Jesus with Joseph

Georges de La Tour 1593 - 1652 painting located in Paris - Musee de Louvre
Saint Joseph Charpentier.
Notice the translucent hands of Jesus; de la Tours indication of Jesus being someone
special .... note the connections with Light in the Gospels.
The Gospel of Matthew deliberately connects Joseph with Jesus. "This book contains the family tree of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
vv 2 - 6 Abraham to David 6 - 11 David to Josiah at the time of the Exile
12 - Joseph ' husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called "Messiah'

Birth of Jesus

Adoration of the Shepherds ca 1655 Bertolome Murillo ( 1618 - 1682 ) Spain.


The significance of shepherds and the folk from afar - Babylon? recognising the importance of this particular Birth was and remains profoundly important. There are no signs of divinity in this painting. It is the birth of a child. The Word became flesh and lived among us and we seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth
Matthew records this birth fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah .. God is with us.
Note the political realities of the situation. A king is born .... challenge to Herod and to Caesar. The Birth of Jesus is both wonderful news and confronting news.
Political Dynamite.

C.K.BARRETT: CHURCH, MINISTRY AND SACRAMENTS in the N.T.

While I reflect on my connection with Church - as in local Anglican Church - I have been reading the book: CHURCH, MINISTRY, SACRAMENTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT written by C.K.BARRETT. It arose out of his presentation of The 1983 Didsbury Lectures. The embarrassment is that I purchased it in 1987, read parts of it then ...but ...
While I will flesh out this Post in the next few weeks what I am finding is the serious disconnect between Jesus' intentions for the New Israel - Church -, the New Testament presentation of the developing framework of Church AND present day church (deliberately in lower case) There is NO gathering of church today in Brisbane that one could say - There it is!
1. All Christians are ministers of the Gospel - yet as our parish priest noted to a visiting priest from Singapore ... on learning he was priest .. Oh, you are really one of us! There is reference to bishops and deacons acting in informal roles in the early Church. No priests.
( I must needs to write carefully here. The disconnect I find profoundly disturbing. What do I do, can I do during the rest of the years I have to live? Reading the Gospel of MATTHEW and reflecting through Bishop Tom Wright's commentary is seriously challenging. This is Jesus, who is about to be declared the Risen Lord and Saviour, calling the shots.) Jesus call to take up my cross and follow Him remains the defining call. Apart from contacts with folk after the Sunday service I remain a spectator in maybe a charade.

.... more to come. I cannot ignore the Epistle to the Hebrews as well.

The GOSPEL - What was preached?

While studying at Moore College in the mid 1960's a book written by ? impressed many with a call to acknowledge the Gospel was to be found in what was preached. Obvious? Of course. But this has often been forgotten. So here is what I wrote out then.

1. Old Testament Prophecy has been fulfilled AND The Messianic Age has Dawned Acts 2: 16 - 21

2. The fulfillment has taken place in the Ministry, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, who was descended from David. Acts 2: 22 - 32

3. Jesus has been exalted as Lord and Christ (Messiah) AND as Messianic Head of the New Israel Acts 2: 33 - 36 4: 11

4. This Fact has been confirmed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church (meaning all believers). Acts 2: 33, 38
cf 2: 17 - 21 where Peter sees Pentecost as the Fulfillment of Joel 2

5. Jesus will Return to bring God's purposes to their consummation Acts 3: 30 and see Acts 10: 32

6. Meanwhile people are to Repent, so that they can receive Forgiveness of Sin and the Gift of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 - 40, 3: 19f

SERMONS:

PETER: ACTS 2:14 - 41. 3:12 - 26. 4:8 - 12; 24 - 30. 10:28-29, 34-43. 11:5 - 17

STEPHEN: ACTS 7

PAUL: ACTS 13: 16 - 41, 17:22 - 32. 22: 3 - 21. 24:10 - 21. 26:2 - 29.

