Uh, where did you say you came from?

A Checkered Past

It's time to be honest about our past. In the tumultuous period of the English Reformation, Reformed ideals were not always welcomed in England, especially early on. Often, fearing for their lives English would-be reformers sought refuge on the Continent. A classic example is the case of William Tyndale. It probably didn’t help William’s cause any that he wrote The Practyse of Prelates, a tract opposing Henry’s proposed divorce. So it was that William found himself like so many before and after him exiled in Northern Europe. Tyndale is best known for his translation of the Scriptures into English. William’s translation eventually provided the basis for the first authorized English translations (and formed the basis for the later King James Version which, as it exists today is about 80% Tyndale’s work in origin). Sadly, Tyndale never lived to see the spread of the Scriptures through his homeland. He was arrested and tried in Brussels in 1535 where he was burned at the stake as a heretic.

Yet it was the faithful witness of men like Tyndale that set the stage for real and lasting Reformation to take place on English soil. It is and always has been true that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Under persecution such as that faced by Tyndale and others, the faith grew and strengthened among clergy and laity alike in England.

You Believe What?!

So what exactly do you mean by Church?

"Let's go to Church this morning." "Shoot, I left my sweater at Church." "That practice is not lawful in the eyes of the Church." The word Church gets used lots of different ways. But what exactly do we mean by it? Is it the building where Christians gather. Is it the Christian gathering itself or is it both of these and more? The Anglican Reformers tackled that question in the 39 Articles of Religion. Let's take a look at what they said:

“The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.” ~ Article XIX.

The Church is a community of faith. The Greek word ekklesia from which we get the word Church in fact means, gathering. That is an essential point right there – we were created for community. Not just community with the living God, who is in fact a community of Persons within His very nature. But we were created to express that community in the world, living out this faith together with one another.

Sadly the American experiment has wreaked more havoc on this essential truth than on any other aspect of our Christian faith. American Christianity, and dare I say, evangelicalism in particular has imbibed the rugged individualism of the American way and as a result the Church, the Bride of Christ is the weaker for it. But Christianity is a communal faith. And to be a part of the Church then is to be a part of the community of the faithful.

And how do we know where the Church of Christ is? It is wherever the Word of God is preached and the Sacraments are duly administered. If you want a quick and easy way to distinguish a cult from the true church, look at what is preached – is it the True Word of God or is it something else. Are home fellowships and Bible studies acceptable substitutes for the Sunday gathering of the Church? What about the Sacraments? Other kinds of groups may express the fellowship of the Church. But they do not express the Church in her fullness

In general Anglicans take Sunday morning worship rather seriously because that is the one place where we, in the fullest sense possible, represent what God intended his Church to be. Do we have fellowship? – You bet. Do we break open the Word of God and sit at His feet and learn from Him? – Absolutely. Do we break bread together and experience the manifest Presence of Christ in our midst? – Praise His Holy Name we sure do! You cannot experience the fullness of the Christian experience, without the gathering of the Church. And guess what – the rest of us can’t experience it fully when you aren’t there either.

We need one another, just as much as we need the Word and the Sacraments. That is why Anglicans begin so many of our prayers with the call and response, “The Lord be with you…And also with you.” It is a recognition that the Lord, by the manifest Presence of His Spirit is with each of us – not just the priest, but all of us. And by acknowledging that we are saying, “I need you to complete this act.” Could I as a priest complete the act of the Eucharist without the congregation praying along with me – I would submit to you that the answer is indeed no. That is why Jesus said to us, “where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name I am in the midst of them.”[1] We need one another. The Church needs YOU to truly be the Church. And like it or not, you need the church. But enough of my soap box. I digress.

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[1] Matthew 18:20

You Believe What?!

It's Ascension Day!

Today is the day the Western Church calendar commemorates our Lord's ascension to the right Hand of the Father. 60 days after Easter, 10 Days before Pentecost.

Here is the traditional collect or prayer for Ascension Day:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do

believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have

ascended into the heavens, so we may also in heart and mind

thither ascend, and with him continually dwell; who liveth

and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world

without end. Amen.