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  SACRAMENTS
  by Steve Macias
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of Minor Sacraments in
contrast to Dominical Sacraments, focusing on sacraments like marriage,
confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction. It
explores the historical and biblical basis for these sacraments,
emphasizing the importance of visible outward signs and inward spiritual
graces. The sermon also discusses the roles and responsibilities of
bishops in the church, highlighting the process of ordination and the
significance of apostolic succession.

Topics: "Minor Sacraments", "Apostolic Succession"
Scripture References: James 5:14, Ephesians 4:11, Acts 14:23, 1 Timothy 3:1, Titus 1:5

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of Minor Sacraments in contrast to
Dominical Sacraments, focusing on sacraments like marriage,
confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction. It
explores the historical and biblical basis for these sacraments,
emphasizing the importance of visible outward signs and inward spiritual
graces. The sermon also discusses the roles and responsibilities of
bishops in the church, highlighting the process of ordination and the
significance of apostolic succession.

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CONTENT
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Anyway, so this chapter is actually pretty easy to understand. So we'll
start here, switching from Thai food into what this book titles the
Minor Sacraments, as opposed to the Major or Dominical Sacraments. So
remember last week, we talked about two sacraments being the Lord's
Supper, which is also called Holy Communion, which is also called the
Holy Eucharist, which in historical medieval Christianity was referred
to as the Mass, from the last words in the service for dismissal.

But the second sacrament we talked about was Holy Baptism, the
initiation rite where we're made in union with Christ. So we talked
about those two dominical sacraments and how they were established by
Christ and generally necessary for salvation. So the difference between
what we studied last week and this week is, inside the Minor Sacraments,
one, they are not necessarily ordained in their ritual or ceremony or
ordinance according to Christ's interaction.

So you'll see that today, though Christ is the origin of the family, the
idea of humankind, of family, the actual marriage sacrament was
practiced by Christ with his disciples, as we received today. So these
are Minor Sacraments. I mentioned last time that the Articles of
Religion describe these as commonly called sacraments, much like our
Book of Common Prayer is Common Prayer.

But we should acknowledge, at least, that in the history of the Church,
this distinction has been debated. So what we call Minor Sacraments in
some parts of Christendom are called not sacraments at all. So sometimes
in very Anabaptist or Baptist or Presbyterian or other Protestant
denominations, the idea of marriage being a sacrament is kind of
heterodox or anathema to them.

They don't like that idea. So we'll go over what makes these a sacrament
in the historical view. And I also want to reiterate what we said last
time, that the number seven is a historical number, not a biblical
number.

So when we say, these are the Minor Sacraments, we're saying, as the
Church throughout history has received them, we have recognized these as
the Minor Sacraments, but the numbering is a historical number. So as I
believe I mentioned last week, the Orthodox Church doesn't put a number,
the Eastern Orthodox Church, on the same. Lots of things in the Minor
Sacrament.

But it's helpful to us because since the Council of Trent, which is in
the Roman Catholic Church, has made it a matter of dogma, meaning it
can't change it or challenge it in the Roman system, there are seven
sacraments. So it's important for us to respond to, as inheritors also
of the Western Church, what they say. And so this distinction is very
important, to say that there is a difference between the Dominical
Sacraments and the Minor Sacraments.

And so our Articles of Religion, in the back of your prayer book,
actually talk about those sacraments and uses that phrase commonly
described. And again, we mentioned last week that the Articles are
largely responses to our Biblical faith, not necessarily a confession in
the same sense. So page 607 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1928, so if
you have your prayer book, it's on the very back of it, and it has those
Articles there.

It says, There are two sacraments ordained of Christ, our Lord, in the
Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. This week,
those five commonly called sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation,
Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted
for sacraments of the Gospel, but being such, have had grown partly of
the corruption following the Apostles, partly our states of life allowed
in the Scriptures, but yet not having like nature of the sacraments with
Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible or
sign or ceremony ordained of God. So, in our chapter today, he goes
through those type of things, but that sets the Anglican picture,
saying, we recognize seven-ish sacraments, but these later sacraments
are a different distinction, kind of similar to how we understand our
Bible, right? We recognize 66 canonical books of the Bible, but then we
read the words of Jesus, and we get these huge quotes from this
apocryphal.

