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

Anxiety shapes our modern world. We feel it in rush hour traffic … perhaps you may be facing unmanageable sale’s goals … or as a student, the drive to be the best and brightest. Many of have learned to 'thrive' on anxiety.

Then we sit down at night to rest in front of a screen that is always trying to sell us bigger and better … not aimed at selling products but upgrading one’s fragile sense of personal worth. We are buying an image and it’s validated by our brain chemistry – for a very short while, the hormone, dopamine makes us actually feel better. But enough is never enough.

Greed, one of the 7 deadly sins, is a disordered desire for material things. So how should a follower of Jesus relate to material things?

Christ’s incarnation affirms the initial Word spoken over all of God’s creation … “Good” and when human beings were created, “Very Good.”

But we fell into temptation, away from God’s plan of unbroken communion. Christ, the second Adam, comes to us in the likeness of sinful flesh, as fully human and fully divine, reuniting heaven and earth, the created order with the uncreated Creator.

Therefore, Christianity affirms that matter matters!

So what’s the problem?

Greed’s disordered desire craves that which is manufactured by this world, exhibiting an excessive drive for wealth or possessions. Greed operates on the maxim that the ends justify the means. Therefore people are merely pathways or obstacles towards the desired goal. People, created in God’s image and likeness, become merely objects, utilities.

Israel was warned of this early on. The last of the 10 commandments, 10 best ways to live, comes at the end of the list and gives perspective on all the other commandments. Greed is not an action but a state of mind out of which all the others proceed.

What’s the antidote?

The nature of God is not to withhold but to freely give. The nature of God is generosity, grace in action, love in action, which yields true happiness. As Jesus says, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Generous involves one's time, energy and money.

List how much you call “yours”. Now offer it to Him as a steward … not an owner … and call it “His”.

This is how Abraham yielded part of his land to Lot (Genesis 13).

Do you struggle with yielding? Freedom comes with open hands.

The grace of yielding knows that life does not consist in the abundance of things, possessions (Luke 12:13-21). There’s another place to invest – lay up treasures in heaven, says Jesus. One cannot serve both God and money (Mammon).

"Give and it shall be given unto you …" the way of the Kingdom is extravagant generosity … Inventory not only your check book but your calendar … Ask God for the Grace of giving, stewardship, being able to yield with open hands. This is true freedom.

Anxiety shapes our modern world. We feel it in rush hour traffic … perhaps you may be facing unmanageable sale’s goals … or as a student, the drive to be the best and brightest. Many of have learned to 'thrive' on anxiety.

Then we sit down at night to rest in front of a screen that is always trying to sell us bigger and better … not aimed at selling products but upgrading one’s fragile sense of personal worth. We are buying an image and it’s validated by our brain chemistry – for a very short while, the hormone, dopamine makes us actually feel better. But enough is never enough.

Greed, one of the 7 deadly sins, is a disordered desire for material things. So how should a follower of Jesus relate to material things?

Christ’s incarnation affirms the initial Word spoken over all of God’s creation … “Good” and when human beings were created, “Very Good.”

But we fell into temptation, away from God’s plan of unbroken communion. Christ, the second Adam, comes to us in the likeness of sinful flesh, as fully human and fully divine, reuniting heaven and earth, the created order with the uncreated Creator.

Therefore, Christianity affirms that matter matters!

So what’s the problem?

Greed’s disordered desire craves that which is manufactured by this world, exhibiting an excessive drive for wealth or possessions. Greed operates on the maxim that the ends justify the means. Therefore people are merely pathways or obstacles towards the desired goal. People, created in God’s image and likeness, become merely objects, utilities.

Israel was warned of this early on. The last of the 10 commandments, 10 best ways to live, comes at the end of the list and gives perspective on all the other commandments. Greed is not an action but a state of mind out of which all the others proceed.

What’s the antidote?

The nature of God is not to withhold but to freely give. The nature of God is generosity, grace in action, love in action, which yields true happiness. As Jesus says, it's more blessed to give than to receive. Generous involves one's time, energy and money.

List how much you call “yours”. Now offer it to Him as a steward … not an owner … and call it “His”.

This is how Abraham yielded part of his land to Lot (Genesis 13).

Do you struggle with yielding? Freedom comes with open hands.

