Saint Athanasius Anglican Church

“Walk in the Light”

2011-04-01T15:54:00.002-04:00

From our Gospel reading for the third Sunday after Lent, the evangelist tells us to be “followers” of Christ. I like the NIV words here, “BE imitators.” One can be a follower and still not adhere to Christ’s precepts and teachings. But, to be an imitator, we will have to mimic Christ’s behavior.

So we are to be imitators of Christ. How do we do that; by forgiving one another, As God, in Christ has forgiven us. This is the motive which should make us forgive others. God's forgiveness towards us is free, thus our forgiveness of those who have hurt and betrayed us should come without restrictions or limits. Now is it OK to hurt, to free betrayed, to be angry? Yes, but at some point we have to let go so that we do not allow Satan to control our daily life. In 4:31, St. Paul writes that we are to “get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” All these things grieve the Holy Spirit.

God has placed us under such a great obligation. We are not only to imitate God in being forgiving, but also in love; we are to live in love. As Christ loved us, is the reason why we should love one another. We should be like Christ, which is being like God, for Christ is God. The apostle makes no distinction between our being the objects of God's love, and our being the objects of Christ's love. We are to be imitators of God in love, for Christ has loved us. He gave himself up for us.

In our epistle for today, St. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they were sometimes living in darkness, “but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” We are not to have any “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” The dwellers of the darkness do not produce anything but sin, hatred, malice toward their fellowman, and hardness of the heart.

Those who have their lives illuminated by Christ also introduce that light into the dark areas of human conduct. In Matthew, we heard Jesus tell us, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

And St. John tells us that “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

God is light, so in Him there is no darkness at all. We cannot walk with God and still walk in darkness; therefore those in the light belong to Christ. Light, by nature, exposes what is in darkness and the contrast reveals sin for what it really is. It is light that makes everything visible.

So as St. Paul reminds us, in Romans, “. . . let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

A FRUITFUL EXHORTATION to the READING AND KNOWLEDGE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

2010-12-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

AFRUITFUL EXHORTATIONto theREADING AND KNOWLEDGEOF HOLY SCRIPTURE (in two parts, from the Second Book of Homilies)

Unto a Christian man, there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable, than the knowledge of Holy Scripture; forasmuch as in it is contained God's true word, setting forth his glory, and also man's duty. And there is no truth nor doctrine, necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is, or may be, drawn out of that fountain and well of truth. Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God, must apply their minds to know Holy Scripture; without the which, they can neither sufficiently know God and his will, neither their office and duty. And as drink is pleasant to them that be dry, and meat to them that be hungry; so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of Holy Scripture, to them that be desirous to know God, or themselves, and to do his will. And their stomachs only do loathe and abhor the heavenly knowledge and food of God's word, that be so drowned in worldly vanities, that they neither savour God, nor any godliness: for that is the cause why they desire such vanities, rather than the true knowledge of God.
As they that are sick of an ague, whatsoever they eat and drink, though it be never so pleasant, yet it is as bitter to them as wormwood; not for the bitterness of the meat, but for the corrupt and bitter humour that is in their own tongue and mouth; even so is the sweetness of God's word bitter, not of itself, but only unto them that have their minds corrupted with long custom of sin and love of this world.
Therefore, forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly men, which care not but for their carcase, let us reverently hear and read Holy Scripture, which is the food of the soul. let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the New and Old Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men's traditions, devised by men's imagination, for our justification and salvation. For in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at length. In these books we shall find the Father from whom, the Son by whom, and the Holy Ghost in whom, all things have their being and keeping up; and these three Persons to be but one God, and one substance.
In these books we may learn to know ourselves, how vile and miserable we be; and also to know God, how good he is of himself, and how he maketh us and all creatures partakers of his goodness. We may learn also in these books to know God's will and pleasure, as much as, for this present time, is convenient for us to know.
And, as the great Clerk and godly Preacher, Saint John Chrysostom, saith, whatsoever is required to the salvation of man, is fully contained in the Scripture of God. He that is ignorant, may there learn and have knowledge. He that is hard-hearted, and an obstinate sinner, shall there find everlasting torments, prepared of God's justice, to make him afraid, and to mollify, or soften, him. He that is oppressed with misery in this world, shall there find relief in the promises of everlasting life, to his great consolation and comfort. He that is wounded by the Devil unto death, shall find there medicine, whereby he may be restored again unto health.
If it shall require to teach any truth, or reprove false doctrine, to rebuke any vice, to commend any virtue, to give good counsel, to comfort, or to exhort, or to do any other thing requisite for our salvation; all those things, saith Saint Chrysostom, we may learn plentifully of the Scripture. There is, saith Fulgentius, abundantly enough, both for men to eat, and children to suck. There is whatsoever is meet for all ages, and for all degrees and sorts of men.
These books, therefore, ought to be much in our hands, in our eyes, in our ears, in our mouths, but most of all in our hearts. For the Scripture of God is the heavenly meat of our souls: the hearing and keeping of it maketh us blessed, sanctifieth us, and maketh us holy; it turneth our souls; it is a light lantern to our feet; it is a sure, steadfast, and everlasting instrument of salvation; it giveth wisdom to the humble and lowly hearts; it comforteth, maketh glad, cheereth, and cherisheth our conscience; it is a more excellent jewel, or treasure, than any gold or precious stone; it is more sweet than honey or honey-comb; it is called the best part, which Mary did choose; for it hath in it everlasting comfort.
The words of Holy scripture be called words of everlasting life: for they be God's instrument, ordained for the same purpose. They have power to turn, through God's promise; and they be effectual through God's assistance; and being received in a faithful heart, they have ever an heavenly spiritual working in them. They are lively, quick, and mighty in operation, and sharper than any two- edged sword, and enter through, even unto the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, or the joints and the marrow.
Christ calleth him a wise builder, that buildeth upon his word, upon his sure and substantial foundation. By this word of God we shall be judged: for the word that I speak, saith Christ, is it that shall judge in the last day. He that keepeth the word of Christ, is promised the love and favour of God, and that he shall be the dwelling-place or temple of the blessed Trinity.
This word whosoever is diligent to read, and in his heart to print that he readeth, the great affection to the transitory things of this world shall be minished in him, and the great desire of heavenly things, that be therein promised of God, shall increase in him. And there is nothing that so much strengtheneth our faith and trust in God, that so much keepeth up innocency and pureness of the heart, and also of outward godly life and conversation, as continual reading and recording of God's word. For that thing, which by continual reading of Holy Scripture, and diligent searching of the same, is deeply printed and graven in the heart, at length turneth almost into nature.
And, moreover, the effect and virtue of God's word, is to illuminate the ignorant, and to give more light unto them that faithfully and diligently read it; to conform their hearts, and to encourage them to perform that which of God is commanded. It teacheth patience in all adversity, in prosperity humbleness; what honour is due unto God, what mercy and charity to our neighbour. It giveth good counsel in all doubtful things. It sheweth of whom we shall look for aid and help in all perils; and that God is the only giver of victory in all battles and temptations of our enemies, bodily and ghostly. And in reading of God's word, he not always most profiteth, that is most ready in turning of the book, or in saying of it without the book; but he that is most turned into it; that is most inspired with the Holy Ghost; most in his heart and life altered and changed into that thing which he readeth; he that is daily less and less proud, less wrathful, less covetous, and less desirous of worldly and vain pleasures; he that daily, forsaking his old vicious life, increaseth in virtue more and more. And, to be short, there is nothing that more maintaineth godliness of the mind and driveth away ungodliness, than doth the continual reading or hearing of God's word, if it be joined with a godly mind, and a good affection to know and follow God's will.
For without a single eye, pure intent, and good mind, nothing is allowed for good before God. And, on the other side, nothing more darkeneth Christ and the glory of god, nor bringeth in more blindness and all kinds of vices, than doth the ignorance of God's word.

THE SECOND PART OF THE SERMON
OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
The burning of Archbishop Cranmer
In the first part of this Sermon, which exhorteth to the knowledge of Holy Spirit, was declared. Wherefore the knowledge of the same is necessary and profitable to all men; and that, by the true knowledge and understanding of Scripture, the most necessary points of our duty towards God and our neighbours are also known. Now as concerning the same matter you shall hear what followeth.
If we profess Christ, why be we not ashamed to be ignorant in his doctrine, seeing that every man is ashamed to be ignorant in that learning which be professeth? That man is ashamed to be called a Philosopher which readeth not the books of philosophy; and to be called a Lawyer, an Astronomer, or a Physician, that is ignorant in the books of law, astronomy, and physic. How can any man, then, say that he professeth Christ and his religion, if he will not apply himself, as far forth as he can or may conveniently, to read and hear, and so to know, the books of Christ's Gospel and doctrine? Although other sciences be good, and to be learned, yet no man can deny but this is the chief, and passeth all other incomparably.
What excuse shall we therefore make, at the last day, before Christ, that delight to read or hear men's fantasies and inventions, more than his most holy Gospel? And will find no time to do that, which chiefly, above all things, we should do; and will rather read other things than that, for the which we ought rather to leave reading of all other things? Let us therefore apply ourselves, as far forth as we can have time and leisure, to know God's word, by diligent hearing and reading thereof, as many as profess God, and have faith and trust in him.
But they that have no good affection to God's word, to colour this their fault, allege commonly two vain and feigned excuses. So go about to excuse them by their own frailness and fearfulness, saying, that they dare not read Holy Scripture, lest through their ignorance they should fall into any error. Others pretend that the difficulty to understand it, and the hardness thereof, is so great, that it is meet to be read only of Clerks and learned men.
As touching the first: ignorance of God's word is the cause of all error; as Christ himself affirmed to the Sadducees, saying, that they erred, because they knew not the Scripture. How should they then eschew error, that will be still ignorant? And how should they come out of ignorance, that will not read nor hear that thing which should give them knowledge? He that now hath most knowledge, was at the first ignorant: yet he forbare not to read, for fear he should fall into error; but he diligently read, lest he should remain in ignorance, and, through ignorance, in error.
And if you will not know the truth of God -- a thing most necessary for you -- lest you fall into error, by the same reason you may then lie still, and never go, lest, if you go, you fail into the mire; nor eat any good meat, lest you take a surfeit; nor sow your corn, nor lahour in your occupation, nor use your merchandise, for fear you lose your seed, your labour, your stock: and so, by that reason, it should be the best for you to live idly, and never to take in hand to do any manner of good thing, lest peradventure some evil thing may chance thereof. And if you be afraid to fall into error by reading of Holy Scripture, I shall shew you how you may read it without danger of error.
Read it humbly, with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God, and not yourself, with the knowledge of it: and read it not without daily praying to God that he would direct your reading to good effect; and take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it: for, as Saint Augustin saith, the knowledge of Holy Scripture is a great, large, and a high place: but the door is very low, so that the high and arrogant man cannot run in; but he must stoop low, and humble himself, that shall enter into it. Irresumption and arrogancy is the mother of all error; and humility needeth to fear no error. For the humility will only search to know the truth: it will not presumptuously and rashly define any thing which it knoweth not.
Therefore the humble man may search any truth boldly in the Scripture, without any danger of error. And if he be ignorant, he ought the more to read and to search Holy Scripture to bring him out of ignorance. I say not nay, but a man may profit with only hearing; but he may much more profit with both hearing and reading.
This have I said, as touching the fear to read, through ignorance of the person.
And concerning the hardness of Scripture; he that is so weak that he is not able to brook strong meat, yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk, and defer the rest until he wax stronger, and come to more knowledge: for God receiveth the learned and unlearned, and casteth away none, but is indifferent unto all. And the Scripture is full, as well of low valleys, plain ways, and easy for every man to use and to walk in; as also of high hills and mountains, which few men can climb unto. And whosoever giveth his mind to Holy Scripture with diligent study and burning desire, it cannot be, saith Saint John Chrysostom, that he should be left without help.
For either God Almighty will send him some godly Doctor to teach him— as he did to instruct the Eunuch, a nobleman of Ethiopia, and treasurer unto Queen Candace; who having a great affection to read the Scripture; although he understood it not, yet, for the desire that he had unto God's word, God sent his Apostle Philip to declare unto him the true sense of the Scripture that he read - or else, if we lack a learned man to instruct and teach us, yet God himself from above will give light unto our minds, and teach us those things which are necessary for us, and wherein we be ignorant.
And in another place Chrysostom saith, that man's human and worldly wisdom, or science, is not needful to the understanding of Scripture; but the revelation of the Holy Ghost, who inspireth the true meaning unto them that with humility and diligence do search therefore. He that asketh shall have, and he that seeketh shall find, and he that knocketh shall have the door opened. If we read once, twice, or thrice, and understand not, let us not cease so; but still continue reading, praying, asking of others: and so, by still knocking, at last the door shall be opened, as Saint Augustin saith. Although many things in the Scripture be spoken in obscure mysteries, yet there is nothing spoken under dark mysteries in one place, but the self-same thing in other places is spoken more familiarly and plainly, to the capacity both of learned and unlearned.
And those things, in the Scripture, that be plain to understand, and necessary for salvation, every man's duty is to learn them, to print them in memory, and effectually to exercise them; and, as for the dark mysteries, to be contented to be ignorant in them, until such time as it shall please God to open those things unto him. In the mean season, if he lack either aptness or opportunity, God will not impute it to his folly: but yet is behoveth not, that such as be apt should set aside reading, because some others be unapt to read: nevertheless, for the hardness of such places, the reading of the whole ought not to be set apart. And briefly to conclude: as Saint Augustin saith, By the Scripture all men be amended; weak men be strengthened, and strong men be comforted. So that surely none be enemies to the reading of God's word, but such as either be so ignorant, that they know not how wholesome a thing it is; or else be so sick, that they hate the most comfortable medicine, that should heal them; or so ungodly, that they would wish the people still to continue in blindness and ignorance of God.
Thus we have briefly touched some part of the commodities of God's holy word, which is one of God's chief and principal benefits, given and declared to mankind here on earth. Let us thank God heartily for this his great and special gift, beneficial favour, and fatherly providence. Let us be glad to receive this precious gift of our heavenly Father. Let us hear, read, and know these holy rules,injunctions, and statutes of our Christian religion, and upon that we have made profession to God at our baptism. let us with fear and reverence lay up, in the chest of our hearts, these necessary and fruitful lessons; let us night and day muse, and have meditation and contemplation in them; let us ruminate, and, as it were, chew the cud, that we may have the sweet juice, spiritual effect, marrow, honey, kernel, taste, comport, and consolation of them. let us stay, quiet, and certtty our consciences with the most infallible certainty, truth, and perpetual assurance of them. let us pray to God, the only Author of these heavenly studies, that we may speak, think, believe, live, and depart hence, according to the wholesome doctrine and verities of them.
And, by that means, in this world we shall have God's defence, favour, and grace, with the unspeakable solace of peace, and quietness of conscience; and, after this miserable life, we shall enjoy the endless bliss and glory of heaven: which he grant us all, that died for us all, Jesus Christ: to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, both now and everlastingly. Amen.

A prayer before Advent

2010-11-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer is based on Jeremiah xxiii. 5. and S. JOHN vi. 5.

This, as we now have it, is the Collect of a transition Sunday. We owe this to our Reformers, who, by skilfully altering “The fruit of the Divine work” into “The fruit of good works,” and by introducing the “plenteous reward,” have made it clear that they at least intended us to regard Advent as the consummation of the Christian life. All our Trinity Seasons of growth in good works are to be tested at the Final Advent, and there shall be a plenteous reward for those who have been God’s faithful people in the final “Well done, good and faithful servants.” This thought was lacking in the ancient service books, which, as has been said, regarded this Sunday as wholly of Advent and prayed only for greater grace.
There is still, however, no less obvious reference than previously to the Advent subject, and indirectly also to the Epistle and Gospel. These have taught us that the promise of the First Advent given as in the Epistle was completely fulfilled as recorded in the Gospel. The First Advent is the pledge of the Second Advent. We, therefore, pray in view of that solemn event :—
     A.   For Quickened Wills.
The will is the man, and God will not force the will lest He destroy in us this very image of Himself. We. pray, therefore, that He would stir and rouse our wills into free action, by His Spirit, by His promises, and especially by His promise of the second coming of Christ (cf. Hebrews x. 24, 25).
     B.   For Greater Fruitfulness.
Our fruitfulness is indeed, according to the ancient Collect, “The fruit of the Divine action,” but it is none the less ours, for it depends upon our wills to allow the seed of grace room to grow and bear fruit in the garden of our hearts, lives, characters, and dispositions.
     C.   For the Final Reward.
The reward will be according to our works, and plenteous fruitfulness shall be plenteously rewarded, but the will, the fruit, and the reward are all “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” -Rev. P. M. Scott, D.D.

Meditaion on Minor Propers Jer 29:1, 4-14 & Titus 3:1-8. 23rd Sunday in Trinitytide

2010-11-06T17:45:00.000-04:00

Remember the old folk hymn that was made popular years ago by Burl Ives? "I am a poor wayfaring stranger, Just passing through this world below ..."
Well, that's the background to today's readings. Jeremiah is writing to a captive people. They've been taken away from their true home and forced to live in exile in a strange land.
St. Paul has similar thoughts as he writes to the Church. He had often said things about our being strangers and pilgrims, with our citizenship in heaven. Both readings start from the same assumption: that we are not really where we belong, but that we are where God has put us for now. Against that background, Jeremiah and Paul give us strikingly similar advice as to how we are to behave in this strange land.
"Build ye houses," says Jeremiah, "and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.

You're going to be here for quite a while. Settle in, and, even though this isn't permanent, be the best citizens you can be, and, in doing so, be an influence toward God's ways
And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
We are strangers, but we are not rebels. We seek to build, not to destroy. We seek peace, not endless strife.

St. Paul tells us to
"... be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,"
It is hard to remember in a world that proclaims government of the people, by the people, and for the people, that it is not the job of a Christian people
to rule, but rather to serve, and it is not rights we seek, but God's will in our own lives, and the spreading of God's Word and His love by the way we live our lives.
St. Paul continues, challenging us:
"To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men."

