Reformed Evangelical Synod of America

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The Gospel first came to the northern English in 627, but it was soon suppressed by a resurgence of Paganism. In 633, Oswald became the king of Northumbria, and proceeded at once to restore the Christian mission. Because he had been exiled in a monastery at Iona, he selected an Ioniana, Corman, to preach to the people of his kingdom. Corman returned, having had no success, but a fellow monk, Aidan, responded by telling Corman, “Perhaps you were too harsh with them, and they might have responded better to a gentler approach.” At this, Aidan found himself appointed to lead a second expedition. He centered his work, not at York, but in imitation of his home monastery, on Lindisfarne, an island off the northeast coast of England.

With his fellow monks and the English youths whom he trained, Aidan restored Christianity in Northumbria, King Oswald often serving as his interpreter, and extended the mission through the midlands as far south as London.

Aidan died at the royal town of Bamborough on August 31, 651. The historian Bede said of him: “He neither sought nor loved anything of this world, but delighted in distributing immediately to the poor whatever was given him by kings or rich men of the world. He traversed both town and country on foot, never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity. Wherever on his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited them, if pagans, to embrace the mystery of the faith; or if they were believers, he sought to strengthen them in their faith and stir them up by words and actions to alms and good works.”

COLLECT
Loving God, you called your servant Aidan from the peace of a cloister to re-establish the Christian mission in northern England, and endowed him with gentleness, simplicity, and strength. Grant that we, following his example, may use what you have given us for the relief of human need, and may persevere in commending the saving Gospel of our Redeemer. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

The drunken oath of a king with a shallow sense of honor, a seductive dance and the hateful heart of a queen combined to bring about the martyrdom of John the Baptist. The greatest of prophets suffered the fate of so many Old Testament prophets before him: rejection and martyrdom.

This great religious reformer was sent by God to prepare the people for the Messiah. His vocation was one of selfless giving. The only power that he claimed was the Spirit of Yahweh. “I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. Scripture tells us that many people followed John looking to him for hope, perhaps in anticipation of some great messianic power. John never allowed himself the false honor of receiving these people for his own glory. He knew his calling was one of preparation. When the time came, he led his disciples to Jesus. John’s life and death were a giving over of self for God and others. His simple style of life was one of complete detachment from earthly possessions. His heart was centered on God and his voice speaking to his heart. Confident of God’s grace, he had the courage to speak words of condemnation, repentance, and salvation.

COLLECT
Almighty God, you called your servant John the Baptist to be the forerunner of your Son in birth and death. Strengthen us with your grace that, as he suffered for the truth, so we may boldly resist corruption and vice
and receive with him the unfading crown of glory. We ask this through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

READINGS
Revelation 6: 9-11
Psalm 11 or 71
Romans 6: 1-5
Matthew 14: 1-12 or Mark 6: 14-29

Augustine is one of the most celebrated theologians and leaders of the Western Church. Born in North Africa in 364, his mother tried unsuccessfully to raise her son in the faith. As a young adult, Augustine moved to Carthage where he lived with a woman and fathered a son. In 384, he travelled to Milan in Italy, having accepted an appointment as a teacher of philosophy. There, the prayers of his mother were answered, and after dialoging with the city’s bishop, Ambrose, he was baptized in the year 387. In the year 391, while visiting the city of Hippo, he was asked to serve as the pastor of the local Christian community. He remained there for the rest of his life, living in community with the clergy under a strict rule. His monastic rule has been adopted by numerous religious orders over the years.

COLLECT
Lord God, you are the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you. Help us, following the example of your servant Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

We know about Monnica almost entirely from the autobiography of her son Augustine. Monnica was born in North Africa, near Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, perhaps around 331, of Christian parents, and was a Christian throughout her life. As a girl, she was fond of wine, but on one occasion was taunted by a slave girl for drunkenness, and resolved not to drink thereafter. She was married to a pagan husband, Patricius, a man of hot temper, who was often unfaithful to her, but never insulted or struck her. It was her happiness to see both him and his mother ultimately receive the Gospel.

Monnica’s son was another matter. He was an intelligent young man, and a natural leader. She had high ambitions for Augustine, but over time her ambition for his secular advancement became a deep passion for his conversion to the faith as her spiritual life became more and more deeply rooted in prayer. No matter how much he rebuffed her attempts to share the faith with him, she continued in prayer for him constantly. Eventually, Monnica’s prayers were answered, and Augustine was baptized by Ambrose in Milan at the Great Vigil of Pascha in the year 387.

After his baptism, Augustine planned to return to Africa with Monnica (and his younger brother), but in Monnica fell ill before leaving Italy. She told her son, “You will bury your mother here. All I ask of you is that, wherever you may be, you should remember me at the altar of the Lord. Do not fret because I am buried far from our home in Africa. Nothing is far from God, and I have no fear that he will not know where to find me, when he comes to raise me to life at the end of the world.”

COLLECT
O Lord, through spiritual discipline you strengthened your servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love, prayers, and tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son. Deepen our devotion, we pray, and use us in accordance with your will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Savior and Lord; he who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

Father Robert Lyons
robert.lyons@resynod.org

It seems unthinkable to many that a believing Christian could make a statement such as “We (i.e., the Church) wrote the Bible, so we can rewrite the Bible”, but the Christian Church today finds itself in the midst of such a battle. They might be surprised to learn, however, that the battle they face is neither new, nor exclusive to any one Christian denomination or tradition, for the battle it is at the heart of the answer to the Christian’s query: Are the words of Sacred Scriptures our own, or God’s.

While we may focus on many varying issues that impact the life of the Church today, none is as vitally important as the place of God’s Word in the life of God’s people. To put it another way, arguments about women-pastors, homosexuality, social justice, and virtually any other topic you can think of that plagues the Church today can find their root in how we choose to answer the question posed above.

