Awesome God First St Johns Lutheran Church August 10, 2014

Leave a reply

 

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father, and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all those who know that we trust and obey God and never rely on our own understanding said … AMEN
Pastor Cory Burma refers to the Rich Mullins song “Awesome God”, Burma says that Mullins was surprised that people were taking “awesome” in a contemporary sense, like amazing, or really cool. “awesome” means that God is “to be feared and loved, one who has done things our mind cannot fully comprehend.” 1
If we go back to chapter 1 in the Book of Job starts by saying “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from all evil.” Quick note, Uz was also where Moses lived for forty years.2 Satan reports into God, and seems a little random, but God pops up with: ‘Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” The Hebrew word translated “turning away”, means not just avoiding but even actively turning away evil influences. So what we see here is God not just commending Job for being so great, but actively pushing away the influence of evil. WOW! Wouldn’t that be great, if God was talking about you that way? Ya that Jim he’s such a great guy, not only does he live his life right, but he actively does things in order to rip out evil in his part of the world. I’d certainly love it if God talked about me that way. But Satan kind of challenges God on Job; sure Job’s great, everyone would be great if you set them up the way You’ve set up Job.
You might hear in Christian circles people praying that God will set a hedge about them. In other words that God will protect them and this is where the expression comes from because Satan says; “Hast Thou not made a hedge about him and his house?” (Job 1:10) Satan is saying; “of course Job is all righteous, he’s your fair-haired boy, you’ve set his life up to be perfect. Job knows where his blessings are coming from and so of course he’s going to be faithful and upright with you. But if you rip everything away from him then “he will surely curse Thee to Thy Face.”’ I couldn’t find anyone who would take a shot to say why God would allow Satan to go and stomp on Job, but there can be no doubt that God, in His sovereignty, has already set this whole thing up. I have no doubt that God wants us to know that He doesn’t have favorites, that He will subject us to trials, that no one is so “good”, that they are immune to the trials and tribulations of life.
Job is immensely wealthy and he has a lot to lose and almost immediately Satan swoops in and arranges for the Sabeans to attack and they took off with all Job’s livestock, and killed all his servants. Then a great wind comes and knocks the house that his children are in and kills all his children. What was Job’s response to what would seem to be this unfair treatment? Those words we have heard so often: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). Wow! Job is a righteous man. Then God allows Satan to take Job’s health. At this point the advice starts pouring into Job. His wife says, the Driskell translation; “really, you’re still faithful to God? Just curse Him and die!” Advice Job rejects. Then his three friends come along; Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar. What’s their answer to all of this? … Come on Job, you’ve obviously committed a really huge sin, fess up, ask for forgiveness and then trust God. Longman and Dillard point out that “The Three friends represent the age-old wisdom of retribution theology… God blesses the righteous; he curses the wicked. If so, then if Job suffers, he must be a sinner in need of repentance.”3 Now is that the case? Is Job being punished for some really humongo sin?… No! We just read at the beginning of Job what God Himself has said about Job: “…there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar are all wet, they don’t know what they’re talking about, yet they presume to make judgments for God. Not smart! Job even responds after Zophar’s speech to say: “Behold, the ‘fear’ of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.”(Job 28: 28) Job goes on through chapter 30 praising and extolling God and then, well, the cheese kinda slips off the cracker. “Hey it’s not because of my sin, come on, look at all these great things I’ve done to serve God,” really saying “hey I don’t deserve to be kicked around by God and I’ll tell Him all these great things to His face, ‘Behold, here is my signature; Let the Almighty answer me!… I would declare to Him the number of my steps”’.(Job 31: 35, 37) OK, now Job’s kind of stepped off the deep end, now he’s getting a little self righteous and ya, “maybe God does owe me an explanation, because I did all these great things and I don’t deserved to be kicked around.”
Elihu has stepped into the conversation now and he takes offense and finally someone is the voice of reason. He tells Job, woe now, just wait a minute here: “The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33: 4) Let’s get a little perspective here Job and remember who created us and what He does for us. You have no right to demand an explanation. Elihu goes on four more chapters praising God and all that He is. Then finally what happens? … Ya, our reading today. God Himself steps in and says, woe, wait just a minute all of you and speaks to Job. “Hey, where were you when I created all things, where are you when I sustain all things. You have no clue the vastness of all these things. Who are you to get up into My grill and demand answers.” God goes on three chapters pushing Job and questioning him. Obviously Job is just overwhelmed, he has no answer to God’s questions and finally says: “But now my eye sees Thee; Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6). God gave Job a four chapter beatdown, which applies to us also. Especially in this day and age when we think that science and technology have all the answers and we don’t need to rely on God. Read chapters 38-41, do you think you or any of our brilliant scientists have any answers to the questions God raises? No! Sure, we can still keep learning and searching, but keep in mind that there will always be questions that we will never know the answers to.
Take some time this week to first read chapters 28-30 in Job. See how Job glorifies God, even though Job has just been beaten down and maybe we might think unfairly, but in His sovereignty. “…we know, that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28)
as Paul told us in our readings from a couple of weeks ago. From ancient Scripture God is using Job’s experience to teach us today that it’s not our understanding that matters, it is God’s will that matters and yes sometimes His will is really tough to accept. But in the end, it is God’s will who saved us through Jesus, His will, which we don’t understand, that caused Jesus’ suffering but for our deliverance. When we are Job, we don’t understand the need for suffering. When we are sinners in need of a Savior, then we do accept God’s wisdom, that wisdom that put His own Son on a Cross to die for our sins.
So yes, “Our God is an awesome God, He does reign from heaven above with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God.”
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Inner city ministry

