Anglican Mainstream South Africa

Theological???Speculations again. thanks to Stand Firm

More detritus from Holy Week. This one appears on the Sojourners blog, and consists of a Baptist pastor letting the world know that he hasn’t got a clue why he does what he does for a living:

I have no idea what Jesus meant by giving himself over like this. We read the scripture last night at the Maundy Thursday service at First Baptist. “Not my will but your’s.” Lord, have mercy. Someone asked the question as someone does every year, “Why would God want Jesus to die? If it’s God’s will…Why would God will this to happen?” I have some practiced answers. This year I offered them as I usually do.

“First, let me tell you what the tradition says…” I give a theological gloss and watch their eyes glaze over. Right. Of course. This isn’t an answer any more than a stump speech is an indication of what will actually happen if one of these people in the news are elected to public office. So, I move on.

“Well, what do you think…” Sometimes there’s an answer waiting. Sometimes people just want a chance to tell the Pastor what they think. I like hearing how God’s faithful have worked out this stuff. There is always wisdom here.

“Now let me tell you what I think…” is my last response. It goes something like this:

I don’t know. I don’t want to say “It’s a mystery” because that becomes the great theological copout. No. I say that I don’t understand. Why? Because I don’t. The whole story is insane. It’s madness. God has gone insane. Jesus has followed God right there to the looney bin. Peter is in denial. Judas goes off the deep end. The dysfunction of the community following Jesus is exposed in this dramatic turn of events. The Sanhedrin goes nuts. Pilate goes nuts. The women of Jerusalem are told, by Jesus no less, that it will get worse before it gets better. Insane? You think this is insane? You think this is worth your well-trained bereavement? Just wait. This is when we honor insanity. So…I don’t know what the hell it means. I don’t know God’s will. I’m not sure I ever have.

It’s insane. There’s nothing “Good” here.

The whole world has gone mad. Even God.

This is Revelation.

No, this is crap, not to put too fine a point on it. What’s the one word missing from this rant? “Scripture” or “Bible” (he mentions “the tradition,” but there’s no telling what that means, especially from a Baptist). Instead, it comes down to, “let me tell you what I think.”

The older I get, the less interesting I find my own speculations on religion, and the more interesting I find God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ, conveyed to us through inspired witnesses to the events that God’s Word addresses. It’s kind of a neat book, when you get into it. I hope that Tripp Hudgins, the writer of this tripe and (of course) a Ph.D student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, takes time from his liturgical studies to glance through it now and then.

“Jefferts Schori has succumbed to expedience or the copout of ‘interfaith’ wishy-washiness-cum-cowardice”

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org

The Contributing Editor of the liberal Christian Century magazine, James M. Wall has accused the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop of an “incredible display of ignorance” and “appalling shallowness”. He also stated that she had succumbed to “blatant Israeli propaganda” in dealing with Israel’s settlement obsessed, right-wing government.

Wall, former editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine, has made more than 20 trips to the region. He excoriated Jefferts Schori over a statement she made recently in Los Angeles that Palestinians and Israelis should “eat together and listen to each other’s stories”.

“Martin Luther King, sitting in that Birmingham city jail, would most certainly inform these prelates that there is no debating evil. A brutal military occupation is not open to debate. It is a disturbing spectacle. The collective ignorance displayed by many of the men and women-though, thank God, not all-who govern these denominations, boggles the mind,” wrote Wall.

“The issue, my dear Christian friends, is justice, pure and simple. And yet, there they are, these robed religiosos, dripping with interfaith piety, proclaiming that the simple act of divestment of church funds is too harsh a tactic to use against Israel’s settlement obsessed, right-wing government. What do they teach in seminary these days? Have those Old Testament professors who lead their Israeli-sanctioned “study groups” to the Holy Land removed the prophets from their syllabi?”

The Presiding Bishop urged Episcopalians to “invest in legitimate development in Palestine’s West Bank and in Gaza” rather than focusing on divestment or boycotts of Israel, during a March 25 “Middle East Peacemakers” luncheon in Los Angeles.”The Episcopal Church does not endorse divestment or boycott,” the presiding bishop told more than 200 people gathered at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles. “It’s not going to be helpful to endorse divestment or boycotts of Israel. It will only end in punishing Palestinians economically.”

