Author Archives: scott

Epiphany

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Epiphany

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…

Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God. Since God is infinite and the ultimate being, the only essential existence, we finite creatures cannot grasp God. Our reason cannot reach Him, nor can our experience embrace Him. Creation gives us a glimpse of the Creator, but knowledge of God comes as a gracious gift of the One who has chosen to reveal Himself. Furthermore, God has chosen to reveal Himself ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus reveals to us true Humanity. Jesus is the Second Adam revealing to us the “glory of God” in the “living man.” (Against Heresies, 4.XX.7) In Christ we see the perfect model of what it means to be the image of God. “This is the truth about humanity; this is what Adam is meant to be. I desire a creature made in my own image, the image of the Divine Charity…” (Underhill, The School of Charity, 26)

Jesus also discloses true Divinity. Christ shows us the Father. He spoke “as one with authority” correcting the misunderstandings of the law, forgiving sins, making promises. His life shows us who God is. As Martin Luther said, “Jesus is the only God we know.”

The Scriptures are the unique witness to the God revealed in Jesus Christ and the “infallible rule of faith and practice. (Confession of Faith, 1.05) The authority of Scripture is not in the book itself, but rather “is founded on the truth contained in them and the voice of God speaking through them.” (Confession of Faith, 1.06) In the Scriptures, the Father speaks the Word that is heard through Spirit inspired writings and by Spirit illuminated readers. Just as in Creation, all Persons of the Holy Trinity participate in the act of Revelation.

Yet the Book cannot be severed from the Church, God’s voice is not separated from Christ’s Body. The community, which wrote the pages as well as recognized God’s voice through the canonization process, also maintains the appropriate understanding and interpretation of the Bible. The authority of the Tradition is that of interpreter of Scripture, rather than any prerogative separate from the Word of God. Through Tradition, the Church continues to be built upon “foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20) rather than a new foundation based upon the whims and prejudices of each age.

The authority of Tradition as interpreter of Scripture is best expressed by the rule of St. Vincent of Lérins, “that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.” Therefore in divergent issues, antiquity is given priority over innovation, consensus over novelty, and catholicity over local. With all Tradition understood as radically based in the Word spoken through the Scriptures. “We must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways; first by the authority of Divine Law, and then, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.” (St. Vincent)

At the same time, to truly be in the Church catholic, we must be in a particular body of believers, therefore my understanding of authority is also as a Minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In my ordination vows I have made a commitment to a particular community with a particular confessional statement. Therefore, even though the Confession of Faith is recent document and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is only a fraction of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, my vows obligate me to recognize my particular church and her statement with a greater leverage of authority. In other words, for my vows to have integrity, I must also yield to the authority of the particular church that I serve.

The Nativity of Our Lord

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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

God’s love for His creation could not leave it in corruption. The Holy Trinity works to reconcile rebellious creatures to Himself. The eternally begotten Son of God entered into the creation at a particular place and in a particular point of time. But effects of the incarnation reach all places and all time. The eternal entered into time so that we mortals can enter the eternal.

Again, all Persons of the Trinity participate in the incarnation. The speaking Father sends the Word that was spoken in creation, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit that hovered “over the face of the waters.” The God-Man Jesus enters into creation so that we can enter into the perichoretic dance of this Creating, Redeeming and Sanctifying Holy Trinity. Only through the One who has seen the Father, can we enter God’s feast. As George Herbert says, Jesus is “not only the feast, but the way to it.”

All of humanity is blessed by the coming of the Christ. Athanasius likens the incarnation to a city being visited by a King, just as the city is glorified by the coming of the Sovereign to one house, so are we all honored by the coming of Jesus. Moreover, Mary’s pregnancy shows God’s love and redemption for all of life, from the moment of conception on. This alone should convince us when God says someone becomes a person.

Not only is humanity blessed, but all of creation! Christ did not simply appear to be human, but “became truly human.” All matter is changed and blessed now that the fullness of God has walked on the earth. In the person of Jesus, God has truly entered into creation and sanctified the world. The incarnation is not that God put His spirit into a human body. Jesus’ spirit and body both were fully divine and fully human. Bread was taken, blessed, broken and given by the Lord, and consecrated as it touched the skin of our Lord and reverberated the words that were spoken by His tongue. As Jesus breathed in air, it touched the divine Body. The air was exhaled and continues to blow where it wills. Divine tears fell to the earth to be evaporated and poured out in rain or drunk into the roots of a tree. Hair pulled from the beard of Jesus by a Roman soldier fell to the earth and became part of the dust; blood dropped to the ground at Golgotha, sweat in a carpenters shop, dried flakes of skin in the Judean desert. Being in creation, matter continually mingles with other particles of creation.

