Anglican Catholics and Anglicans

How the cool-down from a passionate debate can be used for learning languages.

What comes down must go up.

Sermon for the Sunday in the octave of the Ascension

Ten days.

We now have ten days wait

after the Ascension 

until the Birthday of the Church

when the Holy Ghost descends

and causes order 

from chaos.

What were the Apostles doing

for those ten days?

Were they sitting 

drawing up blueprints 

for the Church,

putting together 

codes of Canon Law,

and making sure that 

the priests will wear

the right colour

in the right liturgical season?

No. That's not what they do.

They meet together,

pray,

and wrestle with what they 

understand of the memories

of Jesus.

But they don't build a church.

They have realised that 

building a Church is a 

top-down activity.

[PAUSE]

If you think about it,

it's an odd way to build.

Can we really 

build a church 

starting with the spire

and building down 

to the floor?

Well, we can't do that.

We're subject to 

all the limitations of gravity.

But we need 

to realise these limitations.

The Day of Pentecost 

is not yet with us

and the Day of Pentecost 

is the undoing 

of the tower of Babel.

It's in these ten days

before Pentecost 

that we witness 

the deconstruction of Babel

and the safest way

to deconstruct a tower

is from the top down.

The building of the Church 

starts with the demolition 

of all that opposes it.

The crooked has 

to be made straight 

and the rough places plain

for the Gospel to be preached.

This demolition 

is a form of repentance.

These ten days of prayer

and preparation

in which the Apostles are silent 

are a form of repentance.

Of course,

you remember that 

repentance is not just

turning away from sin:

it is a turning towards Christ.

If we turn to Christ

then we necessarily 

turn away from sin.

The Apostles reflect 

upon the Ascension 

and what it means

and thus they turn their minds 

to Christ.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord's Ascension 

proves to us 

that He has descended 

from Heaven.

It strengthens our minds

that, truly, Jesus is the Son of God,

fully human and fully divine.

The Apostles see

exactly how Our Lord is the Way.

In ascending,

He has punched 

a human-shaped hole

in the veil

that separates us from God

and it is through this gap

that we see the Glory of God

and the joys of Heaven.

This shows them how

they are to build top-down.

[PAUSE]

When we try to build 

bottom-up,

the result is confusion

because we can only bring

earthly things 

into the building.

If we try to build a church

based on human ideas

of justice and mercy

all we will get is

confusion, conflict and 

consternation.

But,

to reach into the heavens

through Christ's Way

we build something 

that comes down from Heaven

to us.

This Church

separates Christians

from the World

and sanctifies their lives 

because it is built 

from the top down.

A building 

that does not separate 

from the World

bur rather blurs the

distinction between

the Church and the World.

It allows sin into 

the sanctuary 

and thus the sanctuary 

loses its sanctity.

[PAUSE]

That which is built 

from the bottom up

falls down.

That which is built 

from the top down

falls up.

Just as Christ descends

for our Salvation 

so He must ascend

so that we may too.

What comes down 

must go up.

Anglican Catholicism Vs Anglo-Catholicism

 

How Anglo-Catholicism differs from Anglican Catholicism.

Trouble Praying

Sermons for the fifth Sunday after Easter

Why don't we pray

for no tribulation?

If we ask in Jesus' Name

then God will give it.

What's gone wrong?

[PAUSE]

Isn't it a bit rich of Our Lord 

to tell His disciples

that their prayers in His Name

will be answered 

and then to tell them

that they will suffer tribulation?

If God wants our joy to be complete 

why put us through the mill?

Why not hear our prayer

and prevent us from pain?

[PAUSE]

This is a hard question 

and one that many will use

as a reason for leaving Christianity

or for not taking it seriously.

It's a question that will 

never really be answered,

not in this life.

There are two points

to consider

which give us some clue

as to what Our Lord means.

First,

we are to ask 

in the Name of Our Lord.

How often do we pray

in the Name of Our Lord.

Just tacking on

 "in Jesus' Name" 

to our prayer 

doesn't make it a prayer

in His Name.

It needs to be a prayer

that He would want

to put His Name to.

It needs to be a prayer 

that we make in dialogue

with Him,

a prayer in keeping 

with His character 

and not ours alone.

It needs to be a prayer 

that is part of our ongoing 

conversation with Our Lord

that seeks His glory

and our happiness.

Indeed, His glory is our happiness.

This brings us to the second point.

[PAUSE]

Our prayers will be granted

so that our joy may be complete.

But our joy will not be complete 

not in this life.

Our lot as human beings

is to die.

We are only happy

for a short space of time

before we fall I'll

get hurt 

or die.

Our joy is never complete

in this world.

Our joy is not 

in this world.

Our joy is complete 

only after we have passed

from this life 

into the next.

Let's be clear,

God loves us now

and will answer our prayers

that we need now

but the purpose of our prayer

must be directed 

to our joy in Heaven 

and what is Heaven

if not to see

the glory of God Himself?

St Philip asks Our Lord

to show him the Father 

but Jesus says

that the disciples have seen the Father

in Jesus Himself.

Their joy will not be complete 

when they see Our Lord

bleeding and gasping

upon the wood of the cross.

It will not be complete 

when they see Him standing with them

but they do get a foretaste

of the joy that they are promised.

[PAUSE]

We will not see our prayers

not so suffer answered in this life.

They will be answered

in the next

where all our pain, sorrow and suffering 

will be given context,

explanation if we need it,

and sanctification 

as proof of Love.

Our prayer cannot

be a simple set of instructions 

for God to fulfill

like a genie on Checkatrade.

For then we will be 

disappointed.

If our relationship with God

is purely based on

transaction 

or wish-fulfillment

then we cannot expect 

our faith to grow

and we are in danger of losing it.

Our prayer must be

our continued contact with God

seeking His presence 

His will 

His glory

His love for everyone.

Our relationship with God 

must be rooted deeply in Him

and that means accepting 

the mystery of His fathomlessness

and of our own.

It means accepting pain

as our lives are bent 

back into shape

by the growing awareness 

of the presence of God in us.

But there are things

that God will always give us

if we ask for them now

in our continued conversation 

with Him 

- faith, hope love.

There is always 

a plenteous supply of those 

for us.