TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY after TRINITY 2021

​Collect
Lord God, keep your household the Church grounded in continual godliness, we humbly pray, so that by your protection it may be free from all adversities, and may devoutly serve you in good works to the glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Psalm for Anglicanism ? A Modern Musing.
Psalm 44 from the lectionary of the day.

1. We have heard with our ears O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. Not all of us in our day are familiar with the saga of the reformed catholic Church of England. Many of us in the Anglican Communion are indifferent to our long term history, and there are many who wish to either ignore it or reverse it. The 16th century Ecclesia Anglicana moved with cautious heroism into the family of Reformed Churches, retaining loyalty to the ancient creeds, guarded respect for the church fathers, and everything from the past that could be deemed consonant with Holy Scripture. All preceding orthodoxy and its saintly exponents of earlier generations were deeply cherished and inclusive within our precious Christian heritage that respected the Bible as the Word of God. Our Reformers established a sound scriptural foundation for our faith in God, our obedience to his will, and the worship of his Name. Those days long ago need to be recaptured in our minds. The past needs to enter our present with renewed power.

2. With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our fathers; you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish. Just as Israel had to establish a holy land so the pastors and scholars of the English Church had to embrace and advocate the holy truth of divine revelation. With fluctuating fortune, the providence of God, the men of the Reformation were greatly blessed, a renewed Church graced the land, and continual reform of the Church in line with Scripture was the aspiration. No wonder that the French author Victor Hugo could remark that, “the Bible made England!”

3. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. Human instrumentalities are always used in the advancement of Christ’s cause on earth, but the effectiveness is always the Lord’s. Divine power, his love, and his favor achieve good and godly ends.

4. You are my king and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. The beleaguered believer always reckons on the fact that the phases and developments of history are dispensed by the rule of God. History is the domain of his sovereign direction. So too, the Church knows that its weal and welfare is determined by God through the fluctuations between blessing and judgment - his presence or withdrawal.

5. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. It is God alone who can fend off our opponents or repulse those who distort his truth or pollute his worship; those who oppress us with sinful behavior and example that mars our peace and safety - those still of the world, being carnal, and those who infiltrate the people of God and disturb their godliness and righteous sensibilities with wrong and wicked ways. Where the power of truth subsides immorality attains dominion and popular support. Irrationality and depravity prevails, as in our generation - a new “era of the judges” as recounted between the books Joshua and Ruth.

6. I do not trust my bow, my sword, does not bring me victory; Human expertise and endeavor do not overcome the forces and influences of moral evil and doctrinal error. What ever our equipage we cannot boast about or rely on “our bow” the responses we fire in the field of battle, or “our sword”; of hand to hand conflict. Apologetics and polemics are useless without the prompting and help of the Lord, for they are temptations to a self-congratulatory frame of mind. “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground (1 Samuel 3:19). Defenders and proponents of the faith need the same upholding and accurate aim of the Speaker of all truth. Dealing with today’s situation we all of us need great and special grace in our speech concerning God and his Gospel. No showing off! (lairizing, Aust)

7. But you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. This is the antithesis to human self-confidence in the struggles of the faith, doctrinal and practical. Humility is the approach. God will defend himself through the self-offering of his people and their utter dependence upon the Lord: “Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12: 11-12). This encouragement does not, of course, obviate the task of preparation where possible; it affects delivery, as with Samuel).

8. In God we make our boast all day long, and will praise your name forever. The psalmist is keenly aware that in all things, but especially in any form of conflict, that he must totally place his confidence in God. He is a man of godly, holy, trusting heart. He affirms that God is reliable. But the covenant relation involves two parties - Yahweh and Israel. The covenant arrangement entails blessing and penalty. It requires joint faithfulness. Infidelity toward God cannot be overlooked by a good and just God. Leniency from God may provide recall to himself but initial correction or chastening is necessary to intelligent conviction of wrongdoing and offense, and beyond this, to deliberate repentance; education and re-entry to favor.

9. But now you have rejected us and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. Israel wantonly forfeited the favor and fighting strength of God. The faithful psalmist laments the decadence of his nation. We are Israel, believing Jews and Gentiles together. You might say that Anglicanism is one of the tribes. Have we departed so very far from the Lord (Article 9) that he has withdrawn from us?

Will there ever be a whole-hearted return to our rootedness in truth and the loyalty to Scripture? Will our Augustinian tradition once again prevail as grounded in Paul, the apostles and prophets? Will a remnant be raised up to hold the fort. The Church “is a Guardian of Holy Scripture” (Article 20).

RJS

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINIY 2021

Collect
Merciful Lord, Grant, we humbly pray, to your faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SACRED SCRIPTURE
Genesis 32 : 22 - 29

The Wounded Wrestler

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the brook Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him.

Alone: It was a night of acute fear for Jacob, for he was about to encounter his aggrieved brother Esau whom he had swindled of his birthright and blessing in sly action of meanest deceit (Genesis 27). Would Esau wish to wreak revenge on the morrow when the estranged brothers accosted each other? Darkness and aloneness, filled with mental unease, can be frightfully chilling. The imagination can work overtime creating ice-cold dread and exaggerating an ominous sense of danger. Jacob was intensely nervous. 

