Some good music....
Picture by Penny Juncker
Picture by Penny Juncker
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A letter to the Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee
I have written my letter, (E-mail) and sent it the the Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee. I know it is a bit preachy and does not address all that should be addressed, but it is what is on my heart.
Presbyterian Church USA
Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee
Office of the General Assembly
Dear members of the PCUSA Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee,
As I read the biblical text for my devotions this morning I was struck by the words of our Lord to Peter in his hunger for food. He with his Hebrew sense of obedience complains to the Lord that he cannot eat the unclean food that he has three times been offered.
The text tells us that in a trance Peter heard the Lord say, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” The food was made clean because the Lord declared it clean. Christ has fulfilled the law for us freeing us from food codes that set the Hebrew people apart in the Hebrew Bible. But like the food humanity cannot be declared clean unless God declares us clean. That is the reason Christ lived, died and was resurrected for us.
But in both food and humanity it is God who declares and cleanses. It is to his word that we must listen. It is to his word that I pray you will resort.
When the Pharisees attempted to draw Jesus into their contemporary arguments about divorce he reached all the way back to the beginning of creation. His reply was, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh?” (Matthew 19: 4b-5)
This is the Lord’s declaration that marriage is meant for a man and a woman. Although about divorce, the text also speaks to same sex marriage since the whole concept of marriage, for our Lord, is based on the creation account of a woman and man created for each other.
Going further God uses the relationship between a husband and a wife to picture the relationship of Jesus Christ to his Church. In both cases it is a holy union based on God’s words to his people. In fact, holiness is a part of both relationships; the one is a picture of the other because of the call to holiness. As Paul writes:
Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Eph 5:25-27)
So returning to Peter’s complaint about eating unclean food and the Lord’s words that what he has cleansed is clean, Jesus had already declared this when he made a distinction between what goes into the stomach and the actions that come from the heart. In the Gospel of Mark, of food he states “…there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”
But of the things that come from the heart, the sins that come from the heart, Jesus states, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22)
All of these are heart problems that need the compassionate love of the Savior to cleanse and turn us around. For this Christ died. He makes us holy with his holiness, he makes us holy in our longing to be holy and because he makes us holy with his holiness we continually repent and move with him.
For the leadership to throw up stumbling blocks while the Holy Spirit' works to sanctify the Church of Jesus Christ is unthinkable. Let us not call good what the Lord does not recognize or call good, adultery, fornication and same sex marriage. Please abide by the words of God and allow grace to continue in the lives of Christ’s people.
Viola Larson
Elder, Fremont Presbyterian Church Sacramento, California
Board member of Theology Matters
Board member of Voices of Orthodox Women
Presbyterian Church USA
Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee
Office of the General Assembly
Dear members of the PCUSA Civil Union and Christian Marriage Committee,
As I read the biblical text for my devotions this morning I was struck by the words of our Lord to Peter in his hunger for food. He with his Hebrew sense of obedience complains to the Lord that he cannot eat the unclean food that he has three times been offered.
The text tells us that in a trance Peter heard the Lord say, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” The food was made clean because the Lord declared it clean. Christ has fulfilled the law for us freeing us from food codes that set the Hebrew people apart in the Hebrew Bible. But like the food humanity cannot be declared clean unless God declares us clean. That is the reason Christ lived, died and was resurrected for us.
But in both food and humanity it is God who declares and cleanses. It is to his word that we must listen. It is to his word that I pray you will resort.
When the Pharisees attempted to draw Jesus into their contemporary arguments about divorce he reached all the way back to the beginning of creation. His reply was, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh?” (Matthew 19: 4b-5)
This is the Lord’s declaration that marriage is meant for a man and a woman. Although about divorce, the text also speaks to same sex marriage since the whole concept of marriage, for our Lord, is based on the creation account of a woman and man created for each other.
Going further God uses the relationship between a husband and a wife to picture the relationship of Jesus Christ to his Church. In both cases it is a holy union based on God’s words to his people. In fact, holiness is a part of both relationships; the one is a picture of the other because of the call to holiness. As Paul writes:
Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Eph 5:25-27)
So returning to Peter’s complaint about eating unclean food and the Lord’s words that what he has cleansed is clean, Jesus had already declared this when he made a distinction between what goes into the stomach and the actions that come from the heart. In the Gospel of Mark, of food he states “…there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.”
But of the things that come from the heart, the sins that come from the heart, Jesus states, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22)
All of these are heart problems that need the compassionate love of the Savior to cleanse and turn us around. For this Christ died. He makes us holy with his holiness, he makes us holy in our longing to be holy and because he makes us holy with his holiness we continually repent and move with him.
