Reformation Day

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings.” – Hebrews 13.7-9

Rejoice, give thanks, pray, praise, sing Psalms and hymns, and feast this day as we remember that great work of God which was the Protestant Reformation, bringing us back to Scripture as our supreme authority, and proclaiming from those Scriptures that salvation is by God’s grace alone received through faith alone in Christ alone, who suffered death on the cross for our redemption and made there by his one oblation of himself once offered a full, perfect, sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. And all this is so that the glory goes to God alone. We give great thanks that the candle lit by God’s grace in England by men like Latimer and Ridley, who were martyred 453 years ago this month, and Cranmer, has not been put out.

But we must not become complacent. Until Christ returns and brings in the consummation of his new creation, we must continue to strive under God for further reformation but we must fight for reformation without schism, and eschew the modernist individualism in which I become the judge of whether or not the church has compromised, in which I think the invisible church is visible to me and I can tell whether or not someone is ‘a real Christian’. We must approach this covenantally:

One side knows we must fight this or that heretical error, and so we say those who are guilty of the error are not Christians in any way. Those who know they are Christians in some way assume that we should therefore not fight with them. But we must fight them especially because they bear the name of Christ. What does a faithful shepherd do with a savage wolf? He fights. And where do savage wolves appear? “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). So, are these men in the covenant? Of course they are, which is why they are so dangerous.

If we learn this, we will learn to fight without being schismatic in attitude.

The right way to go about reformation is, I think, the way of the high church Puritan, who is ‘one who has a deep desire to purify the Church, but who has no intention of voluntarily separating from his church if he doesn’t get his way immediately.’

While retaining his covenantal connection to the Church, he conducts a glad warfare for the sake of Christ’s honor [sic] wherever that honor might be challenged. Because the word by itself has been so badly handled, it is impossible to say Puritan without qualifications and still have any hope of being understood. And so I say high church Puritan. Because he is high church, he does not behave like a schismatic, separatist, independent or individualist. He has a high view of the covenant, and of our corporate identity with one another. Because he is a Puritan, he intends to be a theological cavalier, and he fights for the integrity of obedience. He does not do this as some gloomy caricature, sitting in the back pews lamenting the regrettable apostasies up front. As C.S. Lewis noted, “It follows that nearly every association which now clings to the word puritan has to be eliminated when we are thinking of the early Protestants. Whatever they were, they were not sour, gloomy, or severe; nor did their enemies bring any such charge against them.” Of such high church Puritanism, let it be said, once again, that it was not “too grim, but too glad, to be true” …

As we seek he reformation of the Church, therefore, our only infallible and ultimate standard must be tota et sola Scriptura, all of Scripture and only Scripture. When we challenge abuses in the Church, and we are asked for our standard, that standard is the Word of God. We are biblical absolutists. This does not mean that we are hostile to heritage or tradition – all churches have traditions – but it does mean that we insist that such traditions be subordinated to the ongoing authority of Scripture. We want to purify the church. We are Puritans. By what standard do we what to purify the Church? The answer is Scripture.

But we do not just distrust the corruptions of other people “out there”. We also distrust our own fevered brains. We believe that the Church has had enough self-appointed zealots, two-bit prophets, and hot gospelers [sic]. We know that we need accountability as well, an accountability that functions in real time, on the ground. We therefore need to have a high view of the Church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. The Church is the community of those who are being saved together as God builds us up into a perfect man. As this process continues, to whom do we submit as we carry on the work of reformation. “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves” (Heb. 13:17). The answer is the Church. Always beware the reformer who doesn’t need ongoing reformation in himself. And so we are high church Puritans.

- Quotations from Douglas Wilson, A Primer on Worship and Reformation: Recovering the High Church Puritan, pp. 22-28

Seasons of joy and gladness

The prophecy of Zechariah describes the post-exilic hope that the whole world will be converted to the Lord; all the ends of the earth – nations, cities – will enjoy the good rule of God’s anointed king, and the number of Gentiles grafted in to God’s people will greatly outnumber the Jews themselves:

“And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people.” – Zechariah 2.11

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” – Zechariah 8.20-23

“He [Zion's king who comes mounted on a donkey - v. 9 above ] shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.” – Zechariah 9.10

The ground of all this is the cleansing of his people that follows the piercing of God himself when they turn and seek his mercy, the people into whom the nations are engrafted. This repentance, this godly grief, is itself a gracious gift from God.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him…

On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.” – Zechariah 12.10, 13.1

This is clearly fulfilled through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 21.5) and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit after his ascension at Pentecost, when the people heard that they had crucified the one whom God has made Lord and Christ, were cut to the heart, and told by Peter to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2.36-38).

