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Text
reigns
CAN GOD SET A TABLE IN THE WILDERNESS? The short answer is that God sets a table in the wilderness once we get IN the wilderness. He did not give them manna in Egypt. They had to take a great risk and step out in faith and put themselves in a situation where it was literally going to be life or death. That is when they saw God’s miraculous provision. DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. 14 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER A brief sentence that is said or sung before or after the Psalm A service of evening prayer in the Divine Office Anglo-Saxon priest and scholar who wrote history and grammar, as well as biographies and biblical commentaries. d. 735 Philippians 2:9-11 NASB Of course we know the Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and that the Spirit has already been sent 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect for the Third Sunday of Easter is a revision of the collect in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer for Saturday in Easter Week, which in turn was a revision of a Mozarabic collect. The prayer begins “Heavenly Father.”. This is at the same time a term of respect and a term of endearment. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
CAN GOD SET A TABLE IN THE WILDERNESS? The short answer is that God sets a table in the wilderness once we get IN the wilderness. He did not give them manna in Egypt. They had to take a great risk and step out in faith and put themselves in a situation where it was literally going to be life or death. That is when they saw God’s miraculous provision. JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch during June 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.ABOUT FATHER RAY
About Father Ray. The Rev’d Fr. Raymond F. Kasch, Rector. St. Patrick’s Anglican Church. PO Box 941. Smyrna, Tennessee 37167. Ray grew up in a Navy family that moved every two years, making the question, “Where are you from?” difficult to answer. He is a graduate of Florida State University and Gordon-Conwell TheologicalSeminary.
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, inABIDING IN THE VINE
Abiding in the Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”. This is Jesus’ 7 th “I am” statement in the Gospel of John. As Father Chris mentioned in his last sermon Jesus is intentionally using the Divine Name “I am” to declare His divinity. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE 5TH SUNDAY IN LENT Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PALM SUNDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Palm Sunday. Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT A second mark of being a good and faithful servant is living in a state of readiness. Jesus is unequivocal that no one knows when the Day of Judgment will arrive. He says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”. So any time you see a preacher pull out a chart orclaim
DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. 04 | JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on June 4, 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we 14 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER A brief sentence that is said or sung before or after the Psalm A service of evening prayer in the Divine Office Anglo-Saxon priest and scholar who wrote history and grammar, as well as biographies and biblical commentaries. d. 735 Philippians 2:9-11 NASB Of course we know the Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and that the Spirit has already been sent GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. 04 | JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on June 4, 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we 14 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER A brief sentence that is said or sung before or after the Psalm A service of evening prayer in the Divine Office Anglo-Saxon priest and scholar who wrote history and grammar, as well as biographies and biblical commentaries. d. 735 Philippians 2:9-11 NASB Of course we know the Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and that the Spirit has already been sent GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, inABIDING IN THE VINE
Abiding in the Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”. This is Jesus’ 7 th “I am” statement in the Gospel of John. As Father Chris mentioned in his last sermon Jesus is intentionally using the Divine Name “I am” to declare His divinity. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: TRINITY SUNDAY Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT A second mark of being a good and faithful servant is living in a state of readiness. Jesus is unequivocal that no one knows when the Day of Judgment will arrive. He says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”. So any time you see a preacher pull out a chart orclaim
WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
LOVE AND RESPECT
“let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” St. Paul The Archbishop gave instructions to the clergy at Synod that we are to preach on marriage this year and I am so glad that he did. This is the fourth Sunday thatwe
CAN GOD SET A TABLE IN THE WILDERNESS? The short answer is that God sets a table in the wilderness once we get IN the wilderness. He did not give them manna in Egypt. They had to take a great risk and step out in faith and put themselves in a situation where it was literally going to be life or death. That is when they saw God’s miraculous provision. THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY Among the initial series of questions I receive from a serious inquirer about our Anglican faith is “What do y’all believe about Mary?” I welcome this question because it provides a way to demonstrate the “via media” (middle way) of Anglicanism. From our vantage point, on one extreme is a recent Pope who promoted Mary DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. 04 | JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on June 4, 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect for the Third Sunday of Easter is a revision of the collect in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer for Saturday in Easter Week, which in turn was a revision of a Mozarabic collect. The prayer begins “Heavenly Father.”. This is at the same time a term of respect and a term of endearment. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. 04 | JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on June 4, 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect for the Third Sunday of Easter is a revision of the collect in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer for Saturday in Easter Week, which in turn was a revision of a Mozarabic collect. The prayer begins “Heavenly Father.”. This is at the same time a term of respect and a term of endearment. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Because my cup runneth over. A brief sentence that is said or sung before or after the Psalm A service of evening prayer in the Divine Office Anglo-Saxon priest and scholar who wrote history and grammar, as well as biographies and biblical commentaries. d. 735 Philippians 2:9-11 NASB Of course we know the Pentecost happened 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and that the GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one 14 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on May 14, 2021. O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. FEBRUARY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER William Bright, 1824-1901, Anglican Priest and Historian. A Sacramentary is a book that contains the prayers used by the Celebrant. Sarum Rite was the Rite of Salisbury Cathedral from the 11 th century Pelagius was a British monk of the 4 th century who put such an emphasis on free will and asceticism that St. Augustine condemned him for denying the necessity of God’s grace GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: TRINITY SUNDAY Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one GodABIDING IN THE VINE
Abiding in the Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”. This is Jesus’ 7 th “I am” statement in the Gospel of John. As Father Chris mentioned in his last sermon Jesus is intentionally using the Divine Name “I am” to declare His divinity. WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE 5TH SUNDAY IN LENT The name given to books of prayers traditionally ascribed to Pope Gregory I (590–604) “We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” 1662 BCP p.138 Psalm 51:10 GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE 2ND SUNDAY IN LENT This collect was appointed for the 2 nd Sunday in Lent in the Gregorian Sacramentary and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It was transferred to the 3 rd Sunday in Lent in the 1979 BCP and returned to its original position in the 2019 BCP. It is a very appropriate prayer for the penitential season of Lent. True penitents realize and confessLIVING LENT GENTLY
Henry Nouwen, a Dutch Roman Catholic Priest and Theologian wrote, “Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life.It is the time in which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within usWhen we live Lent attentively and gently, then Easter can DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, inABIDING IN THE VINE
Abiding in the Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”. This is Jesus’ 7 th “I am” statement in the Gospel of John. As Father Chris mentioned in his last sermon Jesus is intentionally using the Divine Name “I am” to declare His divinity. WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PENTECOST Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 06 | MAY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER Gleanings from the Collects: The Sixth Sunday of Easter. Posted on May 6, 2021. by frkasch. Reply. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we KICKED OUT OF BIBLE CLASS Kicked Out of Bible Class. Posted on April 28, 2021. by frkasch. While attending Florida State University I minored in Religion. It was often a challenge because I was theologically orthodox and held a high view of Scripture as the inspired Word of God. To give you an idea of my professors’ theology, one of them said in class, “I wish I GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER This collect, carried over from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, is a revision of a collect from the 1549 BCP. In the 1549 BCP it was appointed for the feast day of St. Phillip and St. James. The collect is dense with insight. First it acknowledges that everlasting life comes from “truly” knowing God. Truly knowing God is distinct from GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Gleanings from the Collects: The Fourth Sunday of Easter. O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, inABIDING IN THE VINE
Abiding in the Vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”. This is Jesus’ 7 th “I am” statement in the Gospel of John. As Father Chris mentioned in his last sermon Jesus is intentionally using the Divine Name “I am” to declare His divinity. WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: MAUNDY THURSDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose most dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it in thankful remembrance of Jesus Christ our Savior, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives andreigns
04 | JUNE | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on June 4, 2021. Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your providence, that your Church may joyfully serve you in quiet confidence and godly peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one 14 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on April 14, 2021. Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and 26 | APRIL | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER “catholic” means universal Galatians 5:16 John 3:5 1928 BCP p.81 “AND we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in 01 | FEBRUARY | 2021 | DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER 1 post published by frkasch on February 1, 2021. O God, you know that we are set in the midst of many grave dangers, and because of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant that your strength and protection may support us in all dangers and carry us through every temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: TRINITY SUNDAY Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God WHY WOULD A PRIEST BECOME A FINANCIAL COACH? MY STORY First of all Beth and I were both in helping professions. If money had been our focus we would have chosen different careers. We were typical Americans. We always paid our bills but we always had bills to pay. We had very little in savings and were in essence living paycheck topaycheck. We both
GLEANINGS FROM THE COLLECTS: PALM SUNDAY Gleanings from the Collects: Palm Sunday. Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT A second mark of being a good and faithful servant is living in a state of readiness. Jesus is unequivocal that no one knows when the Day of Judgment will arrive. He says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”. So any time you see a preacher pull out a chart orclaim
LIVING LENT GENTLY
Henry Nouwen, a Dutch Roman Catholic Priest and Theologian wrote, “Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life.It is the time in which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within usWhen we live Lent attentively and gently, then Easter can DRINKING FROM THE SAUCER BECAUSE MY CUP RUNNETH OVERSearch
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COMMUNION OF SAINTS PT 2 Posted on November 6, 2019by frkasch
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Yesterday, at the All Souls Mass I spoke about the Communion of the Saints. I attempted to show why that belief is so important for us to confess and I attempted to explain what we mean and what we don’t mean when we speak of the Communion of the Saints. Today I want to talk about the benefits of believing in the Communion of the Saints. But first I want to address a common objection that I have heard. It’s a simplistic argument but I have heard it many times. _“If I have Jesus why do I need the saints?” _Let me address how illogical this question is and then I will give a biblically informed response. I would ask the person, _“Is it true that according to the New Testament all believers are considered saints?”_The correct answer is _“Yes.” “Then that would make you a saint.” “Yes.” “Then you just asked__‘If I have Jesus why do I need me?’” _Or lets try it another way. _“Do not the saints, both those on earth and those in heaven, make up the Body of Christ?” _Again the correct answer is_“Yes” “Then you just asked_, _‘If I have Jesus why would I need the Body ofChrist?’” _
Beyond pointing out the illogic of the question let me offer a simple response. _ “We need the saints because that is how God set up the universe.” _The Communion of the Saints is not the Church’s idea rather it is God’s. The same can be said about angels. _“If I have Jesus why would I need angels.”? _Again, because that is how God set up the universe. We know that Jesus had a perfect relationship with His heavenly Father and yet Scripture records two occasions where angels came to minister to Him. One was after the 40 days of temptation and one was at the garden the night that He was betrayed. If Jesus was one with the Father why did He need angels to minister to Him? Because that is how God set up the universe and who are we to question His ways? Since God has set up the Communion of the Saints what are the benefits? I will offer a number. First they fill need in our lives. Unless you are a narcissist you need a hero, someone to challenge you and inspire you to be a better you. This has been true across humanity and throughout history. Think of the ancient myths and legends and how invariably they involve a hero. Hercules, Beowulf, Achilles, Romulus and Remus, the list is endless. Who are our heroes today? Look at the movies. Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Batman. Again thelist is endless.
