The catholic Consensus

A consensus is generally a very satisfactory thing to find.  It is a common human aim.  Consensus describes wide-spread agreement.  ‘The consensus’ can form a foundation for an individual’s beliefs.  Popular recently is the slogan  ‘trust the science’, or follow the science.  And many a person, trying to establish what they believe, don’t train to be a scientist, or claim to be one, but do their research (usually on the internet) to find what seems to be the consensus among scientists.  What they learn determines what they believe and trust.

Far more powerful than any consensus in any particular field, would be a ‘catholic consensus’.  To establish that would require finding out, not just what is held at the moment, but what has been agreed over a long period of time, as well as among a vast majority or people concerning a particular subject.  Common Law, ethics, or morality are examples of a universal consensus.  For instance, one could establish that there is a universal consensus that says ‘murder is bad’, or ‘caring for children is good’.

A universal consensus is a good place for one’s conscience to find refuge, too.  ‘I may be wrong’ becomes a safe thing to say, if one can then add ‘however the universal consensus is…’.  This is because one is less likely to be blamed for a mistaken notion if that idea can be proven to be part of a universal consensus.

Because so many generations of humanity have practiced religion, a universal consensus may be found there, too, if people are willing to look for it.  In the field of religious belief one may even use the word ‘catholic’ to describe a universal consensus.  Used to mean ‘universal’, ‘catholic’ could even be used to describe a Jewish consensus.  One could find in Judaism a ‘catholic consensus’ that there is only one true God.  A raison d’etre is usually the location for a religion’s catholic consensus.

Hence a universal consensus may not be very difficult to find in religion.  People being interested in that universal consensus is quite a different matter.  Where individualism is prized, or innovation highly esteemed, universal consensus has less attraction, supplanted as it is by opinions or new ideas, or even special revelations.

In Christian terms, the universal consensus is the unified voice of that 'great cloud of witnesses' who live in Heaven and on Earth, as to what is true about God and how He created us, and Redeemed us by His Son. The beliefs and practices of most Christians who have ever lived, and who live now concerning how God worked in the past, works now, and is worthy to be trusted and worshipped eternally is where it is easy to find a consensus.

Having said that, finding a universal consensus on a particular doctrine or practice is not always a comfortable discovery.  Take the universal consensus among Christians that it is too late to add further books to the Bible, and honour them as Holy Scripture.  To defy that consensus, a Mormon has to decide that a prophet like Joseph Smith (d.1844), or a ‘burning in the bosom’ trumps the catholic consensus of what Christians have believed across time, and in all places, all ages, etc.

Beyond the discomfort the universal consensus brings to cults and whacko sects, even many stodgy established denominations – like my own – may find the catholic consensus disconcerting in places.   The following is a list of practices and beliefs (in no particular order) that are demonstrably part of the universal consensus among Christians that – nevertheless - some denominations may find unsettling.

1.     Your church should have ranks of clergy who wear quite elaborate vestments leading worship services.

2.     Your church’s worship services should be liturgical, usually consisting of an outline of actions that are the same week by week.

3.     Your church should believe that Jesus Christ has promised to offer His Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine for Christians to eat and drink at every Sunday service.

4.     Your church should use wine for the Blessed Sacrament displayed and distributed from a chalice.

5.     Your church should worship on Sundays.

6.     Your church should keep the same seasons, feasts and festivals every year, commemorating Christ, and honouring ‘saints’, the Blessed Virgin Mary among them.

7.     Your church members should make the sign of the cross as part of their identification with the prayer and devotion of the Faith.

8.     Your church should sing the Psalms in the Bible, as well as other hymns and spiritual songs.

9.     Your church should be decorated with symbols, statues, icons, paintings, sculptures, windows, candles, crucifixes, and other things as teaching aids and aids to worship.

10.  Your church should baptise people of all nations, and all ages – including infants.

11.  Your church should read from the Bible, preach sermons from the Bible, systematically, and devoutly, treating Holy Scripture with great honour – even kissing its pages.

12.  Your church should regard the place where worship is taking place as sacred, with Christ Himself mysteriously present where ‘two or three are gathered’ in His Name.

Now concerning these dozen items listed above - easily established – as part of the universal consensus among Christians of all times, I can honestly say they do not represent my personal choices, my tastes, my preference, my style, my anything.  That is precisely the point.  One can react to them, in submission or contempt, but one cannot claim to have invented them.  Whether or not one adopts them reflects how much one values the inheritance that has been conveyed from countless others through the ages who have gone before.

Now some, looking at this article, may ask, ‘What about Justification by Grace through Faith’, and what about the definition of the Gospel, and the number of books in the Bible?  Aren’t those things more important that whether there is a historical consensus on vestments? 

The catholic consensus has been described above in accurate, but broad terms, concerning the historic and present global reaction to the core teachings of the Christian faith.  There is no question of the importance of key elements of the Faith such as ordo salutis and the canon of Scripture, but the twelve things listed above are there not because they are more important, but because they are clearly agreed upon on a universal scale.

That is what needs to be recognised by Christians, whatever they believe.

Guard the windows to your soul

The adage ‘the eye is the gateway to the soul’ does not come from the Bible, but it cannot be overstated that God urges a Christian to guard what goes into his eyes.  Jesus Himself took pains to teach that “The eye is the lamp of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,  but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!’ (Mat. 6.22-23).

