Lectionary Reflections, Part III

In Part I of this series, I asked a series of three questions. I answered the first to in Part II. In today's article, I intend to reflect on the final question:

3. If the Lectionary is a tool to serve the needs of the People of God, what form should the Lectionary take to ensure that said needs are met?

Part III

Ancient Faith on a Contemporary Mission

 

When we look back to the writings of the ancient Church, we see -both in Scripture and patristic sources - the idea of the main worship of the local Christian community being focused around the poles of Word and Table. Often, God's Word would be read late into the night on Saturday, with the visiting apostle or the pastor of the local church preaching for a lengthy period of time before the worship moved on to the Table where the Holy Supper was celebrated. As the Liturgy developed more fully, the first portion of the service became known as The Mass of the Catechumens in the Western Church. It was a time of instruction in the Word of God through Scriptural proclamation and preaching. Those preparing for baptism were then dismissed (as were other classes of believers who were not communing) and the Liturgy of the Faithful began.

 

The term 'catechumens' refers to learners. In the ancient Church it was typically used to refer to the unbaptized... the core word 'catechize' refers to instruction. The 'Mass of the Catechumens' is, thus, the time of instruction that the entire Church should share (yes, Children included! but that's a different topic). We all need ongoing catechesis in the essentials of the faith, and the best way - particularlly in our post-modern era - to provide that ongoing catechesis is to read Scripture in digestible sections, and to discuss thuroughly (at least as thuroughly as our congregation's understanding and tolerance of our preaching will take us) the implications of the Word for both our core doctrines and our modern life.

 

Neither the traditional one-year or contemporary three-year lectionary offer much in the way to support this ongoing mission, so what, pray tell, is to be done. Well, I wish I had a perfect answer, but instead, the remainder of this article will be dedicated to outlining a vision for what a lectionary could and should be.

 

The first statement I will make is that there will need to be two separate lectionaries. In reality, there already are in a sense - the readings surrounding the major feasts tend to be rather fixed, and with good reason. So, let's start there.

 
SUGGESTION 1
Use a 1 Year Lectionary Cycle Major Holy Days
 
At the very minimum, this would encompass 14 separate days:

• Christmas Day
• Epiphany
• Baptism of our Lord
• Ash Wednesday
• Palm Sunday
• Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week
• Maundy Thursday
• Good Friday
• Holy Saturday
• Easter Sunday
• Ascension Day
• Pentecost Day
• Trinity Sunday
• All Saints Day

On these days, the readings are fixed from year to year, or provide minimal variation, generally related to providing parallel accounts of the same event (i.e., the Passion Narratives from the Four Gospels). This makes sense because we are reinforcing a theological principle when we celebrate these festal days.
 
SUGGESTION 2:
Make Use of a 3 Year Ordinary Time Lectionary
 
"But wait!" I hear you saying... "Didn't you just say you don't like that?"  Well, you are right; sorta - I don't like the existant 3 Year Lectionary, but... what if you were driving a convertable? Have I lost you? That's OK. My 3 Year proposal goes like this:
 
Year A:  Chronological Overview of the Old Testament 
Year B:  Chronological Reading of the Complete Gospels
Year C:  Chronological Reading of the Complete New Testament
 
In this vision, small, digestible sections of Scripture would be be appointed to be read, allowing the true flavor and content of the Word to be savored. Further, they would be provided chronologically and, in many instances, in parallel. By following the unfolding of the narrative of Scripture in chronological order, we develop a contextualization behind what we are reading, and - I believe - come to a deeper appreciation of the Word and its power throughout the ages.
 
"Oh, but wait," you say. "Those would be awfully long readings if you were going to try to split them up over 40 or so Sundays..." Who said anything about Sundays? 
 
SUGGESTION 3:
Make it a Daily Lectionary
 
Here is where, honestly, the suggestion may fall apart for many. So be it. During Ordinary Time, the reading assigned for the day is assigned to a specific calendar date. I don't mean "Sunday between January 2 and 8", I mean "January 2". That's right, one reading a day. This has the added benefit of providing the overachiever with three pericopes a day (OT, Gospel, NT) to use at Morning, Midday, and Evening Prayer. It leaves the average family with a single reading of manageable size which they may use at family devotions in the home each day. Families would be advised of what year of the cycle one was in, and then they could read the readings at home (together with all the other families of the congregation), readings which will flow into and out of the Sunday readings at Church (and in a far better way than the RCL Daily Lectionary does).
 
Now, admittedly, this has one flaw - it only provides one reading for a given day. Well, Calvin preferred the idea of a single reading per day, but the liturgical among us would definately want at least one other reading... such a lectionary proposal fits better with our liturgical needs that way. Oh, but how to manage it.
 
SUGGESTION 4a:
Provide Suggested Add-On's
 
One way to handle it would be to add at least a second reading (from the Gospels in years A and C, and from wherever else in year B) that thematically relates to the central (i.e., controlling) reading of the day. To this could be added a Psalm and a Collect, as well as other necessary liturgical add-ons.
 
SUGGESTION 4b:
Allow for Local Variations
 
Perhaps, however, it would be best to allow pastors to choose a second reading, a psalm, and a collect to match the reading. Sure, sounds horribly Protestant, but it also sounds like a good idea. Providing the controlling reading mandates a thematic base for the service, and the pastor selects a text that reinforces the theme. Perhaps a text will apply or be recieved better in one congregation than another. Sure, this runs the risk of turning the pastor into a typological theologian, but any thematic lectionary is going to do that anyway, and in our era it is my conviction that people need themes to wrap their minds around, comprehend, and make their own.
 
SUGGESTION 5
Skip Nothing (Well, Almost Nothing)
 
So, it's the middle of November and the Passion narrative is starting to come around in your daily lectionary. So what? Sure it isn't the right liturgical season for it, but preaching 'out of season' may provide opprutunities to preach that preaching 'in season' does not afford. Yes, I'd find it odd to be preaching about the nativity of Jesus a week after we put away the nativity scenes... but so what.  Alternatively, omit only those items covered in the fixed liturgical seasons (thus the Nativity through Baptism of Christ and the Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost).
 
This falls apart a bit for the Old Testament. I don't think most folks want to read three years of the Old Testament - those who do will do it for themselves. Provide a survey of the great stories and important concepts of the Old Testament, and make it a good one.
 
SUGGESTION 6
If Observing Liturgical Seasons, Provide Them as Thematic Times
 
Lent should be penetential. Easter a time of joyful exultation. The daily readings in these seasons, as well as at other times, can take on a different tone and method of selection.
 
SUGGESTION 7
Give Careful Consideration to Saint's Days
 
While commemorating non-biblical worthies is as simple as a collect in their honor and a biography, the question of how to handle Biblical saints with proper readings is sticky.
 
My initial thought would be to commemorate them as the reading traditionally assigned to their feast occurs in the Lectionary. (This is my solution for Transfiguration.) The problem is that many of the most significant Christian saints would only get mention in years B and C of the cycle. 
 
The other option is to simply mark those days out as festal days, give three proper readings and a psalm that unites them, and pick up the Ordinary Time cycle the following day. Thus, if I am commemorating Saint Thomas on July 3rd, I read the Ordinary readings on the 2nd and 4th, with the festal readings on the 3rd.  By my accounting, there would be around 30 festal days to work around. Not perfect, but doable.
 
A MORE SERIOUS PROPOSAL
 
Here is a proposal for a serious Lectionary revision:
 
THE CHRISTMAS CYCLE
15 Days, Beginning December 18 and Running Through January 1
These days would be strictly thematic.
Full Propers (Collect and Psalm) Provided
 

(*One will note that there is no provision for Advent. This would be simple to solve, by simply beginning on December 1st and expaning the thematic readings. I'd argue against it, keeping the week leading up to Christmas as more of an Advent-like time.)

