RCL Epiphany 4C
31 January 2010
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
About ten years ago Bishop Michael asked me to join a small group of people whom he had asked to prepare a rite for the blessing of same-sex couples. The previous year the diocesan Liturgical Commission had prepared a rite based on the marriage rite of The Book of Alternative Services that our legal assessors had vetoed as being too similar to marriage. Given that the marriage of same-sex couples was not and is not permitted in the Anglican Church of Canada, any blessing rite needed to be sufficiently different from the marriage rite so as to make clear that the blessing was not a marriage.
We met frequently over the course of the year. My job was to serve as the editor, pulling together the various ideas and texts the members were bringing forward into a cohesive liturgical structure. All in all, it was a satisfying project in which I am proud to have participated. But I have a confession to make. There is one aspect of the rite that I wish I could remove: the inclusion of 1 Corinthians 13 among the recommended readings from the Scriptures. Let me explain.
When Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, he was writing to a community that was deeply disordered. Victor Paul Furnish, who has written about the church in Corinth, tells us that it was a community in which
• rival groups were jockeying for control;
• there was indifference to flagrant immorality;
• there was a disregard for those who were not fully enlightened about appropriate Christian conduct;
• the disadvantaged members of the community were marginalized and
• Paul’s apostolic authority was questioned (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 2139-2140).
Some of the members of the community believed that they possessed special religious knowledge denied to others, while others thought that their spiritual gifts demonstrated their superiority to the other members of the community (The HarperCollins Study Bible, 2140). This was not a group of happy campers.
Earlier in this letter Paul criticizes the Corinthians for their failure to demonstrate a commitment to build one another up, a quality that Paul frequently holds up as one of the most important characteristics of a Christian community. He points out to them that their practice of celebrating the Lord’s Supper in the midst of what we might call a parish potluck supper shows how they have failed to understand the good news of God in Jesus of Nazareth. The rich will not share their food and drink with the poor so that some leave the meal hungry. “If you cannot see Christ’s body in your brothers and sisters,” Paul says, “then you cannot possibly participate in Christ’s body broken in the bread and poured out in the cup. You eat and drink to your own condemnation.”
Whenever I go to a wedding or a blessing, I go in the hope that the couple will not have chosen 1 Corinthians 13 as one of the readings. Paul’s beautiful and familiar text was never intended to become the stuff of Hallmark cards and romanticism. 1 Corinthians 13, when understood in its context, contains what the military calls ‘the rules of engagement’, the guidelines for handling oneself in difficult and potentially deadly situations. It is not a warm and cuddly text; it is a hard-headed proclamation of what it means to be a Christian and how one is to conduct oneself in the rough and tumble of community life. If we were to follow Paul’s exhortation vigorously, we would discover just how tough it is.
When 1 Corinthians 13 is read at a wedding or a blessing, I gaze around at the congregation. I see small smiles that we generally have when we are looking at children doing something cute or when someone is doing something romantic. There is a certain sweetness, a kind of comfortable nostalgia, that comes over us. This tidal wave of warm feelings overwhelms us and we forget just how hard it is to love when the bills cannot be paid, when the children are sick and when we are wondering whether we should have ever considered marriage at all. We bask in the warm light of the love radiating from the couple and forget that love is a choice that we are asked to make every single moment of every single day and that there are moments, perhaps even hours, days and weeks that pass when choosing to love exceeds our capabilities.
By all means let us read 1 Corinthians 13 frequently and deeply. Let us be clear that this is a clarion call to make the most radical choice a human being can make: the choice to love and, in loving, grow in faith and hope. For Paul love is the choice to build up every human being so that they might become who they truly are, the beloved of God, made in God’s image and called to God’s likeness. To love as Paul calls us to love may mean making costly sacrifices. It may mean speaking the truth, as painful as that truth may be, rather than dodging the truth with some carefully chosen words. To love as Paul calls us to love may mean taking risks and embarking on journeys for which we have only partial maps.
This is the kind of love that Jesus showed to the people in his home town when he proclaimed to them the words of the prophet Isaiah that we heard last week. This is the kind of love that Jesus showed to the people in his home town even as they sought to throw him down a cliff as we heard in today’s gospel reading. This is the kind of love that I hope married couples, whether gay or straight, are prepared to give to one another. This is the kind of love that I hope empowers those who enjoy power and privilege when they consider how they might build up the powerless and disadvantaged. This is the kind of love that I hope guides our discussions in today’s annual parish vestry.
May it be so today and to the ages of ages. Amen.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
From National Church to Global Communion
[I am posting the course description of a course I shall be teaching in the Spring Term of 2010. To register contact the Registrar, Anita Fast, at www.vst.edu.]
HIS 650 From National Church to Global Communion:
The Development of the Anglican Communion
Spring Term 2010
Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett
rleggett@vst.edu
604.822.9810
Iona 219
Thursdays from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Purpose
Anglicanism has developed from a specifically English context into a world-wide communion that embraces differing cultures and peoples throughout the inhabited world. In HIS 650 you will be introduced to the development of the Anglican Communion historically and theologically as it has welcomed and rebuffed the contexts in which it has found itself.
Pre-requisites
You must have completed HIS 100 or its equivalent. The instructor reserves the right to determine equivalency.
Format
The course will meet weekly for a three-hour lecture and discussion.
