Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

by Robert S. Munday+

He that is down needs fear no fall,

  He that is low, no pride;

He that is humble ever shall

  Have God to be his guide.

                -- John Bunyan

Probably the most perplexing of Jesus’s sayings in the Beatitudes is the admonition and promise:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

What does it mean to be poor in spirit?  To find out let’s look at the example of Moses.   

When God came to him with a mission to lead his people out of Israel, he said, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? . . .  “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” (Exodus 3:11; 4:10)

The reason God got angry at Moses was not because of his lack of confidence in his own abilities, but of his lack of faith in God’s ability.  God responded and said to Moses, “Who made man’s mouth?  Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:11–12)

What is the biblical solution when a person is paralyzed by a sense of guilt or unworthiness or uselessness?  I believe with all my heart that the solution is not that we need more self-esteem.  God did not say to Moses, “Stop putting yourself down.  You are somebody.  You are eloquent.”   What God said was, “Stop looking at your own unworthiness and uselessness and look at me.  I made you.  I will be with you.  I will help you.  I will teach you what to say.  You don’t have to trust in yourself; trust in me and everything will be all right!”

Being poor in spirit is having a sense of powerlessness in ourselves in order that God’s power might be manifest in our weakness.  It is a recognition that we are spiritually bankrupt and helpless unless God helps us.  It is an admission of our moral failures and unworthiness.  It is a conviction that if there is to be any true joy or usefulness in life, it will have to be all of God and all of grace.

Needless to say, all this is contrary to the way the world thinks.  Perhaps that is why Jesus concludes the Beatitudes by saying, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  (Matthew 5:11-12)

As with all the Beatitudes, the world will not understand us if we live with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our hearts fixed on heaven.  But the message of Jesus for us is:  Blessed are you!  Because you are going to be comforted.  Fear not, you who are poor in spirit!  For I will be with you.  I will help you.  I will strengthen you.  I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.  Yours is the very kingdom of heaven.

 

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach Invested as the New Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach stands before an applauding congregation of 2,500 at his Investiture on October 9, 2014 at the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia.

On the evening of Thursday, October 9, 2014, the Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach was invested as the new Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America.  A crowd of 2,500 people--bishops, other clergy and laity--participated in a joyous celebration that lasted roughly three and a half hours.

Anglican Primates representing the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide participated in the Investiture. Archbishop Beach was anointed for his office by Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of Kenya, the Chairman of GAFCON.  The Oaths he undertook were administered by Abp. Nicholas Okoh of Nigeria, the Vice-Chairman of GAFCON.  Abp. Stanley Ntgali of Uganda, Abp. Onesiphore Rwaje of Rwanda, Abp. Stephen Than Myint Oo of Myanmar, Abp. Ezekiel Kondo of Sudan, Abp. Mouneer Hanna Anis Presiding Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East and Chairman of the Global South Primates, Abp. Hector Zavala of the Southern Cone, Abp. Ben Kwashi and retired Abp Greg Venables also took part. The Primates of the Congo and Southeast Asia sent representatives.

You can watch an archived video of the investiture at this link.
  

The Heart-Shield Bible and the Destiny of a Nation

by Robert S. Munday
Seventy five years ago, today, on September 3, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation with one of his famous "Fireside Chats" stating his resolve to remain a neutral nation in the war in Europe, which culminated in an American Proclamation of Neutrality declared on September 5th.

However, all of that changed with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In his famous "date which will live in infamy" message to Congress requesting that the United States officially declare war on Japan, President Roosevelt stated, "With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God."

What changed on December 7 was the realization that this war was one that the United States could not avoid.  It was a war against a totalitarian ideology that was bent on world domination if left unstopped, and the outcome would affect the course of human history.  Like another war in which we find ourselves today, it was a war for the soul of the world.

A reflection of President Roosevelt's confidence in God and our military (along with his concern for individual American soldiers) was later evident in what is now known as The Heart-Shield Bible.  These Bibles (used during World War II) were designed to fit securely into the chest pocket of a soldier’s uniform.  The Bibles contained metal plates, securely attached to the front cover of the Bible and could stop a bullet from reaching the soldier's heart.  There were several reported incidents of the Bibles indeed saving a soldier's life.  In the back is a section of psalms and hymns, including “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,”  “America the Beautiful,” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”  In the front, there is a note to the soldiers directly from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 

"As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States.  Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration.  It is a foundation of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul."

Well before America joined World War II, on the 400^th anniversary of the English Bible in 1935, President Roosevelt reminded the nation of the Bible's importance in America's formation and continuance:  

"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. . . . Where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity; where it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed, we have faltered in our way, lost our range finders, and found our progress checked. It is well that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible. The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in the economy of our life as a people."

Can you imagine a president saying that today?   Remember the recent attempt by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to have Gideon Bibles removed from lodgings on US military facilities?  U.S. Navy staff members had already begun the removal of the Bibles when complaints from the American public caused the military to reverse this ill-advised decision.  But the fight continues between those who would keep our nation true to its Judeo-Christian heritage and those who would destroy that heritage and turn our country into a godless, atheistic state.  It is another war for the soul of our country and the world, and the outcome will affect the course of human history.