Does this sound like the way politics is being done in our land in the name of Christ? Or is it so that we have opposing camps, each claiming to be advancing Christian principles, and yet hurling invective, calling names,
making accusations, shouting in anger? Isn't that a good description of current politics? As a matter of fact, it sounds like church politics too. We Anglicans seem not able to stop shouting at each other. Where is the gentleness and meekness that the Apostle is calling for? Certainly there is right and there is wrong, but there is a right way and a wrong way to promote truth. If the spreading of truth is done in such a way that we are biting and devouring one another, have we perhaps used truth to promote a lie?
"For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, "
Our Lord has offered us forgiveness, and calls upon us to forgive. He offers us mercy, and requires us to show mercy.
He is patient and longsuffering with us, for which we should be very thankful indeed, and expects us to be patient.
We believe truth, but we need also to live the truth. As St. Paul; said,
"This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men."
And, if we will hear Him, and do all that we are able to follow Him, and tearfully repent when we fail Him, then we can claim the words of Jeremiah:
"Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive."

Let us pray.
Almighty God, who alone gavest us the breath of life, and alone canst keep alive in us the holy desires thou dost impart; We beseech thee, for thy compassion's sake, to sanctify all our thoughts and endeavours; that we may neither begin an action without a pure intention nor continue it without thy blessing. And grant that, having thre eyes of the mind opened to behold things invisihble and unseen, we may in heart be inspired by thy wisdom, and in work be upheld by thy strength, and in the end be accepted of thee as thy faithful servants; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
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Collect for the 22nd Sunday in Trinity

2010-10-26T22:07:00.000-04:00

LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy household the Church in continual godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of thy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A PRAYER FOR THE PERSEVERANCE OF GOD.
We pray that God may enable us for perseverance or continual godliness.
     A.   The Church God’s Household.
The same description of the Church occurs in the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, the Sunday of Patience, a similar Collect dealing with a very similar subject. God’s patience is manifest in His household. In that household the servants all are children, and the children servants, and God is Father though Master, and Master though Father.
     B.   A Prayer for God’s Perseverance with Us.
We pray that He would keep us with His Fatherly care, and that He would protect us from all adversities, for only thus can we hope to obtain that for which we next pray.
     C.   A Petition for Our Own Perseverance.
We pray that we may be devoutly given to serve in good works. The Master’s care must be repaid by willing service. If He perseveres with us we must persevere in all our duties, both to Him and our fellow-servants. Oh, for such continual recollection of our position and duties as members of the family of God!
by the Rev. Prebendary Melville Scott, D.D. from The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year,S.P.C.K., London, 1902.

20th Sunday in Trinitytide CHEERFUL SERVICE.

2010-10-17T00:46:00.001-04:00

To “serve God and be cheerful,” the motto of Bishop Hacket, expresses the teaching of this very characteristic Sunday, which follows so naturally upon the Gospel of last Sunday—“Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” The Sunday of Renewal is most fitly followed by the Sunday of Cheerful Service, a service only possible for “liberated minds,” which is the literal meaning of the phrase in the ancient Collect, now translated as “cheerfully.”

THE EPISTLE. (EPH. v. 15.) THE JOY OF SERVICE. S. Paul brings before us the duty of joy, for we must not mistake peremptory duties for optional privileges. No such word as “privilege” exists in the Bible, for whatever we can attain in the Christian life it is our bounden duty to attain.
This short Epistle contrasts two apparently opposite views of religion.
     A.   The Seriousness of Religion.
The Christian life demands—
     (1)   Intense Caution.
In a world of so many inward and outward enemies the Christian must “look carefully how he walks,” and employ caution and wisdom in all the relations of life. Many eyes are upon him, especially One.
     (2)   Active Diligence.
We have fallen on evil days, and it is our duty to make them better. We are therefore to redeem the time, or, more accurately, “to buy up the opportunity,” at any expense of effort and self-denial. Everything is so against us that we must make the most of every passing help, influence, and means of grace. Our sails must be so set as to catch every transient breath of favourable wind. We must be alive also to every opportunity for doing good. We must endeavour to discover the will of God and act upon it, avoiding the folly of ignorance and the greater folly of disobedience. We shall thus be able both to gain and impart good.
     B.   The Happiness of Religion.
This happiness is a thing commanded, for it is as much our duty to be “filled with the Spirit” as not to be “drunk with wine.” Certain features of this happiness are to be noted.
     (1)   Its Source
Is the Spirit of God. We are to seek for satisfaction, not in the wine of earth, but in the wine of Heaven, and are not to be content with any mere taste of it, but to be filled.
     (2)   Its Expression.
This joy will find a vent in holy intimacies and friendships, for we are to speak of it “one to another” (R.V.). It will show itself in the melody of Christian song, and in the melody of the heart no less than of the voice. Its inspiration will be gratitude “to the Lord,” Who has redeemed us, and thus will be like that of the songs of Heaven. The revellers in the wine of earth sing, and shall not we; we are to sing in the Church on High, shall we not begin here?
     (3)   Its Thankfulness.
This is an essential element in Christian joy, for we are to be thankful always and for all things, for everything which the Father sends is good and for our good.
     (4)   Its Self-Restraint.
This joy must not lead us to forget plain duty, as do the joys of revelry, for we are “to submit ourselves one to another.” It is not inconsistent with the utmost reverence, for amid all the joys of service we are to remember that our Master is One to be feared as well as rejoiced in. These two views of religion as here described are not inconsistent. To take religion seriously is the only way
to find it a happy service, without misgiving and without remorse. A little religion will make us sad, but much will bring the joy of Heaven. Heaven is only this Epistle carried out to the letter.

THE GOSPEL.   (S. MATT. xxii. 1.)   THE FEAST OF JOY. We are at once reminded of the parable of the Great Supper (S. Luke xiv. 16), the Gospel for the Second Sunday after Trinity. There is much in common between the two parables, but there is a degree of difference, and each is appropriately placed by our Church. The Gospel of the earlier Sunday illustrates our response to the loving invitation of God, this the call to rejoice. The good man who made a supper is here the King seeking the happy service of His people. There was the sin of ingratitude, here the deeper sin of rebellion, and the penalty of the outer darkness. The invitation was a call to happiness, and to enter into the joys of their Lord, but it was the invitation of a King.
Two points may be singled out for special notice.
     A.   The Reason of Refusal.
We cannot understand the refusal of happiness, still less the angry treatment of the servants. What was the cause of this bitter refusal? The answer is plain. They would have none of the feast because they would have none of the King. Each man would go to his own farm or to his merchandise to show his independence of the King. But more than this, they were roused to active opposition of insult and violence.
This was the case with the Jews—and it is often the case now. Men reject the offer of happiness, because it means service, a will and heart given to God. Thus they resist, and try to kill the messenger conscience, and to discredit all other God’s messengers. Let such opposition teach us that religion must be a very real thing, or men would not be so indisposed to accept it.
     B.   The Rejection of the Guest.
Why was this one guest rejected? Evidently his lack of education was no impediment, for such is not to be sought among the highways and hedges. His character was no objection, for bad
and good were alike invited. What was, then, the wedding garment which he had not on? Evidently he came without the desire to be glad in that which was the joy of the King. The same disobedience which made others refuse, made him, though present, to be unfit.
The garment of renewal offered in Christ, and explained in the Gospel for last Sunday, was rejected. If any are cast into the outer darkness it will be because they will not put on the new man. If we miss the joy of service it is because we will not serve.

THE COLLECT. A PRAYER FOR CHEERFUL SERVICE. There is such intimate connection between Collect and Epistle, the doctrine of the one suggesting the petitions of the other, that we may regard the Collect as the Epistle done into a prayer.
There are three main petitions
     A.   For Preservation.
We pray against all hurtful things which may hinder us from cheerful service, and especially as taught by the Epistle, from the carelessness which gives no heed to watchful circumspection, from the indolence which fails to redeem the time, and from the self. indulgence wherein is excess. In days which are evil we must ever pray to be kept from all things that may hurt us.
     B.   For Preparation.
We pray for such preparation of body that we may avoid all temptations to excess, and for such preparation of soul that we may understand what the will of the Lord is. We need this twofold readiness, for the spirit may hinder by unwillingness, and the flesh by weakness.
     C.   For Performance.
We pray that, thus guarded and guided, we may cheerfully accomplish the things which God would have us do, whether pleasing or trying, in the joyful spirit described in the Epistle. We are not to be like Jonah, or even Moses, but like Him Whc was ever about His Father’s business.

by the Rev. Prebendary Melville Scott, D.D. from The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year,S.P.C.K., London, 1902.

18th Sunday in Trinitytide

2010-10-03T13:06:00.000-04:00

Best wishes to Fr. Don who is recovering from a minor surgery. In his absence we read from Fr. Lou Tarsitano's sermons today. Fr. Tarsitano was a wonderful priest and gifted homilist and a good friend of our founding clergy. May he rest in peace.

The Whole Truth

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity—October 3, 1999

"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:40).

Christianity was not "invented" by Jesus Christ, the way Buddha invented Buddhism, or Confucius invented Confucianism, or Mohammed invented Islam. Jesus Christ did not "start" a religion at all. Instead, he fulfilled and completed the saving work of God that was begun by God’s call to Abraham to leave the Ur of the Chaldees for a new life of grace.

We have to have words to call different things, and so we are probably stuck with calling Christianity a "religion" in modern English. But "religion" is a broad and inaccurate word, because it was always meant to be. All it means in the original Latin is "that which ties things together" or "that upon which men rely." The ancient Romans settled on this word because their Empire treated all "religions" as more or less equally true and more or less equally false.

The Romans had to be vague because they valued civil peace above truth. They feared that any assertion that one religion was true in a way that all the others weren’t might lead to riots, disorder, and a disruption of trade. We find a perfect example of this Roman attitude in Pontius Pilate, the Procurator of Judea, who condemned our Lord. As St. John tells us: Pilate therefore said unto [Jesus], Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? (John 18:37-38).

Our Lord bases his entire defense, not on a claim of kingship, but on the truth. Pilate’s answer, "What is truth?" isn’t an expression of his willingness to learn the truth, as much as it is a confession: "What is ‘truth’ to me, when I am about to have a riot on my hands?" The members of the Jerusalem mob, made up entirely of an occupied people, had been studying their captors for a long time, and they had discovered this weakness. They pushed Pilate by telling him, "It thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend" (John 19:12).

And how did Pilate respond to the choice between the truth of Jesus Christ and the policy of his Caesar to maintain civil peace at any price? St. Matthew tells us: And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. (Matthew 27:23-24)

In this way, Pilate avoided the "tumult" or riot that he feared, but at what price? He crucified a man that he knew was innocent, and he tried to wash his hands of both the truth and the blood. It should be brutally obvious that no one on earth, then or now, can wash his hands of either the blood or the truth of Jesus Christ, but that remained the policy of the Roman government for most of three centuries. The Roman government attempted to continue its "civil peace at any price" policy that all "religions" are of equal value and truth, even erecting a public building called "the Pantheon," the "place of all the gods." Each religion was allowed a niche in the Pantheon, as long as its members never claimed the absolute truth of their particular religion.

The Christians, however, refused to participate. They had Jesus Christ, after all, and he is the Truth, as well as the way and the life. Their Lord had said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). And they believed him. They proclaimed that only the Way of Jesus Christ is true, and that all other "religions" are false, man-made or so man-distorted that they neither serve God or lead to him.

The Romans were outraged at this threat to their civil peace, but they offered the Christians one final out. The Christians could declare themselves a "private cult," a special category under Roman law that would allow them to practice their religion in private as long as they did not interfere in any way with the religion of anyone else. But again the Christians refused, citing the final commission of their Lord before his ascension into heaven: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:18-20).

"All power in heaven and earth" is given to Jesus Christ by his Father in heaven, which leaves no power over truth to any other religion or to any government, including that of the Roman emperors. Christianity is, by definition, a missionary faith, and the Christians could not practice it without asserting the absolute and final truth of the Gospel against all comers. The Christians had to make disciples for Jesus Christ of the peoples of every nation in order to be Christians. And so the Roman government persecuted them and killed them, using as two of the main accusations against them "atheism" (for their refusal to acknowledge other gods and religions) and "hatred for humanity" (since they would not disobey Christ and leave mankind in the peaceful possession of its fallenness and sin).

Our own government and society are in the process of adopting a policy on "religions" that isn’t very different from that of the Roman Empire. We are told that we must be more than civil to the people of other religions. We are told that we must give them our approval and encouragement, as if their errors are on an equal footing in reality as the truth of Jesus Christ. We are told that we must pretend that other "religions" have the power to save souls and to guide lives to God.

While we should be civil and, more importantly, charitable to others, since this is only what the law of Christ demands of us as Christians trying to make disciples for him; we must also recognize that true charity does not permit us to leave our neighbors in deadly error. Even more, we must recognize that our duty to Jesus Christ outweighs our desire for civil peace, or we will find ourselves saying with Pontius Pilate, "What is truth?" Peace with God comes first, and at any price. And that is why we must be careful when we speak of our Christian faith as a "religion," because we must understand that the One True God considers the following of his only-begotten Son to be much more than a "religion."

Abraham did not leave his home in Ur for a new religion. God did not promise Abraham a new religion, but a new life, and the fulfillment of that promise of new life arrived in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is called "Christ" in the Greek or "the Messiah" in Hebrew, because he is the Chosen One of God to fulfill all of God’s promises of life whatsoever. Jesus Christ is God, the eternal Son of God made man, to redeem mankind from sin and death. Jesus Christ is Christianity, if "Christianity" means following the Christ, the Son of God, the Chosen One who is, in and of himself, the new life that God first promised to Abraham.

God, of course, was not idle in the years between Abraham and the coming of Christ. God actively taught Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites. God gave them his holy moral law, still summarized today by the Ten Commandments. God sent prophets to speak and to teach in his Holy Name, so that the details of his Son’s coming and the response that we should make to that coming would be clear. God, by the Holy Ghost, made certain that both his Law and the words of his prophets would be written down, perfectly, clearly, and accurately in the Holy Scriptures. These words were the promise, and Jesus Christ is the total keeping of the promise.

We call the book that recounts the promises of God "the Old Testament," just as we call the book that completes the Bible by recounting God’s fulfillment of his promises "the New Testament." These were not the terms in use, however, when our Lord was made flesh and walked the earth. The New Testament was yet to be written down, so that it could only be heard in the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ and his Apostles. The Old Testament had a different name, too, based on the way that God had revealed it. It was called "the law and the prophets."

When our Lord gives "the Summary of the Law," the first great commandment to love God with all that we are, and the second like it that we love our neighbors as ourselves, he concludes by saying, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." By these words, he is telling us more than "all the teaching of God in the Old Testament can be summarized by two simple statements from it." He is telling us that he brings to earth nothing new, that he isn’t starting a new religion to replace the religion of the Old Testament. He tells us that all of the truth of God is fulfilled in himself, and that he is the Chosen One, the Christ.

All who wish to have the life-giving relation that God first gave to Abraham must now turn to Jesus Christ, who is the perfection of that gift and the reality of it. All of the so-called "world religions," whether in the Roman Pantheon or in the modern American social equivalent, are outside of this one relation of life in God. They are all, unfortunately for those who profess them, untrue and powerless to give true moral guidance on earth or eternal life in the kingdom of heaven.

Christianity is true because Jesus Christ is the one and only Truth of God. It is up to us, then, as Christians to do what Christians have always done, and to hold up the one Truth of God, Jesus Christ, before all men, whether they like it or not. We can’t wash our hands of this truth, and neither can they. And we do them the greatest service in the world as our neighbors, and we love God best, when we do not let them settle for anything less that the complete and utter Truth of Jesus Christ. This is how we obey the Two Great Commandments that summarize all of the Law of God and the teaching of all his prophets.

L. R. Tarsitano—Saint Andrew's Church, Savannah GA.

17th Sunday in Trinitytide

2010-09-26T16:13:00.005-04:00

THE EPISTLE. Ephes. 4. 1
THE GOSPEL. S. Luke 14. 1

LORD, we pray thee, that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In this prayer the word "prevent" in old English means to 'go before' and hence to anticipate.

The idea of the Epistle and Gospel for this Sunday appears to be that of gaining liberty and victory through becoming the humble servants of Christ. St. Paul writes out of his prison, "I the prisoner of the Lord," as he writes in another place, "Remember my bonds:" and one who was in the bonds of an infirmity was brought to Christ, "and He took him, and healed him, and let him go," setting him free from his disease on the instant in a manner which cannot be explained by physiological science. Afterwards our Lord speaks of the humane work of setting free on the Sabbath an ox or an ass that had fallen into a pit; and of one being bidden to go up higher through his humility in taking the lowest room at a wedding feast. All these may be taken as illustrations of the way in which our Lord's service becomes perfect freedom to those who humbly take His yoke upon them. They offer also a further illustration of the principle stated in the end of the Epistle, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in you all." This principle is of a restrictive character: bringing the world out of a free worship of many gods to the worship of One; limiting it to one faith, and to one only means of initiation into the family of the one God. The idea conveyed is one of a bondage to rule and law which leaves no room for invention or wild development and speculation. But as Christ reigned from the Cross; as St. Paul governed the churches of Ephesus and other cities from his prison in Rome; as one who sits down in the lowest room will hear the Host say to him, "Friend, go up higher;" so limitations and restrictions of this kind are a means of real spiritual freedom, however much they may seem an irksome bondage to those who regard them superficially. The Christian who worships the One God is more free than the heathen who worshipped many; and the believer in a Faith once for all given is more free than he who is continually looking for new developments and open to the bondage of every novel speculation. -JOHN HENRY BLUNT

Fallen Heroes

2010-09-26T15:27:00.004-04:00

This week these marines lost their lives for the cause of liberty. We ak that you remember them.