Competencies
You will be evaluated on your ability
• to identify distinctive movements within the Anglican Communion and to analyze their impact on contemporary Anglican thought and praxis
• to identify significant structures of the Anglican Communion and to analyze their impact on contemporary Anglican though and praxis
• to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of ‘unity in diversity’ as experienced by the member churches of the Anglican Communion
Expectations
You are expected to fulfill the following expectations:
i) Participate in at least 80% of the scheduled class sessions,
ii) Complete the weekly reading assignments as scheduled,
iii) Complete one critical book review and
iv) Complete the final paper.
Evaluations
There are two evaluations associated with this course:
• A critical book review of Douglas and Pui-Lan, Beyond Colonial Anglicanism (five to seven pages) and
• A final paper on any aspect of the development of the Anglican Communion that you choose (ten to fifteen pages).
Required texts
There are three required texts, two of which will be read as weekly assignments. A detailed syllabus will be available on the first day of class.
Douglas, Ian T. and Pui-Lan, Kwok, ed. Beyond Colonial Anglicanism: The Anglican Communion in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2001.
Sachs, William L. The Transformation of Anglicanism: From State Church to Global Communion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John and Knight, Jonathan, ed. The Study of Anglicanism. Rev. ed. London, UK: SPCK, 1998; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
HIS 650 From National Church to Global Communion:
The Development of the Anglican Communion
Spring Term 2010
Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett
rleggett@vst.edu
604.822.9810
Iona 219
Thursdays from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Purpose
Anglicanism has developed from a specifically English context into a world-wide communion that embraces differing cultures and peoples throughout the inhabited world. In HIS 650 you will be introduced to the development of the Anglican Communion historically and theologically as it has welcomed and rebuffed the contexts in which it has found itself.
Pre-requisites
You must have completed HIS 100 or its equivalent. The instructor reserves the right to determine equivalency.
Format
The course will meet weekly for a three-hour lecture and discussion.
Competencies
You will be evaluated on your ability
• to identify distinctive movements within the Anglican Communion and to analyze their impact on contemporary Anglican thought and praxis
• to identify significant structures of the Anglican Communion and to analyze their impact on contemporary Anglican though and praxis
• to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of ‘unity in diversity’ as experienced by the member churches of the Anglican Communion
Expectations
You are expected to fulfill the following expectations:
i) Participate in at least 80% of the scheduled class sessions,
ii) Complete the weekly reading assignments as scheduled,
iii) Complete one critical book review and
iv) Complete the final paper.
Evaluations
There are two evaluations associated with this course:
• A critical book review of Douglas and Pui-Lan, Beyond Colonial Anglicanism (five to seven pages) and
• A final paper on any aspect of the development of the Anglican Communion that you choose (ten to fifteen pages).
Required texts
There are three required texts, two of which will be read as weekly assignments. A detailed syllabus will be available on the first day of class.
Douglas, Ian T. and Pui-Lan, Kwok, ed. Beyond Colonial Anglicanism: The Anglican Communion in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2001.
Sachs, William L. The Transformation of Anglicanism: From State Church to Global Communion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John and Knight, Jonathan, ed. The Study of Anglicanism. Rev. ed. London, UK: SPCK, 1998; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Beauty of Holiness
[I am posting the description of a course that I will be offering at Vancouver School of Theology during the Spring Term of 2010. If you are interested, then contact the Registrar, Anita Fast, via the School's website at www.vst.edu.]
SP 515 The Beauty of Holiness: Worship and Spirituality in the Anglican Tradition
Spring Term 2010
Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett
rleggett@vst.edu
604.822.9810
Iona 219
Tuesdays from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Purpose
Unlike other traditions shaped by the European reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Anglican tradition did not develop a confessional approach to its articulation of Christian faith and praxis. Rather than confessional documents, the Anglican tradition developed a spirituality of praxis embodied in its ‘practices’ of the liturgical year, Christian initiation, eucharist, daily prayer and other spiritual practices. SP 515 provides a foundation in the history and spirituality of these practices within the Anglican tradition with an eye to their renewal in the life of contemporary Christians.
Pre-requisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course. This course is open to all students and is required for students in the M.Div. programme preparing for ordained ministry in the churches of the Anglican Communion.
Format
The course will meet weekly for a three-hour lecture and discussion.
Competencies
You will be evaluated on your ability
• to identify distinctive Anglican approaches to the topics mentioned in the ‘Purpose’ section above;
• to compare and contrast historic Anglican approaches to classic ‘practices’ to contemporary Anglican approaches and
• to analyze the approaches of various Anglican writers to the topics mentioned in the ‘Purpose’ section above.
Expectations
You are expected to fulfill the following expectations and to complete successfully the following evaluations:
(i) Completion of four critical book reviews and
(ii) Participation in at least 80% of the scheduled class sessions.
Evaluations
You will be required to submit four critical book reviews of the texts by Bartlett, Guenther, Countryman and Weil (five to seven pages each). In these book reviews you will compare and contrast the approaches described in the text with your own experience of contemporary Anglican praxis. The book reviews need to demonstrate a familiarity with the content and approach of the author.
Required Texts
There are five required texts. Four will be read in order to complete the evaluations named above and one, Sykes, will be used as a resource for the course. Any additional weekly reading materials will be placed on reserve.
A detailed syllabus will be available on the first day of class.
Bartlett, Alan. A Passionate Balance: The Anglican Tradition. Traditions of Christian Spirituality. London, UK: Dartman, Longman and Todd, 2007.
Countryman, L. William. The Poetic Imagination: An Anglican Spiritual Tradition. Traditions of Christian Spirituality. London, UK: Dartman, Longman and Todd, 1999.
