felix hominum

understatement headline...

Zimbabwe opposition fears vote-rigging

Zimbabwe's election commission today began releasing a trickle of results from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections as the opposition voiced fears that the count was being manipulated in favour of the president, Robert Mugabe.

The Guardian

An Earth Hour confession

Okay, so what was I really doing during "Earth Hour"?

BTW, if you are really stuck as to how to set up some basic mixing, try this site.

Some Turkey links

No, not this kind, the other kind.  For the pilgrims looking for a few extra links with background and some local info for our Footsteps of St Paul pilgrimage next month, there are a few links up here.  I'll be adding a few more this week as well.

Workshop: Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel & its Contexts

Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel & its Contexts

A Workshop:  Dept of History and Classics

Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich & University of Alberta, Edmonton

April 7-11, 2008 at the University of Alberta

Schedule

Dept info page here.

This workshop brings together scholars from the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Alberta, along with colleagues from other European and Canadian universities. This workshop is part of a newly founded cooperation between LMU and the UofA and is conceived as the first of two workshops. The second is planned for Munich (2009).

As Tyler said, consider this an invitation.

Good news, then good advice

When I’m talking to people about the Gospel I sometimes ask them, ‘What do you think the essential message of Christianity really is?’ Far and away the most common reply is something like this: ‘Love thy neighbour’. On this understanding, a Christian is someone who loves their neighbour, tries to be a good person and so on. People will even say to me, “I don’t go to church, but I try to be a good person, and I think that’s more important’.

There’s a basic problem with this answer, and I’ll tell you what it is. In the New Testament the essential Christian message is called ‘the Gospel’, and the word ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’. But ‘love thy neighbour’ is not good news – it’s good advice. Quite excellent advice, in fact; the world would be a much better place if people just learned to love their neighbour as they love themselves. I don’t have a word to say against that idea; I just want to point out that it’s not the first and most important part of the Christian message. The first and most important part is not a bit of advice, but a wonderful announcement of good news.

thoughts from Tim

New Proposed "Liturgical Rites and Formation Resources" for the Anglican Church of Canada

I know, most of you were probably spending your post/Easter web surfing looking for wholesome and encouraging sermons and such. Meanwhile, I had put on the back burner some interesting stuff which has appeared courtesy of the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee: 

Making Disciples: the Catechumenate in the Anglican Church

Liturgical Rites and Formation Resources for Adult seekers coming to Baptism in the Christian Faith

The following liturgical rites have been developed from John Hill’s initial work in Making Disciples, by the Catechumenate Network of the Dioceses of Toronto, Niagara and Huron. They are offered here by the Liturgy Working Group of Faith, Worship and Ministry for the purposes of study and evaluation and, where permitted by the local ordinary, use or adaptation. We request your feedback on the rites. They have not been authorized by the General Synod or the Council of General Synod. Nevertheless, the Liturgy Working Group wishes to make these, and any other resources relating to the catechumenate, available in order to stimulate reflection on processes of adult initiation, and the rites related to them.

Catechumenal Rites (PDF file)
Rites for the Baptised (PDF file)

Just in case you were wondering, there is opportunity to give feedback in the following form:

1. Before visiting this website, were you familiar with the
catechumenate and its related liturgical rites? If so, please
describe your experience.
2. What did you find the most helpful in this section of the
website?
3. What could we do to make this section of the website more
useful?
4. Would you be willing to share your stories relating to the
catechumenal process in your parish within a “Stories” section
of this part of the website?
5. Do you have any resources which might be added to this section
of the website? If so, please include with this form if available in
digital format, or describe, including information on how the
resources might be obtained. *Be careful to ensure that any
material you send for web-posting gives account of its copyright
status and information about permissions necessary for such
posting.

Happy Easter: Pope baptizes Muslim-born man at Eastertide

EGYPTIAN-born Magdi Allam, one of Italy’s most famous and controversial journalists and commentators who renounced Islam and converted to Roman Catholicism was baptized at the weekend by Pope Benedict XVI in a sermon watched by thousands around the globe including his native Egypt.

A deputy editor at the Milan newspaper, Corriere della Sera, he has built his career crusading against what he calls the “inherent” violence in Islam and championing Israel’s existence. He has been honoured for encouraging tolerance between cultures, but his baptism angered some in the Muslim world with his high-profile conversion in an Easter vigil service led by Pope Benedict at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

story here

Saudi king says he'll convene interfaith conference with Jews

Saudi King Abdullah's desire to convene a meeting between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious communities was reported today by the official Saudi Arabian News Agency.

