In our weakness...

"Our churches operate as fallen powers when the gospel is no longer a stumbling block, when the ‘foolishness’ and ‘weakness’ of God outlined in 1Corinthians 1-2 are discarded in favor of status, position, wealth, popularity, acceptability to the modern or postmodern minds, or power. Only in the paradox of glory through suffering can we find the truth of God’s triumph, not as an oppressive power, but in the power of submission to death. Churches have lost their vocation when they please the world too much and lose the scandal of justification by grace—the helplessness that sticks in the craw of those who want to be able to fix themselves by themselves. "(Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God Marva J. Dawn)



As I was preparing to post this, last night, with winds gusting in Sacramento close to thirty miles an hour the power went out. I laugh now but there is somethings one cannot do without the power of electricity. All that the church does must be dependent on her union with Jesus Christ. The words above in the quote are because usually the words of others are so much clearer than mine, and the words below, the biblical text, because always the word of God gives life to those who will receive it:

em>For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the cleverness I will set aside.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and the Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)

A spirituality that knows no grace

Yesterday I saw a twitter on The # pcusa Daily which pointed to an article on an unofficial Catholic site entitled “Queering the Church.” The article, “Presbyterian Inclusion: Ratification Reflects the Bigger Transformation of Christian Response to Homoerotic Love,” was about how passage of 10-A by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will affect the rest of Christianity.

The author of the article, Terence Weldon, writes:

This process is clearly of fundamental importance to lesbigaytrans Presbyterians in the USA, but I believe it has far greater importance for the entire Christian church, worldwide: it is just one, local manifestation of a much bigger process. The ECLA took a similar decision in 2009, and recently 33 retired Methodist bishops called for that denomination to do the same. Three openly gay and partnered bishops have been ordained in the Episcopal and Swedish Lutheran churches and the German Lutherans have no problem with pastors living with same sex partners. The process extends beyond the ordination of gay clergy. There is increasing willingness in many local churches and (some national denominations) to bless same sex partnerships or even celebrate gay weddings in Church.

As can be seen by the link provided in the last line of the above quote, Weldon is also making a case for the soon occurrence of same sex marriage in the PCUSA as well as other mainline churches. That article is “Gay Marriage: Coming (Soon?) to a Church Near You.”

Weldon looking at the changes in the ECLA and their new acceptance for ordination of those who are in “committed, monogamous and faithful partnerships” goes on to write:

The Assembly did not approve a parallel proposal to provide for gay church weddings – but simple logical consistency will ensure that Lutherans must recognize that if all pastors are to be held equally accountable, equal opportunities for publicly declaring those monogamous, faithful and committed relationships must be provided – which will mean marriage where it is legally possible, and blessings for less formal unions where it is not.

Weldon adds the PCUSA to his list of those who will easily follow allowance of ordination of LGBT with church weddings where legal.

These, supposedly prophetic words are not all that is offered on the site. Some tend to think that LGBT rights are the only interest of such advocates. But since this is really a spiritual matter that would leave western Christianity in shambles one must understand that this is a full blown attempt to turn the church into a worldly unfaithful institution. And it is not simply a gay issue; it is a spiritual battle for the soul of the church.

One article, written to promote the idea of gay/lesbian spirituality, is Homoerotic Spirituality. After an attempt to show that most Christians have denounced any kind of sex as sinful, the author looks at sex and other religions. He does this to show how sex and spirituality go together. One weird example he brings up, is the Islamic idea of 1000 virgins for those who commit suicide for their faith. Another is tantric sexuality which is sex used by some Buddhists and Hindus to aide in the dissolution of the senses as a means of attaining absorption into the one. It actually does not lift up sex but uses it. Weldon also mentions the use of temple prostitutes in worship.

After naming all of these aberrations of sexuality Weldon writes, “It is useful, then to recognise the increasing signs that more and more people are recognising that sexual expression is not only not necessarily sinful, but can be a positive expression of the sacred, and has a close association with spirituality.”

If the Christian church is touched or changed by any of these ideas it will pull the curtain of night over itself.

Weldon also attempts over and over to pull the saints of the church into his web. In one article, "Eternal Bliss" - SS Felicity and Perpetua, March 7th, while admitting that there was probably no sexual relationship between the two martyrs he nonetheless calls their relationship queer.

Going on to other early martyrs he names them and then admits there is no real evidence that proves they are homosexuals. What he does describe, in his misguided attempt to make them fit in his queer community, is the deep love that Christians through the centuries have had for one another. It is a part of that unity of the faith that seems so elusive in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); it only comes from the deep love the Christian holds for their Lord.

