To Anti-vaccine zealots

This is a copy of something I said in an email conversation.

One more thing everybody: The anti-vaccine argument for a new spin on “freedom” is basically, “I have a right to do what I want with my own body.” Unfortunately, the law of the land mostly agrees with you, just it agrees with the pro-abortion argument. But I say, it’s not just the woman’s body; it’s the body of another person, a dependent child, entrusted by nature and nature’s God to her care. Similarly, it isn’t just your body either. The life and health of your neighbor is a moral obligation imposed by the second greatest commandment of the Law. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” That you imagine that your selfish position, to further the spread of this contagion, is even consistent with Christianity tells me that you don’t even have a clue about anything to do with Jesus Christ and what He commands. As He said, “Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites… blind guides that strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”

13th Sunday after Trinity 2021

On the Good Samaritan: Sermon after Collect, Epistle, and Gospel. Here is the link.  https://youtu.be/2-pBf3T2l_E

12th Sunday after Trinity 2021

For the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, with a sermon, click the following link. https://youtu.be/HcQuXi4Wzt0

ASSUMPTION OF THE B.V.M. AUGUST 15

Sermon from Sunday Aug. 15, 2021 at St. Benedict's ACC. CLICK HERE

10th Sunday after Trinity 2021

For the propers and sermon CLICK HERE.

The Transfiguration August 6

II Pet. 1:13f   Luke 9:28f 

In the spirit of the Confessions of Saint Augustine, let me say that during a few years in my youth, I embraced a form of Protestant Evangelicalism. This was probably because the Episcopal priest who had prepared me for Confirmation, in 1971, drained the spiritual adventure out of Christianity. The Confirmation itself was quite a powerful experience; but the kind of rubbish that he presented for education as to what it was, and how I should respond to the grace of God given in the sacrament, seemed more a course in skepticism and almost agnosticism than in the Catholic Faith once delivered to the saints, and preserved and taught by the Church of the Fathers. The problem began when the very modern priest, all too typical of the 1960s and early 70s, told us that, really, there was no devil. It got worse as it went along.

When I came across people who took their faith very seriously, I was among Evangelicals in the Charismatic movement. And, though much was good, and the people were quite sincere, I found in those years that present in a certain kind of Protestant mentality, is a strong resistance to what they call "religion." These folks loaded the word "religion" with many negative connotations, depicting especially Catholics in many prejudiced ways; equating "religion" with superstition, or even with hypocrisy. So, if I sound a little hard on their way of thinking, please understand that my criticism is not without both charity and genuine pity.

Having been an Episcopalian since 1958, I grew up in a Church that was still Anglican, and that had quite a lot in common with the people that those friends of mine called Catholics, because, really, we are Catholic; that is, we believe in the Catholic Faith and the Catholic Church that we speak of in the Creeds. We have just said "I believe One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." We regard ourselves to be among the inheritors of that Faith and Church along with our brethren who are Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox. Having been brought up in the sort of Anglican household that appreciated the continuity of the Faith with that of the ancient Church, it was only a matter of time before I would again hunger for that very thing that my Evangelical friends regarded with great suspicion, namely "religion."

When we look at the Gospel for this Feast of the Transfiguration, we cannot appreciate its depths if we fear those things which are specifically "religious" in its presentation. Christ our Lord was on the mountain, a place that for Jews symbolized the revelation of God, going all the way back to Moses. It was as He was in prayer that He was transfigured. This is very important. For, the chief reason why many of the Protestants I was close to, in my youth, would step away from their perception of "religion" had everything to do with a hesitation to embrace and love that most important of all doctrines, that central revelation of God, the Incarnation. I have said this before when speaking of the sacraments, specifically the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, the Communion with the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In all of their very sincere love for Jesus, there came a point, nonetheless, when they had a very difficult time with those aspects of our faith that involve the senses of taste, touch, seeing, and hearing. Any honor given to the Blessed Virgin mother of our Lord was, for them, uncomfortable. They profess belief in the two natures of Jesus Christ, that He is both Fully God and fully Man in One Person; but in every practical way, they fear and step back from the full implications of what that means. They fear to come close, fearing all of the echoes and ripples of what it means that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." They confuse the implications of this, and misunderstand those things as if they were some sort of idolatry.

