sign, image, Word
It isn't unusual mornings in my waking up process for things to come to mind that won't quit, that keep on keeping on and stand in the way of my going back to sleep. Over these ninety years I have left undone those things which I ought to have done, and I have done those things which I ought not to have done, and if I admit even one of them in the door to my drifting thoughts, they flood over me like an incoming tide and further sleep is not only impossible and I might as well get up and turn on the coffee; but if I do manage to fall asleep anyway, nightmarish dreams ruin any peace in my back-to-sleepness.
Just so this morning, although this one was not in the nature of a there is no health in me, miserable offender, it kept me awake sufficient to throw in the towel and rise for my first mug of hot & black.
Some forty-five years ago when I began studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, my bishop (who made the arrangements for LTSG to admit their first Episcopalian, a middle-aged retired Navy officer) told me that he didn't want me graduating from seminary a total Lutheran, so to take some courses, about one a semester, at the Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia; and he especially wanted me to have a course with the Rev Dr Reginald Fuller.
A consortium arrangement of ten or so theological seminaries in the greater WashingtonDC area made this sort of cross-registration easy, and, in fact, in addition to working in Episcopal courses I also took courses at a United Methodist seminary in the area, and at a Roman Catholic seminary as well.
Anyway, one semester at Virginia Episcopal I took their course in "Baptism and Eucharist." The professor was the Rev Dr Charlie Price, at the Time one of several prominent scholars, theologians, teaching at Virginia and Sewanee. This calls to mind that at Gettysburg at the Time, students were to call our professors "Mister" (they were all male) and not "Doctor" or "Professor," and I found that at Virginia Episcopal the students were calling professors by their first name - - so, "Charie."
The first day of class, Charlie Price outlined the semester for us, including that a research paper was required. We were to contemplate our topic early, and submit our proposed topic with a short descriptive paragraph in two weeks (as I recall), he would have to approve it (or tell us to keep thinking and find something else and submit that); and halfway through the semester we were to submit an outline of our paper.
By then, I had been studying for a year or so with Lutherans, for whom "Luther says" was a common phrase in every sermon preached, and who, "protestantly" held preaching in equal awe to Baptism and the Lord's Supper. So, the research paper topic I submitted with paragraph to Charlie Price was the proposition that Preaching is a sacrament. Charlie did not like it. On my topic and paragraph submission he had written that it had been done many Times, never successfully. But, based on what I'd often heard floated at Gettysburg Lutheran, I insisted, and he allowed it.
Charlie was right, and I got a C+ on my paper, my lowest grade ever in seminary, graduate school, where any grade below C- was/is considered unsatisfactory, failing, unacceptable. IOW, a C+ in graduate school is like a D+ in undergraduate or high school.
So instead of going back to sleep, I had to wrestle again this morning with my half a lifetime ago exercise with the long late Rev Dr Professor Charlie Price. And thoug I failed again, I'm still convinced that Preaching is a sacrament; and, in Episcopal terms, if not a dominical sacrament with Baptism and Holy Communion, then a sacramental rite like confirmation, ordination, holy matrimony, reconciliation of a penitent, and unction (Other Sacramental Rites, Catechism, BCP p.860). but indeed a dominical sacrament.
Why so? This is not a scholarly argument, just my wandering mind, set free and loose in retirement. Baptism and Holy Communion are called dominical sacraments instituted by Jesus himself, (dominical, the Lord). In life among us, Jesus' most common act was preaching, teaching. And The Great Commission at Matthew 28 reads (KJV).
"16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
So teaching, which most commonly is done in preaching sermons and homilies, is specifically instituted by the Lord.
But how does Preaching meet the sacramental definitions of the church?
Catechism again, BCP 8:57
The Sacraments
Q. What are the sacraments?
A. The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.
Q. What is grace?
A. Grace is God's favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills.
Ah, a puzzlement then: What is the outward and visible sign in Preaching? This requires imagination, some conjuring up. I don't remember what I said in my paper for Charlie Price, if indeed I addressed this critical point at all. I'll give it a go. The outward and visible sign in Preaching is the ordained preacher standing before us in the pulpit, speaking In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what is the inward and spiritual grace in Preaching? The inward and spiritual grace in Preaching is Logos the Word of God enlightening our minds, stirring our hearts, and strengthening our wills.
Charlie Price, prominent in his day, did not agree, but I'm back with it anyway, half my lifeTime later.
Neither arguing nor presenting my case, just blogging about something I left undone which I ought to have done long ago, that kept me awake while the day was yet dark, way too early this morning.
RSF&PTL
T90
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image pinched online: an AI portrait of Jesus - - he's smiling, I sort of like it, but I like this one better:
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