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

Based upon the New Testament, every Christian has a gift of grace to share for the common good. So often, we've not had a context to explore and discover the gift. Every Christian, thus, is charismatic. Paul assumes this.

We explore some of the roadblocks to discovering our gifts and, more specifically, the difference between the general call for every Christian to serve and the special gift of serving. Both are vital in every community.

We begin with a parable using indefinite pronouns, such as everybody, somebody, nobody, & anybody. Paul is calling for specificity in the members of Christ's body. We are called to employ our gifts for the common good.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

"There was an important task to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done." author unknown

Join us in helping to build up the Body of Christ.

This Podcast contains a homily and a baptismal service at St. Aidan's Anglican Church. The Promise given to Abraham with the accompanying sign of circumcision is fulfilled in receiving the fullness of the promise through water baptism. We explore Acts and sections of Paul's interpretation of the Promise as the coming of the Holy Spirit. Peter proclaims that "the promise is for you and your children and all who are afar off (whomever the Lord calls). Thus, we embrace the New Covenant and the ancient church practice of household baptism.

So why baptize the children of believers? The biblical logic, from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant in his blood, is set in the following sentence:

“In the OT, God made promises to believers and their children and gave a sign of those promises that was to be given to believers and their children; in the NT, he reiterated those same promises to believers and their children; therefore, the sign of those promises should be given to believers and their children.” Dr. Ligon Duncan

The baptismal liturgy follows in the baptism of a newly baptized child.

This is the first in a series of talks on the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. The first three talks will discuss the backstory of the Gospel's Renewal of all things and the seven gifts of Romans 12:1-8. The rest of the talks will cover Spiritual Gifts in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

For now, this talk touches on what it means to offer oneself as a living sacrifice within a local community, with a commitment to serve one another and call forth the, sometimes, hidden treasure (gifts, character, etc) in the other. This must be pursued with constancy and intentionality.

The various leadership gifts in the Church (Ephesians 4:12) are charged with what's commonly translated as 'equipping' the saints for works of service, thus, varied and numerous ministry possibilities. Equip is not the most accurate idea of the Greek word: katartismós.

The idea is not so much becoming a training operation, though training is compulsory. The idea here is better understood as leadership helping each person get properly located and healed ... the idea is proper placement based upon an individuals unique set of skills, gifts (graces), availability, character, and so forth. Yes, spiritual formation and discipleshipare inclusive here, but not the only process of identifying and helping develop a person's contribution to the Church.

Insights into the Greek word, Equip:

a. to mend (what has been broken or rent), to repair: τά δίκτυα, Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19 (others reference these examples to next entry); equivalent to to complete, τά ὑστερήματα, 1 Thessalonians 3:10.

b. to fit out, equip, put in order, arrange, adjust: τούς αἰῶνας, the worlds, passive Hebrews 11:3 (so, for הֵכִין, ἥλιον, Psalm 73:16 (); σελήνην, Psalm 88:38 ()); σκεύη κατηρτισμένη εἰς ἀπώλειαν, of men whose souls God has so constituted that they cannot escape destruction (but see Meyer (edited by Weiss) in the place cited), Romans 9:22 (πλοῖα, Polybius 5, 46, 10, and the like); of the mind: κατηρτισμένος ὡς etc. so instructed, equipped, as etc. (cf. Buttmann, 311 (267); but others take κατηρτισμένος as a circumstantial participle "when perfected shall be as (not 'above') his master" (see Meyer, in the place cited); on this view the passage may be referred to the next entry), Luke 6:40; middle to fit or frame for oneself, prepare: αἶνον, Matthew 21:16 (from Psalm 8:3; the Sept. for יָסַד); σῶμα, Hebrews 10:5.

c. ethically, to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be: τινα (1 Peter 5:10 (see above)); Galatians 6:1 (of one who by correction may be brought back into the right way); passive, 2 Corinthians 13:11; τινα ἐν παντί ἔργῳ ((T WH omit)) ἀγαθῷ, Hebrews 13:21; κατηρτισμένοι ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοι< κτλ., of those who have been restored to harmony (so πάντα εἰς τωὐτό, Herodotus 5, 106; ἵνα καταρτισθῇ ἡ στασιαζουσα πόλις, Dionysius Halicarnassus, Antiquities 3,10), 1 Corinthians 1:10. (Compare: προκαταρτίζω.) Thayer's Greek Lexicon

The Feast of St. Aidan (August 31) ... Liz Flowers shares Aidan's story, how we chose St. Aidan as our patron saint and prayers offered for the way ahead.

The love of Jesus brought healing to the oppressed. Fr. Les walks through various Gospel accounts of the healing love of Jesus.

Luke 13:22-30

22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them, 24"Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."

Galatians 6:1-10 ...

Paul’s communal culture (5:13-6:10): What does daily life look like when God is at work, making things right? Last week we looked at 5:13f which contrasts the Spirit’s liberating war against the enslaving flesh. The new creation shift? Through love, become slaves of one another. Baptized into Christ, receiving the Spirit of the Son into our hearts, we live a new life learning what the Spirit desires in contrast to what the flesh desires (5:16-26). We begin to move away from “works of the flesh” by eating from another tree, the Tree of Life, producing the Fruit of the Spirit.

