A Healthy Fear of God

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

(Philippians 2:12)

Martin Luther made an important distinction concerning the fear of God. He distinguished between servile fear and filial fear. He described servile fear as that kind of fear a prisoner has of his jailer. Filial fear is the fear of a son who loves his father and does not want to offend him or let him down. It is a fear born of respect. When the Bible calls us to fear God, it is issuing a call to a fear born of reverence, awe, and adoration. It is a respect of the highest magnitude.

To truly fear God means to be in awe of God’s being and character as well as in awe of what He has done for us in Christ. When you put these two ideas together, you have an absolutely sovereign Creator of the universe who punishes those who resist Him, and yet loves us and sends His Son to die in our place. Surely that’s good reason to fear or reverence Him.

So how could a Christian walk with no fear when the Bible says that we should, “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”

I know - it seems confusing. It seems like maybe our salvation may not be a sure thing, which would certainly invoke fear and trembling in me. Yet, the Bible promises that if we confess the Lord Jesus with our mouths and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, then we are saved. So the question is this: If we’re saved, why do we have to serve God with “fear and trembling”?

Paul, in his admonition to the Philippians, never meant that we should quake in our boots as Christians. He simply meant that Christians should never want to offend God with their actions and deeds. Working out our salvation with fear and trembling means we should approach everything in our lives with a heightened sense of reverence for God. We are supposed to be living our lives in a way that brings glory to God.

Listen, don’t get me wrong, a little fear is healthy. For example, a child’s healthy fear of a parent will often produce the right behavior. All my mom had to say was, “Wait until your Father gets home,” to strike fear in the hearts of her children when we misbehaved. We knew he would follow through on her threat if we didn’t straighten up. I had a healthy fear of my Father but I still loved him even when I received disciplined.

When I ride my bike I have a healthy fear of oncoming traffic so I am more aware of my surroundings when I ride. The same is true for God; to have a healthy respect and to be in awe of God is what is being referred to by Paul in the above passage. Think about whom it is we serve here. Then think about those who choose not to . Pretty scary.

Look at the Book of Proverbs. It provides great instruction about the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

Until we understand who God is and develop a reverential filial fear of Him, we cannot have true wisdom. True wisdom comes only from understanding who God is and that He is holy, just, and righteous. Fearing God means having such a reverence for Him that it has a great impact on the way we live our lives. To be in fear of God is to respect Him, to obey Him, to submit to His discipline, and to worship Him in awe.

Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.”

Evil by its very nature sets itself against the Lord. It is the exact opposite of what God is, so to take any attitude toward it but hatred is to dishonor the Lord.

Proverbs 10:27 “The fear of the Lord prolongs days.”

Righteousness, which comes about through a reverent fear of the Lord, always has a tendency to lengthen life, for it leads to the practice of healthy principles. Sin, on the other hand, because it is the practice of things often detrimental to health as well as to holiness, tends to shorten life; some have called it hard living.

The truth is if we don’t have a healthy fear of the Lord, we cannot please God. The prophet Isaiah said it this way, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things my hand has made, and all those things exist,’ says the Lord. ‘But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word’.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)

The Bible is clear about what a fear of the Lord can bring to our lives. Without it, we close ourselves to the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge; we will flirt with evil and are corrupted by it; our lives are likely to be shorter; and we will never come to know the love of God that gives us the assurance and confidence in our own salvation.

We really should walk in fear of the Lord, but we shouldn’t be afraid of Him. He is a life-long companion, an ever-present help in a time of trouble. Respect His ways, observe His truths, and walk in His light.

Be in awe…

Bishop Ian

Out With the Old

On the new web site I created for Resurrection Church I used, “An Unchanging Faith in an Ever-Changing World,” as the banner.” I have had several inquiries as to why. Well to be honest I was first introduced to it by Fr. Steven DelSignore, Rector of St. Andrews in Middlebourgh MA. I liked it so much I decided to use it for Resurrection Church. To answer the question, let’s have to first look at the reason behind the phrase.

Americans, especially in the 21st century, are not very good at embracing the past. We seem to be hardwired to embrace change without the lessons of the past as a guide for moving forward. Look around; old buildings are torn down to make space for new ones, upgrades abound in everything we see in ads and on TV. Churches are eliminating traditional worship for the more contemporary. Let’s face it, “out with the old in with the new,” has become the mantra for everything from politics to religion.

