Some High Def on St Peter and St Paul, Apostles, Day

Thanks to The Prayer Book Society of Canada

Today started with several disturbing reminders that my Christian faith, worship and living are so not about me feeling comfortable and content. Sigh.

It’s the Feast of St Peter and Paul, Apostles (HD) says the church calendar. That HD does not stand for High Definition, by the way, it means Holy Day. Mind you, a little higher definition probably wouldn’t hurt this comfortable retired guy’s perception of reality just now. So here are some uncomfortably high definition shots for the day:

Peter 

In my Fellowship of St James Summer 2015 - The Devotional Guide notes for the day, Patrick Henry Reardon points out how this is a double feast day because these two apostles are “linked in a special way by their martyrdoms in Rome.” He adds that Peter’s wife was also martyred and that Peter was a witness to it. I did not know that. How awful.

Paul

In one of the Devotional Guide lectionary readings Jesus is telling Ananias that he wanted him to go and lay hands on Saul, “For I will show him,” not how famous he was to be and that he would write most of the New Testament and how amazing signs and wonders would be done through him, but “how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9.16 ESV). No seeker-friendly pitch there.

Hudson Taylor

This morning I shared this Facebook post from my friend John Rye:

150 years ago this weekend, Hudson Taylor was walking on the stony beach at Brighton, south of London, when he decided that God was calling him to set up the China Inland Mission, now Overseas Missionary Fellowship. This differed from other Victorian missionary societies in making its needs known by prayer alone (no appeals for funds), by adopting local dress and culture as much as possible (no ties in school), by being headquartered in a Chinese city, not London,(currently Singapore), by being non-denominational, and by not accepting compensation from the Opium trade (which it consistently denounced) or from colonial treaties ( ie it ministered in places away from military protection). It is best known in the secular world as the mission which Eric Lidell, the runner in 'Chariots of Fire' was a part of until his death in 1945.

Peter Passchier, who serves in Thailand with Overseas Missionary Fellowship along with Kelly, his wife (and erstwhile parishioner at StB), and three small children, commented that he had been particularly moved by Hudson Taylor’s story when he read how Taylor was “unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge.”

Suffering, martyrdom, security, rejoicing and lack of knowledge. They continue. In high definition video these days.

LORD, have mercy!

Being Real on Ash Wednesday

A couple of thought provoking pieces on observing Ash Wednesday…

As an Antidote to "Over-Realized Eschatology"

Richard Beck, over at his always provocative Experimental Theology:

I'm a Winter Christian which means that lament is a pretty big part of my spiritual experience. But by and large the general tone of worship in evangelical culture tends to privilege the Summer Christian experience of unmitigated praise. The theology that informs this preference is often triumphalistic and symptomatic of what is called an over-realized eschatology. What is an over-realized eschatology? It's rushing ahead to heaven, victory, happiness and Easter. A refusal to sit with the Fall, brokenness, lament and Good Friday.

All here. 

Ashless Anglicanism? 

In the you-learn-something-new-every-day department: 

In the sixteenth century the English Reformers abolished the imposition of ashes on the heads of parishioners on Ash Wednesday due to the superstitious beliefs that had become associated with the practice. The practice was too closely tied the Medieval doctrines of attrition, auricular confession, contrition, priestly absolution, and penance.

The imposition of ashes was not reintroduced into the Church of England and her daughter churches until the nineteenth century and then by the Ritualists. It was one of the errors in doctrine, practice, and ritual that the Romeward Movement revived to make the Anglican Church more like the Roman Catholic Church in the hopes that they would help to affect a reunion between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. 

And here I thought it had been an ancient Anglican thing. Read the rest in An Ashless Ash Wednesday for Anglicans here. 

* * * 

All of which reminds me of something Peter Kreeft wrote, I believe it was in Fundamentals of the Faith, "Hell is where you make an eternal ash of yourself." 

* * *

Here's a good prayer to pray after all that: the Church of England version of the Collect for Ash Wednesday. 

Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing that you have made
and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent:
create and make in us new and contrite hearts
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may receive from you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. 

Amen. With or without ashes. 

