Rev. Jeffrey T.
Howard
First Presbyterian
Church of Ocean City
Sermon John Knox
October 23, 2016
Today is
Reformation Sunday, the day we remember the 16th Century reformers
who tried to pull the medieval church back to biblical practices and
doctrines. We will be looking at the protestant reformation in
Scotland and the founder of the Presbyterian church, John Knox. Let's
begin with prayer.
"O
Lord, infinite in mercy, if thou shalt punish, make not consummation,
but cut away the proud and luxuriant branches which bear no fruit:
and preserve the commonwealth of such as give succour and harbour to
thy contemned messengers, which long have suffered exile in deserts.
And let thy kingdom shortly come, that sin may be ended, death
devoured, thy enemies confounded; that we thy people, by thy majesty
delivered, may obtain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus
Christ our Saviour, to whom be all honour and praise, for ever.
Amen.”1
On
December 8, 1542 James V of Scotland had a daughter and named her
Mary. Six days later James died and the baby girl became Mary, Queen
of Scots. Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, became the ruler of
Scotland. And Scotland effectively became a colony of France.
During
the reign of Mary of Guise, the protestant reformation came to
Scotland through a fiery preacher name George Wishart. Wishart
preached throughout the county that the church should change. It had
fallen into error and must repent. But Cardinal Beaton, leader of
the Catholic church in Scotland, was angry at what Wishart was
preaching. He ordered Wishart to come to St. Andrews Castle where
Wishart was burned to death, martyred for his faith. This angered
many of the Scottish noblemen. They stormed St. Andrews Castle and
assassinated the cardinal.
Wishart
had been accompanied on his missionary journeys by an assistant, a
young man, a theology graduate from St. Andrews, and a tutor for
young children. This assistant's name was John Knox. The noblemen in
St. Andrews castle selected John Knox to lead the reformation in
Scotland after the death of Wishart. But Knox's ministry at St.
Andrews did not last very long. The French fleet soon arrived in the
harbor and laid siege on the castle. Knox was captured and became a
galley slave in one of the King's ships.
Knox
was not a slave for very long. The protestant king of England,
Edward VI, negotiated Knox's release and installed him as the pastor
of a church in the northern part of England and named Knox as his
personal chaplain. It was there that Knox battled the Church of
England. He was concerned that the Church of England had left the
altars in their churches and continued the practice of kneeling
during communion. The medieval church had taught that Jesus was
sacrificed every time a priest broke the bread. The bread and wine
on the altar were the sacrificed body and blood of Christ they said.
People were told to kneel and worship Christ's body broken they
placed on the altar. But the protestant reformers said that this was
nonsense. Christ's sacrifice happened only once, on the cross. The
bread and wine were symbols of his sacrifice, not Christ's actual
body and blood. If there was no sacrifice then there was no need for
an altar and kneeling. So Knox argued that the altars should be
removed and replaced by ordinary tables, supper tables for the Lord's
Supper. And he said, we should not kneel for communion, but gather
around the table the way the disciples did for Jesus' last supper.
So Knox argued that the Church of England should replace altars with
tables and stop the practice of kneeling during communion.
Knox's
conflict with the Church of England did not last very long. Edward
VI died and was replaced by his Catholic half sister, Mary, who
became Queen Mary I of England. Mary wanted to purge protestant
influence from the Church of England. The protestants fled for their
lives calling her Bloody Mary.
A
group of protestant pilgrims arrived in Geneva where John Calvin was
teaching. Knox arrived and established an English language church.
Worship in this church was very simple. It would start with a prayer
of confession. Then scripture would be read, both the Old and New
Testaments. Then the pastor would explain the meaning of the
scripture passages and how it could be applied in their lives. The
congregation would then respond with a confession of faith, prayers
and tithes. They would sing Psalms together. The worship service
would end with the pastor giving a benediction. With minor changes
this is how we worship today in Presbyterian churches. Today's
worship service is drawn from the Directory of Worship Knox developed
for the Geneva church.
