If pressed, they produce a verse in the First Epistle of John, chapter One, verse Nine, about confessing sins, a verse that simply does not say that confession is made only to God. They add that part in their minds. Taken within the context of the whole Bible, it probably cannot be reduced to what they say. The whole Biblical picture of Confession involves men as God’s instruments, because it comes from the Book of Leviticus.

In the laws about Kippur- atonement- the penitent Israelite is instructed to take a sacrifice, confess his sins and ask the priest to make atonement. In the New Testament, we learn that all of the sacrifices were types and shadows of the One True sacrifice when Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for our sins. So, the blood of the sacrifices was shed in the Old Testament to announce that the real atonement was yet to come. And, now, we have an altar- and the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us this is an altar that we have, not simply a table- and since it is an altar what we do here is indeed a sacrifice (because that’s what altars are for). But, our sacrifice does not involve killing and the shedding of blood. Because, just as Old Testament sacrifices showed that the true atonement was going to be made, our sacrifice on our altar shows that the true sacrifice has now been made by the One Whose blood is the real atonement for all sin, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

Without an altar we could only give an abstract teaching. With an altar of sacrifice, our Eucharist is joined to the death of Christ, just as the elements themselves are joined to the One Who said “this is My Body…this is My Blood.” And, in answer to our friends who don’t see what is there in scripture, and somehow manage to see what is not there, let us take Jesus Christ at His word. He did not say it was a symbol, so let’s not see mere symbolism where we are told to see reality. He said that it is His Body and Blood, just as Saint Paul also said when writing to the Corinthians. So, let’s see what really is in scripture. This is His Body, this is His Blood, and it is the One True sacrifice that was once for all offered on the cross to which our Eucharist joins us, to which it becomes a part, transcending time and place.

Getting back to confession, the only picture that the ancient Jews had of Confession involved the ministry of select men, the Kohanim, that is, the priests. So, in the Epistle of James we are instructed to confess to those who will pray for us. Look at today’s Gospel. The Pharisees said that only God can forgive sins, but the people rejoiced that God had given such power unto men. They did not know, as yet, that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. But, they saw in Him the compassion of God as it was demonstrated in power. The healing of the man who had once been paralyzed, showed that Christ’s word of absolution- “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee”- was no empty promise, but a true word with power. God does not deal with us as our sins deserve, and here He proved it by healing instead of striking the man dead. His messenger brought healing, and thereby proved that when he forgives sins, His forgiveness is the mercy of God Himself.

I know what some of you are thinking: “The answer is, Jesus could forgive sins because He is God.” True, very true. But, says Saint Matthew when writing down this report of what he had witnessed, the people “marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.” And, the people got it right, while the Pharisees got it wrong, and, unfortunately, as many well meaning Christians still get it wrong. They could not rejoice with the people at the idea that God has given this power of absolution to men. In the Book of Common Prayer, when a priest is ordained, the Bishop, as part of the Ordination Rite, along with the laying on of hands, repeats the words of Jesus Christ that come from the Twentieth chapter of the Gospel of Saint John:

"21: Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22: And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”

In the ordinal these words are repeated. I remember all those years ago when Bishop Joel Johnson laid his hands on my head and said the words in the Ordinal: “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.” I was aware of the line of Bishops stretching back to the very first Apostles, to whom the words of Ordination by the Risen Christ first were spoken. And I was aware too, that through this line, as it came forward in time, it truly was Jesus Christ Himself who was speaking these words to me through His Apostolic representive. I was aware too of the power of the Holy Spirit creating a change within me, a supernatural reality that I could feel.

The continuation of the sacramental ministry through the priesthood is a means of grace, an extension of the ministry of Jesus Christ Himself, for your benefit.