In the same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had just warned that  ‘I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell’ (Mat. 5.28-29).

We joke that there are things that one cannot ‘unsee’, but the ongoing effect of what Christians let into their minds through their eyes is no joke.  Many a despairing ‘sex addict’ would not be in such peril or ruin without first allowing into their eyes, what they should not have looked at in the first place.

Neurobiologists talk about addictive dependency upon the neurotransmitters in the brain associated with the ‘pleasures of sin’, but what is at stake is more than a mere biological hazard.  Diabolical forces, bent on damaging or destroying the ministry and witness of Christian pastors are extremely interested in the possibilities afforded by technology to make sinful images available to every man, woman, and child with nothing more sophisticated in their grasp than a ‘smartphone’.

Many a Christian ‘living in Sodom’ today think they can consume the same sort of ‘entertainment’ as ‘everyone else’, and not be affected.  But ‘remember Lots’ wife’ (Luke 17.32).  Lot and his family were among the few ‘righteous persons’ that could be found in the doomed city, yet even among them were ideas such as excessive drunkenness and incest, that likely came from being exposed to the sights of Sodom  (Gen. 19.32-35).

The New Testament warns, ‘Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted’ (Gal 6.1).  Yet, today, rather than keeping watch on ourselves, Christians watch media in which ‘transgression’ is the stock-in-trade of almost every online drama.  To paraphrase St. James, ‘My brothers, these things ought not to be so’.

And it is not just HD images that endanger Christian souls.  Salaciousness in print is everywhere.  What the spiritually dead intend to be ‘added spice’ to favour their material, is actually poison to the Christian.  A pornographic turn of phrase can be as hard to flush out of the mind as any image.

‘How can a young man keep his way pure?’ has become the most haunting question of our time.  And that question is not just for the young.  The answer - that is to be the believer’s prayer to God - is ‘by guarding it (our way of life) according to your word’ (Psalm 119.9). 

As we have seen God’s word provides abundant warning about the very thing that dissipates, degrades, and even destroys the faith and ministry of many a pastor.  The reality of life in this fallen world – and in our fallen flesh – is that there is no escape from temptation.  No amount of internet filters, content blockers, and Benedictine options can prevent all causes of sin.  Islam has tried veiling women from head to foot and that has not worked. 

As Cole Porter observed, ‘In olden days a glimpse of stocking, was looked on as something shocking, But Heaven knows:  Anything Goes’.  The ancient counsel of God’s word makes it clear.  The decision is not up to the Hollywood censors (if they even still exist), or to your ‘accountability partner’ (who had better not be your ecclesiastical supervisor).  The decision is up to you, the Christian pastor.  Are you going to guard your own eyes?  Otherwise, as God asks rhetorically, ‘Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? (Prov. 6.27-28). 

Nobody is going to do it for you.  All the hosts of Hell are pitted against you.  You can only protect yourself – calling upon all the heavenly support God will give you.  And when you fall, turn Satan’s victory sour by using your experience as a theology lesson.  The lessons taught by humility (and humiliation) before God’s holy Law may be the justification for the persistence of an ‘old self’ even after regeneration creates a ‘new self’ (Eph. 4.24). 

If God removed our sinful nature at baptism, some of us might never sin afterward.  Some of us – baptized as infants – would never in our whole lives remember what it felt like to be forgiven.  If we lived our whole earthly lives (like angels) without sinning, the value of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin would be reduced to a theological locus that provided no conscious benefit to us.  But that would not be the kind of theology that glorifies God as when the penitent pray, ‘naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; foul, I to the fountain fly; wash me, Saviour, or I die!’ (Hymn by Augustus Toplady, (1776) ‘Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me!’

As it is, ‘scorned and covered with scars’, every Christian soul cherishes nothing more than the Gospel of the Saviour, the precious sound of Holy Absolution, and lives for the taste of Holy Communion.  For through faith in Jesus Christ, fellowship with God is restored, we ‘lay aside each earthly load, here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiv'n’ (Hymn by Horatius Bonar, (1855) ‘Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face to face’).

And forgiven of our many sins, we resolve to ‘go and sin no more’ (John 8.11).  As Charles Wesley expressed it so well, ‘My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee’ (Hymn by Charles Wesley, (1738) ‘And Can it Be, That I Should Gain’).

'Is that how I look?'

 

‘Is that how I look?’ –

the Importance of enhancing a preacher’s facial expressions.

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been many preachers seeing themselves on screen and able to assess how they look to their congregations as they preach.  Perhaps for the first time pastors are asking themselves, ‘is that how I look?’, and – more importantly - ‘am I watchable’?

As in several other European cultures, North American piety takes a negative view of aspects of the theatre and entertainment being part of church services (with ‘children’s’ sermons’ being the exception).

An unnecessary association is made between some important features of dramatic arts, such as facial expression, and disingenuousness.  Intentional facial expressions are thought to detract from the honesty and sincerity of someone whose task it is to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth.  This leaves dramatic facial expression to the realm of ‘foreign’ cultures, such as the Latino or Mediterranean types – among others.

The word  ‘hypocrite’ comes from the ancient Greek theatre, referring to the mask worn to project the emotion of the actor to members of the audience, even those occupying the most distant seats.  Yet, today’s negative connotation to that word need not reduce facial expression in the pulpit to some form of insincerity or hypocrisy.  Yes, facial expression is an important tool in the toolbox of both the actor and the liar, but that does not mean that facial expression cannot be an important tool in the toolbox of the pastor.  A preacher is not lying or merely acting when he adorns his message with intentional facial expression!