"I invite representatives of all the monotheistic religions to meet with their brothers in faith," the king was quoted as saying. The theme of the expected conference was reported to be "respect among the religions."

The news agency reported that senior Muslim leaders authorized the idea and consultations would be made with Islamic religious authorities from other countries. The king went on to say that "with God's help we will meet our brethren from other religions, including those who believe in the Torah and in the Gospel, in order to find ways to defend humanity."

full story from the Jerusalem Post

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 12: descending to the center of Hell

While I had not planned it to be so, I find myself blogging of Dante's final descent into the center of Hell on Holy Saturday.  There is a timeline in the poem:  Dante's journey with Virgil in the underworld takes place over several days in holy week.  In the story of the poem, it is on Holy Saturday that he makes the final descent to the very presence of Satan at the center of Hades.  And so, fittingly, here we are.

In Canto XXXI Dante and Virgil make their descent from the malbowges of Circle VIII into the depths of the Well (Circle IX) with the aid of the Giants.  These are the great primordial figures of ancient myth.  These are the ones who rebelled against the gods, and by showing such uprising against the divine, are now at the entrance to the final geography of Hell.  Virgil points out one of the giants to Dante:

"So proud a spirit was this", my leader said
"He dared to match his strength against high Jove
And in this fashion his reward is paid."

XXXI, 91-93

The giant is compelled to lower them to the Xth and final Circle of Hell - the frozen lake of Cocytus.  Here Dante and Virgil encounter the Treacherous:  those who were traitors to their family, their country, their guests, and finally, those who were traitors to their lords.  At the center of Hell is Satan, who was the first Traitor to his Lord.

Both Sayers' and Charles Williams' notes capture the essence of the frozen center of Hell:

Beneath the clamour, beneath the monotonous circlings, beneath the fires of Hell, here at the centre of the lost soul and the lost city, lie the silence and the rigidity and the eternal frozen cold.  It is perhaps the greatest image in the whole Inferno.  "Dante", says Charles Williams, "scatters phrases on the difference of the place.  It is treachery, but it is also... cruelty; the traitor is cruel." (The Figure of Beatrice, 143).  A cold and cruel egocism, gradually striking inward till even the lingering passions of hatred and destruction are frozen into immobility - that is the final state of sin. (Sayers, 275)

In Canto XXXiii we see that even the traitors' tears are frozen.  They cannot even express that most basic of human expressions.  All that is human has died - frozen forever.

At the very center of Hell we find Dis (the classical name for Satan), the Devil, devouring the shades of three traitors to their Lords - Judas, Brutus and Cassius.  Perhaps we will better understand the placement of traitors to their Lords at the bottom is we understand that the whole medieval society was based upon some form of allegiance to one's lord.

To understand more fully the placement of Satan at the bottom of Hell, we need also remember that Dante knew that the earth is a sphere.  In constructing his vision of Hell, he places Satan at the center of the earth - a place where there would be no gravity.  And here we might understand Hell more fully if we consider the famous lines from Augustine's Confessions - "my love is my weight".  At the center of the earth, at the bottom of hell, there is no weight, hence there is no love.  It is a masterful image, drawing on Augustine's well known text to inform the reader.

At another level, while we might think we have escaped the condemnation of the upper regions of Hell, we have all been Traitor to our Lord.  For every sin is a treachery against Christ.  And so each one of us must, like Dante, descend to that place:  we must see what it is to betray (like Judas) our Lord.  It is to be devoured by Satan.

(We have just returned from celebrating the Great Vigil of Easter)

As they climb over the huge body of Satan at the center of the earth, a marvellous thing happens:  Virgil instructs Dante that as they finish climbing down, there will come a point where they must (at the center of the earth) turn themselves wholly upside down, at which point they will begin to ascend out the other side of Hell.  It is an image of the repentance of the soul - that point of descent and then wholly turning its orientation.

Gustave Dore's image of Dante and Virgil walking on the frozen center of the Inferno.

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

St Augustine, on Good Friday

for us he was unto thee both the Victor and the Victim,
and therefore Victor, because he was the Victim
for us he was unto thee both the Priest and the Sacrifice,
and therefore the Priest, because he was the Sacrifice
...I meditate upon the price of my redemption

Confessions X, xliii

a comment on Good Friday

Over at Magic Statistics, Russel Sutherland left an intersting comment describing his experience at a Good Friday service.

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 11: sowers of schism and discord

In unrelated news, there was a recent item from the National Post, based on an essay by Canadian Anglican Paul Gibson entitled "Why I am not afraid of schism".  The comments after the essay are worth a look for those so inclined. The headline on the Nat'l Post article is Anglican schism not 'catastrophic': theologian.