Yet, we recognize the apocryphal are not of the same type of Scripture
as the Gospels or the Old Testament. Now, in our book, it talks about
the basis of the minor sacraments, and it would be helpful for us to be
reminded of the distinction between the sacraments. We're on page number
39.

The distinction between the sacraments is having visible, visible or
outward signs, and invisible or inward graces. So, as he goes through
each sacrament, he's going to use that kind of sacramental principle to
show that for something to be considered a sacrament, it has to have
grace both in an outward sign and inwardly spiritual sense. So, I can't
invent, say, for example, the baptism of dogs, right? Because we could
invent a ritual.

Say, I really love my dog, or I want my dog to be with me in heaven. But
if I invented a ritual, outward sign, there is no promise in the Gospel.
There's no grace mentioned.

There's no standard. There's nothing in the propitiation of Christ
offered to the dog as an inward spiritual grace. So, while we might come
up with an outward ceremony, it does not have that inward grace that
makes it a part of a sacrament.

But as we go through each part here, we'll see that in the life of a
Christian, there are things outside of the Church, specifically outside
of the Lord's Supper and outside of baptism, that promise grace. And Dr.
Rushton, he begins his work on the story of Adam in the Garden saying
that Adam is established in a covenant of grace, that the breath given
to Adam is grace, the job given to Adam is grace, the task given to Adam
is grace, that he's never really working for his salvation in the
Garden, but he's living by grace. So, for Adam in the Garden, all of
life is, by definition, sacramental, right? This outward sign, whether
it's his job, his vocation, his name, his breath, all of them are
outward gifts, external identities, of God's inward spiritual gifts.

And that's kind of the ideal state, right? So, when Christ brings new
Garden or Paradise restored to Earth, he's attempting to restore the
sacramental nature of all creation, that now being interrupted by sin,
by flesh, this distinction that St. Paul makes of the spirit versus
flesh, the goal of the resurrection is that the flesh will be reborn
into the spirit and live according to the mystery of grace, or
sacramentally. Now, sacramentally in the minor sacraments is important
because the minor sacraments and the affirmation of them keeps us from
an extreme version of sacerdotalism, right? So, sacerdotalism is the
idea that we have a mediatorial priesthood, that somehow, like the Roman
Church confesses, we need a priest to intercede with us for confession,
or we need a priest to intercede with us to make a marriage valid, or we
need a priest to intercede with us to give us the gifts of the Holy
Spirit for healing. But, by embracing the minor sacraments in a
Protestant fashion, as the articles do, we kind of break down that by
saying, actually, these dominical sacraments, sure, there's a priest
involved in those, there's ordinance involved, there's churches
involved, but these minor sacraments are enjoyed in a lesser way.

There's a distinction here. So, the fear, typically, is if you start
calling confirmation and marriage sacraments, that you'll lean and lean
more and more Catholic. But I would say that the articles, by explicitly
making the distinction between the two and the five, are actually
affirming the priesthood of all believers and our Protestant nature,
because of how they express grace being experienced by the individual
without necessarily the intercession of a priest.

So, that is kind of the purpose he gets to on page number 40. It says,
what is the purpose of the minor sacraments? So, page 40, what is the
purpose of the minor sacraments? And here is the key word, lead us to
Christ. Lead us to Christ.

These are faith aids. And so, it's a way of using the things we already
experience and recognizing that they are gifts and presents of God. So,
rather than seeing marriage as a good and lofty institution, that the
government should ordain, or something like that, if we take marriage
and view it in terms of a minor sacrament, we say, marriage is something
that God gives us.

Or, if we take confession, rather than confession being something
handled by the California Penal Code, or by the federal government, or
by local police officers, the sacrament of penance as a minor order
says, the idea of confession, absolution, restitution, restoration,
those are actually parts of God's grace. And so on, take the idea of
marriage. He'll go through here and say, who are the ministers in
marriage? Because a sacrament requires a minister, and he'll confess
here, as the scripture confesses, both old and new, that the ministers
of marriage do not wear stoles.