2 Replies

We have a guest today, Dr Dale Meyer is the President of Concordia Seminary in St Louis, Mo. He was the president there will I studied for my Masters of Divinity degree and I understand that he suffered some minor trauma as the result of my being time there, sorry Dr Meyer. He’s a tough guy, he handled it. Dr Meyer writes a daily commentary, that you can subscribe to, he has great insights. Today’s particularly hit home with me. I am very much about inner-city ministry and blogged on it in the past, in particular my admiration for Rev Tom Wildner down in Baltimore, Md. Dr Meyer’s commentary today is about the church and ministry in the city:

“Meyer Minute for August 14

Over the decades my denomination pretty much abandoned the major metropolitan areas of the United States. We weren’t alone, other denominations moved out too, and for very understandable reasons. So this isn’t about blame. People seek good and safe places to live.

The real city is a strange place. Oh, I can handle myself quite well walking on Broadway in New York or Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and so can you. But what about living in Harlem or Chicago’s south side, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” territory? Fear in the city is definitely not “false evidence appearing real.” The real city is strange, a foreign, foreboding place to many of us.

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” asked the psalmist when he and his people were exiled in Babylon (Psalm 137:4). From suburbs and small towns, we look at the city… People who didn’t move out watch their churches decline or close… And if we care, that’s a big if, if we care, we feel alienated from the city life of decades ago. For many of us, being in the real city is being in exile.

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jeremiah 29:7) The early growth of Christianity was through the great urban centers of the Mediterranean region. There are some stirrings among church people to get back into the city, voluntary exile, because God wants His Church where the masses are. Jesus saw “a great crowd and he had compassion on them.” (Mark 6:34) I don’t know about you, but this makes me uncomfortable sitting in my cushy suburban church pew.”

I, Jim Driskell, am the pastor of a great old church in a smallish size city, but with definite inner city problems, just smaller scale. I frankly feel very strongly about these great old churches that were built to the glory of God vs a lot of churches today that were built more for pleasing man. The church certainly has a ministry, we have tried to do a lot of work to provide for our neighbors. But frankly there is a lot of need around us and by virtue of the “urban retreat”, churches like First St Johns, are pretty short in resources. We have a great congregation that really sacrifices and scrounges, but certainly could use more support. I tell have told people many times, if they want to do real ministry, they will get it here at a church like First St Johns. It’s interesting that Dr Meyer’s commentary comes out after Reggie McNeal’s presentation. Pastor McNeal is certainly calling for the suburban church to get serious about ministry. Churches like First St Johns are very visible symbols of the Kingdom in the middle of cities. They should be preserved and built up in terms of support from serious brothers and sisters in Christ.