A while back, a seemingly sincere fellow was trying to debate with the Catholic Tradition that has always been a part of our Anglican understanding of what the Church is. I quoted this passage from the Gospel of John. I asked, in all sincerity, “who, in your church, by its professed beliefs, has the power to forgive sins? If the answer is ‘no one’ then how can you believe that you are in the same Church that Christ established?” We, Anglicans, have always known that this power resides in the priesthood through the Apostolic Succession. It is, if you will not be afraid, a gift from God, the blessed assurance through a sacrament that God has forgiven you, a gift of His love, made possible only because Jesus Christ died for you. Understand, He died for you- the great act of love that He means for you to take personally. And, he means for your conscience to be clear, for your hope to be firm, and your joy to be full.

Because the Word was made flesh, because Jesus Christ was revealed to be God come to us in the flesh, nothing remains the same as it was. He commits His entire ministry to His people, and His priestly ministry specifically to ordained men, as an extension in the earth even now of His Incarnation. All of the sacraments extend to us His Incarnation as the One we hear, see and touch. Another thing some people think they see in the Bible is the idea that the Church will be taken away to some heavenly place before the end of history leaving everyone else behind. They fail to see that Jesus promised to raise the dead who believe in Him on the Last Day, and not even so much as one day before that Last Day. So it must be in order for God’s will to be complete. For, the Church continues as the extension of the Incarnation where the risen Christ is present in the earth among fallen humanity. The Church does not only proclaim salvation; the Church actually administers salvation by the Word and Sacraments that Christ Himself works within her.

One of those sacraments is Absolution.

The Collect - Trinity 19

The Latin Collect
Dirigat corda nostra, quaesumus, Domine, tuae miserationis operatio; quia tibi sine te placere non possumus.

The Collect 1549
O GOD, for asmuche as without thee, we are not able to please thee; Graunte that the workyng of thy mercie maye in all thynges directe and rule our heartes; Through Jesus Christ our Lorde

The Collect 1662
O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Commentary
The Latin Collect, from the Gelasian Sacramentary of about AD 750, and likely written in response to the Pelagian heresy, appeared in the Sarum Missal for the 19th after Trinity, and on the Continent for the 18th after Pentecost, where it still appears in the Tridentine Missal. Cranmer translated it quite literally, but it was altered somewhat for the Book of 1662, a more significant change than the editors may have realized, as it removes the direct petition for the working of God's mercy in favor of an invocation of the Holy Spirit, theologically correct, but rather different in emphasis.

Meditation
We regularly try to fool ourselves into believing that we are actually pretty much good people, on the whole, and that, if we live a reasonably good life we're acceptable to God. We aren't. We are fallen creatures, forever making resolves and forever failing our own commitments, to say nothing of the abiding sins we are not even willing to give up. We can't atone for our past misdeeds and we prove ourselves unable to start afresh and keep ourselves clean, and, if we are honest with ourselves, we know it. God, in His mercy knows it also, and that is why, before the foundation of the earth He made provision for our deep need. He sent His Son, who died and rose for us, and left us the inestimable gift of sacraments and Scripture, and He sent His Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in the difficult road to salvation. We ask in this prayer that He continue the operation of His great mercy among us, and continue top mold us into His true image. May this be our true desire, and may this be reality in our lives.

---------------------------------ed pacht

The Collect - Trinity 17

The Collect (a literal translation from the Latin first found in the 8th century Gregorian Sacramentary)

Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

While we recognize that salvation doesn’t come by doing good works, yet in this collect we pray that the Lord might “make us continually to be given to all good works.” The more we observe the good works of God on our behalf, the more we desire to do as God does; to be charitable, merciful, tender-hearted and forgiving. The more we hope in Christ, the more we desire HIS grace to go before us and to follow us, so that we might “walk worthy of the vocation to which we are called” (Eph. 4). No small task! It is possible only as HIS grace makes us able.

And what can we do to receive a greater measure of God’s grace? The Gospel reading assigned for this Sunday points us in the right direction: “For whoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luke 14)

Humility must go hand in hand with good works or else everything is overthrown! St. Mark the Ascetic reminds us that we are not to rejoice when we do good to someone, but when we endure with humility and “without rancor the hostility that follows. For just as night follows day, so acts of malice follow acts of kindness.” That is why we urgently need the Lord’s grace to go before us and after us.

