I would encourage everyone to head over to the Carnival of Anglican Advent Traditions hosted by our dear friend at http://www.atahenspace.blogspot.com/.
My contribution to the carnival is the previous post which you can find below.
Wednesday, November 28
The Carnival Has Begun
My contribution to the carnival is the previous post which you can find below.
Tuesday, November 27
The Gift of Advent - The Blessing of Confession
I love the season of Advent. What a counter-cultural way to start the Christian year. While the whole rest of our society is focused on the latest and greatest in immediate gratification (having just celebrated a day that has been given over to the over-satisfying of our stomachs) we are invited by the Church to observe a season of intentionally delayed gratification. A season premised on deliberately heightening our sense not of fulfillment and satisfaction, but rather our sense of necessity and desire for a future that is not yet upon us. The contrast between grasping and taking and patiently, hopefully and expectantly WAITING is marked.
But lest we begin to think that this season of waiting is a passive thing the Church makes quite clear that nothing is farther from the truth. This is an active waiting. Advent is indeed a season of preparation. Not preparation for the perfect Christmas dinner party or the preparations of questing to give the perfect gift; but preparing our hearts for the celebration of the Incarnation of the Son of God and preparation to greet Him upon His return as the Reigning King.
As we consider particularly this Second Advent or Coming of our Lord and King it is no small wonder that our preparations traditionally take on a hue of penitence. There has been a lot of effort in recent generations to work very hard at distinguishing Advent from the season of Lent (take for example the practice in some churches of using blue instead of the traditional purple as the color for the season). And there is merit in some of this because there is certainly a different accent in this autumnal preparation over and against that of the springtime preparations for Easter. But that said I find it hard to think of any season of preparation not being marked by a deliberate movement of repentance and confession.
So it is the tradition in some churches to begin the liturgy in Advent with the Penitential Order. The priest reads out a summary of God’s Law (sometimes the full Ten Commandments or more usually Jesus’ summary of the Old Testament Law in Mark 12) and then immediately invites the people to kneel and confess their sins to the Lord. In Advent it is a particularly good idea to come to worship a little early in order to give oneself enough time to prayerfully examine one’s conscience and consider the state we are in and what we may need to confess as we are given the opportunity.
Anglicanism is also steeped in a profound Morning Prayer tradition. In parish churches all over the world (and, in cases like my own where there is no church building, in priest’s private studies) the Office of Morning prayer is read daily. Like the penitential order, the order for Morning Prayer begins with confession. For those who are not accustomed to praying the Daily Office, Advent provides an opportunity to take on this discipline and use the form of corporate confession daily throughout the season.
It is also the tradition in many Anglican churches to offer the Office of Confession (that is, private confession with a priest) during these seasons of preparation. For those who come from a more evangelical strain of Christianity this may seem like a foreign and even wrong notion. But I can say from personal experience that it is a marvelous gift. The Anglican position regarding this form of sacramental confession can be summed up in three words: always, sometimes, never.
Confession is always available to those who desire it. Whether your priest has designated specific days and times or not one need only contact the priest and make an appointment letting him know of your desire to make confession ahead of time. If any individual priest is not comfortable in hearing confessions he can direct you someplace where you can.
Confession is sometimes a very good idea and under some circumstances strongly encouraged. In the case of grave or notorious sin, or where the sin has been a very publicly scandalous matter, the Office of Confession may be necessary in helping both the individual and the parish community come back together in reconciliation. It is also (and more commonly) very helpful in those cases where one feels the need to confess a besetting sin that they have confessed privately to God repeatedly in the past to know relief of their conscience. In these cases hearing yourself speak the sin out loud, and more importantly hearing a spiritual Father speak the words of absolution out loud can be very healing and free one up to receive forgiveness in a way they never have been able to before.
With all of this said it is also important to note that within Anglicanism (unlike other sacramental traditions) confession to a priest is never mandatory. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict us of our sin and we are always able to confess those sins to our Great High Priest directly. He is the source of our absolution and pardon. So where individual conscience permits us to be freed after a silent, private confession or corporate confession in the liturgy we can be assured of our pardon.
