It is at this point that the third and final gnomic utterance from the Gwitchen, to leave is to die, rings in our ears. The male and the female bound together in fidelity is a gift to the Church which bespeaks our bond, one with another, in the Body of Jesus Christ, until we too are parted by death. The conservative who says, “I can bear this corruption no more” and leaves, is deaf to this word. The revisionist who says “we can wait no longer, justice demands this remedy now, whatever the rending,” is deaf to this word. To our fallen minds, in the presence of strife, another child of the fall, bonds are to be loosed. But marriage is a sign of the love of God by which he covenantally binds himself to his people and to his world, and is ready sacrificially to suffer for her.
It is a curious fact of North American Anglicanism that most of our brothers and sisters, of the most divergent points of view, nod their heads in vehement approval when it is suggested that the post-modern and post-Constantinian Church must now be countercultural. It sounds curmudgeonly to some, sixties-ish to others, but it sounds good and bold to us all. Counter-cultural is another way to say we are indeed bound to the culture, to the world around us, for we and they need one another for definition. But we are bound in ways that neither they nor we will find easy. Still we welcome the notion. But as with most vows of fidelity, they work themselves out over the long haul to be something harder, and yet more gracious, than we reckoned. “Peter, do you love me? Yes Lord you know I love you”¦” What if counter-cultural means hanging together in this three-pronged Qwitchen Christian wisdom? All would be counter-cultural, and so all shall have surprises. For the social conservatives, there is making room and welcome for gay Anglicans. For the revisionists, there would be the hard admission of the logic: blessings have promises, so blessings are marriages, and gay marriages are, from the foundations of creation, impossible. With that admission would come what Anglicans fear most, opprobrium in elite and progressive society. And, for the fed-up on both sides, there is the interminable putting up with one another in a very prolonged family argument. What if all that together is a part of what counter-cultural actually looks like? As with marriage itself, that would be the day when the glamour and romance had worn off, and reality sets in. Our fraying, individualist, gratification-oriented, impatient, balkanized society needs to see real marriages of man and woman, and it needs equally to see that real marriage which is the Church in its protracted unity-in-conflict. As is real marriage, of the no-no-fault kind Jesus describes in Mark 10, so is our counter-cultural witness, as a bound and avowed Body, to the costly, covenantal, enduring grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Despite my general opposition to the whole ACI approach, I found this sermon very moving and helpful. All of us who are pursuing the outside strategy should pay attention to Dr. Sumner’s eloquent appeal to hang together in the Body of Christ and thus prove outselves truly counter-cultural in some ways. And the explanation of what Indians in the Artic mean by “white people are crazy,” is very powerful. Namely, that in part it implies that it’s foolhardy to leave the safety of the village and wander off alone in the harsh Artic environment.
But in the end, I remain unconvinced that the inside strategy is somehow more faithful to God’s intent than the outside strategy. For the marriage analogy breaks down when applied to denominational structures. It’s simply not true that when we affiliate with a denomination like TEC or the ACoC we are vowing to stay together for life. Nonsense. That’s poppycock (I could easily use a cruder word, but won’t).
The bonds established in the Body of Christ are NOT permanent. If believers stop believing in Christ and actually renounce their faith, they in fact cease to be Christians and cease to be part of the Body. If disciples stop following Christ and revert to the ways of the pagan world, they cease to be disciples. And Paul is very clear that when persistent refusal to repent is displayed by members of the Christian community, then SHUNNING them in order to shame them into repentance is an appropriate strategy, a sort of reluctant last resort, to be sure, but an appropriate one nonetheless.
Or to go back to the marriage analogy, if one spouse is committing adultery and is confronted by the other and told to stop or the marriage is over, and the offender persists in flagrant betrayal of the varriage vows, then a divorce is sadly justified and natural (though even then, not mandatory, of course; it is possible for marriages to survive infidelity, many do; but ONLY when there is repentance).
What I find missing from Dr. Sumner’s fine and inspiring sermon is the recognition that our opponents in this long and wearisome struggle are in fact like the philandering spouse, and so far show no sign whatsoever of willingness to repent. And in that case, there is no marriage anymore. It’s dead. And it will NEVER be restored without genuine repentance.
Or to go back to the Arctic village analogy. What we are witnessing in North American Anglicanism is not a stray individual here and there getting frustrated with village life and wandering off on their own into the frozen tundra. That would be crazy indeed.
No what we are seeing is nothing less than the village dividing in two and becoming two smaller, antagonistic villages. But that’s part of life. After all, when we choose to live in a certain village or city for that matter, we don’t make any vow to live there til death do us part.
