Ashley Null on Cranmer’s Collect for the Second Sunday after Easter

“Cranmer’s Collect for the Second Sunday after Easter reminds us of his perennial concern to link justification to sanctification. In so doing, he answers the all-important question for Christians: where do we find the motivation to be more like Jesus?

An original composition, the prayer makes clear that the secret to godliness lies in gratitude for the free gift of salvation. …”

– Ashley Null continues his post-Easter devotions for GAFCON.

Corona Crisis — a Five week series from the Bishop of Bathurst

Next Sunday, the Bishop of Bathurst, Mark Calder, begins a 5 week special sermon series addressing issues raised by the crisis.

This weekend, he turns to Psalm 13.

Do pray that this series might be a blessing to many across New South Wales, and further afield.

Protestants and Plagues

“The present pestilence of COVID-19 is often described as ‘unprecedented’ in the modern Western media, and understandably so.

However, the presence of pestilence was a familiar reality throughout early modern Europe. Our Reformation forebears so frequently encountered the plague that it would not be too much to say that the entire course of religious history, at times, hung by the thread of a mere matter of breaths.

Unsurprisingly, though contrary to the popular opinion in the modern blogosphere, our Reformers had a wide variety of responses to the plague. This lecture aims to explore the impact of the plague upon the Reformers, and explain the differences and similarities in their responses. This, of course, will be instructive to our own set of responses to COVID-19 today.”

Watch Dr Mark Earngey’s overview of some of the intellectual, theological, and practical responses to the plague throughout the early period of the Reformation.

Available now at the Moore College website.

We ask Mark Earngey about ‘Common Prayer for Homes’

We asked Dr. Mark Earngey at Moore College about Common Prayer for Homes: Resources for Family Worship, released in the last few days. It’s a wonderful resource. Much of it will be familiar to our readers, and some if it will be new.

Our questions to Mark are in bold text:

What is ‘Common Prayer for Homes’?

Common Prayer for Homes is a flexible set of liturgical resources put together to help churches during the period of this present coronavirus crisis.

It consists of two classic-style orders of service for Sunday household worship, one modern order of service for Sunday household worship with children, an order of service for daily devotions throughout the week, a collection of occasional prayers (especially oriented to new family rhythms at home), and the classic seasonal arrangement of prayers, known as collects.

Who was behind putting it together, and what sources did you use?

In the week that it was announced that churches could not physically gather indoors, I observed our churches rapidly and rightly scrambling for ideas and resources.  David Peterson and I spoke together and agreed that providing churches with some solid liturgical structures might be a great help at this time.  I consulted with various ministers (from different denominations and locations) regarding whether such a resource would assist them, and the overwhelming response was that it would indeed help.

So, with David Peterson and a small group of Moore Theological College (MTC) trained clergy in our Diocese, we set ourselves to the task.  Since MTC mission was impact by the coronavirus and thus reconfigured around producing resources, we spent the week writing, editing, and producing these liturgical resources. Bishop Michael Stead was a solid encouragement along the way, and assisted with the process of utilising BetterGatherings.com to distribute Common Prayer in Homes.  

In terms of sources used, the main liturgical resources were the Common Prayer (2012) and An Australian Prayer Book (1978).  Other resources included: Common Worship (2000), the Book of Common Prayer (1552), the Church of England Catechism (1553), and prayers rephrased or newly written by ourselves.

These sources come unashamedly from the tradition of Reformation Anglicanism, with their strong biblical and evangelical themes arising from the genius of Archbishop Cranmer’s liturgical team.

Many churches are producing livestreams or recordings of services during the pandemic. Isn’t that enough?

It has been such a delight to see the leadership of local churches banding together with ideas, suggestions, and advise on how to produce livestreams and recordings of services.  But is that enough?

Well, the ministers I have spoken to have a great pastoral intuition and know that this crisis calls for something more than the ‘Pastor as CEO’ type of model.  That is, it calls for ordinary pastoral ministry – phone calls, writing letters, setting up practical care teams, hosting Zoom Bible studies, enabling and releasing leaders to help the pastoral work, and being creative about how personal pastoral work can succeed at a time like this.

Further, it seems to me that now is not the time for passive and non-participatory corporate worship (cf., the Singing-Sermon-Spectator service).  Indeed, I think that our consideration of corporate worship ought not start with the question, “what can the pastor and up-front team deliver to the screen?” – but rather, start with the question, “what sort of discipleship and practices do we want to encourage and see happen in household worship?”.  This may mean asking worshippers to pray a prayer of preparation before the livestream begins, or pausing the pre-recorded service and spend some time in prayer, or it may mean asking someone in each household to pray the collect for the day, or leaving some time after the sermon for households to share words of encouragement, or having someone in the household praying for God’s blessing at the end of the service, etc.

One of the beautiful things about traditional Anglican liturgy is the participatory nature of corporate worship.  It’s a real gift, and we would be crazy not to utilise that at the present time. This is where Common Prayer in Homes comes in. It can be printed or opened up on an iPad or Tablet and then modified according to what your church is providing.  And anyone can use it – mature Christians and those young in the faith.  It contains Creeds, Confessions, Prayers, Collects, and so forth – and it contains instructions on how to use them in a service like this.