For those who have never made confession to a priest before it can be a very daunting idea. In reality however, it is not scary at all. It is a wonderful, brief form of worship that is premised wholly around the grace of God manifest in the cross. (For this reason Anglicans do not traditionally conduct Confession in a little booth off to the side of the church but rather right in the middle of the church at the foot of the cross and altar with both priest and penitent facing the cross). The Office begins with the penitent coming to the priest saying, “Bless me, for I have sinned.” And as a further demonstration of divine grace the first words uttered by the priest are in fact a blessing. Not a reproach or a condemnation – but a blessing. The penitent then has the opportunity to enumerate whatever sins are plaguing their conscience. Here the priest may pause to give counsel, direction or comfort. Often the priest will assign a “penance.”
Penance should never be understood as a precondition to pardon (after all we are Protestants – we fought wars over these points). Rather, penance is the first opportunity to step back onto the road that leads to righteousness. Most of what we need to confess stems from our actions. In like manner the priest by prescribing a light penance (often the reciting of a certain psalm or prayer or the reading of a certain passage) offers the first step in acting righteously. This is the “on-ramp” back into the flow of the Christian walk.
Having accomplished all this the priest pronounces (rooted and established in Christ’s authority and atoning work) the absolution; giving the penitent assurance that their sin is now separated from them as far as east from west and ending humbly with a request of the penitent, “Go in peace and pray for me a sinner.” And now the penitent knows that their place as a member of the priesthood of believers has been restored, he or she has a ministry task to perform: to go out into the world in peace, and to pray for this good priest who is himself nothing more than a fellow sinner saved by the same gift of Grace.
But lest we begin to think that this season of waiting is a passive thing the Church makes quite clear that nothing is farther from the truth. This is an active waiting. Advent is indeed a season of preparation. Not preparation for the perfect Christmas dinner party or the preparations of questing to give the perfect gift; but preparing our hearts for the celebration of the Incarnation of the Son of God and preparation to greet Him upon His return as the Reigning King.
As we consider particularly this Second Advent or Coming of our Lord and King it is no small wonder that our preparations traditionally take on a hue of penitence. There has been a lot of effort in recent generations to work very hard at distinguishing Advent from the season of Lent (take for example the practice in some churches of using blue instead of the traditional purple as the color for the season). And there is merit in some of this because there is certainly a different accent in this autumnal preparation over and against that of the springtime preparations for Easter. But that said I find it hard to think of any season of preparation not being marked by a deliberate movement of repentance and confession.
So it is the tradition in some churches to begin the liturgy in Advent with the Penitential Order. The priest reads out a summary of God’s Law (sometimes the full Ten Commandments or more usually Jesus’ summary of the Old Testament Law in Mark 12) and then immediately invites the people to kneel and confess their sins to the Lord. In Advent it is a particularly good idea to come to worship a little early in order to give oneself enough time to prayerfully examine one’s conscience and consider the state we are in and what we may need to confess as we are given the opportunity.
Anglicanism is also steeped in a profound Morning Prayer tradition. In parish churches all over the world (and, in cases like my own where there is no church building, in priest’s private studies) the Office of Morning prayer is read daily. Like the penitential order, the order for Morning Prayer begins with confession. For those who are not accustomed to praying the Daily Office, Advent provides an opportunity to take on this discipline and use the form of corporate confession daily throughout the season.
It is also the tradition in many Anglican churches to offer the Office of Confession (that is, private confession with a priest) during these seasons of preparation. For those who come from a more evangelical strain of Christianity this may seem like a foreign and even wrong notion. But I can say from personal experience that it is a marvelous gift. The Anglican position regarding this form of sacramental confession can be summed up in three words: always, sometimes, never.
Confession is always available to those who desire it. Whether your priest has designated specific days and times or not one need only contact the priest and make an appointment letting him know of your desire to make confession ahead of time. If any individual priest is not comfortable in hearing confessions he can direct you someplace where you can.
Confession is sometimes a very good idea and under some circumstances strongly encouraged. In the case of grave or notorious sin, or where the sin has been a very publicly scandalous matter, the Office of Confession may be necessary in helping both the individual and the parish community come back together in reconciliation. It is also (and more commonly) very helpful in those cases where one feels the need to confess a besetting sin that they have confessed privately to God repeatedly in the past to know relief of their conscience. In these cases hearing yourself speak the sin out loud, and more importantly hearing a spiritual Father speak the words of absolution out loud can be very healing and free one up to receive forgiveness in a way they never have been able to before.
With all of this said it is also important to note that within Anglicanism (unlike other sacramental traditions) confession to a priest is never mandatory. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict us of our sin and we are always able to confess those sins to our Great High Priest directly. He is the source of our absolution and pardon. So where individual conscience permits us to be freed after a silent, private confession or corporate confession in the liturgy we can be assured of our pardon.
