Holiness: More or Less

I continue to enjoy my St James Devotional Guide with its notes from Patrick Henry Reardon. For example, we started Leviticus this morning: 

A dominant motif throughout the Book of Leviticus is the mutual relationship of worship and holiness. In his salvific self-revelation to his people on Mount Sinai, God is experienced as supremely holy. Because of this, he is properly worshiped only "in the beauty of holiness." This is the "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). To be holy is to belong exclusively to God. Holiness is not cheaply bought. It requires a transformation of one's whole life, the deep reformation of one's lifestyle, and the strenuous eradication of whatever in our souls impedes the working of the Holy Spirit.

EXCERPT FROM

Patrick Henry Reardon. “Spring 2013 - The Daily Devotional Guide by Patrick Henry Reardon.” The Fellowship of St. James. iBooks. 

Exclusive, transformation, deep reformation, strenuous eradication—no easy words there. An uncompromising call to something more. 

The challenge is that we Anglicans live and move and have our being in an ecclesiastical environment where the deep and strenuous is being reinterpreted away and is being replaced by something less; an easier, less costly, more "reasonable" way. 

For example, I can't ever remember reading or hearing anyone arguing for increasing the Biblical tithe as the standard for faithful, Christian stewardship. Arguments, Biblical or otherwise, always advocate less. There is even something called an "Anglican tithe." Five percent. Half a tithe. Incomplete. Less. Theft, according to Malachi. Sigh.

I find a similar trajectory in the sexuality debates. So called "progressive" arguments always promote the loosening and deconstruction of "antiquated" Biblical standards, both hetero and homo. They often base their arguments on the "silence" found in this or that text (Jesus never spoke of homosexuality, for example), or on the theory that the pertinent texts are being misinterpreted because of their culturally primitive context. They always want to allow for more licence, never less. 

Not to mention the atonement…

A Funeral in Elizabethan Language: "The Book of Common Prayer" and 1 Corinthians 15—for Micki Baisley

Micki Baisley. Using the old Prayer Book is thoroughly appropriate. She was a bit like the Prayer Book. Straight up. Saying it like it is. Old fashioned. A little inconvenient in this day and age. Not to be messed with or changed. Every Sunday morning, the same.

And there’s some language—which requires a bit of time and effort to appreciate, an acquired taste (remind you of anyone?), but when you make the effort, you find it’s worth it. Fine, rich, Elizabethan language, which has a rhythm of its own (as did our Micki, who marched very much to the beat of her own drum, did she not?) and yet it has a cadence which causes the words to roll off the tongue when you get used to it; the language of Shakespeare, life and death, tragedy and comedy, sorrow and joy—classic language, rich in imagery, both earthy and heavenly.

Micki could be down to earth. I remember a parish annual meeting right here in the church when there was a suggestion that we move the choir pews. I heard Micki’s voice from the pews, “Ridiculous!” she said. And, in later years, if she didn’t want to be visited, she said so. And that was that.

On the other hand, I got to see her face when she received communion, always at the 830 Book of Common Prayer service, as I put what the Prayer calls “the holy Bread of eternal life” (p83) into her hand, there was always such a softness and devotion in her face, I knew she was experiencing a glimpse of heaven.

Worship in the language of the Prayer Book was the context for Micki’s heavenly experience then. This morning as we honour both her memory and The One who made and loves her, it is also the context of our worship now; and rightly so.

So let’s look at the reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in Shakespearean language. What does it teach us about life and death, and Jesus, The One with whom Micki met here Sunday by Sunday?

First, about life—in the eternal—look at the first words at the bottom page 595: “Now is Christ risen from the dead.” Out of what was first experienced as tragedy and sorrow, came blessing and joy. Miraculously. Supernaturally. Jesus, the man, became the Risen LORD, The One who met Micki here each Sunday and meets us here today.

The Risen LORD Jesus Christ is the only one who can change the stuff of Shakespeare’s tragedies in our lives (page 596): death itself, corruption, dishonour, and weakness; into eternal life—incorruptible, glorious and powerful. Jesus is the only one able to change our natural bodies into glorified, spiritual ones; our earthiness into his heavenliness.

It’s a mystery, of course, and that’s what makes it so intriguing. Look at the top of page 596: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead (including Micki) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

And here’s where what Satan intended to be the ultimate human tragedy, dark death, will be turned, in the twinkling of an eye, to the greatest blessing there ever was and “Now is Christ risen from the dead” is the very centre of it.

Here’s where a little comedy comes in, as we thumb our noses at death saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” That’s like saying “Nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah-nyah, death!” in Shakespearean, Prayer Book language. I can hear Micki saying something like that.

I can also hear her saying, with her usual force and directness, “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And to you and me, “Therefore, my beloved brethren and sisteren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

If we know what's good for us, we’d better get on with it.