Consider the following statements by Alexis de Tocqueville, the famous 19th century French statesman, historian and social philosopher.  He traveled to America in the 1830s to discover the reasons for the incredible success of this new nation.   He published his observations in his classic two-volume work, Democracy in America.  He was especially impressed by America's religious character.  Here are some amazingly insightful excerpts from Tocqueville's great work:

Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.

In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.

Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.  Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief.

I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion—for who can search the human heart?  But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.  This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.

In the United States, the sovereign authority is religious...there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

In the United States, the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people...

Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent...

I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.

America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts—the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

Did you notice Tocqueville's warning?  "... if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."   Goodness requires a morality—and morality begins with God.

Some people today view the "culture wars" as not being their fight.  They think they can "sit this one out" and that the United States will somehow be okay and that things will go on more or less as they always have.  I am here to tell you that this is not true.  The "culture wars," as we have come to call them, are a world war—a war for the hearts, minds, and souls of humankind.

There are wars in history that have been pivotal in the course of human civilization:

• The victory of the democratic Greeks over the tyrannical Persians in the Graeco-Persians Wars (499-449 BC) 
• The defeat of Maximian by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312.
• The defeat of the Muslim invaders (the Umayyad Caliphate) by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.
• The defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War, that marked the beginning of the United States as a "a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (and, though Lincoln stopped his quotation from the Declaration of Independence short, that "they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights")—a unique and distinctly theistic beginning, unlike any nation ever brought into being. 
• The defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allied Forces in World War II (1940-1945).
• The defeat of Communism in the Cold War (generally agreed by historians as 1945-1991).

There have been other important victories that have determined the course of history—I have listed only a few of the most important ones.  We do ourselves a dangerous disservice if we underestimate the importance of any of them.

But, whether we are aware of it or not, we are currently engaged in a war is every bit as important as any war that has ever been fought.  Whether those on the side of good win this war will determine the future of human civilization.

We cannot simply "sit this one out."  We must throw off apathy and press on undeterred by the forces of political correctness and worldly compromise.  We must oppose those of any religious establishment, any political party, the "cultural elites," and their allies in the media who would conspire to rob us of our heritage, our faith, and our destiny as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.  So help us God! 

Casting all your cares on him, for He cares for you

by Robert S. Munday+

The challenge each of us continually faces is “Who is in control in my life?”  Is it God or do I have to rely on my own efforts?

If the Lord really is #1 in my life, then I must resist my natural tendency to be afraid.  I can do this by drawing aside from the situation and bringing it to God in prayer.

In Philippians 4:6-7, the Apostle Paul tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

When I quote this passage from memory, I often tend to leave out the words "with thanksgiving."  But those two words are the key.  If we are truly giving thanks for what God has done, it is nearly impossible to doubt what he can and will do in the future.  So those two words, "with thanksgiving" are essential in not being anxious, but in letting our requests be made known to God, or in the words of 1 Peter 5:7, "casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you."

Prayer is our way of saying, “Heavenly Father, I know you love me and I know you want to guide me in the situations where I need your help.”

Jesus didn’t worry.  Instead he used to regularly draw aside to pray—to spend time with his Father.

We, as Jesus' disciples, would do well to follow his example and learn to bring our fears to our loving Heavenly Father.
 

"He ascended into heaven..."

By Robert S. Munday+

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-10).

Where is heaven?  Do you ever stop to think about it?  The Book of Acts tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven.  But where is heaven?

A friend of mine recently reminded me of a little chapel in Walsingham, England, that depicts the Ascension of Christ.  The ceiling of the chapel is painted like the sky with clouds, and sticking out of one of the clouds on the ceiling you can see a pair of feet!

However much we may believe in the Ascension of Christ, illustrations like this chapel ceiling seem quaint and make us laugh.  Skeptics, however, respond to such depictions by dismissing the reality of the Ascension altogether.  Liberal Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, in his article, “A Call for a New Reformation,” says, “The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.”

Similarly, the late Church of England Bishop, John A.T. Robinson said that because of astronomy and space travel we know that heaven and God aren’t “out there;” the place to look for God and heaven is “within.”  Robinson even cites Luke 17:21, “the kingdom of God is within you," in support of his view.  Well, of course, in context, the kingdom of God is at work in us and through us.  But the tendency of Robinson’s view is toward a pantheism which says that the only place God and heaven are to be found is within the creation and within us.

Cardinal John Henry Newman had a different view, which, to my mind, captures the truth quite well.  Commenting on the biblical passages where Jesus says the kingdom of God is “at hand,” Newman says that the kingdom runs alongside our world and is ever near it, and that someday, when we least expect it, our world will resolve itself into the kingdom of God.

Remember that Newman wrote this 100 years before scientists (and science fiction writers) started telling us about “parallel universes.”  Is the kingdom of God a parallel dimension to our own existence?  Perhaps it is.  That is why there may well be unseen angels hovering around us at this very moment.

Of course it entirely sensible that, for the disciples sake and for ours, Jesus is seen ascending into heaven.  For Jesus simply to have disappeared or faded away would have represented dissolution or annihilation.  Jesus ascends to show us he is going to a place—a place from which he will return—a place that is higher, better than where we are.

So where is heaven?  Is it “out there, somewhere?”  Is it above, below, within, or along side us?  The best answer we have concerning heaven is the promise of Jesus:

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:2-3).