Not only that, but in keeping with Good Friday tradition, the church is in court once again.  I thought one trial was enough for holy week.

Well, settle in for a Good Friday special on the place of the sowers of schism and discord in the Inferno!  What better way to spend a Good Friday evening than perusing the torments of those who seek to tear once again, the flesh of Christ. We'll bring you up to speed after a latte. 

To begin Canto XXVIII, Dante bids the reader recall the fiercest battles and wars, with all their carnage, and the multitude of wounded and torn bodies, and then:

If each should show his bleeding limbs unhealed,
Pieced, lopt and maimed, 'twere nothing, nothing whatever
To that ghast sight in the ninth bowge revealed

XXVIII, 19-21

The shades of those who are in this section of hell are subject to a recurring punishment:  they are hacked and split by a demon with a sword, only to have their 'bodies' made whole again, and then hacked once more by the demonic sword.  Dante is told:

All these whom thou beholdest in the pit
Were sowers of scandal, sowers of schism abroad
While they yet lived, therefore they now go split.

Back yonder stands a fiend, by whom we're scored
Thus cruelly; and over and over again
He puts us to the edge of the sharp sword

XXVIII, 34-39

As they had no qualms about fostering division while on earth, these souls are now condemned to be themselves forever "divided".  They are subject to the very principle they espoused while on earth.  They divided the body of Christ, and now their own body will be divided and torn apart.

Perhaps Paul Gibson is right.  Perhaps one need not be afraid of schism.  He might be right on that one.  After all, a person might find himself, through no intention of his own, in the middle of such a situation.  But perhaps Mr Gibson would be wise to avoid being a sower of schism, a counselor of such things.

Dante gives us examples of sowers of discord in several categories:  church, society and family.

Sayers' notes on this section are an interesting read for those who have followed (as a perpetual penitence) the various goings-on in the Anglican world: the Sowers of Discord appear "in the Circle of Fraud  because their sin is primarily of the intellect.  They are the fanatics of party, seeing the world in a false perspective, and ready to rip up the whole fabric..." (Sayers trans, Inferno, pg 250)

Just to round things out, the series of 10 bowges ends with the "Falsifiers".  These are grouped according to the kinds of things they falsified. Cantos XXIX-XXX deal with those who have used their human intellect in order to falsify nature (the Alchemists); to falsify human personality (impersonators); to falsify language (perjerers) and to falsify civic commerce and interaction (counterfeiters). Again, Dante places them quite low in the circles of hell because more of our "human capacity" - our reason and intellect - is needed in order to commit these kinds of sins.  These souls have committed their falsehoods while knowing perfectly well what they were doing, and the consequences their actions would have on others.  Each one of these kinds of sins necessarily involves an offense against others.

For Holy Saturday we will descend into the pit and see the Traitors, and finally Satan himself at the center of Hell.

Have a miserable Good Friday!

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 10: hypocites, thieves and fraudsters

Once they have escaped the demons, Dante and Virgil find themselves in Bowge vi of Circle VIII.  Here they come across a sad company of souls

Who trod their circling way with tear and groan
And slow, slow steps, seeming subdued and faint

They all word cloaks, with deep hood forward thrown
Over their eyes, and shaped in fashion quite
Like the great cowls the monks wear at Cologne;

Outwardly they were gilded dazzling bright,
But all within was lead, and weighed thereby,
King Frederick's copes would have seemed feather light.

Canto XXIII, 59-66

These are the Hypocrites - they intentionally and knowingly deceived others about who they were.  All gilded on the outside, but really something quite different on the inside.  And so their punishment fits their sin:  they wear beautiful cloaks which cover their eyes (they deceived other mens' eyes) but the cloaks are really a heavy lead, and they must trudge in their true garment forever. 

In a most striking scene, Dante and Virgil come across the figure of Caiaphas, the high priest who counseled that it was better "for one man to die for the nation."  Caiaphas is seen crucified upon the ground.  Over his crucified soul the rest of the hypocrites trudge.  Virgil in particular is said to "marvel at him, thus racked forever on the shameful cross" (XXIII,124).  Apart from the shocking image this presents in and of itself, Virgil - the figure of human reason - still marvels at the cross.  In Dante's poem Virgil is said to have made a journey through hell once before, and now in his cecond journey through hell Virgil sees the things which have taken place since Christ came into the world.  At another leve, I wonder if this is not also meant to convey that the cross, in any appearance, is still a "folly" to human reason and wisdom.

