I’d Forgotten…

…how good the readings set for the week after Pentecost in The Book of Common Prayer (Canada, 1962) are. Rich fare, especially for these Ember Days.From Ezekiel’s 

I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. …And they shall be my people and I will be their God (11.19&20)

and the Valley of Dry Bones to fanning the gift of God into flame (2Tim1.6) and 

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us,  guard the good deposit entrusted to you. (2 Tim1:14)

…with stops in Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 2, 3, 12 and 13, 1 Kings 19, the Wisdom of Solomon 1, 7, 8 and 9, Ephesians 6, Exodus 35, Numbers 11 and 27, 2 Corinthians 3, 5 and 6, Jeremiah 31,  Isaiah 61 and Galatians 5 along the way. It’s a remarkable list—a veritable Book of Common Prayer syllabus for a Life in the Spirit. If you’re looking for a place to tarry while doing a little post-Pentecost soaking in The Spirit these 24 readings are worth a prayerful look. 

For Ember Day Three

—a couple of challenges from today’s readings: 

2Tim1.14—what is the “good deposit” entrusted to me for such a time as this? 

Mt10.20—is the Spirit of our Father is speaking through me. If so, what is he saying? 

God bless you all. 

Love in Jesus, 

Gene+

A Short Funeral Homily—for William Van Buskirk

Jesus is at the centre of all this. We're here to celebrate the life of William Van Buskirk who died old and full of years and to mourn his death, but we do it, at Bill's request, enveloped in the truth of the birth, life, teaching, miracles, death on a cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, Lord and Saviour. Look at the first words I read at the beginning of our service on page 591. "I am." Who is? Jesus. In John's gospel—"the resurrection and the life." This morning Jesus comes to us in beautiful language. Elizabethan. Shakespearian. From The Book of Common Prayer (1962 Canada). Translated from a language and a culture even older.  It can be hard to get our 21st century ears around it, especially if we haven't grown up with it as Bill did. But it's worth the effort. Especially when we're doing what we're doing this morning because not only does it tell us something about Jesus, but it tells us something about Bill.

For example, Bill had those verses from Isaiah and Hebrews Jessica read earlier noted in his Bible. That he had a Bible with his own notes in it is revealing. Bill must have taken special comfort from those passages in particular.

Fear thou not; for I am with thee:
Be not dismayed; for I am thy God:
I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee;
Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. (https://ref.ly/Is41.10;kjv1900)

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. "
(https://ref.ly/Heb13.5-6;kjv1900)

These verses show from who Bill drew his strength and who he believed was his helper—the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They also give some insight into his character—hear are some of the words his family used to describe him to me as we were preparing for this service the other day: honest, integrity, consistent, an example, kind, gentle, quiet, modest. Canon James Robinson, his priest, at St Augustine's Anglican Church in Lethbridge, called Bill "a deeply faithful Christian," and told me about the generous transportation Bill provided in his little red truck. The church secretary there told me about how Bill would come in regularly to check the food donations box and top it up with what was needed. It's easy to give thanks for such a life.

Which brings me back to Jesus—another life for which we can be thankful—and The One from whom or about whom all the words of this service were written. What can we learn about him? More than I have time to cover this morning although you could learn more of him tomorrow morning here at St Barnabas at 830 and 1030 and at other times in church services all over the city and every Sunday. The learning never ends because, just as John wrote in the very last verse of his gospel,

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (https://ref.ly/Jn21.25;kjv1900)

Here are two things to go on with just from the beginning of this morning's service. Look again at the first words of the service on page 591:

1. I am (Jesus is) the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him, even when he (or she) dies, yet shall he (or she) live. Whoever lives and believes in Jesus shall never die. 
2. Look at the verses on the bottom of the page. There is a place for those who believe in God and Jesus, his Son. A place Jesus has gone on ahead to prepare in his Father's house. A place with more than enough mansions, or rooms, for Bill and for you and me. If we want one and decide to accept Jesus' invitation to believe in him. 

If that is true, and I believe that it is—so did Bill—then although the earthly first part of his life is over, he lives on, as does Jesus.

To seriously consider the reality of Jesus, and him risen from the dead, in the stately, beautiful, grace-filled words we've heard and will hear in the rest of this service this morning and to decide to take the plunge of faith in him would be a good way to honour the memory of William Van Buskirk by following his example. It would also deliver you safe into the arms of Jesus.

Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, you claim to be the resurrection and the life. If what you claim is true, please guide me, teach me, and open to me the reality of who you are. Give me an understanding that is coherent, convincing, and leads to the life and the home that you promise.

