On Pots and Kettles

By Robin G. Jordan

Papal pretensions to supremacy have more to do with the place of Rome in ancient Mediterranean world than they do the apostle Peter. Rome was at one time the capital of the far-flung Roman Empire. Before the division of the Empire into an Eastern Roman Empire and a Western Roman Empire, the Roman Emperor ruled the entire Roman Empire from Rome. The Bishops of Rome saw themselves as heirs to the power and prestige of the Roman Emperors as much as they did to the apostle Peter, if not more so. The claim that Peter had settled in Rome and become bishop of the Church of Rome provided them with a story to bolster their claim of supreme authority over the entire Church throughout the known world, not just the Church in the vicinity of Rome. The half-remembered glory of the Roman Empire and the position of Rome in the ancient Mediterranean world added a luster to their claim.

The bishops in the Eastern Roman Empire disputed the claim of the Bishop of Rome. This dispute would lead to the great schism between the Eastern Church and the Western Church that persists to this day. The latest reiterations of the Roman claim that the only true Catholics are found in the Church of Rome must jar on Eastern Orthodox nerves after ecumenical dialogue between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches had concluded that both branches of Catholic Christianity are indeed branches of Catholic Christianity and both Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics are true Catholics. While they might not agree on everything, they could agree on one thing: Anglicans are not true Catholics.

Roman Catholics in stressing that Anglicans must convert to Roman Catholicism, enter the Church of Rome, and submit to the Pope in order to be regarded as true Catholics are inferring that Easter Orthodox are not true Catholics. Pope Benedict XVI is not only reviving the old worship practices but he is also giving new vigor to the old claims of the Church of Rome. It is too much to say that he has brought them back into vogue because they never really lost popular favor in the Roman Catholic Church in the first place. This has been quite apparent from the conservative Roman Catholic web sites on the Internet and from the comments of conservative Roman Catholics on other web sites. These claims have been labeled ecumenism. True Christian unity, we are told, lies not in a meeting of minds between Christians of different traditions but in “full communion” with the Roman Catholic Church, that is, in conversion to the Roman Catholic version of the truth and reception into the Church of Rome.

Latimer Trust has published a Latimer Briefing, titled “The Church of England: What It Is, And What It Stands For,” and written by Roger T. Beckwith. It concludes with these words:

What gives consistency to the other seven principles, and sums them up, is the fact that the Church of England is a reformed catholic church. The Church of England is reformed in its emphasis on the Bible, in its 39 Articles, in its vernacular worship, and in its recognition of the royal supremacy in its government. But it is also catholic, in that it retains the ancient common heritage of Christendom, in a biblical form. The Church of England acknowledges the role of the church in interpreting the Bible correctly (Article 20), and uses the ancient catholic creeds as examples of such true interpretation. It maintains, as its practice, liturgical worship, infant baptism, episcopal ministry, parochial organization and national establishment, all handed down from antiquity. The Anglican Reformers valued this edifying heritage, well tested over the centuries, and rejected the idea of starting everything afresh, with the unnecessary controversy and practical mistakes which such a course would inevitably lead to. Instead they simply used the standard of Scripture, applied by reason, to correct whatever needed correcting in the church’s inherited forms.

The Church of England therefore aims, and claims, to be catholic not sectarian. It does not need to make concessions to Roman Catholicism, of the sort sometimes called for by ecumenical commissions, in order to become catholic. Such concessions, while supposedly making it more catholic, would in reality cause it to be no longer reformed. Conversely, it does not need to divest itself of all that it has inherited from antiquity, in order to make itself more reformed. In doing this, it would cease to be the church of the people, and so would become sectarian rather than catholic. Already there are moves in a sectarian direction among us, from various quarters. They need to be countered, not indulged.

This, then, in the Church of England, and what it stands for. Is it not a church that we should be thankful to belong to, proud to commend to others, and bold to defend against its enemies, whether from without or from within?

Where Anglicans retain “the ancient common heritage of Christendom, in a biblical form,” they may claim to be Catholic as much as Roman Catholics. As the sixteenth century English Reformers repeatedly drew to the attention to the Roman Catholic detractors of the Church of England, the Church of Rome had departed from “the ancient common heritage of Christendom,” and had become corrupt and even heretical. The Church of Rome has never backed away from her innovations in doctrine and worship. Rather she has adopted more such innovations, including the claims of papal infallibility and supremacy. This is the Church of Rome that has made herself the judge of other branches of Christianity and would sit in judgment of them. This is the Church of Rome that would declare that the Church of England and her daughter churches are not truly “Catholic.”

A colloquial expression I often heard in my childhood was “that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.” Nowadays it has fallen into desuetude since we no longer cook over open fires and pots and kettles are not likely to turn black as they once did. When I was a boy, my family lived in a cottage in Suffolk and cooked on a coal range. We would put a kettle on the grate or a pot on the hob. The kettles and pots were made from cast iron like a Dutch oven and were also black like a Dutch oven. They would acquire a dark patina from the heat and the smoke of the coal fire. The idea of a pot calling a kettle black was not lost on me, as it would be on today’s youngsters. The expression was often reinforced with a proverbial saying, “Those who live in glasshouses should not throw stones.” Those who are not free from blemishes themselves should not draw attention to the faults of others.

The only glasshouses with which I was acquainted were greenhouses. In England glasshouses were used to raise tomatoes and other vegetables during winter. I had seen glasshouses in the backyards of large houses, and I tried to imagine what it might be like to live in a glasshouse.