She also called for “a two-state solution with a dignified home for Palestinians and for Israelis” and for “deeper engagement, people of different traditions eating together, listening to each other’s stories.”

Wall ripped the Presiding Bishop calling her remarks appallingly shallow and that the notion of actually debating how they should deal with the Israeli Occupation was a disturbing spectacle. “The collective ignorance displayed by many of the men and women-though, thank God, not all-who govern these denominations, boggles the mind.”

“Here is the Episcopal News Service report on the current presiding Episcopal bishop explaining why she, and the church that elevated her to denominational leadership, oppose the simple, non-violent tactic of targeting divestment of church funds from US corporations that profit from Israel’s military occupation:

“Punishing Palestinians economically? That statement is an incredible display of ignorance of the political realities of a brutal military occupation.

“Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori wants investment in Palestine, not divestment from Israel’s occupation.

“Who proposed that approach?

“Sounds very much like the warden of the world’s largest outdoor prison inviting church members to come inside the prison and do their good works.

“Cottage industries in cell block six?

“One of these corporations, Caterpillar, produces heavy equipment that Israel uses to build its apartheid wall, a wall that has nothing to do with security and everything to do with stealing even more Palestinian land.

“Caterpillar also produces those monstrous bulldozers that tear down Palestinian homes, another “security” measure that is really designed to tighten the Occupation noose.

“An Israeli soldier drove one of those American-built bulldozers over an American citizen, peace activist Rachel Corrie, on March 16, 2003, as she tried to stop an attack on a Palestinian home. In death, this young woman has become a symbol of non-violent courage to Palestinians.

“Not so in the US, where neither action nor formal government protest was taken against the army that killed her.

“And yet, here is an Episcopal bishop, standing before 200 of her fellow Episcopalians actually calling for Palestinians and Israelis to ‘eat together and listen to one another’s stories’.

“This is blatant Israeli propaganda. These words were not uttered in the spirit of Amos; they sound more like an American politician scrambling for Israel Lobby money than they do of a Christian leader who must at some point in her career reflected upon, and perhaps even preached on, the call from Amos 5:4 to ‘let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream.’ (NIV).

“The saddest thing about this failure of a church leader to grasp the reality of injustice is that she offers palliative words that sound more like a Southern bishop of the 1950s begging the segregated and segregator to live together peacefully.

“There are people in Palestine on protest hunger strikes. Others are dying under the boot of a brutal occupying army. This is not a problem that will be addressed by our ‘eating together and talking to one another’.

“Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori knows better than to speak of the Palestinian issue in the language she used. One of my sources who follows this issue with diligence, wrote to say:

“‘It was she who, perhaps three years ago, visited Gaza, was duly appalled, and vowed to press with all of her and her church’s authority, to end the sadistic blockade and occupation of all of Palestine’.

“It mystifies me that she can ignore the precedent of, and successful use of BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions campaign), in the closest parallel, South Africa. [Jefferts] Schori has succumbed to expedience or the copout of ‘interfaith’ wishy-washiness-cum-cowardice.

“How can one have any hope for justice and a viable existence for the Palestinians in the face of such cavalier disregard for the well-known and often courageously expressed recitations of the ‘facts on the ground’ created by the Zionist enterprise?

“Trips by church leaders, who finally see first-hand the ugliness of Occupation, are the best way to break through Israeli propaganda.

“But, based on Bishop [Jefferts] Schori’s public display of hasbara (propaganda) in Los Angeles, the power of the Israel Lobby trumps the truth.”

April 7th, 2012 Posted in Holy Week |

Sat Apr 7

am: Ps 95, 88 pm 27

Job 19:21-27a

am: Heb 4:1-16 pm: Rom 8:1-11

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HOLY SATURDAY

LITURGICAL THEME FOR THE DAY: On Holy Saturday, there is no liturgy at all.  The liturgy this evening is the vigil – the preparation for and entry into the celebration of Our Lord’s Resurrection. This is a Blessed Sabbath, a day of quiet reflection and stillness. It is the day of Christ’s entombment as Holy Saturday is the day, which connects Good Friday, the commemoration of the Cross, with the day of His Resurrection. When night falls we begin the powerful liturgy of vigil of Easter which signifies in music , sight, sound and scent Christ’s passage from the dead to the living by the liturgy, which begins in darkness (sin, death) and is enlightened by the fire and the candle representing Lumen Christi — the Light of Christ — just as the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the community of believers, is led from spiritual darkness to the light of His truth. Christ’s baptism, which our own baptism imitates, is represented during the liturgy by the blessing of the water of baptism by immersing (“burying”) the candle representing His Body into the font.

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Letter to CEN from Rev. Canon Dr. Michael Green
http://sanctusblog.blogspot.com/
March 25, 2012

Sir, Having just returned from leading a Diocesan Clergy Conference for the Anglican Church in North America, I offer my impressions, since we in UK are not always well informed about our orthodox brethren in America.

We need to be aware that the assault by lawyers of the Episcopal Church on their orthodox churches and their remaining two or three orthodox dioceses continues. These lawsuits are almost always successful and so increasingly the best and most biblical clergy and congregations are being evicted from their church buildings. The Episcopal Church can hardly ever fill them with ‘shadow congregations’ so they are empty and are being sold off as Muslim mosques and for other purposes, but never to ACNA.

I was struck by the fact that the Anglican Church in North America, now numbering well over 100,000, are no longer looking back over their shoulder to the loss of their buildings, but are vigorous and forward-looking. Some 200 new congregations have been formed in the past two-and-a-half years, while the aging membership of the Episcopal Church continues to shrink and some 72 per cent of their churches are in financial trouble. By contrast 400 church leaders from ACNA met a couple of weeks ago to plan for the founding of 1,000 new Anglican churches across North America in the next five years.

A fascinating combination of churchmanships mark the new Anglicans. They are avowedly Catholic, Evangelical and Charismatic, and it seems a very holistic mixture. They have caught the attention of the media. CBN recently did a six-minute piece entitled ‘Anglican Fever Youth flock to New Denomination’. Of course they do not see themselves as a new denomination at all, but as the continuing witness to Prayer Book Christianity. They have an upcoming Provincial Assembly in June.

The sad feature is a break within the Anglican Mission in the Americas. This was the first group to separate from the Episcopal Church under the aegis of the Archbishops of South East Asia and Rwanda. Although they joined in when the orthodox diaspora came together as ACNA, they remained in many ways distinct. South East Asia is no longer involved, but now there has been a rupture with the Archbishop of Rwanda, with whom only two of their bishops now remain aligned, while the other six are in an ecclesiastical No Man’s Land. This is tragic, and great efforts are being made to repair the split.

That apart, the ACNA is on the move. Many of its congregations are small, meeting in gymnasia, large homes, or borrowed buildings from other churches. Their attitude is positive, their aim is outreach, and their sacrifices are impressive. No wonder 75 per cent of the Anglican Communion recognise them (while half the Provinces of the Communion are in broken or impaired communion with the Episcopal Church).

Surely it is high time for the Church of England to give them the recognition they merit.

April  2012

Like most of America’s historic private universities, Vanderbilt University was founded by Christian believers for the purpose of inculcating Christian beliefs in its students. Vanderbilt was founded in the 1870s by Methodists and later funded largely by New York’s Vanderbilt family. Within a remarkably short period of years, Vanderbilt had forfeited its conservative Methodist roots in order to identify with the emerging secular consensus in American higher education.

As Notre Dame’s James Tunstead Burtchaell explained, Vanderbilt serves as a case study in the secularization of American higher education — a process Burtchaell described as the “disengagement of colleges and universities from their Christian churches.” Just a few decades after its founding, Vanderbilt has transformed itself into a secular university, embarrassed by its Christian founding. As Burtchaell made clear, this was not due to demands for secularization from outside the university. It was accomplished under the direction of liberal Protestants who desperately wanted to identify with the secular elites.

Well, if that was Vanderbilt’s goal, the university has been stunningly successful. It is unlikely that many of Vanderbilt’s students and faculty know anything of the university’s Christian history. If they do, it would be cause for further embarrassment, mixed with relief that the university is now safely in liberal and secular hands.