JAMES: ACTS 15:13 - 21

It is with the word MEANWHILE that Bishop Tom Wright has a great contribution to make because once we have repented and received the Holy Spirit what are we to do while we wait?

JUSTICE BLURRED

For the time being this will be a collection of random comments that i have written to papers and other locations.
"Visiting German president: Nazi past has made it our duty to defend Israel" was the header for a news item in the Israeli newspaper HAARETZ. The following is my response.

Germany certainly has a responsibility to Jews for what occurred during Shoah. This does not equate with protection of Israel. The existence of Israel - particularly Greater Israel has been at a catastrophic cost to Palestinians not to Germans or Germany. If Austria or Bavaria had been given to Jews for a homeland then Germany would have paid a price commensurate with Nazi-led German behaviour. The protection of Israel does not relate to compensation to Jews of Europe who died because of and those who survived the Shoah. It relates only to those Jews who settled in Israel and to those who sought home elsewhere. Given the anti-Jewish mindset within Europe over the centuries those Jews who stayed in Europe deserved much more compensatory attention then any others. 28/11/10 Haaretz Comments. 40 / 22

The Fifth Act

There is a significant change which gives better direction to what I aim to achieve.Previously this blog was called Third Day Dawning indicating the New had commenced through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. While I still hold to that I think the new Heading - Fifth Act - focusses my attention on what I should be engaged in and to what I am committed.
Bishop Tom Wright portrays the Biblical story as a five act drama. CREATION ... FALL .. THE STORY OF ISRAEL ... THE STORY OF JESUS [GOSPEL] ... the FIFTH ACT ... the Church and what it ought to be doing.
The first four acts are there to read, consider ... but what is to follow in this Fifth Act? The following is an explanation. It comes from the website www.ntwrightproject.com more of that a little later.

1. Five-Act Hermeneutic
Wright uses the analogy of a five-act Shakespearean play to explain his biblical hermeneutic. Suppose the fifth act of the play has been lost, while the first four are intact. What could be done if we agreed that the play ought to be staged? We would gather the most trained and experienced Shakespearian actors, immerse them in the first four acts of the play’s script, then once they had become familiar with the language and setting of the play, and most importantly its plot and impetus, and fully imbued with their characters, we would put them on a stage and ask them to carry the story forward by acting out a fifth act for themselves. In "The New Testament and the People of God", Wright explains:
“…part of the initial task of the actors chosen to improvise the new final act will be to immerse themselves with full sympathy in the first four acts, but not so as merely to parrot what has already been said. They cannot go and look up the right answers. Nor can they simply imitate the kinds of things that their particular character did in the early acts. A good fifth act will show a proper final development, not merely a repetition, of what went before” (p. 141).
Wright contends that if the biblical story is a five-act drama, the church finds itself living in the fifth act. The five acts are thus: I-Creation; II-Fall; III-Israel; IV-Jesus. The fifth act is formed by the writing of the New Testament – including the gospels – and “would simultaneously give hints (Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, parts of Revelation) of how the play is supposed to end” (NTPG, p. 142). Scripture is authoritative in that God’s people “live under the ‘authority’ of the extant story, being required to offer an improvisatory performance of the final act as it leads up to and anticipates the intended conclusion” (p. 143).
This means the church cannot disregard the first four acts by taking the story wherever it wills and the wind blows, but neither can it simply repeat the four first acts as if the story were frozen in time. The church needs both faithfulness and innovation; both consistency and creativity. The ecclesial identity advanced here is that the church has been given the vocation to be the people of God in the fifth act of creation. What Christ accomplished through the cross and resurrection (“it is finished”), the church is called to implement.

What do we say to the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” when he explains that the Son of God is too reckless a character to have around risking the church’s good work? That the question was asked highlights a most serious problem that has beset the Church during its history.
The "Church" replaces Christ in 'its mission' - therefore it becomes NO mission.

What do we Owe Each other?