Guenther, Margaret. The Practice of Prayer. The New Church’s Teaching Series, no. 4. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1998.
Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John and Knight, Jonathan, ed. The Study of Anglicanism. Rev. ed. Lon-don, UK: SPCK, 1998; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Weil, Louis. A Theology of Worship. The New Church’s Teaching Series, no. 12. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2002.
SP 515 The Beauty of Holiness: Worship and Spirituality in the Anglican Tradition
Spring Term 2010
Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett
rleggett@vst.edu
604.822.9810
Iona 219
Tuesdays from 2.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Purpose
Unlike other traditions shaped by the European reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Anglican tradition did not develop a confessional approach to its articulation of Christian faith and praxis. Rather than confessional documents, the Anglican tradition developed a spirituality of praxis embodied in its ‘practices’ of the liturgical year, Christian initiation, eucharist, daily prayer and other spiritual practices. SP 515 provides a foundation in the history and spirituality of these practices within the Anglican tradition with an eye to their renewal in the life of contemporary Christians.
Pre-requisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course. This course is open to all students and is required for students in the M.Div. programme preparing for ordained ministry in the churches of the Anglican Communion.
Format
The course will meet weekly for a three-hour lecture and discussion.
Competencies
You will be evaluated on your ability
• to identify distinctive Anglican approaches to the topics mentioned in the ‘Purpose’ section above;
• to compare and contrast historic Anglican approaches to classic ‘practices’ to contemporary Anglican approaches and
• to analyze the approaches of various Anglican writers to the topics mentioned in the ‘Purpose’ section above.
Expectations
You are expected to fulfill the following expectations and to complete successfully the following evaluations:
(i) Completion of four critical book reviews and
(ii) Participation in at least 80% of the scheduled class sessions.
Evaluations
You will be required to submit four critical book reviews of the texts by Bartlett, Guenther, Countryman and Weil (five to seven pages each). In these book reviews you will compare and contrast the approaches described in the text with your own experience of contemporary Anglican praxis. The book reviews need to demonstrate a familiarity with the content and approach of the author.
Required Texts
There are five required texts. Four will be read in order to complete the evaluations named above and one, Sykes, will be used as a resource for the course. Any additional weekly reading materials will be placed on reserve.
A detailed syllabus will be available on the first day of class.
Bartlett, Alan. A Passionate Balance: The Anglican Tradition. Traditions of Christian Spirituality. London, UK: Dartman, Longman and Todd, 2007.
Countryman, L. William. The Poetic Imagination: An Anglican Spiritual Tradition. Traditions of Christian Spirituality. London, UK: Dartman, Longman and Todd, 1999.
Guenther, Margaret. The Practice of Prayer. The New Church’s Teaching Series, no. 4. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 1998.
Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John and Knight, Jonathan, ed. The Study of Anglicanism. Rev. ed. Lon-don, UK: SPCK, 1998; Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.
Weil, Louis. A Theology of Worship. The New Church’s Teaching Series, no. 12. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2002.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Dear Bishop Nicholas
RCL Advent 2C
6 December 2009
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Dear Bishop Nicholas,
Once again the passage of days has brought us to the celebration of your feast day. All around us the hustle and bustle of people preparing for the annual celebration of North American disillusionment and short-sighted greed has begun. Our media make false promises by trying to make us believe that the purchase of this item or that item will somehow fulfill our deepest longings. Songwriters and singers outdo one another in writing songs that they hope will somehow imbue us with the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ even as they studiously avoid any mention of the rabbi from Nazareth whose birth gave rise to this ‘holiday season’.
My Jewish friends tell me that they used to be quite happy that Chanukah did not have the same profile as Christmas. Its low profile meant that Jewish children could be seen to have a time to exchange presents while the religious meaning of the festival, a celebration of God’s miraculous preservation of the Jewish people in the face of an imperial power, remained secure. But even my rabbinical colleagues tell me that the power of the North American consumer machine has begun to crack the religious defences of this Jewish festival. One of the rabbis made a passing remark that he wished someone would write a song about the ‘true meaning of Chanukah’.
Even your feast day has become a victim to the disillusionments of our times. Twenty years ago a young man, Marc Lepine, walked into the École Polytechnique in Montréal as students were in the last day of class before examinations. He separated the women from the men and then proceeded to kill fourteen and wound many more before he killed himself. He left a letter in which he blamed ‘feminists’ for all his disappointments. Even one of the good outcomes of this tragedy, stronger laws regarding firearms and their registration, is being dismantled by the federal government.
Once upon a time I used to portray you regularly at student and congregational parties. One of my former students made a cardboard mitre and my own jewellery as well as an English shepherd’s staff when added to a red chasuble gave a reasonable facsimile --- no beard though. I used to write stories that illustrated the values you upheld during your long and tumultuous life. I developed a three-year cycle which I never wrote down, but children who had heard the cycle would correct me if I strayed from the ‘canonical’ text. Now the pressures of being part-time students and congregations struggling in the face of ‘volunteer fatigue’ and declining membership just try to hang on during the ‘holiday season’. The events of the 6th of December 1989, the so-called ‘Montréal Massacre’ have also contributed to your day being underplayed as we try to remember that there are millions of women who still suffer abuse and murder throughout the world.
This year your feast coincides with our celebration of the Second Sunday of Advent, the first of two ‘John the Baptist’ Sundays. I was struck by the quotation from Isaiah 40 in the appointed gospel from Luke: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Here I am, surrounded by the riches of Canadian society, serving in an Anglican diocese where few if any of our members are truly hungry or naked or homeless, teaching what I always wanted to teach, married to a hard-working parish rector with whom I have three young adult children who are in school, and I can only relate to one part of the quotation: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness . . . .”