Judgment Seat

Leave a reply

In sermons and in reading the Scripture you probably saw something about a “Judgment Seat”. This was common to a town of any decent size in Israel. In the Book of Ruth, for example, when Boaz goes to gates of the city where the judgment seat is to “redeem” Ruth and Naomi. In that time an unmarried/widowed woman would rely on family to provide for her. The closest man relative would take her in and provide and that man would be the “kinsman redeemer”.
The leaders of the town would meet regularly at the city gate to conduct the business of the town, they would meet where the “Judgment Seat” would be. Today we would go to a courthouse if there is some legal issue we needed to handle. In that day a person would go to the city gate and that is what Boaz, who was the next closest relative to Naomi, did to formalize the arrangement regarding Ruth and her mother in law Naomi, to be their kinsman redeemer. The featured picture shows the judgement seat of this particular town where it has stood for centuries in front of the gate of this particular town in Israel.

Bill Gates says, “I think it makes sense to believe in God”!

Leave a reply

Funny how that wasn’t a big headline in the Huffington Post!
It is from an article in an unlikely source, “The Rolling Stone” magazine. Certainly my impression of Gates has been one of a very secular, materialistic, yea, just plain corporate person.
Now don’t get some crazy idea that Gates all of a sudden became a Christian. But it does, somewhat, rebuff the idea that the contemporary, corporate individual is beyond redemption. Frankly I think that in the post-modern world, we have realized that there is much more than just science, technology. Well one of the pillars of post-modern technology is coming around to the fact that there must be a God. This is how he responded to Jeff Goodell’s question, “Do you believe in God?”
“…After admitting that science can’t explain everything , Gates shared an intriguing comment about his openness to God:
‘The mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God,…” (Rolling Stone Magazine Mar 27, 2014 as quoted in Leadership Journal vol 35 No 6)
Guess it’s no surprise this wasn’t reported on CNN.
Let’s discuss, Wednesday’s at First St Johns 140 W King St 10am, park right behind the church. No charge, no obligation.

It’s time for the liberal “Christian” church to give it up

Leave a reply

My life in the church has been rather odd. Yet, I’m not terribly unusual for my generation. To wit, as a baby I was “dedicated” in the American Baptist church (go figure a church that calls itself “baptist”, but is kind of fussy about a group that sees baptism as really only kind of an initiation thing). I was married by a Congregational pastor (kind of interesting also, why is a Christian clergyman marrying someone who isn’t a baptized Christian?) I was, finally, baptized by a United Methodist minister and four years ago ordained by a Lutheran minister. I was not churched as a child and it was only a “there are no atheists in a foxhole experience”, that God used to lead me to be baptized in my mid-twenties.

I tell you this so that you will see that I’ve been there, done that and have a few t-shirts. Notice that the churches I’ve come from, have been or morphed into Christian churches very much on the fringe/far end of the liberal Christian churches. I really got a stomach full in the United Methodist Church. Toward the end of my stay in the UMC, I had an experience that really illustrated what that church was about. It was at the New England Annual Conference, and well ya, you can imagine, liberal New England. There were various persons being recognized for achievement for the past year.

One woman had started a clinic on Cape Cod (yea, tres chic in both senses), to of course treat the trendy/chic diseases of the time. (Yea, I know I feel stupid even characterizing it that way, but to liberals there’s chic and then just mundane). Well (I was going to say praise the Lord), but there wasn’t any of that going on, It was effusive applause simply all about the woman and her efforts and how oh so trendy. Next was a man (middle aged, white, yea already a few strikes against him) and also evangelical. He was recognized for planting a church in New Hampshire and when he spoke he praised the Lord and was very effusive in how Christ was being lifted up by the church he planted. His reception was, at best, luke warm. Clearly he did not fit the profile that found approval in the flat-line, uhmm, I mean main-line, church of 20th to 21st century America.