Please do not misunderstand me. They were, as I knew them, full of faith, and quite sincere. But I say these things for your sake, that you will never fear to embrace the saving revelation that "the Word was made flesh and pitched the tent of His human nature among us." I say these things so that you will be liberated in your heart and conscience to come close and touch Christ. I say this, because of how Saint John (one of those three apostles who are part of today’s Gospel reading) described what the Church truly is, and what it shall continue to be for all time until Christ returns on the Last Day. In the opening of his first Epistle, the Beloved Disciple wrote:

 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” 

(I John 1: 1-4)

You see, the fear is that worshiping Someone Whom we see, and touch and hear must be some form of idolatry. Let me help you by being very clear. Once you know that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, it is idolatry to worship only a god whom we cannot see. Idolatry is to worship the images we ourselves make from our own minds, and therefore, it is to worship a god who is not the One known by the revelation He gives of Himself. We, who would bow down at the feet of the Man Jesus, should He walk into this room right now, would not be idolaters. Our God is not confined to heaven. The true God revealed Himself, most perfectly by taking human nature into the Divine Person of the only and eternally begotten Son of the Everlasting Father.

This is why we are not afraid to, as the hymn says, "touch and handle things unseen"- nor even to look upon visible things that both effect and signify what is invisible. We are not afraid of holy water, or visible reprentations such as icons and crosses. We do not treat the Blessed Virgin Mother, through Whom God the Son recieved His human nature, as some sort of outcast. Furthermore, we know that the bread and wine that will be placed upon this altar today, will be taken into the Person of the Son of God, and given back to us as "the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of...our Saviour Jesus Christ." And, as the Apostle John wrote, we will look upon, and our hands will handle the Word of Life." In this way, you will have fellowship with the Church of the Apostles, and in that fellowship you will have fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, "that your joy may be full."

On the Mount of Transfiguration, which Saint Peter called "the holy mount"- itself a phrase showing the effect of the presence of the incarnate Lord upon all creation- what the apostles saw was not actually the Divine Nature itself, because that remains invisible to the eyes of every created thing. What they saw was the Shekinah, the manifest Glory of God. They saw a manifestation of our ultimate hope, theosis. They saw that human nature itself is transformed by the presence of God; a certain kind of blindness, that protects the eyes of our yet fallen and imperfect humanity, was removed for a brief glimpse of deified human nature. Christ’s human nature was revealed to be glorious, because in His Person he is fully God. Because of God's human nature in Christ, our transformed and resurrected human nature is destined to be glorified by grace when we partake of the divine nature, as Saint Peter wrote earlier in the same epistle appointed for today 

(II Pet. 1:4).

In the Transfiguration of our Lord we see our hope, and we see why we need have no fear of death. Christ let His disciples see why His coming death should not fill them with dread. How strange that in this scene, while shining with the light of His glory, the Lord speaks to Moses and Elijah about the death He would accomplish at Jerusalem. Notice, His death would be His own to give. This was Luke’s way of telling us the same thing that John tells. No Man took His life away; He laid it down freely, and freely took it again. In speaking of His death to Moses, Christ showed that He was going to fulfill all the Law, and be the One Who dies for us that our sins could forever be taken away; that in dying He would fulfill the types and shadows of every sacrifice ever offered on the Old Testament altars. In speaking with Elijah, He showed that He is the fulfillment and subject of prophecy itself. It is He of Whom Moses and the prophets spoke. And, in this scene on the holy mountain, it is He of Whom the Father speaks: "This is my Beloved Son; hear Him."

The way into the holy of holies, to the throne of God, is Christ's own human nature, as says the Epistle to the Hebrews.

"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19-22)."

I want the words of this sermon to ring in your ears, because my desire for you is that you never fear to come close and touch the Lord; that you never fear to live within the fellowship of the Church, and by that, within the fellowship of God the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ; that your joy may be full.

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as is most justly due, all might, majesty, dominion, glory and power, now and forever. Amen

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David Virtue's interview of Yours Truly

The Trumpvangelicals had been people afraid of their own shadow. Instead of seeing themselves as an occupying force ("Occupy until I come"), instead of realizing that it is the powers of darkness that tremble because we are "terrible as an army with banners," that we, armed with the Gospel, are the superior force, they chose to live in fear of unbelievers. They might think they need a "Messiah like Cyrus" to save them. But I don't need any Messiah other than Jesus. I guess that makes me more like the Canadian and European Christians, and more like our [American] minority Christians.

Read it here

9th Sunday after Trinity 2021

For the propers and sermon CLICK https://youtu.be/iQwOI-FvKsQ.

Saint James the Apostle July 25

Click HERE for the propers and sermon.

Musical Retreat

To help quiet the mind. CLICK HERE for VESPERS.

7th Sunday after Trinity 2021

Propers and Sunday Sermon. Click HERE.

Like Flying a Plane

Sixth Sunday after Trinity 2021. CLICK HERE

5th SUNDAY FATER TRINITY & INDEPENDENCE DAY 2021

The sermon is very important and timely, and begins at 14:05. I believe it needs to be heard and passed on. CLICK HERE for the link.

