God is a good and gracious Lord; He will be held for God only and alone, and according to the first commandment: “You shalt have none other Gods but me.” He desires nothing of us: no taxes, subsidies, money, or goods. He requires only that He may be our God and Father; and therefore He bestows richly upon us a cup overflowing with all manner of spiritual and temporal gifts.
—Martin Luther, Table Talk, LXXVIII
Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service; grant we beseech thee, that we may so run to thy heavenly promises, that we fail not finally to attain, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
– Thomas Cranmer, Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
His promises are made, may we trust them and pursue them until we pass from this age to the next.
But your graces will also remember that on Christmas morning I put off solving a question I had raised, because there were many people celebrating that day’s feast with us, who usually find explanations of the Word of God rather a bore. But now, I assume, it is only people who want to listen that have come together here. So I am not speaking to hearts that are deaf, or to disdainful minds.
These expectations, though, of yours are like prayers for me. More than that; the games on today have blown many people away from here, for whose salvation I am greatly concerned, and I urge you, brothers, to feel as much concern for them yourselves, and to pray earnestly to God for those who are not yet in earnest about the shows truth puts on, but are still given over to shows put on for the flesh.
- St. Augustine, Sermon 51 – The Harmony Between the Evangelists Mathew and Luke Concerning the Lord’s Genealogy , Section 2
I’ve heard a fair number express exactly the same thing. Funny how human nature stays the same.
Look at the hungry, look at the naked, look at the needy, look at the immigrants, look at the captives; they shall be your porters as you transfer your property to heaven.
- St. Augustine, Sermon 53A – Eight Beatitudes on the Gospel, Section 6
I wept. What beauty, what a sharp scalpel on my heart.
I saw Monergism.com post that there was a bunch of new mp3′s from some amazing folks available for download now at the Gospel Coalition website. I can’t think of much on here that I wouldn’t want to listen to… so check it out!
Here’s a quick round-up of posts from around the web that have piqued my interest this week.
War is Boring – A quick gloss as to the issues facing the replacement of our current fleet and getting the US Navy up to the planned 313 ships.
The Blazing Center – We’ve all sat there, thinking about box scores when we should be paying attention to the sermon… Stephen Altrogge gives some good and clear tactics when approaching this coming message on the Lord’s Day. I find it very hard to listen with humility and listen critically at the same time, I appreciate his comments
Ben Witherington – He brings an excellent and trained eye to Deepak Chopra’s new book, The Third Jesus, he has said all I wanted to say and in a manner far better than I could say it!
Jesus did not, and does not come to take us to a higher spiritual plane, so that we might better get in touch with the little bit of God that is in us all or our own God-consciousness. Indeed, he seeks to lead us to have a relationship with the God he called Abba who is wholly other, and who urges us to recognize the Creator Creature distinction. We are not God, nor is God inherently in us or a part of our being. The end result of navel gazing is that we may well get more in touch with ‘our inner child’, but we do not get more in touch with the ‘outer’ God who created the universe and all that is in it. The former sort of spirituality is a form of narcissism, or at its worse, self- worship. The latter form of spirituality reinforces the Creator/creature distinction and leads to worship of the one true God.
Thank you brother Ben, ἀμήν!
The Thomas Watson Blog – Highlights events surrounding the discussion of covenant children
The Riddleblog – Kim posts an excellent meditation for today, Good Friday (in the western church), and is well worth looking at a couple of times throughout the day if you are so inclined.
—–Side Notes:
Covenant Blog has been kind enough to post explanations of both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday (which they get from the Society of Saint John the Evangelist.
Also, this is my first time attending a church that does not change its worship to reflect the liturgical year. I’m still trying to figure out what I think of it… perhaps I’ll try and address it in a post when I can do so thoughtfully.
edit: Ecto seems to have mangled this every time I post it, hopefully I’ve gotten the kinks out. Apologies if you saw it and it looked mangled, it was!
For those who are celebrating Holy Week – a wonderful poem from a seventeenth century Anglican rector, George Herbert. You can find a collection of his works for free at Google Books.
The Agony
Philosophers have measured mountains,
Fathomed the depths of seas, of states, and kings,
Walked with a staff to heaven, and traced fountains:
But there are two vast, spacious things
The which to measure it doth more behoove:
Yet few there are that sound them: Sin and Love.Who would know Sin, let him repair
Unto Mount Olivet; there shall he see
A man so wrung with pains that all his hair,
His skin, his garments bloody be.
Sin is that press and vice, that forceth pain
To hunt his cruel food through every vein.Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the cross a pike
Did set again abroach; then let him say
If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquor sweet and most divine
Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.George Herbert (1639)
Many thanks to the Mere Comments Blog over at Touchstone Magazine for this in their original post.
A lot of folks went into Cambridge to hear him speak, sadly I could not go. Anyway, here he is speaking at Google’s HQ – Enjoy!
In a real and decisive sense, therefore, he is the miracle, the miracle of all miracles! Whoever takes up the subject of theology finds himself inevitably confronted with this miracle. Christ is that infinitely wondrous event which compels a person, so far as he experiences and comprehends this even, to be necessarily, profoundly, wholly, and irrevocably astonished. -Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology
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A thousand pardons, I am swamped at school.
“…but contrary to the rest of men, enlist on your behalf an army without weapons, without war, without bloodshed, without anger, without stain, an army of God-fearing old men, of God-beloved orphans, of widows armed with gentleness, of men adorned with love.”
Clement of Alexandria, The Rich Man’s Salvation (or, more literally, “Who is the rich man that is being saved?”), 150-216,17 AD, date of writing unknown.