The Bishop’s Note – BCP Morning Prayer – The Psalter

Bishop Eric Menees

As we continue our examination of the 2019 Book of Common Prayer’s service of Morning Prayer, we move from the Invitatory to the Psalter.

The daily praying of the psalms dates to centuries before the Incarnation of our Lord. Jesus regularly quotes the psalms, think of the Pharisees who confront Jesus in the synoptic gospels. In Matthew 22:41-46, Jesus turns the tables and asks the Pharisees about the Christ. When they are unable to answer Jesus quotes King David and Psalm 110.

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”

Jesus’ reliance on the psalms demonstrates their importance in his life. That same importance is reflected in the use of the Psalter in the services of Morning and Evening Prayer. The 2019 BCP gives two options for praying the psalms in Morning and Evening Prayer. Option 1, which is the more traditional manner dating back to the earliest prayer books, has the participants reading the entire Psalter through on a 30-day cycle. I personally enjoy this manner because the psalms, over the years have become very familiar to me, so that I can draw upon them more easily in ministry. Of course, this also adds 5-7 minutes more to the Office. The second option, which is equally valid, prays the entire Psalter over a 60-day period. Some people report that they feel less overwhelmed with this cycle and that they can concentrate more on the psalms that they do pray. In either case, the regular reading and praying of the psalms in the Daily Office feed the souls and inspire ministry – “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (Ps. 110:105) Or this morning’s psalm, “O Lord, you have searched me out and known me, you know my sitting down and my rising up; you understand my thoughts from afar.” (Ps. 139:1)

Lastly, the psalms printed in the 2019 BCP are a renewed version of the Coverdale Psalter. The following description of that translation comes from the ACNA Website: (www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/1599)

A (Very) Brief History of the Anglican Coverdale Psalter

In 1539, under the direction of King Henry VIII, Miles Coverdale produced the Great Bible, within which was what became known as the Coverdale Psalter, the liturgical translation in every Anglican prayer book until the 1960s.

In 1963, the Church of England attempted to update the Coverdale Psalms to more modern language – with a committee including notable members T.S. Elliot and C.S. Lewis – but the Cathedral musicians opposed the revision [musical psalters would have to be rewritten] and their update was not adopted.

The older Coverdale Psalter continued to be used until the 1979 Prayer Book when a new liturgical translation was produced. Unfortunately, this translation was a break from the turn-of-phrase of every previous Prayer Book and from the global Anglican language for prayer.  Sometimes even the new translation, while technically correct, was not as comprehensible to contemporary understanding. (See an example below).

Which brings us to the historic moment we as the Anglican Church in North America are currently in. The Lord has blessed us with gifted scholars who are willing to take on the challenge to renew the Coverdale Psalter translation with modern language, clarity, and musicality.

Toward A Renewed Anglican Coverdale Psalter

The Liturgy Task Force Psalter subcommittee, chaired by the Ven. Darrell Critch, a musically trained Anglican Church in North America rector, along with seminary professors and Old Testament scholars Erika Moore (Trinity School for Ministry), Travis Bott (Nashotah House), and John Crutchfield (Columbia International University), is building on the work of Lewis and Eliot to renew the Coverdale Psalter.

Archbishop Duncan detailed that “when we renew a Psalm, the scholars look at the Coverdale and ask ‘is this an accurate or reasonable translation?’ Then, they determine if it is understandable in modern English.” Then they compare it to the 1963 version. They renew the translation accordingly.

Rather than creating a new translation, like the 1979 prayer book, the Task Force is seeking to update the Coverdale. Unlike the Church of England committee work in 1963, this edition replaces the “thees” and “thys” and 16th century verb forms with contemporary language.

The Renewed Coverdale Psalter is historic. And like the recent release of the Catechism, the Liturgy Task Force and the College of Bishops believe it will be “a gift to the whole Anglican world,” said Archbishop Duncan.

I pray you all a very blessed day!

Besetting Sins and Identity Theft

Pentecost 10 C 2019

 Besetting Sins and Identity Theft 

Fr. Dale Matson

           

My homily today is taken from our opening Collect and our Epistle lesson from Hebrews.

“Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life:  Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.”

