Archives

By Ted Schroder It is 539 B.C., during the first year of the reign of Darius in Babylon, the fabulous capital city that was built astride the Euphrates River, where a four-horse chariot could turn around on top of the high wall of a hundred gates. Babylon boasted the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world, as well as a staged temple-tower 295 feet high, and according to Herodotus, several colossal gold statues weighing many tons.   Daniel, with other members of the royal family and the nobility of Judah, was carried into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar, in 605 B.C., had risen to leading government posts on the basis of his intelligence and wisdom. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was finally destroyed by the Babylonians, and Jeremiah had departed to Egypt with the remnant of the surviving leadership. His prophecies had been written down and somehow Daniel obtained a copy. Daniel must have been about 75 years old when he read these words from Jeremiah 29:10-14.   "This is what the LORD says: 'When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,' declares the LORD, 'and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.'"   Reading that passage of Scripture caused Daniel to turn to the Lord God with fasting, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, and prayed an extraordinary prayer that is recorded for us in Daniel 9:4-19. His prayer is in response to learning the promises of God, his plans to prosper his people, to give them a hope and a future, and to restore them to their homeland. It is a prayer of confession and repentance on behalf of all his people, for their rebellion against God, for their not listening to the servants of the God, the prophets, for being unfaithful to God. They are covered with shame for their sin against God which has brought upon them their calamity. Despite all that had happened to Israel "we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth." (Daniel 9:13)   Daniel humbles himself before the Lord. He looks back over his long life, all the privileges he has enjoyed in the king's service, all the activities of state he has participated in, the power players who have come and gone, all the ceremonies and celebrations he has witnessed, and he realizes how little it matters unless he has learned that God is sovereign over all, that it is his plans that will eventually prevail, his word that will be fulfilled, that empires rise and fall, but it is the LORD who alone can be merciful and forgiving.   It is the characteristic of wisdom to be able to learn from the past. Daniel learned that his people had made bad choices over the generations and had to suffer the consequences. He wanted to break that pattern through acknowledgement of their failings, and a total disclosure of the nature of their addiction to autonomy: of wanting to lead their own lives without reference to God. "The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does, yet we have not obeyed him." (Daniel 9:14)   There is no indication that Daniel himself rebelled against the lordship of God in his life. He appears to have been a very godly man who endured much testing, yet remained faithful. He was thrown into the lion's den because he refused to give up his practice of praying to the Lord three times a day. Yet, in looking back over his life, and the history of his people, he learned that he was part of the problem, that he could not escape blame, and that he could not pass the buck to a previous generation for the disaster that had befallen them.   Daniel's prayer of confession and repentance on behalf of his people teaches us that, whether we like it or not, we are all sinners. Yet, despite our rebellion against him, God wants nothing but the best for us. He is merciful and forgiving. He has come to us in Jesus, and suffered and died for us on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. But we must be prepared to seek him with our whole heart if we are to find the fulfillment he desires for us: the restoration and the resurrection to new life that is his gift in Jesus Christ.   Daniel learned from the past and responded according to what he discovered. As you look back upon your life, what have you learned about yourself?   Some people, like Israel of old, can go through life oblivious to what God has planned for them. They never seek him with their whole heart. They never find his plans to prosper them, to give them a hope and a future. God is not intimately involved in their lives. If you were to read their personal autobiographies it would be a succession of one activity after another, one trip after another, one story about friends or family after another, one diversion after another, but absolutely no reflection on what it all means, of what their life is meant to be about, or what God may be wanting to do in their lives.   A person can go through one disaster after another, one illness after another, one broken relationship after another, one job disappointment after another, and never reflect on why they make bad decisions, why they never seek the guidance of God in their lives, why they don't humble themselves before the Lord. Daniel prayed: "all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth."   What is the truth we need to give attention to? It is the truth about the presence and the purpose of God in all of life which we are meant to seek. There is a form of practical atheism or agnosticism which, while giving lip service to a belief in God, denies that God has any daily relevance to one's life. An agnostic is a person who is neutral on the question of God's existence. The agnostic claims that God may exist but that it is impossible to truly know him, or for him to make a difference in your life. Therefore you should go about your life keeping busy, and filling up the hours to avoid thinking about what life is meant to be about.   Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert Woodruff Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, has written, "Agnosticism is a contemptuous uninterest in the truth of the world. Because the question of God's existence affects the perception of absolutely everything else that exists and the way we deal with all that exists, agnosticism seems to the believer to be a form of atheism by default that pretends to be a refined and gentlemanly restraint on a difficult and unsolvable question." (The Creed, p.68)   What would Daniel, the wise advisor to kings have to say to the contemporary agnostic who is indifferent to God's truth? The book that bears his name in the Bible emphasizes the absolute sovereignty of the Lord, and that the fortunes of kings and the affairs of human beings are subject to God's decrees, and that he is able to accomplish his will despite the most determined opposition of the mightiest potentates on earth. He begins his prayer by this acknowledgement: "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong." (Daniel 9:4)   Daniel would say with St. James: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up." (James 4:6,10) Jesus said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matthew 23:12)   Humility is the opposite of the reckless, arrogant indifference to God which characterizes the agnostic, who makes such friends with the world that he becomes an enemy of God. Humility is the acknowledgement that we need to learn from the past, that we need to face our failings; that we need to reflect upon what God is doing in our lives. It is seeking God with our whole heart. When we do that we will be given the grace we need, and God will lift us up to a new life.   Daniel prays with passion: "We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name." (Daniel 9:18,19)   When was the last time you prayed with passion? When was the last time prayer was that important? What resulted from it? While he was still speaking and praying, confessing his sin and the sin of his people Israel, and making his request, the angel Gabriel came to Daniel and said, "I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed." (Daniel 9:22,23)   When we humble ourselves before the Lord in honest acknowledgement of what he has taught us about our past, we will receive insight and understanding. God promises that when we call upon him, and come and pray to him, he will listen to us. When we seek him with all our heart, we will find him. When we find the Lord Jesus, we will find ourselves, our true self, our authentic self, and God's plan for us, which will give us a hope and a future.   Whatever the result of our prayers, we will find that prayer and reflection on God's Word will give us insight and understanding. We need to be encouraged that when we come to the Lord, and begin to pray, an answer is given. We may not know it, we may not be told by an angel immediately, but at the appropriate time, we will know it. In the mean time we must know that God esteems us, he loves us, he hears us and he will act.   Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7,8)

By Ted Schroder It is traditional that on the first Sunday of Lent the story of Jesus's temptation in the wilderness by the devil is read from one of the Gospels. We all have our conceptions of what happened in those temptations. Each of us brings to the account our own beliefs and prejudices. I want to explore with you what is meant by being tempted by the devil. Some theologians maintain that we do not have to believe in a world of angels and devils anymore. The devil has been caricatured as a cartoon figure with horns and cloven hooves. It is easy to dismiss the reality of the devil by lampooning those who are obsessed by the demonic, and see the devil under every bed. Heresy is a truth taken to the extreme. Just because some people give belief in the devil a bad name doesn't mean that we should dismiss it out of hand. What do we mean by being tempted by the devil?   Michael Green in his classic work, I Believe in Satan's Downfall, says that the Scriptures seriously warn us of a malign power of evil standing behind the pressures of a worldly culture without and a sinful human nature within the Christian. This does not mean that we can excuse responsibility for bad human behavior by blaming it on the devil. The world, the flesh and the devil, as three separate sources of evil, have formed a crucial part of Christian teaching from the very beginning. Belief in the devil is very much part of the lifeblood of the Christian tradition. It is also very much part of non-Christian religions.   The existence of the devil is tied to the problem of evil. What is the source of evil? Is it enough to say that all evil is the result of the free will of humans, or the fall of creation from original innocence and perfection? Without the existence of evil forces and personalities we would have to attribute evil directly to God. But James says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." (James 1:13-15) Someone is doing the enticing, the tempting, to sin.   Jesus believed in the reality of the devil or Satan. He has more to say about the devil than anyone else in the Bible. The devil is the one who tempted him so skillfully and fiercely, and who kept coming back at him with devious suggestions all through his ministry (Luke 4:1-13). It is the devil who snatches away the message of the good news from those who listen to it half-heartedly, or who sows weeds in the field of God's wheat (Mk.4:15; Matt.13:39). "Deliver us from the evil one" is thought to be the original petition he taught his disciples to pray (Matt.6:13). As the premonition of the cross grew upon Jesus on the last night of his life, his mind turned again to the devil. "The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me - I do as the Father has commanded. Rise let's go and meet him!" (John 14:31).   Now some claim that Jesus did not really mean to be taken literally. They say that he couched his teaching in poetic form. But Jesus saw the whole of his ministry as a conflict with the devil. He saw his death as the supreme battle with the evil one. If the devil is merely a metaphor for evil, is the teaching of Jesus about God the Father also merely a metaphor for goodness?   Others suggest that Jesus was so much a child of his age that he took over uncritically all its presuppositions, in particular this belief in a personal devil. But one thing you can say with any consistency is that Jesus did not take over uncritically the views of his day. He challenged the traditions of his contemporaries and the presuppositions of the time. That is what got him into trouble with the religious authorities.   