A year or so ago I attended a celebration at Lambeth Palace. Besides the archbishop, there were many other bishops present and guests from all around the world. All there to honour a frail 90 year old gentleman who had them all in awe. Kenneth Cragg is the leading scholar in the world today on Islam and Christian mission in the Arab world. He has written 30 books, all of them classics using a typewriter. His words are so distilled you have to read each sentence several times to have any hope of understanding its meaning. After the Archbishop and various Bishops had expressed their appreciation, Kenneth spoke with humility and erudition about his love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He summed up his long life, his academic studies, his contribution to our understanding of Islam and interfaith relations in one sentence – “Confronted by the love of Christ, we have no choice.” I like that because it sums up why we are here, I hope: Confronted by the love of Christ we have no choice. No choice but to serve the one who in loving service gave his life to set us free. Serve the one who in loving service forgave our sins, who in loving service gave us eternal life. The apostle Paul explains it like this, “For Christ’s love compels us.” (2 Corinthians 5:14) For Christ’s love compels us. That is why we serve and that is why we are here.
On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus, “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5). Then, “when he had finished washing their feet [all 24], he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them” (John 13:12). Do you understand what Christ has done for you? Lets look at these verses in a little more detail for Jesus has provided us with a model.
On Sunday 1st February, during the most popular US TV programme of the year, the Super Bowl, a controversial advert was aired. The NFL and NBC both felt it was inappropriate but local affiliates in Texas decided that $250,000 for a 30-second spot was too much to turn down. The commercial advertised an online dating service for… married people. It showed a couple at a restaurant on their wedding anniversary. The man was an obnoxious jerk who talked on the cell phone al through the supper. Then, he got up to leave during dessert, and said, “Happy anniversary, honey.” The voice-over, targeted at women, asked, “Isn’t it time for Ashley Madison?” Their website promises “Have an affair…guaranteed”. The company owner defended the ad by noting he was simply providing a service for people wanting to be honest about their displeasure with marriage. He started the service in 2001 after reading that 30% of the people signing up for singles dating services were married. He now has 3.3 million members. Texas was the only state to see the ad, but that was intentional. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio represent their fastest-growing markets with nearly a quarter-million members joining in the past few months. Less than 24 hours after the Super Bowl ad, Houston alone accounted for more than 147,000 hits to the site.
How does adultery occur?
In Temptations Men Face, Tom Eisenman lists 12 common steps that occur in sequence as a relationship moves toward adultery.
1. Readiness Unresolved issues in a marriage that make the partners vulnerable.
2. Fantasizing Innocent thoughts about someone else beginning to turn to fantasizing. The ‘what if” which we rationalize as day dreaming.
3. Innocent Meeting Heightened awareness when around someone. Electricity.
4. Intentional Meeting Plotting to be in the same area so you might see them again. Playing games. This is the point when a person enters the danger zone.
5. Public Lingering Mutually agreeing to spend time together, ignoring others, shutting others out of the conversation. Showing particular interest in the other person’s personal history, interests. Observers might pick up that something is unusual at this point.
6. Private Lingering Long after others have left they are still talking. A growing excitement in being together alone. Converrsations shift from ideas to feelings. Caring is shared.
7. Purposeful Isolating Now the couple begin to plan times alone for legitimate purposes. Men will often confide in the woman and ask for advice with their marriage problems. Or the woman asks the man to stay late at the office to help her with the computer. The couple will still deny any suggestion that their relationship is not completely appropriate. At home, however, a wife might notice a decrease in verbal and nonverbal communication. He seems detached, almost formal.
8. Pleasurable Isolating Now a couple are planning times alone just for the sheer enjoyment and fun of being together. It takes on a youthful euphoria. There is more intimacy. The warm touch of the hand or arm. The couple will still rationalize that they are just good friends.
9. Affectionate Embracing Secret longings become intense. There is embracing often through tickling or wrestling. Physical expression is still rationalized.
10. Passionate Embracing Alcohol or anything that reduces inhibition contributes to increased physical desire and expression. Behaviour is rationalized because a husband or wife is unfeeling or doesn’t make me feel this way.
11. Capitulation Denial is eliminated. There is no longer anyway they can deny the reality of what is happening.
12. Acceptance The couple will admit to each other that they are having an affair. If it continues it is by mutual consent. The spouse is almost always aware at this point. The emotional investment in the affair is at its highest and investment at home at its lowest. The tension of living a double life is usually too much to bear for very long and there is often relief when it is discovered.
