Father Peter F. Hansen
Sermon for the 4 th Sunday in Lent
“ Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. ”
If you have ever sewed your own clothes, and lacked money for finer fabrics, you've spent time looking at the remnant table, picking over bits and pieces, bolt ends and discontinued prints that might work for your project and save some money. The remnants are always on sale because the store only has a yard or so of each. The remnants may never sell unless they mark them down.
Similarly at the end of every fashion season, there are clothes still on store racks marked down drastically to sell fast, because the spring fashions are in and these must go. Your choice may not be in your size, but look some more and see if you can find something that works. Remnants of last years' cars, of food that's about to go out of date, and other things can be found by frugal shoppers and bought for a song. But there is something sad about remnants: they weren't wanted when every other piece was purchased for full price. They only sell if a lesser value is asked for them.
There is also something sad about remnant people, the leftover small portion of any group that remains after the greater people have gone. The Armenians are a proud people, though they bear a great sadness that for so long they were a people without a nation—herded, killed, driven out of their homeland, the Armenians were scattered across the globe: although they were the first ever Christian country. Their nation emerged at last from the Soviet bloc in the 1990s, again a nation.
Likewise the Jews: once a great people descended from Abraham, twelve tribes of the sons of Jacob, who departed from Egypt several million in number, to grow and flourish in the Promised Land. But falling repeatedly into idolatry, the Jews were reduced again and again by marauding foreign powers until the northern ten tribes were captured and scattered by the Assyrians, and lost forever. Judah remained, with some Benjamites and Levites, but 150 years later they too were killed, some of them captured and relocated in Babylon. When the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon, he released the remnant of Israel to return and rebuild their homeland. But they never recovered their former independence and strength. Until the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and drove the Jews from Palestine in 70 AD, they were under some foreign empire or another. Then, for 2,000 years they wandered and were scattered, a remnant people residing in every land on earth. Until the partition of Palestine in 1948, they had no land of their own. Today, Israel is the most controversial country on earth and a focal point for antagonism in the Middle East. This remnant people, though persecuted and driven from their homes countless times, have survived and succeeded. The prophets of old spoke of this: Isaiah wrote, “ Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:9 And Jeremiah prophesied: “I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” Jeremiah 23:3
The Christian faith was once only one church, the Catholic church, from the time of the Apostles. There was one creed, one baptism, one communion, one Bible, one Lord, one theology. Though tensions existed, this union lasted 1,000 years. When East and West broke relations, a Western Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church became the two halves of Christianity. Another 500 years passed, then the West began to fracture. Luther took parts of Germany out of the Church of Rome, the Huguenots of France departed, Jean Calvin claimed Geneva, and Henry VIII claimed England as a separate political and religious body (for his own reasons) thus creating a Church of England apart from Rome. The remnants of Christianity began to get smaller and smaller.
But not of less value . Unlike remnants of fabric or car models, the remnant of people groups, especially of the faith, keep a high value. It is with the remnant of God's people that He works His will in succeeding generations. God knows that every large and successful group will, in time, fail its promise and be compromised by the world. So, He judges it and breaks it up and finds a faithful remnant. He shuttles that remnant to a new safe location, like the Pilgrims to America or St. Patrick to Ireland, to keep the faith alive until He can blow on its embers and rekindle the flame for another age. The remnant is precious to God's purpose and He has always kept a remnant of His own faithful people for passing the truth to others so that it may grow again.
The worldwide Anglican Communion, descended from that Church of England into 44 provinces in 160 countries. The first fracture in that Communion happened when the American colonies succeeded in breaking from England in the 1770s, thus creating the first independent Anglican Church, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA. It is ironic that this same body again threatens the unity of the Anglican Communion with its decisions regarding human sexuality. It has been asked to leave the Anglican Consultative Council, one of four instruments of unity for the worldwide church. Again, a large successful group has failed its promise and must be broken. But it is broken in order to save what God has in it. The remnant principle is again at work.
The Anglican Province of Christ the King began in the throws of PECUSA's first real breaks with Catholic orthodoxy in 1976. We existed officially with the consecration of our first bishop in January 1978. We are a remnant of the first faithful Episcopalians on this continent and are in exile for a time from the worldwide Anglican Communion. Whether that body ever recognizes us isn't the real issue. We are God's remnant in faith, and pleasing Him is far more important than pleasing Archbishop Rowan Williams.
Our own church, St. Augustine of Canterbury of Chico, was founded 25 years ago. But in truth, it was founded 2,000 years ago when Christ blew on His apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Ghost.” Our remnant church is young, but its roots are very old. We are not the newest thing in Christianity. We are a faithful part of the oldest thing, and that is our value.
Jesus fed 5000 with a remnant of bread and fish, and then ordered the fragments be collected and saved. There is nothing lost in the Kingdom of Heaven. He did this for several reasons. Let there be no mistake: it was a miracle, not a mirage. He later questioned His apostles: “ When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.” Mark 8:19-20 The numbers don't matter, rather the fact that more was there after the feeding of two multitudes than when He began. He was teaching a principle. Don't despise small beginnings. Don't discount the power of the remnant. Five loaves, 5,000 fed, 12 baskets of remnants taken up.
Christ is bread for the world. He is only one man, but He gives us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, and every Sunday billions of Christians eat and drink and He is not depleted. His Church shall never end, until His Kingdom come and Heaven is all peopled with the faithful. When we see the destruction and degradation of things once high and pure, we need not despair. It is sin, to be sure, and a shame. But God's purposes are always sure. St. Paul wrote of the Jews who mostly rejected Christ: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Romans 11:1-5
We are a remnant. That may cause us sadness for the former glory that was lost from the Episcopal Church, but it does not devalue us. In God's sight we are precious, and we have a future. It is with the embers of a remnant Church that God always rebuilds the faith for another generation. It has already begun.
PFH+