Author: Abbot Kenneth

Gaudete!

Blessings to you this third week of advent. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This week many of us light the rose-colored candle in our advent wreaths and may even notice rose colored vestments and paraments in our parishes. They are indeed rose, in case you are wondering, not pink. As our preparations of heart and mind, hearth and home, continue during this most blessed season of hopeful anticipation we pause to recognize the joy of this season. 

Some, however, may be wondering, is joy even still possible in the midst of my current circumstances. There are many throughout our communities, our parishes, and throughout this world, who continue to suffer in fear, sickness, loneliness, and depression. As we prepare for another national election in the coming year we are faced with how divided and polarized our national is. Is joy still possible? 

It may seem as though, here in midwinter, is not the best time to consider Joy, but I would argue it is especially appropriate. Is joy still possible? 

Yes, and not only is it possible, it is expected. We are children of God, and that means we have an eternal hope. Hope which is not dependent on our circumstances. It is from this hope, that our joy is derived, not from our circumstances, not from the conditions of the day. 

As we review the lessons from Holy Scripture appointed for this third Sunday in Advent, there is much to consider. The Prophet Isaiah adds his voice to the chorus which foretells of a time of great peace and blessing, a time when the circumstances of this age are replaced with the peace of God, a time of rejoicing, joy, and gladness. This is echoed by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Church in Thessalonica when he tells them, and us, to rejoice always. 

In fact, he gives a set of instructions to them, which are surly profitable for us as we consider this season of hopeful anticipation, of readying ourselves for the coming of our Lord. “Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

This list of 14 instructions, is our marching orders. This is what is expected of us, and how we hope to find peace in this life and live with Joy. How many of these instructions align with our current cultural norms? Not many—which is why our culture is so lost in hopelessness and despair right now. 

We have become a society which has lost sight of God and who has idolized happiness. Throughout our nation’s military culture, we are fixated on building resilience; it is worked into almost everything we do. How does this activity, this initiative or effort contribute to resilience and readiness? 

The reason this is such a focus for us is because it is clearly absent in our formations and in our culture at large. We are not a ready and resilient culture, because we have lost sight of the source of resilience and have become fixated on the very thing that often undermines it. 

There is not genuine resilience outside of God, period. Every other attempt is a cheap imitation and temporary fix to a problem that so many just don’t understand. Human beings were not meant to live separated from God, that was not the intent, that is not how we were designed, and there is absolutely nothing we can do get around that. 

No matter how many esteemed celebrities, politicians, and billionaires may try find some other way, the truth remains, there is but one way, and that is Jesus Christ. They are lost because they have lost sight of God and have replaced him with the idol of happiness. This is what is often confused with Joy, but not only is it a cheap imitation, it is often the very thing that robs us of our joy. 

To idolize happiness is to chase after what makes you feel good. To prioritize the moment. It is short-sighted and self-focused. Lost in the promise of instant gratification.  

Joy, on the other hand, often comes at the denial of happiness. We are happy eating the doughnut, but then depressed looking at ourselves in the mirror a week later. Some may be happy to go out partying with friends, to live for the moment, but then depressed just a few hours later, locked up in jail for drinking and driving.  Many are all too happy to jump into bed with whomever has caught their attention, only to be depressed when diagnosed with some STD or unwanted pregnancy. 

There is not much good that comes from chasing happiness. The pursuit of your immediate happiness often robs you of your lasting joy. As Christians, we are called to a disciplined life. We do not just eat and drink what we like, when we like. We do not just chase after our own indulgences and disordered affections. We realize that often joy comes from sacrifice. 

The joy we feel when we are able to truly help others. The joy of a parent who spends years sacrificing their own instant gratification, to see their children become honorable men and women. The joy of community, good health, and faith which comes from daily sacrifice and discipline. We are called to joy, but more importantly, we are called to live our lives in such a way that conditions are set for joy, and that is the true value in Saint Paul’s instructions.

So yes, joy is still possible today, it is possible, and it is expected as part of a life lived consecrated to Christ. As we consider how we might follow in the example of Saint John the Baptist, to be a voice in the wilderness of this time and this culture, to make straight the path of the Lord, let us do so with Joy. May our focus be in making ourselves ready for our Lords return so that, like Saint John, we might find our joy complete in hearing the voice of our Bridegroom, Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Lord, may we truly be found a people acceptable in Your sight at Your return. Grant us the grace to repent, to reorient ourselves to You in every aspect of our lives. To not become lost in the pursuit of fleeting happiness but rather grounded in the joy of Your perfect love. We ask this in Your most honored name Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and evermore. Amen.   

Blessings, 

Kenneth++

Abbot, OSC

Greetings this second week of Advent. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. The collect appointed for this week is one of my favorites of the Christian year.

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 2019, Advent 2)

We are called to remember that Holy Scriptures are provided to us by God for the purpose of our learning and that through Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit we are to hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life. Through this prayer, we are reminded to hear, read, mark and inwardly digest the Scripture. It calls us to greater commitment to the Word of God, to the truth.

That is something sorely lacking in our world and even throughout the church. A commitment, a stand for the truth. We live in a world which is infatuated with the idea of relativism, that your truth is just as valid as my truth, or perhaps even that no truth exists at all. That is incompatible with the Christian faith—we are told the Jesus is the Way, The Truth, and the Life.

Are we ready to stand for the truth? To be dedicated to the pursuit of it, ready to proclaim it, to never be ashamed of it. As we consider during this advent season what the coming of the Lord means, both his first coming and his second, we must consider the implications of what it means to accept the Lord, the Gospel, as truth.