In Cantos XXIV-XXVI they meet the Thieves.  As we noted earlier, property was considered an extension of one's personhood in Roman and subsequent medieval times.  Hence to damage or steal another man's material goods was to do "injury" to that man himself. The thieves' punishment is rather grotesque:  they are changed into different forms, intermingling their human and brute forms with one another.  Sayers adds a helpful explanatory note. "In this canto we see ow the Thieves, who made no distinction between meum and tuum - between mine and thine - cannot call their forms or their personalities their own".  Since they did not recognize the distinction between what is mine and what is yours on earth, they are denied the ability to have those distinctions in the afterlife.  They cannot hold even their own bodily shapes.

More properly, what we see here is not, again, a punishment imposed upon the Thieves, but merely the logical extension of what it means to be a Thief.  Having this in mind is the key to understanding the "punishments" of the Inferno.  The principles by which one engages in Thievery - taking what is not yours - is simply brought to its logical conclusion. 

In Canto XXVI we run across the figure of Ulysses, who not only was a thief himself, but also counseled others to commit fraudulent acts.  Thus we have the "Counselors of Fraud" - men who encouraged and manipulated others into committing a fraudulent act.  These are a more notorious form of thief, and so are placed lower down.

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

Good Friday...

Jerusalem, courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher,

Good Friday, 2005.

eating and drinking on Maundy Thursday (rough sermon notes)

Maundy Thursday.  The name of this night -“Maundy”- comes from the Old Latin:  mandare – to command.  And indeed we receive the “new commandment” which Jesus gave his disciples:  that "you love one another even as I have loved you."

It is easy to forget that there is another “new commandment” given by our Lord this night:  “Take, eat.  Drink this, all of you”.

This new command to “take and eat” stands in stark contrast to the first command given in the story of Scripture: The first commandment was given to Adam in the garden: “You may eat freely of every other tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it, you shall die.” 

These two commands are wonderful bookends in the stories of Scripture.  A command not to eat, and then a command to eat.

What then did Adam do?  He ate.  There is a tree, the eating of which brings death. The Lord God spoke to Adam of what he should not eat.  The command was clear:  the eating of this brings death.  And so it was, as we know, that Adam ate.  He broke the commandment:  the eating of this brings death.  And death has reigned over our race, from the time of Adam to the time of those who will die this very night.  All of us have tasted sin, and all of us will taste death.

There is a tree, and the eating of its fruit brings death.

There is another tree.  It does not stand in the center of a garden.  Instead it is found outside the walls of the city.  It is the tree upon which our Saviour was crucified. 

What of the fruit of this tree?  What is its fruit, and what does the eating of it bring?

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'

I am the bread of life.

Tonight is not the first time this Lent that we have heard the Scriptures speak about bread.  Almost 40 days ago we heard the words of the tempter:  “If you are the Son of Man, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus will not turn stones into bread.  Instead, he takes the bread and turns it into something greater:  the sign of his body, given for us.  Jesus answers the tempter again. 

Nor is this the first time in the Gospel that we taste wine.  We have seen wine before.  At the wedding feast of Cana in Galilee Jesus took water and changed it into wine.  Recall his words at that time:  my hour has not yet come.  Tonight his hour has come:  But what does Jesus do?  He takes the cup of wine and makes it into something better.  This is the cup of the new covenant in His blood.  And still the words of the steward of the feast echo in our ears:  “You have saved the best wine until now.” 

Holy Week at St Timothy's

For the next few days we will be telling again the stories of the great acts of God.  Here is what is happening at St Tim's for Holy Week:

Maundy Thursday- 7 pm
Good Friday - 10 am
Good Friday - 2 pm "Holy Week for Kids"
Great Vigil  - Saturday at 7 pm
Feast of the Resurrection - 8:30 am and 10 am.  We will be baptizing 2 infants and 1 adult this Easter morning.

St Tim's is located at 8420 - 145 St.

how to read proverbs

I'm pleased to see that Tyler at Codex is back doing some posting on aspects of Old Testament scholarship for the rest of us.  He has a few snippets on reading the book of Proverbs, and a little bit of insight from his course on Wisdom literature.

His archives are full of helpful and interesting stuff on OT topics.

Maundy Thursday: "Unless I wash you..

you can have no part with me"

what holy week sounds like

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 9: the barrators and the dissolution of civic life

In Cantos XXI and XXII Dante and Virgil come across the barrators - those who have disrupted civic life though buying and selling public office. 

We see one of the demons busily dispatching a barrator to his alloted fate:

On high hunched shoulders he was carrying
A wretched sinner, hoist by haunch and hip
Clutching each ankle by the sinew string

Bridge Ho! he bawled, Our own Hellrakership
Here's an alderman of St Zita's coming down
Go souse him, while I make another trip

For more; they're barrators all in that good town
Except Bonturo, hey? - I've packed it stiff
With fellows who'd swear black is white for half a crown!

