Solemn Vows

Josh and Abby asked Jack to use the Book of Common Prayer wedding service, and I was struck by how few references there were to feelings (love, joy, etc), and how many there were to "solemn vows". Truly, for all the joy and smiles and laughter, it also was a solemn occasion, as Josh and Abby vowed lifelong commitment, and all in attendance vowed to support them in that commitment.

A related item… Wes Callihan had this article in his Scholegium newsletter today.

COGITEM -- Liturgy as a Language

Our pastor recently remarked that there is a liturgical reformation occurring (he's thinking primarily of reformed protestant churches) and it set me thinking about why that should be so. One reason surely is that liturgy is a language that allows us to express ourselves. If you have never learned to play the piano, you cannot simply sit down to one and express the innermost depths of your soul with great overhand swings at the keyboard, Rachmaninoff-style, no matter how passionately you feel like the desire. But if you've studied and practiced and learned the language of piano-playing from those who have gone before, you can express yourself with great freedom. That freedom came from submission to a tradition, the tradition of How To Play The Piano. If you have never learned to speak Spanish, you cannot suddenly start communicating freely with the person next to you on the bus in Guadalajara; but if you've studied and practiced, then you can express yourself. You are freed from the bonds of ignorance and enabled to do something that you never could before, because of your submission to How Spanish Is Supposed to Be Spoken.

In the same way, the liturgies of the Christian Church are a language which, if learned and submitted to, allow us to express ourselves in worship to God in the great communion of the saints. Where did we get the idea that "worship" can be whatever we want it to be? We can't just say anything we want and expect our seatmate on the Guadalajara bus to understand us, and we can't just bang on the piano a la John Cage and expect the audience to understand what we feel, and so we can't expect to do just any old thing in church and expect it to be meaningful. Liturgy is a language that has developed (in many dialects, certainly, but one language) in the Church over centuries and if we learn it, submit to What Worship Is, we participate in a language others have for centuries and still do speak and so we join with them in worship, and we can express ourselves with much more freedom than if we just bang on the keyboard.

Why Is Church History Important?

~ the question we discussed in Sunday School today, as my pastor is beginning a ??-long series on Church History...how cool is that??

Okay, here are some of the answers we came up with:
1. There's nothing new under the sun. The same heresies are repeated over and over, just with new buzzwords and cultural application.
2. We repeat mistakes if we don't know mistakes of the past (true for all of history).
3. We see God's preserving hand of the true church through the ages.
4. We get context for Scripture, and avoid chronological snobbery (C.S. Lewis)
5. Each age has its own blind spots, including ours!
6. Throughout history, we see God's corporate sanctification and maturing process of the universal (catholic with a little "c") church.
7. We are to comprehend our faith "with all the saints" (Ephesians 3:18)
8. Hebrews 11:36-40: we are part of the family that is listed here...there's more to the story, and it includes us.
9. I Timothy 4:11-16 speaks of the handing down of doctrine and life...must know the life and doctrine of the apostles and church fathers in order to imitate it.

So...all five of you that read this blog...I'd like to know why YOU think Church History is (or isn't) important.

Sola Scriptura or Sola Cultura?

Read this response by John Yates and Os Guiness to a scurrilous op-ed piece in the Washington Post entitled "Episcopalians against equality".
Heres's an excerpt from the list of problems with Episcopalian revisionism of the historic faith revealed in the Scriptures:

Episcopal revisionism negates the authority of faith. The "sola scriptura" ("by the scriptures alone") doctrine of the Reformation church has been abandoned for the "sola cultura" (by the culture alone) way of the modern church. No longer under authority, the Episcopal Church today is either its own authority or finds its authority in the shifting winds of intellectual and social fashion -- which is to say it has no authority.

I'm pleased to see that our Episcopal church of yore (Church of the Epiphany in Herndon, VA) is voting to join Truro and The Falls Church. Pray for these courageous churches as they stand against heresy.

HT Jeanne :)

More on Epiphany...

From Wes Callihan's very informative and interesting Scholegium newsletter :

Epiphany is the end of the Christmas season. It's sometimes called Twelfth Day (hence Twelfth Night the evening before) because it's the twelfth day from Christmas. The famous Twelve Days of Christmas are those from Christmas to Epiphany. They include the Feast of the Innocents (commemorating the slaughter by Herod of the children), the Feast of the Circumcision (commemorating Jesus' parents keeping the law by having him circumcised on the eighth day), and the Feast of Stephen (commemorating the first martyr).

Epiphany itself began in the very early Eastern church as a nativity celebration but by the middle ages it became, in the Western church especially, a declaration of the manifestation of Christ to the nations as the Hope of the Nations. The Magi were Gentiles, and thus represented the nations, and so in Christian story they became kings, who are heads of their people, because of all the prophecies of kings bringing their kingdoms to the Messiah: "kings will walk in the brightness of thy rising."

So Epiphany is a glorious celebration of the King of the Nations, the Ruler of the World, the Eternal Augustus, the Everlasting Princeps, whose empire has no end in time or space. When we pray "Thy kingdom come", we should remember that Christians have already been praying that for two thousand years and the answer to that prayer was immediate (Already) and is still growing (Not Yet). In his birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Christ triumphed (past tense) over his enemies, and He will reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet, and that will indeed happen. He wins, they lose. Epiphany is a wonderful time to remind ourselves that that phrase in the Lord's Prayer MEANS SOMETHING. This is 2007 A.D. -- In the Year of the Reign of Our Lord and King Jesus Christ. He owns the world.

You can subscribe to Scholegium here...it's a wonderful mix of history, astronomy, and the tutor's musings.

Epiphany

Today is Epiphany, according to the church calendar.

On his excellent and informative blog, Grantian Florilegium, George Grant writes:

The celebration of Epiphany is the culmination of what is traditionally called the "Twelve Days of Christmas." The word literally means “revelation” or “sudden unveiling” or “manifestation.”

The day, which historically has been celebrated with as much joy as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, commemorates the day when wise men from the East were conducted by a miraculous star to the nativity in Bethlehem. The Magi were thus the first to comprehend that Jesus was not merely the prophetic fulfillment of Jewish aspirations since the beginning of time. Instead, He was the hope of the world, the light of the world, and the joy of every man’s desiring. They beheld the very glory of God that day--for in the city of David, the Savior was born.

As a result, Epiphany is the celebration of the ultimate proclamation of good news. Good news, indeed.

Epiphany was the name of our Episcopal (Anglican!) church years ago…our mission statement was “to make Christ known to the world.” Yes, indeed, good news!

The traditional collect from the Book of Common Prayer for Epiphany:

O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only-begotten Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know Thee now by faith, to Thy presence, where we may behold Thy glory face to face; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Three Quotes from Schaff

This from the series that Joshua & I are reading for our Church History class. I love the way this man uses words...

“For the Holy Spirit does not supersede the gifts and peculiarities of nature, which are ordained by God; He sanctifies them to the service of His kingdom.” (p. 514)

“John’s spirit and style may be compared to a calm, clear mountain-lake which reflects the image of the sun, moon, and stars, while Paul resembles the mountain-torrent that rushes over precipices and carries everything before it; yet there are trumpets of war in John, and anthems of peace in Paul.” (p. 550)

“Plain fishermen of Galilee could not have drawn such a portrait of Jesus if He had not sat for it. It would take more than a Jesus to invent Jesus. They did not create the divine original, but they faithfully preserved and reproduced it.” (p. 581)

~History of the Christian Church, Volume I, by Philip Schaff, 1858