vicar's church blog 2004-2006

Reflections about Church 2004- 2006

A Good Reason? Church as fellowship September 24, 2006

Loving people we dislike August 13, 2006

A Mission for South Jakarta April 23, 2006

Palms and Passion Palm Sunday April 9, 2006

A Sister’s Encouragement The Death of Thomas Cranmer March 19, 2006

About Money March 12, 2006

A Wonder

Relationships in a Church under pressure December 4, 2005

All the Saints All Saints Day October 30, 2005

Heritage Anglican Church's Heritage September 25, 2005

The Heavenly Removal Company Love in the Church 17 Oct 2004

A Church of All Nations 15 August, 2004

A Heart Like God's Heart Christian Giving August 22, 2004

Why would a rational person want to belong to a church these days? It is possible that in a world of coups, executions, demonstrations, protests and high stress levels, church might be considered a kind of oasis or sanctuary - a safe place to retreat and find refreshment.

And certainly when you enter the grounds of All Saints at Menteng you feel you are entering a peaceful green world away from the noise and traffic outside.

But what if you lived in a world where your faith was being challenged, in which people intimidated you and made you feel that the Christian faith was not to be part of your work life, or political life? Or what if you lived in a world in which highly organised seduction systems tried to get you to live according to different principles and follow practices different to Christianity? Or at least to combine them in such a way as to negate God’s way?

Would church be a help? It depends on whether one is a rational person I suppose. Last week the Pope was trying to encourage rationality in discussion. Christians have traditionally given a high place to reason (how high a place has been the subject of much debate of course). But when it comes to church, reason does not always win the day.

For example we talk about attending church, or going to church. But the apostles did not speak like that. They did go up to the Temple, but when they spoke about the church, they spoke about coming together, about meeting. In the Bible people don’t go to church, rather the church meets; or people meet as the church. Church is a meeting of people, not an event, or a program.

But if your life and faith is under threat, why meet? Here is where rationality comes in. Christians meet for fellowship and encouragement. That is, for mutual encouragement. Fellowship means sharing together – sharing our lives and support and encouragement: being together so that we can help each other reman faithful to Christ.

In a formal church service such as we are used to such mutual encouragement is difficult, but not impossible. One of the changes made at the Reformation by the Anglican reformers, was to change the church meeting from a performance by the priest with the congregation as spectators, to a meeting for common prayer, where everyone prayed and sang together as one body. It was a corporate idea of fellowship.

But the Bible suggests other kinds of meetings are necessary as well if we are to build each other up. Meetings that are more face to face, in which we can all minister the word of God to each other. Small meetings.

A rational person wants to belong for encouragement – for the sake of fellowship.

This week at one of the Bible study groups I belong to we were discussing whether we could love someone we disliked. This of course raised the question of whether Christians should dislike other people. But reality prevailed and we were able to distinguish between “should” and “does”. Some wanted to distinguish between disliking the behaviour and loving the person. And while that is possible, the truth is that some people have such a bad character that we do dislike them.

And maybe it is good that we dislike them - at least because of their badness. Although, even the most dislikeable people have things about them that we can like or approve of.

But can we love people we dislike? It is difficult to imagine this if we think love describes positive feelings of affection. Modern western notions of love seem to focus a lot on feelings. Love usually describes how a person feels in themselves in relation to some other person. In fact the two people may never have met. It may merely be a description of internal emotions.

In a relationship, such as marriage, where two people do love each other, the affections and feelings are very important. The same applies in a family, or in other friendships. But the affections are not the whole, or even the most important part, of the love.

These are descriptions of actions and attitudes, not feelings. That is because love is acting towards the good of someone else. It is not essentially describing my emotional state, but what I do.

Can we distinguish the motivation from the action? Of course. Not all beneficial actions are motivated by love. Some are motivated by pride and the desire for fame. On the other hand love is not love if it does not show itself in action.

Can we love someone we dislike? Certainly. Because we will act towards them for their good from a genuine desire to do good to them for their sake. As someone once said, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink”.

This weekend we begin serious discussions about the future for South Jakarta. Church Council, the wardens, the Ministry Advisory Group will all begin to consider the best way forward. On Sunday I and the wardens will meet with folk from the Don Bosco congregation to talk about the way forward for South Jakarta. These discussions and consultations will probably continue for a while so that we can consider as many points of view as possible.

