This afternoon I was reading an essay by the English Roman Catholic theologian, James Alison. In it he reflects on the passage in John's gospel, "For God so loved the world that . . . ".
He suggests that we commonly read 'so' to be an expression of intensity, i.e., God really, really loves the world. An alternative reading might be this: "For God loved the world in this fashion . . .". When read this way we do not engage in theo-psychology but rather we come to know God by what God does.
One small word but one that opens up a possibility of greater reflection.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thoughts to a Friend on an Anglican Covenant
A central dimension of Anglican theological method has been to discover the Word amidst the words that are used to describe the human encounter with the living God.
Some Anglicans have relied primarily on the Scriptures as plainly understood and taught as the guide to discern the Word amidst the words. Given their commitment to the notion that the Scriptures speak plainly and are to be understood in their plain sense, these Anglicans have, over the centuries, tended to distrust any other approach to the knowledge of God.
Other Anglicans have relied primarily on tradition as the means by which we come to discern the Word. Given their commitment to the catholicity of the church and to the notion of apostolic continuity, these Anglicans have, over the centuries, tended to look to what they understand to be the consensus of the faithful.
A minority of Anglicans have relied primarily on reason as the means by which we come to discern the Word. Given their commitment to the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God, that reason and free will are characteristics of the divine stamp on human identity, these Anglicans have, over the centuries, tended towards an appreciation of ambiguity; not the ambiguity of not knowing what they are seeking or discussing, but the ambiguity of recognizing the provisional character of all human knowing.
The roots of the present Anglican crisis are deeper than are general acknowledged. I have come to wonder whether our present difficulties are not the product of the twentieth century but rather of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. At the restoration of the monarchy, the traditionalists, i.e., those who have relied primarily on continuity, whether institutional or apostolic, became the ascendant party in the Church of England. However, this party could not replace the desire of many within the Church of England for a plain Christianity, open to every Christian, whether learned or not. For this reason, the early eighteenth century saw the rise of the evangelical renewal, a movement more scripturalist in its approach and, at times, genuinely hostile to the traditionalist party.
These two parties vied for dominance in the English church and their partisanship extended far beyond the borders of England. While the American and Scottish churches tended to adopt a traditionalist position, the Irish church tended to the scripturalist as a natural reaction to the dominant Roman Catholicism of Ireland. The existence of the Church Mission Society (scripturalist) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (traditionalist) speaks to the efforts of these two parties to assert their positions into the British colonies.
On many levels these two parties did not feel the necessity to divide the church; they shared, in some ways, an uncritical approach to the Scriptures and to the tradition. The small group of Anglicans committed to reason, embodied in Hooker, Great Tew, the Cambridge Platonists and the Noetics, while respected in some circles, were, for the most part, marginalized given the relative unity of thought on the part of the scripturalists and traditionalists.
In the nineteenth century the rise of modern critical approaches to the Scriptures and to the tradition upset the relative balance between the two dominant parties. Beginning with the publication of Essays Modern and Critical in 1860, the two dominant parties recognized a genuine threat to the entente cordiale that had characterized the previous two centuries. The Gorham and Colenso controversies added more fuel to the fire; Lux Mundi and Essays Catholic and Critical, coming as they did from the catholic wing of the traditionalists (the other wing being the old Latitudinarians) caused even more concern.
What began to emerge was what some historians call the Broad Church movement, but I prefer to see it as a loose confederation of Anglicans with roots in the various wings of the scripturalist and traditionalist parties who came to see that Hooker was right: We understand the Logos primarily through the agency of God’s wisdom which, in turn, operates primarily through the faculty of human reason.
The problem faced by the scripturalists and the traditionalists as a result of this loose confederation was the loss of a genteel absolutism, i.e., an absolutism of infallible Scriptures or the absolutism of a romanticized tradition. The ‘reasonalists’, with their ‘courtesy of ignorance’, i.e., the recognition that all human knowing is provisional, could not be trusted. They were and are willing to consider that they might be wrong, that ‘time makes old truths uncouth’. In his message to the American Congress in 1862 as the Civil War raged and the Union forces were failing, Abraham Lincoln said
The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
In these words I find an expression of the ‘reasonalist’ position that I believe has upset the balance.
I have come to place my hope for the future of a compassionate and balanced Anglicanism upon the ‘reasonalists’ rather than the scripturalists or the traditionalists. So long as the two dominant parties seek a false security in a covenant that cannot help but become a strait jacket and that undoes generations of synodical development in the majority of Anglican provinces, I will oppose any and all efforts to develop a covenant. I will not sacrifice my reason to satisfy the consciences of the scripturalists nor will I sacrifice my reason to satisfy the traditionalists. In my reason and the obligation to exercise informed free will lie my participation in the divine and life-giving Trinity. They are my birthright as a human being made in God’s image and likeness.
I am not unaware of the cost of this position. I hold no hope that the division of the Anglican Communion can be averted. Since the scripturalists and the traditionalists hold to positions that, in the end, are essentialist and authoritarian, there is little or no room for conscience nor for the legitimate search for the Word in the midst of the words that constitute human cultures and experience. I am confident, however, that I am Christ’s and that no one, whether primate, bishop or council, can rob me of that.