While in Geneva, Knox wrote a book highly
critical of Mary of Guise in Scotland and Mary I of England. It
was called The
first blast of the trumpet against the monstruous regiment of women.
Unfortunately
for Knox, Mary I of England died as the book was being published.
Her half sister, the protestant Elizabeth I, was very angry with him
about the book.
In
1559 John Knox return to Edinburgh, Scotland. He was declared an
outlaw by Mary of Guise and ordered to appear in Stirling Castle.
The protestants gathered in the walled city of Perth with Knox as
their leader. Reinforcements came from neighboring countries. Mary
of Guise was removed from power in October 1559. She died in July
1560 paving the way for a treaty between England and France that
removed all French influence over Scotland. Scotland had won it's
independence and was free to become a protestant nation.
In
August of 1560 the Scottish Parliament met to design a new nation.
John Knox wanted them to adopt a reformed statement of faith that
would unify the nation and it's church. Knox and five other
protestants began work on a Confession of Faith for their approval.
They finished their work in just four days and Knox presented it to
the assembly. The Scots Confession became the founding document for
the new Church of Scotland.
In the
Scots Confession they affirmed their beliefs. They believed in our
triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They believed that men and
women are stained by original sin and thus in need of a mediator.
They believed that Jesus is that mediator for all who were chosen by
God before he laid the foundations of the world. They believed that
the church has existed since Adam and is characterized by the
preaching of the Word of God, the proper administration of the
sacraments of Baptism and The Lord's Supper, and the enforcement of
ecclesiastical discipline. And they believed that men and women
should respond to the blessings they receive from God with good works
of their own.
With
the adoption of The Scots Confession, the Church of Scotland was
formed with a Presbyterian form of government. The church would be
governed not by a Pope or King. Rather it would be governed by
elders or presbyters meeting in councils. To prevent error inherent
in all human councils, the councils of the church would be led by
Jesus Christ, governed by the Word of God and disciplined by higher
councils.
This
is the structure of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. We have no
bishops or Pope or king. Rather we are governed by councils. At
this church we are governed by a council called the Session, which
consists of elders elected by God and the congregation. Our session
elects elders as commissioners to a higher council, the presbytery.
Above the presbytery is the synod. And above the synod is the
General Assembly. At each level the councils are governed by the
Word of God, and they discipline the councils beneath.
In
1561 Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to Scotland from France. She
declared that nothing would change. Even though she still practiced
her Roman Catholicism the Presbyterians could continue to worship as
they chose. Many Scottish nobles accepted her offer. But John Knox
was not convinced. He continued to preach against the monarchy.
So
Queen Mary invited Knox to several meetings. They discussed whether
Christians could live under a queen or not. They decided that
Christians could live under a monarch, like Paul lived under Nero,
provided that the monarch not exceed the law of God. They agreed
that if Knox and the Queen had a disagreement that would discuss it
privately not in public. And Mary agreed with Knox that catholic
priests should be prosecuted when they violated the law. Their most
dramatic meeting came after Knox had preached against the Queen's
upcoming marriage. Not even her tears could convince Knox that this
marriage was good for Scotland. The Queen was reported to have said,
“I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies
of Europe.” 2
By
the middle of the 1560s Scotland had descended into civil war. Knox
fled and completed a book called “The
History of the Reformation in Scotland”. Knox
returned to Edinburgh in 1572. He continued to preach but had become
quite feeble. On November 24, 1572 Knox asked his wife to read the
Bible out loud for him. She was reading from First Corinthians as
John Knox went to be with his Lord.
And so we celebrate the life of John Knox, a Protestant reformer and
founder of the Presbyterian church. Let us pray.
“O
LORD, strengthen our faith; kindle it more in ferventness and love
towards thee, and our neighbours, for thy sake. Suffer us not, most
dear Father, to receive thy word any more in vain; but grant us
always the assistance of thy grace and Holy Spirit, that in heart,
word, and deed, we may sanctify and do worship to thy name. Amen.”
3
1http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/prayertr.htm
3http://creedorchaos.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/a-godly-prayer-to-be-said-at-all-times-from-john-knox-1556/
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