However we will not talk forever, because I believe we must continue to build up the South Jakarta congregation. I think good progress has been made and we have keen and committed people helping in different ministries. I believe we have many people who want to see this church grow and become stronger and reach out with the love of Christ to others in the south – especially expats.

For my part, I believe we must aim for strength and growth. How we do that, and with what kind of ministry leadership, is the subject of our discussions. However in the meantime and certainly after the O’Mara’s leave, I will be focussing a major part of my efforts on South Jakarta (as well as Menteng). I do not believe we should just maintain the operation until a new minister arrives.

Rather we have some momentum and enthusiasm and I will be aiming to help consolidate and increase that – especially after the summer break.

We have a large mission field in the South, we have able people to share in it, we have a fellowship that is able to encourage and support each other. So let us pray with confidence that the Lord will lead us, provide the gifts and energy we need, raise up the workers to do the work, and grant us unity and fellowship as we move into the next stage of ministry in South Jakarta.

As for Menteng, I think we will also want to keep reaching out and building up the congregation there. It may be that we can support and encourage the Don Bosco congregation in different ways as well – at least by our prayers.

Let us continue to put our trust in the God who has called his church into being through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What Chrysostom called the Great Week, and we now sometimes call Holy Week, is a special time for Christians. In the early centuries a Paschal fast was observed during this week. In the 4^th century a Procession of Palms began in Jerusalem to commemorate the triumphal entry of Christ the King into Jerusalem. From the 8^th century this practice gradually spread into the Western church.

Each day in the week special services were held which focussed on the death of Christ. At the time of the English Reformation the ceremonies of blessing of Palms was one of the ceremonies abandoned in the new Prayer Book in favour of the more ancient focus on the passion of the Lord. The readings for the Sunday before Easter were part of a set of readings for the whole week, which were a slight revision of the earlier traditional readings.

So Matthew’s passion narrative was set for the readings at Morning Prayer and Holy Communion on the Sunday, Mark was read on Monday and Tuesday, Luke on Wednesday and Thursday, with John’s passion narrative on Good Friday. The lesson at Evening Prayer on the Sunday was the reading of the triumphal entry.

So the Anglican Prayer Book followed the long tradition of reading the stories of the death of Jesus in the Great Week. The Sunday before Easter is the start of this great meditation.

It would bring a lot of benefit to us if we also used that week to read each of the passion narratives in turn, so as to prepare our hearts for the great festivals on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And not just to prepare our hearts but to strengthen our hearts and minds with the amazing heart of our faith.

We will once again have the opportunity to meet together on Thursday night to remember the institution of the Lord’s Supper and to reflect again on his death. Although in our world the great feasts have become occasions for recreation, we can still take the opportunity afforded by this annual remembrance to take time to be quiet, to listen again to the story, and to let the story transform us a little bit more.

And to realise again that the King who entered Jerusalem with palms and praises, came to die, and that same risen King will one day return in glory to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

On Saturday morning March 21, 1556, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer went to University Church Oxford to listen to a sermon by the Provost of Eton, Dr Henry Cole explaining why he should be executed even though he had repented.

He had been in prison, at first in the Tower of London and later in various places in Oxford since September 1553, soon after Queen Mary took the throne from Queen Jane who had succeeded Edward VI. Mary was the child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, whose marriage Cranmer had annulled in 1533 (making Mary legally illegitimate).

In the two and a half years since the coup, Cranmer and two other leading bishops, Ridley and Latimer, had been subject to a number of debates trying to persuade them to change their minds, or to ridicule their beliefs. Two issues were dominant. One was about the presence of the natural body of Christ in the Holy Communion. The other was whether the Pope or the Queen was the head of the Church in England.

Cranmer had already been convicted of treason and sentenced to death by the Parliament. But these three leading lights of the Reformation were powerful figures in a battle to wins the hearts of the people of England.

Mary was a Catholic Queen and although she used Henry’s laws to make changes to the Church of England, as soon as she could she restored the Pope’s authority over not only the church but the nation as well. Cranmer objected to this saying that one could not swear oaths of loyalty to both Queen and Pope. One of the oaths would have to prove false.

Just before the death of Edward the “Black Rubric” had been added to the Holy Communion service of the 1552 Prayer Book. It concerned kneeling to receive the bread and wine and stated that no adoration could be intended because the elements “remained in their very natural substances” and the natural body and blood of Christ remained in heaven. This became the heart of the other great issue Cranmer had to defend.

