The Passover is the first and probably the greatest of three major Jewish festivals. While origins and details are obscure, two fundamental features of the developed observance stand out clearly.

First of all, the Passover commemorates God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from long captivity in Egypt. Secondly, central to Passover is the sacrificial offering of an unblemished Lamb, which shows general thankfulness to God on the part of the people for their rescue, and the blood of such sacrifice marks the homes of the faithful as God “pass(es) over” the Hebrews while slaying the first-born of the Egyptians, an unspeakable plague resulting in the Pharaoh’s freeing of the Hebrews.

By placing his last supper, death, and resurrection in the midst of these things, Jesus is, in effect, creating an entirely new context, a totally new covenant.

He states thereby that his sacrifice on the cross is to be understood as the offering of the New Israel, his Church. Moreover, he declares that his resurrection is the new deliverance from the greater captivity of sin. Finally, he shows in all this that the Last Supper (or Eucharist, Communion, or Mass) is the New Passover meal celebrating God’s presence and the people’s thankfulness in the new relationship.

As a notable commentator observes, in the early Church Easter was called Pascha, a Greek form of the Hebrew term Passover. Our English name comes from an old pagan festival in honor of the goddess of spring, Eastre.

Borrowing such festivals and terms was good in itself, for it sought quite successfully to convert pagans by assimilation. Unfortunately, it also has the effect of emptying the Christian faith of much of its original meaning, leaving it vulnerable to re-paganism by the increasing secularism of the modern era.

The powerful expression of our Prayer Book Eucharist (page 263) has matters right and provides the faithful with an effective hedge against such danger: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us! Alleluia!

- JR Hiles

The central story of the Epiphany, a Greek word meaning “manifestation,” is that concerning the Wise Men and how they were beckoned from the East by a great star marking the birth of Jesus. As the Gospel of Matthew records it (2.1-12), they came for two purposes: worship him and offer him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Having sensed that a new ruling force had come into the world, they brought to him gifts fit for a king.

Gold simply represented primarily material things, and inasmuch as the givers in this instance were astrologers, highly esteemed and rewarded intellectuals of their day, it may be supposed that the gift was substantial.

They also brought frankincense. Due to its rich fragrance, this points somehow to inner treasurers which these notable figures likewise presented to the one marked by the star.

Finally, they brought myrrh. Since such was used in embalming dead bodies, this very likely indicates a desire to lay before this new being all their grief and sorrow for what had gone wrong in their lives.

These were indeed gifts fit for a king, for these wise men were somehow persuaded that the star marked the coming into the world a king who could give a life fit to live.

The Epiphany poses a haunting – yea, spiritually tormenting – message for Christians in every time and place, right down to today. Do we truly worship him? Because we name ourselves after the Christ child, we may feel confident that we have indeed sought him, found him, and adore him sufficiently.

In as much as most members of the Church attend services from time to time, put something in the offering plate, and see to it that their children are baptized, educated in the faith, and confirmed, they may think that they have offered to him adequately. But have we? Have we really given Christ our myrrh, our sorrow, pain, and disappointment in life, believing that He is the one sent from God to “turn our sorrow into joy?”

Have we given Him our frankincense, our inner treasures of thought and influence, understanding that, as God amongst us, he is worthy of our deepest devotion?

Have we given Him and his Church sufficient of our gold, our material substance, believing that life is worthless unless dedicated to Him?

- JR Hiles
Adapted from a sermon on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1991

As for Pentecost, it can be confidently believed (with Luke, in his Gospel, 24.49 and in Acts 2.1-42) that the Holy Spirit indeed came upon Christ’s followers at the first Christian Pentecost according to his promise and formed his Church as he would have it. In the power of that Spirit his close followers declared the “mighty works of God” and Peter preached the first Christian sermon with such force and authority that “about three thousand souls” were added to the body of believers that single day, hence the birthday of the Church. In the strength of the same Spirit the apostles performed “many signs and wonders among the people”, as Stephen, who was said to have done so for Christ with “the face of an angel.”

It was the Spirit in the form of a light from heaven that converted Paul from being the chief persecutor of Christians to its chief preacher, transferring to him in turn the power to convert others throughout the eastern Mediterranean, especially Gentiles, so manifesting Christ for the world. The power received at Pentecost and thereafter was clearly a power to prevail, to succeed in the Lord’s Name.