In our opening Collect, we state that God sacrificed His only Son Jesus for our sins. In fact, it is only because of God’s mercy that we are not put in situations where we would sin. Because it is still in our nature to sin. In many situations, would you have behaved differently if your Christian friend or your spouse had not been around? In the same token, how often have you gotten excellent consultation from your spouse or even your own children. Yet we are to live a redeemed life after the pattern of our Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, we are called to lead a holy life but the old Adam still resides within us. Martin Luther once said that we should celebrate our baptism daily by drowning the old Adam.

From our Epistle lesson, we hear this. “Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Unfortunately, many Christians are crippled by what is referred to in Hebrews (12:1) as “Weights and Besetting Sins.”  In the King James Version or Epistle lesson states, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. What does St. Paul mean by weights and besetting sins? By “Weights” he means obsession with bodily concerns, fondness for and worries about this world. It was recently reported in the Los Angeles Times that one in five Californians say they need mental health care. Twenty-two military veterans commit suicide every day.

By “Besetting Sins” St. Paul means those sins that we have given a place in our lives to the extent that the sins now possess us. We are in captivity to them. They can be sins of addiction and in many cases, they are also hidden sins. Some of these sins are hidden from the sinner and others are known to the sinner. There are at a minimum three individuals who know about these sins. They are God, us and Satan the liar and thief. Eventually, more people may find out and at the last judgment you will have to account for these sins. King David lusted after Bathsheba which eventually led to him having her husband killed in battle so he could have her as his wife. Not everyone is fortunate enough as David to have a ‘Nathan’ to reveal his Besetting sin to him or her. In this case it was lust. The outcome from this sin was the death of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, David's son, a curse on the house of David and a warrior king turned into a cowardly fugitive from his own son Absalom.

I have had several besetting sins in my life. Perhaps the best way to describe them is that the sins can occupy and consume our thoughts. One of my sins is fear. My fear of flying was a specific problem that kept me from flying for twenty-five years.

Fear can control your life. Fear is a sin. In the book of Isaiah, God said, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

The phrase “fear not” is used at least 80 times in the Bible, most likely because God knows the enemy uses fear to decrease our hope and limit our victories. To the extent sin controls your life, it diminishes it. Christ said, “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).

In today’s world, we attempt to protect our identity by shredding documents that contain our personal information. We also have software fire walls on our computers and unlisted phone numbers. Passwords can be pretty inconvenient, especially when you can’t remember the password you use to get into your computer. Why is it important to protect our identity? If our identity information is stolen by imposters, our credit and reputation could be destroyed. If this happens we can no longer buy or sell. We are powerless and penniless.

Here is the irony. If we have besetting sins, our identity is not secure. Our besetting sins provide an open portal in our firewall. Actually, our identity has already been stolen. What do I mean by this? Satan the liar, accuser and thief tells us we are imposters. We are not who we say we are. Even worse, Satan is able to convince us that we are not who God says we are. The effect of this is that we no longer see ourselves as God sees us. We see ourselves as Satan wants us to see ourselves. We see ourselves as powerless buying into the lies of the evil one. What does Scripture tell us about our true identity as Christians?  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-6). This is spoken of as something NOT in the future but as an accomplished fact. This is our true identity in Christ Jesus.    

How do we keep the accuser out? We are called to live a holy life. We are called to be a holy people. I already mentioned this in response to our opening Collect.  Our spiritual firewall is Virtue. In the King James Version of Holy Scripture, it states that when a woman with a bleeding problem touched Christ, she was healed and He felt a virtue leave Him. (Mark 5:30) Virtue is power. But you say to me, “I don’t have to be a holy person, Jesus paid the price of my sins”. That is true but he also told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

So, what are we to do with these besetting sins that give Satan an opportunity to steal our identity, blackmail us and short circuit our power as Christians? I believe the first step is with our will. We must ask God to give us the will to turn away. I prayed for two years for the desire to quit smoking. Even though I knew smoking was bad for me; I did not have the will to quit. I was a slave to this sin. Smoking was an addiction that owned me. The second step is what Psychologists call providing a replacement behavior. For example, in Alcoholics Anonymous the expression is, “Don’t pick up a drink. Pick up the phone.” In the case of the seven deadly sins, there are also seven corresponding virtues. The prescription is to practice virtues that work against the entrenched sins. I believe that is why St. Paul listed the Fruits of Spirit following the sins of the flesh in Galatians. For example, if you are someone afflicted with hoarding behavior, the most freeing thing you can do is to give things away. You are replacing greed with charity. I’m not saying you are a hoarder if you own a four-bedroom house and rent a storage shed but perhaps you could consider giving some of your things to a charity.