The Gospel lesson for the second Sunday of Advent opened by quoting the prophet Isaiah, by drawing attention to the work and ministry of Saint John the Baptist as the one who had come to prepare the way. To prepare the way for the Way. He did so by issuing a call to repentance, to re-orientation to God. A call to examine ourselves and look to those areas of our life where we need to ask God’s forgiveness, and to recommit ourselves to God.

That is the task of this season of advent, prepare the way for the coming of Christ. He is coming, are we prepared? It is the task of every gathering of the church, to prepare our hearts, our minds, our souls for the coming of our Lord, to be ready to receive him in hopeful anticipation.

We are told that John was ministering to people in the wilderness, that he was clothed in camels’ hair with a leather belt around his waist, that he ate locusts and wild honey. Basically, that he was strange, that he was counter cultural, not aligned with the mainstream of Jewish or roman society.

In order to truly prepare the way of the Lord in our lives we must also be counter cultural. We are not called to conform ourselves to this world, but rather to be conformed to the image and likeness of Christ. That requires that we hold to beliefs and convictions which will be counter to this world. That we maintain disciplines, customs, and practices that this world does not understand or accept. That we recognize and stand for truth, when this world denies that it even exists.

The same passage from the prophet Isaiah that Saint Mark is referencing in this Gospel passage tells us that this world will pass away, it is temporary, like the grass which withers and is carried away by the wind, the breath of God. This world, this culture, its beliefs, its convictions, its ambitions will pass away, they will fade from existence like countless before them, but we are told that the Word of the Lord will endure, it will stand forever.  

Every day we must choose the world or the Word, we must choose the truth, the way and the life that is Christ our Lord. Saint Peter echoes this when he tells us that these things are to be dissolved—the heavenly bodies will melt as the burn. He reminds us that the day of the Lord’s return will be as a thief, it will seem to sneak up on those who are unaware, but we are called to always be prepared. To wait in hopeful anticipation, to be patient.

One day for the Lord is as a thousand years for us. What seems like a delay to us is really just the patience of the Lord, not wishing that any should perish but rather that all should repent. We are to count the patience of the Lord as salvation. Just as our collect admonishes us to hear, read, mark and inwardly digest Holy Scripture, Saint peter reminds us here that we are to take care that we are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose our own stability.

This passage from Saint Peter’s epistle is one of the earliest references to the Scriptures of the New Testament, what we call the Canon of Scripture, or the list of what writings are considered authoritative. He references the writings of Saint Paul, which we know makes up most of our New Testament. In doing so, not only does he affirm that the writings of the Apostles were well known in the earliest days of the church and likely shared and circulated among the churches, but he also draws our attention to a common error that continues to plague the church to this day.

The error of those who are ignorant and unstable and twist the meaning of Scripture, to their own destruction. This was a problem during the Apostolic age, and it remains a problem today. It only reiterates why we must be diligent in our pursuit of understanding and in our willingness to stand up for truth and against heresy and false teaching. We must remind ourselves, the Church, to be counter cultural, stand for the truth of Christ, choose the Word of the World.

How do we know what is truth and error? You can name almost any sin and I can find you a supposedly Christian church which affirms it as ok. Murder, there are churches which support abortion, which is the sin of murder. Sexual immorality, there are churches which completely reject the biblical teaching of sexual morality and righteousness. Slavery, we don’t have to look very far in our past to see countless examples of Scripture twisted and used to defend and promote slavery and countless other sins.

Just because it comes from the pulpit and includes scripture references does not make it truth. So how do we rightly discern what is and is not truth? Every day we confess the creeds of our faith.

As Anglican’s we are not a confessional church, as the term is often applied. Rather, we are a creedal church, affirming the faith of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. That is our method of discernment. That is how we know truth from the twisted misrepresentations of those who are unstable and ignorant.

We affirm the Truth as it has been taught by the Apostles as it has been guarded and defended by the Church, in that we find our stability. Question ninety-eight in the ACNA’s catechism, To Be a Christian, answers why the Church is called Catholic: “The church is called catholic (which means according to the whole) because it keeps the whole faith it has received from the Lord, in continuity with the whole church in all times and places.”

In continuity with the whole church in all times and places. That is an incredibility important statement. Arguably one of the most important statements in the entire catechism. It represents the standard of scrutiny required to discern truth. Is what I believe, what I teach, what I am hearing in continuity with the whole church in all times and places, with the teaching of the Apostles, with Holy Scripture, or is it something else, something new?

There are many who in their ignorance and instability have twisted Holy Scripture, which Saint Peter admits can be difficult to understand, into a variety of errant and heretical beliefs which are not in continuity with what the Apostles taught and what the Church has believed in all times and in places. Any teaching, no matter if it come from me, a bishop, or even a council, if it is incongruent with the faith that has been believed in all times and places, is likely an errant twisting of Scripture, perhaps unintentional, but no less dangerous.

There is great consistency and congruence in our faith. Holy Scripture today demonstrate that. From the teaching of the prophets to the teaching of the Apostles, it is one catholic faith, consistent and congruent. The Word of God is forever, it will stand forever. The Word of God has become flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Behold, the LORD God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

We are called to prepare the way of the Lord, in this world and in our own hearts. Are you prepared?

Almighty and gracious Lord. You have come and dwelt among us. You, who are the Way, the Truth, and the Life have brought us salvation. Grant us the grace to faithfully discern your Truth and Your will and to stand strong and confident in Your truth with humility through the work of the Holy Spirit that we might be found ready at Your second coming. We ask this in Your most honored name Lord Jesus, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and evermore. Amen.

Blessings,

Kenneth++

Abbot, OSC