For whatever reason, and there are many I could name, this year your festival comes like a voice in the wilderness. Let me say more.
The wilderness is, in a biblical sense, always a place of promise and danger. The wilderness is a place of promise because a wanderer in the desert becomes acutely aware of how everything depends upon the graciousness of God. In the wilderness stories of Israel, water is found just when it is needed, food is discovered just when it is needed, shelter is found just when it is needed. The people were in God’s hands and God did not fail to provide for their needs. But the wilderness is also a place of danger. Death is always lurking just outside the limits of the camp for sure, but the real danger lies in forgetting our dependence upon God’s graciousness and to become greedy, to covet what others possess and to complain at God’s perceived lack of generosity. When that happens, we lose our way and begin to wander aimlessly. Eventually we no longer find water or discover food or find shelter. Death comes to us, whether physically or spiritually, and our bones litter the ground.
I wonder what John the Baptist thought when he heard people identifying him with that voice in the wilderness spoken of by Isaiah. Did he know that becoming God’s voice is rarely a positive career move? Did he realize that becoming a prophet, someone who speaks God’s word into the present, is usually the path to persecution and death? Recently I heard one of our bishops comment that, although we need our prophets, we rarely want them to be our leaders.
Poor John! He struggled in the wilderness and suffered the cruelties of the elements. He lived long enough to see his younger cousin supersede him. A tyrant imprisoned him and a jealous wife managed to have him executed by using her daughter to seduce her husband. When they came for him in the prison, did John see the straight path of the Lord in the wilderness? Did he see the salvation of all flesh? Maybe you could chat him up on this if the opportunity presents itself to you.
Forgive me for asking you this, but did you ever feel like a voice in the wilderness? What was it like for you to grow up during the last days of Christian persecution? How did you feel when you were imprisoned? Did you have any glimpses of the straight path of the Lord? Did you glimpse the salvation of all flesh? Even when Constantine de-criminalized the practice of the Christian faith, you hardly chose a popular course, did you? You used the resources of the diocese to provide dowries for poor women, hardly an act that would have endeared you to the diocesan council. You used the resources of the diocese to ransom sailors from pirates, hardly an act that would have endeared you to those who wanted to keep a cheap labour force. You even used diocesan revenues to provide parents with enough support to prevent them from selling their ‘surplus’ children into slavery. I doubt that the Better Slave Dealers Bureau of Myra voted you ‘Man of the Year’ for that little ploy.
You may be thinking, “What is he on about?” I’ll tell you. How do we proclaim the good news in what seems to be a wilderness? John proclaimed the good news of the coming of the Messiah and lost his head. You proclaimed the good news of a God of justice who cares for the poor and dispossessed and your feast day becomes the memorial of a massacre perpetrated by an angry man who felt dispossessed by the process of equality and fair treatment of women that you modelled for your own time. We here, we Anglicans of the Diocese of New Westminster, live in one of the richest places on earth, the ‘best place on earth’ if we are to believe our provincial government. For centuries we have played a significant part in the lives of our communities.
But the times have changed. When we open our churches to the homeless and become advocates for the poor, the neighbours complain about property values. When we contemplate redeveloping our properties to provide services to the elderly or to the dying, the sheer weight of bureaucratic procedure overwhelms us. When we dare to speak out about the near-sightedness that continues to rape the planet God gave us, the government withdraws the grants that we have used for decades to serve the poorest of the poor throughout the globe. When we ring our church bells to summon the faithful to worship, the neighbours complain about noise. Where, Nicholas, is the straight road? When will we see the salvation of all flesh?
Today we read part of a letter Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi. He wrote that he was confident that the one who had begun a good work among them would bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ [Philippians 1.6]. I was wondering if you could find Paul, perhaps John as well, and go and ask God when that day will be. The people among whom I live and work have been doing a lot of good work and they are getting tired, some may even be beginning to lose hope that this wilderness is only a passing phase we’re going through.
I hope that you do not think that I am arrogant in asking you to do this. Perhaps I am. Maybe it would be enough for the Spirit to break into this wilderness of Vancouver and into this season where so many of our neighbours are deluding themselves with visions of ‘the perfect gift’ and with the hope of Boxing Week sales will somehow fulfill their humanity. Maybe the Spirit could give Paula back her voice so that she could speak words of hope and comfort into this wilderness. Maybe the Spirit could strengthen our voices so that we could convince our neighbours and our governments that this is a wilderness and that there are those who are being lost because of our greed and exploitation and our lack of concern. Maybe the Spirit could give my sisters and brothers in this Diocese a glimpse of what we’ve been working for; you know, the straight path and salvation of all flesh. Just a glimpse; that’s all we need right now, I think.
Well, that’s probably enough for this letter. You can share it with anyone you think might be interested in it. I wouldn’t mind it if you shared it with John and Paul. Please tell the Writer of the Song of creation that we could use a bit more of the Breath that moved upon the waters at the beginning. We are hanging in down here, but any extra jolt to our stamina would be welcome.
Blessings to you and to all who might know me,
Richard
6 December 2009
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Dear Bishop Nicholas,
Once again the passage of days has brought us to the celebration of your feast day. All around us the hustle and bustle of people preparing for the annual celebration of North American disillusionment and short-sighted greed has begun. Our media make false promises by trying to make us believe that the purchase of this item or that item will somehow fulfill our deepest longings. Songwriters and singers outdo one another in writing songs that they hope will somehow imbue us with the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ even as they studiously avoid any mention of the rabbi from Nazareth whose birth gave rise to this ‘holiday season’.
