Bishop’s Note: The Peace

Bishop Eric Menees

As we continue our examination of the Service of the Holy Eucharist in the 2019 BCP we transition from the Comfortable Words of Jesus to the “The Peace.”

The Peace is one of the most poignant and misunderstood portions of the Liturgy.

The Peace

Celebrant: The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:       And with your spirit.

Then the Ministers and People may greet one another in the name of the Lord.

In the gospel of Matthew Jesus tells his disciples: “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 – “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

The placement of The Peace is designed to assist people not to receive Holy Communion in an unworthy manner by reconciling with God and with their neighbor. The point of the Peace is NOT to catch up with your neighbor but to reconcile with your neighbor. It gladdens my heart when I witness those reconciliations.

For ten years I was the chaplain at the Bishop’s School. We had Eucharist regularly but the creme-de-la-creme was the Senior Class Eucharist at the end of the year just before the Baccalaureate Service. The Senior Class Eucharist was open only to students of the senior class and each year I would speak to the importance of reconciliation prior to graduation. What more appropriate place to speak to that than the Eucharist? What a joy to see friendships healed and broken hearts mended. Students who had a harsh word, or heard a rumor, three years prior would cross the aisle to say to the other – “Peace of the Lordbe with you! And also, with you!”

Forgiven by Christ in confession and the pronouncement of Absolution, students would be reconciled with their fellow student. This is the very point of The Peace within the liturgy!

At the same time, this can be a moment of distraction in the liturgy when rather than reconciliation it becomes a time to “catch up.” Many a time I’ve seen a visitor leave assuming that the service had ended. Oddly the tendency to catch up seems to lengthen with the size of the congregation. It’s so easy… we all know each other, we’re glad to see one another… and so the conversation leads to plans for lunch after church or shopping trips.

This Sunday, I want to encourage you to avoid the temptation to “catch up” and to use the time, if necessary, to reconcile with your brother or sister in order to approach the table in a worthy manner.

I pray you every blessing this week!

Bishop Menees

Bishop’s Note: Confession and Absolution of Sin – The Comfortable Words

Bishop Eric Menees

As we continue our examination of the Service of Holy Eucharist in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer (BCP,) we transition from the Absolution to the Offertory with the Comfortable Words of Jesus. For those familiar with the 1928 BCP these words will be familiar and have been inserted again into the 2019 BCP as part of the uniqueness of our Anglican tradition and liturgy.

The Comfortable Words

The Celebrant may then say one or more of the following sentences, first saying

Hear the Word of God to all who truly turn to him.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1 Timothy 1:15

If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:1-2

This week I’d like to share with you a piece by William J. Martin in the September 3, 2015 edition of The Anglican Way Magazine commenting on the 1928 BCP using the language of the King James Bible.

“The Comfortable Words are one of the most cherished parts of the classical Anglican liturgy. It is not unusual to see people mouthing the words along with the priest, speaking them to themselves and God in their hearts whilst he recites them aloud. However, despite their popularity and familiarity, their meaning can be somewhat difficult to understand. This is the case with the last set of Comfortable Words, which comes from St. John’s first epistle (ii. 1,2). It reads: Hear also what Saint John saith. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins. The inclusion of the word propitiation can make it hard to grasp the meaning of what is being said. So, what does this word mean? Why is it so important that it is said at each service of Holy Communion?

In his excellent book, Knowing God, the venerable evangelical Anglican theologian and scholar James I. Packer, masterfully unpacks the meaning and spiritual significance of the word propitiation. To propitiate means to avert God’s anger by the offering of a sacrifice. Thus, when in the Comfortable Words we quote the passage from St. John, Hear also what Saint John saith. If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins, we are saying that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for sin that has averted God’s wrath against us. One sometimes hears priests recite that passage in the following way: And HE is the propitiation for OUR sins. This emphasizes that Jesus satisfies the wrathful indignation of God against all sin. Jesus’ sacrificial offering of himself on the Cross of Calvary not only takes away our sins, but also appeases and transforms God’s wrath into forgiving love.

Some modern translations of the bible have replaced the word propitiation with the word expiation. What, if anything, is the difference? According to Dr. Packer the difference is that expiation has only half of the meaning of propitiation. He writes, Expiation is an action that has sin as its object; it denotes covering, putting away, or rubbing out sin so that it no longer constitutes a barrier to friendly fellowship between man and God. Propitiation, however, in the Bible, denotes all that expiation means, and the pacifying of the wrath of God thereby. (Knowing God, p. 163-164. Packer’s emphasis) This is an important difference.