Justin Allen 23,
Brett Linley 29,
Matthew Weikert 29,
Justus Bartett 27,
Dave Santos 21,
Chase Stanley 21,
Jesse Reed 26,
Matthew Johnson 21,
Zachary Fisher 24,
Brandon King 23,
Christopher Goeke 23,
and Sheldon Tate 27
are all Marines that gave their lives this week, no media mention. Yet a celebrity drug addict receives much press.

Honor these Marines.

Prayers for those who lost their lives in defense of this Nation and on 9.11

2010-09-11T21:54:00.002-04:00

FOR ALL IN THE SERVICE OF OUR COUNTRY

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defense, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR OUR ARMED FORCES

Heavenly Father, we commend to thy gracious care and keeping all the men and women in our Armed Forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with thy heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils that beset them; and help them to know that none can pluck out of thy hand those who put their trust in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Eternal God, we commend to thy fatherly care all those who are enlisted in the Armed Forces. In time of preparation grant that discipline and training may fit them worthily to serve our country, and in the day of strife guide and sustain them in upholding the cause of justice and freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR THOSE WHO MOURN

Almighty God, who didst offer thy only Son to be made perfect through suffering, and to win our salvation by enduring the cross; sustain with thy healing power all those whose loved ones have given their lives in the service of our country. Redeem, we pray thee, the pain of their bereavement, that knowing their loss to be the price of our freedom, they may remember the gratitude of the nation for which they gave so costly a sacrifice. And grant, O Lord, that these dead shall not have died in vain, and that out of the distress of this present age there may arise a new and better world in which thy will shall rule, to the honor of thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

FOR OUR ENEMIES

O Saviour of the world, our Redeemer, whose love embraces all mankind, we hear thy prayer from the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Forgive, O Lord, those who have poured out the innocent blood and caused suffering in the world. May our prayers be for them a ministry of reconciliation. We ask it in thine own Name. Amen.

It's the Worldveiw!

2010-07-12T10:55:00.001-04:00

St. Albans, Richmond, Virginia

Invites

the Clergy and Interested Laity of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States, ACC,

to the first of a planned three-part program

“Evangelism-A Discussion and Exposition of Basic Issues”

When: Short notice: Saturday, July 31, 2010 from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm.

Format: An informal discussion and “brainstorming” session in large and small groups.

Details:

As we pass mid-summer, a new fall “church season” is on the horizon. As usual, our parishes face the practical problems of ordinary evangelism such as introducing the Anglo-Catholic expression to practicing Christians yearning to lead a fuller faith life. More importantly, though, is the question of reaching increasing numbers of un-churched, particularly young people, in a world in which there is a rejection of any and all truth claims. How do we speak to those for whom even basic truth is a wholly individual matter, dependent upon personal feeling for validation? How does an incarnational faith reach those who have been taught to “question reality”, yet are yearning for that which is larger than themselves?

Recent discussions on American Family Radio and in other venues have admitted that Anglicanism, even in its currently fragmented form (as well as the Orthodoxy and the Roman Church), offer concrete notions of truth to a generation weary of doubt and flux. The overarching question is how, then, do we speak to such a generation? What is the basic message we need to convey to convince the un-churched to come in the door and learn more?

Who:

This is a workshop for clergy and laity—with a special invitation to young lay people in the parishes to share their reasons for becoming and/or remaining catholic Anglicans.
If you have an idea or presentation you think will further the goals of the conference, please let us know.

Goals:

To identify the large issues and questions for the non-Christian or “post-Christian”, and to set out what has worked and what has not in reaching this increasingly large demographic. The focus will be on the practical, rather than the academic, and participants are encouraged to present concrete examples of experiences and efforts in evangelism and outreach including those which have failed. The goal of the first session is to provide attendees ideas to further discuss and develop at the parish level, and for further development is subsequent sessions.

We also hope that the session will mark the formation of a broad group of individuals throughout the diocese who will regularly focus on evangelism and engage in ongoing sharing of new ideas and innovations for showing forth the light of Christ in a darkened world.
As a third goal, we look forward to having two more sessions in the coming year-one at mid-year with a national speaker/leader involved in evangelism and apologetics, and a third next summer to wrap-up of the year and kick-off the next year of evangelism.
Please expect a rough agenda several days before the conference with the proviso that we will adjust the schedule if a particular topic is yielding a particularly good insight.

Logistics:

Sessions will be held at St. Albans, Richmond, Virginia. Those traveling Friday are encouraged to contact Canon Nalls (804) 262-6100 (church) or (202) 262-5519 (duty/cell) if they wish to seek private lodging with volunteer hosts. Lunch on Saturday will be on your own, but with a pizza and soda option for those who wish to chip in.

We hope to see you all there because a single soul is a terrible thing to lose.

In Christ,

Canon Charles H. Nalls

Trinty Sunday

2010-05-29T21:31:00.000-04:00

THE COLLECT.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that this holy faith may evermore be our defence against all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

More pics from from today

2010-05-16T22:24:00.000-04:00

More Pics

2010-05-16T21:36:00.002-04:00

Episcopal visit and Confirmations!

2010-05-16T21:02:00.009-04:00

Today our Bishop Ordinary The Rt. Rev William McClain Confirmed 8 and received 1 into the ACC at St. Athanasius. Praying for the Holy Ghost to descend and stir up our souls and gifts that we may go out into the world and do the work our Lord has given us to do!

Confirmation Day!

2010-05-15T20:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome Bishop McClean!

This Sunday we observe Ascension day and the reception and Confirmation of 9 people at St Athanasius! Congrats, welcome and blessings!

All Clear!

2010-05-15T20:12:00.005-04:00

Many thanks to Fil and Carolyn Truit (and their super crew) Carefil Concrete services for clearing the wooded half of our lot. This is a big step for us as we preparing to erect a building soon.

Parish Clean up day this Saturday May 8th!

2010-05-06T19:22:00.003-04:00

Not the most exciting news here but none the less necessary.

A good day for spring cleaning around the parish and planting our community garden.

Don't forget to come- we will lite up the grill at lunch!

Curious about us? stop in and visit we promise we won't put you to work!

Christian Ed classes canceled for Mother's Day! Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Prayer in General

2010-05-04T22:06:00.001-04:00

from Chapter XV. Prayer (1) Prayer in Generalfrom Anglicanism: The Thought and Practice of the Church of England, Illustrated from the Religious Literature of the Seventeenth Century, Compiled and Edited by Paul Elmer More and Frank Leslie Cross, S.P.C.K., London, 1935.

No. 282. JOSEPH HALL [From Meditations and Vows, Divine and Moral, Serving for Directions in Christian and Civil Practice. Century I, No. lxxxv. Works, ed. Peter Hall (1837), Vol. VIII, p. 24. ]

There is none like to Luther’s three masters: Prayer, Temptation, Meditation. Temptation stirs up holy meditation; meditation prepares to prayer; and prayer makes profit of temptation and fetcheth all ‘Divine knowledge from Heaven. Of others I may learn the theory of Divinity, of these only, the practice. Other masters teach me, by rote, to speak, parrot-like of Heavenly things; these alone, with feeling and understanding.

No. 283. JOSEPH HALL [From The Devout Soul; or Rules of Heavenly Devotion, Sections II [=Chap. I], VIII-XI [=Chaps. III f.]. Works, ed. Peter Hall (1837), Vol. VI, pp. 477-479, 485-489. THis treatise was published in 1643 at a time, as the author says in the Preface, "when we hear no noise but of drums and trumpets, and talk of nothing but arms and sieges and battles." "Blessed be my God," he adds, "Who in the midst of these woeful tumults hath vouchsafed to give me these calm and holy thoughts."]

If you tell me (by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion) that there is a gift of Prayer and that the Spirit of God is not tied to rules, I yield both these; but withal, I must say there are also helps of Prayer, and that we must not expect immediate inspirations. I find the world much mistaken in both. They think that man hath the gift of Prayer that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God, that can express himself smoothly in the phrase of the Holy Ghost and press God with most proper words and passionate vehemence; and surely this is a commendable faculty wheresoever it is. But this is not the gift of Prayer; you may call it, if you will, the gift of elocution. Do we say that man hath the gift of pleading, that can talk eloquently at the bar, that can in good terms loud and earnestly importune the judge for his client, and not rather he that brings the strongest reason, and quotes his books and precedents with most truth and clearest evidence, so as may convince the jury and persuade the judge? Do we say he hath the gift of preaching, that can deliver himself in a flowing manner of speech to his hearers, that can cite Scriptures or Fathers, that can please his auditory with the flowers of rhetoric, or, rather, he that can divide the word aright, interpret it soundly, apply it judiciously, put it home to the conscience, speaking in the evidence of the Spirit, powerfully convincing the gainsayers, comforting the dejected, and drawing every soul nearer to Heaven? The like must we say for Prayer; the gift whereof he may be truly said to have, not that hath the most rennible tongue (for Prayer is not so much a matter of the lips as of the heart), but he that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to Whom he speaks, the deepest sense of his own wants, the most eager longings after grace, the ferventest desires of supplies from Heaven, and in a word, whose heart sends up the strongest groans and cries to the Father of Mercies.

Neither may we look for enthusiasms and immediate inspirations, putting ourselves upon God’s Spirit, in the solemn exercises of our invocation without heed or meditation; the dangerous inconvenience whereof hath been too often found in the rash and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants. But we must address ourselves with due preparation to that holy work. We must digest our suits and fore-order our supplications to the Almighty, so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our devotion.

He Whose Spirit helps us to pray, and Whose lips taught us how to pray, is an all-sufficient Example for us. All the skill of men and angels cannot afford a more exquisite model of supplicatory Devotion than that Blessed Saviour of ours gave us in the Mount, led in by a Divine and heart-raising preface, carried out with a strong and heavenly enforcement; wherein an awful compellation makes way for petition, and petition makes way for thanksgiving; the petitions marshalled in a most exact order, for spiritual Blessings, which have an immediate concernment of God, in the first place; then for temporal favours, which concern ourselves, in the second. So punctual a method had not been observed by Him that heareth prayers, if it had been all one to Him to have had our devotions confused and tumultuary…

Occasional ejaculations are such as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kind of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained. Of this nature I find that which was practised in St. Basil’s time; that, upon the lighting of candles, the manner was to bless God in these words, “Praise be to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” which that Father says was anciently used; but who was the author of it he professeth to be unknown. To the same purpose was the Lucernarium, which was a part of the Evening Office of old. For which, there may seem to be more colour of reason, than for the ordinary fashion of apprecation upon occasion of our sneezing, which is expected, and practised by many, out of civility. Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company, but to say withal, Gramercy Madam la Superstition. Now howsoever in this or any other practice which may seem to carry with it a smack of superstition, our devotion may be groundless and unseasonable, yet nothing hinders but that we may take just and holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God; as when we do first look forth, and see the Heavens over our heads, to think, The Heavens declare Thy Glory, O God. When we see the Day breaking, or the Sun rising, The Day is Thine, and the Night is Thine, Thou hast prepared the Light and the Sun. When the Light shines in our faces, Thou deckest Thyself with Light as with a garment; or, Light is sprung up for the righteous. When we see our garden embellished with flowers, The Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. When we see a rough sea, The waves of the sea rage horribly, and are mighty; but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier than they. When we see the darkness of the night, The darkness is no darkness unto Thee. When we rise up from our bed, or our seat, Lord, Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising; Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. When we wash our hands, Wash Thou me, O Lord, and I shall be whiter than snow. When we are walking forth, O hold Thou up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. When we hear a passing bell, O teach me to number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom; or, Lord, let me know my end, and the number of my days.

Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God, upon all occasions; wherein, heed must be taken that our ejaculations be not, on the one side, so rare, that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God, but that they may be held on in continual acknowledgment of Him and acquaintance with Him; and, on the other side, that they be not so over-frequent in their perpetual reiteration, as that they grow to be (like that of the Romish Votaries) fashionable; which, if great care be not taken, will fall out, to the utter frustrating of our devotion. Shortly, let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tenderness and godly disposition, which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed devotion: whereof there is the same variety that there is in God’s services, about which it is conversant.

There are three main businesses wherein God accounts His service, here below, to consist. The first is our address to the Throne of Grace and the pouring out of our souls before Him in our Prayers; the second is, the reading and hearing His most Holy Word; the third is, the receipt of His Blessed Sacraments; in all which there is place and use for a settled devotion.

To begin with the first work of our actual and enlarged devotion. Some things are prerequired of us, to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and Heavenly a duty, namely, that the heart be clean first, and then that it be clear: clean from the defilement of any known sin; clear from all entanglements and distractions. What do we in our prayers but converse with the Almighty, and either carry our souls up to Him or bring Him down to us? Now it is no hoping that we can entertain God in an impure heart. Even we men loath a nasty and sluttish lodging. How much more will the Holy God abhor an habitation spiritually filthy? I find that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession, that he found the house swept and garnished. Satan’s cleanliness is pollution, and his garnishment disorder and wickedness; without this he finds no welcome; each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature. How much more will that God of Spirits, Who is purity itself, look to be harboured in a cleanly room? Into a malicious soul Wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. What Friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a Lazarhouse? Or, who would abide to have a toad lie in his bosom? Surely, it is not in the verge of created nature to yield any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man, as sin is to that absolute and essential Goodness. His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin, neither can He endure that the sinner should come within the sight of Him. Away from me ye wicked, is His charge both here and hereafter. It is the privilege and happiness of the pure in heart that they shall see God, see Him both in the end and in the way, enjoying the vision of Him both in grace and in glory; this is no object for impure eyes. Descend into thyself therefore, and ransack thy heart, who ever wouldst be a true client of devotion. Search all the close windings of it with the torches of the Law of God, and if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners thereof, drag it out and abandon it. And when thou hast done, that thy fingers may retain no pollution, say with the holy Psalmist, I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I go to Thine Altar. Presume not to approach the Altar of God, there to offer the sacrifice of thy devotion with unclean hands; else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee from the Hands of God, as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable. And if a beast touch the Mount it shall die.

As the soul must be clean from sin, so it must be clear and free from distractions. The intent of our devotion is to welcome God to our hearts; now where shall we entertain Him if the rooms be full, thronged with cares and turbulent passions? The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the world in our straight lodgings; an holy vacuity must make way for Him in our bosoms. The Divine Pattern of Devotion, in Whom the Godhead dwelt bodily, retires into the Mount to pray. He that carried Heaven with Him, would even thus leave the world below Him. Alas, how can we hope to mount up to Heaven in our thoughts, if we have the clogs of earthly cares hanging at our heels? Yea not only must there be a shutting out of all distractive cares and passions, which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our devotion, but there must be also a denudation of the mind from all those images of our phantasy (how pleasing soever) that may carry our thoughts aside from those better Objects. We are like to foolish children, who when they should be stedfastly looking on their books are apt to gaze after every butterfly that passeth by them. Here must be therefore a careful intention of our thoughts, a restraint from all vain and idle rovings, and an holding ourselves close to our Divine task. Whilst Martha is troubled about many things, her devouter sister, having chosen the better part, plies the one thing necessary, which shall never be taken from her; and whilst Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare, she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies.

After the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared, it must be in the next place decked with true humility, the cheapest, yet best ornament of the soul. If the Wise Man tells us that Pride is the beginning of Sin, surely all gracious dispositions must begin in humility. The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low; they are the lowly valleys that soak in the showers of Heaven, which the steep hills shelve off, and prove dry and fruitless. To that man will I look (saith God) that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word. Hence it is, that the more eminent any man is in grace, the more he is dejected in the sight of God; the Father of the Faithful comes to God under the style of dust and ashes; David under the style of a worm and no man; Agur, the son of Jakeh, under the title of more brutish than any man. and one that hath not the understanding of a man; John Baptist, as not worthy to carry the shoes of Christ after Him ; Paul, as the least of saints, and chief of sinners. On the contrary, the more vile any man is in his own eyes and the more dejected in the sight of God, the higher he is exalted in God’s favour; like as the conduit-water, by how much lower it falls, the higher it riseth. When therefore we would appear before God in our solemn devotions, we must see that we empty ourselves of all proud conceits, and find our hearts fully convinced of our own vileness, yea, nothingness in His sight. Down, down with all our high thoughts. Fall we low before our great and holy God, not to the earth only, but to the very brim of Hell, in the conscience of our own guiltiness; for though the miserable wretchedness of our nature may be a sufficient cause of our humiliation, yet the consideration of our detestable sinfulness is that which will depress us lowest in the sight of God.

Upcoming Events!

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Please join us at St. Albans Anglican in Richmond for the Ordination to the Diaconate of Mr. Jeffry Edmonds at 11 am this Saturday, May 1st!

Visit us at the Strawberry Festival on June 5th!
We will have many tracts and holy cards as well as a wide variety of plants for you to purchase. Stop in and chat with us- take a load off and set a spell!

The Rt. Rev. William McClean, Jr. Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States will be visiting St. Athanasius on May 16th to Confirm and receive 9 brothers and sisters in Christ at St Athanasius!

The Feast of Saint Mark.

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O ALMIGHTY God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark; Give us grace that, being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today Deacon Don Poff was ordained to the priesthood in Roanoke at St Thomas Anglican Church by the Rt, Rev. William McClean and many of his brother priests and friends and family were there in celebration. A wonderful and spirit filled ordination in a packed church. Congratulations to Fr. Poff as he enters fully into his ministry!

Pics to come!

He is Risen!

2010-04-03T20:24:00.002-04:00

He is Risen indeed!

Join us for Holy Communion at 10am. Check our location by clicking here!

Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast,
Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Cor. 5. 7.
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over him.
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin: but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6. 9.

Christ is risen from the dead: and become the first-fruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death: by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die: even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Cor. 15. 20.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

THE COLLECT.
Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

THE EPISTLE. Colossians 3. 1.
IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked yourselves when ye lived in such things. But now you must put it all off: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and filthy talk out of your mouth; lie not to one another; cast off the old self with its evil deeds, and put on the new, which is being refashioned unto knowledge according to the image of its creator; in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian or Sythian, bond or free, but Christ is all in all.

