Seven
Mission Goals for 2007
1.
An active youth ministry in place by the end of the year
2.
Hosting a quarterly Friends and Family Sunday (where we
invite non-believing family and friends to church)
3.
100% parish participation in the Franklin Graham festival
(i.e. everyone gets trained and brings a non-believing friend
to the festival itself)
4.
The vestry is seeking100% participation in Bible Study.
5
At least 30 new believers by this time next year.
6.
An active discipling program by the end of the year with
at least 4 leaders in discipling relationships.
7.
gathering at least 100 people for worship every Sunday.
Dear
Good Shepherd,
Last
week I introduced a new written series of essays on the
39 Articles
of Religion that will help you become more familiar
with the foundational confession, or faith statement, of
the Anglican Communion. That series begins this morning
with the following essay on the first article. You can find
all of the Articles of Religion printed in the back of the
Book of Common Prayer. Or you can follow the link above.
Who
is God: Part 1 of a series of essays on the Articles of
Religion
by
the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Article
1: Of Faith in the Holy Trinity
The
first Article of the Articles of Religion has to do with
the character and nature of God:
ARTICLE
I: There is but one living and true God, everlasting,
without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom,
and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both
visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there
be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity;
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The
origin of every cult, error, or heresy might be traced to
a distortion of the God's self-revelation as the Trinity:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
*
Mormons, for example, teach that there are many gods; Jesus
and the Father being two separate divinities.
*
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that there is only one God,
Jehovah, but reject the biblical claim that God is revealed
in three Persons.
* The ancient heretic Marcion believed in two separate gods:
a harsh Creator God revealed in the Old Testament and a
loving Redeemer God revealed in the New Testament.
*
In the 1950's an Episcopalian bishop named James Pike, denied
the Trinity and rejected the concept of a personal God.
Every
distortion of God's self-revealed nature, and the above
illustrations represent only a small sample, is potentially
lethal.
The
scriptures teach that all human beings stand guilty of rebellion
against God (see Romans 3:10 -18). And on that basis, we
are all subject to eternal judgment.
But
God loved you and I so much that he became man in Jesus
Christ in order to live the holy life we failed to live
and then to bear the eternal punishment that we deserve
so that in and through the Person and Work of Jesus, God
might offer salvation and eternal life to everyone.
The
promise of God is that whosoever comes to faith in Christ
will be saved.
In
fact, the bible teaches that salvation can be found in no
other name, no other Person, but in Christ alone.
Jesus
said:
“I
am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
And
Peter and John proclaimed before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem
that:
“Jesus
is the stone that was
rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)
In
order, then, to receive the salvation God offers, you must
surrender your life to Jesus Christ.
But
what if the Jesus to whom you surrender is not the real
Jesus? What if the God you worship is not the true God?
This
is the danger and cruelty of heresy and the deadly pitfall
posed by cults. The salvation offered by God comes through
faith in Jesus Christ alone. But the Christ that heretics
and cults proclaim is a false one and the God they serve
is not the true God as he has revealed himself in the scriptures.
This
is why it is so important to be diligent and careful in
your study of the bible; to know God as he reveals himself
in the scriptures so that you can be confident that the
Jesus whom you seek and serve and in whom you place your
full trust is the true Jesus.
This
is why the Articles of Religion begin with a positive affirmation
of the self-revealed nature of God. Anglicans, like all
Christians, ground our faith in the living God as he has
made himself known.
The
first Article affirms that there is but one living and true
God. This is in keeping with the proclamation of the prophets,
priests and kings throughout the Old Testament.
In
Deuteronomy 6 we read that God
is One : “Hear O Israel the Lord Your God, the Lord
is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4),
Earlier,
in the same book we read that there is only One God: “Yahweh,
He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there
is no other." (Deuteronomy 4:35)
The
first Article moves on to describe God as "everlasting".
God is the only God and there was never a time when he was
not; nor will there ever be a time when he will not be.
God, in other words, is"eternal". He has no beginning.
He has no end. He exists outside of time and space.
This is a difficult concept to understand. Indeed, many
new believers ask, “Who created God?” But the question is
a category error. The material universe, and all that exists
within it, requires a cause because it does not possess,
within itself, the power of self-existence.
The
universe, indeed, had a beginning, a point of origin. Contemporary
astronomers identify the Big Bang as that point of origin.
But this does not resolve the problem. What caused the Big
Bang? How did that infintesimally dense "singularity"
that astronomers suggest existed prior to the Big Bang come
into being? What caused it to explode? Nothing
can "be" before it "is", so the singularity
could not have created itself. Out of nothing, nothing comes.