For the leadership to throw up stumbling blocks while the Holy Spirit' works to sanctify the Church of Jesus Christ is unthinkable. Let us not call good what the Lord does not recognize or call good, adultery, fornication and same sex marriage. Please abide by the words of God and allow grace to continue in the lives of Christ’s people.
Viola Larson
Elder, Fremont Presbyterian Church Sacramento, California
Board member of Theology Matters
Board member of Voices of Orthodox Women
Monday, July 6, 2009
Some of my friends are women--pastors!
Some of my friends are women—and pastors!
When I was a member of the Assemblies of God, the denomination my husband grew up in, and also one that has always allowed women pastors, I never really liked the sermons the women preached although I didn’t hear that many of them. But I found that my dislike was simply because they, like many of the male pastors, only preached from their spiritual experiences, not really from God’s word.
But today I know better. The women of the Bible portray a wide range of ministries. There are the two Hebrew women, Shiphrah and Puah, who protected the Hebrew male babies in the land of their slavery.
There is Miriam the sister of Aaron and Moses who is referred to in the word of God as a prophetess. That is, one who proclaims the word of God. She led the women of Israel in dance and song because God had delivered the Hebrews. She proclaimed, “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted; the horse and his rider he has hurled into the sea.”
There is Abigail who kept David from sinning and then proclaimed God’s promise to him. “Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God: but the lives of your enemies he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.” (1 Sam 25:29)
There is Rahab who sets the tenor for the book of Joshua with her faith in what God will do for his people Israel. Calvin writes much of her faith including this when she states that “He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath:”
“Here the image of Rahab’s faith appears, as if reflected in a mirror, when casting down all idols she ascribes the government of heaven and earth to the God of Israel alone. For it is perfectly clear that when heaven and earth are declared subject to the God of Israel, there is a repudiation of all the pagan fictions by which the majesty, and power, and glory of God are portioned out among different deities; and hence we see that it is not without cause that two Apostles have honored Rahab’s conduct with the title of faith.”
And I could go on, but instead will introduce you to some ladies who I think are great preachers and pastors.
The first is my friend the Rev. Tracee Hackel who writes the “Girl Preacher” column for the Voices of Orthodox News Letter. She is also on the board of Voices of Orthodox Women and her wonderful care for the word of God and Reformed theology can be seen in this article she wrote a few years ago “Monologue or Dialogue? The Relationship Between Reformed Theology and Contemporary Theologies of Women.”
Another friend is a pastor in Tennessee, The Rev. Terrye McAnally. She is on the board of VOW also, and recently we shared a wonderful lunch in Denver while I was waiting for my plane. We all wear a little white cross with a heart on it meaning we love the cross of Jesus Christ. As we sat talking about the Church, wearing our crosses, the waitress just couldn’t help but ask if we were “nuns.” Terrye said no we were Presbyterians that she was a Pastor and I was an Elder. Then the waitress wanted to know the difference. Terrye said “I preach and she rules” and then we both started laughing. What can you say about a lady who reads Calvin’s Institutes in the original language in which it was written.
When I first became a Presbyterian one of my pastors was a person that everyone will recognize if they were at the GA or know anything about last year’s GA. That is the Rev. Tammy Letts, she was running for Vice Moderator with Rev. Bill Teng. Tammy was instrumental in my husband becoming a Bible study leader. She is such an equipper and encourager. This last Sunday afternoon my husband taught his first class to a group of young men in a maximum Security Facility in Ione California. What a gift Tammy has been to Brad and I and the whole church.
And speaking of GA, I sat behind an amazing woman most of the time at General Assembly watching her pray with and encourage commissioners as the need arose. The Rev.Mary Holder Naegeli not only is a pastor but also teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary in Northern California. In the past, quite a few years ago, I read her sermons on line. And that is when I truly realized that women who preach from the Bible, using proper exegete, have a strong proclamation. They are God’s servants too!
A preacher I have not met face to face is the Rev. Kathy Horstman. When I read her sermons I understand her call and her complete absorption in Reformed theology. I am particularly overcome by the sermon she preached for Consistory member Toby Brown's installation at Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church, Saxonburg, Pennsylvania. That sermon is The Battle is the Lord’s. Which can be found at her blog Not exactly as Preached.