Gene+

Being Ready Now: a Funeral Homily with Reference to 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 21—for Marjorie Langdon

 NOW is Christ risen from the dead (1 Cor 15:20—BCP p595)

It's Advent. Christmas, we're waiting for—again (five sleeps if anybody's counting). Advent is also about our waiting, preparing and being ready for Jesus to come again, but Jesus is risen from the dead NOW.

Now, look at the top of page 596, because Jesus is risen from the dead NOW:

…even so in Christ shall all be made to live. (1 Cor 15:22—BCP)

Even so. Made to live. But everyone in their own order:

Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's (people like Marjorie Langdon) at his coming" (1 Cor 15.22-23—BCP p596)

Christ has died, Christ has risen NOW, Christ will come again!

I believe Marjorie is one of those "that are Christ's," who believed in her bones that Jesus is risen NOW, and so she was ready for his return, or to go a meet him.

Marjorie and I didn't agree on everything. She had definite opinions on the way God should be worshipped and with which books, for example. She didn't particularly care for my guitar playing and some of my changes to our style of worship. If she wanted to hear that kind of music, she once told me at the door on her way out, she could listen to the radio. But we agreed about Jesus and his Resurrection. I had absolutely no doubt that she was a woman of great faith—a faith that endured through some hard things for her. We have evidence of that today in her choice of readings and hymns. For example, notice the Psalm we prayed earlier. Psalm 46, about God being her hope, her strength and her very present help in trouble (v1—BCP p388)—she suffered plenty of trouble through her years of severe arthritic pain and immobility.

The hymns she chose and which were written in her Bible also give a good sense of that firm, determined faith and how important Jesus was to her.

JESUS, SAVIOUR, pilot me! we sang earlier. 

O Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end," we'll sing shortly,
"O guide me, call me, draw me,
Uphold me to the end;
And then in heaven receive me,
My Saviour and my Friend.

These last few years Marjorie's was, indeed, as we also sang earlier,"A dark and toilsome road." "O guide me through the desert here," Marjorie prayed no doubt, and had us sing, "And bring me home at last." Home at last. How did Marjorie know she had a Pilot, a Saviour and Friend?

She and Dorothy told me that they gave their lives to Jesus while listening to the Sunrise Gospel Hour—now the Oldest Gospel Radio Broadcast still produced in Alberta, seventy-seven years straight, by the way—they were too far out in the country for regular Sunday Church going. Kathleen told me, their mother would regularly call the three girls in from whatever they were doing in the yard to listen to hymnsings on the radio. Kathleen also told me she didn't start going to church until she was twenty. And yet the seeds had been well sown, and with the help of their parents, roots were solidly established in Jesus. And those beginnings led to them, all three, becoming stalwart members of St Barnabas. Marjory was a follower of our Risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—so was Dorothy and so is Kathleen.

So Marjorie was READY. Ready for the new Heaven and earth we heard about in the reading from Revelation where the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with her and "shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain and all things will be made new and good for ever and ever. Amen. It must feel good to be able to stand up straight, to move without pain again and to hear the heavenly choirs clearly. Who wouldn't want to be ready for that?!

Christ has died. Christ is risen NOW. Christ will come again. We don't know when. Jesus just says be ready.

So this Advent what might you and I take from Marjorie's example, the Scripture and hymns she chose for us to hear and sing and our good memories of her? A good way to honour Marjorie's memory this Advent and as Christmas is only a few sleeps away would be for you and me to consider our state of readiness to celebrate our Lord's birth on Sunday and for his approaching return.

Here are three Marjorie Langdon Memorial steps to readiness for the Lord's return:

1. Invite Jesus to be risen from the dead in you NOW not keeping him locked up in some tomb of my own ailments, carelessness or sinfulness. 
2. Invite Jesus to be born in you this Christmas.
3. The best starting place is to simply say "Yes" to Jesus. In a moment you and I, too, will have the opportunity to do just that as we pray the Apostle's Creed together. For many of us it will be Yes again, for some of you it may be Yes for the first time in a long time, or the first time ever. Saying such a Yes would be a good way to honour Marjorie's memory by expressing your trust in the LORD—Pilot, Saviour and Friend—who was present all through her illness and loves her still. Saying such a Yes, and meaning it, would also place you, along with Marjorie, safe and sound in all the Yes's God promised in Jesus (2 Cor 1.19-20).

There is no better time than right NOW.

Gene+

Pray for General Synod 2016

The Anglican Church of Canada posted this prayer For General, Provincial, or Diocesan Synods from The Book of Common Prayer on its Twitter feed the other day. "Amen!" pray I. May the all the mind of our Saviour Jesus Christ be fulfilled, indeed, particularly as regards the momentous changes proposed for our Marriage Canon during this Synod. 