The fact is, people in our culture devour entertainment as often as they can get it – not aware of what it is about the conduct of the actors that holds their interest.  They take the facial expression - which is stock and trade of the acting profession - for granted, and find themselves unable to explain why they find their pastor’s sermon delivery boring, but can’t wait to binge through the next installment of their favourite media.   Here the Gospel is the most important message in the world, and yet, it is often proclaimed without the benefit of the kind of effort put into selling breakfast cereal!

The fact is that generations of pastors were not taught the importance of intentional facial expression for gathering and keeping their congregation’s attention.  Again, apart from small children, it is assumed that grownups don’t appreciate a preacher enhancing his facial expressions and gestures when he preaches.  However, this is far from the case.

In fact, subconsciously, what makes all the difference between a great sermon delivery and a mediocre one is facial expression.  Think of the ‘great preachers’ you have known, and then consider the part that facial expression played in making them so watchable.

Let all the video footage that has come to characterize the lockdowns be a lesson to all preachers.  Facial expression matters.  It always has.  They may not have taught this in homiletics class, but it is essential to preachers today.  Make a face.  Act as though you are engaging your audience.  Project on to your face the importance of what you are saying.  Is there a difference between the spoken word and the sung word?  There is often a world of difference between a deadpan delivery and one that takes a leaf out of the actor’s handbook. 

The worldview I share

Eight Answers to Basic Questions that convey my worldview

1. What is prime reality – the really real?  God, and what He chooses to allow to exist.
2. What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us? Around us we have the created material universe that we inhabit and explore and, also around us we have an immaterial creation, founded prior to us, populated by evil spirits who hate us, and seek our destruction, and good spirits who are fascinated by the salvation that our Creator has provided for us, and love us with a love that reflects God’s mercy, rejoicing at His love for every repentant sinner (Luke 15.10).
3. What is a human being?  A creature made to demonstrate to ‘all things visible and invisible’ God’s love and mercy toward sinners..
4. What happens at death?  Humans were created capable of two kinds of death, physical and spiritual.  At physical death, the person’s spirit goes to face their eternal destiny (everlasting life or everlasting torment), as their body decomposes to await the resurrection of the body on the last Day.  All human beings have been redeemed from spiritual death by the atonement made by God’s Son, but spiritual death still awaits those who do not have a living connection to God’s Son, through trust in Him.
5. How is it possible to know anything at all?  God has given us minds to process reality, and He has made knowledge possible through both natural revelation, and special revelation.
6. How do we know what is right and wrong?  Natural revelation gives some guidance, but ultimate morality is revealed to human beings by God, through His word in special revelation (Holy Scripture).
7. What is the meaning of human history?  The Redemption of humanity, by the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the central event of all human history.  From the foundation of the world, God has created human reproduction (‘marrying and giving in marriage’  Matthew 22.30), and permits generation after generation of sinners to be born, as long as the worship of His Son for being our Redeemer continues to grow among every ‘nation, all tribes and peoples and languages’ (Revelation 7.9).
8. What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview?  Only a commitment to ‘hear the word of God, and keep it’ (Luke 11.28) is consistent with the worldview described in the first seven questions.  And the most crucial word of God to keep is the ‘Word…made flesh’ Jesus Christ, for only in communion with Him – including His Church – is there salvation.  (Extra ecclesiam nulla salus est)  At the same time, those who keep God’s word for themselves will also want to share the Gospel with others, so that the worship of God’s Son may grow all over the world.

True Freedom - Part Two - Free to Fight

'whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and  this is the victory that has overcome the world—our  faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?' (John 5:4–5).

Many examples exist, on both sides of the European conflict in WWII, of downed airmen, who - having escaped from prison camps - went on to re-join the fight in the air. In this I see a picture of the way the Gospel works in the life of a Christian.

Sin and guilt have a way of ending our 'flight' as Christians. We find ourselves, not only grounded, but out of 'the fight' as well. Do you feel that your failures and past sins have down-graded you to the position of being useless as a Christian witness? If so, this is a known tactic of the devil to cripple people who would otherwise serve to advance the kingdom of Christ.

Christians so held in the bondage of guilt are like 'prisoners of war', grounded and unable to challenge the evil that threatens the progress of the Kingdom of Heaven. Forgiveness of sins is not only intended to restore us once more to be aloft with the angels, so to speak, but forgiveness of sins, through trust in Christ, our Redeemer, sets us free from the power of guilt to hinder our Christian life.

This means we can be more than forgiven. We can be 'conquerors' and 'overcome' the forces that would keep us down and out as Christians.  Look at all that God's word has to say about 'overcoming', and how often Christ encourages us to remain steadfast through trials (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 21:7). This is because the Christian lives in a world that is not a playground, but a battleground. Look at the theology of 'spiritual warfare' in 'the Church Militant'.

We speak of 'the Theology of the Cross', because the cross is not just something Christ carried to atone for the our sin, it is also a burden we take up, as His forgiven people. As one of our hymns puts it, 'Then let us follow Christ our Lord, and take the cross appointed; And, firmly clinging to His word, in suff'ring be undaunted. For those who bear the battle strain, that crown of heavenly life obtain'  ('Come, Follow Me', by Johann Scheffler, 1624-77).