The saints fill this role in much better ways. I mean I can’t really relate to Batman. I’m not rich and I don’t drive at night. But the saints were real folk and like real folk they also had their issues and I can relate to that. St. Jerome, the brilliant translator of the Bible, was evidently a very difficult person with which to get along. St. John of the Cross battled spiritual and emotional depression. As we all know St. Peter suffered from foot in mouth disease. This listis also endless.
What is important is that as far as we know these saints completed the race, and in spite of their issues, received a crown of glory that never fades away. The danger of current sports heroes or current celebrity heroes or even current preacher heroes is that we don’t know the end of their story, we don’t know if they will finish the race or if they will drop out or if they will be disqualified. Secondly the saints show us a different way than the way of the world. Let me tell you about Alphonsus Rodriguez who died in 1617. He was the son of a prosperous merchant in Segovia. He began his studies to become a Jesuit but when his father died he had to return home to run his family business. He fell in love and married and had two children. His wife died bearing his third child, then his other two children died, then his mother died, and then his business collapsed. Although completely broken he offered the shattered pieces of his life toGod.
He was denied entrance into the Jesuits because his lack of education but they made him a lay brother of the order and gave him the job of being a doorkeeper. For 40 years he opened the door for others with such love and devotion that they said that he performed it as if it were a sacrament. His Christlikeness became so well known that students began seeking him out for spiritual direction. Rodriguez was so well respected that Spanish nobility along with throngs of the poor and the sick attended his funeral testifying to his miraculous life as a doorkeeper. When we confess the Communion of the Saints we are speaking truth against the constant quest for power, against the materialism of atheism and against the secularism of westernculture.
The Communion of the Saints reorients us. At least six days a week we are being bombarded with lies and half-truths from the world, the flesh and the devil and sadly from ABC, NBC and CBS. It is very easy in the midst of all of these lies to become disoriented and even to begin to drift. At first the drift is every so slightly but before we realize it we are way off course. A few years ago Beth and I flew to Italy on a brand new jet. One of the things I enjoyed most about the flight was that it had cameras all over the plane and so you could bring different views to the monitor before you. As we were landing I chose the camera that allowed me to see what the pilots were seeing. And there before us were two rows of lights marking the runway and guiding us home. It occurred to me that is how I see the saints. They are not home but they mark our way home. When we have drifted from the course they reorient us for a safe landing. In Jeremiah we read, _“This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.” _The saints show us those ancient paths. The Cloud of Witnesses gives us perspective on our lives in a number of ways. Back to Hebrews 11. _“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented…” _And here I feel persecuted when the insurance company tells me that I haven’t met my deductible. But more than reminding me that I don’t have it too bad the saints call us to bebetter.
It was not until the 1950’s that runners broke the four-minute mile. Until that point no one thought that it was even possible. Today if you can’t run a four-minute mile you likely won’t make the team. The bar has been raised that high. The saints raise the bar for us. If I was in this alone and heard a call to be more loving or more generous or more courageous, I could dismiss it by saying the only one to do that was Jesus and I’m not Jesus. But when I look back at my spiritual ancestors and see the love of Mother Theresa or the generosity of St. Francis or courage of St. Patrick, I know that the spiritual version of the four-minute mile has been broken and so I give it a try. And if I listen very carefully I can hear the cloud of witnesses cheering me on. The Communion of Saints also model for us selfless service. In September of 1878, yellow fever hit epidemic proportions in Memphis, Tennessee. So many people died that the city lost its charter. Every one who could afford to do so fled the city, while Anglican nuns and clergy rushed in to offer care. They became known as Sister Constance and her companions. The cathedral was turned into a hospital. Constance was the first to die and then her companions followed. In all 38 Anglican and Roman clergy and nuns died in this selfless service of others. _“They loved not their lives even unto death.” _The high altar of the cathedral, consecrated on Whitsunday 1879, was commissioned by Bishop Quintard to memorialize the Sisters of St. Mary. Inscribed on the altar steps are _“Alleluia Osanna,”_which were Sister Constance’s last words. __ Lastly the Communion of Saints inspires us to finish the race that we have begun. That is the message of Hebrew 12. The picture in my mind is that we are on the field in a very tough race and the cloud of witnesses in the stands is cheering us on. The text says that because we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses we are to _“run with endurance the race the is set before us.”_ The key word here is, _“endurance.”_As you well know the Christian life is not a sprint, it is a marathon and marathons are tough. In the letters to Timothy and to Thessalonica, St. Paul prophesies that in the latter days there will be a great falling away from the faith. While I have never been one to try to predict the latter days I do know that t is all too easy to quit. I have seen many do so. This year alone between 8,000 and 10,000 churches will close their doors in theUS.
