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What is a Church Father and are you still talking about new creation?

Saint Athanasius
Saint Athanasius

Those of the Christian faith today stand on the shoulders of giants. God has gifted the church with brilliant theologians and defenders of the faith, whose work has not only stood the test of time, but has enlightened generations of the faithful. Some of these folks are known as “Church Fathers.” One of those church fathers is Athanasius of Alexandria.

Athanasius lived in the 4th Century (c.296-373) and was Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. During his time as the Bishop he was sent into exile on five different occasions due to various decisions from whichever emperor was in power at the time. He is best known, however, for his work during the Council of Nicaea which happened before he was even a bishop. He was a brilliant defender of the faith, and specifically the Trinity. Continue reading “What is a Church Father and are you still talking about new creation?”

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Easter and New Creation? What on Earth do you mean?

newlifeThis year for Easter season the sermons have the theme of new creation, which I emphasized on Easter Sunday. This may be a new thing for you and you may be wondering, “What on earth does he mean by this?” Or, “Why is he even making that connection?”

Well I’m glad you asked, hypothetical reader! This connection between the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the Judeo-Christian affirmation of creation is actually a bit of a passion of mine, and it tends to come out on Easter. I fear that in North American Christianity we too often slip unknowingly into a pseudo-Gnosticism. Please stay with me hypothetical reader, as I realize I may have drifted from muddled to cloudy, but this point is important. Gnosticism is an old false view of things that tends to see only the “spiritual” as good, while the physical is bad or evil (or disposable). It also tends to emphasize some secret or hidden knowledge as that which saves us – and gets us into the good “spiritual” realm. When we believe that the end result of the resurrection of Jesus is that we get to go off to heaven, we are engaging in what amounts to as Gnosticism. I am trying my best to make heresy punishable by stoning here at our church, but we have police officers in our congregation who are *really* sticklers about American law, so if this is your current view, consider yourself lucky.  Continue reading “Easter and New Creation? What on Earth do you mean?”

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Remembering St. Patrick

Saint Patrick of Ireland
Saint Patrick of Ireland

It’s the Feast Day of Saint Patrick, one of the Church’s great evangelists and missionaries, which we in the States of course celebrate by pinching each other and getting drunk.  I really appreciate the work of God through Saint Patrick and find his missionary work increasingly relevant in our post-Christian culture.  How do we reach and engage folks outside the faith and how do we reach them where they are?  Patrick was not even Irish, but actually kidnapped by the Irish when he was young.  After escaping his slavery, he eventually returned to those very people in order to share Christ with them.  It is an amazing story and demonstration of the grace of God.

I was reading a bit from one of my church history books about this time period, and learned that this movement in Ireland became so large, the Irish then sent missionaries to other countries, most notably, Scotland.  There was a well known missionary named Columba who settled in Iona and eventually a monastery was founded there that became a crucial center of missions to Scotland.

It’s amazing what God has done through faithful people and today we remember one of them, Patrick of Ireland.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Here are some other posts on Saint Patrick I have written:

This one features the well known prayer attributed to Saint Patrick.

This one features one of my favorite stories of Saint Patrick’s fearlessness in his faith.

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Baptism as Battle

exorcismIn preparation for Holy Week, and in preparation of the liturgy for Holy Saturday, or The Great Paschal Vigil as it was known centuries ago, I have been studying Holy Week celebrations and baptism ceremonies that have roots going back to the earliest centuries of the church. I find these fascinating, but I’m kind of a geek sometimes, so take that into account.
One of the things I had not realized up until now was the connection between exorcism and baptism. In the Fourth Century (and many centuries following), it was common practice to exorcise those who were to be baptized on Holy Saturday. It was seen as part of the spiritual preparation for what was coming. I realize that this notion may seem farfetched and almost theatrical to us, who have been more shaped by horror movies about exorcism than the church’s teaching on exorcism. When we allow our view on such things to be shaped by the horror movies of popular culture, it both sensationalizes what the church has historically done, as well as places it into the realm of fiction. So when we picture an exorcism it is quite possible that the first thing that comes to mind is a person convulsing, eyes rolling around in their sockets, and spewing something out of their mouths. And then we would quickly remind ourselves that these are the products of an imaginative film director armed with powerful, computer generated special effects. In other words, the whole thing is both obscene and unreal.

This was not, however, the belief of the majority of Christians who have lived in the centuries prior to ours.
Continue reading “Baptism as Battle”

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Feast Day of Saint Patrick

SaintPatrickIreland_240x320pxToday is the day the church remembers an amazing man of God who lived out his calling in such a way that we are still learning from him. I’ve read part of the book, “The Celtic Way of Evangelism,” that explores some of the unique ways the gospel was shared by the Christians shaped by Patrick. Patrick had an amazing way of living alongside people, loving them, and figuring out how to engage them on a level that challenged them to come to Christ.

A few years ago I wrote a post that shared one of my favorite stories about St. Patrick.

And a few years before that, I wrote another post that contains a prayer attributed to Saint Patrick, known as, “The Breastplate of St. Patrick.”

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Longsuffering Lord: A Good Friday Prayer

In the book, “The Orthodox Way” by Bishop Kallistos Ware, he includes this prayer (on p.86):

He whom none may touch is seized;
He who looses Adam from the curse is bound.
He who tries the hearts and inner thoughts of man is unjustly brought to trial;
He who closed the abyss is shut in prison.
He before whom the powers of heaven stand with trembling stands before Pilate;
The Creator is struck by the hand of his creature.
He who comes to judge the living and the dead is condemned to the Cross;
The Destroyer of hell is enclosed in a tomb.
O thou who dost endure all these things in thy tender love,
Who hast saved all men from the curse,
O longsuffering Lord, glory to thee.

-from Vespers on Great Friday