The grace of yielding knows that life does not consist in the abundance of things, possessions (Luke 12:13-21). There’s another place to invest – lay up treasures in heaven, says Jesus. One cannot serve both God and money (Mammon).

"Give and it shall be given unto you …" the way of the Kingdom is extravagant generosity … Inventory not only your check book but your calendar … Ask God for the Grace of giving, stewardship, being able to yield with open hands. This is true freedom.

Bishop Stewart contends that the word 'revival' is among the stereotyped Christian buzz words in need of reviving! A biblical vision and way of life is encouraged towards authentic revival for the Anglican Church in America, a revival of Word and Sacrament. At the same time, the vision is inclusive of global revival throughout all of God's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

This message was delivered to the clergy of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest where Bishop Stewart presides.

Bishop Stewart contends that the word 'revival' is among the stereotyped Christian buzz words in need of reviving! A biblical vision and way of life is encouraged towards authentic revival for the Anglican Church in America, a revival of Word and Sacrament. At the same time, the vision is inclusive of global revival throughout all of God's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

This message was delivered to the clergy of the Anglican Diocese of the Upper Midwest where Bishop Stewart presides.

In the 4th Century, in the wake of Constantine legalizing Christianity, loads of people flooded into the church without true conversion. Many chose to keep in step with the powers that be. Constantinople became the “New Rome”, the seat of power for the Roman Empire. Note that when the persecutions ceased, the Church slowly lost its counter-cultural witness and become domesticated.

As the Church grew not only in numbers, but wealth and political power, across the Empire, a new movement arose, thousands fled to the Egyptian desert, so much not to escape a spiritually deadening culture, but to do spiritual battle with the devil. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was their model. In the desert they would learn how to master their passions, discovering a new form of martyrdom, and in return, provide a prophetic community within the Church, calling her back to the path of transformation.

One such figure, Evagrius fled Constantinople to a tiny monastery in Egypt. The desert monasteries were partially communal, leaving the greater part of the day in silence and solitude. Evagrius came to recognize 8 spiritually defeating thoughts which were common battles across the desert communities. Theses were gluttony, lust, greed, vainglory, sadness, anger, pride and acedia.

His list of 8 became the basis for what would be later reorganized by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th C as the seven deadly sins. Gregory folded sadness into acedia (sloth), vainglory into pride and added envy.

Great numbers of people from all over the world would flock to these desert hermits for counsel and prayer. They became the true curates, one who cares for souls.

Evagrius observed that during the hottest part of the day, from 10 AM to 2 PM, the monks would fall into a stupor and, at times, have delusional thoughts, leading them away from their vocation. After much discernment, a line from Psalm 91:6 caught his attention regarding God’s protection against the plague , the disaster, the destruction at noonday. As a handle for this plight, they named it the noonday demon, and called the effect ACEDIA which came to later be called sloth (shifting the inner wisdom of the heart to more external and physical laziness).

What on earth is Acedia and how is discerning its many manifestations relevant today?

It is frustratingly difficult to define and impossible is the attempt with one word.

The desert fathers considered it the most insidious of all sins.

• It’s a sense of moral and spiritual apathy where one just doesn’t care.

• It causes us to neglect what we should do by creating diversions that may lead to frivolous activity and distraction.

• It aims at leading us away from spiritual growth and relationship with God … this is why its considered one of the top three insidious evils.

• It breeds self-pity, to mope, to be dejected, despondent, complacent towards God and his mission in the world.

• Acedia is the disease of our modern age and the modern Church, caught in all manner of addictions, some to divert us and others to numb. Kathleen Norris, in her book, Acedia and Me, says its like a spiritual morphine. The pain is there but you don’t feel it anymore.

• Acedia breeds a cynicism about God, his Church and his Kingdom. We see this in Nathaniel’s initial attitude upon hearing about Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

• Isaiah describes it in his phrase, “No one arouses himself to take hold of me.”

• Acedia is faint-hearted; listless, unmoved, unresponsive to God and his Word. It is a spiritual paralysis of the will towards participating in God.

• It is often confused with depression but only mimics some of the symptoms.

• It is often confused with our modern understanding of SLOTH but goes much deeper than physical and mental laziness.

In the 4th Century, in the wake of Constantine legalizing Christianity, loads of people flooded into the church without true conversion. Many chose to keep in step with the powers that be. Constantinople became the “New Rome”, the seat of power for the Roman Empire. Note that when the persecutions ceased, the Church slowly lost its counter-cultural witness and become domesticated.