I will make this personal. I was first ordained in 1979 so I’m sure it would not surprise you that I have had days when I said out loud to myself, _“I don’t want to do this any more.”_I recently hit that wall. In part because I don’t have the stamina that I did when I was younger and in part because ministering to the pain and trauma and heartache of folks that you love takes its toll over the years. I was in that mindset a couple of weeks ago when Beth and I went to Savannah to celebrate her 29thbirthday (Lord I apologize). As we were walking around Savannah we came across a square where the great Anglican preacher Fr. George Whitfield had preached to hundreds if not thousands. Just to be standing where he stood was enough inspiration to straighten up and get my head back in the race. The saints of God do that for us. I would encourage you to read up on the saints and make it a goal to have a hero or heroes that will inspire you to run with endurance and to finish the race. I know that I need all of the help that God offers me and so I celebrate being surrounded by their fellowship of love and prayers. While it is true that the whole notion of the saints became riddled with superstition in the Middle Ages, we need not fear that it will happen to us. Anglican theology and worship is too Christ centered to see those abuses repeated. In an excellent article about the saints Fr. Wesley Walker reminds us that we should not allow abuses of a practice to negate that practice, especially when the practice predates the abuse. We know that if belief in the Communion of the Saints was so universal in the Church that it was placed in the Nicene Creed in 325, then it didn’t first appear in 324. The ancient practice of the Church was to pray for the faithful departed and to be comforted in the knowledge that they are praying for us. I believe in the Communion of the Saints. _“The lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds and thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. You can meet them in school or in lanes or at sea, in church or in trains or in shops or at tea, for the saints of God are just folk like me and I mean to be one too._SHARE THIS:
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THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS Posted on November 6, 2019by
frkasch
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Yesterday was the feast of All Saints, which we will celebrate tomorrow at what is commonly called All Saints’ Sunday, but today is the feast of All Souls. Why two feasts? It follows the pattern of Hebrews 11 that begins by recounting the deeds of the heroes of our faith. It mentions Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sara and Moses and many others. But towards the end of the chapter no names are given. Just their deeds. The text simply says, _“others were tortured…still others had trial of mockings and scourging…They were stoned and sawn in two…they wandered about…” _And I love this line; _“of whom the world was not worthy.”_ Thus on All Saints’ Day we honor the saints that are in the Hall of Fame. On All Soul’s Day we honor all the rest of the faithful departed. The Apocrypha make the distinction this way. _“Some of them have left a name behind so that others declare their praise…But of others there is no memory…but these also were godly ones, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.” _That is a perfect description of Hebrews 11. Then chapter 12 begins _“Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….”_ Misconceptions about the saints abound especially here in the Bible Belt. Years ago I received a call from a guy who wanted to confront me about calling a church after a saint. He said that the church belonged to the Lord and so we shouldn’t name it after a saint. I explained the we fully realized that the church belonged to the Lord but there was a very long tradition of having patrons, so that as Scripture says, we are giving honor to whom it is due. He still objected and was very angry with me and slammed down his phone. So in his mind it was blasphemous to name a church after a saint but it was okay with the name “Franklin Road Baptist Church.” Go figure. Each week we confess in the Nicene Creed that we believe in the Communion of the Saints. Celebrating All Saints and All Souls is a natural result of that belief but it also posses some questions. Why is belief in the Communion of the Saints important? What do we believe about the Communion of the Saints” and of what is the benefit ofthis belief?
But before I address those questions let me clarify potential misconceptions concerning our beliefs about the saints. First we reject a common belief that there are the saints in heaven and then there are us sinners here on earth. The New Testament is quite clear that all believers, those in heaven and those on earth, are saints in the eyes of God. St. Paul begins his letter to the church in Philippi. _“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.”_I do find it troubling that he did not include the clergy with the saints but that is my problem. The believers in Philippi arecalled saints.
Second we reject any notion of the saints being mediators, that is the idea that we pray to them and then they go to God on our behalf, like having a friend in the court. The Scripture is also clear on this. There is only One Mediator between God and man and that is Jesus Christ (I Timothy 2:5). Why would we have it any other way when we have the indescribable privilege of going directly to the Father inJesus’ Name.
Third, in particular reference to this feast of All Souls, we do not pray for the departed in order to help them get out of purgatory, because as Anglicans we do not believe in purgatory. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, _“Today you will be with me in Paradise.” _Any work that needed to be done to wash us from our sins was done when Jesus said, _“It is finished” _and then three days late came bursting out of His tomb conquering death and the grave. And then ascended to the Father presenting to Him Hissacrifice.
So if we are not praying for the departed to get out of purgatory then why are we praying for them? That is one of the most frequent questions I am asked is _“Why do y’all pray for the dead?”_The short answer is _“Because they aint dead.”_Jesus said _“But concerning the resurrection of the dead have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead but of the living.” _A believer passes through the gate of death into the presence of God. So we pray to God for the faithful departed becausethey still live.
We pray to God for the faithful departed, as is so beautifully put in the 1928 BCP, _“…beseeching thee to grant them continual growth in thy love and service; and to grant us grace so to follow their good examples that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly grace…” _We may not need to pray for one another once the whole Church becomes the Church triumphant, and we receive our new bodies at the Resurrection, and we are placed in a new heaven and a new earth. But that has not happened yet and so we continue to pray. We pray to God for the faithful departed because death has not stopped our love for them. Praying for others keeps us linked or connected to them. And so because of my love for my Father I hold my Father’s memory alive when I mention him before God’s altar. We also pray to God WITH the faithful departed. This is chiefly done through worship. _“Therefore joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name….”_ I hope that clarifies a few things. Now I want to return to my original questions. Why is it important that we believe in the Communion of the Saints, what do we believe about it and what is the benefit of this belief? A chief reason that this belief is so important is because it flows from what we believe about the completed work of Christ and what we believe about the Church. If Jesus had not conquered death there would be no Communion of the Saints. There would be no voices in heaven with which to join our voices. There would only be the silence of the grave. But because the Old Testament Saints looked forward in faith to His victory, as we look back in faith to His victory, there is indeed a blessed Communion. The Communion of the Saints manifests what we believe about the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ and just as there is only one Head there is only one Body. There is the Church triumphant in glory and the Church militant on earth, but there is only one Church, one Body. Thus we should be very diligent to work for unity with fellow saints on earth and we should maintain our unity with the saints in glory. The new catechism asks _“How are the Church on earth and the Church in heaven joined?” _Answer. _“All of the worship of the Church on earth is a participation in the eternal worship of the Church in heaven.” Hebrew 12:22-24. _Thus to abandon worship, or to think that worship is all about me, is to abandon the Communion of theSaints
What do we believe about the Communion of the Saints? We believe that the Church triumphant is not passive towards us. Hebrews 12 tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. I love the picture that the BCP paints for us through this collect. _“Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know our selves to be surrounded by their witness to your power andmercy…”_
Wait a moment. Did that collect say that the saints in heaven are praying for us? Yes it did! But how do we know that? We know it from Revelation 5 and 8 that tell of golden bowls of incense, and the text tells us,_“which are the prayers of the saints.” _Their prayers for us imply that they know what is going on with us, which they most assuredly do. At the Transfiguration of Jesus we are told that Moses and Elijah were speaking with Him about His upcoming departure when the disciples didn’t yet realize that was about to happen. I have personally experienced this fellowship of love and prayer. When we were building All Saints’ in Smyrna it was one of the most challenging experiences that I ever had. The builder was a crook of the highest order and I was in a constant battle with him over his lies and his shoddy work. Our lawyer had been involved with the building of the Titans stadium. He said that work put him in contact with some Mafia types and he said that the Mafia was easier to deal with than our builder. The Bishop saw what stress I was under and offered to me to use his condo in St. Augustine, so Beth and I went down for a few days to try to decompress. As we were walking through the Old City I saw an Orthodox Shrine and I asked Beth to give me a few minutes to go in and say my prayers. I was still heavy with the burden of the project and I had serious doubts that we would be able to complete it, which would have been a financial disaster for the parish. I knelt before a number of life sized icons of various saints and I lit a candle and I cried out to the Lord for His mercy. Although my eyes were closed I could tell that I was not alone. I felt a distinct presence. It was as if each saint had stepped out of his icon and they were standing around me, giving me the assurance that God had heard my prayer and that all would be well. The burden lifted, we had a great time in St. Augustine and the project got completed. I went back to the shrine after the church was built to offer thanks to the Lord for hearing my prayer. I was also secretly hoping to have the same experience again but it was crickets that time. However as I was leaving the shrine I read a plaque on the wall that told of their history. It said that before coming to St. Augustine it was in a town called New Smyrna, which gave me goose bumps. I definitely believe in the Communion of the Saints. This belief in the Communion of the Saints directly confronts the me-and-Jesus heresy that plagues the Western Church. If you google “I love Jesus but I hate the Church” you will see all kinds of videos and research and books. It is a growing theme. But you don’t need a degree in theology to know that is one of the dumbest things that you could possibly say. Since the Church is the Body of Christ, you are really saying. _“I love Jesus but I hate His Body.” _Or to use another image from Scripture, _“I love you Jesus but I hate your Bride.” _The sin filled arrogance that fuels such a perspective is incomprehensible but it is alive and well. The Communion of the Saints is a constant reminder that there is no such thing as just me-and-Jesus. _“For by one Spirit you have been baptized into one Body”_and each of us are a part of that Body. I don’t know if I am an ear of an eye or a toenail. It does not really matter to me. Like Minnie Pearl, I’m just proud to be here. It is humbling to realize the shoulders that we stand upon, the sacrifices of those who came before us, and as Ephesians puts it, the inheritance that we have in the saints. I cannot think of another company with whom I would wish to be joined. This leads me to the third question. What are the benefits of the Communion of the Saints? To learn that you will have to come tomorrow as we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints. In the meantime lets give thanks for the faithful departed and as the BCP puts it _“rejoice in their fellowship and run with endurance the race that is set before us; and together with them, receive the crown of glory that never fades away.” Amen._SHARE THIS:
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Posted on September 25, 2019by frkasch
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In his book Retire Inspired, Chris Hogan tells of meeting with a client named Michael who was desperate to get his financial affairs in order. Michael’s favorite aunt had called him and asked if he would mow her two-acre yard. He did so and about noon he went into her kitchen to rustle up some lunch. When he opened her fridge all that was in it was some expired milk and a bottle of catsup. He searched the cabinets only to find dishes. And when he came to her cupboard all he saw was 7 cans of dog food. Michael said to Chris. “Chris, my aunt doesn’t own a dog. We are called the richest nation in the world but let me give you some statistics and averages, and they are not good news. 76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, which means that ¾’s of us are not planning for our future. The average American family is $8,000 in credit card debt, which conservatively means that they are wasting over $1,400 a year in interest. The average Millennial has $29,000 in personal debt, most of which is student loans. The average American spends $1.25 for every $1 that they make. And how about our nation? By the end of this Mass we will have added over $100 million to thenational debt.
