Lent: What's New, What's Normal?

I was listening to several of the talking heads lapping up the Kool-aid and saying this recession is the barometer for the “new depression,” and rising gas and food prices were the “new normal.” My parents grew up in the depression of the 1930’s. So did my wife, Robin’s, parents. The depression stamped them for life and yes, there is reason to be concerned about today’s recession, but there’s also a reason to be hopeful. I’ve been remembering my first Lent as a young teenager; it was a time that I felt that pull of the Anglican faith and practice that shaped my life.

By requiring fasting and abstinence, the observance of Lent somehow helped me cope with the multitude of early teen angst many of us had to grapple with.

This was also the time that I attended confirmation class. We were asked to give something up. I gave up eating candy. The main point for me was just to get through those 40 days. I remember being told that this was the same number of days a famished Jesus spent in the desert and the number of years the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness. “God’s will” was the name we gave to suffering, and God’s grace was the promise that it would end ... eventually.

Lent is one of the most important seasons in the calendar, but now self-denial seems more a suggestion than a requirement. Maybe it’s this notion of the “new normal.” We are inundated with the statistics of unemployment and poverty on the rise. Who needs Lent to give something up? We have all sacrificed, so I suppose Lenten self-denial could be forgiven this year.

There are plenty of difficulties in everyday life without choosing to add new ones. Job loss is hell enough. I mean this is America; yet it seems this whole economic mess came out of nowhere and revealed that we weren’t as secure as we thought we were.

Yet, I would argue that traditional Lenten observances offer one particular contrast to today’s “new normal.” Lent begins with the word remember; spoken when a cross of ashes are smudged on the forehead…remembering what we are and where we came from; ashes to ashes, dust to dust; we are the created.

This year it struck me that the millions of people who started Lent in the same way simply go through the motions and deny the scriptures as they say, “Remember thou man we are dust, and all things are passing,” This is a hard cold fact . This “new normal” put a sharp focus for many on material worries, and should instead remind us of what matters most in life.

Lent will end and sacrifices will go on. There is nothing wrong with job security, and yet, it seems there is nothing right with suffering. That is exactly what our Lord came to do. To suffer for us, so we don’t have to. It seems insecurity is normal again and that’s okay, because if Lent teaches us anything, it teaches us to get used to it. "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." Luke 9:22 .

We are all part of the human situation. This recession is new but it certainly isn’t normal. We will suffer from time to time. This Lent remember we may be dust, but because he suffered and was raised. We are redeemed dust.

Be Remembering,

Bishop Ian

Fear - Love's Opposite

Those of you who are fans of Charlie Brown will remember the time Charlie Brown visits Lucy at her Psychiatric booth and talks to her about his fears, yet he can’t quite get a grip on it so Lucy proceeds to run down the list of every “phobia” there is until she gets to “Pantaphobia, fear of everything.” And Charlie screams out, “THAT’S IT!”

I think if we are honest about it, fear is a large part of what it means to be human. In general, it‘s not that we are afraid of specific things like snakes or spiders. We are just afraid...period. We fear the outcome of our relationships – am I with right person? Will I ever find love? We are afraid that this job or that job will not last long, or we are afraid that it will. "Am I stuck doing this same thing for the rest of my life?” We are afraid that people who meet us will not like us, or we are afraid that they will - (maybe too much.) We are afraid of failure, or we are afraid of success and what that might mean for our comfortable lives. We are afraid of dying young, and we are afraid of growing old. Often, we are more afraid of life than we are of death. No wonder Prozac is the number one prescribed drug today.

It’s Lent; slow down a little; read I Corinthians 13 (The love chapter) each day. Usually we think of Hate as the opposite of Love and in some respects that‘s true. But, I would argue that this first Sunday in Lent and Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness demonstrates that fear is the opposite of Love.

Look at it this way; fear may be expressed as anger or abuse - (“I am afraid that you may not love me anymore."), or greed - (“What if I run out of what I have now?”), or addictions, violence, and corruption. All of these things that we think of as the opposite of love are simply symptoms of fear. When true love is absent, our fears drive us to hate that which we fear. There are many different ways through which we can look at the temptation story. This year I would like to look at it in the context of love.