Jesus emphasized the reality of the demonic in his healing ministry. At all points in his life and ministry the conflict with the devil is of cardinal importance. If Jesus was mistaken on these vital matters, why should we believe him on other matters? Perhaps his other teachings are equally culturally conditioned?   But what do we mean by saying that Satan is a personal devil? What most people mean by that is to claim that the devil is an organizing intellect, a single focus and fount of evil inspiration. But it is doubtful if we can call him 'personal' in any other sense. Scripture depicts him as a spirit; as a fallen angel; as a ruler of this world; but not as 'personal' in any meaningful sense. Unlike Jesus, the devil has not become incarnate, though many people have so sold their souls to him that they have become living embodiments of his beastliness. The devil has never been one of us. He has not shared our human condition. The devil stands as the personification of God and man's spiritual adversary, utterly devoid of compassion, of caring, of all the qualities that make us personal. He is the personification of the implacable evil against which we are called to contend. We are to think of him as an intelligence, a power of concentrated and hateful wickedness.   Does it matter whether or not we believe in the devil? If we reject the whole idea of the devil and the supernatural, we are reduced to explaining evil in terms of genetic disposition and environmental influences, and proposing that the only remedy is education and appealing to the goodness of human nature. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones remarks: "It is to me almost beyond understanding that anybody who looks at the modern world and reads a newspaper can still go on believing such theories. Indeed, if they never even read a newspaper how can anybody who has ever known an educated, cultured, reasonable man, who nevertheless fails drastically in his own personal life, possibly believe such things? How can they believe that wisdom and knowledge and learning, and the ability to reason and to use logic, is the solution to the problem, when what is to be seen daily in the lives of men and women prove the exact opposite? It is amazing!" (The Christian Warfare, p.47)   It is consistent for the atheist, who rejects God and the whole spiritual realm, to reject belief in the devil. What is totally inconsistent is to accept one part of the spiritual realm, God, and to reject the other. The existence of the devil is a necessary part of consistent theism. Can you continue to accept the idea of God revealing himself to us about the devil, while rejecting what he claims to say about the devil? Can you listen to Jesus Christ while rejecting the devil he speaks about? What satisfactory account can you give to the chaos in the world if there is not a destructive force of evil at work? How can you make any sense of atonement for sin on the Cross if there is no devil?   C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, had this to say. "One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease, and sin. The difference [from Dualism] is that Christianity thinks that this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think this is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.   "Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery. Christians, then, believe that an evil power has made himself for the present the Prince of this World." (p.47)   If this is true then what the devil was doing in the wilderness was testing the strength of the rightful king. He flung at him one temptation after another. In each case Jesus answered with a word from Scripture: "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" The only way we can win against the devil is in the same power of Christ, our captain in the fight, using the same weapons: the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, and prayer. That is why our lives need to be soaked in the Scriptures daily, and conditioned by prayer, so that we are impervious to the temptations of the devil.   "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." (Luke 4:13) This was but the first of many skirmishes in the battle Jesus faced in his life. The devil seeks his opportunity when we least expect him. He lulls us into complacency. He would love for us not to believe that he exists. Evil in general is so much less threatening than evil in particular.   Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones again, "The modern world, and especially the history of the present century, can only be understood in terms of the unusual activity of the devil. In a world of collapsing institutions, moral chaos, and increasing violence, never was it more important to trace the hand of 'the prince of the power of the air.' If we cannot discern the chief cause of our ills, how can we hope to cure them?" (ibid. p.6)   Jesus shows us that the most powerful preparation for meeting temptation successfully is a life without sin. We cannot mirror that quality, but we can start each day cleansed by the Cross, with our conscience right with God.   Jesus shows us that temptation can best be met in the power of the Holy Spirit. Only a greater power than ours can overcome the devil.   Jesus shows us that trust and obedience are the twin pillars of a successful operation against the devil. Jesus never failed in his trust in the Father, and never swerved from obedience to him.   Jesus shows us that unselfishness is decisive in warfare with the devil. Satan could not understand one whose ambition was not for himself but for Another. In a life where self-seeking, self-assertion, self-pity are predominant characteristics you cannot expect victory over the Tempter. He has too large a landing ground.   Jesus shows us that the use of Scripture in temptation is a powerful weapon. The devil is not afraid of us. He is afraid of all that speaks of God. The scriptures do just that.   Jesus shows us that we have no need to be afraid of the devil. Jesus went into battle with confidence of victory as long as he remained trusting, obedient and dependent on the Spirit. We can go in the same fearlessness. We need only fear the devil when we cease to fully oppose him. At heart he is a coward. At a firm rebuttal backed by the word of God, he flees. But he is always dogged, and soon there will be a new attack.   Jesus shows us that we have to be decisive with the devil. No playing with the temptation. No parleying with the Tempter (that was where Eve made her mistake). Jesus' contact with him was reduced to the minimum. He did not ask him to go. He told him to go. There is an aggressiveness about Jesus' response to temptation which has a lot to teach us. It was the aggression of love in the face of hate and destruction.   (Most of this sermon was taken from "I Believe in Satan's Downfall" by Michael Green, 1981)   The Rev. Ted Schroder is an Episcopal priest. He is pastor of Amelia Island Plantation Chapel.

By Ted Schroder Jesus said, "This is how you should pray: 'Our Father'." (Matthew 6:9) Our very familiarity with the Lord's Prayer, and Christianity, dulls our awareness of the unique relationship that Jesus made possible. To say "Our Father" is to claim membership in a family that has the right to call God, the Lord of heaven and earth, our Father. We do not do so on the basis of our creation. There is a general sense in which everyone created can call themselves children of God. But this was not what Jesus meant when he told us to pray to his heavenly Father in this way. This was something new in the world. We can approach God as our Father because of something supernatural that Jesus came to make possible.   Jesus came into the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him as the Messiah. He came to his own special people, but they rejected him. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:12,13)   The New Testament sees God as the Father of all humanity, but it does not think of all men and women as sons and daughters of God. God's attitude to all people is that of a Father. All are his children in the sense that he made them, and that he provides for them. But men and women are his sons and daughters in the full sense only as they respond to what he does for them in Christ.   When they receive into their lives the Word who became flesh as Jesus the Christ, they are born into the heavenly family. It is only in this way that they are really God's children. The way to become a child of God, and to be able to call God as our Father, is to believe in the name of Jesus, i.e. to trust in the person of the Word made flesh. It is to believe in him as revealing God as Father, and to put our trust in a personal relationship with that God. It is trusting him as a person.   Men and women who respond to Christ in faith are given the 'right to become children of God'. This right is not automatically conferred with human existence. It does not come with natural descent - human biology, or genealogy - but it is born of God. It is given by grace - an undeserved gift. It speaks to us of the privilege of adoption, and being born again by the Spirit of God. Paul declares this when he writes: "you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." (Romans 8:15-17)   This crying out to God as 'our Father' was something new. It would not have been expressed in Judaism. It is the cry of a child calling for his father. When we cry 'our Father' the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are truly God's children. Martin Luther comments: "This is but a little word, and yet notwithstanding it comprehendeth all things. The mouth speaketh, but the affection of the heart speaketh after this manner. Although I be oppressed with anguish and terror on every side, and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from thy presence, yet am I thy child, and thou art my Father for Christ's sake: I am beloved because of the Beloved. Wherefore this little word, Father, conceived effectually in the heart, passeth all the eloquence of Demosthenes, Cicero, and of the most eloquent rhetoricians that ever were in the world." (Commentary on Galatians, on 4:6)   Jesus makes it possible: by his work of salvation, by the work of his Spirit in our hearts, and by bringing us to faith through his death and resurrection; to give us access to God as our Father. When he said, 'no one comes to the Father except through me,' (John 14:6) 'no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him,' (Matthew 11:27) he is revealing that our only way to become children of God, and to know God as our Father is through his revelation, and work of salvation. We know God as our Father because Jesus made us co-heirs with him in the kingdom.   This unique way of looking at God enables us to pray to God in a personal, familial way. God is not an 'it'. God is not just an amorphous spirit, or cosmic force. God is not merely the Supreme Being, or Higher Power. God is our loving Father, who cares for us. As parents we experience our feelings of protective paternity and maternity because we are made in the image of God.   Jesus argued from our human concern to take care of our own children how much more God wants to take care of us. "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him." (Matthew 7:11)   He also compared that concern with God's care for the sparrow. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. Even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31) We matter to God. He knows everything about us, even down to the smallest detail - the hairs on our head - and cares for us as our Father. No thing is too insignificant to bring to him.   While all this is true, there are many people today who are troubled by the designation of God as our Father. They object to God being perceived in masculine terms, at the expense of the feminine. This traditional teaching has been used to support masculine authoritarian structures in church and society that has oppressed women and denigrated their contributions, and gifts of ministry, and leadership. Some want to remove all gender-specific language about God and refer to God in gender-neutral terms of roles such as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. But that would depersonalize our understanding of God. All of us have gender. No person is an 'it'.   