What about the other 24% that are not living paycheck to paycheck? They may be doing well, they may even be wealthy, but are they honoring God with their wealth? Just because you are wealthy does not mean that you are being a faithful steward. I read of a Rapper that spent $600,000 in ONE NIGHT in a club in Atlanta. Or how about a TV preacher in Texas living in $12 million mansion? Or another in Atlanta who appealed to his audience to buy him yet another private jet? (I would remind you that Jesus had to borrow His donkey to enter Jerusalem.) The 24% may not all be millionaires, but by the standards of the rest of the world they are rich. If they are praying the Lord’s Prayer ever day, for God’s kingdom to come on earth, the next question is what are they doing with their resources to see thathappen?
But these challenges about money are not just an American problem. Problems with money are a human problem. In fact misuse of money is a sin problem. Scripture tells us that it is the love of money that is at the root of all kinds of evil. And so today we hear Jesus address this problem and tell us what we are to do about it. He begins with this parable about an unfaithful servant who is about to be fired so he cuts a deal with the Master’s debtors and thereby one again rips off his Master. He does this to try to secure his future with his newfound friends. Then what is even more shocking is that he gets commended for it! This seems like a very strange parable to tell us how to deal with money. Here is where we need to turn to the principles of biblical interpretation. As a general rule a parable is not an extended metaphor to be picked apart as if it is filled with code. Most of the time a parable is intended to teach one point and I believe that the point of this parable is contained in the following line. “The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Jesus is telling them that they must be shrewd when it comes to money. St. Augustine put it more eloquently than I. He said, “Jesus is recommending to the disciples the steward’s foresight, prudence and ingenuity.” But why would Jesus recommend that we be shrewd when it comes to money? He does so because money is like a snake. You had better learn which end with which to pick it up or it will bite you. Notice that Jesus doesn’t just call it “mammon” He calls it “unrighteous mammon.” Why is it unrighteous? Because again, the love of it is the root of all kinds of evil. It is unrighteous because some times money is gained by hurting others, as we just heard from the prophet Amos. It is unrighteous because some times the motives for getting it are unrighteous. We seek it for selfish purposes or falsely believing that it will bring us security. I had a relative that had a sign on her refrigerator that read, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” Unfortunately that was her creed instead of the Nicene Creed. And she fulfilled her creed. She was wealthy and she was very attractive. I was with her when she died and to this day it was one of the worst deaths that I have witnessed. Disease had taken her looks and she passed screaming, filled with terror. Her riches were useless to her at that moment. That is why in this lesson Jesus says of money not “IF it fails” but “WHEN itfails.”
Mammon is unrighteous because it can have a corrupting influence on a person, like the ring did to Gollum. So that brings us back to the need to be shrewd when picking up this snake. Jesus shows us how. First He says that we are to use money to make friends. He says “I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon…” Now when Jesus begins a command with “I tell you” that is like being aboard ship and hearing “Now hear this.” He is not whistling Dixie here; He wants us to pay careful attention. That part is clear but what does He mean that we are to use money to make friends? That hardly sounds Christian. We don’t want people to love us for our money. We want them to love us for who we are. The key to understanding what He is telling us to do here is found in the rest of the sentence. “So that when it (unrighteous mammon) fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” (Boy that sure clears things up doesn’t it?) I wrestled with this idea for some time until I saw that the next story He tells in the same chapter is the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. You will recall that in this story the rich man feasted every day while the poor man Lazarus sat at his gate covered with sores. Lazarus would have been happy to have eaten whatever fell off of the rich mans table but he did not even get that. They both died and while Lazarus went heaven, to the bosom of Abraham, the rich man went to Hades. The point is that if the rich man had used his mammon to care for Lazarus, then Lazarus would have greeted him in heaven. But he didn’t, so he didn’t. I was relieved to discover that some of the Church Fathers also interpreted this call to make friends by unrighteous mammon as a call to care for the poor. The challenge however is that there are so many charities and so many individuals with so many needs that it is difficult to know where to begin. Add to that the many scams out there. What to do? One idea is to be like the Good Samaritan and minister to what is in front of you rather than ignoring it and passing it by. This is a major reason that we raise money for Food for the Poor every year because they are ministering to the poorest of the poor in our hemisphere. I know for a fact that I have been conned over the years, thinking that I was helping someone in need but it was a ruse. I have thrown good money after bad trying to help a parishioner only to have them turn on me. So I have wrestled with myself, wondering if I was doing the right thing. I am comforted by the words of St. Augustine who said, “When you give alms to all different types of people then you will reach a few who deserve it.” Evidently St. Augustine had been conned too but he was okay with that because He was fulfillingChrist’s command.
It is vital to understand that God’s call to be generous towards that poor is not just about the poor. He calls us to learn generosity because that is who He is. The more we learn generosity the more we will be like God, who causes the rain to fall on the just and theunjust.
The second thing that Jesus says, to help us to be shrewd about money, is when He gives us this perspective. “If then your have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust you with true riches.” Or to put it in the positive, if we are faithful over unrighteous mammon then we will be entrusted with true riches. A couple things jump out to us about this verse. One is that Jesus contrasts mammon with true riches. From the perspective if the Kingdom of God, mammon is Monopoly money. I love how Beth puts it when I get upset over how much something costs. She says, “What the heck, its just dead presidents.” We become shrewder when we realize that mammon with which we have been entrusted, are not true riches, but are a vehicle to make us truly rich. If God can trust us to use this Monopoly money properly then He will grant us true riches. And what are they? Eye hath not seen nor ear heard but surely in part it is to rule and reign with Him in a new heaven and new earth. That would be worth all of the Monopoly money inthe world.
Another thing that confronts us from Jesus’ words is that stewardship is not an option. Our only options are if we are going to be faithful stewards or unfaithful stewards. I have to confess to you that I was a hypocrite in this area for too long. I knew that verses like these on stewardship existed, I just ignored them. I always paid my tithe and I always paid my bills, but money was more of an irritant to me and I didn’t think of myself asa steward.