My Jewish friends tell me that they used to be quite happy that Chanukah did not have the same profile as Christmas. Its low profile meant that Jewish children could be seen to have a time to exchange presents while the religious meaning of the festival, a celebration of God’s miraculous preservation of the Jewish people in the face of an imperial power, remained secure. But even my rabbinical colleagues tell me that the power of the North American consumer machine has begun to crack the religious defences of this Jewish festival. One of the rabbis made a passing remark that he wished someone would write a song about the ‘true meaning of Chanukah’.
Even your feast day has become a victim to the disillusionments of our times. Twenty years ago a young man, Marc Lepine, walked into the École Polytechnique in Montréal as students were in the last day of class before examinations. He separated the women from the men and then proceeded to kill fourteen and wound many more before he killed himself. He left a letter in which he blamed ‘feminists’ for all his disappointments. Even one of the good outcomes of this tragedy, stronger laws regarding firearms and their registration, is being dismantled by the federal government.
Once upon a time I used to portray you regularly at student and congregational parties. One of my former students made a cardboard mitre and my own jewellery as well as an English shepherd’s staff when added to a red chasuble gave a reasonable facsimile --- no beard though. I used to write stories that illustrated the values you upheld during your long and tumultuous life. I developed a three-year cycle which I never wrote down, but children who had heard the cycle would correct me if I strayed from the ‘canonical’ text. Now the pressures of being part-time students and congregations struggling in the face of ‘volunteer fatigue’ and declining membership just try to hang on during the ‘holiday season’. The events of the 6th of December 1989, the so-called ‘Montréal Massacre’ have also contributed to your day being underplayed as we try to remember that there are millions of women who still suffer abuse and murder throughout the world.
This year your feast coincides with our celebration of the Second Sunday of Advent, the first of two ‘John the Baptist’ Sundays. I was struck by the quotation from Isaiah 40 in the appointed gospel from Luke: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” Here I am, surrounded by the riches of Canadian society, serving in an Anglican diocese where few if any of our members are truly hungry or naked or homeless, teaching what I always wanted to teach, married to a hard-working parish rector with whom I have three young adult children who are in school, and I can only relate to one part of the quotation: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness . . . .”
For whatever reason, and there are many I could name, this year your festival comes like a voice in the wilderness. Let me say more.
The wilderness is, in a biblical sense, always a place of promise and danger. The wilderness is a place of promise because a wanderer in the desert becomes acutely aware of how everything depends upon the graciousness of God. In the wilderness stories of Israel, water is found just when it is needed, food is discovered just when it is needed, shelter is found just when it is needed. The people were in God’s hands and God did not fail to provide for their needs. But the wilderness is also a place of danger. Death is always lurking just outside the limits of the camp for sure, but the real danger lies in forgetting our dependence upon God’s graciousness and to become greedy, to covet what others possess and to complain at God’s perceived lack of generosity. When that happens, we lose our way and begin to wander aimlessly. Eventually we no longer find water or discover food or find shelter. Death comes to us, whether physically or spiritually, and our bones litter the ground.
I wonder what John the Baptist thought when he heard people identifying him with that voice in the wilderness spoken of by Isaiah. Did he know that becoming God’s voice is rarely a positive career move? Did he realize that becoming a prophet, someone who speaks God’s word into the present, is usually the path to persecution and death? Recently I heard one of our bishops comment that, although we need our prophets, we rarely want them to be our leaders.
Poor John! He struggled in the wilderness and suffered the cruelties of the elements. He lived long enough to see his younger cousin supersede him. A tyrant imprisoned him and a jealous wife managed to have him executed by using her daughter to seduce her husband. When they came for him in the prison, did John see the straight path of the Lord in the wilderness? Did he see the salvation of all flesh? Maybe you could chat him up on this if the opportunity presents itself to you.
Forgive me for asking you this, but did you ever feel like a voice in the wilderness? What was it like for you to grow up during the last days of Christian persecution? How did you feel when you were imprisoned? Did you have any glimpses of the straight path of the Lord? Did you glimpse the salvation of all flesh? Even when Constantine de-criminalized the practice of the Christian faith, you hardly chose a popular course, did you? You used the resources of the diocese to provide dowries for poor women, hardly an act that would have endeared you to the diocesan council. You used the resources of the diocese to ransom sailors from pirates, hardly an act that would have endeared you to those who wanted to keep a cheap labour force. You even used diocesan revenues to provide parents with enough support to prevent them from selling their ‘surplus’ children into slavery. I doubt that the Better Slave Dealers Bureau of Myra voted you ‘Man of the Year’ for that little ploy.
You may be thinking, “What is he on about?” I’ll tell you. How do we proclaim the good news in what seems to be a wilderness? John proclaimed the good news of the coming of the Messiah and lost his head. You proclaimed the good news of a God of justice who cares for the poor and dispossessed and your feast day becomes the memorial of a massacre perpetrated by an angry man who felt dispossessed by the process of equality and fair treatment of women that you modelled for your own time. We here, we Anglicans of the Diocese of New Westminster, live in one of the richest places on earth, the ‘best place on earth’ if we are to believe our provincial government. For centuries we have played a significant part in the lives of our communities.
