Why do we encourage prayer for those who have died?

Recently a parishioner emailed me with the question "why do we pray for the repose of the dead?" This is a great question to ask.  The question about praying for the dead must be approached by reflecting on three doctrines of our faith:

1. The Resurrection of the body;
2. What do we mean by "death;"
3. What is the mystery of the Church.

The Resurrection of the Body

First, lets consider our faith in the Resurrection of our human flesh. God does not abandon our soul at the time of death.  He will assist us to see Him and enjoy His Presence after death. In the Old Testament Job believes:

"even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God..." (Job 19:26 and BCP 469).

We use this phrase in the Prayer Book Burial Office "though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God."

Man is composed of both "body and spirit." By "spirit" is meant our immortal soul. The human soul is created directly by God.  It is not a product of procreation, as our body is. These two aspects of "body and spirit" that make up man's "nature."  On the bodily side, we are of the same nature as the ground on which we walk and the air we breath, but on the spirit side, we share in the nature of the angels.  This is what it means being created in the "image and after the likeness" of God.  (Gen 1:26)

This is all beautifully stated in the Burial liturgy:

Thou only art immortal, the Creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and unto earth shall we return. For so Thou didst ordain when Thou createdst me, saying, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” All we go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.  (BCP 482)

Our body will lie in "dust" but our immortal soul will sing out of the victory of Christ: "Alleluia."

What is death?
Our second part is we must understand what the Bible means by "death?"  Death occurs when our body and soul are separated. The soul gives life to our body.  When separation of body and soul occurs this is death. Our body rests from worldly labor and turmoil awaiting the General Resurrection. Our soul rests "sleeping in Christ." (1 Cor 15:18, Col 3:3), but our soul lives on, which means man lives on after death.

As we pray in the Proper Preface of the Burial liturgy: "life is changed, not ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is prepared a place for us a dwelling place in the Heavens."

So death is not annihilation as many people (even some Christians) may assume.  In fact no one can choose annihilation, if in fact that is what they want as their "eternal future."  No matter what kind of life you now live, you shall live forever.  Man continues to live forever, even after death.  The question is where shall one spend eternity?  In Heaven or in Hell?

So why do we pray for the repose of the soul? We pray for them because, as we now understand, they are not annihilated or extinguished of life.  They are alive!  Just as you prayed for someone when they were still part of this world, so you still have reason to pray for them.  Life has changed for them, but it has not ended, and it never will. So for those who have died they benefit from your prayers now and you benefit from their prayers!
So what is the Church?
Third, let us look at an important aspect of the Church's spiritual life in Christ.  The Church is the communion of saints. We believe that the Church is a sacramental reality which may also be called the communion of saints.
 
The Church as a mystical reality transcends time and space.  This means we are united to all who live in Christ whether they are alive in this world (you and me) or they are asleep in Christ or have been fully received into Heaven as a Saint glorified.  The Church of Jesus Christ, the communion of saints is united in one head who is Jesus Christ and in sharing one Holy Spirit who is the soul of the Mystical Body.  The Church is a communion of saints that love and pray for one another and for the needs and the redemption of the world.  Why let death stand in the way???

We are Catholic Christians by Bishop Jack Leo Iker

The following article is written by Bishop Iker.  Please enjoy reading it.  Fr. Klein

In the previous article I refuted the allegation of our adversaries that this diocese has “left the Church and joined another denomination.”

On the contrary, we remain members of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is a global fellowship of Christians in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury, sharing the same spiritual, sacramental, theological and liturgical heritage. This “fellowship” is described in the constitutions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, and the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, as Anglican. The term is synonymous with Episcopalian and the Diocese of Fort Worth has not ceased being that. We are, by virtue of our place in the Province of the Southern Cone, constituent members of the Anglican Communion.

So much for the claim that we have “joined another denomination.” But on further reflection we see that there is a basic fallacy in assuming that Anglicans are part of a denomination in the first place. We are not. We are members of the Catholic Church, not a denomination.

I invite us all to look beyond the surface level of our Anglican identity, with its temptation to denominationalism, and go back to our heritage as catholic Christians. In those same constitutional provisions that I quoted in the previous article, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone, and the Diocese of Fort Worth, all declare that we are a fellowship within, or a branch, of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, maintaining and propagating the faith and order of the historic Church throughout the ages.

