Nielsen’s Nook

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.

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.

For the human heart trusts goods at hand but mistrusts those not at hand, as the saying goes: “Having gold makes men bold; being poor makes them sour.” But trust in wealth cannot rule in the heart at the same time with faith and love. And this he calls here “to forget the Lord God.” For you do not remember the Lord if you merely mouth His name, but if you cling to Him and love Him with constant faith in your heart.

Martin Luther. Luther’s Works, Vol. 9 : Lectures on Deuteronomy, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1960), 71.

This is a fine meditation for those who would understand the gravity of their sin and the magnanimity of their savior.

From Psalm 130, written by Martin Luther (1523), melody by Martin Luther (1524).

From the depths of woe I raise to thee
the voice of lamentation;
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me
and hear my supplication:
if thou iniquities dost mark,
our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
O who shall stand before thee?

To wash away the crimson stain,
grace, grace alone availeth;
our works, alas! are all in vain;
in much the best life faileth:
no man can glory in thy sight,
all must alike confess thy might,
and live alone by mercy.

Therefore my trust is in the Lord,
and not in my own merit;
on him my soul shall rest, his Word
upholds my fainting spirit:
his promised mercy is my fort,
my comfort and my sweet support;
I wait for it with patience.

What though I wait the live-long night,
and not in mine own merit;
my heart still trusteth in his might;
it doubteth not nor feareth:
do thus, O ye of Israel’s seed,
ye of the Spirit born indeed;
and wait till God appeareth.

Though great our sins and sore our woes,
his grace much more aboundeth;
his helping love no limit knows,
our utmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is he,
who will at last his Israel free
from all their sins and sorrow.

Nestle-Aland 27	16 Μὴ οὖν τις ὑμᾶς κρινέτω ἐν βρώσει καὶ ἐν πόσει ἢ ἐν μέρει ἑορτῆς 1 ἢ νεομηνίας 2 ἢ σαββάτων · 17 ἅ ἐστιν σκιὰ τῶν μελλόντων , τὸ δὲ σῶμα 3 τοῦ Χριστοῦ . 18 μηδεὶς ὑμᾶς καταβραβευέτω 4 θέλων ἐν ταπεινοφροσύνῃ 5 καὶ θρησκείᾳ 6 τῶν ἀγγέλων , ἃ ἑόρακεν ἐμβατεύων , 7 εἰκῇ φυσιούμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ νοὸς τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ , 19 καὶ οὐ κρατῶν τὴν κεφαλήν , ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν 8 καὶ συνδέσμων 9 ἐπιχορηγούμενον 10 καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον 11 αὔξει 12 τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ .
My Translation	16 Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of eating and drinking or with regard to a detail of a festival or of a new moon or of Sabbaths. 17 These things are a shadow of the things to come; however, the reality of these things belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you, wishing in false humility and worship of angels, going into detail concerning things one has seen, being inflated with arrogance to no avail by his fleshly mind, 19 and not laying hold of the head, out of which the whole body, being supported and knit together by the joint and ligaments, grows the divine growth.
Grammar & Vocabulary	ἑορτῆς gen/sg/fem ( ἑορτή ) festival, feast νεομηνίας gen/sg/fem ( νεομηνία ) new moon, first of the month The word σῶμα is rendered here reality (alt. substance) in lieu of the context (i.e., shadow:reality). See also: Melick, Richard R. Philippians, Colossians, Philemon New American Commentary ; V. 32. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1991, page 267. καταβραβευέτω pres/act/impv/3p/sg ( καταβραβεύω ) to condemn, rob of a prize ταπεινοφροσύνῃ dat/sg/fem ( ταπεινοφροσύνη) false humility θρησκείᾳ dat/sg/fem ( θρησκεία ) worship of God, religious service ἐμβατεύων pres/act/ptc/nom/pl/masc ( ἐμβατεύω) enter into, go into detail ἁφῶν gen/pl/fem ( ἁφή ) joint, ligament συνδέσμων gen/pl/masc ( σύνδεσμος ) that which binds – in this case, tendons or ligaments. [c.f., σύνδ . τῆς εἰρήνης is used by Paul in Eph 4:3 as the bond of peace; σύνδεσμος τῆς τελειότητος in Col 3:14 – bond of perfection, i.e., purposed goal ] ἐπιχορηγούμενον pres/pass/ptc/nom/sg/neu ( ἐπιχορηγέω ) to support συμβιβαζόμενον pres/pass/ptc/nom/sg/neu ( συμβιβάζω ) knit together, unite αὔξει pres/act/ind/3p/sg ( αὐξάνω ) to grow, increase [c.f., Eph 4:15 α ὐ ξήσωμεν ε ἰ ς α ὐ τ ὸ ν τ ὰ πάντα, ὅ ς ἐ στιν ἡ κεφαλή, Χριστός speaks of union with Christ.]