Dostoevsky poses this question in his writing. "What do we owe each other? He takes it further by asking "What would this look like if we see it through the eyes of faith?
He means Faith in Christ. There is no specific tight connection with Orthodoxy (church) faith although The Orthodox Church belongs in the framework of his writing.
I commenced a list to respond to the first question with

1. RESPECT - I have wondered why I thought of this first. Maybe it was a safe 'word' but it is part of the story. Respect is demanded without consideration of appearance, assumed status or .....



2. LOVE - It might be assumed that agapeo - deep self giving love is what is meant here and only this love but a little more reflection would remind us that
'storge' - affection ,
phileo - friendship and
eros - being in love ALL belong here. No, not being in love towards everyone but where eros occurs it fits correctly here.
While each Greek word opens consideration for friend / family / the attractive etc: there remains the focus of love of / for the unlovely ..... unloveable ?? Can I even mention such a group?


3. SPACE - recognising, respecting AND allowing each person their space is essential to allow each of us to be person. What if he / she has no understanding of another's space?


4. JUSTICE - this is assumed .... talkfests discuss it but where do they lead?
If Justice occurred then all would be seriously disrupted. Fair pay for work done would inevitably lead to higher costs in first world countries. Western type lifestyles would be challenged in the West and among the Merbenzy tribes in third world countries. How do we address issues in the Jewish Torah which speak of various matters are worthy of death ... of being put to death NB. 'worthy of' ie not necessarily being put to death!! Just a thought. Why is Justice so closely connected to retribution? What if Justice involves something else all together?
(This arises from a few discussions with a brother in law who has been a judge for many years)


5. TRUST - every connection however, is totally depends on this. There is no way anyone can affirm that he / she is independent of others. Wealth in and of itself does not make us independent. Buying ones independence is totally dependent on TRUST. Whether it is on the operating table, buying a car/helicopter, eating food, all depend on TRUST. Each day is an act of Trust. We attach ourselves to a prevailing ideology which tends to govern how we live.
Breaking Trust is an evil almost beyond repair.

In his book "Surprised by Hope" Bishop Tom Wright reminds the church that "our mission" demands a message of Justice .... Beauty .... Homecoming ( By the latter he means The Gospel - calling everyone HOME by and through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah)

So to what extent do we owe the Other

6 BEAUTY When my son James was with the Grenadier Guards in Afghanistan recently, the battalion lost 17 men and 70 returned seriously wounded and as James noted so many Afghani civilians were left devastated from the war. How do we enable all the families of the dead, the injured to again see and experience BEAUTY?
We, of course would be aware of many here at home who no longer "see" beauty for too many reasons


and

7. HOMECOMING How many of us live in houses rather than homes? AND, that before we even consider the HOMELESS. The prisoner, the traveller, the soldier, even the hospital patient come home to ? what? location? ... house? ... home?
The fundamental under pinning homecoming of the Gospel demands to be made known and lived in an exemplary manner. (Bringing Heaven and Earth together. a notion that many Christians need to consider far more carefully than the escapist notions that some have)


The hard consideration is reflecting on this list in terms of the second question.

I recognise that The Gospels and the Torah write of Love of neighbour as yourself with the serious focus on the story of the Good Samaritan .. answering the question : Am I my brother's keeper? ... affirming the declaration that we are all made in the image of God.


There is also the matter of care for ourselves. ! ? Reading some material on Grief and Depression remind me that there is serious room for allowing Space, Respect, Trust, Beauty, Love, Justice and Home Coming to be applied to ourselves. No NOT self absorption, that fails to address Grief and Depression.

The Christian Society

Bishop Stephen Neill first published “The Christian Society” in 1952. The thirteen chapters outline the story of the church from Jesus and His society through the nearly two thousand years of its life. He concludes with this seven fold description of what the Church is –

First, and always, the church is the Eucharistic fellowship. In the central act of Christian faith, the interaction of time and eternity is always present. Christians are already citizens of eternity, and therefore cannot be other than pilgrims in time.