Eisenman asks, “Is this the end of the story? Do the man and woman live happily ever after? No. The story of an affair is not a comedy. It is a tragedy.” As James Dobson says, “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but it still has to be mowed.” Once the excitement wears off the couple have to return to the real world and the imperfections they had not seen or had ignored become apparent. But by now there is a trail of pain much like a cancer that begins to eat away at the new relationship. Children have been hurt. A wife or husband abandoned. One or more marriages wrecked. Have you ever tried to put toothpaste back in the tube? Hard isn’t it?
Yesterday I gave two presentations on “Living with Purpose” at a Church Away Day for Farnham Baptist Church pastored by John Ross. You can read the presentations here and here.
I concluded the first presentation with a quotation from William WIlberforce, written in 1797, that stands as a prophetic indictment of our own contemporary society and a rallying call for Christians to give their lives fully and wholeheartedly in the cause of Christ – to know God and make him known.
“Boldly I must confess that I believe the national difficulties we face result from the decline of religion and morality among us. I must confess equally boldly that my own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend, not so much on her navies and armies, nor on the wisdom of her rulers, nor on the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the gospel of Christ. I believe their prayers may yet prevail… May there be here at least a sanctuary, a land of true faith and piety, where we may still enjoy the blessings of Christianity. May there be in this nation a place where the name of Christ is still honoured and men may see the blessings of faith in Jesus.”
In preparation for the first Provincial Assembly of the Anglican Church of North America, to be held in Bedford, Texas, 22-25 June 2009, the Right Revd John Ellison, the retired Bishop of Paraguay, discusses the marks of a true church – apostolicity, catholicity, holiness and unity.
He argues that the Church of England is in danger of becoming a backwater within Global Anglicanism if it fails to recognise and partner with the new Province.
Bishop John Ellison reflects on the marks of a true church as found in the Anglican Church in North America
As I have been thinking about the first Provincial Assembly of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) I have wondered how leaders, especially those bishops in the Church of England who have been invited, will in fact respond. Will we as a church make sure we are represented? My firm conviction is that the ACNA shows the marks of the true church as affirmed by the Nicene and the Niceno Constantinoplan Creeds, that it to say apostolicity, catholicity, holiness and unity.
1. The mark of apostolicity. Then as now apostolicity links the contemporary church with the Apostles of the New Testament and ensures that the church is both earthed historically as well as establishing the vital link of continuity. To speak of apostolicity is to affirm that there is a clearly definable content to the Bible which is not ours to tamper with. The ACNA in its commitment to Scripture and apostolic teaching is clearly worthy of our encouragement and support.
2. The mark of catholicity. Catholicity speaks to us of the church worldwide across national and international boundaries, as well as temporally across the centuries. “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church”, famously wrote Ignatius of Antioch in 110AD. Here is the vital safeguard against parochialism, being concerned only with the local and negligent of the wider church catholic. “Those to whom God is Father, the church may also be Mother”, wrote John Calvin (Institutes 4.1.1) He added “One may not put asunder what God has joined together”. As English Christians we should rejoice in the coming together of so many different expressions of North American Anglicanism embracing the vision of both Ignatius and John Calvin. At a time when TEC is sadly but relentlessly turning its back on the wider Anglican Communion, we should be glad to know of the continuing witness to the church both catholic and reformed that is represented within the ACNA and give it our support.
3. The mark of holiness. Holiness has been so emphasized as a mark of the church by both Protestant and Catholic theologians, that we might be tempted to take it for granted. Nevertheless, given the worldliness of so much of the contemporary church in the West, it is reassuring to have in the ACNA a firm testimony to the Christian difference seen in the holy living of the church over against the surrounding secular culture. The ACNA unequivocally affirms that holiness is God’s calling to God’s people, both individually and collectively. In the coming together of different Anglican traditions within the new province there is a renewed emphasis on the corporate nature of our common discipleship. ACNA represents a clear turning away from the excessive individualism that we have seen in TEC and gives us hope that in other western cultures by God’s grace, orthodox belief and behaviour can be brought back together again.
4. The mark of unity. The unity of the church only assumes significant meaning as it grows out of apostolicity, catholicity and holiness. We have in the new province a serious expression of all these characteristics. We might also add that if the church’s suffering is a further sign of authenticity, then the ACNA has much to teach us.
We need to hope and pray that the Church of England will be properly represented at the inauguration of this new province at Forth Worth later this month.
Bishop John was interviewed this week by Stephen Sizer on the ACNA. The transcript is below.
Q What would you say to those who say you are breaking up the Church in forming a new province?