In October 1555 Ridley and Latimer were burnt at the stake in Oxford, in full view of Cranmer. Pressure on him increased. By January he had signed the first of six recantations. Two expert theologians were brought in from Spain to argue with him, gradually wearing him down and shaking his confidence. Finally, knowing that he had no hope of a reprieve, he signed his last and most thorough denial (but like some of the others it was probably written by his opponents). It was witnessed by the two Spaniards, which provoked demonstrations of outrage in London when it was discovered.

By then Cranmer was a broken man, and returned to Catholic rituals, ceremonies and confessions, partly helped by the friendship of a Catholic servant who became his only friend near the end. But on the morning of his death he had a visit from one of his sisters, a convinced protestant. What happened at the church later that morning may be attributed to her encouragement. Because after the sermon by Dr Cole Cranmer delivered a prepared confession which the authorities had read. But at the end he changed the text and denied all his recantations, rejected the authority of the Pope, and affirmed his former belief about the real presence. He was dragged away, and as he was being burnt at the stake put his writing hand into the fire first.

During 2005 members and attenders at All Saints gave a quite a large amount of money to help pay for the various ministries and costs of this church. And we thank God that we were able not only to pay all our costs, but also to keep reserves for expenses we will have in the future. In fact it has been one of our best years.

However some of that income, more than 40% of the US dollar income or 20% of the combined Rupiah and US income, came in a single gift. For which we thank God. I am not against such occasional gifts. They represent the blessings of God on some of our members and especially the generous hearts he gives us. And there were other occasional gifts given by others as well.

The other side of the picture is that 80% of our total expenses was provided by the regular gifts of those who belong to All Saints. All of us are blessed by God in different ways and each is able to be generous according to what God has given them. So the large and small amounts given week by week in the offertory or through bank transfers represent the same generosity and desire to share in the ministries and costs of All Saints church.

However when it comes to planning for this current year, we need to increase the regular offertories by quite a bit – so that the 80% becomes 100%.

All Saints only receives income from those who belong. We don’t receive any subsidies or outside donations. This is good in my opinion. Churches are much stronger when the people who belong to the church take responsibility for its life.

So I want to urge some of you to take a share of the responsibility. Make a decision to contribute to the financial needs of All Saints (and not only the financial needs – but that is a start).

I want to urge others to give more. This does not apply to everyone (so don’t get any false guilt) because you are already giving generously according to how the Lord has blessed you. But others know that they can be more generous.

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. 2Cor 9:7-8

It is a wonder anyone belongs to the church. While it may appear from the outside as a refuge or place to feel secure, once you are inside you find it is actually a community in which you have to give yourself for the sake of others.

And although you could say it was founded by a wonderful and loving Lord, it was that same Lord Jesus who managed to put himself offside with just about every power group of his day. And the same has continued for his church. Even when the political church gained power, it was still out of favour with its political competitors (remember the Holy Roman Empire?), not to mention the ordinary people.

Despite attempts to melt into the background of modern secular culture, the church remains an oddity and a difficulty in just about every nation. It is worse when the church speaks and acts like Jesus. In the western European world the church has a venerable, but quite tarnished, reputation and so it is given a certain kind of respect, but underneath the formalities there is a strong feeling of dislike or cynicism.

Sometimes this dislike expresses itself openly. And Christians know that this is not just about the church, or even themselves, but it is also about Jesus (there is a pressure to downplay Jesus – we could be more acceptable if he wasn’t part of the picture). But whichever way it is perceived, there is a pressure that goes with belonging to the church. And this together with the normal stresses of life makes most churches into communities under pressure.

And when communities are under pressure and have no clear external threat to face, there is the tendency to release the tensions onto the other members of the community. That is why some communities make a big effort to focus on an external enemy. But demonising something or someone outside, only tends to define the group in negative terms (“we are not like that”).

Quite depressing really. But it shows you how realistic Jesus and his apostles were. They put a lot of effort into explaining how to be the church. And most of what they had to say was about how the members are to get along with each other. In their thinking church was like a body, actually they thought it was really Christ’s body. And so there was no distinction between givers and takers. All were givers (lovers actually) and all were receivers.

All of us need each other to be bringing the love of Christ to us, because we are all in need of that encouragement and strengthening. It is just as well, that while we gather as a community under pressure, we meet with Christ, we form his body, and are filled with his presence and love.