I am also praying the first of the two prayers For General, Provincial, or Diocesan Synods which begins on the page before: 

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world: We beseech thee to be present with the General Synod now [or about to be] assembled in thy Name. Save its members from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe so to direct, govern, and sanctify them in their deliberations by thy Holy Spirit, that through thy blessing the Gospel of Christ may be faithfully preached and obeyed, the order and discipline of thy Church maintained, and the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour enlarged and extended. Grant this, we beseech thee, through the merits and mediation of the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 42-43)

It seems to me this prayer fleshes out how Jesus' mind for his Church ought to be fulfilled: protected from error, ignorance, pride and prejudice; directed, governed and sanctified by the Holy Spirit of Truth; so the transforming and saving Gospel of Christ can continue to be faithfully preached and obeyed; the Church's order and discipline conserved; and the Kingdom of God properly enlarged and extended. 

Lord, have mercy! Please pray. 

Gene+

The Holy Spirit in the Prayer Books

This was published in the Fall 2015 issue of Anglicans for Renewal, the Anglican Renewal Ministries magazine. 

I'm an Anglican by marriage. Actually, we all are if you go back far enough. So I didn't grow up with the Prayer Book. I was pretty suspicious of it and the idea of praying out of books when I first encountered it. But I really wanted to be in the company and good graces of a certain intriguing and very attractive young woman who happened to be Anglican and attended Evensong at St Paul's Anglican Cathedral in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was in her company that my experience of praying out of a book began. She was a very comely incentive. God is good. 

Some years later when I came to a faith of my own, it was when I made television programs for a living. Most of the program's I made required a script. I directed the actors, performers, crew, images and sound to tell the script's story. One day I realized that the Prayer Book was like one of those scripts. We worshippers take the words of the page, into our hearts and offer them in worship to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. And The Story continues as it is told over and over again.

I became Anglican just after The Book of Alternative Services came on the scene. I have to confess that I enjoyed the contemporary language. It seemed more open to me. I still enjoy it. But those early years of praying the office, exploring The Prayers and Thanksgivings, Family Prayer, Compline and the rest followed by fifteen years of Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion on Sundays at 830 gave me some roots and prayers for real life.

Last June I experienced the joy of being present when my granddaughter was confirmed at St Mary’s in Regina. As he laid his hands on each confirmand, Bishop Hardwick used the second prayer For Confirmation in The Book of Alternative Services: “Defend, O Lord, your servant Emily with your heavenly grace, that she may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more, until she comes to your everlasting kingdom. Amen. (p628) This is also the confirmation prayer from The Book of Common Prayer (p560) in contemporary English.

Now is that a wild-eyed, knock-down charismatic prayer, or what? “Daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more”? It was done very decently and in order, but those were the words prayed out loud, over my granddaughter (and everyone else who is confirmed in the Anglican Church of Canada) to the living God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Think about it. It’s a wonder we weren’t all thrown to the floor in a tangle of Anglican knees and kneelers. But we weren’t—at least not outwardly. I wonder why? Have we just given up on expecting God to act in such ways? Are we hoping for it, but God is saying, “Not now”? I don’t know.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that confirmation should only be valid when everyone is slain in the Spirit (although I’d love to see it one day). But what if you and I were to pay closer attention to the way the Holy Spirit of truth is woven through our prayer book prayers and liturgies bearing witness about Jesus (John 15.26) and what if we watch for them and pray into them? Might the Lord be waiting to release something new?

In that hope, Lord willing, I’m going to explore the references to the Holy Ghost/Spirit in our books to see where they lead. And what better place to start than with the SOLEMN DECLARATION 1893 (The Book of Common Prayer, p. viii), a foundational document for the Anglican Church of Canada.

“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen,” are the first words; an foundational invocation of the Holy Trinity. We begin with profound mystery. Such is the Holy Spirit. Such is the Father and the Son. We worship one God in three Persons. Indivisible. So when we focus on one Person, we do not deny or diminish the others. To be filled with the Holy Ghost is to be filled with all the fullness of God. And that is about as far as I dare go with that except to say that it is the best way to begin this expression of the Anglican church.

The next reference is in the third paragraph; a declaration that this church will “worship One God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit who is given to them that believe to guide them into all truth.” Believe, and I am given that Holy and Divine Spirit to guide me into all truth. What is truth? God’s word is (John 17.17) and I am (John 14.6) says Jesus and truth is in Jesus, writes Paul (Eph 4.21). Not only that, but the Holy and Divine Spirit is the Spirit of that truth (John 14.17 & 15.26) and that pretty well wraps it up.