David Handy+
Thank you, David, for saving me time and typing; i’ll just reiterate this much — i like the Gwitchen points generally, but we’re going in the West generally and the US in particular from “making room” for the unusual ones of the village to being told we must make them head-man and shaman and war chief. I know Plains Indian and Great Lakes Ashinaabe best, and these points hold true for them as well — and the “shifters” are indeed given a place of respect in the community, but no one would ever dream of saying that a male-female shifter would be in a place of leadership. And that’s not to say they should be mocked or persecuted, but they are not to be given the burden that the “two main tentpoles” are asked to bear.
When will the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal go after the Gwitchen or other First Nations for their exclusion of shifters from tribal leadership roles? Right, exactly.
David writes well on this subject, but I think less of the sermon than he does. This is not the reestablishment of ideals or the like, but naivete. And his use of counter-cultural, as is the case with TEC-like people, tortures the word until it means only what he wants it to mean, which is……what? But he is clearly thinking, “How cool is it to use counter -cultural, which is an in word? This shows I am so today.” He is hoping that we are thinking “We either hang together of hang separately.” But in the case at hang, this is not true. The case is rather, if we are looking for a cliche, “Lie down with dogs, rise with fleas.” What we need is not togetherism, but a flea collar. Larry
[b]”…there is making room and welcome for gay Anglicans.”[/b] What is going on is much more than making room, and it is irritating that Mr Sumner tries to pass it off as such. We have an aggressive campaign to displace orthodox from all positions of power in the church. As Ephraim+ says, “Truly, I understand orthodox have no place in positions of authority in the church.” (or as Kevin Kallsen somewhat more crudely described the Executive Committee, “They are all gays or gay wannabe’s.”) The “unusual” of the Arctic village have taken over and the normal are displaced to the cold periphery.
[b]”to leave is to die.”[/b] Another incredible statement from a Canadian who should be saying [i]to stay is to die[/i]. The limited liberal innovations have been disastrous for the ACoC. How bad? There hasn’t been a study on attendance since 2001 because the leadership simply do not want the guy in the pew to know how bad it is. However, financial data is being released, and it is all bleak. So now the leadership of Hilz is poised to accelerate the innovations to a province wide setting. No. The arctic village analog of leaving and dying is a false one. The true analogy is a boat with leaks and the captain and crew are armed with drills making more holes in the hull…to stay is to die.
I see that Knapsack objected to the “making room” business after I hit the submit button. This is not only blinking at reality but asking others to close their eyes as well.
The history of the REC (1873) and the continuing churches (1970’s) as well as the AMiA, CANA, etc. show that to leave is to grow in a different way. The behavior of all concerned continues to poison the well of Christian charity. The leadership of General Convention is more at fault because its policy of deposition and lawsuits could have been avoided and because the General Convention church remains the larger body.
#2-4, Well said, all of you. Gee, some of the members of the NRAFC may end up making the Founder look moderate! Something I’m rarely accused of being.
David Handy+
I have to chuckle, can’t help it, at the alphabet soup. To Wit:
REC, AMiA, CANA, NRAFC, ACI, ACOC, GAFCON, etc.
balogna, no matter how it’s cooked, is still balogna
Well, the theologians don’t have as many acronyms and we do in medicine. And it certainly is not limited to the Anglicans: RC, ELCA, LCM, SBC, etc.
Unfortunately, TEO is CTD (circling the drain), leading to some acronym propagation.
Proud member of the NRAFC!
#8
Stop your chuckle and weep. There are more than 80+ continuing bodies in the alphabet soup…
http://anglicansonline.org/communion/nic.html
“To leave is to die” which maybe explains why TEC and the ACoC are dying. They’ve left and they’re dying.
Leaving the Anglican church is not leaving Christian faith. There is not just one denomination, so there is no need to stay in a denomination that is turning from Christ. If one needs to leave the Anglican Church to remain Christian, there are plenty of Christian churches to go to.
How odd; the Gwitchens can do what the Christan Church cannot!
A little deeper reflection on what Paul actually says in Ephesians 5 here would be beneficial to the discussion. It is not only the case that “to leave is to die”, but that to give yourself in the Body is to die.
Branford,
Curious. What do you mean “to remain Christian?” Are you saying that a Christian is one that chooses the true and faithful Church? Well since there are a few hundred thousand, which one is it? Or is it best to keep jumping from church to church hoping that if Jesus comes you will have landed in the right one? Christ stayed in communion with Judas, he stayed in communion with Peter, he stayed in communion with his people when they rejected him and killed him. Christ had the truth in him and yet he still stayed with those who did not have the truth so that they might be saved. Did Christ not say to follow him? I believe that is a phrase used at least once or twice in Scripture.
