“A God without wrath who brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment
through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
Richard Niebuhr
(Bonaventure Cemetary / Savannah, GA / Julie Cook / 2016)
Hoopla versus stable
Facade versus reality.
Fanfare versus forthright
Worldly versus Godly…
The window is narrowing as two views are set on collision course of utter devastation…
and I am on the side of the narrowing window.
I caught a portion of the rousing speech, aka sermon, offered by the American cleric,
Bishop Michael Curry, during the ‘Royal Wedding’ extravaganza.
I was saddened as well as disheartened by the fact that a wedding ceremony,
which is an outward symbol of a Sacred Union—a reflection
of the marriage between Christ the Bridegroom with his bride The Church,
was joyously transformed into a puppet show of a cultural shift of thought.
Not that any such public spectacle would or could dare retain the level
of reverence that should be afforded to such a ceremony…
as many of you would berate me over what would I have expected…
and no, I did not expect anything more, but one can only hope…
Gone from the Anglican Chruch is the reverent full bow to the Sacred as all
has been long replaced by the cultural genuflect toward the embrace of all things secular.
Rather than holding a young couple accountable for the seriousness of their union set before
the eyes of God, as they each snickered at the citing of their vows,
this wedding was a mere media spectacle conducted by a long since lost crown and
an equally lost church.
Yet our good friend and former Chaplin to the Queen, Bishop Gavin Ashenden, has offered us his
keen reflection on what was once a sacred ceremony of a Christian religious observance
which has now sunk into the abysmal decay of cultural hedonism.
May we, the faithful be mindful that we have been instructed not to conform to
the world but that we must be set apart…
Michael Curry & the Royal Wedding. A star-turn offers the world ‘Christianity-lite’.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good,
pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
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