Some theologians suggest that we use the traditional terms in an inclusive way to include the feminine. That means that when we call God 'Father' we do not think in terms of masculinity but in terms of parenthood as a whole (mother and father). We believe that our understanding of God must include both genders since "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) There are passages of Scripture that speak of God in terms of the feminine. (Matthew 23:37; Isaiah 46:3,4; 49:14,15) God loves his creatures from the womb, watches over them as infants, nurtures them in their youth, and mourns for them in their journeys. God does not have a body so he cannot be either male or female in the ways we are.   While being sensitive to the weight of feminist arguments I am opposed to altering the forms of prayer and hymns we use in public worship to cater to these concerns. I think we should continue to pray as Jesus taught us and use the language that Jesus used. The Anglican New Zealand Prayer Book published in 1989 contains this substitution for "Our Father" in its modern version of the Lord's Prayer:   Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-Giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven.   It attempts to be inclusive of the native Maori understanding of God as well as the feminist perspective. While these words do not contradict the biblical view of God I think that it is a mistake to change historic texts when the entire community is gathered in public worship, to suit one's own personal needs. However there is no reason why they may not be used in one's personal devotions if it helps one to relate to God.   While some Christians have suffered from a distorted view of fatherhood in their own experience, many others have been blessed by their fathers, and have been a blessing in their own fatherhood. Our conception of God is not, as Freud argued, simply a projection from our human experience of fatherhood, or derived from patriarchal systems in society. Our Christian understanding of God comes from the way the people of God experienced God as recorded in the Bible. It comes from the way Jesus related to God as his Father. It comes from the way the Holy Spirit moved in the lives of the apostles and saints of the New Testament and church down through the ages. We do not call God Father because of our male parent. We come to understand all fathering because of the way God is Father: "For this reason [the way God has acted in the world through Christ] I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name." (Ephesians 3:14)   There is no one name which captures the entire character of God. God is the name above all names. We relate to God as citizens of his kingdom, as servant to master, as bride to bridegroom, as guilty sinner to the pure and holy one. Yet Jesus introduces us to God as our Father. Therefore we come to him in prayer as children, for it is only as children that we can enter the kingdom of heaven.   I am a father, and a grandfather. There are no words to express how much I love my children and grandchildren, how much I care for them, how much I want to protect them and provide for them. If that is true for me, a mere mortal, how much more must my heavenly Father love me.   I am also a child of my parents, and a member of my family. I am a child of God, and a member of the family of Christ. I belong to the body of Christ. I have spiritual brothers and sisters to look out for, and who care for me.   When I pray "Our Father" I am approaching God, not as a stranger, but as his child, with his other children, as part of his family. I am not alone. I have an identity. I am valued and loved. I can come to God with confidence because I have been adopted into this family by the blood of Christ, I have been made an heir of God and co-heirs with Christ, and the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am God's child.   Jesus said, "'Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.' And he took the children in his arms, put his hands upon them and blessed them." (Mark 10:14-16)   When you pray, "Our Father," you are entering the kingdom of heaven as a child, and you will be blessed.   A Prayer: "Father in heaven, when the thought of you wakes in our hearts, let it not wake like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile." (Soren Kierkegaard)

By Ted Schroder When Jesus instructed the disciples to pray to "Our Father in heaven", (Matthew 6:9) he was introducing a new way of approaching God. We are to speak to God as little children to a parent who loves and cares for us, and who, at the same time, is to be respected and honored, and not taken for granted, because of who he is and where he dwells.   The Lord's Prayer begins with a revelation of the nature of God: God's personal parenthood expressed as Father, with all that membership in his family as sons and daughters implies; and God's dwelling place in heaven, as other than earth. Intimacy and infinity are combined in this introductory address to God.   C.S. Lewis wrote, "I fully agree that the relationship between God and a man is more private and intimate than any possible relation between two fellow creatures. Yes, but at the same time there is, in another way, a greater distance between the participants. ... We ought to be - sometimes I hope one is - simultaneously aware of closest proximity and infinite distance." (Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer, p.23) That distance is as small or great as the distance of earth from heaven, and our attitude to it determines how we feel about our communication with God.   What do you believe about heaven: its existence, its location, and its characteristics? Colleen McDannell & Bernhard Lang have written a review of the beliefs over the centuries in Heaven: A History. They survey a variety of approaches including the Swedenborgians and the Mormons, who, it seems, have a more elaborate idea about heaven than the average Christian.   The views of heaven over the centuries seem to reflect the culture and arts of the time. We tend to project onto heaven our own longings. Many are fantastic and something with which we would find it hard to identify, so that heaven can appear to be a merely a figment of our imagination rather than an eternal reality. Belief in heaven accompanies our belief in God. What we believe about God, transfers to what we believe about heaven. Since we need to believe in God to make sense of this world, we need also to believe in heaven.   Miguel de Unamuno, the philosopher, wrote, "We must needs believe in the other life, in the eternal life beyond the grave, and in an individual and personal life, in a life in which each one of us may feel his consciousness, and feel that it is united, without being confounded, with all other consciousnesses in the Supreme Consciousness, in God; we must needs believe in that other life in order that we may live this life, and endure it, and give it meaning and finality." (The Tragic Sense of Life, p.258)   Prayer connects us with that other life in the present and so assists us in giving our lives meaning. Scripture warns us to be careful in our attempt to draw near to God. He is as close as our breath and yet as distant as infinity. "God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few." (Ecclesiastes 5:2) Therefore we approach our heavenly Father with awe, and not with a disrespectful familiarity.   We remember that he is on a different level of reality than us. "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live out your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." (1 Peter 1:17) Heaven is a mysterious place to us. It is in another dimension. Some call it another plane rather than another place. Science fiction owes a great deal to the biblical teaching about heaven.   The popularity of science fiction that describes parallel universes and the ability or danger of entering and leaving them, taps human aspiration to believe in another world. From Star Trek, with its ability to transport mortals into all sorts of environments, to Stargate, with its portals through which one can explore a variety of different time/space continuums, we have learned to imagine different dimensions from our own. The Bible posited this reality at the beginning of human history in the stories of the patriarchs and the prophets.   At Bethel, Jacob dreamt about a ladder or stairway which rested on the earth and reached to heaven. "The angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD.... When Jacob awoke from his sleep he thought, 'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.' He was afraid and said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.'" (Genesis 28:12-16) When God is present on earth, even when we are not aware of it, that place is the gate of heaven. God can come and go, and we call it heaven, for heaven is where God is. Jacob's response is fear or reverent awe.   Later in human history we read that, at the end of his life, God was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. As he and Elisha were walking along and talking together, "Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind." (2 Kings 2:11) The chariot and horses of fire symbolized strong protection as well as the forces of God's spiritual presence as Elijah was taken. It attempts to describe the indescribable departure of Elijah from earth and his entry into heaven. Elisha's reaction is worship and grief at the loss of his spiritual father.   When Jesus ascended to the Father he was taken up from before the very eyes of the apostles, and a cloud hid him from their sight. Two men dressed in white, reminiscent of the two angels at the empty tomb, address the apostles, who are looking into the sky: "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11) Again the imagery is consistent: Jesus was taken into another dimension, from which he will return. This dimension was identified as heaven.   Stephen confirmed this reality when he experienced a vision at his trial before he was martyred. Being full of the Holy Spirit he, "looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'" (Acts 7:55,56) The Holy Spirit enabled Stephen to see the other two members of the Holy Trinity in heaven to strengthen him for his suffering and death.   St. John is given another vision to share with the church that was being persecuted so that it too would be strengthened to persevere. "After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.... At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.... Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders... In the center around the throne, were four living creatures." (Revelation 4:1-8)   In the heavenly realms the Presence of God on the throne is central, indicated by much imagery from the Old Testament: jewels, the rainbow, thunder and lightning. The elders represent the people of God, and the creatures represent the world of nature. These representatives of creation fall down before God and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns, their accomplishments, before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." (Revelation 4:11)   In heaven there is worship, the acknowledgement of the worth of God, and our dependence on him. When we come to God in prayer, we begin with that awareness, with the awe and respect we have for our heavenly Father. Jesus makes it possible for us to come to the Father as little children, to enter the kingdom of heaven as children.   When we arrive we fall down before him and worship. Prayer begins with adoration, not with one request after another, like a shopping list in which we ask God to bless us and our loved ones. Worship requires reverence, respect, honor, and humility.   Worship does not come naturally to our self-centeredness. Prayer begins with God, not with us.   "People who do not worship live in a vast shopping mall where they go from shop to shop expending enormous sums of energy and making endless trips to meet first this need and then that appetite, this whim and that fancy. Life lurches from one partial satisfaction to another, interrupted by ditches of disappointment. Motion is fuelled by the successive illusions that purchasing this wardrobe, driving that car, eating this meal, drinking that beverage will center life and give it coherence." (Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder, p.60)   Worship helps a person to center his life on its source of being and consciousness, God the Father, creator of heaven and earth. We enter heaven by means of worship. Worship is the portal through which we open the door to heaven. Unless we are willing to fall down on our faces before him who sits on the throne and worship him who is eternal, we cannot experience the life of heaven.   