I find, as I look at the spiritual warfare that is going on this world, and at this time, that I am liking the grumpy traditional Catholics more and more. Despite theological differences: despite the fact that the Catholic Church has at times disguised the gospel, and the Reformers condemned the Pope for good reason.
The identification of the Pope as the antichrist was so ingrained in the Reformation era (for obvious reasons) that Luther stated it repeatedly. For example: “This teaching [of the supremacy of the pope] shows forcefully that the Pope is the very Antichrist, who has exalted himself above, and opposed himself against Christ, because he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power, which, nevertheless, is nothing, and is neither ordained nor commanded by God” (Smalcald Articles, II).
This was not a new idea for Luther. Seventeen years before the Smalcald Articles (which were essentially Luther’s own personal statement of faith), he preached a midweek sermon on the subject. The gist of his sermon is captured in this quote:
“We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist…personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist” (sermon on Aug 18, 1520).
After Luther was condemned by a Papal bull, he wrote, “Already I feel greater liberty in my heart; for at last I know that the pope is antichrist, and that his throne is that of Satan himself.”
There are considerable theological differences between the Romans and the Reformed. To minimize them is stupid and offensive: both Catholics and Reformed have died for their faith. In the wars of the reformation, but also as missionaries and ordinary Christians facing both the secularist and islamist tide. The Orthodox are right to account those who died at the hands of the Ottoman Caliphate and the Stalinist holocaust as neomartyrs. And those of us of the west would be fools to say that the gospel has not been preached wherever the word is proclaimed.
Because there are antichrists in every church. Sometimes they are bishops and popes: sometimes they are televangelists. For to dey that there is but one way to righteousness, and that is through the great work of Christ on the Cross, is to deny the Christ. This is why at times I support Papists and the Orthodox. But the limits are where the church ends, and here the old creeds matter.
But, I am quite relaxed about the future of the Church. Not because we will not struggle: we will. But because the Church is Christ’s, and he will sustain it. Despite us, rather than because of us.
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
It is interesting that Paul describes the Corinthian Church as having all gifts and riches in Christ. This was a church with a huge sexual scandal. The (current) Pope is correct here: there are people in his church.
They make the same complaints, he said, found in the day’s responsorial Psalm (44:10-25): “You made us the reproach of our neighbors, the mockery and the scorn of those around us. … Why do you hide your face, forgetting our woe and our oppression?”
“But are we ashamed? (There are) so many scandals that I don’t want to mention them one by one, but we all know what they are. We know where they are,” he said.
Without mentioning the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, the pope said some of these scandals “made us pay a lot of money. Good! One has to do this.”
“The embarrassment of the church! But are we ashamed of these scandals, of these defeats of priests, of bishops, of laypeople?”
Rarely did any of the men and women who caused the church scandal have the Word of God rooted deeply in their lives, he said.
“They had a position within the church, a position of power, even luxuries. But not the Word of God,” the pope said.
Maybe they liked to show off their cross or insignia, but they carried it around like the people of Israel carried the ark, he said, “without a living relationship with God and the Word of God.”
And one has to say that there is nothing new here. Paul spends far too much time in his letter to Corinthians not teaching theology but correcting… a sexual scandal. My Dad notes that the commentary in the message says that ‘God saves us, but that does not make us nice’ I have used the Romans as an example, but I am quite aware that there have been sexual scandals elsewhere. THe rate of divorce in all Western Churches is a scandal, and that includes the clergy. The liberal branch of my church has ordained both lesbians and homosexuals who openly live with their partners — and then threaten to sue the church when the rules are tightened around this abuse. As Francis says, the love the insignia and the their cross, but the living relationship with Christ has been abraded away, if it was ever there.
Which brings me to the other contrast. We have all these gifts and power and riches in Christ, but it is in trust. We need to grow up. We need to not go looking for the new fashions, but hold to the gospel. This is what I like about the Orthodox and the Traditional Catholics — they do not go out on some exotic search for spirituality, or more gifts, or works of power, or prosperity. They know that these things are false paths. Instead they are faithful to the gospel they were taught.
And this Sunday, as we head to church, we need to do two things. We need to pray for those who have spiritual responsibility over us: the elders and pastors of the congregation we belong to. That they will indeed preach the gospel, and be faithful to it. For there lies true ecumenism: it is in Christ.
And our second duty, in CHrist, is to not switch our brains off, but test every teaching from the pulpit against scripture. We are of the flock, but we are not blind. If a preacher makes an error, take him aside, and ask a question, or make a point: one “tell” is that he his slavishly following the fashions of the day (Celtic Christianity and the emerging Church are the current fads in my local areal). For we, ourselves, need to have that living relationship with Christ, and Christ is the head of the church: the bishops and elders are merely stewards.
