A timely word from the past

C.S. Lewis

From The Screwtape Letters
XVI

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

You mentioned casually in your last letter that the patient has continued to attend one church, and one only, since he was converted, and that he is not wholly pleased with it. May I ask what you are about? Why have I no report on the causes of his fidelity to the parish church? Do you realise that unless it is due to indifference it is a very bad thing? Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.

....The reasons are obvious. In the first place the parochial organisation should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy desires. The congregational principle, on the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction. In the second place, the search for a "suitable" church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil. What He wants of the layman in church is an attitude which may, indeed, be critical in the sense of rejecting what is false or unhelpful, but which is wholly uncritical in the sense that it does not appraise—does not waste time in thinking about what it rejects, but lays itself open in uncommenting, humble receptivity to any nourishment that is going. (You see how grovelling, how unspiritual, how irredeemably vulgar He is!) This attitude, especially during sermons, creates the condition (most hostile to our whole policy) in which platitudes can become really audible to a human soul. There is hardly any sermon, or any book, which may not be dangerous to us if it is received in this temper. So pray bestir yourself and send this fool the round of the neighbouring churches as soon as possible. Your record up to date has not given us much satisfaction.

....The two churches nearest to him, I have looked up in the office. Both have certain claims. At the first of these the Vicar is a man who has been so long engaged in watering down the faith to make it easier for supposedly incredulous and hard-headed congregation that it is now he who shocks his parishioners with his unbelief, not vice versa. He has undermined many a soul's Christianity. His conduct of the services is also admirable. In order to spare the laity all "difficulties" he has deserted both the lectionary and the appointed psalms and now, without noticing it, revolves endlessly round the little treadmill of his fifteen favourite psalms and twenty favourite lessons. We are thus safe from the danger that any truth not already familiar to him and to his flock should over reach them through Scripture. But perhaps bur patient is not quite silly enough for this church—or not yet?

....At the other church we have Fr. Spike. The humans are often puzzled to understand the range of his opinions—why he is one day almost a Communist and the next not far from some kind of theocratic Fascism—one day a scholastic, and the next prepared to deny human reason altogether—one day immersed in politics, and, the day after, declaring that all states of us world are equally "under judgment". We, of course, see the connecting link, which is Hatred. The man cannot bring himself to teach anything which is not calculated to mock, grieve, puzzle, or humiliate his parents and their friends. A sermon which such people would accept would be to him as insipid as a poem which they could scan. There is also a promising streak of dishonesty in him; we are teaching him to say "The teaching of the Church is" when he really means "I'm almost sure I read recently in Maritain or someone of that sort". But I must warn you that he has one fatal defect: he really believes. And this may yet mar all.

....But there is one good point which both these churches have in common—they are both party churches. I think I warned you before that if your patient can't be kept out of the Church, he ought at least to be violently attached to some party within it. I don't mean on really doctrinal issues; about those, the more lukewarm he is the better. And it isn't the doctrines on which we chiefly depend for producing malice. The real fun is working up hatred between those who say "mass" and those who say "holy communion" when neither party could possibly state the difference between, say, Hooker's doctrine and Thomas Aquinas', in any form which would hold water for five minutes. And all the purely indifferent things—candles and clothes and what not—are an admirable ground for our activities. We have quite removed from men's minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials—namely, that the human without scruples should always give in to the human with scruples. You would think they could not fail to see the application. You would expect to find the "low" churchman genuflecting and crossing himself lest the weak conscience of his "high" brother should be moved to irreverence, and the "high" one refraining from these exercises lest he should betray his "low" brother into idolatry. And so it would have been but for our ceaseless labour. Without that the variety of usage within the Church of England might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility,

Your affectionate uncle    

SCREWTAPE

Trinity 4 sermon notes

Fr. Kirby
The Old Testament Lesson for today, provided by an Australian Anglican list of 1978 designed to supplement the 1662 BCP Propers, and approved for use in this Diocese of the ACC years ago, is Ezekiel 37:1-14

“Can these bones live?”+

What is the historical context of today's OT lesson? Ezekiel is ministering to the Jewish exiles. They are not living in their own land but are instead a people who have effectively been held captive by the Babylonians. Many of them want to return, but see little hope of doing so, as verse 11 implies. This passage is an allegory of their restoration to their land and accompanying reconciliation with God. The dry bones stand for the Jewish people's sense of death: death of their identity, freedom, and relationship with God. So, what theologians call the sensus literalis (original, humanly intended sense) of the passage is actually figurative!

But the interesting thing is that the people of God have long understood that this passage also refers to the promise of a non-figurative, bodily Resurrection. The abundance of witness in other parts of Scripture to this Resurrection, and the example of Christ himself, of course, force us to realise that God put more into a passage like this than first meets the eye. The irony is that this deeper, fuller, Divinely-intended significance, which theologians call the sensus plenior, is the more literal.

This goes to show that God has a sense of humour. We see this biblical humour again, I think, in Ezekiel's answer to the divine question, “Can these bones live?”. “O Lord God, thou knowest.” The prophet doesn't really answer the question. It's a rather reverent way to say “I have no idea, but I think you're about to tell me anyway, so I'll just let you do that”. Obviously, it didn't look like it was at all possible for the dry bones to live to the prophet, but he was wise enough, given he was dealing with God, not to say so.