The Bible speaks of God as having wrath against man for his sins. In Romans 1:18 St. Paul writes, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. We should take sin very seriously because it makes God angry. The wrath of God is not an arbitrary, capricious wrath like that of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses. Rather, sin is an affront to the very person and being of God, who is holy and righteous, so his anger against sinners is perfect and just. In the first four chapters of his epistle to the Romans Paul comments on the wrath of God towards sinful man.

But then in Romans 5:10 the tune begins to change, as Paul speaks of how the death of the Son has reconciled us to God, saying: We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Thus, as Dr. Packer says, by his sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God. (Knowing God, p. 165)

What is amazing is that propitiation is first and foremost an act of God. In pagan religions deities are propitiated by their followers offering sacrifices. In the Christian religion the entire work of salvation is accomplished by God in Christ. Packer writes, It was God himself who took the initiative in quenching his wrath against those whom, despite their ill-desert he loved and had chosen to save. This is all Good News indeed, and very spiritually comforting. The next time we hear those Comfortable Words may we thank God in our hearts for his lovingkindness in forgiving our sins and putting away his wrath.”

I pray you all a very blessed week!

Bishop Menees

Father Carlos Raines Announces His Future Retirement

January 21, 2019

My beloved brothers and sisters of St. James,

The following is the letter I read at the annual meeting yesterday. For those who were there, this gives you a chance to look over it more carefully and for those who could not be there, it catches you up with what those at the meeting heard. Please take some time to read it carefully because it outlines what I will be doing over the next year and a half or so. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them over the next few weeks as we all take time to pray about this and work together in ways that will please the Lord.

May the Lord continue to bless us and mature us in Christ Jesus and grow us as we reach out to others in the expectation that this is a season of harvest for the Church of Jesus Christ here at St. James!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Carlos

ST. JAMES ANGLICAN CHURCH, FRESNO, CA

2019 Annual Meeting Announcement

January 20, 2019

My beloved brothers and sisters!

Last year I completed the 20th year of service here at St. James as your Dean and now as your Rector. I have many cherished and lovely memories as God blessed us and we participated with Him in many mighty works of God bringing healing, salvation and restoration to us and to our world. We have had an impact on our world and there has been much fruit which remains!

But these have been hard years too! Even as we have undoubtedly grown and matured in the Lord, even as great lay ministries have emerged and leaders raised up, we have been in long numerical decline: a decline that we did not initiate, but we inherited. We simply could not turn it around.

On top of all that inheritance, we ourselves were the vanguard of an international effort to discipline the Episcopal Church and bring it back to godly fellowship with over 80% of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. At the behest and insistence of many Global South Bishops we chose to realign, leaving the Episcopal Church and coming under the authority of the Archdiocese of the Southern Cone composed of Anglicans in the nations at the bottom of South America.

Later with the help and support of both the Global South and even the encouragement of the Pope of Rome, we joined in forming the Anglican Church in North America. In the midst of all that activity we were sued, and without doubt were handed an unjust judgment which cost us our property.

But we, by the grace of God, prevailed. For this we give thanks to God our King: Emanuel; God with us.

We have never been more unified in heart and soul. We never have had stronger lay leadership (the development of which is the true test of any priest’s ministry). We are a Spirit filled, Spirit led people of prayer and the Word and Sacrament. We have learned to love God and worship Him from our hearts. We sing to the Glory of God. We have the finest and most Spirit-filled worship leaders I have ever seen. For all this we give thanks to our King; Emanuel, God with us.

We have been learning to hear God and walk in obedience to the God who speaks both through His Word, the Bible, but also through His Spirit into our hearts.   We now have four very capable preachers, and one of them, Anthony Velez, is being called by God to be a priest.

From St. James has come the team that is teaching the whole diocese to raise up catechists who can teach, disciple and plant new congregations. That same Anthony and our beloved Beth Conkle are the organizers and teachers of what is called the ACTS school of catechists!

God is raising up new leadership for the next 20 years. It has been the greatest joy and honor of my whole ministry to lead and mentor such fine ministers of Jesus Christ.  For these reasons our future has never been brighter! And it’s not a wild claim to say that the decline is turning around and God is growing us numerically. Thank you God for all the newcomers! For this we give thanks to God our King: Emanuel, God with us!