We had cucumber frames. My older brother and I were taught from an early age not to put a heavy weight on a cucumber frame or drop any kind of hard object onto a cucumber frame lest we break the pane of glass covering the frame. It was one of the common sense rules of vegetable gardening. Replacing the pane of glass would not be cheap. The sharp edges of broken glass caused nasty cuts.

Although I have no recollection of breaking a pane of glass, I did have an idea of what might happen if someone threw stones at a glasshouse. Other youngsters were apparently less well taught and therefore less well behaved than my older brother and I—at least that is how my young mind perceived their behavior and that is how my grandparents and my mother reinforced my perceptions. These youngsters had no scruples at throwing bricks and flowerpots at glasshouses and shattering the panes. The evidence of their destructive maliciousness—missing panes of glass and broken glass on the ground—was proof of their poor upbringing and their consequent proneness to unruliness. Only bad boys threw hard objects at glass houses. Good boys respected other people’s property and did not commit acts of vandalism.

Damaged glasshouses also meant less food on the table. My grandfather had been a greengrocer. He had at one time had dealings with the commercial tomato growers who raised tomatoes in glasshouses for market. During the Depression and World War II an increasing number of people began raising vegetables in their own gardens and glasshouses. A glasshouse absorbed the heat of the sun during the day and protected tender plants from frost during the night. The commercial glasshouses might be steam-heated. Smashing the glass of a greenhouse went beyond petty mischief.

Jesus’ stepfather Joseph was a carpenter. Jesus evidences a familiarity with the trade of a carpenter in his teaching.

"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

Before the Church of Rome passes judgment on the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church needs to examine herself and her own doctrines and practices. When she declares that Anglicans are not truly “Catholic,” it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, a case of one whose house is of glass throwing stones at another. She needs to take the giant sequoia out of her own eye before offering to help remove the speck from eye of the Anglican Church.

The Church of Rome needed reform in the sixteenth century. She needs reform in the twenty-first century. The claim that the Church of Rome is infallible and can do no wrong is a convenient excuse for not facing up to the reality that the Roman Catholic Church is very fallible and quite capable of wrongdoing. Such a claim fosters a culture of denial. Article XIX is pointed in stating, “As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome has erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.”

Over the centuries one innovation after another have so overlaid and defaced the primitive and apostolic faith in the Church of Rome that it is no longer recognizable. Many of these innovations are rank idolatry. Behind the pomp and splendor of the Papacy is a corrupt Church.

The revival of the old worship practices gives all the signs of being an attempt to close the curtains again after the pulling wide of those curtains revealed the Church of Rome in her nakedness and showed passersby what she is—tainted by sin, spiritually bankrupt, and rotten to the core. She demands from her children that they should believe as an article of faith or think requisite or necessary to their salvation what is not read in the Bible, nor may be proved by Scripture. She makes void the Word of God for the sake of her tradition.

It is into her corruption that false shepherds would lead those whom they have already led astray. Make no mistake. As the old Celtic monks were want to point to the attention of those planning to go on a pilgrimage to Rome. “If you do not take Christ with you, you will not find Him in Rome.” If they have not heard His voice and opened the door of their hearts to Him, if they have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for everlasting life, they will not find salvation in the Church of Rome. Sacraments cannot save them. Good works cannot save them. The Bishop of Rome cannot save them. Only Christ can save them. Without Christ they are dead in their sins. They are doomed to a godless eternity.

I do not doubt that those contemplating entry in the Roman Catholic Church may—in their own way, within the limits of their understanding—be devout people. They have been taught that attendance of the sacrifice of the Mass, adoration of the consecrated Host, praying of the Rosary, pilgrimages to holy places, processions with statues of the Virgin Mary, petitions to the Virgin Mary, invocation of the saints, giving of alms, and acts of mercy are the marks of genuine piety. They endeavor to live a holy and godly life by these standards. They will receive reinforcement for this kind of devoutness within the Roman Catholic Church.

But the fact remains that unless they have a true and vital faith in Jesus Christ their devoutness means nothing. They are simply very religious people by a particular measure of religiosity. They are not accounted righteous before God. Their good works are not acceptable and pleasing to God. When they receive the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, they are in no sense partakers of Christ. Indeed they eat and drink the sign or sacrament of so great a reality to their own condemnation.

Some readers may at this point say to themselves, “Why does he trouble himself over what these folks do? What is it to him?” The Scriptures enjoin us to warn others of spiritual dangers to them. We have an obligation to do so. If we are aware of these dangers and we do not warn them, their blood is upon our heads. If we warn them and they ignore us, their blood is upon their own heads. They have been warned. Being silent when some is about to harm himself is not fulfilling Christ’s command to love one another as He has loved us. The Scriptures also enjoin us to do what we can to turn back a straying brother. We cannot treat him as an enemy even though he may have strayed far into error. Rather we must admonish him as a brother.

In a world that is rapidly changing, the Church of Rome offers an illusion of stability. But it is an illusion. Like a desert mirage of a lake it disappears when the thirsty traveler approaches it. All he finds is more windswept sand. Those seeking true stability will find it in Christ. His teaching is the bedrock upon which we must lay our foundation. The rock upon which Christ is building his Church is not the apostle Peter, another mortal like ourselves. It is upon faith that Christ is raising up that edifice of living stones. And faith is not something that comes from within us. Faith is a gift that originates with God.