How we choose to view Scripture makes all the difference in the world. If we choose to view the Scriptures as ‘containing God’s word’ or ‘a vehicle of God’s message’ that can be consulted or disregarded like a self-help book, we have already begun on the path to ruin. If we choose to view the Scriptures as insufficient to the task of affirming faith and morals in the lives of believers, we begin to open the floodgates to any number of vain blasts of doctrine that can beleaguer the Christian ark, sending her on an unsteady course in the face of the blowing tempest.

This is not to say that writings outside of Sacred Scripture are not valuable; indeed, over the past two millennia there have been countless believing Christian brothers and sisters of ours who have penned awesome and inspiring works covering personal devotion, doctrine, worship, and the life of the Church – but all of these are authoritative only insofar as they do not contradict the plain word of God. The minute our human traditions begin to destroy the reliability of God’s Word or its impact upon us, the traditions must be decried as false and misleading, and the people of God must flee.

We live in an era that would teach us that Scripture is neither reliable nor necessary. As the well-known Atheist ad campaign would have us believe, “You can be good without God.” But the truth is that there is no way for us to be good without God. Without the prevenient grace of God going before us, we are incapable of even desiring to do good. Without his Word to steady us, our steps become unsure and our path falters. We should learn this from looking at the world around us (i.e., natural law), but the fact of the matter is that we are so blinded by our own sins that – left to our own devices – we refuse to see the obvious; we live in a world created and sustained wondrously by our great heavenly Father, but one in which the perfection he created is marred and disfigured by the darkness of our sins.

Scripture does not paint a pretty picture of our natural state, but it lays before us an amazingly complex and inspiring canvas of what we can become when we place our trust solely in Christ and his merits for our salvation. This is the path of sanctity that Mary and Joseph, Peter and Paul, and all the saints of every time and place have embraced and made their own – and it is the path that we are called to embrace today if we would know the gift of everlasting life, won for us by the atoning passion and death of Christ.

To embrace that saving work, we must embrace God’s infallible Word, without deception or slick-handling; we must embrace it and recognize our fallen state and the resurrection promise within it. We must recognize that, while human beings put pen to papyrus, it was God who inspired every word of the Scriptures, and who gave us the promise that his Word shall never pass away.

Father Robert Lyons is a presbyter of the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America. He serves as the Manager of Chaplaincy Services at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, and is leading the effort to plant a new congregation in Central Indiana. He and his family reside in Bargersville, Indiana.

Dr. Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the University Church at Wittenburg.

How can one be both Catholic and Protestant? The two camps seem to be completely opposed to one another, and yet for the better part of five hundred years, there have been those who have walked the journey of faith maintaining both a Catholic and Protestant identity. In order to engage in a fruitful dialogue on this topic, it is important to get behind the evolved meanings of both words to discover their roots.

The word Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek καθολικός (katholikos), meaning ‘universal’. Any Church holding to the theological and moral concepts expressed in Sacred Scripture and the Nicene Creed are rightly called Catholic Churches, for they have maintained the one truth that has been handed down by Christ through the Church. Such a definition of the word Catholic is defended by Vincent of Lerins in a work known as the Commonitoria.

The word Protestant is an adjective derived from the Latin protestari meaning ‘publicly declare’. The use of the term dates to the Diet of Speyer, held in 1529. Since that time, the term Protestant has been used in many different senses, most often as a general term describing those, rooted in Western Christianity, who believe that the true Christian Church can exist independently of the Roman Catholic Church.

For a long time, many of us outside of the Roman Church have struggled with the term ‘Protestant’, finding it to be an insult or an affront; but the meaning of the word is a noble one. Protestants are those who make a public declaration of their faith against all adversaries, heresies, and wiles of Satan. When one comes to a proper understanding of the term Protestant, it is not a term of shame, but a badge of honor.

At the same time, many Protestants shirk to be called Catholics, fearing that they, somehow, will be associated with the Church of Rome; yet history teaches us that the ancient Church was not initially centered on Rome, and her influence can be seen to have changed over the centuries through a collusion of civil and religious authority in the Roman Empire and, after the Empire’s fall, through mandated expressions of civil religion that spread throughout Europe in the Dark Ages and into Medieval times. To be a Catholic, one need not subscribe to the superstitions and false teachings of these eras; one need hold fast to the Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

A true Catholic will have no problem with the ‘five solas’ of the Protestant Reformation, properly understood, for they will require the Catholic to simply affirm what Scripture clearly teaches and what the Church Fathers reliably taught.

At the same time, a true Protestant will rejoice in the nature of the Church itself – a body we are promised will never die or pass away, but one which shall be perfected and brought into the eternal presence of God at the last great day. The idea that the Church and faithful preaching has been absent from the earth for even a day since her birth on the first Pentecost Day must be rejected as flying in the face of the very words of Christ. While we can always seek to reform and refine the Church to be more purely what Christ intended, we must never confess that the Church has disappeared.

Certainly there remain matters that are unresolved between the Catholic and Protestant mindsets. Indeed, even within the Protestant realm there are many varied views on the how’s and why’s of the faith – but following Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is and must be the central focus of the life of any individual, community, or ecclesial assembly that professes to be Christian.

To be both Catholic and Protestant may be an uneasy coexistence for many, but when faced with a right understanding of what it means to be both, their coexistence becomes a joy – for it is always a joyful thing to stand up for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints.

Father Robert Lyons is a presbyter of the Reformed Evangelical Synod of America. He serves as the Manager of Chaplaincy Services at Wishard Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, and is leading the effort to plant a new congregation in Central Indiana. He and his family reside in Bargersville, Indiana.