I would like to summarize thus far and offer an additional prescription. I believe many Christians see themselves as imposters and powerless. It may be because they have secret sins that Satan exploits. They have asked for forgiveness over and over yet remain captive of those sins. These are besetting sins that keep us from progressing as Christians. These secret sins keep us from being a holy people. We must ask God for the will to resist these sins and seek a virtuous replacement. Brothers and Sisters, the Kingdom of God is an upside-down Kingdom. The weak are strong, the last are first. The foolish are wise and the poor are rich. To rid ourselves of these sins, we must do the opposite.

Finally, here is the additional prescription. As Priests we are ordained to administer what we call the ABC’s. Consecrate the Bread and Wine. We are ordained to Bless things and people and we are ordained to offer Absolution. In our new ACNA Book of Common Prayer beginning on page 222 we have what are called the “Rites of Healing”. The first rite is “Reconciliation of Penitents”. It is an opportunity to personally confess and receive absolution from the priest, for those besetting sins which seem to hang on and never be resolved. These besetting sins allow the evil one to lie about our true identity. This is different than our group confession prior to the Liturgy of the Table. I hope that your will take advantage of the opportunity for private confession as a means to rid yourself of a besetting sin. Amen

Bishop’s Note – The Invitatory

Bishop Eric Menees

As we continue our examination of the 2019 BCP Service of Morning prayer we examine “The Invitatory.” The invitatory is composed of two parts – the call to worship and an invitatory psalm, either the Venite – Psalm 95 or the Jubilate – Psalm 100. The invitatory has been a part of the daily offices for centuries, and therefore endured the test of time.

Having cleansed our hearts by sincerely and contritely confessing our sins, and having received the cool balm of the words of absolution washing over us, we have sufficiently entered into the presence of the Lord.

In the call to worship we invite God Himself to open our lips that we may proclaim His praise. We invite the Lord to assist us because we need the Lord’s assistance with all things… up to and including praising His Holy Name!

Invitatory

Officiant O Lord, open our lips;

People And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Officiant O God, make speed to save us;

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Officiant Praise the Lord.

People The Lord’s Name be praised.

Immediately following the invitatory, we pray Psalm 95 – The Venite – or Psalm 100 – the Jubilate. These psalms take their names from the first words of the psalm. O Come is derived from the Latin - Venite, exultemus Domino - “O come Let us sing unto the Lord.” King David in this psalm lifts his heart to the Lord and so too do we as we pray this psalm!

Psalm 100 – The Jubilate is also derived from the Latin - Jubilate Deo - “O Be joyful in the Lord.” Again, King David extols himself and all of us to “Be joyful in the Lord!” Indeed we can be joyful in the Lord because His Grace surrounds us and impels us forward in Him as we worship Him in the Morning Office!

Venite

O Come

O come, let us sing unto the Lord; *

     let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *

     and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God *

     and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are all the depths of the earth *

     and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *

     and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship and fall down, *

     and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God, *

     and we are the people of his pasture,

     and the sheep of his hand.

The following verses may be omitted, except in Lent.

Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts *

     as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in

     the wilderness,

When your fathers tested me, *

     and put me to the proof, though they had seen my works.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said,

     “It is a people that err in their hearts,

     for they have not known my ways,”

Of whom I swore in my wrath *

     that they should not enter into my rest.

Psalm 95:1-7, 8-11

or this

Jubilate

Be Joyful

O be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; *

     serve the Lord with gladness,

     and come before his presence with a song.

Be assured that the Lord, he is God; *

     it is he that has made us, and not we ourselves;

     we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving,

and into his courts with praise; *

     be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name.

For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting, *

     and his truth endures from generation to generation.

Psalm 100