The Skipped Bits in the Revised Common Lectionary

Yesterday we had another edited Revised Common Lectionary Old Testament reading. We skipped the reference to David's unseemly prejudice against the lame and the blind as he captured Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 5. I've expressed my dismay concerning this editing before. Here are some things that concern me:

1. Sunday only readers and hearers will not only get an unrealistic impression of the Biblical witness but also skewed portrait of important Biblical characters like David.
2. Holy Scripture's impact as a dynamic, "living and active" account of a real God dealing with real people who are not only capable of great love, faithfulness and goodness, but of error, sin and cruelty, is diminished.
3. Real Biblical people like David become mere cut-out figures in a politically correct religious fairy tale.
4. It becomes easier to manage or avoid other disturbing passages such as those that get a little close to the bone on matters of sin and judgement and God's anger, and those that call into question the ways in which we might like to express our sexual selves exramaritally—all the references to homosexuality, for example, have been excised.
5. We miss the opportunity to compare and contrast the "offending" bit with the loving reality of Jesus and his teaching.
6. I feel I'm being managed so that rather than being under the authority of God's utterly demanding Word, I am being invited to accept a religious, politically correct revisioning of Scripture based on what a small group of humans think God would have said if He'd been as progressive and compassionate as they think He should have been.

Sigh.

Posted with Blogsy

GOPsmacked: Cranmer on the Republican Presidential Candidate Race

Some interesting thoughts on the US Republican Party presidential candidate race from "His Grace" over at the Cranmer blog. To whit:

But it’s funny, His Grace thinks, with all the suffering, trauma and mess in the world, that the suitability of the next GOP candidate for the Presidency of the United States appears to come down to whether or not he or she has faith in Charles Darwin. There is a perception of cultic orthodoxy; a faith test quite contrary to the US Constitution which affirms that ‘no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust’ (Article VI). It must be observed that Republican candidates are invariably asked at some point during their campaigns if they believe the Bible to be the inviolable Word of God, and none has ever quoted Article VI in response. It appears that one only gains the GOP nomination to become President of the United States by the adoption of the Bible-Belt Creed and with the majority assent of the Evangelical Church. And there is an unrelenting media focus (both here and in the US) to lampoon, discredit and ridicule such beliefs.

The lampooning, discrediting and ridiculing goes on in Canada, too. In addition to the Darwin test, of course, there are also the global warming, abortion and sexuality ones.

Read the whole piece here.

Richard III, Cross-gender Casting and Women's Ordination

Interesting radio on my way to Okotoks a few weeks ago. Jian Ghomeshi did an interview on cross-gender casting with Seanna McKenna, who is playing the evil King Richard in Richard III at Stratford this year, and Martha Henry, who plays Queen Margaret.

One comment that caught my ear is how when men play women it is seen as a bit of a laugh (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), but when women play men it is a much more serious (and often disturbing) matter. I suspect that's probably because when women play men it stirs up some power issues. Men have more to lose.

And all that made me think of the ordination of women controversy in the church. I realize I'm heading into potentially stormy territory here but consider this. Liturgy is very much like theatre. An Anglican presider most often follows a script—actually all presiders do, it's just that some are more improvisational than others. The presider is playing a role just as are Seanna and Martha in Richard III. As the role is played, the story of God's involvement with us is told, God gets worshipped, grace gets mediated and truth is learned and experienced.

The Bard wrote about the man Richard III, most often played by a man because he was one. Why cast a woman in the role? To stir the pot of meaning and truth in the play to see if there is more to be gleaned. Necessary? Not really. Helpful? Probably. Having a woman play Richard is legitimate artistic experimentation it seems to me, like seeing something familiar in 3D or in modern dress, or doing liturgy in a different way. It makes the story light up differently.

The Bible is about Jesus, who happens to be a man. To what extent does the ordained minister represent Jesus? Should a woman be cast in that role? Does it stir the pot of meaning and truth in the divine drama so that more meaning and truth can be gleaned, or does it just muddy the waters? Is that just something like cross-gender casting for Shakespeare, or something more?

Church and the Contemporary Ideology of Choice

Something that stood out for me in a collection of "doodlings" over at Faith and Theology:

In the wilderness the devil tempts Jesus with a series of choices. By the seaside Jesus says to four fishermen “Follow me!”, an order, not an option. Nothing is more alien to serious Christianity than the contemporary ideology of choice. 

 …from Faith and Theology: A few more doodlings.

Shades of one of my little lists in my earlier post from Reformissionary on congregational government being of Satan.

Interesting who offers the choice and who offers the life (where have I heard that before?).

The church is part of a Kingdom. We didn't elect Jesus to be head of the church. The Bible is not like a constitution and by-laws which can be amended when we feel it's impinging on our appetites.

The older I get the more I realize that following Jesus is not as much about me and my appetites and preferences as it is following orders and being who he calls me to be, where he calls me to be that.

