Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Friday, September 25, 2009

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. Reflections on the Church from Ephesians

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Collect.

LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle. Ephes. 3. 13-21

I DESIRE that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

13 διο αιτουμαι μη εγκακειν εν ταις θλιψεσιν μου υπερ υμων ητις εστιν δοξα υμων

14 τουτου χαριν καμπτω τα γονατα μου προς τον πατερα

15 εξ ου πασα πατρια εν ουρανοις και επι γης ονομαζεται

16 ινα δω υμιν κατα το πλουτος της δοξης αυτου δυναμει κραταιωθηναι δια του πνευματος αυτου εις τον εσω ανθρωπον

17 κατοικησαι τον χριστον δια της πιστεως εν ταις καρδιαις υμων

18 εν αγαπη ερριζωμενοι και τεθεμελιωμενοι ινα εξισχυσητε καταλαβεσθαι συν πασιν τοις αγιοις τι το πλατος και μηκος και υψος και βαθος

19 γνωναι τε την υπερβαλλουσαν της γνωσεως αγαπην του χριστου ινα πληρωθητε εις παν το πληρωμα του θεου

20 τω δε δυναμενω υπερ παντα ποιησαι υπερ εκ περισσου ων αιτουμεθα η νοουμεν κατα την δυναμιν την ενεργουμενην εν ημιν

21 αυτω η δοξα εν τη εκκλησια και εν χριστω ιησου εις πασας τας γενεας του αιωνος των αιωνων αμην

Our Epistle lection, Ephesians 3.11-21, brings the glories of Christ’s Church to view from this Magisterial Word from an imprisoned apostle in Rome to a people among whom he had laboured at significant length, Ephesus, one of the top five cities in the Roman Empire.

Unlike Galatians from the previous Sundays where Paul is settling controversies, e.g. Galatians, this epistle is prayerful, reflective and deeply doctrinal.

In Ephesians, St. Paul teaches that His Majesty’s Church consists of those with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, the chosen, the predestined, the adopted, the redeemed by Christ’s blood, the forgiven under His all-embracing and governing authority and providence, the sealed, those with the guarantee of an inheritance, the people of love and faith, those with the powerful and interior work of the Holy Spirit, those once dead (not wounded) in their sins and trespasses but made alive, those raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenlies, the grace-saved (not of works, e.g. see our posts for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity about justification by faith alone), those prepared beforehand in ages past for salvation, those of good works including--now--Gentile nations, those in one Body, fellow-citizens in one household based on the apostles and prophets, a company that manifests the wisdom of God to heavenly principalities and powers, an holy temple of the LORD, an heavenly and earthly company named and owned by Christ, an organism where Christ’s power and authority is evinced and wielded, an outpost in a dark world, a church looking forward to the day of redemption as a bride preparing for the approach of her lover and Husband. As Paul observed in Ephesians 1.3, we are blessed with “all spiritual blessings.”

This was Wycliffe’s view of the Church and understandably so. It’s so heavenly that one might wonder if the local, True Church, had a Post Office box. It does, as marked by the true doctrines of the Word, the right administration of the sacraments, and disciplined living with biblical boundaries.

In our smaller section, 3.11-21, Paul “grounds” the Church by his prayer for the visible expression of the Church at Ephesus. We bring our observations from the prayer.

First, Paul expresses his desire that the Ephesians may not faint at his tribulations, his arrest in Rome.

Second, Paul had tribulations for the Gospel, ultimately dying because of it. This is a story unto itself, yet it is a point that comes to expression of prayer.

Third, in his prayer, Paul bowed his knees in prayer, as he did--once--in his affectionate, tear-filled, and powerful farewell to them in Acts 20.16-38.

Fourth, this prayer reflecst Trinitarian language, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Fifth, Christ owns the church in heaven and on earth, reflecting the Church Triumphant (the book of Revelation) and the Church Militant/Expectant.

Sixth, the object of the Pauline petition is for inner strength by the mighty Spirit to comprehend the Saviour’s love—in its comprehensiveness. He prays that this glorious richness and sovereign power of Christ's love and life would lead the Ephesians to be rooted, grounded, entrenched and immoveable. It is Christ’s love supernaturally evinced in their predestination, forgiveness, faith, conversion from deadness and spiritual slavery, regeneration and daily lives, including their membership in the invisible Church made visible.

Seventh, this transforming grace is measured not by us, but according to His working in us.

Eighth, Paul turns his prayer to doxology to Him, our Redeemer, who is utterly able in His Plenipotence towards His Church with full power, authority, influence, command and clout to initiate, preserve and protect His people. Paul’s prayer reaches from the past in Christ’s eternal counsels before the foundation of the world to the ages to come, world without end.

If we had to gather our marbles in one sock, simply, we hear Paul’s prayer from a specific and imprisoned place in Rome to a beloved Church in Ephesus in the east, a power that is suffused and dominated by a Christology that beggars imagination.

Some applications:

1. Time for non-Anglican Churches to get kneelers and “get with it.”

2. Time to focus on the Christology of Ephesians which appeared to govern John Wycliffe’s and John Calvin’s high view of the Church—as defined by Ephesians. This Christology is overwhelmingly glorious.

3. In accordance with our Collect for the Day, we need to pray that Christ would cleanse, rinse, bathe, and rectify the disorders, misfortunes—as it were, and false doctrines that abound in our time. If not, you can count on the stories of Revelation about the visible churches coming to pass around us.

4. Time to remember that, as Calvin prudently noted, when a Church is talking about itself it is already moving in the wrong direction. Discussion of prerogatives, ancient prestiges, lineage, powers, confessions, liturgies, sermons, and prayers must have the High Christology noted in Ephesians. We need not add other than by way of notice that Anglicanism has embraced the first four conciliar councils.

5. Time to recover the doctrines, ethos and Confessions of the Reformation.

And what is that view of the High View of the Church of Christ that we gain from Ephesians and this prayer?

In Ephesians, Paul teaches that His Majesty’s Church consists of those with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, the chosen, the predestined, adopted, redeemed by Christ’s blood, the forgiven under His all-embracing and governing authority and providence, the sealed, those with the guarantee of an inheritance, a people of love and faith, those with the powerful and interior work of the Holy Spirit, those once dead (not wounded) in their sins and trespasses but made alive, those raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenlies, the grace-saved (not of works, e.g. see our posts for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity), those prepared beforehand for salvation, those of good works including now Gentile nations, those in one Body, fellow-citizens in one household based on the apostles and prophets, a company that manifests the wisdom of God to heavenly principalities and powers, an holy temple of the LORD, an heavenly and earthly company named and owned by Christ, an organism where Christ’s power and authority is evinced and wielded, and outpost in a dark world, a church looking forward to the day redemption as a bride preparing for the approach of her lover and Husband. As Paul observed in Ephesians 1.3, we are blessed with “all spiritual blessings.”

Indeed, we may smile at the foes of the flesh, the world and the devil with this perspective--because of Christ alone, by supreme grace alone and walking in the way of faith alone by the apostles and prophets alone.

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