We are a society led to believe the future will be brighter and that the old thoughts and ideas of the past were not nearly as cool and sophisticated as the new ones. As if any connections to the past make us well… un-cool.

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." Jude 1:3

Christians are commanded in Scripture to, “pass on the faith as once delivered to the saints.” This is what original Episcopalians believe and the reason for our unchanging faith. We are the heirs of a long tradition for which countless Christians have given their lives. The Faith is not for us to play with or to change to suit our own ideas, or the whims of a modern society.

Because we live in an ever-changing world, we frequently need to be reminded of this and to take a stand. As original Episcopalians, we believe that Christians who worship in a modern way in a modern-looking church may begin to lose sight of their past. They forget about the historic Church.
I get questions as well about the 1928 over the 1979 prayer book. Original Episcopalians believe that our 1928 Prayer Book to be slowly crafted over the centuries, with careful up dating of the original Book of Common Prayer of 1549. When you worship on Sunday, you say many of the same prayers used by Thomas Cranmer, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington, and thousands of other Christians. The words themselves become a vocal connection to those Anglicans who have “fought the good fight” and handed on the Faith intact to us. I remember a time when an Anglican could go to any other Anglican parish in the world and feel right at home in worship. In fact, one of the fundamental ideas of Anglicans was that everyone would worship using the very same words. That is what is meant by common prayer. Today, our Prayer Book serves not only to identify us as Original Episcopalians, but also to keep us on the same page with history.

Another quality of 21st-century Americans is that they have a very high view of themselves. They don’t like to be under anybody else’s authority. Christian virtues such as obedience, humility, and submissiveness are considered today to be signs of weakness. We also demand to be entertained. Nowhere is all this more evident than in today’s worship. Reverence has given way to lively, emotionally “exciting” praise fellowship. There is a real sense of a loss of the sacred in what the modern church calls a “seeker friendly” worship environment.

In worship, we come together not so much to gain a blessing from God as to perform a service, to “offer ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto the Lord.” From the start of the Reformation, we have believed that worship ought to be liturgical in a language understood by the people, to profess the “reformed Catholic” faith, and it ought to be (as St. Paul stipulates) reverent and orderly.

Original Episcopalians believe that we need to be reminded that we are sinners, that we are all personally responsible for the Son of God having to suffer death upon the cross. We believe that our pride has to be torn down in order for us to properly worship and adore God. Our service is meant to convey that sense of humble reverence.

It is also meant to provide us with an escape from the boisterous, fast-paced world in which we live. Original Episcopalians come to appreciate how precious this time can be. We must remember that worship is an awesome work. In worship, the community comes before God not only with praise and thanksgiving, but also mindful of its own unworthiness and sinfulness.
Reverent and orderly worship also enables the community to step out of the “secular” and experience the “sacred.” In this way, both the individual and the community are constantly reminded of the spiritual, the corporate, the historical, and the mystical aspects of the Body of Christ.

Be Unchanging,

Bishop Ian

The Authentic Deacon

There are two types of deacons. Transitional - those of us in the beginning of ordained ministry were learning the ministerial ropes as we waited out our time before being ordained a Priest. We were supposed to be learning the role of servant, yet I truly question how many actually did.

I think many liturgical churches have overlooked the authentic role of the Vocational or Permanent deacon. The role of vocational deacons is to bring the church to the world and the world to the church; to lead us out of our comfortable pews and into the ministry beyond the brick and mortar.

As a deacon, I served an Episcopal Church in California. I remember Fr. Doyle, the priest who presented me for ordination, stating, “The role of the priest is to bring the good news to the world. The role of the deacon is to bring the bad news back."

Ok, I confess I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about at the time, but I soon came to realize the real world reality of Fr. Doyle’s comment. I was the “parochial gopher,” which meant I was the man on the ground for everything from hospitality ministry to chairing every committee the parish had. I wasn’t just serving at the altar; I was the hands and feet of our local congregation and the community at large. If any member of the congregation had a concern, grievance, or illness they came to me. And so I learned well the meaning of being the bearer of the bad news during my year as a transitional deacon.