For our God is the God who brings life from death, hope from hopelessness. He is the Restorer of his people, the doer of the humanly impossible.

But note the two steps in the process: body, then breath. This tells us that, whether for individuals or churches or church institutions, the re-constitution of outward structures and actions is not enough. Going through the motions is not enough. The bones may be a-rattling and the 'flesh' might look healthy, but without the breath of life, which is the indwelling Spirit of God [as explained in verse 14], we are still dead. Also note that God is the instigator of this whole process, and the dry bones have little say in it! This reminds me of something said to us at Synod by Fr Derek Pryde. He said that whatever we do, it is to be the Holy Spirit doing it, and he said this repeatedly. And, to make the point about who is in charge clearer, he told a story that went something like this:

'A king had as his daughter a beautiful princess. He decided that none but the bravest and most honourable man would be worthy of her. So, he set up a large lake and stocked with sharks and crocodiles. To win his daughter's hand, a man had to swim successfully across the lake. Some came to attempt the ordeal, and there was much chomping and failure. Until one man was seen to swim with great speed right across, just avoiding all the predators, and leap out of the lake. He then strode with some determination up to the King, who declared: “What a courageous man you are! Congratultions, I pronounce you worthy. You may marry my daughter.” The man replied, “Never mind all of that, what I want to know is, WHO PUSHED ME IN?!” '

Fr Derek then said to us 'You are all here because you have been pushed in!'

The balancing aspect to this is that the prophet is instructed by God to call upon the breath, that it may breathe life into the people. We are not merely passive, and one activity we are to pursue is to call upon the Holy Spirit. The Church does this at its Ordination: “Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire.” Amen. So let it be, not just at Ordinations, but throughout our journey.

Finally, there is that brief but key word in verse 10: “they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great army”. You can miss it so easily if you are not paying attention, but it is very significant. God does not just restore us to survival, but to strength. Where the people of God are quickened and filled with the Spirit, they are not merely an assembly, but an army. We are called to active duty, to fight spiritual battles against sin and deception. We do this by our words and works and prayers, which are all to draw upon knowledge of our salvation, acceptance of the Faith, and the Word of God, as Ephesians chapter 6 makes clear.
Can these bones live? Yes, by the grace of God. Is our hope lost, have we been abandoned to exile, as we see the Church under siege in so many places, as we experience suffering and apparent failure personally? No, thanks be to God. Trust in the God of Hope, the God of Restoration. +

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

Romans 8:18-23  *  Luke 6:36-41

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading come in separate sections. Let us look at each one, one by one.

Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. 

This is not about pretending not to know right from wrong, but about mercy. All too easily, we apply to others a standard we would not want applied to us, not about right and wrong, but about forgiveness. It goes without saying that everybody, including everybody here, is a sinner. I am not talking about notorious and unrepentant sin. I am not talking about accepting a low standard of conduct, either for others or for ourselves. I am talking about the need of every personto be forgiven failures and offenses.

          Jesus commands us to be merciful because God Himself is merciful: “Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” It is that very appeal, to be merciful because God is merciful, that is taken up later by St. Paul: "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Eph. 4:32) "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Colo. 3:13)

          One thing that has plagued the Church for centuries is a readiness to pull away from each other. Rather, God commands us to acquire the combination of love and humility that preserves not only good order, but the sacramental bond of fellowship and communion by which we are in Christ. Separating from a religious body that cast off the truth of the Gospel was unavoidable; but, continued secessions are not, thereby, justified.

          God, as our Father through His only begotten Son, has brought us into His own family and made us His children. Just as an earthly father rejoices to see his grown children love one another, and is grieved if it is otherwise, so it is out of love for God that we are told to love one another in the Church. “Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," says St. Paul; and “even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

          Not be a judge means not to set yourself up as the judge, not to condemn, not to write off your brothers and sisters as hopeless cases, beyond the pale, not worth bothering with. It is easy to take a mental photograph that freezes individuals in time, perhaps at their worst. But, the truth is that the Holy Spirit, the One Who is at work in your heart and life, is active also in changing and sanctifying all of God’s children. That mental image you retain, taken at someone’s worst moment, needs to be torn up and thrown away. This requires faith in God, in this case, in the Holy Spirit Who is at work changing your brother just as He is changing you.

          Since the measure you mete will be meted out to you, love one another, be merciful, and have faith that God the Holy Spirit is at work.

And he spoke a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. 

Jesus used the image of the blind leading the blind, on another occasion, to speak about the dangers of religious leaders who teach false doctrines (Matt. 15: 12-14), specifically of the Pharisees. But, here in this context, Jesus uses the same words to speak of something different, which we shall see in a moment. But, first let us consider the words, “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”

          Though He was Lord of Heaven and Earth, Jesus accepted the role of a servant for our sakes. His patience was more than remarkable; it was, literally, Divine.

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. (John 1:10,11)

Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. (John 13:13-17)

Even as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Matt. 20:28)

This must be the attitude of each one of us in His Church. We are here to serve, to wash one another’s feet, and so to be like our Master (or Rabbi).

          I mentioned to you the man who told me he wanted to be a priest, in fact, that he wanted to be a bishop, and that he asked me, hypothetically, “isn’t it right to want to climb to the top of your chosen field?” I mentioned to you also that I told him to forget entirely about ordained ministry; that I would not help him on that road, not even one little bit. If ever he comes back to see me, I will hope it will be because he wants to serve God, even if it means washing the feet of his brethren; and that he will have no longer a desire born of ambition. It is enough to be like our Rabbi, our Master Who came not to be served. And, this calling, to be like Christ, is everyone’s calling. It is your calling and it is mine. Be content to serve in whatever way God has called you and given you gifts for service. It is enough.