God is challenging you and me, to get back into the game! He has forgiven our sins. We should consider ourselves re-furbished, re-habilitated, and ready for action. He expects us to suit up with the body-armor He provides, escape from the clutches of diabolical doubts, and fight on! Ephesians 6:11–17 describes 'the armour' available to all believers, to put on 'with prayer and supplication to God'. 

Because He offers such heavenly support, God is able to issue the order to 'stand firm'. Sometimes all it takes to overcome temptation is to 'stand your ground'.  We have God’s promise, 'Resist the devil and he will flee from you' (James 4.7)

And, when we are weary from the fight, and have taken a few hits along the way, He offers healing and wholeness again, by His Gospel word and sacraments.  At every Divine Service we are re-armed as well as renewed.  Then, in the days to come  '… when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,  Steals on the ear the distant triumph song.  And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

True Freedom - Part One - Enchained by Liberation

'for freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery' (Galatians 5.1)

Remember the old question, 'Do you live to eat, or do you eat to live'? As a metaphor for other aspects of life, beyond food, this is a very profound question. Food is but one of a range of basic, primal needs humans beings have, none of which should be regarded as ends in themselves. Everyone agrees that a person who lives to eat would have a warped sense of what it means to live. Those who eat to live are free to focus on other things, beyond food.

Yet, today, as our society becomes more decadent, focusing on the most primal, lower brain appetites, more and more people cut themselves of from the enriched experience of life and service that they could have, were they to follow the higher impulses previous generations pursued. A symptom of this loss of awareness is the trend to define people by their sexual preference, or even sexuality preference.

Ironically, what is celebrated as 'liberation' brings a greater bondage with it, than before the 'sexual revolution', dragging many a Christian back into a 'yoke of slavery', often ending in a loss, not only of their faith, but even of their spiritual awareness, or ability to process anything requiring higher brain thinking. Consider the question, 'Do you “live to love” or ”love to live”?' This are not a false antithesis. People who 'live to love' may claim the romantic high ground, but they are thinking more like the most base animals, than human beings. Lovers who love, in order to live, have the correct perspective on both love and life.

Like those who 'live (in order to) eat', those who 'live (in order to) love' have lost both 'love' and 'life'. The need for intimacy is a basic primal need, but is should never be an end in itself. Intimacy between people should serve to fuel them for a higher purpose – living for Christ. 'For me to live is Christ', St. Paul famously wrote (Philippians 1.21).

'for freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore', writes St. Paul. (Galatians 5.1) According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2009), '...thousands of fatal drownings each year are deaths associated with natural hazards known as rip currents'. Rip currents carry people out to sea because they are unable to resist the pull of the surf. Decadence is like a riptide. This is why the Christian must find his/her feet on the solid foundation of faith in Christ and proactively maintain their spirituality, lest they be carried away by the currents of our decadent culture. Only with God, helping us to get our lives 'under control', can we say that we are truly free.

Jesus said, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed' (John 8.34-36). Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, set us free from eternal condemnation when He bore the burden of our sin, guilt, and death in His own body, out of love for us; 'canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross' (Col 2.14). Trusting in Christ means being free, not only from the consequences of sin, but from 'belonging to sin and death'. Sin is the dead spouse – drowned in Baptism - from whom we are set free to 'marry' another – the source of eternal life, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Join a 'Non-denominational church' - What's at stake?

Why not join a 'non-denominational' church! Besides, the 'mainline denominations' are in decline and aren't denominations kind of wrong, anyway? Are the 'non-denominational' groups like the first Christians – sort of 'pre-denominational' and therefore closer to what Jesus had in mind for His Church? And so it goes – some of the thoughts that move people to join the most impressive 'mega-church' they can find, leaving behind thousands of years of historic Christian doctrine and practice.

Yet, the question, 'What do we have to lose?' is more than a flippant rhetorical one in this case. For what Christians stand to lose in joining Non-denominational congregations is considerable.

YOU LOSE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF YOUR HERITAGE as a follower of Jesus Christ. We all know we are not the first people to worship Jesus, but in non-denominational meetings, one feels cut-off from all the worship of Christ that has gone before today's 'hit parade'. The impression is given by them that today's church leaders, make it all up as they go along based on 'what works for you'. How different is that mentality from that of the apostles, men moved directly by the Holy Spirit, who taught, 'what I received, I handed on to you...' (1 Corinthians 11.23, 15.1-4).

YOU LOSE THE SENSATIONS associated with being a Christian at worship since ancient times. Gone is the 'sign of the cross', gone is the kneeling for prayer, gone is the sound of historic chanting and choral music, gone are the sights of liturgical colour, vestments, ceremonial reverence and solemnity, gone, gone, gone. And replaced by what? Sitting as though at a concert or cinema and being merely a spectator? Or, perhaps, jumping about, clapping and trying to sing like a pop-soloist? With hands in the air, only closing one's eyes provides escape from the banal atmosphere generated from the stage, cluttered with praise band paraphernalia, devoid of the sensations that Christians have cherished in past generations.