Heaven is God the Father’s house—the place where Jesus is and where we will someday be with him.  And if heaven is the place where Jesus is, then—wherever it may be—it will be perfect.
 

The Power of One

By Robert S. Munday+

The Church today would be a different kind of place if it were not for a short, dark-skinned, red-bearded, half hermit who single-handedly fought an empire for the truth of the Gospel.  For much of the fourth century, A.D., it was Athanasius contra mundum—“Athanasius against the world”—and Athanasius won.  

One letter.  To some historians his was a battle not worth fighting.  His argument hung on the stroke of a pen, a single letter, one iota—the Greek letter “i.”  But embedded in that slender distinction was the essence of the Christian faith, and Athanasius would defend it with his life.  “We are contending,” he wrote, “for our all.”

Up to this point, the Church’s major threats had all come from outside—Roman emperors who sought to work their will on Christians who steadfastly maintained that Jesus is Lord and not Caesar, and Greek philosophers who presented questions that the Church, in time, developed the ability to answer.

Bishops, who led God’s people after the death of the apostles, and whose chief duty is to guard the deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, shed much ink—and much blood—defending the ideals and ideas of Christian faith against the heavy tide of a hostile and haughty world.

But by the early 300s, egos and ambitions had begun drawing battle lines within the Church.  Christians were fighting Christians over theological positions.  Most of the differences formed around explanations of the Trinity:  Did Christians worship one God, or three?  Was the Father greater than the Son and Spirit, or equal?

Then around 318 came an upstart church leader named Arius, asking the question to rattle all questions:  Was Jesus even God at all?  

One word.  The distinction boiled down to a single word, distinguished by the single Greek iota we have just mentioned.  Was the Son of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father, or was he merely of a similar substance (homoiousios) as the Father?   It was a controversy that not only occupied the minds of scholars but also the marketplace banter of everyday folk.  It demanded the attention of the Emperor Constantine, who summoned bishops from East and West to an unprecedented gathering in the city of Nicea, in A.D. 325.

When their two month meeting had ended, the resulting creed accurately declared Jesus Christ to be “very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.  Arius was declared a heretic, deposed and disgraced, and everyone assumed that the matter was closed.

Yet the matter continued to confuse and divide.  Constantine, who, like many leaders, valued unity of their institutions over the truth of the Gospel, ordered the new bishop of Alexandria to reinstate Arius as a member in good standing, a sharer in the Church’s communion.  

One man.   But the new bishop was a man named Athanasius, who promptly told the Emperor that he could forget it.  According to one story, Athanasius stopped the Emperor’s procession through the streets one day, grabbing the horses of the Emperor’s carriage by the reins—an act that could have gotten him instantly killed by the Emperor’s guards—in order to warn the great Constantine that these matters of the Christian faith were even greater than he was.

The consequences were that important, and this is why:

• If the Son is a created being, not of the same substance as God, then the Son is not God.
• If the Son is not God, then his birth in the person of Jesus is not the incarnation of God. 
• If God is not truly incarnate in the person of Jesus, then his atoning death is worthless.

“For he alone,” Athanasius wrote, “being Word of the Father and above all, was able to re-create all, and was worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father.  For this purpose the incorruptible word of God entered our world.  The Word is God from God; for ‘the Word was God’” (John 1:1).

 In other words, if Jesus is anything less than God—whether angel, or exalted teacher, or new age cosmic avatar, his death and resurrection cannot be the atoning sacrifice that breaks the curse of human sin.  We can say that Jesus is our Savior, but if the reality of Jesus as God incarnate does not undergird our faith, we are just engaging in wishful thinking.

Naturally, Athansius’ defiance did not win him any friends at the imperial palace.  Constantine’s opinion of the young bishop took such a turn for the worse that he banished him to the uttermost western part of the Empire, sending him from Egypt to Gaul (modern France) in the dead of winter.  It was the first of five exiles he would endure throughout his 45 years as bishop, as he resisted imperial pressure for the sake of the Gospel.

Several emperors came and went during Athanasius’ lifetime, and he would be allowed to return—always to the delight of the people of Alexandria.  But then imperial pressure would heat up again, Athanasius would take his place in the fire, and no one who flinched from the truth of the Gospel would be allowed a moment’s rest in his presence.

Athanasius recognized that the Incarnation is a mystery.  No one could fully understand it.  But there are those whose pride, arrogance, and self-interest would not allow them to believe.  And Athanasius would not keep silent while they robbed God of his power and the Gospel of its truth.  “We take divine Scripture and set it up as a light upon its candlestick, saying: 'very Son of the Father, natural and genuine, proper to His essence, very and only Word of God is He…'  But let them learn that ‘the Word became flesh;’ and let us, retaining the general scope of the faith, acknowledge that what they interpret wrongly has a right interpretation.”

Other bishops, fearing a church split on their hands, pressed the compromise of the homoiousios—that Christ was of similar, and not the same, substance as the Father.  The change in the Greek word was so small—just one letter—that one would hardly notice it, a change in pronunciation so small that those reciting the creed could ignore it.  But to Athanasius it was the difference between life and death.