On the other hand, success was by no means assured. From the beginning the apostles faced opposition, suffering, and death for the Lord, Paul indicating that he had had to endure more labors, imprisonments, and beatings unto death in his ministry than others (II Corinthians 11.23). At one point, he said, metaphorically, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2.20) – only to have such prophetically come to pass when imprisoned and apparently chained to a guard (Acts 28.20) he preached the Lord Christ in Caesar’s household in Rome until presumably his martyrdom for the same around A.D. 65. Even in this, however, Paul had already grasped the paradox, the mystery of the spiritual power promised by Christ and delivered at Pentecost, for as the Lord tells Paul in a vision, his “power is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12.9).

Early on, in his first missionary journey, and after having been stoned and dragged about, Paul said, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22).

He grasped fully the power both to prevail and to persevere in the Lord’s Name.  We need to be ever mindful of this truth of truths with regard to the power of the Spirit given to the Church on Pentecost. Especially so today!

While, as Paul well shows, opposition to the Christian faith has been present from spiritual and secular realms from the beginning, it is particularly vexing now.

Revisionist forces within the Church seek to deny or dumb down timeless basic doctrine. The secular media delights in publicizing and mocking the Church for its faults, for its sins, even as it promotes every manner of sin. Secular and patently anti-spiritual enterprises seek to drive Bible reading and prayer from schools, sports teams, and government offices, all the while conducting business without moral or ethical principles.

If all this were not bad enough, just the past week a Christian street preacher in England was arrested and locked up on a charge of hate speech for quoting the Bible and saying that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God. Next, we can be sure, priests will be charged with discrimination for being unwilling to marry same sex couples in obedience to Scripture.

These are what they are! More tribulations through which Christians must pass to enter the kingdom of God!

- JR Hiles

Just below the surface in this contrast is the apparent fact that the Scribes, the professional theologians who functioned there, and who presumably had defrauded worshippers (in something of a spiritual foreclosure) in order to perpetuate their cushy positions and enhance their showy religious wardrobes, gave but a pittance out of their abundant wealth. On the other hand, the poor widow, who had been victimized by those same Scribes, gave “out of her poverty… everything she had.”

Approaching the time when once again we’ll be asked to give for the work of the Church, it’s time to see our Lord’s teaching in this regard in the widow’s mite. As we seek to do so, bear in mind that this was not so much his teaching out of thin air, but rather spiritual instruction based on a real incident observed by him at the entrance to the temple.

First of all, it must be admitted that Jesus says very little about financial gifts, and actually seems personally to have cared nothing at all about material things. Yet, he uses this incident at the
temple gate to make a fundamental pronouncement to the effect that there is a connection between spiritual and material things in God’s overall economy.

Secondly, for Jesus the Church like the temple is God’s spiritual and material house amongst us. It is where God causes his Name to dwell – where he meets us in word, in prayer, and in the gift of his body and blood at the Altar for our redemption.

Thirdly, by extension, on analogy of exchanging currency between countries to transfer purchasing power, gifts to the Church are necessary – they are simply the means of exchanging heartfelt faith for concrete ministry in the Name of God and his Son Christ Jesus.

Finally, in such giving it’s the sacrificial heart behind it that is all-important: not something meagerly offered to God and his Christ boastfully while all the while but a pittance out of abundance, but rather that which is gladly presented out of our real poverty, i.e., a recognition that ‘everything we have, … our whole living’ comes from them.

- JR Hiles
Adapted from a sermon on Mark 12.38-44 – November 8, 2009

The day and its octave commemorate the saints who have passed from earthly life into the land of life and joy. While we truly rejoice in those super star believers of Scripture and Church history that are often depicted in stained glass, we commemorate too all the people of God who have been sanctified by the Spirit and gone from this world to the next.

And although from the middle ages on the Church saw fit to remember the two separately, i.e., the greater from the lesser known, the latter being given a day of their own, November 2nd, we will do so jointly on Sunday, the 1st . We will recount by name at the Altar those  who have passed from the Parish family in the past year as well as all those indicated on the inserted form.

All Saints’ Day is also one of four customary days for baptism by the Church. Ritually, then, the saints who have gone before are connected to those beginning their journey of
faith. This gives the day and the season a unique drama and color, declaring as it does
something of the length and breadth and depth of the Church of Christ.

