What's In a Name?
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· 239 viewsMan rebels against God to define himself and identify how he wishes.
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Man continues to rebel against God...
12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Names are important and we have been given one by which we can be saved by...
What’s in a Name? Episcopalians Move to Change Their Words for God
Man continues to rebel against God...
Man wants to define himself outside of God...
Man desire to identify in terms that free him from God’s dominion...
For some watching (and blogging and tweeting) the debate on the floor of the Episcopal Church’s triennial General Convention this week, it sounded as if someone were trying to give God a sex change.
Bishops, priests and lay delegates, who have been meeting in Austin since July 5, are discussing legislation that would make changes to the Book of Common Prayer aimed at stripping away some of the masculine descriptions of God in favor of more “expansive” language.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Common Prayer, the Book Of
Common Prayer, The Book of. The official service book of the C of E containing the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer, the forms for administration of the *Sacraments and other public and private rites, the *Psalter and (since 1552) the *Ordinal. The book was compiled originally through the desire of T. *Cranmer and others to reform, simplify and condense the Latin services of the medieval Church and to produce in English a single, convenient, and comprehensive volume as an authoritative guide for priest and people.
Masculine descriptions of God
The Father and the Son
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
148x’s in 143 verses “his name” is recorded...
Then when Moses wanted to reveal God he asked...
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
3 The Lord is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Women talking to women even used “His” to describe God...
14 Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!
Tradition
Theology
What it means to be Welcoming
These three standards are used to make rebellious changes in every facet of Christendom...
Why should we be concerned?
Because it is from the world that people are converted...
The ideas and ways of thinking that are in the world are the very ideas that people bring into the church...
During the hours of debate over the weekend, delegates butted heads over tradition, theology and what it means to be welcoming.
One argued that children of all genders should hear language that allows them to feel made in God’s image.
Another speaker, a delegate from an urban parish that serves poor families, said the masculine nature of God is crucial for children growing up without a father.
“Both sides are worried about alienating the people we’ve got and not being welcoming to the people we don’t have,” said the Rev. Cathy Tyndall Boyd, rector of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Va.
Money is always an issue as well.
It sneaks in as a determining factor too often...
Some also had practical concerns:
Revision opponents suggest that the approximately $1.9 million it would cost to develop the language, with an expected $8 million to print and distribute the new books, could be better spent on evangelism, racial reconciliation efforts and training new church leaders.
The discussion has attracted attention outside of the Episcopal Church as well as within it:
Traditionalist Christians, including those whose own denominations are considering similar changes, worry that gender-neutral terms for God undermine the concept of the Trinity.
But the Rev. Ruth Meyers, a liturgy professor at Church Divinity School of the Pacic in Berkeley, Calif., said the proposal shouldn’t be seen as an attempt to neuter God.
“This is not about eliminating language about God the Father, about Jesus the Son,” she said. “This is about expanding the language of God so every person can see and understand they are made in the image of God.”
Indeed, many comments from the convention floor stemmed from concerns other than gender.
The book needs clearer language on salvation and atonement theology and the stewardship of creation, some argued.
This is an issue that men think they can say and do better than God already has in His Word which has been revealed to us...
A prayer currently said over the bread and wine during the sacrament of the Eucharist describes humanity as “rulers of creation,” which could be changed to “stewards of creation.”
Delegates also suggested broadening the cultural perspectives in the prayer book.
One priest lamented a prayer of thanksgiving that opens with “Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage,” a line she said could alienate Native Americans.
Men not understanding what alienating truly is...
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
God’s Word makes distinctions and man is trying to eliminate that so every man can do what is right in his own eyes...
The Episcopalians aren’t the most progressive denomination when it comes to language.
Twenty years ago, they issued a supplement to the prayer book that incorporated gender-neutral language, but by comparison, the Unitarian Universalist Association is expected to make all language in the church bylaws gender neutral at its General Assembly this summer.
Judaism’s Reform movement has used gender-neutral language in its prayer book since 2007.
But perhaps because Episcopalians represent such a wide range of political and theological beliefs, they consider the prayer book the “primary symbol of our unity.”
Nothing riles them more, they often joke, than tinkering with it.
The Bible should be man’s primary source of unity...
Originally published in 1549 after England broke from the Roman Catholic Church, the book is used in varying versions by the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church last updated the Book of Common Prayer in 1979, revising the 1928 version, with its “thees” and “thous,” by adding modern prayer language and new rites.
The changes inevitably drew outrage from traditionalists.
The Bible needs no update...
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
“There is the movement of the spirit even in parliamentary procedure and even in committees,” he said.
Sadly one can say that this is only the soirit of fooolshiness.
This so called spirit needs to be tested...
4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
The test can only be done against the inspired Word of God, The Bible...
There are many who practice the changing of God’s divine mandate.
The Rev. Mary Sulerud knows well the challenges of retooling divine language.
While attending Virginia Theological Seminary in the 1980s, she participated in trials for supplemental liturgies that used gender-neutral terms for God and highlighted the role of women in church history.
Some of those prayers were used in Enriching Our Worship, the liturgical resource developed in the 1990s as a companion to the Book of Common Prayer.
What men thinks enrich the worship of God, really only cheapens it and makes it reprobate...
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
Yet people will still follow a falsehood...
Now canon for discernment and congregational vitality in the Diocese of Maryland, Sulerud said the response then, as now, was mixed.
“Some people welcomed it.
Some people were barely hanging on.
It was complicated.”
God’s Plan of Salvation is not Complicated
Hear - Believe - Repent - Confess - Be Baptized - Remain Faithful
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.