THE NEW ANTIPATRIOTS

(I ask readers who are not Americans to bear with my Independence Day address. But you may find it interesting no matter what country you live in)

Some may ask why I am making this point about secular history on a blog about Continuing Anglicanism. What has it to do with our specific concerns? I will begin to answer by saying that nothing in life is, for us, entirely secular. If we are believers, God is always involved in our lives, the decisions we make, the values we hold, and especially in matters that touch on issues of morality and on peace among ourselves.

Fr. Robert Hart

Following the 2020 election in the United States a number of supporters of the incumbent President were dissatisfied with the results. Two courses of action were followed. One course was by a team of lawyers representing the reelection campaign of Donald Trump. They filed sixty-four lawsuits in various states. The suits alleged massive voter fraud and sought the overturning of official certifications in those states. Court records are a matter of public record, so one can research the data without relying on the news media. This is what I found. Of those sixty-four court cases three were dismissed for Lack of Standing. Four were dismissed for Lack of Cause (not alleging enough instances of voter fraud to justify the sought remedy). The overwhelming number of cases, all of the remaining fifty-seven, were dismissed or withdrawn by the reelection campaign’s own lawyers for Lack of Evidence. Very well. The reelection campaign exercised their legal rights. One could say that their method, going to court, was in keeping with respect for the United States and the Rule of Law.

But the other course of action was the very opposite of patriotism. It was, in fact, treasonous; not against a political entity as such, but against the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law and Democracy share reciprocal protection. And in the United States the highest law of the land is the Constitution. Attackers broke into the Capitol Building at almost two o’clock in the afternoon of January 6, 2021 (hereafter to be called the Epiphany Putsch), having walked across the Washington D.C. Mall from a rally held by the defeated President. They chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and had actually constructed a gallows with a hangman’s noose on a dangling rope. He was presiding over the Senate at that moment. They also voiced an intention to kill the Speaker of the House. Both houses of Congress were in session, not to decide anything, but to carry out the Constitutionally required duty of certifying the votes already presented by the Electors.

If indeed the President of the Senate (i.e., the Vice President of the United States) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives had died in that attack, a Constitutional crisis unlike anything in history could have created a legal loophole that had the potential to work as a coup against the Constitution of the United States, against the Rule of Law and its reciprocal protection of Democracy. An incumbent who had lost by the Rule of Law might have held onto power against everything the Founding Fathers clearly intended for the country. The actual box containing the physical votes of the Electors was spirited away to safety along with all the members of both houses. No one can say that the attackers acted in keeping with respect for the United States and the Rule of Law. They were certainly not patriots. Just the opposite.

NO AMERICAN REVOLUTION

The tragedy is that the most outspoken insurrectionists among them had been so terribly deceived that they wrongly imagined themselves to be patriots. Some thought they were acting in the same spirit as the Founders of the country. This is partly due to a seriously flawed education. What happened in the United States is called the Revolutionary War or the American Revolution, a war that lasted from April 19, 1775 to September 3, 1783, and that birthed the independence of the United States in July 1776. We have always called it a revolution. Even the greatest Founding Father of them all (in my humble opinion), John Adams, called it a revolution. But was it? The Americans did not overthrow the King and Parliament of Great Britain. It was a war of Independence; but it was not a revolution by dictionary definition. It was not a coup either. The problem with calling it a revolution is that this habit has produced a complete misunderstanding that is having dangerous consequences in our own time.

When the British colonies were founded, with their thirteen respective royal charters, they were fully empowered by the Crown and The Parliament to establish colonial legislatures. This they did, each and every one. Theirs was the binding legal authority recognized by the Parliament and commanded by the Crown. When, for example, the Boston Massacre occurred (March 5, 1770),  the soldiers who killed the colonists were tried for murder. Their defense counsel, John Adams, obtained an acquittal by convincing the jury that the soldiers were young men who acted out of fear for their lives. The real point is this: That recognition of the laws of the colonies, established by their own legislatures, was respected by Great Britain.

Later, by 1775, things had changed. So it was that when war broke out because the British had become increasingly heavy-handed, it was not, as the much later 2021 Epiphany Putsch attackers of the Capitol Building wrongly believed about American history, a sudden uprising of rebels. Not at all. The mislabeled American “Revolution” was a perfectly legal act, carried out within the Rule of Law to preserve the Rule of Law. Each Colonial Legislature, the actual legal authority in each colony by Royal Charter, agreed to appoint the Continental Congress, and each legislature sent their delegates to Philadelphia. It was in that lawfully constituted Congress that Independence from Great Britain was voted on quite properly, and in which it passed on July 2, 1776. It was publicly announced two days later on July 4, which we celebrate as Independence Day. In short, Parliament back in London, with the aid of the King, was guilty of violating the Rule of Law, all thirteen Colonial Charters, and empowering their soldiers to come to these shores and break those laws in any manner they chose. They usurped power over the properly established legal authorities, and therefore exercised tyranny.