And since the singularity was both material (or "physical")
and subject to change, it could not have been eternal or
infinite in nature. It also must have had a beginning and
a Cause.
But how, some may ask, can
we know that there was not and is not an infinite series
of material causes? This is a complex question so I will
answer it as briefly and succinctly as possible. We can
know that there was no infinite regress of material causes
because the very passage of time and the moment by moment
continuation of the cycleof causes in our present demonstrates
that the material universe is a "potential" but not an "actual"
infinite. An actually infinite line is one that has no beginning
and no end. A potentially infinite line's length is constantly
extending. Time, for example, is a potential infinite. We
cannot necessarily see its absolute beginning but we see
that it has an end, moment by moment, in the present. The
line of time is constantly extending but it is not infinite,
just potentially so. The same is true for the cycle of causes
that exists within time and space. The existence of an end
point in the causal cycle, the present, means that the cycle
of material causes cannot be an acually infinite cycle.
In other words, since the cycle of causes ends in the present,
we can assume that it must have had a beginning in the past.
In
the world of real material things, an absolute infinite
is an impossibility. Dr. Norman Geisler illustrated this
point well in his book, "Christian Apologetics"
using the hypothetical illustration of a hotel with an absolute
infinite number of rooms. Imagine that an absolute infinite
set of guests check-in to the hotel. They are assigned to
rooms [...-3,-1, 1,3,5,...] But then another absolute infinite
number of guests arrives. The first set of guests are moved
from the odd numbered rooms to the even numbered rooms an
the new set of guests are giveb the odd rooms.
Questions:
How many guests were in the hotel after the first set checked
in? How many were
there after the second arrived? How many would be there
when the first set checks out (assuming the second set of
guests remains)? The answer, and it is absurd, to all these
questions is the same. Infinity. This illustration demonstrates
the purely theoretical nature of an absolute infinite set.
There is no such thing and there can be no such thing as
an absolute infinite set of material causes or anything
else in the world of real things.
If
all of this makes your head spin, simply remember the classic
law: the whole cannot exceed the sum of its parts. If the
universe is made up if finite material causes and effects
(i.e. things that come into being and then cease to be)
and it is, then the material universe as a whole cannot
be infinite.
We
are left with the following proposition. Since the material
universe is not an absolute infinite and since it could
not have come into being through its own power or force,
there must be another Cause beyond the material universe,
beyond time and space, without beginning or end that possess
the power of life or existence within itself.
This
“Cause”, the scriptures teach and the first Article affirms
is not just another thing but the everlasting God who has
revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. God is spirit. He
is beyond time and space. While he took on human nature
in Jesus Christ, he is not, substantially a part of the
universe but distinct from it. Therefore, he has no cause
or Creator. God simply is.
The
first Article goes on to affirm that God is “simple” without
“body” or “parts”. God did, as noted above, take on a human
body at the Incarnation of Christ, but he is not human or
“bodily” by nature. He is Spirit.
To
say that God is “simple” or without “parts” does not mean
that he is "easy" to understand.
Indeed,
while we can know those aspects of his nature and his character
that God chooses to reveal and make known, his nature in
its fullness is far beyond our comprehension. For all eternity
we will be grasping and glorying in new and different aspects
of God's nature, but we will never comprehend the whole
of him. God is not simple in the sense that he is easy to
understand.
Rather,
to say that he is “simple” means that he is not made up
of different portions or parts that required assembly. He
is One Whole Being, not partitioned. If God were made up
of different parts then we would necessarily have to posit
another Power to piece him together. That power would supercede
God and God would, in that case, not be God. He would be
a creature and the assembling Power would be his Creator.
The first Cause of all creation cannot have parts if he
is to be the first Cause...and, as we have seen, the universe
could not have come into existence without a first Cause.
One
quick note before moving on. We must be careful when speaking
of God's simplicity. To say God does not have “parts” is
not to say that he does not have multiple “Persons” as we
will see below.
The
Article continues with the affirmation God does not have
"passions." God does not change his mind nor is
he subject to fluctuating emotions. While from the human
perspective it may seem that God goes from anger to sadness;
from longing for his people to punishing them; the fact
is that is it not God who changes or shifts. We do.
God
is eternally and unchangeably displeased with sin. He is
eternally and unchangeably pleased with faithfulness. He
is eternally and unchangeably sorrowful when people reject
him and eternally and unchangeably pleased when they repent.