Clergy Conference Continuing with Doug Pagitt

WHERE I'M STILL AT…

(Image by Hipstamatic on my iPhone—an app to make things look retro and grungy—go figure)

This morning Doug Pagitt talked mostly about about community. We heard terms like: 

SATISFYING NARRATIVE

People need one and to see how it fits with THE satisfying narrative which, for me, is the story of Jesus.


THE INVENTIVE AGE 

What comes after the agrarian, industrial and knowledge ages. The age we live in/which is coming and which will reward those who make, connect and facilitate. Essential values of which are; inclusion, participation, collaboration and beauty. 

HIGH CONCEPT—HIGH TOUCH

Something we Anglicans seem to do without even trying.


NETWORK THEORY

Network theory is the new way to organize. Communities based on connections rather than belief systems. Not that there is no belief system, it's just that one doesn't necessarily have to espouse it to belong.

Coming Out as a Christian

…a fascinating and encouraging piece from The Independent in the UK: "God's bankers: How evangelical Christianity is taking a hold of the City of London's financial institutions."

This caught my eye—Eve Poole, a theologian who teaches business ethics in a business school MBA is quoted:

"It's often harder for young people to come out as Christians than it would be for them to come out as gay," she says. "Because of the vocal atheists – Dawkins and so on – people think your judgement is impaired if you say you're Christian at work." 

I guess so. The culture says it's cooler to be gay than Christian—maybe even heroic.

Hmmm.

H/T VIRTUEONLINE. All here.

A Post-Christmas, Epiphany Miscellany

It's been a while. During that while there's been such a rich diet of reading and music since Christmas. For example:

Being Seeker-Friendly
The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by Alan Kreider (Wipf & Stock, 1999). It was recommended by our national indigenous bishop, Mark McDonald at our 2009 clergy retreat. Finally got to it. An interesting look at conversion and evangelism in the early church. They thought and taught extensively about how believers should live and how their churches’ common life should be ordered, but they had no “decades of evangelism.” Nor did churches grow because their worship was attractive. From the second century onward, nonbelievers were barred from the Christian assemblies. Too risky to have them there. Christian worship was designed to enable Christians to worship God. It was not designed to attract non-Christians; it was not “seeker-sensitive,” seekers were not allowed in. Hmmm.

Arcade Fire
And there I was, a (then) 63 year old, tooling around town to the sound of Arcade Fire's The Suburbs. A bunch of multi-instrumentalist twenty-somethings with a unique voice and sound who have got under my skin. Refreshingly un-salacious in an over-sexualized industry. Rhythm and energy. I was happy to see they were upset winners of the best album Grammy.

My favourite lines:

You never trust a millionaire quoting the Sermon on the Mount.

Our heads are just houses, without enough windows.

I don't know why I feel so drawn to the music. Youthful. Wall of sound. Insistent. Plaintive.

The Solace of Fierce Landscapes:
Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality, Belden C Lane (Oxford University Press, 1998). Good thoughts on liturgy from a Presbyterian!

The liturgy is hard work, a matter of constant repetition, seemingly dull and boring. But the desert teachers have always said that if you give yourself to the recurrent ordinariness of prayer, if you don't fight it—letting all your scattered, anxious thoughts pull you this way and that—your mind will gradually be taken down into the heart. Distractions can be released. The ceaseless regularity of the liturgy works on those distractions with a stubborn indifference, so that the mind is silenced and the heart made able to love. p227

Fires of Faith:
Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Eamon Duffy (Yale University Press, 2009). Wherein I found these gems: during worship churchwardens were to see that there was

no ryngynge of belles, playinge of children, cryenge or making lowed noyse, rydynge of horses, or otherwise. p19

The belles continue via celle phone these days. Bit short in the horse rydynge, however.

Revenge by Litany 
Duffy refers to a petition from the Edwardine litany—a blacklash to the excesses of Mary's Catholic reign:

From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord deliver us. 

We have our own detestable enormities from which to be delivered nowadays.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer
Reading Life Together: a Discussion of Christian Fellowship (Harper & Row, 1954) tr John W Doberstein with our deanery clergy group. This:

If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ. p29

One has to listen to a martyr. 

My Silent Nighting Across the Land

The Anglican Church of Canada's Silent Night project calls for parishes and groups to video themselves singing Silent Night with each singer donating a toonie to support Anglican military chaplains who minister to the women and men of the Canadian Forces. 

