He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and
refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to theLORD.
Malachi 3:3 (ESV)
During the season of Advent we meditate upon the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Echoing the prophet Malachi, John the Baptist clearly proclaims that the Messiah comes with the fire of his judgment. His wrath will purify his people, separating the wheat from the chaff. The wheat he gathers into his storehouse and the chaff he burns with unquenchable fire. The presence of our God always results in cleansing “for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29).
Brothers and Sisters, our province, the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), has entered a time of profound crisis. There are many commentators who are trying to understand what is happening and why. I will add my voice to the mix.
I believe we are experiencing the wrath of God.
We often misunderstand God’s wrath, because we think of wrath as separate and opposed to love. In our broken human experience this is often the case. We experience the wrath of someone’s wounded pride, resentment towards us, or lack of self control. The wrath of man causes violence, war, and human suffering. This is why James tells us that the “anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (Jas 1:19). Likewise Jesus teaches not to “let the sun go down on your wrath” (Eph 4:26).
However, anger can be justified. In fact, anger as a response to the evil and brokenness of the world is not only justified but necessary. God has such wrath, and he has this even towards his children. In our traditional confession of sin, this is why we pray to God that we have provoked “most justly your righteous anger against us.” God is not a passive, permissive father. Parents who allow their children do whatever they want without consequence are not loving parents, and do great damage to their children and society. Love sees the best and wants the best for her children. In order for children to be formed properly in a broken world, they must experience the consequences of their decisions. The Bible is clear that the Church, the very children of God washed in the blood of the Lamb, are not exempted from this principle. Once we are baptized, God does not become permissive. Instead we see God’s wrath even more clearly in his Church! “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God” (1 Pt 4:17)
This judgment is not condemnation for us but his godly chastisement (Rom 8:1). The writer of Hebrews tells us that in the moment, “discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11). Shocked by the discipline that he sees God met out on his people, Isaiah calls it God’s “alien work” (Is 28:21). This strange work of God is his wrath and discipline of his people for their sin. This work is “alien” because it is not proper to God’s nature. God has not always been wrath, but he has always been love. God is the consuming fire of agape. What a great mystery that’s been revealed us, that at the bottom of reality is the love of our Triune God! The Father eternally loves the Son who returns that love to the Father, which Love is the Holy Spirit poured out into our hearts.
This is the great mystery of the Christian religion. God is love. But what happens when such love encounters the broken world? It gets angry. Someone who can look at people being abused, murdered, or struck with cancer without experiencing compassion or anger is emotionally disordered. Our God is not a passive observer, distant from us. Scripture reveals that he is compassionate and full of mercy. We see this most clearly in God incarnate, who is moved with compassion (and anger!) to works of healing and forgiveness as he touches the brokenness of this world.
God’s alien work of wrath prepares our hearts for his proper work of mercy. I believe our province is experiencing the wrath of God. Let’s not misinterpret the signs. God’s wrath does not mean that he no longer loves us. In fact, he’s chastening us because he loves us and desires to see the fruit of righteousness in our lives (Heb 12:6). At the very beginning of the ACNA, the bishops, clergy, and laity took time to publicly repent together before God for their sins. This province was formed in repentance. But now, 15 plus years later, it is obvious that God is not through with that work of repentance in our life together. Our repentance and humility must go deeper still. Our hard hearts need to be broken more, so that they can become fallow ground from which the fruits of righteousness will spring.
The ACNA exists for good reason. We believe that God created man, male and female. We believe that male and female are equal before God, yet distinct. We believe that in this difference there is a beautiful calling that God has provided for us to love one another. The mutual self giving of love and submission to the Lord in Holy Matrimony is an incredible picture of Christ’s love for his Church. This is a truth worth fighting for! It is a truth that we must stand up and proclaim as central to the gospel witness, especially in our age of incredible confusion on all sides. Yet for this message to have any hearing in a world which needs it so badly, we have to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. We have to show as well as proclaim the beauty of this truth. It is obvious, no matter how much we might debate specifics, that we are failing at this mandate. God must purify us. He chastens those he loves. He will not shield us from the consequences of our behaviors. The fire of his love comes to us as the alien work of discipline because he must purify us to do what he wants us to do, which is proclaim his gospel to the nations. He desires to fulfill his Great Commandment and the Great Commission through us.
I have seen some adopt a defensive posture, casting blame on those involved in bringing our failings to light. I believe that there are those who want to see our destruction and the ACNA fail. Some oppose us because we hold the orthodox Christian position on human sexuality. But frankly, I think that fact is irrelevant right now. It reminds me of the prophet Habakkuk, who looks at the wicked nations that God uses to discipline his people and cries out to the Lord saying, in effect, “How is this right that you use nations even more wicked to discipline us?” God’s ways are beyond our ways. We must not deflect the responsibility that we bear by pointing at those whom God has chosen to bring his wrath upon us. This is not the right attitude. It is our duty to repent, embrace the humiliation of this moment, and throw ourselves upon the sheer mercy of God in Christ.
This does not mean we embrace a Babylonian view of human sexuality. It means we have to get rid of the idolatry in our midst and get to work cutting down the idols, washing our blood soaked hands, doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly before our God. Let us smash the Asherim, tear down the Baals, and burn them before the Lord. We know the world, the flesh, and the devil are our enemies. We know the sins that so easily ensnare us that God desires to remove from us. Let us cast aside the fetters that hold us down from his mission. Let us destroy our idols of power, lust, glory, and greed.
What a great gift the Lord has given us in the Book of Common Prayer! May The Great Litany always be on our lips. In our parishes let us use and teach the truth found in the confession of sin from the Anglican Standard Text. Let us pray Daniel 9.
God brings us to the cross so that we may know the power of his resurrection. His love for us endures forever. He has not forsaken us. If we will rend our hearts and not our garments, he is merciful and will forgive us. And having entered into deep repentance so early in our life as a province, we will be able to more fully embrace the great calling he’s given us as Anglicans in North America, to preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded.
The Church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for sinners. This is not an excuse, but a reality that necessitates the daily repentance we practice in the Daily Office. All have sinned, including us. So we should not be surprised at these things. The province must not become an idol. Instead we love God’s Church, not for her own sake, but for the sake of Christ. He shed his blood for her so that these great failures in the Church might bring us back to a pure trust in him. May the Holy Spirit teach us anew that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. May he deepen our conviction that he died, rose again, and has ascended on high above every power in heaven or on earth, that he is the head of his Church, and that his ascended body with the wounds in his hands, feet, and side is now seated at the right hand of God, ruling with power and presenting his once for all sacrifice before the Father on our behalf. This truth makes our victory sure, because the victory has already been won. This is the promise that we stand upon which guarantees the gates of hell will not prevail against us. May the Lord grant us his grace to storm the gates of hell through a deep and thorough repentance.
Let us pray.
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
St. John the Baptist Preaching, c. 1665, by Mattia Preti. Wikimedia Commons.