And why beholdest thou the mote [speck] that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam [log]  that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

You can see, as I said, from the context that Jesus has used the image of the blind leading the blind, and both of them falling into a ditch, differently from how He used it regarding the Pharisees. And, here we see that one of the services you may provide, out of love that moves you to be merciful as our Father is merciful, is to pull the speck out of your brother’s eye.

          To the degree that your brother may need your help, you cannot help him blinded, as you are, if you are walking around with a log protruding out of your own eye. When it comes to helping your brother get his eye clear, if you are the one to be of help, first remove the log that blinds you.

          Well, that is simple enough to understand, surely. But, the reality is subtle. We all prefer to see the faults of others, and to ignore our own faults; and that includes the fault of finding fault. “Why isn’t you-know-who just the most judgmental, fault-finding and critical bore we know?” When my brother was a young and mischievous seminarian, he wrote a sort of not quite hymn that went:

I thank Thee Lord, for I hear tell

That another sinner went to Hell.

I thank Thee I am not as he,

An hypocrite and a Pharisee.

Consider what I am saying in light of last Epistle reading, about Satan going about as a roaring lion. Spiritual warfare is a reality concerning which our own people have all too often been quite dangerously naive. 

Think of these words by St. Paul: 
"To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (II Cor. 2:10,11)

          But, today the Church is ignorant of Satan’s devices. One great problem is the disproportionate number of people, in far too many cases even of clergy, who have proved themselves ignorant of Satan’s devices. We cannot afford the luxury of this ignorance. Our adversary the devil still goes about as a roaring lion, and it takes real humility before God, and in relation to one another in the Church, to resist him. It takes, also, steadfastness in the faith.

           
We have an enemy already – our common enemy; and we are all on the same side. It must be like the musketeers said: “All for one and one for all.” Or, to put it better, "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." “Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

Fr Wells' Bulletin Insert

TRINITY IV

Concerning the Epistle:

A very thoughtful and perceptive friend recently asked me, "Have you in your life personally known an America that was morally superior to our own? He was articulating the anguish which many of us feel as we see a culture in shreds, values abandoned, a nation in ruins, a world gone berserk.

I have to answer my friend that from a Biblical perspective: the Fall of man did not take place in our lifetime nor in the lifetime of our parents and grand-parents, but at the very beginning of history, the edge of time itself. If the world seems to be a terrible place, it is not because things are getting worse but because our moral perceptions have become more acute.

St Paul addresses this issue in the passage from Romans 8 which we read today, when he elaborates on "the sufferings of this present time" which certainly will be reversed in the "glory" to come. This truly monumental chapter begins with the thrilling statement "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The key-word of that text and perhaps for the whole chapter is the word "now," which tells us that in the earth-shattering event of Jesus Christ, there has been a decisive and permanent reversal in the world and the relationship between God and His creation.

But this reversal is not obvious to all and sometimes even Christians see it dimly. The Bible is honest about the intensity of "the sufferings of this present time." And those words, "this present time," do not refer to the current generation or even to our brief lifetime. "This present time" is the entire chunk of history between the two Comings of our Redeemer.

Paul reminds us that for the time being, until Jesus comes again, we live on this planet with the residual effects of Adam's Fall. "For the creation was subjected to futility, ... the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." When secular talking-heads try to alarm us with daily recitals of how bad the world has become, the Christian's response should be, "Yes, we have known all this for a long time, but we have already read the final chapter and we know the end of the story. In fact we have the solution to your pain."

"The glory which shall be revealed in us" is Christ's coming and the resurrection of our bodies. But within the here and the now, we already enjoy "the first-fruits of the Spirit." Here we have an interesting word. Usually, "first-fruits" meant the initial part of a harvest, which had to be rendered up to God in sacrifice. But here, the word instead refers to God's gift to us. Paul seems to be thinking of a special meaning of the term, in which it referred to a birth-certificate. The presence of the Holy Ghost within the life of the Christian is his birth-certificate as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, the certification of his new birth. This is the great fact already in effect. The "present evil age" can never undo it.


Concerning the Gospel:

In the second half of the liturgical year, the series of approximately twenty-six Sundays, the persistent theme of our Epistles and Gospels is how to live the Christian life. From Advent through Trinity Sunday, we were taught what God has done for us. Now, from Trinity Sunday until Sdvent, we must learn (to borrow Francis Schaeffer's book title) “how then shall we live.” Our Saviour's mighty work for us cannot leave us unchanged. But what are we being changed into?

Today's Gospel comes from a long passage in Luke called “the Sermon on the Plain,” roughly equivalent to Matthew's “Sermon on the Mount.” What should be immediately obvious to us is that Jesus spent much of His time in ethical teaching, instructing His disciples in a distinctive way of life. Christians are set apart, Jesus teaches us, not just in what we believe or how we worship, but by how we behave ourselves.

Three things are obvious in this passage. First, the Christian life is outstanding for the quality of inter-personal relationships. Everything Jesus has to say here involves how we treat, and get along with, other people.

