Liturgy Lesson for the First Sunday in Lent: Silencio
February 27, 2009
In this season of penitence and examen, we frequently search for devotional focus. Such is the ancient practice of Silencio—liturgical silence—designed to evoke in worshippers a sense of awe and reverence of God’s Presence and attention, while recalling St. Paul’s description of times the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us—when words fail us. When practiced in the company of worshippers who have prepared themselves in quiet, Spirit-led devotion, this sense of the Presence is amplified, not only underscoring Immanuel—“God with us,” but also giving us humility and abjection, befitting the creation in the Presence of the Creator. As in the ancient Church, this is most powerfully experienced in the Holy Eucharist, when, just before invoking the Real Presence into the bread and wine, we pause to remember those who are on our lips or in our hearts in the Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church. In these intermissions, we can use Silencio’s sense of awe before our God to provide opportunity for the Spirit to speak to our hearts, as He prompts names for us to speak aloud before the Great Throne in Common Prayer. The Lord is in His Holy Temple—let all the Earth keep silence before Him. His temple is inside us!
Liturgy Lesson for Ash Wednesday: Ashes and Repentance
February 25, 2009
Today is the first day of Lent, called Ash Wednesday, derived from the Latin, dies cinerum (day of ashes) liturgy found in eighth century copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary—a worship and devotional guide for the ancient Church. On this day, devout Christians, according to ancient custom, approach God’s altar before the Holy Eucharist starts, where the presbyter (priest), using ashes blessed for worship, thumbs Christ’s cross in ash on their foreheads as a mark of our separateness from the World and our inward contrition before God. Ashes on the head are also a very ancient demonstration of mourning—a broken spirit—and convey our intention to fast to demonstrate our repentance, deepen our life in the Lord, mortify our flesh, and unite us more closely with God in our own spirit. Fasting before God is an ancient, venerable spiritual discipline and not only models many great Old Testament examples, but also follows Jesus’ own practice, teaching us discipline and self-control through self-denial. The important concept here is not the ritual, but a Spirit-led personal desire for repentance and revival to better equip us for God’s work for each of us. If we do this by the leading of the Holy Ghost and in prayer, these devotions and spiritual disciplines can enrich our lives and bring us to a fuller, more personal presence of God with us. May the Spirit, then, so enable us as we walk the Wilderness with Jesus in this season.
Spring Cleaning My Heart for Lent by Anne Pargeter
February 24, 2009
The excitement of the holidays is over. The promise of spring is still just that—a promise not yet realized. This time of year always seems so dull. To me it has always been a period to impatiently wait for something better—better weather, a yard in full bloom, or the first swim of the summer season. This year, my view has changed. Now I see it as a quiet time to take stock and to make some necessary changes so I can have the closer relationship with God that I desire.
Spring is a time of year when those who garden find joy in preparing their flower beds for a new growing season. They pull out weeds that would chock out new seedlings. They turn over the soil to ensure the beds are ready to receive new seeds. The Lenten season provides us with a period to prepare our hearts in a similar way to accept the forgiveness of our Lord. During Lent, I plan to take time to weed out my heart and rid it of any anger or hurt still growing there as the result of a bad seed planted by my actions or the actions of another. I will also turn over all that is in my heart and examine it for any seeds of sin that may be beginning to germinate. Once I have rid my heart and my life of those things that are only hurting me, I will make an effort to replace them with things that will flower into new growth and new joy in my life.
Many dedicated gardeners do not just dispose of the weeds and trimmings they remove from their gardens. Instead they compost or shred them into mulch they can use to enrich the soil for the plants they want to encourage and nurture. A way to apply this same principle during Lent is to have a mite box (or dish, or jar, etc.). If, for example, I decide to give up coffee, or ice cream, or whatever for Lent, I will take the money I would have spent on it and put it into my mite box during Lent. At the end of Lent, I will take the money that has accumulated and make an extra donation to a charitable cause I support. This way I make the sacrifice to give up something, and I can give to something that will put the money to better use. It is also a wonderful way for me to see how much I actually spend, in my case on ice cream, and decide if the money should be put to more effective use on something else!