In the early days of the church the martyrs who had died for their faith were remembered on a special day. The Eastern churches celebrate that day on the Sunday after Pentecost.

It was first celebrated in the West on May 13, 610 when the Pantheon in Rome was dedicated as a Church. Later the celebration was moved to November 1.

At first the lives of the Martyrs were remembered. Then all Saints were included. But after the doctrine of purgatory was developed a distinction was made between the “Saints” and the souls in purgatory. These were remembered on the next day which became known as All Souls Day.

One of the big issues in the Reformation, especially in England, was the nature of the Holy Communion and the doctrine of salvation. Before the Reformation many priests were engaged primarily in saying masses for the dead in the belief that this would shorten their stay in purgatory. The Reformation did away with the belief in purgatory (see Article 22 of the 39 Articles). In the Prayer Books of the English Church the celebration of All Souls Day was also abandoned.

Instead All Saints Day became the one celebration for all Christians who have died. The Anglican Church does not see any difference between Christians. All are saved on the basis of God’s grace and the death of Christ for them.

Also prayers are not offered to the saints or for them. They neither help us by answering our prayers, nor do they need our prayers since they are fully assured of their salvation because of their faith in Christ.

On All Saints Day we give thanks that God has brought all of us into one fellowship. All Christians living and dead are all part of the one body of Christ. This Communion of the Saints means that they are examples for us to follow. And also that we all look forward to the same heavenly blessings which God has prepared for those who love him.

Looking back we see godly examples of faithfulness, obedience and forgiveness. Looking forward we have the same confidence that they had in the promises of God. We look forward to sharing with our brothers and sisters in Christ the blessings of eternal life which are ours in Christ Jesus.

I have just finished writing some explanatory comments on the 39 Articles in preparation for lectures with Anglican students in Bandung next month. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI various sets of Articles had been approved by the Kings. Henry started off with 10 of his own in 1536, with 42 of them approved in 1553 near the end of Edward’s life.

38 Articles were published in 1562 early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I These Articles were approved by the bishops and clergy of England, but not without some debates with the Queen. In 1571 a number were improved and Article 19 was added to make the 39 Articles we have now.

The 39 Articles represent the teaching of the Anglican Church on a number of important doctrines. They also express the views of the Anglican Church over against those of the Roman Catholic, the Lutheran and various Anabaptist Churches. They developed during the Reformation and many were based on other Confessions of Faith including the Lutheran Augsburg Confession and Articles of Schmalcald, as well as various Reformed Confessions. Of most importance were the Creeds and statements of Nicea, Constantinople and Chalcedon.

The Roman Catholic Council of Trent met between the years 1545 and 1563 in order to state Roman Catholic doctrine over against the teaching of the Reformed churches. Some of our Articles are direct responses to some of the Canons of the Council of Trent. Others concern internal political issues in England at the time, including a major rebellion in the north of England during Elizabeth’s reign.

While the Articles were written in the middle of the major changes of the Reformation, the writers (probably Archbishop Cranmer in the time of Henry and Edward and Archbishop Parker in the time of Elizabeth) managed to focus the Anglican doctrines on scripture.

Indeed the place of scripture was one of the big issues at the time, and the Anglicans along with the other Reformers, gave first place to it. Because of this their statements of doctrine were deeply soaked in scripture. The Book of Common Prayer, which owed a huge amount to the labours and genius of Cranmer was also full of scripture.

The depth of scripture in its liturgy has been one of the great strengths of the Anglican Church. The services Cranmer revised were also full of scripture, with Psalms and readings from both the Old and New Testament in each service. The comparison with modern services of songs and sermon shows how rich and deep is the heritage the Reformers left us.

I was talking with some people the other day about a church that had successfully fended off some powerful intruders. The intruders were not robbers who sneaked in at night but well meaning and impressive people who claimed to be Christians.

Actually not mere Christians but Christian leaders who had a mission and message to move the church in a new direction.

This story could have had a number of versions since many of us have seen the same process at work in churches we have belonged to.

In this case the church worked out that they were actually bogus. Not the real thing. In fact quite wicked because they were leading people into behaviour that was inconsistent with the gospel. The church worked out that their basic message was quite false, even though it sounded good at first.

This was a successful defence. A good result. The new arrivals were shown the door. But other things were also happening in that church. It is not clear whether these other processes were connected with the battle against the intruders or not.