Moreover, just as Israel’s exile led to the people as a whole engaging in corporate, ritual fasting as an act of mourning for being under the judgement of God (and for which they are rebuked because their focus was not on God but on themselves – Zechariah 7.5), once the exile is over, their judgement has been taken and they have been cleansed from their sin and guilt, those fasts are to be replaced for the whole people of God by multiple seasons of feasting:

“And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts.” – Zechariah 8.18-19

The church’s year should therefore be characterised by several – at least four – periods that are given over to celebration, to feasting in the company of our families and fellow-believers, to gladdening our hearts with good food and wine and music in thankfulness to God for the great salvation he has wrought for his people. Christmas we already keep. We need to reclaim Easter for this purpose. That leaves at least two more seasons: any suggestions? God has lovingly  allowed us this privilege; therefore, let us celebrate the feast.

That all of them may call upon the name of the Lord

The most people tend to know about Zephaniah is chapter three, verse seventeen:

“The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with singing.”

There are other noteworthy things in this minor prophet, however. Zephaniah prophesies concerning the day of the Lord (Zephaniah 1.7, 14, 15), a day of wrath in which Judah is laid waste and becomes a place of mourning (Zephaniah 1.4, 10-13) for her idolatry, faithlessness injustice, violence, false prophecy and false leadership (Zephaniah 1.4-6, 3.1-4), as are all the nations (Zephaniah 1.2-3, 17-18, 3.8) including Philistia (Zephaniah 2.4-5), Moab, Ammon (Zephaniah 2.8-9), Cush, and Assyria (Zephaniah 2.12-13) for their sin, the way they have persecuted God’s people, and their pride. Nevertheless, there is hope of restoration: the remnant of God’s people will plunder and possess the territory of Philistia, the Moabites and the Ammonites (Zephaniah 2.7, 9). Moreover, God promises that all the nations of the earth with serve him:

“The LORD will be awesome against them;
for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
each in its place,
all the lands of the nations.” – Zephaniah 2.11

“For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the LORD
and serve him with one accord.” – Zephaniah 3.9

The Lord promises to make his people a people who trust in him, who do no injustice, and speak no lies (Zephaniah 3.11-13). The basis of all this is that the LORD has taken away the judgements against them, dwells in their midst, rejoices over them, saves the lame and gathers the outcast. (Zephaniah 3.15-19). The outcome of God restoring the fortunes of his people is to make them “renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth” (Zephaniah 3.20).

How do we piece these seemingly conflicting things together? Can we take the concept of the ‘day of the LORD’ as referring, not to one particular day at the end of time, the last day, the day of judgment, but to the fact that throughout history, there will be times when God acts in judgement: on Judah in 596/587 BC, when they are taken into exile, on the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites and Assyrians when they are conquered by other powers, and on all the peoples of the earth when God brings disaster upon them for their sin? The judgement of all the groups Zephaniah mentions could all, in this view, have happened prior to Christ’s first advent. In his ministry, we see the lame saved and the outcasts gathered (e.g. Matthew 9.1-13), and we see the judgements against his people taken away when Christ bears God’s wrath on the cross in their place. As the true Israel, he is the remnant of God’s people who plunders and possesses the territory of his enemies, for they become his inheritance and possession after his resurrection (Psalm 2.8 cf Romans 13.33) when all authority in heaven and on earth is given to him, a possession which those who are in Christ will also come to possess. All the nations of the world then see this and bow down to the LORD, call upon his name and serve him. All the lands of the nations, all of them. (This is comparable to what is happening as in Psalm 47. All peoples are summoned to clap their hands in verse 1, the peoples which hae been subdued and placed under Israel’s feet in verse 3, who gather as the people of the God of Abraham in verse 9.)

Any thoughts?

Baptism in Colossians

Baptism into Christ, the image of the invisible God, by, through and for whom all things were made, in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, is central to the ethics of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Remembering our baptism and what it achieved will help us enormously in pursuing good and right living, and fighting sin.

Paul questions why the Colossians are returning to human precepts and teachings which have the apparance of wisdom but are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh on the basis that with Christ they died to the elemental spirits of the world (Colossians 2.20-23). When did that happen? When they were buried with Christ in baptism (Colossians 2.12).

Paul exhorts the Colossians to seek the things that are above, where Christ is, not things that are earthly (i.e. sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness) because they have died, and they have been raised with Christ (Colossians 3.1-5). When did that happen? When they were buried with Christ in baptism, in which they were also raised with him (Colossians 2.12). The basis of being made alive with Christ is of course the forgiveness of all our trespasses through the cross of Christ (Colossians 2.13-13).

Paul tells the Colossians that they must put away anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk and lying because they have put off the old self (Colossians 3.9). When did that happen? When they were circumcised in Christ with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism (Colossians 2.11-12).