 
THE PASCHAL CYCLE
103 Days, Beginning Ash Wednedsay and Running Through Trinity Sunday
(39 Days of Lent, 7 Days of Holy Week, 39 Days of Eastertide, 1 Day of Ascension, 9 Days after Ascension, 1 Day of Pentecost, 6 Days after Pentecost, 1 Day of Trinity Sunday)
These days would be strictly thematic.
Full Propers (Collect and Psalm) Provided
Would suggest reading Job in Lent, as its chronolgical place is sketchy
Would suggest reading Revelation in Paschaltide, as it points towards the ultimate goal
 
THE ORDINARY CYCLE
247 Days, Not Counting Any Feasts
(If Keeping Feasts, Approximatley 217 Days, Depending on What Feasts are Selected)
Readings assigned to Calendar Dates
Pastor/Preacher free to choose complimentary readings, psalms, and collects
Pastors could compose their own collects

Lectionary Disgruntlement

I am, apparently, not the only one who has recently been having some rather disgruntled thoughts about the Lectionary of late.

Jeffrey Tucker over at The New Liturgical Movement writes in opposition to the three-year lectionary system of the Novus Ordo Missae, suggesting a return to the previous annual cycle. The comments on the thread alone are worth reading.

Lauren Porter at Porter's Progress writes about the rise of lectionary preaching in the United Methodist Church and his concerns with the Revised Common Lectionary.

William Weston at Disgruntled Center writes, simply, Ditch the Lectionary.

Very intersting...

Lectionary Reflections, Part II

In Part I of this series, I asked a series of three questions. In today’s article, I intend to reflect on the first two:

1) What is the value of reading four passages of Scripture, two or three of which are ignored, marginalized, or even misappropriated to a specific theme?

2) What good is including such a significant amount of Scripture in the Liturgy of the Church when/if people largely tune it out?

PART II
The First Two Questions

Shortly after the interim edition of the Book of Common Prayer of my Synod was released, I got an e-mail from my bishop asking about the connections I saw in the readings for a particular day. To be fair, on that particular day I found the connections to be readily apparent. Yet a few months later, as I sat down to prepare for the coming Sunday’s homily, I read, re-read, and re-re-read the four passages appointed in the proper, to find that I couldn’t put together a cohesive homily on the readings.

Going back to my days as a server, I remember having the idea drilled into me that the homily pertained to the readings. A cardinal sin in homiletics is to start introducing tons of additional readings into the mix. It’s one thing to cite and share portions of other texts, but the pericopes of the Lectionary are present for a purpose – to be preached upon! I always found it odd when I would visit a congregation where the Lectionary was used for the readings, and then the preacher mounted the pulpit and read yet another reading, which had nothing to do with the preceding three or four, and which was to form the basis of his sermon (the only thing more pointless was re-reading the Gospel of the Day a second time before commencing the sermon, but I digress!). I wanted to scream from my pew “Preach what you’ve already read!” but I dutifully held my tongue.

Looking back, I can’t begin to count the number of times I have tried weaving tenuous threads together to form a cohesive homily on the texts, and I have to admit that it is very possible that, in doing so, I have fallen into the trap of crafting God’s Word to suit my thinking. This is an alarming prospect, for if I have misled the flock, I am a thief and a robber… which leads to the dilemma of how to handle lectionary preaching.

The problem is largely non-existent in thematically united times of the Liturgical Year. Certainly it would be difficult to argue that there was a discontinuity of message in the pericopes assigned, for example, to the Paschal Triddum or Ascension Day. But in the large ‘green’ swath of the year – and, to a lesser extent, on the Sundays within the preparatory/celebratory seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter – the discordance between readings become more and more apparent.

The pericopes of the festal times, however, presents another problem – the regular association of specific texts with one another, which often results in the people being exposed to a single aspect of the text itself. Further, it does not allow for the introduction of other texts (perhaps lesser known ones) that serve to equally embrace and enhance the message found in the controlling text (usually the Gospel) for the day.

The result of using disconnected and discordant readings is less than appealing to me from a pastoral perspective. In a post-modern world, Christianity needs to fight the trend to multi-task in the midst of its own worship. Central core messages need to be exposed and explored for the benefit of the people. Many modern Church-goers cannot tell you what their pastor preached about, or what the readings were about, during their Sunday worship service. For some, it is because the pastor meanders between texts, displaying little or no unity, and confusing folks mightily. For others it is a result of a lack of attention. Admittedly, I have had such lack of attention when sitting in a pew. Heck, for that matter, I have had such a lack of attention from time to time when sitting in the pastor’s chair!

While I would strongly argue that abandoning the lectionary altogether is not a tenable solution (in spite of arguments to the contrary, I still believe that the lack of a lectionary allows pastors to cherry-pick favorite texts, much to the detriment of their parishioners), I cannot ignore the fact that neither the historic one-year or the contemporary three-year lectionary systems are optimal ways to present the Word of God in its fullness to God’s people.

Article Link: Limitations of the Lectionary

In doing some research this evening for my Lectionary series, I came across an interesting article by Walter Sundberg of Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. The article, from a 1990 edition of Word and World, is titled "Limitations of the Lectionary", and reinforces some of the same concerns I have with the traditional and contempoary western lectionary. Please note, I don't have the great concern about the typification of the Old Testament that he does, and I think he is treading on thin ice when he says that that Lutherans should be willing to treat the lectionary with 'at least a modicum of suspicion', as the vast history of the Lutheran movement has maintained a lectionary system (except, perhaps, in Pietist circles) of some form, even if not the traditional one.

You can read the article at this link.

Trinity XIX Homily

My homily for today is now posted at the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America's website. Click the link above to have a read!

Homily for Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter

Readings:

Acts 7:51 – 8:1
Portions of Psalm 31
John 6: 30-35

How often throughout human history have people felt more than free to reinterpret God’s own words to suit their purposes? In our own day we see such practices running rampant, but it is important to remember the old adage that I so often use when illustrating points in my homilies: “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Yesterday we heard the beginning of Stephen’s prosecution at the hands of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Today, Stephen speaks up and convicts the lot of them of opposing the Holy Spirit; effectively challenging and rewriting the teachings of Scripture to suit their desires. “They were stung to the heart,” records the Book of Acts, but being stung resulted not in repentance and contrition, but in “grinding their teeth in anger” at Stephen. Stephen would go on to witness to his Savior through the blood of martyrdom for his refusal to revise the Gospel to suit the prevailing opinions of powerful people.

And yet, it is not only the powerful whom we must exhibit a consistent witness before. In our Gospel reading today from the sixth chapter of John, we hear the beginning of the heart of the Bread of Life discourse, which finds its roots in response to the request of the people, “Sir, give us this bread always!” Jesus responds to them: “I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall thirst again.”

Though we won’t hear it in our setting this week since Friday’s readings will be pre-empted for the Feast of Saints Philip and James, Jesus goes on to tell the multitude that has followed him: “I am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” And then, even more clearly, “Let me solemnly assure you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” This seemed like a pretty nasty idea to at least some of Jesus’ followers. “This sort of talk is hard to endure” they said… their faith suddenly slacking off in the wake of Jesus’ words. “How can anyone take it seriously?” they ask.

For over fifteen hundred years, the vast majority of Christians took Jesus at his word… that he had given his true flesh and blood to us under the forms of bread and wine in the usage of the Lord’s Supper. And yet, in the sixteenth century, a new teaching began to surface. It was impossible, the purveyors of this new teaching claimed, for Christ to be present both on earth in the Eucharist and in heaven at the throne of God. Thus, the Eucharist was just a symbol, and there was no presence of Christ. “Besides,” some of them would argue, “that’s cannibalism… that’s nasty… that’s awful!” What a poverty! The very seal, the means of grace, in which the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ is communicated to us becomes a shell for those who would reject the plain words of Christ “This is my body… given for you” and “This is my blood… shed for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus did not give us a symbol, he gave us his Body and Blood. To ignore his clear words in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, and in the various narratives of the Last Supper is tantamount to rejecting all of his work outright, for through the Sacramental means of grace that God pours out on us the grace and strength of his work.