Then when we married, Beth was better at finances than I was, so I just gave her my paycheck and stuck my head in the ground. That put an unfair burden on her as we were in that 74% category that lived paycheck to paycheck. And when we looked into our future, other than modest pensions, we had no idea how we would retire. It took going through Financial Peace University that I was confronted with the fact that I was an unfaithful steward. So we began working together and we worked hard to become faithful with all that God had given us. We are not doing it perfectly but I don’t feel like a hypocrite any more. And we have discovered that one of the joys of living into the Scripture that says, “owe no man anything but love” is that it has freed up resources to give offerings beyond our tithe to the Church. We have added a number of charities that are doing God’s work. One ministry that I really like giving to is out of California. It is made up of veterans who go around the world and perform military type strikes to free children from being sex slaves. There is so much greater joy in giving than there is in receiving. A third perspective that Jesus gives us to make us shrewder with unrighteous mammon is when He says that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and Mammon. But how do we know whom we are truly serving? It is revealed through our priorities. God says that we are to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, but if instead I choose to pursue the almighty buck then I am showing who I truly serve. If I ignore God’s call to care for the widow and orphan so that I can store up riches for myself, then I am showing who I truly serve. If I am so enslaved by debt that I cannot answer the call of God then I am showing who I truly serve. I recently got to hear the story of Pastor Ronnie’s call to Zimbabwe. Years ago he met an apostle type leader who came to the States seeking teachers for his Bible School. Ronnie came home and told Margaret about meeting him and she said, “Ronnie I’ve seen that look in your eye before.” Through a couple of clear signs they knew that they were supposed to go to Zimbabwe, even with young kids in tow. They sold everything they had, packed up what they absolutely needed, and answered the call. He even had to raise his own salary before going because the Bible School did not have the money to pay the teachers. It was a great experience for them and they have kept ties with Zimbabwe over these many years. My point in telling you this is that if Pastor Ronnie had loved money, he would not have WANTED to answer the call. Or if Pastor Ronnie had been enslaved to debt he would not have been ABLE to answer the call, no matter how much he may have wanted to do so. Our life priorities tell us whom we truly serve. If I may be so blunt and boil it all down, this teaching of Jesus confronts us with two options and whether or not to choose is not one of them. When we boil it all down, we will either love God and use money or we will use God and love money. The shrewd knows that the eternal destiny of his soul depends on making the correct one. So choose wisely beloved, choose wisely Amen.SHARE THIS:
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LET BROTHERLY LOVE CONTINUE Posted on September 10, 2019by
frkasch
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On the inside of your bulletin beneath our Mission Statement we read, _“We will engage our mission and strengthen our parish with four pillars: Sacramental Living, Joyful Discipleship, Radical Love and Gracious Evangelism.”_Today’s lesson from Hebrews focuses us on the third pillar when it says, _“Let brotherly love continue.”_ Then right after this exhortation to let brotherly love continue we see a number of what looks like random instructions. But I submit to you that they are not random at all. I believe them to be practical applications of how we go about letting brotherly love continue. Additionally these practical applications are interesting because they are not the first things that jump to mind when you think of love. For example when I think of love I don’t immediately think of visiting a prison. These instructions are very helpful in getting us to think outside of the box. They are also helpful because they move us away for sentimentality or some innocuous definition of love that has no hands or feet attached to it. In these verses love calls us beyond emotion into action. First we let brotherly love continue by showing hospitality._“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”_ Hospitality was a big deal in the ancient world. You may recall that when the Lord appeared to Abraham in the form of three angels the first thing he did was to offer them hospitality. He said to them _“My lord, if you are pleased with me, don’t pass me by. Let me get you some water. Then all of you can wash your feet and rest under this tree.__ __Let me get you something to eat to give you strength. Then you can go on your way. I want to do this for you now that you have come to me.”_ Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4 also give commands to show hospitality. Travel was difficult in those days. It wasn’t like there were a dozen hotels at every exit and although there were inns they were not always the safest of places. So a Christian could show love of neighbor, even one who is a stranger, by opening their home and by giving them a meal and providing a safe place to rest. Today there are a dozen hotels at every exit, and they are usually safe, so the needs have changed. However we can still show hospitality in other ways. For example last week when we had the conference a couple of families offered their homes to clergy who were coming from out of town. And I have said before that one of the best tools for evangelism that you have at your command is your dining room table. It is an act of love to invite someone to break bread with you and there is an added benefit in that it has a sacramental element to it. Imagine the impact if you were a first time visitor to a church and one of their parishioners asked you to join them for Sunday dinner. You would immediately know that they were not Country Club Christians. The second way that we can let brotherly love continue is to remember those who are in prison. It is likely that the context here is concerning those who are in prison for their faith, like the Apostle Paul. Rather than being embarrassed by their imprisonment, the Church was to remember them through prayer and through visit whenever possible. You will recall that a number of folks accompanied Paul when he was under house arrest. The book of Philemon was about a slave who had been with Paul and whom Paul was hoping to get back not a slave but as a brother in Christ. I don’t think that this command to remember those in prison means that each of us has to run out and start a prison ministry. Rather it is a call to be sensitive to that need if the Lord should connect you to someone in that situation. I have been corresponding with a couple of inmates in different prisons around the state, sending them books and visiting one of them. A close friend of mine got to know a man who was working with his brother and who ended up being convicted of murder. Without making a big deal out of it my friend faithfully visited him for years. So if the Lord gives you an opportunity then take advantage of it. Besides those who are in prison the writer adds, _“and those who are mistreated” _which would certainly include the persecuted church around the world. This century is shaping up to have the largest number of martyrs in the history of the church. Just last year 4,305 Christians were martyred in Nigeria but you didn’t hear about that because it did not fit into the major medias narrative. We can let brotherly love continue as we pray for and support the persecuted church. If you would like more information about the persecuted church we have magazines and requests for prayer down at the Cole House. A third way to let brotherly love continue is to honor marriage. And one way he tells them to honor marriage is to keep from immorality and adultery. And note that God is dead serious about this because this command comes with a warning of God’s judgment. The Greek word that the writer uses for “immorality” is an all-inclusive word that covers all forms of sex outside of the bonds of marriage and marriage was defined by Jesus as one man and one woman for life. Thus immorality covers all sex outside of marriage whereas “adultery” is more specifically a violation of the marriage bed. The ancient world was a deeply immoral world. When I was a kid we lived in Italy and our family visited a small town that was decimated by Vesuvius. I was not allowed to go into some of the houses because the mosaic tile work in their homes was pornographic. Pagan religions engaged in temple prostitution. Their gods and goddesses were believed to engage in drunken orgies. That was the world in which the Church found herself but such immorality was not to be found in the Church. And yet if you read Corinthians you know that it was. Hence the strong command and warning of judgment here in Hebrews. Not much has improved since the days of Corinth. We have gone from prudishness in the 50’s and 60’s, where married couples could only be shown in separate beds on TV, to commercials today that would makea sailor blush.
I have been listening to a podcast about a woman who was taken in by a con man. The reporter interviewed her daughter and the daughter said that her mother preferred to date Christian men, especially Christian men that attended her church. And then without a hint of impropriety on her part we learn that by the third date the man is spending the night and in just over a month he is asked to move in with her. She has been divorced 5 times but she said the she just can’t figure out why her relationships don’t work out. God shows us a path to walk, and while it is indeed the straight and narrow, it saves us from a world of pain when we try to do things our own way and life blows up in our face. The culture says that we are defined by our sexuality. The Church says that we are defined by our sonship, by our identity in Christ. Your worth does not come from how you self identify, it comes from the fact that you are made in the image of God. Our bodies therefore are to be temples of God and the marriage bed must be undefiled. Lastly we let brotherly love continue by being free from the love of money. Sex and money are arguably the top two idols in America and the writer of Hebrews hits them both. Being free from the love of money is key because Jesus said that it is the love of money that is at the root of all evil. A Bishop once told me that every fight that he has seen in the Church is about power or money and usually both. So imagine the peace that the Church that would have if we could follow this command. And we can follow it because he tells us how. The command to be free from the love of money is accompanied by these words, _“and be content with what you have.” _Contentment is how we become free and it is a wonderful freedom. I have a friend who is a millionaire and so he could buy anything that his heart desires but he doesn’t because he has learned the secret of contentment. There is nothing more that his heart desires. They say that there are two ways of becoming rich. One way is to make more money and the other is to want less stuff. I want go back to the example of my friend, because he has taught me something else about how to be free from the love of money. It is through generosity. He is very generous and gives a boat load of money away rather than hoarding. As a consequence knows financial peace. One might argue that his peace comes from having so much money but I have known very wealthy people who are absolutely miserable. No, his peace comes from the knowledge that he is using his wealth as God intends itto be used.
Dave Ramsey says that there is only three things that you can do with money; save it, spend it and give it away. It is as we learn to give it away, to live a lifestyle of generosity, that we truly walk in freedom. And it comes with an added benefit because Jesus said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Jesus is not talking here about giving so that we can be financially blessed in return. The blessing, at least in part, is the joy and fulfillment that comes when we allow God to pass His wealth through us to the benefit of others. It’s like the joy a parent experiences at Christmas as they watch their little children open their presents with glee. The beauty of living out this command to let brotherly love continue is that it flows naturally to our fourth pillar of gracious evangelism. History has proven this to be so. Jesus said that all men will know that we are His disciples if we love one another. Tertullian, a church father born in the 2ndcentury wrote that pagans would look at the church and say _“See how these Christians love one another, they are ready to die for each other.” _I believe that we have a real opportunity today because the great division in our nation and the vitriol with which folks treat one another. By continuing in brotherly love we shine a light in the darkness and glorify ourheavenly Father.
