Prayer Book faith?

The Book of Common Pryaer is rceiving a lot of attention in this its 350th year. It might seem odd that a publication, which according to the Canons of the Church of England, promulgates our doctrine, should get treated to such adverse reactions as it does.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not a person who deeply mourns the passing of the Book Of Common prayer as the mainstay of the liturgical life of the Church of England, what I am unhappy with is our inability, seemingly, to come up with liturgy that really embraces, as a Christian community, who we are before God.

Part of this, of course, is to do with an increase of congregational participation in liturgy. Words and sentences have got shorter and easier to accommodate wider participation. Changes in the structure of language and the meaning in words mean that our corporate expression is constantly adapting and pushing back horizons.

The Book of Common prayer itself is a product of conflict and settlement – many of us know that it went through several revisions between its first widely published form in 1549 and its current usage in the 1662 edition. But even during this period there were various editions in circulation - estimates are that at some points there were nearly 300 editions in England and all in use.

As such the Book of Common prayer reflects both the old catholicism of England and influences from the new continental protestantism of the time. Fashions and beliefs swung back and forth in the editions – the Puritans scrapped the whole thing for a time, but by 1662 with the nation once more settling into monarchy a new settlement was needed.

It really needs to be acknowledge, that whatever our perceived current liturgical needs, the Book of Common Prayer is a masterful collection of liturgy which reflects both a specific and inclusive range of theology. Perhaps its most common thread is that human beings are those who have “wandered and strayed like lost sheep, and followed the devices and desires of our own hearts” (and will continue to do so). But then always immediately after this acknowledgement of our lack of relationship with God comes the reminder of God's mercy and an exhortation to more holy living.

The Book of Common Prayer weaves together themes of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ and the incarnational reality of the sanctification of all our lives in the person of Jesus. The Bible is use extensively in forming its texts, readings are set out week by week and still there is sacrament in its pages.

Anyone who argues that the Church of England is weak on doctrine has not read the Book of Common Prayer. The problem is, many of those who have read it, find it not as it was written – an accomodation of the views of the time, but restrictive and out of touch with modern life.

This is no call, as I stated, to reintroduce everything that was, but it is a call to re-examine our task of liturgy, both as individuals and a church. What we are doing and why we are doing it matters. Importantly liturgy communicates with God but it also communicates to those around us who God is and how we live in our faith.

Why is it, that in 300 years, we have been unable to come up with words which universally express ourselves as well as the Book of Common Prayer? Perhaps we are afraid in our rather unsettled settlement in England that we will rend the fabric asunder if we try to enter a dialogue. But if we do not really grapple with our liturgy are we in danger of ending up with a rather vague lowest common denominator kind of religion which really is not sure what it believes in at all.

Cry Freedom

The idea the there is more to God that a distant and sometimes angry deity is deeply emeshed in the text and experience of the Bible. From the very beginning there is that word in Hebrew Ruah - the breath of god across the waters - the idea that God moves and breathes in creation. the New Testament picks up this same theme as the word for spirit here is pneuma - the same word from which we get pneumatic - air filled - in a very real sense then the Bible is about pneumatic people - people but filled with hot air but with the love and grace of the Holy Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit, even in the Old Testament, is not some sort of quiet companion, a silent partner in God's work. The prophet Isaiah is clear where his words are coming from and it is this that Jesus quotes in the synagogue -
The spirit of the Lord is upon me  because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
The year of the Lord's favour can be interpreted in more than one way - but lets think about it in terms of the year of Jubilee, that time every fifty years when the people were told to forgive debts and let captives free. Jubilee year was a time of celebration and restoration and this same celebration and restoration is true for those who live in the Spirit of God now.
It is interesting that in this year of our own jubilee we are focussing on the party and celebration aspect but talking very little about the real aspects of Biblical Jubilee. A few years ago there was a movement called the Jubilee project which called for the forgiveness of debt from foreign banks which was crippling the economies of developing nations, many of whom were spending more that their GDP simply to try to keep up with interest payments.
There have been campaigns over the past few years to really bring Jubilee to the developing world but the sad fact of the matter is that many country's debts have not been cancelled and western countries are subtracting the cost of debt cancellation from their overseas aid contributions. There is still a lot of work to be done and even more in terms of sorting out the way that global markets and trading practices prejudice poorer nations.
Much more could be said on this - but it is important because as people who are offered God's Spirit it is important to realize that our life is not one of withdrawal from the problems of the world - it is one of engagement.
We too, are sent to bring Good News to the poor and release to the captives and all in the power of the Spirit. And when we cry that the greedy and rich and powerful systems in which we all exist to be changed or even dismantled to share the riches of the Earth more fairly, to share god's abundance abundantly, then we will meet anger and opposition from those who maintain positions of priviledge.
Jesus was almost pushed over a cliff for saying what he did in the synagogue - but he walked away. We too, when we cry with the voice of the Spirit, will be taken to challenging places, but this is our story and this is our song.

I have had a couple of conversations today about extraordinary moments with God. Both brought me back to places in my life where I have been in awe and wonder, fully alive.

One of the comments that was made is that when you run across God in the full intensity of human experience there really is no mistaking it – but it is also a place without words. Mystics and theologians have struggled for centuries to find adequate words to express and contain everything we know about God – but yet the simple gift of experiencing God out -foxes even the cleverest expression.

And that has always been true. If you meet someone who claims to have all the answers then do not believe them. No one has all the answers and God cannot be explained academically in fact, and i am sorry to have to say this, academically God makes no sense at all. Theology is a good discipline in logic and dialectic but what it has never been able to gather into all its twists and folds is God.

Simplistic and wordy religion is popular because it seems to offer an easy path and quick answers – but what looks like rich fruit, when squeezed, turns to dust. Simple religion is something else – simple trust, simple faith, because it empties all out of self and gives everything in adoration. That is not to say it is static and unmoving. That is not to say that it does not engage in practical action and remedy – but that at its heart and as its fuel there is the still and silent soul experiencing the Divine.