I got to be involved in three. I sang in Mississauga with the Council of General Synod, shot the video of the women of the first Cursillo weekend in the Diocese of Qu'Appelle singing it (on an iPhone 4), and helped organize the St Barnabas, Medicine Hat, effort (which happened while I was away doing the Cursillo). 

On Fighting the Good Fight Persuasively: Faithful Discipleship

I'm reading some good stuff by Tullian Tchividjian over at The Gospel Coalition these days. For example, this quote on discipleship:

Our task as faithful disciples is proclaimed by the Welsh poet Ethelwyn Wetherald: 

My orders are to fight;
Then if I bleed, or fail,
Or strongly win, what matters it?
God only doth prevail.
The servant craveth naught
Except to serve with might.
I was not told to win or lose—
My orders are to fight.

…and this by persuasion rather than by coercion.

True of the battle going on in Anglicanism these days, me thinks.

All here.

Turning a Church Into a Home

This came up again on Google Reader the other day. A Georgian church in the UK becomes a gorgeous looking home. How's this for a living room, for example?

But it makes me wonder. I don't know if this happened because of the death of a congregation, which saddens me, or perhaps they moved, although I can't imagine that. And I wonder about our efforts to make our church buildings we still use for worship into designer-historical-site set pieces; comfortable and beautiful; somewhere to meet our friends, enjoy meals, sit around in comfort and visit; somewhere to sleep. 

A font as an occasional table. 

It is beautiful. But…

More pictures at ALKEMIE, a rather neat design and decorating site here. 

CofE Resolution in Support of the Anglican Church of North America(ACNA)

If you haven't seen it yet, here is the text of the resolution:

That this Synod, aware of the distress caused by recent divisions within the Anglican churches of the United States of America and Canada
a) recognise and affirm the desire of those who have formed the Anglican Church in North America to remain within the Anglican family
b) acknowledge that this aspiration, in respect both of relations with the Church of England and membership of the Anglican Communion, raises issues which the relevant authorities of each need to explore further; and
c) invite the Archbishops to report further to the Synod in 2011
Votes for 309, against 69, abstentions 17
Motions to pass to next business and to adjourn the debate were lost.

Notice that Canada is included. There's a ton of comment all over the blogosphere, but I like David Virtue's take:

First of all, the resolution said orthodox Episcopalians are indeed being persecuted by revisionists; however much TEC leaders whine that the brokenness is caused by those leaving, the resolution says otherwise.

Secondly, the resolution said that these faithful orthodox Anglicans want to remain in the Anglican family and not become outsiders. In fact, it did more than that. It was a wedge that will, in time, lead to a full chair at the Anglican Communion table.

…the rest of David's piece here.

Sabbath Interesting Bits: Anglicanism, Marriage, Leadership and theCovenant

My Sabbath is on a Wednesday this week. Some interesting bits from my blog reading this morning:

More Anglican good news

…this time from The Rev'd Dr. John W. Yates II who lists the good things about Anglicanism. At its best, Anglicanism:

1. is Biblical
2. is Sacramental
3. is Evangelical
4. is Liturgical
5. is Worldwide
6. is Charismatic
7. is about Accountability (we have bishops)
8. is Musical
9. Engages society and the world us
10. is Prayerful
11. is a Community of Grace
12. loves Children
13. loves Beauty

All here (H/T VirtueOnline).

What Marriage and Leadership Have in Common

In our Sabbath devotional this morning, Jude and I read this:

Contrary to hundreds of Hollywood romance movies, marriage is not primarily designed to make us happy. God is not primarily interested in our happiness, but in something deeper and more lasting: our holiness. Or we might say that God is so interested in our long-term happiness — our eternal joy, which only holiness leads to — that he reserves the right to sacrifice our short-term happiness to ensure we receive it.

Ditto for leadership. Kevin Miller, here.

The Anglican Covenant

The excellent ANGLICAN DOWN UNDER has a good point about the living with an Anglican Covenant and whether or not it can work:

Is homosexual practice compatible with Scripture? Some say No, some say Yes. But together we have not yet agreed to one of two things which would accord with a common approach to truth: either that it does not matter if an open contradiction on this matter is a feature of Anglican life, or that it matters that there is an open contradiction but nevertheless we can live with the contradiction.

That's the question. Wise Kiwi. All DOWN UNDER here.

Happy New Year

This post didn't happen yesterday because we were driving through the blizzard between here and Swift Current (twice!) to give the granddaughters back.

Come and See Evangelism

I can't think of anything deeply theological to write, but my Morning Prayer reading this morning was from John 1 where Nathanael says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Many are asking the same question about the Anglican Church.
Philip's answer to Nathanael was a simple one and a good one: "Come and see," he said. It's a response many Anglican parishes and individuals can, and should, still say often, and with confidence.

