Today's Verse: Galatians 5:6 (ESV)
For in Christ Jesus eneither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but fonly faith working through love.
e ch. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19; Col. 3:11; See ch. 3:28
f [Eph. 6:23; 1 Thess. 1:3; James 2:18, 20, 22]
This verse is written as part of a response to those in Judea who, although Christians, retained their zeal for the Law of Moses, teaching Gentile Christians that they must become Jewish with respect to lifestyle, including living by the Old Testament codes and undergoing circumcision. Paul, on the other hand, corrects this contorted view of Christianity and reminds the Church in Galatia that the underlying message of the Gospel is love and the faith which brings it.
Today's Comments: Paul's message above provides us with a caution against denominationalism. Whether we like it or not, we are still one church. Despite the heresies, schisms, and legal battles, the Church is still one: God's. If we conduct ourselves with one another in the love that our faith in God is designed to generate, we will find, for the most part, that our differences are relatively minor and insignificant.
Tomorrow night, I will be giving my biographical information on William Temple. That information is very appropriate for this discussion. First and foremost, Temple was a moderator. We need more moderators and less theologians. Most of the information for this homily was taken from http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/61.html and is their material, except for my specific comments.
:
Who was this remarkable person, William Temple?
William Temple was the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury; he was born in 1881, the second son of Frederick Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury in 1897, who died in 1902). At the age of two, he had his first attack of the gout that stayed throughout his life and would eventually kill him. His eyesight was bad, and a cataract, present from infancy, left him completely blind in the right eye when he was 40. However, he was an avid reader, with a near-photographic memory, and once he had read a book, it was his. He was a passionate lover of the music of Bach. In literature, his special enthusiasms were poetry (Browning and Shelley), drama (the Greeks and Shakespeare), and a few novels, especially The Brothers Karamazov. He believed that theological ideas were often explored most effectively by writers who were not explicitly writing theology.
He was at Oxford from 1900 to 1904, and was president of the Oxford Union (the debating society of the University). Here he developed a remarkable ability to sum up an issue, expressing the pros and cons so clearly and fairly that the original opponents often ended up agreeing with each other. This ability served him well later when he moderated conferences on theological and social issues. However, it was not just a useful talent for settling disputes. It was, or developed into, an important part of his philosophy, a belief in Dialectic, derived from Hegel and from Plato. He thought that beliefs and ideas reach their full maturity through their response to opposing ideas.
In 1906, he applied for ordination, but the Bishop of Oxford would not ordain him because he admitted that his belief in the Virgin Birth and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus was shaky. However, Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, after a careful examination, decided that Temple's thought was developing in a direction that would inevitably bring him into an orthodox position, and decided to take a chance on ordaining him (deacon 1909, priest 1910). By 1913 Temple had indeed committed himself fully to the orthodox position, and could write: "I believe in the Virgin Birth...it wonderfully holds before the imagination the truth of Our Lord's Deity and so I am glad that it is in the Creed. Similarly I believe in our Lord's Bodily Resurrection."
In 1908 he became president of the Workers' Educational Association (founded by Frederick Denison Maurice), and in 1918 joined the British Labour Party, and worked actively for the implementing of its platform. He also became vigorously involved in movements for Christian co-operation and unity, in missions, in the British Council of Churches, in the World Council of Churches, and in the Church of South India.
In 1916 he married Frances Anson, and the night before the wedding he stayed up late to finish writing his first major theological treatise, Mens Creatrix (the Creative Mind). Eight years later he published a companion volume, expanding and clarifying the ideas of the first, called Christus Veritas (Christ the Truth). In 1921 he was made Bishop of Manchester, a heavily industrial city. In 1926 Britain experienced what was known as the General Strike, in which most workmen in all trades and industries went on strike, not against their particular employers, but against the social and economic policies of the country as a whole. In Manchester this meant primarily a coal stoppage. Temple worked extensively to mediate between the parties, and helped to bring about a settlement that both sides regarded as basically fair.
He excelled, it would seem, not as a scholar, but as a moderator, and above all as a teacher and preacher. In 1931, at the end of the Oxford Mission (what is known in many Protestant circles as a Revival Meeting), he led a congregation in the University Church, St Mary the Virgin, in the singing of the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Just before the last stanza, he stopped them and asked them to read the words to themselves. "Now," he said, if you mean them with all your heart, sing them as loud as you can. If you don't mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little and want to mean them more, sing them very softly." The organ played, and two thousand voices whispered:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
For many who participated, it was a never-forgotten experience.
Temple, who served as Archbishop of York from 1929-1940, became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942, when a German invasion seemed likely. He worked for the relief of Jewish refugees from Nazism, and publicly supported a negotiated peace, as opposed to the unconditional surrender that the Allied leaders were demanding. However, he did not oppose the Allied bombing of Germany and did not consider himself as a pacifist.
His gout worsened. His last public appearance was at a clergy retreat, where he was taken by ambulance and spoke standing on his one good foot. He died on 26 October 1944.