As the Church grew not only in numbers, but wealth and political power, across the Empire, a new movement arose, thousands fled to the Egyptian desert, so much not to escape a spiritually deadening culture, but to do spiritual battle with the devil. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was their model. In the desert they would learn how to master their passions, discovering a new form of martyrdom, and in return, provide a prophetic community within the Church, calling her back to the path of transformation.

One such figure, Evagrius fled Constantinople to a tiny monastery in Egypt. The desert monasteries were partially communal, leaving the greater part of the day in silence and solitude. Evagrius came to recognize 8 spiritually defeating thoughts which were common battles across the desert communities. Theses were gluttony, lust, greed, vainglory, sadness, anger, pride and acedia.

His list of 8 became the basis for what would be later reorganized by Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th C as the seven deadly sins. Gregory folded sadness into acedia (sloth), vainglory into pride and added envy.

Great numbers of people from all over the world would flock to these desert hermits for counsel and prayer. They became the true curates, one who cares for souls.

Evagrius observed that during the hottest part of the day, from 10 AM to 2 PM, the monks would fall into a stupor and, at times, have delusional thoughts, leading them away from their vocation. After much discernment, a line from Psalm 91:6 caught his attention regarding God’s protection against the plague , the disaster, the destruction at noonday. As a handle for this plight, they named it the noonday demon, and called the effect ACEDIA which came to later be called sloth (shifting the inner wisdom of the heart to more external and physical laziness).

What on earth is Acedia and how is discerning its many manifestations relevant today?

It is frustratingly difficult to define and impossible is the attempt with one word.

The desert fathers considered it the most insidious of all sins.

• It’s a sense of moral and spiritual apathy where one just doesn’t care.

• It causes us to neglect what we should do by creating diversions that may lead to frivolous activity and distraction.

• It aims at leading us away from spiritual growth and relationship with God … this is why its considered one of the top three insidious evils.

• It breeds self-pity, to mope, to be dejected, despondent, complacent towards God and his mission in the world.

• Acedia is the disease of our modern age and the modern Church, caught in all manner of addictions, some to divert us and others to numb. Kathleen Norris, in her book, Acedia and Me, says its like a spiritual morphine. The pain is there but you don’t feel it anymore.

• Acedia breeds a cynicism about God, his Church and his Kingdom. We see this in Nathaniel’s initial attitude upon hearing about Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

• Isaiah describes it in his phrase, “No one arouses himself to take hold of me.”

• Acedia is faint-hearted; listless, unmoved, unresponsive to God and his Word. It is a spiritual paralysis of the will towards participating in God.

• It is often confused with depression but only mimics some of the symptoms.

• It is often confused with our modern understanding of SLOTH but goes much deeper than physical and mental laziness.

Matthew 5:21-24; 43-48: Some of us perhaps have been victims of rage-based family systems or other types of relationships. Deep wounds are etched into our emotional core with a need for ongoing divine moments of healing. Others may struggle with various levels of anger aimed at others. In order for transformation to take root, all of us need encounters with the Love "who" called us into being. As we come to walk with God, we are able to become rooted and grounded in Love.

This love is not conceptual or ideal; it is the very nature of God, his being. Through Jesus, the Gospel calls us to be reborn into this love, to literally have it poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Rom. 5:5). When we move away from Love, we move away from new creation life back into the old bent nature, under judgment. This is why Jesus says that when we're angry with another we are liable to judgment. All of our disordered passions are part of the old order under judgment.

We have been called out of the old order, out of darkness into his marvelous light (God himself). We, therefore, must pay attention to the pull backwards while we live upright in the upward call of Christ.

Jesus is taking the external dimensions of the Law of Moses (You have heard it said) and revealing their inner dimensions (But I say to you), the thoughts and motives of the heart that provide the basis for external actions.

Jesus is saying that all those destructive actions are being fueled by disordered passions. He connects murder with anger, then anger with verbal insults and abuse.

This new way which Jesus is announcing goes deep into the human personality and produces a different pattern of behavior all together, beginning to be “aware” in one’s inner life.

Such awareness might ask oneself, “Why do I feel angry now? Why does this person push my buttons? Why did I loose my temper with her? Or one might confess, “I really struggle with overreacting in this scenario. I really don’t want to be around this person [i.e., there may be legitimate reasons for this … re. abuse, etc.].