Since we must physically die before we can enter heaven, we must also spiritually die to our pride and self-sufficiency in order to communicate with our Father in heaven. We have access to heaven through the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is our gate to heaven. Jesus said, "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved." (John 10:9)   We can enter into the kingdom of heaven here on earth, not by taking a journey to the next dimension, not by taking a journey from this world through the cosmos, but by taking a journey of faith from a state of mind which is disrespectful to God, to that of humble, loyal, loving obedience to Christ.   Heaven can come to us when it begins in us. The beginning of heaven is not only at that hour when the eye grows dim, and the sound of voices becomes silent in death, but at that hour when God draws near and the eyes of the spiritual understanding are opened. We see how beautiful Christ is, and how hateful sin is. It is the hour when self-will is crucified, and God's will and grace is embraced. Then heaven has begun, and will continue.   It is pitiful to hear people talk lightly about heaven, whose lives on earth have no trace of the love, humility, purity and self-sacrifice of which heaven consists. They assume that they will join God in heaven. But they would be miserable there even if they could get there. They would be entirely out of their element, like a fish sent to live on the grass of a lovely lawn. Those who will join the people of God around the throne in heaven are they who have entered the kingdom of heaven on earth. They who are able to worship in the other life, are those who are doing it in this life. Recognizing our Father in heaven, requires acquainting ourselves with him right now.   The Rev. Schroder is pastor of the Plantation Island parish in Florida

By Ted Schroder | April 4, 2004 It is hard enough to be forsaken by those you love: a husband or wife, a parent or child, a partner or friend. But what would it be like to be forsaken by your alter ego, your second self, your inseparable companion, the other members of the Holy Trinity? Jesus experienced this in an infinite way on the Cross.   Taking upon himself the sin of the world that separated a man from God, that created a barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between heaven and hell, that formed the great chasm between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, Jesus fulfilled the role of the scapegoat who bore the disgrace of sinners. As he assumed this terrible burden for us Jesus cried out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34)   This is known as the prayer of dereliction. Dereliction means being abandoned. It evokes the sense of a building that is uninhabited, long deserted by its former owners, fallen into disrepair. Jesus, the Son of God, experienced real abandonment by his Father. There is a tear in the heart of the Trinity that reflects the alienation in the universe between a holy God and a sinful human race.   It is a cry of despair. Jesus plumbs the depths of human sin and suffering and descends into the abyss that is often the experience of despairing and condemned souls. He asked the question that is asked by so many human beings when they are faced with punishment and suffering that overwhelms them in its seemingly senseless cruelty. Jesus suffered in every way that we do.   All the questions that we can ask of God, about hellfire and judgment, all the bitterness we can feel at the arbitrary and undeserved suffering in the world, are summed up in this prayer of Jesus. God descended from heaven to earth to experience the consequences of the total depravity of sin, death and the devil. He endured the sickness unto death, and the blackest of judgments. In that darkness he experienced extreme loneliness and called out for help. There is no verbal and audible reply. Jesus is called to bear his suffering, to endure it, without a reassuring word from God. God is perfect love, yet on the Cross God is torn apart.   The judgment of God is taken upon himself. The Son of God experienced the wages of sin, death, as being abandoned by God. It is a moment of utter darkness. For three hours there is darkness in the middle of the day as hell is experienced on earth in the person of Jesus. Light is extinguished. The light of the world does not shine forth. "With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God!'" (Mark 15:39)   At the moment at which God seemed to be most absent, the presence of God was affirmed. The centurion saw the presence of God when that presence was questioned. He recognized that Jesus was the Son of God at the point of his death. Christianity teaches that God reveals himself to us primarily through the Cross of Christ. It is in the moment of abandonment that God identifies with the weak and the suffering. Edward Shillito wrote about the "Jesus of the scars": The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak; They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.   The presence of God is to be found in weakness not in might. God hides himself from the powerful and the proud and reveals himself to those in pain and suffering. Elie Wiesel in his famous book Night, where he wrote about his experience of the evils of the Holocaust, expressed that he lost his faith in God when he observed the undeserved suffering of so many innocent children and their parents. Their deaths represented the death of his faith. God to him is dead. But in Jesus death reveals God. So many of our prayers are cries of dereliction. We ask Where are you, Lord? Why, Lord? Don't you care, Lord? Why are you letting this happen, Lord?   What have we done to deserve this, Lord? Why have you forsaken me, Lord? These cries are part of the story of Jesus. God identifies with us in our feelings of despair and abandonment. He takes our place on the cross and feels the full effects of our alienation from Himself. When we experience this alienation we echo the very words Jesus used on the cross. In his sense of forsakenness, Jesus revealed the presence of God. Jesus revealed the God of love, compassion and mercy.   When we experience abandonment by God we know that God has experienced this in himself before us. If Jesus could pray this prayer, and still be in the center of God's will, so can you and me. In his suffering Jesus unites us with a God who loves us enough to be willing to experience the ultimate in painful dislocation. John Stott, in The Cross of Christ, wrote: "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as 'God on the cross'. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?   I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged into God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of this. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it, we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering."   There is no suffering, no sin, that Jesus has not borne for us. There is no loneliness, no abandonment, no rejection, no condemnation, no alienation, no despair, that God in Christ has not endured for you and for me. The Cross gives the lie to those who would fault or blame God for the evils of human existence. Jesus endured it all so that we might have hope and peace.   If he has done so much for us why would we not want to do everything for him and his kingdom?   A Prayer: Lord Christ. By the nails through your hands and feet, give comfort to the suffering. By the crown of thorns upon your head, give hope to the despairing. By the spear that pierced your side, give courage to the heart-broken. By your being scorned and rejected of men, give love to the lonely. By your time of desolation, lift up all who are down. By your death on the cross, give us life which is eternal. O my Lord, lead me safe through all the tests, the darknesses, the pains. Help me hold fast the beginning of my confidence firm unto the end. My God, my God, stretch forth your wounded hands to strengthen mine. Never will you forsake me, never let me forsake you, my living, only God.

By Ted Schroder | April 11, 2004 Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)   Easter is about Jesus overcoming the thief of death so that he might give us life to the fullest.   You would think that anyone who lived on Amelia Island or who visited here was experiencing life to the fullest. Most of you are enjoying the good life. You have most everything that anyone would want in the world: good homes, good families, good jobs, good incomes, good looks, good health. You've got the worldly goods. The rest of the world looking at us this morning would think that we have life to the fullest.   But what if there was something more than just a material description of the good life? What if there was a fuller life beyond material prosperity? What if you were missing out on something that you didn't even know about? What if God intended more than just a good life for you but intended a fuller life? Wouldn't you want to experience it? Of course you would, and so would I.   We often settle for less because we don't know that there's anything better. We often settle just for this earthly life because we think that there is nothing else. I was born and raised in New Zealand. When Europeans first came to New Zealand, the native Maori people were cannibals. Apart from birds, the only meat they ate was human. It took Captain Cook letting loose some pigs into the country in 1769 to help them to see that there was a better diet. It took missionaries preaching the Gospel of Christ to change their minds about the sacredness of the human body. I have a framed portion of Ezekiel 37:1-14 in my office that was printed in the Maori language in 1840 to persuade the Maoris against practicing cannibalism: "Son of man, can these bones live?" The Spirit entered the bones and made them live again. There is something better than earthly extinction that God has in store for us. He wants us to experience the resurrection of the body to eternal life.   I believe that God brought you here today to Amelia Island on Easter Sunday so that he could let you in on a secret. There is something better. There is much more than the good, material life. You were made for more than just the good, material life - looking good, feeling good, having the goods. God wants you to have life to the fullest forever. Beneath the image of the good life there are things nobody likes to talk about. There are thieves.   The thief of materialism, (living for this world only), comes to steal and kill and destroy. No matter how hard you try to satisfy yourself that the life you live is worthwhile through constant activities, never-ending shopping, daily maintenance of your bodies and your possessions, preoccupation with career, business and the news, or finding escape through leisure, entertainment or travel, the enjoyment is temporary, momentary, fleeting. The rush of happiness is succeeded by the need to repeat it until you feel that you are on a treadmill that requires more and more effort to maintain the illusion of happiness. We feel trapped by our circumstances. When tragedy strikes: accidents or sicknesses, we find that the material, good life does not provide us with the resources we need to cope and to have hope. The material, good life steals hope from us. The material good life kills contentment. The material good life destroys lasting fulfillment.   Sofia Coppola's recent movie, Lost In Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, explores the banality, and the emptiness of modern, multicultural materialism. Everything is glitz, marketing a product, game shows, video arcades. The two main characters are bored, can't sleep, and long for intimacy and the warmth of genuine, authentic, personal relationships. Their marriages and families promise so much and yet fail to deliver when needed.   