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

Fr. Les Barker explores Psalms of hymns and doxology in Psalms 8; 33; 100.

Psalm 100 is a call of entry into the heavenly courts of all the company of heaven ... the Holy Trinity, Saints, Angels, Archangels, White-robed Martyrs, holy Prophets and Apostles. Here all glory and honor is pouring forth unto the Lamb who was slain, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ, this is where we've been invited to enter. In such an atmosphere, many find a deficit of expression. The language of praise is acquired in the Scripture, namely, the Psalms. Rod expressed how to come into his Presence with praise.

The Psalms of Ascent provide a compact Psalter within the Psalter, says Bill Baldwin. Bill takes Psalm 121 and provides the fulfilled, heavenly perspective of the Christian's journey up Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of our God. In Christ, we have come to Zion, all the company of heaven, who forever sing Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord. God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

At Christ's final return, this City comes down as a Bride to be eternally united with Jesus Christ, her bridegroom.

Chris Destigter has developed and overseen the Weekly Morning Prayer & Eucharist Team at St. Aidan's. Chris and Hanna are moving to Durham, N.C. on August 17th where Chris will enter theological studies at Duke Seminary.

On the Feast of Transfiguration, Chris explores Psalm 27.

1. The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me

to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

yet[b] I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up

above my enemies all around me,

and I will offer in his tent

sacrifices with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me and answer me!

8 You have said, “Seek my face.”

My heart says to you,

“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

9 Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away in anger,

O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not,

O God of my salvation!

10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,

but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,

and lead me on a level path

because of my enemies.

12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;

for false witnesses have risen against me,

and they breathe out violence.

13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living!

14 Wait for the Lord;

be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord!

Psalm 46 is a Psalm of Zion, now the completed People of God, the Church, redeemed Jew and Gentile, on earth and in heaven. Verse one inspired Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is our God” and “the 46th” became a code word in his many times of trouble. He would simply say, the 46th.

We read of a great apocalypse, perhaps the very end of the age, as earth gives way, mountains tremble, and all is swallowed up into the heart of the sea, and the faithful proclaim, we will not fear. Yam, the ancient Semitic word, meaning sea, is the name of the Canaanite god of rivers and the sea, transferred into the Hebrew Scriptures as a metaphor for chaos and death. He represents the power of the tempestuous sea, untamed and raging. Also called Nahar ("river"), he additionally ruled floods and related disasters. This is the image behind this turn of phrase.

In this tempestuous world, we are God’s refugees, finding a very present help in time of trouble. Because God is our refuge and strength, his refugees pray and sing … WE WILL NOT FEAR.

New Testament Cosmology:

St. Paul ascribes at the root of what we understand as mere fearful emotions, an evil spirit … "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and a sound mind" (I Timothy 1:17).

While Paul addresses the powers behind fear as demonic, this is not to forgo other therapeutic means of care. We address all of the broken image, spirit, soul and body, in a holistic manner. God works through doctors and psychiatrists as much as exorcists. Spiritual warfare is to be discerned.

Anxiety comes in many, specialized forms. In America alone, recent statistics report:

General Anxiety Disorder: 6.8 million

Panic Disorder: 6 million

Social Anxiety Disorder: 15 million

Specific Phobias: 19 million

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 2.2 million

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: 7.7 million

Anxiety disorders affect one in eight children.

The spiritual forces behind our fears are addressed by Jesus who prescribes “do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on … Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

How shall we hear this without causing more anxiety? The condition of great fear over such is associated with one's little faith, Matthew 6:30.

Throughout the Psalter, we're told how others overcame the crippling anxieties of life. "I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth, my soul shall make her boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name for ever. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears" Psalm 34.

The Mouth of the River of God:

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy habitation of the Most High" Psalm 46:4.

What river? Not in Jerusalem.

Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water – John 7:38

Instead of our lives, being overtaken by fear, plunging us into dark chaotic waters, those who trust in God are made an indestructible heavenly indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God, our strength, poured into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father! The River of God flows within!

The Lord of hosts – the Lord of Angel Armies is with us!

We have come to the Heavenly Jerusalem – the communion of the Trinity and with all the company of heaven.

Surrounded by all the company of heaven, our prayers, our songs, our Psalms, speak to the mountains before us, we cast them into the heart of the sea. The inner-rivers of living waters have overcome the external chaos of Yam, the internal seas of chaos. It is by the Holy Spirit these destructive forces are conquered.

Be Still and Know:

We must know our God as “with” and “for” us.

In Christ, be not afraid.

Fr. Michael Flowers

We explore the Imprecatory Psalms invoking judgment, curses and calamity upon one's enemies. Psalm 35 is one such psalm and is quoted some seven times in the New Testament. We learn the voice and context of this psalm as Christ in the midst of his passion and death. The voice is Christ and as we pray this psalm, we pray in union with Christ, our redeemer.

We discuss the general dis-ease we have with such psalms and the wider stories of violence in the Old Testament.