So, what does this ‘reasonalist’ say to someone to whom the responsibility has been given to participate in a process which he thinks is so fundamentally flawed and wrong-headed? Hold out for the Lambeth Quadrilateral unadulterated by attempts to tighten its language.
I believe the Old and New Testaments to be the word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation.
I believe that the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds to be the sufficient statements of that doctrine necessary to salvation.
I believe that baptism and holy communion, administered in recognizable fidelity to antiquity, are the only sacramental rites necessary for full life in the Body of Christ.
I believe that the apostolic continuity of the ēkklesia, episcopally-led and synodically-governed, embodying episkopē, koinōnia and diakonia expressed in communal, collegial and personal modes, is the normative polity of the catholic church.
Any Christian body, whether presently Anglican or not, that embodies these four principles is or should be in communion with the See of Canterbury.
These four principles permit the communion of ecclesial communities that do and do not permit the remarriage of divorced persons. These four principles permit the communion of ecclesial communities that do and do not ordain women. These four principles permit the communion of ecclesial bodies that do and do not permit the blessing of the life-long exclusive covenants of gay and lesbian persons. These four principles permit the communion of Christians who are scripturalist, traditionalist and reasonalist.
Any covenant that seeks to establish extra-provincial forms of government must be resisted without surcease. Just as I oppose the interference of the Archbishop of the Southern Cone in the affairs of the Anglican Church of Canada, so would I oppose with equal force the interference of the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada in the affairs of the Church of the Southern Cone. The Anglican Communion is built upon bonds of affection not legislative structures, especially any that privilege the episcopal office. Our life together is characterized by respect and persuasion rather than condemnation and coercion.
I apologize if my remarks are not ones that prove to be of value to my friends in the Communion who are engaged in the Covenant process. I am writing as one friend to another without the benefit of mature reflection and adequate research to support my case. I know that others have done far more reflection than I and are more aware of the various cases that have been made for and against the covenant process. I am not a moderate voice, a calm voice, a reasoned voice in what I see as the greatest threat to the compassionate and balanced Anglicanism I have written of above. I am an overly passionate and intemperate voice defending the costly and uncomfortable via media that the so-called ‘instruments of communion’ are, in my opinion, colluding to undermine. The only international body that I have any confidence in is the Anglican Consultative Council, but it may be that it, too, will be brought down by the spiritual greed of ‘unaccountable foreign prelates’.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
A Second New Servant Song
RCL Proper 2A
20 January 2008
Holy Trinity Cathedral
New Westminster BC
About two thousand and fifty years ago a rumour swept through the Jewish exiles living in Babylon. A new power had arisen in the east, the Persians, and their king, Cyrus, was proving to be a far different ruler than the present king of Babylon, Nabonidus. Cyrus had defeated a number of surrounding states and incorporated them into the Persian empire. The word was out: Babylon’s days were numbered. Even better news was that the Persian ruler, Cyrus, had a different policy regarding subject peoples. He allowed them a degree of political autonomy. It might be possible that, if he were to conquer Babylon, the Jewish exiles would be allowed to return to Jerusalem.
Among the exiles was a prophet whose words were later incorporated into the great prophetic book we call Isaiah. He was not the Isaiah of the first forty chapters of the present book, but his words stood in continuity with the first Isaiah’s message to the people. This later prophet is often called Second Isaiah.
"(The oracles of Second Isaiah) date from c. 540 BCE, about 45 years after the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire and the subsequent deportation of many Israelites to Babylon. This deported community doubted its status as God’s chosen people and even doubted the sovereignty of God. Second Isaiah’s oracles seek to assure the exiles both that the LORD still has compassion for them and that the LORD, despite the triumph of Babylon, is still LORD of the heavens and over history. The proof is that the LORD [956] will act soon to allow the exiles to return home, a journey that will be even more glorious than the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt at the time of the exodus.” (The New Interpreter's Bible, 955-956)
Second Isaiah goes even further and suggests that “ . . . the exile was a necessary punishment for the people’s sins but further proposes, especially in the so-called ‘Servant songs,’ that Israel suffered vicariously on behalf of the nations in order to redeem them and restore them to wholeness or shalom.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, 956)
One of the constant themes of Second Isaiah is that God has a preference for working out God’s purposes through an agent, whether an individual or a people. There are four passages in Second Isaiah where the prophet describes what God is doing through an agent whom the prophet calls ‘the Servant’. Last week’s reading from Isaiah 42 was the first of these so-called ‘Servant Songs’. Today’s reading from Isaiah 49 is the second.
In the four ‘Servant Songs’, all found in this second section of Isaiah, the prophet speaks words of encouragement but also words of challenge. It is a call to remember what God expects of those who have been called into relationship with the creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel. Despite any and all appearances of rejection and failure, the God who entered into covenant with Israel is still the creator and sustainer of the whole world (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 1071).
Isaiah’s Servant is not, however, some messianic individual who will restore the people. The servant is a corporate image that describes not an individual but a people. It is Israel as the covenant people who will be a sign to the nations and whose covenant loyalty will result in bringing many peoples into this covenant. The people of Israel will achieve the mission entrusted to them by God not by preaching nor by coercion but by being a community whose life manifests justice.