William Temple's admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," "Anglican's most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West." One of his biographers lists him (along with Richard Hooker, Joseph Butler, and Frederick Denison Maurice) as one of the Four Great Doctors of the (post-Reformation) Anglican Communion.
Ronald Knox, in a satiric poem, described him thus:
A man so broad, to some he seem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy.
Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,
Did everything by turns, and nothing wrong.
Bill'd at each Lecture-Hall from Thames to Tyne,
As Thinker, Usher, Statesman, or Divine.
George Bernard Shaw called him, "a realized impossibility."
In looking through a compilation of some of Temple’s quotes, the following strikes me as being relevant to today’s issues in the church:
We have to hold together these three elements--- catholic, evangelical, and what is commonly called liberal. [Anglicanism is] solidly catholic, as in its doctrine, so also in its affirmation of continuity in time and unity through space, expressed by outward observances. . . But we are also in the fullest sense heirs of . . . the Reformation, with its perpetual stress upon the immediacy of access to God which is, in Christ, offered to all his children. And in quite a peculiar degree we are free . . . Free as a federation of willing units . . [and free as to] the individual inquiry and individual response to the leading of the Spirit.
I think that Temple provides us with a good example of what it is to be Anglican, following in the tradition of those great men who were named above. In fact, during my Anglican Studies course, under one-on-one tutorship with Professor Greg Peters, I submitted a report on schism and division in the Anglican Communion by looking at the diverse personalities who, through the history of the Anglican Communion, wrote down their thoughts. And I came to the following conclusions:
• There does not appear to be a uniform statement of Anglican theology.
• The Reformation still lives in the Anglican Communion.
• The theology is not static but has changed throughout history.
• Practices within the Communion differ from province to province.
• There has always been disagreement throughout the communion’s history.
• Up until now, disagreements appear to have, with few exceptions, been resolved from within or have been accepted as matters of individual personal conscience.
• Even early Twentieth Century writings appear to exhibit liberal views of Anglican theology and tendencies toward justice issues and inclusiveness.
• From the beginning, the theology of the Episcopal Church in the United States has tended to be more liberal than that in the rest of the Anglican Communion (except for, perhaps, the Canadian church).
• And finally, Schism and heresy are both considered serious matters within the communion and should be approached with the utmost caution.
In reading the biographical information on Temple, I think that he would agree with my conclusions. And so, as we honor William Temple, today, let us remember that we might not agree with his politics, or with his complete theology. But, it would certainly be to our advantage to have such a great statesman and moderator to guide us through these troubled times.
For in Christ Jesus eneither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but fonly faith working through love.
e ch. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19; Col. 3:11; See ch. 3:28
f [Eph. 6:23; 1 Thess. 1:3; James 2:18, 20, 22]
This verse is written as part of a response to those in Judea who, although Christians, retained their zeal for the Law of Moses, teaching Gentile Christians that they must become Jewish with respect to lifestyle, including living by the Old Testament codes and undergoing circumcision. Paul, on the other hand, corrects this contorted view of Christianity and reminds the Church in Galatia that the underlying message of the Gospel is love and the faith which brings it.
Today's Comments: Paul's message above provides us with a caution against denominationalism. Whether we like it or not, we are still one church. Despite the heresies, schisms, and legal battles, the Church is still one: God's. If we conduct ourselves with one another in the love that our faith in God is designed to generate, we will find, for the most part, that our differences are relatively minor and insignificant.
Tomorrow night, I will be giving my biographical information on William Temple. That information is very appropriate for this discussion. First and foremost, Temple was a moderator. We need more moderators and less theologians. Most of the information for this homily was taken from http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/61.html and is their material, except for my specific comments.
:
Who was this remarkable person, William Temple?
William Temple was the 98th Archbishop of Canterbury; he was born in 1881, the second son of Frederick Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury in 1897, who died in 1902). At the age of two, he had his first attack of the gout that stayed throughout his life and would eventually kill him. His eyesight was bad, and a cataract, present from infancy, left him completely blind in the right eye when he was 40. However, he was an avid reader, with a near-photographic memory, and once he had read a book, it was his. He was a passionate lover of the music of Bach. In literature, his special enthusiasms were poetry (Browning and Shelley), drama (the Greeks and Shakespeare), and a few novels, especially The Brothers Karamazov. He believed that theological ideas were often explored most effectively by writers who were not explicitly writing theology.
He was at Oxford from 1900 to 1904, and was president of the Oxford Union (the debating society of the University). Here he developed a remarkable ability to sum up an issue, expressing the pros and cons so clearly and fairly that the original opponents often ended up agreeing with each other. This ability served him well later when he moderated conferences on theological and social issues. However, it was not just a useful talent for settling disputes. It was, or developed into, an important part of his philosophy, a belief in Dialectic, derived from Hegel and from Plato. He thought that beliefs and ideas reach their full maturity through their response to opposing ideas.
