[I am not sure Alcuin made it on any official calendar of saints but, unless I am mistaken, some Lutherans did remember him. In any case, his example is not without its application today.]
According to an account of the time, Alcuin, Deacon and Abbot of Tours, was "The most learned man anywhere to be found." Now that is something to be said. I figure that there is little chance for anyone to say that of me. But there are more people around and I have more competition, I guess.
Alcuin was born in Northumbria, presumably sometime in the 730s. The young Alcuin came to the cathedral church of York during the golden age of Archbishop Ecgbert and his brother, the Northumbrian King Eadberht. Ecgbert had been a disciple of the Venerable Bede. In 781, King Elfwald sent Alcuin to Rome to petition the pope for York's status as an archbishopric and to confirm the election of the new archbishop, Eanbald I. On his way home, he met Charlemagne. He joined Charlemagne’s court and began teaching in the palace school. At the time, Charlemagne had a policy of forcing baptism on the threat of death. Alcuin prevailed on him that faith could not be forced and the policy ended.
By 796 he was about my age and petitioned Charlemagne to allow him to retire as Abbot. He died in 804, about ten years before Charlemagne. He left behind a legacy of learning – including writings on the Trinity, exegesis of the Scriptures, and a host of other works. We remember him as one who shone the light of God in a dark time – “a scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
My friends, that is what happens here every Sunday and Thursday. From the treasure of God’s Word are brought out treasures at one and the same time new and old. They are old, as old as God who wrote those words and laid down the story of love betrayed, love that rescued and redeemed, and love that now keeps us bound to the heart of God. But these treasures are new as well. For wherever the Word of God is spoken, new life issues forth. The Spirit is in that Word. The Spirit brings the past into the present and bestows upon us a new future – a future that even death cannot overcome.
Today we give thanks for those voices who speak to us the old that makes new, the Gospel of the Cross. We add our alleluias to those who raise up hope from the ashes of despair and release us from the prison of sin and its death – all by speaking out the name of Christ. Today we remember that ours is also a dark age – a time in which lies pass for truth and perversion for virtue. We need those who will mine for us God’s Word bring out the old and new, the treasures of grace and the gift of mercy.
Our lives are lonely and our cause lost without hope. Without the cross planted into the soil of sin and death, we have no treasure and are left with only memory to face our end. But we are not alone. That is the powerful promise of Jesus and that is the legacy of those who in ages past delivered to us the pure and wondrous Gospel. We are not alone. Those made wise by the Spirit have called into the darkness with light. They have raised us up with more than sentiment and feeling, with trust sturdy enough on which to build the new life God has given. They have moved us to see beyond the captivity of self-interest with the love of God that shows itself in love for neighbor.
Alcuin was a great man but his God was and is greater. This God loves you not because you have done anything to earn that love but only because this God is love. He did not abandon sinners when they abandoned Him. He did not leave us to our own devices but rescued and redeemed us at the cost of His own blood. This God still meets us sinners and forgives us, splashes us with the living water that bestows everlasting life, and feeds us with the eternal food of Christ’s flesh and blood. And that is why we are here.
Old treasures for a new day, the cross once planted and still giving life, the ancient story that speaks of the new and everlasting tomorrow all appointed for you and for me by the God whose Word is life and whose Spirit works in that Word to build faith in our hearts.
The times have not gotten better. Ours is a rude and barbarous age. We have squandered the gift of technology on foolish ends and have used education to teach us evil. We have proven our character by hoarding things that should be shared and by living captive to our fears. We need Alcuins in pulpits and pews to help us rekindle the light of true learning that delights in Scripture. We need those whose voices and examples will answer the uncertainties of our age with the eternal truths of God’s Word. We need those whose minds and hearts will answer the confusions of our time with the clarity of the cross and empty tomb.
Today we pray not simply for those people who will lead us but for us to become such leaders. We pray that by drawing from the old Word the new life of God the Church will rekindle her fire for this time and for this age. We ask the Lord not simply for others to rise up but for us to be raised with courage and confidence that because Christ lives we live and nothing can separate us from His love and no one can thwart God’s saving purpose – not the devil in his death throes or the world and its darkness.
For God has destined us not for evil but for good, not for the prison of sin but for the liberty of forgiveness, not for the fear of death but for the hope of the resurrection. This is the once for all truth that saves. And today, giving thanks for those like Alcuin who tended to the light of God’s Word in his time, we pray the Lord to make us faithful and tend the light of God’s Word in our time. That in every age and in every time, God’s people may shine with the brightness of the one, true light that is Christ, not simply for their own salvation but for the redemption of the whole world.
The Church will not die. God has promised us that. You will not die. God has promised you that. So if we shall not die but live, let us live to proclaim Jesus Christ in words that echo the Scriptures and in deeds that mirror God’s love for us. This is the great company of the saints in whose train we follow. Alcuin is there. You are there. I am there. Thanks be to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment