On Burdens

The Feast of All Saints

O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity

LORD, we beseech thee to keep thy houseahold 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.

For several weeks now, I have often been attending Great Vespers at a local Eastern Orthodox Church. This past Saturday in particular, I drove past a Roman Catholic parish on my way to grab a friend who was joining me for Great Vespers, and saw their parking lot packed to the brim with cars for a Saturday evening mass. Arriving for Great Vespers, I was again struck by the number of people I saw there week after week, most of whom also attend Divine Liturgy the next morning.

The final blow came in that the Eastern Orthodox parish I attend recently moved and began meeting in an Anglican Parish as their old building had become too small and was becoming run down. The Anglican Church could easily accommodate them because their congregating had been declining for some time and they did not offer any Evening Prayer services, and were able to fit Divine Liturgy between their two Sunday morning services of Holy Communion.

My own experience in Anglicanism suggests there is much more of a culture of viewing Church as a burden on one’s time. Fitting Church in between the more important events. It’s too much to ask someone to come for Holy Communion on Sunday morning, let alone something on an evening as well. It’s too much of an imposition to suggest we attend an evening service. Especially if it’s on a Saturday or Sunday. And forget asking people to spend a minute more than two hours on Church on a Sunday. In and out.

To some, this almost becomes a burden on their time and their lives. These days we are all busy as the pace of the modern world continues to increase and more and more pressures are placed on our time, particularly on families who have children who all are interested in being participants in various after school teams and activities.

Where does the Church fit into all of this? How much time should be made for faith? The answer to that question is ultimately personal. St Paul recognized that different Christians at different times in their lives required different things in order to nurture their faith (I Cor 3. 2). For someone who is new to Christianity and faith, it could be overly burdensome to ask them to give up significant portions of their time when they’re still trying to figure out what everything means. For those who are more mature in their faith, however, more might be expected.

So if the expectation is not too much for all Christians, why is it that week after week Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians will attend multiple services a week, whereas in Anglican parishes it seems the congregation will get antsy if the homily is a minute longer than normal.

Records exist of similar complaints throughout the history of the Church. In the fourth century, St John Chrysostom wrote in response to those who were failing to come for the Eucharist on Sundays, saying:

I hear of their saying things of this kind, “the present stifling heat is excessive, the scorching sun is intolerable, we cannot bear being trampled and crushed in the crowd, and to be steaming all over with perspiration and oppressed by the heat and confined space...” What then am I to say to those who advance these pretexts? I would remind them of the three children in the furnace and the flame, who when they saw the fire encircling them on all sides, enveloping their mouth and their eyes and even their breath, did not cease singing that sacred and mystical hymn to God, in company with the universe, but standing in the midst to the pyre sent up their song of praise to the common Lord of all with greater cheerfulness than they who abide in some flowery field: and together with these three children I should think it proper to remind them also of the lions which were in Babylon, and of Daniel and the den: and not of this one only but also of another den, and the prophet Jeremiah, and the mire in which he was smothered up to the neck. And emerging from these dens, I would conduct these per sons who put forward heat as an excuse into the prison and exhibit Paul to them there, and Silas bound fast in the stocks, covered with bruises and wounds lacerated all over their body with a mass of stripes, yet singing praises to God at midnight and celebrating their holy vigil. For is it not a monstrous thing that those holy men, both in the furnace and the fire, and the den, and amongst wild beasts, and mire, and in a prison and the stocks, and amidst stripes and gaolers, and intolerable sufferings, never complained of any of these things, but were continually uttering prayers and sacred songs with much energy and fervent zeal, whilst we who have not undergone any of their innumerable sufferings small or great, neglect our own salvation on account of a scorching sun?

These words are particularly appropriate to refer to given that it is All Saints’ Day, when we recall the lives, joys and sufferings of countless saints throughout the years who have lived and died in the love of Christ. As St John Chrysostom puts it, who are we to complain of the heat of the sun when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace but did no more than continue to praise God.

Could it be, to a degree, that the answer is cultural? Anglicanism is ultimately the cultural incarnation of Catholic Christianity within the Anglosphere, whereas Roman Catholicism is more culturally representative of continental Western Europe and Eastern Orthodoxy of Greek in particular and Eastern European in general Christianity. As their cultural backgrounds are foreign to North America and the United Kingdom, it is easier for them to turn to their church community as a cultural enclave, and further to see themselves are remaining in some ways outside of mainstream culture of those countries in which they live. To that degree, it becomes easier to avoid the Church being influenced by secular society in the way in which Anglicanism seems to be.

This ought to be cause for concern. Anyone who accepts the truth of Christianity, ought to recognize its importance. When we gather, it is to be nourished in our faith, either directly by God’s grace through the Eucharist or encouraged through teaching or simply to show our love of God in worship together. To be unwilling to accept the importance of gathering in community for these purposes, particularly when other traditions show it remains an entirely viable possibility within our society, shows another sign of our unwillingness to submit completely to God, the desire only to commit on our own terms and to withhold, knowingly or unknowingly, parts of our lives from him.