A man wrestled with him: At what point in the lonely night the aggressor sprang upon Jacob we do not know, but it was a sudden and frightening attack, and a gruelling and intense struggle endured until daybreak. An unknown assailant seized upon Jacob, and together they grabbed at and gripped each other, engaging in various holds and hand to hand tactics, applying many painful maneuvers, and perhaps blows, to the other’s body, grappling both offensively and defensively. The tussle was vigorous and exhausting. Muscle power and breath must have been reduced to a very low ebb as dawn began to lighten the sky.

Let me go: The mystery man of the night assault asks for cessation of the struggle. He commenced combat and now he concludes it. His purpose has been fulfilled.

I will not let you go: Jacob senses that he has been grappling with God. He petitions an urgent blessing. The ongoing conflict is worth it, if it yields a needed blessing. He must hold on strenuously until the Lord bestows his favor, for the wrestling is an objective event that reflects his turmoil within - “Will God help me?” Jacob must persevere in the obtainment of divine aid.

What is your name?: In this enquiry Jacob is starkly confronted with his sinful, undeserving nature; that of a swindler, a cheat, a crafty “go-getter” of no moral integrity. From the very womb, clutching at Esau’s ankles, during the birth of Rachel’s twin boys, Jacob was the consummate grabber of anything throughout life that suited him and was to his personal advantage, no matter how it affected others.

“Your name will no longer be Jacob”: This is a statement of divine authority and sovereign (electing) intent. The God-man gives Jacob another name. However, we see that his family and biblical history still call him Jacob. The real point is not the mere changing of his name, but the transformation of the old Jacob’s former character. He will no longer think and act in the nature of the old Jacob, but in the ways of a new creature, born from above, namely Israel who has contended for mercy with the Lord, and passed through a profound transaction with the Lord personally; that is conviction of sin and fresh desire for mercy.

Tell me your name: God in his majestic supremacy will not disclose his name to Jacob at this juncture in divine revelation. He is high above all obligation to man. The fierce struggle in deliverance and prayer does not render us in any way familiar (chummy) with God, or give us the slightest cause for a sense of control over him, he being at our bidding, or, as the pagans believed, we wielding magical mastery over the Deity via spells and incantations. Whatever God does is in accord with his absolute, incontestable sovereignty.

If he calls us to an encounter with him through prayer that is sweet and comforting, or through struggle that is long term and taxing, he is always the sovereign initiator, actor, and benefactor in the matter of our contending with him and the petitions directed humbly toward him.

Presumption as to entitlement of access to God, or any self-serving advantage from him in our own right of claim is utterly forbidden and impossible of success. Humanity deserves no good thing from God. The exercise of his goodness is a matter of divine prerogative and determination alone. The disclosure of the divine name to us is an unearned, unmerited privilege - YAHWEH, Old Testament, or JESUS, New Testament. His personal names are the key to his intimate fellowship and favor, disclosed as a gesture of divine humility and fondest love. The Lord who is Light when he deigns to shine is Mystery also, hidden when he chooses.

Jacob and Ourselves: We, too, are called to be wrestlers with God. Whether it may be through times of particular ordeal, or simple regularity in communion and prayer, God gives us clues for our approach to him, and arguments for our requests. Scripture is the handbook for the method of engagement with the Lord and the language of discourse with God. The Bible blesses us with sufficient knowledge of the mind of the Lord that imparts a reverent intimacy with him. 

As with Jacob, we are encouraged to maintain a degree of cautious yet confident persistence with him, knowing that he knows best and will persevere in that which is best for us. He may “make haste” or require us to wait. But he will not ignore the concerns of his children. These may be caused to abate or solicit his intervention. When we come to our Jabbok, may the Lord be our Rock!

RJS

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2021

Collect
Almighty and most merciful God, keep us by your bountiful goodness, we pray you, from all things that may hurt us, so that we always be ready both in body and soul cheerfully to accomplish whatever you would have us do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


The Word of God

Matthew 22: 8-10
Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Luke 14: 22 - 23
“Sir,” the servant said, "what you have ordered has been done, but there is still room." Then the master told his servant, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full."


THE INDISCRIMINATE INVITATION

“God invites all men to himself, without a single exception . . . As no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open to all men; neither is there any other thing which keeps us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief.”
John Calvin.

How explicit is the free offer of the gospel enunciated by the two excerpts from the compared versions of the parable of the great banquet. The heavenly invitation is extended emphatically, boldly, vividly from the lips of the Savior himself.

There is a universal, wide-open appeal to all persons to heed and receive the gospel promise. How strong this appeal is in the message spoken by the Lord Jesus. It is to be conveyed where ever there are people. Not simply special, polite, important and privileged places, or convenient places, but very definitely the streets, roads, out of the way lanes and byways where “all sorts” mingling in daily routines and business are to be found - not just the respectable, but the lowly who walk the thoroughfares and pathways also, and where the unacceptable loiter - from the Strand to Skid Row - God equips his servants suitably. The Church, in the breadth of its membership, receives this commission, and possesses divinely bestowed skills in the many who constitute the People of God. It is not Christians who should discriminate: make them all come in, both good and bad. The goal is to make Master’s house full and as day follows day “still there is room”.

The required wedding garment is provided by the host. The only barrier to entering is personal unbelief, the sense that I do not require the garb of grace and the robe of repentance. Sinners themselves consign themselves to final shame and exclusion from God. We ask ourselves, for how long shall the invitation be current?

RJS