THE GOSPEL. S. John 20. 1.
THE first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together; and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre; and he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie; and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

Our new Website

2010-03-29T12:16:00.004-04:00

We have a new web address www.glenallenanglicans.com. Our old site www.saintathanasius.us has been taken down and will redirect to the new. The change, we hope, will facilitate updating with fresh content regularly and allow us to implement new technologies and not to mention we think the new address is easier to remember and spell!

Please join us for Maundy Thursday at 6:30pm at St. Athanasius and on Good Friday we will be at St Lukes, Manakin at 3pm for Stations of the Cross and meditation. At 6pm there will be a choral program at St Albans in Richmond.

Have a blessed Holy Week.

St Lukes address is 555 River Road West (Patterson Avenue Extension) just across the county line in Manakin-Sabot.

St Albans: 4006 Hermitage Road Richmond, Virginia 23227

Passion of the Christ

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Join us Sunday for worship at 10am. We will be showing the film "Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson after Fellowship approximately 12:00. Join us.

Schedule for the remainder of Lent and for Holy Week

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LENTEN SCHEDULE:

March 21st Passion Sunday: 10am Holy Communion

March 28th Palm Sunday 10 am. Holy Communion

HOLY WEEK SERVICES

April 1st Maundy Thursday 6:30pm Holy Communion

April 2nd Good Friday 3pm Stations of the Cross at St. Lukes in Manakin

Evening Service at St. Albans 6:30pm

Easter

April 4th Holy Communion 10 am.

Communion services will be Deacon's administration.

Lamb of God: A study

2010-03-10T15:56:00.003-05:00

Come join us on Wednesday nights at 6:30 during Lent (light supper served) as we study Jesus as the Lamb of God, focusing on themes of redemption and atonement from sin through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Some of the things we will be looking at are:

● An in-depth look at John the Baptist's statement, "Behold , the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)
● Old Testament sacrifices vs. the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ
● Jesus as the Suffering Servant
● The Lamb (Jesus) who sets us free
● Jesus as the Passover Lamb of whom we partake
● The triumphant Lamb we worship
● And much, much, more.....

We are located at 10811 Staples mill road in Glen Allen. A simple lenten supper begins at 6:30 with the video and discussion following at 7pm. Come join us.

Lenten Supper Program Tonight March 3rd

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Tonight we will be viewing a film on Fanny Crosby, American composer.

"This is the amazing biography of the blind hymn writer, Fanny Crosby. As the writer of more than 10,000 hymns, all penned after the age of forty, she is credited with authoring more verse than any human in history".

A great story of overcoming odds and doing a lasting work for Jesus Christ.

Next week we pick back up with a series on Easter. Hope you will join us.

Confirmation classes are starting!

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Confirmation Classes begin next Sunday Feb 28th after fellowship. If you are interested in confirmation or simply want to refresh your knowledge of our Faith this course will equip you with the basics to both defend and share your faith.

All are welcome.

Beginning next Wednesday Evening at 6:30 pm we will show a DVD on American hymn composer Fanny Crosby. We will be sharing a simple Lenten meal together beginning at please join us.

RSVP: Click HERE.

Congratulations!

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Congratulations to proud parents Kari and Fr. Jason Dechenne! Melissa Claire Dechenne born 17 February 2010 at 2:47 P.M.6 pounds, 14 ounces 19 inches long !

We wish them the best and God's blessings on Melissa Claire.

The Dechennes are old friends Fr. Jason is the priest at St Matthew's Anglican Church in Newport News and was ordained to the diaconate at St A's by The Rt. Rev. Rocco A. Florenza and Kari was our first baptism in our chapel.

Pancake Supper Shrove Tuesday

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Supper starts around 6:30. We will be there early to start cooking- about 6pm. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Wiki:
"The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance. During the week before Lent, sometimes called Shrovetide in English, Christians were expected to go to confession in preparation for the penitential season of turning to God. Shrove Tuesday was the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, and noted in histories dating back to 1000 AD. The popular celebratory aspect of the day had developed long before the Protestant Reformation, and was associated with releasing high spirits before the somber season of Lent. It is analogous to the continuing Carnival tradition associated with Mardi Gras (and its various names in different countries) that continued separately in European Catholic countries".

ACC MISSION IN RWANDA

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The following is a report that was sent to Archbishop Haverland from a priest in Rwanda, Fr. Phanuel, related to a fund drive. - Fr. Hart

God is His abounding mercy and unlimited provision and protection continues to uphold and expand ACC MISSION IN RWANDA. The mission that started in September, 2008 with the training of ten elders and started officially with a Sunday Mass on January 4, 2009 has grown to four strong parishes and two small worship centers. In Saint Mark Busumba we opened the center with 10 adults and fifteen children and by February 08, 2009, adult members were 25 and the children 22 and now we have 36 adult members and 32 children. Read more: Click Here.

Sunday February 21st Lent Begins

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Welcome to our website and our community of faithful Christians. We love our church family and think you will as well. Whether you are looking for a church to call your own or visiting join us this Sunday at 10 am for worship that is beautiful, inspired and authentic.

It is Lent.

Lent is a season of preparation and remembrance. A time for prayer, personal reflection, spiritual discipline and alms giving- a reflecting and observation of Christ’s time in the wilderness leading up to his Crucifixion to prepare us for the coming of Easter and His Resurrection.

Join us on our spiritual pilgrimage as we go up to Jerusalem and learn of Jesus temptation in the wilderness and of how He heals and casts out devils; the house swept and garnished; the feeding of the multitude with the bread of heaven. Learn how we are fortified against our enemies and temptation; how to walk in patience, love and charity and receive the comfort of His grace. Witness the example of Christ as high priest and mediator of a new covenant for us and His great humility and love for you and me as He faces his Passion.

Come, walk with us this Lent.

St. Athanasius is an Anglican church that is orthodox in faith and practice- you can learn more about what that means on our 'About Us' page. Please feel free to explore our website and if you have any prayer requests, questions, or comments that are not answered on these pages give us a call or better yet- come worship with us and ask in person. Don't forget to check our calendar for events and updates.

Our sign is down

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Lots going on at St Athanasius. A traffic accident has temporarily deprived us of our sign in the yard but we are still here.

Also tonight's Bible Study will be moved this week to Thursday to allow for everyone to dig out and avoid Tuesdays storm.

Please welcome Deacon Don Poff to the growing St. Athanasius family. We will be celebrating Deacon's administration of the Holy Communion Sunday at 10 am.

Confirmation classes will be starting soon and we will be announcing a Lenten Program shortly.

Hope to see you this Sunday.

Sunday (Sexagesima) Closed!

2010-02-06T16:31:00.004-05:00

We will be closed Feb 7th Sunday... again!

THE COLLECT.
O LORD God, who seest that we do not put our trust in any thing that we do: Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE EPISTLE. 2 Cor. 11. 19
YE suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak: howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more: in labours more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often; in perils of waters; in perils of robbers; in perils by mine own countrymen; in perils by the heathen; in perils in the city; in perils in the wilderness; in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness; besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

THE GOSPEL. S. Luke 8. 4
WHEN much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell by the way-side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe, and be saved. They on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

The Sunday called Sexagesima.

HUMILITY.

by the Rev. Prebendary Melville Scott, D.D.

from The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.

A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year,

S.P.C.K., London, 1902.

__________________________

THIS Sunday, while repeating the exhortations of the Sunday previous as to the urgency of Christian effort, gives most emphatic warning against “trusting in anything that we do.” The intrusion of self in any form will spoil our Lenten discipline, whether it appears, as last Sunday, in the form of self-seeking, or as self-trust and self-righteousness. Such a spirit will taint our sacrifice and render it unacceptable, for the sacrifice of self must not be offered to self, but to God.

THE EPISTLE. (2 COR. xi. 19.)

S. Paul is brought before us as the great example of one who, while doing everything for Christ, trusted in nothing that he did, and as exhibiting the very spirit of the day’s Collect.

A. A Life of Deep Humility.

The boastfulness of partisan rivals forces S. Paul to turn his pen to self-defence. It is a fault he feels, but this fault is not his, but theirs who, regarding self praise as a confession of strength, have taken his humility as a sign of weakness. He speaks as a fool, and of his self-assertion as folly, but asks their pardon for it who have made it necessary, and who, indeed, have shown that they regard it as a virtue.

If any assertion of self was folly in S. Paul how much more so in us! We may only speak of ourselves when silence would do more harm than speech. But when gentleness is taken for weak. ness, self-control for indifference, humility for inferiority, it may become our duty, not merely to ourselves but to others, to assert not ourselves but our office, lest our work suffer loss.

B. A Life of Intense Effort.

(1) Varied danger.  Five Jewish scourgings; three Roman scourgings; three shipwrecks; the passage of bridgeless rivers; scenes among wild robbers; everywhere Jewish hate and heathen enmity; dangers in crowded towns and desolated wildernesses; sea perils short of absolute wreck; the time-serving of false brethren.

(2) Constant self-denial.  The willing endurance of weariness and pain; nightly wakefulness; starvation; voluntary fastings; cold and nakedness, his clothes worn out and torn.

(3) Crushing burdens.  In the midst of all, fearful inward burdens—” the care of all the Churches “—a burden made the heavier by his intense sympathy with the weak, i.e., those troubled with doubts, hesitations, and trembling consciences, and by his burning indignation against those who turned aside others from Christian duty—a burden made still heavier by personal infirmities which made all life a trial.

So truly was S. Paul one who combined the fullest activity with the deepest humility. He trusted in Christ to do all for Him, in Him, and by Him; and Christ did it. He did his best, yet not he, but Christ that lived in him. Thus he becomes a fitting example both of Lenten effort and of Lenten humility.  

THE GOSPEL. (S. LUKE viii. 4.)

The parable of the sower brings before us the double lesson of the Sunday; this is seen in the following particulars

A. The Need of Effort.

The characteristic work of the present dispensation is sowing. Christ was the first sower, and without Him all others sow in vain; but He has His instruments, His under-sowers, and by these He works, and these must work. The whole Church of Christ is intended to be one great machine for sowing the heavenly seed, by every possible agency and every possible effort. This is the object of its existence and the purpose of its continuance. Our work is to sow, to sow continually, to go on sowing, remembering that in the seed itself lies the promise and potency of life.

B. The Manifold Dangers of the Christian Life.

This seems the point of connection with the teachings of the Sunday. Our position of danger must involve the deepest humility, and this to the very end of the Christian course. Each stage of the Christian life has its special dangers, as we may learn from the parable of the sower.

(1) The danger of careless hearing.  This lies at the threshold of the Christian life, and prevents even the entrance of the good seed. The word enters the ear, but never reaches the heart, and quickly passes away even from memory, being caught away by the spirit of evil or crushed by  fresh tramplings of worldliness.

(2) The danger of trial.  Trial and temptation mark a crisis in the Christian life, and like the fierce sunshine scorch the shallow-hearted, while they only ripen those deeply rooted. By these the principles of all are tested, but especially those of the young. Youth, the time of receptivity and of promise, is also the season of most deadly temptation.

(3) The dangers of prosperity.  These come with the cares, riches, and pleasures of later years, even when the seed has found lodgment and the blade has given promise. The plant of grace cannot grow in a thicket of worldliness which shuts out God’s light and air. These dangers are found as men “go on their way” (R.V.), and against them we pray in the Litany, “in all time of our wealth, Good Lord, deliver us.”

Our Saviour’s closing words seem to favour the interpretation above given of the various stages of life and their special dangers. We need not ask which state of ground is ours, for we may resemble all in turn. There are no hearts by nature good ground. Those that are such have been made such by the ploughshare of God’s grace, by His deepening of our shallow soil, by His cleansing processes. Even the good ground hearers should advance in fruitfulness, and will even, like the bending ear, become more humble as they ripen. Here is, therefore, reason both for earnest effort and constant humility that we may hear; hold fast what we have heard, and bring forth fruit with patience.  

THE COLLECT.

This combines most harmoniously the two aspects of the Sunday, its exhortation to activity, and its warning against self-righteousness.

A. What the Christian may not trust In.

He may not trust “in anything that he does,” though, like S. Paul, he is to do everything. It is hard for us not to trust in ourselves, just in proportion as we are really doing something; but even the labours of a S. Paul were not to be trusted in.

B. What the Christian must trust In.

He must trust in the Divine power to defend him from the dangers which beset every portion of the Christian life, for spiritual progress, for Christian usefulness, and final victory. The Christian may not trust in himself lest he forget to trust in Christ.

The connection between collect and epistle was yet more emphatically marked in the Use of Sarum, where we pray: “Mercifully grant that by the protection of the teacher of the Gentiles, we may be defended,” etc.

Such evident connection of thought is a sign that we are to expect a like sequence, even where it cannot be so clearly traced as in the present instance.

`Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'

2010-02-04T16:03:00.007-05:00

Announcement:

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the Lord's admonition:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

and with all thy soul,

and with all thy strength,

and with all thy mind,

and thy neighbor as thyself."

St. Athanasius Anglican, Glen Allen affirming it's Anglican heritage and patrimony joins it's Richmond neighbor St. Alban's Anglican Church, ACC in love and fellowship and in offering a unified, strong and orthodox witness for Jesus Christ in central Virginia.

We also look forward to the reopening of St. Luke's Anglican (Manakin Sabot) in the near future and offering 3 local and vibrant parishes serving the Richmond Metro area.

We are both evangelical and catholic and committed to spreading the Good News of the Gospel!

The Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States

2010-01-30T19:55:00.001-05:00

No Sunday Service (Jan 31st) due to the weather.
The Sunday called Septuagesima.DISCIPLINE.by the Rev. Prebendary Melville Scott, D.D.from The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year,S.P.C.K., London, 1902.__________________________

EPIPHANY leads on to Lent, for if we have the Epiphany hope “we must purify ourselves even as He is pure.” The vision must be realised in daily life, and in spite of inward sin and outward conditions of trial and difficulty. We address ourselves, therefore, to the conquest of sin. In the three preparation Sundays before Lent our Church instructs us as to the necessity of self-discipline, its possible dangers, and its most fruitful motive.
THE EPISTLE. (I COR. ix. 24.) CHRISTIAN EFFORT.
This Epistle brings before us the absolute necessity of sustained and concentrated effort in the Christian life, under two figures :—
A. The Christian Race.
The Christian life is a race—
(1) As it looks forward to a prize, compared with which all earthly prizes are fading and corruptible, a condition of glory which is fitly represented by the figure of a crown. The Christian runs with the crown ever before him; he runs to win, and as if one alone could receive the prize, and intending to be that one.
(2) As demanding continuous effort.
A very main idea of the race is its length, for it lasts as long as life. It needs, therefore, determination and fixity of purpose that we run “not uncertainly"—by fits and starts. This race is not to the swift, but to the enduring, and demands in the runner the same qualities possessed by the winners of all long races—a self-denial in every indulgence that might lessen the chance of victory, a wise and steady calmness, a shrinking from no exertion, but, above all, a steady perseverance to the end. No bodily race is like this for difficulty. Let the spiritual runner learn from the bodily to run wisely, not wildly, not as certain of victory, but making victory certain.
B. The Christian Wrestling.
(1) Not only does S. Paul say, “I run,” but “I fight.”
The Christian is not only a racer, but a wrestler. As the Christian’s race is the pursuit of holiness, so his wrestling is the conquest of evil. Here we see not so much the length as the severity of the struggle. The Christian must not only run patiently, but fight desperately, with strong and stern determination, with straining effort, with concentrated exertion, with wakeful and vigilant watching for opportunity. Let the spiritual wrestler learn his lesson from the bodily wrestler, and not shrink from the stress of conflict, for no bodily wrestling with flesh and blood is like this wrestling for severity.
(2) The ancient wrestler was also a fighter, and so the Christian must plant his blows where they will tell, and not “as one that beateth the air.” Not the show of fight, not much tossing of the limbs, not many formidable attitudes are wanted, but the reality of it—sin bruised, Satan beaten off, and the real Satans, not extinct Satans, but our besetting sin, vanquished. Hence the need of self-examination and taking ourselves in detail, and of confessing not only our sin, but our sins. Hence the need of self-discipline and self-bracing. We are to acquire mastery over the body—not, that is, of the depraved nature, for that is to be treated worse: it is to be “crucified,” and suffer the penalty of death this is to be enslaved only, lest it hinder the freedom of the soul.

THE GOSPEL. (S. MATT. xx. 1.) CHRISTIAN TOIL.
As the Christian is to be a racer and a wrestler in his own spiritual history, as ever in pursuit of all good, and ever in constant conflict with all evil, so he is to be a toiler and labourer in regard to others. As the Epistle is directed against lives of ease, so the Gospel is against lives of selfishness.
A. The Necessity of Labour.
As Christians, we are called to labour. This is the very system of God’s Church on earth. We are called to enter a vineyard, and labour in a vineyard with others and for others. “To stand idle in the market-place” is bad, but how much worse to stand idle in the vineyard! There is no call to entrance that is not also a call to work; no admittance but on business. The salvation of the individual soul is to be wrought out not in isolation, but in com-munion with others. Personal religion can only unfold itself in the social sphere, in sympathy of mutual giving and receiving.
B. The Spirit of the Labourers.
The toil of the Christian is to be a labour of love, not of selfish. ness. He is to race, wrestle, and fight, but not for his own hand, imitating the earnestness of worldly men, but not their worldliness. He may not compare himself with others, lest he spoil his work, and thinking himself the first, become the last. The spirit of the market-place must not be found in the vineyard. Length of service is important; it is no less important to bear the burden and heat of the day; but more important than either length or amount of service is the spirit in which we serve. He who has worked one hour for God is better than he who has worked twelve for himself.
C. The Reward of Labour
Is, in fact, true resemblance to the mind and will of our Master. Just as the reward of learning is knowledge, and the reward of diligence in any art is ability, so the reward of virtue is to be virtuous, and of godliness to be like God. Other rewards there may and will be, but this is the very life eternal, the great reward to be given when even is come and the Master calls His labourers to give them wages (S. John iv. 36). Here is the danger of selfishness, that it makes the labourer unlike his Master, “his evil his Master’s good,” so that he cannot enter into the joy of his Lord. Thus does our Church give her first caution as to the spirit of Lenten discipline.