And so we are left to wonder why so many other basic Christian doctrines are being denied today; why groups like the Jesus Seminar can find such an audience. We are so convinced that the Word has no authority that we freely renegotiate what it means. Sadly, this trend began five hundred years ago in the name of restoring the Church to what it once was. But when you attack the power of Baptism and the Eucharist, you must attack the authority and power of Scripture. Thus, if you can redefine the Sacraments, you can redefine the Scriptures which establish those sacraments… and then all hell breaks loose in the Church.

Today’s Church must accept the conviction of rejecting the plain word of Scripture, as was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and then must determine how the sting in the hearts of her leaders is going to affect them: do we recover the primal place of Word and Sacrament, purely preached and ministered, in our congregations and ministries, or do we continue to embrace a Gospel that denies the very basic beliefs and practices of the Christian faith in the name of inclusively and kindness?

Surely it is a question we will not be able to answer for anyone else, but you… what do you believe? How will you choose? Will you embrace God’s Word and Sacraments at face value with faith, or will you reject what Christ has spoken about his own creation and sacraments for the sake of substituting your own belief, one more palatable to you?

Those who refuse to accept Christ at face value, no matter how much they may like elements of his Gospel, will ultimately drift away (regardless of what they call themselves on the door of their building or what kind of clothing they wear). No number of fish stickers on the back of their cars will ever change the fact that when we reject the plain Word of God, we reject God.

May God have mercy on us, and strengthen us to confess the pure Gospel and receive the Sacraments in purity of belief and of heart… and when we falter, when we fear, when we find it impossible to believe, let us cry out to God, “Lord, I want to believe… help my unbelief!”

Homily for Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Readings:

Acts 6: 8-15
Portions of Psalm 119
John 6: 22-29

Every good and perfect work flows out of faith. In a world where signs on public transportation state “You don’t have to believe in God to be good”, this concept stands as a strong counterbalance to what we read about in the closing words of our Gospel reading today.

Why did Stephen, the first Martyr of the Early Church, perform such great works? Our reading from Acts tells us that it is because he was ‘filled with grace and power” – a grace and power which he possessed not on his own account, but only on account of his faith in Christ.

Now, you would think that in our Gospel, which follows in the wake of the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, that the crowds would have had some measure of faith. And yet Jesus points out to them “You aren’t looking for me on account of the miracle, you are looking for me because you aren’t hungry anymore.”

What a stinging rebuke – and yet it is a rebuke that will go on to illustrate the power of the flesh of the Son of Man and of his blood. In the reading appointed tomorrow, we will get more deeply into this portion of John 6, but suffice it to say Jesus is setting his massive following up for a major decision, all stemming around the veracity of his words.

Do we today accept Jesus at his word? Do we side with him when confronted with a society and a race that is so far gone from its original righteousness, or do we conform and compromise our message for the sake of ease?

Over the centuries, the Church has had the chance time and time again to compromise her message, her proclamation of Christ… but even in the darkest hours of Church history, the Truth has always been proclaimed somewhere, somehow – for indeed, even when sinners proclaim the Gospel, it is the power of the Word and it retains the power to change people’s lives. This change effects faith in people, and faith brings us to performing the good works of God.

Homily for Friday of the Second Week of Easter

Readings
Acts 5: 34-42
Portions of Psalm 27
John 6: 1-15

Fear is a constituent element in our lives. From the moment of our birth, the primal cry of the infant is one of fear: fear of the unknown, fear of going hungry, fear of being dropped, fear of being abandoned… fear often undergirds many elements of our day to day life, and, ultimately, for many, fear forms the basis for our relationship with God.

To be certain, the sins we commit should make us fearful when we consider our relationship with God… our sins are like scarlet when compared with the prefect righteousness of Jesus Christ. And yet today, the words of the Psalmist call us to a transform our fear through the simplicity of trust.

Look at our other readings:

In our passage from Acts, some of the Apostles have been brought before the Sanhedrin and, in spite of preaching the Gospel that Christ has handed them, the find themselves flogged and ordered to stop preaching the Gospel. What a miserable situation! And yet, as we are told by Luke, the author of Acts, “The apostles for their part left the Sanhedrin full of joy that they had been judged worthy of ill-treatment for the sake of the Name.” Here the leaders of the infant Church had been brought before what is, in essence, the Supreme Court of Israel… and they lost their case. Imagine the despair that they might have had – but no! Most certainly the words of the twenty-seventh psalm rung in their minds and hearts with every lash of the whip: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the refuge of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Compare and contrast this with their reaction in our Gospel when, just a few years before, they were confronted with the impossible task of feeding over five thousand with five barley loaves and two dried fish. “What’s the use!” they cry, “Even with two-hundred days worth of wages, we couldn’t begin to even give them a bite!” Jesus works a wonder, feeds the multitude, and the people marvel – but soon enough things will be back to the way they were. Faith will falter, followers will doubt, and they most certainly won’t be willing to hang around for a flogging or worse.

So what compelled Jesus’ followers to transform from a rag-tag band of vagrants and vagabonds to the bold preachers of truth and witnesses of faith that we celebrate so often in the Scriptures and in the Church’s Calendar (as we will tomorrow on the Feast of Saint Mark)?

The Holy Spirit, cleansing the heart, strengthening the mind, and compelling the soul to follow where Christ has trod is the answer – for the Spirit inspires us to trust in the Gospel, and to sing with joy the words of today’s Psalm… the Holy Spirit further emboldens us to seek, in the wake of our reception of God’s mercy and reconciling love, a place in the eternal kingdom where we may contemplate the beauty of the Lord and sing his praise.

The final verse in today’s Psalm selection so wonderfully sums up how the Apostles and Disciples undoubtedly viewed their situation: “Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.”

Are you courageous in waiting? Are you stout-hearted? Do you allow anything to draw you away from Christ? Do you trust in anything or anyone except Christ to rescue you from your sins and bring you to that dwelling-place secure?

If so, fear and trouble will surely follow you; but if you trust in the Lord, and embrace the indwelling Holy Spirit, you can grow, day by day, in the grace needed to transform adversity to joy – even in the face of persecution, hatred, and death.

May God give us this grace, now, always, and forever. Amen.

Homily for Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

Readings:
· Acts 4: 32-37
· Portions of Psalm 93
· John 3: 7-15

Last Wednesday was tax day. Around the country, thousands of American citizens gathered at so-called “Tax Day Tea Parties”. While a broad range of grass-roots anger brought everyone out, one of the themes I kept seeing on signs and in the words of participants was an opposition to the adoption of Socialism in the United States.

Participants pointed at the failures of the European and Canadian systems, as well as the fall of the Soviet Union, the recent capitalist upsurge in China, and even the status of Cuba as proofs of the failures of socialism.

Imagine the shock they must feel if, today, they are sitting in Church and they heard this Scripture read. They find a place where Socialism did work. It was the Christian Church.

In our first reading today, drawn from the fourth chapter of Acts, we have just about the most perfect example of voluntary socialism that we have ever seen… complete with the amazing result “…nor was there anyone needy among them…” Stop for a second and consider that. There was not a single needy person in the Church at Jerusalem. Wealth was freely and joyfully redistributed! Can you fathom that? How could this possibly occur?

The answer is not a mystery, at least, not to those of us who have bothered to listen to the words of our Lord. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks boldly to Nicodemus about how we can be transformed into the image and likeness of God – by the power of the Spirit.