The temptation of Christ was a stretching and testing of the humanity of Christ. Before Jesus could be totally operating with Love, in a way that would lead him to the cross, Jesus had to go to the desert and face fear in its totality. These were temptations far beyond what you or I could endure. I would argue that Jesus is tempted by Satan who uses fear - “turn these stones to bread, eat this here or you may never eat again.” How about corruption and greed? Satan tempts Jesus to get on board and share in the leading of the kingdoms of the world. “You are out here all alone. You may just wind up with nothing.” That’s also fear of isolation or loss of status. The final temptation is, “Are you sure God is still with you out here in the desert? Maybe you could jump from a high place just to be sure that God is protecting you. You know if God is not watching closely you might just die out here in this desert?” That’s fear of abandonment.

To Love completely is to trust God. The temptation is to Fear, to abandon Love, to abandon the relationship of trust with God. The temptation in the Garden of Eden is the same temptation as Jesus faced. “Eat this fruit. God is leaving you out of the loop. You do not know everything that God is up to, so you better eat this fruit.” The opposite of Love is Fear. In both temptations the tempter uses the same temptation that we all face every day. Will my life, my decisions, my relationships be driven by fear of will they operate out of love. Each moment we are deciding to function in one mode or the other.

“God is Love. And he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” I John 4

Ok, great so how do we live by love?

Within each of us lives the Spirit of God; the Spirit of Love. God is Love. Within us is Christ who overcame these temptations and fear.

I remember reading once that Michelangelo was asked how he had created such wonderful sculptures as David, Moses, and others. He answered that it was God who created these great works of art. Michelangelo said, “My job is to remove the excess marble that surrounds God's beautiful creation.” I like that; I think that’s right on. There is no perfect me or the perfect you, yet the perfect God, is within you and within me - there to chisel away the excess fears and phobias that turns our attentions away from Him who is perfect.

Spend time reading 1 Corinthians 13 this Lent; Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is not envious, boastful, or rude,” as we focus on the Love of God that already resides within us, allow the Holy Spirit to chisel away at the those fears.

Maybe Lucy was right. Maybe we start by honestly examining our lives to find what we fear most and how is it damaging our relationships and the decisions that we make. Then we can allow the perfect love, Christ within us, to flood that area of our lives as we focus on love. Allow the Holy Spirit to chisel away the fear that surrounds us until we are left with only the great and perfect master piece. Love.

Be fearless in love,

Bishop Ian

Change Is Coming...

I’ve been sojourning with my soul mate recently and I haven’t had much chance to get to blogging. But, this week I thought I would speak a little bit about this season known as pre-Lent and the “gesima” Sundays. There are three of them and they make up the Sundays known as pre-Lent. What is the meaning of the “gesimas” and why do we even need a three week pre-Lent season anyway? When I first heard the word “Septuagesima” as a teenager I thought, “Great… even the church has a season to celebrate some obscure algebraic formula.”

Here’s the deal. We have just been through some joyous events these last few weeks — the birth of Jesus, his naming and circumcision, the first Gentiles (Wise Men) to find him, and his baptism. On various dates and places through the ages, the Christian Church has celebrated these things in its church year.

But now a change is coming. We know, as we celebrate his birth, that Christ was born for us so he could die for us. Look at it this way; His blood was spilled in circumcision, putting him under the Law, His blood would be spilled on the Cross, to redeem us from under the Law.

We saw that the Gentile Wise Men who found him had to return by a different way, and I would argue that this is what happens to those of us who find Him, because life is different afterward. After his baptism, Jesus will spend forty days in the desert before beginning his public ministry, where we read he will be tempted by the things of the world. So, we too will soon imitate those forty days for our own devotion with the season of Lent, on the way to the Cross. A change is coming.

So the church provides a transitional time between the first and second of its three great seasons - Advent-Christmas-Circumcision-Naming-Manifestation-Baptism. Now we must prepare for the serious reason why those things happened; sin and our redemption from sin.

Here we have all of these “gesima” Sundays that will fit between the end of the Christmastide, and after the octave of the Epiphany, and then the baptism of Jesus. Septuagesima is simply another word for Seventy Days; that’s all. The Septuagint, the translation into Greek of the Hebrew Scriptures by seventy scholars — and the gesima part derives from the Latin for days.