XXI, 34-43

Readers may wonder why he places these kinds of folk further down than the simoniacs.  The simoniacs, you remember, are those who bought and sold the "things of God"; sellers of religious office and sacraments. Why should the barrators be more offensive to God? In addition, in these two Cantos we see much more dialogue and banter among the demons who are set to guard and prod the damned.

On one level, the corruption of the church affects, well, only the church.  But the corruption of civic life affects everyone.  We should also remember that the vision of heaven is that of a city - the New Jerusalem.  Civic life is the proper form of human community.  What the barrators do is wreak havoc upon that most basic form of human community.  The ancient Greeks had a definition of humanity - zoon logon politikon:  the animal that speaks and lives in cities.  So to wreak havoc upon civic life in the form of barratry is devasting to the very fabric of human community, even more so that wreaking having upon the church in the form of simony.

The punishment of the barrators is to be plunged under burning pitch.  If they try to get out of it, a demon thrusts them back down.  In the midst of all this, one of the souls decides to play a trick upon his demon overseers.  The demons fall for the trick, having been outwitted by the clever barrator.  As they realize they've been tricked, they start fighting among themselves.  While Dante presents the episode with some humour, the message is clear:  Satan's kingdom (the civic life of evil) is divided, and it falls into fighting and quarrelling.  The demons, further enraged, fighting and floundering among themselves, are united in purpose again onoy when it dawns upon them to chase after Dante and Virgil, whom they chase all the way into Canto XXIII.

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

thinking of Maundy Thursday; pt 1

"Turn these stones into bread"
I will turn this bread into flesh

"Turn this water into wine"
my hour has not yet come

My hour has come
this wine I turn into blood.

The steward's voice still echoes: 
You have saved the best ‘til now.

Jean Vanier coming to Alberta for retreat

I believe it will be June 19 ff, and will post some more details soon.

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 8: the Circle of Fraud and Malice

Dante and Virgil now descend to a new region of Hell:  the 10 malbowges of the Eight Circle.  These are a series of steep ridges which descend into the bottom of the pit.  In this section of Hell we will see a deeper kind of sin.  Here we will find those who had to use all their human powers to commit their sins.  These sins are no "accidents" or mere impulsive sins.  These are sins which require us to use our specifically human powers:  intellect, speech and persuasion, knowledge and so forth.  To use the extreme example from criminal law, think of the difference between a "crime of passion" and premeditated murder.  These are the sins in which we abuse the very gifts which make us human.

In Canto XVIII Dante encounters the panders and seducers.  These are the people who have either exploited the sexual appetites of others, or who "pimped", and then those who used to deceit to satisfy their own sexual appetites.  Remember that the lustful were much higher up in Hell.  Here the difference is that the other person is merely seen as an object for one's own material prosperity, or simply as an object to satisfy one's own desire.  This is what makes then different from the merely lustful.  They are exploiters of others. Just where would Dante place certain people of the internet age - both the users and providers? Just as the lustful ran to and fro endlessly, so the panders and seducers are forced to run - in opposite directions.

Two things about their running:  they are sparked onward by demons who encourage them with whips, and they are running counter one another.  First, we see the appearance of demons.  These sins have something of the demonic about them.  They are not merely "animal-like" sins; they are more deeply spiritual than that.  And so they are accompanied by teh presence of demons to signal their severity. 

Second, the running in opposite directions is a bit of a theme which will be seen again.  In these malbowges we find people who turn things into their opposites:  flatterers who use words for profit or deception, instead of using words for their God-intended purpose;  Simoniacs who sell the things of God - sacraments and offices:

O Simon Magus! O disciples of his!
Miserable pimps and hucksters, that have sold
The things of God, troth plight to righteousness,

Into adultery for silver and gold.

XIX, 1-4

The Simoniacs are buried upside down into the living rock.  They turned the things of God upside down, and now they themselves are turned upside down.  In antithesis to the "blessed feet which bring good news", the feet of the Simonicas are covered in fire.  Interestingly, Dante comments on the donation of Constantine, lamenting the place of greed, money and temporal power in the Church:

Ah, Constantine, what ills were gendered there,
No, not from they conversion, but the dower
The first rich Pope received from thee as heir

XIX, 112-114

Going from opposite directions, then to upside down, next we have the Sorcerers, whose bodies are twisted backward.  There heads have been turned 180 degrees,

And backwards each must needs creep with their feet,
All power of looking forward being denied.