"’Justice’ (mishpat) is one of the most fundamental categories in the prophetic tradition. It characterizes the fair and equitable behavior of human beings in society, established with due process in law, administered without discrimination, and based on the just will of Yahweh. To establish justice is to establish the reign of God." (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A, 79)
In the latest English translation undertaken by Jewish scholars of Isaiah, the Hebrew word translated into English as ‘justice’ in most Christian translations is translated into ‘true way’. To do justice is to follow the ‘true way’, the covenant path established by God.
In every generation it is the task of the leadership of the community of faith to instruct its members in the responsibilities of living a covenant life, living a life which manifests God’s reign. For the Jewish people this way of life is found in the Torah, the patterns of life that enable the community to be a sign of justice in a world where injustice is more common.
For Christians our Torah, our way of walking in faithfulness with God, is a life lived following the example of Jesus of Nazareth. In him we believe the Torah of God, the Wisdom of God, came among us in human form so that we, being human ourselves, might see with our eyes, touch with our hands and hear with our ears the ‘true way’, the way that leads to fullness of life. In today’s gospel John speaks of Jesus as ‘the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’ and ‘the Son of God’. Two of John’s disciples turn from John to follow Jesus and subsequently call Peter to follow this man whom John called ‘the Lamb of God’.
When you and I were baptized, we entered into a relationship with God through a community committed to following the ‘true way’, to being light in the darkness, to liberating those who are enslaved, to do justice. In other words, baptism is not primarily about saving us from eternal damnation nor about having a self-serving personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship that turns Jesus into a personal possession, a piece of spiritual jewellery to dazzle the eyes.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to bring light into the darkness of our world. There are those who are blinded to the needs and concerns of others and the planet by the extensive possession and personal wealth they have accumulated. There are those who are blinded to the possibilities of change and responsible living by various addictions, whether to chemicals or money or sexual gratification or success or alcohol. We, the Christian people who follow the ‘true way’, the just way, shown in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, live to cast the light of God into those dark recesses that exist even or perhaps especially in affluent communities such as ours here in Greater Vancouver.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to liberate those who are enslaved. There are those who are enslaved by economic forces that create poverty and homelessness even in as prosperous a city as ours. There are those who are enslaved by centuries of systemic injustice even in a country such as ours with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We, the Christian people who follow the ‘true way’, the just way, shown in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, live to break those chains, to speak the truth to the powerful on behalf of the powerless, to risk condemnation as ‘do-gooders’ in a society dominated by ‘take care of number 1’ thinking.
In Second Isaiah’s songs there is not ‘a dramatic day when all things will be transformed suddenly’ but a reign of God brought about by the perseverance of God’s people in doing acts of justice (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year). Just as the Servant of Isaiah will not break or quench or crush the people of the world, even those who oppose the ‘true way’, neither will the Servant be broken or quenched or crushed. The God who began to work on the first day of creation continues to work and will not be thwarted. We who have been baptized have been grafted into the mission first entrusted to the Jewish people, so that we might work with them and all people who seek justice in witnessing to and working for the reign of God.
Just as the people to whom Second Isaiah addressed his message were in difficult times, imprisoned by an imperial power that had destroyed their homeland, uncertain about the future, so you and I live in a time when Christians may wonder whether we are imprisoned by the challenges of being Christians in a society that seems antagonistic to our message, uncertain whether there is a future for this wonderfully rich and seemingly fragile community we call the Anglican Church of Canada. To us the prophet of Second Isaiah speaks words of hope, words of challenge to remind us of who we are and what it is that God has called us to do as people marked by the sign of the cross and grafted into the covenant established so long ago on Mount Sinai. “Be faithful to your covenant,” the prophet sings, “and be a light to the nations by the manner of your life.”
To advocate for the hungry and the homeless is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work for reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To make choices in order to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ and to ‘green’ our homes and businesses is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work to make the Church a safe and just place for all people whether gay or straight, young or old, rich or poor is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant.
We do not need to look far for the Servant through whom God will work to establish justice. Look to your right. There is the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. Look to your left. There is the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. Look at your hands. They are the hands of the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. There is work to be done and we are the agents God has chosen.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we give you thanks and praise that by water and the Holy Spirit you have made us a holy people to love and to serve you. May we, who share Christ’s body, live his risen life; we, who drink his cup, bring life to others; we, whom the Spirit lights, give light to the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so that we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
20 January 2008
Holy Trinity Cathedral
New Westminster BC
About two thousand and fifty years ago a rumour swept through the Jewish exiles living in Babylon. A new power had arisen in the east, the Persians, and their king, Cyrus, was proving to be a far different ruler than the present king of Babylon, Nabonidus. Cyrus had defeated a number of surrounding states and incorporated them into the Persian empire. The word was out: Babylon’s days were numbered. Even better news was that the Persian ruler, Cyrus, had a different policy regarding subject peoples. He allowed them a degree of political autonomy. It might be possible that, if he were to conquer Babylon, the Jewish exiles would be allowed to return to Jerusalem.
Among the exiles was a prophet whose words were later incorporated into the great prophetic book we call Isaiah. He was not the Isaiah of the first forty chapters of the present book, but his words stood in continuity with the first Isaiah’s message to the people. This later prophet is often called Second Isaiah.