I knew many orthodox, evangelical Christians in the UMC. Their feeling, for the most part, was that they stayed in the UMC in order to be a faithful remnant, a faithful witness to Christ in a church that was heterodox and even heretical.

Now that I’m in a Church that is orthodox, Christ centered, Scripture centered church, I look back on those who are still in liberal churches and while I pray that the reasons they stay are the right ones, I do question the motivation. Do you stay in a church because that’s where family is/has been, where you’ve ministered for years? Or do you say no, I’m not going to support this by my presence anymore and pick up and leave. Maybe it’s time for the faithful remnant to stop supporting these churches with their presence, their time, talent and treasure. Let’s be frank, faithful Christians are maintaining, if not enabling churches that are Christian in name alone. As I witnessed, they make no pretense to honor Christ, or they so seriously distort Scripture that the reality is simply not recognizable.

I submit that if all the orthodox Christians still in liberal churches would just pick up and leave, these old/liberal/irrelevant churches would implode into their thoroughly rotted structures. I have to ask, would that really be bad? No! It’s way past time to eliminate the tiny little groups who have been supported by orthodox Christians who continue to distort, if not outright lie about the message of Christ. How many have they led to destruction because of their spiritual poison must be immense and as orthodox Christian we really need to ask ourselves if we should be enabling ministries that endanger the spiritual health of millions. Again, No!

Disciples then members? Chicken – egg thing going on?

Leave a reply

Please don’t think I’m picking a fight with Reggie McNeal, believe me, I know when I’m out gunned. On this particular point I tend to agree, but…
Yes, absolutely, we need to make disciples! How does one do that? Disciple is from the Greek word, mathetes, which is student and also a teacher. Pastor McNeal, speaking at the Southeast District Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod’s “Tending the Flame” conference says we should be more concerned about making disciples and not so concerned about making church members. Yea, not so quick.
We have put too little emphasis on making disciples, but seems that this might be a little “chicken-eggish” and I want to make the case that someone should be a member first, then be in more of a relationship to grow into discipling. In fact, Thom Rainer’s book “Simple Church”, would seem to support my thesis.
Rainer’s plan: 1) Let folks get a little comfortable, sit them down at some early point, teach them what they need to function in the church, make them a member.
2) Help them to be a member of a small group, which will be a, hopefully, less intimidating way to be a part of the church. Really grow as a disciple and also learn so that they can grow into facilitating their own group.
3) Finding the gifts that they bring to the church and building a group around like minded persons to serve the church.
The expectation is that the disciple has to start in a position of belonging, being a part of the group. Being a member is certainly going to facilitate that.
The LCMS teaches closed communion, that is you have to be a member to receive the true Body and Blood of Jesus. This is something that Pastor McNeal would probably not take into account since the Baptist church does not hold to a high view of the Lord’s Supper. Reason being, the LCMS wants the person to understand the whats and whys of worship. Why would you try to be involved in something that you really don’t know what it’s about?
I’d like to take it further, for six and a half days a week, we are doing what we should be doing, but certainly in Christian integrity. On that half day, we all get over ourselves and come together on the same basis as the Body of Christ, put aside all our unfounded “opinions” and nonsense, put away our self-obsession and spend serious time focused on God and real worship.
It just seems as if there are too many people who can’t put aside their personal agendas, their personal goals, their own footballs and continue to use their priorities as a way to avoid having to deal with Christ.
So I see this as an issue of being part of worship as a fully participating member of worship. I am very serious about this issue of membership because that is where people take some vows, begin to understand the seriousness of being part of the church, being a part of not just what the church is today, but what it has been over the past 2,000 years. That is truly belonging, being part of something.
I see this as another way of leaving your “stuff” at the door and joining with brothers and sisters and being responsible to them and them to you.
Too often we let people get bogged down in what is often just nonsense, we enable them by giving and giving and giving and we don’t put it in front of them; “This is what is going to address your problems! Maybe not according to your agenda, in your way, your cultural context, it may not be the right size, shape or color, but Christ is what you need.” Sorry, guess I’m going to keep doing it backwards, like the Acts church. Yes, I will do what I can to reach out, but my highest priority is always going to be worship, serving those in the church community, brothers and sisters in Jesus. They are my priority, versus those who remain in the periphery, the shadows, not willing to commit and too often just there to pursue their own agenda. I am not going to be an “enabler” and just keep going along with every avoidance mechanism each person employs. This means those who use their poverty or their disability, or their lack of initiative, alcohol, drugs or some other agenda in order to avoid a real commitment, claim that is what keeping them from Christ. But oh yeah, when’s the Food Bank open?
Yea it really is about maintaining the excuse and expecting someone to keep enabling them.
Does this mean that I expect you to have your act together before you come to church? No! It does mean give and take, being part of the community, not just taking, but learning how to start giving back. It can be done. I’ve seen it. But it’s done when you become a member and make a commitment to growing as a member and a disciple.
Frankly it seems to me there are plenty out there looking for that opportunity. “Yes I need help, but I also need a chance to be part of something that I can give to.” It doesn’t have to be a lot, a little change, a little time, a little service to others here and there. But this Sunday morning put away all the bupkus, come together with brothers and sisters in Jesus and come to worship. You’ve got 6 1/2 days to has out the rest of it. Frankly, I bet that Sunday morning will give you more of an opportunity to work out the rest of it, then the next 6 1/2 days will. Go ahead tell me I’m wrong. In the meantime, quit the “Cool Joe” stuff, or I don’t know the Groucho Marx, “I wouldn’t be a member of any club that would have me as a member”, make a commitment to really come before God. To the church, make a commitment to get people to be a true part of the church and quit the nibbling around the edges. Focus on those who make the commitment, if you can do something for the others then go for it.