Secondly, the Christian fellowship is one in which no member should be in need or want, should never be lonely or friendless or in despair, since Christians are called to have all things in common; and, though the rules and methods of this Christian communion are flexible, the obligation is absolute and unchanging.

Thirdly, the Christian fellowship is that in which any stranger should feel him/her-self immediately welcome and at home. Suspicion, contempt and hostility should be excluded by the Christian law of love.

Fourthly, the Christian fellowship should be clear-sighted in the detection and uncovering of evils existent in the society immediately around it, tireless in protest against injustice, active in the relief of suffering.

Fifthly, the Christian society must make it clear that its ultimate loyalty is always and only to Christ and to His word. If it accepts for a time association with the state or any other human association, it must be prepared at any moment to withdraw from that association, if its spiritual liberty and its power to bear witness are in danger of being infringed.

Sixthly, each Christian group must be conscious of its fellowship in Christ with all other Christian groups throughout the world, even though circumstances should make impossible any expression of that fellowship other than the fellowship of prayer.

Seventhly, each Christian group must be constantly aware that the church is set for the redemption of the whole world, and that the purpose of God in Christ cannot be fulfilled, until the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached to all nations for a witness to them.

We may quibble about this description but it is worth placing them like a mirror for us to consider our Anglican Communion and our local expression of that communion.

Stephen Charles Neill (1900–1984) was a Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar from Scotland. He was educated and later worked in Trinity College, Cambridge University. He moved to India where he became a bishop.
I had the privilege of meeting him in Sabah in 1970.

On the Emmaus Road

Emmaus … On the Emmaus Road.

The notion of journey is popular among Christians and many others in our society. This is a reflection on what this means for Christians especially in the use of the Emmaus story as a (The!) significant justification for such thinking.

What seems often forgotten in Christian discussion is that in the Emmaus story there is the initial great disappointment that expectations had been misplaced in Jesus and then there is an explanation which provides a clear and definite starting point for a Christian Journey. Both in words and in act Jesus is revealed as the True Messiah of Israel and Risen Lord of All. For an authentic Emmaus journey there is a very clear starting point which can be described as a (THE ) door opening. .. A new direction is pointed out ……. AND powerfully an assurance there is a Guide who walks with us. For in the Ascension Jesus the Lord is seated at the Right hand of the Creator-Covenant keeping God. Jesus is there alive as the true New Adam, as the New Israel, as our true High Priest interceding for us.

It is with this New Testament formulation of the story that we ought to understand The Faith ‘once delivered to the Saints’.

Both in this story of Jesus meeting the husband and wife on the Emmaus road and in the proclamations of the Gospel in the Acts of the Apostles reference is made to ‘from Moses and the prophets …. The listeners were informed of the way in which Jesus was / is the fulfillment of these promises and expectations of that story – The Story of the Creator and Covenant Making God. While the connections of this starting point of the Gospel are rarely given today it is vital for Christians to grasp this story and work out their faith from there.

It was the telling of the story from Abraham through Moses, then the Prophets and the way that Jesus and the events of his life fulfilled that story that lead this couple to realise their expectations about Jesus had not been misplaced, and consequently to be filled with great excitement causing them to retrace their steps ( sometimes vital for any journey ) to share with the other disciples of Jesus.

While each of us has a personal journey to make it is important, no vital, to see that this Emmaus Journey is fundamentally an incorporating journey. We have become members of the New Humanity … To be bound together in Christ, .. members of the New Covenant … the New Creation … NOW.
Note Paul's reference to the Lord's Supper. "In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." ! Corinthians 11: 23 - 26.

The Letter to the Hebrews has been vital in providing that framework of this Jewish Story. Mind you Paul’s Letter to the Romans also does this but is too often seen through the lens of the Doctrines of Justification and Righteousness – yes, they are there in great detail but Paul is concerned to frame those and other ‘doctrines’ within the full Jewish Story from the Old Testament to the Gospels.

I trust the label JOURNEYS WELL TROD is the correct label for this story.