I've got good news for you today. There's an antidote to such a view of life. It's called having life to the fullest. The reason God brought you here today is so you can learn about having life to the fullest. St. Paul said that if you knew the resurrection love of Christ you would "be filled to the measure of the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19) What does this life offer us?   1. Life with meaning and purpose.   The greatest tragedy in life is not death. It's to go through life without knowing your purpose. Americans have indicated their need for having purpose in their lives by making Rick Warren's book, The Purpose-Driven Life, a best seller. It has sold millions of copies. He and his readers recognize that the material good life is not enough. Looking good, feeling good, having the goods is not enough to make you happy. If that were true Amelia Island would be the happiest place in the world, but it's not. It takes more than money to have life with meaning and purpose. To have life to the fullest, you need meaning and purpose.   So we search for meaning in all kinds of different ways. There's nothing wrong with the things we fill our life with. It's just that they don't last, and they are often self-centered. We need something that gives us eternal meaning. Where do we get that? There's only one place - from the God that raises Jesus Christ from the dead and gives eternal life to those who come to him in faith.   God gave you life, and he wants to give you life in all its fullness. You didn't make yourself. Your life is completely dependent on God's will. In him we live and move and have our being. Until you understand that you were made by God to fulfill his purpose, life is not going to make sense. And until you understand what is God's will for your life, you can't have life in all its fullness.   St. Peter said this: "Because Jesus was raised from the dead [that's what Easter is all about] we've been given a brand new life. We have everything to live for including a future in heaven and that future starts now." (1 Peter 1:3,4)   This fullness of life is connected to what Jesus did at Easter. His overcoming the thief of death that steals, kills, and destroys, with a new life enables us, who follow him, to have life to the fullest.   This fullness of life is not just an addition to your old life, something you just tack on. It's a whole, new deal. It's brand new. God says to us at Easter, "I want to give you a chance to start over. I want to give you a chance to begin again. I want to give you a new kind of life - a full life."   Golfers love Mulligans. When they take their first shot off the tee, and it gets lost in a terrible slice or hook - your partner may give you a Mulligan - a free, second shot. They don't count the first one against you. God came in Jesus to give you a free, second shot at life. All the dumb things that you've done in the past and you regret, and wish that you had done or said differently: dumb decisions, dumb mistakes, sins, faults, failures, whatever you want to call them - God says, I will erase them through the Cross, and you can start over again. Why don't you begin a brand new life - why don't you have life to the fullest? I will take your guilt upon me, and wipe it out. Begin again. Start over.   How do you get this brand new life? God gives it to us as a gift of grace - undeserved yet freely given because he loves us and wants us to find our way to him and to what he wants us to become.   Living for yourself doesn't bring happiness to either you, or the people you live and work with. You weren't made by God to live for yourself. You were made to live for God. When you start following Christ, and living for him, you discover real happiness, real meaning, real significance, real purpose, real value to your life. When you live for Christ, you're plugged in to God. That gives you meaning, that gives you significance, that gives you purpose, that gives you wealth that lasts. Life to the fullest is priceless in value.   2. Life that is full of energy.   Jon Gordon of Jacksonville has written "Become an Energy Addict". It includes over 100 simple, powerful ways to increase your mental, physical, and emotional energy. He operates a website in which he recommends a variety of exercises to increase your energy, including prayers. It is a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. Recently he has been suggesting ways that will increase happiness, compassion, removal of worry and anger, and enhancement of trust. He provides diets that will fuel energy, and physical exercises that will renew energy. We know that a proper balance of good food, exercise, spiritual meditation and work will provide us with a positive mental attitude.   Physical fitness is part of the good life today. Fitness clubs are booming throughout the country. Millions either begin or end their working day at one of the gyms or in their own exercise room. Exercise affects the body and alters our attitude to life. But we need more than physical energy to live life to the fullest. We need energy for healthy relationships. We need power to love people, to forgive people, to trust people, to care for people. We need spiritual energy to handle cancer, and other diseases. We need energy to deal with business and family problems. We need divine energy to deal with aging. We can't run on our own batteries all the time.   The New Testament talks about God's "incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead." (Ephesians 1:19,20)   The power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us. It is for us. The resurrection of Jesus demonstrated that the thief that steals, kills and destroys our life energy has been defeated, and we can have that incomparably great power if we believe. Incomparably means extraordinary, outstanding, surpassing - there is no comparison: "endless energy, boundless strength! All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from the dead and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule." (Ephesians 1:19-21 Peterson)   That power is available to you for all your life. It is the power of faith, hope and love. Each of us has a choice in life. We can go through the rest of our lives, living the good, material life, disconnected from this resurrection power, or we can live life to the fullest plugged into God's power. It's our choice. Whichever we choose we are still going to have problems, because life is a series of problems and challenges. This difference is that with the resurrection power of Christ in your life, you will have energy which you would not have on your own power. Christ gives you this power of faith, hope and love on a day to day basis as you connect with him.   What is your need this Easter? Are you tired and worn out? Are you on edge? Do you feel discouraged? Do you feel like giving up on your marriage, your job, your school, your health, your family, your goals, your dreams, and your ambitions? Don't give up? Look up to the risen Christ and say, "Lord, I need to start living for you and not just for me. I need your resurrection energy to do what you have put me on earth to do, to fulfill your purpose for my life. I need your gift of life to the fullest."   (Acknowledgments to Rick Warren for material from "Living the Better Life.")

By Ted Schroder | April 25, 2004 A.W. Tozer (1897-1963) pastured the Southside Alliance Church in Chicago from 1928 to 1959, and the Peoples' Church in Toronto, the last four years of his life. His sermons confronted his listeners with these questions: Is God real to you? Is your Christian experience a set of definitions, a list of orthodox doctrines, or a living relationship with God? Do you have a first-hand experience with God, or a second-hand experience through others? Is your heart hungering and thirsting after personal holiness?   He was editor of The Alliance Witness for many years, and his editorials were collected into a number of books. In his classic, The Knowledge of the Holy, he wrote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us... For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God... Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'What comes into your mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man." (p.9)   That may be why Jesus tells us to pray using the name of God, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name." He wants us to know to whom we are praying, where God is, and why we should pray.   When we pray: "Hallowed be your name", we are asking that our understanding of God's character would be worthy, and that our lives would honor him in every way, by reflecting that character. Implicit in this prayer is the spelling out of God's purpose for our lives. We may have some idea about what we want to do with our lives, but Jesus is concerned to direct us to finding out God's purpose for our lives. "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21) By praying this prayer we are aligning our plans with God's purpose, so that our lives will run according to the Spirit's direction.   What comes into your mind when you think about God? What is your mental image of God? What in your deep heart do you conceive God to be like?   We receive our impressions of God from all sorts of sources. Some are good and others are bad. When terrorists torture and murder innocent civilians while chanting, "God is great", I wonder where they received their understanding of the character of God? We are all tempted to project onto God our own prejudices, and desecrate, instead of hallow, the name of God. Do we move toward our mental image of God or is our mental image of God determined by us? What is your conscious impression of the character, the name, of God?   When Moses stood before the burning bush, and was told to remove his shoes, because it was holy ground, God revealed himself as the "God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." (Exodus 3:6) He wasn't yet the God of Moses because God had still to reveal himself to his prophet. Later the people of Israel would know God as the God of Moses. At this point Moses still needed to know more about God. "What shall I tell the people? What is your name?" God's reply was, "I AM WHO I AM." (Exodus 3:14) "I am eternally present, I will be with you in all that you do according to my will."   God's character is revealed in his actions in history as he works out his purposes through his people. God cannot be known and hallowed in the abstract or the universal, but in the particular and the specific. In the fullness of time the name by which God revealed his character was Jesus. It is Jesus who takes this name for himself: "I AM the bread of life, I AM the light of the world, I AM the gate, I AM the good shepherd, I AM the resurrection and the life, I AM the way, the truth, and the life, I AM the true vine." He has been given "the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11)   Therefore when I echo the words of Psalm 103: "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name," I am seeing God through Jesus spectacles. What comes into my mind when I think about God, is not just abstract, theological, philosophical, or New Age thought that God is Spirit, that God is Love, that God is Almighty, but that God has loved me through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. It is Jesus who shows us the truth, love and mercy of God through his feeding the hungry, healing the sick, raising the dead, comforting the bereaved, suffering and dying on the Cross. The character, the name of God, is seen in what Christ did. He hallowed God's name by his actions, by humbling himself and becoming obedient to death.   We can be sure of hallowing God's name when we receive our understanding of God in terms of Jesus. Jesus reveals the name, the character of God to us. "I have revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.....I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." (John 17:6,26) The more we get to know Jesus, his character and his teaching, the more our understanding of God is hallowed, is worthy of God. Jesus came to reveal God to the world through us.   A general belief in God is no guarantee that we will hallow God's name. The conception some people have of God is hideous. John Wesley once said of one who promoted a depraved view of God: "Your God is my devil." That is why the world needs Jesus.   So much of our thinking about God can be unworthy. So much of the church's teaching about God has been unworthy. So much of institutional Christianity has been unworthy of the name of God.   