I will be 64 years old this March, on St. Patrick’s day. On St. Gregory of Nazianzus day, May 9th, I will have been a priest for 35 years. I’m not a beginner anymore! With whatever wisdom I have been granted, I have been following a divine plan. I have been asking God to show me who the next generation of leaders are and give me the privilege and honor of pouring whatever Godly wisdom, love and Spirit-filled blessing I can offer into their lives and ministries. Apart from Beth and Anthony, I have been meeting weekly or bi-monthly with about a dozen catechists and other rising leaders. As I have observed the growth that has been forming around them these past several years, I realize that God has been giving them the vision for our ministry for the next 20 years. And that Vision is already bearing fruit! I want to support them, not frustrate them (and God who is leading them). I want to finish well. I want to be valuable in the Lord to them, not be the cork in the bottle, keeping the new wine from being poured out. I want to find out whom God is raising up and get behind them and their vision. I want to continue to be a servant leader.

For those of you who are my age or older can I invite you join me in this attitude? Can we expect that God may be speaking to the next generation of leaders even as He honors us and thanks us who bore the burden during the dark days of battle? Personally I feel like we held the ground and it cost us dearly. Perhaps over the past 20 years we did not get to celebrate the great days of harvest and fruitfulness that lie ahead. We got pretty shot up! We had many days of discouragement and sometimes despaired of hope. But we held on. Now God is raising up people refreshed and Spirit-filled and enthusiastic about Him who, I pray, will go sweeping past us and on to victory. Someday, I believe we will share in the celebration of their victory. God will see to it! Jesus our King: Emanuel, God with us!

Fellow elders; will you join me in seeking the Lord’s help to supply every necessity for the next generation to finish the tasks we began? Can we trust God to reveal to the rising leadership the critical answers to such questions as “What is our identity now that we are no longer a cathedral and no longer at Cedar and Dakota?” “If we have a new identity in His sight, what name would describe that identity? “Can we who are mature and seasoned in seeking the Lord fast and pray that the whole Body may discern these things from God? Can we bring our best to the table (for often God WILL speak through the elders who truly have died to their own prerogatives and are seeking to know His will and willing to do it!) Along with what is our identity, we need to know where in this City God would replant us. Will we move somewhere for all the wrong reasons, or will we find the place that enables us to be strong and grow for the next 20 years? I am willing seriously to fast and pray for these things; will you join me? This is how God works and reveals His glory; through humble servant leaders who do not seek their own ways but the ways of Jesus our King: Emanuel who is God with us!

As I turn 64 this March I will begin to plan my retirement.

I have spent years praying and seeking God for His timing for the benefit of St. James. I love my job and will never cease being a priest and continuing to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit while I yet have breath. I am not planning on going anywhere! It is my fervent desire to continue to serve you here at St. James and, as they would wish, to continue to mentor and support the new leadership. I also hope to continue to do spiritual direction and inner healing ministry and deliverance. I hope to do some writing. And I hope to learn to fly!

My target date for retirement is my 65th birthday which will be a year and three months from now. It is the desire of the vestry and the Bishop to explore a process of replacement through mentorship of new leaders with Anthony Velez being raised up from the congregation to continue as priest in charge. As we explore this possibility, Bishop Eric, has asked me to be flexible for the needs of St. James, and that I am more than willing to do. So depending on the judgment of the Bishop and Vestry I will either retire or go part time sometime around March 17, 2020.

Transitions are not easy for any of us. Moses lost his temper at the very end and so also lost his privilege to lead the people across the Jordan River into the promised land. That task fell to his protege, Joshua whom Moses mentored in leadership. Please pray that I can finish well.

You who have stood with me all these tough years! Let’s help each other to finish well! Let’s take the opportunity God is giving us and let us show everyone, and the Lord Himself, by the grace of God, how God’s people finish well and full of grace and love! Jesus Himself trained and equipped the 12 so that He could ascend to the Father while they finished the work, taking the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Yet He remained in the Spirit; dwelling with and within us, teaching and empowering us. With us always even to the ends of the Earth. This is how He showed us to finish well. We imitate Him; our King, Jesus who is Emanuel, God with us.

The Very Rev. Carlos L. Raines, Rector