Belief Enriches Art - The Guardian 27 August 2010

Belief enriches art
We need to get beyond the cultural cringe of modern Christianity to understand great art
• Maggi Dawn guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 11.44 BST

The question: What is the point of Christian arts?
I'm inclined to think that dividing works of art up into sacred and secular is a somewhat arbitrary exercise. Of course we commonly use a kind of shorthand to describe work that deals with certain subject matter as "religious art". But beyond that, what might make a work "religious" exactly?
If it depended upon the artist being devout, a great deal of religious art would no longer qualify, while many secular scenes would – Caravaggio's paintings of biblical scenes, for instance, would be out, while Van Gogh's Starry Night would be in. But the meaning of a work is in any case as much dependent upon the interpretative frame given to it by the listener, the reader or the viewer. A work might be "sacred" simply because it is being viewed through the eyes of faith.
I'm not sure, then, that it's a simple matter to say what makes a work religious, but what I am sure of is that ignoring the religious content in works of art does diminish their sense. That's not to say you have to buy into the belief system, but without a working knowledge of Christianity, much of the art, music and literature in this corner of the world remains a closed book to the viewer.
Early last year in a Guardian interview Andrew Motion, then poet laureate, lamented the increasing level of biblical illiteracy he found among his students. Reading literature, he said, "…requires you to know things about the Fall, who some of the people in the Bible are, ideas of sinfulness and virtue. It's also essential for Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, and needs to be there in the background of the modernist period." He called for teaching of the Bible to be included in general education, not for religious reasons, but because "…it's an essential piece of cultural luggage."
I couldn't agree more. Without knowing Genesis you miss many of the undercurrents to Chaucer, Milton and Dante, say nothing of modern writers like Steinbeck and T S Eliot; and without the gospels a good slice of Shakespeare is torn from its roots. "Measure for measure" makes us think of Shakespeare; his audience would have thought of Jesus.
Last year I went to two large exhibitions of Van Gogh's paintings, each of which included several of Van Gogh's paintings of "the Sower" – a subject he returned to a number of times. The galleries had provided many good notes, showing the influence of other painters he had followed, how he had developed the theme over time, and how his use of colour changed between the paintings. Yet nowhere was there any comment on the fact that, as can be seen from Van Gogh's letters, an important inspiration was the parable of the sower, which he spent much time contemplating, and regarded as a metaphor for his own work.
Van Gogh's work is evidence of the fact that good art goes beyond merely illustrating or re-telling an old story; it creates a dialogue with its sources, taking an old established idea and giving it a new twist. I recently studied various poems, paintings and sculptures of the annunciation, a story originally told in Luke's gospel. Many medieval depictions of the annunciation show Mary's meek submission to the will of God, but more recent works subtly shift her role so that she is seen as a woman empowered to choose her own destiny. Both Noel Rowe's Magnificat and Edwin Muir's Annunciation suggest that God doesn't hold (or hold on to) all the cards but takes the highly risky and self-effacing strategy of placing the destiny of the world into the hands of an unknown peasant girl. This is the glory of art – to overturn the well-worn tracks of unchallenged ideas and make us see the world through new eyes.
There is a "cultural cringe" about Christianity at present; in a post-Christian age many people want to distance themselves from a religion they no longer wish to be associated with. The place of religion in public life needs to continue to be negotiated, but it would be a mistake, in my view, to let such discussion extend to cutting ourselves adrift from layer upon layer of understanding of our cultural heritage.

The End -

Shortly after immigrating, a trader from Warsaw was given a field in the Yehuda Clan district, as a loan and for safekeeping. He planted an apple orchard and came, in thirty years of apple growing, to appreciate pastoral life so much that he said he'd developed a sense of belonging to the land which actually meant a sense that the land belonged to him. This farmer then sold what he had come to call his field to a developer because, as he put it, "In the end, all must bend before greed."