In 1906, he applied for ordination, but the Bishop of Oxford would not ordain him because he admitted that his belief in the Virgin Birth and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus was shaky. However, Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, after a careful examination, decided that Temple's thought was developing in a direction that would inevitably bring him into an orthodox position, and decided to take a chance on ordaining him (deacon 1909, priest 1910). By 1913 Temple had indeed committed himself fully to the orthodox position, and could write: "I believe in the Virgin Birth...it wonderfully holds before the imagination the truth of Our Lord's Deity and so I am glad that it is in the Creed. Similarly I believe in our Lord's Bodily Resurrection."
In 1908 he became president of the Workers' Educational Association (founded by Frederick Denison Maurice), and in 1918 joined the British Labour Party, and worked actively for the implementing of its platform. He also became vigorously involved in movements for Christian co-operation and unity, in missions, in the British Council of Churches, in the World Council of Churches, and in the Church of South India.
In 1916 he married Frances Anson, and the night before the wedding he stayed up late to finish writing his first major theological treatise, Mens Creatrix (the Creative Mind). Eight years later he published a companion volume, expanding and clarifying the ideas of the first, called Christus Veritas (Christ the Truth). In 1921 he was made Bishop of Manchester, a heavily industrial city. In 1926 Britain experienced what was known as the General Strike, in which most workmen in all trades and industries went on strike, not against their particular employers, but against the social and economic policies of the country as a whole. In Manchester this meant primarily a coal stoppage. Temple worked extensively to mediate between the parties, and helped to bring about a settlement that both sides regarded as basically fair.
He excelled, it would seem, not as a scholar, but as a moderator, and above all as a teacher and preacher. In 1931, at the end of the Oxford Mission (what is known in many Protestant circles as a Revival Meeting), he led a congregation in the University Church, St Mary the Virgin, in the singing of the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." Just before the last stanza, he stopped them and asked them to read the words to themselves. "Now," he said, if you mean them with all your heart, sing them as loud as you can. If you don't mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little and want to mean them more, sing them very softly." The organ played, and two thousand voices whispered:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
For many who participated, it was a never-forgotten experience.
Temple, who served as Archbishop of York from 1929-1940, became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942, when a German invasion seemed likely. He worked for the relief of Jewish refugees from Nazism, and publicly supported a negotiated peace, as opposed to the unconditional surrender that the Allied leaders were demanding. However, he did not oppose the Allied bombing of Germany and did not consider himself as a pacifist.
His gout worsened. His last public appearance was at a clergy retreat, where he was taken by ambulance and spoke standing on his one good foot. He died on 26 October 1944.
William Temple's admirers have called him "a philosopher, theologian, social teacher, educational reformer, and the leader of the ecumenical movement of his generation," "the most significant Anglican churchman of the twentieth century," "the most renowned Primate in the Church of England since the English Reformation," "Anglican's most creative and comprehensive contribution to the theological enterprise of the West." One of his biographers lists him (along with Richard Hooker, Joseph Butler, and Frederick Denison Maurice) as one of the Four Great Doctors of the (post-Reformation) Anglican Communion.
Ronald Knox, in a satiric poem, described him thus:
A man so broad, to some he seem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy.
Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,
Did everything by turns, and nothing wrong.
Bill'd at each Lecture-Hall from Thames to Tyne,
As Thinker, Usher, Statesman, or Divine.
George Bernard Shaw called him, "a realized impossibility."
In looking through a compilation of some of Temple’s quotes, the following strikes me as being relevant to today’s issues in the church:
We have to hold together these three elements--- catholic, evangelical, and what is commonly called liberal. [Anglicanism is] solidly catholic, as in its doctrine, so also in its affirmation of continuity in time and unity through space, expressed by outward observances. . . But we are also in the fullest sense heirs of . . . the Reformation, with its perpetual stress upon the immediacy of access to God which is, in Christ, offered to all his children. And in quite a peculiar degree we are free . . . Free as a federation of willing units . . [and free as to] the individual inquiry and individual response to the leading of the Spirit.
I think that Temple provides us with a good example of what it is to be Anglican, following in the tradition of those great men who were named above. In fact, during my Anglican Studies course, under one-on-one tutorship with Professor Greg Peters, I submitted a report on schism and division in the Anglican Communion by looking at the diverse personalities who, through the history of the Anglican Communion, wrote down their thoughts. And I came to the following conclusions:
• There does not appear to be a uniform statement of Anglican theology.
• The Reformation still lives in the Anglican Communion.
• The theology is not static but has changed throughout history.
• Practices within the Communion differ from province to province.
• There has always been disagreement throughout the communion’s history.
• Up until now, disagreements appear to have, with few exceptions, been resolved from within or have been accepted as matters of individual personal conscience.
• Even early Twentieth Century writings appear to exhibit liberal views of Anglican theology and tendencies toward justice issues and inclusiveness.
• From the beginning, the theology of the Episcopal Church in the United States has tended to be more liberal than that in the rest of the Anglican Communion (except for, perhaps, the Canadian church).
• And finally, Schism and heresy are both considered serious matters within the communion and should be approached with the utmost caution.
In reading the biographical information on Temple, I think that he would agree with my conclusions. And so, as we honor William Temple, today, let us remember that we might not agree with his politics, or with his complete theology. But, it would certainly be to our advantage to have such a great statesman and moderator to guide us through these troubled times.
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