THE COLLECT.
A prayer most suitable for the opening Sunday of the Lenten season, and marked by deep humiliation and desire.
It contains :—
A. A Confession of Sin.
We confess that we are under punishment, for, though a punishment of love and a discipline for future glory, it still is a punishment, and a just punishment, for our offences. The Christian must make his own the confession of the penitent thief—“We, indeed, justly.”
B. A Prayer for Absolution.
Though punished, and justly punished, we are still “Thy people,” and our merciful deliverance will more turn to the glory of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, than would our punishment.

THE COLLECT.
O LORD, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

THE EPISTLE. 1 Cor 9. 24
KNOW ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things: now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away.

THE GOSPEL. S. Matth. 20. 1
THE kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the good-man of the house, saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way; I will give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Lectionary for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

2009-12-19T19:08:00.003-05:00

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.

Every eye shall now behold him,
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at nought and sold him,
pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.

Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshipers;
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
gaze we on those glorious scars!

Now redemption, long expected,
see in solemn pomp appear;
all his saints, by man rejected,
now shall meet him in the air:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
See the day of God appear!

Yea, amen! let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory;
claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

Psalm 80, 7, 10 Isaiah 40:1-11, Jeremiah 33:7-16

The Collect

O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle
Philippians iv. 4.

REJOICE in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The Gospel
St. John i. 19. THIS is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The Fourth Sunday in Advent.PREPARATION BY CHRIST. by the Rev. Prebendary Melville Scott, D.D. from The Harmony of the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels.A Devotional Exposition of the Continuous Teaching of the Church Throughout the Year,S.P.C.K., London, 1902. __________________________

FROM preparation by the Word and Church of God we are led to the yet deeper truth of preparation by Christ Himself. The inward and spiritual presence of Christ is needed if we are to be ready for His outward and visible coming. The motto of the Sunday is, therefore, “Preparation by Christ for Christ.”
THE EPISTLE. PHIL. iv. 4.
The Presence of our Lord is the source of all Christian preparedness, for “except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” The realization of Christ’s presence is :—
A. The Source of Joy. The importance of Christian joy is seen in S. Paul’s double command, “Rejoice—and again I say rejoice.” Its possibility lies in the words “in the Lord,” for only in the service of Christ and in connection with Christ can we be glad in a world of so much sorrow. In union with Christ the believer gains the joy of Christ in the unbroken consciousness of Divine love.
B. The Source of “Moderation.” The moderation here spoken of is not in meat and drink, but in temper and spirit, and it is enforced by the nearness of Christ’s Advent.
This will make us yielding as to our personal rights, the end being so near when all these things shall lose their value; patient under insults and annoyances all so soon to be forgotten; gentle
in the expression of opinion, when He is so near Who knows all things perfectly and will prove us all to be more or less mistaken; ready to resign the world’s joys, ambitions, gains, and engage. ments, since when He arrives all this poor world will go.
This argument may well make us gentle and yielding in spirit, since He is coming Who was the very King and Prince of gentle. ness. Let us hold nothing very tight except the Gospel, Christian truth, and moral principle. Let us be ready to drop all that is ours, so that we hold fast all that is Christ’s; ready to drop earth that we may the better grasp heaven.
C. The Source of Freedom from Care. If Christ is at hand to reverse our hasty judgments, He is at hand also to hear our prayers. In such a Presence anxiety is a sin, and a thing altogether un-Christian. The passage contains a prescription and a promise.
(1) The Prescription is Prayer.
“Let your requests be known unto God.”
It is an universal prescription applying to everything, for nothing is too large or too small to bring to God. It covers all we desire (prayer), all we fear (supplication). It includes “thanksgiving,” for God will give little to those who seem to think that He has given them nothing.
(2) The Promise is Peace.
The peace which comes from prayer is of God’s bestowing, and like Him Who bestows it, for it is “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” It is a peace which shall hold its own in strength and shall dwell in the heart, like a garrison keeping all enemies far away. It is peace which the heart can feel, and the mind can accept, and it comes “through Christ” and Christ alone. From Him comes peace with God, and from Him comes the peace of God.
The source of all these benefits is the presence of our Lord. Our joy is “in the Lord,” our moderation because “the Lord is at hand,” our peace, “through Christ Jesus.”

THE GOSPEL. S. JOHN i. 19.
That Christ alone can prepare us for His Advent is strikingly illustrated by the testimony of the great herald of the first Advent. S. John Baptist confesses his own inferiority, and seeks to lead his hearers to Christ.
He confesses:--
A. His Inferiority in Dignity. In three humble negatives S. John Baptist disclaims all distinction. With the greatest emphasis he repudiates the very thought that he himself was the Messiah for whose Advent he was sent to make preparation. No words can be stronger—"He confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.”
Though in very truth the Elias which was for to come (Mal. iv. 5), he dare not advance for himself so high a claim. Though named by our Lord “a prophet and more than a prophet,” he can see in himself no resemblance whatever to the prophet foretold (Deut. xviii. 15), and often interpreted as a forerunner of the Christ. Such humility is a true mark of those best fitted to prepare others for Christ; they stand by and let Him pass. If He alone can do this work, they must of necessity be humble.
B. His Inferiority in Office. He does not think of himself as a speaker, but as a voice; not as a messenger, but as a message. He regards his baptism of water as merely preparatory, a confession of the need of more perfect cleansing. He looks upon himself as unworthy to perform the office of a slave to the coming Master. His work was the humble duty of preparation, and the need for even that had passed away, for the Christ was standing among them though they knew it not, and his own final message was about to be delivered— “Behold the Lamb of God.”
"Christ standeth among us"—this is the last message of the Church before the great day of His coming. By His unseen Presence alone can we be prepared to celebrate His first Advent or to welcome the second Advent. All personal effort, all use of the means of grace provided in the Church, are only effectual in so far as we cling to the personal Saviour.

THE COLLECT.
In harmony with all the teachings of the day we are taught to pray for the special power of God by which alone we can be made ready to meet our Lord.
A. The Source of Power. This is not in ourselves, but in God. In the Salisbury Use this collect is addressed not to the Father, but to Christ, and thus illustrates more completely the subject of the Sunday, viz., “preparation by Christ for Christ,” and the words “come among us” have their true Advent meaning The unseen Presence and power of Christ—His inward Advent, in fact—are the sufficient preparation for us in view of His outward Advent.
B. Our Need of Power. We need power to enable us to run the Christian race set before us. We need “bountiful grace” for help against our sins, and “bountiful mercy” to deliver us from our inward inclination to sin—i.e, our “wickedness “—for by these we are sore “let and hindered.” We need this “speedily,” for our race is nearly run, and “the Lord is at hand.”
C. Our Plea for Power. This is “the satisfaction” or atonement of Christ our Lord, by which alone we obtain remission of our sins and are made partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven. By the atonement of Christ we are able to plead both for grace and mercy.

Sunday closing due to hazardous conditions

2009-12-19T18:13:00.001-05:00

St Athanasius will be closed for the 4th Sunday in Advent, Dec, 20th: please join us Christmas Eve at 10pm for Lessons and Carols. Emmanuel! God be with us!

Lots going on at the prayer house

2009-12-08T19:54:00.003-05:00

We wish to thank Carolyn and Fil Truitt from Carefil Construction of Ruther Glen for all their help in building a parking lot and and handicapped/easy access parking for St Athanasius. We are growing and parking has been getting snug and the new area will keep everybody high and dry this winter!

Also we have been knocking out walls inside to give us a larger great room for Christian education and added seating in the chapel to accommodate our new members.

We have also upgraded our sound system and have a new digital organ on line- impressive sounding!

We thank you for taking the time to look at our website and look forward to meeting you this Sunday. Alternating services of Holy Communion and Morning Prayer at 10 am, Kids welcome, and no we do not segregate children away during worship of our Lord.

Christmas Cards for Recovering Soldiers

2009-11-29T17:18:00.002-05:00

Please remember to bring in Christmas Cards over the next two weeks for our military. There are soldiers who have served their country who are away from their families recovering from injuries they have received in the line of duty. We are collecting cards from our members and anyone in the community who would like to participate can drop off cards at the church house or mail them directly to:

A Recovering Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave, NW
Washington DC 20307-5001

Please send a card and you certainly are not restricted to one! Send as many as you can. We will be sending ours up in one package to save on postage.

Hope to hear from you!

Pax Christus

John

Advent Wreath Making Class

2009-11-25T16:05:00.002-05:00

Come join us Wednesday evening December 2nd at 6pm for a wreath making class conducted by Jenifer Mazza of Mustard Seed Farm and Nursery.
Cost is $21.00 for materials.
We will have lots of boxwood, holly and magnolia available.
You can call ahead -248-8940 just leave us a message to RSVP and we will get back to you to confirm.

A blessed Advent to you.

Thanksgiving Evening Prayer Service

2009-11-25T16:02:00.001-05:00

Join us Thursday evening at 7pm for Evening Prayer in the Chapel at 7pm. The service will be about 30-40 minutes long. We will have a brief fellowship afterwords.

Sunday October 18th 2009. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

2009-10-21T12:39:00.001-04:00

Church of St Athanasius, Glen Allen, Virginia

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer”. Ps 19

Introduction:

“Jesus entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into His own city”. Matt, Ch. 9, v1.

Some of you may be wondering what is town is it that is being referred to here. Is it Nazareth or somewhere else? Well, if you go back to Chapter 4 of Matthew’s gospel you will find the answer to that question. In verses 12-17 of Chapter 4 we have the following:

“Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested He withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made His home in Capernaum by the Lake, in the territory of Zabulon and Naptali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
‘Land of Zabulon, land of Naphtali, on the road to the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, a light has dawned.’
From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven has come near””. Matt. Ch. 4 vv 12-17

It is important to realize that Jesus did not go from Nazareth to Capernaum because He was afraid of King Herod who, as the scripture tells us, had just arrested John the Baptist. No, Jesus us made of sterner stuff and was not afraid of the petty tyrant Herod. The reason Jesus went to Capernaum was that He realized that with the departure of John the Baptist from the public arena, the time had come for Jesus to start His own public ministry. He had to go to Capernaum so that the prophecy of Isaiah could be fulfilled:

“Land of Zebulon, Land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, a light has dawned.” Isaiah, Ch. 9, vv 1-2.

This area in northern Israel was an invasion route for the Syrian armies over the years. Naturally, it could be called “the region and shadow of death”. Just as in the same way the plains of Flanders were invasions leading into the heartland of the French kingdom and had more than their share of bloodletting and death. But times are changing. Matthew’s gospel message is that a light has dawned, hope is coming to this troubled areas.

In some liturgies the mass ends with the “second gospel”, namely a reading from the opening verses of the Gospel of John. In that section we hear the following:

“The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” John, Ch. 1, v9.

In other words, in Matthew’s account of the gospel which we read today, we are witnessing the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus. Let us look at that section of the scriptural text.

The gospel text:

The gospel text which we read today was obviously near the beginning of the public ministry. Jesus has not yet picked all of His disciples and it is only after this passage in scripture which we read today, that we find Him selecting Levi, son of Alphaeus, whom we also know as St. Matthew, the writer of this present gospel. (Ch. 9, v.9)

It is interesting that Jesus begins this miraculous cure by first telling the paralytic man that his sins are forgiven. Now His hearers would have been well aware of the teaching of the prophet Isaiah which said that only God could forgive sins. In Chapter 42, v. 25 of Isaiah we have the following words of God, prophesied by Isaiah:

“I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins”. (note the use of ‘I am’)

So the hearers of Jesus were faced with a choice: either they could consider Him a blasphemer, or they could consider that He was in fact divine, He was the messiah who was to come. Since Jesus could read their thoughts, He realized that they were taking the former course; they were considering that He was a blasphemer. So Jesus proposes a test:

“For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’, or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?

Obviously, it would be easier to say “your sins are forgiven”, since no one could objectively disprove this statement. On the other hand, a command “Rise and Walk” addressed to the paralytic man, could be tested by everyone present by seeing whether or not the man gets up and walks! Well, Jesus chooses the more difficult task: where failure would promptly discredit Him. And He does it for a reason. Look at verse 6:

“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”, He then said to the paralytic, “Stand up, take your bed and go to your home”. And he stood up and went to his home”.

What is important here, is that Jesus is using the miraculous cure to teach a lesson, namely that He has the power to forgive sins. Several weeks ago in the Sunday liturgy we had the story of the raising of the widow’s son from the dead. And the gospel text told us that Jesus had compassion on the widow. Miracles are not done by Christ and His followers to show off. They have very specific messages. The raising of the widow’s son was done for three reasons, a) because Jesus had compassion on the widow for the loss of her only son; b) that Jesus wanted to demonstrate that God was the Creator of the whole universe and had power over evertything, even death; and c) He wanted to demonstrate that the promised Messiah had come, and that He was fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah regarding the promised coming. Similarly, in the miracle that Jesus performs in today’s gospel extract we must recognize that it is not performed to show off, but to teach a lesson, namely that Jesus had the power to forgive sins. I quote:

“So that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins – He then said to the paralytic – ‘Stand up, take your bed and go to your house’”.

That simply is the reason for the miracle – to demonstrate that Jesus, the Son of God, has the power to forgive sins.

Forgiveness of sins:

I think the marvelous thing here is that the first miracle which happened to the paralytic man is the more magnificent. We tend to forget it in the light of the spectacular second miracle, when Jesus heals the paralytic of his physical illness and tells him to get up and walk. But look at the first miracle:

“When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.’” V.2

This is the first thing that Jesus is concerned with: the man’s standing before God, his state of repentance, the condition of the man’s soul. It is only after the man has been cleansed of his sins, that he is cured of his physical illness. There is an order of priorities here and that should be our order of priorities as well.

I don’t want to go into it too much in this sermon but it would be remiss of me if I didn’t at least mention it in passing. I want you to look again at that text of the gospel in Ch. 9, v. 2 of Matthew:

“And just then some people were carrying a paralysed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.’”

Note, that when Jesus saw their faith He proceeded to forgive the sins of the paralytic man. In other words the prayers and faith of the man’s supporters brought him firstly forgiveness of sins, and secondly bodily healing. There is no real evidence of any particular faith on the part of the individual himself, but the faith and the charity of his supporters was sufficient to bring Jesus’ forgiving and healing power into action. We must remember this: as a church we have the power to help those around us by our faith and our prayers.

This particular chapter of Matthew’s gospel is much concerned with the treatment of sinners. In verse 10 of this chapter we have the following:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and ‘sinners’ came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners’. On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Now there is a problem in the church today which could be said to have arisen, in part, from these very verses of St. Matthew’s gospel which we have just read. There are many Christian who do not want to find themselves in the position of the self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees and Scribes, and that is good.

However, they subscribe to the notion of “inclusiveness”. If Jesus could associate with sinners and eat with them at table, who are we to do differently? These modern-day Christians go out of their way to display their solidarity with sinners. In this they are right! Jesus Himself said that He had come not to call the righteous but sinners, and, remember, all of us are sinners. Consequently, His Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, must not shy away from seeking out and associating with sinners. But here is where we differ from so many modern churchmen.

We do not condemn sinners, but we do condemn sin. We seek out the company of sinners in order that we may offer them the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and the possibility of the forgiveness of their sins. We do not agree that our bishops and clergy should join with sinners in their sinful ways. That was not what Jesus did, nor should we.

Conclusion:

It is important that we realize the significance of the healing miracle of the paralytic man. Jesus expressly said that He performed that miracle in order to show definitively that He had the power to forgive sins. We must remember that that power has been passed on to His church.

You remember the incident when the disciples were all gathered together in the room after the Resurrrection and suddenly Jesus appeared to them: John, Ch. 20, vv21-23.

“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you’. When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”

Bringing salvation and forgiveness of sins to mankind is the core of the Christian message and central to the Church’s mission, which is our mission, individually and collectively.

Sermon: 17th Sunday after Trinity

2009-10-08T13:33:00.001-04:00

Sunday 4th October 2009. Church of St. Athanasius, Glen Allen, Virginia.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” Ps. 19

Introduction:

There are three distinct sections in today’s gospel selection from Luke. The social dynamics are quite fascinating as we watch how Jesus interacts with the other persons present at the Sabbath meal. First, there is the episode of the healing of the man with dropsy. Then there is the section where Jesus gives advice to His fellow invitees on how to behave on social occasions. Lastly, there is the section in which He gives advice to the host on how to conduct himself when organizing a similar meal again.

Let us start with the first section, the healing of the man with dropsy.

The man with dropsy:

The first section deals with Jesus going into the house of a leading Pharisee for the Sabbath meal. One could presume that Jesus was invited because He happens to be the visiting preacher to the area. But this presumption is probably wrong. This scene comes near the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth and by this time many of the leading Pharisees and Sadducees were too well aware of His teachings and were acquainted with His miracles and so on. As a group they did not like Him and they were certainly looking for ways to catch Him out.

These people were afraid that He was disturbing the status quo and that He could upset the delicate balance which existed between the Jewish leaders and the Roman overlords. These people were the successful people in Jewish society. They were rich and powerful and men of influence. They did not want that situation to be disturbed by any itinerant preacher.

So the invitation to dinner was not really an honor being extended to Jesus, but an occasion in which His opponents hoped that He would betray Himself and give them some ammunition in their campaign to vilify Him. Interestingly enough, they were probably in the crowds watching His crucifixion several weeks later.

The fact that the occasion was not as socially pleasant as it might at first appear on the surface is made clear by the evangelist Luke in his very first verse:

“On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching Him closely”. Luke, Ch. 14, v. 1.