We who believe that the Son of Man has been lifted up for our salvation know that when we conform our lives to his example – something that occurs when the Holy Spirit indwells within us and is allowed to transform us – great things can happen. Imagine a Christian Church today where no member goes without basic human needs and services… I’m not talking about some kind of Prosperity Gospel knock-off; I am talking about THE GOSPEL and the example of the Apostles and Church Fathers who found that their calling to proclaim the gospel included a calling to relieve not only suffering from sin but from worldly anxieties as well.

In stark contrast to the prosperity Gospel:

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL is one that says our sins are forgiven through the gracious work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL does not promise us perfect health in this life, a new Cadillac if we just pray the right way, or the exchange of a one-hundred dollar ‘seed offering’ for a one-thousand dollar ‘harvest return’. That is the Gospel of hucksters and cheats who seek to make the message of Jesus palatable to a perverse and materialistic generation.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL is one that says that we are called to be transformed into the image and likeness of our Savior and Brother, a likeness that is filled with compassion and concern for those less fortunate than ourselves.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL is one that requires us to live sacrificially – not because we are atoning for our own sins, but because living sacrificially is the first step to meeting the needs of our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than ourselves.

The Tax Day protestors were right about one thing – Government sponsored socialism is a questionable (at best) proposition. But Socialism is not a questionable philosophy. It is the only one that has ever enabled the Church to be what it is called to be in response to the social end of her Gospel mandate. Christian Socialism must not be a political movement, as it has been in the past. Christian Socialism is a gospel lifestyle made manifest in the lives of believers – those who have been reborn by water and the Spirit.

May God give us the grace to accept this teaching, and the boldness to live it out; in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and by the power of his all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit.

Homily for Friday of Easter Week

Readings-
Acts 4: 13-21
Portions of Psalm 118
Mark 16: 9-15

In 1937, as the Nazi movement was on the rise in Germany, a Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book entitled “The Cost of Discipleship”. This book, focuses on how grace is lived out in the midst of the Christian Church today.

One of the most important parts of the book, considered a Christian literary classic of the twentieth century across denominational lines, deals with the distinction which Bonhoeffer makes between "cheap" and "costly" grace.

Bonhoeffer writes: “…cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”

To put it even more clearly, cheap grace reduces the Gospel to: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." The main defect of such a proclamation is that it contains no demand for discipleship.

In contrast to this is costly grace, of which Bonhoeffer writes: “…costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’”

In our Gospel reading today, we are given an overview of the events that followed the Resurrection of Christ. In it, we are reminded of the Resurrection proclamations of both Mary and the Disciples who were on the Road to Emmaus… proclamations that were ignored, rationalized, or otherwise disregarded by the others; that is, until our Lord shows up himself and replaces rationalization with realization, and begins the process of conforming his followers to his image by the working of the Holy Spirit. (We will hear a more detailed account of some of these events in our Gospel reading this coming Sunday.)

When Christ appears to his disciples in the Upper Room on that first Easter evening, he offers them, in Bonhoeffer’s words, “a gracious call to follow Jesus… a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit.” Here is a cadre of men who ran at the moment of Jesus’ greatest trial, whose guilt and pain must have been overwhelming. They were totally unworthy on the basis of their own merits to receive such a gracious calling on their lives – it is only on account of the love of their Master that they did, indeed, receive the calling; one that was destined to utterly transform their lives.

Compare the response, particularly of Peter… poor Peter!... in our Reading today from Acts with his response when our Lord was facing immanent arrest: instead of striking out with a weapon of this world, Peter abides in the embrace of God, accepting reproach for the sake of the Gospel. Peter, John, and the rest of Jesus’ followers – in the wake of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – transition from skeptics to convicted preachers who call all of us to embrace, not cheap grace, but costly grace – grace that may, eventually, require of us the ultimate price in this world.

That is uncomfortable to think about these days. Bonhoeffer realized that. He argues that as Christianity spread, the Church became more “secular”, accommodating the demands of obedience to Jesus to the requirements of society. In this way, he writes, “the world was Christianized, and grace became its common property.” The problem is, there is nothing common about grace. At times and in places throughout Christian history, the gospel has been cheapened, and obedience to the living Christ was gradually lost beneath formula and ritual, so that –in the darkest days of the Church’s history - grace was literally being sold for worldly gain.

The example of Peter and John in today’s reading from Acts, reminds us that the Gospel often will result in little earthly gain – save gaining a mantle of suffering or a crown of Martyrdom. This isn’t a result of cheap grace; a grace that can be bought or sold with ease… it is a result of costly grace, the grace of God won for us on the cross, and poured out upon us by the Holy Spirit – a grace that is intended to conform us more and more to the image and likeness of God revealed to us in the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily for Tuesday of Easter Week

Readings-

• Acts 2: 36-41
• Portions of Psalm 33
• John 20: 11-18

In our Gospel reading today, Mary Magdalene falls down at the feet of her master when he reveals himself to her. “Rabboni!” she cries out… “Teacher!” Mary falls down before the creator of heaven and earth, seeking to follow him ever-more-deeply. But a question is posed – to Mary and to us: by what means do we draw closer to Christ? The plain answer is: by the working of the Holy Spirit.

It is the power of the Spirit, poured out upon all flesh, that makes possible our conversion to Christ, for us to come to the Waters of Baptism, and for us to – if I may paraphrase Peter - “save ourselves from this generation which has gone astray.”

During this Easter Season, as we reflect on both the Resurrection of our Savior and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we will hear many bold and noble accounts of how the power of the Holy Spirit filled the first Christians with courage, strength, conviction, and faith. We too can experience those same benefits today in our own lives when we trust the Holy Spirit to be our guide, our keeper, and our strength.

We do this first and foremost by being ever-conscious of our sins and failings, and by trusting completely in Christ, whom we know to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Revealing our sins to us and placing our entire life into God’s hands is not a simple matter however, and they are both things that, left to our own devices, we could never do alone.

In the book of the prophet Jeremiah (17:9), we are taught “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick…” In the same passage, we are taught that we will be rewarded according to our deeds. If our hearts are desperately wicked, though, of what good will our deeds be? The answer, left to our own strength and abilities, is: absolutely no good whatsoever.

But thanks be to God that we, the people of God, who confess Jesus Christ and trust in him for our salvation are inheritors of the promised indwelling of the Holy Spirit, strengthened against sin and for all good works, so that we may gather together and sit at the feet of our Lord, truly listening to the teaching that is able to save our souls. To Christ our Teacher, our merciful Savior and Risen Lord, be glory, as is justly due, now and forever. Amen!

Powerful Message on Common and Christian Grace

John Roop+ of Trinity Church, Knoxville, Tennessee, has posted an outstanding sermon on the goodness of God revealed throughout history across every religious expression, and the true goodness and grace of God that brings us to salvation in Jesus Christ. I can't recommend it enough.

You can read his sermon, preached this past Sunday, at this link.

It is definately worth your time.

Homily for the the Third Sunday after Easter (RCL)

Today I preached in a parish that uses the Revised Common Lectionary. The prayers, scripture introductions, and homily notes can be found below.

Prayer of the Day

Lord God, you never cease to call even those far away, for it is your will that all be drawn into one fold. Attune our ears to the voice of the Good Shepherd, who leads us always to you, that we may find under your tender protection life in all its fullness. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Psalm 23

Acts 2: 14, 36-41

In our first reading we find ourselves in Jersualem on the first Pentecost, listening as Peter calls the crowd to repentance and renewal in Christ. Peter, having explained the prophecies of the Old Testament to the people, now tells them that they must repent of their sins and follow Christ. His calling to the crowd nearly two thousand years ago still resonates today among us as we gather and seek to follow the Lord more completely in every aspect of our lives. Give your attention to the Reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

1 Peter : 20-25

We may suffer for many reasons. While most often, our suffering and sorrows are our own fault, today we hear a call from God to be faithful and strong when suffering enters our lives because of our commitment to live new lives in Christ. Give your attention to the Reading from the First Letter of Peter.