So the foundational document of the Anglican Church of Canada (after the Scriptures and the prayer book) affirms and attests that it is important to have been given the Holy and Divine Spirit because he will guide us into Jesus. Thus begins our trustworthy script for Anglican worship; a script which is essentially the Scriptures set to prayer.

As we learn our lines in worship and prayer may we make them our own while daily increasing in the Holy Spirit more and more until times of refreshing, renewal and revival come. Amen and amen.

Going to The Office—Daily.

For the last two weeks I've been led to talk prayer; at StB two Sundays ago and in Saskatchewan last weekend at Emmanuel, St Louis; St Stephen's, MacDowall and St George's, Prince Albert. On October 20th at StB it was the gospel of the day and Jesus telling the parable about the "need to pray always and not to lose heart" in Luke 18:1. Last weekend in Saskatchewan it was The Following Jesus Weekend which culminated in the Rule of Life on page 555 of The Book of Common Prayer with its reference to "the practice of private prayer, Bible-reading and self discipline."

We Anglicans have no excuse. The Daily Offices; Morning and Evening Prayer, with their associated lectionaries, are simply brilliant. It doesn't matter how I feel, how articulate I am, how holy or spiritual I am feeling, the offices in either book, The Book of Common Prayer, The Book of Alternative Services, not to mention the Church of England's online offices, will pick me up with words of Holy Scripture set to prayer and carry me aloft into the heavenlies where the winds of God can whip through my hair. They will for you, too.

In "Breaking the Habit," over at The Community, Laura Marie Piotrowicz writes of the importance of "going to the office" every day:

My daily office is important to me; it keeps me grounded and connected and helps me find a holistic spirituality to my day. Establishing the habit of the daily office took some discipline, and I do my best not to break it. It doesn’t necessitate a lot of resources (there’s an app for that!), it doesn’t take a lot of time, but there is much benefit. As one person recently said at our bible study, it’s a chance to be “close and sweet with God.” 

So I live the habit. I pray, daily, because I choose to. It’s important to me to include prayer in my daily routine, as the practice enhances my day.

You can read Laura's whole piece here.

The offices, of course, are liturgy. Some people find liturgy repetitive and, therefore, tedious. Too bad. I need repetition because I leak and I forget. Some people call liturgy empty ritual. So fill it. Matt Marino over at his excellent The Gospel Side blog has something to say about liturgy and repetition in his "Spiritual Baseball: the unlikely path to intimacy with Jesus":

What I discovered was that the power is precisely in the repetition…that, as a rough rock in a stream becomes a smooth stone from years of water flowing over it, the Christian is formed into the image of God when we surrender ourselves to the three-fold pattern of daily immersion in the Scriptures, weekly feeding in the Eucharist, and the annual cycle of the Christian year, combined with contemplative practices like those of the desert fathers. I have found that these are re-orienting my perception of reality, the way I view time, life, and the world around me, in ways that words on a page cannot fully capture. It is freeing me to love those who oppose me and work for the good of those who seek my harm.

You may not be interested in walking the path to the ancient Church, known in Anglicanism as “the Canterbury trail.” I was not either. Ironically it is a journey that has given a depth to my walk with Christ that I never imagined. Like someone who has never tasted ice-cream, I didn’t know what I was missing.

His whole piece is worth a read, as usual, especially since it's World Series time.

Going to the office, daily, is a great way to pray always and not lose heart whether I feel like it, or not.

A New Awakening: of 950 Confirmations, Psalm 85 and Acedia

950 CONFIRMATIONS
Can you imagine the Archbishop of Canterbury calling for a nation-wide day of prayer? He did in 1904 after

Thirty English bishops declared for the Revival after one of their number, deeply moved, told of confirming 950 new converts in a country parish church. (J Edwin Orr, The Restudy of Revival and Revivalism, 1981, p. 44)

Nine hundred and fifty confirmations in a rural parish! I wonder how long it took him?

PSALM 85
We gathered again last evening to pray. Five women and two men around a table in the hall this time. We prayed through Psalm 85 from which my "revival" verse comes:

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (v6)

As we prayed, I realized that there will be other benefits for which it is worth praying:

that glory may dwell in our land. (v9)

And our land will yield its increase. (v12)

Oh yes!

ACEDIA
Am I swept up and on by a lively spiritual fervour in this? No. I felt a real apathy about it all afternoon. Sunday afternoons are usually pretty low energy after the two morning services. It was cold outside and I would have liked to stay home in the warm to watch the Oscars (I did catch the end of the show and the big awards when I got home).