Advent

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A few years ago I wrote a paper on spiritual theology in the form of a commentary on the seasons and days of the liturgical year. I’ll be posting those here over the next several days.

Advent

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

A pagan year would begin with the rebirth of the god, showing the continuous cycle of death and rebirth in agriculture. A civil calendar would start with the birth of a new ruler or the inauguration of the ruling regime. The Church calendar begins with confession. The Christian year begins not with the celebration of Christ’s birth, but with the confession that we need the Redeemer to come. Before we celebrate the incarnation, we spend time preparing for the Coming One and remembering that all creation yearns for a Savior.

In Advent we state that everything is not all right in the world. Through the sin of the first Adam, God’s good creation became cursed. Through Adam and Eve sin entered into the world corrupting what God had created through His Word and His Holy Spirit. In the first chapter of the Bible and in the first act of history God is revealed as Holy Trinity, each Person participated fully in all the work of the Godhead. Sin effects all of creation – rocks, trees and chipmunks long for deliverance from the same sin that corrupts the authorities, powers and principalities. The sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, though bearing the image of God are corrupt as well, “in all aspects of their being.” (Confession of Faith, 2.03)

Due to our fallen nature, we need someone to liberate us from our “bondage to decay.” (Romans 8:21) As the Nicene Creed states, “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human.”

Also, Advent reminds us that there is an end to history. We are not in a continuously unending cycle, but hope for the return of our Lord. This hope pulls us into the promised and certain reconciliation. Christ’s immanent Kingdom is not something we accomplish; nevertheless it is something in which we participate.

Gospel and Place: the Pastor’s Calling

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Cabin

In a few hours I will be calling the people in this place to come together for the sole purpose of worshipping our Lord.  We will sing and pray to the God who created this beautiful land we have worked and played in all week.  We will listen to the Word of the One who ‘dwelt among us’ and died for our sins on a cross.  And we will ask that the Spirit stirs us again to be renewed to deal with the disappointments, fears and guilt that build up between Lord’s Days. 

While singing a hymn last Sunday I, looking out on a congregation of not quite 40 that day, thought about the large churches in cities that would be playing huge pipe organs, having anthems sung by choirs larger than our whole congregation and hearing sermons by preachers who had more time and skill to devote to studying the Bible and preparing an eloquent sermon.  Many churches on any given Sunday would have congregations larger than our whole community. 

As I thought of this I turned toward the altar.  It is the same Lord we are worshipping.  Our congregation might not be large, but the God we worship is, and it is His presence that makes the Church.  God is no less present in a house church of two or three gathered in his name than in the biggest mega-church or most beautiful cathedral (Salisbury would win for me!). 

I have often thought along these lines.  I once heard Eugene Peterson say that the Pastor is responsible for the Gospel in a particular place.  This stewardship of the good news in a specific context and location has shaped the way I view ministry.  I’m not just a minister of a small congregation somewhere.  I’m the pastor of specific people with histories and destinies – vocations and a story to live out.  But a minister is also a steward of the mysteries of God in a place.  So my ministry intersects the Natchez Trace and Bear Creek, in some way it has a bearing on all of God’s creation: the trees, the river and the deer. 

 Thinking like this helps me remember that we are ministers of the Lord before we are ministers for the people.  If we are concentrating on the number of worshippers in our congregation we are not concentrating on the One we worship.  If we look at our ministry area solely through demographic data, we miss something about the PLACE in which we minister.  I think Peterson was right and it is a great joy to immerse oneself into unique people and a specific place.

Last ‘comprehensible’ taboo

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Saw this at the Touchstone blog.