This means that we are not members of a sectarian, Protestant denomination, but of the Catholic Church. Remember, the Church of England, which came to be known as Anglican, existed before the Reformation and traces its roots back to the Patristic age of the early Christian Church. This same Church, which predated the arrival of Augustine and his missionaries from Rome in the sixth century, is continuous with the Church of England that emerged from the sixteenth century Reformation. Reformed, yes, but not a new denomination; the Church of England still maintained the sacraments, creeds and holy orders of the undivided church of the early centuries, before the Great Schism of West and East in 1054.

Knowing this, Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher famously said, “We have no doctrine of our own. We only possess the Catholic doctrine of the Catholic Church enshrined in the Catholic Creeds, and these creeds we hold without addition or diminution. We stand firm on that rock.” And to that we might add that Anglicanism has no Scriptures of its own, no sacraments of its own, no holy orders of its own – just those of the Catholic Church that we have received. Fisher was right, as Anglicans we have no faith of our own.

Like the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, orthodox Anglicans uphold the historic faith and order of the undivided Church. We are nothing more nor less than Catholic Christians, seeking to be faithful to the teaching of the early Church Fathers and the great Ecumenical Councils of the first centuries of Christian witness. With St. Vincent of Lerins, we affirm that the Catholic faith is that which has been believed “everywhere, always, and by all.” Wherever you find departures from this given faith and received order, you will find sectarianism, heresy and error.

With this in mind, we understand that the divided and fractured nature of Anglicanism today has been caused by heretical innovations and departures from the Church’s historic faith and practice. Two Provinces are specially to blame – the Anglican Church of Canada and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA. It is our Christian duty to speak out and stand against the errors advocated by these Provinces because they lead others into falsehood and away from salvation. All this to say nothing of the fact that deviations from the historic teaching of the Church have led to a serious state of brokenness and impaired Communion throughout Anglicanism.

In the Diocese of Fort Worth we stand against that. Our commitment as an orthodox Anglican diocese is to the faith and order of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We seek to do nothing other than maintain and propagate the faith once delivered to the saints, which is rooted in Holy Scriptures and one with the Apostolic Teaching of the ancient church.

Far from having joined a “different denomination,” we have remained faithful to the witness of the Catholic Church of the ages. With our Lord Jesus Christ, we too pray for an end to our divisions and for a restoration of visible unity of Catholic Christians, both East and West.

The Rt. Rev. Jack Leo Iker
Bishop of Fort Worth

Sermon: The First Sunday of Advent

The Theme of “journey”

Most of us know what it’s like to be on a lengthy journey.  We might remember when as kids when riding in the car we would ask all too often from the back seat… “are we almost there?”  The answer from the front seat was always the same… “soon.”  And we would press on mile after mile.

Even today, when taking a trip I become so caught up in trying to keep track of “where I am” during the journey that it’s hard to always judge how much distance still is ahead before I reach my the destination.

The People of the Old Covenant

The journey through Advent is a journey that started with the people of the Old Covenant, as they journeyed towards the redemption promised by God.  God was (and is) with them every step of the way.  He provided “signs” and “wonders” and voices of conscience through patriarchs, prophets, kings and priests.  These “signs and wonders and sacred words” were like “mile markers” we see posted alongside the highway.  Mile markers are there to help us gage how far we have traveled and how far we still must go before our destination is reached.

Yet, in spite of all the help God offered the people still did not know “the exact time” when their deliverance would come.  It seems to some that this is not really fair, yet God intended it to be that way.  He wants His people to learn to look “within” the signs and wonders and the sacred words for details that will keep both their theology and their faith developing.

God provided the people of the Old Covenant with wonderful clues.  For example, they knew that, at some divinely appointed time, the root of Jesse who blossom forth anew.  At some point a key would be found within a sign that would finally unlock the meaning of history and allow the past and the future to merge into the fulfillment of the perfect Day.

We know who this special "key" is.  The "key' was revealed by the Prophet Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.  Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and He shall be called Immanuel.”  (Is 7:14)

The Emergence of the Apostolic Church

From this sign of hope emerged the Apostolic Church. 

A person is baptized into this hope.  Hope becomes the Christian’s DNA, the essential ingredient of their Christian life; and this hope keeps them always looking forward and never just dwelling on the past.  Our faith is about God and His activity within history… within man.

For nearly 2000 years now, Christians have returned to this first Sunday of Advent, to reclaim the need to again look forward to the spiritual journey.