YOU LOSE THE SACRAMENTS. Period. NONE of the non-denominational groups offer the sacred mysteries, giving by Christ to be the comfort of His Church until the end of time. 'Baptism' among them is reduced to a human display of commitment, and the biblical teaching that 'baptism now saves...' or that through it God 'washes away sin' is explicitly denied. LOST is the teaching from God's word that, through baptism 'he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit' (Titus 3.5). LOST is the comfort of Holy Absolution, spoken into the ears of the penitent as Jesus directed His apostles to do when He said, 'If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld'. ( John 20.23). Nothing replaces such forgiveness, not an appeal to 'get right with God', nor a vague general platitude that God loves you, just as you are. Finally, LOST is the profound mystery of Holy Communion through the Body and Blood of Christ as real nourishment for the soul. The Real Presence of Christ, believed by the overwhelming consensus of Christians until recent years, is denied by the non-denominational groups. Mere bread and wine are consumed as a sterile 'memorial' of Christ, rather than the Holy Supper that Jesus Himself envisioned when He taught that 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you' (John 6.53).

YOU LOSE THE SCHOLARSHIP AND PROFOUND TEACHING. Suspicious of (or simply ignorant of) deeper Christian doctrine, often poorly educated non-denominational church leaders dumb-down the Christian message or deliver a superficial teaching based on trending books or blogs rather than the profounder mysteries of the Faith that Christians have studied over the centuries, with the Holy Scriptures as their source. As the apostles lamented '... by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food (!)' (Hebrews 5.12). Rather than moving people beyond their self-centeredness, non-denominational groups emphasize how it's all about you, just like today's advertisement industry.

YOU LOSE SIGHT OF THE GOSPEL. Many non-denominational groups tend to replace the preaching of the biblical 'Good News' (Gospel - that the reconciliation of Heaven and Earth has been achieved by Jesus Christ) - with the message of self-improvement. Reducing the atonement Jesus has made by His death on the cross and His resurrection to a mere 'back-story', the ongoing theme in non-denominational churches is our burden to please God by every day and in every way becoming better and better. It is not that they deny we are 'justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' (Romans 3.24). They simply don't preach about that, choosing to preach human works to please God, almost as though by our works we earn God's favour.

PRAYER: We thank you God for leading us sinners and beggars to find the treasure and pearl of great price that is your Holy Church through which we have the Gospel that is able to save those who believe it by the power of your Holy Spirit. By that same spirit give us thankful hearts to gratefully acknowledge Your grace and mercy to the glory of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our strength and Redeemer, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.Why not join a 'non-denom' church? What do we have to lose?'

'Lift High the... Crucifix'!

When I preach about Moses lifting up the bronze serpent for the healing of God's rebellious and sinful people (Numbers 21.4-9), I recall how, when Cheryl and I first visited Redeemer Lutheran Church in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, we were both struck by the dramatic sight of a nearly life-sized crucifix hanging high over the altar. It was then that we joined the ranks of the many who have likewise found the crucifix at this church to be surely one of its most striking features.

Some, who visit the church, unfamiliar with such a sight, ask us why we don’t have a simple “empty” cross up there. “Why a crucifix?” they ask. And there is a very good answer to that question.  What answer do you think was given to visitors to the Temple in Jerusalem, thousands of years ago, who witnessed the gory animal sacrifices that took place there, as in the Tabernacle before it? They would be told that God commanded such sacrificial spectacles so that people could see a sight that symbolized the penalty for sin and the cost in blood required to atone for sin and guilt. “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” as the Bible says (Hebrews 9:22).  

Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ Himself teaches us, that, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).  Although, with those words, Jesus is not commanding the use of crucifixes in His Church, we do have the same God today who commanded those Old Testament spectacles to be seen in His temple long ago, even though such sacrifices, could not provide the ultimate atonement for sin. In the New Testament, the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, DOES pay for our sins. 

Should believers not now gaze upon the image of the crucified Christ? I would suggest that since, long ago, the eyes of the faithful were to look upon sacrifices that only symbolized the coming atonement of Christ, much more, now that the death of God's Son, on a cross, actually achieved the redemption of the human race once and for all, should we have before our eyes this image of Jesus! To his churches in Galatia who were in danger of losing the true Gospel, St. Paul wrote, 'O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified' (3.1).  Publicly displaying a crucifix is a way of pointing to the true Gospel!

I like to draw people’s attention to the fact that many sports trophies include a statue, at the top of the trophy, of a player winning their victory. The gleaming figure on a softball trophy will be carrying a bat. A golfing trophy may feature a man swinging a driver. On a crucifix we see the figure of a man winning a victory over sin, death and the devil that He graciously shares with all of us. “Go spread your trophies at His feet and crown Him Lord of all”!

An empty cross makes a great logo, in so far as it goes. Yet, “We preach Christ crucified” (I Cor. 1:22).  In his liturgical notes, Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary Professor Tom Winger writes, “… the cross itself is a powerful symbol of the faith, but its real meaning lies in the One who was crucified upon it. It is Christ’s suffering and death upon that gruesome instrument of torture, which paid for the sins of the whole world. Even more, by showing the body of Christ, we confess that Christ continues to be present with us bodily to bring to us the forgiveness He has won, especially as He gives us His Body to eat in His Supper”.

This is why we, in the Lutheran Church are pleased to “lift high the cross, the Son of God proclaim…” as we do, with a crucifix.   

The Church - Hospital or Gymnasium?