Vocational deacons serve permanently, and in my opinion every congregation should have them. Not because we need someone to push all the stuff on that we don’t have time to do, but to be a servant leader among the congregation. Yes, all of us are called in some capacity to be ministers in the church, lay and clergy alike. Some we ordain to lead us, and through their ordination they will lead and highlight the value of our ministry.

"Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives." Titus 3:14

Priests tend and grow the flock; deacons are there to pull us out of ourselves and move beyond the flock. As Christians, we understand that we are saved by grace, not by works. However, we are all called to serve; ordained or not, to the challenges of doing good works that God has planned in advance for us to do.

Heeding his calling to serve, Gene A. Morse, was ordained as a Deacon on January 9, 2011 in Resurrection Protestant Episcopal Church. He was called to this ministry not by self but by God. This is not for Gene’s own glory but that God’s glory would be shown through his work in our community. Gene is battling cancer and worked tirelessly through his study program for the deaconate during his chemo and radiation therapies.

But, here’s the thing; every Christian’s mission in life is to bring glory to God and blessings to others - not just to receive, but to do. No matter what challenges we face in this physical life we are still called upon to be doers - that God’s grace can be shown through us. The result of being a doer is that we are blessed in ways that are immeasurably greater than any physical ailment or affliction.

In the last two churches where I served as a Rector, I was privileged to serve alongside deacons. Liturgically, they set the table, and assist at Holy Communion, emphasizing their servant ministry. But, far beyond their help during the service, I cannot imagine how we would have done our work without them. They are that important.

We have all been granted gifts to be able to bring glory to God and blessings to His people. Deacon Gene Morse has embraced his abundant God-given gifts and become the “hands and feet of Christ.”

Congratulations Gene, I look forward to authentic ministry with you.

Be of Service,

Bishop Ian


Presiding Bishop Del Murray with Bishop Ian Anderson ordaining Gene Morse to office of Deacon.

New Year, New Beginning

Every New Year’s Eve we prepare for the year that is to come with bright lights, big bands, bubby champagne, loud noise makers, and grand parties. While we may not stay up until midnight on many nights of the year, we try to stay awake past midnight on December 31 in order to see the dawn of the New Year. Even if we are in our pajamas at home, we typically tune our televisions to the evening’s events in Times Square, allowing the bright lights and the flicker of the big ball to illuminate our living rooms. The New Year is almost always ushered in with lights. Something new has come!

The season of Epiphany begins when the twelve days of Christmas are over and it ends on Ash Wednesday with the beginning of Lent. Jesus was twelve days old when wise men followed a star, looking for the ruler who would shepherd the people of Israel. We are told that the wise men find delight beneath this star, and Epiphany is the season of our basking in this same light – the light of the Christ child. It is a time to go and tell what happened in Bethlehem. And Epiphany begins with the promise of a light – a light that comes when the glory of the Lord has risen upon us. In their search, the wise men travel to Jerusalem and create a stir with a simple question, “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?” The very question foretells great change. Herod is no longer the King of the Jews. A new king has arrived – a child who will change the world. The wise men from the East know that the child for whom they are searching will lead the people of Israel in a way that no one else has ever led them before. The Jews are accustomed to being ruled by Herod, but they long for not just another ruler, but for a shepherd. They are hungry for a different kind of government. They are eager for the change this child will bring.

At the beginning of the New Year, we also often yearn for things to be different. We yearn for families to get along, for finances to improve, bodies to become healthier, a more peaceful life and a peaceful world, more time with friends, less stress, a new job, and so on. Yet the things we resolve to do differently on January 1 are rarely part of our life on March 1. We set out every year with high hopes in doing things differently this year. So, what if we were to stop making impossible resolutions for ourselves; stop setting ourselves up for the same failure we experienced last year?

When the wise men finally encounter Christ they are overwhelmed with joy, offering costly gifts to the baby – gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – the best of the best. What if we resolve to remember the significance of Christ’s birth by consistently asking ourselves what we can offer to Christ this New Year? We may discover that we really have not given our lives to Christ in the first place – that what Christ is really yearning for is for us to come – to come home to him and say, “I want you to rule my life, guide my life, and shephard my life.”

Keep your resolutions simple this year. Don’t walk alone; ask Christ for his help and see if they finally become possible.

Begin anew,

Bishop Ian