A Penance

I am bummed.

I had one great last post all ready to urge people to reject the teachings of Frank Viola and George Barna.  I had commentary on their use of proof-texting to defend their entire book.  I even had given them a clever “celebrity couple” name.  And I was chomping at the bit to finish, polish and send it.

Then God the Holy Spirit convicted me.  That post will never be sent.

In the face of the onslaught of what I am calling the “New Stalinism”: attacks from the ridiculously far left (Bill Maher, Hitchens, Pullman, Dawkins and the like), I had to take a good, long look at my way of dealing with extremism within the Body of Christ.  Is it right for me to respond to divisive comments with (possibly more divisive) counter-attacks?

I had to conclude: nope.

The radical atheist movement, which would like to see the Body of Christ disappear from the face of the earth, are too unified in their one, simple piece of religious dogma – “God is not” – for us to afford to be divided.  And, when my efforts to counter division in the Church become ugly attacks on the very sources of division, the New Stalinists become even more powerful.

Fact is, Christ has one Bride, the Church.  She is a conflicted gal, to be sure.  She is simultaneously convinced of the efficacy and sufficiency of the Cross and the need for meritorious works; the surety of God’s sovereign choice and the freedom of the individual; the priesthood of all believers and the importance of the clergy; embracing at times Rome and at times the Reformation; holding icons in one hand and casting them away with the other…

The Sunday Collect – Proper 3

Third Sunday after Pentecost:

Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be peaceably governed by Your providence; and that Your Church may joyfully serve You in confidence and serenity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

This prayer has some of the greatest modifiers the Church could ever hope to pray for.  Imagine: us, Christ’s Body and Bride, His beloved people, … peaceably governed… joyfully serv[ing]… in confidence and serenity… Picture that Church!

That’s what the season of Pentecost is about.  A season to remind us Who is Boss, and for us to rest in that knowledge; for us to put down our swords and pick up our plowshares, and to, side by side, hand in hand, “joyfully serve”.

I have nothing to add to this; I just want to draw your attention to that picture, that unity, that… rightness.

Our pastor here in La Paz, the guy who, along with his wife has been kind enough to do an English-Speaking service for a few Americans, a couple of New Zealanders and a British missionary all these months, had a story to share about God’s peaceable governing and the strange way it sometimes looks.

The Cure: And Jesus Prayed… Part 4

I think the cure for Christian disunity is a focus on Christ and an avoidance of the extremes.

Could I be more simplistic? “Allow me to ’splain… No, no time. Allow me to sum up.”

Okay, as I see it, there are two extremes that damage Christ’s Bride, the Church: one is rampant error, and the other is theological snobbery.

“There is one Faith…” – And Jesus prayed, part 3

“One Faith”, a song by John Michael Talbot, is one of my favorite anthems of Christian unity. I love calling Talbot my brother, even though he is Roman Catholic and I am, well, not (sorry – I hate the word “Protestant”. We Anglicans have an uneasy relationship with that label, too; “mere Christian” will do just fine, thanks).

Maybe Jesus’ prayer for one Church will again be answered in our lifetime.

Christianity Today has been doing some fine, intriguing articles of late about the evangelical tradition’s rediscovery of the ancient Faith, and I just got sent another neat one – spawned by the Pope’s visit to the White House – about how relations between the Roman and evangelical traditions are warming a bit…

To which I have to give a cautious, but enthusiastic, w00t!

And Jesus Prayed… (Part 2) – A plea for peace

From the words of the Apostles’ Creed:

We believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the grave (my paraphrase).

The third day He arose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic (that is, universal) church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

“In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Well, I’ve just stated the essentials, and last time I added Jesus’ own words stating an essential for the Church, “That they might all be one, as You and I are one…”. I sincerely hope that the Church (and there is only one Church) can have unity on the above.

And Jesus Prayed… (part 1)

I am on a unity kick. This is not new for me, nor is it an original thought. But there it is: unity kick.

The good – and frightening – thing is, I think it’s never going away.

Just like my love for guacamole (all thanks tom my buddy Kerri who makes the best in the world) and my belief that old Petra is better than new Petra (there, I’ve dated myself), here to stay is my belief that unity in the body of Christ is, perhaps, one of the most-neglected essentials of the faith. I said the E word, and I’ll say it again: Essential.

As the first of what will be a series of thoughts (read, if you like: ramblings) I want to start with the Expert Himself. Jesus actually took a great deal of time praying for this one thing in John’s account:

17:20 “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, 17:21 that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 17:22 The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – 17:23 I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me. (NET – emphasis mine)

Nope, He didn’t pray that we’d all have the exact right view on baptism, communion, free-will or predestination. He didn’t pray that they would believe in objective facts about the faith or be convinced that we have a handle on absolute truth. He didn’t pray that we would all like the same kinda music.

He prayed that we would all be one.

Why? Oh, no big reason: only so that the world would believe in Jesus.

[Ranting and raving here has been censored by my own sense of decorum. No need to make too many enemies!]. Folks (and I will get into more detail in a future post): it’s Easter. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Or, as they say in another liturgy: We have died with Christ, we live with Christ, we will reign with Christ. Lay off each other.

Please.

More soon.

By the way, the NET Bible can be found at www.bible.org.