There are so many more vile articles one could wander through on this site such as one that attempts to prove that the Magi, who brought gifts to Jesus, were gay. But my point in all of this is to show that to open the door to LGBT ordination is opening the door to so much more. There is a darkness that wishes to flood our lives with a spirituality that knows no grace. Where humanity enters with full force into unrepentant sin, mocking what God calls righteous, calling good evil and evil good, there they enter into communion with the un-god, forgetting the Lord who in love died for their sins and transformation.

Jesus and salvation: wrapped up in our voting

John Vest writing about, First Principles and Like-Mindedness and a new church development training conference listed four principles which a presenter felt should be agreed upon before a committee for new church development began planning. The principles are:

§ Who is Jesus?
§ What is Church?
§ What is Salvation?
§ What is Service?

Vest felt that a conversation on those topics was important but not a consensus on the answers. He wrote, “I’m a little troubled by the suggestion that we must arrive at a consensus on these matters, because I’m not sure how realistic—or necessary—it is for an NCD team, a congregation, or a denomination to be in agreement on each of these questions”

He also stated that,“ When it comes to new church development—or any expression of the church’s mission—do I really need to find people that I can agree with on first principles before beginning missional work together? Should people that cannot agree with me find people that they can agree with and go about mission in a parallel but separate way from what I end up doing with people that I agree with?’ These are good questions but Vest’s assumptions I believe are totally misguided, as are the assumptions of many others.

Sure, it is possible to build a Habitat for Humanity house with even unbelievers. It is possible to stand side by side with a diverse mix of religious people and feed the poor in the inner city or rebuild communities torn by disasters.

But for the orthodox that part of mission only deals with the fallen- physical world; but there is a fallen humanity that needs a Savior. The Savior is both God and human. The Savior shed his blood on a cross for the sins of humanity. The Savior, who is both God and human, because he is God and human, forgives and transforms the sinner. That is revelation about the incarnation and redemption as found and known in God’s word. That is the core of mission; bringing that good news about Jesus to lost humanity. It is non-negotiable.

But that brings me to the second part of what I wanted to say.

Vest is right when he writes, “In many ways, the debates we keep having with each other are symptoms of not talking about these foundational issues [the principles he has listed]. But still he says he does not want consensus. He wants discussion, theological debate with out resolution, Nicaea with out choosing the deity of Christ over the created creature of Arianism, the Confessions without confessing. And this is what is happening in our voting.

Those seeking the ordination of practicing GLBT persons think that our polity is the necessary movement of the Holy Spirit. They believe that voting continually on the issue of standards will eventually lead the church to accept a different viewpoint about what God wants for the church. For progressives nothing is fixed, solid or absolute. It is for them, at the moment, like Vest’s ideas about conversation; the outcome will have no real resolution. Although many in the church will not agree they believe voting will make it so. Although scriptures and confessions will not agree they believe voting will make it so.

But what the progressive side does not understand is that the orthodox are not voting as a means of deciding the outcome of what God wants, they are instead, with their vote, defending the faith against a sinful invasive cultural decadence. The orthodox are voting as a means of defending the faith which upholds Jesus as both God and human. They are voting as a means of defending the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross whose bloody death brings forgiveness and transformation to all sinners who repent.

The whole of our faith is wrapped up in the voting. Sinful, weak and needy though we are, we are standing where the apostles, martyrs and followers of Jesus Christ have stood through all the centuries. It isn’t just about voting. It isn’t just about gay sex. It is about Jesus Christ as Lord of the church.

Power & Privilege and the Christian life

Below is a video of Vice Moderator Landon Whitsitt interviewing Professor Margaret Aymer. They are discussing “power and privilege and what we can do with it.”



Now to be honest perhaps Aymer and Whitsitt are not talking about living the Christian life. But I am. So the Christian life, is it about using our power and privilege whatever that might be?

Believers do have power and privilege but where do they reside. It isn’t the personal power and privilege of the Christian but belongs to Jesus Christ the Lord. The Christian's power, their only real power, comes from Jesus and his resurrection. By union with Christ the believer has life that is full, abundant and eternal. And not only is it the power of Jesus’ resurrection, but it is also the promise of Christ’s righteousness, and his suffering. Paul writes:

“But whatsoever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law , but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:7-11)"

And privilege? It is not the privilege that race or nation, class or wealth, education and position offer. Those belong to the world and as Paul did, so the Christian must also count them as loss because of Christ. Instead is the wondrous privilege of knowing Jesus Christ. This involves everlasting life with Christ, As Ralph Martin puts it, “The person and work of Christ are inseparably joined. To gain him is to have him as one’s all-prevailing merit; and, in the classic words of Melanchthon, to know him in the intimacy of personal trust and surrender is to know his saving benefits.”