------------------Alice C. Linsley

The Collect - Trinity 16

Latin Original
Ecclesiam tuam, Dimine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat: et, quia sine te non potest salva consistere, tuo semper munere gubernetur.
This collect is appointed in the Tridentine Missal for 15th after Pentecost.

1549 Version
LORD, we beseche thee, let thy continual pitie clense and defende thy congregacion; and, because it cannot continue in safetie without thy succoure, preserve it evermore by thy helpe and goodnes; through Jesus Christ our Lorde.

1662 Version
O LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Meditation

The thing that strikes me most about this Collect is its reminder of our helplessness without God and His grace. One of the dangers for the Catholic Christian is to so identify Christ and the Church that he or she forgets that the Church has come into being and retained its essential characteristics of Unity, Universality Holiness and Apostolicity wholly sola gratia. From the earthly side we see a group of humans who must truly appeal to God’s “continual pity”: for are we not often, both individually and corporately, so very pitiful?

We appeal for cleansing of many sins, knowing we have no righteousness of our own. We appeal for defence against temptations and persecutions, knowing our terrible fleshly weakness in the face of both, the enemy without and the enemy within.

But it is not merely the undoing of evil and protection against it that we need. We are incapable even of continuing to exist as Christ’s Body without God’s “help and goodness” “evermore” preserving us. Help AND goodness. Not only does He help us with his powerful, effectual activity, He helps us with His very self, His goodness becoming ours.

Western theologians have thought upon this amazing last fact of our salvation and speculated about what sort of “causality” God exercises in giving us Sanctifying Grace. (Sanctifying Grace is defined as the grace that makes the Christian righteous and holy within, the result of the inner transformation wrought by God.) The most common answer today perhaps is that Sanctifying Grace is the effect of God acting as a “quasi-formal cause”, following the scholastic terminology of Karl Rahner. This sounds ridiculously academic and esoteric, but in fact implies something very powerful.

It means that God does not merely perform some spiritual operation on us as an outside agent. That would mean He was just an “efficient cause”, like the surgeon who cuts out a tumour or the bricklayer who builds a wall. He does not give us a part of Himself, as He has no parts, and so He is not a “material cause”, like the bricks in that wall I just mentioned would be. No, God is to us as shaped seal to wax imprint, which was the analogy used by the ancient Fathers. This analogy is based on the old practice of using, for example, a ring with a family emblem to imprint the image of that emblem upon the molten wax that was used to seal an official document closed and show its provenance. The metaphor is applied in a special way to Christ in Hebrews 1.3, where He is said to be the “express image” (Gk: χαρακτηρ) of God. The Greek word here refers both to the source shape of a seal and the imprint it makes in the wax. Similarly, in Ephesians 1.13 Christians are said to be sealed (Gk: εσφραγίσθητε) by the Holy Spirit.

This makes God more like a “formal cause”, like the set of plans is to a house or a circuit diagram to a computer. Such inadequate comparisons may seem irreverent, but they point to the wonderful truth that we take on, in some mysterious sense, the "pattern" or properties of God's very Being. Our souls are the material cause, the thing given a new spiritual “shape” or quality or activity. But since we do not become God and our finite natures cannot fully or properly take on God’s infinite nature, God is described as a quasi-formal cause to remind us that He remains transcendent and we remain creatures dependent on Him. Interestingly, parents, through their DNA, are to some extent “formal causes” for their children. Truly, we are “sons in the Son”.