1. The Church is an extended family of mutual responsibility

Paul offers us a few directives about how a community walks together in the Spirit. The first two verses describe mutually interdependent relationships, an extended family. Paul thinks that members of this family should take care of one another as brothers and sisters (v. 1; 18), mutually supporting each other through the hardships of life in this present evil age.

Because of this sense of family responsibility, they cannot look the other way when members of the family go astray. To live as faithful followers of Jesus, mutual accountability is required. In our failures, the Community of the Spirit exhibits gentleness toward one another. Great gentleness and humility accompany such care. For the Spirit of the Son is forming Christ in us.

Remember when Jesus restored Peter from his failure (John 21)? For starters, He blesses Peter with an abundant catch of fish … prepares a fire … cooks him breakfast; yes, for Peter, awkward but this is a glimpse of Grace, belonging to Jesus in our failure. After breakfast, Jesus has a few pointed questions about love for him. Of course, the point is that Peter needs to know that his calling isn't trashed because of his failure! "Do you love me? Feed and tend to my lambs. Jesus concludes, “Follow me!”

This being “caught” in a transgression is not an image of the church exposing or uncovering something in a family member but an image of how sin is like a trap … we become “caught in the web of sin”; it deceives us and makes attractive, ever so temporary, regretful thoughts, words and deeds.

Translation: ‘you who are spiritual’ paints the wrong message. NRSV … “you who have received the Spirit” … meaning all baptized followers of Christ participate in this mutual work of reconciliation … not a special class of “those who are spiritual.”

We’re talking about having such relational trust that we can go to each other and confess our sins and receive prayer.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16

This mutual grace of restoration is non-hierarchical and is expected of all the baptized. This is God’s mercy in play and will build community.

"Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (v. 2)." The person caught in transgression and comes to confession is burdened down by a sense of failure. As Peter wept at the sound of the cock crowing, so we too carry the burden of sin until confession.

Bearing one another’s burdens, in this manner, requires a sense of one’s own fragility; the call to showing mercy requires an awareness of one’s own solidarity with the one caught in transgression.

2. Fulfilling the Law of Christ

Today’s Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, depicts the New Moses on a New Mountain taking the Law into his own hands and reinterpreting the Father’s heart … “you have heard it said, but I say to you”

The Church is rescued from this “present evil age” where the Law, once in force as a temporary custodian, has been fulfilled in Christ. Jesus moves the law from merely external principles and commands to the heart whereby the Spirit becomes the source of life and power for living. All that matters? New Creation!

Galatians 5 begins to chart out distinctions between Flesh and Spirit. Flesh is a metaphorical way of describing a disordered universe; Spirit encompasses the way the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, effects new creation. This is not unlike the two trees in the Garden - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which produces the fruit of flesh; the Tree of Life, life in the Spirit of Christ, producing the restored image of God, the nature of God.

Jesus rescues us from the realm of flesh, this present evil age, in order to bring us into the Kingdom of God, the communion of saints in Christ, the one family of God, on earth and in heaven! Yes, flesh is part of all things in Adam 0.1 but to translate flesh (sarx GK) as sinful nature is to move from translation into interpretation. Of course, this has been highly debatable between the Eastern and Western Church, long before the Protestant Reformation. Let's do say that flesh, in Paul's use here, does include one's personal impulses towards evil ... for we are currently being rescued from this present evil age. Flesh, says Richard Hays, is "a comprehensive term for the sphere of autonomous fallen humanity, conceived as standing in opposition to God. "Flesh" asserts itself anywhere that self-seeking human desire opposes itself to the divine will and the wholeness of the community" Galatians, NIB commentary, 336.

From Paul's exhortations to the Galatian churches, one can choose to return to the flesh ruled by the "elemental spiritual forces of the cosmos. If so, death reigns, community divides and Christ is of no advantage. Only being led by the Spirit, whereby the Father sends the Son and the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba, Father!" This is adoption into a new family, beginning with the Holy Trinity and God's one people in Jesus Christ, the church, the called out ones to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.

This is all about community. In which community shall we live? One driven by the "desire of the flesh" producing "works of the flesh" or the desire of the Spirit providing the "fruit of the Spirit"? We could ask, from which tree are we eating? The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (flesh) or the Tree of Life (Christ)?

Our corporate identity as the New Exodus Community alerts us to the reality that we've been set free, rescued from the "present evil age." Christ, our Passover, has included us in his passing over from death to life.

In the first half of chapter five we begin to explore the climax to Paul's arguments throughout the letter. We've been SET FREE from the slavery of Mount Sinai (see chapters 3 & 4 - existence within the age of fallen "flesh", Torah, externals, type , shadows, the elemental spiritual forces, in order to be joined to Mount Zion, the heavenly city of God, the Kingdom, now experienced as a down payment in the Holy Spirit - Heb 12; Rom 14:17).

We receive the Spirit of the New Covenant by Grace through faith which actively works through love (the communion of God, who is love, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). Faith, in this case, is not static, but dynamically relational. Abraham believed God ... not merely in God. His faith became an interactive relationship.

We begin to explore what this love looks like in service one to another. In closing, we take a bit of family time to talk about serving the growing number of children in our congregation.

The Tychon family have served in Uganda for 14 years, providing training for making bio-sand water filters and permaculture agricultural techniques. They are on a six month Sabbatical, traveling the US in an RV. They've made this time a spiritual pilgrimage and Trevor shares the values of such a pilgrimage.

Apologies for the sound quality as the recorder was not directly plugged into the soundboard.