St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - weekly talks

Part 2 of the Four Marks of the Church in the Nicene Creed discusses how the Church is holy. The key passages used are I Peter 1:13-2:10 sounding a call to holiness out of our powerful baptismal identity as a kingdom of priests. The Church is holy because God is holy and the Holy One indwells his people. Out of this gift of God's holy presence, we are called to conduct our lives in holiness ... to reflect God's Holy Kingdom.

The Church not only is called to pursue holiness, but to be a sanctifying agent in the world, in worship and witness.

Bishop Stewart Ruch oversees the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest. St. Aidan's KC is a founding member of the diocese. Bishop Stewart shares from Romans 8:1-13 on living in the power of the Holy Spirit as a means of crucifying the life of the flesh in Adam. In Christ, all things have become new. The Sacrament of Confirmation follows.

We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church: a series on the nature of the Church as stated in the Nicene Creed. These are commonly called the four marks of the Church.

We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. This is a series on the nature of the Church.

For the good of the order speaks of the common good. The common good is the basis for mission, for the life of the world. The healthy Church will be both pastoral and missional.

Ivanka Demchuk, icon.

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The second in a two part series of stories of faith reflecting over six years as an Anglican church plant in Kansas City, MO. Thanks be to God!

Testimonies:

Fr. Michael Flowers

Liz Flowers

Kerrie Schoen

Keith Schoen

Eric Rainwater

Joanna Rainwater

Today, Sunday September 16th, 2018 St. Aidan's reflects on six years of history as an Anglican Church plant in the urban core of Kansas City, MO. At the conclusion of this service, the truck is ready to pack and move to a new sacred space, the beautiful chapel of the Nazarene Theological Seminary. We will celebrate our sixth year anniversary in our new space and will continue testimonies and reflections from our congregation. Thanks be to God!

"We are not beggars hoping for scraps. We are like people who have inherited a vast estate: we have to study the documents and visit different locations because it's more than we can take in at a single glance. In the same way, it takes considerable time and effort to begin to comprehend all that we have received in Christ. Theological thinking does not add a single thing to what we have received. The inheritance remains the same whether we grasp its magnitude or not. But the better we grasp it, the happier we are."

— Ben Myers, The Apostles' Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism

Roman 8 could be read as the Universal declaration of freedom wrought by Christ’s redemptive mission to restore all things – a Trinitarian collaboration as the Father sends the Son to redeem us as adopted, Spirit-bearing children, corporately crying, Abba, Father … a mission to restore our kinship through pure, divine gift … conferring on us infinite, intimate belonging.

Paul’s familial language isn’t of earthly origin … as our experience of family is often broken and painful, akin to the broken image in us all in need of repair. No, this familial language comes from the Father from whom all fatherhood derives its name, on earth and in heaven (Eph. 3).

This is why Paul expresses his pain as a mother’s giving birth to the Galatians double-minded faith: Galatians 4:19 - My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

Indeed, Paul's suffering, in bringing to birth communities of New Creation, is in solidarity with the sufferings of Christ. And this is the theme of the whole of Romans 8 … the process of transition from the present age into the age to come and the way in which our present sufferings become a means of transformation … a predestined restoration of the divine image … conformed to the image (icon) of his Son – v. 29.

Dean Greer is the National Coordinator for Living Waters, USA. He and his wife, Chrystal, are long-term friends of Fr. Michael and Liz Flowers. Over the summer, Dean will be speaking once a month at St. Aidan's, along with Fr. Michael, laying foundations about our common, divinely crafted humanity, made in the image of God.

Having been involved in healing ministry for over 25 years, Dean has trained leaders around the world to incorporate the healing programs of Desert Stream Ministries within the local church community. Dean has experienced first-hand how God is able to restore life and bring wholeness to a generation without hope. A native of San Francisco, Dean now lives in Kansas City, MO with his wife Chrystal and their son Jeremiah.

Today's NT passage is taken from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 6:

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous[b] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,[c] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined[d] to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin[e] a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Our New Identity is a gift from Christ. In the sending of the Spirit, we receive His Spirit of Adoption who cries, Abba, Father. As such, we're joined in the eternal priesthood of Christ, his prayer is ours.

"We are not beggars hoping for scraps. We are like people who have inherited a vast estate: we have to study the documents and visit different locations because it's more than we can take in at a single glance. In the same way, it takes considerable time and effort to begin to comprehend all that we have received in Christ. Theological thinking does not add a single thing to what we have received. The inheritance remains the same whether we grasp its magnitude or not. But the better we grasp it, the happier we are."

— Ben Myers, The Apostles' Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism

Romans 8 explodes with the magnitude of Abba’s eternal plan to heal and renew the entire created order through the sending, the incarnation, of his SON, Jesus Christ. In Christ, we’ve inherited a vast estate, more than we can take in at a single glance. And as we contemplate the Scripture, in prayerful meditation, we better grasp our inheritance, and become secure through the storms of life.

We’re viewing this passage in light of our new identity in Christ. In order to feel the impact of the glorious first line, we must identity with our former state of imprisonment, the bondage to the realm of sin and death.

If you’ve ever attended Federal Court, all rise when the judge is introduced. The criminal charges are read and deliberations are heard. In conclusion, the judge makes the final decision. Will this person be condemned, perhaps, to life in prison? Or, because of the heinous nature of the crime, the judgment could be the death penalty. Imagine you’re awaiting that judgment. And you hear the judge say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

This is the great acquittal from Adam’s sin, release from the penalty of death. And even more, we are not merely let go to fend for ourselves and hopefully be received back into society with gainful employment, no, we are given everything by faith and grace that Christ is and has by nature. We are adopted children of incomprehensible riches out of which we’ve given a deposit in the indwelling Spirit of all to come, when God will be all in all.

The anticipation grows as we live between the two arrivals, between the present, evil age and the age to come, as Heirs of his eternal Kingdom.