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BEING A MARY IN A MARTHA WORLD Posted on July 25, 2019by
frkasch
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_“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about manythings…”_
_ _In part it was understandable that Martha was anxious and troubled. Hospitality was and still is a very important concern in the Middle East. Once I was in Egypt and was told that if the host offers you something to drink, accept it even if you don’t really want it. To say “No” would be considered a great insult. So Martha was no doubt feeling some pressure to do it right and that is why she wanted Jesus to send Mary back to the kitchen. Nevertheless it is a good thing for us that Jesus addressed her anxiety because anxiety is no small matter. This is from the American Journal of Managed Care. _“The lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders is approximately 28.8% in the United States, with more than 1 of every 4 adults experiencing at least 1 anxiety disorder in their lifetime…The total annual cost of anxiety disorders has been estimated to be between $42 billion and $46 billion….” _ Another report stated that worldwide 75% of anxiety disorders go untreated which in turn leads to about 1 million suicides per year. With anxiety being so prevalent and even so dangerous we certainly need more than a cute song telling us over and over _“don’t worry, be happy.”_In his book called _Anxious for Nothing, _Max Lucado does a masterful job of unpacking St. Paul’s words to the Philippians. Words that give concrete and divine instruction concerning anxiety.Here is St. Paul.
_“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.”_ First we see that St. Paul does not begin his instructions by condemning them for their anxiety. That is important because feeling guilty about being anxious is not a way to conquer it. Having anxiety attack you is not a sign of spiritual immaturity nor is it an indicator of a lack of faith. It comes with life. It’s even highlighted in our morning and evening news. Nearly every morning we hear a shootings in Nashville. We read of home invasions, international terrorist threats, the economic bubble about to burst, home prices going out of sight, global warming, and worst of all, everything that you love to eat is going to kill you, especially bacon! Anxiety is delivered to you on a silver platter every day. The key is what you do about it. As Martin Luther said in general about temptations, you cannot keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from making a nest in your hair. Anxiety is constantly flying overhead but we have the power to make a choice about whether or not we are going to invite it in to live with us. Jesus of course says that we should not because it is of no value whatsoever. As He classically put it, _“__Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” _Mt 6:27 Max Lucado took the words of St. Paul and provides a very handy acronym. Fittingly the acronym is CALM. “C” stand for “Celebrate.” St. Paul says _“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” _This is brilliant. Think about it; it is very difficult to be anxious and celebratory at the same time. One tends to drive out the other. And what are we rejoicing? While there are endless things in the Lord about which to rejoice, when it comes to life’s anxieties, it is most fitting to rejoice that He is our Sovereign Lord. We rejoice that He is good not some of the time but all of the time. We rejoice that He loves us with an unending love. We rejoice, as St. Paul said in Romans, that nothing can separate us from His love. We rejoice that nothing can befall us that He will not turn to our good. We rejoice that our past is forgiven and that we don’t need to worry about tomorrow because God is already there. We rejoice because, as author James Bryan Smith put it, _“We have confidence in a great future…We are safe and secure.”_ I had lunch with Pastor Ronnie Meek last week. As most of you know his wife passed just a few weeks ago and I had the privilege of officiating at her graveside. He wanted to talk about her passing and he welcomed my questions. Because we have been friends for so long I felt I could ask him a tough one. I asked what he was telling himself now that all the plans that they had together for their future are gone. He said to me, _“I don’t think that there is a day that goes by that I don’t cry, but I believe that this will be a new chapter in my life. And like all of the past chapters God had been faithful and good to me every time, so I know that He will be faithful and good in this next chapter.” _You can see why Pastor Ronnie is a hero as well as a friend. If you can rejoice in God’s goodness amidst your tears, then you will crush anxiety beneath your feet. “C” is“Celebrate.”
“A” stands for “Ask.” St. Paul says, _“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” _This should be the first thing that comes to mind but to be honest sometimes we do everything else BUT pray and then we don’t understand why we have no peace. St. Paul says that we are to pray _“in every situation.” _So we don’t wait to pray until it is the really big stuff or we are facing something that we cannot handle. The Lord says that we are not to be anxious about ANYTHING but to pray in EVERYING. I’ve done extensive research in the Greek and have discovered that “everything” means everything! This means from losing your keys to going into surgery we are to pray. It is also noteworthy that St. Paul adds that we are to pray _“with thanksgiving.” _We don’t make demands of God with a sense of entitlement. We don’t _“name it and claim it” _as the TV preachers call us to do. We simply present our requests to our loving heavenly Father, thankful that He is fully capable of granting those requests. And we also pray with thankfulness that He may choose not to grant our requests for our own good. I always feel convicted when I read the story in the Gospels of Jesus healing the 10 lepers but only one comes back to say “thank you.” Too often I am like the other 9 lepers, but I am working on it. Gratefully the Book of Common Prayer is a great help in that regard. “A” is for “Ask.” “L” stands for “Leave.” After we present our requests to God then we are to leave them with Him. According to Jesus’ teachings it is perfectly fine to repeat the request but that is very different from giving our burdens to God and then picking them back up. I once saw a very effective treatment for a lady with severe anxiety. The therapist, who was a Christian, had the lady make what she called “a God box.” It was like a Kleenex box with the word “God” written on it. Every time that lady identified something that she was worried about, she was to write it down on a piece of paper and put it in the God box. But the deal was if she kept worrying about it after giving it to God, then she had to take the bit of paper out of the box and carry it for the rest of the day. Some days she would have both hands full of bits of paper which made daily living a challenge. For example she couldn’t shake your hand and even eating was a challenge. It was a perfect visual metaphor for what she was allowing anxiety to do to her life. The more things she left with God the easier life became. Jesus said,_“Come unto me all ye that are travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you.” _One way that He does so is by saying, _“Leave that burden with Me. I’ll take it from here.” _“L” is for “Leave.” “M” stand for “Meditate.” St. Paul says_. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.” _The world says that we are what we eat but Holy Scripture says that we become what we think about. Proverbs 23:7 says, _“As a man thinketh so is he.” _ Thus St. Paul doesn’t just tell us not to worry, he shows us a replacement. Just like nature, our brains abhor a vacuum. If we don’t intentionally fill it with good things then all kinds of junk will rush in to fill the void. I saw an article last week that said that constant complaining rewires the brain for anxiety anddepression.
But I will be the first to admit that following St. Paul’s advice here is not easy to do. It doesn’t take a lot of energy to be an Eyore but takes a world of energy to be a Tigger. However a parishioner told me that she made a New Year’s resolution to find the good in every situation and it has been positive for her. It can be a challenge but I have no doubt that what she is doing has also had a positive affect on those who are around her. Because she is a Tigger I always look forward to Lulu’s posts on Facebook. They are inevitably funny, Southern, encouraging and/or make you hungry. So do the work to fill your mind with true and noble and lovely things and it will not only fight against your worry but it will be a blessing toothers.
After confronting Martha for being worried about so many things, Jesus goes on to tell her that only one thing is needful. And He didn’t have to spell it out for Martha because that one needful thing was repeated throughout her Prayer Book, which today we call the Psalms. Psalm 16:5 _“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.” _Psalm 27:4 _“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. _Psalm 73:28 _“But for me it is good to be near God; I have made theLord my refuge.”_
Martha made a mistake by not heeding these words and as a result putting the temporal before the eternal. And her is the irony. She was all worried that Jesus would get fed when just a few days earlier He had fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. HE has this! She was missing an opportunity to fellowship with God in the flesh. However Mary had chosen wisely. She chose the Lord’s presence over business, the eternal over the temporal, and Jesus said that the eternal would never be taken from her. Not in this life and certainly not in the life to come. This story of Martha and Mary is fitting for us today. Life is so very busy even to the point that our kid’s lives are booked to the max. From a societal point of view, not only do we no longer just sit on the front porch and drink a cup of coffee, we don’t even make front porches any more. Making proper priorities for our lives is a serious challenge but Jesus helps us. In a variety of ways in the Gospels Jesus tells us that our priority is to live for today but to do so in light of eternity. In the Sermon on the Mount He said that we are not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble if its own. But instead we are to seek first the kingdom of God. We do this when we choose the eternal over the temporal. We become like Mary when we make being with Christ our highest priority. We become like Mary when we don’t allow anything to keep us from being united with Christ through receiving His Body and His Blood. We become like Mary when we give God our first fruits rather than our leftovers. We become like Mary when we seek Christ in all people and prefer the needs of others over our own. We become like Mary when care for “the least of these.” And God has set up life so that the more we become like Mary the more peace filled our lives become. But we don’t become like Mary by accident because we live in a Martha world. In fact millions of dollars are spent every day, through television, radio and the social media to convince you to remain like Martha. And all of your Martha like friends and colleagues will load you with expectations and guilt to get you back in the kitchen and act like “a responsible adult.” Being a Mary in a Martha world does not come by accident. Jesus said it is a choice. So the question to answer every day is if we are going to choose to be anxious and worried about many things or if we are going to choose that one needful thing. Today you have chosen to be a Mary. Who will you choose to be tomorrow? Amen.SHARE THIS:
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FREE TO SERVE
Posted on July 25, 2019by frkasch
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_“Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom.”_ Most of you will recall those powerful words in _Braveheart,_that William Wallace shouted to the Scots, as they faced battle with their English oppressors. But these words pose an important question. Why then, and indeed throughout all of history, has freedom been so precious to men that they were willing to die for it? I believe this passion for freedom comes from being made in the image of God. There is no more free Being than Almighty God. No one or nothing can compel Him to do anything and no one or nothing can keep Him from His perfections. So as His sons and daughters it is in our spiritual DNA to also seek to be free. In our lesson today St. Paul tells us that is exactly what Christ has accomplished for us. He says _“For freedom Christ has set us free.” _ Note first that St. Paul puts this in the past tense. We are not awaiting our freedom, Christ has already set us free. Free from what? Free from condemnation. Romans 8. _There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” _Free from guilt and shame. Psalms 103 _“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” _And how does He remove our transgressions? Hebrews 9 _“For if the blood or goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ….purify our conscience from dead works to serve a living God.” _Free from unholy fear, I John 4. _“There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear.” _Free from slavery to sin. Romans 6 _“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.” _The list of our freedom goes on. As Jesus Himself proclaimed, _“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”_ Thus we are free indeed but St. Paul goes on to warn us not to lose our freedom and then he goes on to tell us how to properly use it. How do we lose our freedom? He touches on two primary ways. First, as he argues all throughout the letter to the Galatians, we lose our freedom when we return to the law to earn our righteousness. As Gentile Christians we don’t really have the great temptation to returning to the law of Moses but we certainly make up for it with our propensitytoward legalism.
