I was married for many years, and one of the accusations the ex threw at me constantly was “You are just Catholic. You confess something, and you do it again”. Well, she was right: like all of us I have habits of sin that I struggle with. They do not go away as you get older. But she is wrong.

For here the reformed agree with the Papists. We are all fallen. Our hope is not in what we do, for we will only be able to reform ourselves by the work of the spirit. We need to continually turn to the cross for this is our hope.

Hebrews 10:26-36

²⁶For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. ²⁸Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” ²⁹How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? ³⁰For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” ³¹It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³²But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. ³⁵Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward.³⁶For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

The question of what willingly persist in sin means needs unpacking. None of us is righteous — we need to choose today to do good (but we cannot undo the wrong we did yesterday). And we all have error, and we need to take sin seriously and keep short accounts of our sin.

But Christ accepts us as we are. We need to change, but this is to please him. This is why confession requires repentance and contrition.  It is not cheap, it is costly. And if we fail… we pray that instead of condemning us, our brothers and sisters will pick us up. So we hold to the faith we have been given, at such great cost.

Most of the commentators here come from the stone age branch of traditionalism. They are traditional Christians… believing (and tiving) what has been called the old, strong religion. Now, we have considerable differences, but as we live in a fallen age the practical issues that exist around keeping a family together and holy mean that the Catholic housewife is talking with an Orthodox steel worker… and the reformed.  Now, on some things, it does not matter. My congregation uses the lectionary, has candles, and sings modern songs. But the teaching is reformed and quite Scottish: we look at Iona as well as the auld Kirk.But as James MacDonald says, that is no reason for woolly thinking.

Candles and bells, paintings and sculpture, incense and chanting–great! Let’s bring back the best of all those offerings of worship, but let’s not confuse style and substance. According to Jesus it’s still truth that sets you free, not artistic expression. Wearing suits and ties is certainly not necessary and it can be contrived and unnatural, but wearing jeans and sandals is not a means to the revealed presence of Christ. John 14:21 teaches that obedience to the substance of Christ’s teaching brings His “manifest presence,” not forms–old or new. In most of these discussions we are simply inserting an ancient-dead form in place of a modern-dead one

 

Now this is the second attempt to do this. The hotel ISP destroyed the first draft at around 7 am when I tried to post it in Wellington, it’s now around 10 pm and I’m in Dunedin. What I want to look at a bit is the Hebrews text from today.

Hebrews 10:11-25

One of the current fads within the church is innovation, marketing, simplification.  Now, the Gospel is simple. But applying, it, like many simple things, is incredibly difficult. The teaching elder needs to spend a fair amount of time in exegesis… struggling with his Greek, his Hebrew, and at times his Latin to consider what the text means,

For that does not change. But if he does not preach that, and then apply it to the lives of the congregation, he is not doing his job.

John 5:30-47

³⁰“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³²There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. ³³You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. ³⁶But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

³⁹“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Now, one of the things that the congregation will do is stray. To that which is comfortable. No one wants to get out of bed and doe the uncomfortable things… but every parent has done this, repeatedly, to a babe. For we in love do what is needed.

(Note: there is nothing, nothing here which is protestant. The reformers already knew how to preach, because those before them had done so for generations.

But if you just do the simple stuff it is like feeding nothing but cheezo. It will assuage hunger, but without substance, you will still starve.  A good test is reproof — if you are not confronting your own sin and those around you are not doing your job.

This sheep, you see, is starving. He needs to be fed. Fortunately, he can read… but reading theology does not replace solid preaching: we are saved together and we  starve together, and you cannot cure this with a mere reading list.

We live in an over regulated world, where best practice limits our ability to do good. Jesus practice was different.

John 5:1-11

¹After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. ³In these lay many invalids — blind, lame, and paralyzed. 4 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” ⁷The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” ⁸Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” ⁹At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a sabbath. ¹⁰So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.” ¹¹But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’”

 

Healing someone is more important than the regulation. Mercy is more important than best practice. It is a good principle to ignore the bureau, and simply do our duty.

I am noting in the last couple of days a few disturbing trends. The megauploard case is being flogged by the opposition (on the basis of a Virginia grand jury. The people are charged under US law and arrested to face charges there. The site allowed file sharing in the cloud. Like canoncial, apple, microsoft and google do… but their executives don’t have their houses raided. Let’s hit German expats in New Zealand instead).

In other news, Rand Paul, the senator, has been detained by the TSA.

Ron Paul’s presidential campaign released a strongly worded statement Monday afternoon, blistering the TSA for its practices.

“The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe,” it said.

The incident was first disclosed by the senator’s spokesperson on Twitter.

“Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville,” read her tweet just minutes later, at 9:59 A.M.

Like his father, Rand Paul has libertarian leanings and has been a fierce critic of TSA’s pat-downs of passengers at airports, which he views as government overreach. The senator grilled TSA Administrator John Pistole last year after a 6-year-old girl from Paul’s hometown, was patted down by airport security.

This is an odd time to be male. The traditional rules are disavowed and denied until there is a crisis. Then it is women and children first, and woe betide any man who is rescued. MacDoctor comments...

We do not condemn a civilian from running away from gunfire, but we would certainly condemn a soldier.