But the times have changed. When we open our churches to the homeless and become advocates for the poor, the neighbours complain about property values. When we contemplate redeveloping our properties to provide services to the elderly or to the dying, the sheer weight of bureaucratic procedure overwhelms us. When we dare to speak out about the near-sightedness that continues to rape the planet God gave us, the government withdraws the grants that we have used for decades to serve the poorest of the poor throughout the globe. When we ring our church bells to summon the faithful to worship, the neighbours complain about noise. Where, Nicholas, is the straight road? When will we see the salvation of all flesh?
Today we read part of a letter Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi. He wrote that he was confident that the one who had begun a good work among them would bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ [Philippians 1.6]. I was wondering if you could find Paul, perhaps John as well, and go and ask God when that day will be. The people among whom I live and work have been doing a lot of good work and they are getting tired, some may even be beginning to lose hope that this wilderness is only a passing phase we’re going through.
I hope that you do not think that I am arrogant in asking you to do this. Perhaps I am. Maybe it would be enough for the Spirit to break into this wilderness of Vancouver and into this season where so many of our neighbours are deluding themselves with visions of ‘the perfect gift’ and with the hope of Boxing Week sales will somehow fulfill their humanity. Maybe the Spirit could give Paula back her voice so that she could speak words of hope and comfort into this wilderness. Maybe the Spirit could strengthen our voices so that we could convince our neighbours and our governments that this is a wilderness and that there are those who are being lost because of our greed and exploitation and our lack of concern. Maybe the Spirit could give my sisters and brothers in this Diocese a glimpse of what we’ve been working for; you know, the straight path and salvation of all flesh. Just a glimpse; that’s all we need right now, I think.
Well, that’s probably enough for this letter. You can share it with anyone you think might be interested in it. I wouldn’t mind it if you shared it with John and Paul. Please tell the Writer of the Song of creation that we could use a bit more of the Breath that moved upon the waters at the beginning. We are hanging in down here, but any extra jolt to our stamina would be welcome.
Blessings to you and to all who might know me,
Richard
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Living in and into hope
RCL Proper 33B
15 November 2009
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Propers: 1 Samuel 1.4-20; 1 Samuel 2.1-10; Hebrews 10.11-14[15-18]19-25; Mark 13.1-8
Let us pray.
Almighty God, your sovereign purpose brings salvation to birth. Give us faith to be steadfast amid the tumults of this world, trusting that your kingdom comes and your will is done through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship]
1) It is an ancient and contemporary story. Someone lacks what society deems to be valuable, what is necessary for social status. After many years of enduring abuse with patience and faith, he or she abandons all propriety and receives a promise, perhaps given only to get rid of the person. Then he or she receives what has been promised and lives happily ever after.
2) But in Hannah this ancient story takes a slightly different trajectory.
a) Hannah acts on the promise inherent in Eli’s blessing. She takes the risk of yet more disappointment and seeks the bed of her husband. This is no passive ‘waiting on the Lord’; this comes close to putting the Lord to the test.
b) When she receives the gift she has sought for so long, Hannah gives the gift away, completely and irrevocably. Although the writer of 1 Samuel will later record that she subsequently gives birth to three more sons and two daughters, this does not negate the radical nature of her decision to give Samuel over to God. She has no surety that she will have another child. No doubt there were some family members who thought her quite mad.
4) Hannah’s act and the substance of today’s reading from Hebrews raise a question for me: What is our hope?
a) For Hannah her hope was that God would grant her a child, thus proving to the whole family that she was a fruitful wife, a fit companion or her husband, Elkanah. The birth of Samuel was, in one fashion or another, an affirmation of her full personhood as this was under-stood at that time.
b) For the writer of Hebrews hope lay in the assurance that faithfulness in following the way of Jesus was the key to being fully alive, fully living into the wisdom of God made known to us in Jesus of Nazareth. To love one another and to do works of justice was a manner of life that helped to shape us into the pattern of the Word of God as embodied in Jesus, the one in whom we see God’s life fully realized in a human person in time and space.
5) When Saint Faith’s was founded more than sixty years ago, what was the hope of the founding families?
a) No doubt there hope was to establish in this part of the city a sign of God’s faithfulness to the world. Here children would learn the faith, adults would serve the well-being of the community and compassionate pastoral care would be offered to rich and poor, young and old.
b) No doubt some hoped that this would be, to borrow a phrase from T. S. Eliot, a place where prayer was valid. Here we would stand before God and lift up the needs and concerns of our little corner of creation. Here we would pour the water of new birth and incorporate new fellow pilgrims to follow the way of Jesus. Here we would break the bread of life and pour out the cup of salvation, for strength not only for solace, for renewal not only for pardon (cf. The Book of Common Prayer 1979, 372).
c) From the vantage point of the present I dare to claim that the hopes of our founders have been realized. We have been and continue to be a visible testament to God’s faithfulness to us and to all whom God has made. We have shared and continue to share with young and old the wisdom of God made known in the Scriptures, in our own experience and in our Anglican heritage. Here prayer has been valid and the sacraments have been lovingly and faithfully administered to all who have come among us in faith.
6) We are now facing the challenge of determining the future of this community of faith.
a) Over the months ahead we will take counsel together regarding how best to live in and into the hope that first brought us into existence.
b) Some of us may have very clear views of what should be done. Others of us may need to ponder and to pray before we commit ourselves to a particular course of action.
c) Regardless of where we find ourselves in this conversation, one thing must re-main clear: to live in and into hope requires continuing commitment to corporate life and to the concrete actions that express our identity as followers of Jesus, our way and our life.
d) Ultimately our hope is for a world in which every human being is fully alive, loved for no other reason that he or she bears the image of God; fully alive, free to offer without artificial constraint or prejudice the unique gifts bestowed to her or him by a gracious God; fully alive, knowing that there is more to life than the acquisition of goods and prestige; fully alive, living wisely and in harmony with all of creation, human and non-human.
e) This is why we are here, serving as stewards of the resources given into our care, whether as individuals, as families, as a community of faith.