For those who have never made confession to a priest before it can be a very daunting idea. In reality however, it is not scary at all. It is a wonderful, brief form of worship that is premised wholly around the grace of God manifest in the cross. (For this reason Anglicans do not traditionally conduct Confession in a little booth off to the side of the church but rather right in the middle of the church at the foot of the cross and altar with both priest and penitent facing the cross). The Office begins with the penitent coming to the priest saying, “Bless me, for I have sinned.” And as a further demonstration of divine grace the first words uttered by the priest are in fact a blessing. Not a reproach or a condemnation – but a blessing. The penitent then has the opportunity to enumerate whatever sins are plaguing their conscience. Here the priest may pause to give counsel, direction or comfort. Often the priest will assign a “penance.”
Penance should never be understood as a precondition to pardon (after all we are Protestants – we fought wars over these points). Rather, penance is the first opportunity to step back onto the road that leads to righteousness. Most of what we need to confess stems from our actions. In like manner the priest by prescribing a light penance (often the reciting of a certain psalm or prayer or the reading of a certain passage) offers the first step in acting righteously. This is the “on-ramp” back into the flow of the Christian walk.
Having accomplished all this the priest pronounces (rooted and established in Christ’s authority and atoning work) the absolution; giving the penitent assurance that their sin is now separated from them as far as east from west and ending humbly with a request of the penitent, “Go in peace and pray for me a sinner.” And now the penitent knows that their place as a member of the priesthood of believers has been restored, he or she has a ministry task to perform: to go out into the world in peace, and to pray for this good priest who is himself nothing more than a fellow sinner saved by the same gift of Grace.
Advent Carnival
Dear Readers,
Please join me tomorrow in visiting the Carnival of Anglican Advent Traditions. A friend of ours is hosting this carnival on her blog. I will post a link to it tomorrow and I will also be contributing to it with a meditation on the Anglican tradition of Confession as it relates to Advent. Come back tomorrow and join in the fray.
Life is a Roadtrip...
So we traveled nearly 1,500 miles to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving this year. Remarkably, what I found is that it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Sure it was a lot of time in the car, way too much junk and fast food and those occasional moments where you think, "what the heck are we doing." (Like when the 2 year old is screaming her head off to get out of the seat and ride on mom's lap with another hour and a half to go. Or when the same 2 year old decides she needs to try and go potty at every single stop). At the same time it was also a good experience. We got to listen to 3 1/2 of the 7 Chronicles of Narnia stories as a family and I am sure the whole experience was a memory that our kids will always look back on.
What I found really remarkable was how (relatively) calm and un-stressed I was for the duration of the trip. I credit this first of all to a lot of prayer (a great way to pass time while everyone else in the vehicle is asleep and you are trying not to be as you cross the plains of Nebraska) and also to a very deliberate and settled decision. As we set out I told myself that this was going to be difficult and unpleasant at times; that rather than just an hour and a half the youngest could conceivably throw fits the entire 20 hours (she didn't - but I was trying to prepare for the worst you know). We were all on short sleep so I knew the kids would be grouchy and weepy (and yes I knew I might be too). But I told myself also that despite all this I was going to take things in stride. I will not clench my teeth. I will not yell. I will tell that inner voice running down the check list of all the things that could go wrong to just shut it. I adopted a sort of long-haul, siege warfare mentality. We will get there eventually and the totality of my life's experience is not confined to these few hours in this car no matter how long and all consuming they may feel. And do you know what - it worked!
We got in after dark last night. Already today I find myself thinking, "I hope that I can keep that same perspective today." I hope that I can live more of my days like it's a road trip. Yes it will be hard and unpleasant at times. But I will get through it and without having to allow these things to totally derail me. We will get there eventually.
Saturday, November 17
Make a difference this year
I know it sounds cliche but I am sure I am not the only person who has a Christmas list full of people for whom I haven't the foggiest idea what to buy. So...for all those beginning to enter the fray of Christmas shopping consider doing something completely different 
this year. World Vision offers a gift catalogue (click here) of many gifts that you can give to people in need all over the world in the name of someone whom you want to honor on your Christmas list. They offer everything from a $20 chicken to a $1,000 drinking water system. We have done this as a family in the past and I have to say that knowing that a family in southeast Asia was able to put food on the table because my wife gave them a chicken in my name is immensely more satisfying than one more subscription to a magazine I don't have time to read anyway. It is a simple way to make a difference in the context of gift-giving this year.
this year. World Vision offers a gift catalogue (click here) of many gifts that you can give to people in need all over the world in the name of someone whom you want to honor on your Christmas list. They offer everything from a $20 chicken to a $1,000 drinking water system. We have done this as a family in the past and I have to say that knowing that a family in southeast Asia was able to put food on the table because my wife gave them a chicken in my name is immensely more satisfying than one more subscription to a magazine I don't have time to read anyway. It is a simple way to make a difference in the context of gift-giving this year.