XX, 12

Here we meet some of the famous pagan seers of old - those who had sought to look into the future.  Dante condemns here all those who seek the powers of God for their own purposes.  And now, those who sought to look forward into the future for their own gain, are now forced to forever look backward.

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

"What is the chief end of Man?" - an anglican view

Rilke - The Last Supper

The Last Supper

They are assembled, astonished and disturbed
round him, who like a sage resolved his fate,
and now leaves those to whom he most belonged,
leaving and passing by them like a stranger.
The loneliness of old comes over him
which helped mature him for his deepest acts;
now will he once again walk through the olive grove,
and those who love him still will flee before his sight.

To this last supper he has summoned them,
and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees)
their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves
upon his word: they fly across to him;
they flutter, frightened, round the supper table
searching for an escape. But he is present
everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.

Rainer Maria Rilke

On seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", Milan 1904.
Translated by Albert Ernest Flemming

an interesting open letter from Integrity USA

Snippet:

We have caused hurt by:

• the times we have participated in “then show them the door thinking as a means to resolve our differences with conservatives.

• stereotyping those with biblical hermeneutics which differ from ours as fundamentalists – by dismissing them as ignorant.

The full text is here.

I find this an interesting contrast to a recent column by a "middle of the road Anglican" which appeared in the Toronto Sun.  Connie Woodcock writes concerning the current difficulties in the Diocese of Niagara:

Those on the far right, who call themselves orthodox Anglicans, a small group despite the noise they make, believe the Bible literally, right down to Adam and Eve. Their sympathies lie with the Third World Anglicans although they don't seem to realize that beliefs there can seem outrageous to the rest of us -- those African leaders who despise homosexuality, for instance, but tolerate men with multiple wives. Some Canadian congregations have asked to be supervised by a South American bishop rather than their own.

There are those on the far left who have gone so far as to leave the Christ story itself behind and yet still feel comfortable within the church because, after all, we are supposed to love our neighbour as ourselves, no matter what our neighbour believes.

Read that last paragraph again to get the full implication of what Ms Woodcock, a self described "middle of the road Anglican", is saying.  You can leave the Christ story itself behind, and still be a member of the Church? I can compare this with what our Primate proclaimed in his message on church unity:

to confess the divinity and the lordship of Jesus Christ as we recite the Creed and celebrate the Eucharist week by week.

People of any faith or no faith are welcome to come to our churches, to investigate, to ask questions, to look at what it means to be a Christian of the Anglican way.  But for better or for worse, one of the things which did come out of our deliberations last June is that we do, in fact, have something which we hold onto as 'core doctrine'.  You cannot leave the Christ story behind, and be considered, or logically consider yourself, a member of the church.

It's fun being an Anglican...

h/t for article: Michael Daley

lenten series: Dante's Divine Comedy pt 7: violence against God

In Canto XIV Dante and Virgil meet the souls of those who were – and still are – “violent against God.”  First they meet the blasphemers, who lie on a vast ring of burning sand.  They lay on their backs facing heaven;  it was God they blasphemed while living on earth, and now in death they are made to face the throne of the One they detested.  Dante’s meeting with Capeaneus tells us much about the state of the soul which riles against God:

Who is that shade that lies, mighty of limb,
Contorted and contemptuous, scorning the flame,
So that the rain seems not to ripen him?

But he himself, soon as he heard me frame
This question to my guide about him, cried:
“That which in life I was, in death I am”.

XIV, 46ff

It is the last line which gives us the key to understanding the rest.  For the souls of the damned, the afterlife is merely a confirmation of the choices they have made in life.  What one is in life, God will allow to continue after death.  Only, you will then see the true form of that choice.  Here we see the blasphemer is still “contorted and contemptuous”.  As we look ahead, it is helpful to keep in mind this attitude in Hell, and compare it with the attitude of the repentant souls in Purgatory  The flames of God become for each of us either a punishment, a purging, or the fire of love.  It depends on how one chooses or rejects those flames.

After those who have been violent against God directly, they come across those who have been violent against those things directly arising from God’s creation:  the “violent against nature” and the “violent against art”.  Dante, holding to a theology of natural law, places in this section of the Inferno those who have offended against nature through homosexual activity.  In his view, they have sinned by reversing the course of nature which God intended in creation.  As a parallel, an earlier commentator noted that they are paired closely with the usurers.  The one group makes sterile and unfruitful that which God intended to be fruitful (against nature), and the latter group takes something which is sterile (money) and makes it artificially “multiply”.  It is this false “artifice” of the usurers which causes them to be in the circle of those who offend against “art” in the very broad sense of the word.