John 10: 1-10
The Good Shepherd

EMULATING THE GOOD SHEPHERD IN OUR LIVES

He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.
How often do we sin?
Do we stop to consider our sins on a regular basis?
What sins do we find ourselves most often entangled in?
What do we do to overcome our sins?
Do we resign ourselves to our sinful state and live in it?
Do we ‘sin boldly’ and excuse our sins because of Christ?

He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
The teaching of Christ in this regard is nearly impossible for us to imagine.
Is our first though in the midst of being insulted “I’m gonna get you, suckah?”
Are we prepared to suffer pain, torture, suppression, and persecution for Christ?
To live out Christ’s example perfectly, we would have to be absolute pacifists.
Are we prepared for this, or are we still on our journey?

He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.
Are we prepared to allow God to be our defense, our fortress, our shield?
Do we argue endlessly with people trying to convince them our the truth?
When we do so, what effect does it have on us?
Are we ready to trust that God is fair?
Are we ready to abandon ourselves to God?

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
Have we allowed this incomprehensible fact to transform our lives yet?
Can we find within ourselves the courage to abandon ourselves to God and let him have his way with us?

Once you were like sheep who wandered away.
We hear the gospel message week by week, day by day (I hope!)
We spout words like grace, peace, mercy, love, and forgiveness.
We are quick to ask for all of those gifts to be poured into our lives.
Are we prepared, however, to follow in the path that leads to these gifts?
Are we prepared to admit to our own self-deceptions about sin, confess the sins we find ourselves entangled in, and firmly resolve to abandon them?
Are we prepared to let God be our defender, or are we going to insist that we can defend ourselves?
Are we so headstrong that we are simply determined to wander where we darned well please?
Each of us must answer that question for ourselves.

I pray that we might all answer by saying: “I turn to my Shepherd, the Guardian of my soul.”

PRAYER: O God our shepherd, you know your sheep by name and lead us to safety through the valleys of death. Guide us by your voice, that we may walk in certainty and security to the joyous feast prepared in your house, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, to whom with you and the Spirit be worship and praise, now, always, and forever. Amen.

First Sunday of Lent (RCL) Homily

Today I celebrated Divine Liturgy and preached in a parish that uses the Revised Common Lectionary. Here are the notes from that homily.

In 1970, The Grass Roots released a song titled "Temptation Eyes". The song features a man singing about a naive, innocent woman and a man's sure and certain knowledge that he wants to have her for himself. The song repeats, several times: "Temptation eyes looking through my soul. Temptation eyes, you got to love me, Got to love me tonight."
Our music extols it, our advertising bids us to give into it, and our world considers it glorious and amazing… we seem to, as a society, covet temptation. Soap operas are built around it, our game shows play upon it, and each of us in our own ways face temptation on a daily basis. We are not strangers to temptation, nor were our first parents, Adam and Eve.

What can Adam and Eve and their temptations teach us about the four parts of temptation…
· Temptation's Root: Satan attempts to subvert Eve's relationship with God.
· Temptation's Strength: Satan plays on Eve's intellect… It's not that bad… how can it be wrong when it looks so good / feels so right
· Temptation's Impetus: Eve makes Satan's thoughts her own. He's right, it looks good!
· Temptation's Inevitable Result: Shame, fear, hiding, pain, suffering, terror, and the loss of a deep, intimate connection with God.

Each and every one of us, in turn, have inherited the lasting physical effects of sin, and the tendency to sin. Not only do we bear the mark of sin, but the purposeful, beautiful, ordered design of creation was rocked. As we hear in the Letter to the Romans, "sin and death entered the world through one man."

Just as disaster entered into the world through one man, so too, we are told, salvation and restoration enters through a man, the God-man, Jesus Christ.

During this Lenten season, each of us will meditate repeatedly, I am sure, on the passion, death, and burial of the Lord. Which of us can forget the rites of Good Friday when we solemnly join our minds and hearts to that burial procession that formed at the summit of Calvary nearly two millennia ago?

Yet Christ does not only teach us that through his death, we find life. Today, on this first Sunday within the Lenten season, we are shown an example of how to live.
Each day, we face temptations and lures that would seek to draw us away from our relationship with God. Some of them are innocuous, others are blatantly obvious. All of them, however, fall into one of three categories:
· We give worldly necessities the value and weight of eternal necessities (stones to bread)
· We give worldly circumstances and challenges the value and weight of eternal life (throw yourself from the parapet)
· We give worldly glory and fame the value and weight of the glory of God we are called to share. (Worship Satan and Inherit the Kingdoms of the Earth)

Each of us face daily temptations… one look at my waistline can tell you that much… but how we choose to face temptations defines us and the depth of our relationship with God.

Adam and Eve Response: Embrace temptation.
Jesus’s response: Meet temptation with the powerful word and an insistent spirit.

Pre-empted Sunday Homily

Well, blowing and drifting snow and other weather-related factors led to the cancellation of services yesterday in the parish I was scheduled to celebrate and preach at. I decided to put my homily notes and other material together in an accessable format for those who had planned to be there, so I now share it with you.

Please note that St. Paul's EOC makes use of an adapted version of the Revised Common Lectionary, and not the Lectionary of the Synod of Saint Timothy.

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Year A

Prayer of the Day

God of glory and compassion, at your touch the wilderness blossoms, broken lives are made whole, and fearful hearts grow strong in faith. Open our eyes to your presence and awaken our hearts to sing your praise. To all who long for your Son's return grant perseverance and patience, that we may announce in word and deed the good news of the kingdom. We ask this through him whose coming is certain and whose day draws near: your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

First Reading - Isaiah 35

Our Old Testament reading employs the language of recovering an ecologically ravaged land with fruitful vegetation. Isaiah's words today, however, have nothing to do with global warming. They go far deeper than any ecological project – they reflect God's commitment to provide for renewal among his people, quenching their spiritual thirst and nurturing them on their journey of faith. Give your attention to the Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.

Second Reading - James 5: 7-11

It's great to know that God will quench our thirst and protect us on our journey of faith, but there will be times when we feel challenged as we wait to see indications that the promise is being met in our lives. Just as so many believers have experienced ‘dark nights of the soul’, we too will have our good days, our bad days, and – yes, at times our ugly days, as we struggle through this world. The good news, as our second reading tells us today, is that with patience and endurance, we will come through our difficult and heart-rending days, praising God because he did provide for our needs while we were making our pilgrimage through this world. Give your attention to the Reading from the Letter of James.

Gospel Reading - Matthew 11: 2-11

Homily

Note: I rarely type out complete sermons, so I am putting my various notes and thoughts together rather hastily and outside of the context of the Divine Liturgy. Nevertheless, I hope that something in the following material will be beneficial to you as you continue your Advent pilgrimage.

From the day of the fall, our sinful nature has been the driving force behind every disaster that has befallen us, for at the time of the fall, the universe itself was shaken. As the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Romans tells us: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned."

Death –spiritual death– characterized in many respects by a lack of personal unity with God, creates a spiritual desert in which we must walk. In the Old Testament, we see how, time and time again, the Israelites put worldly advantage, idolatry, or personal gain before their relationship with God. The fruitful (spiritual) pasture God wished to lead them to became a parched desert land because they chose to put their trust in idols and, ultimately, in themselves.

