The Holy City

Good morning. In church this morning, we are to sing one of my topmost favorite hymns, "Welcome, happy morning! age to age shall say". Ancient, dating to the earliest days of the Christian church, it is such an uplifting, happy, victorious song!

Anyway, this Sunday School handout for today is fairly rambling, and somewhat repetitive from the first part to the middle part, because part of it I wrote this morning, and part of it I drafted several weeks ago prepping for Sunday School class May 15, and I've not necessarily tried to smooth it out.

Art pinched online: Revelation 21, The Holy City.

RSF&PTL

T

My idea in mentoring our Sunday School classes these years (and midweek bible studies the years I was leading those) has always been to encourage and practice thinking for ourselves, theologically and scripturally/biblically; exploring, discussing, coming to our own conclusions. One of my folk-heroes is Steve Jobs of Apple, the commencement address he gave at Stanford University on June 12, 2005, when he said “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Taking that advice into my life as a seminary-educated, traditionally ordained Christian minister, I say Do your own thinking, Don’t be trapped by doctrine & dogma, which is the thinking of superstitious flat-earther churchmen of the Dark and Middle Ages, who believed they could fight, vote, and absolutely decide Certainty about God (who is incomprehensible), and who established and exercised institutional power and authority to dictate what everyone must believe, and call it “orthodoxy” - - tolerating no further thought. This is the group who in 1600 burned Giordano Bruno at the stake for insisting the earth does not remain stationary as the center of the universe, for saying the earth travels around the sun, the same authority who later condemned Galileo for the same heresy. 

Religion being such a matter of feelings and emotions, even in the face of common sense, solid evidence, scientific demonstration, and plain human observation, of all human institutions, the Christian Church entrenched in its certainties and relying on financial support of the faithful to support its personnel and infrastructure, is the most reluctant and hesitant to challenge, examine and change or correct its doctrines and practices. Which often makes the church seem the ludicrous enemy of science. And so, it’s our job as church insiders to seek and speak the truth as we find it, preferably, mercifully, without destroying hope or causing dismay and outrage.

Faith is fun, but "Seek the truth, come whence if may, cost what it will*, means laying aside a going-in assumption that you already know the truth - - which is not easy for people raised in a religious tradition and saying and believing its creeds. You have to start with interest and curiosity, more or less from scratch, and not with the idea of proving the truth you already believe.

My goal has been to share with whoever comes, the “picking everything apart” study method I learned at theological seminary, to embrace doubt and skepticism as healthy attitudes toward doctrine, and to encourage people to make up their own minds about religious things, even when it’s disillusioning.

The Collect for May 15, Easter Five:

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

For consideration.

Let’s first briefly recall what a Collect is, and that our ongoing challenge is to see, perceive, discern not only the collect’s petition to God, but specifically the collect’s theology on which the petition is based, and then consider whether that theological assertion still accommodates the criterion of Reason for us as well as it would have for its author centuries or millennia ago.

1. Composed for the 1549 BCP, this collect relates not to 2022 Year C, but to Easter 5 Gospel Year A: John 14:1-14

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

2. How do you suppose one can truly know Almighty God? Among the most to be feared are religionists who, certain they know the will of God, force their certainties on people who have different certainties and confidences. 

3. The theology, that truly to know God is everlasting life, is more than a high-sounding phrase: it is the theological assertion of whoever wrote the collect in the 16th century. Contemplate it for a moment, and whether you agree with it and think it's sound theology, for group discussion.

 

3. “truly to know God IS everlasting life” is a predicate nominative, meaning that its reverse must be true: “everlasting life IS truly to know God”, does that make sense for you, does it hold for you, do you agree? Comment or explain.

4. A thesis In C S Lewis’ book “The Great Divorce” is that arriving in Heaven (Everlasting Life), one begins a journey (of thousands upon thousands of miles) traveling closer and closer to God, until one sees God for oneself. The idea seems to come from the Bible passage picked up in the Burial Office (BCP p.469) “I know that my Redeemer liveth (Job 19:25-27), and he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yeet shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.” Do you hope and expect to see God?