JE That only makes sense if your priority is some sort of institutional unity and that you actually put order above doctrine. My fear is, looking at this from within the English perspective, that the priority in the Church of England is order rather than doctrine – order in the sense of conforming to the rules and regulations that we as a church have put in place which no longer function and have not been exercised to stop the spread of heresy both in belief or behaviour either in the TEC or the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) Those who have had the courage to stand up and be counted on these issues are the very people who are part of this new province.
Q What are the specific issues that have led to the formation of this province?
The fundamental issue is the loss of the focus on gospel. However you look at TEC or the ACoC, The people of deep gospel conviction who have obviously been there as the classic evangelicals over the decades and also within the anglo-catholic end of the spectrum, they have been chopped off. What you have ended up with is a bland middle – that is particularly the case in the ACoC, and in the TEC you have not a bland middle but an aggressive neo-liberal leadership which is actually preaching a different gospel. That is well documented on the various websites. That is the heart issue – it is a rejection of authentic Christianity.
Q. Were these issues prevalent while you were a serving in Paraguay as bishop?
JE They were in South America where we in the process of establishing new congregations and founding new dioceses, you have to ask what is the church, who are we and what we are doing that neither Roman Catholic nor Pentecostal Churches are already doing. What is our reason for being here as Anglicans? We have received immense encouragement to be ourselves from the Roman Catholic leadership and the leadership of many Pentecostal denominations. What shocked them and the areas where we were called to give account was when they asked the question over recent years – “Is the Anglican Communion a serious church?” because of the things we were tolerating both about belief and behaviour. So we had to redouble our efforts to make sure our people were taught about the nature of the true church and that we are part of it.
Q What is the timescale for this new province?
JE Later this month there will be the inauguration of a new province in North America, moving beyond the different strands that have been working together and seeing growth over recent years and coming together as never before. The exciting this is that it brings together people of deep conviction both of a more catholic and more reformed background.
Q What do you think the response is going to be from the Church of England towards the new province.
JE The evidence at the moment is that it is trying to ignore it. My hope and prayer is that a diocesan bishop who will have the courage to say that this is something we must identify with for the sake of the global communion. That is where the majority of Anglicans worldwide will be. They will be identified with what is happening in the United States. Not to do anything , to pretend it is not happening, will be further evidence to our brethren, particularly in Africa but in many other parts of the Communion too that the Church of England is moving out of the mainstream of Anglican identity worldwide.
Q The primary support that we are seeing so far for ACNA seems to be coming from the provinces that have been planted as missionary churches in Africa and South America.
JE It is this old story of the family grows up and the children assume responsibility and leadership. How do we as aging parents, if you like grandparents, respond to the new reality. The Church of England is finding it desperately difficult to respond to this new reality – of leadership being given in quite extraordinary ways by non-Anglo-Saxon leadership.
Q. We see TEC trying to seize properties of faithful gospel churches, removing the licences of clergy, seek to defrock bishops in North America, and numerous court cases are going on as well. Where do you see this going?
JE. The litigation culture saturates North American society and it is prevalent within the life of the church. The first thing you do is to go for the properties. These are measurables. What we are seeing in the process is a part of what was once the Anglican Communion beginning to move in its own direction to become an independent organization. It is no coincidence that it simply calls itself The Episcopal Church and seeking to influence many others worldwide. They have their own agenda which they will follow fairly relentlessly.
Q Where do you see Global Anglicanism in the next 10 years? What would your hope be for the Anglican Communion and what is your fear?
JE We see the historic shift of the Church from the East to the West and now to the South. That movement will continue. It does not depend on the Church of England. It has its own momentum and its own pattern. The question is whether we are prepared to learn from the experience of the wider church or not. They want to learn from us. The high regard with which many Anglican leaders and many others hold the Church of England is quite remarkable. We have to enter into a different kind of partnership where we are prepared to learn from one another and much more humbly recognize our interdependence. My hope is that we will do just that. We need the help of the wider church catholic to move forward here in England. They are ready to give it. It is a prayerful yearning for the restoration and the renewal of the Church here in England. They want to be alongside us so that by God’s grace that can happen.
My fear is that we will further isolate ourselves from what is happening in the church worldwide and without being aware of it get further out of step with God the Holy Spirit in terms of the moves that is so dominant in the south and in the worldwide church. We must avoid the terrible kind of parochialism which is not just there in parishes but also in provinces which forget the global catholic reality. This could happen in the provinces of Canterbury and York if we further isolate ourselves from the vibrant Anglicanism of the wider Communion.
Q Where do you see the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans gathering on July 6th having a strategic role to play?