But Isaiah sees a time in the future when the people will seek God anew. He sees that as a day when the 'wilderness and desert will be glad…', when, 'the wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.' This is improbable in the minds of the people Isaiah is preaching to, they have lived in the midst of their land for many years. It was a constant, an unchanging feature of their lives. But Isaiah isn't prophesying about the Hebrew equivalent of reversing global worming. He is prophesying about personal relationships with God as we travel the pathway of faith through this life.

Remember the words from Romans: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world."

Every destructive impulse in the universe finds, as its source, sin. This is true of physical natures just as much as it is of spiritual ones. Satan's influence... sin. Our predilection to do as we please... sin. Our desire to take care of our own needs and ignore the needs of others... sin. We struggle with it every day, and as believers - Christian believers - we often times become far more aware of our shortcomings and failures than others. We are called to ask ourselves "Why remain bogged down in sin? Why not take courage and abandon sinful ways?"

The prophets of the Old Testament ask similar questions... "Israel, will you ever find the backbone to do something about your broken relationship with God?"

Someone had to forge a pathway to God... one that extended part of the way. Indeed, it is this pathway that John the Forerunner paved for Christ in the deserts in his own day. And yet John himself had his own worries and fears. Was this Christ the one who was to be the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies? Would he make the wilderness blossom? Jesus' response to John's question was simply to point to the actions that came about as a response to faith. One can aptly say that the wilderness metaphors of Isaiah's prophecy can be applied to the blind suddenly seeing, the lame being enabled to walk, and the dead being brought to life. The ecology language of Isaiah is turned into a spiritual ecology by Jesus, who reassures John the Baptist – giving him the courage to stand firm in his faith and convictions, ultimately leading to his martyrdom at the hands of Herod Antipas.

Our reading from the letter of James teaches us that we too can find the same confidence in God as we walk through our own spiritual deserts. All too often, we feel parched and alone in the wilderness; we feel a need to draw closer to a source of refreshment and grace. Sadly, even those of us who call on Christ will sometimes try to justify using material goods – a new car, the latest DVD, a trip to the movies – to make up for what is lacking in our relationship with God.

This isn't to say that there is anything intrinsically wrong with any of these items, but when we use them to bring great joy, instead of finding our joy and peace in the person of Jesus Christ, well… we have a problem. The joys of the material world are fleeting and brief; the joy of the knowledge and love of God in Christ Jesus is eternal. It will support us even when the car is wrecked, the DVD won't play, or the theater is sold out. It will sustain us when we loose a loved one, and it will be our anthem when our joy is complete and full. Finding joy in Christ will also help us to ensure that we are good stewards of our finances and all of creation.

How much of our time, and how much energy do we expend, all seeking the joy and happiness that only Christ can really bring?

If contemporary environmentalists really want to do something about global warming, man-made climate change, and the other 'impending' ecological disasters they continue to predict with increasing urgency, then perhaps they should begin including mentions of Jesus Christ in their words, for truly, only Jesus Christ is able to lovingly redirect us to find joy in a relationship with him, to rejoice in the beauty of creation, and to be good and faithful stewards of all creation.

Isaiah knew that.

James knew that.

John the Forerunner knew that.

We must know it too.

Homily from June 2002

Eucharistic Homily for the First Sunday after Trinity
2 June 2002

Preached at Saint Alban's Parish by Father Robert Lyons

Today in our Gospel, we hear the familiar parable of the beggar and the rich man, and we see what appears, on the surface, to be a fairly clear statement regarding what happens to a man when he dies. However, in the many years that have passed since the day when Jesus taught that parable, Christians have managed to add to or take away from the strictly biblical teaching about the intermediate state of the dead between their earthly passing and their eternal judgement.

In truth, what we believe about what happens to the Christian soul after death may be less important than what we do not believe.

To be certain, we believe that we shall all pass away according to the flesh, and at the last, great day we shall be judged eternally by our heavenly Father. Some of us will enter life everlasting with God, others shall be cast into utter darkness and horror for all eternity. However, if we look with honesty at ourselves, we will admit to some concern about what happens between our physical death and the general resurrection.

Justin Martyr, writing early in the history of the Church, is very clear about what was taught in the Church. He explicitly states that the souls of the godly are in a good place, and the souls of the ungodly are in a bad place; there to stay until the judgement day. He also stands just as explicitly against those who would teach that one went straight to heaven or hell upon their death. He warns his fellows not to account as Christians those who would say that there was no intermediate state of the dead.

However, what is that state of the dead? The Eastern Orthodox Church simply says it is a place of waiting. Many refer to their stance as "soul-sleep", though such terminology is not strictly appropriate. Many of us are familiar with the dogmatic statements of our Roman Catholic brethren who believe in the existence of Purgatory, a place where satisfaction is made for the forgiveness of sins through the celebration of Masses and the obtainment of indulgences. Neither of these explanations can be entirely satisfactory. Certainly soul-sleep is not an acceptable position to hold, for as it is written in the Apostolic Constitutions, "Let us pray for our brethren who are at rest in Christ." This, however, is not to be confused with praying that someone who has died would receive salvation. Such a thing is impossible. One must be saved before they die. However, we can offer prayer for the departed, so long as we do not dogmatize the benefits of such prayers.

We would be wrong as Primitive Christians to accept the Roman doctrine of Purgatory, with it's accompanying prayers for the departed to be set free from the time of purgation, for we accept the primitive theological definition that Jesus Christ's sacrifice upon the cross was made, as we say in the Eucharistic Prayer, "for the remission" of sins. This is very different from forgiveness.

Let us say that a man steals a hundred dollars. You forgive him, but you still as for your hundred dollars back. Indeed, the man should comply and return the money. It is not so with the remission of sins. Christ's remission was full and complete. No work that we can offer will please God so much as Christ's sacrifice. His death was specifically intended not simply to forgive the sin, but to pay the price for the sin. He remitted the payment due for sin, so that we would not have to.

We must further consider the fact that those who have passed beyond the veil of this life were never believed to be knowledgeable about the state of this world. Tertullian, writing before the third century, states that the saints in Paradise are cut off from knowledge of this world by a "sort of enclosure." If one wishes to believe that those who have died are praying for them in their state, that is acceptable; but the Christian walks a fine line when he takes his prayers to the saints instead of making his prayer through Christ to God in the power of the Spirit.

With all these negatives, what can we affirm about the time between our deaths and our resurrection?

First, we can affirm that we will know our eternal destiny. In our Gospel today, the rich man realises that he is damned, and seeks Lazarus to go to speak to his family and to help them to avoid the same fate. Once we pass the chains of the flesh, we have passed into our eternal reward or punishment.

Second, we can affirm that our prayers are in some fashion helpful to those who died, though not in the doctrinal sense that surround prayer for those in Purgatory in the Roman Church.

Third, we can affirm that we should have little to fear if we, day by day, seek to repent for our sins and walk closer to Christ. We are empowered to do this by making use of the Rite of Reconciliation, and also by making every attempt to receive the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist as often as possible; certainly every Sunday and Holy Day. In doing these things, we will strengthen our souls against sin, repent of our sins sooner, allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives more effectively (to the end of avoiding sin) and, at the last day, upon our deathbed, we will be able to die with the knowledge that, having had the price for our sin paid by Christ upon the Cross, we are going to our rest, to await the day of the General Resurrection and Judgement.

Homily from August 2002

Editor's Note: This is the third homily of this series of recovered texts.

Eucharistic Homily for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity
4 August 2002

Preached at the Primitive Episcopal Mission Station in Indianapolis, Indiana by Father Robert Lyons

In our Epistle reading today, taken from the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, we are given food for thought on the role of the Gifts of the Spirit in the life of the Church. In reviewing this selection from our Lord's Holy Word, we are called to mind the fact that all of us who have been baptized into the Body of Christ are called to be full partakers of the Gifts of the Spirit, and to make the use of them that God would have us make.

