Thursday, November 23, 2006
Whom do we say that we, the (Anglican) children of God, are?
Anglican Identities
If we are truly not just a Christian sect but rather a part of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” there must be something that distinguishes us.
There seems to be a trend in “United States Christianity”, where wittingly or unwittingly we think/assume/behave-as-if Christianity started with us and our ‘forebears’ and we should all express our Christianity similarly and to get rid of that horrible “d-word” – denomination.
We are fast losing our ‘Anglican identities’, those things which distinguish us from others. These things are not necessarily BETTER things, just DIFFERENT things – based on our understanding of God we express ourselves in a particular way.
We need to teach again the catechism and the 39 Articles of Religion. We have been entrusted with a KERNEL that we must GUARD and PASS ALONG to the next generation – an Anglican-flavored KERNEL. This kernel is obviously not at odds with the KERYGMA, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but is a particular expression of it which affirms what He did for us and our way of expressing the new life we have in Him.
We must not make the mistake of Mrs. Jefferts Schori, who implies that Anglicans are more educated and thus only use their share of the earth resources.
All through the book of the Acts of the Apostles there were “Christian Identities”:
Worshipping on the 1st day (8th day) of the week instead of the 7th day, the Sabbath.
Celebration the Last Supper – Eucharist
Declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore God.
Evangelization – the Great Commission
These things were distinctly Christian, although the members were originally Jewish.
If we are truly a part of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” we need to bear in mind that Christianity didn’t start in 1776 or thereabouts. We are Christians first, Americans second and we have an eternal and worldwide perspective. We are a part of a “continuum”, begun at Pentecost and continuing until our Lord returns. We are a link in that chain. We are not playing a game of “Chinese telephone” but must faithfully transmit the message, the KERYGMA to the next generation – that is our charge before God.
Our Lord in His mercy, allows us to transmit that message despite our imperfections and variations and confusions, so long as the essential message, the Apostles Doctrine, gets through – Jhn 14:6
So we choose the Anglican way of expressing Jesus. Well let us express Him in the Anglican way – the grass is always greener on the other side and we might well end up there, but while we are Anglicans let us express Jesus the Anglican way.
By the ‘Anglican way’ I don’t mean high church/low church. We can agree to disagree on that. – as a ‘high church’ person I am ‘partial’ to “smell and bells” but my home church is low church. I don’t tolerate it; I embrace it, even while still longing for an expression of Christ that appeals to my senses more. (Not more to my senses, but to my senses more)
This is not about ‘standard deviations from the mean’. Our Lord, the Mean of means, comes as Spirit to help us on our journey to the Mean, which is Himself.
This is about preaching what we believe.
We believe in the catholic church – because we believe that in death life is changed, not ended and when our mortal body lies in death, there is a place prepared for us. So we believe in the “church triumphant” – those saints who are gone before us, and the “church militant”, those of us who remain. We are all alive in Christ Jesus who, as the “firstfruit”, was resurrected as we shall be also (1 Cor 15:20, 1 Jhn 3:2).
So we recognize, respect and remember the ‘saints’ of the church, especially those who expressed Jesus as we do, people like Augustine, 1st Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, Cranmer. There are people like John of Damascus, Clement of Alexander, Ambrose, Nicholas of Myra (Santa Claus?), all with feast days during this 1st week of December.
Also people like Athnansius (who was one of the fathers who helped articulate the idea of the Trinity and wrote a creed we recite sometimes). There are also later people like Aquinas and Luther and Calvin and Tikhon and Vladimir.
We believe that God, the creator of all things seen and unseen (Nicene Creed) created time. So we say “all time belongs to Him” at the Easter Vigil (BCP CPWI 254). The ‘secular’ calendar begins with January 1, the Christian calendar begins the 1st Sunday of Advent (in 2006 it is Dec 3) – we are counter-culture and we need to know that and not be ashamed of it. Our lives are in God and revolve around the things of God so our time-perspective emanates from God. This fact should color everything we do and we need to celebrate that.
Let us not be fish nor fowl.
