A Short Sunday Sermon

 

Then saith he to Thomas, (in the upper room) Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. Jn. 20:27

Thomas wanted physical proof of the resurrection and got it, the risen Christ was touchable, tangible. He had risen bodily from the tomb and, on reflection, anything less doesn't cut it.

What dies when we die, the spirit? Hardly, it doesn't have any physical parts to decay and return to the dust from which they came. The body, notoriously, does; we don't bounce like we used to, to put it mildly. So what has to be resurrected? The body, rejoined to the spirit, between them both making up the whole person.

Without this, we're left with spirit only or in other words, a shade or ghost, and the rising becomes a haunting. This is not the case in the upper room on the 8th day, the Sunday following the Resurrection. On the contrary, Jesus stands before Thomas, the whole man, body and spirit, risen from the grave.

In an explosion of divine power, Christ had taken humanity to a new dimension of existence, a new mode of imperishable, glorified being. No wonder Thomas fell down and worshiped, he touched the Glory, "My Lord and my God." And note this.

When Christ appeared to the disciples on Easter Sunday, the "doors were shut" for fear of the same people who'd crucified Jesus crucifying them. For fear of death. With the reality of the resurrection upon them, made concrete on the 8th day, the fear was gone. And so they went out and died in the proclamation of the Faith, knowing they would rise in and with their Lord. 

What hope! As opposed to the dismal, wretched, con-trick despair of our disbelieving age. God grant us the faith, hope and love of the disciples in the upper room, and with Thomas the grace to fall down and believe, "My Lord and my God."

Christus Surrexit,

LSP

Anglican Center in Rome Gets a Genius

Did you know that there's an Anglican Centre in Rome? Well there is, and it's all about promoting Christian unity, not least between Canterbury and the Holy See. The Centre says as much on its website. 

The Anglican Centre in Rome is the permanent Anglican Communion presence in Rome. It is a living symbol of our Communion's commitment to the full visible unity of the Church.

Unity

Sounds good, right? All very ut unum sint, which is doubtless why this venerable outpost of Anglican ecumenism has appointed a new director who does believe in gay marriage but doesn't believe in the bodily resurrection, the Very Rev. Dr. John Shepherd.

Shepherd, who served as Dean of Perth Cathedral, is married to a woman and was famous for supporting gay marriage. You can read his line of reasoning here and if you do, note the privileged clergyperson enlisting the aid of St. Paul. It's a clever trick, St. Paul was really in favor of same sex marriage because he was so against it. Whatever, John.

Walk Into The Light!

But that was then, this is now and Shepherd's famous again for denying the bodily resurrection of Christ. So much for the Apostle, the Gospels, the Church Fathers, and every Christian worth the name from the beginning up until now. And that's just it.

How can someone like Shepherd even say they're a Christian while denying the resurrection? To quote Shepherd's favorite Apostle, "your faith is in vain." So too, we have to imagine, is the Anglican Centre's claim to be a "living symbol" of "the full visible unity of the Church."

A Typical Mantid

The problem here is that Christians, even Pope Francis, believe in the resurrection. The Anglican Communion's representative in Rome doesn't. Unity, obviously, isn't in it. I'll leave you with Kirk, via Ignatius:

Quite simply there is no firm or fixed ground on which such discussions can be based. What price agreement on the real presence in the Eucharist, for example, when the bodily resurrection itself is in question? Agreement on the former whilst the latter remained an open question would quite simply be absurd. Of course, one cannot know for certain how many Anglican clergy, like the Very Rev’d John Shepherd, deny the resurrection. But one can be assured that unbelief is no impediment to preferment. And be pretty well certain that its incidence increases up the hierarchy.

And be pretty well certain that its incidence increases up the hierarchy. Exactly. 

All Means All, Justsin

Rumours that Lambeth Palace is controlled by Heisenberg Principle beings from another dimension are entirely that, rumours.

All means all,

LSP