Signs and wonders mean nothing.

The reading for today follows on from yesterday, but we need to go in another direction.

There are many out there who consider that they have done mighty things for God. They have healed. They have taught, they have led. But if they are doing evil, then it is for naught.

You cannot assume that a person performing healing or miracles or teaching on spirituality or spiritual warfare is of Christ. For many false teachers will do all these things. Signs and wonders mean nothing.

Matthew 7:22-29

²²“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ ²³Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

²⁴“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell — and great was its fall!”

²⁸Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

We have, in the church, the authority of Jesus. We are his servants, and we better take that seriously. If we do not, we become a scandal. I’m quoting Maeve here, but I’d add that her “Shiny Happy Church of Yay” is the kind of church that publicises healing and spiritual power, at least where I live.

…the real problem is that threats of excommunication or censure or whatever only work if they mean something to the individual. It’s pretty easy to mosey on down to the “Church of What’s Happening” if your own church is a little too particular about the details.

I ran into an acquaintance last week who had divorced her husband several years ago because he had opinions or something. Her husband is a very nice guy and was really rocked by the whole thing. Allow me to add that they’re Catholic. Except, she tells me “so I got rebaptized last month.” I’m thinking to myself, “what’s a rebaptism?” See, down the street is the Shiny Happy Church of Yay. And they have no problem with her being divorced. Or getting remarried if she want to. So that’s where she goes to church now. And now she’s in a bit of a lather because Dad won’t let her have their daughter be “rebaptized”.

If she get excommunicated tomorrow, won’t make one bit of difference to her. If her shiny new church kicks her out, won’t matter either -she’ll just find another one that reaffirms her actions. I wonder if there is some limit on how many times you can get yourself baptized.

To the reformers, the idea of excommunication scared them. The Catholic church of that time had corrupt rulers — who were frankly antichristian, and in better times Luther would have been seen as a reformer of the church akin to Francis (Assisi or Xavier) — another prickly cuss who caused the church to correct. They understood the power of the keys. But now the church is seen as a series of spiritual shops: choose the one that gives you the biggest buzz.

Not the one that leads to salvation. We do need to practice church discipline. We do need to prevent anabaptism. We do need to respect the ordinances of our fellow believers including the ones that we have doctrinal conflicts with and not subvert things.

This does require that the local Catholic padre is talking to the pastoress of the shiny happy church of yay, even if the idea of a pastoress (correctly) makes him nauseous. Because the issues around the divorce need to be named and dealt with.

And it does not matter how emotional or powerfully spiritual you are. That does not remove from you the horrible task of disciplining yourself, reforming yourself, and teaching this by word and example if you are in any leadership position. Most of that is not going to make you happy or give you any emotional buzz.

It’s hard work. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, God may value the times we walk with him without any discernible progress and reward much more than the peak emotional experiences.