"(The oracles of Second Isaiah) date from c. 540 BCE, about 45 years after the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire and the subsequent deportation of many Israelites to Babylon. This deported community doubted its status as God’s chosen people and even doubted the sovereignty of God. Second Isaiah’s oracles seek to assure the exiles both that the LORD still has compassion for them and that the LORD, despite the triumph of Babylon, is still LORD of the heavens and over history. The proof is that the LORD [956] will act soon to allow the exiles to return home, a journey that will be even more glorious than the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt at the time of the exodus.” (The New Interpreter's Bible, 955-956)
Second Isaiah goes even further and suggests that “ . . . the exile was a necessary punishment for the people’s sins but further proposes, especially in the so-called ‘Servant songs,’ that Israel suffered vicariously on behalf of the nations in order to redeem them and restore them to wholeness or shalom.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible, 956)
One of the constant themes of Second Isaiah is that God has a preference for working out God’s purposes through an agent, whether an individual or a people. There are four passages in Second Isaiah where the prophet describes what God is doing through an agent whom the prophet calls ‘the Servant’. Last week’s reading from Isaiah 42 was the first of these so-called ‘Servant Songs’. Today’s reading from Isaiah 49 is the second.
In the four ‘Servant Songs’, all found in this second section of Isaiah, the prophet speaks words of encouragement but also words of challenge. It is a call to remember what God expects of those who have been called into relationship with the creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel. Despite any and all appearances of rejection and failure, the God who entered into covenant with Israel is still the creator and sustainer of the whole world (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 1071).
Isaiah’s Servant is not, however, some messianic individual who will restore the people. The servant is a corporate image that describes not an individual but a people. It is Israel as the covenant people who will be a sign to the nations and whose covenant loyalty will result in bringing many peoples into this covenant. The people of Israel will achieve the mission entrusted to them by God not by preaching nor by coercion but by being a community whose life manifests justice.
"’Justice’ (mishpat) is one of the most fundamental categories in the prophetic tradition. It characterizes the fair and equitable behavior of human beings in society, established with due process in law, administered without discrimination, and based on the just will of Yahweh. To establish justice is to establish the reign of God." (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A, 79)
In the latest English translation undertaken by Jewish scholars of Isaiah, the Hebrew word translated into English as ‘justice’ in most Christian translations is translated into ‘true way’. To do justice is to follow the ‘true way’, the covenant path established by God.
In every generation it is the task of the leadership of the community of faith to instruct its members in the responsibilities of living a covenant life, living a life which manifests God’s reign. For the Jewish people this way of life is found in the Torah, the patterns of life that enable the community to be a sign of justice in a world where injustice is more common.
For Christians our Torah, our way of walking in faithfulness with God, is a life lived following the example of Jesus of Nazareth. In him we believe the Torah of God, the Wisdom of God, came among us in human form so that we, being human ourselves, might see with our eyes, touch with our hands and hear with our ears the ‘true way’, the way that leads to fullness of life. In today’s gospel John speaks of Jesus as ‘the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’ and ‘the Son of God’. Two of John’s disciples turn from John to follow Jesus and subsequently call Peter to follow this man whom John called ‘the Lamb of God’.
When you and I were baptized, we entered into a relationship with God through a community committed to following the ‘true way’, to being light in the darkness, to liberating those who are enslaved, to do justice. In other words, baptism is not primarily about saving us from eternal damnation nor about having a self-serving personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship that turns Jesus into a personal possession, a piece of spiritual jewellery to dazzle the eyes.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to bring light into the darkness of our world. There are those who are blinded to the needs and concerns of others and the planet by the extensive possession and personal wealth they have accumulated. There are those who are blinded to the possibilities of change and responsible living by various addictions, whether to chemicals or money or sexual gratification or success or alcohol. We, the Christian people who follow the ‘true way’, the just way, shown in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, live to cast the light of God into those dark recesses that exist even or perhaps especially in affluent communities such as ours here in Greater Vancouver.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to liberate those who are enslaved. There are those who are enslaved by economic forces that create poverty and homelessness even in as prosperous a city as ours. There are those who are enslaved by centuries of systemic injustice even in a country such as ours with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We, the Christian people who follow the ‘true way’, the just way, shown in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, live to break those chains, to speak the truth to the powerful on behalf of the powerless, to risk condemnation as ‘do-gooders’ in a society dominated by ‘take care of number 1’ thinking.
In Second Isaiah’s songs there is not ‘a dramatic day when all things will be transformed suddenly’ but a reign of God brought about by the perseverance of God’s people in doing acts of justice (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year). Just as the Servant of Isaiah will not break or quench or crush the people of the world, even those who oppose the ‘true way’, neither will the Servant be broken or quenched or crushed. The God who began to work on the first day of creation continues to work and will not be thwarted. We who have been baptized have been grafted into the mission first entrusted to the Jewish people, so that we might work with them and all people who seek justice in witnessing to and working for the reign of God.
