The Burr in the Burgh

Take a look at one of my favorite Lutheran blogs: What You Do, Do Quickly, from whom I shamelessly have "borrowed" the image to the left. I just think it aptly illustrates a sad indictment against major streams of contemporary Christianity: the blight of cross-less-ness.

It stuns me when I listen to highly respected Christian preachers on the radio or television who preach and preach and preach, but fail to mention the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I catch Charles Stanley when I'm in the car and when I do, I always listen. He's a gifted communicator, in my opinion. Gives lots of good biblical advice. He just doesn't preach the gospel very much - at least from what I have heard. (Maybe I just tuned in on the wrong days). Oh, he mentions God A LOT. He's very God-centered, to be sure. But there is a diff between being God-centered and being Christ-centered. A few days ago, I listened to one of his sermons and thought afterwards that any Mormon could have delivered that message. That was a really good Mormon lecture on ethics. And we wonder why most evangelicals, in surveys, still think that you basically get to heaven by faith plus works. Come to think of it, can you really be called an EVANGELICAL if you don't understand forensic justification? What then is the "evangel?"

You see, if you ask a person what the main message of Christianity is and they say it's something like:

• Love. Love God and love your neighbor.
• Following Jesus.
• Being totally committed to Christ in everything you do.
• Believe in God and follow His commandment

...then they maybe haven't grasped the central notions of sin & grace, the nature of God, the incarnation of the eternal Logos, the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, etc.

I am a regular guest on a local radio talk program Sunday nights 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Two Lutheran pastors and one layman hashing stuff out and taking calls. A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about revivalist Charles Finney with Dr. Lawrence Rast from Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN. We discussed the "new measures" Finney employed to gain converts. And as we were criticizing the stress on gimickry and emotional manipulation of Finney (not to mention his rank heresies), a caller phoned with a question. He said his church won't allow you to join unless you can report having had an experience of conversion and a dedication to Christ. We had been talking about altar calls and the like. As we chatted, he wanted to be able to point to a moment in time when a person commits himself to Jesus as the moment of personal regeneration. He was confusing faith with commitment. Or justification with sanctification. At the end of the call, he accused us of "easy-believism" because we were emphasizing salvation by grace through faith alone.

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Does this worry anyone besides me?

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I urge you to go read this very fine post by The Beast. And please, write him an encouraging comment. He has, in my opinion, expressed clearly the way God's accusations and God's promises work together. Judgment and Mercy. Wrath and Grace. And how one w/o the other is lame.

He also picks up on one of the greatest blights on the American church: the Church Growth Movement. We are all in favor of the church growing. I didn't become a pastor because I want the church to shrivel and die. I take the mission of the church very much to heart, believe you me. But true spiritual growth is often not quantifiable. You can't count it. As one of my professors, tongue in cheek, said, "Numbers is not the only book in the bible." Sometimes, right preaching of the Word will cause the number of believers to increase. Other times, it will drive them away. After all, the cross is an offense to natural man.

As Mother Theresa said, "We are called to be faithful, not necessarily successful." And those who water down the message in order to put butts in the pews are not helping anyone. I tell people that we have got to get over this obsession with the A B Cs of church life (Attendance, Buildings, and Cash).

Let's keep the message straight. Let's get the message out. And then let's let the Holy Spirit do his job. Let God be God.

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This is priceless.

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Mark Twain once said that everyone complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. As Frederica Mathewes-Green says in this recent piece in Christianity Today, instead of trying to change the weather, maybe we should pay more attention to sheltering a few individuals from the storm.

Christians in America are so caught up in fighting the culture wars, that they risk losing a much bigger battle. Whether Roman Catholics or Evangelicals, we talk about overturning Roe and cleaning up prime-time T.V. but think too little about humility and grace. Instead of focusing on something as amorphous as "the culture," perhaps we should concentrate on serving our neighbor through our vocations.

I support many of the causes typically espoused by traditionalist Christians in these so-called culture wars, but FMG has a point. Let's not miss the trees for the forest.