One more thing before we do: if you need to know more about what's really and eternally good for you, follow Micki's example and get thee to church where the Risen LORD Jesus is to be found.

From Behind Locked Doors: an Homily with Reference to John 20:19-31 for the Second Sunday in Easter, Year C

Didn’t they know it was Easter? Lenten fasting over. O joy, O joy! Not really. The week had been brutal. Jesus dead. Were they next? Would the ones that got Jesus come after them?

Then there was Mary with her “I have seen the LORD.” But she was so besotted with Jesus and so “emotional”! Not only that, Peter and John were behaving strangely. Just stories. People get stressed and they start imagining things.

No wonder the doors were closed and locked for fear.

Jesus got to them anyway.

19 “Peace be with you.” he said. 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Welcome to Eastertide—fifty days from the great Easter Resurrection Celebration to the Day of Pentecost on May 19th. Mystagogia is the word the ancient church used to describe what the period is for. A time to go deeper into the mysteries of what really happened and what God really did through Jesus, the Cross and the Resurrection.

Jesus started it when he beamed through the locked doors, gave them his peace, showed them his hands and his side.

It’s time to go deeper, Jesus was saying. Again, 21 “Peace be with you.”. And then, go. I am sending you. And he breathed on them and said, 22 “Receive the Holy Spirit. You are to be agents of my forgiveness in the world.

Thomas missed it. When the other disciples told him they had seen The Lord, Thomas said, “Right! Show me.” Eight days later, doors securely locked, Jesus beamed himself in again, wished them peace, and invited Thomas to check him out: touch me, look! Believe! 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Which brings me to us. Like Thomas, we weren’t there either. We didn’t experience the events ourselves—we’re at the other end of history. Many of our doors are closed, if not locked—for fear, fear of what others may think of us if we get into all this too much, or fear that God might really call us to do something we don’t want to do. Fear is a factor for most of us in some way or another—our doors are locked by comfort, routine, not having experienced many, or any, of the supernatural signs we read about; we don’t expect Jesus to beam himself through our doors at church, at home, or any where else any more.

Well, Jesus is here, folks. He’s certainly been beaming through my doors and I’ve been trying to believe and obey, and trying to encourage you to do the same as I’ve prayed for revival and spoken to you about the Holy Spirit Jesus breathed on his disciples. I’ve tried to put more energy into the people Jesus is sending you and me to serve as agents of his forgiveness than into ourselves and our comfortable set up here. I want be a Go-er, not a hider-behind-locked-doors.

The breath of Jesus released the Holy Spirit in those disciples and transformed them. His breath is doing the same for us. This Eastertide we have an opportunity to go deeper, to enter into the Mystagogia, to continue to the process Jesus started behind those locked doors. It starts on Thursday night at 7 in the hall. Ed and Carmen Codding are leading a 5 week, Eastertide, course called “Hearing God’s Voice.” In the Parish Life, “a practical course for..

In their bio, Carmen and Ed describe themselves as just a couple of ordinary people whose lives were changed by an encounter with Jesus in 1991.  Then they discovered that God communicates personally though Scripture which altered their lives again.  As the years went on they realized that God was speaking to them through others, circumstances, dreams and "coincidences", but did not know how to separate ordinary experiences from God experiences.  In 1998 their questions were answered through a series of teachings about "Hearing the Voice of The Lord" by Godspeak International.  Some changes in their lives as He spoke to them were opening their heart and home to the needy, a much earlier retirement than planned and four years on the mission field of Malaysia.  One of their greatest joys is facilitating others to recognize His voice and seeing their joy and surprise as He speaks to them.

The first session is called, ARE YOU QUALIFIED FOR MINISTRY? The answer, of course, is no. None of us are, but think about this: the people Jesus chose to send as his agents and ambassadors, were lacking in faith and weak in prayer, they lacked understanding of some of the basic teachings of Jesus, were stingy, judgmental and mean-spirited, selfishly ambitious and vengeful. They argued, plotted and schemed, doubted, were disloyal and unfaithful. Just like us.

And them, rather than feeling condemned and disqualified they asked Jesus to increase their faith and teach them to pray, they drew near to Him, seeking, questioning, receiving and learning of Him. They decided to enter into the Mystagogia, the deeper things of Jesus and their faith him.

We can do the same, starting this Thursday. Hearing God’s Voice is for everyone: newbies and oldies who need refreshing. Jude and I will be there. There are sign-up sheets up and down the hall.