Seventieth day from Easter; no more complicated than that!

So, Septuagesima is 70 Days; Sexagesima is 60 Days, Quinqagesima is 50 Days. With the Seventieth Day, or Septuagesima, the change within the church is pretty obvious. The white vestments of Christmas time joy give way to the Green of Epiphany tide and then purple or violet of repentance and penitential meditations.

The world has always had its early spring celebrations. The interesting thing is the majority of them are timed on Lent. So pre-Lent, to the world, has become quite opposite from its Christian meaning just as Advent has become the gift buying and partying season before Christmas. At the beginning of Lent, fasting in some form is observed, usually involving abstaining from meat. The most likely origin of the name for the worldly face of all this is called carnival. It is a celebration before the giving up of consuming meat. In most, but not all places, Septuagesima is the start of carnival season; ending just before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday. As the church prepares for the penitential season of Lent the world enjoys the flesh, in all senses of the word. Ever been to Mardi-Gras in New Orleans?

God the Son has indeed come to seek and save the lost. It’s our participation in the process that gives us time in our present state as human beings to walk the path to the cross. Change is coming. Prepare your heart and soul for God’s mercy in sending God the Son to do what we could never do on our own.

Be prepared,

Bishop Ian

The Vending Machine Jesus

I was watching TV last weekend and came across the “Christianity King of Prosperity” right at the very moment when he told the congregation that the reason Christians are suffering in this economic downturn is because we didn’t have faith enough to give. If we don’t give, especially in bad economic times, then we don’t receive. I felt a little sick hearing that statement.

We are in a hard core recession. Countless faithful Christians are unemployed and going to bed worrying if there will be food on the table for the family. Countless Christians are anxious about their finances. You can see it on their faces and you can hear it in their voices. The problem that must be explained by proponents of the prosperity gospel is that the faithful still get laid off, lose homes, and struggle to make ends meet.

Basically, Pastor Prosperity wants you to sort of look at God as “The Vending Machine Jesus” - put in your faith and out pops blessings, money, homes, cars, beautiful spouses, perfect kids, good neighbors, big churches, and plush vacations. For the prosperity gospel, humans are “The Happiness People” – they receive the blessings, rely on the promises, act on the commandments, and they can put on a big happy face. Every day, from the moment you get up to the time you go to bed, Pastor Prosperity and others of his ilk want you to believe that life is like Disney’s Magic Kingdom - steep admission included.

This individual’s gospel proclaims that the bible teaches us and promises us material, spiritual, and physical prosperity. To become prosperous, all you have to do is believe and receive. The prosperity gospel isn’t even a half truth, its blasphemy.

So let’s get real here. The Bible and the Church have never taught the prosperity gospel. Abraham waited and waited for the son of promise. Joseph experienced being sold into slavery by his God-elected brothers. Moses led Israel into years of testing. Israel only crossed the Jordan River after 40 years in the wilderness (and Moses never crossed the Jordan). David, a man after God’s own heart, suffered years of waiting, family struggles, and a son who fell away from faithfulness. Jeremiah spent most of his days in tears. Daniel was a devoted Israelite who had anything but a cushy life. And don’t even get me started on Job. His faithfulness seemed to have gotten him into the crosshairs of the Satan himself. Have you ever read Foxe’s, Book of Martyrs?

Who we are as Christians is not the Bible version of the Brady Bunch. Our humanity is tied to the Cross. Jesus told his followers to take up the cross every day and that meant to be ready to suffer as well. (Luke 9:23). Jesus was crucified for us and we are called to die with Him – to be the person who has died with Christ, died to self, died to everything the world counted as worthy, and died to the flesh. We are called not to seek our own happiness, money, power, personal glory, but to seek the glory of God by giving ourselves to God for His glory.

The problem with the prosperity gospel is that it focuses on getting earthly wants, and then blaming it on a lack of personal faith when we don’t get what we want - when the vending machine savior does not pay out. As Pastor Prosperity spoke to the people sitting in his massive stadium church, I about fell out of my chair as he quoted John 11:22, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." And all you had to do to unlock that promise was buy this guy’s latest book!

