Ear Tickling

Weddings, weddings!  Yes I sat through the most recent royal wedding to see all the festivities, pomp and circumstance, and general brew ha ha over Harry and Meghan.  And naturally, as this is a theological blog, I zero in on the firey sermon given by Bishop Michael Curry.  But alas, to no avail.  It was yet another syrupy dalliance with the effervescent nature of global love that would make Rob Bell proud.

A minister of the gospel, a pastor of a flock, and an American to boot, is given the stage to speak to the world and what does he do?  Uses his time to talk of “LOVE” and how it is the most powerful thing and can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Stephen McAlpine nailed it in his latest blog “A Tale of Two Royal Weddings”. “A wedding that looks as grand spanking Royal as Charles and Di’s ever did. But a wedding that still needs a cross at the centre – under the surface of it – like theirs needed, but sadly failed to contain. Not just the love of Jesus as he lived, but the love of Jesus as he died.”

Not too long ago I attended the wedding of wonderful friends in Christ.  The pastor who spoke used the opportunity to speak of the couples love and vowed commitment to one another, yes, but it did not rest there.  He pushed on toward the meaning and purpose of marriage for the man and woman, how it is to challenge them to live for the other because this is what Christ did; challenge them to love even when the other is not loveable, because this is what Christ did; and challenge them to honor even when the other is not honorable, because that is what Christ did. He spoke of God’s design for marriage, between one man and one woman, and their responsibilities toward one another.  It was a true celebration of not just the marriage of the couple, but of its representation of Christ and the church.  This is what marriage points to and what Bishop Curry missed. Where did Bishop Michael Curry’s sermon take us?  In case you missed it, the Cross was not in sight.

He spoke as if the love we feel for one another, puppy, at first sight, or any other, is the love that represents God Himself.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  When we raise love above all else we find ourselves loving at all costs, even those things that ought not to be loved.  And we do things that ought not to be done, for the sake of this selfsame love.

Many people like to quote 1John in their effort to highlight the superiority of love above all else.  What they miss is that what we call love, what we experience as love, what we define as love, misses the mark, try as we might.  And we all know what missing the mark means—sin.  We cannot compare our view of love to God’s because His love is nothing like ours.  It might point to His but we never quite makes it there.

Quote from the VOX about the wedding  “But one of the most striking elements of the royal wedding was also among the most unexpected: the fiery, impassioned, and theologically-charged sermon of American Episcopalian bishop Michael Curry.

“Most theologically charged sermon…”?  Really?  Without mention of the cross?  This is an example of moralistic therapeutic deism of the finest sort.  And I hate that I must bring this up because there is beauty and majesty in love, but it is a love that has been exposed to and rubbed against a splintered cross in a brutal and beautiful way.  It is a love that makes us hang our heads in shame able to raise them only because of the humility of the cross.  It is love we should fear because it demanded the cross. It is a love we should practice because it required the cross.

Bishop Curry had a world stage that few theologians and preachers get…and he blew it.  When he could have spoken to a world (especially Great Britain and the rest of the Western world) of Christ, his love, his sacrifice, and his triumph, instead he spoke of a “Rob Bellian” love that fails to satisfy.  When this love of which he spoke, no longer reigns supreme in the marriage, where is the couple to go?  When it is no longer producing the fire of which he spoke, what should the couple do?  When it fades into comfortable co-existence, what will the couple do to kindle a new kind of love, more real and enduring? His was a world audience thirsting for truth and Bishop Curry gave them a drop of water when he had a whole river of truth from which to draw.

The Cross…I am convinced that every sermon, in life, in marriage, and especially in death, must draw us inextricably to the Cross.  Otherwise, nothing makes sense, or in the words of Solomon, “vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” (As you can see I am still stuck in Ecclesiastes.) The Cross is the sticking point for all of Christianity.

John Stott magnificently describes in his book The Cross of Christ, 4 affirmations about the cross from which we can then, and only then, touch upon the subject of love (or righteousness or humility, or grace or mercy, or…).

1. The Cross is the ground of our justification.
2. The Cross is the means of our sanctification.
3. The Cross is the subject of our witness.
4. The cross is the object of our boasting.

The cross…the cross…this should have been the subject of Bishop Curry’s sermon.  He had the opportunity of a life time to speak wisdom and instead chose to tickle our ears.

 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound^[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:1-4

 

 

 

CHOOSE!

In light of recent events in the US ( fast approaching here in Australia) and the situation that now confronts the Church, I think quite possibly we are heading for a schism, the likes of which have not been seen since the Reformation. Many churches are happily skipping down the road to marry whomever darkens their door thinking possibly that any kind of commitment is better than no commitment at all. What is this phenomena permeating the Church such that we would rather accommodate sin rather than identify it, wrestle with it and repent from it? Why do we have a propensity to turn a blind eye to immoral behavior? Do we see too much of ourselves in sin? These questions are answered in many books, so my interest is merely a brief discussion to attempt to understand why professing Christians readily hand over their faith in the interest of supporting what has been since the time of Adam and Eve, a sin of monumental proportions, one of several that Paul outlines as keeping someone out of the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:8-10).
It is alarming to me to see what I would have thought to be Christians embracing same-sex marriage. To use a trite and oft used phrase, understanding homosexual behavior to be sinful is “low hanging fruit” when trying to map out a life of obedience and faithfulness to the scriptures. The exegetical back flips required to legitimize this behavior are of Olympic proportions. I go back to an earlier blog, Perspecuity, that discusses how the scriptures are readily understood at face value. So what is behind a Christian’s support of this behavior? I come up with three reasons which are in no way my original thoughts but I am not sure to whom I should give the credit other than John Stott’s book The Cross of Christ clearly breathes heavily on these thoughts. Anyway, the 3 reasons that I perceive undergird the lack of Church resolve in this and so many other issues are these:
1. Low view of scripture
2. Ignorance of the holiness of God
3. Ignorance of our own deplorable state of sin.