When we pray "hallowed be your name", we are praying that our lives would glorify God in every way, that everything we do would be honoring to God, and consistent with his character. We need to pray for this because there is a tendency in us to dishonor God by our lives, and to bring his name into disrepute. Paul criticizes the hypocrites of his faith: "if you know God's will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth - you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? ... You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: 'God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.'" (Romans 2:18-24)   For good or ill Christian believers represent Christ to the world. If we are living an immoral, selfish, and unloving life, then others will take note and blame our faith. Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)   Gregory of Nyssa wrote that when he prays this petition, what he is really praying is: "May I become through your help blameless, just and spiritual, may I abstain from every evil, speak the truth, and do justice. May I walk in the straight path, shining with moderation, dressed with purity, beautiful through wisdom and prudence. May I meditate upon the things that are eternal and despise what is temporal, showing the heavenly way of life.... For a man can glorify God in no other way save by the virtue of his life which bears witness that the power of God is the cause of his goodness."   The Gospel is spread by the witness of the lives of believers. We are called to witness to Jesus and his revelation of the name of God. That means that we are called to live such lives of beauty, goodness and truth that others will want to share it. The reason the Gospel fails to be persuasive, and the Christian faith and life is brought into disrepute, is because our lives do not bring glory to God's name.   We live in a society in which there is much competition for the allegiance of people. There are many alternative lifestyles, and many different beliefs about God. The church is often seen to be just one option among many. If Christians are just as weak and despairing as their non-Christian neighbors when confronted with suffering and tragedy, illness and pain; if we are just as restless, frustrated and dissatisfied; if we are just as worried and fearful; just as anxious, and guilty, and materialistic, as those who do not believe, then no one is going to want to be a Christian, because it obviously makes no difference when the chips are down.   Nietzsche challenged Christians: "Show me that you are redeemed, and then I will believe in your redeemer."   Jesus tells us to pray that God may show us how to be redeemed, so that in our behavior he may be glorified, and that through us others may come to him. In other words, we pray that we may be able to show others Christ, so that they may want to follow him.   "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens." (Psalm 148:13)   A Prayer: THE HOLY NAME   O LORD GOD, whose gifts are beyond count or measure or price, and every gift, high honor; of all, this would be the chief, that you, Lord, would write your Name and grave it on my inmost soul unknown, unseen, unfelt by me, yet readable, for your sole glory, by the eyes of men: so that it testify in quietness to the lowly devotion of my heart, the dedication of my whole being, the pure joy of faith. To your Name, Lord Jesus, help me bow the knee and all its worshipping, bow the head and all its thinking, bow the will and all its choosing, bow the heart and all its loving. But chiefest, O my God, write your Name upon me, in me, your holiness, your lordship, your love, in shining letters, indelible, for ever.   — Eric Milner-White

By Herbert Thompson I have received The Rev. Richard Terry's letter of resignation as Rector of St. Paul's, Chillicothe. I regret both his resignation, the manner in which it was tendered and the course that Mr. Terry has charted for the days ahead, notably the proposed establishing of an "Anglican" congregation in Chillicothe.   This action amounts to a gross exploitation of Mr. Terry's relationship with St. Paul's Church and the congregation with which I entrusted him when I instituted him as Rector in March of 1993.   I am at pains to understand Mr. Terry's problem with the Diocese of Southern Ohio and with me as Bishop. It cannot be the issue of human sexuality. As Bishop for 16 years I have made it clear in the Diocese and the National Church, that I will not bless or countenance the blessing of same sex unions in the Diocese, nor ordain any person living in a sexual relationship with another person. I believe and have taught that, for those who have sworn allegiance to Christ, sexual relations are to take place only in the context of Holy Matrimony between a man and a woman.   I taught and teach the same in the Diocese and beyond. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference in England on the human sexuality resolutions I voted with 570 Bishops from around the world against changing the Church's teaching on this matter. Last year at the General Convention in Minneapolis on the matter of confirming the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire, I voted "no."   However, from the day of my ordination, I have never wavered from my defense of and work for the Unity of the Church or my affirmation of God's love for all of His people.   I am convinced Mr. Terry needs to examine his conscience and recall his own ordination vows. For it is clear to me that his actions have nothing to do with human sexuality, nor me. Rather they spring from Mr. Terry's tragic misunderstanding of Anglican Christianity and polity.   In my pastoral directive, I stated that I believe the Anglican Communion Network to be a threat to the unity of the Church. The directive clearly stated that while individual members, lay or ordained might affiliate with the Network, congregations under my jurisdiction could not.   Subsequent to my letter to Mr. Terry, Bishop Duncan, Convener of the Anglican Communion Network, called and then wrote to me to say that in response to my position and that of other Bishops of the Episcopal Church he would not accept the congregational affiliation of St. Paul's. I expressed my gratitude for it meant that there was no action for Mr. Terry to take regarding the directive.   I do not presume to know Mr. Terry's motives, only God knows and I am content to leave the judging to God. I do know that his actions have precipitated turmoil and tragedy.   In his letter to you and to the Chillicothe Gazette, Mr. Terry says, "I have decided to leave quietly." How quiet is it to publish to the entire town of Chillicothe a matter that properly belongs between a priest and his Bishop? In so doing Mr. Terry has not only abandoned the trust of the people of St. Paul's, but the Communion which ordained him and instituted him as Rector in that place. He has also abandoned the trust of the people who chose him as pastor, priest and teacher.   On the night before he died, Our Lord Jesus did not pray that his disciples would be right, good or even holy. He prayed that they would be one as He and the Father were one, that the world might believe that He was sent by the Father.   It was out of that clear understanding that I as Bishop issued my pastoral directive to Mr. Terry and now write to call you to work for the unity of the Church and resist Mr. Terry, or anyone else's attempts to divide the body, for such division would grieve Our Lord and distract us from the sacred mission for which the Church exists, to preach the Gospel to all nations and to witness to Jesus as Savior and Lord.   That task calls us to a future. I have asked Archdeacon Hanisian to be with you on Sunday August 8, 2004, to answer any questions you may have and to begin the work which will ultimately end in the calling of a new Rector for St. Paul's. Throughout this period my staff, Bishop Price and I will be working with you committed Episcopal Christians to strengthen the witness of this congregation in Chillicothe.   Yours in Christ, The Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson, Jr. Bishop of Southern Ohio

Weekly Digest / Commentary "Much of the sexuality debate revolves around human demands about what God allegedly must do if God is to be considered loving and just, rather than accepting with open hearts the singular way God has provided for acceptable sexual expression." — Presbyterian biblical scholar Robert A. J. Gagnon in Theology Matters Dear Brothers and Sisters, It was another week in which the Episcopal Church's revisionist bishops showed their hand in beating up on orthodox rectors and continuing their in-your-face acts against the predominantly orthodox Anglican Communion pushing pansexuality and much more. If the Global South ever wanted overwhelming evidence that the Episcopal Church does not plan to change course, they need only go to www.virtuosityonline.org and hit the ARCHIVES link and read to their hearts content, or perhaps discontent. "In the whole messy business of legitimizing sodomite relationships comes the question of why not legitimize threesomes and foursomes? What about bisexuals, who are attracted to both genders? And why not abolish marriage altogether?" Thus spake Marvin Ellison, ethics professor at the United Church of Christ's Bangor (Maine) Theological Seminary, in "Same-Sex Marriage? A Christian Ethical Analysis." Professor Ellison is a non-orthodox gay theologian, so his comments come with added irony. "Besides pondering marriage for bisexuals, he protests that the narrowly 'bipolar' definition of marriage excludes 'intersexuality, transgenderism, transsexuality and other sexualities.' Like other gay writers, Ellison wonders whether government should abolish marriage altogether rather than redefine it to include gays. Of course there is no end to this sexual absurdity, and the Episcopal Church is right in the forefront of the sexual revolution with its fawning desire to please lesbitransgays: misplaced compassion knows no abatement. When I asked an Episcopal orthodox psychiatrist how he dealt with people who came into his practice he said simply that you start with whatever behavior they are addicted to and work on them to stop. If you are an alcoholic go to AA, if a homosexual go to HA. Do whatever it takes to stop the bad behavior, then backtrack into the whys and wherefores. Medication can help in cases like depression, but most psychiatrists defer the whys and wherefore about depression to therapists and counselors, but they can prescribe drugs for immediate relief where therapists cannot. The key word is STOP; in these two cases excessive alcohol and bad (read wrong) sex can kill you. Two very good reasons to stop. The Episcopal Church, on the other hand, because of its misguided and misplaced compassion affirms bad behaviors because it doesn't want to appear uninclusive, little realizing that they could be signing a person's death warrant. Take the actions of the Rehab Sisters in the DIOCESE OF OREGON this week who were awarded a Pentecost Offering for their work among prostitutes. The Council awarded $1,750 to these Sisters, an outreach ministry to Portland's prostitutes. This group invites women from the street into the Columba Center (Saints Peter and Paul) where they can eat, talk, and find other forms of support while learning about the welcoming aspects of the church. According to the Rev. Sara Fischer, Grace Memorial, they are offered the kind of hospitality "we hope we would be offered if we were on the street," says Fischer. "We provide a clean, safe place for food, coffee, health items, and respectful, no-strings attached conversation." Translation: Come as you are stay as you are. So what this says is that the Rehab Sisters, in order to appear non-confrontational and non-judgmental, never offer them the greatest news of all - a life changing encounter with Jesus Christ. That apparently is off-limits. So in order not to appear "fundamentalist" this Episcopal parish is acting like a non-profit charity or Kiwanis Club. No gospel, no Good News just Food and Clothing News and that omnipresent all-knowing "listening" much beloved by our Presiding Bishop. The women are affirmed in their womanhood, if not their lifestyle and back on the streets they go. The notion of Jesus saying "neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more", is lost on the Rehab Sisters.