The cross gospel focuses on the giving of our selves. Love of God means to live for God. Don’t get me wrong - yes, God is indeed with us. We are commanded to give all we are to Him. The bottom line is that some days are good and we thank God for his blessings. Some days are difficult and we are summoned by God to trust, (look at Paul) to be faithful, not to lose heart, and to hang on in the hope that God will do what he promised when He returns.

Be Faithful,

Bishop Ian

Jesus Just Wants to Give You a Hug

I have Sirius XM radio in my car. I like to listen to all kinds of music so I surf a lot. I was surfing the channels recently and I came upon the Christian Contemporary channel so I listened a bit. After several tunes I came to the conclusion that most of what I was hearing was basically grown men, whining like love sick teenagers with lyrics like, "Nothing else can take your place, or feel the warmth of your embrace." The band was called “Big Daddy Weave,” but I have to ask the question here; who are they singing to? The One who holds the universe together by the power of His word, or some long lost girlfriend? The women were no better, they sang with such throaty breathiness, I wondered if they were singing to brad Pitt or The Savior of the Universe. What kind of theology is there in “Jesus just wants to give you a hug” lyrics?

Yes, I am a bit prejudiced when it comes to the theology of the lyrics most of these Christian rock bands use to describe the king of all creation. So for fun I have looked a few up. Yup, you can actually look up the lyrics online.

Take a look at the verses from these six contemporary songs. Can you pick which phrases belong to secular songs and which to the supposedly Christian ones?

1. All I need to do is just be me, being in love with you.
2. My world stops spinning round without you.
3. I never want to leave; I want to stay in your warm embrace.
4. I'm lost in love.
5. Now and forever, together and all that I feel, here's my love for you.
6. You say you love me just as I am.

The first three are from that same band I was listening to earlier, “Big Daddy Weave,” the second half are from Air Supply. Why Air Supply? Well, they were on the smooth 80’s channel when I tuned in looking for comparisons.

Song after song on the Christian music channel kept hammering on one note: Jesus loves you soooooo much. He is your buddy; He is your pal. Now, do I doubt for a second that Jesus loves His children? Nope, but it depends on what your definition of "love" is.

God "agape" loves His children. Agape love is not based on the warm and fuzzy kind of love. I looked up the translation of agape and discovered that William Tyndale was the first translator to use the word "love" for agape. My commentary also said that prior to the 16th century; the word charity best described agape. Seemed a good topic for debate, but putting that aside, a modern day use of the word love ranges from a love for an object to physical love/sex (eros love). I love that new car. I love that girl. I love that God. That God loves me.

Not only do the lyrics use love in romantic ways to sing about God, there were other romantic phrases in the songs I heard and latter researched like: hold me, embrace me, feel you, need you. In music that’s called “amatory phrasing.”

My research on hymnody revealed John Wesley considered an "amatory phrase" to be language that was more feelings based love than self-sacrificing agape love. John Wesley deleted "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" from one of his brother, Charles' collections because it was too romantic sounding.

Not only are today’s Christian music writers guilty of writing amatory phrases, but they are singing with amatory phrasing. Christian men and women sing with such romantic longing and neediness as to be completely embarrassing.

In my opinion there are two consequences to this "Jesus is my boyfriend/girlfriend" music. Needy, emotional women continue to need more counseling, self help books and conferences where they can spread their wings and soar. Men will continue to not show up for church because they simply can't stand the mood manipulating worship tunes designed to help them, "feel the Lord's big bear hug embrace."

Without theology in music, we are offering fluff that will not comfort when life takes a turn. Songwriters could provide true hope if they would write about the sovereignty of God rather than crying about "how safe I feel when Jesus is hugging me."

Is there anything wrong with being reminded that our God is our help from ages past? Of course not, the Psalms are loaded with promises of God's comfort. But unlike the Psalms (and theology based hymns), contemporary music is void of the reason why we should not worry. We shouldn’t not worry because someone croons that Jesus’ warm embrace keeps us safe so we shouldn't fret, but because God is our shelter in the stormy blast and our eternal home. Our comfort comes from knowledge, not in a lyric about a teddy bear Jesus.

Be Listening,

Bishop Ian

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