At the time of Jesus the purity and holiness code had become complex and moved way beyond the 10 commandments. We get a smattering of this in the Gospels as Jesus enemies confront Him about His disciples not washing their hands or healing on the Sabbath or hanging aroundcertain people.
When I was in Jerusalem I took the stairs to exit the hotel and there was a sign on the exit door that if you opened it on the Sabbath it would be a violation. Also in parts of the city there is a wire overhead that indicates that if you walk past it you would violate the Sabbath because the walk would turn into work. Please don’t misunderstand. I am not poking fun at this form of Judaism. In fact I wish more Christians too their more seriously and had half their zeal to please God. But my point is that keeping up with so many rules and codes puts a huge burden on someone who seeks God’s face. And so Jesus comes along and gives us the Great Commandment of loving God and loving our neighbor and that is why He could say, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Years ago I struck up a conversation with a bank teller, who was Church of Christ, and he asked if we could study Scripture together. I think that he was hoping to convert me but I agreed and we met many for weeks to study and talk. We could not have had more different approaches to God. His approach was that you had to keep the letter of the law or God would be displeased with you. Following St. Paul, my approach is that I have been accepted in the Beloved and so all things are lawful to me but not all things are profitable. So we don’t go through our day asking “What am I allowed to do?” we go through our day asking “What it the next best thing to do?” His legalistic approach to God made God seem more like the Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz and yet Jesus has come so that we can call God Abba. Don’t lose your freedom to legalism. _“…you are not under the law you are under grace.”_ The second way that we lose our freedom is through licentiousness. This is when we take our freedom too far and mistakenly think that since grace abounds where there is sin, then we are free to sin more so that there will be more grace. That may sound like a ridiculous agreement, because it is, but I continually see articles written you young hipster evangelicals, confronting them about the very list of sins that St. Paul refers to as _“the works of the flesh.” _Where St. Paul was taking his argument is that if there is no difference between our lifestyles and beliefs and the lifestyles and beliefs of the world, then Houston we have a problem. Our core calling is to be a peculiar people and a holy nation. But again, St. Paul’s antidote to living according to the desires of the flesh is not legalism. It is walking in the Spirit and He points out that the desires of the flesh are at enmity with the Spirit. One will cancel out the other. So if you want love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. then you cannot walk in impurity, jealously, anger, selfishness etc. We have to make a conscious choice if our lives are going to be led by the Holy Spirit or if our lives are going to be led by the desires of the flesh. Then after warning us not to lose our freedom, in classic biblical paradox, St. Paul tells us how we are to use it. He says, _“only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.” _ In the John Belushi and Bill Murry era I watched Saturday Night Live. One night the guest musician was Bob Dylan and he sang a song that stopped the show in its tracks because there was no way to follow it. The song was called _“Serve Somebody” _and these were some of thewords.
_You may be an ambassador to England or France You may like to gamble, you might like to dance You may be the heavyweight champion of the world You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls_ _But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes Indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebody Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody_ You can see how the truth that no matter how you cut it you are going to serve somebocy did not exactly fit Saturday Night Live but that does not make it any less the truth. Just as St. Paul said that we are either going to walk by the Spirit or walk in the flesh so Dylan is rightly saying we are either going to serve the Lord or we are going to serve the devil but we are going to serve. We use our freedom to make the right choice. Don’t miss the motivation for our service. St. Paul said _‘but through LOVE be servants of one another.”_We don’t serve to make God like us more, we don’t serve because its our cross to bear, we don’t serve to get brownie points in heaven, we serve because we love and we love because God first loved us. We serve because our cuprunneth over.
St. Paul goes on to call love the first fruit of the Spirit. I believe that the image of love being a fruit is significant. If love were a grace then you would either have it or you wouldn’t. You would ask God for it and presto you are a loving person. But as we all know it doesn’t work that way. Just as you can watch fruit bud and grow and mature so will our love, except its not quite that predictable and linear with us. This is how Eugene Peterson described it. _“We have spurts of love, passionate risks of faith, impressive episodes of courageous caring. But then we slip back into indolence and greed.” _(_Run with the Horses, _p.50,51_). _Sure it can be discouraging that our love ebbs and flows and that it is particularly difficult to be loving before the first cup of coffee but don’t despair. The longer we walk in the Spirit the more that fruit will mature, so _“through love be servants of one another.”_ _ _Right after St. Paul calls us to serve one another he quotes the Great Commandment of loving our neighbor as ourselves. This expands our call to love and serve beyond just doing it for one another. As we promise in our Baptismal Covenant we are to seek and serve Christ inall people.
I have a friend who I have been helping to journey from a non-denominational pastor to being an Anglican. As I have heard so many times before he started reading the Church Fathers and that put him on the Canterbury Trail. Sadly the church that he was pastoring folded and so he is currently surviving by being an Uber driver. Of course the best money to be made is late at night in Nashville so he was a driver a couple of weekends ago during the Gay Pride event. He saw things that are best not described in polite company and he was having an internal battle about being there and feeling Pharisaical, ready to cast the first stone. But as he was driving some folks around he said that he heard a voice, and he said that he knew it was not audible because he was the only one who heard it, but the voice said, _“And I died for these folks too.”_He said that he knew that the Lord was working on him to learn to love more deeply. Of course being loving does not mean that we have to compromise our beliefs and approve of every behavior but it does mean that we don’t get to decide who is worthy to be called our neighbor. Parents learn very quickly that you can love someone and totally disapprove of their behavior. Our heavenly Father gets a lot of practice at that. There is a collect in the Book of Common Prayer that I hope they have preserved in the new one coming out for the ACNA. A line of it reads, _“O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom….”_Freedom does not come to us by allowing us to do whatever we want to do. That path only leads us back into the bondage of sin. Freedom comes from living God’s way and walking in love. Freedom comes in serving God and serving our neighbor because servanthood is love in action. That is certainly what Jesus taught and lived. Further love and service are no more a threat to our freedom than two tracks to a locomotive. The more we lay down those tracks the further we can go and the freer we become. It was _“for freedom that Christ has set us free.”_SHARE THIS:
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HOLINESS: BEING AND APPRENTICE OF JESUS Posted on June 13, 2019by frkasch
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Last week Fr. BE said that the ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit ushered in a whole new age. And so it did. When you read the Old Testament you see the Holy Spirit given to certain select people in order to accomplish a particular work in the world, but you do not see Him promised to all people. But when the Holy Spirit fell upon all of the disciples at Pentecost, and people saw this miracle, they asked what they must do to be a part of it. St. Peter said, _“Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”_ In this new age the Holy Spirit is God’s promised gift not just to prophets and priests and kings but to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be God’s gift to John Henry today at his baptism. What is grievous concerning the Holy Spirit are the many bizarre things attributed to Him. A televangelist waves his jacket over a group of people, who fall down like so many dominoes, and this is said to be a work of the Spirit. The so-called “Toronto Blessing” where people laugh and shake uncontrollably and some even bark like dogs. And this is said to the a work of the Spirit. A friend told of being in a worship meeting where people claimed that the fillings in their teeth were turned to gold by the Holy Spirit. One would think if the Holy Spirit was going to go to that much trouble that He would just make the tooth whole. Anyway given Jesus’ stern warning about blaspheming the Holy Spirit it is critical that we are clear about who or what the Holy Spirit is, why He was sent, and what our role is in receiving and walking in theSpirit.