Second, the moral principles of the Christian life are so utterly simple. Jesus does not speak of “gray areas,” or ethical dilemmas.” When He speaks of being merciful, or not judging, or being generous, we have before us some very straight-forward material. No-one can rightly say, “This is too hard for me to understand.” (Today's Epistle from Romans 8 is another matter!) We know only too well what Jesus means.

Third, in the two great passages in Matthew and Luke (Matt 5—8 and Lk 6:20—49), Jesus is not speaking (like Socrates or Emmanuel Kant) in the manner of an ethical teacher, speculating on the nature of right and wrong. He spoke and still speaks as King and Law-giver. When we hear His voice in these simple commands “Be ye therefore merciful, ...” we recognize His authority over us.

And sadly, we instantly recognize that this is a Law which we cannot yet fulfil. Can anyone of us read today's Gospel and say, “Oh yes, I have done all that, let's move on to the next topic.” It is significant that this sermon, as Luke narrates it, was preached by Jesus to “a great multitude of people ... which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases.” Disease in the Gospels is the symbol for sin. As the disease of our innate sinful nature is progressively healed in us, so it is that our daily lives are gradually re-fashioned and transformed. The royal law of Jesus will become the picture of the redeemed Christian.

Laymen's Guide to the Thirty-Nine Articles

Article XII

Of Good Works

Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgement, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.

De Bonis Operibus

Bona opera, quae sunt fructus fidei et iustificatos sequuntur, quanquam peccata nostra expiare et divini iudicii severitatem ferre non possunt, Deo tamen grata sunt et accepta in Christo, atque ex vera et viva fide necessario profluunt, ut plane ex illis aeque fides viva cognosci possit atque arbor ex fructu iudicari.

Fr. Robert Hart

The qualifier put on good works at the beginning, “good works, which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification,” cannot be understood without a healthy look at the subject matter of Articles IX, X and XI. At this point I must ask the regular reader of The Continuum to bear with me a bit, for in recent weeks I have addressed this in a posted sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity, wherein I wrote the following:

     “So, which is right? Is it Paul, who says, ‘a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law’? (Rom. 3:28) or James who says, ‘by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.’? (James 2:24) Both men are right, both agree, for both were inspired to write their doctrine by the Holy Spirit who guided them in what to say.

          “Paul spoke of works of the Law, and James spoke of works of faith. Paul explained that the Law cannot make anyone righteous, but that only faith can justify; and James explained that faith is evident by works. If we find a passage that sums up what both men were saying, in full agreement, it from Paul’s Epistle to the Church in Ephesus:

“‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.’ (Eph. 2:8-10)

“Paul, again to the Galatians: ‘For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.’ (Gal. 5:6) And, to the Corinthians, ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’ (I Cor. 13:13) ‘Faith without works is dead, being alone… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also,’ James tells us. This works well with Paul’s doctrine, that faith is accompanied by love. James says that we show faith by our works, and Paul tells us that faith ‘works by love.’

“A true believer, one who has faith in Christ, cannot live in that faith and not be changed by it. The fact that ‘we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,’ as Paul wrote, simply has to find expression in our lives. Where faith is, a person having been justified already, can be transformed by the Holy Spirit in day to day life.”

Why does this whole doctrine of Original Sin and of Grace offend modern ears? For the same reasons, no doubt, that it offended the ears of Pelagius. First of all it offends carnal pride. The doctrine that we cannot make ourselves righteous, and must receive grace to be acceptable to God, requires humility, or we cannot receive it.

Modern writers have twisted this in a most disturbing way, turning the whole understanding of it back to front. One writer, whose essay I read recently, made a terrible accusation against those who believe in grace, saying that they think themselves to be superior and better than others, because they imagine that they have an advantage. The absurdity of his point of view was both tragic and hilarious at the same time: Tragic because he meant it, and hilarious because it is ridiculous. Obviously, it takes humility, and also creates it, to accept the diagnosis of Original Sin and to take the medicine God freely offers by His grace.

Also, the truth offends because it is all too easy to consider good works (generally speaking, 1.giving alms, 2.prayer and 3.fasting – taking our cue from Matthew the sixth chapter) to be some sort of atonement, that by doing good works we somehow pay for our own sins. In itself this idea is wrong for several reasons, one of which is the simple fact that doing good works is something God requires, as revealed in His commandments. Therefore, rather than balancing the books with good works against our sins, the failure to do good works when opportunity arises, is itself a sin. That is, the whole subject of good works merely adds to our guilt when we neglect them. Therefore, they are no great accomplishment in God’s eyes, and do not deserve a reward, but rather a punishment for failing to do them. So, we must look again at these words of Jesus:

“But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:7-10)

And then we have another fact to deal with, as part of the diagnosis of Original Sin; that even at our best, and when doing our best, sin itself remains present. It may seem hidden, invisible, and wholly undetectable to human senses. Nonetheless, it remains present. “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” (Rom. 7:21) For example, we carry many things that may be hidden even to ourselves: Below the surface may dwell hidden pride, lusts ready to spring into action, petty jealousies, desire for vainglory, unrighteous judgments on others, anger or even a terrible lack of faith in God. These very things, sins begotten in the fallen condition of our nature, do not simply disappear while we try to do good. So, even good works themselves cannot be free from sin, because we ourselves, by our own power, cannot be free from it. 