In keeping with the festival nature of All Saints’ Day, a Reception Luncheon in honor of both the faithful departed and the faithful newly arrived by baptism will follow the ten-thirty service in the Foyer at noontime. Everyone is invited, and contributions of favorite dishes will be gratefully received.

- JR Hiles

Judas’ heroic exploits were celebrated because he had restored Old Testament faith in the land, returned a proper Altar to its central place in the temple, and restated that sacrifices there were to be made only “as the law commands.”

In this setting – that of the Feast of Dedication – Jesus points to the fact that he himself is to be understood and celebrated as one designated, set apart, consecrated as the means of proper approach to God. Indeed, he says flat out, “I and the Father are one” (John 10.30). For this, the Jews thought him guilty of blasphemy and took up stones against him. Never the less, he later declares
even more boldly, “I am the way, the truth, the life” (John 14.6).

The long anticipated Dedication/Consecration of our new house of God, New Parish Hall, is scheduled for Sunday, September 27th, when Archbishop Kolini, our own two bishops, MacBurney and Rodgers, together with a host of other distinguished guests will be here for that purpose.

A preliminary announcement of the festivities was included in the last Messenger, and full and final details of the two-day event will be mailed separately in late August. Whatever, save the day and the Saturday before so that the Parish may be totally prepared to receive the panoply of spirits God is sending into our midst and to celebrate all that he intends for us in these things.

It will be in every sense “a festival of lights” for the Parish: it will make clear to us that New Parish Hall is God’s temple amongst us until an even grander one can be erected to his glory, which is our intent; it will celebrate that therein is where God himself dwells and meets us when we come properly prepared to meet him; it will vindicate our determination of some sixteen that our place of
worship ought at all times be cleansed of every pagan teaching and observance that hinders divine fellowship; it will confess; again that our Lord himself has been consecrated both Shepherd yet Lamb for our salvation.

- JR Hiles
Adapted from a sermon, 4/29/07

All this would be signaled by destruction of Jerusalem and its temple and preceded by wars, natural disasters, persecution, idolatry, even in the temple, with stars falling from the sky.

It stirred fear!

Understandably, the disciples wanted to know “when” all this would occur and how they would fair. Warning against false teaching on the matter, He said that only the Father knew the time but that upon his return he would “send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds.”

In the meanwhile, He had this word for his disciples – then and now: “Watch, for you do not know when the master of the house will come!”

Inasmuch as Jesus speaks of His second coming frequently in terms of ‘night watch’, ‘wakefulness’, and ‘alertness’ (see Matthew 24.42; 25.13; Luke 12.38)

• He is clearly giving his close followers something other than calendar information;
• He is calling them – and right down to believers today, us – to perpetual readiness in His Name and for God’s new creation in Him.
• He is calling them to a clear vision of who they are and to what they have been called, so away from apathy, stupor, and weariness.
• He is calling them to spiritual wisdom, to openness to his word, so not taken in by false teaching, however pious is seems.
• He is calling them to spiritual courage, so not giving in under the most arduous trials and difficulties for His Name’s sake
• He is calling them to earnest prayer, so not being silent toward God in thoughtless preoccupation.

In all, He, calling them to be ever on their tip toes, hence prepared to spring forth and meet the Lord upon his return and when the angels sound the call.

In largely bygone days, railroad crossings were marked by signs that read STOP / LOOK / LISTEN for oncoming trains. The Gospel reading for this first Sunday in Advent, from Mark, has our Lord saying TAKE HEED / WATCH / PRAY!

He is coming again! Of course, he will be with us anew spiritually as we remember his first coming in another Christmas season. He speaks here, however, of his physical coming again at the end of present time, at an ultimate Christmas.

Let us indeed be perpetually ready!

- JR Hiles
Adapted from a Sermon on Mark 13.24-27 / 11/30/08

The following article was printed in the Messenger of Summer 1992… Its [reprinting in the October 2008 Messenger was] particularly timely in view of the reformation and realignment for good in the
Communion that has been chronicled in this and past issues over the last fifteen years.

