The Feast of Transfiguration

I think this marks the end to one of my longer absences from this blog. It's been over two months since my last post and while I've intended to come back multiple times before now I have been consumed by a plethora of other things. While I'm not promising I'll be back in full-swing yet, I will try to post more regularly and try to finish up the series on the Filioque as well as post some other thoughts that have been brewing for quite a while.

What brings me here today is just a quick question that I really don't have time to answer but thought that some of you (if any readers still exist) may have more insight than I into this issue.

February 14 is the last Sunday before Lent this year and it is marked (as always) in the Methodist (Protestant?) lectionary as Transfiguration Sunday. My question is why and when did Transfiguration Sunday change dates in the Liturgical Year?

For the Orthodox Transfiguration Sunday is celebrated on August 6

For Catholics it is celebrated on August 6

For Anglicans it is celebrated on August 6 (according to the Book of Common Prayer )

This issue first raised its head last year when I was preparing to preach according to the Lectionary in one of our services on Transfiguration Sunday. At that time I noticed that the UM lectionary was different than the other lectionaries I was familiar with. This year as we approach lent I began to wonder about this issue again.

Why the change in the lectionary?

Why the change for such an important feast day of the church? Was it theological? Was it practical?

If any of you have any insights so my curiosity can be satiated I would be very appreciative. Like I said, I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to this now so I thought I'd just toss it out there.

- Ben

Ash Wednesday

Today, marks the beginning of Lent for those of us who follow the western ecclesial calendar. Today is a day that we receive ashes on our foreheads to remind us of our mortality. From dust we were created and one day to dust we will return.

Unless our Lord returns beforehand we will all die. While it may be considered morbid by some to think on our looming death it is actually a long standing Christian teaching that we should remember our mortality. The fathers teach through the ages to think on our mortality not only on this day, but all days.

This teaching is hard, but it is good for us to remember our mortality not in a morbid "goth" sort of way, but so that we may place ourselves in proper perspective. We think on our death so that we may remember that we are not God and so that we may live every moment, treat every encounter, and think every thought like it may be our last. This practice helps us to cast out the sin in our life and embrace a life that is full of love and glorifying to God.

So let us begin our Lenten journey today and let us remember our mortality so that we may live truly dispassionate lives daily casting off the passions that cause us to sin. And so we as we receive ashes let the lenten prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian remind us of the passions we seek to throw off and the virtues we seek to embrace.

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.

In preparation of Lent

Yes, Lent is right around the corner. For those of us who follow the Western church calendar this years lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday on February 25. This past week it was my turn to write a brief article for our church newsletter. Below is what I wrote to encourage our congregation to begin looking towards lent even though it is a week or two off.

"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you, thousands will be saved."
- St. Seraphim of Sarov


Though I didn’t discover the above quote until a few months ago, it has quickly risen to the top of my list of all-time favorites. It reminds me of the call placed upon us by our Savior and God when he told the expert in the law that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37 NIV). But knowing full well that many would seek to find holiness without loving others, our Lord quickly reminded this teacher that the second greatest commandment is like the first, namely, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39 NIV). John Wesley picked up on this concept when he described Christian Perfection as perfect love for God and neighbor. These two loves are inextricably bound together for those of us who are in Christ. It is, as we love God that we can do nothing other than love our neighbor.

With these words in mind we look forward ever so slightly to realize that the Lenten Spring is coming. In just a few weeks we cast aside that which clutters our vision so that we may clearly see our God and Savior Jesus Christ. That we may descend the way of the Cross so that we may come to a fuller and more true love of God – truly acquiring the peace of God within our hearts. And so my brothers and sisters let us begin our preparation for Lent, so that we may indeed as St. Seraphim of Sarov says; “acquire a peaceful spirit” so that, loving our neighbor as ourselves, thousands around us may be saved.

More thoughts on the Celebration of All Saints Day

As I continued to think about my previous post on All Saints Day and why I think Protestants need to celebrate it, I started thinking through possible resistance to this idea that I assume many low-church/fundamentalist Protestants would have. What I'm speaking about is not those who are merely ignorant of the Christian practice of All Saints Day, but those who would oppose it as irreligious, unchristian, Catholic, or for various other reasons.

One thought in particular that I had in regard to this and the current political fervor surrounding almost everyone right now was that many of these same Protestants who object to celebrating All Saints Day are some of the very same Christians who will be the first to remember the fallen who gave their lives for this country on Memorial Day and Independence Day.

On Memorial Day and Independence Day many Americans will proudly remember the long heritage of this Country. They will tell stories of the fallen who have show themselves to be heroic in face of the enemy. These same fallen men and women will be celebrated because it is on their dream and dedication that America now stands. In essence these two American holidays (holy days) are nothing more than despiritualized political versions of All Saints Day for our nation-state.

So to those Christians who strongly object to celebrating All Saints Day and yet proudly celebrate Memorial Day and Independence day I ask you where your citizenship lies. Are we Christians and then Americans or are we Americans and then Christians? How dare we celebrate the heritage of this nation and celebrate the lives and deaths of the fallen for this country and yet neglect heritage of the Church and those who have been killed for Christ by the governments of this world. How dare we seek to follow the example of those who fell for this country and yet allow the example of the Martyrs to be void from our churches? In my opinion it is indefensible for us to claim citizenship in heaven and yet act as though we are Americans first and Christians second.