Here is part of her sermon:
"Fearlessly, constantly preach Christ and Him crucified. With all your skill, wield the double-edged sword of the word of God, so your people and your peers may see how it judges and reveals the thoughts and attitudes of man. And remember, you are in the world but not of it. Exercise godly discernment. Fight against the temptation to take sides for or against an issue according to human factions and understandings. Make war on our culture’s sinful tendency to identify Jesus Christ with any human cause or commonwealth, however noble or great. Struggle against the world for the world’s own sake, boldly proclaiming the Gospel of peace through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ."
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When I was a member of the Assemblies of God, the denomination my husband grew up in, and also one that has always allowed women pastors, I never really liked the sermons the women preached although I didn’t hear that many of them. But I found that my dislike was simply because they, like many of the male pastors, only preached from their spiritual experiences, not really from God’s word.
But today I know better. The women of the Bible portray a wide range of ministries. There are the two Hebrew women, Shiphrah and Puah, who protected the Hebrew male babies in the land of their slavery.
There is Miriam the sister of Aaron and Moses who is referred to in the word of God as a prophetess. That is, one who proclaims the word of God. She led the women of Israel in dance and song because God had delivered the Hebrews. She proclaimed, “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted; the horse and his rider he has hurled into the sea.”
There is Abigail who kept David from sinning and then proclaimed God’s promise to him. “Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God: but the lives of your enemies he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.” (1 Sam 25:29)
There is Rahab who sets the tenor for the book of Joshua with her faith in what God will do for his people Israel. Calvin writes much of her faith including this when she states that “He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath:”
“Here the image of Rahab’s faith appears, as if reflected in a mirror, when casting down all idols she ascribes the government of heaven and earth to the God of Israel alone. For it is perfectly clear that when heaven and earth are declared subject to the God of Israel, there is a repudiation of all the pagan fictions by which the majesty, and power, and glory of God are portioned out among different deities; and hence we see that it is not without cause that two Apostles have honored Rahab’s conduct with the title of faith.”
And I could go on, but instead will introduce you to some ladies who I think are great preachers and pastors.
The first is my friend the Rev. Tracee Hackel who writes the “Girl Preacher” column for the Voices of Orthodox News Letter. She is also on the board of Voices of Orthodox Women and her wonderful care for the word of God and Reformed theology can be seen in this article she wrote a few years ago “Monologue or Dialogue? The Relationship Between Reformed Theology and Contemporary Theologies of Women.”
Another friend is a pastor in Tennessee, The Rev. Terrye McAnally. She is on the board of VOW also, and recently we shared a wonderful lunch in Denver while I was waiting for my plane. We all wear a little white cross with a heart on it meaning we love the cross of Jesus Christ. As we sat talking about the Church, wearing our crosses, the waitress just couldn’t help but ask if we were “nuns.” Terrye said no we were Presbyterians that she was a Pastor and I was an Elder. Then the waitress wanted to know the difference. Terrye said “I preach and she rules” and then we both started laughing. What can you say about a lady who reads Calvin’s Institutes in the original language in which it was written.
When I first became a Presbyterian one of my pastors was a person that everyone will recognize if they were at the GA or know anything about last year’s GA. That is the Rev. Tammy Letts, she was running for Vice Moderator with Rev. Bill Teng. Tammy was instrumental in my husband becoming a Bible study leader. She is such an equipper and encourager. This last Sunday afternoon my husband taught his first class to a group of young men in a maximum Security Facility in Ione California. What a gift Tammy has been to Brad and I and the whole church.
And speaking of GA, I sat behind an amazing woman most of the time at General Assembly watching her pray with and encourage commissioners as the need arose. The Rev.Mary Holder Naegeli not only is a pastor but also teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary in Northern California. In the past, quite a few years ago, I read her sermons on line. And that is when I truly realized that women who preach from the Bible, using proper exegete, have a strong proclamation. They are God’s servants too!
A preacher I have not met face to face is the Rev. Kathy Horstman. When I read her sermons I understand her call and her complete absorption in Reformed theology. I am particularly overcome by the sermon she preached for Consistory member Toby Brown's installation at Jefferson Center Presbyterian Church, Saxonburg, Pennsylvania. That sermon is The Battle is the Lord’s. Which can be found at her blog Not exactly as Preached.
