The Age To Come

Isaiah 5 v20 (NIV)
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.

I have a little story to tell you.

The other day, while sheltering on our porch from a thunderstorm, I noticed a wasp also taking shelter in our covered wooden bird box that was hanging in the porch. On closer inspection, I noticed the beginnings of a paper nest inside this box. Hmm, I thought.

After hmm-ing for a moment, I did the obvious thing. I unhooked the box and left it, hole side up, out in the rain under the downpour. Needless to say, the wasps were non-too pleased, but what can you do, eh?

At this point, I have a confession to make. I have a penchant for feeling sorry for things. Anything. Animate or inanimate. The cute fwuffy widdle puppy and, um, that wasps nest I just left out in the rain. I just can’t help it, perhaps one day I’ll get over it. Anyway, never mind and back to the story.

Yup, this story does have a point other than outlining my character flaws for all and sundry. I was on my way to conduct an errand, and a thought occurred to me (I shall have to have that seen to as well). I thought, hey, that nascent wasps nest could be a really neat analogy.

C’mon, you know where I’m going with this…

OK, so here it is. We as a church have had a wasps nest of heresy and apostasy on our porch and, rather than doing the painful but necessary thing (which, by the way is mentioned as both necessary and painful in the Bible – y’know that book that…oh never mind) we have decided to ignore and tolerate it.

So, what happened? Well, funnily enough that wasps nest, over the course of the summer, grew, expanded beyond the confines of the box and suddenly, rather than a tiny little wasps nest we have a great big wasps nest – on our porch, stopping us getting in and out, getting the kids stung and generally making daily life difficult.

We tolerated it, and look what we became? The spectre of Catholic bishops tolerating ‘Catholic’ politicians supporting abortion and other innovations of the zeitgeist.

Simply put, you don’t tolerate wasps, you don’t tolerate sin, because if you do it just grows.

But wait a moment, where do Anglicans fit into all this, you may ask? Well, for the record I am not a good Anglican. If I was a good Anglican I would have taken that wasps nest inside and placed it at the centre of the mantelpiece. I would have watched it grow with pride, congratulating myself on my diversity and tolerance, glad that I had found it in my heart to be so inclusive. I would have been stung, and watched my children being stung and have rejoiced in this new relationship that the spirit was working within us.

Welcome, friends, to our world. Welcome to the Anglican Madhouse.

However, that is not the end. Fortunately we have a God with a track record of rescuing fools from their folly. The house is, I believe, condemned. However, there is a way out still open for those that would go. For you see, God is doing a new thing. He is not content to leave us in the result of our foolishness. Love burns in anger, but cries in mercy. Indeed, He is always more ready to be merciful than we are to receive.

My prayer is that we would perceive that mercy and in obedience walk in the paths He is opening up for us to the new dwelling places. I do not believe those dwelling places will be what we imagine, nor perhaps even what we desire. But it will be what is needed and ordained for us in this season.

The choice is before you, remain and be stung into insensibility or walk into the new paths, paths as yet untrodden. God grant us wisdom, courage, perseverance and faith! Amen!

I was perusing the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod website, when I came across an Article titled ‘A General Synod without walls’. It starts off so:

“This fellow eats with sinners and tax collectors.” Luke 15

We are not the first generation to be tempted in that direction. In the time of Jesus, there were hard boundaries, boundaries that defined a person as clean or unclean, as included or excluded, as “us” or “them.” I have absolutely no doubt that if we come to General Synod looking for reasons to impose such boundaries, to build such walls, we will find them.

Read the rest of the article here.

Does this not seem entirely reasonable? However, upon reading the whole article, a thought came into my mind. A sheep pen needs walls, for this is what helps protect the flock. There are still ravenous wolves and roaring lions out there whose only intent is to devour the flock.

In fact, this is a good analogy as to what is happening at the moment, as erstwhile sheep are doing the utmost to break the walls down. Success, in their terms, would seem to be having a sheep pen with no walls. You can put the sheep into the pen through the Gate, and they are then free to wander off in whatever direction they fancy.