First let’s clarify who or what the Spirit is. It cannot be overemphasized that the Spirit is a Who and not a what. He is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is more than simply a source of power. He has Personhood. We heard from St. Paul, referring to spiritual gifts, _“__All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.”_“As He wills?” Energy does not have a will. A Person has a will. So please please never refer to the Holy Spirit as “it”. Follow Jesus example and call the Spirit “He” as in _“For He dwells with you and will be with you.”_ What is His Personhood like? Jesus was so attuned to the Father that He proclaimed to know Him was to know the Father. It is the same for the Spirit. He is so attuned to the Son that you can know what the Spirit is like by looking at Jesus. Jesus gives us a new commandment that we are to love one another. What is the first fruit of the Spirit? Love. Jesus says if we love Him we will keep His commandments. Then Jesus promises that the Spirit will bring back to the disciples remembrance all that He said. Thus helping them and us to obey. Jesus promises to be with us always, to the end of the ages. And we just heard Jesus say, _“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…”_We must be clear. The Son and the Spirit are separate and distinct Persons. Jesus said that He had to ascend to heaven in order to send the Holy Spirit. And yet they are so united that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the “Spirit of Christ” and the “Spirit of Jesus” a number of times in the New Testament. So if you love Jesus you will love the Spirit. Why was He sent to us? First, as just mentioned, He is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us always, even to the end of the ages. And He is not just a passive presence. St. Paul says that we don’t really know how to pray so the Spirit is interceding for us. I agree with the first part and take great comfort in the second part. St. Peter takes it a step further in his second Epistle and helps us to better understand why the Holy Spirit is given to us. He says_“__His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to] his own glory and excellence] by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…” _The Holy Spirit is the agent by whom we become partakers of the divine nature. Or to put it another way, the Holy Spirit is given to us to make us holy. Now I will be the first to admit that the concept of holiness can be a wee bit daunting and even frightening. First some have the kneejerk response, _“Me be holy? Maybe St. Francis or Mother Theresa butme?” _
Then when we ask ourselves how we go about being holy I imagine that most folks immediately go to the rules. That has certainly been the tactic of most holiness movements throughout the history of the Church. One group breaks from another group because the former group has become too worldly. So they establish a bunch of rules to keep from being worldly. But over time they get a little lax and so a third group breaks from that second group because the former are not holy enough. And on and on it goes. What is shocking is that often we are talking about rules that go well beyond smoking, dancing and drinking. There have been divisions in the Church over whether or not it is vanity to wear a wedding ring or if women should be allowed to have a feather in their hat. And you folks with tattoos….well you had better get used to the heat! And yet if we look back at Jesus’ earthly ministry this is precisely the kind of legalism that He continually opposed. So rules following cannot be the form of holiness that His Spirit fosters. Why? Because man looks at the outward person and so outward things become paramount. They think that holiness is a bee hive hairdo, a long denim skirt and white tennis shoes. But God looks at the heart and so the real work of the Spirit’s work is there. When God saved me He forgave me for being a liar. But then He sends the Holy Spirit to take lying out of my heart and replace it with the truth. When God saved me He forgave me for my hatred. But He sends the Holy Spirit to change my heart of stone into a heart of flesh so that I can learn how to love. When God saved me he forgave my idolatry. But then He sends the Holy Spirit to enthrone Jesus in my heart so that I have only one Lord. And it must be added that NONE of this is an instant work. It is why we are now, and always will be, a work in progress, until we are perfected in God’s presence. So don’t be put off by the call to holiness by thinking it is a call to follow a list of rules. Holiness is simply a call to be an apprentice of Jesus so that you become more and more like Him and that is a joyful and wondrous call. What is our role with the Holy Spirit? It most certainly is not a passive one. I can point to three principle roles we play with the Holy Spirit. They are invite, cooperate and obey. While we receive the Spirit at our baptism, the Scriptures call us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. So we need to be very intentional about inviting Him into our daily lives. Jesus said, _“If you who are evil, know how to give gifts to your children, how much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to him who asks.” _So invite. Invite Him daily and indeed throughout the day. And as Jesus promised He makes His home with us. One of the dad’’s of the parish asked his young daughter where the Holy Spirit lived and she said, “In your shoulders.” When the Dad got a quizzical look in his face she said, as she made the sign of the cross, “You know, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Maybe she is right. The important thing is that He makes His abode with us so that we become His temple. Cooperate. I have heard many times the Holy Spirit being described as “a gentleman.” What folks mean by that is He rarely forces Himself into your life. Of course since He is God He can do whatever He likes. But because He is Love His nature is to be gentle. My guess is that is why we are given the image of a dove to represent the Holy Spirit. Thus St. Paul warns us not to grieve or to quench the Holy Spirit. We do that when we insist on doing things our way rather than His way. Thus we are to pray for wisdom to discern what the Spirit is doing and then cooperate with Him in whatever it is that He is doing. Third, and this flows naturally out of cooperation, we need to obey. We confess each week in the Creed that the Holy Spirit is _“Lord and Giver of life.”_Well if He is Lord then it means that we ain’t. There will be times when the Holy Spirit will call us to a task that is well beyond our ability, or forbid us to do something that we want with all of our being. At that point it is time to put on the brakes, remind ourselves who is Lord and then obey. But it is not an obedience based in fear as much as it is based in trust and love. If the Spirit wants it for us then by definition it is for our ultimate best. It may even seem horrible for the moment but He is always working all things for our good and so we trust and obey. I have been talking ABOUT the Holy Spirit but I would like to end by talking TO the Holy Spirit. Let us pray together the Litany of the Holy Spirit. Your responses are in italics. Litany of the Holy Spirit Lord, have mercy on us. _Christ, have mercy on us. _Lord, have mercy on us. Father all-powerful, _have mercy on us._ Jesus, Eternal Son of the Father_, save us_. Spirit of the Father and the Son, _sanctify us._ Holy Trinity, _hear us._ Holy Spirit, Who proceedest from the Father and the Son, _enter our hearts._ Holy Spirit, Who art equal to the Father and the Son, _enter our hearts._ Promise of God the Father, _have mercy on us. _Ray of heavenly light, _have mercy on us._ Author of all good, _have mercy on us._ Source of heavenly water, _have mercy on us._ Consuming fire, _have mercy on us._ Ardent charity, _have mercy on us._ Spiritual unction, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of love and truth, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of wisdom and understanding, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of counsel and fortitude, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of knowledge and piety, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of the fear of the Lord, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of grace and prayer, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of peace and meekness, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of modesty and innocence, _have mercy on us._ Holy Spirit, the Comforter, _have mercy on us._ Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, _have mercy on us._ Holy Spirit, Who governest the Church, _have mercy on us._ Gift of God, the Most High, _have mercy on us._ Spirit Who fillest the universe, _have mercy on us._ Spirit of the adoption of the children of God, _have mercy on us._ Holy Spirit, _inspire us with horror of sin._ Holy Spirit, _come and renew the face of the earth._ Holy Spirit, _shed Thy light in our souls. _Holy Spirit, _engrave Thy law in our hearts. _Holy Spirit, _inflame us with the flame of Thy love._ Holy Spirit, _open to us the treasures of Thy graces. _Holy Spirit, _teach us to pray well. _Holy Spirit, _enlighten us with Thy heavenly inspirations_. Holy Spirit, _lead us in the way of salvation_. Holy Spirit, _grant us the only necessary knowledge._ Holy Spirit, _inspire in us the practice of good._ Holy Spirit, _grant us the merits of all virtues. _Holy Spirit, _make us persevere in justice. _Holy Spirit, _be Thou our everlasting reward._ Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, _send us Thy Holy Spirit. _Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, _pour down into our souls the gifts of the Holy Spirit._ Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, _grant us the Spirit of wisdom and piety._ * Come, Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of Thy faithful, R. _And enkindle in us the fire of Thy love._ Let us pray. Grant, O merciful Father, that Thy Divine Spirit may enlighten, inflame and purify us, that He may penetrate us with His heavenly dew and make us fruitful in good works, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who with Thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, forever and ever.* _Amen._
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