From the Evening Scriptures

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. Anyone who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

—John 14:18-29 (TNIV)

We cannot have this kind of promised relationship with a dead guy. All too often as individualistic American Christians, we forget that we are not living on our own. We have the very Spirit of Christ in us because he is alive. Are you tapping his power to help you live the kind of life he wants you to live?

Another Important Development in the Anglican Communion

From here.

Last week, I posted a letter from ++Orombi to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Today, ++Ian Ernest, Primate of the Indian Ocean Province, has written a similar letter. I am encouraged by this new resolve and pray this will help +++Rowan act decisively before it is too late for the Anglican Communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury
The Most Revd Rowan Williams,
Lambeth Palace,
England.

Your Grace,

As you well know I am totally committed to the health, vitality and effectiveness of our beloved Anglican Communion, and thus also to its healing from the current crisis. I have supported all efforts made by yourself and others to do so and to bring greater clarity and strength to our polity and mission as a communion.

As Archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean and the Chair person of CAPA, I feel that I should express the heartfelt feelings of the people of God who are extremely distressed at the disrespectful and high handed manner in which the TEC continues to dismiss the concerns of the rest of the Communion and to undermine the decisions taken by the Primates.

I believe that I have been patient and hopeful that our co-operation and listening, our reasoning and brotherly concern would have brought transformation. However it is now abundantly clear to me and to my people that the Episcopal Church has no intention of honouring any of the commitments it has made whether that be in terms of ‘moratoriums’ or ‘gracious restraint’. It is to my mind hell bent on a course that is in radical disobedience to the counsels of God in Holy Scripture.

If you are interested in this these kinds of things, check out the whole letter. It is quite good. I am thankful for faithful souls who are willing to take a stand.

From Fear to Boldness—Proof the the Resurrection

[Peter spoke to the crowd] with great confidence, that they might perceive the grace of the Spirit. He, who could not endure the questioning of a poor girl [at Jesus’ trial], now discourses with such great confidence in the middle of people all breathing murder upon him. This in itself became an indisputable proof of the resurrection. For wherever the Holy Spirit is present, people of clay [i.e., Peter] are changed into people of gold.

—John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4

The Fullness of Faith

By putting his hand into the body of Christ, Thomas perfected his faith. The fullness of faith is to believe that Christ is both man and God. This disciple was offered the scars of his Savior to touch and when he touched them he exclaimed, “My Lord and My God!” He touched the man, he recognized God.

—Augustine, Sermon 258.3

A Prayer of Longing

O Lord, who else or what else can I desire but you? You are my Lord, Lord of my heart, mind, and soul. You know me through and through. In and through you everything that is finds its origin and goal. You embrace all that exists and care for it with divine love and compassion. Why, then, do I keep expecting happiness and satisfaction outside of you? Why do I keep relating to you as one of my many relationships, instead of my only relationship, in which all other ones are grounded? Why do I keep looking for popularity, respect from others, success, acclaim, and sensual pleasures? Why, Lord, is it so hard for me to make you the only one? Why do I keep hesitating to surrender myself totally to you? Help me, 0 Lord, to let my old self die, to let die the thousand big and small ways in which I am still building up my false self and trying to cling to my false desires. Let me be reborn in you and see through you the world in the right way, so that all my actions, words, and thought can become a hymn of praise to you. I need your loving grace to travel on this hard road that leads to the death of my old self and to a new life in and for you. I know and trust that this is the road to freedom. Lord, dispel my mistrust and help me become a trusting friend. Amen.

—Henri Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy

Death Knocks

Yestereve, Death came, and knocked at my thin door. I from my window looked: the thing I saw, the shape uncouth, I had not seen before. I was disturbed with fear, in sooth, not awe; whereof ashamed, I instantly did rouse my will to seek thee only to fear the more: Alas! I could not find thee in the house.

I was like Peter when he began to sink. To thee a new prayer therefore I have got that, when Death comes in earnest to my door, Thou wouldst thyself go, when the latch doth clink, and lead him to my room, up to my cot then hold thy child’s hand, hold and leave him not, till Death has done with him for evermore.

Till Death has done with him? Ah, leave me then! And Death has done with me, oh, nevermore! He comes and goes to leave me in thy arms,nearer thy heart, oh, nearer than before! To lay thy child, naked, newborn again of mother earth, crept free through many harms, upon thy bosom still to the very core.

—George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul

A Prayer from William Barclay

God, our Father, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus you have given us the remedy for sin. In him you have opened to us the way to forgiveness for all our past sins, and you have given us the strength and the power to live in purity and in truth.

Help us to put away all evil things.
Silence the evil word;
Forbid the evil deed;
Break the evil habit;
Banish the evil thought;
Take away the evil desire and the evil ambition; and make our lives to shine like lights in this dark world.

Help us to live in purity.
Make all our words so pure that you may hear them;
Make all our deeds so pure that you may see them;
Make all our thoughts and desires so pure that they may bear your scrutiny.
And so grant that we being pure in heart may see you.

Help us to live in truth.
Grant That we may never speak or act a lie;
That we may never be misled by false or mistaken beliefs;
That we may never evade the truth, even when we do not want to see it.
Grant to us at all times To seek and to find;
To know and to love;
To obey and to live the truth.

This we ask for the sake of him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, even for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayers for the Christian Year