When
we sin. God is displeased. But he has not changed. We have.
We have gone from a state of faithfulness to a state of
disobedience. We have moved from the sphere of God's eternal
pleasure to the sphere of his eternal displeasure.
God
does experience emotion, infinitely perfect and glorious
emotion. But his emotions are eternal. They do not change
nor are they contingent upon our actions. We move. God does
not.
The
article goes on to affirm that God is not only good and
wise and powerful, but that he is infinitely so. There is,
in other words, no limit to these aspects of his character.
“Good”,
in fact, is not some external standard that we hold up to
God to see whether he measures up. God himself is the measure.
He is "the" good. Good flows from him as does
power and wisdom like water from a spring.
This
is why it is always foolish to disregard the commands and
counsels of God. He is infinitely wise, powerful, and good.
So he is infinitely more knowledgeable than you or I even
when it comes to the specific circumstances of our lives.
If
God says not to do something, then it is always wisest not
to do it even when the proscription does not accord with
our reason. If God commands that something be done, it is
the wisest course to do it, even when we cannot understand
why God has given the command.
Think
of Noah. Noah worked for over 100 years constructing a huge
boat in a region where there was no water. His neighbors
must have thought he was crazy and, no doubt, some days
Noah must have agreed. But he followed the commands of God
even when they did not seem reasonable and he escaped the
Great Flood. God's wisdom and power and goodness so far
exceed our own that his Word demands our unqualified surrender
and obedience.
The
Article moves next to affirm that God is the "Maker
and Preserver of all things visible and invisible."
God, in other words, is not the famous “Watchmaker” imagined
by the Deists. He did not create the universe and then walk
away to let it run by itself. God actively "preserves"
or sustains everything in existence. If, for one moment,
God were to withdraw his sustaining hand, the universe would
come undone in the twinkling of an eye. God provides the
breath of life to all who live and the power of existence
to all things that exist, moment by moment, hour by hour,
year by year.
But
he is not only the Maker and Preserver of the visible or
“observable” universe. He is also the Maker and Preserver
of the invisible or “heavenly” universe. God created Heaven
and the angelic beings as well as those things that are
part and parcel of our every day experience.
Nothing,
then, in heaven or on earth exists apart from the sustaining
preserving hand of our Maker.
Finally
the Article turns to God's Trinitarian nature. "And
in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one
substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost."
Here I will borrow from an earlier article I wrote on the
topic.
As noted above, the bible reveals that God is One without
part or body. And the bible teaches that God is the only
God. There is no other
But
while maintaining the truth of those propositions, the bible
also tells us that there are three distinct personalities
within the Godhead.
The Father is God. The Son prays to the
Father and worships him:
“After
Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father,
the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
you. For you granted him authority over all people that
he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought
you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to
do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the
glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:1-5)
The Son is God . He is the “Word made flesh” in
John 1:14 who, according to John 1:1, was not only “with”
God in the beginning but who “was” God.
"In
the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the
Word was God." (John 1:1)
The Holy Spirit is God. He is the Counselor
or Advocate the Son promises to send to his disciples:
But
the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you
of everything I have said to you. 27Peace (John 14:26 -27)
And he is the Divine Spirit who reveals the heart of God
to believers:
“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For
the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit
of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things
of God except the Spirit of God.” (1st Corinthians 2:10)
There is, then, only one God, but he is revealed to us in
three distinct Person.
The
Persons, moreover, are not different "modes" of
being. God does not, in other words, show up as the Father
and then transform into the Son and then transform into
the Spirit in accordance with the circumstance.
He
is always God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit at the same time.
We
see this truth especially in passages where the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit are all present and relating to one
another. The Baptism of Jesus is a great example:
At
that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized
by John in the Jordan . As Jesus was coming up out of the
water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending
on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You
are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
(Mark 1:9-11)
All
three Persons are coequal, coeternal, and of the same substance.
They are distinct and separate and yet one.
This
is not, as some have suggested, a contradiction. There is
only One God. But within the Godhead, there are three distinct
Persons of that same substance. So there is a categorical
distinction between the substance of God, his Being, and
the Persons that prevents a logical contradiction. That
having been said, the Trinity is certainly a mystery.
One
of my theology professors in seminary advised us to keep
our discussions of the Trinity as brief as possible because,
he said, the longer we talk the more likely we will fall
into some major heresy. He was right. This is why the Creeds
which condense and codify the teachings of the bible are
so crucial to a correct understanding of the nature of God.