Just as the people to whom Second Isaiah addressed his message were in difficult times, imprisoned by an imperial power that had destroyed their homeland, uncertain about the future, so you and I live in a time when Christians may wonder whether we are imprisoned by the challenges of being Christians in a society that seems antagonistic to our message, uncertain whether there is a future for this wonderfully rich and seemingly fragile community we call the Anglican Church of Canada. To us the prophet of Second Isaiah speaks words of hope, words of challenge to remind us of who we are and what it is that God has called us to do as people marked by the sign of the cross and grafted into the covenant established so long ago on Mount Sinai. “Be faithful to your covenant,” the prophet sings, “and be a light to the nations by the manner of your life.”
To advocate for the hungry and the homeless is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work for reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To make choices in order to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ and to ‘green’ our homes and businesses is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work to make the Church a safe and just place for all people whether gay or straight, young or old, rich or poor is not a matter of politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant.
We do not need to look far for the Servant through whom God will work to establish justice. Look to your right. There is the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. Look to your left. There is the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. Look at your hands. They are the hands of the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks. There is work to be done and we are the agents God has chosen.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, we give you thanks and praise that by water and the Holy Spirit you have made us a holy people to love and to serve you. May we, who share Christ’s body, live his risen life; we, who drink his cup, bring life to others; we, whom the Spirit lights, give light to the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so that we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Courtesy of Ignorance
As I was driving home from the first session of Diaconal Studies Seminar 102 'From Text to Sermon: An Introduction to Biblical Exegesis', I listened to an interview with the American author, Wendell Berry, on CBC One's programme 'Ideas'. I was struck by his phrase, 'the courtesy of ignorance'. When one acknowledges ignorance, one exercises a form of humility, a key dimension of courtesy.
During tonight's session we explored briefly the topic of textual criticism, the effort to discover, as best as one is able, the 'best' text of a given scriptural passage. Berry's remarks put the evening's exercise in perspective. When one engages the search for the 'best' text, a 'courtesy of ignorance' is a desirable characteristic to be found in the one who seeks.
Because we are seeking to understand the divine mystery, humility is a primary quality. We will not 'know'; we will only approach the mystery. This humility does not mean we should remain silent, but it does mean we should hold the provisionality of our understanding.
During tonight's session we explored briefly the topic of textual criticism, the effort to discover, as best as one is able, the 'best' text of a given scriptural passage. Berry's remarks put the evening's exercise in perspective. When one engages the search for the 'best' text, a 'courtesy of ignorance' is a desirable characteristic to be found in the one who seeks.
Because we are seeking to understand the divine mystery, humility is a primary quality. We will not 'know'; we will only approach the mystery. This humility does not mean we should remain silent, but it does mean we should hold the provisionality of our understanding.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A New Servant Song
RCL Proper 1A: Baptism of Christ
13 January 2008
St Faith's Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
God has a preference for working God’s purposes through an agent, whether an individual or a people. There are four passages in Isaiah where the prophet describes what God is doing through an agent whom the prophet calls ‘the Servant’. Today’s reading from Isaiah 42 is the first of these songs.
I have commented before on the context in which this portion of Isaiah is written, but I shall take the risk of repeating myself. The book of Isaiah is actually three books, one written during the dramatic events that led up to the Assyrian domination of Israel and Judah, a second section written after the leadership of the Jewish people had been taken into exile in Babylon and a final section written some time after the people had returned to their devastated homeland.
The first ‘Servant Song’ comes from the second section of Isaiah, written during a time when the leadership of the Jewish people was still in exile but seeing signs that the new imperial power, Babylon, was open to restoring a degree of autonomy to Judah so long as Babylonian power was acknowledged. It was a time of aching hope, a promise just over the horizon that some would not live to see, but a promise worth giving thanks.
In the four ‘Servant Songs’, all found in this second section of Isaiah, the prophet speaks words of encouragement but also words of challenge. It is a call to remember what God expects of those who have been called into relationship with the creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel. Despite any and all appearances of rejection and failure, the God who entered into covenant with Israel is still the creator and sustainer of the whole world (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 1071).
Isaiah’s Servant is not, however, some messianic individual who will restore the people. The servant is a corporate image that describes not an individual but a people. It is Israel as the covenant people who will be a sign to the nations and whose covenant loyalty will result in bringing many peoples into this covenant. The people of Israel will achieve the mission entrusted to them by God not by preaching nor by coercion but by being a community whose life manifests justice.
“’Justice’ (mishpat) is one of the most fundamental categories in the prophetic tradition. It characterizes the fair and equitable behavior of human beings in society, established with due process in law, administered without discrimination, and based on the just will of Yahweh. To establish justice is to establish the reign of God. The word in the present context refers primarily to the administration of justice, the promulgation of a just order in society. NJPSV translates in all three instances ‘true way’.” (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A, 79)
It is the task of the leadership of the community of faith to instruct its members in the responsibilities of living a covenant life, living a life which manifests God’s reign rather than talking about the covenant. For the Jewish people this way of life is found in the Torah, the patterns of life that enable the community to be a sign of justice in a world where injustice is more common.
For Christians our Torah, our way of walking in faithfulness with God, is a life lived following the example of Jesus of Nazareth. In him we believe the Torah of God, the Wisdom of God, came among us in human form so that we, being human ourselves, might see with our eyes, touch with our hands and hear with our ears the ‘true way’, the way that leads to fullness of life. In today’s celebration of the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan we commemorate the public inauguration of the ministry of Jesus, a ministry that revealed this way to us.