Because, y’know, we are so enlightened these days, and wolves / lions, well they were just simplistic fables for a more primitive time, don’t you know? That is, until one finds the lion of lust, or the wolf of despair only too alive and well when grazing in the fetid fields of the world.

To address the writer, what he is doing is confusing two things. First, there are human walls. Some human walls are necessary, just like garden walls, they help define our existance. We need that information to relate to each other, for example are you a member of my immediate family or are you a stranger? It may help me to judge better whether I should trust you with my children, for instance.

Of course, these garden fences can become thick castle walls, overgrown with ivy, rank and fetid, as we take natural division and turn it into intolerance, hatred and irrational fear. That’s where sin comes in. And, if those are the walls he is addressing then yes, tear them down!

However, I would argue that it is not what is actually happening in practice. In practice, the walls that are being torn down are Gods walls, the walls that are not intended to curse and restrict, but to bless and protect. Adults no less need walls than do our children – I know of no parents who can bring up children without defining boundaries. Why then do we imagine that God would be any less a loving parent? Truth is – there is danger and evil out there, and we are more than able to fall for it, become part of it, revel in it. We are fallen people, even while we are redeemed. We are the now and the not yet. The walls are the walls of the sheep pen, and are to us a blessing.

The writer, either purposefully or not, misdirects us by bringing forward a laudable aim, that of tearing down the rank weed infested castle walls of our lives, and uses that to cover what is actually happening, the tearing down of the sheep pen!

To man those walls and seek to repair them is not hate, it is love. To confront people with the truth is not hate, it is love. To seek a more excellent way is not hate, it is love.

You have to wonder why, when us humans were made a little lower than the angels, that we are referred to as sheep? Animals?! But that is the truth, having swapped the truth for a lie, subsuming what was made in Gods image for the carnal – in a very real sense we have become animals – all of us, like lost sheep, have gone astray.

The work that Christ has done in us is just as I have said – the now and the not yet. We are His – yet the old self still wars within us. Hence, by the grace of God, we need a sheep pen – one with walls. Those who would tear down the pen, even while crying freedom, are the worst deceivers – both deceived and deceiving – promising freedom while ensnared themselves.

Peter had it right, I think:

2 Peter 2 (New International Version)

17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

There are a number of folks in our Church that move in the area of prophetic visions, dreams and the suchlike. As such, I thought I might share with you one of those dreams. The preface is from 2 Peter 2, the text for our current sermon series, which formed the backdrop to the dream.

2 Peter 2 (English Standard Version)
12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing.

I was riding a horse on a high plain, and as I looked down away off in the far distance there were small fires burning brightly. An small animal acting rabied or possessed was leaping at the flames, it seemed like he was trying to put them out, one by one.

When he appeared to be having trouble putting them out, he moved on up the hill rapidly. The horse I was on was afraid as the animal came up the hill, I thought if we were quiet he would not bother us, so I steered the horse gently, hoping not to attract the animals attention. I saw a place to take cover and we moved into it, he could not have seen us, but it was like he could smell us and was close and raring to attack. As I peeked out of where we were taking cover, there was a huge animal, seemingly gentle and lay asleep. I had not seen the large sleeping animal lying there when we went in!

The large animal seemed like it had already been badly hurt, but his face and body had clean white bandages. The large animal arose , and we were safe.

I then was moved into a different place safely. And now for some reason I was preparing to lead the prayers. The names that I started to pray for were John Spong and Michael Ingham, and the words of the prayer that came forth were those words we prayed the other day at prayer time: BCP page 39 For the Universal Church. (It was amazing, because in daylight, I could have not repeated that prayer as I do not know it that well!)

This was my perception: The fires are lit by God, and the devil / principalities / powers are seeking to put them out (compare with the vision for the lighthouse, again light in a dark place, guiding beacon is a theme). Failing to do so, he will seek to attack the brethren; the place of safety to be found will be guarded by Him whose wounds have healed us.

What do you think? I’d be interested to know……