This past weekend, Robin and I made a visit to the congregation of St. Andrews in Middleborough, MA. It was my first visit as Bishop and I was both excited and anxious. Fr. Stephen DelSignore had set up a meeting with the vestry and a reception dinner Saturday night, both of which felt like returning home to long lost friends. Later that night, I told Robin that I felt so at home and at ease with everyone. “Of course,” she said, “this is your purpose in life, and this is what God has called you to do.” I knew that she was right. Think about it, how you would answer if someone asked, "What is your purpose in life?" Would you answer, “To serve the Lord?” I think most would say that making money and living a comfortable life is their primary purpose.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33)
The sermon I preached while at St. Andrews, was on the new spirituality. I spoke about the current fad of replacing the words religion and faith with the word spirituality. This kind of switch may seem harmless at first, especially since a large number of people who call themselves Christians endorse it. Some even call it a new kind of evangelism that helps people get around the so-called barriers of doctrine and dogma. They believe it enables them to get directly to Christ on their own terms. They tell us that, "all religions are true and give us an experience of God.” The problem with calling this a new approach is that it isn’t new at all. It’s the same old rhetoric that goes against the Holy Scriptures, and that it doesn’t lead to Jesus.
"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 )
Make no mistake. Satan knows the end of the story and is indeed the thief described in John 10:10. So when someone tells you, "I’m not into religion, but I am into spirituality," or "I’m not religious, but I am very spiritual," they are also saying, "I wish to exempt myself from the consequences of religion and faith." This exemption is impossible. John 10:10 also tells us that Jesus Christ is not only "True God of true God." He is also "True man of true man."
Jesus Christ is God come to earth, once and for all, in the flesh, for the redemption of the world. His coming ends the possibility that any other "religion" can be true except the worship of God the Father, body and soul, in God the Son, in the grace and fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That is the primary reason for The Protestant Episcopal Church, and the reason the people of St. Andrews gather together every Sunday. They are a people of good purpose, a people of God. And I was as comfortable and at home with them as when I am at my home church.
"Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Be of good purpose,
Bishop Ian
