This Day in History

From the AP:

On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the village of Appomattox Court House, Va.

As Jay Winik has pointed out in his compelling book, April 1865: The Month That Saved America, we can thank God that he blessed us with men like Lincoln, Grant, and Lee at such a critical time in our nation’s history. Without their charity, grace, and wisdom, we likely would not be a nation today.

A Significant Development in the Anglican Communion

Over on Stand Firm in Faith, there is, I think, a very significant story developing as it concerns the polity and structure of the Anglican Communion (AC). Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi, Primate of Uganda and a major player in the Anglican Global South, has sent a gracious but blunt letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, taking him to task for his failure to act regarding the theology and actions of The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada over the last decade, actions that are tearing the AC apart and threaten to undo it entirely.

I read a new resolve in ++Orombi’s letter and if the Archbishop of Canterbury does not act soon (or at all)—and if he follows his past behavioral patterns, I do not expect Williams to act decisively or at all—I suspect you will see the Anglican Communion as it now exists come apart. The Anglican Global South, of which the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide are a part, will likely decide to break its ties with Canterbury and the West—whether officially or de facto is really not important as the result will be the same—and go its own way, leaving the West to shrivel and die in its heresies. Very sad. Pray that the Spirit will move +++Rowan to act decisively and on behalf of the Faith once delivered to the saints.

From here:

[++Orombi wrote:] The first meeting of the Joint Standing Committee was later that year in New Orleans. At our Primates meeting in February 2007, we made certain requests of the Episcopal Church. In our Dar es Salaam communiqué we did not envision interference in the American House of Bishops while they were considering our requests. For me to participate in a meeting in New Orleans before the 30th September deadline would have violated our hard-won agreement in Dar es Salaam and would have been another case of undermining our instruments of communion. My desire to uphold our Dar es Salaam communiqué was intended to strengthen our instruments of communion so we would be able to mature into an even more effective global communion of the Church of Jesus Christ than in the past.

Subsequent meetings of the Joint Standing Committee have included the Primate of the Episcopal Church (TEC) and other members of TEC, who are the very ones who have pushed the Anglican Communion into this sustained crisis. How can we expect the gross violators of Biblical Truth to sanction their own discipline when they believe they have done nothing wrong and further insist that their revisionist theology is actually the substance of Anglicanism?

We have only to note the recent election and confirmation of an active Lesbian as a Suffragan Bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles to realize that TEC has no interest in “gracious restraint,” let alone a moratorium on the things that have brought us to this point of collapse. It is now impossible to regard their earlier words of “regret” as a serious gesture of reconciliation with the rest of the Communion.

For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, you can check out ++Orombi’s entire letter here. Please note that ++Orombi has NOT resigned from the Joint Standing Committee, but rather expresses his support for +Mouneer of Egypt who did so recently.

Please keep the AC in your prayers, especially those in The Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada who have brought this crisis on.

From the Morning Scriptures

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

—1 Corinthians 15:51-58 (TNIV)

Paul continues his teaching about the Resurrection in today’s passage. Here he reminds us that some will not taste death, that the New Creation will come upon us in an instant and those who are alive at the time will be transformed immediately and equipped with new resurrection (spiritual) bodies that are fitted to live in the New Creation. Then death will be no more, death will have lost its power forever because God will have redeemed his good but fallen creation and creatures. It is a wondrous vision, full of joy and hope. It is available to anyone who is in Christ.

Paul ends his discussion of the Resurrection by reminding the Corinthians (and us) to let our resurrection hope strengthen and encourage us. Life has new purpose and meaning. So does creation. So do our bodies because all will be redeemed fully and finally when the Lord returns in power and glory. Nothing we do in this world is in vain as long as we work faithfully for the Lord. Yes, hardships and setbacks and sorrows will continue to exist because we live in a broken and fallen world. But these will not have the last say. Life and wholeness will. Thanks be to God in our Lord Jesus Christ!

This Easter season, I pray you will think on this and let God use it to work on you so that you might begin to have your mind renewed in the spirit of Christ. Then you will begin to understand how powerful and joyous a resurrection hope is. Alleliua! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleliua!

How Can We Doubt?

The passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ guarantees our future glory. It is a great thing that the Lord promises, but it is a much greater thing that he has already done for us. How can we weak human beings doubt that someday we will live with God when God has died for the sake of human beings?

—Augustine, Sermon 218C.1

The Lesson of Judas

It was not the crime of Judas so much as his despair of pardon that brought him to total destruction. Those who despair of God’s merciful kindness inwardly suffocate themselves and make it impossible for the Holy Spirit to remain in them.

—Augustine, Sermon 328.7

Do you allow God’s mercy to descend on you and heal you?

Now and Then

But what did he go on to say? “When Christ appears, your life, then you also will appear with him in glory.” So now is the time for groaning, then it will be for rejoicing, now for desiring, then for embracing. What we desire now is not present, but let us not falter in desire; let long, continuous desire be our daily exercise, because the one who made the promise doesn’t cheat us.

—Augustine, Sermon 350A.4

Another Prayer for Easter

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Resurrection of the Soul

What is the resurrection of the soul, of which the apostle speaks, saying, “If then you have been raised with Christ”? [It] is a breath of life through hope in the resurrection, and by it the dawning of divine wisdom shine in his heart, so that a man should become new, having nothing of the old man. Then the image of Christ is formed in us through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of him.

—Isaac of Nineveh, Ascetical Homilies 37