7) So, my sisters and brothers in the way of Jesus, as we walk the way before us and consider how we may live in and into hope, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” [Hebrews 10.23-25]
15 November 2009
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Propers: 1 Samuel 1.4-20; 1 Samuel 2.1-10; Hebrews 10.11-14[15-18]19-25; Mark 13.1-8
Let us pray.
Almighty God, your sovereign purpose brings salvation to birth. Give us faith to be steadfast amid the tumults of this world, trusting that your kingdom comes and your will is done through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. [Evangelical Lutheran Worship]
1) It is an ancient and contemporary story. Someone lacks what society deems to be valuable, what is necessary for social status. After many years of enduring abuse with patience and faith, he or she abandons all propriety and receives a promise, perhaps given only to get rid of the person. Then he or she receives what has been promised and lives happily ever after.
2) But in Hannah this ancient story takes a slightly different trajectory.
a) Hannah acts on the promise inherent in Eli’s blessing. She takes the risk of yet more disappointment and seeks the bed of her husband. This is no passive ‘waiting on the Lord’; this comes close to putting the Lord to the test.
b) When she receives the gift she has sought for so long, Hannah gives the gift away, completely and irrevocably. Although the writer of 1 Samuel will later record that she subsequently gives birth to three more sons and two daughters, this does not negate the radical nature of her decision to give Samuel over to God. She has no surety that she will have another child. No doubt there were some family members who thought her quite mad.
4) Hannah’s act and the substance of today’s reading from Hebrews raise a question for me: What is our hope?
a) For Hannah her hope was that God would grant her a child, thus proving to the whole family that she was a fruitful wife, a fit companion or her husband, Elkanah. The birth of Samuel was, in one fashion or another, an affirmation of her full personhood as this was under-stood at that time.
b) For the writer of Hebrews hope lay in the assurance that faithfulness in following the way of Jesus was the key to being fully alive, fully living into the wisdom of God made known to us in Jesus of Nazareth. To love one another and to do works of justice was a manner of life that helped to shape us into the pattern of the Word of God as embodied in Jesus, the one in whom we see God’s life fully realized in a human person in time and space.
5) When Saint Faith’s was founded more than sixty years ago, what was the hope of the founding families?
a) No doubt there hope was to establish in this part of the city a sign of God’s faithfulness to the world. Here children would learn the faith, adults would serve the well-being of the community and compassionate pastoral care would be offered to rich and poor, young and old.
b) No doubt some hoped that this would be, to borrow a phrase from T. S. Eliot, a place where prayer was valid. Here we would stand before God and lift up the needs and concerns of our little corner of creation. Here we would pour the water of new birth and incorporate new fellow pilgrims to follow the way of Jesus. Here we would break the bread of life and pour out the cup of salvation, for strength not only for solace, for renewal not only for pardon (cf. The Book of Common Prayer 1979, 372).
c) From the vantage point of the present I dare to claim that the hopes of our founders have been realized. We have been and continue to be a visible testament to God’s faithfulness to us and to all whom God has made. We have shared and continue to share with young and old the wisdom of God made known in the Scriptures, in our own experience and in our Anglican heritage. Here prayer has been valid and the sacraments have been lovingly and faithfully administered to all who have come among us in faith.
6) We are now facing the challenge of determining the future of this community of faith.
a) Over the months ahead we will take counsel together regarding how best to live in and into the hope that first brought us into existence.
b) Some of us may have very clear views of what should be done. Others of us may need to ponder and to pray before we commit ourselves to a particular course of action.
c) Regardless of where we find ourselves in this conversation, one thing must re-main clear: to live in and into hope requires continuing commitment to corporate life and to the concrete actions that express our identity as followers of Jesus, our way and our life.
d) Ultimately our hope is for a world in which every human being is fully alive, loved for no other reason that he or she bears the image of God; fully alive, free to offer without artificial constraint or prejudice the unique gifts bestowed to her or him by a gracious God; fully alive, knowing that there is more to life than the acquisition of goods and prestige; fully alive, living wisely and in harmony with all of creation, human and non-human.
e) This is why we are here, serving as stewards of the resources given into our care, whether as individuals, as families, as a community of faith.
7) So, my sisters and brothers in the way of Jesus, as we walk the way before us and consider how we may live in and into hope, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” [Hebrews 10.23-25]
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Here I am with my colleagues on the Joint Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada at our recent meeting in Edmonton (October 2009). To my left are Paul Johnson and Alyson Barnett-Cowan. Paul is leaving the National Office of the ELCIC and Alyson is off to the Anglican Communion Office in London.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Be careful what you wish for!
The ecclesiastical air waves have been full of commentary on the initiative undertaken by the present Bishop of Rome, Benedict XVI, to facilitate the integration of dissident Anglican communities within the communion of the Roman church. While some of the provisions are new, the initiative is not new. Since the nineteenth century both individuals and communities have sought re-integration either through submission and absorption as embodied by John Henry Newman or through accommodation of congregations who could not accept the ordination of women and the introduction of revised liturgical rites.
