CRANMER THEOLOGICAL HOUSE
UPDATE
A Reformed Episcopal
School of Ministry
www.cranmerhouse.org
May 2010
From the Dean’s Desk
CTH Status Report
May begins a new quarter,
and we have the Very Rev.
Frank Levi coming to
Houston to teach Apologetics, the defense of the
faith. He will cover such
things as arguments for the
existence of God as well as Buddhism, Hinduism,
and Islam. Moreover, the Venerable James Payne has
begun a class on Medieval Church History.
Prayer Requests
Please pray for:


A building in The Woodlands for the seminary
More full-time students (some applications are
coming in, but we need more)
 Donations to CTH
Donations are down with the economic downturn,
but we are making it. Several of you have sent generous gifts recently, and we greatly appreciate it.
We ask for all please to consider extra gifts at this
time in our history. Last year we had seven grads
who are serving in various ways. This year we shall
have four, Lord willing. Each person we send out
will affect the kingdom for years to come. Please be a
part of this ministry. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:17 regarding his ministry that those who
gave “had fruit that abounds to [their] account.” God
bless us all.
Donate by Shopping
Don’t forget that you can benefit CTH just by shopping at Amazon.com. To do so, start at the DMA
WOC website (www.dmawomen.org), and click on the
Amazon Associate link in the left navigation bar.
Anything you buy from the Amazon online store
during the 24-hour period after you click will return
a percentage of your purchase to CTH.
CTH Parish Visits
Please consider scheduling one of our professors to
visit your parish and present the needs and benefits
of Cranmer House. We have always found these visits profitable for your parish and fun for all!
Book Review:
Antony Flew
There Is a God
This book is soft cover and
only about 220 pages of
text. It is written by one
who was for 50 years the
foremost scholar for
atheism in the world. He
was a British philosopher who died about a month
ago (April 2010) at age 87, and was noted for the
many books he wrote on the philosophy of religion,
promoting atheism. Much to the chagrin of his
fellow atheists, in 2004 he changed his mind, and
then wrote this book in 2007. All the work done by
theistic scientists in intelligent design convinced him
there was a super-intelligence who created the
universe. This is the very readable, non-technical
story of the reasons for his change. Flew became
open to the Christian faith, and even had Christian
scholar N. T. Wright add an appendix on the
evidence for the bodily resurrection of Christ, which
he said was “very powerful”! Whether he became a
Christian will only be revealed at the Last Day, but
this is a very encouraging read. He takes atheists like
Dawkins (The God Delusion) to task, and the atheistic
world is in a tizzy about this book!
You may find the book on sale at Amazon.com.
Please purchase it by going through the Amazon Associate link at (www.dmawomen.org)
The Very Rev Dr Curtis I. Crenshaw, Th.D. 
CRANMER HOUSE UPDATE: May 2010  A Reformed Episcopal School of Ministry
The Holy Spirit and the Promised World
Rogation Sunday: Deuteronomy 34 & John 16:12-24
The Rev. Mr. Jonathan O. Trebilco, M.Div.
In the year AD 470, just six years before the sack
and fall of the mighty city of Rome by barbarian
hordes, a series of natural disasters devastated the
region of southeastern Gaul (in what is now the
nation of France). The crops and the livestock were
adversely affected, and for an agrarian society, this
of course was extremely serious. The highest
ranking ecclesiastical officer of the region,
Archbishop Mamertus, instituted a series of fast
days, the three days immediately prior to the great
feast day which commemorates the Ascension of
Christ into heaven. In these days, called rogation
days (the word “rogation” comes from the Latin
term rogere, which means “to ask,” or “to beseech
in prayer”) the faithful were exhorted to recognize
their dependence upon God our Maker, the Sovereign Lord of the universe Who made all things
and Who has appointed the whole cycle of seasons
and the agricultural order, to bless the land that it
might be fertile, the crops that they might grow,
and that the cattle that they might flourish. The
practice of observing a consecrated day, or series of
days in which the Church prays for God to bless
the animals and fruits of the earth, spread throughout Europe and into Britain, and became a part of
the English church’s tradition for many centuries,
preserved and continued after the time of the
Protestant Reformation. So today, this last Sunday
before the feast of the Ascension, is Rogation Sunday.