I should just point out one group of people to whom Paul issues directions based on the fact that they have died with Christ, been raised with Christ and put off the old self in baptism: children, who are to obey their parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3.20).

Paul makes a similar point in Ephesians: when he encourages the church at Ephesus to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which they have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He appeals, among other things, to the fact that there is one baptism (Ephesians 4.5). One sub-group of people he later addresses in this regard are children, who are to obey their parents in the Lord for this is right, and honour their father and mother (Ephesians 6.1-2).

Baptism unites us to Christ the Head and makes us part of his body, the body which, nourished and knit together, grows from him with a growth that is from God. (Colossians 2.19). And lest anyone charge me with denying sola fide, Paul says we need to hold fast to Christ (Colossian 2.19); our baptism in which we are raised with Christ needs to be accompanied by faith in God, who raised Christ from the dead (Colossians 2.12).

Baptism is, if you like, a new birth; though we have inherited a sinful nature from Adam, we are given a second start, which is to be characterised by faith, and in which we are renewed in the image of Christ (Colossians 3.10).

Nurturing Fat Souls

In the discussion following the previous post, I commented that once we have regained an appreciation of beautiful language ourselves, we need pass that on to our children to shape the culture of the church for future generations. That comment was made in the context of liturgical development, adorning God’s truth, although application may be made much more widely. In Angels in the Architecture (Canon: Moscow 1998) by Douglases Jones and Wilson, there is a chapter on child-rearing, but it’s child-rearing with a difference. Here is the section on pursuing beauty and its glorious consequences.

Attraction to loveliness… lies at the heart of nurturing soul. God has made us to be drawn to the beautiful. So often the divide between children who have full souls and those who don’t lies here with the pursuit of beauty. The serious pursuit of beauty, for both children and adults, has a delightfully amplifying effect on all other areas of life. It makes us better at everything else, whether that be theology, engineering, homemaking or plumbing. The connection here is quite mysterious, but it’s often quite radical. Poetry, music, and fiction can utterly transform the coldest logician, computer programmer, or colonel into someone with soul.

Imagine how powerfully we can nurture soul in our children by leading them in beauty from infancy. And we can’t just force them ahead of us, such as piano lessons just for the sake of discipline. We need to lead them in love for the goal. We need to lead them in a passion for beautiful music in a way that they want to delight in it themselves…

Stories frame a child’s interior life for living in this world. Fiction is far more realistic than we realize. Fiction and poetry mysteriously transfer truth in a far more powerful way than anything else. God Himself chose to write in passionate poetry and narrative and parables rather than in the bureaucratic style of a systematic theology. But again, parents have to lead the way.

Angels in the Architecture, pp. 123-4

An Anglican Service of Covenant Renewal

In keeping with a few previous posts, this is another that will be of no practical benefit for me for several years, if at all.

Here is an attempt to show how Common Worship: Order 1 can be used in a Lord’s Day covenant renewal service. It follows the model of call to worship, confession, consecration, communion and commission, which corresponds to the pattern of approaching God we see in the Old Testament of guilt offering, ascension offering, peace offering with fellowship meal (for this on a large scale, see 2 Chronicles 29). It goes without saying (although I still feel the need to say it) that the animal sacrifices have been fulfilled in the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross, by whom we may boldly draw near. I think what follows is consistent with all the notes and permitted variations. Most of all, I hope that this is scriptural.

I think this liturgy enables considerable participation of the congregation, and is something to aim towards, rather than necessarily to be introduced wholesale. I am aware that to be plunged straight into this when used to something very different can be unsettling and uncomfortable. Although this is a modern-language service, a number of traditional language texts have been retained, simply because there is a greater variety of musical settings for them. It should be remembered that other sentences of Scripture, confessions, absolutions, congregational prayers, Eucharistic prayers and blessings may be used from time to time, although we must be careful to avoid what C. S. Lewis described as the liturgical fidgets.

The service is designed to proceed unannounced: to steal someone else’s analogy, it is a dance, not a dance lesson.

Obeying the Psalms

When I was at Christ Church, Moscow, a couple of Sabbaths ago, we had a sermon on Psalm 47 which begins:

“Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!” – Psalm 47.1

So when we sang the Psalm, we clapped where it said, “Clap,” and we shouted where it said, “Shout.” As Doug Wilson remarked in his sermon, Reformed people like singing the Psalms but don’t like doing what they say and their reasoning usually goes something along the lines of, “I left all that behind when I left the charismatic church.” This is inadequate. I would say that the same is true of conservative evangelicals in England, only we don’t like singing the Psalms either.

