Nicholas

Today, the Primitive Catholic Community commemorates Nicholas, bishop of Myra, whose generosity and concern for others has endeared him to generations of Christians.

Nicholas was the forth-century bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor. He was a man of deep faith, compassionate to all, and deeply concerned with the welfare of his people. Nicholas was well known for rescuing victims of shipwreck and advocating for the safety of young children, but it is his generosity that has – for good or for ill – gained the most notoriety, particularly in modern western culture.

Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity towards a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for is three daughters. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on his feast day.

Friday of the First Week of Advent

READINGS

Isaiah 29:17-24
Psalm 27
Matthew 9:27-31

REFLECTION: “Patience, people...”

Try telling a child under the age of 10 that they have to wait for something. Go ahead. Just try it. For the first minute or two, you might be able to pass by without further discussion of the topic at hand. But within the five minute mark, chances are you have already had a repeated conversation about the need for, well, patience.

Imagine, then, being in the position of the Israelites. Over and over again their nation experiences the undulating waves of triumph and fall, of conquering, and of being the conquerer, of holiness and of debasement. All the while, people in the land - especially in the difficult times - are crying out, "How long?"

Our first reading today, from Isaiah's prophecy, opens with the words "Soon - and it will not be very long". I can just imagine an Israelite, say one or two hundred years after Isaiah's death laughing. Clearly, Isaiah's definition of 'soon', or, to be more precise, God's definition of 'soon', bears little relationship to that individual's point of view; much as a child's view of soon bears little relationship to a parent's, especially on a long car ride, or when carefully wrapped gifts await a celebration that is hours or days away.

Our Psalm response today gives us that most difficult command, "Wait patiently for the Lord". We desire his presence, we seek his peace. We look around us at a world that is deeply wounded by sin. It tears us apart. Yes, there are joys, there are distractions, but only a fool fails to recognize that this world is not what it could have been... and that only God's presence can restore it. Patience? I want God to restore and renew this world... NOW!

And yet, God is working, restoring, renewing... he is touching the lives of individuals, of you, and of me, and of countless people around the world each and every day. It isn't the final renewal, the New Heaven and New Earth promised to us in Scripture. It isn't eternal bliss and joy, but, in our fellowship with one another, in our communion with God in Scripture and Sacrament, and in our day to day lives we are offered a foretaste of the Divine Feast.

Perhaps, we might view this as God's way of showing us mercy and love in the midst of our pain and brokenness. The two blind men of our Gospel reading today received healing, but even that healing, that amazing relief, was still not the new life and renewal promised in the Messiah's coming.

We, the people of God, look forward not merely to the recovery of sight for the blind... or the many other marks by which Messiah was to be known. We look for the renewal and restoration of all things. It will come, rest assured... but until that time, "Patience, people.... till the Lord is come."

Oh, and by the way, in the sixth chapter of Revelation, we read: "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. They shouted to the Lord and said, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long...'" So, rest assured... annoying as it may be to human parents, it's OK for us to join our voices with those of all the faithful of every time and place in crying out to our heavenly Father, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus!"

What situations or circumstances has God used to teach me patience in life? 

Thursday of the First Week of Advent

READINGS

Isaiah 26:1-6
Psalm 118
Matthew 7:21-27

REFLECTION: “The Eternal Rock”

God loves to use metaphors and symbols to convey ideas to us. When we, at the last day, behold God face to face, he will no more look like a large chunk of granite than he will an old white-haired, bearded grandfather. The idea that God is an eternal Rock for us should be simple enough for most of us to latch on to... many can identify a member of their family as the one that everyone else turns to in times of trouble. When crisis hits, that person seems to be the one who is able to keep it together and galvanize the efforts of all.

God seeks to be that rock for us. He, who is able to triumph in every situation, deeply wishes to be for us the unshakable, eternal rock on which we depend. But mere dependence on him in times of trouble is not intended to be an end unto itself. For, you see, we are called to use that dependence as a foundation for reaching out to others in his name.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus takes the metaphor of rock, and transforms it for us in precisely this manner. If we are to lean on God as our rock, we must also build upon him. Our relationship with him should affect every aspect of our lives. It should affect not simply how we react to tragedy, difficulties, and pain, but also how we react to the good times, how we interact with others, and how we engage with our world, our society, and those among it who most desperate need to hear the Good News of his love.

A genuine encounter with the Rock that is God will never leave us unchanged. Such an encounter will be an agent of sanctification in our lives. You see, the Christian life is a journey, one begun in our infancy of faith, and marked time and again by milestones of transformation. Through his Spirit, the Father is molding us day by day in the image of his Son, so that we might mature in faith and grow in sanctity. Through such growth, we are able to not reach out to others, as well as continually deepen our own relationship with our Triune God, in ways that will constantly surprise and delight us. God opens the gates to us for growth... and he bids us to draw near to him, to make him our Eternal Rock. Let us allow the Spirit to carry us to his side each moment of our days, that we might cleave unto him who is able to make us, and all things, new.

Today, how have I allowed Yahweh to be my rock? 

Nicholas Ferrar and his Companions

Today the Primitive Catholic Community commemorates Nicholas Ferrar and his companions, who brought family-based religious life to the English Church in the seventeenth century.

Born in London in 1592, Nicholas Ferrar was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge and elected a Fellow there in 1610. From 1613, he travelled extensively on the continent for five years, trying his hand as a businessman and then as a parliamentarian on his return. 