Commentary

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. (Jn 6:35 ESV)

I remember as a younger man walking through a shopping mall one day and stopping in my tracks to ponder a phrase printed on the t-shirt of a man who briskly walked passed me in the opposite direction. It read, “Look busy! Jesus is coming.” I stopped because I was not sure whether it was mocking Christians or a serious exhortation to them.

I believe it is most beneficial to understand the shirt as satire. Many of us chase after many things in the name of religion. For some of us it is the approval of others. For some it is knowledge. For others it is service, or many other religious activities.� These activities in and of themselves are often helpful but for some of us at different times can serve to insulate us from the heat of Christ himself.

Think about prayer for a moment as an example. Paul is working out the profound and the simple truth of Jesus the Messiah. Many of us want our prayers to be as poetry, refined and reverent. A refined and reverent prayer is absolutely appropriate; however, the reality is that our lives, the place where we live moment by moment, is neither refined nor is it always reverent. So waiting until you are in the mood to pray, until the words are right, until you have had time to contemplate all that you would like, or whatever else you may want to do as preparation to pray actually can impede your boldly coming before the throne of grace.

God has included books in the bible like Judges and Job and psalms like Psalm 73 to remind us that His people are to just come to him with their heavy burdens and cluttered lives; for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. These texts are rough around the edges because they reflect the rough world that God is working to redeem in time and space.

That is the miracle of the Incarnation, of God coming to the mess of this fallen world in the person of his perfect Son, Jesus. Let us not chase after things that merely camouflage our prayers and service to God, but let us simply pray and serve. How can Paul say this? Paul knows that no amount of barren ritual or paltry preparation sustain life, especially eternal life. We go to God not through outward actions but “in Christ’s skin and on His back.” ¹ That is the nature and the gravity and the centrality of the Christian’s union with Christ.

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¹ Luther, Martin. Vol. 42, Luther’s Works, Vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I. Edited by Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann. Luther’s Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1969. Page 23.

Psalm 70:4-5 (ESV)
⁴ May all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”
⁵ But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!

My burden in preaching the Gospel of Jesus to His Church is one which, I hope and think, recognizes that there are different facets of this marvelous gospel which need to be applied differently at different times in the history of redemption. At least in the circles in which I find myself ministering, I find that people are often consumed with a false guilt; often the result of well intended and yet ever destructive fundamentalism. On the other hand, I have found that in wanting to communicate the biblical doctrine of “total depravity”, the idea that there is no aspect of human existence that has not been polluted by sin,[1] I have found that parishioners often will get stuck there. In other words, it is true that Christ comes to us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2); however, may it never be that the deadness of the “old man”, as Paul terms our pre-salvation state, eclipses the fact that Christ has made everything new (2 Cor 5:17)!

We have forgotten that God has bound himself to us in Christ by way of covenant. We have overlooked the dignity that this communicates to us as Christians who are in covenant with God. It speaks to our destiny, for He has saved us – not just to say that we are saved – but to deliver us into His likeness, which is found in Christ alone. Nevertheless, Christians who are attuned to the realities of this world also know the bitterness of stumbling in the midst of our procession with Christ to the end of days. Commenting on John 6:56, Luther writes:

Outwardly Christians stumble and fall from time to time. Only weakness and shame appear on the surface, revealing that the Christians are sinners who do that which displeases the world. Then they are regarded as fools, as Cinderellas, as footmats for the world, as damned, impotent, and worthless people. But this does not matter. In their weakness, sin, folly, and frailty there abides inwardly and secretly a force and power unrecognizable by the world and hidden from its view, but one which, for all that, carries off the victory; for Christ resides in them and manifests Himself to them. I have seen many of these who, externally, tottered along very feebly; but when it came to the test and they faced the court, Christ bestirred Himself in them, and they became so staunch that the devil had to flee.^[2]

It is precisely in this poverty that we find the wealth of Christ, our deliverer, who does in fact bestir himself in His people. It is this God to whom we make the petition, the plea, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me!… Do not delay!” The marvel is that he does hasten to us in perfect time. Luther expresses his own reflections on the figures of speech (tropology is the study of such figures) used in Psalm 70:4 when he writes that such figures speak:

First, against the vices and sins of the past, lest they lead you to despair. Second, against the reviling of the lust of the flesh and its works. Third, against the attractions of the world and the promptings of the devil, lest they prevail over you, but that you may persevere in hope and faith, in grace and union with Christ.