The
Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian
Creed help us to articulate of the Christian faith.
They help us to affirm all that the scriptures reveal about
God.
And
this, ultimately, is where cults and heresies fall short.
They fail to acknowledge and affirm all that God reveals
about himself in the scriptures. All are willing to uphold
certain parts of the biblical revelation. None are willing
to affirm all of it. And for that reason, they all end in
idolatry and spiritual death.
The
first Article of Religion affirms all that God reveals about
himself in his Word.
May
we, faithfully and fearlessly, do the same by God's grace.
UPDATE
CONTENTS
SUMMER SABBATH?
ONE MINISTRY/TASK PER PERSON
DISCIPLESHIP
WOMEN'S BIBLE STUDY ICE-CREAM SOCIAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL THROUGH THE SUMMER
WEBSITE and READING LIST
OPERATION ANDREW: UPDATE 2
MORE CHRISTIAN RESOURCES ON THE WEB
SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
ADULT EDUCATION SERIES: HERESIES AND CULTS
BIBLE STUDIES
NEWS
SUMMER SABBATH?:
As I noted last week, there is a tradition within the Episcopal
Church to take a summer break from worship, prayer, study,
and everything else that has to do with God. The practice
is somewhat difficult to understand because it implies that
being, year-round, in relationship with Jesus Christ and
in fellowship with other Christians is something of a burden
or a task.
What
is fascinating about the practice of Christians “taking
the summer off” is that the bible describes worship, the
study of the scriptures, prayer, and fellowship as different
forms and means of “rest,” not work. The book of Hebrews
teaches that Christ is our Sabbath. Participating in those
things that draw our hearts closer to him is not “work”
it is peace and rest. Apart from Christ, apart from his
Word, apart from his Body, there is no rest.
This
can be counterintuitive. These exercises are not, in fact,
“rest” for those who are not believers. For non-believers,
Christ and his Word are intolerable burdens.
But
for those who believe and have been filled by the Spirit
these spiritual exercises that help us grow more deeply
in love with Jesus Christ are necessary to maintain a healthy
well-balanced life. Without them, you begin to lose focus,
stumble, and the peace you generally enjoy begins to fade.
I
said above that this is “counterintuitive” because if you
are new to the faith or if you have only in the last few
years begun to take your faith seriously, you may still
cling to the habits and attitudes of the non-believer. So
you take your summer Sabbath from Christ only to find that
you are more anxious and worried than you have been in the
past and you're not at all sure why you have no rest for
your soul.
The
joy that is promised to all believers is lost because that
joy is inextricably bound to your commitment to Christ.
If
you need a rest this summer, and I know many of you do,
take a Sabbath from your many jobs around the church. If
you need a break from acolyting, reading, altar duty, or
something of that nature, take one. You do need to take
regular periods of rest when it comes to ministry.
But
do not rest from worship, prayer, the bible or fellowship.
Such rest is no rest at all. These spiritual exercises actually
bring rest because they draw you closer to Christ without
whom there is no peace.
ONE
MINISTRY/TASK PER PERSON:
On that note,
if you are a member of Good Shepherd and not serving in
any other way, please do commit to help with one of the
tasks or ministries below. This will lift the burden from
your brothers and sisters who need a Sabbath
Acolytes
(one Sunday a month)
Altar Guild
Nursery ( desperate need …especially for
the 8:00am service)
Sextant (cleaning duties with a team on
a weekly rotation)
Shepherd's Bowl (on a team, one Thursday
a month)
Teller (help count and record offerings
after the 10:30am service)
Lay Eucharistic Minister (help lead worship
and distribute communion)
Ushers
& Greeters (should be once a month if everyone
shows up when assigned)
Readers
(Approximately once a month at the 10:30am service)
DISCIPLESHIP:
Thank you to all those
who have stood ready to help guide and nurture those new
to the faith. God is using and will use you to change lives.
WOMEN'S BIBLE STUDY ICE-CREAM
SOCIAL (second notice):
This is a wonderful opportunity for evangelism. The
Women's Bible Study is looking to host an outreaching/evangelistic
Ice Cream Social in late August, whereby those of you who
want to invite friends and family to a church function will
be able to do so. It will also be open to the neighborhood
as an outreach. If you would like to assist in anyway, or
have opinions about dates, please talk to me (Anne+) this
weekend.
