Year B Epiphany 1 WED 2018 William Laud

Year B Epiphany 1 WED, 10 January 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury” 

The most dangerous place to be is the middle of the road. You can get run over by both sides. And in our Anglican history, this is often the case. When the pendulum swings one way, there is a strong opposition pushing it back in the other.   

The Via Media, the “Middle Way,” was the genius of the Elizabethan compromise which enabled the Anglican church to exist till today. Even a lot of the turmoil in the Anglican Church in the last few years could be stem directly from this problematic approach to faith. We have the BCP, the Book of Common Prayer, because we found unity in practice rather than in belief. It shifted the cart and the horse around. 

And that brings us to today’s saint, William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury in one of the pivotal transition periods leading into modern times. Martyr to some, unabashed bigot to others, Laud was mostly known for his opposition to the Puritans. They wanting a “pure” Anglican faith freed from the Catholic roots from which it sprang, while William Laud encouraged a Church which leaned on its Medieval origins fully claiming “papish” approaches in worship, the elevation of the roles of the clergy, and the unification of the Church and the State. He put the King and the Church in authority over the Parliament, which would later get him into trouble.  

Just to give some context of where we are talking about in history... 

1604 King James VI of Scotland made James I of Great Britain, calls for a new official  

English translation of the Bible at the behest of the Puritans 

1607 Jamestown is founded 

1611 King James Bible, the Authorized Translation, comes out  

1625 Charles I crowned, Laud is his privy councillor on religious affairs 

1633 Laud becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury 

1638 Anglicanism enforced, Presbyterians of Scotland outraged

1640 William Laud arrested by Parliament for Treason

1642 English Civil War begins

1645 Laud executed

1649 Charles I executed

1653 Oliver Cromwell takes power 

1658 Cromwell dies, son Richard takes leadership 

1660 Crown restored under Charles II  

Laud, “in opposition to Puritanism, stressed the continuity of the visible church and the necessity, for true inward worship, of outward uniformity, order, and ceremony.”  

“He became a privy councillor in 1627 and, a year later, bishop of London. In his London diocese, Laud devoted himself to combating the Puritans and to enforcing a form of service in strict accordance with the Book of Common Prayer. The wearing of surplices, the placing of the communion table—railed off from the congregation—at the east end of the chancel, and such ceremonies as bowing at the mention of the name of Jesus were imposed, though cautiously enough to avoid unmanageable opposition. Churches, from St. Paul’s Cathedral down to neglected village chapels, were repaired, beautified, and consecrated. To religious radicals, all such reforms seemed moves toward popery.” Encyclopedia Britannica  

The Puritans detested him, and Parliament convicted him of treason in 1640 and executed him in 1645. While I may not have portrayed him in a most positive light, depending on your point of view, he did uphold common folk against landowners and saw this as part the responsibility of the monarch as part of the Divine Right of Kings.  

At his execution it was recorded that this was his final prayer: “The Lord receive my soul, and have mercy upon me, and bless this kingdom with peace and charity, that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them.”

Year B Epiphany 2018 Learning from the Wise

Year B Epiphany (observed), January 7, 2018 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “Learning from the Wise, Being like the Wise” (Sermon based on Luke 2:1-12)  Today we celebrate the Epiphany, well, we observe it anyway. It was actually yesterday, and today we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. Epiphany is the eye-opening of the Wise Men, and through them the rest of the World, that this babe in the manger was the promised light to all nations, the Messiah, Christ the Lord.  This enlightening of minds is exactly what we are going for in resolutions and promises to self at New Year’s. We say we want change, and we try to make steps to start right. Gym memberships soar, and attendance increases for a few weeks, until the glow of the best of intentions wears off. And often I, like a lot of people, use the turning of a fresh page in the calendar to take a chance to evaluate and take an assessment of where I am and where I want to go, even who I want to be. I saw a great quote about change.   

“Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards.” -Tony Robbins  There is a lot of truth in that. If you keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome, I have heard, is the definition of insanity. To make real change, we have to look at what is, and decide that things need to be better. I think that is almost the definition of our faith. Jesus did not come into this world to endorse the status quo, Jesus came to redeem the world, to transform it utterly and tasked us with finishing his mission. Appeasement of our guilt was not his intent, but taking the dark, dark coal of our souls and creating diamonds worthy of the King of the Universe.  God will not settle for us to get just enough. He wants us to be light in the deepest recesses of a dark, dark world. But we settle for less, far too easily.  