Happy, unhappy, go figure

Leave a reply

Stumbled across an interesting, maybe, contrast.
According to Forbes the happiest place to work, by a lot, is the good ole US of A. According to Forbes not only are we the happiest, but we are also the most productive, $63 per GDP hour. (Forbes Nov 18, 2013 p 28) So there you go, personal opinion, I would guess that the American workplace is probably the most motivated, flexible, given the most freedom to do the job and not shackled with a lot of social engineering. At least compared to other countries, the concern is getting the job done. I would also hazard to guess that there is much more freedom of conscience, more give and take, more ability for people to work with each other without a lot of extraneous matter. That was my experience. I worked for twenty years in corporate finance, as well as being operational in the Coast Guard Reserved, as well as active duty time. I haven’t seen research, and I’m certainly not saying that the workplace is a “comfortable” place, but there still is an acceptance. I would be willing to bet a lot, that people of faith in other countries, especially Europe, are very much discouraged. No doubt the workplace is more workable because people can live out there principles in the workplace.
In contrast, (from an on-line study, PIX 11, believe got it off Huffington Post Jul 23, 2014) the least happy place in the U.S.? Yea, bet you didn’t see this coming, New York, NY. That’s right the city that never sleeps, of course that could be the reason why. What do NYCers worship? Oh yeah, money, success, and power. It is a place where everyone goes to succeed and only a tiny minority do. Oh believe me, most of my corporate life was related to the City. I started working for Chase Manhattan. Ironically one of my last assignments in the Coast Guard before retiring and going to seminary was Staten Island, cruising around the city in a forty one foot Coast Guard boat. So yeah, many come to NYC and all except for a tiny number, leave, usually in short order. Can’t be very happy in a place like that. In addition faith is an issue only in terms of whether it furthers your career and fortune. Work in the City is how much, how fast and how high, anything else, to use a Yiddish expression which is pretty common in NYC, is bupkus.

The ten happiest metropolitan areas? Are, with one exception, in the south, yup the Bible belt. The one area north of the Mason-Dixon, interestingly enough is in New Jersey, go figure. If there’s an area where faith is still going to be a part of the workplace, it would logically be where the Christian faith is still a daily reality.

Yeah, I may be laying template/agenda across two unrelated studies, but … the facts would seem to indicate that in those areas where faith still matters, it still makes all the difference in life.