All Saints’ Day is a day in which we commemorate all those saints that came before us, and it is a time in which we ought to consider and reflect upon their lives and the examples of faith they gave to us. If St Paul could endure torture and persecution and rejoice in his suffering, perhaps it’s not such a burden to ask modern Anglicans to endure an extra minute or two of teaching without complaint. If the New Martyrs of Libya can be executed while confessing their faith in Christ Jesus as Lord, perhaps it is not too much of a burden in our society to ask of us to give up a few hours of our Saturday evening to turn our hearts to God in praise and thanksgiving?

On Commitment

The Second Sunday after Trinity

O LORD, who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love: Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Language is important. Studies show that language affects how we think. Externally, the words we use reflect what we are thinking. In the context of Christianity, the words we use reflect not simply our thoughts, but also it reflects our theology and the doctrine of our church.

One big change that occurred in the 20th century was a transition from the language of submission to the language of commitment. Christians are now ones who make a commitment to Christ, accepting him in the hearts, while we now commonly view Islam as the religion of submission and indeed sometimes contrast Christianity with Islam in terms of viewing Islam as a religion that requires submission to God, while Christianity is more a religion of friendship and partnership with God.

While there is some truth in the view of Christianity as being more personal compared to Islam, to suggest that it is a partnership implies some form of equality with God, which is utterly false.

By making a commitment to Christ, we are approaching Christianity on our own terms, seeking to negotiate with God. “God, I commit myself to you, so long as it's comfortable.” It’s an attempt to retain control, to avoid submitting oneself completely to God’s authority.

This is not a uniquely modern innovation, as the Bible itself is full of examples of those to whom God had revealed his will, and who remained reluctant to submit themselves to it.

In the Old Testament, the Pentateuch contains a number of examples, including Numbers 16 when the people rose up to challenge Moses and Aaron, and even more directly in Exodus 16 when they grumbled that they had lived better in slavery in Egypt and murmured against God freeing them. Jonah’s story is another extremely well-known and clear example of someone who professes to follow God, but becomes reluctant and unwilling to follow God when God’s will conveyed to him becomes more difficult and goes against his own desires.

This phenomena is found in the New Testament as well. St Paul reminds the Christians in Galatia that he had been forced to rebuke St Peter and others when he found that they were backsliding into Jewish traditions under pressure from Judaisers. His criticism was essentially focused against those who were attempting to hedge their bets on their salvation. It was one thing to listen to one of the apostles coming by saying salvation was found in Christ and not the law, but here they were seeking to accept salvation in Christ while still following the law just in case.

Here, the early Christians were still professing their belief, but it was their actions that revealed that their words did not reflect their inner convictions. They were not willing to release control and submit themselves to God’s promise, instead resting on their own abilities to fulfil the law to secure their own salvation. It is no different when we say we are making a commitment to Christ, and no longer submitting to Christ’s lordship.

We can, in modern times, see this as well with the language of taking communion rather than receiving it. By taking communion, we view communion as something we control, with God as a passive partner. When we receive, it is God acting on us. This even further illustrates the troubling reality of making a commitment to God rather than submitting ourselves to God. When we make a commitment, we are saying, “I will follow you on these terms.” When we submit, we are saying, “I will follow your will always and in all things.” We are in effect replacing God in our lives by ourselves, making ourselves our own god. This is similar to anyone else who rejects God, but perhaps more insidiously, we don’t see it that way.

In a similar way, mission has become a new buzzword among Christians. Being a missional church, a missional community. In the Anglican Church of Canada, we no longer respect the Solemn Declaration and many Anglicans seem to see the Catholic Creeds as antiquated, but the Five Marks of Mission are a sacred charge. If you read statements from the Primate and other national organizations within the Anglican Church of Canada, you would see the Marks of Mission as the engine driving the Church.

The problem remains that mission is often defined on our own. Only two of the five marks, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom and to teach, baptise and nurture new believers, are distinctly Christian. Responding to human need in loving service, to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation and to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth are three goals which could easily be taken from the mission statements of any secular charity organizations.

There is nothing wrong with these statements, and they are clearly inspired by Christ’s example. The problem comes when they are so easily pursued under our own commitment rather than in submission to Christ. When we are a missional community, we are a community that subscribes to missions, based on these parameters, and that’s it. The actual missions undertaken may or may not be rooted in God’s will, even when they are clearly rooted in God’s examples to us in some way or another.

We are seeking to maintain our own agency. The goal of a missional church is to perform these missions. Its engine, what powers it, is not a desire to submit to Christ or to live a disciple’s life, but rather to accomplish missions.

In his Epistle to the Philippians, St Paul describes Christ’s ultimate submission:

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil 2. 6-8)

Verse six might be taken by a supporter of the Missional Movement to justify their position. Christ took the form of a servant. In St Matthew 20. 28, Christ himself says, “Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,” but in both these cases, that is attempting to justify doctrine and theology with Scriptural verses rather than with Scripture. In Philippians, St Paul tells us that Christ’s ultimate purpose was obedience to God, even unto death. In St Matthew’s Gospel, Christ finishes his sentence saying, “and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In St Luke’s Gospel, just prior to his arrest, Christ prays, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done,” (St Lk 22. 42). Christ’s death was in submission to God’s will and serves as example to us.

Discipleship must be the engine of our faith and our lives. Mission will build from it, but when we do not submit and instead pick and choose how we will follow, we are not truly following God at all, but ourselves.