There is no new part of the gospel: there are no myths. There is nothing clever. Peter is repeating what has already been taught.

Peter sees his death coming, and like Moses long sermon (Deuteronomy), he is reminding people of what they already know.

2 Peter 1:12-18

12 Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you. 13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, 14 since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

The interesting thing is that Peter had to say this. This implies that already:

• There were people saying it was a myth. That Jesus had not risen, the disciples had stolen the body and buried it (see Acts).
• That the message of Jesus was spiritual and did not have any earthly meaning — that what we do here does not matter, and the body does not matter. This led to the gnostic error.
• That there is  more that Jesus provided. That there is a deeper meaning — again a gnostic error — or a deeper teaching (from the Law of Moses, or some syncretic movement. There is but what Jesus provided from through the Holy Spirit.

Peter needs to repeat this. We need to have it repeated. For the error of this age is to ignore our evil and, like the Cathars, pretend we are perfect, and (again, like the Cathars) complain and even riot when we are reminded of our imperfections. Christ was offensive.

Matthew 21:12-14

¹²Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.

We need to be reminded that Jesus was not afraid to remove those who exploited — particularly from the temple — and to help those in need. One of the reformed mottos is semper reformans — always reforming. We need to continually be measuring ourselves against the standard set by Jesus, and the apostles. As a church, we need to be continually reminding oursleves that our speculation is of limited value.

But the Gospel has the power to save. There is no other. And that needs repetition — for those who are lost to hear, and for those who know it not to stray into error.

Today is, in the Church calendar, the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, known as Christ the King (or Reign of Christ) Sunday. The group I worship with follow the Revised Common Lectionary — which is how I started reading it.

This was not my experience of Reformed Churches before I moved to Dunedin. Most of the time we celebrated Easter and Christmas: knowing that our forefathers really did not want to do this. It was a fear of Papism, of candles, smells, vestments, theatre and fun.

Well, we have candles now. And we still have reformed theology… but we have been influenced by the Anglicans on one side and the Pentecostals of another.

But God does not judge us by these things, but by what we do.

Matthew 25:31-46

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Romans 15:5-6

5May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church, in this day, appears broken.

There is no way, in this earth, that you will get a firmly convinced and serious Presbyterian to bend his reformed model of God to accept the practices and prayers of a firmly convinced Catholic. He will grudgingly accept the Anglicans, and will wear earplugs at a Pentecostal service… but there divisions between the models are great.

Yet the same two men (or women) will agree that the committees of both churches come out with statements that subvert the gospel. (I linked to Trad Cath sites yesterday for a reason. The same issues occur in all churches, ranging from Gay men demanding a place by their very existence and the problem of teenage pregnancy to con artists defrauding the Church of funds set aside for the poor).

And both will agree that we need to reach out to those who are mad, who are imprisoned, homeless, hungry… in our family, then in our community, then in the world.

What we are seeing is a functional or organic unity. This crosses the lines of any denomination or sect. The serious about their faith are talking across the boundaries. Because in the end, it is not about the committees, the moderators, the elders, the bishops… it is arbour Christ. We are his Church. He reigns over us. And he will lead his church regardless of who is trying to lead us into error, or away from doing good.

One of the things that I have been thinking about over the last two to three days is how do I advise my boys. Attached to that is how do I advise myself.

For we are all post pubertal, and we are all single. Now the Catholics would be quite firm here, and say that I, as a divorced man, should remain celibate. I would argue, like Calvin, that scripture does not support this tradition… but it does open up a slippery slope. I see friends, members of church, moving in with each other. Falling in love. Unlike son number one (who has not been struck by the arrow of Venus… yet) I miss the wounds of love. The secular “go your own way” meme is not helpful. I am a father: I have sons and daughters. And both are suffering.

Will then challenged me on what I meant by Christianity and Men’s Rights. On reflection, the answer is exactly the same as for feminist Christianity — when you speak and practice falsehood, you are in error.

Revelation 22:14-21

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” ¹⁷  The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”  And let everyone who hears say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. ¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; ¹⁹if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. ²⁰The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Matthew 18:21-22

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

There are two big errors that we commit. The first is that we take it all far to personally. We forget that we are sinners and we will inevitably be in error. The truth that is hidden in the idea that the church is infallible (a rank heresy) is that we cannot see our own errors.
But yesterday the comments here became name calling. Now, I am not blaming BF, Will, Lacey or anyone else. It is human nature and can occur across denominations. We can become condemnatory and legalistic.

Two examples of this error will help. This one is clearly Catholic

The validity of the Protestant Episcopal orders was an object of a serious controversy. Leo XIII solemnly declared that the ordinations of the Anglican confession were invalid, and therefore, the sacraments ministered there are without value. If this is true with regard to the Anglicans, something similar would apply to the other Protestant sects who accept bishops. It is absolutely certain that the declaration of Leo XIII is rigorously applied to the Presbyterian and Anabaptist sects, since they, by not admitting bishops, are “ipso facto” incapable of having valid episcopal ordinations. Thus the baptism that exists among the Episcopalians, of which the Lutherans are a branch, is a motive of very serious doubt. This is why, up until Vatican II, when the Catholic Church received a converted Lutheran, a new conditional Baptism was administered. Hence, there is an element of uncertainty in the Protestant baptism.

Therefore, the common renewal of the vows of Baptism made by Catholics and followers of Luther in Augsburg ignores what was described above and takes as a consummated fact the “validity” of the Protestant baptism. This is equivalent to stating that the prior tradition of the Holy Church has no effect. This act carries a series of grave consequences:

• it supposes a true apostolic succession among the Lutheran bishops; it supposes the validity of their sacraments;
• it leads one to accept as valid the “sacraments” of the more radical Protestant sects.

