Friday, March 21, 2014
Jeremiah 5:1-9; Psalm 143
Have you ever felt that you were facing a major situation , and hoped or prayed that you could clearly make the best decision for yourself and everyone concerned, even if it meant personal sacrifice? Psalm 143 was offered by David in such a situation: Surrounded by enemies, he felt powerless to respond, but then in prayer he turned to God and asked for strength to persist : "Teach me the way to go, for to you I lift up my soul." He sensed that even if what laid ahead for him was death, God would not desert him.
In the Anglican Calendar today we commemorate Thomas Cranmer who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1533 and guided the English Church through its first two decades of reform and independence from the Papacy. During that period a major contribution to Anglican liturgy was his compilation of The Book of Common Prayer, which was revised in such a way as to make its protestant doctrine unmistakable. However, the politics and fortunes of Church and State of that period were interwined such that when the throne passed to Queen Mary 1, (she restored England back to communion with the Pope), Cranmer was imprisioned for heresy. At the end of his trial, he recanted his protestant views in hopes for clemency, but the Queen refused and he was burned at the stake on this day in 1556. It is recorded that as the flames licked around him, he thrusted out his right hand , (the hand that had signed his earlier recantation), so that it might be the first to be burned. In his time of dying he turned to God again, revealing his true self and what was close to his heart.
It seems to me that this is what really is called for whenever we find ourselves in dire straits: be open with our true selves to God's Presence, to God's strength and, to commend ourselves to God's enduring Love & Care.
-The Ven. Ken Cardwell
No comments:
Post a Comment