So take some time tomorrow 10am  at First St Johns 140 W King St, have a cup of coffee, we can talk a little more about this or pursue Gene Veith’s book.

The church is alive, but needs some reality.

Leave a reply

“The report of my demise has been greatly exaggerated.” That recognizable quote from Mark Twain illustrates the current status of the Christian Church. This report has come from a number of quarters, up to and including the church. This is really kind of presumptuous, it is God’s church, not ours to judge.
The church I pastor is part of the Southeast District of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. I am very proud and pleased to be a part of this district. It is very focused on evangelism, outreach, being disciples of Jesus Christ. Along with members of First St Johns, we attended the annual “Tending the Flame ” Conference in Richmond, which is a conference that builds evangelism and discipling skills. A church organization devoted to bringing the Gospel to such an influential part of the United States.
There is usually a speaker who keynotes the conference and is a speaker who is well known for his/her evangelism efforts, bringing Christ to those who are lost.
This year Reggie McNeal spoke, well known pastor, author. He is a great writer, man of God and great guy. But … Yea, I have some issues.
Believe me, I get what he was saying. There are a lot of churches out there, new, suburban, frankly these are more monuments for person pleasing then they are for God honoring. The theme of Pastor McNeal’s talks was “Get off Your Donkey”, essentially get out of your pretty churches and do some real engagement for Christ. There are a lot of these fancy churches that are attached to their monument, their church, not so concerned with the Great Commission.
The church has been around for 2,000 years, and has confronted greater challenges than post-modern neo-paganism and I have no doubt that it will continue to be. I have no doubt that Jesus’ imagery of building His church on a rock and the gates of hell not prevailing against it, ever is still valid today. Has the church gone through some tough times? No doubt, but as I’ve suggested before a lot of those tough times were self-inflicted and frankly I think Pastor McNeal’s forum touched on another aspect of that, perhaps not intentionally, but it illustrated it for me.
The problem that I see is that, again, too many new, suburban, in some aspects, almost exclusive churches that started since the 1950’s. But it goes back farther, where it seems that churches really lost sight of their vows to build the church and became social clubs, more concerned with being comfortable and not so concerned with providing for the lost in any respect, spiritual or material.
As Pastor MacNeal pointed out, we, the church, are the only self-conscious organization that is serving and proclaiming God today. We know that we are the agents of God. We do know and should practice what was ordained by Jesus.
Allow me to presume, but it seems as if McNeal is calling for a reformation of sorts and certainly it seems as if it is time for another one. The Reformation brought Christianity back to what is truly Christ-centered, God’s Word. It did away with the man-made stuff that affixed itself to the church. The church went back to Jesus’ command in the Great Commission, to baptize, to make disciples, to go into the world and not hide behind big church doors.
The issue I have is this, the Christian church has not only fallen in love with itself, and decided it was an exclusive club, but also decided that it was going to be a political force. None of that was intended by Jesus, much as the Roman Church became a political force in the medieval period.
Again I have a great deal of respect for Pastor McNeal, but I think a lot of what he talked about was probably derived from his church, the Baptist church. While I really don’t disagree with a lot of what the Baptists are actively involved in, I think that it has become way too involved in the world and has tended to ignore the Great Commission. It’s been way too involved in politics, has a very low view of the sacraments, tries to make the pastor more of a CEO then a man who should be much more concerned with being a “seel sorger” (soul doctor).
Gordon MacDonald tells of a time when he was at the clean up area from 9-ll, he was with a monk dressed in clerical apparel, where MacDonald was dressed business casual. MacDonald noted how he was pretty much ignored while the man who was attired in ecclesiastical/Christ proclaiming garb was treated with respect and deference. Clearly there is respect in the world for a man of Christ, but it seems, frankly as if those in the church don’t and the clergy does little if anything to expect respect from laity. Heck when you have some 24 year old say; “oh, call me pastor Jimmy”, well what do you expect.
