On recovering the Anglican Way
Today in the worship of most evangelical & charismatic congregations (as well as in liberal and latitudinarian ones) the readings from the Bible are usually short, taking only a minute or two, while the sermon/homily/address is much longer, taking usually five or even ten times as much time. Yet it is believed that the Bible is the written Word of God (or the written witness to the Word of God [Jesus the Christ]) while the sermon/homily/address is [at least sociologically] the word of a man or woman speaking of God in relation to humankind.
But is the sermon merely a human word? Many preachers have claimed and do claim that what they say is nothing less than the declared or preached or explained Word of God, and that it is designed to be God's special (if not unique) means of saving and edifying God's assembled people. It possesses greater efficacy than the public reading of the written Word of God.
Certainly the Puritans of Elizabethan England [who wished to model the Church of England after the church in the Canton of Geneva] were totally committed to the act of preaching as central not only to the act of Christian worship but also to the receiving of the Word of God by the congregation. The reading of the Bible was seen as preparatory to and as included within the act of preaching, which was ex tempore, even though notes were usually used. Psalms were sung before and after the sermon and prayer was offered, but the Sermon was central and supreme. The public reading of Scripture did not exist in and of itself as a separate entity but only in service of the sermon.
In contrast, Christian worship for the regular Churchmen of the Church of England consisted of four services on the Lord's Day and a sermon or homily was only included in one of them. Public reading of the Bible was absolutely central. Morning Prayer contained a long OT and a long NT reading and the praying of biblical canticles and several biblical psalms. The Litany was wholly an act of prayer but filled with biblical phraseology. The Order for Holy Communion contained an Epistle and a Gospel, together with a required homily, which could be read or preached ex tempore. Then Evening Prayer had a long OT and a long NT reading and the praying of biblical canticles and several psalms. So the sermon at H C was the only one required for the Lord' s Day.
The Anglican position (as so well stated by Richard Hooker in his LAWS, book V) was that the public reading of the Word of God is proclamation and preaching and is a definite means of grace in the congregation of the faithful. Likewise the meditatory use of the Psalter in worship is a means of grace. Thus there was no need for a sermon in or at the end of Morning or Evening Prayer since the Word of God was clearly proclaimed therein by the clear and effectual and careful reading of the Word of God unto the people. A sermon or homily was delivered after the Creed in the Order for Holy Communion and Catechising was appointed to be done publicly in the congregation regularly on the Lord's Day after services.
Thus while the Anglican highly valued the sermon (and thus the C of E provided official written ones to be read by those who could not compose good ones themselves) he also highly valued the public reading of the Scripture, in and of itself, in and by itself, as a direct means of grace. In contrast the Puritan only valued the public reading of the Bible if, and only if, it was closely connected with an exposition or sermon by the pastor.
In 2002, we find that the Scripture Lessons for MP & EP in the new lectionaries are much shorter than they were a century and more ago. Further, a sermon is added to MP & EP if these stand alone.
What seems to have been lost within the Anglican ethos is that strong sense that the public reading of a [long] portion of Scripture is proclamation and preaching - the unedited, undiluted word of God to man - and that the meditatory praying of the psalter is the most apostolic form of prayer and praise. There is a tendency today to allow any volunteer to read the Bible even though the person is not a good reader and has little sense of the meaning of the sacred text.
Apparently we hear less Scripture today in public worship then in 1902, 1802, 1702, 1601 and in its place we sing more choruses & hear more talks/notices/sermons, which rarely rise to being genuine expositions of the sacred Scripture.
Do we need to recover the sense that the public reading of whole chapters of the Bible is a definite means of grace and a public form of proclamation of the Word of God?
Please note that there are two new Homilettes on the Web site of my little parish. One is on the two Collects for Peace in MP & EP and the other is on Advent. If you have speakers please make a visit... WWW.christchurch-biddulph.fsnet.co.uk
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
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