Christian baptism is the sacramental rite by means of which an individual enters into a relationship with God through a community committed to following the ‘true way’, to being light in the darkness, to liberating those who are enslaved, to do justice. In other words, baptism is not about saving an individual from damnation nor about a self-serving personal relationship with Jesus, turning Jesus into a personal possession, a piece of spiritual jewellery to dazzle the eyes.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to bring light into the darkness of our world. There are those who are blinded to the needs and concerns of others and the planet by the extensive possession and personal wealth they have accumulated. There are those who are blinded to the possibilities of change and responsible living by various addictions, whether to chemicals or money or sexual gratification or success or alcohol. The Christian people live to cast the light of God into those dark recesses that exist even or perhaps especially in affluent communities such as ours here in Kerrisdale.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to liberate those who are enslaved. There are those who are enslaved by economic forces that create poverty and homelessness even in as prosperous a city as ours. There are those who are enslaved by centuries of systemic injustice even in a country such as ours with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Christian people live to break those chains, to speak the truth to the powerful on behalf of the powerless, to risk condemnation as ‘do-gooders’ in a society dominated by ‘take care of number 1’ thinking.
In Isaiah’s song there is not ‘a dramatic day when all things will be transformed suddenly’ but a reign of God brought about by the perseverance of God’s people in doing acts of justice (Craddock). Even though the Servant of Isaiah will not break or quench or crush, neither will the Servant of Isaiah be broken or quenched or crushed. The God who began to work on the first day of creation continues to work and will not be thwarted. We who have been baptized have been grafted into the mission entrusted to the Jewish people, not to replace them but to work with them in witnessing to and working for the reign of God.
To advocate for the hungry and the homeless is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work for reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To make choices in order to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ and to ‘green’ our homes and businesses is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work to make the Church a safe and just place for all people whether gay or straight, young or old, rich or poor is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant.
We do not need to look far for the Servant through whom God will work to establish justice. Look to your right. Look to your left. There is the Servant. Look at your hands. They are the hands of the Servant. As the Servant People let us stand and reaffirm our covenant to be light and liberty and just.
Dear friends, through the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ we have been buried with Christ in baptism, so that we may rise with him to a new life. Now that we have come to the celebration of his baptism in the Jordan by John, let us renew the promises we made in baptism, when we rejected Satan and all the works of evil, and promised to serve God faithfully as members of the holy catholic Church.
Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil and renew your commitment to Jesus Christ?
I do.
Do you believe in God the Father?
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you persevere in resisting evil and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will, with God’s help.
God the creator, the rock of our salvation, has given us new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, through our Lord Jesus Christ. May he keep us faithful to our calling, now and for ever. Amen.
13 January 2008
St Faith's Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
God has a preference for working God’s purposes through an agent, whether an individual or a people. There are four passages in Isaiah where the prophet describes what God is doing through an agent whom the prophet calls ‘the Servant’. Today’s reading from Isaiah 42 is the first of these songs.
I have commented before on the context in which this portion of Isaiah is written, but I shall take the risk of repeating myself. The book of Isaiah is actually three books, one written during the dramatic events that led up to the Assyrian domination of Israel and Judah, a second section written after the leadership of the Jewish people had been taken into exile in Babylon and a final section written some time after the people had returned to their devastated homeland.
The first ‘Servant Song’ comes from the second section of Isaiah, written during a time when the leadership of the Jewish people was still in exile but seeing signs that the new imperial power, Babylon, was open to restoring a degree of autonomy to Judah so long as Babylonian power was acknowledged. It was a time of aching hope, a promise just over the horizon that some would not live to see, but a promise worth giving thanks.
In the four ‘Servant Songs’, all found in this second section of Isaiah, the prophet speaks words of encouragement but also words of challenge. It is a call to remember what God expects of those who have been called into relationship with the creator of the universe, the Holy One of Israel. Despite any and all appearances of rejection and failure, the God who entered into covenant with Israel is still the creator and sustainer of the whole world (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 1071).
Isaiah’s Servant is not, however, some messianic individual who will restore the people. The servant is a corporate image that describes not an individual but a people. It is Israel as the covenant people who will be a sign to the nations and whose covenant loyalty will result in bringing many peoples into this covenant. The people of Israel will achieve the mission entrusted to them by God not by preaching nor by coercion but by being a community whose life manifests justice.
“’Justice’ (mishpat) is one of the most fundamental categories in the prophetic tradition. It characterizes the fair and equitable behavior of human beings in society, established with due process in law, administered without discrimination, and based on the just will of Yahweh. To establish justice is to establish the reign of God. The word in the present context refers primarily to the administration of justice, the promulgation of a just order in society. NJPSV translates in all three instances ‘true way’.” (Craddock, Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A, 79)
It is the task of the leadership of the community of faith to instruct its members in the responsibilities of living a covenant life, living a life which manifests God’s reign rather than talking about the covenant. For the Jewish people this way of life is found in the Torah, the patterns of life that enable the community to be a sign of justice in a world where injustice is more common.