By George Jaksa The Flint Journal, August 8, 2004 It's been a tumultuous year for some area Episcopalians and their churches. Since the ordination of an openly gay Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire a year ago, three local pastors have resigned their posts and tumbling local church attendance has yet to stabilize. Gone are the Rev. Scott Danforth, 51, rector of St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, Davison Township; the Rev. David Kulchar, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Flushing; and the Rev. Gregory Tournoux, 45, rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Owosso. The turmoil centers on New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, installed and affirmed last August at the U.S. church's national convention in Minneapolis. The Rev. Laura Truby, interim rector at Christ Episcopal, said she won't know until after summer vacation how attendance will shake out. "In the past, groups have broken off into little splinter groups, but they come back over the years," said Bishop Edwin Leidel of Saginaw, head of the Diocese of Eastern Michigan, where the resignations have taken place. Leidel and the entire eight-member delegation from the eastern side of Michigan affirmed Robinson's ordination. "This is kind of the hair that broke the camel's back," said the Rev. Steven J. Dewey, 55, conservative rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Lapeer. "At this juncture, the real issue is the authority of Holy Scripture. Does it have any authority in the church?" he added. "Our national church has said 'no,' our diocesan bishop has, by action, said 'no.'" Although other Episcopal dioceses have ordained gay priests, Flushing's Kulchar said ordaining Robinson at a national convention was especially galling. "What made last summer so critical is that ... the general convention is the only real body that can set policy for the church," Kulchar said. Leidel, who doesn't shy away from the issue, last September discussed homosexuality in the church at a closed meeting in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Flint and later wrote a letter for the diocesan newspaper. "I do have a bias to be open to giving gay men and lesbians a more inclusive role in the church," said Leidel. "It's a frightening thing." said Dewey, who intends to stay as rector of Grace Episcopal. "I guess the part that is really hard for me is that I really believe that our presiding bishop believes that what he is doing is the right thing, the caring and compassionate thing." Opponents say Robinson's ordination and other issues have sent the Episcopal church in the wrong direction. They're hoping a 14-member international committee will give the Archbishop of Canterbury - who presides over the worldwide Anglican church that Episcopalians are part of - reason to order changes in the United States. Kulchar said he hopes the archbishop will at least allow conservatives to have their own Anglican network in the United States. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the international Anglican Communion, consisting of denominations that stem from the Church of England. Many foreign Anglican churches have denounced or broken fellowship with the Episcopal Church over Robinson, who has lived for years with a gay partner. Locally, Danforth resigned Feb. 1 after almost 10 years as St. Dunstan's rector and left the denomination. He now is considering teaching at the secondary level, among other options. A former tennis partner with Leidel, Danforth said he had an ongoing frustration with the direction and theological path of the church and saw no hope of change. He said he had considered leaving the church for two years, but the Robinson issue had a bearing in his final decision. "I really had no more grace to be able to navigate through the waters as a clergyman," he said. "It was time." Kulchar, who continues to live in the Trinity parish rectory with his family, just finished a three-month sabbatical to ponder his future. He said he wants to remain in the Anglican church and was willing to do weddings, funerals, preach at Episcopal churches and be a fill-in rector, but was turned down by Leidel. "I have a great affection and love for him (Kulchar) and have tried to help him find employment and other things," Leidel said, "But he cannot function as a priest without being in communion with the bishop." Kulchar, a member of the Flushing Board of Education, said he hopes to stay in Flushing at least through the 2004-05 school year so his son can graduate from Flushing High School. Tournoux is on sabbatical for six months from Christ Episcopal but is looking for work in the U.S. Anglican churches. He resigned effective June 12 after 12 years as rector and has started work on a second doctorate. He is considering posts in Mississippi and his home state of Ohio and describes himself as committed to Anglicanism. "I absolutely loved my time at Christ's Church," he said. "I will not give up the priesthood," he continued. "I believe strongly in the ordained leadership, and I am looking forward to getting back into the saddle." Leidel said the Episcopal Church has a number of priests able to fill the vacated rectorship, with a number of other seminarians studying for the priesthood. Kulchar said there were 70 people worshiping at Trinity Episcopal when he resigned, but attendance is now down to 30. St. Dunstan and Christ Episcopal also have lost parishioners - but VanKirk Carlson, junior warden at Christ Church, is hopeful. "During the last month and a half, the folks who were unhappy have pretty much left," Carlson said. "Those who are left pretty much have a positive attitude. We are looking to start over with a fresh slate." © 2004 Flint Journal. Used with permission

May 26, 2004 The Rev. Richard B. Terry, Rector St. Paul's Episcopal Church 33 East Main Street Chillicothe, OH 45601 Dear Fr. Terry, Greetings in the awesome name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. As Moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes, it is with great joy that I welcome you to the Network based on the approval by the Steering Committee of your application to associate. I rejoice in counting you among the diocese, congregations and clergy who are standing together for Gospel truth and our faithful expression of Anglicanism in North America. The Network is organized and administered through a series of six convocations (5 geographic and one for members of Forward in Faith North America). Each convocation is overseen by a Dean appointed by the Network and who generously serves on a voluntary basis. It is our pleasure to assign you to the Mid-Continental Convocation and encourage you to be in contact with your Dean, Fr. Ronald McCrary at 913-648-2271, or Ronald.McCrary@aol.com for information on Convocation and Network-wide activities and events. If you may have any needs for which I can be of personal assistance, please do not hesitate to call upon my office. In this regard, you are also welcome to contact my Executive Assistant, Mr. Larry Crowell at 412-325-0095, or lacrowell53@comcast.net . Alternatively, may I ask that you be in contact with Mr. Crowell to register your preference on two matters: 1. our notifying your Bishop of your association with the Network, and 2. having your associate status listed on the Network web site. In closing, please know that you are in my prayers as we enter into this season of reform for our church. Faithfully in Christ, The Right Reverend Robert Wm. Duncan Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, AND Moderator, Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes SOUTHERN OHIO: ORTHODOX PRIEST RESIGNS PARISH. BISHOP OUTLAWS NETWORK By David W. Virtue Chillicothe, OH (8/9/2004) The rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chillicothe, has resigned from his parish because he found himself at odds with his bishop Herbert Thompson over his parish's affiliation with the Anglican Communion Network. "For the sake of the Gospel, I'd rather switch than fight," said Fr. Rick Terry to Virtuosity. In his letter of resignation, that has been widely circulated, he wrote, in part, "Rather than pursue the avenue of an inhibition, an ecclesiastical court trial, a potential deposition, and all the accompanying pain and expenditure of resources that would accompany such a process, I have decided to leave quietly. This is not about me. This is about fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ ..." The Evangelical rector of St. Paul's resigned last week and will plant a new church and conduct the first worship service for Chillicothe Anglican Fellowship an Anglican Mission in America church at 90 N. Paint Street, Chillicothe. A first service on Sunday at a store front Christian cafe in downtown Chillicothe drew 75 worshippers mostly from St. Paul's. Fr. Terry, 54, has become the first rector in the Diocese of Southern Ohio to receive a written Pastoral Directive from Bishop Herbert Thompson, concerning St. Paul's affiliation with the Anglican Communion Network (ACN). "This spring, the Vestry of St. Paul's, voted to affiliate with the Anglican Communion Network (ACN) as part of their witness to the Network's stand for Gospel truth." St. Paul's was warmly received into the Network by its moderator, Bishop Robert Duncan, but Bishop Thompson subsequently refused to allow any Southern Ohio congregations to affiliate with the ACN, and threatened me and St. Paul's with canonical actions if his church did not withdraw from the Network," said Fr. Terry. Bishop Thompson had written a letter to Fr. Terry and St. Paul's telling them to disaffiliate with the ACN. In his letter, Thompson blasted the orthodox rector and the Network saying that he believed the Anglican Communion Network to be a threat to the unity of the Church. "The directive clearly stated that while individual members lay or ordained might affiliate with the Network, congregations under my jurisdiction could not." Drawing on his personal history Thompson said, "As Bishop for 16 years I have made it clear in the Diocese and the National Church, that I will not bless or countenance the blessing of same sex unions in the Diocese, nor ordain any person living in a sexual relationship with another person. I believe and have taught that, for those who have sworn allegiance to Christ, sexual relations are to take place only in the context of Holy Matrimony between a man and a woman," wrote the exasperated bishop. Fr. Terry said he seemed to be on the same page theologically as the bishop. "I personally have needed a very clear unequivocal statement from Bp Thompson as to his desire to lead the diocese in an orthodox biblical direction. Unfortunately that has never came forth. The tragedy is that Thompson is surrounded by liberals thus effectively cutting us off from a gospel mainstream." "In my conversation with Bishop Thompson we talked at length about the concept of unity. I believe very strongly that any lasting unity presupposes a strong adherence to the faith once delivered and when we depart from that into pluriform truths that the unity we seek becomes a mirage." Writing to his congregation Terry said, "I believe Jesus, who is Lord of time and circumstances, clearly led me to become the 25th rector of St. Paul's Parish back in March of 1993. As your pastor, I have sought to remain obedient to the Lord Jesus, endeavoring to be a faithful minister of God's Word and Sacraments. I have sought to be obedient to my ordination vows, in remaining loyal to the doctrine, discipline and worship of Christ as the Church has received them." "As events have unfolded in recent months, I have searched my heart, and I am unable, in accordance with the canons of the Episcopal Church, to obey my bishop in his recent Pastoral Direction of June 3, 2004. Rather than pursue the avenue of an inhibition, an ecclesiastical court trial, a potential deposition, and all the accompanying pain and expenditure of resources that would accompany such a process, I have decided to leave quietly. This is not about me. This is about fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as I have embraced that Gospel for the past 32 years as a disciple of Christ." "Throughout the challenges of the past year, I have sought to 'conduct myself in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ ... contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel.' (Philippians 1:28) I leave the ministry here at St. Paul's with a profound sadness, but also with an overwhelming expectation of the wonderful things the Lord has planned." Prior to his departure, Terry had received a letter from Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan welcoming him into the ACN family. "As Moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Diocese and Parishes, it is with great joy that I welcome you to the Network based on the approval by the Steering Committee of your application to associate. I rejoice in counting you among the diocese, congregations and clergy who are standing together for Gospel truth and our faithful expression of Anglicanism in North America." Local American Anglican Council representative Andy Figueroa observed that St. Paul's and Fr. Terry courageously determined they could not follow the direction issued by Bishop Thompson and that they would not be intimidated. But the bishop himself came under fire from his orthodox wing. On August 8, 2003, after General Convention, Bishop Thompson issued a pastoral letter saying, in part: "I will not associate myself with those who seek to divide the Church over this matter. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I look forward to our continued conversation about this issue both within the House of Bishops and across the wider Church, including the Diocese of Southern Ohio. In the meantime, I also look forward to welcoming Bishop-elect Robinson as a colleague and to working with him for the mission that Christ has set before us." Later, in the fall, Bishop Thompson met with a large group of orthodox clergy, whom he promised to support by issuing another pastoral letter which would clearly state his position regarding the actions of General Convention. The letter was never sent. At Diocesan Convention he lent no support to his orthodox clergy, even ruling against the possibility of discussing a proposed amendment to a resolution that would have repudiated the actions of the General Convention (violating Roberts Rules of Order). Furthermore, Bishop Thompson has not only failed to work with and support orthodox bishops in the Episcopal Church in their attempts to prevent the apostasy of General Convention, but he has also criticized their efforts to respond to the convention appropriately. VIRTUOSITY FOOTNOTE: Never at any time has the ACN said it was in the business of separating from the Episcopal Church. The Network is Griswold's and the church's orthodox opposition. If Episcopalians can join Integrity the unofficial ECUSA sodomite organization, then Episcopalians should be free to join the Network. The Network's First Statement in its charter states that they will endeavor to work within the boundaries of the constitution of the Episcopal Church.

