Review: Fleming Rutledge 'Three Hours: Sermons for Good Friday'

St Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York City is a fine example of the vibrancy of the Anglo-catholic tradition. It was there in 2018 that Episcopal priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge preached at the Three Hours devotion. These addresses are gathered in this small volume - Three Hours; Sermons for Good Friday (2019) - which I chose this year as my Lenten reading.

Aside from Rutledge's reputation as an engaging, robustly orthodox theologian, what intrigued me about the sermons was the relationship between the context - a flagship Anglo-catholic parish - and a theologian who, I recalled, had described herself thus on Twitter:

Tweet if you are an "evangelical Reformed Episcopalian" (as differentiated from Anglican)... I may be one of about 5 in the whole USA 🙄
— Fleming Rutledge (@flemingrut) September 3, 2017

Rutledge's Reformed credentials animate the sermons. The opening sermon proclaims of what occurs on the Cross:

Forgiveness is too weak a word for what God does. Justification is the word ... Justification means more than forgiveness (p.10).

In stark contrast to the received verities of contemporary preaching in the Mainline Protestant traditions, this leads to a wonderfully unembarrassed declaration of the significance of St Paul:

Luke wrote a beautiful, luminous Gospel, but we need Paul to tell us that forgiveness alone is not enough. To be forgiven is to be justified (p.11).

Appropriately, the first sermon ends with the words of "the greatest of all Good Friday hymns" - Ah, holy Jesus, how has thou offended? - from "the Evangelical Lutheran tradition" (p.11ff).

In many ways, the seven sermons are a commentary on a footnote which appears in that first sermon:

The use of the phrase "blood of Christ" in the New Testament carries with it this sacrifical, atoning significance in a primordial sense; we cannot root out these connections even if we want to (p.7).

And so Rutledge challenges the tendency to regard Good Friday as an awkward pause in preparation for Easter Day, a tragedy reversed by (in the language of too many Easter sermons) whatever was experienced on the third day:

The crucifixion is not just an unfortunate thing that happened to Jesus on his way to the resurrection. It is not a momentary blip on the arc of his ascent to the Father. John tells us otherwise. It is precisely on the cross that the work of Jesus is carried through to its completion.

What then is the resurrection? It is the vindication of the crucified One. The resurrection doesn't cancel out the crucifixion as if it were only a passing episode to be noted briefly (or not) on the way to Easter ... The resurrection does not reverse the crucifixion. The resurrection vindicates the crucifixion ... The work of Jesus is brought to completion on the cross (p.67-68).

What comes to mind here is Cranmer's majestic translation of the traditional Latin preface for Easter Day and its octave:

But chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious Resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord: for he is the very Paschal Lamb, which was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life. Therefore with Angels, &c.

Here, then, is a reminder that Rutledge's Reformed proclamation of the Cross is deeply rooted in the catholic tradition of the Latin West, the tradition of Augustine and Aquinas. Diarmaid MacCulloch describes Calvin as the "Fifth Latin Doctor", "heir to their inheritance, perhaps the most Augustinian theologian of the sixteenth century". Reformed theology, then, stands in profound continuity with the Augustinianism which shaped the theology of the Latin West.

This is what we see in Rutledge's preaching of the Cross in the Anglo-catholic St Thomas Fifth Avenue. We see here the hope for the renewal of North Atlantic Anglicanism and Episcopalianism, a joyful re-reception of the Faith that is authentically evangelical and deeply patristic, at once Catholic and Reformed: Augustinians together.

On this Maundy Thursday, mindful of the Three Hours liturgy of the Lord's Passion tomorrow, I am thankful that this slim volume of sermons has enriched my Lent, preparing me for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery. As we approach the Cross, I turn to words from Rutledge which echo both Catholic and Reformed devotion:

Come to his water. Come to his cross. Come to his blood shed for you (p.61).

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