5. I am unendingly intrigued with the theology of our petition (BCP p.481) “Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love”. I love this prayer and its theology, but which is absent from our Rite Two burial office. What do you think about this? Doing a (perhaps wacky) Sadducee question (Mark 12:18-27), suppose I die in battle at age 23 leaving a wife and child, and wait in heaven for my loved ones to join me for eternal life; but my wife remarries, and her new husband loves, adopts and raises my child as his own along with their other children: will my wife and child want to spend eternal life with me when they die, creating “hell” for her second husband, or will they want to leave me alone for him - - how do you feel about the theology of the petition? In view of Jesus' response to the Sadducees, what do you think? 

  

6. The collect’s petition “Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life” asserts that the way of the cross leads to eternal life. Listen to this prayer line in the Marriage Liturgy (BCP p.430): “Most gracious God, we thank you for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life”. What does it mean for the way of the cross to be the way of life? 

7. Anglican Christianity has hundreds (thousands?) of beautiful prayers for both common worship and individual devotions: each prayer contains theological assertions, revealing our theology, something we believe about God. Mindful of our Latin phrase "lex orandi lex credendi" think about all of these prayers being woven into a single tapestry that, hung on a wall, shows our entire theology, everything we believe about God. Think about this not as a beautiful idea, but as a challenge: as a thinking Christian engaging Reason, do you personally agree with the entire tapestry? Are there threads that contrast incompatibly with others? Are there threads that science or evolving civilization and culture have made ludicrous? Again, of all human institutions, the Church is the most insistent on its eternal truths and the most reluctant to self-examine and change, update for consistency with Reason. How do you feel about “updating” the tapestry over Time? Has the Church tried to do this?

8. My theme-song for myself and for my teaching and preaching all my years of ordained ministry has been the proverb that was inscribed on the lintel of the library door at one of the seminaries* I attended: "Seek the Truth, Come Whence It May, Cost What It Will". I seek, I do seek, and I continue to seek as an ongoing pursuit of my life. And, in regard to the phrase "Cost What It May" I have found the search extremely costly in terms of disillusionment as, Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith, cherished tradition is chipped away. I haven't always felt that it is worth the cost. Would you rather have faith tenets that you love, or truth that casts faith into doubt, shifts from the comforting confidence of relative Certainty? In my faith life, I've often encountered this challenge to what I "know by faith".  

* ... the Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal) in Alexandria, Virginia, is this motto: "Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will."

The First Lesson

Acts 11:1-18

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?" Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, `Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But I replied, `By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a second time the voice answered from heaven, `What God has made clean, you must not call profane.' This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, `Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.' And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, `John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?" When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life."

The Psalm

Psalm 148

Laudate Dominum

1 Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord from the heavens; *
praise him in the heights.

2 Praise him, all you angels of his; *
praise him, all his host.

3 Praise him, sun and moon; *
praise him, all you shining stars.

4 Praise him, heaven of heavens, *
and you waters above the heavens.

5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord; *
for he commanded, and they were created.

6 He made them stand fast for ever and ever; *
he gave them a law which shall not pass away.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth, *
you sea-monsters and all deeps;

8 Fire and hail, snow and fog, *
tempestuous wind, doing his will;

9 Mountains and all hills, *
fruit trees and all cedars;

10 Wild beasts and all cattle, *
creeping things and winged birds;

11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, *
princes and all rulers of the world;

12 Young men and maidens, *
old and young together.

13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, *
for his Name only is exalted,
his splendor is over earth and heaven.

14 He has raised up strength for his people
and praise for all his loyal servants, *
the children of Israel, a people who are near him.
Hallelujah!

The Epistle

Revelation 21:1-6

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."

And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life."

The Gospel

John 13:31-35

At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."