.. from "Picnic Grounds a novel in fragments" by Oz Shelach ISBN 0-87286-419-7

Salvation

"Salvation is not "going to heaven when we die", but 'BEING RAISED TO NEW LIFE IN GOD'S NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH'

This is found in Bishop Tom Wright's book SURPRISED BY HOPE - p210 in the chapter entitled Rethinking Salvation: Heaven and Earth and the Kingdom of God.

The implications of this are more than profound, giving a total new perspective on NOW and the FUTURE. Christians are to be living signs of the new in the here and now. Jacques Ellul declares this in his seminal book "The Presence of the Kingdom"

I have included this post in the JOURNEYS LESS TRAVELLED, section because most Western Christians believe and operate on the going to heaven when we die agenda.

Incarnation

"When You walked here,
took skin, muscle, hair,
eyes, larynx, we
withheld all honour: 'His house is clay,
how can he tell us of His far country?"

- Margaret Avison

I read these poems in 1967 - 68 they continue to resonate today.

Before Abraham was - I AM

"Forsaking all" - Your Voice
never falters, and yet,
unsealing day out of a
darkness none ever knew
in full but You,
you spoke that word, closing it forever:
"Why hast Thou forsaken ...?
This measure of your being all out, and
meaning it, made you
put it all on the line
we, humanly, wanted to draw - at
having you teacher only, or
popular spokesman only, or
doctor or simply a source of sanity
for us, distracted, or only
the one who would wholeheartedly
rejoice with us, and know
our tears, our flickering time, and
stand with us.

But to make it head over heals
yielding, all the way,
you had to die for us.
The line we drew, you crossed,
and cross out, wholly forget,
at the faintest stirring of what
you know is love, is one
whose name has been, and is
and will be, the
I AM.

- Margaret Avison

The Cry of dispossession

Road upgrade! Progress proceeds.. Trees destroyed.
Then came the cries .. of two brown goshawks - 2 year olds - male and female .... no tree=no home. No Home! Call emergency! Wake up! The Homeless are crying ... for home and for justice.

They circle and cry .. for two weeks.
Dispossession .. no compensation.
Eventually they found a new home, we think.
They have chosen to stay in the area.

Here the suddenness of dispossession is so confronting.
Warnings were made that suffering would occur but progress over rode such warnings.
Progress involves cost .... borne by others .. so it's ok!

Teach us to Pray

"Our Father in Heaven
Hallowed be Your Name
Your Kingdom Come
Your Will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
as we also have forgiven our debtors
And do not bring us to trial,
but rescue us from the evil one"

This prayer is directly followed by the comment.
"For if you forgive others their trespasses,
your Heavenly Father will also forgive you;
but if you don't forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses"

These words are part of a passage in the Gospel of Matthew 6: 5 - 15
Prayer is not for show, and nor is prayer valued for many words.

The reason for opening this post is to focus on the importance of this prayer as the alternative to the Ten Commandments among members of the New Covenant. It has far more significance for us than simply a word to be repeated each Sunday. I include this post among JOURNEYS WELL TROD because it is for the new Journey we make which ought to be "well trod"

Bishop Tom Wright has an article "The Lord's Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer" cf www.ntwrightpage.com which ought to be found and read in association with this post.

If the reference to debtors relates to the Torah principles of Jubilee and Seven year limits on debt then most Christians have to seriously review our understanding of loans and debt.

FOUR CRIES .. then mine.

Community Nurse of four years,
Appointed in house,
Doors should open.
Entered one house once!
Doors remained closed.


Muffled cry not heard.
Only five weeks old
Her cover a blanket,
Then came the weight,
One last cry.

Parents of the babe,
Return home drunk.
Drag their mattress onto floor,
collapse to sleep.
Next day tragic discovery.

Elder, beyond tears.
Heard and seen this before.
Another loss.
Stays with day's plan.
Press on - this will happen again.

This elder had invited me to visit special sites ... a great privilege.
Her cries were there ... they would be heard late at night as she remembers so many similar tragedies. I found all four reasons to cry. So easy for anger and judgement to arise. They are some of the emotions and responses for such matters but only some.

