Seven whole days

This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XIX: Of the Church
The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.

This Article, of course, provides the justification for the Reformation itself. The Church, it claims, is present when God’s word is correctly proclaimed and the sacraments are rightly offered. If these conditions are not present, then neither is the Church present. In order to free itself from the error of the Church of Rome, the Church in England needed to assert its independence and to restore the Gospel. You see the same sorts of arguments playing out today in lots of places, not least within the Anglican Communion. Some will say, “your church has erred, and so we must distance ourselves from you”.

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This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XVIII: Of obtaining eternal salvation only by the name of Christ
They also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out to us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.

“He is a good person, but he just practices his own spirituality.” I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that one. Of course, the person in question may well be a good person. This Article says nothing about one’s goodness apart from faith in Christ. But it does say that the selfward spiritual person is not going to be saved.

Plenty of ink has been spilled on the topic of whether non-Christians can be saved. I won’t carry on that particular conversation here, other than to note a couple of things. First, perhaps Rahner is right, and there are “anonymous Christians.” Perhaps he’s wrong, and John 3 and John 14 are to be taken at face value: failure to believe in Christ means a quick one-way ticket to hell.

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This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XVII: Of predestination and election.
Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, He hath constantly decreed by His counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation as vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit working in due season; they through grace obey the calling; they be justified freely; they be made sons of God by adoption; they be made like the image of His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ; they walk religiously in good works; and at length by God’s mercy they attain to everlasting felicity.

As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feeling in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God: so for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God’s Predestination is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into desperation or into wretchlessness of most unclean living no less perilous than desperation.

Furthermore, we must receive God’s promises in such wise as they be generally set forth in Holy Scripture; and in our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expressly declared unto us in the word of God.

When is the last time you heard a sermon on predestination? Unless you are hanging out in a seriously Calvinist congregation, I’m guessing it’s been a while. In fact, many Anglicans who have not read the 39 Articles (yes, I am told some people have not studied these things) may not know that belief in predestination is even a part of our Anglican theological heritage.

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I’m procrastinating today’s installment on the 39 Articles series (guess it wasn’t meant to be just yet), so here’s a little something. You know the obnoxious/interesting Nokia ringtone? Well, here’s a fugue on that subject:

If you want to hear it on piano and see the score, there’s an alternate version. There are lessons to be learned here about making ordinary things extraordinary, I think.

Wave of the baton to Facebook friend Christopher Johnson, who linked to this piece.

This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XVI: Of sin after baptism
Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent

These days, most Episcopalians will likely scratch their heads after reading this one. Well of course people can sin after baptism and be forgiven. It seems like a no brainer. Well, not so fast. I once had a friend who is a conservative fundamentalist. He maintained that once you were baptized, you were saved, and that you could do anything you wanted and still “get into heaven.” That seems like a strange position to take — not much like the Jesus of the bible. Jesus asks us to follow him, not to complete a sacramental check box and then do whatever we want.

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This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XV: Of Christ alone without sin
Christ in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except, from which He was clearly void, both in His flesh and in His spirit. He came to be the lamb without spot, Who by sacrifice of Himself once made, should take away the sins of the world: and sin, as S. John saith, was not in Him. But all we the rest, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things: and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Finally, we catch a break from faith vs. works in our tour of the 39 Articles. This Article makes a fairly simple and uncontroversial assertion: Christ was without sin, the only human being to have been so blessed. Yes, I said human being. This Article particularly asserts, rightly so, that Christ’s full humanity, not just his divinity, was without sin.

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The bishops of the Episcopal Church are meeting this weekend — no doubt doing all manner of important bishopy things. Dave Walker has an artist’s rendering of what they’re probably up to, in case you are curious.

A major topic of this spring’s meeting is younger folks in the church. My hope is that the bishops will pay attention to good advice, and NOT try this strategy:

Tip of the mitre to The Sacred Sandwich.

This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XIV: Of works of supererogation
Voluntary works besides, over and above, God’s commandments which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. For by them men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but that they do more for His sake than of bounden duty is required: Whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to do, say, We be unprofitable servants.

Hey, guess what? It’s another Article about works! Only this one is about super-works. Supererogation is one of those fancy words you learn in seminary, along with classics such as infralapsarian, deontological, and homoousiontastic. Basically, today’s fancy word is about the desire of some folks to go above and beyond the call in sinful and unhealthy ways.

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This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XIII: Of works before justification.
Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.

Seriously? We have to talk about works and faith some more? (Don’t look now, but it’s coming tomorrow too!) Clearly the issues of works vs. faith were a big deal in the 16th century. Why else would the topic get a bunch of Articles? Have a look at yesterday’s post to read some ramblings on works vs. faith.

Today’s Article takes a bold line: works done before justification “are not pleasant to God”. It seems harsh, but to argue the opposite claim might allow one to suggest that you can earn your way into God’s good graces apart from life in Christ. What the Article is saying is that even though you might be “a good person”, without Christ you are toast. More specifically, you are toast that is burnt badly, forever.

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No, these are not Lent-crazed worshipers dancing in a cloud of purple incense. They are Hindus celebrating the festival of Holi. Check out The Big Picture for some striking and beautiful photos of people who know how to celebrate. I’m thinking it’s time to kick it up a notch from just wearing red clothes on the Day of Pentecost.

This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XII: Of good works
Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God’s judgement, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.

This Article is the sequel to the previous Article on justification. You might even call this Soteriology Week here on 7WD. Woo hoo! Yes, friends, we’re here to talk about salvation again. Today we dig into “good works” a bit.

As I wrote yesterday, we must remember that good works are not what puts us right with God. Getting right with God is what justification accomplishes, and that is God’s free gift to us. Good works flow from true faith. In other words, when we get right with God, we start doing good things.

This one plays itself out in all sorts of ways. In pastoral contexts, people imagine that God is a cosmic scorekeeper, giving you lots of red lights if you swore too much, and perhaps rewarding you with a good parking space for a donation to a homeless person. In that world, you’ll never come out ahead. Fortunately, we don’t have to DO things to get on God’s good side.

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This post is part of a Lenten series on the 39 Articles.

Article XI: Of the justification of man
We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.

Martin Luther had a charming image to describe justification. He said we humans are like piles of dung covered by snow. We look good from the outside, but inside we’re just dung. Human nature, wrecked by original sin, is dung. We are justified, and that’s the snow which makes us look and seem OK.

It’s commonplace to say that context is everything. For me, this image of snow and dung is hardly inspiring. Perhaps it was very effective in 16th century Germany. We can just be glad that Thomas Cranmer didn’t include this imagery in the Great Litany or something.

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