From this relationship which has nothing to do with personal power or privilege but with Christ’s great self-sacrifice the Christian walks in the good works that God has provided, never in contradiction to his word, always uplifting the person and work of Jesus Christ. The works, always in conformity to the work of the suffering and resurrected Christ, will be both comforting, redemptive and transformative.

Seventy years!

Today, March 12, I am enjoying being seventy years old for the first time. I intend to take some time off for awhile.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine

Pastor John Stuart (Stushie) of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville Tennessee has written an impassioned blog posting about the direction the Presbyterian Church is taking as it comes close to voting away any sexual standards. His post is found at Heaven’s Highway. The title is, Cradling the Grave - 1 Timothy 4

Stuart writes, “The denomination that I belong to finds itself at an unprecedented and unenviable crossroads. Within the next couple of months, the current ordination standards are going to be changed. This means that people who are in an active relationship, whether homosexual or heterosexual, who are not married, can be ordained to ministry if their local presbytery agrees. The only barriers to ministry and eldership will now be academic ones, but even they could be challenged.”

He also writes, “The Christian church will flourish elsewhere. Faithful Christian communities will grow and we will watch with enviable eyes as they are blessed. There will come a day when we will curse this moment in our denomination’s history…”

I wish, no pray, that all the ‘moderate members’ of this denomination would at last understand what is happening. Our congregations are being sold out to the god of this world. The culture of this generation is about to become the acceptable culture of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). As our culture tumbles into deeper darkness the denomination will tumble into a deadening antinomianism, a turning away from the privilege the redeemed possess, that is, to live the law within the freedom of Christ's redemptive transformation. Jesus fulfilled the law, now united to him we walk in that freedom.

We are transformed and given the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we might walk in newness of life. God is not doing a new thing, he has done a new thing already and in Christ we belong to newness. We are washed and made clean that we might praise our Lord with purity of heart. With the help of Jesus we keep catching up to the righteousness he has given us. He wills that we should walk in good works “which God prepared beforehand.” Eph (2:10)

Soon our churches will be emptied or filled with broken people who will find no balm in Gilead, no healing for sin sick souls. We cannot rightly preach Jesus when we do not preach his love for the outcast and the maimed. And his love entails their redemption, forgiveness and transformation. May God turn our hearts to Jesus and make us hungry to do his will at all cost.

A song for Lent

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison of his love for Paul Gerhardt's hymns. Here is one for the beginning of lent:




A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth

1. A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,
The guilt of all men bearing;
And laden with the sins of earth,
None else the burden sharing!
Goes patient on, grow weak and faint,
To slaughter led without complaint,
That spotless life to offer;
Bears shame and stripes, and wounds and death,
Anguish and mockery, and saith,
"Willing all this I suffer."

2. This Lamb is Christ, the soul's great Friend,
The Lamb of God, our Savior;
Him God the Father chose to send
To gain for us His favor.
"Go forth, My Son," the Father saith,
"And free men from the fear of death,
From guilt and condemnation.
The wrath and stripes are hard to bear,
But by Thy Passion men shall share
The fruit of Thy salvation."

3. "Yea, Father, yea, most willingly
I'll bear what Thou commandest;
My will conforms to Thy decree,
I do what Thou demandest.
"O wondrous Love, what hast Thou done!
The Father offers up His Son!
The Son, content, descendeth!
O Love, how strong Thou art to save!
Thou beddest Him within the grave
Whose word the mountains rendeth.

4. From morn till eve my theme shall be
Thy mercy's wondrous measure;
To sacrifice myself for Thee
Shall be my aim and pleasure.
My stream of life shall ever be
A current flowing ceaselessly,
Thy constant praise outpouring.
I'll treasure in my memory,
O Lord, all Thou hast done for me,
Thy gracious love adoring.

5. Of death I am no more afraid,
New life from Thee is flowing;
Thy cross affords me cooling shade
When noonday's sun is glowing.
When by my grief I am opprest,
On Thee my weary soul shall rest
Serenely as on pillows.
Thou art my Anchor when by woe
My bark is driven to and fro
On trouble's surging billows.

6. And when Thy glory I shall see
And taste Thy kingdom's pleasure,
Thy blood my royal robe shall be,
My joy beyond all measure.
When I appear before Thy throne,
Thy righteousness shall be my crown,-
With these I need not hide me.
And there, in garments richly wrought
As Thine own bride, I shall be brought
To stand in joy beside Thee.