Each of these consequences would be sufficient to declare a person or a movement heretical or suspect of heresy, were the old Code of Canon Law still in place. Incidentally, according to the Code, the simple participation in the same religious ceremony with heretics merited a very rigorous excommunication, an automatic excommunication, without need of any declaration by the authority.

Well, this Presbyterian is quite Calvinist and does not accept apostolic succession. But we can be just as much in error

There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.

 

OK, that is error one.

Error two is more subtle. I mentioned it yesterday, and it is the whispering of falsehood. For men they include “She will take all your money and remove your children. She will divorce you”, or “you will support children that are not yours”, or “you will work your butt into the grave to support her sitting at home eating bon-bons”. For women, it is that “You are a special person, and wonderful, and you deserve the very best man in the world”  (the sex in the city meme) and “He will not understand your need for development and spirituality. You need to find yourself. It will all work out for the best”. (The eat, pray, love meme).

These memes are wrong. When you add the PUA “All women want it, and all women are interchangeable if you know game”. then you have a toxic environment.

Let’s come back to today’s lectionary. Those who practice falsehood will not enjoy the perfection to come in Christ. We are told to come to Christ.

But we are also told to forgive each other. If we know our church history, and how the church has moved, like a drunken sailor, in and out of error and returning to orthodoxy, we can work together without too much disagreement.  If we are honest, we will know that we have hurt people unfairly. The blood of god covers much, God accepts our honest doubts, questions and errors.

He cannot accept us turning reality into a distortion, a lie. For that places us in the centre of creation, damages those among us — and leads to the kind of fragile personalities I see in the emergency room at work. After overdoses and self lacerations..

The lectionary continues to move through Ezra and Nehemiah. This is the beginning of a time when the remnant — who had married local women, which was expressly against the Law — listened to the word and made public confession.

The head the law for around three hours and then confessed for about three hours. Then they were commanded to praise the LORD.

Nehemiah 9:1-5

¹Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. ²Then those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. ³They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth part of the day, and for another fourth they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God. ⁴Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God. ⁵Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

There is a liturgical order here that reflects on the order of sacrifice. You correct and make amends then come to the celebration. This is reflected in the service of communion, which should (and indeed, in churches with liturgies, must) have a period of confession before moving to the table.

But then the remnant put this right. The divorced their foreign wives, nor did they let their sons or daughters marry foreigners. They did not play case law to justify keeping them (Ruth was a Moabitess. Moses was married to the daughter of Jethro, an Ishmaelite). They did what they thought their duty was.

This was painful for them, and painful for their wives. But the covenant of marriage resides inside a greater covenant. Moreover, the principle remains. We are commanded to be equally yoked: to marry within the faith (but we are told to not divorce our unbelieving spouses, but instead pray for them). We are told to raise our children in the faith — indeed there is a point at which we have to obey God and not our husbands or listen to God and not heed our wives.

For when we pray for revival, we are praying for repentance, radical change, and confession. Revival comes out of tears. Joy may follow, but it begins with obedience.

This morning the post relates to the transfiguration. Peter has a response that is interesting and natural. He wants to stay there. He wants to build a camp and remain in the antechamber, seeing Jesus talk to the Prophets of old.

Matthew 17:1-8

1. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

Calvin’s commentaries take three gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and comments on all three. He considers that Peter was not in is correct mind, because he was afraid. The transfiguration shut his brain down.

But his [Peter's] desire was foolish; first, because he did not comprehend the design of the vision; secondly, because he absurdly put the servants on a level with their Lord; and, thirdly, he was mistaken in proposing to build fading tabernacles for men who had been already admitted to the glory of heaven and of the angels.I have said that he did not understand the design of the vision; for, while he was hearing, from the mouth of Moses and Elijah, that the time of Christ’s death was at hand, he foolishly dreamed that his present aspect, which was temporary, would endure for ever. And what if the kingdom of Christ had been confined in this way to the narrow limits of twenty or thirty feet? Where would have been the redemption of the whole world? Where would have been the communication of eternal salvation? It was also highly absurd to conceive of Moses and Elijah as companions of the Son of God, as if it had not been proper that all should be reduced to a lower rank, that he alone may have the pre-eminence. And if Peter is satisfied with his present condition, why does he suppose that earthly supports were needed by those persons, the very sight of whom, he imagined, was enough to make him happy?

Now Peter is an example and shows the contradiction that exists. In this life, we cannot handle too much reality. Our brains have difficulty comprehending the reality of our own lives, and our natural reaction to the presence of God, who is more real than this world, is fear. But we crave the peak experiences. We want to remain on the mountain.

We seek the mystic union, forgetting that in this life we cannot handle it. It is when we are resurrected we will be able to truly with unveiled faces see God. But Calvin hits another truth in his commentary. We are not to remain on the mountain, because the kingdom of God is where the people are.

We are not on this world to score some kind of spiritual or mystic points. It is not about our spirituality. It is about the Glory of God, and that comes from doing good.

There has been a fair amount of pain shared around the Christian Tradosphere lately. It seems that when a blog gets to around a certain size it seems that there is a fair amount of opposition. This harassment has led to some women stopping conversations in significant subjects, taking breaks, or closing their blogs together. As an example, Hestia was driven from not only her blog but commenting last year, and I still miss her wisdom.

In part it is because the family has been politicised. There are feminists and men’s rights activists with hair trigger sensitivity. You will, inevitably, offend them. And some of the more gentle and wise among us don’t like flame wars.

I try to read the lectionary and the post on it every day. Today’s posts are about Jesus.

Revelation 19:11-16