Before I get labeled Anti-American let me say that I'm not arguing that we shouldn't celebrate Memorial Day and Independence Day as Christians, but I am arguing that those who call themselves Christians and chose to celebrate these holidays while refusing to celebrate All Saints Day show by their actions that they consider themselves citizens of the world first and citizens of heaven second.

To those who proclaim Christ while refusing to remember his Church, his martyrs, and the saints before us and yet celebrate this nation's heritage I challenge you to start celebrating the heritage of your true home (the people of God) or cease celebrating the rising of this nation. There is no other Christian option.

Nations and political causes rise and fall but those who lived and died for Christ will reign with him in glory forever.

Let us take joy in the fact that we are Americans, but let us never forget that we are Christians first and everything is secondary to that. So celebrate and remember those fallen for our country if you feel so compelled, but as a Christian remember St. Stephen the first martyr, remember Sts. Peter and Paul who were killed by the Romans . Think also of those Christians who were imprisoned in the Gulag during the Soviet regime in Russia or those who die as I type in China at the hand of the Communists or the Philippines at the hand of militant Muslims. Follow Christ as Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch followed him even to their deaths and allow Maximus the Confessor who had his tongue cut out and his right hand cut off for confessing the truth of Christ to be your role model. Remember them and the cloud of witnesses that surround them for it is their blood that is the seed of the Church by the power of the good and live-giving Holy Spirit!

Why Protestants Should Celebrate All Saints Day

This may be a day or two late, but I figured it was probably still something worth posting. Many protestant churches have their harvest parties, chili cook-offs, and other fun gatherings this time of year and yet ignore the explicitly Christian feast of All Saints Day. The reason for ignoring this holiday probably has many reasons including the extremes of mere ignorance and anti-Catholic bias. It is my contention that even within a Protestant theological structure All Saints can and should serve as a life-giving feast of the Church that edifies believes and draws them closer to God.

Here are a few reason why I think Protestants should celebrate All Saints Day.

- The great cloud of witnesses listed in Hebrews does not end with the closing of the Canon. There have been holy men and women through the centuries that are examples of how one can and should live in faith, holiness, and love for God. In fact All Saints Day is a celebration of the Saints of Scripture as well as those that have lived after.

- The Faith is passed from one generation of faithful Christians to another generation of faithful Christians. While we Protestants may think that we are a "bible only" people, we are not. Without the faithful witness of the Church preserving the teaching and the scriptures we would be lost.

- God has chosen to reveal himself and to pass down the Faith through these faithful witnesses and it is surely good that we remember them and thank him for the faithful that have lived before us.

- Many Protestant congregations and individuals act like the Christian calendar consists of Christmas and Easter while a few others would include Advent and Lent. The Christian calendar provides a life-giving standard of living for the whole year and Protestantism needs to grab a hold of this. We desperately need to orient our lives to God and we need to approach this holistically. In order to orient ourselves in both body and soul we need to take upon ourselves the practice of fasting and feasting with the Church. We need to allow the church to dictate our calendars, meals, and practices. Recapturing All Saints Day is just a part of this larger issue.

- Just as Paul exhorts his readers to imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) so we too should be imitators of the holy saints that have gone before us, for in their martyrdom and testimony they have shown us how to imitate Christ.

- It's part of the tradition of the Church. Yes, I know this statement strikes at the very heart of Protestantism, but it is nevertheless true. The faithful of the church saw it fitting to include the remembrance of the saints through a feast for our spiritual edification. We cannot be so arrogant to ignore this exhortation. I realize that this sounds odd coming from a Protestant but as Christians we cannot believe whatever we want. We must remember that Christ said the gates of hell would not overcome the Church and as such we must believe what the Church hands to us. We are separated by ages and Holy Spirit has chosen to use the Church as his method for handing the faith from generation to generation.



Those are just a few reasons why we as Protestants must celebrate All Saints Day. We need to remember the Saints, Martyrs, and Ascetics that have gone before us. We should celebrate the feast of All Saints and thank the Father for faithfully handing down the gospel of his Son through these faithful men and women by the power of the Spirit. We should allow their holy lives to inspire us and as we celebrate this feast we should beg the Father to help us live in such a way that all of our life we will inspire future generations into holiness.

Glorious Feastday!!

In case you were wondering I didn't miss Easter. My church follows a different calendar than most in the west and so our Easter will take place in a little over a month. Today is, however, a very important holy-day no matter which calendar you use.

Today is March 25, and it is on this day that we remember that the angel visited Mary and announced to her that she would bear with child, to which she replied "may it be to me as you have said." Today is the Feast of Annunciation.

Today is the day that we realized that in 9 months we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our God. And so we realize that Jesus, even in the fetal stages was God of God, light of light, begotten and not made, of one essence with the Father. We remember that the divine Word himself took the initiative to bring redemption to humanity because of his great love for us. Today the church feast teaches us that our God did not just take on flesh at birth or later in life at baptism as the heretical adoptionists assert, but that he indeed was united in one person from the very conception - when Mary the Mother of God said "yes" to God.

This is such a beautiful and amazing realization. Our God who cannot be contained was contained in a womb. Today the Son of God becomes the Son of a virgin. Today the creator of all makes his throne in the womb of his creation in order to redeem creation.

Glory to God in the Highest!

I wonder if so much of the "christian" pro-choice people would have been silenced long ago if the protestant church had continued to celebrate this feast. For Christ has taken flesh in the form of an unborn babe with all the risk and possible complications that are entailed therein.

Today is truly a glorious feastday! Glory to God!