Say: “Lord God, be pleased to deliver me.” For this prayer is the shield, spear, thunderbolt, and defense against every attack of fear, presumption, lukewarmness, security, etc., which are especially dominant today, as was said above. 

Then, so that you might be able to prevail over them, and this quickly, to destroy such evil impulses, add: “Lord, make haste to help me.” For haste is necessary to drive them away, especially in our age of defects, security, and lukewarmness.

Then continue: “Let them be confounded and ashamed,” that is, that their every reproach be revealed to me to be false and foolish, namely, of past sins for despair, of the world for sins of the flesh, etc., so that in this way I might see that these confound the spirit if they are followed. Then let the proud ideas about my own holiness, the impulses of being alone, as though I were making much progress, be turned backward, so that I may see that they are nothing and blow me up from nothing and falsely suggest to me that I have made progress, and thereby wish evil for me, so that, the more they make me seem to be better than others, the worse I fall.^[3]

May God have mercy on us, that we would not be lukewarm in our relentless pursuit of Christ. That pursuit is driven by the cylinder of faith and repentance, churning up and down, two sides of the same coin. For when we stumble in faith we repent and when we find victory in faith we cry out for meekness and humility. Lord have mercy. Deliver us. Do not delay.

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^[1] N.B. This is not to be confused with the misunderstood version of this teaching that would say that people are as bad as they might possibly be. Such “utter depravity” is not the “total depravity” of Calvin.^[2] Martin Luther, vol. 23, Luther’s Works, Vol. 23 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ( ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan et al.;, Luther’s Works Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1959), 23:146.

^[3] Martin Luther, vol. 10, Luther’s Works, Vol. 10 : First Lectures on the Psalms I: Psalms 1-75, ( ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan et al.;, Luther’s Works Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1974), 10:391.

My wife and I are working to get a grasp on the sacraments and what the Bible teaches us about them: i.e., what they are, what they do, and why God gives them to us. One thing we have noticed in even a cursory consideration of the topic is that relative to the Protestant Reformation, viz. the Magisterial flavor, there has been an unbelievable degradation of the sacraments in the practice of Reformed and Presbyterian churches.One trajectory I am exploring with the help of Keith Mathison’s book, Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, is that many Reformed and Presbyterian Protestants are quite estranged from their traditional heritage. For example, ninety-nine percent of the discussions I hear on Calvinism all revolve around the so called Five Points (as if Calvin were that simplistic) and hinge on the doctrine of Predestination. It is a strange contrast over against this contemporary caricature of Calvin (by self-professing Calvinists!!) that we find two significant points.First, Calvin does not address predestination until Book III of the Institutes which is the pastoral section, the place where Calvin seeks to comfort believers directing them to their assurance in Christ. Calvin did not lead with predestination and seems to primarily use the issue as a means of pastoral comfort to his believing readership.

Second, the orbit of Calvin’s theology does not circle around the constellation of the so called Five Points. By way of reminder, the Synod of Dordt did not convene until 1618. Calvin died May 27, 1564 in Geneva. The Dutch Reformed controversy with Jacob Arminius was not something to which Calvin was speaking (obviously). What does in fact seem to be the center of Calvin’s theology is the idea of Union with Christ (not predestination).

It is this center of Union with Christ which informs Calvin’s understanding of the Sacraments. “According to Calvin, each of the two sacraments [i.e., Baptism and the Lord's Supper] is related to the believer’s union with Christ. Baptism is connected with the believer’s initiation into mystical union with Christ. The Lord’s Supper is connected with the believer’s ongoing continuation in this union.”[1]

Recently, a PCA pastor friend of mine shared with me a story of a time he was at a baptism as a congregant in another church. He was sitting in the balcony and noticed that during the baptism, which in PCA churches is performed at the front of the sanctuary, two young men in the pews in front of him were goofing off, sending text messages to each other and basically dismissing the ritual. After the service, he reached forward and touched their shoulders. They spun around to face him and he said to them, “You missed it.”

They replied, “Missed what?”

“You missed the baptism,” he said.

“So? … I guess we did.”

“There was grace in that for you and you missed it,” the pastor continued.

My friend explained to me that baptism is not simply for that little baby in the front of the church, but it communicates the grace of Christ to the community of believers, the cloud of witnesses as it were, who very much are participating in the infant’s baptism. There is much assurance for the believing witnesses.