The ministers of marriage are not priests, bishops. The ministers in
marriage are those who are making the vows, professing. The priest is
there as a witness of what God is doing, but the minister is the bride,
and the minister is the groom.

So, far from the sacramental idea of the papalism, the minor sacraments
really help us embrace the idea of the priesthood of all believers. So,
first one we get to, and we're going to rapid-fire through them, so feel
free to raise your hand if you have an extra question. First one he
lists, and our confession lists, is confirmation.

Confirmation, very simply, the laying on of hands for the receiving of
the Holy Ghost. I've said it many times from the pulpit, confirmation
was once attached to baptism. So, when you were baptized, the bishop
would also lay hands on you, and you would immediately be taken to Holy
Eucharist during that same service.

They were one and the same. You received baptism with water, you
received the laying on of hands by the bishop, the gift of the Holy
Spirit is given to you, you're strengthened. Now, as the church spreads,
and the bishop is not the pastor of every local church, confirmation is
over history, separated from baptism.

But, it's important that we all have that apostolic connection, that the
guy who St. Paul laid hands on, who laid hands on, who laid hands on,
all the way back that there was an unbroken connection of confirmation,
that you belong to the one Catholic Church. For the same exact reasons
that baptism is the same way. We believe in an apostolic succession of
our baptisms.

We don't have Muslims baptize us, we have Christians baptize us. So, all
of us who are baptized can trace our baptism back to a Christian who was
baptized by a Christian, all the way back to the apostles themselves.
The same thing is true for confirmation.

Yet, this also has inside of it a promise that the Holy Spirit would be
with you, for strengthening, for grace. So, outward sign of
confirmation, laying on of hands, inward grace of confirmation, the
strength of the Holy Spirit. Now, confirmation after the medieval period
is typically done, you know, seven, eight, nine years old, sometimes as
late as later in life.

In this particular book, he warns against the idea of confirmation being
the renewal of your baptism, because they're separate things. Baptism
unites you with Christ, places you in an objective covenant with God.
Confirmation is the physical laying on of hands that connects you to the
apostolic authority.

Those who are confirmed receive a real grace and belong to the visible
church and possess the confirmed gifts, the sevenfold gifts, of the Holy
Spirit. Now, next one is penance. I mentioned last week that penance was
considered by Martin Luther to be the third dominical sacrament, but for
our purposes, penance is going to be one of the minor sacraments, and
for a good reason.

The Anglican tradition makes a distinction between penance in an
auricular confession, or in speaking to a priest to receive absolution
from a priest, versus the idea of having direct access to the Father
through the individual's access to Christ. So, penance is a minor
sacrament in this section, because you can receive penance by sitting in
the pew and praying along the confession, and I stand up and I pronounce
the absolution, all of you have received the minor sacrament of penance.
But you may also receive heard confession, meaning I can sit at the
altar rail with an empty church, you can come in, and I can put on my
purple stole, and you can sit there, and you can give a confession, and
I can hear your confession, and I can pronounce absolution over your
confession, and you can feel really great about that.

But this is different than the Roman Catholic sense, in which your sins
are bound to your soul, mortal, venial, however distinctions they make,
your sins are bound to you until you make that personal confession, and
until the priest says, your sins are forgiven. The Anglican says, we do
not need a priest to do that, because by virtue of your baptism, you
already possess the authority to claim Calvary, to claim the
resurrection, and have an advocate before the Father. That's what Jesus
is doing as a mediator.

When we say, through Jesus Christ our Lord, our prayer is going to the
Father, through the Son, from us as individuals. Yet, it's important
that we do confess. During the season of Lent, it is a good tradition
that individuals make confession.