The church discovered it had lost something. It had abandoned the enthusiasm and love it had when it was first founded. There were people there who could remember what it was like at the beginning. How overcome people were in their love for Jesus; how caring they were for each other. Actually in this case the church did not notice what it had left behind.

Often when people discover something new the things they were interested in before are forgotten. In this case it was not so much forgotten as abandoned. In favour of something else.

The enthusiasm and love they had given up was a great loss. So much so that the church eventually heard a message from Jesus that despite their excellent work against the intruders, they were in danger of being abolished because of the loss of their love.

It is some years since all this happened. The church, which was famous once, no longer exists. They heard a message from Jesus that he would remove them altogether unless they returned to their early way of life.

Their town is a famous tourist attraction nowadays. But the church has been removed – by Jesus. Because it abandoned the love it had at the beginning. Their story has been told so that others like us may avoid the same judgment. You can read it in Revelation chapter 2.

How did God expect his people to share what had been given to them? It is possible to read the Old Testament as though there was a fairly strict rule about tithing and that this rule carries over into the New Testament.

In fact there were three tithes in the Old Testament. It is not clear whether each was given each year. One of them could have been a tithe that only occurred every three years. But either way the Old Testament people were expected to share not 10% but either 30% or 23.3% of their produce each year. However one of these tithes at least was eaten by the people themselves in a great celebration.

Unfortunately the tithe seems to have hijacked the Old Testament teaching about giving. In fact the emphasis lies elsewhere. What God expected of his people was that they behave like he did. With open handed generosity. They were to care for the poor, the foreigner (remember Ruth), the widow (and Naomi), as well as those who served in the Temple. At various times they spontaneously gave in overwhelmingly generous ways for the construction of the Tent and the Temple. None of this was regulated. It was a heart response from people with generous hearts.

When we come to Christianity it seems the tithe has silently hijacked the teaching again. Silently because the New Testament is silent about Christians tithing. Nothing whatsoever is said about Christians tithing. On the contrary when it came to the big debate about whether Gentile Christians should keep the Old Testament law, the apostles were unanimous - no need.

So what did the early Christians do with their wealth? Exactly the same as the Old Testament people - they were generous. In Acts 4 they sold their possessions, including land, to help look after the poor among them. Paul took up a big collection all around Asia Minor to help the struggling believers in Judea during a drought. The response of the givers was just plain open handed generosity. You can see a wonderful description of it in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. The Philippians were generous in their support of Paul.

Jesus had already taught the same. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back." Luke 6.38. Like all godly behaviour giving flows from a heart like God's.

Today we are celebrating India's Independence day as well as Indonesia's Merdeka Day. We have already celebrated Australia Day, and we will celebrate Nigeria's Independence Day in October. We missed Singapore's National Day, the United States Independence Day was only noted in passing, and we would have celebrated a British Day if the British could decide whether the Battle of Hastings or the Act in Restraint of Appeals or the Queen's Birthday was the right day.

So what do all these national celebrations have to do with All Saints? Our church was renamed All Saints in the 1950's to represent the fact that it included people from diverse church and national backgrounds. The celebrations also remind us that we are a foreign language church. All Saints has been a church for English speaking people since 1819. It has had a long history of ministering to foreigners who have come to work in Indonesia for shorter or longer times. From the beginning it has also tried to make a contribution to the people of Indonesia. But its main ministry has been to the English speaking community.

Many people speak English, with all sorts of accents and with different dialects and vocabularies. All Saints attempts to minister to them while they are in Indonesia. Our view is that we are here to contribute to the life of this wonderful country by ministering to foreigners who are here to contribute to and gain from this nation.

Our ability to minister depends on the spiritual life of All Saints as well as the language ability of its members. Many people are attracted to All Saints because of its spiritual life. Others are attracted because of the language they hear here. For some people the language is difficult. If they are a foreigner whose first language is not English they may not have any other choice. All Saints may be the best church they can find in Jakarta.

Many Indonesian Christians like All Saints also. But some people are not able to be ministered to very well because of their English. That is why we welcome visitors and people who want to join us on a regular basis to share in the spiritual life of All Saints, but encourage them first to belong and contribute to a church where their own language is spoken.

So we will continue to celebrate the international diversity we represent because it also celebrates the wonderful spread of God's church and indicates how he is fulfilling his purposes.