          Can we doubt that good works themselves might even be unprofitable? Do we believe what Paul wrote, that “faith worketh by love,” as his Epistle to the Galatians put it (as quoted above)? That is, faith itself works through love (charity or agape); so that if love is not present, it is unmistakable that neither is faith: “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” (I Cor. 13:3) I take no liberty, for charity cannot abide alone, but only with faith and hope (v.13, also quoted above).

          So, good works do not justify sinners because they are among the basic requirements we find in God’s commandments anyway, a duty not be neglected; and because we have no power in and of ourselves to be free of sin. Therefore, good works “cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgment.” Concerning the works of the Law, they do not impress the Almighty or win Him over. “We have done that which is our duty to do,” and even when desiring to do good, “evil is present” with us.

          It just is not fair, is it? But, fairness is not grace; and God has provided for us something far, far better than anything that is merely fair.

          And, looking even closer at the Article, shocking as this may be, it is even the best kind of works that, nonetheless, “cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgment.” That is, the good works that are the fruit of faith do not serve the purpose of balancing the books anymore than mere works of the Law, or works done without faith. After all, that is neither their purpose nor within their power. Our sins were taken away only by the sacrifice once offered of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself once for all to be the full and wholly sufficient propitiation for our sins.

          The purpose of such good works, even works that are the fruit of faith that works by agape, is to serve and please God, and to show forth evidence that our faith is living and true. These good works are fruit, naturally (in fact supernaturally) produced from within the human heart by the working of the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 5:5, Gal. 5:22,23) They come forth by love, not from a desperate self-centered need, nor grudgingly.

It is right, indeed required, to do good works simply because God so commands you; but, it pleases Him only when faith works by love. And, with such good works as come forth as fruit of this living faith, even though evil is present as long as we walk in the world in this fallen state, the charity by which faith works pleases God, and the Faith alone justifies.

Fr. Laurence Wells

St. Paul had to deal with the question raised by some truly real, not imaginary, opponents: "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6.1) The Reformers had likewise to contend with the accusation of their equally real opponents that the Gospel of unmerited grace taught moral laxity and moral indifference. And as Dietrich Bonheoffer had occasion to observe, this Gospel can be fatally distorted so that grace is not only free but cheap as well.         

It is important to know that Article XII was not part of Cranmer's 1552 Forty-two Articles, but added by Archbishop Matthew Parker in the re-draft of 1563. This Article balances and clarifies the doctrine of Justification set forth in the previous Article. In simple language this Article tells us that although "good works" cannot make us right with the Creator we have insulted, "good works” are nevertheless necessary for pardoned sinners to please Him. This is no concession or paradox but an integral fact of the Gospel.        

The Scripture itself takes a very high view of "good works." In a text which has worked its way into the Anglican liturgy since 1549 we are told, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5.16). A closer look at the Greek text reveals references to "good works" lost in translation. In Matt. 26:10, our Saviour praised the woman who anointed Him with very expensive ointment and said she had performed a "noble work," weakened in English to read "a beautiful thing."  Paul, the apostle of unmerited grace and Justification, could write (Rom. 2:6--7), "He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life."  In translation we might miss the fact that "well doing" in the Greek is "good work" (agathou ergou). Paul knew the difference between "good works" and "the works of the law." Good works are the evidence of the presence of the Spirit in the life of the justified believer; the works of the law are unable to bring a sinner into a right relationship with God.

As the NT uses the expression, "good works" refers to the transformed life and life-style of the Christian, a person who has been given supernatural life through his re-birth and united to Christ by faith.  It is simply incongruous for such a person, if regeneration and justification are any more than empty words, to remain unchanged.  This is the "newness of life" of which St. Paul spoke and to which our General Confession alludes. The same truth is reiterated in our Post-communion Thanksgiving, "and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in."    

And in those words we get to the bottom line. Our "good works" are not ours anyway. They are not the result of moral striving or spiritual boot-strapping on our part; much less are they fits or spasms of heroic virtue. They are the outward and visible evidence of what God is doing with us, of what He has prepared for us.

Invocation of saints

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae (Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.)

Of all the words we associate with the invocation of saints, these are the best known and most often said. A friend of mine, questioned by critics who assumed he was committing some sort of idolatry, answered that he was not praying to Mary, but asking her to pray for him. As such, he was not treating her as a deity, but as another person whose prayers, unhindered by the weakness of the flesh, could be a great aid in helping him against the perils of this world. 

This whole subject begs genuine and sincere questions. Anglicans have no set doctrine on the matter of addressing specific saints, but a wide range of practice and points of view. On the subject of saintly intercession, it seems unthinkable that, for example, the same St. Paul who wrote the following words, has ever ceased to pray for those yet enduring the battle of the Church Militant:

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, etc. (Col. 1:9f)

The writer to the Hebrews tells us, concerning those who have gone before us with the mark of faith, "we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." (Heb. 12:1) To expect their intercession is to understand that saintly spirits cannot be devoid of charity. The question, however, is one of invocation. When did this practice begin, and what was it in the earliest days? But, first, we must consider the word "saint" itself. 

The word simply means "holy." In the famous "Hail Mary" devotion, "Holy Mary" means "Saint Mary" (Sancta Maria). Some have insisted on translating "the communion of saints" (communio sanctorum) as "Holy Communion," to make it speak of the sacrament. But, this is not the sense of the phrase in the Apostle's Creed as Christian writers have recorded the Church's general understanding. Generally, it has been understood to mean that the Church is one in Christ, so much so that death is no real barrier to fellowship or κοινωνία (koinōnia).