Tuesday, November 13
Clear your head
One of my coaches and mentors is always trying to impress upon me that the role of a priest is to be the guy (not unlike Moses) that everyone else supports so that he can spend an insane and intense amount of time in God's presence. In other words I'm paid to be the member of the community who is always listening to God and waiting on God to bring a fresh Word to God's people week after week (among other things of course - but, according to my coach, this chief among them).
So with that task in mind it has become my practice to take regular prayer days. I go up into the mountains (weather permitting) or to a local monastery (when weather is not permitting) and I spend some good, long quality time with the Lord in prayer.
Everyone should have a prayer day every once in a while. I take one once a month. Yesterday was my prayer day. And I have to say that even though I am praying throughout the day each and every day there is something particularly blessed about having a whole day of quiet and solitude devoted wholly to prayer. And here is the blessing: when you spend the whole day in prayer you can get through your whole prayer list - the things you need to talk to God about for yourself and for others, you can pray about all the things God brings to your mind while you are praying. You can read the Scriptures and pray about those too. But usually, after a while (and it does take a while) you can get to a place where there aren't a whole lot of words that need to pass between you. And like sitting with an old friend or a beloved spouse you can just soak in the quiet and enjoy each other's presence.
I can't tell you what that does for your blood pressure, your neurotic, obsessive worries (self-referential) and your outlook on life.
If you have never tried it...you should. If you have had the opportunity, make it a practice. I won't kid you, it is a real discipline to stay in prayer for that long so don't get discouraged on your first try if you can't stay focused for more than a few minutes. But, as Chesterton said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly." And this is definitely worth doing.
Wednesday, November 7
Follow up to funny things
As a follow up to my previous post below I composed my own image of what this synthesis in the Ancient-Future worshipper might look like. Here it is:
Sorry to my artistic friends if I have offended your aesthetic sensibilities :^).
P.S. Does the robe make me look fat?
The funny thing is...
I came across this little comic on the blogsite of an acquaintance from our days in Chicago. She is now a brilliant theologian teaching at a university in Illinois. Anyway, I thought it was kind of funny and at the same time thought provoking. See what you think.
Now those who know me will be quick to point out that I have been known to be a "double hander" from time to time myself when lost in worship. But while I think that as Jonathan Edwards pointed out "religious affections" will naturally be a byproduct of "true religion" there is a necessary evolution in worship from the subjective, feelings centered experience toward the Christ centered rootedness that we enjoy in the kind of worship we cherish in the liturgical tradition (represented by the "fully evolved" worshiper on the right I guess). But the beauty of an Ancient-Future expression of worship like what we seek to cultivate at Christ Our Hope is that we can simultaneously embrace both ends of this spectrum. We try to synthesize them into a worship expression that is Christocentric, embraces the transcendent otherness of God while at the same time encourages the worshiper to express a passionate heart for God in the "freer" forms of 'charismatic' worship.
Well there you go - another cartoon ruined by theological analysis. Is nothing sacred!?...or maybe everything is.
Friday, November 2
Someday, and it won't be long, you'll look for me and I'll be gone...
Well I have been away on vacation so it has been a while since my last post.
Speaking of vacation; it is remarkable how you find that you even need God on vacation isn't it? I know that may sound like a funny concept to some but think about it from a priest's perspective. Everything I do every day in my ministry I am totally reliant on the Lord (or at least I should be) so naturally I spend a lot of time praying. As one friend often says, I'm paid to pray...so I do...a lot. So in a funny way I think I somehow thought that I could take a little break on vacation. Somehow the words of Psalm 139 keep coming to mind - "Even if I crossed the ocean you would find me." There is no place we can go to escape God (not that I was trying mind you) but what I learned is that there is nowhere you can go to escape your constant need of Him either. Funny the things you learn that you feel like you should have already known.
Anyway, I'm back and I will have a couple more posts up in a few days.
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