A Bit of Fluff

Jude got a new NZ lambskin steering wheel cover for her beloved red Neon, Cloe, for Christmas.

It's a bit like driving a bedroom slipper. Cosy, though.

A New Bishop

Fraser Lawton is being consecrated Bishop of Athabasca this evening. A good one. God bless him and his family.

Anglican Communion Covenant Digest for Today

A good discussion and summary with links over at the excellent and thoughtful Anglican Down Under here.

The thing that lit up for me in it all was this from the "Covenant Working Party Commentary on Revisions to Section 4:"

If, however, the canons and constitutions of a Province permit, there is no reason why a diocesan synod should not commit itself to the covenant, thus strengthening its commitment to the interdependent life of the Communion.”

Let's get at it!

Anglicans Must Change or Die

Sobering words by Steve Weatherbe of canadianchristianity.com. His article focuses on the Diocese of British Columbia's development director, the Rev. Dr. Gary Nicolosi, who calls for the Vancouver Island Anglican diocese to encourage growth by requiring

50 percent of rental incomes be spent on evangelization; by rewarding clergy with higher salaries and more holidays; by training those that don’t grow their parishes – and, if necessary, move them to non-leadership positions, or out of the ministry entirely.

It's not just a BC problem. It's an Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Calgary, StB and my problem, too. Lord, have mercy.

All here.

A Momentous Vatican Announcement and Two Anglican Choices

In his Hope Among the Fragments, Ephraim Radner writes that we conservative Anglicans only have two choices; stay, or go back to Rome.

A New Road to Rome

The Pope's invitation to disaffected Anglicans has now made the second of Radner's choices  a real option (see the Catholic News Service article here).

Staying On

On staying, "Staying On" by Philip Turner, an excellent piece over at The Anglican Planet:

As I understand it, my role as a Presbyter is to protect the church from strange doctrine rather than go to another place whenever error rears its ugly head.

…past divisions leave all sorts of opportunities to find a church that is more to my liking–one that seems a little more faithful. On a relative scale of things there are no doubt a number of more faithful options.  But to my mind, to avail myself of one or another of them is simply to repeat what I believe to have been an inadequate grasp of the way in which God has confronted the defection of the world.  No matter how noble my intentions and no matter how understandable my reasons, I, nonetheless, repeat in my own life the divisions of the past.  In so doing, I avoid once again, as did my forebears in the faith, the way my Lord took.  He stayed on.

All here. (H/T Canon James Robinson)

And, for better or for worse, that's where I find myself at the moment.

Of Highways and a Journey Started

Today was our highway clean up day. StB has a 3km stretch of the highway as it goes through Redcliff. It amazes me how many people still throw their empty drink (or whatever) containers and fast-food wrappers out their windows as they're driving. It's hard not to think ill of them.

I found a wallet. It was empty. Sigh. But then last year I found a pair of men's underpants. They, too, were empty. Thanks be to God.

And this afternoon I got to preside at a wedding.

A day of contrasts.

Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana and Swordplay

Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana

Still enjoying the afterglow of Anne Rice’, Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana. I feel like, through her, the Lord gave me some idea of what might have been going on in his head in those early days as he struggled to comprehend and accept the reality of who he really was. I loved him as I read it. I was brought to tears as John baptized him in the Jordan. Rice’s imaginative take on the wedding at Cana and how Jesus came to be there is brilliant. Wonderful.

Kingdom Swordplay

Camping in Psalm 18 this week with A Guide to Prayer. It’s the “by my God I can leap over a wall” psalm. “He trains my hands for war (v32),” writes David. “I pursued my enemies and overtook them (v37)…I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet (v38).” I can’t imagine thrusting someone through with a sword. David’s world was also one in which what he was called to do exposed him to the risk of being thrust through himself. It’s foreign to me except in some sort of allegorical, “spiritual warfare” kind of way, not to mention being seriously incorrect politically.

Still, it is God’s upright and true Word of Life.

Jesus has something to say about swords:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Mt 10.34)

and

But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. (Lk 22.36)

But on the other hand,

Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Mt 26.52)

What Are My Hands Trained For?

How does one apply that to life and ministry in twenty-first century Medicine Hat? What have You—do You—train my hands for? Who, or what, must I (figuratively, I presume, I hope!) pursue, overtake and thrust through so they are unable to rise and will fall beneath my feet?