JE. It can be a key moment for raising our awareness of the global Catholic church and to help us to see the great things that God is doing in other parts of the world and saying : “This is tremendous. What more could we do in England with the support of these our brethren and what do we by God’s grace have to give them so that we are truly working together, perhaps as we never believed possible in recent years in partnership in the gospel.
A woman was driving home one night. The weather was really nasty. Rain was coming down in buckets and visibility was very poor. Seeing taillights ahead of her, she followed the car in front. The car in front seemed to be going in the right direction. So she gingerly followed. All of a sudden the car in front put his break lights on and came to a stop. She began to wonder what had happened; Maybe the road was impassable or he had hit a deer. She began to feel uncomfortable. Parked in the middle of the road was not a good place to be in a storm. Someone might run into the back of her. Much to her alarm the driver in front turned their lights off. Her confusion turned to frustration then anger. Suddenly a man get out of the car in front and walked over to her car. He knocked on her window. She opened the window an inch and nervously asked the man what his problem was. “That’s what I was about to ask you.” The man replied. Angrily, she retorted that she wasn’t the one who had stopped in the middle of the road and turned off her car lights.
The man corrected her “Lady, we are not in the middle of the road. We are parked in my drive way.”
Benjamin Franklin once said “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.” Christopher Hall writes, “To live in a world permeated with evil is enough to make you angry. Those we love can arouse deep anger within us as they purposely or unknowingly hurt us.
People unleash enormous wickedness and suffering on the world at large, and suddenly we find ourselves sucked into evil’s vortex. The instinctive, natural way to express anger is to respond aggressively. Anger is a natural, adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked. A certain amount of anger, therefore, is necessary to our survival. On the other hand, we can’t physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys us; laws, social norms, and common sense place limits on how far our anger can take us.
So how should the Christian respond? Is it legitimate to become angry, either over our own pain or the suffering inflicted on others? At first glance, the New Testament exacerbates the conundrum. Both Jesus and Paul teach that anger is inappropriate or at best should be short-lived (Eph. 4:26-27), but both clearly became angry at times (Matt. 22; Gal. 1). Our experience and the Bible both suggest that there is legitimate anger and sinful anger. How are we to distinguish them?” Christopher Hall argues that “Too many Christians… have been taught that anger is always sinful… and should be absent from the spiritually mature.” Obviously, “anger that is expressed destructively toward others, ourselves, or God adversely affects our spiritual journey. Anger’s power can destroy our health, our relationships, our community, and our sense of God’s presence and grace.” Yet the capacity to become angry, an attribute of Jesus himself, is a significant aspect of humanness, rather than sinfulness. Tonight we are going to learn how to distinguish between righteous and sinful anger and how to deal with the latter. I want us to recognise when rage is so deadly. Realise why reconciliation is so essential. Remember why resolution is so imperative.
This week the people of Britain have been preparing to vote. There has been unprecedented levels of media attention in the polls. Popular support for some of the candidates in the last few days has reached fever pitch. Not just in Britain but around the world, millions and millions of ordinary people have been watching, speculating and cheering on the candidates.
What has impressed voters has been the honesty, the integrity, the complete lack of guile, the down to earth, no nonsense, approach of some of the candidates. For weeks I have been in no doubt whatsoever as to the outcome. I believe that if Susan Boyle had been standing as a candidate for the local elections or the European Parliament, instead of last night’s final of Britain’s Got Talent, she would win on Thursday with a huge landslide. Susan is a 48 year old church volunteer from West Lothian in Scotland. She lives at home with her cat Pebbles. Susan has been singing since she was 12 years old. She regularly attends her local church and helps them out however and whenever she can.
On Thursday, England goes to the Polls a second time this week. Turn out will probably be much lower than on Saturday night. It will be a referendum on our entire political system.
This is not a good time to be an MP. Melanie Philips wrote,
“There has never been anything like it. The political class is disgraced. Public fury is unassuaged. Revolution is in the air. Yet our MPs are still obdurately behaving true to discredited form. Some are taking refuge in self-pity, claiming they are being driven to the edge of nervous breakdowns or even contemplating suicide. Certainly, public shaming is a savage ordeal. But since this has occurred only because MPs hid shameful behaviour which has now been exposed, such an appeal to public sympathy just adds insult to injury…parliamentary democracy certainly has been undermined – not by those who have shone a light on the corruption of the system, but by those who have corrupted it.”