And that brings us back to the Collect. For all the wonder and glory of our salvation, what God does in us and to us, the gifts we are given are utterly and perpetually dependent upon His ongoing indwelling, initiative, protection and forgiveness. That is why we should also constantly resort to God in prayer, daily, hourly, consciously dedicating our efforts to Christ and trusting in his might. For all our works are sad and sorry without him. This does not mean God abandons us if we forget to pray or are much distracted. No, we are and remain in grace. But the more we deliberately “sow to the Spirit”, the more we will “reap of the Spirit” (Galatians 6.8). And the more we pray for the Church and for God’s mercy upon it, the more it will become what it is meant to be, the living Temple of His Presence.

The Collect - Trinity 15

Latin collect
Custodi, Domine, quaesumus, Ecclesiam tuam propitatione perpetua: et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxiis, et ad salutaria dirigatur.

The Collect 1549
KEPE we beseche thee, O Lorde, thy Churche with thy perpetuall mercye: and because the frailtie of man without thee, cannot but fall: Kepe us ever by thy helpe, and leade us to al thynges profitable to our salvacion; through Jesus Christe our Lorde. Amen.

The Collect 1662
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy: and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Commentary
Cranmer did a quite literal translation of this collect, appointed in the Sarum Missal for Trinity 15, and in the Tridentine Missal for 14th after Pentecost, which was originally taken from the Gelasian Sacramentary of about AD 750.

The Meditation
What a prayer for these days! Though it is over 1200 years old, it crackles with immediacy today. The Enemy of our souls has marshalled an impressive array of troops to oppose the Church of God. The secular society in which we live loathes the Gospel of Christ and would either oppose it directly or confine it to a hidden corner of obscurity, quaintness, and irrelevance. There are many enemies from without, but, far worse in God's sight, there are bitter enemies of truth within the company of those called 'Christian' who would discard and change the teaching and practice entrusted to the saints. The frailty of man is incapable of overcoming all these forces. In fact, we, each of us individually, and sometimes even as we gather in churches, are all too often led to take our eyes off Jesus Christ and Him crucified. and to substitute our own desires and fears for the following of His complete will. Keep us, we pray, protect us, shield us, step in with thy mighty power when we are about to fail. Deliver us from evil, lead us not into temptation, but into holiness; not into error, but into truth, and, in our weakness, fill us with thy strength. Lead us to salvation, and use us so to lead others.

----------------------------ed pacht

The Collect - Trinity 14

The Latin Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis fidei, spei, et caritatis augmentum: et ut mereamur assequi quop promittis, fac nos amare quod praecipis.

The Collect of 1549
ALMIGHTYE and everlastyng God, geve unto us the increase of faythe, hope, and charitie; and that we may obteine that whiche thou doest promise; make us to love that whiche thou doest commaunde, through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

The Collect of 1662
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Commentary
Like as for the 13th Sunday after Trinity, Cranmer translates the collect from the Leonine Sacramentary. This Collect is used in the Noon prayer for adults as compiled by the Rev'd Dr. Charles Henry in the Nashotah Mission Manual for Sunday schools.

The Reflection.
A wander around museums of Palaeontology will present you with the skeletons of many an ancient creature arranged in a supposedly life-like pose. In the past, the arrangement of these bones was a largely hit and miss affair. Until a more complete skeleton was unearthed the iguanadon's characteristic pointed thumb was assumed to be a horn on its nose. it is only since our studies of animals have become more and more detailed that we have been able to get a more accurate picture of these gigantic beasts through the fragments of the skeletons. Until a more powerful technique comes along, we will never really know what colours they were or whether they had arrangments of feathers or fur.

Yet if we examine these dinosaur bones more closely, we find that they are not made of bone at all but the bone has been replaced with minerals. It is only because of this process that the bones actually remain for us to see today.

But even rock and minerals disappear in time. This is why skeletons are only partially found. Any longer and they too would disappear into dust. Nothing lasts for ever, does it? "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three." The more that these become part of us, the more we that we will abide because we take in more of the Divine Substance.

We are meant to become like God through faith, hope and charity. How far have we got?

