I have a feature in my blog engine that alerts me when people cite a post I have written. While that sounds like a cool feature, it was quite strange when I saw today for the first time a citation of an article I wrote, entitled “A Reformed Liturgical Diet,” from October 2006. The article itself is an exegesis of the Westminster Shorter Catechism which was aimed to show that Reformed churches have historically had a much higher view of the Sacraments than present day instances.

As one who deeply loves, cherishes and practices expository preaching, you can imagine my shock when the name of the post citing “A Reformed Liturgical Diet” was entitled “Expository Preaching under attack.” I would have appreciated the opportunity to interact with the post 2 years ago; however, since I didn’t then, I will do so now. So before you go any further, please take a moment to do the following:

1. Read my original post A Reformed Liturgical Diet
2. Read Expository Preaching under attack at the Two-Edged Sword blog including the comments.

A Two-Edged False Dichotomy

First, for the record, I believe deeply that expository preaching is crucial in the churches of Jesus Christ. So I take exception to the way I have been misrepresented. Preaching is “Christian storytelling” and it is every bit as sacramental as the Lord’s Table. God, after all, is not words of any language. He certainly transcends the confines of vocabulary and exegesis. Nevertheless, the Church has been picked up and carried throughout history through the Spirit’s attending to the preaching of the Word of God. In fact, I would say that to the extent we unfold the Word of God to the people is the extent to which God empowers the sermon. The point of my article is to urge readers back toward the balanced liturgical diet given us in the Scripture of Word and Sacrament. To pit the preaching of the Word over against the Sacraments is a false dichotomy, at least in the Christian economy.

Second, historically speaking the Reformers were fighting for an increased frequency of the Lord’s Table in worship. At the time of Luther the Eucharist was celebrated only once a year and then the laity only received the cup. Calvin is fairly clear that he would have preferred a weekly communion but had to settle for quarterly with the council at Geneva. So it is a bit strange to me, historically speaking, to hear modern-day Reformed so dismissive of sacraments for which our tradition gives instances of those who were once willing to give even their lives for them. Calvin’s seminary graduates had a life expectancy post graduation of about six months. Influences on Calvin, perhaps we should call them teachers, such as Peter Martyr Vermigli in turn had great impact on Thomas Cranmer such that the 1552 Book of Common Prayer is dedicated to Vermigli.

Third, when “Mr. Baggins” comments that “These guys don’t know what they’re talking about. They are attacking preaching itself,” I am compelled to remind us all that my piece was an exegesis of the Westminster Shorter Catechism on the subject of the Lord’s Table itself. I have spent a bit of time in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, in particular to study the nature of the Sacraments in the life of the Reformed churches. I do not want to impute such lack of engagement to Lee at Two-Edged Sword; however, Mr. Baggins makes assertions without even hobbit sized amounts of substantive argumentation. Consequently, it is hard to see how he is not dismissing the Westminster Confession and significant influences on its development like John Calvin and other Magisterial Reformers all in one broad stroke.

In short, I would expect that Lee and I have different universes of discourse in approaching the question of the role of the sacraments in the life of the Church. John Chrysostom would never have gone for preaching apart from the sacraments and yet he is held up as substantiating Mr. Baggins assertions. What I leave you is not a gauntlet (for I have no desire to engage in polemics here); but, instead an exhortation to consider how Chrysostom, himself a huge influence on Calvin and other reformers, would approach the balance that has historically always existed between Word and Sacrament.

For those of you who have tried to listen to sermon audio online here at Nielsen’s Nook, you have probably been as frustrated with its delivery as I have been with the company that is supposed to be serving the audio files up to you. So I have switched to a much more reliable provider and am very pleased with the markedly better response time.

Thanks for reading, listening and engaging.

On earth men dream, therefore, while they’re awake,
Some in good faith, and some deceitfully;
Of guilt and shame the greater share these take.

Ye on the earth, in your philosophy,
Are not for long content to tread one path,
Enamoured of vain show and subtlety.

Yet even this in Heaven stirs less wrath
Than when God’s holy Word is misconstrued,
Or when supremacy it no more hath.

Ye little think how great the cost in blood
To sow it through the world, how pleasing he
Who humbly bides by Scripture as he should.

All men, to show their ingenuity,
Contrive their own inventions — these they preach;
The Gospel is passed over silently.

…

So that the silly sheep, all unaware,
Come home from pasture fed on emptiness;
No harm they see, no less of guilt they bear.

Christ His Apostles did not thus address:
Go forth, preach idle stories to all men,
But taught them His true doctrine to profess.

Forth with His shield the Apostles sally then,
None other than His word their lips escapes,
This only is the lance they wield amain.

But nowadays men preach with jokes and japes,
And if they raise a laugh, their crowd cowls all swell
With pride - they ask no more, the jackanapes.

…

That’s how St Anthony doth feed his pig,
And many others too, more pig-like still,
Paying with currency not worth a fig.

…

The Primal Light the whole irradiates,
And is received therein as many ways
As there are splendours wherewithal it mates.