How do we change the system? Hold up our hands, shrug our shoulders, stay at home or cast a protest vote? No, that is the last thing we should do on Thursday. Only the extremists will benefit. I urge you to vote. But not in some Pavolvian way as you have always done. Do your homework and vote for the local and European candidates who demonstrate integrity, who can earn your respect and will act responsibly as your representatives. That is the democratic way to change the system. And there is more that MPs can do as well. One political leader has declared that in future, when his MP’s submit their expense claims, they will simultaneously publish them online so that anyone can see what they are claiming for. That is how you change the system. Transparency. Although I am not claiming expenses at the moment, I want you to know that you can ask the Church Wardens to see any of my expense claims over the past 12 years, at any time.
God holds each one of us accountable for our actions. In Malachi, these Sunday mornings, we have been examining six such disputes God had with his people:
After breaking up with his fiancée, a young man realized the error of his ways and wrote: “Dearest Marie, No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you! Yours forever, Jimmy…P.S. Congratulations on winning the lottery.” I’m not sure how sincere this guy was, but at least he was right to restore their broken relationship at any cost.
It is hard to talk about strained or broken relationships isn’t it? As Phillip Jensen and Richard Pulley say in Burning Desire
“Many of us know it close to hand, and it may be almost impossible to discuss it without bringing complex emotions to the surface. It is one of the most painful and pervasive social issues… and it is one of the most personal. We would prefer to avoid raising it. However… when God says “I hate divorce” we cannot leave the matter to one side. We need to understand the warnings of Scripture about breaking faith, and then heed them. It’s a difficult task, but one which we must try to do, in prayer, humility, and with an eye open to those of our Christian brothers and sisters around us for whom this subject will be very relevant indeed.”
So, please, please, remember what we learnt two weeks ago in the opening verses. “I have loved you,” says the LORD” (Malachi 1:2a). Remember how this oracle begins – God declares His unfailing love: “I have loved you,’ says the Lord.” He doesn’t begin by pointing out their sins or listing his complaints. The word “love” is in the perfect tense, indicating that God not only loved in the past but loves in the present as well. “I have loved and do love you.” And the word He chooses for “love” is not the typical OT term that describes “tough love” or “covenant love.” This word is more relational: “I have embraced you. I have expressed my affection for you,” At its core then, Malachi is really a love letter from God. A love letter full of hope and encouragement. And it is a love letter containing some heated exchanges.
Malachi contains six such disputes between God and his people:
1. A dispute about God’s love (1:2–5)
2. A dispute about God’s honour (1:6–2:9)
3. A dispute about Godly Faithfulness (2:10–16)
4. A dispute about God’s justice (2:17–3:5)
5. A dispute about God’s blessing (3:6–12)
6. A dispute about God’s mercy (3:13–4:3)
Today we come to the third. Please turn with me to Malachi 2:10-16. A dispute about Godly faithfulness. I’ve entitled this, “From this time Forward: Faithful in all things”. Because five times in this passage we encounter the word “faithless”. Twice the Lord commands, “do not be faithless” (2:15, 16).
You are invited to a study day with Dick Lucas at Christ Church, Virginia Water on Thursday 4th June, 10:00am-13:45pm. Refreshments provided. Bring your own lunch. No charge. Sponsored by the Guildford Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship.
In April, Fuller Theological Seminary hosted the third Evangelical Christian-Muslim Conference. The theme was “A Common Word between us and you“. The conference brought together evangelical and Muslim scholars from many educational institutions, mission agencies and countries to enhance the work of justice and peace.
Among the evangelicals present were: Donald Wagner, Leith Anderson, Gary Burge, Len Rogers, Colin Chapman, Dudley Woodbury, and Martin Accad. Muslim leaders include: Mahmoud Ayoub, Assad Busool, Asma Afsaruddin, Muhammad Sammak, Jamal Badawi, Sayid Sayeed, Abed Ismail.
Several present were signators of the Common Word declaration and the Christian Response initiaited by Yale. The two previous conferences in Chicago (November 2006) and Tripoli (January 2008) were formative and educational meetings with important friendships gained and fruitful dialogue exchanged. Sponsors include North Park University in Chicago, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and the World Islamic Call Society of Tripoli.
Yesterday I gave two presentations on “Living with Purpose” at a Church Away Day for Farnham Baptist Church pastored by John Ross. You can read the presentations 
On Sunday 31st May, six members of Christ Church family were baptised. Check out the 
You are invited to a study day with Dick Lucas at Christ Church, Virginia Water on Thursday 4th June, 10:00am-13:45pm. Refreshments provided. Bring your own lunch. No charge. Sponsored by the Guildford Diocesan Evangelical Fellowship.