Main
Who We Are
Anglican Identity
Upcoming Events
Links
Our Worship
Divine Office
Services
WOW
Homilies
Our Ministries
Prayer List
Lay Ministry Rota
The Servant
San Esteban
San Esteban
Search:
Acts 13:15-16, 26-39, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
Alleluia Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
We have today some of the earliest examples of Easter sermons: The
exhortation of Paul regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus.
It is a message of hope and fulfillment even for our ears today.
But God raised him from the dead; and for many days he appeared
to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they
are now his witnesses to the people.
This is the direct telling
of the personal experience of the risen Christ in Scripture.
They remembered Christ's words to them, that this is about call
and response. Christ calls us into relationship, repentance,
renewal, and we must decided if and how to respond. My sheep
hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
This response
is both individual and corporate. Individually we must decided if
and how to follow the Christ. Corporately, the church, the Body
of Christ in the world, needs to decide how we follow the Christ
as a body of the faithful.
This corporate response became very important in the first centuries
of the church as it wrestled with issues of what did Christ really mean
by his teachings. With more and more members, in more diverse places,
there were more and more opportunities for speculation, wrong teaching
(heresy), and misunderstanding. For example, what exactly is Jesus
getting at when he says, The Father and I are one.
As the church grew it became necessary to order its worship life, corporate life and understanding of theology about the nature of God. In order to combat erroneous teachings or heresies, the church held what we call the Four1 Ecumenical Councils between 325 and 451. It was at these meetings with representation of the whole church that decisions were made on a variety of issues.
The Nicene Creed was initially written at the council in Nicea, Turkey, in 325. For the next 125 years the church wrestled with it and its implications. Finally, in 451 at another meeting in Chalcedon, this was finalized with a statement of the nature of the Christ. The summary of the Chalcedon statement is found on page 864 of the BCP. All of this is the formulation of what we now have come to call the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity: how we understand God as one God of three persons, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What can we say of the Holy Trinity? On the one hand, Brazilian
Franciscan priest and theologian Leonardo Boff writes: In the end, of
course, the conscientious theologian and the thinking faithful can only
bow down in respectful silence before a mystery that it seems more fitting
to contemplate and adore than to reflect on and lay open.
Of course
that did not stop him from writing his own book about the Holy Trinity.
(A book I absolutely love for its insights.)
This is countered by St. Augustine: When it is asked three what,
then the great poverty from which our language suffers becomes apparent.
But the formula three persons has been coined, not in order to give a
complete explanation by means of it, but in order that we might not be
obliged to remain silent.
Far be it for a bishop to remain silent!
This is a sermon of introduction for a series of explorations of the Holy Trinity, how we understand God in the truly catholic sense. I do it for a couple of reasons: First, to give us the language of God that you can use when talking with others. The accepted Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is in total opposition to the heresies of other teachings, especially of the Mormon church.
Secondly, this is in preparation for the introduction in our worship of a more ancient and theologically astute Nicene Creed than what we use today. This is a translation of the Creed authorized by General Convention and approved by the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops. It is the version of the Nicene Creed that all of Anglicans are slowly moving towards as prayer books are revised. This will eventually bring the Anglican Communion into greater doctrinal alignment, at least regarding the Creed, with the Eastern Orthodox churches than we have had since 1054 and the Great Schism between East and West.
This is an important aspect of how we understand our relationship to God and God's own relationship within the community of the Holy Trinity. So, we will have some sermons around this. In the next issue of The Servant there is a short essay on the history of the Nicene Creed and some of the reasoning behind this move within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion.
On May 9, Fr. Adam Linton of Good Shepherd Church, Ogden, will come to WOW and give a presentation on the Holy Trinity and the Nicene Creed. Fr. Linton comes with an exceptional background theologically and personally in that he was received into the Episcopal Church as a priest from the Orthodox Church.
Fear not! I will not be drawing diagrams showing the nuances of translating technical theological language from Greek to Latin to English. I personally find that language around the Holy Trinity is more useable and meaningful when we look at it through the lens of symbol, poetry, and images. Then on Trinity Sunday, June 3, we will introduce this new translation of the ancient Nicene Creed. If you want a sneak preview of this translation, all you need do it open up our WOW worship booklet, for it is in there. We will also talk about it at the Worship Committee meeting next week.
All that being said, the most important message for any of us, the message of Christians around the world, especially during this season is: Alleluia Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.
[Webeditor's Note:]
The Church of England canons officially recognize the first four of
the traditional seven councils recognized by the Eastern Orthodox and
Roman Catholic communions. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed was
completed at the First Council of Constantinople with the statement on
the Spirit's procession from the Father, belief in the Catholic Church,
and the communion of saints. The text of the creed at Chalcedon was a
confirmation of the Constantinopolitan text.
The Seven Councils