This is the 4th talk in the series, The Psalter, the Prayer Book of the Bible. This talk focuses on a special type of lament psalm called penitential, a psalm expressing confession of sin and receiving forgiveness. The seven penitential psalms are 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 & 143.

Psalm 32 provides core Gospel material for Paul's 4th chapter of Romans 4. Therefore, Romans 4 tells us how to interpret this Psalm. Christians are not justified before God by a correct and meticulous observance of the Mosaic Law, but by receiving, in faith, God’s gracious justification of us for the sake of Christ our Redeemer.

Patrick Henry Reardon, in his wonderful work on the Psalter, Christ in the Psalms, says, "Psalm 32 then is the prayer of those standing at the foot of the Cross and forswearing all righteousness of their own, commit their lives and entrust their destinies entirely to God’s forgiving mercy richly and abundantly poured out in the saving, sacrificial blood of His Son, because “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them” 2 Cor. 5:19.

Through practice and reflection, we come to use the penitential psalms as a regular means of confession of our sin. We begin to lay the foundations of repentance from works leading to death, i.e., all attempts at self-justification and self-improvement. As far as the east is from the west, that's how far God has removed our transgressions from us! The Lord is good!

Out of our depths, we pray laments, honestly and hopefully. Such prayers express our raw selves to God. Life brings us to a place of our un-sovereignty. Out of growing uncertainty, we express our inner disorientation while holding on to his unchanging nature and promises. A hopeful despair.

What's the difference between a lament and grumbling towards God? Why does God accept laments and rejects a grumbling spirit? Herein the nature of our relationship is revealed.

Psalm 13 is among the 68 laments in the Psalter. We explore the importance of lament, the raw expression of pain, sorrow, dis-ease, in Christian formation and worship. The structure of lament, a movement from a complaint, to a petition to thanksgiving, provides the way upward. We learn to discern the difference between lament and grumbling against God's covenant faithfulness.

In #2 of the summer series, the Psalter, the Prayer Book of the Bible, we enter with Psalm 1 ... the doorway and interpretive key for reading the Psalter. The structure of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, sit, walk, stand, provides an interpretive key of fulfillment for reading the entire Old Testament.

The structure of Ephesians, Sit, Walk, Stand, is taken from the book which bears its title by Watchman Nee. “The Christian life consists of sitting with Christ, walking by him and standing in him. We begin our spiritual life by resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. That rest is the source of our strength or a consistent and unfaltering walk in the world. And at the end of a grueling warfare with the hosts of darkness we are found standing with him at last in triumphant possession of the field.” (p.78)

The Christian life begins not with a big do but with a big done!

SIT - seated with Christ

“All true spiritual experience begins from rest.” (p.27)

“Whereas God worked six days and then enjoyed His sabbath rest, Adam began his life with the sabbath; for God works before He rests, while man must first enter into God’s rest, and then alone can he work.” (p.16)

“God is waiting for your store of strength to be utterly exhausted before He can deliver you. Once you have ceased to struggle, He will do everything.” (p.23)

WALK - a metaphor for living our life in Christ on mission

“The all-important rule is not to ‘try’ but to ‘trust,’ not to depend upon our own strength but upon his… Too many of us are caught acting as Christians. The life of many Christians today is largely a pretense. They live a ‘spiritual’ life, talk a ‘spiritual’ language, adopt ‘spiritual’ attitudes, but they are doing the whole thing themselves.” (pp.38-9)

“Too often we think that the actual doing is what matters. We have to learn the lesson of not doing – of keeping quiet for Him. We have to learn that if God does not move we dare not move… The abiding principle of all true Christian work is: ‘In the beginning God…’ … You ask me what I mean by natural power. Put very simply, it is what we can do without the help of God.” (p.67)

“Have we discovered how good the Lord is? Then in us He is as good as that! Is His power great? Then in us it is no less great! Praise God, His life is as mighty as ever, and in the lives of those who dare to believe the Word of God the divine life will be manifest in a power not one whit less mighty that was manifest of old.” (pp.39-40)

STAND - an image for occupation in battle; standing one's ground

“Armies march into other countries to occupy and subdue. God has not told us to do this. We are not to march but to stand. The word ‘stand’ implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is really God’s, and therefore ours. We need not struggle to gain a foothold on it.” (p.54)

“Today we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory… When you fight to get the victory, then you have lost the battle at the outset.” (p.55)

“Because victory is His, therefore it is ours.” (p.56)

Psalm 1 tells us where the Man of Righteousness does not sit, walk or stand; Ephesians tells us the fulfillment in Christ.

The Prayer of Humble Access (before taking the Eucharist, we proclaim)

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord, who always delights in showing mercy.

Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

From here, we pray the Psalms.

Our summer series explores the Psalter, the Prayer Book of the Bible. We read and pray the Psalter in light of the Apostolic preaching and the gateway into the Psalter, Psalms 1 and 2. King David's greater Son, Jesus Christ, is the the fulfillment and focus of worship on earth and in heaven. Join us as we meet with God and each other with the Psalter.