This is part two of a three part essay from Martha of Ireland exploring how love, justice and mercy all tie in to our salvation.
Let’s take a look at what some Church Fathers had to say on the topic, and if we remember that justice, as well as charity, is also the foundation of mercy, perhaps we will not be so shocked by any appearances of proto-Communism, crypto-Socialism, or being less than fervent Free Market Capitalists on their parts.
(As quoted by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa):
Hence Basil says [Hom. super Luc. xii, 18]: “If you acknowledge them,” viz. your temporal goods, “as coming from God, is He unjust because He apportions them unequally? Why are you rich while another is poor, unless it be that you may have the merit of a good stewardship, and he the reward of patience? It is the hungry man’s bread that you withhold, the naked man’s cloak that you have stored away, the shoe of the barefoot that you have left to rot, the money of the needy that you have buried underground: and so you injure as many as you might help.” Ambrose expresses himself in the same way. It is written 1 John 3:17: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall put up his bowels from him, how doth the charity of God abide in him?”
More? Ok.
“You never give to the poor what is yours; you merely return to them what belongs to them. For what you have appropriated was given for the common use of everybody. The land was given for everybody, not just the rich.” St. Ambrose, 4th century bishop of Milan
“The bread that is in your box belongs to the hungry; the coat in your closet belongs to the naked; the shoes you do not wear belong to the barefoot; the money in your vault belongs to the destitute.” St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, c. A.D. 370
“Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to the one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.” St Gregory Naziansen, Bishop of Constantinople, late fourth century
“Nothing is your own. You are a slave and what is yours belongs to the Lord. For a slave has no property that is truly his own; naked you were brought into this life.” Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, from “The Unjust Steward,” c. A.D. 400
And that influence echoed down the centuries, where people in all ages and of all nations were inspired to do practical works of mercy.
We are going to do something we don’t normally do here today. We’re going to feature a three-part essay. Martha of Ireland has written another brilliant piece, but it needs to be chewed slowly. Part two will run around noon Eastern today, while part three will show up around four this afternoon. Dig in!
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Well, we’re not quite that bad – not yet. Yes, it’s that old Roman Catholic stand-by, well-known to you, our separated brethren, as “works righteousness” and known to us (if we know them at all) as something completely different. I am referring to what old-timers will recognise as the Works of Mercy. Traditionally, they are divided into two lists of seven: the Corporal (or bodily) works and the Spiritual works. The lists as enumerated below are from the online version of the 1913 “Catholic Encylopedia” (because there’s no school like the old school).
The corporal works of mercy are as follows:
•To feed the hungry
•To give drink to the thirsty
•To clothe the naked
•To harbour the harbourless
•To visit the sick
•To ransom the captive
•To bury the dead
The spiritual works of mercy are:
•To instruct the ignorant
•To counsel the doubtful
•To admonish sinners
•To bear wrongs patiently
•To forgive offences willingly
•To comfort the afflicted
•To pray for the living and the dead
Or, as a list taken from a 15th century English catechism puts it, the spiritual works are:
To teach the ignorant
To counsel the needy
To chastise the sinful
To comfort the sorrowful
To forgive enemies
To suffer tribulation
To pray for all fervently
“To harbour the harbourless” is usually rendered, in modern versions, as “to shelter the homeless” or “offering hospitality to the homeless” but the older style covers more than just lack of a permanent living space; the migrant, the refugee, the displaced, the lost. “To ransom the captive” is given as “visiting the imprisoned” but once again, the older version charges us to do more than just give of our time (valuable as that is). It also echoes what Christ has done for us – the ransom of those captive to sin and the Devil.
NOTE: This post is not about a certain well-known pastor, even though it involves the church he leads. In the discussion that follows, I am not interested in having us talk about this pastor personally. So don’t. Please keep the conversation on the subject of church discipline itself, more broadly. We focus on these articles because they present a detailed description of a church discipline process that gives us a rare inside look at how a congregation attempts to deal with Christian sin, repentance, and restoration in the church.
• • •
In two emotionally-charged posts, Matthew Paul Turner has given a detailed account of the church discipline process in one well-known congregation. Here are links to the articles:
These pieces tell Andrew’s story. As a young man, Andrew set out on his own in an effort to find himself. So he moved to the big city and joined a well-known megachurch. He began dating a daughter of one of the elders and they became engaged. During their engagement, he spent an evening with an old fling and acted inappropriately. Feeling extremely guilty afterward, he confessed to his fiancee and another member of his small group. Then to his small group leader. Soon Andrew was involved in meeting after meeting in which he confessed other relational and sexual failures he had experienced in his life, including the fact that he and his fiancee had been intimate. A month later, he was informed in another meeting with a pastor and his small group leader that he was “under church discipline.” Soon he was sent a “church discipline contract” that listed the “background issues” (a list of his sins) and the “plan of discipline” they had set up for Andrew. (You can read the details of the contract at Turner’s first post.)
While we are on the subject of the Bible today, let’s look at a point of view quite contrary to that of John Polkinghorne, the renowned physicist whose book we are working through (see this morning’s post). Christian Post reports that “Pastor Rick Warren launched his ’40 Days in the Word’ biblical literacy campaign over the weekend by preaching that the Bible is not only historically and prophetically accurate, but scientifically trustworthy as well.”
