by

Fr. George W. Graydon, MA

A return to the enthusiastic teaching and living of early Christians will, I am convinced, yield amazing and interesting results! A Previous article raised the point that at the present time there is ample evidence to substantiate the premise that we, this country and western civilization, are drifting and slipping into that paganism that existed before the incarnation of our Lord. If we were to permit this to occur we will condemn ourselves along with those who promote it. To paraphrase Tertullian speaking on Marcion: "We will have quenched the light of our Faith, and so lost the God we have found." What a tragedy that would be! And more, it is BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST! Considering what we have received, we would have rejected the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ!

There is no doubt but that the world is entrapped in the web of sin. The ambience of life seems out of sorts, in spite of some local acts of goodness, nothing seems to be working as it should. It seems as though, try as we might, we can not get our car to work on all cylinders; try as we might we can't get it fixed; so we limp along hoping for the best.

We find that it is not so much our personal sins that bother us as it is everybody else's and, even if not acknowledged, there is underneath it all a sense of dis-ease. There has been so much violence lately, at a distance and individually, that concern has been raised in many: the murder of entire families by persons distraught and unable to cope with anger out of control, hatred unrestrained, the absence of patience and love, collective and personal isolation; no where to turn, no one to turn to, and no recognition of the reality of cosmic dimensions of SIN.

And then as if to underscore it all, we have the massive, monstrous attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center towers in New York with the massive loss of life by those bent on the destruction of this country and Western Civilization. We are indeed experiencing "a most iniquitous indifference to justice" (Tertullian, AD 205), a deep-seated hatred, anger, and revenge for wrongs imagined and real. A sense of national unity has resulted from this attack on our shores, and there is a desire is for a physical response. However justified, this does not deal with the whole situation of SIN writ large. There have been many expressions of hunger for deep spiritual answers which are not forthcoming as yet. No one seems to have these answers BUT WE DO!

It is in the midst of such a culture as this that the Church Catholic rose up with the Gospel, the declaration that "THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR" to you in time and place NOW! It has been said that "The absence of Love sets the poser of evil free." This is undoubtedly true. If there is any doubt all one has to do is look around at the insidious and soul-destroying state of life without love. "Love" is much more than personal love. It is the Redemptive Love of Christ.

In short we are in the presence of unacknowledged, unrestrained, un-confessed, un-repented, and un-forgiven SIN. However, CHRISTUS VICTOR has "taken away the sin of the world." The administration of His justice, His righteousness, gives to every man his due: God, your neighbor, and yourself.

The early Church, through her Faithful Communicants, gave to the world the Good News of hope - the Gospel which sets free the soul, the mind, and even the body. Early Christians, wherever they were, proclaimed at considerable personal and corporate cost that message. In doing so they transformed the world. MAY IT BE SO NOW!

The preaching of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and His redemptive acts brought with it their insistence of the Victory won. This message of triumph and victory over sin, evil, and death is characteristic of the early Church. It was the fulfillment of the Angel's promise to Joseph: "And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His Name Jesus; for He shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21) For early Christians, What God promised, GOD DID! It is this that moved them to proclaim that Victory over Sin.

Irenaeus, successor to the apostles and Bishop of Lyon (in southern France) in AD 182-184, wrote:

"The Salvation in and by Christ Jesus is LIFE" and (God) arranging and preparing the plan of Salvation (NB the phrase- but not to be confused with the plan of salvation a la Fundamentalists of today) which was accomplished by the WORD, through the sign of Jonah for those who hold the same opinion as Jonah regarding the Lord, and who confessed and said: "I am a servant of the Lord and I worship the Lord God of Heaven." (Cited in CHRISTUS VICTOR, Aulen)

The early Church declared the Victory over Sin, death, the Devil, and the giving of LIFE as an accomplished fact; already accomplished by the Lord God Omnipotent and His Son Jesus Christ whose life on earth was a continuous battle over Sin for all of US!

"This was done that man receiving an un-hoped for Salvation (which is a gift from God) might rise from the dead, and glorify God, that he might always continue glorifying God and giving thanks without ceasing for the salvation derived from Him." (Irenaeus)

In short, the message of hope and salvation and life in Christ gave great encouragement to the Faithful and to other convinced hearers. Early Church history is replete with a joyous translucent and transparent faith in the power of God, the sense of the presence of God, and the multiple gifts of God. They were afraid of nothing that came their way except to Sin against the Lord God or to sin against anyone in any way.

We too are facing these same issues of societies lapsing into paganism, rampant sin, and the hopelessness of those caught up in the web of both personal and cosmic sin; people who are unhappy, discontented, and truly desperate to find God's peace and Victory on their own and on their own terms. Early Christians believed that: "SALVATION IS LIFE IN CHRIST and LIFE IN CHRIST IS SALVATION." (St Irenaeus) NOW is the time for us to announce the Day of Salvation from Sin, given to us by Christ the Victor. This is the message that must be preached TODAY, HERE, and NOW!

We, the Church Catholic faithful to and living in communion with God, holding to the ancient customs, have the answer to the soul's needs in our very hands. We are called by God to evangelize the world. (And lest you think that the "world" is far away from you, be reminded that your world begins where you are here and now!) We must proclaim the Faith as we have received it. WE HAVE THE ANSWER LITERALLY IN OUR HANDS! It is the 1928 Book of Common Prayer!