‘…whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God’

 (Luke 5.31-32)

Is the Church a hospital or a gymnasium?   Do you support science or faith in God?   Is he an intellectual or athletic?  Is she a Packers fan or a Pittsburgher?  Are you ‘Confessional’ or ‘Missional’?  Is church music traditional or contemporary?  Does your church teach discipleship or evangelism?  Are you a ‘sinner’ or a ‘saint’?  Is God just or loving?  Is He the Lord of the living or of the dead?  Can you ‘have your cake and eat it, too’? 

Must we always choose between ‘opposites’, or can some things be ‘both/and’?  Life is full of things that are truly opposites - true ‘antitheses’.  But we hear a lot of false antitheses too.  We hear one thing pitted against another, not always for good reasons, causing, in some cases, unnecessary conflict. 

In rhetoric, a false antithesis is an example of a logical fallacy.  Although that may sound rather academic, as it impacts everything from communication to cooperation between people, false antitheses are a serious matter, especially when they become the conventional view of a society.

Perhaps you feel that false antitheses are be more common in youth than in old age, but that, too, could be a false antithesis.  Older people can be as polarized by a false antithesis as people of any other age.  In my case, early in my career, I remember being challenged to choose sides in a debate about whether the Church was a hospital or a gymnasium.   

Now, this many years later, I’m like ‘seriously’?  Surely the church has aspects of both a hospital and a gymnasium as does any health facility that includes both clinical therapy and physiotherapy.  What both a hospital and a gymnasium have in common is that they both provide a safe supportive place for healing and exercise.  Both of them exist for the benefit of those who use them.

We come to church as people with souls ailing from sin and guilt.  We go to Divine Services, not as the “righteous who need no repentance”(Luke 15.7), but as the sick, requiring divine healing through the forgiveness of sins delivered in the Church by means of God’s word and sacraments.  As Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.   I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5.31-32)  At the same time, we also come to church, as God’s forgiven people – sanctified as well as justified - to exercise those qualities as God’s holy people, that we will need to have if we are to engage others in the wider world effectively.  Again, as Jesus said, “love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.34-35).

So do we belong to the Lord while we are alive, or only when we die?  Beware of a false antithesis.  For, “…whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s”.

Serving you on our journey together

Every day of year many people will find themselves seated for considerable lengths of time on both sides of an aisle all facing forward. Crowded together like sheep, they will be served by smartly dressed persons who assist them as they all proceed on a journey, the outcome of which is not in their hands, but rests in the hands of a skilled Pilot. As they are gathered together they will be offered some nourishment that some will refuse. They will be expected to look at some printed material and listen carefully to what is being said - although many will ignore the speaker. They will be told that they are required to comply with the instructions of those who tell them how to be saved.  Where are they?

If you can see a resemblance between going to church and traveling on a commercial airline - then you I and are on the same page. For there is a resemblance that is worth thinking about. especially from the perspective of a pastor.

It seems to me that a useful comparison may be made between pastors and flight crew/flight attendants, as the above riddle suggests.

1. Flight attendants do not pilot the aircraft on the journey - neither do pastors determine the course of people's lives.
2. Flight crew do not own the airline - neither do pastors own their churches.
3. Flight attendants do represent the airline and its image and therefore wear a nice uniform and maintain their appearance. Pastors, too, should look smart and take care to represent the church well in all they do.

The instructions given by the flight crew are to be respected and heeded. Federal regulations require that all passengers comply with the instructions given by flight attendants. Likewise the Holy Scriptures require that all church members respect the instruction and guidance of pastors as they have the best interests of the whole church in mind and of individuals in particular who must all answer to a higher Authority - God.

The instructions given by flight attendants may actually save you from death. The instructions given by pastors often involve facts and the administration of the means of grace that can make all the difference between eternal life and eternal death.

Most of all, flight attendants never cease to care about and care for passengers. As long as you are on their flight, the flight crew will try to do all they can to make your journey a positive one.

British Airways used to have the slogan "To Fly - To Serve". That was a reference to the mission of the flight crew as they committed themselves to attending to their passengers' every need. At the same time, the flight crew shared the fate of their passengers should anything happen during the flight.

It is the mission of pastors to serve in a similar way - to attend to the needs of the people entrusted into their care. And during the journey of life to put the needs of their fellow-passengers at the forefront of their minds.

Like airlines, there are many choices of religions available to you. But instead of saying, "Thank you for choosing us," I am going to say, "Thank God that He chose you, called you by the Gospel, enlightens you with His gifts, sanctifies you, and keeps you in the true faith!"   We hope that you have a pleasant journey!

Prepared for the 'Marriage Supper'

In the Book of Revelation, the author, St. John, tells us he heard these words spoken in Heaven,  'Let us rejoice and exult and give him (Jesus Christ) the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;   it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.   And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."

In his vision in Revelation 19:7-10, John saw and heard the heavenly multitudes praising God because the wedding feast of the Lamb—literally the "marriage supper"—was about to begin. The concept of the marriage supper is better understood in light of the wedding customs in the time of Christ.