Here is part of her sermon:
"Fearlessly, constantly preach Christ and Him crucified. With all your skill, wield the double-edged sword of the word of God, so your people and your peers may see how it judges and reveals the thoughts and attitudes of man. And remember, you are in the world but not of it. Exercise godly discernment. Fight against the temptation to take sides for or against an issue according to human factions and understandings. Make war on our culture’s sinful tendency to identify Jesus Christ with any human cause or commonwealth, however noble or great. Struggle against the world for the world’s own sake, boldly proclaiming the Gospel of peace through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Finally a friend I use to see at Presbytery all the time. I think she knows our Book of Order by heart, but she is now a pastor in an Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Roseville Presbyterian Church. Rev. Nancy Duff's wisdom and faithfulness to the word of God is always missed in our meetings.
I would be happy to sit down and listen to any of these ladies as they preach. I would hear God’s word.<
A letter written by Carmen Fowler
Carmen Fowler of the Layman has written a pastoral letter that is excellent, "'War,’ ‘Go Fish’ ‘Manipulation’ in the PCUSA." Here is an excerpt:
"A pastoral letter to congregations in presbyteries that switched their vote on ordination standards:
Greetings, my Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. To the churches in Arkansas, Charlotte, Cimmaron, Detroit, Eastminster, East Tennessee, Grace, Great Rivers, Greater Atlanta, Lake Huron, Lehigh, Mackinac, Maumee Valley, Minnesota Valleys, Missouri River Valley, New Hope, Newark, Ohio Valley, Pacific, Philadelphia, Salem, Scioto Valley, Sheppards & Lapsley, Southeastern Illinois, Transylvania, Tres Rios, Utah, Wabash Valley, West Jersey, West Virginia, Western North Carolina, Western New York, Whitewater Valley and Yellowstone presbyteries: Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Do you know how to play “Go Fish,” “Manipulation,” or “War?” In life, as in cards, in order to play the hand you’re dealt, you have to know what game is being played. This letter is to let you know how the game has changed in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and to help prepare you to play the hand we have been dealt."
"A pastoral letter to congregations in presbyteries that switched their vote on ordination standards:
Greetings, my Presbyterian brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. To the churches in Arkansas, Charlotte, Cimmaron, Detroit, Eastminster, East Tennessee, Grace, Great Rivers, Greater Atlanta, Lake Huron, Lehigh, Mackinac, Maumee Valley, Minnesota Valleys, Missouri River Valley, New Hope, Newark, Ohio Valley, Pacific, Philadelphia, Salem, Scioto Valley, Sheppards & Lapsley, Southeastern Illinois, Transylvania, Tres Rios, Utah, Wabash Valley, West Jersey, West Virginia, Western North Carolina, Western New York, Whitewater Valley and Yellowstone presbyteries: Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Do you know how to play “Go Fish,” “Manipulation,” or “War?” In life, as in cards, in order to play the hand you’re dealt, you have to know what game is being played. This letter is to let you know how the game has changed in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and to help prepare you to play the hand we have been dealt."
Friday, July 3, 2009
Freedom in Jesus Christ
There is an ultimate freedom for those who belong to Jesus Christ. My husband and I both like this music so I will post it for Independence Day. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." (Gal 5: 1)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
About God, homosexuality and animals!
Sometimes I read something that is meant to be serious but is so utterly nuts that I just have to say so. My husband pointed me to a piece in the SFGate titled “Confirmed God is slightly gay: Just ask the animals. As soon as they stop having all that sex.” It is by Mark Morford.
My husband hoped I would write about the article.
I really didn’t want to but then I read one of the articles Morford linked to. The linked article with one paragraph destroys Morford’s whole thought.
Starting with a book, And Tango Makes Three about two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who mated and when given an egg successfully hatched and raised the chick, Morford writes insultingly awful about Christianity and is eloquent about homosexuality.
His thesis is that since there is homosexuality in most animal groups and since animals including humans are parts of nature and since God is by many understood to be nature then God insists on all kinds of sexuality. So the implication is get with it everyone!
Morford is honest to a certain degree. He admits that life is not only pleasurable but also bloody. Yet he also implies that animals are happy about being homosexual. Morford emphatically writes:
“This, then, is what science appears to be trying to tell us, has been telling us, over and over again: Nature abides no narrow, simplistic interpretation of her ways. Nature will defy your childish fears and laughable behavioral laws at nearly every turn. God does not do shrill homophobia.”
One of the two articles he links to is in Live Science and is entitled “Same-Sex Behavior Found in Nearly All Animals,” The staff that wrote the piece comes to their conclusion by quoting Nathan Bailey “a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside.” They write:
"'Like any other behavior that doesn't lead directly to reproduction — such as aggression or altruism — same-sex behavior can have evolutionary consequences that are just now beginning to be considered,' Bailey said. 'For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male' and this cost may put evolutionary pressure on the locusts, he said. As a result, a larger number of males may secrete a particular chemical that discourages the mounting behavior, he added.”