“God Himself made the decision to take on flesh and to become man and to undergo the death of the Cross, that by faith in Him, all who believe may obtain salvation….  Only so is our salvation fully realized and guaranteed.”

He would die, in 373, before the fruit of his labor could be seen.  But, in 381, bishops at the Council of Constantinople would uphold the doctrine of the deity of Christ that Athanasius taught.  The Nicene Creed would survive as the accepted understanding of the Trinity and of the Person of Christ.  The Church would go on, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to proclaim a pure Gospel to this day—because of the power of one letter, one word, and one man to demonstrate that the truth matters.
  

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross"

By Robert S. Munday

Working on a sermon for last Sunday, I was once again struck by this precious truth regarding the work of Christ for our salvation from the Epistle lesson (1 Peter 2:24): 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Over the years I have been surprised and saddened at the number of learned individuals and clergy whose educations had taught them to hold the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ for our sins in disdain.

It seems that the denials I have encountered are from individuals who find it hard to believe that God has a righteous indignation (wrath) toward our sins that needs to be assuaged; and that there is a justice in God that needs atonement in order to forgive our sins.

But what do verses such as these say to us?

For Christ also suffered [died] once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit... (1 Peter 3:18).

It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Romans 4:24-25).

 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

What do the redemptive analogies of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12) and the Scapegoat (Leviticus 16:9-10) teach us?  That, like the Passover Lamb and the Scape goat, Christ took the penalty for our sins that we might live.

Make no mistake, the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins is the heart of the Gospel message, and if it is not the heart of your theology and your personal beliefs, you are in big trouble.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God (Romans 7:4).

This is our only hope.  And if you are one of those who has been led to think differently about the meaning of Christ's death and your salvation, then I warmly encourage you to enter into a fresh contemplation of what Jesus did for you on the Cross.

Recommended books:

• John Stott, The Cross of Christ (also available for Kindle and as an audiobook).
• Peter Taylor Forsyth, The Cruciality of the Cross (a reprint of a 1908 classic, also available for Kindle).

 

Yes, in Montrose

By Robert S. Munday+

[This is a reprint of an article I wrote for my personal blog on April 27, 2014.]

It has been a remarkable week.  Following a glorious Holy Week and Easter at All Saints Anglican Church, I went across the line into Utah for a couple of days of sightseeing in Monument Valley and Arches National Park and returned home in time to get ready for another remarkable weekend.

On Friday evening, Chris and I were guests of the Gideons International for one of their conventions or, in Gideon parlance, an "encampment."  Most people know the Gideons for the Bibles they place in hotel rooms or the pocket New Testaments they give to students around the US.  But the Gideons are truly international, currently publishing the Bible in 94 languages (with more translations in progress) and distributing them in 197 countries.  Last year they gave away more than 84 million Bibles.  (That is more than two Bibles given away every second.)  Do you ever wonder if those Bibles placed in hotel rooms and given to students actually have an impact in leading people to Christ?  Yes they do; and the Gideons have plenty of testimonies of changed lives to prove it.

We were blessed to hear a banquet address by the International President of the Gideons, Dr. William Thomas, a physician and surgeon from Sheffield, UK.  In his address, Dr. Thomas mentioned his friendship with Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, and the fact that Abp. Kwashi's conversion to Christianity came from an encounter with a Gideon Bible.  I was one of Ben Kwashi's examiners when he completed his DMin degree at Trinity School for Ministry.  Later, after I was Dean and President at Nashotah House, we conferred an honorary D.D. degree on Ben--a great man of God and a dynamic witness to the Gospel in an area of Nigeria where martyrdom is an almost daily possibility.  As the only Anglican clergyman in the banquet hall of 1000 people, I couldn't help but reflect on how amazing it was to be here in Western Colorado, listening to a speaker from the UK tell about his friend from Nigeria who I had known since my days on a seminary faculty in Pennsylvania.  But that is the sort of thing that seems to happen regularly since I moved to Montrose.

This spring I am taking the course Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.  Although I have a doctoral minor in Missiology and have taught Missions at the seminary level, I have never had the opportunity to take the Perspectives course.  Montrose, population 18,000, hosts the Perspectives course every 18 to 24 months.  No other town this size in the United States (that isn't a suburb in a larger metropolitan area) even manages to host the Perspectives course, much less to host it so frequently.

Several churches in the Montrose area (Colorado's "Western Slope" of the Rockies) got together and decided to underwrite the entire cost of a Bible translation for the Mepha'a tribe--an unreached people group in southern Mexico.  It is called the Western Slope Bible Translation Project, and is a groundbreaking approach to funding new translations by the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

I am blessed to serve a remarkable congregation.  Among the members are three other Anglican priests (one ACNA, one PEAR-USA, and one REC) and their wives.  Professors from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia and Trinity, Ambridge, PA own houses here and are a part of our congregation during sabbaticals and vacations.  Another local professor who is a permanent resident of Montrose, who also teaches for TSM and San Francisco Theological Seminary, and his wife make our congregation their home and bless us with their gifts in teaching, spiritual direction, and music. 

We have five teams of musicians, including a wind ensemble, who provide our worship music on weekends.  A higher percentage of our congregation is involved in music ministry than any other congregation I know.  Through a program known as Community Options, our musicians provide a program of music therapy for developmentally challenged adults in Montrose.  They perform together in a group known as Joyful Sounds.  One of the things that impressed me most when I interviewed here (in addition to the generally high level of volunteerism) was this group of musicians, several of them with advanced degrees, devoting their time to helping developmentally challenged adults make music--and having fun doing it!  That kind of humility and selflessness speaks volumes.

This morning my colleague, who is a postulant for the vocational diaconate, preached at our 8am and 10am services.  She has taken her course in Introduction to the Old Testament and is now enrolled in the New Testament course in the Diocese of Quincy's St. Benedict School for Ministry, which I have had a part in founding.  Having spent more than 30 years in seminary education, I can attest that most of the three-year MDiv graduates I have known couldn't have preached a sermon that handled the Scriptures as clearly and as well.  I am blessed and gratified to have her as a colleague in ministry.

Montrose probably has more non-profit organizations per capita than any other city in North America.  Members of All Saints Anglican Church have been involved in founding Haven House, Christ's Kitchen and other ministries.  Habitat for Humanity's Montrose operation dwarfs that of many larger cities.  The congregation's latest initiative is a community garden on acreage behind our church, designed to be an outreach to lower-income individuals in our community. 

This afternoon, Chris and I attended the closing service of Kairos Prison Ministry weekend at the Delta Correctional Center.  Men from All Saints and other Montrose churches selflessly devote their time to providing Christian discipleship among the prison population.  One of the first events to which Chris and I were invited after arriving in Montrose was a concert at the Montrose Pavilion by alumni of the Kairos program--men whose lives had been transformed returning to say thanks and give testimonies about the ministry that had introduced them to the Savior who had changed their lives.

Tomorrow, a local Christian businessman and philanthropist has invited me to have lunch with missiologist and author Don Richardson, author of such books as Peace Child, and Eternity in Their Hearts.  Richardson, who is in demand as a speaker all over the world, is spending this week preaching in churches and teaching in Montrose.  Yes, in Montrose.

Next Saturday, Christians from all over Montrose will take part in ShareFest.  This annual initiative mobilizes churches in local communities in an effort to show the love of Jesus Christ in in tangible ways, undertaking jobs of maintenance and repairs in schools and parks, and performing other tasks for folks unable to do for themselves.  Once the smallest community in the United States to begin a ShareFest, Montrose now attracts one of the largest number of volunteers proportionate to its population.  And so it goes.

People have asked why, after 30 years in theological education and involvement in the larger church, I came to Montrose.  To be honest, I can't say I have always known the answer to that question.  But God did.  

"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31a). 

 

“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

The Second Sunday of Easter – John 20:19-31

We read in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent Me; even so I am sending you.”  And, earlier, in John 17:18, we read Jesus’ words to the Father: “As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

John Chapter 1 tells us, “He came to His own and His own received Him not.”  As Jesus sends us out, and as we seek to minister for Him, we sometimes encounter the same rejection.

They plotted against Jesus.  So it sometimes happens to us.  He had no permanent home.  Sometimes we are called to experience that too.  They trumped up false charges against Jesus.  So it sometimes is with us.  They whipped and mocked Him.  Some of us may face that degree of opposition and persecution.  Jesus died after three years’ ministry.  None of us knows how long we may have.

But there is a worse danger than any of these.  In the mid-16th century, Francis Xavier (1506-1552), a Jesuit missionary, wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Indonesia) about the perils of his mission to China.  He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy and love of God…  To distrust Him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers can hinder us in the slightest degree.

The greatest danger anyone who is on a mission from God can face is to distrust the mercy and love of God.  If we can avoid that danger—if we can keep our trust in God’s love and mercy, then all other dangers lose their sting.  God causes every arrow of the enemy to become a scepter in our hand.

John W. Alexander, who was for 20 years president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, said, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”  That is the same assurance we find in Scripture—a promise to all who follow and serve Christ.

From the time of His temptation in the wilderness to his agonizing decision in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus escaped the danger of distrust.  Therefore, God has highly exalted Him!

All of us who know the Lord are on a mission for Him.  This is now our life and our calling.  “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

Whether our calling is to a foreign mission field or someplace much closer to home, spiritual assaults and opposition mean that our mission is still dangerous—and that the greatest danger is distrusting God’s love and mercy.  If we succumb to this distrust, all is lost.  But if we are victorious here, we know the true joy of life in Him; and nothing can harm us for all eternity.

 

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

by Robert S. Munday+

No matter how hard I try to think of an alternative, I can’t escape the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in the history of the world—except, perhaps, for one other event, the one that happened three days earlier—namely, his death. 

So what I would like to do is ponder two events with you from Matthew 28:  (1) that Jesus was crucified; and (2) that Jesus has risen from the dead and is alive and will be with us to the end of the age and for all eternity.  There would have been no need for the resurrection if Jesus had not died; and there would be no saving significance to His death if He did not rise.  Both are utterly crucial. 

I.  Jesus Has Been Crucified – The time is early Sunday morning.  Mary Magdalene and the other women have come to the tomb of Jesus.  They see an angel whose appearance is like lightning (Matthew 28:3).  Then, according to Matthew 28:5-6, “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.’”  This is the first important fact in this text: “Jesus has been crucified.” 