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A Baptist youth minister with a penchant for gruesome horror movies. Right on! I enjoy the blog of Philip Meade over at The Beast's Lair and wish he would post more often. And one question I'd pose is this: Why do so many contemporary Japanese horror flicks (and their American re-makes) center on murdered children? (Ie. The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, Three Extremes)

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I am currently reading the book Mr. Vonnegut wrote after swearing never to write another book. "Wait right there," you say. "Why is a Christian, conservative, hawk reading an atheist, liberal, pacifist?" Quite frankly, I enjoy Vonnegut's dark sense of humor. He's a pessimist about human nature and so am I. I seldom agree with him on the big stuff: Religion, politics, morals. But I often agree with him on the small stuff, much of which is really big stuff.

My favorite line so far: We are here on earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different. And to that I say, "Amen." I do think that he's got a point here. People who are always "on a mission" scare me. God put us here to live our lives, not to revolutionize the world. I don't say this to celebrate mediocrity, but to hallow the mundane. 9 times out 10, the ordinary is more important than the extraordinary.

I suppose I probably miss Vonnegut's point and am just reading him through lenses of my own, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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• Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel.
  
  
• Evangelization takes place when and where God's threats and promises are correctly expounded.
  
  
• The Law of God accuses sinners.
• The Law must be expressed in a way that truly convicts people of their sinfulness. Our basic problem is not that we are broken, hurting, lost, confused, or unhappy. Our basic problem is that we are proud rebels against God.

• The Gospel is not simply that God loves us or that He can help you with your problems.
  
• The Gospel is justification. There are a number of biblical ways this can be expressed but should include: the blood sacrifice of Jesus, propitiation, forensic justification, forgiveness, reconciliation, imputation of righteousness.

• Any human attempt to dress up the Gospel to make it more appealing is doomed to fail and damage (or even murder) souls, though it may well boost church attendance.
  
  
• Reliance upon principles of group dynamics to lead people to Christ is manipulative and detracts from the power of God's Word.
  
  
• God alone deserves the glory and credit when a sinner believes.
  
  
• Saying the evangelist deserved zero credit does not mean Christians should not strive to speak the truth clearly, lovingly, firmly, fearlessly and with respect.
  

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As you may have heard, a movie about the Blessed Virgin Mary is being made called Nativity. I just found out that 16-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes will play the role of the Mother of God, Mary of Nazareth.

You may remember her from Whale Rider.

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Another good Breakpoint article by Charles Colson. Do you believe that the universe and human life are the result of blind chance and purposelessness? How very unscientific of you!

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OK, so we're not sorry? Actually, I think this is a positive development. It's good to read some historical balance for a change. On the Crusades.

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Today is the Third Sunday in Lent and our Gospel reading was Jesus chasing the merchants and money changers out of the Temple in John 2.

It's really the only text from the Gospel that show Jesus becoming truly angry, even violently so. Other places show him to be annoyed or irritated or brash, but not like this.

Zeal for God's house consumed Him.

Today, our Sunday school kids - in conjunction with this lesson - built a model of the Second Temple. You can get them here.

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I don't exactly agree with every sentiment expressed by Charles Krauthammer here, but I do appreciate his basic point. If gay marriage is deemed permissible, then our society has no basis to outlaw polygamy.

A new HBO program, Big Love, is about a modern, suburban, renegade Mormon, polygamous family. I haven't seen it. It's brand spanking new. But according to Krauthammer, it is sparking discussion.

Gay marriage proponents will note that traditional marriage has two components:
1) Two individuals
2) Opposite gender

They propose that the #2 component is arbitrary. But if that is the case, then who can say that #1 is not arbitrary as well?

And quite honestly, while I believe that Natural Law indicates marriage should be one man and one woman, there is a whole lot more historical precedent for polygamy than there is for gay marriage.

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I'm a day late, I know. I actually wanted to post something about March 15 and the assassination of Julius Caesar, but didn't get around to it. Happily, fellow blogger and Lutheran cleric, the Rev. David Petersen, had a good post. Go here.

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Chuck Colson has a good Breakpoint post about the autistic high school kid in New York who amazed the nation with his superior feats of basketball prowess recently. Here's a link.

I agree with Colson that we are living in a moral vacuum that is undermining the intrinsic value of human life. That sucking sound you hear is a child's brain being sucked out by the instruments of an abortionist.

With the advent of genetic screening, parents can now conceivably (pun intended) eliminate children from the womb who have defects or issues they don't want to deal with. The Netherlands is already blazing that trail for us.

