One of the interesting things about living in the antipodes is that you see the humour of God. THere has been a drought in Australia and NZ. Until the formula one races came — they were delayed in qualifying by torrential rain until it was marginally safe (and even then the cars pirouetted across the track and into walls. champions cars. Newbies cars. If you touched the paint, you lost traction)
If we have faith we have to see God’s hand at work when it is. The most obvious example this week is the election of the pope, and the associated howls from the left and the right. BF gets this right.
I’ve always liked Mark Shea; he’s one of the few mainstream Catholic bloggers willing to call out Catholics in err. He realizes Catholics who promote outrageous heresies [such as Sedevancatism], ultimately lead Catholics away from Christ, as well as encourage negative stereotypes about the Catholic Church [for example, Jack Chick comics].
Speaking as an ex-Catholic who didn’t exactly leave the Church on the greatest-of terms, I find it sad how what should have been a joyous moment [the election of a new Pope], only became another excuse for vicious in-fighting. Meanwhile, the Italian tabloids [err, not that I read them?] are all over the “controversy” – making it seem like Catholics are dissatisfied with Pope Francis I. So basically the only things the Trads accomplished was slandering their own faith.
Let us consider for a second the role of leaders within the church. From the beginning, one of their roles has been to correct, to advise. It has been to preach the message of God, Popularity does not count. (If you want popular, go read Cameron. He gets a million hits a month. but he blogs full time)
The preacher’s role is to say what God has said, not what he says. It is not to discuss his dreams and wishes. For these will lead us all astray.
For god holds them accountable — and for the need for good teaching and so they are preserved and do not fall, we should pray for them.
16Thus says the LORD of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17They keep saying to those who despise the word of the LORD, “It shall be well with you”; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”
18 For who has stood in the council of the LORD so as to see and to hear his word?
Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
19 Look, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.21 I did not send the prophets, yet they ran;
I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.23Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off? 24Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD. 25I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed!” 26How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back — those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal. 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD. 29Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31See, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the LORD.” 32See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the LORD.
Now we have failed here. Most of the preachers on our side of the Tiber will not confront us about sin — of if thay do, they confront the menfolk and let the womenfolk have a pass. As if women are not moral agents and moral equals.
But the out of wedlock birth machine isn’t the only factory cranking out fatherless children, as the chart above makes clear. Out of wedlock births are the largest single category of fatherless children, but divorce accounts for 30% of them. What is often a prelude to divorce, separation, accounts for another 15%. We know in the case of divorce that women overwhelmingly are the initiators, and they are motivated by the opportunity to steal the most valuable asset of the marriage, the children.
Yet Christian men and Christian leaders can’t bring themselves to criticize women for the rampant and very open flaunting of biblical teaching on marriage and sexual morality by women. This cowardly silence is not only sinful but immensely harmful to men, women, and children. Men who remain silent on this are choosing the suffering of millions of children over their own discomfort. They are also gravely harming women by assisting them in avoiding repentance in their cowardly feelings-driven silence.
As a result of the silence by Christian men, Christian single mothers routinely engage in a game of make believe where their own sin and that of millions of women like them never really happened
So what does good preaching look like? Well, it has very little do with the mystics or the prophets. This is a reason why men are supposed to preach. They have to weigh the words, and check that they are teaching according to the word. Teaching and prophecy are charisms given to both men and women — consider the female saints who are mystics, and the saints that are doctors of the church.
But preaching continually returns to first principles.
4bIf anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
The final part of preaching is exhortation. Not into some kind of piety where we discuss spirituality. But instead into action, into doing what we need to do. To being faithful and loving fathers, caring mothers (and that is a discipline, and at times a harsh one). Into working hard, as to the LORD. And into living lives of quiet righteousness.
None of this is very fashionable in this era where bling matters more that substance. But God is gainst the fashionable preachers who dilute the word, just as he was against the prophets who proclaimed their last brain fart in the time of the kingdom.
Thank you for quoting me.