SUNDAY SCHOOL THROUGH THE SUMMER (second
notice): There
will be Sunday School for all ages through the summer. The
Senior High will be meeting with Micah in the library. The
Junior High and Elementary will be upstairs on the third
floor. We will be doing a variety of activities and projects
through the summer, so please come and invite your friends.
And bring your parents, there will be class for them downstairs
with Father Matt as usual.
THE WEBSITE and THE READING LIST: You may
have noticed that the website is a bit slow with updating
the one year walk through the bible readings. Well, that
is entirely my fault. I get busy and because it is also
printed in the bulletin and it takes so long to post on
the web and I have so many other things to do I tend to
put it lower on the priority list. And yet I understand
that some of you depend on the website as your only access
to the reading list. Forgive me. I'll get my posting schedule
back up and running smoothly this week.
OPERATION ANDREW UPDATE 2
: A few parishioners are actively incorporating
the Operation Andrew principles into their every day life:
1. looking for people who need to know Jesus Christ, 2.
praying for an opportunity to share the gospel or to invite
them to church where they will hear the gospel 3. taking
the step, making the invitation and physically bringing
them here. We are seeing visible signs of this effective
ministry in the changed lives of some of our newer brothers
and sisters and a number of new faces on Sunday morning.
Imagine what could happen if more than a “few” participated
in this mission?
CHRISTIAN RESOURCES ON THE
WEB : Last week I passed on links to several
Christian resources on the web; preachers, teachers, apologists
and theologians whose work I have found very helpful. You
can find the links in last week's update:
http://www.binghamtongoodshepherd.com/wu6.15.07.shtml
There
are just a few more to pass on this morning.
Dr.
James Dobson hosts a good show dealing specifically
with family related issues. You can find his show here:
http://listen.family.org/daily/A000000505.cfm
Dr.
John McArthur is another fantastic preacher who
is very careful with the scriptures. You can hardly do better
for your soul than to listen to him preach once a day.
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/grace_to_you/
Finally,
some parishioners have recommended Pastor Chip Ingram.
His sermons, which I think are also very good, especially
for new believers, may be found here:
http://www.walkthru.org/site/PageServer?pagename=loteListen
SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER : Remember. You are
invited to gather for prayer this Sunday between 10:15 and
10:30am in the library. A prayer group meets there at that
time every Sunday to pray that God will be glorified, lives
changed, and believers fed in the service. You have no idea
how much God can and does work through your prayers. What
you do in that 15 minute period is vital to the worship
of Good Shepherd. The prayer group only meets from 10:15am
to 10:30am in the library before the service. You are more
than welcome to join.
ADULT EDUCATION SERIES:
HERESIES
AND CULTS: This
week we'll continue discussing the Marcionite heresy. Last
week we noted that Marcion proposed that there were two
gods rather than one. The God of justice and wrath who created
the world is revealed in the Old Testament. The God of grace
who rescues humanity from the clutches of the Creator God
is revealed in the New Testament through Jesus Christ. Marcion
edited his bible by deleting those parts that referred to
God's justice and wrath and retaining only those that dealt
with grace and love.
We
discussed why such an idea might appeal to Christians and
what mistakes in understanding the nature of God and the
bible led him to his erroneous conclusions.
This
week we'll speak about the impact that Marcion's error had
on the church of his day and the way in which the Marcionite
heresy still plagues the church today.
BIBLE STUDIES: All the bible studies are
up and running this week.
HAVE YOU…. shared your faith with a friend? The vestry has
challenged all of us to share our faith in Jesus Christ
with at least one non-believer each month.
Good News for the Week
11 We have much to say about this, but it is
hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact,
though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone
to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over
again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives
on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the
teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the
mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish
good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)
Don't
forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!
Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday June 29th, 2007
Monday:
pastor's day off
Tuesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
9:00 a.m. Tuesday Morning Bible Study
6:00 p.m. First Light Bible Study
Wednesday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Thursday
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
5:30 p.m. Shepherd's Bowl
6:30 p.m. New Beginners Bible Study
Friday
6:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast/Bible Study
8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer
Pastor's sermon prep day
Saturday:
10:00 a.m. Women's Bible Study
4:30
p.m. Hebrew Class
Sunday
July 8th, 2007 SUNDAY
MORNING WORSHIP (SEASON OF PENTECOST)
8:00am
Holy Communion II and Sermon
9:15-10:15
a.m. Christian Education for All Ages
10:15-10:30
a.m. Prayer in the Library
11:00am
Holy Communion II, music, and a sermon
God bless you all
In Christ,
Matt+
a