Note, they were watching Him closely. The whole occasion was a set-up; it was part of the prolonged, continuous campaign by the leaders of the Jewish people to trap the Messiah into something that would provide them with ammunition with which to attack Him.

I said it was a “set-up”: look at what happens in verse 2:

“Just then, in front of Him, there was a man who had dropsy”

Did this sick man just happen to be there? Was he by chance one of the invited guests to the meal? Well, almost certainly the answer to both those questions is “No”. This was part of a trap to ensnare Jesus. But Jesus was aware of the motives and the agenda of the Pharisees and He rose to the challenge.

“And Jesus asked the lawyers and Pharisees, ‘Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath, or not?’ But they were silent.” V. 3

There is a duel here between the Son of God and the forces of Evil. The latter are trying to entrap Jesus, and He in His turn, is presenting the Christian message, calmly, clearly and dramatically. Note the response of the lawyers and Pharisees: “But they were silent”.

So what did Jesus do? The scripture tells us:

“Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away” v. 4

Notice, that Jesus “sent him away”; he obviously had not been one of the invited guests and his presence there had almost certainly been arranged by the Pharisees as part of a plan to entrap Jesus. Jesus’ answer to their machinations is a healing cure! Jesus is returning good for evil.
For the Jews of this period, dropsy was a disease which resulted from sexual immorality (I am not making any comment on modern medical explanations for dropsy) so for the Jews this man was somewhat odious in character. So go back to the social dynamic that I was talking about earlier. This was not really a pleasant, social occasion that it might at first appear. There were social currents and counter-currents, and hidden agenda present at this particular meal. It was probably not much different from the average freemasons’ dinner!

But Jesus is not content to let the man with dropsy go on his way healed. He invites the assembled lawyers and Pharisees to a discussion:

“…is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not? But they were silent. So Jesus took him and healed him and sent him away.” V. 4

But they were silent: we are back again to the social dynamic that I talked about earlier. These Pharisees and lawyers did not have the courage of their convictions. They could not, or better perhaps, would not answer that simple question: Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?

So Jesus forces the issue; He asks the assembled group:

“Then He said to them, ‘If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?’ And they could not reply to this.” V. 6.

They could not reply to this. Remember, these are the educated elite of the Jewish people. Suddenly they are tongue-tied! They have no answer to the Son of God! It is as though, in their heart of hearts, they know that the position they are taking is wrong.

I feel that the most important lesson of this scripture text lies in this section. Somehow, we have to watch the artificial barriers we set up in our belief systems; we must constantly ensure that they are not barriers to prevent the action of the grace of God within us.

The Christian Church today is rent with very similar disputes. Just this week I heard that the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles, Jon Bruno, apologized to the Hindus of LA for the efforts that Christian missionaries over the years had made to convert them. To make amends he invited the Hindus to celebrate a mass with the Episcopalians and share communion with the participants. I could ask in the spirit of Jesus: “Is it lawful to celebrate the eucharist with polytheistic pagans?”

Personally, had I been living in the time of Jesus I would like to think that I would not have sided with the lawyers and Pharisees. I would have wanted, then and now, to be on the side of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My prayer for all of us is that we can discern the mind of God in the situations in which we, as Christians, find ourselves in these turbulent times.

The behavior of the guests:

The second section of today’s gospel deals with Jesus’ remarks which He addressed to the assembled guests. He had noticed how they had all tried to take the most elevated positions in the dining arrangements. His advice was very homely: don’t get yourself into an embarrassing position; if you choose the highest place the chances are that someone more “important” than you will come and you will have to be bounced down the table to your embarrassment.

These sort of social arrangements may be strange to you. Let me give you an example. To qualify at the bar of England one must belong to one of the four Inns of Court: Gray’s Inn, Lincolns Inn, the Middle Temple, and the Inner Temple. Having gained admittance into a particular inn, one must then pass all the necessary legal examinations to qualify as a barrister. But there is one more hurdle, and that is “dinners”: one had to eat a specified number of dinners in the hall of one’s inn and attendance was recorded. At these dinners there were elaborate rules: who could sit where; who could speak when; how to address one’s fellows; how one mess toasted another mess and in what order; what dress was appropriate; what particular toasts should be used on one occasion or another; it went on and on. There was a Mister Senior and a Mister Junior; there were benchers; there were judges; there were butlers; there was unending protocol. So the whole idea that Jesus was referring to in this gospel passage was alive and well back in England in the 1970s. To get bounced out of your seat at table for someone more “important” than you was not uncommon – one could even find oneself relegated to the position of Mister Junior! A fate worse than death!

But we are talking here about something more important than embarrassment. What is at stake is the sin of pride. Remember how Jesus said that He had seen Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening:

“I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening” Luke, Ch. 10, v.18

The cause of Satan’s fall was pride! Satan felt that he was as good as God. Satan forgot that he was a creature of God.

Jesus is asking the assembled guests to stop for a moment and consider on what grounds they based their own perceived importance! Was it money? Was it title? Was it age? Was it lineage? Do any of these things really give you more importance than your fellow man?

Jesus addresses these same questions to us today: on what do we base our own importance? Our wealth? Our education? Our position in society? Our position in the eyes of God as a humble and penitent sinner? The whole point of this section of the gospel reading is a warning against pride. Pride is an easy sin. With pride one can still feel satisfied that one is a good and pious Christian: don’t I give to the poor? Don’t I attend church on Sundays? Am I not a pillar of the community? And so on. It is so easy to fall into the sine of pride – I am here where I am in society because of my own efforts, goodness and abilities. God and His gifts drift into the background and are forgotten. Suddenly, I am here because I am really “damned good”.

I mean that intentionally. Damned – just like Satan was damned when he started to think that he was as good as God. Forgetting that his gifts came from God. Forgetting that he was a creature of the Creator. Jesus was telling the guests at this meal, remember who you are; don’t get full of your own importance; you are simply a creature of God. Those words are addressed to each and every one of us today.

Advice to the Host:

The last section of today’s gospel deals with Jesus advice to the host of this particular Sabbath dinner.

“He said also to the one who had invited Him. ‘Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid’”. Luke, Ch. 14, v 12.

Note, “and you would be repaid”! Jesus is saying to the host to look elsewhere. Don’t spend your largesse and your wealth and your generosity among the social circles that are going to repay you with similar hospitality. Rather:

“…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” V.14

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Conclusion:

There are several messages coming from today’s gospel text.

Firstly, try to discern the mind of God in the situation in which we find ourselves and not fall into the legalism which was so evident in the hearts of the Pharisees and lawyers of the opening section. I am reminded of the prayer we say after communion and the petition we make:

“…so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in;”

Secondly, don’t fall into the sin of pride which was so evident among the guests to the Sabbath dinner, for it is a sin that can slide insidiously into our lives and lead us to damnation.

Thirdly, exercise charity and remember that you will be repaid a thousand times a thousand times at the resurrection of the righteous.

2009-10-06T08:21:00.003-04:00

Our "Conversation" about who is God, the Faith and Worldview got off to a great start last night. Welcome to both new and old. We will be proceeding with an examination of the history of our knowledge of God and his Revelation of Himself.

A conversation about worldview.

2009-10-02T20:45:00.002-04:00

A discussion of agnosticism, God, the history of the Church, objections to Christianity. Robust but polite discussion welcome. Small to medium size group forming- the conversation will go where the group desires (within reason of course;-)) . Food and beverage supplied. 7 pm Monday evenings for about an hour or as long as the group wishes. More information or to RSVP 804-513-3732 John Dixon

Egyptian paper: Coins found bearing name of Joseph

2009-09-27T18:06:00.001-04:00

Egyptian coins carrying the name of Joseph, the biblical patriarch whose arrival in Egypt as a slave eventually provided salvation for his family during decades of drought across the Middle East, have been discovered in a cache of antique items shelved in boxes in a museum, according to a new report.

Click here to read the rest:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111091

2009-09-21T19:30:00.003-04:00

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. September 20^th September 2009.

Church of St. Athanasius, Glen Allen, VA.

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” Ps. 19.

Introduction:

Today’s scripture texts from Paul’s letter to the Galatians and Matthew’s gospel are the texts that I would like to focus on in this sermon - because both of them have a similar message, which is summarized very nicely by St. Paul in verse 14 – 15 of chapter 6 of Galatians. I quote:

“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything: but a new creation is everything.!”

Paul continues:

“As for those who will follow this rule – peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

So that is the rule that Paul wishes us to adopt to be our guiding beacon:

Boast of nothing except the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to us, and us to the world.

St Paul’s Letter to the Galatians:

Let us put this into a context. Paul is writing this letter to the church of the Galatians because there are problems afoot within the church. Some of the early Jewish converts to Christianity believed that the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament were still binding on the New Testament church. As a consequence of this they wanted the gentile converts to the church to be subject to circumcision. Paul hints in verse 12 that the reason they were taking this position was to avoid being persecuted by the Jewish zealots who objected to their associating with gentiles in the first place. So their reason was selfish and it was, as Paul puts it,

“..that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” V. 12

In other words, they were more afraid of the fanatical zealots among the orthodox Jewish community than they were interested in promoting the church of Christ.

Hence you see the reason for Paul insisting in verse 16 on the one and only rule: boast of nothing except the cross of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To harp on and on about your obedience to the law, by being circumcised etc., is to miss the point.

Now the opening verse of this selection which we have read today is open to various interpretations.

Paul says:

“See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand” v. 11.

You probably know already that St. Paul usually dictated his letters to a scribe who wrote his epistles for him. In this case he seems to have taken over from the scribe and either:

a) wrote large letters because of failing eyesight – and there could be evidence for this in chapter 4, v. 13-15: if you read those three verses you have the following text which could indicate that Paul suffered from poor eyesight:

“You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? For I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me” (Galatians, Ch. 4, vv 13 -15)

That could be one interpretation of the opening words of this selection; Paul suffered from failing eyesight. However, it is possible to adapt another interpretation:

b) Paul took over from the scribe who had written the letter up to this point, and wrote the remainder in large letters to emphasize the importance of his message – namely “BOAST OF NOTHING EXCEPT THE CROSS OF CHRIST”. Just the way we do today when we want to emphasize something we have written: we hit the caps button, the underline button, the bold button, and the italic button on our computers.

There is support for this latter interpretation of the text. This was an important message for Paul. We can see a similar rendition of the message when Paul preached to the Corinthians, for we see in chapter 2, verse 2 of the first letter to the Corinthians:

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

In other words, Paul resolved to make Christ the sole subject of his teaching and preaching while he was in the city of Corinth. Now we have the same message to the Galatians - “Boast of nothing except the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to us and us to the world”.

The Gospel of Matthew:

I would like to go now to the gospel text that we read this morning and point out the connection between the two scripture readings. Paul’s letter had a simple message: concentrate on Christ crucified. Focus on God and forget about all the things that could distract you, such as the demands of the old law with its requirement on circumcision.

See how similar that message is to the message of Jesus in today’s gospel reading:

“No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” V. 24.

Jesus is pointing out to his followers a message that was later taken over by Paul. You must serve God with your whole mind, body and soul and not let yourself be distracted by other concerns such as wealth, or the law, or the opinion of others and so on.

Jesus goes on to describe the attitude of the ideal disciple, in what is perhaps one of the best known and most quoted paragraphs of the New Testament:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For it is the gentiles who strive for all these things: and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

The message is simplicity itself. Do not worry about the future, because you cannot change one iota of the future. Trust in the loving mercy of God. The coming day, even the coming hour, are placed beyond our control. It is senseless to pretend that we can make provisions for the future. The future rests in the merciful hands of God our Creator.

Sinful man imagines that there is a correlation between work and sustenance as of cause and effect. But Jesus explodes that myth; according to Him bread is not be valued as the reward for work; he speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man who walks with him and accepts everything as it comes from God.

There is an interesting commentary of Martin Luther on this passage of scripture which I shall read to you:

“Now mark ye, no beast worketh for his sustenance, but each has his proper function, according to which he seeketh and findeth his own food. The bird doth fly and sing, she maketh nests and beareth young. That is her work, but yet she doth not nourish herself thereby. Oxen plough, horses draw carts and fight, sheep give wool, milk, and cheese, for it is their function so to do. But they do not nurture themselves thereby. Nay, the earth bringeth forth grass, and nurtureth them through God’s blessing. Likewise it is man’s bounden duty to work and do things, and yet withal to know that it is Another who nurtureth him; it is not his own work, but the bounteous blessing of God. It is true that the bird doth neither sow nor reap, yet would she die of hunger if she flew not in search of food. But that she findeth the same is not her work, but the goodness of God. For who put the food there, that she might find it? For where God hath put nought, none findeth, even though the whole world were to work itself to death in search thereof.”

This is an interesting example of total dependence on God’s merciful bounty. It is an acknowledgement of God as the Creator of the universe and the Provider of all that we have.

There is a danger that modern man thinks he put the grain in the fields, the fruit on the trees, the fish in the sea. It is by modern man’s husbandry, as it were, that we have all these things available to sustain us. God does not have any part in the process. There is food on the table because we men have provided it! God had nothing to do with it. In all those hours under the hot sun when I was working in the field I did not see any God helping me!

This godless universe was brought home to me quite recently when I read a book, which I am sure some of you are familiar with, it was called: “The 100 people who are screwing up America”. One of these people was a woman named Ingrid Newkirk, a cofounder of PETA, who made the astonishing claim in September 1989 issue of Vogue, that “There is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They’re all mammals”. Somehow or other they are all equal! I thought this was so extreme as to be farcical until quite recently one of my students in a business ethics course wrote an essay on businesses using animals for medical research. I was astounded that she felt exactly like Newkirk: all life is equal, we are no different than pigs, or rats, or birds etc. We have no more rights than they have. And this was a mother with young children; she felt her children were no better than a clutch of chickens! I had not realized that this bizarre philosophy of the godless was permeating the society as much as it has obviously done so.

Contrast this with the words of Jesus, which show such respect for nature and God’s creatures:

“See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

And the words of Jesus condemn the godless philosophy of PETA and the bizarre arguments of the likes of Ingrid Newkirk:

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Are you not much more valuable than they? Jesus affirmed the value of human life, we are creatures made in the image of God, we are children of God, and we should live our lives accordingly. We are not mere animals on the same level as the rats, the sheep and the goats and so on.

This is what is so abhorrent about scientists being permitted to play around with human cells and clone hybrids using cells from animals and humans. It is this same godless philosophy at work that we spoke of earlier – there isn’t any real difference between us and the animals so let’s see what we can create! This is the pagan philosophy of Richard Dawkins and the Darwinists and fellow-travellers like PETA. It is totally contrary to Christian teaching.

Conclusion:

The common thread running through today’s liturgy is the need to walk with God: to focus on God as the creator of all things, and to acknowledge that we have been saved by the Cross of Jesus Christ. We must remember that we are admonished by Christ to:

“…strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

‘All these things’, in other words food, clothing, shelter. God our Creator is a loving Father and knows that we need these things and they will be provided. Stop worrying about these things and preach Christ crucified, by your mouth, by the example of your lives, and by everything you do.

Paul’s message is equally simple: Boast of nothing save the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Don’t be distracted by the unimportant. Walk with Christ and preach Him crucified.

That basically is the message of the Great Commission:

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Luke, Ch. 14, v15).

That is your God-given directive, take it personally to heart, and go preach Christ crucified.

2009-09-15T22:52:00.002-04:00

Picnic Sunday!

St Athanasius is 6 years on in our ministry. We have come a long way from worshiping in our homes to meeting in various locations and finally purchasing a property in Glen Allen, VA.
We welcome our many new members and visitors and thank all those whop helped along the way.

We would especially like to thank Carefil, Inc. Concrete Construction Services for donating labor and material for a new sidewalk. Needless to say this is a big help for us and our several members who have some difficulty getting in and out of the entrances as we continue to improve the house, property and look towards putting up a new Sanctuary building in the near future.

We will be at the Glen Allen Day festivities this October 3rd www.glenallenruritan.org/ and hope to meet more of our neighbors- be sure to attend this great event and stop in and see us at our information booth.

Sermon - Trinity Thirteen

2009-09-06T20:01:00.005-04:00

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer”. (Ps 19)

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. September 6^th 2009. Church of St. Athanasius, Glen Allen, VA.

Introduction:

The parable in today’s gospel is probably one of the most famous parables of all of the New Testament. It is a parable that is well known to many people with scant knowledge of Christianity or the New Testament scripture texts. The vividness of the imagery of this story makes it memorable.

But what is a parable? If you were to look up the meanings of the Greek word “παραβολε” you would find that one of its many meanings is “analogy”. This idea of analogy caught a very strong hold in the mind of the early church. Origen, a Father of the Church living from 185 –254 AD, wrote an interesting sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan in which everything was allegorical. St Augustine, who lived between 354AD and 430AD, went even further and his sermon on the allegorical meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan makes interesting reading. I will quote a section of it here:

“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho; Adam himself is meant; Jerusalem is the heavenly city of peace from whose blessedness Adam fell; Jericho means the moon, and signifies our mortality, because it is born, waxes, wanes, and dies. Thieves are the devil and his angels. Who stripped him, namely, of his immortality; and beat him, by persuading him to sin; and left him half-dead, because in so far as man can understand and know God, he lives, but in so far as he is wasted and oppressed by sin, he is dead; he is therefore called half-dead.”[1]

I could go on: everything takes on a symbolic meaning: the animal (probably a donkey), the inn, the innkeeper, even the denarii – they all have symbolic significance! You can see what I mean when I talk of an allegorical approach to the parables of the New Testament.

When the Jews translated their scriptures from Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek to produce the Septuagint, they translated the Hebrew word “mashal” and the Aramaic word “mathla” into the Greek word “παραβολε”. It was the emphasis that was given to the notion of allegory in the meaning of the Greek work “parable” that lead to the various allegorical interpretations of the parables of which Augustine’s example is one. But the meaning of the Hebrew and Aramaic words were not so limited and they could take on a whole variety of meanings not just allegory. Whilst at times the allegorical approach may not be incorrect in interpreting the text of the scriptures, I feel that such an approach is unnecessary in the case of today’s parable. This is one of the most straightforward of parables. I would like to take a straightforward approach in examining today’s parable.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan:

You have the Gospel text in front of you on your sheets, don’t be afraid to follow it. You will notice that the Gospel is basically in two parts: the first part is from verse 25 to verse 28, and the second part is from verse 29 to verse 37.

