Yesterday, as I talked about the confessing church, one of my Catholic friends reminded me that it is (was: it’s Monday now) the feast of Corpus Christi, and the prayers were for unity. She is perplexed by the conflict in the PCUSA, and it seems that many will consider this is crazy.
I will not get into an argument about transubstantiation right now. I’m reformed, our position is that the bread and blood are a remembrance but are not literally transfigured. That the sacrifice of Christ was once for all on the cross. On such points of doctrine, and larger ones than that, did the reformation end up shattering Christendom — for the Borgia Pope would not accept correction from that ‘drunken German Peasant’ Martin Luther. Unity is in the spirit, and unity comes from below. It is not driven by legislation in Parliament or in the courts of the Church.
Well, I’m still visiting the folks in Auckland and the commend from Dad was that this would be the death knell of the Presbyterian Church. The end game. Because the believers will stick together, and will not put up with frank heresy from those who consider that they have the right to worship before God.
But that right has never existed. The passage today is the rebellion of Kohath and I suggest that you read further than the text. Because Kothath and all his followers died.
1Now Korah son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth – descendants of Reuben – took 2two hundred fifty Israelite men, leaders of the congregation, chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they confronted Moses. 3They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and the LORD is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” 4When Moses heard it, he fell on his face. 5Then he said to Korah and all his company, “In the morning the LORD will make known who is his, and who is holy, and who will be allowed to approach him; the one whom he will choose he will allow to approach him. 6Do this: take censers, Korah and all your company, 7and tomorrow put fire in them, and lay incense on them before the LORD; and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You Levites have gone too far!” 8Then Moses said to Korah, “Hear now, you Levites! 9Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation and serve them? 10He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you; yet you seek the priesthood as well! 11Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against the LORD. What is Aaron that you rail against him?”
12Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come! 13Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also lord it over us? 14It is clear you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come!”
15Moses was very angry and said to the LORD, “Pay no attention to their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed any one of them.” 16And Moses said to Korah, “As for you and all your company, be present tomorrow before the LORD, you and they and Aaron; 17and let each one of you take his censer, and put incense on it, and each one of you present his censer before the LORD, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.” 18So each man took his censer, and they put fire in the censers and laid incense on them, and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. 19Then Korah assembled the whole congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole congregation.
Well, what can we do?
Firstly, we can pray for our own congregation and elders: please feel free to translate that into whatever ruling bodies run the local church where you are. That they will preach the Gospel and not get distracted by the fashions of this day. That the ravening wolves that Paul and Peter warned us about of heresy will not lead people astray. I consider that the leaders of our church are put under greater pressure by this world and the enemy to the point that if you are being praised by the media you are probably doing something wrong.
Secondly, we need to look at ourselves. If we condemn this group because of their entrenched sin — and we ought to — do we also have sin? Do we need to reform? And for many if not most of us the answer is yes, every day.
Finally, we need to take courage. For the church is not owned by any Pope, or Moderator of the General Assembly, or ruling bishop. It is Christ’s, and those who claim they have a right to minister when they do not qualify to the standard that Christ himself had wlll find their works destroyed.
For the unity we have is that we are dependant. On Christ. On his spirit. And he will guide us: otherwise we will all fall into the errors that beset our branches of the faith.
Tangential to my last point, you posted several months ago about covering in church. I’ve done it a few times, but as a practical point it is difficult: I take my three little ones with me, and my toddler keeps pulling it off my head. I do my best to keep them well behaved during mass, but it’s a challenge, and easier to leave the mantilla at home.
I’ve been reading opinions on the matter. One woman, who claims to be a devout Christian, wrote an entire article about covering as oppression, and that we really don’t have to listen to Paul on this matter because he was addressing the specific needs of a specific culture and group of people who are gone, their way of life doesn’t exist any longer, and so Paul can be ignored here.
This is a dangerous can of venomous snakes to open. If Paul can be disregarded on this matter because the people and culture he was addressing are no longer with us in that same form, then you follow the road down a-ways and it’s no short walk to totally rejecting everything Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul wrote. None of those people for and to whom they wrote are around these days, few of those customs and cultures still exist in their ancient forms, and any messages, advice, or instructions that don’t transcend space and time can just be forgotten or ignored! Well, then we can strike about, what, five-sevenths of the New Testament?
Does she even realize what she is saying? The article was an old archived one and I stopped reading all of the comments, so I don’t know if anyone made that particular point to the author of the post, but if anyone did, I’m certain she did pretzel twists with her logic justifying her original point.
Well sorry for the tangent but it does seem that people are bound and determined to remake God into their image and interpret Scripture in any way that justifies their decisions, rather than giving themselves up to God to be His vessel. <—-I struggle daily with this and I know how difficult it is to do, but I try anyway. Maybe in another 20 years it will get easier.
God Bless!
I am emotionally neutral on this subject, as the command to my gender is to take our darn caps off. I wrote the post because of the logic you note: that if we ignore this than whatever else is there can be ignored.
Practial issues: well Alte is the fashionista (or her mother is). I won’t comment — if A. has lost the blog bits I think I can bring them up. But a hoodie or baseball cap is a form of covering. as is the woolen watch cap I have next to my keys. (It is below freezing here).
The oppression one is fairly easy. Say it is your personal devotion to [insert something non reformed here That you are doing this as a discipline. Don’t make a fuss over it.
The nastier argument is that every woman wears a hat to the races, in fact there are competitions for th ebest dressed man and woman — with the lease of an expsensive care for a year as a prize. And, yes I mean recently. See the link below, and this is NZ — we are as feminist as the USA or more so. But my sisters enjoy working within the rules. It’s fun to them. Cue Cyndi Lauper, if you will.
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/j3I1naHPVwu/Auckland+Derby+Day/ndv2qP_86KM/Marion+Farrel
For some reason the comment was blocked, but I found it and then added this reply.
I think the unity is in the Spirit of God, and that Spirit will preserve the Church. As I write this I’m aware that Ratzinger wrote the same kind of words when he was thinking of resigning (is that the right word?).
Currently I;’m being quite scathing about the liberal arm of the Presbyterians: I remember the Presbyterian Church as it was before the liberals shat all over it, and I remember the Anglican Church before it lost its spine. The fact that half the time I am quoting Romans is because they also seek truth and we have one faith.
I think you have a pretty poor bunch of leaders at present, and (at the risk of offending the Staunch Catholics, such as Mundabor) I plead that you do learn from the errors within the Protestant (both mainline and evangelical) and do not follow them.
Because we are not talking about transubstantiation or the place of Mary or the saints. We can and should debate these things. We are talking about the cross of Christ. We are talking about what morality is. We are talking about things that the church has always spoken as one on — adultery is wrong, homosexuality iis disordered, theft is a sin, corruption should be purged from the church, and the gospel is our mission and our goal.
But not the the current clerics. I think the Borgias did less damage than this bunch of fools.