Captain Capitalism has left the church and now lives with the fruits of nihilism: a clear minded despair and misanthropy moderated by the use of cheap liquor. But he is correct about the church: in it’s attempts to be relevant and caring it has become drippy. Grerp commented at his site wisely, and it is worth repeating in full

There were very few guys in my youth group by the time I was a senior in 1988-89, which predates his timeline a little.

Both of the women youth pastors I’ve known and worked with were hot messes – up and down (mostly down), emotional, food bingeing, perpetually single.

The music in Protestant churches has really gone downhill too. Now it’s all 7/11 choruses (the same seven words sung eleven times). Hands in the air, accompanied by electric piano or (shudder) drums.
The old hymns frequently had “battle” language – A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, Lead On, O King Eternal, Onward, Christian Soldiers, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Lift High the Cross. The Catholic church I attend now is about 50% men, and not just old men either. We don’t have so many teens, but we’ve got quite a few Gen Xers, and I think it’s the liturgy. That traditional man-in-the-pulpit, alter boys, candles, incense, stained glass thing seems to appeal to men. We also have GREAT music – classical compositions sung and played, pipe organ music, occasional Gregorian chant. The thing about youth group is that girls will go even if it gets pretty drippy, but they lose enthusiasm without the boys too. It’s not just the boys who don’t respond well to female-led Churchianity.

I think it is the liturgy as well. The old Divines knew what they were doing: most of the Puritians and Presbyterians who wrote the Book of Common Prayer in one generation and the Westminster confession with the associated book of order in the next were ministering to their local congregation, good theologians, and poets. They read aloud what they wrote to make sure it was clear, consistent and correct.  But liturgy alone will not save us. Consider this, from an excellent article called 5 Reasons why the emergent church is receding by Trevin Wax

Unfortunately, some Emerging Churches look like the continuation of the Seeker movement, even as they decry the Seeker-focused mindset. Incense, candles, icons. These aspects of worship might be helpful for ministry to postmodernists somewhere. They would look silly in rural Tennessee. Contextualization does not always look the same, something the Emerging Church conversation affirms in theory, but often ignores in practice.

Now that the Emerging Church is becoming known a “style of worship” or a “way of doing church for young people,” the movement has moved out of the realm of contextualization and has joined the evangelical faddishness it once protested.

Think of Jesus Movement of the 1970?s. Replace Vietnam with Iraq, beards with goatees, and contemporary music with liturgy.

Now Jesus was interested in telling the truth. Let’s recall for a second the context here. He had fed thousands — probably around four thousand families — miraculously. Now people wanted to (a) see a sign and (b) be fed by him forever. But he is talking about what he has to do to save the world.

He is using their metaphor — feed us as Moses did Manna in the desert — but he is looking to the day when he will die for us all. For he has stood in our place and taken our punishment. And this was seen as anathema. People hated this teaching. People fell away. In droves. But Jesus continued to teach it.

John 6:41-51

At church on Sunday our minister recalled being converted by the Boys’ Brigade: in fact we attended the same international camp once, but I did not know it. Now, I enjoyed the Brigade, I tolerated the drill, liked photography and electronics, and enjoyed the post meeting game with no name (think a rugby scrum crossed with Calvin Ball) we played with our leaders.

It was not politically correct. Neither was youth group: we hung out together, went to dances and meetings together, and generally had fun.

My boys hate youth groups. It is all singing and feelings. It is all about development and not about God.  They like Parachute (because of the bands) and they like church (because no one asks you to do special stuff, and Jesus is preached there).  Demanding that they go to Youth Group would drive them away.

David Murrow has just talked about this, but he understates the seriousness of the situation. I am a highly verbal theology geek who plays fretted instruments competently and is learning string instruments. One son argues theology back, and the other is much more musically talented than I am.  And they both hate youth group. They hate being verbal about their feelings. And they hate being led by women.

Our church is led by a man, and does not require any age group to leave the building — the young are in the service, as are the old. And the boys love that.

The old, strong ways work. The woofly 20th century pseudoeducational system of age appropriate teaching should be abandoned. I find cooperative therapeutic churches nauseating, and I do talking therapy as part of my job.

Children can grasp the divine, and a little bit of teaching them as the service goes on never hurt anyone.  And a bit of murderball or bullrush before the service will calm the young lads down as they contemplate a fresh set of bruises.

Hat tip: Captain Capitalism

Well, like most people I need to be paid. Yes, there is some money stashed away, but I don’t have a trust fund, and it is unlikely that I will have one in my generation. The next… may. But work has a dignity: without work many of us fall apart.

So this morning the holidays end for me — and I had mine later than most. The school year starts: Businesses ramp up, because the long summer break is over and most people are back for the year. The results of  last year are now history: for February for New Zealand is as September is for the Northern Hemisphere: the start of the academic cycle. And so we come to this.

John 6:27-40

²⁷“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” ²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” ²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” ³²Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. ³⁷Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; ³⁸for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Now here it becomes interesting. We are not to work for food? This has to be a bit of hyperbole. Jesus was not going to give everyone manna for ever. Yes, Jesus had fed crowds, but he was not going to do this every day. Most people got food by growing it. Which takes effort and expense if you do it yourself and takes more effort and expense if you go to the supermarket: As Paul said, you you do not work you should not eat.. However, work in and of itself is not the aim, the kingdom of heaven is.

Secondly, we are told to do the will of God. Which ties in with yesterday: we are to choose each day to walk in the spirit and discipline our fleshly desires of greed, lust, wrath. We are not to live for ourselves but those who are around us.

Thirdly, this teaching around the bread of life led to many falling way. They saw this as blasphemous at best and an invocation to cannibalism at worst. Now, Jesus chose to use the two common elements of a meal — bread and wine — as symbols of his death which we continue to do in obedience to his word: offending the secular on a weekly basis.

Finally, it is God’s will that those he chose (for you can read this as applying to those predestined and also as a call to preach to everyone) he will hold. Our salvation comes through Christ alone and the preservation of our salvation comes through Christ alone. Or as someone said to me at Church yesterday… “If you get your Christology wrong, you get everything wrong”

Today I face a new year, a moved ward, and tasks to do. May I not lose sight that the kingdom is in this, and it is my job today to do God’s will, not mine.

I note that in the comments that some of my old friends have been commenting, along with Brendan on the issue of liturgy. But this is an issue where there are going to be multiple styles.

I grew up in Mangere, Papatoetoe and Otahuhu. My parents were elders in the local Presbyterian church: we had a pastor who did pray and teach — pitching his sermons at primary school level, because we had a large number of Samoans, Tongans and other immigrants who had limited education.  But we chose to not split along ethnic lines: this was the tendency. I spent enough time visiting — and the very style of the service was quite different in the Pacific Island churches.

Same theology. Different styles.

Now, I am aware that the traditional Catholics and Orthodox are very cautious about their liturgies, and this is not unwise. For their liturgy is written, and it is easy for syncretic influences to creep in. Keeping things as they are, being explicit about symbols is Roman and Orthodox. But it is not Reformed, or low church Presbyterian. Our style is plain. And this is not the issue.

The issue is that we have stopped being salt, and light. We need to be the contrast to the world around us. We need to be living differently. We need to be raising sane children, preserving our marriages, and enjoying this.

Consider, for a second, Sodom. Now the sins of Sodom included sexual ones, economic injustice, and ritually occultic practices. But Abraham said but ten men who are righteous would preserve the people. But there was really only one: and he was Lot, who had his own problems with his daughters (both of whom conceived children by him once he was drunk: one wonders where they got that idea from).

Genesis 18:16-33

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.