Furthermore, we don’t even know who or if anyone of us is obedient to the truth (what human arrogance to proclaim we’ve somehow got our faith ‘right’); what good does it do us to leave and jump ship to another? Could you be sure you would find a ‘true church’, or would you only be sure that it’s one that fits with your understanding of truth? In the midst of jumping to another church, what witness do you give to the world? I’ll let one of the youth group kids from my church give you the answer. Me: What do you think of when you think of church? Kid: the church? Oh it’s like coffee shops, you choose the one that has the flavor you like and you stay there and chill with your friends until another coffee shop makes a drink you like better. Then when you get tired of the different drinks, you go onto the candy shop to try something else. Wow, what a gift our church shopping denominationalism has given to the next generation; do we wonder why our pews are full of gray heads?
We’re broken to be sure, but so is every other denomination. You want to find the truth? Stop searching for it; it will find you. Open your mind, heart and ears and stop asking for the cup to be passed from you, stand firm where you are, and set your mind to do the task which you have been set free in the Spirit to do. To be set free in the Spirit is to be bound in one body to Christ so that in our very process of living which is confession, thanks, and praise we might witness to the world. We can’t do that very well in parts; particularly parts that leave rather than confess and repent in order to be reconciled. Now obviously we’re not whole; but it’d at least be a good start to stop dividing over issues of self professed truths.
optimus prime –
No, I don’t mean that – I didn’t phrase that well. I meant that staying in a denomination that has turned in very fundamental and essential ways from following Christ can cause its members to stray from Christ as well, if they follow the heretical teachings of their church or if they are swayed away from Christ because of the example that church is setting. For example, if I tend towards always doing what is best for me to the constant detriment of others, and ignore God’s commandment to love my neighbor as myself, and my church supports me in always putting myself first, then my staying in that denomination could over time result in me turning so far from God that I no longer understand what Christian behavior should be.
I come from a family that has been Anglican in the U.S. since the 1600’s so I’m not exactly jumping ship willy nilly here. Growing up, the idea of “church shopping” was not even in my vocabulary, but seeing the implosion of the Episcopal Church (not, mind you, the Anglican Church) and being in a diocese that has definitely turned away from any sense of tradition or scriptural understanding, I am seriously looking at other Christian churches in order that I might remain as close to Christ in my church life as I can. And this is a very painful and heart-wrenching process for me.
Branford,
Thanks for the clarification. I know this is indeed a painful and heart-wrenching process. I do not live in the United States but I happened to attend a conference in NY concerning the Covenant Agreement where I was privy to hearing arguments of what I can only describe as hideous witness of liberal, self righteous arrogance borne of cultural political correctness, not biblical content. I was so angry, ashamed, disheartened, that I could barely attend worship, let alone take communion with the likes of particular individuals there. I have unfortunately however, heard the same from the conservative camp and even though that is the camp in which I stand, it is an unacceptable way to engage in living our faith. This is all simply to say that I can understand at least in part, how you feel.
The problem I see with leaving though, is that our very division is turning from Christ. If we’re constantly thinking about where we should go to ‘be right,’ we are indeed doing what you don’t want to do: thinking about ourselves only. I know that it feels like trying to witness to Christ amidst people who ‘no longer have ears to hear;’ it’s literally like smashing your head against a brick wall and it feels absolutely fruitless. But imagine for a moment that Jesus had chosen not to ‘stay where he was’ and witness. That is the painful reality we are called to; that is what it means to follow Jesus and to feed his sheep. Leaving is self protective and I would argue that it is pointless because as I already mentioned, no church in our divided state ‘has it right.’ By our very division, we are all grasping at pieces of the truth that we can’t see clearly; and we won’t see them until we stop moving and stand still and face into God’s grace no matter the cost to ourselves.
Talk to Roman Catholics, talk to Eastern Orthodox, to Baptists, to Pentecostals. I seriously considered leaving Anglicanism for the Roman Catholic Church until I realized that I would be walking out of one hornets nest into another. I also realized that I had spent so much time trying to figure out whether this was the right ‘choice’ of faith for me, that I wasn’t doing any work for Christ. There is no ‘right church.’ Looking for it is a waste of your gifts and talents. Just because you can’t always see how God is using you to form his people where you are right now doesn’t mean he isn’t doing it: he is. So stay and give of yourself. Please, I implore you as a fellow sibling in Christ, help me stay here and witness to our Lord.