In Canto XVII there is a transition.  As if to signal that they are about to enter a new region of Hell, Dante and Virgil must make a bit of difficult crossing of a great barrier which divides the seventh from the eight circles of Hell.  To make the matter clearer, they are borne downward over the barrier by the monster Geryon.  Geryon is described as having the face of a just man, but a the body of a beast and a scorpion like sting in his tail.  Here then we will enter the circles of the more malicious sins – those sins which have a “just face”, but conceal poison underneath. 

It is this intentional deception in sin which we will now see.  These are the circles of fraud, malice, deceit and treason.  These are the kinds of sins which we need all our faculties in order to accomplish.  These are not the sins into which one merely falls as if by accident.  These are the intentional, 'sought-ought' sins - which we all share in one form or another.

view entire post series: Dante's Divine Comedy

Turning Palms into Crosses: thoughts toward Palm Sunday

How is it that we turn palms into crosses?  Every year we try our best to take these long strips of palm branch and by some feat of engineering, we turn them into crosses.  We sometimes don’t fully understand what exactly we are doing.  We take these things which are supposed to be instruments of joyfulness and praise for Jesus, and we turn them into crosses, forgetting that this represents the very thing on which Jesus was crucified.  We usually never consider that strange custom that has evolved in the church over the years.  The very same things that are supposed to praise God, are turned against Jesus.  How does this palm branch turn into a cross?

It is easy to forget, as we wave a little cross, that it is an instrument of death.  We see that palm branch, we turn it into an empty cross, and we conveniently pass over the suffering and death in between.  The cross was not always empty.

    This is the beginning of Holy Week. Today we started with shouts of Hosanna.  Next Sunday is Easter - the day of resurrection and shouts of Alleluia.  But we are not there yet.  Between the shouts of Hosanna and the shouts of Alleluia there is another shout:  “Crucify him, Crucify him.”  "’Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’ But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.”   

    We have had two sets of readings this morning, each set painting a picture before us.  We started off the morning with a parade and shouts of joy.  The first picture is the “Palm Sunday” picture.  It is all about the crowds welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna.  The second picture we have today is the “Good Friday” picture.  It is about the same crowds shouting “Crucify Him” and about how Jesus endures the suffering of the Cross.

    What do we learn when we see these two pictures side by side?  We learn about love.  In the first picture we learn about how the crowds, and we, love Jesus.  Let’s call that “Palm Sunday” love.  In the second picture we learn about how Jesus loves the crowds – and us.  Let’s call that “Good Friday” love.  These two kinds of love – Palm Sunday love and Good Friday love, show us the difference between how we love, and how God loves.

(Palm Sunday Love)

    First there is the love which the crowds show to Jesus on Palm Sunday.  It is exciting, it is loud and it is a big show.  They welcome Him into Jerusalem with palm branches and songs and shouts of joy:  “Hosanna to the Son of David”.  They are welcoming Jesus as their King into the throne of David.  But within a few days that same crowd turns on Jesus.  When Pilate asks them what they want to do with this Jesus, this King of the Jews, they reply – “Crucify Him”.  What is wrong with this picture?   

    It is not lack of enthusiasm.  They were enthusiastic when they shouted “Hosanna to the son of David”.  Yet they were just as enthusiastic when they shouted “Crucify Him”.  If we think love is about putting on a big show, or just being enthusiastic, we need to think again.   The crowd was pretty enthusiastic when things were going well for Jesus.  Palm Sunday love is like that.  It loves when there is a good time to be had, and it stops loving when there are bad times to be had.  This way of loving changes with the weather, or with the circumstances. Status, appearance, health, reputation – all these things matter to Palm Sunday love.  Loving a person – any person, including Jesus, means you love them regardless of their circumstances.   You can love the person, or you can love the things around the person.   The crowds didn’t love the person of Jesus.  They loved the show, the power, the miracles, the idea that this man would be their king.

        It is a test of our love for any person – including God – whether we love them just for who they are, or we love them because of the stuff around them.  Not many people were left loving Jesus when he was being crucified, when everything glamorous and exciting was gone from him.  Jesus died alone.

    Is love about being “happy”, whatever we think that word means?  The Palm Sunday crowd is very happy to have Jesus around.  But they are also just as happy to have Him crucified.  This is the more difficult part of the problem.  Love is not about the crowds being happy.  And love is not about me being happy.  Too often we think that it is.  We think that love is supposed to be there for my sole benefit – that love is there to make me happy.  Palm Sunday love is self-serving.  It says “I don’t care what happens to you, as long as I am happy – that is what matters.”  It says “I will love you as long as I get something out of it.”  My happiness is the supreme goal of life.  And this kind of love says – “I will love you for as long as it is convenient for me, for as long as I am getting something out of it, as long as you make me happy – I will love you.”