Now, in the West, typically confession is done with a priest, but that's
not the only way to do oral confession. In the East, individuals take
elders, so old people, or brothers, or pastors, or just people who are
wise, and they make a confession to them, and they are able to work out
their counseling that way. So much of the inner turmoil of modern
culture has been thrust into the category of psychotherapy or
counseling, when it should have been confessing one to another, or
confessing to your pastor, and hearing what usually the counselor says.

You feel guilty about that, God forgives you. Sometimes you need to hear
another human being say that, and that is what penance teaches us. Now,
there's a phrase that the bishop who ordained me repeated often on the
idea of confession to a priest, and it's important for us to remember.

It says, all may, so all may go to a priest to receive confession. Some
should, if you have a particular heinous sin. Sometimes, if you come to
a confession every week, and you don't feel like your sin is really done
with, or you feel like there's unresolved anger, anxiety, tension in
your soul, maybe it would be good to go confess that to a priest.

But the final form is, all may, some should, none must. So all have to
find the sacrament of penance, but it's not required to get it through a
priest who wears a funny collar, who has absolute concession. Now, rapid
fire through these, you can tell the outward sign of penance is
speaking, right, or hearing.

Inward grace is your soul is balmed by the absolution. And through here,
he goes through a couple of things on what's required of confession, but
we've reviewed that. Next sacrament is matrimony, or marriage.

Now, again, marriage is a lifelong union of husband and wife established
by a covenant between them. So the sacrament, or the minor sacrament, I
should say, of marriage, establishes between two people an outward sign,
so a covenant, a bond, a union, where they ask for God's blessing, and
there is an inward and spiritual grace of two become one. So the minor
sacrament there in that it was not ordained by Christ, and it's not
required that all people be married, but those who are in the estate of
marriage do have an outside, external form that looks a little bit
different in different cultures.

So different Eastern churches wear crowns, and they say vows a little
bit different, meaning there is not a prescribed ritual in the scripture
that says, put your right hand here, your left hand here, you do the
hokey pokey, turn yourself. No, but there is an external and an internal
sign and grace, so that's very important. I think we're all in agreement
on the sacrament of marriage, but it's also important in our day and age
to affirm it as a sacrament, because today the state version of marriage
is not really marriage.

So man marries a man, not really marriage. So there is an external form,
but no inward spiritual grace, because God cannot bless what is contrary
to his nature. So it's important for us to continue to teach marriage as
a sacrament in that way.

We do not, however, believe, as the Roman Catholics do, that if you got
married in a courthouse, or if you got married before you were a
Christian, that somehow you have to redo it in the church. Because the
husband and the wife are the primary ministers of the sacrament, the
church is merely a witness. Now if somebody got married and they
converted to Christ, say they got married in a Hindu temple, and they
moved to America and became Christians, what I would simply do is have a
service to bless what God has already done.

So I'd ask for God's blessing on the marriage, and I would be not the
minister of the sacrament, but like I would be in the wedding, a witness
to say, truly God has done this, let's ask for God's blessing. So a
little distinction there of why it's a minor sacrament. Now the next one
is the idea of orders.

Now holy orders is also a controversial thing in Protestantism, because
there are different views on what constitutes an office in the church.
Now we treat orders as minor sacraments, because they have an outward
form, because Christ did establish teachers, he did establish apostles,
he did establish disciples, but he does not give us, in his life, the
idea or the expectation of how that sacrament should be performed. It's
also not given to everybody.

We read throughout the general epistles that there are certain group of
Christians who may receive this outward sign and inward spiritual grace.
They have to be married, they have to be men, in order to receive this
special sacrament, and that they're given a special gift with them, or
authority with them. In the Anglican Church we confess that their three
orders are bishop, overseer, episkopos.

Those are all the same word. Second order is presbyteros, or presbyter,
or in English, priest. So sometimes the word presbyter is translated in
English to elder, because it means elder, but the English language
receives the word presbyter as prester, or priest.

We don't mean priest as in somebody who re-offers a sacrifice, or priest
like the idea of Conan. Conan? What is it called? The Hebrew word for
priest. Gohan.

Gohan, there we go. I got that mixed up. Gohan is the surname that comes
from Gohan.