So, this Lenten season I plan to weed out the garden of my heart and prepare it for the seeds of new growth that I pray God will help me plant in it this year. I cannot wait to get started!
Ash Wednesday Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes
February 23, 2009
Ash Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes
7:00 PM
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, and we begin this season of penitence and examen by receiving Holy Communion and the Imposition of Ashes.
The Jesus Yoke
February 22, 2009
Bible Reading: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
St. Matthew 11:28-30 (New American Standard Bible)
Bonus Reading: St. James 3:14-17; 1 St. Timothy 6:3-6; Hebrews 10:24-26; 1 Corinthians 12:27-29
We could imagine Jesus might have asked, “Aren’t you burned-out on all that ‘religious’ stuff? Check it out—if you walk with me, I’ll recover your life-–your real purpose. And even though it will require some hard (OK, sometimes very hard) work, it won’t seem like it, because you’ll be energized by the task, as you live your life to its max. Stop doing the ‘religious thing’—just kidding yourself by going through the outward motions–and start walking your talk by giving your heart to Me. You’ll be doing exactly what My Father created you to do, and more importantly, you’ll be exactly who I want you to be. And the best part—life won’t be just an endless series of strivings–regardless of how rough it gets. I’ll not only be with you at every turn, but will also equip you to get through it, and still enjoy the ride, while you’re on the Way to endless rewards you can’t begin to imagine.”
Sound terrific, doesn’t it? Living large and being completely at peace by giving up all the envy, strife, and confusion that St James shows us yields nothing but every evil work. We do this by going to the feet of Jesus to learn His nature, and doing the jobs He gives us—something that will be easier than managing the World on our own—something He calls His “yoke.” Not a word you hear in everyday 21st-century life.
In fact, yoke originates before the 12th century and usually refers to a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals (like oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together; an arched device formerly laid on the neck of a defeated person; a frame fitted to a person’s shoulders to carry/balance a load; a crosspiece on the head of a boat’s rudder; an airplane control operating the elevators and ailerons; or a clamp or similar piece that embraces two parts to hold or unite them in position. In short, a yoke, then, is something used for uniting purpose to work under direction. It facilitates progress and productivity. So it is with the Jesus Yoke.
When we take on the Jesus Yoke, He invites us to join the school of Christ. In ancient times, when a student studied under a specific teacher, it would be said that the student took on the teacher’s yoke; the student was yoked to the master. They labored together, in balance, with the ability to control load and direction.
Within that context, consider these words from Jesus: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30, NKJV)
Jesus says, by walking with Him, which is, as we learned last month, walking in safety and security on God’s castle wall, we’ll learn how to walk with God. We don’t learn from afar; we learn from a caring and committed teacher-student relationship—caring and committed on both sides—in the Jesus Yoke.
The Christian walk is not a lesson, then, in how to run around doing things for Jesus while we ignore Him. Our Christ-walk is a journey with Jesus, where he is very personal and specific about our growth and spiritual maturity.
What do we do, then? Consider these action steps in your prayer closet:
Am I tired?—Jesus will teach you how to find rest in God, not a rest absent of stress, but the rest that results from believing in God’s faithfulness. Ask God to show you what blocks you from believing fully in his faithfulness, and then ask Him to break those blockages down.
Am I confused?—Join Jesus at his school of Christ, and watch Him, listen to him, ask Him to renew your purpose by showing you the envy and striving in your life, then remove those influences by His Holy Ghost and His Church.
Am I teachable?— Tell Jesus you want to be yoked to Him and that you want to learn from our teacher the Holy Ghost, through Christ’s servants in His Church. Then ask Him to keep your heart teachable, so that the teachers God provided in His Church are led by the Spirit, Who brings us into all Truth. Connect with discipleship—and stick there.
Grace and peace,
Chip+
Liturgy Lesson for St. Matthias the Apostle: Heavenly Parokia
February 21, 2009
The Church has set aside saints’ days, (such as St. Matthias) in honor of the first martyrs, and those in the Gospel most nearly connected with our Lord in the work of establishing His Church. Although we don’t pray to the Saints, we study and emulate their virtues and thank God for their examples. The first record we have of a saints’ day comes from the 2nd century, although it probably existed far earlier. The practice grew from ancient Christians meeting at martyrs’ graves on the anniversaries of their deaths to celebrate their Godly virtues and bless God for their pure lives and heroic examples—a great chance for extra devotions in Lent—extending ourselves for the sake of the Lord in worship, devotion, and action. The great truth for us—the saints on Earth are fellow-citizens with the saints in paradise, and all, whether living or dead, are members of one great Heavenly parokia, or parish—the family of God—the Communion of Saints. Like Christians on Earth, our spirits “bear witness” with the saints, because we resonate on Christ’s spiritual frequency—one Faith and one Baptism for the remission of sin. We are all rewired to our Lord’s specification. And, we can take joy in that we are empowered, just as St. Matthias was—to preach the Gospel, regardless of the cost, extending ourselves for the purpose God has for us. And, like him, we have a great company with us to God’s purpose in our lives. For the Kingdom!
Pastoral Letter from Archbishop Peter Akinola
February 15, 2009
A Wake Up Call to the People of God
Leaders of the Anglican Communion have gathered in a place that is rich with history and a powerful reminder of the glorious heritage that we all share. Egypt is the place that provided respite for the Holy Family when they faced persecution. Egypt is the place from which God led his people through the Red Sea to the land of promise. Egypt is the place where God took his people out of slavery into freedom. Egypt is a reminder that time after time God met His people at the point of their need. Here in this historic city of Alexandria, we are reminded of the great Church fathers, Origen (c.185 – c.254) and Athanasius (298–May 2, 373) and several others who risked their lives to give us the creeds and many foundational doctrines of the Church.
Egypt is also a reminder that God’s people often have very short memories. It was only a brief time after their deliverance that they began to complain about the lack of variety of their provisions in the wilderness “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost — also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic,” (Numbers 11:5) they grumbled. Once they were safely established in the Land of Promise they also quickly forgot the bondage under which they had suffered in Egypt and began to embrace the very same pattern of life that they had escaped. The lure of attractive pagan religious ceremonies and the endless cycle of fertility cults, ensnared the people of God. They failed to recall the words declared to Moses on Mount Sinai, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” (Exodus 19:4,5)
Time and time again God sent prophets to warn his people of the grave consequences of following false gods that surrounded them with their deceptive claims. God also warned them repeatedly that they could not bow the knee to Baal, the god of pagan culture one day and the next day make a pretence of being a faithful disciple of the God of Abraham.
The prophet Jeremiah gave this sharp warning, “‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.
This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” …if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.” (Jeremiah 7:1-8)
Jeremiah presents a warning that is timeless and always contemporary because if our profession of faith is not matched with actions of faithfulness we will also find ourselves back in the land of bondage where our message has no meaning for a sick and spiritually bankrupt world and our lives with no transforming power. We can have all the seemingly godly heritage, all of the historical and religious symbols but if we fail to obey God’s call to a holy, faithful lives we will be like withering grass that is simply blown out by the devastating wind of the age.
When John wrote his inspired letters to the early churches he gave them a similar message. His message to the Church in Sardis is perhaps the most poignant. Sardis was a city with a remarkable history. Prior to the great earthquake in 17 AD it was renowned for its worship of the goddess Cybele. Sardis was a name of contempt. Its people were notoriously loose living, notoriously pleasure-and luxury loving. After the earthquake it embraced the cult of emperor worship. Sardis was a city of the decadence. It was costly to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and even more difficult to resist the syncretism that beckoned at every turn. John writes, “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.” (Revelation 3:1-4)
All through our gathering at the recently concluded Primates’ meeting I kept wondering whether we were the ones to whom John was writing. We have a glorious reputation – a worldwide communion of millions with a glorious history and beautiful heritage, fluid structures, grand cathedrals, “infallible” canons, historical ecclesiology and ‘flexible’ hermeneutics – but we are in danger of forgetting what we have received and heard and replacing it with the seemingly attractive gods and goddesses of our age. We are in danger of becoming the ‘living dead’ by giving the outward appearance of life but in reality we are no more than empty and ineffective vessels. In parts of our Communion some have merged the historical gospel message of Jesus the Christ with seductive ancient heresies and revisionist agendas, which have resulted in an adulterated and dangerous distortion of the gospel. The call to obedience and repentance is one that we must declare but we refuse and instead we replace it with a polite invitation to empty tolerance and endless conversation. Sometimes we think that we can replace the need for repentance with activities, programmes, endless meetings, conventions and communiqués — we are wrong!
