In the Name of the Living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let me ask you a question. What do folks like T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis, have in common with musicians like Purcell and Benjamin Britten? What do George Washington and King George III, and all of us here today, have in common?
I’ll tell you what I’m thinking about: we’ve all been nourished by the very same words from the Book of Common Prayer – we’ve all heard her collects, liturgies and cadences. The Prayer Book tradition, as you probably know, was born in 1549, when Archbishop Thomas Cranmer published it for use in the Church of England.
My friend, Bp. Tony Burton, who serves with me at the Anglican Digest, captures it this way:
George Washington and thirty-one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who stood up to the British Crown, prayed from the Prayer Book, as did George III who opposed them. Hugh Latimer, Lancelot Andrews, Nicholas Farrar, Charles Simeon, John and Charles Wesley, Edward Pusey, Evelyn Underhill, Austin Farrar, C.S. Lewis all served their Lord in this spiritual tradition, and each made his or her distinctive contribution to it.
Even the New Yorker, which is just about as secular as you can get, reminded us a few years ago that:
People who have never read the Book of Common Prayer know the phrase ‘moveable feast,’ [and] the solemn warning of the marriage service: “If either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in Matrimony, ye do now confess it.” The same is true of the vows the couple speak to each other: “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part…”
When did you first hear the words of the Book of Common Prayer?
I first heard what I now recognize as the Prayer Book long before I could actually read the Book of Common Prayer. And, that’s because my mom was, and is, a huge Anglophile.
When I was a young whipper snapper – let’s call it five or six years old – she got the idea that we should watch English history documentaries as “one, big, happy family” on Sunday nights. Back then documentaries taped in England didn’t even work on American VHS players, so she actually bought the English equivalent of a VHS tape-player and had that contraption shipped all the way from the U.K. to Liden, Alabama. I bet it was and remains the only time a tape-player was shipped from England to an address in Linden, Alabama!
And she was very serious about watching those tapes. My mom was never mean to me as a kid, but the only time I can remember her shouting “shut-up” to me was when I interrupted during a scene from those blessed documentaries. And that’s where I first heard about the Book of Common Prayer.
But this homily is not an ode to the Prayer Book, as much as I love it. And the Prayer Book Tradition isn’t worth describing this morning just because it’s been used by a bunch of famous people and has some memorable phrases I had to endure at a young age.
The Book of Common Prayer has lasting efficacy – it has real God-given power – because its foundation is based not on human genius or imagination, but upon Holy Scripture itself:
BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
When you first started coming to Redeemer – or even if you’re visiting for the first time today – you probably didn’t pick this parish because Yelp and TripAdvisor described us as a bonafide “Bible Church.”
But, au contraire, mon ami, you’re at mass today in a parish based on the Living Jesus revealed in Holy Scripture. This is a bible church if I’ve ever seen one!
But, when you hear someone, especially a priest, say the word “bible,” what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Tragically, research shows that you think someone is getting ready to lecture you or admonish you – you know, talk down to you. My own experience is even worse; I’ve been in a few so-called Christian settings where Holy Scripture was used to condemn, manipulate and even mislead people. This is a great evil.
If you hear the word “bible” – or “Holy Scripture” – and you immediately tighten-up or feel guilt and anxiety, or even ignorance and embarrassment, will you lend me your ear? I want to assuage your anxiety.
In this book – the greatest of all books – you and I have the boldest vision of love ever recorded. We have the daring story of a loving God, who created the universe, who made covenant with His people, who called them time and time again into that covenant for their own good, who took on flesh to prove His love, who ministered and show us a new way of life, who died to atone for our sins, who went six rounds with death and the grave just to defeat it forever, who walked out that grave so that we can walk out of our own graves, who takes away the sins of the world, who can remove guilt, who can heal us, who can deliver us from the hand of our enemies, who can bind up the broken-hearted, who gives us hope, who gives us courage, who gives us boldness to proclaim His mighty saving acts!
At Redeemer we are proud stewards of this bold, biblical tradition of deliverance and grace. Over the next few weeks you and I will be discerning together just how bold He is calling us to be in 2019, as we claim a bold faith for a bold year of mission and ministry.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Charleston Wilson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
26th Sunday after Pentecost
18 November 2018