AUMBRY

A WORD spoken, a priest desires an object in the Sanctuary and a reaction follows. A number of our friends have sent written responses spelling out why an Aumbry has no place in the church. The following is the beginning of my response.

Reflecting on the readings for Good Friday I must come to this issue of the Aumbry from the prayer of Jesus for Unity among the Believers.

There can be the appearance of unity when all sit under a flag – called “Anglican” – and do not address any differences. We don’t ask so we don’t know. As I read the Gospels and reflect on the message of the whole Bible this is not the unity spoken of by Jesus. It is unity in the Truth and under the Holy Spirit. Is there a ‘climate’ of love here (in this parish church) for the discussion of difference? I suggest we must be assured of this before we as a community of faith can truly move forward.

The setting of an Aumbry in that part of the church called the Sanctuary is by symbol, declaring more than simply putting something in a place for practical reasons. Placement in an Anglican church has definite symbolic meaning.

Language also speaks more than the word used. “Priest” and “Minister”…“Lord's Table” and “Altar” …. “Lord’s Supper”, “Holy Communion”, “Eucharist” and “Mass” all define the person, the object and the event in very different ways.

The Anglican Church, despite King Henry V111, began as a Protestant Church specifically seeking to correct serious errors which had arisen in the Church of Rome. We are heirs of that protest and as Anglicans we have by way of the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Faith sought to be faithful to Scripture in the expression of that faith once delivered to the Saints.

Where does an Aumbry fit into this setting? Does it fit with "Priest … Lord's Table … Lord’s Supper?" Aumbry certainly fits with "Priest .. Altar … Mass."

Aumbry is a location for the Reserved Sacrament. Reserving the Sacrament is specifically denied in the 39 Articles as it was associated with a view of the bread and wine held erroneously by the Church of Rome.

However there has always been a concern to include members of the congregation who, because of illness,are not able to attend the service. They were to be taken the Bread and Wine to include them in the gathering … as if the service was not concluded until they also had taken communion. The notion of community/gathering is an essential focus of the Communion service. We are not taking bread and wine as individuals we are sharing bread and wine as the New Community that is declaring to the world and each other that we are bound together by the sharing in this meal AND acknowledging that the death of Christ is the basis for that unity.

At Kenmore we do have an object called “Altar” but which many accept as “Table” for the sake of peace rather than perhaps the unity hoped for. As there is an expectation for those entering the ‘sanctuary’ to bow, the placing of an aumbry in that sanctuary would lend itself for some to consider the aumbry and its contents to have more significance than is appropriate.



My prayer is that as I send this to the Priest it could allow for more openness and willingness to address areas of real importance.

# There is a need to consider where "Sanctuary" is located in a building. Where is the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is within each baptised Christian then the Sanctuary is the whole building and NOT a particular section occupied by Cross, Altar, Priests.

What to do?

J.I. Packer: "More Catechesis, Please" says this great man of the Church.
"Biblically challenged Overcoming scriptural illiteracy" is the title of another recent article that I have collected and read.
Similar concerns are presented and my sense of the situation here in Australia is that there is a serious illiteracy among Christians even though the resources are manifestly available to address this.
"Bless and save me now and then Heaven" is the substantive notion of today. To take up your Cross and follow Christ is an optional concern. ( I reread this and found it totally out of order. Yet sadly it does seem to be an attitude which prevails. )
That the Gospel is the proclamation that Christ the Messiah by His Death and Resurrection is LORD over ALL and that because of this He calls us Home Now in order that in this life we might by our lives be signs that the Kingdom has come and is coming. We are Light ..... Salt
( sign of the Covenant ) and living as sheep among wolves. A VERY CHALLENGING BLESSING.
Until a change occurs the label for this post remains.

The General Thanksgiving

General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

How could I not commence the new year without this prayer.

Why CONNECTIONS? I could have included this under POETS SPEAK but this prayer connects all sections of this blog in a special and unifying way.