The thing about this Jesus, we have to go away different from the way we came. We can make all the promises we want, we can have the best of intentions, but if we start out back the way we came, we have not truly changed. Every week I see it here at St. James the Less. I also see how caring and loving you all are. The altar guild who shows up EVERY service, silently getting everything ready. To the folks that got the sidewalks clean so everyone could safely come to church. This place at its best models that love Christ calls us to share. And when people come here, our prayer is that they change on the inside. This is an apt metaphor for our Christian walk. Those Wise Men, “warned in a dream, went home by another road.” And we must do the same. If we do not go home differently from the way we came, why did we bother going in the first place?   

“Going home another way…” What does that mean? Really. Deep down what does that mean? When I come to the altar, and meet Christ how can I make a real and substantive change a couple of times today, three this week? Twice this morning, then again on Wednesday at 7:30 am  

I do think when I come to meet Christ here at the altar, or in my prayers, or in my service to him, that I can have an attitude of asking Christ to show me where I am off his path and how to get back on it. I can be open to his correction, and work to enact it in my life. I can have an attitude of being one who is always learning instead of one of being an authority all the time.  

Maybe that is the lesson of the Wise Men. They were open to learning and growth. They travelled so far to find out the Truth. They stopped and asked directions, even if it was from mean old King Herod, they did seek out knowledge and help. They also were willing to be open to new outcomes, when they went home another way.  

May we be like them, and still seek him.  

For Those Who Have Far to Travel An Epiphany Blessing, by Jan Richardson  

http://paintedprayerbook.com/2011/12/31/epiphany-blessing-for-those-who-have-far-to-travel/ 

 If you could see the journey whole you might never undertake it; might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not.  Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step.  There is nothing for it but to go and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes:  to be faithful to the next step; to rely on more than the map; to heed the signposts of intuition and dream; to follow the star that only you will recognize;  to keep an open eye for the wonders that attend the path; to press on beyond distractions beyond fatigue beyond what would tempt you from the way.  There are vows that only you will know; the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen.  Keep them, break them, make them again: each promise becomes part of the path; each choice creates the road that will take you to the place where at last you will kneel  to offer the gift most needed— the gift that only you can give— before turning to go home by another way. 

Year B Christmas 1 WED Seal of Approval

Year B Christmas 1 WEDNESDAY, 3 January 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“Seal of Approval” 

John 6 

15 When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.  16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.  22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.  25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 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.” 

My family went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on the First. It was packed with a lot of people who had this rare Monday off. We, like so many, went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors of Emperor Q’in. It was fascinating and beautiful, and a bit overwhelming. 

Part of the exhibit, though, was about other parts of being Emperor, not just his death and all the statues of the Mausoleum. There were coins, and there were so many other artifacts, but one that struck me was the Emperor’s Seal. 

He had a brass seal that showed that which received the imprint was official and trustworthy as coming from the Emperor. Messages were written on bamboo stripes, then bound by twine or string and then a clay seal was placed on the knot and the imprint of the Emperor’s authority was placed on it. They even had some of the clay seals there for us to see. 

Jesus had God’s seal, and it says as much in today’s reading. “For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” [John 6:27b] Just like the clay, Jesus had the seal of authority on him.  

If the feeding of the crowd did not show it… 

If the walking on water and beating the boat across did not show it… 

The authority of the Son showed that he was not of or limited by this world. 

And I loved how Jesus refused to be sidetracked by two competing parties. At the beginning, people who wanted to set him up as king, Jesus had to run from. [When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:15] That was not his time, nor was it his role (as they saw it anyway). 

And then there were the sycophants who wanted full bellies. One of the greatest detriments to our spiritual health it listening to too much WII-FM (What’s In It For Me-ism). The spiritual life is about God and our relationship with God. Jesus saw their personal intentions as much as he saw the political intentions of the earlier crowd.  

When we let go of the temporal and focus on the eternal, we find that they both work out. Or as Jesus put it elsewhere [paraphrase] “Seek first God’s rule and God’s okaying of you, and everything else falls into place.” I want God’s seal on me through my relationship with his Son, just like it was on Jesus. So help us God. Amen.