Anglican Identities
If we are truly not just a Christian sect but rather a part of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” there must be something that distinguishes us.
There seems to be a trend in “United States Christianity”, where wittingly or unwittingly we think/assume/behave-as-if Christianity started with us and our ‘forebears’ and we should all express our Christianity similarly and to get rid of that horrible “d-word” – denomination.
We are fast losing our ‘Anglican identities’, those things which distinguish us from others. These things are not necessarily BETTER things, just DIFFERENT things – based on our understanding of God we express ourselves in a particular way.
We need to teach again the catechism and the 39 Articles of Religion. We have been entrusted with a KERNEL that we must GUARD and PASS ALONG to the next generation – an Anglican-flavored KERNEL. This kernel is obviously not at odds with the KERYGMA, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but is a particular expression of it which affirms what He did for us and our way of expressing the new life we have in Him.
We must not make the mistake of Mrs. Jefferts Schori, who implies that Anglicans are more educated and thus only use their share of the earth resources.
All through the book of the Acts of the Apostles there were “Christian Identities”:
Worshipping on the 1st day (8th day) of the week instead of the 7th day, the Sabbath.
Celebration the Last Supper – Eucharist
Declaring that Jesus is the Son of God and therefore God.
Evangelization – the Great Commission
These things were distinctly Christian, although the members were originally Jewish.
If we are truly a part of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church” we need to bear in mind that Christianity didn’t start in 1776 or thereabouts. We are Christians first, Americans second and we have an eternal and worldwide perspective. We are a part of a “continuum”, begun at Pentecost and continuing until our Lord returns. We are a link in that chain. We are not playing a game of “Chinese telephone” but must faithfully transmit the message, the KERYGMA to the next generation – that is our charge before God.
Our Lord in His mercy, allows us to transmit that message despite our imperfections and variations and confusions, so long as the essential message, the Apostles Doctrine, gets through – Jhn 14:6
So we choose the Anglican way of expressing Jesus. Well let us express Him in the Anglican way – the grass is always greener on the other side and we might well end up there, but while we are Anglicans let us express Jesus the Anglican way.
By the ‘Anglican way’ I don’t mean high church/low church. We can agree to disagree on that. – as a ‘high church’ person I am ‘partial’ to “smell and bells” but my home church is low church. I don’t tolerate it; I embrace it, even while still longing for an expression of Christ that appeals to my senses more. (Not more to my senses, but to my senses more)
This is not about ‘standard deviations from the mean’. Our Lord, the Mean of means, comes as Spirit to help us on our journey to the Mean, which is Himself.
This is about preaching what we believe.
We believe in the catholic church – because we believe that in death life is changed, not ended and when our mortal body lies in death, there is a place prepared for us. So we believe in the “church triumphant” – those saints who are gone before us, and the “church militant”, those of us who remain. We are all alive in Christ Jesus who, as the “firstfruit”, was resurrected as we shall be also (1 Cor 15:20, 1 Jhn 3:2).
So we recognize, respect and remember the ‘saints’ of the church, especially those who expressed Jesus as we do, people like Augustine, 1st Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, Cranmer. There are people like John of Damascus, Clement of Alexander, Ambrose, Nicholas of Myra (Santa Claus?), all with feast days during this 1st week of December.
Also people like Athnansius (who was one of the fathers who helped articulate the idea of the Trinity and wrote a creed we recite sometimes). There are also later people like Aquinas and Luther and Calvin and Tikhon and Vladimir.
We believe that God, the creator of all things seen and unseen (Nicene Creed) created time. So we say “all time belongs to Him” at the Easter Vigil (BCP CPWI 254). The ‘secular’ calendar begins with January 1, the Christian calendar begins the 1st Sunday of Advent (in 2006 it is Dec 3) – we are counter-culture and we need to know that and not be ashamed of it. Our lives are in God and revolve around the things of God so our time-perspective emanates from God. This fact should color everything we do and we need to celebrate that.
Let us not be fish nor fowl.
# posted by subjective object @ Thursday, November 23, 2006 