Jesus said to His disciples several times that this was His destiny.  For instance, in Matthew 17:22-23: “Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.’”  In Acts 4:27-28, the disciples prayed these words to God: “Truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan predestined to take place.”  The death of Jesus was not an accident or merely the result of a great injustice.  It was the plan of God.

This is the teaching that runs throughout the New Testament:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16).  “[God did] not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).  Jesus was crucified by design, not by accident. 

II.  He Is Risen – But the Cross of Christ can’t be precious to us if Jesus is still dead.  So the resurrection of Jesus is just as crucial as his crucifixion.  And so we see the second important claim of this Gospel passage: “The angel said to Mary and the others, ‘He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.  Come; see the place where He was lying.’” 

The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates His triumph over death and His authority over all things.  From there He works out His saving purposes in the world—with authority over all nations and industry and business and science and education and entertainment and weather and stars and light and energy and life and death.  He is Lord over all; and His purposes and His promises cannot fail.  And, as we are in Him and living for Him, He is with us—in all His majesty and power and authority—to the end of the age.

Why do we veil the Cross during Lent?

The Rev. Timothy Fountain, writing on the website Stand Firm explains:

Thoughts on veiled crosses

Some of you veiled your church’s crosses at the start of Lent.  Others waited until Holy Week.  Or maybe it’s not a custom where you are.

I muse on the practice from time to time.  There’s a certain contradiction or at least irony in the tradition.  We are proclaiming the cross, after all, and with intensity in Lent and Holy Week as we look at the burden of our sins and the Lord’s gift of his body and blood for the forgiveness of same.  Good Friday comes with a rubric, "If desired, a wooden cross may now be brought into the church and placed in the sight of the people," and some anthems, including

We glory in your cross, O Lord,
and praise and glorify your holy resurrection;
for by virtue of your cross
joy has come to the whole world.

So why veil what we’re so busy exalting?

My working answer is that veiling the cross does exalt it, via a negative path.  Hiding it reveals a tremendous absence, “What if the cross of Christ never existed?  What if that reference point didn’t exist for our understanding of life?  What if that sign never intruded into history and culture?”

I worked questions like those into a Lenten sermon decades ago.  I still remember a woman who came up after and said, “I felt all the air go out of the church when I thought about those questions you asked.  They were terrifying.”

So there’s power in veiling crosses for Lent.  It intensifies big questions, “What if we are left in our sins and our own self-justifying efforts to ‘balance them out?’  What if there’s no decisive God-given remedy for the human dilemma?” 

And in aggravating that tension, the veiled cross sets up the strong medicine of Good Friday and the glorious recovery announced at Easter,

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Romans 6:6-11 ESV

A Savior, Not a Genie

Palm Sunday
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66
by Robert S. Munday

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 — “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Jesus’ triumphal entry fulfilled many prophecies—prophecies of the coming Messiah—prophecies of the Son of David coming to claim His Kingdom.  When the week got worse; and, of course, we know it got much worse, He fulfilled other prophecies—prophecies about His death, such as those from Isaiah that tell us the meaning of what He would do for us:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But here is where Jesus ran into trouble: In fulfilling these prophecies, Jesus failed to fulfill the expectations of the people.  Jesus had performed many miracles, healed many people, and raised the dead.  The people must have been waiting for a showdown.  Surely the obnoxiously pious Pharisees, corrupt old King Herod, even the oppressive Romans were no match for Him.  Even their cry “Hosanna,” which is a cry of praise, is a Hebrew expression of praise to a Savior.  The word means, literally, “Save!” or “Save us now!”

They were looking for someone to free them from their political and religious oppression.  When, four days later, Jesus was arrested and stood mute before the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate, the people realized they had lost their “hero” and turned on Him.  And when asked by Pilate to choose, they shouted, “Give, us Barabbas!”—a murderer.  They—and, unfortunately, people today—rejected Jesus because He was not the kind of salvation they were looking for.

If salvation were like finding a lamp with a genie inside who gave people three wishes, people would become Christians in droves.

But what do you think they would wish for?  Probably things like becoming the richest, the most powerful, and the most attractive.

What would we have? ...a world full of people trying to become the richest, the most powerful, and the most attractive.  It wouldn’t be any different than what we have now, would it?

Some might choose to live forever—still lost, alienated from God, dead in their trespasses and sins.  But Jesus is not the genie who would give us three wishes and leave us lost in our sins, nor the kind of savior who would let us live forever, alienated from God.  He is the Savior who died for our sins that we might be united with God and live with Him forever.

Lazarus' Resurrection and Ours – John 11:1-45

by Robert S. Munday+
 
Resurrection and eternal life are not blessings laid up for us in some remote future: they are present.  When Jesus said to Martha, “Your brother will rise again,” she answered, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”—meaning that this was a small consolation.  There was her brother lying in the tomb dead.  This meant that he would never again live in the home they shared, never again exchange a loving word or joyful moment.  What comfort is there to sustain Mary and Martha now that he is gone?

If you have ever known parents who have lost a child, it is an especially tragic occurrence—to lose a child who they can hardly bear to have out of their sight for a whole day, about whom they become concerned if he or she is even an hour late coming home; it is perhaps the worst pain one can experience in this life.  It is no doubt some comfort to be told that they will someday be reunited—but not much.

