There is a very long thread going on about divorce and what to do about single mothers over at Dalrocks, which I referred to twice yesterday.
It is an issue. The facts are fairly clear, particularly in the USA and UK: the incentives to move from faithful marriage to serial monogamy are significant, and being asked to have self-control and regulate your desires is seen as oppressive.
To teach against this brings out many who think that love covers all. As if we do not have a duty to confront.
And as if Jesus did not confront others frequently, and with prejudice.
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of zthe Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why hput me to the test? Bring me ia denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. 21 And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor pare given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, t‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
I’m sure I have blogged on the content of the controversies before: if not, many have. Let’s leave that alone, and Look at what Christ was doing. He was not being empathetic. He was not polite. He was harsh: he was confrontatinal, he was correcting.
He did not care about their distress: he wanted them to be shamed. In modern parlance, he was a trigger of distress, not a trigger warning.
I propose, as does Mundobor, that good Papist, that this is the duty of a Minister of the Word. Mundabor is using a sacramental logic that can be simplified to this: you have to be shriven to approach the table. Confess your sins and correct your life, then worship.
I would add that this needs to be done frequently, not rarely.
This clearly is a new religion, which aims at taking the place of Christianity.
Christianity very clearly poses boundaries to the “walking with the sinner”. The sinner is invited to repent; he is welcome as a repentant sinner anytime; but he is not allowed to participate in full to the sacramental life of the Church in the same way as the one who is not in grave and open, scandalous rebellion to God. For our religion, the pastor is not one who “accompanies”. He is one who – as the name says – leads the sheep. In Maradiaga’s world there is no place for a shepherd, merely for a lady-in-waiting. There is no need to lead any sheep safely to the sheepfold, because there are no ditches or ravines where they might fall, and no wolves wanting to devour them.
The pastor who “always accompanies” is totally useless as a pastor. He proclaim his own superfluity. Every friend can “accompany” one. Actually, someone who is an accomplice in the sins of his friend will do exactly that which Maradiaga praises as so pastoral: “always walk with the person”. For this pathetic excuse of a priest, being pastoral means being the contrary of being a pastor. This is satanical. Satanical.
You know that it is getting close when you are confronted with your own faults and you don’t sleep that well. You know when there are people shaming you for not being loving.
And you know that there is revival when there are people in tears confessing their sins, not celebrating them.
May we all reform ourselves, and may our churches revive. For our nations seem in love with perdition.