Schettino is clearly in the latter category. He is not a lay person thrust into an unexpected situation, he is supposed to be a professional who has been trained to deal with precisely this situation – a sinking ship filled with passengers that he must evacuate. There is no doubt that he has been well trained – he did extremely well initially by swinging the ship round and beaching it in shallow waters. He probably saved many lives doing this. He then promptly abandoned ship leaving 4000 people to mill around in panic. Metaphorically, the doctor took a lunch break.

No one expected Schettino to “go down with the ship”, or some such romantic nonsense. No one expected him to attempt heroic rescue missions for trapped passengers. No one expected him to be a brave person.

We just expected him to do his job.

Now, it would be interesting to see what people would say if (a) Schettino, the captain of a ship with about 4000 on board and where all but 20 were rescued, was a woman and (b) if getting families off together is more orderly than the Birkenhead drill. But the commentators have still a romantic expectation of men… that they will rescue, that they will be heroes… but if a modern man is aggressive they are damned.

But there has always been a need for warriors, for a militia, for trained violence.

Genesis (14:1-7) 8-24

¹In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim, ²these kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ³All these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea). ⁴Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness; ⁷then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. ⁸Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹with King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar, four kings against five. ¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. ¹¹So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way; ¹²they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

¹³Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram. ¹⁴When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. ¹⁵He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.

¹⁷After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). ¹⁸And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. ¹⁹He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; ²⁰and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him one tenth of everything.²¹Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” ²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, ²³that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ ²⁴I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me — Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share.”

Hebrews 8:1-6

¹Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ²a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up. ³For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. ⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent, was warned, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises.

Some notes.

1. Male violence, like male anger, needs to be channeled. The aggressive impulse needs to be trained. Men are supposed to defend, and the soldierly arts are not sinful per se.  If we require men to be non aggressive we asking them not to be men.
2. As an expansion of this, the entire anti violence movement relies of the trained violence of police and the armed forces. The only reason that the feminist judiciary can enforce misandrist rules against men being aggressive is because they have police… and the police now use pepper spray, tasers and pistols to enforce this.
3. And… the priestly role is a role set by God. Not the courts. Not the judiciary. It has qualities akin to kingliness and peace: but acknowledges the warrior. The Priest has to be a military chaplain.

Now, the soldiers I know don’t listen well to women. Male nature. We need to work with this, not legislate against it.

This morning I attended kirk with my father, and the (quite young) preacher was going on about the goals of the year: that we should own our circumstances, choose good influences, and build great things this year. He used a poor example: building a great marraige not a good marriage. Now… this can be something you work on but all the leadership and prayer in the world may not keep a woman with you if she chooses to leave….. and in a similar way we cannot at times be great in what we would like to be because we are limited by where we are or who we are.

So his positive message backfired. A bit like the weather: it is snowing, when it supposed to be high summer, in the passes towards home.   Nothing new here: Paul had to defend his ministry and in the same way we have to defend good teaching.

Galatians 2:1-10

Over the next few days I am visiting my parents with my sons… as I live some distance away time for the sons with their grandparents is precious. Last night we were watching some costume drama and this led to a discussion of my grandparents and their generation. My Dad pointed out that there was no welfare, minimal divorce (people who were thinking of divorce waited until the children had grown) and that we need men to again return to the church and to see caring for and raising a family as the highest goal.

Dad spends a fair amount of time teaching in the poorer parts of Auckland, and sees a clear lack of fathering in the children. We then moved onto the stoic qualities of the women of that era… and how no fault divorce has led to fathers being forced away from their parents.

We had no solution.

When I looked at yesterday’s comment about the woman I realised that many people don’t have the gospels in their head and that I had alluded to the previous verses…. about a Samaritan woman who came to draw water in the heat of the day (when no sane woman would). This woman now causes a town to come to Christ.

John 4:27-42

27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29″Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him.

31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Well, the testimony of any person has power. And that of a shamed woman having the confidence to say that Christ had discerned all her secret shame and still talked to her was enough… to get the town out to listen. No one can say that this was not God working in her live, or her actions after meeting Jesus were illegitimate.

Nor can we say that God only works through men.

But we can say… that Jesus used this women, and this situation. to teach those (male) disciples of his that the harvest they were sent to get… their mission field.. included those despised Samaritans, women, and those who had lost any reputation for good.

Christ was preached to our forefathers when our society was profoundly pagan… unless you are Jewish, when your Forefathers had Christ himself preaching to you. Without Christ, our societes regress all to quickly to paganism and to fascism.

Women and men are different. (Thank God). But God uses us both.

Yesterday we drove down to Cairns, and today this is written in Cairns airport. The Australian today is all about the proposed acknowedgment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders by way of a constitutional anmendment. Now words can mean nothing or everything. But we can be distracted by the highfauliting principles and miss what needs to be done. For instance, jobs have decreased in Australia.

This woman was being confronted, gently, about her sin, Instead she raised the issue of the Samaritains. This is a distraction. Jesus bought her back to the isssues at hand.

But most of the time, in the church, we are chasing chimera such as racism, sexism and ecological stewardship instead of encouraging repentence.

Because preaching repentence is hard and unpopular. But it was Jesus’ practice. And it should be ours.

John 4:16-26
16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”