Our world is in turmoil desperately looking for hope and we have been given that hope in the life and person of Jesus the Christ who sets us free from the slavery of sin to the new life of the Spirit — that is our message, that is our assurance, that is the holy life to which we have been called. It is a life of costly commitment where we reject the false gods and promises of this present age and embrace the one true God and His righteous claims upon our lives. It is a life of obedience to the revealed Word of God which must never be compromised. It is a gospel message which is to be fully proclaimed unfettered and undiluted. It is a life worth living and a life worth dying for. It is a life of true freedom that was birthed in this land and one we dare not forget.
“Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent!”
May the Lord save our beloved Communion.
+Peter, Abuja
Liturgy Lesson for Sexagesima: Pre-Lent
February 13, 2009
The Pre-Lenten season is a period of about three weeks directly preceding Lent, extending from the last Sunday in Epiphany to the beginning of Lent itself. The early Church fathers designed this season as a transition time from the gaiety and celebration of our Lord’s nativity to the quieter, more focused time of examen and fasting in Lent. This time, marked by Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima count us back, in round numbers from the seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth days, respectively, before Easter and herald an excellent opportunity for us to begin review our spiritual lives in our Lord—what we are, and what He is calling us to be in His Body, the Church. Like our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem just prior to His crucifixion, it’s a time when we begin to prepare ourselves for our own Gethsemane in the wilderness of Lenten devotions and growth.
Liturgy Lesson for Septuagesima: Farewell to Alleluia
February 7, 2009
Three weeks prior to Ash Wednesday, on the day before Septuagesima Sunday, the ancient Church would chant a bittersweet hymn bidding farewell to the word Alleluia: “We do not now deserve to sing the Alleluia forever; Guilt forces us to dismiss you, O Alleluia.” Known as the Depositio of the Alleluia, this ceremony ushered in Septuagesima, the roughly seventy days prior to Easter that help us make the transition from the joy of Epiphany—our honeymoon time with the Lord and His Spirit, to the penitence of Lent—a season so important to ancient Christians that they actually had a separate season to prepare for it. Thus, the day after Septuagesima Sunday, they would begin a period of progressive voluntary fasting that grew more restrictive as it approached the deeper, more obligatory Lenten fast. They would eat less, and the consumption of certain pleasure items, such as butter, milk, eggs, and cheese, would gradually be abandoned. Starting on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, they would abstain from meat. Thus the name for this seven-day period before Ash Wednesday is Carnival, from the Latin carne levarium, meaning “removal of meat,” but which might better be taken as “removal of flesh,” since our flesh is usually what we need to repent from most. Finally, within the week of Carnival, the last three days prior to Lent would be reserved for personal confession—since the practice had already focused on our flesh. This period, known as Shrovetide, (ending on Shrove Tuesday) from the old English word “to shrive,” means to have sins forgiven through absolution. God’s cleansing and polishing, accomplished in hearts open to the Holy Ghost is a real, Spirit-driven method to “create in us new and contrite hearts,” ready for God’s inside-out change from being flesh- (self) centered to God-centered, broken and receptive to the Holy Ghost. The outward and visible sign marking this period of examen is putting away the alleluias, then the Gloria—a liturgical fast paralleling the ancient physical one. These devotional tools of our hearts, not just our actions, help open us to the Spirit’s prompting, so He can show us where we need His repentance, healing, and restoration to fully celebrate the Resurrection life of Easter in Spirit and Truth. May this coming season work in us God’s purpose as fit clay for the Master’s Hand!
Repairing the Bell
February 5, 2009
