The Craw

On the Road to Rome?

I wear a robe on Sunday and a clerical collared shirt during the week. For some, this indicates that I am headed on a road to Roman Catholicism. Really?

Here are the reasons why I am not a Roman Catholic:

1. I believe in Justification by Faith Alone through Christ Alone. No additions, no subtractions and I preach this undiluted.

2. I believe in Sola Scriptura. I do not reject tradition as so many in the Protestant world do thinking that each man is a hermeneutical island all to himself. I embrace tradition but it is always in submission to God’s revealed Word which is set forth in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. The rejection of tradition is a novelty of the Radical Reformation and something that the Magisterial Reformers (Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli) condemned.

3. While I think Episcopal governance is a good system of church order (Reformed folk are practical Episcopalians since every Presbytery has a Big Dog) I reject the authority of a magisterium and singular bishop who speaks ex cathedra. The only infallible source of revelation is the Bible.

4. I reject as unscriptural Mary’s office as Co-Mediatrix and the perpetual See and Pontiff of Rome.

5. I believe that the sacraments do not operate mechanically and automatically ex opere operato but that the benefits that are offered are appropriated by faith. They do not work automatically simply because they are performed. In the case of a child, this faith will appropriate the benefits of baptism over time as faith grows (seed faith). This is just good old-time Calvinism.

All this being said, I want state that I believe the church should visibly be one and I believe that one day in time and space it will be one (John 17:20-21). Since I believe this I strive to be as united to the visible church as possible so I dialogue with, work with, and have pastoral friends across denominational boundaries as long as they affirm Nicene orthodoxy.

So, why do I wear a collar and a robe (something that most Lutherans, Presbyterians and Anglicans do)? Because I am not a businessman and I am not a surfer, two of the more popular pastoral “uniforms”, I am a clergyman. I believe a pastor should look like a pastor.

I Missed That One

I just recently noticed this blip from the preface to Westminster Confession of Faith as presented on the PCA website:

Other than these changes, and the American amendments of Chapter XXIII on the civil magistrate (adopted in 1789), this is the Confession and Catechisms as agreed upon by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster which met from 1643-1647. The Caruthers edition of the Confession and Catechisms, which is based upon the original manuscript written by Cornelius Burgess is the Edition presented to and adopted by the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America.

Cornelius Burgess was a high sacramentalist who sat on the Westminster Assembly's committee that drafted the baptism sections of the standards. He also known for writing the book "The Baptismal Regeneration of Elect Infants."

Sermons

A recent White Horse Inn program featured Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle who mentioned he often preaches sermons that are over an hour (sometimes even two). The hosts of the show ooed and aahed. Before I say anything further, I want to say that I think Pastor Driscoll is a very talented man and I am sure he presents his sermons well and in a lively fashion but he ought to qualify what he says with a "don't try this at home." What I mean is that only a very small handful of men can pull off an hour sermon that: (1) keeps the hearers attention (2) actually has a point (not 25 sub-points) and, (3) is not a smokescreen for a lack of an actual service of worship.

I guess I've grown weary of hearing romantical stories about great pulpiteers who preached for 4 hours and then got back into their crows nest pulpits and "yea, preached another two more." All while the crowd wept and 500 were converted. Normally, you're squirming in your pew and counting ceiling tiles in such a setting.

The sermons I preach at St. Andrew's rarely exceed 25 minutes and there is a reason for this. The Word preached is a part of the service of worship. I am a minister of Word and Sacrament. There's much more to the service of worship than a sermon. In traditional Protestant liturgies (Christian liturgies in general) there is a trajectory. The people of God are going somewhere and that is not to the pulpit. The service culminates at the table where God meets with his people and feeds them. All of His people should be there and that includes, as it did through all of the history of redemption, children.

This takes me to my final point. How many children are sitting through 1-2 hour sermons? Why are long sermons held up as an ideal? Is there some specific biblical warrant for long sermons? I think we, in Evangelicalism, have a tendency to over-emphasize the eschatological element in our services,: "this could be the last time we meet." In this scenario the believer needs to be reminded of every possible thing and for the unbeliever they need to be persuaded to repent from every possible angle. Do we really need the kitchen sink thrown in? Though each Sunday is exceptionally special in that Kingdom of God is visibly manifested it is at the same time quite ordinary in that we will do it again next week and the week after. We have a lifetime together to flesh out and rejoice in the mysteries of God.

So I will conclude with my sermon maxim: "Better to have one glass of fine Claret than 100 bottles of Two Buck Chuck."

Extinguished lampstand

Here is an interesting set of photographs of Gary Indiana's City Methodist Church as it appears today (scroll down and click "Gary's Methodist Church"). The church only had a run of 50 years before it was abandoned. As you can see, it must have been a magnificent place once, filled with well-dressed families from the various socio-economic classes that made up this once muscular city's population. Baptisms, weddings, Christmas Eve services...the sound of children's laughter. Only the distant echo of the life of the church imprinted on the sad cavernous ruin remains. It's a sobering thought.

Here's a story on the life of the church.

Politipaleanism

Well, if you're a conservative Presbyterian at least you can say things have not gotten this bad. There's a real donnybrook raging over in the ECUS. More here.

Hmmm...

My lectures at the University of Basel are on "Systematic Theology." In Basel and elsewhere the juxtaposition of this noun and this adjective is based on a tradition which is quite recent and highly problematic. Is not the term "Systematic Theology" as paradoxical as "wooden iron?" One day this conception will disappear just as suddenly as it has come into being. Karl Barth

Anyone who thinks Barth wasn't qualified to speak on the subject hasn't suffered through reading even a portion of his behemothian and small-fonted Church Dogmatics.

Very Nice

I recently tried a dram of this Kentucky Bourbon and all I can say is "wow, that's nice."

Divorce

I just preached through Matthew 5:27-32 on the subject of divorce and an interesting reverse parallelism arose between the Testaments/Covenants. In the Old Covenant God divorces his people as a class for their unfaithfulness:

Isaiah 50:1 Thus says the LORD:"Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

Jeremiah 3:8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

Yet, he keeps in favor individuals and groups of individuals (prophets, etc.).

In the New Covenant God will not divorce His bride, The Church, as a class:

Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

But he will certainly divorce individuals and even whole churches for unfaithfulness:

John 15:5-6 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Revelation 3:14-16 And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:…So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Coming to a town near you?

Every boom must have it's bust. This was a boom of booms so...

An ominous line from the article:

Dave Webb, principal at Hudson & Marshall, said Michigan had become a "heavy volume" market for his auction firm in recent years, although bigger-money deals were waiting in California, a market he said was ready for the first such auctions of repossessed property in years.

A Little Cat Out of a Big Bag

I'm preparing my Easter sermon from Joshua 10. It contains this fascinating pericope:

26 And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees. And they hung on the trees until evening. 27 But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and they set large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day. Joshua 10:26-27

Okay, no more previews.