By T.R. Fehrenbach San Antonio Express-News, 8/8/2004 For light midsummer reading, I offer an update on the goings-on inside the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, aka the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. When the General Convention of the church approved, and New Hampshire consecrated, a practicing homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson, this sent shock waves across the entire 80-million-odd Anglican Communion. Aftershocks continue. World scene: The prelates of the several provinces, i.e., nations, expressed dismay at this action by roughly a 60-40 split vote in the U.S. House of Bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury was ticked, as was Britain, Australia, all Asia and most of South America, but the sub-Saharan bishops raised real Cain. All except South Africa vehemently denounced the U.S. deed. Now the opinion of Darkest Africa may seem unimportant, but the sub-Saharan area contains most of the world's Anglicans and is the church's most fertile missionary region. Anglicans there are mostly newer converts (and thus true believers) and engaged in deadly Muslim-Christian wars — which American Christians would like to ignore. They take religion seriously. And if they split, what will happen to the vast U.S. missions industry? The rising dissonance led the archbishop of Canterbury to call for a study, due out in October, and a conference of prelates, by invitation only, for August. Canterbury is the ranking see in Anglicanism, but unlike the pope the archbishop has authority but no power over national churches. In similar cases in America and England, he counseled the parties to back off for the good of all; but only England took his advice, while Canada pursued sanctifying same-sex marriage. Members of the Communion, which is technically a communion of bishops, not memberships, are expected to abide by rules and canons, which the American church did not. This means that whatever is adopted by a Communion conference, it has no power to legislate. But the Americans can be "isolated." This means that erring bishops would no longer be invited to Lambeth and other conferences and would no longer be part of the Communion. Meanwhile, some new twists: The next big confab will be in South Africa, not Lambeth, and both clergy and laity will be invited (Robinson will not), so this will be a gathering of thousands, not including media. Oh, yes — when all the African bishops refused to come to South Africa unless its archbishop changed his stance, he flipped, saying this was no longer a civil rights issue but a theological one. Wait and see. National scene: Most American bishops are quiet; anything they say makes somebody mad. Many clergy sit on the fence, glued, as cynics put it, to their pension plan. However, the church is already divided among conservative, "right-wing" groups looking for a new home, liberals who hope they leave and bishops who simply want to hold their dioceses together and damn the politics. The main thing happening is on the money trail. The financial reaction to Robinson has been far worse than liberals feared, the greatest diversion of funds in Episcopal history. Donations to the national church went south. Virginia, the largest diocese, has cut $1 million to date, Connecticut in liberal New England, $500,000. The dioceses of Texas (Houston) and Dallas have sent nothing. West Texas (local) will send less than $200,000 of a once-projected $750,000. The national church bureaucracy has a large endowment and can last about two years, but after that, crisis. Withholding funds does not reflect hostility to church work but no confidence in the leadership. Local scene: The last West Texas diocesan council did its usual thing — protesting and punting. However, it authorized individuals and parishes to withhold funds according to conscience, which most clearly did. The current bishop will never allow the ordination of homosexual clergy, blessing of same-sex marriages or invite errant prelates into his bailiwick. This the middle way, sticking to the old-time religion and having no truck with agitators left or right. Locally, it has kept things calm. Of course, not just bishops but dioceses, parishes and individuals are divided on the issue. Final damage — or restoration — can't be estimated yet. On the surface, things are quiet. However, the money trail shows all is not happy within the church. Mr. T. R. Fehrenbach is San Antonio's resident historian. ANGLICAN COMMUNION'S NEXT SECRETARY GENERAL SAYS CHURCH IS ABOUT COMMUNITY News Analysis by David W. Virtue The new secretary-general of the Anglican Communion Canon Kenneth Kearon, told a BBC interviewer recently that "churches are essentially about community and building community. And community is not only about positive things, but they also sometimes have their tensions." Now the buzzword "community" has become the liberal mantra of failed hopes, when the church has no discernible gospel to preach. It is right up there with words like "conversation", "vulnerability" and "listening", all words designed to lull the orthodox into a state of glassy-eyed insomnia while the revisionists ransack the cathedral looking for non existent silver linings to justify their existence. Frank Griswold talks endlessly about community, even as the House of Bishops is coming apart at the seams. Liberals love community. What they want is for everyone to sit in a giant hot tub called community and share a bottle of wine and loaf of bread...and mellow out. Don't be too dogmatic about what you believe or you will be labeled "fundamentalist"; don't knock homosexual behavior or you will be called "homophobic" and don't push exclusive thinking about the atonement or you will lack "diversity". Revisionists don't want the orthodox to be dogmatic, but they themselves are VERY dogmatic - in stages - of course. First tolerate women's ordination without doing any theological homework, then accept it, then make it mandatory, then stamp out the opposition. In time the same will happen with the sodomites. Firstly it is sinful behavior, then it is an alternative behavior, then it is a behavior that must be accepted because a few psychologists say so. Then denigrate the biblical accounts or say they don't mean what they clearly say they mean, and then broker it in. Then call people who disagree with you homophobic and then consecrate an openly homoerotic bishop, and finally make the ordination of non celibate homosexuals mandatory. If you don't agree you will never have a prayer of being made a bishop. But the notion of community, now being pressed by Canon John Peterson's successor, is a model that has been sanctioned in the church for years. However it is not biblical. Scripture is clear that the model it understands best when talking about the church is that of the family, not community, and the reason for this is that a family more radically and accurately depicts our relationships with each other and with God. It also points up the inherent flaws in relationships and demands a depth of commitment that cannot be found in a community. A son remains a son whether he conforms or is a prodigal. In community, sonship does not exist and anything goes. It also means that one does not have to be ultimately responsible for another, unless you choose. Or if you do, you can take it or leave it or you can do it for altruistic reasons. You cannot do that with a family. In community you can be absolved of your responsibilities for whatever reason you or they choose. A gated community, for example, is not a family. It is a group of people who can afford to live a certain lifestyle. They may get along because they are genial, sophisticated, play tennis and are nice to one another, even agreeing to shovel each other's driveways over winter. But it is not a family. Families are messy, and that is why God calls us into a family as adopted sons and daughters - because we are messy and sinful and need redemption. A community will never do this; it is far too weak a notion. It can never offer redemption. We are heirs and joint heirs with Christ, and that can only happen in a family, not a community. And that is why the new secretary general is dead wrong, and his concept of community will not work. The well of the Anglican Consultative Council has been poisoned as a Church of England newspaper editorial observed recently, and the notion that Canon Kearon can find a spiritual antidote for the years of poison his predecessor John Peterson poured into the Global South well is totally futile. The truth is Canon Kearon won't change a damn thing. He will continue the failed policies of Canon John Peterson, and the alienation of the Global South will only continue. The Anglican Communion is too far gone for the palliative care of the Anglican Communion Office in Paddington, London. Furthermore the priest comes from the already poisoned well of Irish Anglicanism that has the smooth talking Robin Eames as its Primate, and whose job it is to put on a happy face on things even as the Anglican Communion implodes in his face. The truth is "community" is a liberal palliative pill that offers not one salvific hope for mankind nor will it rescue the Anglican Communion. Eighteen million Nigerian Anglicans did not create "community". The church there was ordered to go out by its former Primate Joseph Adetiloye and preach the gospel and make disciples, and to do it immediately. So Nigerian evangelists went into animist and Islamic villages and told nominal Christians the Good News of God's love and invited them to repent and believe in the gospel...and millions did. They did not attempt to create something called "community" with Islamicists or animists. Had they done so no one would have been converted and the status quo would have been maintained. The Anglican Church in Nigeria would be in as big a mess as the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church is today. Mercifully they did not heed the call to community. They went out with the Good News of the Kingdom on their lips and preached repentance, out of which communities of faith were born. And the family of God was expanded. The idea of "community" is a flop house of failed hopes and expectations. The truth is junkies can create "community", alcoholics have a community, but the church IS a family of faithful people who have made a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, and then to one another. They must be prepared to lay down their lives for another. No one in a community will necessarily do that. A community can be artificially drawn up by a committee where annual dues are paid, but one may never talk to another person, and that's it. Kearon says communities have tensions. Really. A brilliant observation like this should get him an honorary DD from EDS. Yes there are tensions and the question has to be asked; Who created them? Certainly not 18 million faithful Nigerian Anglicans or remnant Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals in the West? The tensions were not created by the Anglican Communion Network or AAC either. The tensions were created by bishops like Pike and Spong and heightened by Griswold and Canon John Peterson. Those are the guilty parties who created tension. The orthodox just went along doing what they were supposed to be doing, carrying on a rich tradition of 2,000 years...preaching the gospel and making disciples. It was the revisionists who came in with "another gospel", causing all the problems. The notion of community is a fallacy In the BBC interview, Kearon was asked about the current Lambeth/Eames Commission (Lambeth Commission on Communion) and he had this to say. The Commission is a "process that's engaged currently in listening and engaging with the people who have very strong opinions on either side of the issue. The more you listen to people and engage with people who have deeply held divisions of opinion on this issue, the more you realize just how complex the issue is," he said. Come October and then February when the Primates meet, that "listening" and "engaging" process will be over, and it could be over for the whole Anglican Communion, and if that happens Canon Kearon's concept of "community" and the ACC will disappear with it.