Apparently the Sundance Film Festival has premiered a film about bestiality. A review is here. I noted that the person who wrote the review used the terms ‘elegant’ and ‘beautiful’ to describe this movie on a subject the director describes as “the last taboo, on the boundary of something comprehensible.” Not long ago it would have been incomprehensible. The way things are going in a few years it will not only be ‘comprehensible’ but no longer taboo, and what is today unimaginable will be comprehensible. I also noted that twice the term ‘marriage’ was used as a metaphor to describe the movie’s style.

Seasons and Rhythm

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 Barn

Part of rural life that I truly enjoy is that the rhythm, for me anyway, feels closer to the natural change of seasons.  When most of your surroundings are pavement and buildings each day looks a lot like the other, but if you’re surrounded by grass and trees the view out your window is constantly changing: leaves turning, falling, new green growth followed by turning again.  Even though most people don’t farm now, we’re still surrounded by enough fields for cotton and corn to give us an ever changing backdrop, and enough people raise vegetables and hunt that most of our diets are heavily influenced by what’s in season.  Most folks here have lived in agriculture long enough for it to set the pace for life.  It’s kind of hard to explain but there is just a mood in the community that follows the ancient patterns of planting, growth and harvest.  I’ve tried early on to impose the liturgical calender on the folks here, I’ve learned that it is also wise to be attentive to the natural patterns the people live in and recognize that with our church calendar as well.

Design Worship Service Bulletins Quicker

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One of those obvious things to speed up a task that I wish had been more obvious to me years ago:

Since I reuse so many of my liturgical resources (prayer of confessions, confession of faith etc…) I have set up a way to help design our worship bulletins quicker.  I’ve already set up hymns and scripture readings in tables that can be switched out every Sunday, but I’ve also made a folder of liturgical resources.  Each file is a word document with a single resource labelled for easy reference: ‘Conf. Sheep’ for the prayer that contains the phrase ‘we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep’ or ‘Confession Advent 1’ for the first Sunday of Advent.

When I work on a bulletin I simply go to Insert>File and choose the document.  Works quicker for me than opening a new file, locating the resource I want and cutting and pasting for each part of the bulletin.

Windows

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George Herbert’s poems are a rich source for mediation, reflection and prayer.   His poem ‘The Windows’ is one of the most humbling and at the same time inspiring reminders of the burden and delight, labor and play of preaching:

THE WINDOWS.

LORD, how can man preach thy eternall word ?
He is a brittle crazie glasse :
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.

But when thou dost anneal in glasse thy storie,
Making thy life to shine within
The holy Preachers, then the light and glorie
More rev’rend grows, and more doth win ;
Which else shows watrish, bleak, and thin.

Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and aw :  but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the eare, not conscience ring.

For more of Herbert’s poems. 

I love my church

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I found out yesterday that a program in my own small denomination is in debt for over half a million dollars.  Not that the program cost $600,000, but that it is debt for that over and beyond whatever other expenses it spent. The program, as I understand it,  is essentially to train volunteers to help congregations make decisions.  This is in addition to over $700,000 debt on a building in large part because for over 15 years no money was ever paid on the loan’s principle.
That’s $1.3 million – not spent on feeding the hungry, training ministers or sharing the gospel but paying interest and…well I can’t imagine what cost $600,000 for the other program, probably consulting fees and marketing to get the congregations to get on board with the program.  Two things in particular get me steamed.

First, I feel like our congregations have been finessed.  When we’re encouraged to send our tithe to the denomination we are shown images of missionaries, food banks and homeless shelters.  In the latest campaign to raise money for a new denominational center we were shown a video of a family adopting a child and given the mantra ‘I love my church’ and a goal of $3 million.  No mention of the debt.  No explanation of what adoption has to do with office space for our denominaitonal executives.

Second, there doesn’t appear to be any accountability.  I haven’t heard any explanation of why those types of decisions have been made.  No one seems to be asking why we continue to throw money away.  I get the impression that if anyone did ask these types of questions they would be accused of causing division and not loving their church.
The total lack of accountability is scandalous.  I can’t imagine these sorts of losses in a business not being addressed.  The church should be held to a higher standard than a business.  That doesn’t mean we operate like a for-profit company, but it means that we should be held to account even more strictly because the money is not ours.  People have put part of their earnings into an offering plate in a local church during a Sunday morning worship service as an offering to God.  They gave the money without expecting anything for themselves, but trusting that the people chosen to spend the money would do so in a responsible way.  I think that demands some candid discussion.