Yes. So it's not a Levitical priest, it's not a sacrificial priest, it's
not the high priest. It's a presbyter, it's an elder.

And we participate in the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, but not
as a re-sacrifice, but only as a remembering, or memorial sacrifice, as
we say. And then the third order being the servant order, diakonos, or
deacons. And from the very first council at Nicaea, this threefold order
is established and received.

So Constantine calls together all the bishops, and they give
instructions. Who gets to vote? Bishops. So by 325, who gets to vote?
Bishops.

So in these first sections of the church, either the church has gotten
completely off the board on its polity, meaning that there is no longer
a faithful church of understanding who their own officers are, or
bishops weren't received from the earliest days. The second one being
presbyters. They are given rule over local churches.

Remember, initially bishops were the head of, say, the church in
Galatia, but as the church spread, they appointed elders over local
house churches, and those grew and grew and grew, and eventually the
bishop would visit the various presbyters, and the servant of the bishop
who would assist him in serving the presbyters was the deacon. So
threefold orders. And the sign for orders is the bishop lays hands on an
individual, confers a gift of orders, and they receive an annual
spiritual gift.

In Anglicanism, the idea of ordination is permanent. So once you're
ordained a deacon, you remain a deacon until you die, unless they scrape
the oil off of your hands when you're defrocked. So I think we have five
more minutes, but that's important to recognize.

There probably are some questions about, well, what about New Testament?
Where does it give us this idea of bishop versus presbyter? And haven't
I read something before that the word overseer and elder are used
interchangeably by St. Paul, that type of thing? You need to ask the
question, how do you make a new pastor? How do you make a new pastor?
Does it come from my own volition? Do I decide today I'm going to be a
pastor? I'm going to stand in front of a pulpit. If I'm a good enough
preacher, my people will accept me. Or has there been an accepted order
to doing this? And what the Church has said is that the apostles
appointed some men, laid hands on them, and those men were able to be
pastors.

And they received a special authority, a special grace by the laying of
hands by the bishops. And the record is, let no man preach without hands
being laid on him. Or, the other warning, lay hands hastily on no man.

If the hands didn't do anything, why would there be bold warnings
against it? So the hands are important, and that word sign, there's a
sacramental identity there to it. So that's important. And then there
has to be a recognition of who was in charge once the apostles died.

So, if the apostles, by authority, are those who are witnesses of
Christ, well, eventually, those who saw Christ will die. 70 years after
Christ ascends into heaven, even St. John is, you know, dead. So, no
more apostles.

Who now gets to set aside the next group of pastors? Well, the apostles
passed on that authority to the other receivers, those who had the
authority of the bishops. And that's what we received when Isaiah
affirmed that both sides of the church, east and west, of course, we
have bishops, we have priests, we have deacons, and it remains
unquestioned until the 15th century, during the Reformation, when they
say, well, none of the bishops are any good anymore. Right? So, now we
need to do something else.

Funny enough, and this is, I shouldn't say this, because we don't have
time, but Calvin himself offered to have the Church of Geneva come under
the Church of England. And he wrote a letter to Edward, King Edward
wanted the bishops to grant Episcopal consecration over the pastors in
Geneva. Unfortunately, the letter was intercepted by Roman sympathizing
bishops, who made sure that the bishops never saw that letter.

And so it was discovered years later. What could have been if Calvin had
been an Anglican? Anyway. Anyway.

So, the next one is the anointing of the sick. And I've actually had the
pleasure of doing this. I mentioned that a few weeks ago.

The anointing of the sick takes the Bible seriously when it says in the
book of James, is anyone sick, call for the elder. What is the word?
Presbyter. Call for the presbyter, and let him get the oil, and apply
it.

So, oil in the Old Testament is always symbolic of authority, kingship,
priesthood, and the Holy Spirit. You might remember from the story of
Noah's Ark, the dove that leaves the ark goes and grabs an olive branch,
and so that connection of dove being Holy Spirit and olive branch
representing olive oil follows throughout the scripture. So whenever you
ordain a king, you take olive oil, and you anoint his head, and when you
ordain a priest, you take olive oil.