    It is a test of our love for God and for each other.  Do we still love when we are not “getting something out of it?”  Do I love only when it makes me happy?  Am I more concerned about my own happiness than the happiness of the person I am supposed to be loving?  Love is not self-centered or self-serving.__

(Good Friday Love)

    Now let us think about the Good Friday picture.  What do we think we are seeing when we get a picture of the crucifixion of Jesus?  Do we think we are seeing a man suffering?  Yes, but more than that.  Do we think we are seeing the fulfillment of prophecy?  Yes, and more than that?  We are seeing a picture of love.  On Palm Sunday we see a picture of our love for God, on Good Friday we see a picture of God’s love for us.

How is Jesus’ love for us, different from our love for Him?

(Commitment)

    Six centuries before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote some words describing the Messiah that God was going to send.  Here are the words Isaiah wrote about the Messiah who would come, and what that Messiah would be like:   

I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.  The Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint.

“I have set my face like flint”.   

    What does that tell us about Jesus’ character? About his love?  It tells us about his determination.  He has a strength of willpower that says – I will do what I need to do.  Jesus shows us that the foundation of love is commitment.  He set his face like flint – against everything that will come his way.  _We get enthusiastic – but Jesus gets determined.  Good Friday love means commitment.  It means commitment regardless of the  circumstances.  Jesus is committed to us when the circumstances change.  He loves us when we are shouting “Hosanna” and he loves us when we are shouting “Away with this man.”  Jesus loves us when that love is not returned.  He loves us regardless of how we treat him.  He simply loves us.  He is not merely enthusiastic about loving us when things are great; he is committed to loving us when things are darkest, for us and for him.  He loves us when we shout “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”   That is not only the darkest moment for Jesus.  It is also the darkest moment for us – when we cry out in rebellion against God.   

How does Jesus react to our treatment of him?  How did he react then?  “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.”   How does God react to our treatment of Him?  He puts up with it; he endures it – remember Jesus prayed while he was being led away for crucifixion – “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing”.  What happens when love faces a challenge?  That is when love is tested.  That is when we see what love is really made of  - is it Palm Sunday love, or is it Good Friday love?   That is when Jesus is tested.  Jesus prays forgiveness.

(Self sacrifice, rather than self service)

    Whose happiness is Jesus concerned about as he is being crucified?  His own, or someone else’s?  Jesus is willing to endure suffering, and insults, and even death, for the sake of someone else’s happiness – yours and mine.  He did not turn back from suffering because he loved us.  Good Friday love is willing to endure the wrongs of others, to put its own happiness second place, for the sake of someone else.  We have nothing that we can give to God.  God is not in this for what “He can get out of it”.  He is “in it” because He loves us.   

Jesus’ attitude and his actions are not changed by other people’s reactions to him.  Our love is often changed by other people’s attitudes and reactions.  It is part of the “what do I get out of it” syndrome.  Jesus’ love for us does not depend on how well we treat him.  Look at what happens to him.  And look how he reacts.

    How do we get this new kind of love?  At best, most of us are caught between the two kinds of love – we perhaps admire the Good Friday love, but more often than not we practice the Palm Sunday love.  Good Friday love is great to see – in other people.   How do we grow in our love and move from one to the other?   Not by struggling to be better, or by making new resolutions to be a better person, or through he myriads of self help books that line the shelves of secular and sacred book shops.  It is a gift, as everything from God is.  It is the highest and best gift of all the gifts of the Spirit – and it is the only gift which will last. For that gift, let us pray.

Lenten Quiet Day at St Tim's

Take a few hours next Saturday and join us for some prayer, readings and reflections.  A Lenten Quiet Day, from 11 am-2 pm.  Okay, it's really a half day, but you get the picture.  The theme will be:  "Images of Redemption in the Poets of God".  No cost, but if you are coming please email me so I can have enough materials for everyone.

diocese of edmonton episcopal election: bishop elected: Jane Alexander

Dr. Jane Alexander has been elected 10th Bishop of Edmonton on the 3rd ballot.  She led the voting from the first ballot onward.

3rd ballot results:  clergy/lay

Jane Alexander:   52/89
David Ashdown:   10/14
Darcey Lazerte:    2/9
Merv Mercer:       22/35
Peter Wall:          4/12

Candidates Ainsworth, Drake and King were dropped on previous ballots.

Thanks and prayers of blessing to all who allowed their names to stand.

Update:

Announcement on diocesan website here.

Anglican Journal article here.