Jason McElwain, all American boy, is autistic. What if he'd never had the chance to be born because some doctor convinced his parents their life would be better to abort the pregnancy and just try again?

Why aren't you more outraged by the holocaust taking place right now in our nation and around the world. How many wonderful, talented, beautiful people were not born today because they'd been dilated and curetagged? Every human being is precious. Every human being is valued in the eyes of God.

We must not evaluate a person on the basis of what he can or cannot do. We must not determine the relative worth of a human life on the basis of how productive we expect him or her to become.

If human life is reducible, in the end, to an economic commodity, then why are we wasting all the organic material that gets scraped from thousands of wombs everyday? At least the Nazis were consistent. To them, the Jews were not persons. So why not turn their hides into lampshades? We don't balk at using the skin of cows to make belts and shoes. What's the diff? If the fetus truly is just a blob of tissue, why don't we saved all the aborted whatevers and grind them up into nutritious cat food?

In fact, Jason McElwain reminds us that every human person is a wonderful creation of God. Bless his heart!

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I've never watched the popular South Park cartoons but I am familiar with them. Well known singer and outspoken Scientologist, Isaac Hayes, supplies the voice for the chef character for the animated show.

Now I've read that he is quitting the show because it spoofed his faith, Scientology. That's fine. I don't blame him for that. But when he said the following, I coughed out my coffee:

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins...."

Oh come on! This show is famous for goofing on Jesus and Christianity all the time. I guess it's only intolerance and bigotry toward his own faith system that is bad.

And let's be honest, of all the world's religions which one is just begging to be made fun of? The ones founded by Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ or . . . L. Ron Hubbard?

Thanks to PowerBlog! for bringing this up.

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Matisyahu is a member of the Lubavitch hasidic Jewish sect in Brooklyn, New York. This is the group that, several years ago, proclaimed that their leading rabbi, Manachem Mendel Schneerson, could be the Messiah. He's dead now.

This young man is now making it big in the top 40 music scene with his unique blend of reggae/rap music and yiddish. His musical influences include Bob Marley, Phish, and Rabbi Schlomo Carlebach.

He sings about G_d and the messiah, as he understands them. Very interesting. Nice beat too.

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A new survey conducted of teenagers in Australia shows that most view God as a "butler," someone to be called on when a need arises. This sounds strikingly similar to the moralistic, therapeutic deism which Christian Smith describes in his book Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers . I blogged about this a few months back. See here.

The thing is, I don't believe teenagers are all that unique in this regard. I think most American adults also believe that these are the basics of Christianity:

• God loves you.
• God wants you to be nice.
• God wants you to be happy.
• God is there to help you when you have a problem.

What a far cry this is from tomorrow's Gospel lesson from Mark 8. See here.

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Please use the comment feature to answer the question: Is is a sin to teach false doctrine? In this case, don't send me private emails. I want to see what comments you will post. Keep it brief please. Thanks much.

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Do you remember the unique way that Glassport Assembly of God church celebrated Easter in 2004? This Pittsburgh area congregation put on a community Easter pageant at a local stadium. Families from all around brought their young 'uns to see Easter bunnies and brightly colored chicken eggs.

Then in the midst of the drama, actors came out with whips and beat the Easter Bunny to death, causing quite a stir from the 3 and 4 year-olds etc. in the audience. It seems the church wanted to make the point that we should be commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus instead of bunnies and eggs. And the point is a good one. Their hearts were in the right place. . . . sort of.

But there probably would've been a better way. All this did was make their church look like a bunch of jerks.

Story here.

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I want to direct you to a blog I just discovered. It's called Wretched of the Earth. The blogger is a missionary in Bangkok, Thailand. And the post I read today, Jesus Is Not a Nicer Buddha, is right on the mark.

He notes the temptation to "sell" Christianity on its practical worth. It's this line of thinking: You should be a Christian, because Jesus helps you with your problems. Or you should be a Christian because God'll make you happy, help you have better relationships, give you techniques for managing stress and so forth.