If people in our churches have not been exposed to much classical Anglican liturgy before, then they will be introduced to the new and exciting world of Scriptural richness and carefully crafted words of prayer and praise.  Rather than slim pickings on a Sunday, we can offer a great spiritual banquet suited to different households.

So, to your question: are live-streaming and pre-recorded services enough?

Well, here’s my answer: if, in the production of our services, we do not expect much participation beyond listening to a short Bible reading and a long sermon, singing some songs, and saying amen occasionally, then I think it’s not enough.  It’s not bad (we could do a lot worse!), but it’s a bit of a thin diet, and it misses the present opportunity to help grow households in the faith.  Perhaps the present challenges might even prod some of us to consider whether we quite have grasped the riches of our own Reformation heritage adequately.  The English Reformers, in particular, shunned the spectator service and prized the participation of parishioners. Why not try a few weeks with Common Prayer for Homes and expand your parishioners’ spiritual horizons with the biblical wisdom handed down to us in the Anglican tradition?

One household – reeling from screen-tiredness – used it in conjunction with their church service, and wrote to me last weekend, saying: “it was the special touch we needed this morning”.  For these brothers and sisters, it was a helpful offline complement to the excellent online provisions offered by the church.

What hopes might you have about this resource once churches are able to meet again?

It would be great if our churches enjoyed the biblical wisdom of Anglican liturgy, and grew spiritually as we corporately confessed our sins regularly, soaked up Scripture multiple times during our services, heard a solid Biblical sermon, sung the praises of God’s glory with scriptural and extra-scriptural songs, prayed prayers for all kinds of people, and appreciated the rhythms of the church calendar.  That is, it would be great to see our churches embrace a biblically richer, and more active and participational style of worship.  And it’s not that hard either.

For those churches which utilise online service planning software, these important elements of worship could be added to the online service templates (=‘liturgies’!).  For example, I have seen one church do a good job of this by including the Collects every week.  It was as easy as copying and pasting the seasonal collects into the weekly prayer role, and having that emailed out to the relevant person who leads intercessions on Sundays. Of course, connecting technology with tried-and-tested liturgy could open up a world a creative possibilities – and that would be great to see.

Above all however, it would be wonderful to see the men, women, and children in our churches strengthened in their convictions about Christ Jesus, and thus strengthened in their worship and witness! Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Many of our readers will be familiar with the wonderful Reformation Worship: Liturgies from the Past for the Present, the fruit of much painstaking work by Mark Earngey and Dr. Jonny Gibson.

If not, learn more here. Doubtless, that work has been of great benefit in producing Common Prayer for Homes.

See this pre-publication commendation of Reformation Worship from Archbishop Glenn Davies:

“In the modern church where so little attention is given to ‘entering his courts with praise,’ this collection of liturgies should inspire and correct much of the blandness of the assemblies of God’s people on earth so that they might truly reflect that festal gathering of angels at Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, to which we have already come.”

And another by Mark Dever.

What’s wrong with Gospel-Centered Preaching Today?

“What’s wrong with Gospel-Centered Preaching Today?” – The latest 9Marks Journal has plenty of challenges for preachers.

God Be with Us till We Meet Again

“Can Christians and Christian churches remain faithful by not meeting together and all that is involved in congregational worship? Can Christians be faithful in this context?

The answer is yes – yes for some time with adequate justification.

Throughout church history, there are very rare instances where the people of God did not gather together regularly. These moments represented specific, overarching cultural situations that made it advisable for people in groups of any size to not gather together. COVID-19 is another example of a culturally singular moment that necessitates the decision for Christians not to hold their weekly church services and to do so knowing that they are not being unfaithful to the commands of Christ. …”

– Albert Mohler thinks through some of the challenges facing churches at this present moment.

Psalm 23:1-6. When fear goes viral, the gospel and COVID-19

A very helpful sermon from William Taylor at the Tuesday lunchtime service St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in London.

Great to pass on the link to others.

What do we make of the virus?

David Cook shares a Biblical perspective through the lens of the Book of Proverbs:

“We embrace humanity with love, we seek to relieve, be surprisingly creative in our acts of kindness, but our greatest purpose is to call on people to listen, repent and believe and so through Jesus have hope of a new creation to come.”

Read below:

Today I returned from overseas and I am self isolating for 14 days.

What do we make of this coronavirus?

I have been preparing a series on Proverbs and Solomon has much to say about what is going on.

The Bible’s wisdom writers are concerned to show us how we are to harmonise with reality.

Dick Lucas says that the aim of Proverbs is to help the young to keep from making fools of themselves in life, another preacher says that Proverbs is a directory of godly conduct.

In Chapter 1, King Solomon introduces the book by telling us in v.1-7, what the book will do for us; who it is for; and how to enter it, by ‘fearing the Lord’.

Then in v.8-19, he tells us there are always two voices in life, the voice of reality and the voice of deceit. In this case the realist is the parent urging the son not to join his peer group, ‘my son do not walk in the way with them’, v.15, and the voice of deceit, is that of the criminal gang, ‘come with us, let us lie in wait for blood’, v.11.