In England, through the centuries, the British
church elaborated upon the original ceremonies,
until it became one of the most celebrated times of
the year. The priest, acolytes, and people would
march around the entire parish, stopping by significant landmarks, whether natural or manmade,
to read Scripture and to speak a blessing upon the
parish. Sometimes the priest would affix a cross to
the entity in question, a significant tree in the village square or some other ancient landmark, beautifully depicting by this ritual, God’s blessing
through Christ upon the things of this earth, Christ’s
redemption of this world. On rogation days God
was invoked to bless the fruits of the earth, and the
livestock of the farms. Roads and pathways were
cleared and parish boundary markers restored. Spiritual renewal was also a goal as people sought to
minister to the poor and needy, and neighbors who
were estranged from one another were encouraged
to become reconciled. In other words, rogation was
a kind of springtime of the year, after rejoicing in
the mighty resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on the
cusp of celebrating His glorious ascension into
heaven. It’s a day to remember that God not only
created the world, but that He sustains His creation, and that we are absolutely dependent upon
Him for our daily bread. It’s a time when we pause
to ask God to bless the earth and all that sustains
and nourishes us.
And on Rogation Sunday, the day of the
blessing of the land, we have placed before us in
our first Scripture Lesson from the 34th chapter of
the book of Deuteronomy, a word concerning the
land, the Promised Land, the land of God’s blessing. Here in this text is the somber scene of Moses’
death on Mount Nebo. Moses had been born
among his people in slavery in Egypt. He was rescued from death in infancy by the hand of God,
raised in the Egyptian court, forced to flee from
Egypt and live as a shepherd in another land, and
was then commissioned by God to go back to
Egypt to be God’s vehicle to break the shackles of
His people’s slavery, and, eventually, plant them in
the land which He had promised to give them. And
what a deliverance it was! Moses led the people
through the Red Sea and into the wilderness. They
camped at Mt. Sinai where God fulfilled His
promises to Abraham and entered into a relationPage 2
CRANMER HOUSE UPDATE: May 2010  A Reformed Episcopal School of Ministry
ship with Abraham’s descendants. They made their
way through a whole host of problems and perils
in the wilderness, miraculously sustained by God.
And then came the day, after years of leading the
people of Israel, when Moses was at the end of his
life. We are told that because of an incident where
Moses had disobeyed God’s direct command in
front of the people, he was forbidden to enter the
land of Canaan. And there he stood, an old and august figure, on the brow of the mountain, surveying the Promised Land. God told Moses, “This is
the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have caused you to see it with your eyes,
but you shall not cross over there” (Deut. 34:4).
Moses could not complete the task; he could
not bring the people into the realm of blessing. This
job was left to his successor, Joshua. Our text informs us that Joshua was “full of the Spirit of wisdom” (Deut. 34:9), that is, the Holy Spirit. Joshua,
endowed with the Spirit, completed the task Moses
was unable to accomplish. Joshua, in the power of
the Spirit of God, led the children of Israel into the
Promised Land.
So what was this Promised Land? What did it
mean, what was the point? Why did God appear to
care so deeply for this plot of real estate in the
Middle East, promising to give it to His people, and
tending and nourishing it so carefully? Well, the
principle involved in the meaning of the Promised
Land is the principle of the consecration of the first
fruit. For instance, when the people of Israel
sacrificed to the Lord, when they tithed of their
increase, they offered Him the first fruits of the
harvest of their crops—they consecrated and
dedicated to the Lord the first fruit, the first part, to
express the fact that it all belonged to Him, that He
is Lord of all. God consecrated Abraham as the first
fruit of believers, but promised that through him
He would bring spiritual blessing to all the families
of the earth. The nation of Israel then, descended
from Abraham, was called God’s firstborn nation, a
kind of first fruit of humanity, so that through
Israel, God would bring blessing to all the nations
of the earth. Israel was a promise that one day, not
only this one nation, but people from all nations
would be incorporated into God’s covenant, be
made God’s children. So you can see that in
Scripture, the part is consecrated as a sign of the
whole. A small portion of produce or land or
people is set apart as a pledge and example of the
wider and fuller work God is planning to execute.
The Promised Land was the place where God’s
blessing was deposited. Upon this land stood His
benediction, upon this land He rained down His
goodness for its nourishment, and for the benefit of
the inhabitants, as though it were a second Eden. It
was also the place where God’s presence was manifested, the place where He dwelt with His people.