Since, then, affection waits upon the gaze
And its intensity, diversely bright
Therein the sweets of love now glow, now blaze.

Consider well the breadth, behold the height
Of His eternal Goodness, seeing that o’er
So many mirrors It doth shed Its light,

Yet One abideth as It was before.

__________

Dante, Alighieri. The Divine Comedy III: Paridiso, trans. Dorothy L. Sayers and Barbara Reynolds (London: Penguin Books, 2004), Canto XXIX, lines 82-145, pages 311-13.

I. Introduction

A. Propositional Anemia

Part of the problem with the church today is that we really have lost connection with God’s work in history. Being a Christian, in many cases, has been reduced down to 3-5 propositions about grace, humanity, God, Christ and faith - abstracting the propositional from the historical.

If I told you that it was important for you to understand that a man painted a woman’s home, would that matter to you? Not really, it is a mere proposition and not a very interesting one at that. But what if I told you that a man, who was out of work, painted an elderly widow’s home at his own expense out of a deep conviction and delight that God uses people like him to care for people like her? Now we’re talking! The history of the thing has breathed life into the proposition that ‘a man painted a woman’s home.’

B. Satanic Strategy towards Apathy

Personally, I believe the reduction of the Christian faith to mere proposition is a quite amazing strategy of the Enemy of our God and our faith. If he can keep our faith in the abstract then he will never have to worry about our faith affecting us or anyone else.

C. Robust Historical Christianity

The good news is that our faith is not merely propositional. We believe the propositions of the faith handed down to us by those Christians who have come before us who received it from those before them. The connection goes back to those people like the Apostle Paul, King David, Abraham, Moses and our first parents, Adam and Eve. If you understand the weight of my argument here, you understand that Christianity, the faith of God working redemption throughout time and space, is of cosmic proportions and not merely a handful of propositions that we believe merely intellectually or emotionally.

Our faith is built upon the word of God, spoken by the Apostles and Prophets, now inscripturated in the Bible. It reveals to us that even before there was sin in the world, there was faith and faithfulness. Adam and Eve, the image of God, walking in the likeness of God, were created to have uninhibited fellowship with God. That is what is meant by paradise. In the created order, God was communicating to Adam and Eve in ways that are very much alive to us today.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
(Psalm 19:1-2, ESV)

As his image we say and do things that communicate far more than the mere proposition of our words or appearance of our actions. The two trees in the midst of this Garden of Eden are communicating to us a great symphony of covenantal overture.

Recently I read an article on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden. Personally, I found this article by William N. Wilder in the Westminster Theological Journal was quite edifying. So here’s the citation if you’re interested in reading it yourself:

Wilder, William N. “Illumination and Investiture: The Royal Significance of the Tree of Wisdom in Genesis 3.” The Westminster Theological Journal 68.1, no. Spring (2006): 51-69.

I relied heavily on Wilder’s work in a sermon that I preached today, largely because I had been so gripped myself by his thoughts. Over the next days I will be posting a written version of that sermon from my notes. I will do my best to cite his thoughts from mine, however, for those readers who also preach part of a good sermon is that level of meditation when you have so ingested the material that it becomes part of you. So this will serve as my blanket citation to that end.

Yesterday, Kevin Johnson at ReformedCatholicism.com has started a thoughtful discussion on the centrality of preaching in the worship of the church. Or better stated of all the outward means that the Holy Spirit uses to nourish Christ’s sheep, the preaching of the Word is central. The comments are worth reading too as the discussion unfolds.

I wanted to share with you a drawning that a boy at Bethel PCA gave me today after a sermon on Deuteronomy 4:32-40. The baptismal is on the left, the Lord’s Table on the right and the pulpit in the middle. What I find fascinating is how others perceive you. I have about 27 hairs left on the top of my head and not one of them is represented here! At any rate, it was such a pleasure to recieve this from a young man who apparently had been touched by the Gospel in Deuteronomy. Thanks Nate!

Why is it that we could all sit down with strangers at any coffeeshop in the US and talk about the urban legends we — for some reason — all know? Made to Stick is a book that seeks to thoughtfully examine the stickiness of the things people have said and written over the last 2,500 years, identify commonalities and provide practical paths towards stickier communication.

I am about a third of the way through the book presently and have found it tremendous as a pastor and preacher. Generally speaking, it has helped me to think about how to communicate things that matter (i.e., sermon texts, direction of bible studies, or even direction of a church) in ways that convey their weightiness with more resonance. I have downloaded the audio version and have been listening during my commute (25 minutes each way). Whether, your preaching, teaching or just trying to communicate in ways that move people, I think you’ll find equity in this book. It is well done, avoids the gimmicks of much of today’s pop-communication literature, and provides a practical path to identifying and communicating the core elements needed in any message of importance.