It is, however, quite obvious that the Bible does not use the word "saint" the same way that people have been generally using it for the last several centuries. To some people it may be shocking that every Christian is called to be a saint, as St. Paul wrote. For example in Romans 1:7 and in I Corinthians 1:2, he tells everyone in the Church that each one of them (that is, of us) is called to be a saint, using the same word that he used in both of these openings of his Epistles to say that he, Paul, was called to be an Apostle. The word is "κλητός" (klētos). It is an invitation, a calling, and by usage, a vocation such as Paul's own Apostolic vocation. The meaning is clear: Each and every Christian is called to be a saint, ἅγιος (hagios), called to holiness, no matter what other calling one may have. It is the New Testament word that corresponds to the Hebrew word חָסִיד  ( [C]Hasid), as in Hasidic Judaism.

The Bible does not restrict the word "saint" to those who have died and who have been canonized. According to the Bible, the Church has saints both militant and triumphant. Living people, not yet departed, are called saints in the Scriptures, made holy and set apart to God by baptism, and sanctified in life by the Holy Spirit Who provides them with virtues. We need to be aware of this, because in modern usage it is reserved to the departed and canonized individuals whose names are known. We need to recover the older and Biblical meaning in order to understand the Scriptures, and to gain the proper view both of what God calls us to, and what He by His grace can make of each one of us.  

In ancient times, after a while, the Church kept its departed heroes in mind, remembering them in the Eucharist, invoking their names as the names of living spirits whose temporary departure from the body (awaiting the General Resurrection on the Last Day) should not make the living think of them as separated, as if by a great gulf too wide to traverse. They are alive in a heavenly realm with Christ, where the angels and saints make a great company around the throne of God. Neither should they be thought of as far away, beyond the reach of our love, nor us beyond the reach of theirs ("Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Rom. 8:35,38,39). 

It took time for the word "saint" to acquire its modern usage, and even longer for that usage to be taken for the only working definition of the word. An elaborate system of canonization has evolved over many centuries, especially in the Church of Rome. Today, a departed and very special person goes through stages of beautification, and is tested supposedly by working miracles and having his reputation endure a trial. At this trial "The Devil's Advocate" lists all the reasons why said person is not a saint. If all goes well, the canonization goes through, with the Pope declaring the person a saint as an infallible teaching, in each case, of the Church. The meaning, due to the evolution of ideas (today called "Doctrinal Development"), is that the canonized "saint" has been allowed directly into the presence of God to behold the Beatific Vision (Matt. 5:8), without suffering the pains of a punitive Purgatory.

It is all very inspiring and grand to some people. But, if you were to ask me to justify this elaborate system with the Bible, or even with the witness of the Fathers of the Church, I would have to answer that the task is impossible. It is not from the Bible, and was not known in the ancient centuries of the Church. It has grown over the years. No such process of canonization was known in Antiquity, and I can make no case for it now, especially with its dependence on doctrinal innovations such as Purgatory. 

But, that saints of the Church Triumphant, who possess the virtue of charity, pray for those yet in the Church Militant, surrounding them in a cloud of witnesses , I do not doubt. Certainly, Heaven is all around us, the glory of it hidden from our mortal eyes to protect us from a sight we cannot endure in this fallen condition. We are not ready to see the glory of God all around us (Isaiah 6:3).

What then of invocation? Did any Ecumenical Council establish a doctrinal and authoritative dogma about it? No. A dogma about invocation does not exist. What does exist is very old practice, practice that is mostly devotional. The questions that arise generally are about whether or not the practice is dangerous, or whether or not it contradicts the Gospel. Does it amount to idolatry when Christians ask those who have departed, but who surround them in the great cloud of witnesses, to pray as intercessors? Does it make those departed saintly spirits into extra mediators, as if we needed more than the One Mediator Himself? 

The answer to these questions is no; no more than my asking you to pray for me, or you asking me to pray for you. It would not be idolatry, obviously, nor is it logical to treat simple intercession as if it were equal to Divine-human Mediation, which only one Man, Jesus Christ, may do (I Tim. 2:5). I do ask you to pray for me. St. Paul, in his Epistles, both said he prayed for his children in the Faith and asked them to pray for him. No one can suggest, with any plausibility, that this amounts to anything that diminishes the unique role of our Lord and Savior. 

I recall a very well known theologian, possibly the only real theologian in the Charismatic Movement during the 1970s, named W.J. Ern Baxter. He told a story about how his grandmother always prayed for him in the early days of his preaching ministry, and that when she died he felt a great loss because she could pray for him no longer. His story would end by telling how other people volunteered to pray in her place, and everyone would feel good inside. With all due respect for the man, a very learned man, why did he assume that his grandmother could no longer pray for him? Is death such a boundary as all that? The Lord Jesus told us, "For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." (Luke 20:38)

I cannot promise, however, that specific saints hear specific requests, for though the Church has long practiced calling on departed saints by name, each one is still a limited, finite being who waits to be clothed again in the resurrection. We must not imagine that they have become omniscient, omnipotent or omnipresent. Like the angel who spoke to John on Patmos, they are our fellow servants. Nor can I recommend endless learning about specific saints, as if that constituted necessary religious instruction, in place of learning the Bible and the substance of our Faith. Nor can I accept the judgments of the Church of Rome about every person they recognize in the manner in which they use the word "saint."