First part of the Gospel:

In the first part we have Jesus in a room or hall, probably a synagogue, surrounded by a crowd of people seated around Him. I say this because you will notice that the text tells us: “Just then a lawyer stood up”; notice that he stood up, so presumably he, and all the rest had been sitting, with probably only Jesus standing addressing the crowd. Notice also that the man is described as “a lawyer”. The word used in the New Testament is “νομικος” which is the name for a “doctor of the Jewish law”. So this man is a lawyer.

Imagine the scene: Jesus is standing addressing the crowd; a man stands up and challenges him – we know he is simply challenging Jesus because the text tells us “a lawyer stood up to test him”. This man is not looking for truth or seeking genuine guidance from the Lord, he is simply initiating a legal debate. Such legal debates were common among the rabbis then, just as they still are today. This learned lawyer is challenging Jesus to see how he will answer the question. The lawyer already knows the answer to his question and Jesus knows this. This is not unusual. I qualified as a barrister at the Inns of Court in London years ago. One of the rules of advocacy was that one never asked a question unless one already knew the answer. This was a fundamental rule; any advocate who broke this rule risked disaster and I have often seen advocates come to grief by ignoring this rule. What is fascinating is to see that it was operative two thousand years ago! Lawyers did not ask questions to which they did not know the answer!

The lawyer asks Jesus:

“Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus simply replies:

“What is written in the law? How readest thou”

And the lawyer answers:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself”.

Jesus answers:

“Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live”.

Notice, that Jesus has adroitly turned the legal challenge back on his challenger: “What is written in the law?” v.26, He asks. So the lawyer is required to answer his own question, of which he knew the answer anyway!

Before I go on I would commend to your attention that wonderful answer of the lawyer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” This is a composite text taken from Deuteronomy Ch.6, v5 and Leviticus, Ch. 19, verse 18. These twenty-six words encapsulate the whole of the Gospel teaching. If only we could all live our lives by these simple directions the world would be a better place.

As an exercise during this coming week I would ask you to contrast this passage with the passage from Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 12-17. That is the passage in which Moses delivers the ten commandments to the Jewish people. If you take each of those separate commandments see whether or not it is contained within the meaning of those words taken from Luke 10, v.27. See whether or not those twenty-six words encapsulate all of the teachings of the ten commandments.

Second Part of the Gospel:

To return to our Gospel: the lawyer is slightly discomfited by having been bested in legal argument by Jesus, for the text tells us: “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus..” v.29. Wanting to justify himself! This man was very much in an argumentative mode; he wanted to continue this legal debate. So once again he asks a question to which he knows the answer – or at least he thinks he does.

“And who is my neighbour?”

Now this term neighbour was very much in dispute among the lawyers. It was generally agreed that it connoted fellow-countrymen, including full converts to the Jewish religion, but there was disagreement about the exceptions:

· the Pharisees were inclined to exclude all non-Pharisees;

· the Essenes, a Jewish sect active at this time, required that a man should hate ‘all the sons of darkness’ that is, people who were not members of the sect of the Essenes;

· a rabbinical saying ruled that heretics, informers, and renegades should be ‘pushed down into the ditch and not pulled out’ so we know whom they considered as neighbours;

· and there was a widespread popular saying that excluded personal enemies from the category of neighbour. As an example of this last, you will remember the story of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, v 43: Jesus is saying: “You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy”.

So our friend the lawyer is not asking Jesus for a definition of the word neighbour, but for an indication of where within the community Jesus would suggest that the limits to the duty of loving were to be drawn. The lawyer is simply continuing his legal disputation.

In response, Jesus tells his story of the Good Samaritan. I don’t think we need to read anything into the story, as St. Augustine did. I would make just two points:

Firstly, this man would certainly not have been included within the lawyer’s definition of neighbour. The relations between the Jews and the Samaritans, which had undergone considerable fluctuations, had become much worse in Jesus’ time. Some time, between 6AD and 9AD, at midnight during a Passover, the Samaritans had defiled the temple court in Jerusalem by strewing around the bones of corpses. As a result there was irreconcilable hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Secondly, consider the remarkable generosity of the Samaritan in the story. He leaves two denarii with the innkeeper to ensure that the injured man is cared for, and he promises to come back and pay more if necessary. Now historians tell us that one twelfth of a denarius would be about the cost of a day’s board, so the Samaritan is leaving enough to cover about twenty four days of hospital care for this injured man!

Having told the story, Jesus again gets the lawyer to answer his own question, for at the end he says: “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” v.36. Again the lawyer is forced to answer his own question and in a sense lose the legal debate.

But wait a moment. Go back to verse 29 – you have got it in front of you: the lawyer’s question was: “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus has won this legal debate by forcing the lawyer to provide an answer, not to his own question, but to a different question: “Which of these three was a neighbour?” The lawyer doesn’t seem to realise that this was not his original question! He is being forced to redefine his own idea of what constitutes a neighbour. The lawyer was concerned with the idea of a neighbour as an object and his question implied a limitation; my neighbour is one who belongs to such and such a group. Jesus was interested in the neighbour as the subject : which of the three men had acted as neighbour? A man cannot determine theoretically who his neighbour is because love is not theory but practice. A man’s neighbour is any man who needs his help, says the parable; the wounded man was neighbour to the priest and the Levite just as much as he was to the Samaritan, but while they theorised in the manner of the lawyer, the Samaritan acted.

Though the final recommendation of Christ was addressed to the lawyer it contains a message and a warning, for all Christians. We must not pause to ask ourselves: “Is this man really my neighbour?” for a question like this has no place in the Christian life. Christian charity knows no bounds and oversteps all man-made limits. The pity for our society is that there are so few Samaritans among us today.

[1] Quaestiones Evangeliorum, II, 19

2009-09-05T19:33:00.004-04:00

13th Sunday in Trinity

The Collect

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service; Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalm 104

PRAISE the LORD, O my soul: * O LORD my God, thou art become exceeding glorious; thou art clothed with majesty and honour.

Thou deckest thyself with light as it were with a garment, * and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain.

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, * and maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind.

He maketh his angels winds, * and his ministers a flaming fire.

He laid the foundations of the earth, * that it never should move at any time.

Thou coveredst it with the deep like as with a garment; * the waters stand above the hills.

At thy rebuke they flee; * at the voice of thy thunder they haste away.

They go up as high as the hills, and down to the valleys beneath; * even unto the place which thou hast appointed for them.

Thou hast set them their bounds, which they shall not pass, * neither turn again to cover the earth.

He sendeth the springs into the rivers, * which run among the hills.

All beasts of the field drink thereof, * and the wild asses quench their thirst.

Beside them shall the fowls of the air have their habitation, * and sing among the branches.

He watereth the hills from above; * the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works.

He bringeth forth grass for the cattle, * and green herb for the service of men;

That he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man; * and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart.

The trees of the LORD also are full of sap; * even the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted;

Wherein the birds make their nests; * and the firtrees are a dwelling for the stork.

The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; * and so are the stony rocks for the conies.

He appointed the moon for certain seasons, * and the sun knoweth his going down.

Thou makest darkness that it may be night; * wherein all the beasts of the forest do move.

The lions, roaring after their prey, * do seek their meat from God.

The sun ariseth, and they get them away together, * and lay them down in their dens.

Man goeth forth to his work, and to his labour, * until the evening.

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! * in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches.

So is the great and wide sea also; * wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

There go the ships, and there is that leviathan, * whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein.

These wait all upon thee, * that thou mayest give them meat in due season.

When thou givest it them, they gather it; * and when thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good.

When thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: * when thou takest away their breath, they die, and are turned again to their dust.

When thou lettest thy breath go forth, they shall be made; * and thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

The glorious majesty of the LORD shall endure for ever; * the LORD shall rejoice in his works.

The earth shall tremble at the look of him; * if he do but touch the hills, they shall smoke.

I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live; * I will praise my God while I have my being.

And so shall my words please him: * my joy shall be in the LORD.

As for sinners, they shall be consumed out of the earth, * and the ungodly shall come to an end.

Praise thou the LORD, O my soul. * Praise the LORD.
Ecclesiasticus 17:1-15

The Lord created man of the earth, and turned him into it again. He gave them few days, and a short time, and power also over the things therein. He endued them with strength by themselves, and made them according to his image, And put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him dominion over beasts and fowls. [They received the use of the five operations of the Lord, and in the sixth place he imparted them understanding, and in the seventh speech, an interpreter of the cogitations thereof.] Counsel, and a tongue, and eyes, ears, and a heart, gave he them to understand. Withal he filled them with the knowledge of understanding, and shewed them good and evil. He set his eye upon their hearts, that he might shew them the greatness of his works. He gave them to glory in his marvellous acts for ever, that they might declare his works with understanding. And the elect shall praise his holy name. Beside this he gave them knowledge, and the law of life for an heritage. He made an everlasting covenant with them, and shewed them his judgments. Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory, and their ears heard his glorious voice. And he said unto them, Beware of all unrighteousness; and he gave every man commandment concerning his neighbour. Their ways are ever before him, and shall not be hid from his eyes.

The Epistle
Galatians iii. 16.

TO Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

The Gospel
St. Luke x. 23.

BLESSED are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

12th Sunday after Trinity

2009-08-29T19:49:00.002-04:00

THE COLLECT.
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

**Ecclesiasticus 15:11*

Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away: for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth. Say not thou, He hath caused me to err: for he hath no need of the sinful man. The Lord hateth all abomination; and they that fear God love it not. He himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel; If thou wilt, to keep the commandments, and to perform acceptable faithfulness. He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death; and whether him liketh shall be given him. For the wisdom of the Lord is great, and he is mighty in power, and beholdeth all things: And his eyes are upon them that fear him, and he knoweth every work of man. He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, neither hath he given any man licence to sin.

THE EPISTLE. 2 Cor. 3. 4
SUCH trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. Who also hath made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

THE GOSPEL. S. Mark 7. 31
JESUS, departing from the region of Tyre, came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech: and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

Commentary from THE ANNOTATED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYEREdited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT Rivingtons, London, 1884

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

The contrast between the Old and New Dispensation is vividly set forth in the Gospel and Epistle for this Sunday. Glorious as the former was in its origin and in its continuation, it was a ministration of condemnation, with sacrifices of atonement, but with no sacraments of life. The Incarnation of the Son of God was the origin, and the Mystical Presence of Christ the continuation, of a spiritual life which the world had not before known since the Fall. The Church of God had grown deaf, and heard not the Voice from Heaven as that Voice had been heard of old; there was an impediment in her speech, so that the Word of God did not go forth from her lips in prophecy. The Son of God came down on earth, and touched her by making Himself one with her through His human nature; the sigh of His Passion was followed by the "Ephphatha" of the Resurrection; and as soon as His work was perfected by the looking up to Heaven of His Ascension and Session at the right hand of God, the ears of the deaf were unstopped to receive the Inspiration of Pentecost, and the tongue of the dumb loosed, so that "their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world." The same Touch of Christ and communication of grace in the communication of that which forms part of His Person, is still the means by which the Church as a corporate body, and every individual member of it as a living member, is vivified and sustained; and He Who gives spiritual ability to the ministers of the New Testament, that their acts and words may be the means by which His Presence is continued in the Church, is making the ministration of righteousness, even in the by-places of the earth, to exceed in glory the ministration of Moses at the foot of Sinia.

11th Sunday in Trinity

2009-08-22T21:06:00.003-04:00

P- 151 S 418 G524 C-195 R-397

The Collect

O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Old Testament
Isaiah 26:12-16, 19

Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

The Epistle
1 Corinthians xv. 1.

BRETHREN, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

The Gospel
St. Luke xviii. 9. JESUS spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Commentary from THE ANNOTATED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYEREdited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT Rivingtons, London, 1884 ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
The subject of this Sunday is the mercy and pity of Almighty God in bestowing the power of supernatural grace as a free and undeserved gift upon sinners. St. Paul's "I am the least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God," is a parallel to the publican's "God be merciful unto me a sinner:" and our Lord's declaration that the Publican went down to his house justified because of his humility, is a parallel to the inspired words of the Apostle, "By the grace of God I am what I am...yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." "Ancient writers, as St. Augustine and others," says Isaac Williams, "Delight to dwell on these words of St. Paul, as so expressive of his sweet, trembling humility, fearing to contemplate himself, except in his sins and infirmities, and losing all sense of his greatness in God; fearful lest he should presume, and so lose by presumption all that crown of hope and joy which by humility he had gained." This tome of the holy Apostle, and that of the Publican, is strikingly taken up by the Collect, which offers also a fine specimen of the fulness of devotion which may be gathered into this form of prayer. Those subjects are [1] the mercy of God; and let it be noted, how suggestive is the idea that this mercy is the chief manifestation of Almighty Power: [2] the grace of God, as His gift, according to the measure of our necessities; [3] obedience, as accomplished only by the power of grace; [4] the fulfilment of the Divine promises; [5] the "great recompence of reward," the "heavenly treasures," of which Isaiah and St. Paul wrote, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." Such fulness of meaning approaches very nearly to that of inspiration, and may well lead us to the belief that a special blessing from God rested upon the intellect and devotional instinct of the original writer.

Good discusion on Richard Hooker- English Reformer

2009-08-12T23:54:00.001-04:00

http://anglicancontinuum.blogspot.com/2009/08/follow-up-to-most-recent-post-on.html

A mighty fortress is our God # 551

2009-08-12T20:44:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Stephan Jarnick for recording this for us. I have the MP3 'dry' - no reverb.

Stephan's ministry of supplying MP3 format hymns for small churches without the means to afford a full time organist is a God send.

Take a listen- he even has he words embedded now. Pretty slick!
This is the appointed General Hymn for Trinity X this Sunday.

jd

Pro. #497 O God of Bethel / Dundee
Rec. TBD

Commentary from THE ANNOTATED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYEREdited by JOHN HENRY BLUNT Rivingtons, London, 1884 TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
There is a touching connection between the Epistle and Gospel of this day which seems as if it could hardly be accidental; or, if it is, offers an illustration of the manner in which all Holy Scripture gives evidence that it is drawn from one Fountain of truth. The Gospel shows our Blessed Lord weeping over Jerusalem, because she had failed to recognize the things that belonged to her peace. The Prince of Peace had come to her, offering the good gifts which are ever the fruits of His Presence, but her eyes had been blinded by her wilfulness, those gifts of peace had been rejected, and now they were hid from her. Our Lord's last words of warning a few days afterwards were in the same strain, "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you...While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." They were the last public words of the Light of the world before His Passion began; and when He had spoken them, He "departed, and did hide Himself from them" [John xii. 36]. With such an experience before the new Israel of God, the Apostle St. Paul exhorts them not to be ignorant of the spiritual gifts with which they have been blessed: those manifold operations of the Holy Ghost on the souls of men, by which they are fitted for the work of the ministry, or for that of ordinary Christian life. And the association of these two portions of Holy Scripture comes as a perennial warning to Churches in their corporate capacity, and to individual Christians, calling them to remember that as Jesus had cause to weep over the neglect of His gifts when offered to the Jews, so is such a neglect cause of sorrow even now in Heaven, and may be followed by the judgement which fell upon her of old who knew not the time of her visitation. The enemies of the Church are ever ready to dig their trenches and compass her around, and lay her even with the ground. Her true strength is, that she should ever remember and use her spiritual gifts, and know the value of Christ's Presence in the time when He visits her with His salvation.

The Collect

LET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The One Hundred Forty Fifth Psalm

Exaltabo te, Deus.

I WILL magnify thee, O God, my King; * and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever.

Every day will I give thanks unto thee; * and praise thy Name for ever and ever.

Great is the LORD, and marvellous worthy to be praised; * there is no end of his greatness.

One generation shall praise thy works unto another, * and declare thy power.

As for me, I will be talking of thy worship, * thy glory, thy praise, and wondrous works;

So that men shall speak of the might of thy marvellous acts; * and I will also tell of thy greatness.

The memorial of thine abundant kindness shall be showed; * and men shall sing of thy righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and merciful; * long-suffering, and of great goodness.

The LORD is loving unto every man; * and his mercy is over all his works.

All thy works praise thee, O LORD; * and thy saints give thanks unto thee.

They show the glory of thy kingdom, * and talk of thy power;

That thy power, thy glory, and mightiness of thy kingdom, * might be known unto men.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, * and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages.

The LORD upholdeth all such as fall, * and lifteth up all those that are down.

The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord; * and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand, * and fillest all things living with plenteousness.

The LORD is righteous in all his ways, * and holy in all his works.

The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him; * yea, all such as call upon him faithfully.

He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him; * he also will hear their cry, and will help them.

The LORD preserveth all them that love him; * but scattereth abroad all the ungodly.

My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD; * and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy Name for ever and ever.

**Ecclesiasticus 1:1-10*

All wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever. Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity? Who can find out the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom? Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting. The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdom; and her ways are everlasting commandments. To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed? or who hath known her wise counsels? [Unto whom hath the knowledge of wisdom been made manifest? and who hath understood her great experience?] There is one wise and greatly to be feared, the Lord sitting upon his throne. He created her, and saw her, and numbered her, and poured her out upon all his works. She is with all flesh according to his gift, and he hath given her to them that love him.

The Epistle
1 Corinthians xii. 1.

CONCERNING spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

The Gospel
St. Luke xix. 41. AND when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.

The Christian Year

by Blessed John Keble

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

Why doth my Saviour weep
At sight of Sion's bowers?
Shows it not fair from yonder steep,
Her gorgeous crown of towers?
Mark well His holy pains:
"Tis not in pride or scorn,
That Israel's King with sorrow stains
His own triumphal morn.