But the Epiphany Putsch insurrectionists (and by definition that is the correct word to use for them) were nothing like the Founding Fathers. They acted in complete disregard for the Rule of Law. They had nothing in common with the people who fought in the war for American Independence. And they were the very opposite of patriots because they rejected the Rule of Law, even after the courts had properly ruled sixty-four times. They were actually terrorists at that point. And they were just as pathetic as those ridiculous organizations that proclaim themselves to be state militias despite the fact that no state has ever authorized any of them, and so they are not regulated, let alone “well regulated,” and so not really militias at all.

WHY ON THIS CHRISTIAN BLOG?

Some may ask why I am making this point about secular history on a blog about Continuing Anglicanism. What has it to do with our specific concerns? I will begin to answer by saying that nothing in life is, for us, entirely secular. If we are believers, God is always involved in our lives, the decisions we make, the values we hold, and especially in matters that touch on issues of morality and on peace among ourselves. Currently, in the United States, we face a new danger. In place of what was once an intellectually rigorous form of Conservative thought, possessing a willingness to hold debates, to express different opinions, and accept the outcome of elections within the Rule of Law with its reciprocal protection of Democracy, there is in this time a new brand of anti-intellectual Right-wing violence that dares to masquerade as “Patriotism.” But true patriotism for Americans is nothing if not respect for the Constitution and the order it maintains.

Far too many of our own people are being deceived by these efforts, efforts that consist of insane, and I say demonic, Conspiracy Theories, with calls for violence and a “new civil war.” Everyone who is too sane to be lulled into the mass hysteria of this paranoia is accused of being unpatriotic. The whole movement is largely fueled by a desire to throw away our cherished Rule of Law in favor of the rule of men, specifically of one man. A very real problem exists among us even in our own churches: People advocating violence against their fellow citizens.

“Then said Jesus unto him, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword (Matt. 26:52).’”

It is demonic voices that call for blood and rage. Those who follow the Son of Man are forbidden to even entertain the thought of such things. Conservative thought has been replaced, on all the major outlets, by the “Chicken Little” New Right. Its message of a falling sky, with the evil bogeymen of socialism, gays, Muslims, immigrants (shudder), CRT, and “Jewish space-lasers,” etc., has created even within Christian circles the worst kind of fear, the kind that turns to hate.

“Perfect love casteth out fear (I John 4:18).”

“Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold (Matt. 24:12).”

Unbelievers will do what unbelievers do. You are not called to fear the world, nor to take up arms for the Kingdom of God (John 18:36). You are called to be salt and light. Do not be one of those who hide their light, and among the salt that has lost its savor.

 

4th SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021

Click here for the link.  Sermon starts at 13:16

TO SEEK AND TO SAVE...

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021. CLICK HERE.

Sermon begins at 13:25

NO EXCUSES

Second Sunday after Trinity, 2021. CLICK HERE.

SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY - CLICK HERE.

Sermon begins at 15:51

TRINITY SUNDAY 2021

CLICK HERE

My brother's latest

Again, in the case of Meditation Two, the basic issues are quite simple. There the difficulty lies in convincing readers to relinquish their certitudes regarding what they imagine they know about the text of scripture, as a result of long indoctrination (fortified in most cases by misleading translations). I have, for example, repeatedly seen readers claim with considerable assurance that the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels spoke of a place called “Hell” where souls suffer eternal torment through the application of unquenchable fire and the tender ministrations of an immortal worm. In fact, Christ spoke of a place called the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) which lay outside Jerusalem, and which had become a rather nebulous image in his time of God’s judgment both within and beyond history; and he described that valley in terms borrowed from Isaiah, as a place where corpses would be consumed by flames that were always burning and by worms that were always devouring carrion. It is an image of the final disposal and destruction of the dead, not of their perpetual suffering. And, given that Jesus told his followers that in many instances he was speaking of things that would occur within their lifetimes, it is also clear that much of that imagery applies to intra-historical calamities, not just to some final judgment at history’s end. Then, too, Jesus used a whole host of other images of judgment as well that, read literally, are not compatible with one another, and certainly provide no simple uniform theology of the afterlife; some, in fact, clearly suggest an eventual deliverance from “final” punishment. But, no matter the imagery he employed, absolutely nowhere did he describe a place of eternal misery.

Read the article by clicking here.