This is not the comfort Jesus gives Martha.  He comforts her, not by pointing to some far- off event that is vague and remote, but to His own living person, who she sees, and knows and trusts.  Jesus assures her that resurrection and life are in Him, and that all who belong to Him, while they might suffer for a moment in death, will not be harmed by death but merely changed.  And, because of Him, they will live forever.

I have a friend who used to e-mail his friends each day a humorous excerpt from a book known as The Grim Reaper’s Book of Days.  The entry for Nov. 3 says: “On this date in A.D. 60, according to Church tradition, Lazarus, friend of Jesus, died—again.”  We tend to forget about that last part don’t we?

The Bible says that for the sake of love—not just love for Lazarus, but out of love for Mary and Martha—and for everyone who hears or reads this story until Jesus comes again, Jesus demonstrated the power of God and raised Lazarus from the dead.  That is, Jesus brought Lazarus back from infinite joy in the presence of God to resume a life fraught with sin and sickness, stress and frustration—and, in the end, to face the horrible enemy of death a second time.

My conclusion is this: God loved Lazarus and his family and took him out of heaven in order to show the power of Christ over death.  And God loves all of us enough to take us out of this world—at the end of our lives or at Jesus’ return—to show that Christ is Lord over life and death, and time and eternity.  At the last day, He will resurrect us, not merely resuscitate us into our old bodies to have to die again like Lazarus, but to give us immortal bodies like His own resurrection body, to live with Him forever in the kingdom and in a new heaven and a new earth.  And, because Jesus is truly Lord, He calls us to believe in Him, to treasure Him above all things, and to live lives that give Him glory.

What’s the Place of the Bible in American Christianity? Surprising Results from a New Survey

There are some surprising results from a new survey on Americans' use of the Bible.  The complete 44-page report is worth reading in full, but they’ve nicely summarized some of the most interesting findings.  Here are a few of the findings that jump out from the survey report:

• There is a 50/50 split among Americans who read any form of scripture in the past year and those who did not. Among those who did, women outnumber men, older people outnumber younger people, and Southerners exceed those from other regions of the country.
• Among those who read any form of scripture in the past year, 95% named the Bible as the scripture they read. All told, this means that 48% of Americans read the Bible at some point in the past year. Most of those people read at least monthly, and a substantial number—9% of all Americans—read the Bible daily.
• Despite the proliferation of Bible translations, the King James Version is the top choice—and by a wide margin—of Bible readers.
• Half of those who read the Bible in the past year also committed scripture to memory. About two-thirds of congregations in America hold events for children to memorize verses from the Bible.
• Among Bible readers, about half had a favorite book, verse, or story. Psalm 23, which begins, “The Lord is my shepherd…” was cited most often, followed by John 3:16.
• Bible readers consult scripture for personal prayer and devotion three times more than to learn about culture war issues such as abortion, homosexuality, war, or poverty.

Read it all.

So, What IS an Anglican?

Wondering who we are and what we stand for? 

All Saints Anglican Church is a continuation of a Christian congregation dating back to the early 20th Century in Montrose.  We are the recent descendent congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and separated from that body and their national affiliate in 2009 over issues of Biblical orthodoxy and faithfulness to the standard of Christian teaching inherited from the early church.

“The  Anglican  Church  is  accurately  described  as  a  `liturgical  church'  and  our  worship  is  entirely liturgical.  Liturgy  is  `Active  and  Participatory'  involving  the  active  participation  of  the  whole congregation  through  corporate  forms  of  prayer,  song,  response,  and  action.”

Bishop Alberto Morales

“Anglican Christians believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that accepting Him as Savior is the only way to abundant life in the present age and the age to come.

Anglican Christians are evangelical Christians.  We believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it has unique authority in our lives.  As Biblically-faithful Anglicans, our churches teach the whole Bible and how it applies to our daily lives.  We believe that God's love for the whole world, expressed in Jesus Christ, is Good News that we are called to share with everyone.

Anglican Christians are catholic Christians.  We are part of a worldwide church of more than 80 million people that grew out of the Church of England.  We are united to each other and to the broader Christian tradition by a shared way of worship, church order, and the celebration and sharing of the sacraments, especially Baptism and Holy Communion.

Anglican Christians are charismatic Christians.  We believe that the Holy Spirit is active in believers, enabling, teaching, healing, and calling us to love our neighbors and change the world.”

Archbishop Robert Duncan

One of our Bishops, Todd Hunter, in response to a recent question: why is Anglicanism relevant today?

"Everybody says they are spiritual today, but not many people look to Church as a fountain from which to drink to quench their spiritual thirst.  We must show them ancient wells and the connectivity that goes back to Celtic Christianity, and that there are ways that Christians have formed themselves in Christ.

Anglicanism gives a basic worldview on how to shape your life.  The church calendar builds into your life this imagination for what God is doing.  The prayers of confession keep you grounded.  The creed gives you a way to profess what you believe in your own life.  The rhythm in the routines of Anglican spirituality can lead people to Jesus who is the well from which we can drink and never thirst again. If people are plugged into this, Anglicanism can be very powerful today."