For Christians our Torah, our way of walking in faithfulness with God, is a life lived following the example of Jesus of Nazareth. In him we believe the Torah of God, the Wisdom of God, came among us in human form so that we, being human ourselves, might see with our eyes, touch with our hands and hear with our ears the ‘true way’, the way that leads to fullness of life. In today’s celebration of the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan we commemorate the public inauguration of the ministry of Jesus, a ministry that revealed this way to us.
Christian baptism is the sacramental rite by means of which an individual enters into a relationship with God through a community committed to following the ‘true way’, to being light in the darkness, to liberating those who are enslaved, to do justice. In other words, baptism is not about saving an individual from damnation nor about a self-serving personal relationship with Jesus, turning Jesus into a personal possession, a piece of spiritual jewellery to dazzle the eyes.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to bring light into the darkness of our world. There are those who are blinded to the needs and concerns of others and the planet by the extensive possession and personal wealth they have accumulated. There are those who are blinded to the possibilities of change and responsible living by various addictions, whether to chemicals or money or sexual gratification or success or alcohol. The Christian people live to cast the light of God into those dark recesses that exist even or perhaps especially in affluent communities such as ours here in Kerrisdale.
In baptism we commit ourselves and our children to being God’s agents to liberate those who are enslaved. There are those who are enslaved by economic forces that create poverty and homelessness even in as prosperous a city as ours. There are those who are enslaved by centuries of systemic injustice even in a country such as ours with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Christian people live to break those chains, to speak the truth to the powerful on behalf of the powerless, to risk condemnation as ‘do-gooders’ in a society dominated by ‘take care of number 1’ thinking.
In Isaiah’s song there is not ‘a dramatic day when all things will be transformed suddenly’ but a reign of God brought about by the perseverance of God’s people in doing acts of justice (Craddock). Even though the Servant of Isaiah will not break or quench or crush, neither will the Servant of Isaiah be broken or quenched or crushed. The God who began to work on the first day of creation continues to work and will not be thwarted. We who have been baptized have been grafted into the mission entrusted to the Jewish people, not to replace them but to work with them in witnessing to and working for the reign of God.
To advocate for the hungry and the homeless is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work for reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To make choices in order to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’ and to ‘green’ our homes and businesses is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant. To work to make the Church a safe and just place for all people whether gay or straight, young or old, rich or poor is not politics but a living out of our baptismal covenant.
We do not need to look far for the Servant through whom God will work to establish justice. Look to your right. Look to your left. There is the Servant. Look at your hands. They are the hands of the Servant. As the Servant People let us stand and reaffirm our covenant to be light and liberty and just.
Dear friends, through the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ we have been buried with Christ in baptism, so that we may rise with him to a new life. Now that we have come to the celebration of his baptism in the Jordan by John, let us renew the promises we made in baptism, when we rejected Satan and all the works of evil, and promised to serve God faithfully as members of the holy catholic Church.
Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil and renew your commitment to Jesus Christ?
I do.
Do you believe in God the Father?
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you persevere in resisting evil and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will, with God’s help.
God the creator, the rock of our salvation, has given us new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin, through our Lord Jesus Christ. May he keep us faithful to our calling, now and for ever. Amen.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Whom Do You Seek?
RCL Epiphany A
6 January 2008
St Andrew’s Anglican Church
Langley BC
You, Lord, are both lamb and shepherd. You, Lord, are both prince and slave.
You, peacemaker and sword-bringer of the way you took and gave.
You, the everlasting instant; you, whom we both scorn and crave.
You, who walk each day beside us, sit in power at God’s side.
You, who preach a way that’s narrow, have a love that reaches wide.
You, the everlasting instant; you, who are our pilgrim guide.[1]
Doug Todd recently gathered four persons to respond to the question, “Who is Jesus?” As might be expected of a conversation between a Jew, a Muslim and two Christians, one a ‘liberal’ Protestant, the other a Roman Catholic, four different answers were given. Following the publication of this conversation, the Vancouver Sun received, no doubt, an avalanche of letters and, to the credit of the editors, a number of these letters were printed. Some of the letters voiced predictable religious and non-religious opinions, while some were more thoughtful. But the story itself and the letters that followed remind us that the question that Doug Todd asked will not go away.
But in some ways, “Who is Jesus?” is not the right question with which to begin. Rather, the answer one gives to the question, “Who is Jesus?”, depends very much on an earlier question, “Whom do you seek when you turn to Jesus of Nazareth?” Anselm of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury and theologian in the eleventh and early twelfth century, described theology as ‘faith seeking understanding’. In other words, one cannot even begin to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”, unless one has already made a decision that the question is worth asking, that the person of Jesus merits looking into, that Jesus, in some fashion or another, matters to human history.
When the magi set out to follow the star and to seek “the child who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2.2), they had already made the decision that the journey was worthwhile, that the child was going to be an important factor in human history. There is no suggestion in Matthew’s gospel that they fully understood who this child was, only that seeking him mattered, regardless of what they were to find. Let us imagine, for a moment, the scene as Matthew paints it in the second chapter of his Gospel: A party of scholars and scientists --- for that was who the magi were for their times --- who can expect to be and who are entertained by royalty, are led to a Palestinian village. In the village they find a child, perhaps an infant, perhaps a toddler, who is living in humble circumstances, surrounded by peasants, shepherds and the lower classes of Palestinian society. This child cannot answer for himself the question the magi might have wanted to ask him, “Who are you?”. How the magi respond to the evidence of their eyes is, in great part, determined by their expectations of what they will find.