However, we are not to be Gnostics. We are worship God with our bodies as well as with our hearts and voices. So what would obedience to the Psalms look like in public worship? Among other things:

• Clapping (Psalm 47.1)
• Kneeling (Psalm 95.6)
• Raising up hands in prayer (Psalm 28.2, 1 Timothy 2.8) and praise (Psalm 134.2)

Charismatics see these things in Scripture and rightly think that they’d better do them then, but where they err, I think, is in the individualistic way in which they are applied. From my own observations, individuals will spontaneously clap or lift up an arm or two, in the latter case, often with eyes closed. But in the Psalms, these are corporate actions:

“Clap your hands, all peoples!” – Psalm 47.1
“Let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!” – Psalm 95.6b
“Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, 
who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the LORD!” – Psalm 134.1-2

How might this look in practice? At Christ Church, we knelt for confession. Were I in a position in a church to implement such things, I would do the same, and also for prayers. We also sang the Gloria Patri at the end of the service with arms uplifted. Apart from in churches where there is still provision for kneeling (adequate space and kneelers, and an invitation to sit or kneel to pray is issued), this is, however, not a practice that can be started by individuals: that would defy the point of the corporate nature of the commands. These are things that would need to be introduced gradually by the leadership.

Cantate Domino

“Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.” – Psalm 96.2

In this Psalm we are exhorted not only to sing praise to God when God’s people gather together for worship, but also to declare God’s saving works in songs of praise from one day to the next. Moreover, the Psalms encourage us to make music skillfully (Psalm 33.3). This is something that is reiterated in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul describes the Spirit-filled life as one characterised by ‘addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart’ with the aim of ‘giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 5.19-20). James, too, encourages a culture of singing: “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5.13).

My recent visit to Moscow, Idaho, showed me a wonderful community where this was being practised, where skillful singing was part of church family life, both on the Lord’s Day, and throughout the week. On the Lord’s Day, the gathering began with a psalm lesson, teaching the congregation a new psalm to be sung during the service or for the coming week. Then, before the beginning of the service proper, there was a meditation, which on my first week there was orchestral, and on my second week was choral. There was much singing throughout the service, not just the hymns and psalms, but also the Gloria or the Sanctus, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Gloria Patri at the end. And the singing was skillful. The hymnal, Cantus Christi, had the music printed in it, and a considerable proportion of the congregation (of several hundred) was able to sing in parts.

Indulge me in an aside for a moment. I think part-singing is to be encouraged among Christians, for two reasons. The first, given in the preface to the Cantus Christi itself, is that it is Trinitarian. Although, of course, any reflection of the Trinity in creation is necessarily limited, nevertheless, one song consisting of plural harmonising tunes occuping the same time and space does show something of the perichoresis of the three Persons who are yet one God. The second reason, as articulated on Heart and Voice which I found via the Reformed Liturgical Institute, has to do with the nature of the church: we are the body of Christ with different members, each with different properties and functions, yet all part of the one body (1 Corinthians 12). As Paul might have said, are all sopranos (soprani?)? Are all tenors? As I realised yesterday when I went back to a church where there wasn’t part singing, it’s really quite difficult for some men to sing the tunes of most hymns and songs without jumping around the octaves. A further thought (which probably isn’t original): could  this at all be contributing to driving men away from the church, if there is no place for their God-given masculinity in the church’s public worship. It is possible to be a man and sing well.

Back to the point: the church culture in Moscow, certainly in the Christ Church/Trinity Reformed Church community, is one where musical excellence is encouraged. On my first Sunday evening, there was a Psalm-sing, where I would estimate that 150 people gathered in order to learn to sing better. The new music director, Dr. David Erb, not only helped us learn some new Psalms and hymns, but also gave us direction on posture and aiming to hit the notes we’re singing precisely, and encouraged us to take a long-term, generational view of music in the church: we should aim to be more musically literate in 40 years time, and this is something we should pass on to our children and in which fathers should lead their households. Whilst on the theme of music in public worship, I should also mention Morning Prayer at New St. Andrew’s College. I went a couple of times, and again, there was lots of singing, not always terribly competent, but there was a willingness to give it a go and learn. So we sang prayers and responses and chanted Psalms (from the RSCM Common Worship Psalter, no less) and the Te Deum.

Music also characterises everyday life: at Sabbath dinners we sang the Doxology, and in the evening of the day I proposed to Brooke, we sang at the start of our evening meal. At our engagement party, Brooke’s mother suggested that we choose some hymns and Psalms to sing, and it was perfectly natural. Moreover, the assembled throng was able to sing in parts. Part-singing needn’t be restricted to the musical elite, but you do have to work at it. I am not particularly gifted, musically, and I was only able to participate in all the part-singing because I practised beforehand, and because there are usually people around me singing my part to whom I can listen and sing along with. Still, I’m getting better at following the music, or so I’d like to think.

As a fellow Englishman remarked to me at the engagement party, this kind of church culture is very different from England. But, as I hope I’ve shown, it needn’t be.