In the first verse, Paul describes his desire to teach the truth to the Corinthian Christians. He says,

" 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul understood that we must seek the right knowledge of the spiritual gifts in order to live a life in which we make the best use of those gifts. Paul wants to ensure that the people of God realise that there are guidelines and rules associated with the Spiritual Gifts, and that God does not allow his gifts to be used for ill, for show, or for other purposes that are contrary to their institution.

Paul continues,

"2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led."

Sadly, the Corinthian Christians were, at the time of Paul's writing, something of a sad lot. Evidently, they had little regard for the truth of the Gospel, and Paul reproves them for it. Paul is making a comparison in this second verse, one that must have cut straight to the bone of the Corinthians. He is chiding them for allowing the spiritual gifts to become empty, dumb idols, by comparing their state after receiving the Spiritual gifts to their state before receiving them. Paul's implication is clear: the Gifts of the Spirit were being misused by the Christians at Corinth; and because God's word is relevant for all times and all places, we must by extension look about our world today, and admit that there are congregations who equally have allowed the Spiritual gifts to become lifeless, dumb idols - replacing a true commitment to Jesus Christ.

Verse three presents an interesting clause to put the entire reading into perspective. Paul writes,

"3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

Indeed, we believe this to be the truth. And yet we see so many Christians today who have allowed the working of the Holy Spirit to be neglected in their lives. Even a man who has committed evil and has not repented can say that Jesus is Lord, because God pours his spirit out upon all flesh, seeking, that he might find. The fact that one can proclaim that Jesus is Lord in the power of the Spirit is little proof of holiness or salvation. The use of what may appear to be the Spiritual Gifts are no more proof than a profession of Christ as Lord. Indeed, the true measure of professions and the spiritual gifts' effectiveness are to be found in the fruits of profession. . . and in the fruits of the Gifts.

We continue in verse four:

"4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."

Today, we live in an era where the true test of the Gifts of the Spirit are not the fruits of the use of the Gifts, but in the reception of the gifts alone. There are places where, if you do not speak in tongues, you are considered unsaved. This is not a biblical doctrine, but it is indeed a doctrine of the Devil. Paul clearly states in this verse that there are differences of Gifts. The gifts that I receive are appropriate to my place and my role in the ministry of God's people. Those gifts may match with the gifts that each of you have received in some cases. In other cases, they will not. The diversities of gifts allow us to fulfil complimentary roles in the Body of Christ. Not all the parts of the body are fingers, or eyes, or arms, or legs. We all have a unique role to play, a role that the Spiritual Gifts compliment. The Holy Spirit does not form us on a cookie-cutter style assembly line. Just as we are unique creations in the womb, we are unique creations in the Spirit when we are born again.

Verses five and six reiterate the point:

"5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

To reiterate his statement in the fourth verse, Paul explains that differences in the roles we play do not change the love of God towards us, for we have received, as the foundation of all gifts, the greatest gift of all: the gift of forgiveness. By grace, we have been forgiven of our sins. We can do nothing to merit that remission and forgiveness of our sin-debt. Yet, when we accept, on faith, that we have been forgiven, we become conduits of God's love to our hurting world, each of us according to the plan God has put into action for us. We are called, each one of us, to a unique position of ministry in the Body. Yet, we are all united to the same Lord. There is no difference in our salvation, nor in the blessing we receive. . . the difference is only in the way we are called to share the gifts and blessings of God with others. Verse seven shows us why.

In verse seven, Paul says,

"7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."

Each Christian will face new and unique challenges and calls to ministry in their life. The Holy Spirit's gifts are given to man so that he may find himself equipped for the situations that will arise, according to the plan that God has for him. So often, many who seem to lack certain Spiritual gifts will lament the fact that they do not seem to have them. I have heard of people praying and fasting for weeks, sometimes for months, just to get a gift of the Spirit - tongues, often; or prophecy. As a dear friend of mine once told me, "You can fast for a century, and if God's plan doesn't include what you are asking for, you are wasting your time." God indeed bestows upon us certain gifts . . . gifts that are appropriate and necessary for our walk with Christ and for the encouragement of others, and ourselves. Note the particular order that is conveyed. Christ's needs in this world take the priority. If the Gospel message is to be properly communicated, it will be accompanied by signs and wonders - that is certain. However, those signs and wonders will be the signs and wonders deemed appropriate by the Godhead, not by us. God knows what we need to witness to Christ, and we are granted gifts that will, first and foremost, meet these needs. Second, these gifts, as a part of God's will, flow for the purpose of encouraging others. The conveyance of faith and the continual encouragement of the faithful is a very important part of our walk with God. But note that in such a case, the gift is still being used for the benefit of others. Spiritual gifts, while often conveying some personal benefit, are intended to help others, not ourselves.

Now, in verse eight, Paul changes the tone of his discussion on the Gifts. Instead of describing the use of the Gifts, he describes the Gifts themselves. Taking together verses eight to eleven, we hear:

"8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

Notice that the gifts herein listed are not listed in any particular order of preference. How can we be sure of this? Because the principal gift, the gift of faith, is not listed first. If we take seriously the biblical and ancient belief that Faith is a gift of God, bestowed by grace, and that faith is necessary for the true exercise of the other Spiritual Gifts, then we must accept that the gifts of the Spirit are all placed upon what approximates an equal footing. Each gift is then given as needed, and exercised as desired by God, for the purpose of building up the gift of faith in others, in obedience to the call of God on our lives.

Far too often, individuals will use the appearance of spiritual gifts to cover the fact that they have an absence of any of the Spiritual gifts. Most of us will readily admit that we have met men and women who claim to have one (or all) of the Gifts of the Spirit, men and women who indeed demonstrate that they have no such gifts, but only the appearance of gifts. It is, quite frankly, easy to convince someone that we have a gift of tongues. One of the reasons that the Scriptures command us to have an interpreter when we speak in tongues in public is to prove out the truth of the Gift that is being exhibited. Yet, false interpreters also spring up. Even the safeguards that the Bible puts in place are circumvented by men and women who, I believe, are desperate to be noticed and to be accepted as having the Spiritual gifts.

Sadly, gifts such as words of wisdom or knowledge, prophecy, and discernment of spirits are just as often abused. . . the result being rents and tears in the Body of Christ from people making false accusations and making "divine" proclamations about the spiritual, physical, or emotional state of another Christian. It's no wonder that the Charismatic movement has more detractors than supporters. The visible witness of the modern Charismatic movement is just as much one of backstabbing and abuse as it is one of Godly love. This is the exact same problem that Paul addressed back in verse two.

Does this mean that the Gifts of the Spirit are, as many would claim, dead? Absolutely not. In my work in the hospital, I have seen miracles, bona-fide miracles. I have seen the lame walk, the blind see, the wounded healed. I will attest to the fact that God's gifts are still active in the world today, in their intended form. They are powerful witnesses to the glory of God. Yet, today, we are faced with the problem of so-called Charismatics who are abusing the gifts of the spirit for personal glorification. This is a blot on the public face of the Body. Each of us is harmed when televangelists, crusaders, even local pastors claim to work miracles that later turn out to be frauds. They are falling into the sin of allowing the Gifts to be hollow. . . just like the Corinthian Christians, whose use of the gifts appeared to be hypocritical.

Indeed, the ancient Church had many of the same problems that we face today. Writing around the year 180, Irenaeus illustrates this fact. He writes:

"It behooves us to flee from the Gnostics as we would from Satan. The greater the display with which they are said to perform miracles, the more carefully we should watch them, as having been endowed with a greater spirit of wickedness."

However, this is not to say that there is no genuine working of the Spirit, because, as he would write later in the same work,

"Those who are truly His disciples, receiving grace from Him, . . . perform [works] in His name, in order to promote the welfare of others, according to the gift that each one has received from Him."