By a low view of scripture I mean the Christian who has bought into the notion that the scriptures were written by men for a given time and for a given purpose and as a result have limited application to today’s world. A high view of scripture would argue that the scriptures are God’s word to fallen humanity, written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit to provide God’s history of His dealings with humanity, guidance to us for all time and for all circumstances. In other words “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2Tim. 3:16-17) If we subscribe the former, low view of scripture, then, in simple terms, we are free to interpret what the bible has to say based on our own circumstances and sensibilities, whereas a latter view of scripture argues the inerrancy and infallibility of God’s word. Where we sit on this fence has a huge impact on how we interpret the events of the day. A low view of scripture would argue that since the biblical writers were ignorant of the concept of committed homosexual relationships, the writings condemning homosexual behavior do not apply. That might be a good argument based on their view of the scriptures but if you adhere to a high view of scripture as being breathed out by God, then a lack of foresight is impossible given the nature and characteristics of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient,  and leads us to number 2.
In Romans we are told that all of creation knows of God leaving all humanity with no excuse for not worshipping and honoring Him. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20) Nature declares His existence but it is only in the scriptures that we are exposed to His history, His character, and His holiness. God is immutable so what was true of Him in his dealings with Adam are true of Him in His dealings with us today. His purposes are to reconcile His creation to Himself which is impossible due to our sinful inclinations. He is holy and we are sinful and the two shall NOT become one unless…our sins are removed. Enter Christ and issue number 3.
Our sins cannot be removed by our own hand through prayer, works, or any other thing we are capable of doing, saying or believing; they are too vast and too deplorable for us to atone for ourselves. It is total depravity the likes of which we cannot comprehend and in our willingness to dismiss them away demonstrates our ignorance of our own state. John Stott puts it this way:
“All inadequate doctrines of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and humanity. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to his, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hands, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely “hell-deserving sinners,” then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before. The essential background to the cross, therefore, is a balanced understanding of the gravity of sin and the majesty of God. If we diminish either, we thereby diminish the cross.” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ p.111)
So here we sit. All conflicts, all disagreements, and all sins throughout all time and places land us at the base of the cross, right where God wants us to be. We can nail our sins to the Cross of Christ or we can carry them ourselves to meet the Lord in judgment. I, for one, would prefer not to be toting my sins around when called to give an account before the Almighty. There are no words to offer to assuage His utter hatred for sin. “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15) To the Christian community, CHOOSE!

I mourn.

Everywhere you look there are bands of colors splashed on buildings (yes, even the White House), Facebook postings, towers, bodies and yes, even the American flag. I would like to suggest that those of us who feel that the SCOTUS ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land in the US is a mistake of colossal proportions unite behind the black ribbon of mourning. Mourning? Why mourning, you might ask? The rapidity with which this change has been foisted upon the populace is without precedence. There have been scant discussions, debates, and conversations about whether or not this will be beneficial to society, families, and children and what the impact will be on our social and political institutions. The states and populace are far from united and have now had their hands forced by this ruling to abide by a law that severely divides the nation (does anyone else sense shades of civil unrest of 175 years ago?)
I will refrain from calling the LGBT, etc. banner a rainbow because that is offensive to me (and we know no one wants to be offensive, don’t we?) A Judeo/Christian emblem, the rainbow, has been usurped by a community that thumbs its nose at the tenants of these faith traditions. If those who find the Flag of the Confederacy offensive managed to have it banned on Amazon and other retail operators, how much traction do you think we faithful few will get to have the color bands  banned in the US? Just a thought–I am not holding my breath.
Anyway, back to mourning. Yes these are sad times, the impact of which we may never fully realize in our life time, my life time anyway. For we have truly known God but do not honor Him or give thanks to Him, we have become futile in our thinking and our foolish hearts are darkened. We have claimed to be wise and instead have become fools. (Romans 1) We are no longer pillars of the faith in the world (China may take over that role as odd as that sounds) but have returned to our child-like origins, allowing ourselves to be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:14) So yes, mourning it is.
Well you might ask, is it all that bad and I would have to answer yes. Not solely because of the SCOTUS ruling but I think this act represents the crowning achievement of the secular forces on a country designed, propagated, and buttressed by the faith of its founders and early leaders. These men and women, as fallen as anyone else that has ever lived, still knew that their value as human beings was endowed to them by their Creator, something we have lost sight of in order to gleefully skip down the road toward apostasy. And we know we have been endowed by our Creator with value because this is what the Scriptures tell us—we would not know this otherwise. The scriptures also tell us while we are valuable we are sinful and in need of a Savior–our sins are so profound and expansive we could not pay the price.  “It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins.  Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us.  There is no crudity here to evoke our ridicule, only the profundity of holy love to evoke our worship.”  (John Stott in The Cross of Christ) We have a Savior in Jesus Christ, who atoned for our sins and whose first recorded words in the inauguration of his ministry were “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So America, repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Until then, I mourn.