NOTE: the original recording was damaged in the middle of the talk and was re-recorded in Fr. Michael's office.

Matthew 5:21-24; 43-48: Some of us perhaps have been victims of rage-based family systems or other types of relationships. Deep wounds are etched into our emotional core with a need for ongoing divine moments of healing. Others may struggle with various levels of anger aimed at others. In order for transformation to take root, all of us need encounters with the Love "who" called us into being. As we come to walk with God, we are able to become rooted and grounded in Love.

This love is not conceptual or ideal; it is the very nature of God, his being. Through Jesus, the Gospel calls us to be reborn into this love, to literally have it poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Rom. 5:5). When we move away from Love, we move away from new creation life back into the old bent nature, under judgment. This is why Jesus says that when we're angry with another we are liable to judgment. All of our disordered passions are part of the old order under judgment.

We have been called out of the old order, out of darkness into his marvelous light (God himself). We, therefore, must pay attention to the pull backwards while we live upright in the upward call of Christ.

Jesus is taking the external dimensions of the Law of Moses (You have heard it said) and revealing their inner dimensions (But I say to you), the thoughts and motives of the heart that provide the basis for external actions.

Jesus is saying that all those destructive actions are being fueled by disordered passions. He connects murder with anger, then anger with verbal insults and abuse.

This new way which Jesus is announcing goes deep into the human personality and produces a different pattern of behavior all together, beginning to be “aware” in one’s inner life.

Such awareness might ask oneself, “Why do I feel angry now? Why does this person push my buttons? Why did I loose my temper with her? Or one might confess, “I really struggle with overreacting in this scenario. I really don’t want to be around this person [i.e., there may be legitimate reasons for this … re. abuse, etc.].

NOTE: the original recording was damaged in the middle of the talk and was re-recorded in Fr. Michael's office.

“Envy is sorrow at another person’s good” Aquinas

“When a friend of mine succeeds, something in me dies.” Gore Vidal

“Feeling bitter when others have it better.”

Envy has to do with perceiving something that someone else has or a quality someone else possesses and either wanting it for oneself or wishing that they not have it.

The sin of envy appears as invidia – Latin for looking with malice (Invidia is the ancient Roman goddess of envy). Around 8 AD, the writer Ovid tells of her living in a filthy cave, eating vipers, hating the gods on mount Olympus. The goddess poisons everything good … flowers and crops die beneath her feat. The gods of Olympus despise envy.

Envy is the one deadly sin that even the irreligious don’t like to mention. People are happy to talk about gluttony or lust, but envy elicits discomfort. More than any other sin, it seems to reflect a human failing that we’re disturbed by. It’s rarely confessed.

Of all the deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all. It has no momentary payoff. It just causes more misery to the envier.

When envy compares itself to the other, one is left lacking, one’s self-worth is diminished.

The way to master the sin of envy is walking the way of the cross, crucifying our disordered passions and desires.

The way to practice the way of the cross in this regard is to learn how to appreciate others without being threatened. When one is secure in the Father's love, envy cannot take hold. Love does not envy, says Paul.

“Envy is sorrow at another person’s good” Aquinas

“When a friend of mine succeeds, something in me dies.” Gore Vidal

“Feeling bitter when others have it better.”

Envy has to do with perceiving something that someone else has or a quality someone else possesses and either wanting it for oneself or wishing that they not have it.

The sin of envy appears as invidia – Latin for looking with malice (Invidia is the ancient Roman goddess of envy). Around 8 AD, the writer Ovid tells of her living in a filthy cave, eating vipers, hating the gods on mount Olympus. The goddess poisons everything good … flowers and crops die beneath her feat. The gods of Olympus despise envy.

Envy is the one deadly sin that even the irreligious don’t like to mention. People are happy to talk about gluttony or lust, but envy elicits discomfort. More than any other sin, it seems to reflect a human failing that we’re disturbed by. It’s rarely confessed.

Of all the deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all. It has no momentary payoff. It just causes more misery to the envier.

When envy compares itself to the other, one is left lacking, one’s self-worth is diminished.

The way to master the sin of envy is walking the way of the cross, crucifying our disordered passions and desires.

The way to practice the way of the cross in this regard is to learn how to appreciate others without being threatened. When one is secure in the Father's love, envy cannot take hold. Love does not envy, says Paul.