When “worship” amounts to world pleasing music patting people on the head, “worship” that is man pleasing and not God-honoring you can’t expect the world to think otherwise. When you go to a Lutheran worship you “should” see true worship. You should see Word and Sacrament. Word, which is the preaching of Law and Gospel and doesn’t get into a lot of of societal platitudes, ten ways to be … , political agendas. You should be getting the fall of man into sin and how Christ, the Son of God, lived and died to reestablish the relationship with Jesus.
Has the church, that really did sell out the Gospel in the 80’s and 90’s, become irrelevant? Yes. It inflicted its own wounds. Instead of creating disciples in Christ to truly serve the world and to proclaim a message that certainly has political application, but it tried to force a political agenda, much like the medieval Roman church.
The LCMS, on the other hand, has the correct message and practice, but had its own self-inflicted wounds which mostly consisted of isolationism and provincialism.
When Law and Gospel is presented it resonates with people, it is readily understood. It’s not political, it’s not hodge-podge, it’s serious and meaningful. When we talk about baptism we are talking and expecting a true transformation. That person has been reborn, they are now a child in Christ, the old person is dead, it still lingers, we still sin, but we are now in that relationship with the Father. With that there is the hope and promise in the church. The church talks about the forgiveness, restoration of Christ. When we take His Body and Blood, it’s not just a quaint little remembrance, it is truly His Body and Blood that forgives, restores, strengthens.
All due respect those 1950s/60s building are a problem. The old churches were built the way they were for a reason, to the glory of God and to inspire awe, a tiny taste of heaven. The 1950s/60s buildings were built to be man pleasing, very little in terms of God honoring. No wonder the church is irrelevant, it’s jut become another, among many, man honoring monuments, since it really doesn’t proclaim hope and promise, forgiveness, eternal resurrected life. so yes, the church of the 50s-70sis a failure. It is suburban-man honoring-social club, this is what MacNeal is talking about and seems to be condemning. Frankly, in terms of that I agree.
The inner-city church has been doing for years what MacNeal advocates. The problem is this, what MacNeal advocates is serving and social work. OK, that’s what the inner-city church does, but it also does what is truly important, bringing the hope and promise of Christ. The people of First St Johns have stepped up and done much social outreach and will continue to do so. But what has been discovered is that much of what is done is taken advantage of by people who have no intention to do anything other than what they’ve been doing. The church should serve, but often ends up just being an enabler. I intend to develop this thesis further, but there is only limited time, resources and persons to do this ministry. I do a lot of “social ministry”, I could do it 24/7 without a problem, that’s not what I’m there for or trained for. We do serve physical needs, but more importantly doing what’s important: conducting worship that is God-honoring, disciple-making, Word and Sacrament. That church, First St Johns for example, St Thomas’ in Baltimore too, those churches are very valid and need to be built up and restored. Now if Pastor MacNeal is talking about the churches that have become superficial, sappy, irrelevant, that they should get off their donkies, OK. They should and schlep downtown to the churches where the faithful have been serving, not just food, clothes, shelter, but also genuine Word and Sacrament, the hope and promise of Christ. Well then they should, and do it quickly. But churches like First St Johns are more relevant than ever.

Sea of Galilee fish fry, hosted by the Lord

Leave a reply

Been out all night, nothing! Just starting to be daylight and a voice from the shore calls “Children, do you have any fish?” They’re all adults, so don’t know how the “children” went over. Of course nothing like having someone remind you “…do you have any fish?” that your whole night’s been wasted effort. The same man’s probably becoming more visible and then says, throw the net on the right side of the boat (that’s starboard for you landlubbers). What??? That’s not going to make any difference. But they did, hauled in 153 fish, probably a record single haul.

They get close enough to land and realize it’s Jesus, but by now they’ve probably figured it out. Not only does He give them an enormous haul, but He’s got dinner ready. So nice after a long night of bouncing around the Sea of Galilee. He won’t be with them much longer, He will be ascending to the Father very shortly. This is one of His resurrection appearances, and it’s back in the calm of Capernaum, away from the bustle of Jerusalem.

This is a picture of the beach that tradition has set this scene. I can just picture the Lord with the disciples, sitting around talking, laughing, comforting them, providing for them and giving them the promise of God the Son.