This is the gift of the peace of the Holy Spirit. And so, in the New
Testament, when a Christian is sick, they call for the gift of the Holy
Spirit by the anointing of oil. And, for some reason, the apostles
believed that this was important.

I mean, they could, by their shadow, heal people, by their hands heal
people, by their voice heal people, yet their instruction to the
presbyters was grab this oil and put it on people. Now, the ceremony
around the oil has developed over the years, so now in the church we
have three types of oils. We have the oil of the catechumen, so when you
are baptized, they put oil over you that's been blessed.

When you are infirmed sick, we have oil for those who are infirmed, and
we also have the oil of the chrism, or the oil that's been blessed by a
bishop that the presbyter can use to offer the same blessings of
confirmation. And there's a history that develops with each of these
things, but to know that from the very beginning, in the Didache, the
first century, the Christian church has used oil for the purpose of
healing. So, although today in modern reform Christianity there's this
debate about whether the charismatic gifts have continued or ended, the
historic liturgical church has always said, God will be God, and we're
going to follow his orders, and we're going to anoint for the healing,
and sometimes the healing is of the body, and sometimes the healing is
of the soul, and they go to be with the Lord.

But that's, again, the external sign, ordained by God, by his scripture,
is pray, touch, and put oil on them. The internal grace is either the
healing of the body or the healing of the soul. And so those kind of
minor sacraments, I think, are important because they show that God
still cares in this physical world.

We don't get lost in some gnostic, heretical idea where everything
exists between our ears. Marriage, and who our pastors are, and how
we're healed, and all of these minor sacraments play into that. Now, I
know we have to get set up before mass.

Is there any, for communion, is there any questions for this one? I've
got a quick question. Yes. What exactly is the function and
responsibility of a bishop, and how does he get his office or authority?
That's a great question.

That's a great question. So, historically, the bishop was the apostle.
So, who is the bishop in Corinth? Paul.

Who is the bishop in Rome? Peter. Who is the bishop in Jerusalem? James.
And they have a jurisdiction, and they kept the diocesan model of the
Roman court.

So, Dr. Rushkin talks about how even their uniform, the mitre, the idea
of wearing a stole, these were borrowed from the judicial courts of the
Roman system. So, the Christians who had parallel courts to the Romans,
when Constantine came in, he kicked out the Roman judges, so notice that
there's a legal sense here, kicked out the Roman judges, and in their
place, established the Christian bishops who already existed in this
place. How did they get to be bishops? Well, the bishops, historically,
were chosen by the apostles, and then those successors, by the consent
of three, would make another bishop.

So, if you wanted to have, say, the mission of the church after first
establishing the church in Corinth, say you wanted to go establish a
church in Spain, and the church is growing there, and now they need
their own bishop to do confirmation, to preach, all that. The bishop in
Rome, and the bishop in Antioch, and the bishop in Jerusalem would all
grant their consent, they would travel to Spain, all of them lay hands
on this new gentleman, and they'd make a new bishop. The bishops would
create a new bishop and confer the authority of a new diocese unto them.

And that's historically how new bishops have come, and so throughout the
years, those new bishops have been all equal in status. So the bishop in
Rome is equal to the bishop in Jerusalem, equal to the bishop in
Antioch, and at Nicea, this is debated. Who is the most important
bishop? Who is the least important bishop? And they establish something
called the Pentarchy, or they recognize the Pentarchy, and they say, of
all the hundreds of bishops around the world, there are five really
central ones that were from episcopacies, or bishoprics, or cities, that
were established by the apostles themselves.

So obviously, Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, those are important ones, but
also Constantinople, and I'm missing one, so Antioch, Constantinople,
Rome, I'm missing the fifth, the Pentarchy. Rome, Constantinople,
Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, that's an important one, how am I
missing that? But these five claim territorial jurisdiction, so they're
like national churches, and then there would be dioceses underneath
them, and as the church grew to a certain number, they would get a new
bishop, get a new bishop. And so as that went down throughout the ages,
there was different traditions of how they would elect their bishop.