From an Anglican perspective such movement should be greeted with compassion and pastoral respect. Since Anglicans believe themselves to be Catholic Christians gathered in national churches, the decision of some Anglicans to seek communion with Rome is similar to choosing to live in a different neighbourhood that one finds congenial to one's values and lifestyle. However, given that the Roman Church does not share this Anglican perspective on the nature of the visible Church, the submission of Anglican communities to the discipline of the Roman tradition has a different public face.
I want to say that those who are fleeing what they understand to be questionable decisions within Anglican Communion should be careful in what they wish for. When one is running away from what may seem to be a mad dog, it is important to watch where one is going so as not to fall as unsuspecting prey to a lurking wolf.
In today’s Globe and Mail the Dean of Ottawa, the Very Rev’d Shane Parker writes: “For decades, the Anglican Church has welcomed Roman Catholics who feel called to be faithful to a tradition that dates back to St. Peter but who wish to do so in a church that has democratically elected bishops, male and female clergy, married clergy, provision for remarriage after divorce, and the courage to be affected by the dynamic interplay of scripture, tradition and reason. We haven’t made a public announcement for fear of offending our sisters and brothers in the Roman Church.”
Sandra Fairman from Toronto writes in the same issue, “I can see why conservative Anglicans might want to convert to Catholicism. They have inadvertently found themselves in a church where they are being asked to practice the teachings of Christ.”
To the comments of Dean Parker and Ms Fairman I might add that the Roman Church denies any meaningful role to the laity in decisions relating to the faith and order of the Christian community. Anglican clergy who choose to respond positively to the Bishop of Rome’s invitation will discover that they have taken up residence in an ecclesiastical cul de sac. They will not find themselves called to the episcopate and, unless specific provision is made for the theological education of new clergy in the Anglican tradition in a Roman key, subsequent parish pastors will reflect Romanitas rather than a genuine Anglican ethos. The experience of other so-called ‘Uniate’ churches, mostly Eastern Rite churches that have sought integration into the Roman communion while preserving their unique customs and heritage, has not been universally positive. Anglicans seeking communion with Rome may discover that their heritage will disappear within one or two ‘generations’.
So long as Rome considers itself to be the Catholic Church and to deny full ecclesial respect to non-Roman Western Christians, Anglican communities fleeing what they consider to be the ‘mad dog’ of so-called ‘liberal’ Anglicans will discover that they have fallen prey to a lurking Roman wolf who will consume them bit by bit. They will lose their Anglican ethos, an ethos that threatens the existing Roman hegemony. When faced with such a subtle threat, the Roman authorities will work quietly but assiduously to reduce the threat posed by these refugees.
In the meantime I shall pray for the genuine visible unity of the Christian Church, one that respects the diversity of peoples and cultures that have found hope in the Gospel while proclaiming the good news of our faith: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!
From an Anglican perspective such movement should be greeted with compassion and pastoral respect. Since Anglicans believe themselves to be Catholic Christians gathered in national churches, the decision of some Anglicans to seek communion with Rome is similar to choosing to live in a different neighbourhood that one finds congenial to one's values and lifestyle. However, given that the Roman Church does not share this Anglican perspective on the nature of the visible Church, the submission of Anglican communities to the discipline of the Roman tradition has a different public face.
I want to say that those who are fleeing what they understand to be questionable decisions within Anglican Communion should be careful in what they wish for. When one is running away from what may seem to be a mad dog, it is important to watch where one is going so as not to fall as unsuspecting prey to a lurking wolf.
In today’s Globe and Mail the Dean of Ottawa, the Very Rev’d Shane Parker writes: “For decades, the Anglican Church has welcomed Roman Catholics who feel called to be faithful to a tradition that dates back to St. Peter but who wish to do so in a church that has democratically elected bishops, male and female clergy, married clergy, provision for remarriage after divorce, and the courage to be affected by the dynamic interplay of scripture, tradition and reason. We haven’t made a public announcement for fear of offending our sisters and brothers in the Roman Church.”
Sandra Fairman from Toronto writes in the same issue, “I can see why conservative Anglicans might want to convert to Catholicism. They have inadvertently found themselves in a church where they are being asked to practice the teachings of Christ.”
To the comments of Dean Parker and Ms Fairman I might add that the Roman Church denies any meaningful role to the laity in decisions relating to the faith and order of the Christian community. Anglican clergy who choose to respond positively to the Bishop of Rome’s invitation will discover that they have taken up residence in an ecclesiastical cul de sac. They will not find themselves called to the episcopate and, unless specific provision is made for the theological education of new clergy in the Anglican tradition in a Roman key, subsequent parish pastors will reflect Romanitas rather than a genuine Anglican ethos. The experience of other so-called ‘Uniate’ churches, mostly Eastern Rite churches that have sought integration into the Roman communion while preserving their unique customs and heritage, has not been universally positive. Anglicans seeking communion with Rome may discover that their heritage will disappear within one or two ‘generations’.
So long as Rome considers itself to be the Catholic Church and to deny full ecclesial respect to non-Roman Western Christians, Anglican communities fleeing what they consider to be the ‘mad dog’ of so-called ‘liberal’ Anglicans will discover that they have fallen prey to a lurking Roman wolf who will consume them bit by bit. They will lose their Anglican ethos, an ethos that threatens the existing Roman hegemony. When faced with such a subtle threat, the Roman authorities will work quietly but assiduously to reduce the threat posed by these refugees.
In the meantime I shall pray for the genuine visible unity of the Christian Church, one that respects the diversity of peoples and cultures that have found hope in the Gospel while proclaiming the good news of our faith: Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!
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