What about, 'you should be a Christian because Christianity is true?' God does help us with our problems. True. But your main problem is not that you are "stressed out." Your main problem is that - apart from Christ - you are going to die and go to hell. Christ is not the supreme advice giver. He is not your therapist. He is the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world. That should remain the focus. True evangelical preachers and missionaries know that the doctrines of sin and grace, thoroughly and winsomely presented, are the only message which will save. And as long as we live in this world, we need to hear that message.

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Jason, over at Theology Geek, makes some interesting comments. As a man in the pew who listens to sermons every week, he reminds us preachers what we're about.

There's a lot of bad preaching out there, not that I speak as the master. But some observations:

1) You can't preach God's Law properly without offending people. If people don't get their feelings hurt, you haven't done it right. If people don't want to throw stones at you, try harder. Woe to you when all men speak well of you.

2) God's law condemns us all. My job as a preacher is not so much to rail against the evils of society. It's to slam the evils of the people sitting right in front of me (and including myself every step of the way).

3) If you hear me preaching the law and you say, "tell 'em Rev," then either I'm not doing it right or you're not listening. I'm talking to you.

4) I am not in the pulpit to give you advice or tips for living. Too many sermons are just ethics lectures.

5) A sermon that does not proclaim the cross as its central theme is NOT a Christian sermon.

6) If I do not preach about sin, hell, cross, justification, atonement, and forgiveness in every single sermon, I should be taken to the proverbial woodshed.

7) It's not about you. It's about Jesus. One of the errors of Rick Warren is that he claims that worship is primarily about you doing something for God. He actually says that it's not supposed to be for you to get something out of it. It's so that you can do for God. What a load of manure! Worship is Primarily about God serving us with his grace through Word and Sacrament. Our response of praise is secondary. It's about what God does, not what you do.

8) Sermons that mostly talk about Jesus as our example are toxic. Jesus did not come to show me how to live. He came to be tortured to death because of me and in so doing, to destroy the work of the devil.

9) The gospel is not a means to an end. We don't preach the gospel so that we can get on to something better, like morality.

10) The gospel is not just for unbelievers. I used to be involved, as a teen, with Youth for Christ and went to weekly Saturday rallies. The leader once told us that we should go bring our non-Christian friends because otherwise we're just preaching the gospel to a bunch of Christians. Even at 16, I thought, "What's wrong with that? I need it too."

[And before anyone flips, I do believe we should be bringing non-Christians to church.]

11) The cross is not just for special occasions, like Good Friday and evangelism. It's for every sermon.

12) A person who get tired of hearing about justification needs to go back to theses 1-4.

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Guilt is more than a feeling. You can be guilty whether you feel it or not. Preachers often think that guilt is a feeling that we are supposed to eradicate. Well, yes and no. A lot of the time, it is our job to make people feel guilty. And that's a good thing. We comfort the terrified and terrify the comfortable.

The fact is that every person stands guilty before God. We are all - apart from Christ- objects of God's wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Though this is not a popular message in our churches, it is the truth.

Some popular diluters of the faith, such as Rick Warren, will say that "God doesn't expect you to be perfect (Purpose Driven Life, p.92)." But that contradicts the clear words of Jesus Himself. "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48)." It is part of our fallen nature that we want to reduce the demands of God's law, to soften it. Why? To make it seem like we can attain God's favor on our own - even if we give lipservice to sin and grace.

"Gloom, despair and agony on me..." (a special prize to whomever can identify the source of that line)

Ash Wednesday is useful because it graphically proclaims our mortality. "I am nothing but dust and ashes," Abraham said (Genesis 18:27). Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. All who sin must die. This is the curse on the Adam in all of us.

We are sinners not because we commit sins. But rather, we commit sins because we are born sinful. Unless we drive this point home, the crucifixion of Jesus seems like overkill. Why did Jesus have to die? Because at that moment, bearing your sin and mine, he deserved to die. Was the Father unjust by slaying an innocent man? No. Jesus had to die because on the cross He became the vilest sinner on earth. "He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21)."

Your justification is not just a legal fiction. You are righteous and holy on account of Christ. But in this life, you are also a sinner. It's a paradox, I know. I'm cool with that. So let's have a good lent. No one likes to consider his sinfulness and mortality. But we need to do that so that we can make sense of the cross. Not that your self-mortifications make you holy. But the Crucified One is your holiness.

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