But the Promised Land was only a type and a
shadow of what will be. For this is what the Promised Land meant: it was a demonstration that the
whole earth belongs to God, and it was a promise that He
will restore the world and bring it to the state of maximum blessing and glory. And in the history of Israel,
this was proven to be so. The nation of Israel had
been warned that if they did not remain faithful to
God, the land would reject them, would literally
vomit them out. And that is exactly what happened. The Israelites defiled the Holy Land with
corruption, injustice, violence, idolatry, and perversion—just as human beings in general have defiled
the world with these sins. And Israel was sent into
exile. And even after they returned from exile, it
was to a land subjugated by foreign powers, and
infiltrated with many of the same corruptions as
before. The state of ancient or present Palestine is
not God’s final purpose, not His endgame. His
purpose in consecrating one land, one portion of
the planet, was to demonstrate that the whole earth is
His, and He is out to reclaim it. The prophets said repeatedly: “The whole earth is full of God’s glory
(Isaiah 6:3),” not just the Promised Land. They
proclaimed that God would not only be known in
Page 3
CRANMER HOUSE UPDATE: May 2010  A Reformed Episcopal School of Ministry
Palestine, but that “the knowledge of the Lord will
cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah
11:9).” And St. John the Evangelist, in the closing
chapters of the book of Revelation, writes of the
heavenly kingdom being reunited to earth, of God
coming down to dwell among His people permanently, His presence and glory flooding the world
which He made and came to redeem. The whole
cosmos as the place of God’s benediction and presence, the entire world transformed and made to be
the place in which righteousness dwells—that is the
true Promised Land, the eternal Land of Blessing.
All of this, the whole complex and glorious
purpose of God is wrapped up
here in the promise of this land
which Moses could only view from
a distance standing on the
mountain. Moses died, and this
man named Joshua, anointed by
the Holy Spirit, guided the people
on and led them into the land.
Many centuries passed, and our
Lord, bearing the same name as
Moses’ successor, Joshua (the
Greek version is “Jesus”), sat at
table in the Holy Land, in the royal
city, the Holy City Jerusalem with
His disciples, and it records, as we
read it in our Second Lesson this morning, that
Jesus spoke of His going away. He was referring to
His ascension into heaven: “A little while, and you
will not see Me; and again a little while, and you
will see Me, because I go to the Father (Jn. 16:16).”
Jesus’ disciples were, of course, stricken with
sadness and confusion by the threat of their Lord’s
departure. But then He told them that His
ascension to the highest place of honor, to take the
throne of glory having fulfilled His mission of
redemption and salvation, would unleash the Holy
Spirit upon them so that the good news about Him
could be dispersed everywhere:
When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He
will guide you into all truth . . . He will tell
you things to come. He will glorify Me, for
He will take of what is Mine and declare it to
you (John 16:13-14).
And that is exactly what happened. Jesus ascended into heaven and poured out His Spirit upon
His Church. While they were in Jerusalem, in the
city that was the heart of the Promised Land, God
sent His Spirit upon them, to do on a far greater
scale, and for a far higher purpose what the Spirit
had done through Joshua and through Israel so
long ago. The Spirit had come upon Joshua to lead
the Israelites into the place of God’s blessing. Now
the Spirit came upon the New Israel to guide the
Apostles into all truth, the truth about their mission, the truth about Jesus, Who He is and what He
had accomplished. And Jesus sent them out with
these words: “You shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).”
There it is. They were sent to take,
not just Jerusalem, not just Judea
and Samaria, different regions in
the Holy Land, but beyond that,
to conquer, not by the sword, but
by the power of the glad tidings
about Jesus the entire earth. And
today, there are believers in Jesus
Christ in every corner of the
globe, offering praise to God through His Son in
thousands of languages—the Church universal
perseveres and even thrives!
And so, on this day, between Eastertide and
Ascension, as we rejoice in God’s creation, as we
acknowledge our dependence upon Him to send
down the rain and cause the food to grow from the
rich soil of earth, we also rejoice in the “dew of
blessing” that He rains down upon us in the
coming of the Spirit. And God isn’t finished. We
look forward now to the consummation of the
Spirit’s mission in union with the ascended,
reigning Christ, to renew the whole world, to usher
in a new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness will dwell (2 Pet. 3:13), the true and
permanent Promised Land, a world, and a people,
basking in God’s presence in fulfillment of God’s
promise. Amen.
Page 4