Yet, knowing that the cloud of witnesses surrounds us, I can say as a devotion the words from the Gospel of Luke that constitute the Hail Mary (Luke 1:28, 42,43) and follow them with Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. I cannot promise anyone that she herself hears all those requests for prayer, having no chapter and verse to point to. After all, she is only human. But, I cannot doubt that she, along with St. Paul and so many others, pray for those of us who have yet more to endure in this battle, before we too may rest a while.

Trinity 3 sermon notes

“Humble yourselves ... Casting all your care upon him ... be vigilant ... the devil ... resist, steadfast in the faith ... And the God of all grace ... shall ... strengthen you.”+ (1 Peter 5:6-10)

Humility, vigilance, strengthening. The path to the third is the first two.

It is interesting that casting our cares, that is our worries or concerns, on God is connected with the exhortation to humility. Many of the things that weigh us down, which we need to cast onto God, are heavy because of the extra burden of ego tied up therein, and our “need” to protect it. Our pride is offended by various defeats and failures, and is frightened of “repeat performances”. It is easy for human beings to worry about appearances and the imagined (or real) slight against them. But the only appearance that should concern us is the light we are meant to shine, the witness to Christ's character which is a manifestation of him dwelling in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17). But this light can only shine as reflected or borrowed light (2 Corinthians 3:18), for it is of grace, from the “God of all grace”, and thus is pure gift. Thus our glory is paradoxically founded on humble acknowledgement of our inadequacy and dependency. As people abandon the burdens of wanting to exercise power or experience “superiority”, or of self-justification, or of imposing the truth as they know it (not to lead others to Truth but) because it is they who know it, and of seeking the praise of men, they are on the path to the freedom of humility. Humility is not about refusing to admit our real gifts, as if dishonesty were humble. It is not about being servile or sycophantic towards others, another form of dishonesty and even manipulation. It is admitting we are sinners, but sinners who can be truly saved and enabled by grace alone. It is admitting all that is good is a gift of God, including that which is within us, and that we are no more valuable or precious to God than anybody else submitted to grace. (How much more precious than infinitely so do we need to be? Drink in this truth: “God cares for you”.) Godly humility does not merely acknowledge these as dead facts but meditates upon and rejoices in them. So, as we care less about our status (or “standing”) and image before men, we come to find we have our rightful place in Christ and shine with an unearthly light. God exalts us, as St Peter teaches us in today's Epistle.

But in the same way we should not worry about how successful or clever or talented or attractive we seem to others, we should not worry about those needs which are legitimate. Once we remind ourselves in faith that God really does care for us, fears are lightened. Of course, his care does not guarantee the absence of pain, but it does guarantee a “happy ending” as we cleave to him. Sometimes, however, our cares are not selfish, yet are still discouraging. We worry about family or friends, or about the state of the Church and the state of the war between the Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of light. However, God cares for our family and friends too, and his final victory I assured. One might say that all we needed to worry about was obeying God and cooperating with the building of his Kingdom, but even here our proper attitude is not “care” in the negative sense of worrying, but care in the positive sense of the determination to invest our time and energy in this pursuit of God's will.

The Epistle goes on to talk about vigilance, on the watch for the attacks of the devil. How does the devil attack us? For the most part, subtly and invisibly. He tempts us to sin and to doubt, as he has done from the beginning (“Did God say ... ?”: Genesis 3:1). That is why our resistance is founded not just on will-power but on faith, that is, we resist him “steadfast in the faith”. Much of the devil's weaponry is deceit, as the father of lies, so he tempts by taking people away from the truth revealed by God (whether in Scripture explicitly, or in conscience and nature implicitly) just as much as by appealing to desire. That is why knowledge of the Scriptures and of the Church's derived teachings on faith and morals is essential. But not just knowledge, committed acceptance. We submit to God's truth and use it against temptation as Jesus did in the wilderness, when he quoted the OT back to the devil. And all the while we place our confidence of strength to overcome in Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23-25). But we cannot forget that Jesus' struggle also involved prayer and fasting, which are an indispensable part of our vigilance. Thus we will be vigilant, but by no means terrified. We will be at peace, but by no means lax or lazy.

The connection made by St Peter between resisting the devil and remembering that we do not suffer alone in verse 9 suggests that one of the Devil's way of devouring us is through despair, which saps our faith and hope. Such temptation to despair must be resisted with bold resort to the Cross and aggressive re-affirmation of Christ's covenanted mercies therein. And so, it is through both humility with repentance and hope-filled trust in God, through prayer, immersion in the Word, and self-denial, we will find the strength only God can supply: “after ye have suffered for a while”. It seems to me this refers both to the temporary trials of Christian life which make us grow and bring us to renewed joy as we come out the other side, and to the whole way of the Cross which is our journey to death (and any purification beyond it) or to Christ's return. For this life is but a little while compared to eternity, and the “restoration” the Epistle mentions after suffering is completed bodily at the final Resurrection.