Calvin seems to resonate with a similar thought in the way he seems to have understood the sacramental union between the signs and the things signified. Mathison elucidates four main points. First, the union between the two is so close that the sign and the signified are practically identical. Second, the sign does not become the thing signified. A distinction is always maintained. Third, there is no analogy for this union in the natural realm, the only exception being the Incarnation. Fourth, Calvin consequently sees the Incarnation, the everlasting union of God and humanity in Jesus Christ, as the analogy that serves to govern his thought on the mystery involved in sacramental union.[2]

Unfortunately, this is but a jotting for me this morning and as such I think and hope I have laid out some notions that Mathison sees (and I have seen) in Calvin that for most readers will sound strange to their ears. The dissonance comes from two sources in the Protestant West. First, we do not understand our own tradition and in many cases we stand on the shoulders of mere caricature, something other than what has historically been Reformed Protestant tradition. Second, for reasons about which I might only speculate now, the Protestant West has largely forgotten the Incarnation and its cosmic ramifications upon all humanity and especially those whose life is now in Christ.

May God have mercy, sending His Spirit that all of the minds of all of His people would be all the more illumined. Amen.

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[1] Keith A. Mathison, Given for You : Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Pub., 2002), 19.

[2] Ibid., 22.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is observed by the African- American community and ignored by most everybody else that I know. I would suggest to you that Martin Luther King, Jr. represents, for the United States and even the rest of the world generally, a life and movement of far greater significance than imagined. There is much that can be and should be said, but for brevity I limit my thoughts here to the moral, the societal and the fiducial.

Morally, Dr. King’s legacy has also had great benefit for the Caucasian communities of America.¹ Dr. King said in his famous I Have a Dream speech that the destiny of the white person is inextricably tied to that of the black person. If you are white, you probably have a grandmother or great uncle who still talks about “colored people,” smacking of an era that we all want to leave behind. An era in which human beings treated other human beings in immensely dehumanizing ways. What is the toll on the human soul for such thinking and action? It is a poison that tickles the taste buds of hubris on the way down but fills the bowels with bitter nails that rip and tear the Man-Hater apart. Civil Rights was also about the rightness of the souls of the Caucasian community. There is a liberation from hatred that has been bestowed upon us. Let us not insist on remaining shackled to subtle indifference.

Societally, consider the light bulb that you use to sit and read this blog. You probably know that after 10,000 attempts Thomas Edison invented a light-bulb. Did you know that Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928), an African-American, researched a carbon filament that doubled the life of the early light-bulbs and that it was Latimer that sat on the patent boards of Edison Electric (GE) and Maxim-Weston (Westinghouse)? ² Society is always retarded in its growth and progress when we suppress and oppress any segment of it. No one segment can see all sides, and diversity offers opportunity to see more fully what life and society can be. Or to say it another way, the races of this world have been put here with purpose. If we would seek to be the wind beneath the wings of our neighbors, we might find that we ourselves fly higher with them.

Fiducially, King is iconic for me. The Prophet Amos indicted God’s people for their apathy towards their neighbors - the poor, the widow and the alien. God exiled his people because they ceased to be concerned for their fellow human beings in a way that accurately reflected God’s holy character. Do we think that it will be different today? King represents one of the last times that Christians of all kinds of races made a significant difference culturally and socially in the United States.

I long for my brothers and sisters in the Christ’s Church to lay aside the rose-colored blinders that we have conveniently put on our eyes, which keep us from looking at the trouble in this world. As Christians, we are obligated to the betterment of this world and all its creatures. Dr. King understood this. In a very imperfect way, as it is for all of us, Dr. King continued the incarnational work that was instituted by Christ 1,900 years earlier. It cost him his life, but the spirit of that work has continued to this very day. Is it not time that the “sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners sit down at the table of brotherhood” that Christ Jesus has set for us?

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¹ While as of 8:00 AM today the New York Times website did not even seem to acknowledge the federal holiday today, CNN’s website article found it necessary to run an article regarding claims that King had an adulterous affair and a sharp fallout with his colleague, Jesse Jackson. There are three important points here: 1) Adultery and strife are bad. 2) There are many great benefactors of this world who have tragic moral flaws; conversely, there is only One Great Benefactor of this world who has no moral flaw. 3) Is this not really a kind of red herring? In picking apart a man’s life do we not seek to remove the implications of his life’s work from our own bigoted hearts? Can we not imagine forgiveness that great?

² For more information on significant persons in the African-American community, please visit AfricanAmericans.com where I have found the information on Latimer.