More Than Enough: a Short Funeral Homily with reference to John 14:1-6—for Dona Stimson

If I could pick a week for my funeral, this would be it. The first week of Eastertide. Its daylight in the swamp, folks! The week after the biggest day in the Christian year, celebrating the biggest, best, most amazing, most awesome, most positive event in the history of the world, the Resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Lord and Saviour. This, and all Christian churches exist because of it. This ceremony is being held here because of it. There are not just tears and despair here because of it. Because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, death has lost its sting, in the midst of death and grief, there is joy and hope and new life to which we can look forward. All because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That’s why Jesus said, “Don't let your hearts be troubled,” (John 14:1) to his disciples in the reading we just heard from John. “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.” (John 14:2) More than enough room for Dona, and for you and me, if we want some. More than enough because Jesus knew that Eastertide was coming. More than enough, because, as is proclaimed and celebrated in Christian churches like this one around the world every Sunday—and especially last Sunday—Jesus rose from the dead. More than enough, as Jesus also said, to make it possible for Dona and for you and me to be with him always where he is—where every day is better than hotdog Wednesday and the clocks never have to change and we'll always wake up in our own beds just like at Grandma's house.

It sounds as if Dona knew something of more than enough—more than enough to do, for one thing, what with 5 kids, 18 grandchildren and 31 grandchildren. And, not only that, as the obituary in The News says, there were her annual bumper crops, family gatherings and winning at cards! As the obituary also says, she was a provider of more than enough food because “no one ever left the ranch on an empty stomach.”

Which brings me back to the empty tomb, Jesus, and the more than enough room there is for us where he now is in all his Resurrection glory.

Jesus is the only one in whose heart there was enough room to die for all of humankind—including Dona, you and me, even for his enemies. His heart is also the only one with enough room to carry us all to his Father’s home when the time comes where nobody ever has to cry themselves to sleep—more than enough room—way more than the Manyberries Hilton!

How do you and I prepare ourselves to be ready, so that he will come and get us when our time comes‚ especially, if like Thomas, we don’t know, or have forgotten, or are simply ignoring the way to the place Jesus tells us about?

Jesus tells us in the reading. “Trust in God and trust also in me.” (John 14:1) and “I am the way, the truth and the life,” Jesus says, “No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Jesus is the way. There are more than enough stories in the Bible about how to live a roomy life. Follow his example. Jesus is the truth. There is more than enough about that truth in the Scriptures. Jesus is the life. His heart on earth now beats in his body the Church. There is more than enough room in it for you and me.

Thanks to the more than enough Jesus represents, Dona Stimson’s life and your good memories of her, you have this opportunity to consider these things and whether to act on them this Eastertide.

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Running on Empty—Part the Second: a Short Homily for Easter Day

This uses the same opening and closing as last night's homily for the Vigil (here), but with thoughts on John's account of the Resurrection instead of Luke's. Soon you will also be able to hear it here. 

In 2006, the Archbishop Of Uganda, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi began his Easter Message like this:

When we are told the water tank for the Archbishop’s Palace is empty (which it often is!), we say, “That is not good.” When my wife, Mama Phoebe, discovers that the food store is empty, we say, “That is not good.” When my driver tells me that the fuel tank in my vehicle is empty, I say, “That is not good.” 

If you are like me, most of our associations with the word ‘empty’ are negative. We think, “empty is bad, and full is good." 

Yet, Easter challenges that assumption, because it is an empty cross and an empty tomb that are central to our faith. The resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ sets him apart from all other human beings throughout history and especially all other religious teachers. Buddha is dead. Confucius is dead. Mohammed is dead. Jesus and Jesus alone has returned from the grave, never to die again. Jesus is alive today! Empty is good!

Empty has been good right from the beginning. In the very first verse of the Bible we read, “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered” (Gen 1:1) it. In other words, the earth was empty and dark. Then God started filling it. God spoke until everything was made “and, indeed, it was all very good.” (Gen 1:31) God filled the emptiness with goodness. The filling was good. Empty became good. It’s been the same ever since.

God makes empty good enough to run on. Running on empty takes on a whole new meaning when you believe in Jesus.

Mind you, empty didn’t appear to be good to Mary in our Resurrection Gospel reading this morning. Mary Magdalene must have felt as if she was “running on empty” in a bad way as she ran to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple that Jesus was gone and the tomb is empty. Then Peter and the other disciple ran back together and they, too, found the tomb empty except for the cloth and wrappings which had been around Jesus. But, empty, as they were soon to discover, was good.

First, John tells us the other disciple “saw and believed.” Empty must have been good for him.

And then Mary was weeping outside the empty tomb in which she had expected to find the body of her beloved Jesus. For her, empty was not good. And then she turned to see Jesus standing there with her (v14), but didn’t recognized him until he spoke her name. And then, wonder of wonders, just as the word of God filled the empty void with the goodness of creation at the beginning, the words of Jesus filled the dark, empty void in Mary’s grieving heart with the goodness of his presence and she knew the empty tomb was a good thing; a very good thing, indeed.