That sense of spiritual enervation and fatigue—dryness—is sometimes called acedia. Pilar Gonzalez Gateman from Christ Church, Fort McLeod has collected some notes on what helps her overcome it. She writes:

You had asked about the prayer I pray with regard to Acedia. I use the Psalms a lot  (91:6) , Philippians 4:4-7, Romans 12;1, Romans 8, Matt 11: 28-30,  Matt 26:41,  Eph. 3:20-21, Mark 9:24. 


I sometimes do it fairly extemporaneously but one that I borrow from St. Augustine is: 

God commands not impossibilities, but by commanding he suggests to you to do what you can, to ask for what is beyond your strength; and he helps you, that you may be able. 

Extemporaneously.... it usually it goes something like: Loving God, protect us from the weariness of the world, walk alongside us and defend us from slipping away into distractions that lead us away from you.   Some from the BCP are: BCP Collect for Peace and Grace p. 11 are both great. 

BCP  p. 731 Heavenly Father in whom we live and move and have our being: we humbly pray thee so to guide and govern us by thy Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our daily life we may never forget thee, but remember that we are ever walking in thy sight; through jesus Christ  our Lord. Amen. 

BCP p. 732  O Lord our heavenly Father, by whose providence the duties of men are variously ordered: Grant to us all the spirit to labour heartily to do our work in our several stations, in serving one Master and looking for one reward. Teach us to put to good account whatever talents thou hast lent to us, and enable us to redeem our time by patience and zeal; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

BCP Collect for protection - (p. 726 and elsewhere)  Visit, we beseech thee, O Lord, this place and drive from it all the snares of the enemy; let thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace; and may thy blessing be upon us evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

BCP p. 656 (ordering of priests)  Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with they most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help that in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify they holy name and finally by thy mercy obtain ever lasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 I don't have my BAS here with me, but I'm sure there are a few there as well! 


The great Evagrius Ponticus describes the struggle with this most dangerous passion:

The demon of acedia, also called the noonday demon, is the most oppressive of all the demons. He attacks the monk towards the fourth hour and besieges the soul until the eighth hour. He begins by giving the impression that the sun is hardly moving, or not moving at all, and that the day has at least forty hours. After this, he continually draws the monk to his window; he forces him to go out of his cell to look at the sun and calculate how much time still separates him from the ninth hour (the hour of Vespers and the meal), and finally to look about here and there to see if some brother is not coming to see him...

http://www.pathsoflove.com/acedia/cassian-acedia.html is a website with St. John of Cassians entire treatise on the subject.


Others who have much more eloquent prayer than mine include St. John of the Cross, St. Augustine, Cassian and Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. Henri Nouwen's The Way of the Heart has a few good prayers too.  

Thanks, Pilar.

The fact is, to start with, there will probably be a fair bit of "going through the motions," of showing up to pray when I don't feel like it—perhaps, especially when I don't feel like it.

"Could you not watch with me one hour?" Jesus said (Mt 26:40)

David Warren on the Roman Catholic Cat Among the Anglican Pigeons

The Ottawa Citizen's David Warren has weighed in on all the commentary and opinion arising out of the Roman Catholic invitation to traditional Anglicans. He makes a point which I have not yet seen in all the debate—the possible benefits for the Catholics:

the reception of these traditional Anglicans will create very exciting possibilities for all English-speaking Catholics on the "liturgical" front: for the traditional Anglicans retain, in intensely beautiful English, a liturgy that is actually more "catholic" in spirit and form than the rather crass and now dated "contemporary translations" Rome mistakenly approved at the end of the 1960s, in the depths of the post-Vatican II meltdown. Those old Anglicans can help us recover our own more reverent liturgical traditions.

…one answer, and a good one, to the question: Can anything good come out of Anglicanism?

I'm happy to say we get to enjoy that intensely beautiful, 'catholic' liturgy every Sunday morning at 830.

All here.

Old Time Religion: Rite or wrong?

I've been hearing rumblings of a return to traditional forms of worship in "emerging" churches and what-not. I find myself drawn to it as well. Liturgical revision and "inclusive" translations of Scripture seem to be part of what has been a general desalination of the Gospel. So my spirit resonated when I read the following from Fr Tony Clavier over at Covenant:

I am not at all convinced that old English is any more inaccessible than “modern” English to those who are not “churched.” The concepts expressed are just as unfamiliar, whatever rite used, even odd to people who have not grown up in the Faith or come to know Jesus within the context of a liturgical church. People slip into the bizarre vocabularly of football or computers almost unconsciously. They equally slip into the church’s vocabulary as long as liturgy lives and is done well.

Could the Prayer Book Society (God bless 'em!) be right?