Tuesday, May 06, 2008
First things First: Our identity is in Jesus Christ
BB NOTE: Cardinal Kasper is right in asking the question, though we
may quarrel with the idea that our identity is in whether we are
sufficiently Catholic or Protestant, but whether we are sufficiently
identified with the cross of Jesus Christ.
From here.
Speaking on the day that the Archbishop of Canterbury met Benedict XVI
in Rome, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical
Council of Christian Unity, said it was time for Anglicanism to
"clarify its identity".
He told the Catholic Herald: "Ultimately, it is a question of the
identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong?
"Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic
and Orthodox - or does it belong more to the Protestant churches of
the 16th century? At the moment it is somewhere in between, but it
must clarify its identity now and that will not be possible without
certain difficult decisions."
He said he hoped that the Lambeth conference, an event which brings
the worldwide Anglican Communion together every 10 years, would be the
deciding moment for Anglicanism.
Cardinal Kasper, who has been asked to speak at the Lambeth Conference
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, said: "We hope that certain
fundamental questions will be clarified at the conference so that
dialogue will be possible.
"We shall work and pray that it is possible, but I think that it is
not sustainable to keep pu****ng decision-making back because it only
extends the crisis."
Ruth Gledhill at The Times makes a very good point. "The 'orthodox' or
'traditionalists' now are from the opposite end of the spectrum, in
Anglican terms," she writes today. "They are from Kasper's Protestant
wing. The irony is that if the Anglican Communion does what Kasper is
asking and decides it is in fact a 'Catholic' Church, it will emerge
as a Church in the mould of the liberal Catholic provinces of TEC,
Scotland and the Catholic wing in England. This would not fit at all
with the present mold of conservative catholicism in Rome."
This is so true. The fact is, the progressives in TEC are far more
"catholic" in their wor****p-style, but off the rails when it comes to
theology. John Paul II appears to have been the one to take such
amazing strides on doctrine of salvation based on grace. The language
of evangelical Protestants (mostly predominantly in the spin-offs from
the mainline dominations in the United States) and the language of
John Paul II found a surprising affinity. It is evangelicals that are
warming up to Rome, not liberal Protestants. Now who would have
thought of that?
What the Cardinal may not - yet - grasp is that the fields of
Protestant non-denominationalism are ripe with an open-heart to
liturgy, Jesus-saving, scripturally-based, Trinitarian evangelical
liturgy - which is the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. The Book of
Common Prayer could do more to bring together disenfranchised
evangelical Protestants - who have been refugees from their parent
denomination for, as in the case of both the Virginia Baptists and the
United Methodists - for centuries. I was astonished recently when I
attended a predominantly African-American Baptist wedding in
Wa****ngton, D.C. and the Baptist minister was using the Book of Common
Prayer for the wedding liturgy. I didn't even have to look at the
service leaflet, which caused my friends to inquire how I knew it all
by heart! They thought the pastor wrote it.
Something indeed is happening here, but it's something even deeper
than whether Lambeth will tilt to Rome or to New York.
Our community networks as Christians are no longer reserved just for
our own tribe. Alpha Conferences are a great example of this new
networking. Now we gather together not because of our structural
affiliation, but in our common devotion to mission and evangelism.
Baptists and Catholics - not known for their long-term affinity for
one another - find themselves eating box lunches together under shady
oak trees discussing evangelistic outreaches to the inner city or to
Islamic strongholds and then praying together. Theirs is a common
language of conversion that we find in such networks - or as Paul
wrote in his letter to the Galatians, "I have been crucified with
Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live
in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." It's not about achieving rights, but giving them up.
It is the paradox that in handing the reigns of our life over to
Jesus, we find our life and are set free. "It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free," Paul writes later in his letter to the
Galatians. "Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery."
What is that "yoke of slavery?" Isn't it selling ourselves to the
"spirit of the age?" The walls are falling between Christians that
have long had antipathy for one another because of the freedom we find
when we are bonded to Jesus Christ first. It's Jesus first, Anglican
second. It's Jesus first, Roman Catholic second. It's Jesus first,
Protestant second. When Jesus is first, we are free. That's what means
that He is the head of the church, He is first.
John Paul II and now Benedict speak as those who believe, not just
with their minds but in their hearts that Jesus if first. This
resonates to evangelicals - whether we are Anglican or non-liturgical
Protestants. Benedict's speech to the American people was filled with
the assumption that Jesus is first. The bridge over the chasm is so
strong when he and other Christian leaders "get it" that we find
ourselves meeting on that bridge and swapping stories like old
friends.
It's such a contrast than what we find at so many General Conventions
and Diocese Councils, where the heart-understanding that Jesus is
first is almost considered "common." We then are aliens in our own
land, Prayer Book in hand that still speaks the language of Jesus
first - but with the imagery of the word "Christ" being reimagined
into something so different renders us to polarizing sides. We are
divided.
What appears to be before the bishops of Lambeth is whether they will
embrace their love for Jesus first, that they may be filled with His
Holy Spirit, that they will be converted and in that conversion repent
and return to the Lord. The simplicity of the Gospel is so often lost
on those of us who bear the name of Christ. If we can't agree Who is
first, how can we agree on anything else?
It's not our love for the Church, or our love for the lost, or our
love for those who are excluded, or our love for our neighbors, or our
love for justice, or our love for ourselves. It's putting first things
first and falling in love with Jesus. What has been extraordinary is
that it appears that the language of love for Jesus is being
proclaimed from Rome to Saddleback - and the bridge between the two is
to find a way to pray together as a common people who bear the name of
Christ.
And who has that book of common prayer?
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