In more recent months, Vanderbilt’s administration decided to push secularism to the extreme –  launching a virtual vendetta against religious organizations on campus. Officials of the university informed religious groups that had been recognized student organizations that they would have to comply with an absolute non-discrimination policy. This means that religious organizations (primarily Christian) must now allow any Vanderbilt student to be a candidate for a leadership office, regardless of religious beliefs or sexual orientation. In other words, a Christian student group would be forced to allow the candidacy of an atheist. A group of Christians who believe in the Bible’s standard of sexual morality would be required to allow the candidacy of a homosexual member. There can be absolutely no discrimination, the university insists, even if that means that Christian organizations are no longer actually Christian.

In reality, that is the aim. The university is embarrassed again — this time by the mere presence of Christian organizations on its campus. It will deal with that embarrassment by eliminating the right of Christian organizations to operate on Christian principles. It will impose its own Stalinist definition of tolerance and freedom and deny the right of Christian students to participate in recognized campus organizations that can remain authentically Christian.

The provost of the university recently defended the policy, stating that students organizations may elect their own leaders, but may not disqualify any candidate based on, among other things, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

Last week, the largest Roman Catholic student organization, Vanderbilt Catholic, announced that it will leave the university. In an open letter explaining their decision, the group stated:

“As Catholics we believe that faith in Jesus Christ and the truths that He has revealed to us through the Catholic Church are fundamental to our identity as Catholics and our mission in this life. Likewise, as a Catholic student organization, Catholic faith and practice precede all else that we do. We are an open and welcoming community that people of all faiths can join, but we require our leaders to share this Catholic faith and practice. A student group led by those who do not share these things might be a very worthwhile and beneficial organization, but it would not be Catholic in the fullest sense of the word. These faith-based requirements for leadership are as important to the integrity of our organization as musical range is for a choral group.”

Will evangelical Christian organizations reach a similar decision? The next few weeks will reveal the answer to that question. In the meantime, leaders of those evangelical groups should look to the Vanderbilt Catholic statement as an example of courage, candor, and specificity.

Leaders of Vanderbilt University, on the other hand, should be equally honest as they explain their draconian policy. The issue is not really tolerance. If so, the university would have to deal with the most intolerant and exclusivist organizations on campus –the recognized fraternities and sororities. As David French of National Review has argued, those recognized student organizations are allowed to discriminate on any ground at all, including appearance and wealth.

As French stated:

“The reality, of course, is that Vanderbilt is trying to force the orthodox Christian viewpoint off campus. The ‘nondiscrimination’ rhetoric is mere subterfuge. How can we know this? Because even as it works mightily to make sure that atheists can run Christian organizations, it is working just as mightily to protect the place and prerogatives of Vanderbilt’s powerful fraternities and sororities — organizations that explicitly discriminate, have never been open to ‘all comers,’ and cause more real heartache each semester for rejected students than any religious organization has ever inflicted in its entire history on campus. Vanderbilt’s embattled religious organizations welcome all students with open arms; Vanderbilt’s fraternities and sororities routinely reject their fellow students based on little more than appearance, family heritage, or personality quirks.”

David French’s most important point is his first — that Vanderbilt’s real agenda is to force any orthodox Christian viewpoint off campus.

What we see at Vanderbilt University is secularism with its gloves off. In the name of tolerance, it will not tolerate orthodox Christian conviction. The university now comes full circle and forces off campus the only organizations that hold to the Christian beliefs of the school’s founders. Look carefully at Vanderbilt’s intolerance. Be assured that it is coming soon to a campus near you.

Bill Muehlenberg’s commentary on issues of the day…

One of the most pressing needs of contemporary Christians is to learn how to think critically. And the very fact that some of you are already murmuring to yourselves at this point is an indication of this. That is, there has not been real critical thinking about what I have just said.

So before I go any further, let me remind you that the word ‘critical’ means more than just what some of you are now thinking. Some have in mind a negative, condemning and harsh spirit. Of course that is one definition of the word, but that is not the one I am referring to.

What I am talking about here is another meaning. As one dictionary puts it, critical means “exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation”. Now that is what I am talking about indeed. I am not here referring to the other dictionary definition of those “inclined to criticise severely and unfavourably”.