So—that really says it all.
But I will go further. Morford doesn’t think much of Christianity so this is not addressing his screed, but a Christian should know better. We answer to a different God. We don’t answer to a god that is sexually capricious as well as red in tooth and claw. Deviant sexually based in a morality that is itself based in nature will eventually come with all the other deviant behaviors found in a fallen world.
A society that bases its morality on nature will in the end surrender all to nature. That was the problem with ancient Israel’s neighbors. Their nature religion not only led them to religious prostitution, it required the throwing of children into the fiery arms of Moloch. If we look to nature for moral guidance we will cast away our true humanity which is found in Jesus Christ.
One of the two articles he links to is in Live Science and is entitled “Same-Sex Behavior Found in Nearly All Animals,” The staff that wrote the piece comes to their conclusion by quoting Nathan Bailey “a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside.” They write:
"'Like any other behavior that doesn't lead directly to reproduction — such as aggression or altruism — same-sex behavior can have evolutionary consequences that are just now beginning to be considered,' Bailey said. 'For example, male-male copulations in locusts can be costly for the mounted male' and this cost may put evolutionary pressure on the locusts, he said. As a result, a larger number of males may secrete a particular chemical that discourages the mounting behavior, he added.”
So—that really says it all.
But I will go further. Morford doesn’t think much of Christianity so this is not addressing his screed, but a Christian should know better. We answer to a different God. We don’t answer to a god that is sexually capricious as well as red in tooth and claw. Deviant sexually based in a morality that is itself based in nature will eventually come with all the other deviant behaviors found in a fallen world.
A society that bases its morality on nature will in the end surrender all to nature. That was the problem with ancient Israel’s neighbors. Their nature religion not only led them to religious prostitution, it required the throwing of children into the fiery arms of Moloch. If we look to nature for moral guidance we will cast away our true humanity which is found in Jesus Christ.
If the world wants to follow the animals in their sexuality, gently but fervently shout at them. Pray for them. Tell them of the transforming grace of Jesus Christ.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Seductive lies and a Marsh-Wiggle
It is wonderful how creative writers are able to take biblical truths and using metaphor, images and stories delight our souls with the glorious truths of Christianity. And thinking in the reverse it is wonderful how God has given us the creative ability to use his gifts to explain the goodness, compassion and life giving work of Jesus Christ.
I have, in the past, used a scene out of the Narnia book, The Silver Chair, to write about the seductive nature of some lies and what it takes to counter such spiritual lies. C. S. Lewis in this story, as usual is so very clear about the need to insist on the reality of what is good. And the truly good is Jesus Christ who is both God and man.
The Queen of the Underworld, like many contemporary seducers, is attempting to seduce Aslan’s friends into believing that the world above them is unreal. The children, Jill and Scrubb, the captured Narnian prince who has been imprisoned in her underworld for many years, and the Marsh-Wiggle, Puddleglum, a very gloomy but faithful creature, are in danger of falling asleep and in the process believing the lie that Narnia and Aslan do not exist.
I posted this on Facebook yesterday but I will post it here because it is one of my favorite scenes. And it allows me to remember that even a very glum Marsh-Wiggle, sometimes only a Marsh-Wiggle, can stand up for the truth. (Or perhaps put their hand in the fire for the truth) You see burnt Marsh-Wiggle smells really bad and can wake anyone up.
I have, in the past, used a scene out of the Narnia book, The Silver Chair, to write about the seductive nature of some lies and what it takes to counter such spiritual lies. C. S. Lewis in this story, as usual is so very clear about the need to insist on the reality of what is good. And the truly good is Jesus Christ who is both God and man.
The Queen of the Underworld, like many contemporary seducers, is attempting to seduce Aslan’s friends into believing that the world above them is unreal. The children, Jill and Scrubb, the captured Narnian prince who has been imprisoned in her underworld for many years, and the Marsh-Wiggle, Puddleglum, a very gloomy but faithful creature, are in danger of falling asleep and in the process believing the lie that Narnia and Aslan do not exist.
I posted this on Facebook yesterday but I will post it here because it is one of my favorite scenes. And it allows me to remember that even a very glum Marsh-Wiggle, sometimes only a Marsh-Wiggle, can stand up for the truth. (Or perhaps put their hand in the fire for the truth) You see burnt Marsh-Wiggle smells really bad and can wake anyone up.
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