What to do when God’s family meets

One of the greatest legacies of Thomas Cranmer, burnt at the stake 450 years ago, was a clear concept of what Christians should do when they meet together under God’s word.

We have special cause to remember Thomas Cranmer this year because it is 450 years since he was burnt at the stake.  One of his greatest legacies was a clear concept of what Christians should do when they meet, and I want to take this opportunity to remind us of some of the principles which he enunciated so clearly. 

The first is the reading of scripture.  Cranmer understood that our faith rests upon God’s revelation of himself.  This vital point means that God’s approach to us is the basis for our approach to him.  Christian worship is not, therefore, a matter of human religiosity.  It is necessarily shaped and guided by what God tells us about himself and particularly what pleases him.

Cranmer, therefore, provided for us in his great liturgies not only ample opportunity to hear the word of the Lord, but also scriptural language by which we are able to respond authentically.

At the same time, he was compellingly aware of the significance of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  It is all too easy for religious people to make our approach to God on the basis of our own merit or good works.  Cranmer never put a foot wrong in this respect.  As we use his prayers we are reminded again and again that our approach to God is based only on God’s grace and mercy founded upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.  The services that Cranmer has left us are shaped by the gospel itself.  This is clear when we consider what prominence he gave to the confession of sins and the declaration of absolution. At the very front door of our approach to God we are called upon to consider our sinful state, and to do so at depth. 

At the same time the minister is called upon, as a minister of the gospel, to declare the forgiveness of sins.  This is a strong gospel moment not to be weakened by the contemporary habit of the minister modestly (but wrongly) changing the words from “you” to “we”.

One of the key effects of Cranmer’s liturgical provisions was that the congregation is constantly edified in line with 1 Corinthians 14.  There is no place for a foreign language here, nor is there recourse to a sort of chatty informality which is so often mistaken for spiritual maturity.  The people of God are called to be serious in their encounter with God, and are built up in him.  That is why Cranmer makes provision for continuous reading of scripture, and is especially keen to see the Old Testament given its proper place.  Generations of Anglican Christians have been nurtured on the psalms of David in a way that has not been true of other denominations.

For many of us now, Cranmer’s great Book of Common Prayer almost constitutes a foreign language.  Although I would be happy to use it frequently myself, I recognise that it is neither the present nor the future of Anglican church life.  Nonetheless, it rightly remains our standard, and the principles which undergird this great work (only some of which I have referred to) are enduring. 

It will be good to see during this year in our churches a careful study of the Book of Common Prayer, so that we may refresh and renew our weekly gatherings with a stronger sense of God’s revelation of himself and the gospel of the grace of God which should activate and dominate all the meetings of God’s people.

Moore College and the Prayer Book Society celebrate Cranmer’s life: 9.30am, April 1, St Andrew’s Cathedral. Speaker: Dr Ashley Null. A 1552 Prayer Book Service will be held at 2pm. Lecture and lunch: $25 (students $12.50). Bookings: 9577 9798. Missed the day? Visit http://www.sydneyanglicans.net.

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