So from here on in, when you see me using the word ‘critical,’ realise that I am not talking about negative criticising, but careful assessing. Christians are called to discern, to assess, to reflect, to test, to think carefully, to weigh up options, to think things through, and to carefully evaluate.

Yet sadly it seems many believers today are failing to do that. Far too many are simply going with the flow, accepting whatever the world throws at them. They seem to lap up every latest trendy idea, cause, theory, or belief, without critically reflecting on just what it is they are latching on to.

The Bible everywhere tells us to be careful that we do not be deceived, but to test all things, weigh up what we hear, and make sure we are not being conned. All that means we must use the brains God has given us, and make sure that what we are saying and doing lines up with the Word of God.

Our classic example of this of course can be found in the book of Acts, concerning the proclamation of the gospel at Berea. As usual a local Jewish synagogue was the place where the action took place. A short account of Paul and Silas’s time there is given in Acts 17:10-15.

Of real interest is verse 11: “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” They did not uncritically accept what Paul said, but made sure first that it lined up with Scripture.

They were eager and enthusiastic about this new teaching, but they were not gullible or naive. They daily checked it out with the Old Testament Scriptures. This was not a case of relying on emotional reactions, but of critically thinking about what was being said.

As David Peterson comments, “They were not gullible or unthinking in their approach. Paul had offered them a new way of understanding the Scriptures, proclaiming the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus (cf. v. 3). They needed to ‘test’ or ‘cross examine’ (anakrinontes is used in a legal sense, as in 4:9; 12:19; 24:8; 28:18) the Scriptures to see if Paul’s case proved true.”

This was a careful examination and a thorough scrutiny. Their eagerness was hardly just an emotional response. But how many believers today act primarily on their emotions and feelings, instead of carefully, intelligently and thoroughly assessing and discerning what is being presented to them?

Tragically so many believers today simply latch on to whatever is trendy or popular or cool. There is not careful critical assessment of all sorts of things: ideas, lifestyles, philosophies, behaviours, political parties, social trends, spiritual experiences, and so on.

What this really means is that far too many Christians do not have a biblical worldview. That is, they do not make it a regular habit to judge everything in the light of Scripture. Instead of depending on a sanctified mind and a Spirit-led reason, they tend to rely mainly on emotions, impressions and feelings.

They seem to forget that when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he of course said it is for us to love God with all of our being – our minds included (Matthew 22:34-40). Specifically: “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment” (vv. 37-38).

And Paul said we will be changed and transformed not by hyping up our emotions or jumping on the latest trendy bandwagon, but by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2). Indeed, that verse is well worth sharing here in its entirety: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The only way we can keep the world from squeezing us into its mould is by the renewal of our minds. Yet far too many Christians seem to think this verse says, ‘by the removal of our minds’. God gave us a brain and he expects us to use it for his glory. Indeed, he commands us to love him with our minds.

The Bible is full of commands for us to test, to evaluate, to judge, to discern, to analyse, to weigh up, to sift through, to think about, and to not allow ourselves to be deceived or dragged off course. Here are just some of the many admonitions as found in Scripture:

1 Kings 3:9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?

Psalm 119:66 Teach me good discernment and knowledge. For I believe in Your commandments.

Prov 2:2-6 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver. And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD. And discover the knowledge of God.

Prov 14:15 A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps

Lam 3:40 Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord

Ezek 22:26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean.

Luke 12:56-57 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

1 Co 2:15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

1 Cor 10:15 judge for yourselves what I say

I Cor. 12:7-10 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom … to another distinguishing between spirits.

1 Cor 14:20 Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.

2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.

1 Thess 5:21-22 Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.

2 Thess 2:3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way,

1 Tim 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely.

2 Tim. 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

1 John 4:1,2  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Rev 2:2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

All these verses make it absolutely clear that we must be thinking critically at all times. That is, we must think as biblical Christians, and not as the world thinks. We must discern, test, evaluate and carefully understand all things, and seek to have the mind of Christ in our daily walk with God (1 Corinthians 2:16).

If not, we are not really thinking; and we are not really being biblical Christians either.