Irenaeus indeed believes that there is a true and fruitful use of the Gifts of the Spirit, but those gifts are never for self-gratification or for personal glory. . . they are always to be used to assist others. In his writing, he went on to describe some of the Gifts that he had witnessed, and the power that was show to all, believer and unbeliever alike, through the right use of those Gifts. We, today, must be certain that we are using the Gifts of the Spirit for Christ's purposes, not our own.

What does all this mean for those of us who seek daily to make the fullest use of the Spiritual Gifts? It means, quite frankly, that we must always evaluate our use of the Spiritual Gifts against the use the Corinthians made of them. We must not use them in an empty, hollow, self-serving way. The use of the Gifts that we engage in must be biblical, spiritual, and beneficial to others, not just to ourselves. God's gifts are never intended to be self-serving, but are intended to be shared with others. We must faithfully seek to use God's gifts in fidelity to God's word, and in obedience to the example set for us by Paul's writing to the Corinthian Church.

Scripture Quotations from the King James Bible. Irenaeus' Quotations adapted from "The Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs", edited by David Bercot.

Homily from Christmas 2002

Editor's Note: This is the second in this series of recovered homilies.

EUCHARISTIC HOMILY FOR THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD
December 25, 2002

Preached by Father Robert Lyons at the Hospital Chapel

On this most holy occasion, as we gather together in this tiny chapel to celebrate the incarnation of our Lord Christ, I would like to offer a phrase for your consideration. A lovely woman introduced it to me a few months ago, and it is a phrase that brings me comfort each time I hear it. "Everything is Grace."

At this time of the year, we celebrate those things that, in everyday life, we often take for granted. Our families and friends, our good health and our good fortunes, and even our own salvation. Yes, many of us, myself included, find ourselves reflecting on the important things at this time of the year, and realizing just how much we have taken for granted. Too often we forget that each and every gift we have is an extension of the grace that we have received from above. There is no greater time to re-connect with that reality than today, as we commemorate the greatest gift of grace that we have received, that of Christ Jesus the Lord.

Today, as we sing our songs of celebration and praise, we also reflect on the fact that each and every gift that God has bestowed upon us is foreshadowed by the gift of his Son. It truly is grace. . . everything that we have, is it's byproduct.

Sadly, this day, many people are experiencing a false joy from presents, kisses under mistletoe, or too much egg nog. For them, grace does not enter into the equation. Christmas must never be about these things to the Christian. Christmas must be, as all things, an experience of grace. That being said, please don't presume to go home and nuke your tree and the presents you bought this year. . . just be sure that if you choose to follow that particular set of customs, that the true focus is Christ, and not the latest Elmo toy.

This Christmas is also grace for those who are ill or dying. The gift of another day for them is a gift of time for repentance, faith, understanding, or self-surrender. It's priceless, and I ask you to pray for our patients and our staff here at Wishard during this season.

This Christmas most likely will also hold memories for you. May your memories be grace, may your faith be strong, and may your joy grow ever more complete as we participate in hearing God''s word and receiving his Sacrament on this Christmas Day. . . a day where we are called to remember that every gift of God, on every day of the year, truly says to us, "Everything is Grace."

Have a most blessed Nativity, my friends. Merry Christ-mass.

Homily from 2003

Editor's Note: The following is the first of several hold homilies I am posting on this blog since I was able to locate them in spite of several computer crashes. I rarely write out a full homily, but when I do, I like to share them. Enjoy.

EUCHARISTIC HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
4 May 2003

Preached by Father Robert Lyons, Presbyter of Saint Alban’s

First Reading: Isaiah 29: 9-14
Gospel Acclamation: Psalm 16: 8-11
Gospel Reading: Luke 24: 36-49

Confusion reigns in our first reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, as people cannot understand the prophecy of God. God, speaking through his prophet, warns us that there are people who “draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips,” but at the same time, he tells us “their hearts are far from me.”

How many times have we experienced the reign of confusion within our souls? How often have we come to praise God, but known in our hearts that we were only giving him lip service, and not the true service of our hearts? I would dare say that we have probably come to this realization more often than we would like to admit to ourselves – or to others! Sadly, when our praise of God is only found upon our lips, when that praise is not resident in our hearts, we fall into the trap of relying upon the wisdom of man instead of the grace of God. Indeed, this trap is a deadly one, because our reading says that, “the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” It is not enough to speak and praise the Lord; it is requisite upon us as redeemed, sanctified Christians to open our hearts and souls to God, and to praise him in every aspect of our lives. . . in every fiber of our being. When we do not allow ourselves to fully worship and praise God, when external factors come between God and us, we find ourselves in a quandary, much as the disciples did in our Gospel reading today.

If we would only trust in the promises of God, if we would follow David’s example and, “set the Lord always before” ourselves, then we indeed would never be shaken, and we would rejoice. Sadly, even the disciples – in those tumultuous days between Good Friday and Pentecost – did not fully comprehend or understand what was going on. Their joy was not full, their doubt was strong, and their fear was great.

In today’s Gospel reading, we read the account of one of Jesus’ appearances to the disciples. They were fearful, but they gradually came to belief. At that first Pentecost, they were strengthened to proclaim the risen Lord, whom they had met face to face. You see, the wisdom of the world – explained that Jesus was dead, buried, and out of the collective consciousness of the Jews once and for all. The high priests went to some expense to ensure that neither of the guards on Jesus’ tomb would tell anyone what had occurred, preferring instead to spread the story that the disciples had taken the Lord’s body by night. It took great convincing, through signs, miracles, wonders, and even ordinary mundane activities – such as consuming a piece of broiled fish – to come to a threshold of belief; a place where the evidence was too great to ignore for the disciples. And yet, Isaiah’s prophecy stood: the chief priests and the scribes could not understand the prophecies; they could not accept the truth of the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Indeed, it took many intimate encounters with the resurrected Lord to come to a place where they could not only begin to grasp the truth, but proclaim it with joy. It took the presence of the Holy Spirit to bring this about.

Confusion is not a commodity that was restricted only to Isaiah’s day. Confusion reigns supreme today in the hearts of many who call themselves Christians. The praise of God is on their lips, but the truth of God is not in their hearts. They see, but they close their eyes, they hear, but cover their ears. When hardship comes, they have no idea what to do or say, because they cannot understand the basic truth of the Christian life. Why? If I may humbly submit my opinion on the topic, it is because they do not make the most of their experience with the risen Lord.

As we gather together to break open the Word of God, and to share in the one Bread and Cup at his table, we experience an intimate encounter with Christ. In his word, he instructs us to salvation, and in his most blessed Sacrament, he gives to us the grace to transform our hearts and minds – for we are truly meeting the Christ who came into this world to die for our sins. When you receive of the Eucharist, you are experiencing an encounter with the Lord that should, no must, transform your life! If your sins are troubling you, you must take care of them – and I humbly suggest a good confession to you as a means to do just that. If sorrow is holding you back, turn your sorrow over to the Lord, the one who is a specialist at turning sorrow to joy. If you leave here today with no hope or joy, you have only yourself to blame.

Recently, upon visiting in another congregation, I noticed something that warmed my heart. A woman who had just received her Lord and Savior in Holy Communion was walking back to her pew, and she had one of the most peaceful smiles upon her face that I had ever seen. She knew that her Lord had just come to take up his home within her afresh. As I saw her, I immediately took a piece of paper out of the bulletin and wrote these words, words that I hope will bring you great peace.

“When you leave this place today, you should be radiant with joy. No matter how terrible the music, no matter how bad the preaching, no matter how horrible you felt when you came in: for here, in this place, at the Table of the Lord, you have met the Christ face to face.”