Care-free humility and spiritual vigilance lead to godly strength. Let us follow the path. +

The Third Sunday after Trinity

I Pet. 5:5-11 * Luke 15:1-10

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

As soon as St. Peter tells us to humble ourselves, in the context of being subject one to another, he launches into this warning and reminder that we are in state of war. Spiritual warfare is a reality all too easy to forget, because it involves what we cannot see, an invisible yet very real enemy. Some passages remind us that we are commanded to put up an offence and to attack strongholds (“the gates of Hell” suggests that it is the enemy camp that must put up the greater defense- Matt. 16:18). This is especially so of every passage wherein the Lord gives us the Great Commission (e.g. Matt. 28:18-20). But, here Peter warns us to be on the defensive against attacks by Satan and his minions, defeated though they may be.   

          The humility of which Peter speaks has everything to do with our fellowship with one another in the Church. Christian fellowship is not merely a social “fellowship.” It is a lifeline we extend to one another in times of peril; it is mutual support in a war effort; it is care for those in need. The same word for “fellowship” is also the Greek word translated as “communion” when speaking of the sacrament:  “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (I Cor. 10:16) The word is κοινωνία (koinōnia). Our fellowship with one another is more than social; it is sacramental.

          When we face the reality of spiritual warfare, we must recall the fellowship of the Church, the Body of Christ, as the living, real and vital communion of saints both living and departed (or militant and triumphant) to which we belong by virtue of baptism, that is, by being in Christ. To withstand the assaults of the invisible enemy, assaults on our minds above all else, we begin by having an attitude that makes us subject one to another.

          This line, however, is a little longer than what we heard already today. All of verse five, the opening of today’s Epistle reading, says: “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” The elder is the πρεσβύτερος (presbyteros), from which the English word “priest” evolved. The first verse of this whole chapter makes it clear that the elder is a man ordained, who must care for your souls, not just an older man. Here it is from the top, verse one:

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder…etc.”

Frankly, there was no word for “laity” exactly. What Peter is saying is the same as what the writer to the Hebrews said: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” (Heb. 13:17) Earlier, in that chapter, they are identified as those “who have spoken unto you the word of God.” (v.7)

          In other words, obedience must be given to the word of God. Also, the elder is responsible to speak the word of God, not to be a dictator or to impose his own desires. As the prophet Malachi put it, “For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 2:7) Before the charge to be subject one to another, we find the charge to hear what the elder or priest is saying by the word of God as the messenger of the Lord. Everyone is called to humility if we hear the whole context, including the men who must rule (which means care for) the church without taking the attitude of being lords over God’s people.

          Now, the simple fact is that our adversary the Devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The context suggests to us that without humility each one of us would be in great danger. It is not enough simply to be free of an overwhelming ego, and not enough to feel humble. Safety requires us to get back to the meaning of fellowship, or communion, with one another in the Church in an attitude of being subject one to another; at the very least it means a willingness to hear more than to speak. It means humility to learn and to hear.

          Peter spoke from life experience. He was among the Apostles both before and after the great events of Christ’s resurrection appearances to them, and both before and after Pentecost. He could remember a time when they understood very little, so that “the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed” girded Himself in a towel and washed the feet of His disciples to teach them humility. For, they had gone into this most sacred of feasts arguing among themselves about which of them should be accounted the greatest. (Luke 22:24)  

          Peter could look back on that, and remember his boastful pride: “Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.” In His own faithfulness to His Apostles, Jesus spoke of events to come, and of their real significance. Peter could well remember, therefore, the Lord turning to him and saying deep and profound words that would only later take hold of him, when pride in his own strength was exhausted and gone:

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. (Luke 22: 31,32)

          I have quoted the King James Bible (1611), in which the word “you” was a plural word, and in which the word “thee” was singular. We have lost this in the English language, and the loss is a loss for Bible translation. Know this: In both the King James Bible and in the Book of Common Prayer, the words beginning with “Y” –you, yours, ye- are addressed always to more than one person. “Satan hath desired to have you” meant that he desired to have all of the twelve Apostles. But, in His next words Jesus spoke specifically to Peter; for the “Th” words are always addressed only to one individual (for He did not say the same about Judas), that is to Peter: “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”

          When this Apostle, all those years later, wrote this Epistle to the Church (that is, to you and me, to the Church in every generation and place), warning us of the Devil like a roaring lion, he could look back on the night when the same Devil desired to have all of the Apostles to sift them as wheat. Do not think times have changed so much; at least, do not think that way about spiritual warfare. Satan still goes about as a roaring lion, and it still takes the combination of humility and steadfastness in the faith to resist his attacks.

          Think of these words by St. Paul:

“To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (II Cor. 2:10,11)

          But, today the Church is ignorant of Satan’s devices. One of the tragedies of our Continuing churches is the disproportionate number of people, in far too many cases even of clergy, who proved themselves ignorant of Satan’s devices. Instead of looking like the powerful Apostles on the Day of Pentecost and after, some of them approached God’s altar the same way the pre-Pentecost Apostles sat at table, arguing over which should be accounted the greatest - who might have the purplest shirt and the mightiest miter. Satan desired to have them also, to sift them as wheat. Thank God for all of the individuals, all of those addressed as “thee,” for whom Christ Himself interceded, whose faith did not fail, and who, to this day, strengthen their brethren.

          We cannot afford the luxury of ignorance about Satan’s devices. He still goes about as a roaring lion, and it takes real humility to resist him. It takes, also, steadfastness in the faith. Some things never change, so it is up to us to learn wisdom. Humble yourselves, and also be steadfast in the faith.

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For another sermon that centers on the Gospel reading, click on this link.