“I have seen the Lord!” was the next thing she said to the disciples. Her heart was full. Empty, she discovered, was good.

The tomb was empty because Jesus had conquered sin and death. The empty tomb means the world is full of the resurrection power of God Almighty.

Empty is good because with God empty never stays that way, in Jesus he always fills it. With Jesus there are no half-empty glasses or lives and there are no half-full ones either. The tomb was EMPTY. He is FULLY and wonderfully raised from the dead. There was no half-dead with Jesus. There is no half-raised. There is no half-saved, no half-eternal life. The tomb was EMPTY. Empty is good! Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will run on empty full-on for ever. Empty is good.

Running On Empty: a Short Homily for the Easter Vigil

In 2006, the Archbishop Of Uganda, the Most Rev. Henry Luke Orombi began his Easter Message like this:

When we are told the water tank for the Archbishop’s Palace is empty (which it often is!), we say, “That is not good.” When my wife, Mama Phoebe, discovers that the food store is empty, we say, “That is not good.” When my driver tells me that the fuel tank in my vehicle is empty, I say, “That is not good.”

If you are like me, most of our associations with the word ‘empty’ are negative. We think, “empty is bad, and full is good.”

Yet, Easter challenges that assumption, because it is an empty cross and an empty tomb that are central to our faith. The resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ sets him apart from all other human beings throughout history and especially all other religious teachers. Buddha is dead. Confucius is dead. Mohammed is dead. Jesus and Jesus alone has returned from the grave, never to die again. Jesus is alive today! Empty is good!

Empty has been good right from the beginning. In the very first reading this evening, from the very first verse of the Bible we heard, “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered” (Gen 1:1) it. In other words, the earth was empty and dark. Then God started filling it. God spoke until everything was made “and, indeed, it was all very good.” (Gen 1:31) God filled the emptiness with goodness. The filling was good. Empty became good. It’s been the same ever since.

In reading number six from Isa 55:1 “Ho!” God said, “come!” My word “shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (v11) God speaks and his words fill emptiness with fruitfulness, accomplishment, success and life: full-on and forever.

God makes empty good enough to run on. Running in empty takes on a whole new meaning.

Mind you, at first, empty didn’t appear to be good to the women in our Resurrection Gospel from Luke when they arrived at the tomb and “did not find the body of the Lord Jesust” there (Luke 24:3) They were perplexed (v4), and terrified (v5) because of its emptiness, and because of the “two men in dazzling clothes” (v4), and when the women told the apostles about it, the apostles thought it was nothing but “an idle tale” (v11), that their words were empty; but, empty, as they were soon to discover, was good.

In Luke’s gospel, Peter must have felt as if he was “running on empty” in a bad way when (Luke 24.12) “he got up and ran to the tomb” and “saw the linen cloths by themselves.” But then empty must have changed because “he went home, amazed at what had happened.” His heart was full. Empty, he discovered, was good.

The tomb was empty because Jesus had conquered sin and death. The empty tomb means the world is full of the resurrection power of God Almighty.

Empty is good because with God empty never stays that way, in Jesus he always fills it. With Jesus there are no half-empty glasses or lives and there are no half-full ones either. The tomb was EMPTY. He is FULLY and wonderfully raised from the dead. There was no half-dead with Jesus. There is no half-raised. There is no half-saved, no half-eternal life. The tomb was EMPTY. Empty is good! Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will run on empty full-on for ever. Empty is good.

 

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Listen: a Meditation for Good Friday

Listen.

The city hums. The occasional motorcycle from the new spring crop rumbles by. Cars pass. Railway locomotive diesels throb. Pigeons converse on the bell tower. Life goes on around us. Most people are enjoying a holiday. Most are oblivious to what we're doing in here just as they must have been in Jerusalem when Jesus drank the cheap sour wine, said "It is finished" and gave up his spirit. Life went on all around as "he poured himself out to death" (Isa 53:12); so many oblivious, then and now, to the final fight to the death for their souls and ours.

Listen. Nothing seems to have changed.

I don't feel the anguish that Jesus felt. My life is not in danger. I can't crank the feelings up at will. But that's not the point. It really is finished. The point is to listen to the words of Holy Scripture, and to remember and to honour Him for, to give him worth, for who He is and what He completed. At the Evangelical Association service this morning, Pastor Mark Bolender from Hillcrest, called what Jesus did, "majestic submission."

Small it is, in this poor sort, as the hymn goes, for such as Him: our all too frail, willful and sinful humanity compared to His majestic innocence and submission. And yet, listen. What makes Good Friday so very good is the way that through that majestic submission, "God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor 4.6)

So look inside. Look around you. And listen, listen to the words we are about to pray.

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