Relations Within
God and Man
There is a real and vital relation between the Lord God who is adored and praised in authentic Christian worship and the way in which:
The high privilege of the assembled Body of Christ on the Lord’s Day is to bow before and to address the LORD God, that is, to worship the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the beauty of holiness and in spirit and truth. It is to know, in the communion of charity, the Father as his adopted children and fellow heirs with Christ Jesus, his Son, and to be known by him in spiritual union unto salvation. Further, it is to experience the love of God the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Then, also, it is to join in the Holy Spirit with the hierarchies of “angels and archangels” and “all the company of heaven” as they laud and magnify the Triune Lord.
The creation of the whole physical cosmos and of the invisible world of heaven; the self-revelation by God through space and time; and the saving work of God in space and time, are executed from the Father through the Son (who becomes Incarnate) and by the Holy Spirit. In turn, the response of the created order, of man as male and female and of the Body of Christ, is to the Father, through the Incarnate Son, and with the Holy Spirit in sacrificial consecration, service, prayer and worship.
The Orthodox liturgy contains, “Blessed be the kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, even unto ages of ages.” Our liturgy contains, “The Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be amongst you and remain with you always.” There is holy, divine order in the Holy Trinity. The Father is the Father of the only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son.
In order, the Father is first, the Son is second and the Holy Spirit third; but in essence, being and substance, the Three are wholly equal for each One possesses in entirety the whole divine essence, being and substance.
While it would be inappropriate to change the order of reference to the Holy Trinity, we occasionally, address the Lord Jesus Christ directly and likewise, we sometimes address the Holy Spirit directly for they are both divine persons and we ask their help on behalf of God.
Reflection upon the received dogma of the Trinity may help us not to confuse monarchy with democracy, patriarchy with autocracy and hierarchy with bureaucracy as our concern is with relations of order, not relations of power. Note that “- archy” indicates a principle and “- cracy” a power.
We need to understand that “order” is not about obeying the “orders” of a dictator, boss or military commander. Neither does it refer to the bureaucratic notion that there should be a place for everything and everything in its place. Nor is it an ideology. Rather it points to the fact that God has so made his world that there is a first, middle and last; there is a beginning, a means and an end. One thing is first, another second and yet another last and all things and persons are related according to God’s design.
The sexual difference between man and woman is a sign of an ordered relation, not a sign that they are different species within the same genus or complementary opposites participating in the same dialectically developing whole. Their difference is not to separate them into two kinds of being, nor are they oppositions such as to make one or the other only partially human. Both the man and the woman are whole and entire and their differences show that they are related one to the other. In this relation of order all that belongs to the man, also belongs to the woman, and will also belong to the children.
Matthew Hendy, known for his Commentary on the whole Bible, made this delightful comment on the second chapter of Genesis. “Not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.” The removal of a piece of the man in order to create the woman implies that neither is complete without the other. There is complementarity and equality of the sexes. However, there is also an ordered relation between them where the male is first and the woman second: “In the image of God, created he [God] man; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). Remember Jesus’ own teaching in Mark 10:7 on Holy Matrimony, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.”
First Corinthians says, Christ Jesus, as the Incarnate Son, is head of both the human race and the Church of God, but his headship does not remove the relation of order between man and woman and, further, it does not deny that he, himself, is subject to the Father in the order and historical accomplishment of redemption.
Even as we humbly accept, respect, reverence and adore the Order that is within God as the Triune LORD, so we are also to accept the Order that he has placed within the angelic host of heaven, within the cosmos and within the Church, his new creation of grace. Importantly, this order is also respect for, and submission to, the ordered relation between man and woman as persons of dignity made in God’s image to reflect his glory, as well as the ordered relation of members of the new creation, the Body of Christ, to Christ, his Ministers and to each other as members of the Body.
Practically speaking, the
Episcopal Church has rejected
By rejecting God’s Order the Episcopal Church has embraced the secular order with its use of inclusive language, relativism in doctrine and morals, parts of the human rights program, psychological and therapeutic descriptions of humankind, and secularized notions of freedom, peace and justice. In embracing insights and principles from the secular order it has given them “God-names” and thus given the impression that they are from divine revelation. Instead of receiving the basic doctrines of Scripture, through the light of sacred Tradition from the early Fathers and via the standard Anglican divines, the Episcopal Church has chosen to modify and change them by the supposed “light” shed by contemporary “Experience”.
For more details, read “Episcopal Innovations 1960 – 2004” by The Rev. Dr. Peter Toon, M.A., D.Phil.
(Preservation Press of the Prayer Book Society of the USA 2006