In biblical times, after a couple were engaged, the next step in the process usually occurred about a year later, when the bridegroom, accompanied by his male friends, went to the house of the bride at midnight, creating a torchlight parade through the streets. The bride would know in advance this was going to take place, of course, and so she would be ready with her maidens, and, when the groom’s party had arrived, both groups would combine and  join in a the parade going back to the bridegroom's home where a feast was prepared. If the sun went down during the course of these events, it became a torch-lit parade, or one involving oil-fueled lamps.  This custom is the basis of the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

In Jesus' parable, five out of ten maidens failed to prepare for the Wedding, because they didn’t have enough oil in their lamps and were gone to get more when the Groom arrived.  By the time they got to the Groom’s house, the door was shut forever. In my past sermons on this reading, I have explored what was symbolized by the oil, perhaps the ‘fuel’ that keeps faith alive – difficult to quantify – but essential in order to have a living, burning flame of trust in Christ, necessary in order to be faithful to God until the end of our earthly lives.  Yet, to only speak of the ‘oil’ being depleted in this parable,  is to speak of effect of their poor preparations for the wedding, not the cause of them.

What caused their problem is just as worthy of consideration.  For without the cause, the terrible effect would not have resulted.  So, what was it that causes preparations for the great Wedding event with our Saviour to be fatally lacking?  In the case of the five foolish maidens, it was complacency and lethargy.  ‘As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept’, Jesus taught.  What is the lesson for us?  How many church members fail to prepare to meet their Lord by over-estimating how much time they have?  How many of us waste our time, acting as though it’s OK to sleep through our church membership and hardly do anything, and we’ll still be OK?

How many church members let their attendance at Divine Services go by the wayside, and their use of God’s means of grace drop off or get ‘postponed’ until an indefinite time elapses when it might be ‘convenient’ to study a bit of God’s word, or give one’s soul some morsel of nourishment?

And how many of us neglect to serve our Saviour, trusting that others will do it for us, as though they could give us some of the oil from their lamps, as ours are going out?   My friends, it does not work that way;  ‘fail to plan and you plan to fail’, as the old British army saying goes.

We cannot afford to fail in our ‘Wedding Preparations’ as Christians – the stakes are too high.  Yet, five out of ten of those in the parable, who should have been prepared, gambled and lost – big time.  Five out of ten – that is a terrible rate of failure, yet in life those who would disciple people, their fellow parishioners, their neighbours, their own family, often find out that this tragic ratio seems to appear again and again.  Look at the ‘rate of attrition’ among those who join the church through confirmation?  Some years are better than others, but averaged together, the rate is around 50% (according to a survey by Barna)!  Five out of ten Christians show every likelihood of having lamps with no oil when the Bridegroom comes on the great Day of the Lord.  And their failure will have the same cause – complacency and lethargy about exercising or even maintaining their Christian faith – the one thing needful above all others – when the Day of the Lord comes.

The wedding feast will be THE place to be, the only place and the greatest place.  How tragic that so many will not make it in.

And their failure will not be for want of God’s provision for them.  Hear His call of invitation to the wedding Feast:
‘Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live!  (Isaiah 55.1-3)

On another occasion, ‘Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servantsa to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business’ (Matthew 22.1-5)  Treating that invitation with contempt and complacency was a BAD idea.  It did not end well for those who have been invited, but could not be bothered.

In the case of the Wedding Feast we are talking about – the Heavenly Marriage Supper of the Lamb, it is not mere livestock been slain in preparation.  The host Himself has been led like a Lamb to the slaughter, so that we might be forgiven of sin and welcome at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Jesus Himself, our heavenly Bridegroom has borne the tattered garment of our sins that He might give us the spotless wedding garment we need to attend at the heavenly Feast.  He has taken away the sin and guilt - that would have disqualified us - by nailing it to His cross.

He went through death and the grave in order to prepare this place for us.  No one can say His love for us was lacking or His preparations for us fall short.  No.  He has done all that needs to be done to make this Wedding Feast possible.  The Master of the Feast has spared no expense for us, but given His only begotten Son, that whosoever trusts in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Clearly preparations for the 'Marriage Supper' take place on two sides:  The Master of the Feast makes preparation, and His guests must prepare, too, that they may enter into the Joy of the Lord.

What St. John’s Revelation depicts for us, is  Heaven as a wedding feast.  And his original audience would have known that the feast is the third of three phases for weddings in general, and a picture of the preparations that must be made so all the Faithful, every believer, should have full fellowship and participation in it.

The first phase in the heavenly Wedding is a betrothal – an engagement - completed on earth when each individual believer is baptized into Christ as Saviour.  That is when the ‘dowry paid to the Bridegroom’s Father’ is accepted.  Those who trust in Christ as Saviour, offer the Father their faith in the payment fully made by Jesus.  This dowry we have through Jesus Christ is the only payment the Father will accept.

So Regeneration from unbelief to faith is when the Church is “betrothed” to Christ and when, like wise maidens  in the parable, all believers should be watching and waiting for the appearance of the Bridegroom (this first phase lasts until physical death or the Second Coming of Christ – whichever comes first).

The second phase – the procession to the feast would be the resurrection of the body at the end of the world, where all the faithful who sleep in the dust will arise and join together with those who are alive at the great Day of the Lord, in a procession through ‘the air’, as St. Paul puts it,  with both groups  caught up together to meet the Lord Jesus Christ who will claim His bride and take her to the Father's house – there to be forever, body and soul, with the Lord in Heaven.