So for example, the story of St. Ambrose, who is the mentor of St.
Augustine of Hippo, how did he become a bishop? Well, he wasn't a
deacon, he wasn't a priest, he was a Roman governor, and the bishop of
Ambrose, of Milan, the bishop of Milan died, and so the people said,
who's going to be our next bishop? And all the people, all the Christian
people of Milan said, Ambrose should be our next bishop. And Ambrose
said, well, I don't want to be the bishop, I'm not even a deacon, I'm
not even a priest, and he ran away, and when they captured him, they put
him in the cathedral, and they held him down, and they said, Ambrose, we
make you a deacon. And the bishop came and ordained him as a deacon, and
Ambrose, we make you a presbyter, and they ordained him as a presbyter,
and by this time, Ambrose finally consented, and they brought in the
bishops, and they said, Ambrose, we make you a bishop.

So there was this historical recognition that the affirmation of the
people, we elect our bishop, but then he is confirmed or consecrated by
the church, so there's this kind of two-fold identity, which is a little
bit different than, say, the Southern Baptist Convention, where you say,
here's our candidate, yes or no, he gets elected, he's the new
president. That's a very different way of governing, and throughout
history, there's lots of challenges to this. What does it mean to have
the consent of the people? So if you go back to the Magna Carta, who
gets to decide who the candidate for bishop is? Does anybody have the
right to veto? And so the English kings, for example, would nominate
their bishops, and nominate their bishops to be confirmed by the other
bishops, particularly during the Middle Ages, they fell to the idea of
Rome granting assent to it.

But there's different traditions there. The important thing to know is,
in historic Christianity, we require, in the idea of orders, the consent
of bishops to create new bishops. So you have to have apostolic
authority, you have to have laying on of hands.

It's typical that there are three bishops to make a new bishop, and that
they have a jurisdiction to be the bishop of. You don't create bishops
of your house, right? You make bishops of cities, where the people are
being governed under. There's no free reigning bishops.

Now you ask another question, what does the bishop do? He is the pastor
of pastors, right? So he is, and this is sometimes controversial to say,
and it shouldn't be, it's the basic unit of the church. So the basic
unit of society is the family, right? So husband and wife, you can't get
any smaller than that. But the basic unit of the church is the diocese,
or the bishop.

It's just like when we're gonna talk about it today, and the idea of
Galatians. The church in Galatia is one church, even though it meets in
several different houses, it has different pastors, different members,
but it's one church under the Apostle Paul. And so the basic unit of
Galatian Christendom is under Paul.

So there's no secret church in Galatia that also exists separate from
Paul. So the bishop and his diocese have an authority over that. So St.
Paul, when he writes to the Galatians, says, stop doing this, start
doing this, correct yourself on this, because he has the authority over
all of those temporal church duties.

And the bishop has the authority to create presbyters and deacons. My
title here is rector, right? Rector is an ancient Latin idea, meaning
that the church locally, St. Paul's, is under the temporal jurisdiction
of the bishop, and I stand in his rectorship, or the bishop has placed
me as the pastor of his church. That's why we have an empty chair in the
front of the cathedral, because this is the bishop's church, and when
he's not here, I as the rector stand in his place under his authority,
which is kind of an interesting topic.

So what does the bishop do? He oversees the idea of holy orders, he
offers confirmation, he's the only officer of the church who can give
confirmation, and he also promotes the growth of the church and works
with the other bishops, having this kind of equal identity with every
other bishop in the community. Is that time? Yes, yes. We have ten
minutes to get started, so I should probably get changed.

But thank you, and we can talk more about that. It's a controversial
thing, but it's also important to recognize we don't get stuck in Roman
categories. So how Roman Catholicism post-Trent defines all of these
things is not historically how it's always been done.

So there are various traditions, and the English tradition says, however
it was done in England prior to the Reformation, in conformity with the
fathers, is how we want to do it. Thank you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/MnsCtk0Dk6g.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/steve-macias/sacraments/
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