------------------------Jonathan Munn

The Collect - Trinity XII

Latin Collect (this collect is appointed in the Tridentine Missal for 11th after Pentecost)

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui, abundantia pietatis tuae, et merita supplicum excedia et vota: effunde super nos misericordiam tuam; ut dimittas que conscientia metuit, et adjicias quod oratio non praesumit.

1549 Collect
ALMIGHTIE and everlastyng God, which art alwayes more ready to heare then we to praye, and art wont to geve more than eyther we desyre or deserve; Powre downe upon us the aboundance of thy mercy; forgeving us those thynges wherof our conscience is afrayde, and gevyng unto us that that our prayer dare not presume to aske, through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

1662 Collect
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Commentary and Meditation

This prayer reminds us of God's astonishing generosity. It is so abundant that he will not only give us what we ask for in prayer whenever that is best for us, but often what we could have asked for, but didn't. Or he will do things for us that surpass even what we might have imagined for ourselves.

I know this from experience. For some like myself, the initial reaction to a problem is often, unfortunately, not to pray but to allow anger to dominate in the heat of the moment. More than once I have found myself ashamed when, after losing my temper, Divine Providence has arranged a quick solution to the problem that was frustrating me. I have then remembered how small my difficulties are and how gracious God has been to me throughout my circumstances in life. Also, some of the greatest blessings in my life, especially my present ministry and teaching position, have far surpassed what I had originally prayed for.

As for a specific example of God answering the prayer that should have been spoken but wasn't, I will give one example from my life that some might find amusing. (Amazing how some events are funny only some time after their occurence, isn't it?)

One Holy Saturday I was working away at preparing the church for Easter Day, helping with the polishing of brass. I was polishing the thurible. Now, polishing the chain-links on a thurible definitely comes into the category of "no fun", in my opinion. (Everything's nooks and crannies!) But when you manage to get the three chains hopelessly tangled it becomes much worse. You might think, "Three chains, firmly connected at both ends, how can you get that tangled by polishing and, even if you did, how hard could it be to untangle?" All I can suggest is that you keep those thoughts to yourself around thurible-polishers.

Anyway, I had the thing tangled. And my attempts to untangle it were remarkably unsuccessful. Indeed, they appeared to be making things worse, contributing to a rising tide of panic and, eventually, rage. Did I mention my bishop was there doing other jobs to prepare for the next day? No? Well, he was, and at some point I asked him for help. His response was along the lines of, "Oh no, I've done the same thing myself and I know what it's like -- so the rule is, he who tangles it untangles it." He said it with a smile. I wasn't smiling.

It got to the point where I was internally swearing like a trooper and pretty much going nuts. I was genuinely giving serious consideration to hurling that thing out the nearest window. With the window still closed. No, I'm not kidding. And, yes, I realise it was rather pathetic and silly. (Strangely, it has generally been inanimate objects that have brought out my worst temper. Especially computers -- but that's another story.) Given that I was still training for the priesthood and, well, you remember the bishop was there, the aforementioned action probably would have had some impact on my vocation. :-)

Just before I was about to completely lose it, I decided to stand up from the table I was sitting at, and turn away from the cause of my temporary insanity. Nobody was nearby to see me take some breaths and try to calm myself down, as the bishop was in another part of the building.

Then I turned back and felt I could try one more time. So I picked it up from exactly where I had left it and ... it was untangled. There was nothing wrong with it. I stared at it in shock. Then came the quiet prayers of mingled thanksgiving and penitence. I knew I didn't deserve this after all the cursing and wrath -- and lack of prayer for help. I felt like God must have been gazing down at me with a patient but parental "Have you quite finished?" look.

Was this some kind of miracle? Did an angel sort things out while I wasn't looking? I have no idea. But I do know God taught me something that night: He loves me even when I am being an idiot, but He'd prefer it if I didn't succumb to ungrateful foolishness as often as I do.

It's experiences like these that help me to understand both this Collect and that powerful verse in Psalm 130.4, "But there is forgiveness with thee; therefore shalt thou be feared".

The Collect - Trinity XI

The Latin Collect
Deus, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime, et miserando manifestas: multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam; ut ad tua promissa currentes, caelestium bonorum facias esse consortes.

The Collect 1549
GOD, which declarest thy almighty power, most chiefly in shewyng mercy and pitie; Geve unto us abundauntly thy grace, that we, running to thy promises, may be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

The Collect 1662
O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Commentary
This collect originates from the Gelasian Sacramentary of about AD 750, being assigned, in the Sarum Missal to this Sunday, and in the Tridentine to the 10th after Pentecost. Archbishop Cranmer’s translation of 1549 is quite literal and preserves the poetic imagery of the original. The compilers of 1662, apparently reaching for more elegant language, managed to change the emphasis subtly from God’s promise to our obedience, which seems a pity, inasmuch as this latter theme is very common among other collects, and this one prayer seems to stand almost alone in content. It is the 1662 version that has come down to Americans in the 1928 BCP.

Meditation
God, who created the heavens and the earth, to whom all the laws of nature are subject, in whose hands are held the awesome powers of the elements, shows His almighty power in many ways, but chiefly and most importantly in the apparent weakness of a Cross whereon mercy and pity and grace are dramatically revealed. In our awe at this counter-intuitive manifestation of divinity, we ask His grace, not that we may do better and thus earn his favor, but that we may run to his promises, that we may accept what He so freely offers us by that Cross, that by those promises we may receive the great treasure that He has prepared for us sinners. May we ever run with all our effort into His everlasting arms.

----------------------ed pacht

The Collect - Trinity 10

From the Tridentine Missal
Pateant aures misericordiae tuae, Domine, precibus supplicantium: et, ut petentibus desiderata concedas; fac eos, quae tibi sunt placita, postulare.

From The 1549 prayer book
LET thy merciful eares, O Lord, be open to the praiers of thy humble servauntes; and that they may obteine their peticions, make them to aske suche thinges as shal please thee; Through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Commentary
Cranmer translates the Collect from the Gelasian Sacramentary which appears as the Collect for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. This notable collect has been set to music by the Tudor composers Thomas Weelkes and Thomas Mudd.

Reflection
According to the collect, we can only guarantee that our prayers will be answered if we only pray the prayers that God wants us to pray. This means that if we pray for a brand new Cadillac, a lottery win, or a giant ice-cream sundae, we're 100% guaranteed that we won't get it. Why not? Well, God doesn't want us to have a new car, lot of money, or indigestion, does he?

But does this mean that when we pray for our friend to be relieved of some painful or even terminal illness, and nothing happens, does this mean that God doesn't want our friend to get better? Does it not please Him to relieve our suffering? Do what we want, what we care about, mean nothing to of God?
It is here that we begin to walk into the unknown regions in trying to know the mind of God. But listen to Him through Jeremiah: "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jer xxix.11) We can rest assured that He wants only our good.

However, this Collect is telling us something more than just how God gets around to answering prayer. We are being invited to pray for and to seek the things that please God, things that will not only please Him, but give us joy and pleasure as well. Our true happiness can be found only in the pleasure of God, and this excludes no-one. In the pleasure of God, all our illnesses, fears, troubles and sins pale into insignificance, even though they might not be removed. It is when we want what God wants that we find ourselves closest to Him, and surely that is true happiness.