The Anglican Communion is a world-family of Churches. There are more than 70 million Anglican Christians, in 29 autonomous Churches spread across 160 countries in every continent. Anglicans speak many languages and come from different races and cultures. Although autonomous these Churches are unified through their history, their theology, and their relationship to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Anglicans trace their roots back to the early Church and their separate identity to the post-Reformation expansion of the Church of England and other Episcopal or Anglican Churches. Historically there were two main stages of the development of the Communion. From the 17th century Anglicamism was established alongside colonialisation in the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The second stage began in the 18 th century when missionaries worked to establish Anglican Churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Central to worship for Anglicans is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. In this offering of prayer and praise are recalled the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the proclamation of the Word and celebration of the Sacraments.

Worship is at the very heart of Anglicanism. Its styles vary from the simple to the elaborate, from Evangelical to Catholic, from charismatic to traditional or indeed form a combination of these various traditions. The Book of Common Prayer, in its various revisions throughout the Communion, gives expression to the comprehensiveness found within the Church whose principles reflect, since the time of Elizabeth I, a via media in relation to other Christian traditions.

In pamphlets and treatises, such as the ninety popular and controversial Tracts for the Times, and in sermons, poetry, lectures, and articles the movement relentlessly attacked secularism (religious indifference), liberalism (the view that reason alone can cure all evil) and Erastianism (the idea that final authority in religious matters belongs to the state) of university, church, and country.

Affirming doctrine and devotion, the movement promoted the Holy Catholic Church as a super-natural, divinely authorized institution, a visible unity on earth possessing sacraments and unbroken apostolic succession of bishops.

The movement’s leaders were noted for their intellectual, moral, and spiritual stature and for their personal attraction and influence: John Keble, poet of Anglican devotion; Richard Hurrell Froude, zealous apologist for Catholic truths; Edward Bouverie Pusey, devout, erudite aristocrat; John Henry Newman, acknowledged leader and genius of the movement who [largely wrote the tracts and] developed its foundational position, the Via Media.

Reaching its zenith in 1938, the movement, though antipapal, was increasingly attacked by church and university for its Romanism. Nonetheless, it survived Newman’s conversion to Rome (1845) and spread fragmentedly to urban centers, there emphasizing social, pastoral, and liturgical matters [as free Christian education of boys in exchange for their voices in choirs] over doctrinal ones. Besides bringing many converts to Catholicism, the Oxford movement was a renaissance of catholicity in the universal Church.

Mary Katherine Tillman
Harpercollins
Encyclopedia of Catholicism

Someone telephoned a week or so ago, after reading the notice posted at the door of New Parish Hall, and asked, “What are the Fifty Days of Easter?” It occurred to me that others might likewise be wondering about the designation.

Originally the resurrection and ascension of our Lord, as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost according to his promise, were all part of a fifty-day celebration of the establishment of the Church. Only in the fifth century – in accord with piety’s way of drawing out and distinguishing between matters of faith – were these three elements separated into distinct observances, so holy days on the liturgical calendar.

Having passed thru another Easter, we are now drawing near Ascension Day. The term and the idea says, quite plainly, as the traditional scriptures for the day clearly indicate, that sometime following our Lord’s resurrection he was “taken up” or “carried up” into heaven. While the two stories differ substantially as to when the happening occurred, it is perfectly plain that Jesus is ultimately glorified and that in him we have immediate (right hand) access to our Father God.  See Acts 1.1-11 and Luke 24.49-53.

The concept of Jesus being taken into heaven is not easy to understand.  Indeed, even one of Anglicanism’s better known bishops, John Robinson, said some forty-five years ago that the idea of a “three storied universe” in which such happenings could occur was so offensive that no twentieth century thinking person could embrace it. Well, despite his fine work in other New Testament studies, the bishop had it entirely wrong in this case. In the last analysis, the ascension of Jesus is not something that rests on human ability to comprehend.

Rather, like God coming down in an earthly son at Christmas and his rising from death at Easter, it is a divine glorification of all that God intended in him. Put another way, it is the theological truth that things have come full circle: Christ has come from God! Christ has returned to God! Christ is forever with God, making intercession for his faithful followers!

Even more astounding, the faithful who lay hold of all this in the present fifty days are those who thereby, like the disciples at the first Christian Pentecost, receive power from on high, the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord’s promise.  Given the Parish’s sense of spirit, devotion to the apostles’ teaching, and steady growth, his promise seems surely to be resting upon on us as well (Acts 2.40-41).