In 1625, he moved to Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, then a derelict manor-house with a chapel which was being used as a hay barn. He was joined by his brother and sister and their families and by his mother, and they established together a community life of prayer, using The Book of Common Prayer, and a life of charitable works in the locality. He was ordained to the diaconate the year after they arrived. 

He wrote to his niece in 1631, "I purpose and hope by God's grace to be to you not as a master but as a partner and fellow student." This indicates the depth and feeling of the community life Nicholas and his family strove to maintain. 

As a part of the Community’s discipline of prayer, a member of the community was constantly present before the Altar in prayer, that the community might truly ‘pray without ceasing’.

After the death of Nicholas on this day in 1637, the community was broken up in 1646 by the Puritans, who were suspicious of it and referred to it as the Arminian Nunnery. They feared it promoting the return of Romish practices into England, and so all Nicholas's manuscripts were burned.

Wednesday of the First Week of Advent

READINGS

Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 23
Matthew 15:29-39

REFLECTION: “Hunger, Brutality, and Hope”

If you've been following the news out of Iraq and Syria of late, you know that there is a great political, military, and humanitarian crisis that persists throughout the Middle East. Just this week, the United Nations was forced to suspend its food voucher program for refugees for lack of funds. All this is the result of the unrest caused by the Syrian civil war and the rise of the so-called Islamic State.

While ISIS targets many different victims, their everyday treatment of Christians is just as brutal as what we have seen when American and European aid workers and journalists have been trotted before the camera and beheaded. Canon Andrew White, the 'Vicar of Baghdad', shared in a recent television interview the story of a group of children who were told by ISIS militants that they must convert or die. When they responded, "We love Yeshua", they were brutally beheaded on site. After weeks of hunger, the deprivation of their human dignity, and an attempt to get them to leave their faith behind, these little children, some as young as eight, were killed on the spot. 

Think of that. An eight year old saying "We love Yeshua" as a knife is held at his throat. Racked with hunger, facing death... an eight year old still loves Jesus. We spoke of childlike faith in connection with our Gospel reading yesterday... this is childlike faith in action!

You see, those children... indeed every Christian who has ever faced the choice of recanting their faith or the sword, has always had to make a choice: do I embrace with faith the promises of God, like those we hear in our first reading and our psalm - promises of presence, contentment, and of preservation (even in the face of certain death); or do I not.

While Jesus' miracles are inspiring stories which teach us that God is sovereign over his creation and can do things that defy rational explanation... we did not witness them personally. We have to embrace his work... his saving work as much as his miraculous works... with simple faith. It is that kind of simplicity of faith that will transform us in every circumstance into the kind of person who, no matter how bad things get, truly believe that the Lord shepherds us, and is leading us to a refreshing stream, a fulfilling banquet, a place where pain, and sorrow, and tears are no more.

If I was to face the sword today, with the cry of 'convert or die', would my simple trust in Jesus overcome my fear and embolden me to confess, "I love Yeshua"?

You can view Canon White's video concerning the current plight of Iraq's Christians here:

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

READINGS

Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72
Luke 10: 21-34

REFLECTION: “Let's Imitate”

In the fifth chapter of Ephesians, Saint Paul writes, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ." If we are to do so, we have to discover what kind of example that is. In our reading from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, we are given a blueprint of how the Messiah, Jesus, would root his ministry... trusting in the Spirit of God to empower him.

He would reach out with the Spirit of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, and Fear. He would, in other words, accept the whole counsel of his Father as he carried out his ministry, even to the cross, the grave, and the skies.

So often today, we feel that we know very well what God wants of us. But when they are not rooted in a Spirit-filled and Spirit-dependent following of God, we fall short. Yet we often fail to recognize this fact. Why? Because we believe ourselves to be wise and clever. 

Brothers and sisters, if we are to imitate God in Christ Jesus, we must be simple and childlike in our embrace of God's Spirit, his mission, and his individual call upon our lives... otherwise we will never fully realize in ourselves what God is seeking to work... and far from flourishing, we will find ourselves thirsting in the desert, and hurting. This is not what God wishes for us... not at all.

Where do I need to become more childlike in my faith, that I may more fully imitate God as he has revealed himself in Christ Jesus?

Monday of the First Week of Advent

READINGS

Isaiah 2:1-4
Psalm 122
Matthew 8:5-13

REFLECTION: “Reaching Out With Joy”

As we enter into the Advent season, we are often sensitive to the fact that many people do not share our belief in Christ Jesus. The words on their lips are similar to ours - joy, hope, peace - but their worldviews are very different from ours when it comes to understanding the source of those great and precious gifts.

Though our worldviews may differ, God still wishes to reach out and touch the lives of those whose hearts have turned from the Good News, as well as the lives of those who have never heard the genuine Gospel of Christ Jesus preached. He desires to bring people from every corner of the earth, from every walk of life, into his house to worship eternally, and to walk in his paths.

It therefore becomes incumbent upon us at all times to reach out with joy to those who are unbelievers - for whatever reason. Perhaps they find a belief in God to be beyond their ability to rationalize, perhaps they feel no need for a divine connection, and perhaps there are other factors at play... but we, the people marked by Christ Jesus' name, are the ones who bear within ourselves the precious gift of love that has been poured out upon all of humanity.

If we are to go rejoicing into the Lord's house, let us do so with humility, recognizing our place in God's creation, while, at the same time, reaching out with in ways that are both exuberant and appropriate to touch the hearts and souls of those who, today, have not known Jesus as he has revealed himself in Scripture and the Breaking of the Bread.

During this Advent season, how will I reach out to others with the love of God in Christ?