At v. 20-33, Solomon tells us history’s biggest lesson. There are always two voices in life, the voice of God and the voice of the serpent, the voice of reality and the voice of deceit.

The great lesson of history is that whenever God speaks, and is ignored, catastrophe results! It’s a lesson as old as Adam.

Proverbs 1:31 records this passive judgement of God on our deafness, ‘they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill of their own schemes’. This judgement is now being revealed, according to Paul, in Romans 1, God gives them over to the fruit of their schemes in Romans 1:24,26,28.

The world we live in is the world into which Adam and Eve were expelled, the world of pain, frustration and death, and is the fruit of their failure to listen to God.

This virus is part of that world and is God’s judgement on us all, and my isolation is a part of that judgement and a reminder of human stubbornness.

In Proverbs 1, Wisdom cries out, raises her voice and speaks and she does so in the main streets and malls. She is freely available, yet humanity refuses to listen, ignores and does not heed.

God personally teaches us this lesson, see His use of the third person pronoun, ‘they hated knowledge… they shall eat the fruit’, v.29-31.

God’s wisdom is our greatest treasure and yet we have become too cool, too self assured, too sophisticated to hear it. Many will be addressed but only some will listen and they will ‘dwell secure and be at ease without dread of disaster’, v.33.

This period of isolation, this pandemic, is a further clarion call to us to harmonise with the reality of our greatest treasure, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus and his word of wisdom.

We embrace humanity with love, we seek to relieve, be surprisingly creative in our acts of kindness, but our greatest purpose is to call on people to listen, repent and believe and so through Jesus have hope of a new creation to come.

‘For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster’. Proverbs 1:32-33.

(David Cook has served as Principal of SMBC and also as Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia as well as in parish ministry. Photo courtesy St. Helen’s Bishopsgate.)

Joy

Joy may seem to be a strange idea when so many are feeling uncertainty and fear.

Incoming Principal of Mary Andrews College, Rev Dr Katy Smith, writes one of Church Society’s Lent devotions:

“Walking onto the veranda of our church building, I see Kay standing by the entrance door smiling with genuine interest as she talks to another beside her. I smile to both ladies as I head towards the door, but Kay stops me to ask for a brief update about a particular ministry matter. I see a brightness and keenness as she listens and then responds, ‘I’ll continue praying.’

There is nothing extraordinary about this meeting, except that as I walk into the hall, I find myself thankful for her, with tears in my eyes. …”

– Read it here.

There are other contributions from Australian friends (some already published, some still to come – including Claire Smith and Kanishka Raffel) listed on the Church Society’s ‘The Blessed Life’ page.

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Church Society has been posting Lent reflections on the theme of the Fruit of the Spirit.

The latest reflection – on Peace – is by Paul Harrington from Trinity Church Adelaide.

Other posts here.

Are we living out Romans 1?

“Practicing homosexuals — of which I was once one — may not be conscious of the larger, biblical meaning of their sin as outlined in Romans 1, but it would be to their betterment if they were. …”

– Rosaria Champagne Butterfield gives some very insightful comments at Desiring God.

Related:

An Atheist and a Pastor on Same-Sex Relations and the Image of the Self – Justin Taylor.

I gave my life to Jesus – Glen Scrivener

In his latest video, Glen Scrivener points us away from ourselves and our efforts – to the Lord Jesus.

Quite a challenge to a lot of preaching. 7 minutes.

How Jesus helps my fear

“Since the death of my paternal grandmother on 26 June 2018, my family has had to mourn the loss of three family members. Preaching at two of the three funerals, I have been forced to reflect on death personally more than I ever have before. …”

– At The Australian Church Record, Ben George points us to the big picture of God’s purposes.

“All statements about Christ … bear theological significance”

“Christians are defined by one primary mark: we believe in and are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. …

It is not enough to simply say ‘I love Jesus’ or ‘I follow Jesus.’ Many who say they love Jesus and follow Jesus do not follow Jesus as he has revealed himself in Scripture. As the confession reminds us, we must confess that we believe in ‘Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord’ – the Jesus whose true identity and mission is revealed in Scripture.”

– Albert Mohler has published an excerpt from his new book about The Apostles’ Creed.

Pursuing Sanctification – God’s work or ours?

“John Owen says Christians need to ‘be killing sin, or it will be killing you.’

Yet from my experience most Christians aren’t employing everything they have at their disposal to kill sin or to pursue sanctification in any regard. The most I hear about this is the throwaway line, ‘I’m struggling with X sin’ but upon further questioning often those who say this aren’t struggling at all with a sin; they’ve often simply identified that they have a persistent sin, and yet do nothing about it.

Then when I reflect on my own fight with sin, I’m ashamed to realise I too often fall into the same trap of identifying sin without fighting it. I started to consider why this is the case for me. Why is it that I know about my sins, but I don’t fight them? And I have come to the conclusion that I (and I suspect many others) don’t fight sin because I don’t know what my role is in sanctification.

In order to figure it out I had to understand three things …”

– Daniel Bishop writes on what should be of vital interest to every Christian – at The Australian Church Record – Part 1 and Part 2.

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