It is not that His son
Is wandering sadly on,
In thought how soon at death's dark goal
Their course will all be run,
Who now are shouting round
Hosanna to their chief;
No thought like this in Him is found,
This were a Conqueror's grief.

Or doth He feel the Cross
Already in His heart,
The pain, the shame, the scorn, the loss?
Feel even His God depart?
No: though He knew full well
The grief that then shall be--
The grief that angels cannot tell--
Our God in agony.

It is not thus He mourns;
Such might be martyr's tears,
When his last lingering look he turns
On human hopes and fears;
But hero ne'er or saint
The secret load might know,
With which His spirit waxeth faint;
His is a Saviour's woe.

"If thou hadst known, even thou,
"At least in this thy day,
"The message of thy peace! but now
"'Tis pass'd for aye away:
"Now foes shall trench thee round,
"And lay thee even with earth,
"And dash thy children to the ground,
"Thy glory and thy mirth."

And doth the Saviour weep
Over His people's sin,
Because we will not let Him keep
The souls He died to win?
Ye hearts, that love the Lord,
If at this sight ye burn,
See that in thought, in deed, in word,
Ye hate what made Him mourn.

2009-08-04T22:38:00.009-04:00

Racked my brain yesterday on hymnody to cover this coming Sunday's Scriptures Trinity ix.

Psalm 115, Ezekiel 14:1-11 1, Corinthians x. 1., St. Luke xv. 11.

Hymnal recommendations mushy and mostly we did not know them anyway.

Here is the line up of hits:
Processional
536 "Turn Back O Man" http://www.cyberhymnal.org/mid/o/l/d/old_124th.mid

Sequence
446 lyrics "Commit thou all that griefs" / Hymn Passion Chorale

General
457 lyrics only click here 'O Love that casts out fear" / Hymn Moseley: http://nethymnal.org/htm/a/n/t/anthoday.htm

Communion
345 The King of love my Shepherd is, / http://nethymnal.org/htm/k/i/kinglove.htm

Recessional
562 Stand Up for Jesus. This was the only one in the liturgical index that was usable!

Sorry for the lame midi links best i could find- Net Hymnal does not always match the same lyrics and hymns as does our 1940 hymnal so I only provide a ling to the melody and the words may not match but you are welcome to use the nethymnal to look them up.
Anyway, hope you have fun with Stephan's Youtube links!

Pax,

John

A meditation:

THE CROWN OF THE YEAR Weekly Paragraphs for the Holy Sacrament By Austin Farrer Dacre Press, Westminster

TRINITY ix

WHEN we exchange between us the words of the sursum corda, the lifting of our hearts to the Lord will be more than a pious aspiration, it will be a divine fact. The sacrament is the presence of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is in heaven. He stoops to us in this Sacrament, as he does through his whole incarnation; but he stoops to lift us to himself. In a true mystery, not in edifying fancy, we are with him in that divine place. There is the whole Church of God; there are the saints who pray for us in their glory, and there by the power of hope are the souls, for whom we pray that they may speedily be joined with the saints. The saints, the souls departed and the Church on earth in every place are one life and one prayer through Christ their high priest. The effort, in mutual communion, of each spirit living or departed is requisite for the perfection of the Body of Christ. All are the support of each, and the whole hangs upon heaven in a point which is the Lord Jesus.

Dorothy L. Sayers

from her Commentary included in her translation of

The Comedy of Dante Alighieri The Florentine

Cantica II PURGATORY

Penguin Books Ltd, London1955.

Commentary on the Images in Canto XXIII

Gluttony (Gula). The sin of Gluttony is--specifically--an undue attention to the pleasures of the palate, whether by sheer excess in eating and drinking, or by the opposite fault of fastidiousness. More generally, it includes all over-indulgence in bodily comforts--the concentration, whether jovial or fretful, on a "high standard of living." It is accordingly purged by starvation within sight of plenty.

Since Gluttony tends to be, on the whole, a warm-hearted and companionable sin, often resulting from, and in, a mistaken notion of good-fellowship, it is placed higher than the egotistical and cold-hearted sins. (Compare the corresponding classification in Hell).

Picnic at St A's

2009-07-20T00:56:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday... wonderful day for fellowship and good food.

2009-07-20T00:49:00.004-04:00

Our soon to be circulated flyer in the Henrico Citizen... draft... Suggestions?
John

THE WAR ON TRADITION

2009-07-20T00:17:00.001-04:00

By the Rev’d Fr Samuel L. Edwards SSM

[What follows is a revised version of a talk given in northern Virginia in 2004.]

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. [Jeremiah 6:16-17]

The story is told that during the 1989 celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher minced no words about the achievements of that Revolution as compared with those of the Glorious Revolution of the 1680s and the American Revolution of the 1770s. The only enduring product of the French Revolution, she said, was not liberté, égalité, et fraternité, but “a mountain of headless corpses and a tyrant.” The French President was not amused and to avenge this truth-telling pointedly had the Iron Lady seated in the third rank of dignitaries for the military review. She, however, had the last word (without saying one), for her parting gift to M. le Président was a beautifully bound copy of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

The President’s reaction is not recorded.

What is illustrated by this anecdote is a long-standing conflict within western culture – a conflict which has had many manifestations over the centuries. Now we have come to another major point of crisis in our own time and in our own country. This conflict is what I have elected to call “the war on tradition.” (Others have had different names for it: James Davidson Hunter and, most famously, Patrick Buchanan have spoken of it as the culture war.)

At this point, perhaps it will be helpful for me to elaborate on what I mean by tradition. In keeping with my status as an adherent of tradition, I claim no originality to my definitions. In contrast with mere traditionalism (“the dead faith of the living”), tradition is “the living faith of the dead.” In G. K. Chesterton’s words, it is “the democracy of the dead.” The fundamental definition, in theological terms, is that tradition is the life of the Spirit of Truth manifested in growth which is consistent with what has come before.

In the Church, the touchstone for all that claims to be traditional is the Bible as it has been understood by the people of God through the ages under the guidance of its divine Author. For the Church, the Bible is the tangible precipitation of tradition by which all that claims to be tradition is measured. In our civil society, the touchstone for all that claims to be traditional is the Constitution as it was intended and understood by its framers. For the American Republic, the Constitution is the tangible precipitation of natural constitutional order by which all that claims to be constitutional is measured.

The fact is that tradition is the prerequisite of the existence of all societies: civilian, military, intellectual, ecclesiastical, political. Tradition is fundamentally another name for the transmission of life – the handing on (paradosis, traditio) of the essential characteristics of the community concerned. If the tradition is not handed on, the community ceases to exist. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) That for a generation and more the instruments by which a society has not handed on its tradition – schools, churches, the family, the courts – have massively (and often deliberately) failed to do so in the name of such chimeras as multiculturalism is the rot at the root of our present distress.

This was clearly understood in the community of ancient Israel, as this passage from the Torah makes clear:

[Moses said to the children of Israel,] “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. … And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, ‘What mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the LORD our God hath commanded you?’ then thou shalt say unto thy son: ‘We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; and He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He hath commanded us.’” [Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25]

It is also worth noting the curse that is pronounced against him “that removeth his neighbor’s landmark.” [Deuteronomy 27:17]

The war on tradition goes back ultimately to the question, “did God really say you can’t eat of any of the trees in this garden?” It involves the irreconcilable conflict between two views on reality in general and man’s place within it in particular. The one point of view says that reality is a “given” – that it is given by a Giver and that our business as human beings is to conform ourselves to that given reality so that we may become as like the Giver as it is possible for a created being to be. The other view is that reality is a “construct” – that it is what we say it is and that our business as human beings is to be makers of our own destiny, bravely expanding the horizons of our own humanity in a ceaseless quest for … well, for something. As Whittaker Chambers noted long ago, the “something” is the promise “that ye shall be as gods,” but (as the Prince of Liars knows), for man with neither anchor nor rudder, the substance of that promise is a moving target. The notion of tradition, which is an essential consequential component of the first view is poisonous to the second, and so must needs be expunged by its proponents.

Adherents of the first view can tolerate adherents of the second because they are assured that the truth will win over falsehood – and will win over those captives of falsehood who have the requisite amount of good will actually to care about something beyond themselves. The genuine adherents of the second view, on the other hand, cannot tolerate any notion of absolute standards of truth beyond the reach of human modification, which is why, when they achieve power, they immediately use it to silence the voice of tradition.

Now none of this pleases those who favor making everything up as seems right in their own eyes. It is not so much that it makes no sense to them as it is that it makes a kind of sense which is inimical to their own desire to seize the fruit of the tree rather than have it given to them. Hence, it is not sufficient for them to disagree with tradition: They must of necessity destroy it – which is typically and effectively done in modern times by the pretense of “expanding our understanding” of tradition. In other words, they prefer cancer to decapitation.

Modern history abounds with examples of the contrast and the conflict between traditional constitutionalists and revisionist revolutionaries: In England, we can contrast the Glorious Revolution with Cromwellian rebellion. Then there is the stark contrast between the American War for Independence, which sought to restore the liberties of Englishmen against the encroachment of government, and the French Revolution (and its successors in Russia, China, and elsewhere) which sought the perfection of man through the instrumentality of the state. Politically incorrect though it be in the present day, on could also contrast the American constitutional principles for which the Confederacy fought with the nascent centralizing statism of the Radical Republicans. The judicial battle between the heirs of Story and Blackstone and the heirs of Holmes and the legal positivists is on display almost every time the Supreme Court issues a major decision. Almost all the mainstream American churches (including the Roman Catholic Church) have been torn by it. And now what is left of western civilization has to confront an imperial Islamist resurgence from a basis whose erosion is largely its own doing.

How are we upholders of tradition to prevail in this struggle?

First, we prevail – or, rather, lay the foundation for prevailing – by recognizing that there is a struggle going on. This has proved surprisingly difficult over the years, though the current administrations in Washington and in numerous state capitals around the country (including, in spades, that in my home state capital of Raleigh) by their fecklessness, incompetence, and open hostility to the American constitutional tradition have forced recognition of the fact on many formerly unwilling to acknowledge it .

Second, we prevail by being realistic about our opponents: They are totalitarians, and finally there is no possible negotiation with them. We must be aware that they far prefer subversion to frontal attack and honest debate. Whatever they say, they are not looking for “a place at the table.” They want to own the table and the chairs and the credenza and the silver and everything in the pantry.

Third, we prevail by refusing to fight our opponents on their terms and with their methods. If they can control the definitions of the terms, they can win the fight. Their typical method is (1) propose fundamental change as if it were a reasonable thing. When opposition surfaces they (2) accuse their opponents of being irrational obstructionists and/ or reactionaries and/ or “haters.” (In this connection, it is helpful to remember a recent dictum of talk show giant Rush Limbaugh, who observed that “when you tell the truth and people don’t like it, they call it hate speech.” All too often (3) the opponents, implicitly accept the revisionist canard and, for the sake of peace, seek to negotiate a compromise with them, which always involves giving them a place at the table – which further involves ignoring or denying the true nature of the opposition, who (as we said above) want the whole table. (Can anyone say, “Munich 1938”? Can anyone say, “Senatorial Gang of 14 Judicial Deal”?) At this point (4), the revisionists accept the partial surrender and immediately start planning for their next acquisition of territory. Ultimately (5) the cycle is repeated until the traditional position is annihilated (after which the revisionists start eating each other.).

Fourth, we prevail by being realistic about our objectives: If the enemy cannot be converted, they must be utterly defeated. Talk about bipartisanship and diversity is arrant nonsense where these two worldviews are concerned, and our taking it seriously only gives advantage to the opposition. The defeat or conversion of our opponents is only a means to the final objective, which is the renewal of the American Republic, for if you are a republican in the end you must choose between the Anglo-American model of ordered liberty under God and the Franco-Soviet model of no liberty save what the state permits.

Finally, we prevail by resting in and acting from the recognition that inevitably God will vindicate the right: Deo vindice. That he will do it is beyond doubt. The question for us is, will we follow in his train?

June 14, 2009
Waynesville, North Carolina

Archives - Events, 2009

2009-07-19T16:48:00.000-04:00

2009

Lent 2009 - During the season of Lent, we are having weekday Lenten suppers. Come along to find out more. Also, please watch for more information about our plans for Easter services.

Spring 2009 - This spring has seen changes in our congregation, new faces, and new friends. Meanwhile, plans include continuing to improve the internal and external features of both the house and the chapel. We already have a beautiful, new sun room thanks to Corinne and John - thank you both. More changes to come. Hopefully we will have a new pathway once the weather dries up. We are also planning future projects for evangelism. Check back for more details - or better yet, come and visit us!

Archives - Photos of renovation

2009-07-19T14:03:00.002-04:00

Here is a link to the web album that shows the renovation of the house church. The building was occupied by bikers for years, and had fallen into a state of disrepair. After much hard work, it looks brand new.

Archives - Events, 2008

2009-07-19T13:56:00.001-04:00

2008

On January 20th 2008, the new chapel of Saint Athanasius was used to celebrate communion for the first time. The renovation process had taken many months and much hard work, particularly on the part of Mr J. Dixon, Mr J. Minor, Mr T. Williams, and Mr A. Newchok, amongst others. The beautiful, small chapel was finally ready and Father Charles Nalls celebrated. At the same service, we also celebrated the adult baptism of Kari Miller.

Women's Bible Study 2008: Our women's group will be doing a Beth Moore Bible study, "Living Beyond Yourself". This will be a 10 week study on Galatians, on Thursday nights at 6:30. There is a workbook that needs to be purchased. Please email the church for more information.

Easter News 2008: Easter blessings and greetings to all our readers. We have completed our first Easter in our new chapel, and our thanks go out to everyone who has helped make this such a beautiful season. Several big events have happened this week!

On Saturday March 29th, we were delighted to be present at Jason Duchenne's presentation to the Bishop and his Ordination as Deacon during an afternoon service presided over by Bishop Rocco Florenza. Then on Sunday March 30th, we celebrated Holy Communion in a packed church with over 65 people! Again, Bishop Florenza presided, and was assisted by Father Charles Nalls and Deacon Jason Duchenne. Furthermore, we also celebrated the Confirmation of Kari Miller and Laura Nalls. We were very happy to welcome all of our new visitors, not least the Christian Motorcycle Association, many of whose members were able to attend our service. After Holy Communion, Bishop Florenza blessed the riders and their bikes.

It is wonderful to see our small community growing and new faces amongst regular ones. If you have not yet visited us, please do - and if you have already been to our services, we would love to see you again! Go to our photo page to see the events from this weekend.

Baptism: On Sunday January 20th, we celebrated the baptism of Kari Miller, in our first communion in our chapel.

Moved in!: We are delighted to announce that we have moved into our new sanctuary. Our first communion was celebrated on Sunday 20th January. Please come and join us in our new church, and have a look at some of our photos of the interior on our photo page!

Archives - Events, 2007

2009-07-19T13:51:00.001-04:00

2007

This was some of our news in 2007:

40th Anniversary of Ordination: On 23rd December 2007, we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Fr BIacker's ordination, and gave thanks for a lifetime of service. Thank you to the congregation for a lovely celebration!

Maryland Military Department Digest Fall 2007: Has an article about our very own Father Nalls, and a discussion of the roles of military chaplains. (.pdf file, 5.6 kb)

Saint Seraphim church fire: Please keep Saint Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in your prayers. Our neighbours in Hanover, their building was badly damaged in an accidental fire in late October 2007. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Advert: Our advert has been published! Find us on page 3 of "Faith and Values", the guide to Richmond's west end programs and ministries.

Building Work: This October, we've been working very hard on the house church. The floor is now beautifully finished, and painting and other work continues. Services are continuing as usual, and we are very excited at the progress that's being made. Many thanks to everyone for their hard work

Glen Allen Day: September 15th 2007, Glen Allen Day - We hosted an information booth with success and made more people aware of Saint Athanasius's presence on Staples Mill Road.

Beaverdam Heritage Days will be held at The Beaverdam Depot in downtown Beaverdam,Virginia on Saturday October 13, 2007. Vendor applications are now being accepted. They can be found at the web http://www.beaverdam-heritage.org/ or call 804-227-3442 Joe Exline. Beaverdam is 30 minutes north of Richmond and 30 minutes south of Fredericksburg. Come out and enjoy the family fun filled day of history and music.

Also find us in the Henrico County Leader.

Archives - People

2009-07-19T13:45:00.006-04:00

This is a place to remember just a few of the many people who have been part of the Saint Athanasius family and who may have moved away or retired. Please remember to let us know who's missing - and photos are always welcome (though make sure we have permission to use them)!

Canon Rodier

Canon David F. T. Rodier served the Mission many times and is much beloved by us all. He served at the parish of Christ the King in Washington DC through 2006 until his retirement to Arizona. Canon Rodier was Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University in Washington DC for 30 years. He specialised in the areas of Classical and Medieval Philosophy and Eastern Religions. He is versed in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Coptic.

The Reverend Charles H. Nalls

Fr. Charles Nalls was the full-time priest to St. Athanasius. Fr. Nalls holds a Masters of Divinity from Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC. and is completing studies for his Licentiate in Sacred Theologies.

Fr. Nalls is an honors graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana with a B.A. in history and a B.A. in political science. He holds a Masters of Theology degree (with honors) from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. In addition, Fr. Nalls received his law degree from the Georgetown University School of Law and held positions in government and private practice, as well as serving as a Naval intelligence officer. A canon lawyer, Fr. Nalls is the Executive Director of the Canon Law Institute, and is a frequent lecturer on matters pertaining to religious law and history, church property and ecclesiastic discipline. The author of a number of articles and papers, Fr. Nalls recently completed his first short book Prayer: A Field Guide.

Welcome to Saint Athanasius!

2009-03-28T16:48:00.001-04:00

This is our first post. We hope to provide continuous articles of interest for our readers, both about our progress as a church, and the Anglican Church in general. Please become a follower of our blog and keep up to date!