Thus,  All Saints congregation is a group of Christian folks worshiping together in a spirit of praise, in the context of liturgical practice, and guided by God's Holy Word.  If you are looking for a stable and enthusiastic group of Christians, who seek to serve God, serve others, and serve the needs of the world, then maybe you are just made for our flavor of Christian fellowship. Come worship with us and see.

All Saints Anglican Church -- Reaching out with the Transforming Love of Jesus Christ

"But now I have a river that carries me."

Posted by Robert S. Munday

The year was 1871. Dwight Lyman Moody, who had arrived in Chicago in 1856, had gone from being a shoe salesman and Sunday School teacher at Plymouth Congregational Church to become the pastor of his own congregation. The Illinois Street Church quickly grew to be a great church. The building seated 2500; and, in those days when there was very little in the way of wholesome activities to occupy people in the evenings, the church held services that were filled almost every night.

Moody had gained an international reputation. Still in his thirties, he had been invited to preach in prestigious churches in New York City. He had met the great British pastor, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and had preached in England. His popularity was growing and invitations to preach all over the world were increasing. Many pastors would have been satisfied. They would have said it was enough.

But Moody was restless, feeling that there had to be something more. On top of that, he became increasingly dissatisfied with his own preaching, realizing that it was not as effective as it once had been.

God intervened in Moody's life through two women: Sarah Anne Cooke, a Free Methodist who had recently immigrated from England, and her friend, Mrs. Hawxhurst. Mrs. Cooke had attended a camp meeting in the summer of 1871 and reported that, "a burden came on me for Mr. Moody, that the Lord would baptize him with the Holy Spirit and with fire." She soon enlisted her friend, Mrs. Hawxhurst, and the two began to pray for Moody.

The two ladies began sitting on the front row every time Moody preached. At the conclusion of each service they would say, "Good night, Mr. Moody. We're praying for you." This began to bother Moody. One evening, he asked the two ladies, "Why are you praying for me? Why don't you pray for sinners to come to the Lord?" The ladies responded, "We're praying for you because you need the power of the Holy Spirit." Disgusted, Moody muttered through his beard, "I need the power?"

The two ladies continued to sit on the front row, and Moody became increasingly irritated. Finally he invited them to his home to talk with them. When they met, the women poured out their hearts in prayer, asking God to fill Moody with the power of the Holy Spirit. Unexpectedly, Moody's attitude changed and a great hunger formed in his soul. He asked the ladies to pray with him in his office each Friday afternoon. On Friday, October 6, 1871, as Mrs. Cooke later reported, "Mr. Moody's agony was so great that he rolled on the floor and in the midst of many tears and groans cried to God that he would be baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

That Sunday evening, October 8, a capacity crowd filled the church. As Ira Sankey sang "Today the Savior Calls," the commotion of fire bells and the clattering of horse-drawn fire company wagons could be heard outside. Those who went outside saw a disturbing red glow in the southwestern sky. Inside, Moody dismissed the meeting and sent people to their homes. The winds picked up to a gale force and the red glow rapidly grew nearer. It was what is known today as "The Great Chicago Fire." The fire raged for two days and destroyed several square miles, encompassing all of downtown Chicago, including Moody's church, his home, and the dwellings of most of his members.

Moody could not look to his congregation for help in rebuilding the church. In a day when property insurance was rare, they had lost their homes as well. Moody was forced to travel to cities from coast to coast to solicit help from Christian leaders and philanthropists to aid his congregation and to rebuild their church.

One day, after calling on some Christian benefactors in New York City, Moody was walking down the street, tired and discouraged. Reflecting that he had certainly been "baptised with fire," he began to wonder about the Holy Spirit. Suddenly an overpowering sense of God's presence came upon him. Hailing a passing horse-drawn cab, he gave the driver the address of a family he knew lived nearby. Arriving at the house, he declined his friend's invitation to come in and share dinner, saying urgently, "I wish to be alone. Let me have a room where I can lock myself in."

His understanding friend quickly showed him to a room at the rear of the house and closed the door behind him. Moody stretched prostrate on the floor as wave after wave of God's love and power flooded his soul. More than two hours passed. Moody lay still, both unable and unwilling to move. Of this mountaintop experience, Moody would later write, "I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that, at last, I had to ask God to stay his hand or else I could not have stood it."

Friends later said of Moody that his resolute will and determination came under new management that day, as God remolded him and left him as gentle and tender as a baby. Moody wouldn't try to choose his own path any longer; he would leave everything up to God. Moody remarked thankfully, "I was all the time carrying water. But now I have a river that carries me."

Moody, who was considered by all who knew him to be a great man of God, became fully God's man that day. And Moody, who was already a great pastor, went on to be the evangelist who led over a million souls to Christ.

What can God do with us? What does God want to do with us? We will only know when listen to God like Sarah Anne Cooke and when we are as fully surrendered and filled with God's Holy Spirit as Dwight L. Moody was.

---------------
Additional References:

• Dwight L. Moody (from Wholesome Words).


• Ira D. Sankey (from Wholesome Words).


• Duewel, Wesley L., "Dwight Lyman Moody," in Heroes of the Holy Life. Zondervan, 2002.


• Harvey, Bonnie C., D.L. Moody, The American Evangelist. Barbour Publishing, 1997.