Their expectations are unveiled to us by the nature of the gifts that Matthew records as having been brought to the child. One of the magi brought incense, a gift generally used to honour divinities, perhaps a sign that he was seeking a divine being or a manifestation of the divine. Another of the magi brought gold, a gift associated with the economic realities of power, perhaps a sign that he was seeking someone whom he thought would need to exercise conventional power. The final gift of the magi was myrrh, a gift generally used to embalm bodies, perhaps a sign that he was seeking someone whose life would be sacrificed for the common good. In all this I say ‘perhaps’, for we cannot know indisputably the motives of the magi. We can know that their gifts speak eloquently of the power of expectations to influence what one finds at the end of a search.
So, from the magi back to Doug Todd’s article for a moment. Whenever a gathering is held to ask the question, “Who is Jesus?”, we must first ask, “Whom do you seek?” What are the needs, the hopes, the expectations, the sorrows, the disappointments, the intellectual commitments that shape the attitudes we bring to the search? It should be no surprise that a Jewish scholar would bring with him the wealth of Jewish reflection on the Messiah. It should be no surprise that a Muslim scholar would bring with her the Muslim tradition of seeing Moses and Jesus as prophets whose message is finally embodied in Muhammad. It should be no surprise that a so-called ‘liberal’ Protestant leader would bring with him more than two centuries of critical reflection on the biblical texts of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. It should be no surprise that a Roman Catholic bishop would bring with him his responsibility to uphold the magisterium, the tradition of authoritative teaching that marks the Roman Catholic tradition.
Some readers of Doug Todd’s article and, perhaps, some of us want to know who among these commentators are ‘right’, which understanding of the person of Jesus of Nazareth is ‘true’. On this holy day when we celebrate the coming of the magi, each of whom brought with him on the journey his own understanding of who this child might be, let us avoid narrowing the parameters too much in our own search to understand who this child is and what that means for us in the living of our lives. Orthodoxy is not always found in the ‘right’ answer, but in holding before us a diversity of views, an approach that lies behind the word ‘catholic’, meaning ‘according to the whole’. Let us honour the quest that many make to understand who this child is and trust that the quest will result in a life-changing understanding.
There are those who seek an authoritative teacher, one who will show us the right path to walk on this journey we call life. If that is whom you seek, then come and learn from him whose burden is light and whose yoke is easy.
There are those who seek a prophet, one who speaks the word of God clearly amidst the clamour of voices that claim our attention. If that is whom you seek, then come and listen to him who said, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first and the great commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
There are those who seek a saviour, one who redeems us from the weight of sin that burdens us and blinds us to God’s presence in our lives and in our world. If that is whom you seek, then come and accept him who is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
There are those who seek a model, one who shows us what it means to be fully alive as a human being created in the image and likeness of God. If that is whom you seek, then come and follow him who gives us power to become children of God, “born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God”.
On their way home, after they had managed to elude the grasp of Herod, I cannot help but wonder whether the magi compared their perceptions of the child. I can hear the question, “So, who do you think he is?” “A divine being,” one said. “A king,” said another. “One destined to die for all,” said the other. Perhaps in a moment of insight, one of the magi said to others, “Yes, all three --- and more!”
The person of Jesus of Nazareth remains a mystery, not a mystery in the sense of something to be fathomed out, but a mystery in the sense of a deep truth that never exhausts the quest for understanding. As we bring our questions and our preconceptions to the quest, God does not chastise us but welcomes us. God is not, I believe, as concerned about whether we have the right opinion or understanding as God is concerned about whether we act rightly on the basis of the understanding we have reached as we plumb the depths of God’s activity in time and space.
You and I have already made a commitment: We believe that Jesus of Nazareth matters and that the whole of human history is intimately linked with this Jewish rabbi whose life and teaching continues to shape the actions of men, women and children throughout time and space. But, like the magi and Anselm, our commitment is an act of faith that is seeking understanding not a claim to have worked out in a final and definitive form who this rabbi is. We only know that he has changed our world and our lives. He is our teacher who shows us the way to be faithful to God. He is our prophet who speaks God’s word to us above the clamour of competing voices. He is our saviour who embodies God’s forgiveness of us so that we might embody that forgiveness for others. He is our model who manifests to us what it means to be fully alive, to be truly made in the image and likeness of God.
Jesus is all these and, I am sure, more. So, my brothers and sisters, whom do you seek? Come then and seek. Do not be afraid to bring your own questions. Do not worry about which answer is the right one. God calls us to search and to learn and to act on the understanding that we are given. No more --- but no less.
Let us pray.
Radiant Morning Star, you are both guide and mystery. Visit our rest with disturbing dreams and our journeys with strange companions. Grace us with the hospitality to open our hearts and homes to visitors filled with unfamiliar wisdom bearing profound and unusual gifts, for you live and reign with the Source of all wisdom and the Spirit that bestows that wisdom on us, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] Sylvia Dunstan, “You, Lord, Are Both Lamb and Shepherd,” in Common Praise (Toronto, ON: Anglican Book Centre, 1998), #630.
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