------------------------Jonathan Munn

The Collect - Trinity IX

The Collect

Largire nobis, quaesumus, Domine, semper spiritum cogitandi quae recta sunt, propitius et agendi: ut qui sine te esse non possumus, secundum te vivere valeamus. (From the Leonine Sacramentary appointed for the 8th Sunday after Trinity)

GRAUNT to us Lorde we beseche thee, the spirite to thinke and doe alwayes suche thynges as be rightfull; that we, which cannot be without thee, may by thee be able to live accordyng to thy wyll; Through Jesus Christe our Lorde. (1549 BCP)

GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (1662 BCP)

The Commentary

This collect asks for the spirit of right thought and right action, which spirit reflects the will of the Triune God. I’m struck that the Latin is “spiritum cogitandi” and not “Spiritui Sancto” which would refer to the third Person of the Trinity. Are we asking for other than the Holy Spirit in this prayer? It appears so. The Scholasticism of the medieval church is apparent in this spiritum cogitandi, yet Cranmer refocuses the prayer on the Triune God by adding these words: “by thee”.

Perhaps Philippians 4:8, with emphasis on thinking virtuous thoughts, is the backdrop of “spiritum cogitandi” while Cranmer sees as a necessary backdrop Ephesians 1:3-14. By adding “by thee” Cranmer strengthens the allusion to the Trinitarian action described in Ephesians.

The 1662 wording: “cannot do any thing that is good without thee”, reflects the Enlightenment and the Philippians reference more than the Ephesians reference. The ECUSA 1979 prayer book follows Cranmer, with these words: “who cannot exist without thee.” (Here is a rare instance of the Standing Liturgical Commission getting it right!)


The Meditation

Right thoughts and actions, those that are according to God’s will, are prompted and empowered by grace. More than that, our very existence is by that same grace which fills all things. Paul teaches that those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and our lives are hidden in Christ. This being so, every virtuous thought and every good thing is to the praise of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We do well to remember this when we feel proud of being good, for only as we give credit fully to God’s grace at work in and through all things, do we as Christians have an authentic witness.

--------------------------Alice C. Linsley

The Collect, Trinity VIII

The Latin Collect

(this collect is appointed in the Tridentine Missal for 7th after Pentecost)

Deus, cujus providentua in sui dispisitione non falitur: te supplices exoramus; ut noxia cincta submoveas, et omnia nobis profutura concedas.

The 1549 Collect

GOD, whose providence is never deceived, we humbly beseche thee that thou wilt put away from us al hurtfull thinges, and geve [us]* those thinges whiche be profitable for us; through Jesus Christe our Lorde.



The 1662 Collect

O GOD, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.



Meditation

The first clause of this collect reminds us of God's providence, which has a two-fold completeness. It is "never-failing", that is without limit in time (or ongoing effectiveness), and "ordereth all things both in heaven and earth", and so extends throughout the universe. Providence refers to God's ongoing care, preservation, and ordering (according to His overarching wisdom and plan) of Creation. It is seen as mainly expressed through everyday, natural causes rather than overtly supernatural miracles, which are often put in a different category. Because God sees the end from the beginning He has been able to do a great deal of "ordering" of what happens through setting up the natural conditions and laws in such a way as to achieve certain outcomes. It is good to know that our infinitely wise God is in final control, but there a number of things that we need to remember that Divine Providence does not mean.



It does not mean God directly causes or chooses everything, including evil. Instead, He allows room for angelic and human free will to choose and produce good or evil, and then is able to, in the long term, bring good even out of evil. It does not mean all justice is done within this universe. Divine Providence within this Creation does not "tie up all loose ends" because it never intended to. And providence does not mean we will get everything we want or even seem to need, though God does provide for us. We cannot see the bigger picture like He can, and we have trouble understanding (and believing) that what is best for eternal life may appear sub-standard here and now!



This brings us to the second part of the collect, the supplication. We ask God to "put away from us all hurtful things" and "give us those things which be profitable". Our first instinct is to see this as a prayer for avoidance of pain and provision of happiness. And I'm sure God doesn't mind us asking for that. But what is painful can sometimes be profitable, and outward happiness can in some circumstances be hurtful to the soul. "Be careful what you ask for" the saying goes! In the end, while God loves to bless people and does not willingly afflict us (Lam. 3.33), what He wants most for us is the eternal joy of union with Him. Sometimes that may involve difficult journeys. May we trust Him and His loving Providence throughout.