My wife and I are reading through a most contemplation evoking paper presently on the Eucharist that has sparked a great wonder and awe of God in me. Traditionally, we have thought of God as being of infinitely greater and altogether different kind of being from which we have our being analogously. Even so, one of my favorite theologians begins his volume on the Doctrine of God:

Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics. To be sure, the term “mystery” ( μυστηριον) in Scripture does not mean an abstract supernatural truth in the Roman Catholic sense. Yet Scripture is equally far removed from the idea that believers can grasp the revealed mysteries in a scientific sense. In truth, the knowledge that God has revealed of himself in nature and Scripture far surpasses human imagination and understanding. In that sense it is all mystery with which the science of dogmatics is concerned, for it does not deal with finite creatures, but from beginning to end looks past all creatures and focuses on the eternal and infinite One himself.¹

For newer generations to theology, the term ‘dogmatics’ simply means ‘systematic theology’. Systematic theology then serves its greatest purpose when it exposes its very limitation and inability to circumscribe God, compelling us to a greater sense of worship in the face of wonder and mystery.

God’s Givenness in Redemptive History

God’s people have believed for about 3,500 years that God was the one who gives himself to his people. He confined himself to a pillar of fire in the desert of Sinai to lead his people out of Egypt. The infinite God took up residence in a structure built by human hands(!), in order to demonstrate his givenness to us.

4But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5“Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. (2 Samuel 7:4-6, ESV)

The question here is ironic. David out of good intention wants God to “live” in a better place. God reminds him that he has chosen to limit himself to a tent. In asking the question, the Lord is drawing the reader towards his givenness and help us to see his utter humility, to limit himself in ways that we can perceive and with which we may relate.

So when the Lord takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us (literally tabernacles among us in John 1:14, looking back to the tent in the above reference;), we find the apex of his givenness to us. He is not our God at a distance, but has taken on humanity that we might take on godliness.

Incarnation as Paradigm of Givenness

Therefore, the Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the greatest if not the greatest mysteries in all of creation. The Incarnation is a double-sided confrontation. First, exposes us, who are poor beyond measure, leading us to mourn our poverty to be made meek that we hunger and thirst for righteousness that we ourselves do not have.

Second, in our poverty we find that God throwing aside the glory of heaven, limited himself to a human being, in time, in space, in life and death and in so doing redefines all things created. In other words, God the Son made himself poor to mourn with us, demonstrating truly meek submission to the Father, whose righteousness he hungered and thirsted after to no end.

The Incarnation as the apex of God’s givenness to us shows us with the greatest alacrity that he is not a God that is far off. Nor is he a God who merely wants to make our lives more comfortable. No, the God of heaven and earth is the God who is given, who has through out all history, both before and after the Fall of Humanity into sin sought to give himself in the deepest fellowship to us. This at once underscores the compassion of our God and his passion for his people, while at the same time exposes the insanity of rejecting the means by which he gives himself to us not just 2,009 years ago (being born c.a. 2 BC). No, God has pledged himself to his church as an eternal bridegroom to be given to us eternally, apart from time, always.

Givenness in the Meantime

We now live in the time between when this givenness is initiated and when it is consummated. We live in a time in which our eternal and incarnate bridegroom has gone to prepare a place for us in eternity, apart from time, always. We now wait as the betrothed.

He has not left us or abandoned us in this time in between. He has allowed himself to be revealed through human, created, finite language in the Bible, both preached and read. He indwells us with his Spirit, while the Son intercedes for us to the Father and helps us to pray acceptably (Romans 8). He gives himself to us in the baptism, promising to attend the baptism with his Spirit. He allows himself to be communicated in the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist, in which believers feed upon Christ, who is our life (John 1:4):

32Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:32-35, ESV)

God’s Eternal Givenness

The written Word of God, both read but especially preached now, directs us to the moment (if we can employ such a temporally loaded term as ‘moment’) when we will be with the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God for eternity. It compels us towards our eschatological destiny in Christ, who we are taught will come again to give himself to us, and us to him, completely.

Prayer to the Lord is mediated now and quite imperfect on our part; nevertheless, we may come before the throne of grace boldly (though not arrogantly), on account of God’s givenness in Christ, who now as a human being (also fully God) intercedes for us to the Father. We look to the time when our prayers are unhindered perfect interpersonal connection with the Lord:

Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God.²

Where the Scriptures and prayer are verbal means by which God communicates to us himself; the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist are visible ways. Jesus is not the bread, nor is he the wine, but he does communicate himself to us through the means of bread and wine. He does give himself to us in promising to bind himself to us in baptism and gives us his life in when we receive the bread and wine.

We live in the time between that is both unique and at the same time very consonant with all history before us. God of heaven and earth has sought to and accomplished the reconciliation of the world in Christ Jesus, the God-Man, who perpetually gives himself to us as a picture of the eternal and unhindered givenness of God we will experience in glory.

He prays, but He hears prayer. He weeps, but He causes tears to cease. He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and every infirmity. He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restores us, yes, He saved even the robber crucified with Him. He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again…³

² Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [ Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 2:45

³ Gregory of Nazianzus. The Fourth Theological Oration XX, NPNF Vol. VII, P. 309.

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