Surprised? You shouldn't be. It is not for nothing that we, of all the "Churches," have the Book of Common Prayer. Thomas Cranmer (1549) with the English Church began to look seriously at it's early history, worship, and it's ecclesiastical heritage. The Apostolic Fathers were studied and a Prayer Book resulted which contains the distillation of the ancient expressions of Apostolic teaching and experience. Again in later times it was so done. Every time there was a need for revival, for renewal, even a crises in the Church, the Church in England returned once again to it's historical documents, the "title deeds" of the faith once delivered to the Saints.

The genius of the Anglican Communion lies in the fact that, of all the "Churches," we have remained faithful to the Ancient Church, it's teachings, and it's reliance on Holy Scripture. That teaching is enshrined in our liturgical worship through and in the Book of Common Prayer.

Considering the foregoing, past and present, it is incumbent upon us to "Consider the times, Look to Him who is above time." (Ignatius, AD 30-107) This is such a time for us. We can not, given the gravity of our present situation, sit and wait for "something to happen." It already has! We must claim this world for Christ. We must give solid comfort and strength to the disheartened. the disconsolate, and those who have given up. The Gospel was preached and, in the words of Isaiah and the music of Handel, this message must be proclaimed: "THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH!" We have an obligation, we have the message, we have the life of Christ with us! There are hungry souls NEAR YOU who are waiting and eager to know the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ, the great peace of God, that we have to give!

We have that message in the Holy Eucharist as found in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. We have what other so called "Churches" don't have. Some, including ECUSA, now teach that "anything goes." Others teach that "since I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal saviour I need do nothing other than wait for my rapture; a belief is neither Scriptural, nor mentioned in the Ante-Nicene Fathers, nor a tradition of the Church Catholic. Still others teach that "only if you change your ways can Jesus Christ come to you."

We alone have the truth, SOLIDLY BIBLICAL, FIRMLY DEFENDED THROUGH THE LAST 2000 YEARS, that "GOD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF" (Romans) and "while we were enemies we were (are) reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 51:10)

Irenaeus asked, "For what purpose did Christ come down from heaven?" The answer: "That He might destroy sin, overcome death, and give life to man."

That is also the restoring and perfection of the creation, and does not end with the triumph of Christ over the enemies which held and continue to hold man in bondage; it continues in the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Irenaeus also said that "salvation is the bestowal (a gift) of life" and that LIFE means fellowship with God, the partaking of the Life of God, and therefore also a deliverance from sin."

Note well: the Church is the extension of the Incarnation. No other Church but ours fulfills here and now these points made by Irenaeus, especially his and the early Church's teaching on the Victory of Christ over sin and all its ramifications.

We are in communion with and in fellowship with God and the Faithful world-wide while many other "Churches" have no sacramental communion with God. We participate in the Life of Christ and have union with God the Father by the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We worship objectively and are, sacramentally, as close to God as we can be in this life; many of the other "churches" worship God at arms length with their attention on themselves and what God has done for them individually. In our worship we participate in the gift of forgiveness, receive it, and give thanks for it all; they have no or a very shallow concept of sin, and no recognition of it's cosmic dimensions. (Perhaps many of us don't either and this needs to be deepened.) Above all, we gratefully receive the gift of life, the gift of His Life in us, "Freely given, freely received."

Irenaeus declared:

"The Passion of Christ brought us courage and power. The Lord through His passion ascended up on high, and led captivity (i.e. the Devil et al) captive and gave gifts to men, and gave power to them that believe in Him to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy-that is, the prince of apostasy. The Lord through His Passion destroyed death, banished ignorance, manifested life, declared truth, and bestowed incorruption." (Cited in Aulen: Christus Victor, pg 32)

We must only look at the phraseology of the Holy Eucharist found in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer! We must note the teaching of the early Church there presented to us.

The promise and invitation to receive salvation from sin:

"Come unto me all that travail and heavy laden and I will refresh you."

"God gave His Son to the end that all who believe should not perish."

"That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."

"We have an advocate with the Father; Jesus Christ."

The General Confession: the acknowledgment of the reality of, the presence of, and the horror of sin; it's personal and corporate burden, and the plea for forgiveness, a recognition of our participation in the web of sin; and the desire to be freed from it!

Forgiveness of Sins: the declaration of Sins forgiven, personal and corporate; admonition to live in Christ.

The Sursum Corda: thanksgiving for the Gift; "Heaven and earth are full of thy Glory."

Canon of the Consecration: Jesus Christ for our redemption, "who made there (the cross) by his one oblation of Himself once offered; a full perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world" (i.e. His victory and ours!)

"rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured by the same" (i.e. His sacrifice and Victory)

that "we and thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins:

"Here we offer and present ourselves to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto thee"

"That we be filled with His Grace and Heavenly benediction; be made one body with Him that he may dwell in us and we in him."

WHAT A GIFT! WHAT A VICTORY HAS BEEN GIVEN US!

In short we have here a recapitulation of the Atonement, the act of re-established communion with God in and through Jesus Christ, and the bestowal of the gift of life, all the themes mentioned by Irenaeus.

What an opportunity for us right now. In view of recent tragic events in our nation we through our own spirit of calmness based on our confidence in God, our tranquility and assurance of God's promises can impart that same enthusiastic Faith, Confident Faith because we know that HIS Grace and Life bestowed upon us will carry us through all evil. We know that the Devil, the Prince of Apostasy and Evil, can not hurt us (unless of course we let him). We know deep within us that His grace is sufficient to protect us from whatever happens to us.