Minister: Rev. Evans Omollo - Assistant Provost at All Saints' Cathedral, Nairobi

It is our great pleasure at All Saints' Cathedral, Nairobi team to be part of those sharing reflections this month in the run up to the celebration of Gafcon Sunday on 27th June 2021. In our series this week, I intend to take us through a journey of the book of Ephesians with a view of helping us discover three things; namely, our rich possessions in Jesus Christ, our unique positioning as believers in Jesus Christ and our divine spiritual responsibilities as God's ambassadors. We state in these reflections that discovering who we are as disciples of Jesus Christ enables us to faithfully and urgently commit to proclaiming the Gospel in an era where political correctness dominates all spheres of life. Such a faithful proclamation will ensure that the Church is grounded on orthodox faith as passed on to us and as contained in Gafcon documents.

Can there ever be a downside to forgiveness? Biblically speaking, of course not. Every Christian knows what a wonderful gift forgiveness is. If you are anything like me, you’ll love to sing the hymn, ‘And Can It Be.’ We sing the first few verses in excitement as part of the build-up to the last couple of lines in verse four. In my mind I hear trumpets blaring, cymbals crashing, bass and soprano voices doing what I cannot as we sing “… my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.” But what follows in our personal experience of forgiving someone who has hurt us, might not always feel so great.

Today we conclude our walk with Cranmer through Ascensiontide with the last two verses from the Comfortable Words. Having laid out the two sides—the longing of humanity for relief and the longing of God to rescue—Cranmer’s third Comfortable Word circles back like a hawk to the human condition, but now at a higher level.

Hear also what Saint Paul says. This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

We have seen that Cranmer’s new collect for the Sunday after the Ascension goes to great lengths to emphasize that the Holy Spirit brings comfort to God’s people, including the ultimate comfort, the assurance of eternal salvation because of God’s promise in Jesus. Associating comfort with Christ’s saving work was so important to Cranmer that he embedded four scriptures at the heart of his 1552 service of Holy Communion to make this point crystal clear. Collectively, these biblical passages are called Cranmer’s Comfortable Words. Yesterday, we looked at the first verse, Matt. 11:28. Cranmer used Jesus’ own words to acknowledge the depth of human longing for good news. His second Comfortable Word now turns again to Jesus to establish the depth of God’s own longing to respond.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

In his Collect for the Sunday after the Ascension, Cranmer doubled down on emphasizing the power of the Holy Spirit to bring comfort.

The text of the ancient antiphon reads:

Do not leave us orphans, but send upon us the promise of the Father, even the Spirit of Truth.

But Cranmer’s new collect has the people prayer:

We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine holy ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our saviour Christ is gone before:

We noted yesterday that Cranmer replaced “orphans” with “comfortless” and then specified the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to give comfort. But notice he went even further in the next clause. Cranmer connects the comfort of the Holy Spirit with its ultimate work, our eternal salvation: “and exalt us unto the same place whither our savior Christ is gone before.” Cranmer wanted to associate Christ, with salvation and comfort because that too was not the case in the medieval church.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

The Sarum Rite, the principal Latin liturgy in medieval England, did not refer to the Ascension in the collect for the following Sunday.  Cranmer and his fellow compilers decided to go in a different direction. Because of their emphasis on our need for the Holy Spirit in the Christian life, they repurposed an antiphon from Vespers for Ascension Day instead.  The ancient text read:

O Lord, King of glory, Lord of virtues, who today didst ascend in triumph above all heavens, do not leave us orphans, but send upon us the promise of the Father, even the Spirit of Truth.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

Is Jesus first and foremost a teacher or a savior? Did he come to tell us a better way to live, or did he come to give us a new life? Do we train our wills to do good like Jesus did, or do we need Jesus to move our wills to want to do good? These are some of the most fundamental questions of the Christian life.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

One of the most fiercely contested issues in the history of Anglicanism is the nature of Cranmer’s mature view of Holy Communion.  As the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, he was the architect of the first two Church of England prayer books, and these liturgies, in one form or another, shaped Anglican worship well into the twentieth century.  Although everyone must agree that ultimately the remembrance of our Lord’s death with bread and wine is a mystery, Western Christendom has divided into various rival camps over their competing understandings of how it works, and even what to call it.  Is it properly the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion or the Eucharist (i.e., Thanksgiving)? Naturally, generations of scholars and church people have parsed the words of Cranmer’s services to see where Anglicanism stands amidst these divisions.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

For the followers of Jesus, his Ascension, which we celebrate today, was a turning point. From then on, they would live in the in-between time, between Jesus leaving this earth and his promised return. For Christians, that means we are part of this world, but not of it.  We are born here, live here, work here, love and are loved here. We even eventually die here.  But here is not our home. Here is not the source of our power.  Here is not the focus of our hope.

Copyright 2021 John Ashley Null; all rights reserved; used by permission for educational purposes

As a teenager, I read the testimony of a woman who came to Christ after living a sordid, sexual existence. Although she did not go into detail, I was shocked that she wasn’t keeping it a secret. People, including her parents, would find out what she got up to; I was horrified! What I had yet to comprehend at that point in my life was the reality of Romans 8:1-2,

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”