So we begin afresh, and again we follow the shepherds lead.  We are to imagine ourselves traveling with them, even in the dead of night, even when we see dimly or when the “mile markers and the signs” that God provides will pass by us all too quickly, even when it’s difficult to keep looking forward to what is uncertain, we must journey with the shepherds toward the light that God offers to help us know that we are on the right path.

The Lord’s Second Coming

When we plan a trip we believe at the outset that we shall reach our point of destination and return home safely.

We don’t plan a trip wondering if we will find our way to where we want to go.  We may be off a bit in planning or in timing, or in estimating the cost of the travel, but we certainly believe that we will arrive and return.

A principle theme of the season of Advent is the Church’s certitude of our Lord’s Second Coming.  But if our faith is a bit clouded in this area, and we spend not a great amount of time thinking about the return of Jesus Christ; the liturgy and the liturgical year is fiercely persistent in reminding us.

This is why on this morning by way of our Collect we offer an important Advent petition to God.  It is a petition seeking necessary grace to assist our fallen nature in casting off any and all spiritual darkness so that our soul and our intellect may breathe in only the grace-filled light that is Jesus Christ.

We need to ask God for all the help we can get; real help to rid ourselves of whatever impairs our spiritual vision and clouds our heart.

And the first step of help is helping us to learn that our spiritual vision and intuition is impaired by our fallen nature.

The Crib at Bethlehem

The eternal radiance emanating from the crib at Bethlehem is the Light of the world; it is the “true Light that enlightens every man.”  (Jn 1:9a)  This Light is Jesus Christ; and all who receive this Light, who believe in Him, they have found the source of power to become a child of God.

God intends for this Light to glow from the crib until all things have been made new.  It will glow through time so each generation can be drawn by the Holy Spirit to the crib; every person will be given an opportunity to look into the face of the infant Jesus and to bend their knee in homage to Him and declare that this Child is “my” Lord, “my” Savior, “my” God.

St John in his Gospel tells us that this Child has the power to make us a child of God.  (Jn 1:12)

As young children with a life and faith yet untainted by the spoils of the word, this homage to Christ is easy(ier).  Yet as we live on “in time” it is so easy to develop “spiritual cataracts.”

Spiritual cataracts and the healing of our spiritual eyes

Cataracts are usually not present in the beginning of a person’s life.  They usually form slowly over time and the result is cloudy vision.

It’s interesting, that in spite of our desire for good health, how often we put up with things, we easily compensate for weaknesses that we may have?  Instead of going to the doctor to be healed we just compensate.

It’s also sad when we find ourselves compensating for spiritual weaknesses too.  Instead of dealing with sin, we compensate and live with sin, we live with moral anomalies, we live with too much that is unnecessary, and yet we know were perfect healing lies.

Why do we do this?

What must happen???  What do we still “need” or be certain of before we are willing to stop compensating for spiritual weaknesses and dull spiritual vision and take the first step for healing and peace of mind???

Obviously the first step is the hardest one because it requires that we admit we are compensating and that we are only “making do” but what we really need is God’s help.  Once we acknowledge this our soul is open to the influence of grace.

We need grace because we need God.

The Collect

So let us look at the Collect for a moment.  It is composed in part from our Epistle reading from St. Paul’s encouraging words to the Church in Rome.

St. Paul said:

1.  Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;
2. Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
3. [Rather, in place of such immoral behavior] let us put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Rom 13:12b-14)

What I want us to look at is verse 13 which reads “Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day.”

Variations of this verse 13 are:  "†Let us live decently, as in the light of day;"  (NJB) and "Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day;" (NAB)  What’s being worked with here is the adverb εὐσχη-μόνως and it is often translated as “becomingly, or decently, or properly.”

By wanting us to behave “becomingly” or “properly” St. Paul wants us to understand that it’s through our daily life that we are literally teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.

St. Francis of Assisi would remind his followers that “the way you live your life may be the only Gospel someone will read.”

This is a powerful thought.  Think about it.

Do we behave in a way that befits our redeemed life?

Is our lifestyle(s) a scandal to the Cross or does it witness to the power of the Cross to heal and change me from one degree of glory to the next?

The hour for us to stop compensating for sin has arrived!  St. Paul explains that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

Today is always the best time for an honest examination of conscience.  This alone will allow our soul to be ready to welcome Jesus when He comes.

