Always Reforming

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...

I recently shared my journey to Anglicanism, or, more accurately, as I am still on my journey to Anglicanism, my journey to St. John's Anglican Church.  Our family is not looking for another church body, but we are still relatively new to this particular Christian tradition, so we are still exploring its history, theology, and practice.  Anyone who has ever made such a significant change in their religious life knows that this is, or at least ought to be, an exciting and sometimes confusing process.  As I explained in my previous post, I shared this journey primarily for personal catharsis and journaling.  Blogging is a way that I organize my thoughts and develop the ideas that are bouncing around in my head.  Today I am going to begin a series called Things I Like about Anglicanism .  As I explore this rich tradition, I am finding much that is similar to the tradition in which I was raised (Presbyterianism), but I am also finding much that is different....

    It never ceases to amaze me how vitriolic we Reformed folks can be towards those who believe and worship differently than we do.  If pressed for an answer for why we are like this, I would say that it is because we like to "principlize" our traditions.  We do things a certain way and we like to think that we do those things for good reasons.  If you don't follow the consensus, you are wrong, even if your reasons for doing so are grounded in logical deductions from Scripture.  Okay, victim rant over.     One such issue that seems to draw much ire is the interval at which we celebrate the Lord's Table (the Lord's Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, or whatever you call it).  I hold to a view often called Weekly Communion.  To some people it is a non-issue, but how often you celebrate the Table says quite a bit about the value you place upon it.  Many churches celebrate it as rarely as once a year. Many churches celebrate it quarte...

    Being raised as a paedocommunionist (that means our kids get to eat Jesus, too), I have always been amazed by how passionately credocommunionists (that means their kids don't get to eat Jesus until they articulate a "credible" profession of faith) dislike the practice.  I would think that they could look at paedocommunion and at least respect it as an attempt to live out Covenant Theology in a consistent way.  Instead, paedocommunionists have been widely viewed as being on the fringe of the fringe (yes, that far) of Reformed Theology.  I like to think that I have been able to agree-to-disagree in an amicable way with my credocommunionist friends.  However, I will admit that being discounted as "unconfessional" (trust me, I've been called worse) has made many paedocommunionists (you'd have to ask my friends whether or not that applies to me) act in a manner that lacks Christian grace.     So, the question remains, is paedocommunion a view hel...

The Pillars of the Church Part 3: Breaking of Bread I.                    Introduction a.      Last time we looked at the importance of fellowship                                                              i.       God commands it                                                      ...