Always Reforming

The Internet is a place of escape.  We interact with disembodied people we don't know, we stereotype and oversimplify, and we type things we would probably never say to a person's face.  This is neither right nor good, but this is the Age of the Internet.  It is the downside to the most powerful tool ever invented.  It is the side effect of being more connected than ever. It has been odd lately, then, to see familiar names mentioned and matters discussed to which I am privy.  It has been frustrating and sobering to see people online speaking ill about people I know "in real life."  I'm not used to being "in the know."  I have felt obliged to defend, clarify, and debunk to the best of my ability across different platforms, groups, and posts.  It is out of this place, and out of my own current state of mind and heart, that this article arises.  Here are a seven thoughts on WO and the ADGL. 1) There are good people on both sides.   I have i...

Grace. God's grace.  Give me grace.  Grace alone.   We use this word so often, but what does it actually mean?  What is grace (aside from my cute, feisty 11-year-old daughter)?   How we answer that question will impact a variety of other theological topics, including soteriology, sanctification, and the sacraments.  It is the last subject that I want to highlight today.   The Reformed Tradition commonly refers to the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord's Supper) as means of grace .  The Westminster Confession Faith makes it clear that they are "holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace." (27:1)  The Belgic Confession insists that "they are not empty and hollow signs to fool and deceive us," but, as the 39 Articles  says, they are "effectual signs of grace."  The Reformers rejected the Roman Catholic view of the sacraments (not simply Transubstantiation, but the sacerdotal, meritorious system as a whole), but they r...

Of late my friend and I have been trying to answer the question, "What is church?"  We've not been discussing the nature of the universal, catholic Church of Jesus Christ, but of the local church--the experience of the average Christian in and with his Christian community.  What does it mean to go to church ?  To be a part or member of a church?  It seems like such a simple question, but there are profoundly different answers, many of which remain implicit.   Here is my shotgun answer.  Church is (or should be): 1. Local .  Driving an hour and a half to gather with a group of believers is less than desirable.  Everyone's options and experiences are different, so there certainly are no hard and fast rules ("local" is, of course, relative), but the general goal for a church is that it would be a local body where you can be present and plant roots.  Sometimes this will mean dealing with practices or doctrines you don't like, which is, in f...

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:27) We are the body of Christ. Wait...what?  We are the body of Christ?!   Process this with me for a second.  This is not simply a metaphor.  We who are united to Jesus Christ by faith are mystically united to Him and are His body!  I fear we've heard these words too many times and meditated on them far too rarely!  We are the body of Christ!  What a privilege!  What a blessing!  What a call to holiness, to walk in a manner worthy of our Lord (Col 1:10)! You, Paul says, are the body.  The KJV retains the plural with it's Shakespearean "ye."  You--the church in Corinth; the Church universal--are collectively one body (I believe the letter to my forefathers in West Virginia renders it "all y'all") . In a real sense, we lose ourselves in our identity with Christ.  "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," Paul says elsewhere (Gal 2...

I recently wrote an article on the woes of clericalism.  This article will continue the theme from a specifically liturgical perspective.  As I have been working through (read: struggling with) this topic, a few particulars have stuck out.  The epitome of the clericalism I am bemoaning is the concept known as in persona Christi . Now, like many concepts, this doctrine has been explained differently by the various traditions that hold some form of it, which can make it more difficult to define or examine.  In persona Christi , which literally means "in the person of Christ," essentially teaches that the priest stands in the place of Christ when officiating the sacraments.  As this First Things' article states it, "The priest stands in the place of Jesus within the Church's sacramental life."  When the sacraments are being administered, Christ is the one administering them through the agency of the priest.  When the Eucharist is being consecrated,...

Let love be genuine. (Rom 12:9a) True love, Paul tells us, is genuine.  It is sincere and unfeigned.  It is, more literally, without hypocrisy.   Hypocrisy is deceptive.  It leverages and manipulates the truth for it's own agenda.  It hides itself, as the Greek word originally implied, behind a mask. This is not what love does.  Love is honest.  Love is vulnerable.  Love seeks the benefit of others, even at the cost of self-exposure and self-sacrifice. We are often reminded that love is not just a feeling; it is not merely emotional.  This is good and true, but our love certainly should engage our emotions.  It should be heartfelt and genuine. If you are pretending to love, you are not loving.  Even if your actions are outwardly appropriate--even if you're abiding by the letter of the law--you're not truly loving if your heart is not properly oriented. If your love is manipulative, it's not real love.   If your love ...