The marriage supper imagery in St. John’s vision of Heaven as a neverending wedding feast.  There in Heaven will be the complete  Church as the bride of Christ, the faithful believers of the Old Testament and the New Testament saints – all made holy by the Lord who is praised with these words, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever’.
(Revelation 5:12-14)

May God help us, throughout our lives on earth to make preparations for this great Feast to come, with vigilance, energy from His Holy Spirit, and with Faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  Amen

Jesus, the Bridegroom of the Church

We read in the prophet Isaiah, God said to His people: '...your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer'  (Isaiah 54.4-8).

As most people know, women have gotten a pretty raw deal much of the time, in their relationships with men. Whether it be the current notorious conditions for women in the Islamic world, or in the developing world, or historically, in centuries past (including biblical times), women have often been neglected, disadvantaged, disenfranchised, deserted, and abused. For many women it has always been a matter of 'men – you can't live with 'em, and can't live without 'em'.

When marriages suffer or are destroyed by men and women, God's word tells us it is our fault, our sin, that presents us with this sad state of affairs. When men are unable, or unwilling to be good husbands, they stand before God guilty of violating His word. Likewise, when married women are unwilling to fulfill their God-given vocation, because of sin on their part, they fall short of the mark, too.

So, given that marriage is so characterized by sin, failure and pain, why does God use it as a metaphor to describe His relationship to His people? A few reasons that spring to mind are the fact that the imperfections and flaws that we see in marriage from this side of the Fall, do not detract from the fact that marriage was – originally - a good and perfect thing prior to the Fall.

At the same time God use flawed marriage after the Fall, to depict His relationship to us sinners, with Him being the innocent party and we being the guilty party. As such, the marriage metaphor is as instructive to us as it is descriptive of how the love of God is willing and able to overcome the imperfections in our relationship and, indeed, to heal them. In this God gives us a great example to imitate, as well.

The biblical picture of God, as the faithful husband, restoring our relationship to Himself to the point where we are as good with Him as Eve was with Adam before the Fall, also gives us a picture of the blessedness to come when God restores His fallen creation in the new world to come, a paradise that will never fall again.

Ultimately, marriage is a great illustration, since we get the concept of wife and husband, bride and groom. This is why we can learn so much from it about our relationship to God.

For example, where our Lord Jesus says, (as we say last week), that husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her – husbands are to love their wives, as their own bodies; We who know Jesus can see why this is His expectation of husbands. Because Christ Himself is the Groom, who loves His bride, the Church – and is willing to treat her, not as her sins deserve, but according to His great mercy as our Redeemer and Saviour.

And, what a passionate picture Scripture gives us of how God's unfaithful people are like an unfaithful wife! Many, many times in His word, God describes his people leaving Him to run after 'other gods' as 'adultery'. In the Old Testament, worshiping other gods is called 'adultery' almost as often as it is called 'idolatry'. As a particularly vivid illustration, God even told one of his prophets (Hosea) to marry a prostitute to serve as an object lesson for the way that God's people had been unfaithful to Him by worshiping other gods.

God makes the case in His word, that our sins against Him have given Him grounds for divorcing us. It is written in the Old Testament laws of Moses that a man could obtain a divorce from his wife on many grounds.

"If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 24:1-4).

Yet, even though God's case for divorce against us is a strong one, and even though it would 'bring sin upon the land...' if He did divorce us and then re-marry us, that is what God was prepared to do out of love for His fallen people. Remember the words of tonight's first reading? '...your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you," says the LORD, your Redeemer.

When did God hide His face from His people because of their sins? Isaiah referred to the fact that God had used the Babylonians to take God's people away in exile from the land. And then there was the whole period of time between the last Old Testament prophet, and the arrival in Israel of John the Baptist, the final prophet to prepare the way for Christ.

But don't forget, what we learned last week: that Jesus Christ embodies God's people Israel, and that when in that moment of dereliction on the cross, when His Father forsook His Son for our sakes, there God 'hid His face' from Israel, and deserted Israel, that He might gather us in and have compassion on us with everlasting love for the sake of Christ, who was forsaken for us.

Ultimately, that period of separation came to an end when the Bridegroom did arrive in the person of Christ, to 'leave His Father and mother and cleave to His wife' – the Church.

When he walked among us, Jesus of Nazareth said of His presence on earth, 'the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. (Mark 2.19-20).

'While I am in the world, I am the light of the world', Jesus once said. Now He is saying, while I am in the world I am the groom who is with my friends and will soon be joined to my bride.

And when did Jesus leave His mother? When, from the cross He looked at His mother, weeping there and the disciple He loved standing with her (St. John). ' Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home' (John 19.26-27). And when did He leave His Father? When Jesus, for our salvation came down from Heaven, left His Father's side, descended from His Father's throne and went to the throne of the cross, where he bled and died there.

In that place of execution our Bridegroom gave Himself up for His Bride, the Church and shed His blood that He might cleanse her and wash her from sin, so that she might be cleansed and presentable to Himself, 'without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish' (Eph. 5.25-27). Christ was forsaken by His Father – 'the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God' (1 Peter 3.18).

In this is the love of Christ, the Bridegroom for His Bride, the Church revealed: As that well-known hymn puts it, 'From Heaven He came and sought her, to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought her and for her life he died'.

Therefore, we should take the picture of Christ as the Church's loving Bridegroom as both instructive and illustrative for us as we live out our daily lives in relation to God and to each other.

This illustration, this metaphor of something we so commonly see every day, is useful for us as we contemplate the love of that which is not seen. As St. John writes, ' Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world' (1 John 4.11-14). Amen.