This examination is using both sacramental confession and our developing the habit of making a daily spiritual inventory of our conscience.

This is very refreshing.  By taking an honest look at the “present moment” it’s like opening our eye to see clearly into the innermost recesses of our heart and ideas.  An honest look will discover potential deviations and conflicts that may rest within us.

St. Augustine

St. Augustine offers this wonderful testimony to the influence of grace.  He explains in his book Confession that this passage from Romans 13 “Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day,” helped him to finally take the last step towards casting off the attachments of his former sinful life.  He writes:

I felt myself still enslaved by my iniquities, and I would groan to myself, “How long, Oh, Lord.. how long?  How long must I continue saying, Tomorrow, Oh, Lord… tomorrow.  Why not now?  Why not, at one instant, make an end of all uncleanness?

[…] And behold I heard a voice, like that of a child in the house next door, repeating in a sing-song tone, “Take up and read, Take up and read” […].  I rose up […] and returned to where I had left the book of the Apostle Paul; I took it quickly into my hand, opened it and read in silence the first passage on which my eye happened to fall.  I read no further, nor was there any need to; for with this sentence, “let us conduct ourselves becomingly, as in the day,” as by a clear and constant light infused into my heart, the darkness of all former doubts was immediately driven away.

When we ask God for help, His assistance will be found.  Augustine offers a wonderful example of how grace works with a prayerful heart and God’s word to move us away from struggles and defeat and allow us to see more clearly.

The Holy Spirit told St. Augustine that he need not wait until tomorrow to begin living a moral life, he only needed to want (to desire to live ‘becomingly’) to begin today!

But there’s more here.  St. Paul continues, “Let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day,”

What “day” is he referring to?  He is referring to the Day of our Lord’s Second coming; the “Day” when Jesus shall stand on this earth in bodily form; the “Day” when all tears shall be wiped away, and all things shall be made whole and all is at rest in God.  It will be when Heaven and earth are again joined.

St. Paul wants us to live today as though “The Great and Final Day” has already arrived!

Now that is a powerful thought!

Surely Jesus is with us now sacramentally. He is with us when we pray. But just consider how different you would behave if you could see our Lord… sit down with Him physical present… reach out and touch Him in the same way we reach out and touch one another.

Jesus remains for the present moment still behind the veil that separates time from eternity.  This is done to help us grow in faith and in love.

St. Paul explains to the Christians in Ephesus to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  (Ep 5:16)

Christians do not waste time… they redeem time.  Time is given to us as a gift so that we may know God more fully and love Him more deeply.  But there shall come a time when the veil is removed and time as we know it will end.

At that point we are either ready for what lies ahead or we are not.  At that point we shall face God and we shall give an account of the life that He gave us to live.

God will say, I made you in My Image and after My Likeness.  I breathed into you My breath of life.  I have provided for you in every way necessary and gave you so much more.  Now tell Me, what have you done with your life?

We can see how important daily examination of conscience and frequent use of the sacrament of confession is our help [and God’s grace] can help us stay focused and keep our life under the influence of grace.

Grace: A Sure Foundation

Now this brings me to my final point, and actually returns to the theme of grace.  As Christians, something we discover over time is that God’s grace can “work for us” in many different ways.

Our Collect reads: “Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light…”

But we could also say: Almighty God, give us a sure and certain foundation so that we have courage to cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the life of Jesus Christ …”

Jesus often uses the illustration of a foundation to point out that people often build their life upon different kinds of foundations; some on rock, some on sand, and even on what could be called “thin air.”

Jesus always concludes His illustration by saying that the only sure and certain foundation is God.

We know how true this is. We know how the “storms” we encounter in life will test how solid we have constructed our spiritual home.  Will our spiritual foundation withstand the gushing floodwaters and what seems like hurricane winds that hurl against us, against our family life, against our dreams and hopes and prayers?  We know how persistent and unrelenting Satan can be!

So our life must be built on Jesus Christ.  He alone is our hope, which means we build our life and dreams around Him and His will.  To say that Jesus is my hope and foundation is to strive to identify our will to His will.

When death comes we need to be able to say with a true and pure heart: “I have earnestly tried to seek to follow God’s will in everything!” If we have this conviction and peace residing daily in our soul we have nothing to fear. What matters is that we have loved and desired God’s will in preference to our own will.

Loving God is what gives us strength to carry on through the course of every day looking with hope and joy for the arrival of the final and great Day!

Amen