I commend Rick Warren for working to increase the Biblical literacy of his congregation. Unfortunately, I think he is misleading them when he portrays the Bible as “scientifically trustworthy” and gives examples like the following:
“You might expect the Bible to say the world is flat because for thousands of years, everybody thought the world was flat,” he explained. “But, 2,600 years ago the Bible said in Isaiah 40:22, ‘God is enthroned above the sphere of the earth.’ Two-thousand, six-hundred years ago, the Bible said the world is not flat. It’s a sphere. It’s a globe. It said it long before anyone started coming up with that idea. Nowhere in the Scripture does it say the world is flat.”
With all due respect to Pastor Warren, that’s bad reading.
The Hebrew people, like other Ancient Near Eastern people, had a cosmology like that pictured in the diagram above and the Bible reflects this cosmology consistently throughout its pages. Scripture does not give us clues to later scientific discoveries such as the earth being a globe. The Israelites, like their ANE neighbors, saw the earth as a relatively flat, circular disk. This is how it appears to anyone phenomenologically, as we scan the horizon. This disk is covered by a “vault” or “firmament” that appears as a rounded dome over the earth (imagine a snow globe). Beneath the land, upholding the “circle of the earth” are the “pillars of the earth.” There are “waters under the earth” that feed the surface waters, and “waters above the firmament” that are sometimes released upon the earth through “the windows of heaven.” The clouds and the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, have been placed in firmament above. There are several other details, but these will suffice to make our point.
When Warren quotes Isaiah 40:22 as saying, “God is enthroned above the sphere of the earth,” he translates and interprets the text in contradiction to how all major English versions understand the Hebrew word chûg. What Isaiah said was that God’s throne sits above “the circle of the earth.”
Isaiah is portraying God as sitting above the circular disk of the land below or perhaps beyond the rounded dome of the firmament (see the diagrams). Whichever it is, either interpretation reflects ANE cosmology and has nothing to do with earth being a spherical globe. God did not reveal that thousands of years ago through special revelation. Scientists came to understand it in their study of his general revelation.
Nevertheless, in his message, Rick Warren asserts, “The reason the Bible is scientifically accurate is because the laws of the universe were invented by God. God knows the scientific laws of the universe better than we do.”
Well of course God does, but that is not the point. The point is whether God guided the Biblical authors to write in such a way that they spoke better than they knew about future scientific findings. I, for one, don’t accept that. I trust the Bible as God’s Word, but not because it contains up-to-date scientific information that was supernaturally revealed by God thousands of years before humans discovered it. It doesn’t, and we should not expect that. Nor do we need to maintain that perspective in order to stand against a tide of atheistic naturalism promoted by “modern science.”
If you stop and think about it, Warren’s claim is an untenable idea anyway, for our knowledge of the natural world is always incomplete. If we claim dogmatically that the Bible confirms today’s scientific positions, then we will be in trouble tomorrow when scientists make new discoveries.
This view of Scripture won’t cut it, and the sooner we abandon it the better. God spoke his Word in our language, fully respecting the limitations of its writers. He inspired it to be written within their cultural and scientific perspectives.
The real point upon which we should be focused is the Story Scripture tells in its ancient narratives and poetry — how that God prepared the way and then sent the true and living Word. He is the Word of God to whom the Bible witnesses, who became flesh and dwelt among us to save us from our sins, inaugurate God’s rule in the world, and bring about a new creation.
Let’s become literate about that message and how the Bible tells it.
In our ongoing conversation about our faith and its relation to the 2012 election year events, I thought today we’d give the community a chance to discuss Newt Gingrich’s win in Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary. Exit polls make it clear that the evangelical vote made a huge difference in this contest.
Here are some of the reports. Add your own in the Open Mic discussion in the comments.
“The evangelical vote was crucial in today’s primary, more so than in Iowa and New Hampshire. Sixty-five percent of GOP voters in South Carolina today were evangelical Christians, compared with 57 percent in Iowa and 22 percent in New Hampshire.”
“If there were any doubts that Newt Gingrich, a thrice-married convert to Catholicism, could connect with the evangelical voters who make up the Republican Party base, Saturday’s South Carolina primary put them to rest, with the former House Speaker winning twice as many evangelical votes as anyone else in the race.
“Evangelical Christians made up two-thirds of the South Carolina electorate on Saturday, and Gingrich took 44% of their votes, according to CNN’s exit poll.
“Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, who rode evangelical support to victory in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses earlier this month, each got 21% of the evangelical vote in South Carolina.
“Gingrich got roughly the same share of the South Carolina evangelical vote as Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher, did four years ago.”
“Despite recent allegations from his second wife that he wanted an open marriage, Gingrich’s personal issues were clearly not a priority among evangelical voters. Nearly half of evangelical voters – 45 percent – cited the ability to beat Obama as the candidate quality that mattered most in their vote decision, and they awarded 55 percent of their ballots to Gingrich. Only 21 percent of evangelical voters indicated that having strong moral character was the most important candidate quality in how they voted. While these morality-driven evangelical voters preferred Santorum to Gingrich 53 percent to 7 percent, there were just too few of them to have much of an impact on the overall vote.”
• • •
So…what do you think?
As they might say in South Carolina, y’all know the rules — if you don’t you might want to read the FAQS/RULES under “About IM” at the top of the page.
God’s Marvelous, Massive, Messy House Part 1: A Thousand-Year Foundation
Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Christianity has an intriguing subtitle: “The First Three Thousand Years.” Of course, Christianity per se has only been in existence for two thousand of those years. However, it was built upon a foundation laid down in the millennium that preceded its emergence. So MacCulloch does not begin with Jesus to talk about Christianity, but examines the three great cultures that provided the context for the faith and its development: (1) Greece, (2) Rome, (3) Israel.
In terms of religious ideas, it was Greece and Israel together that shaped Christian expression of its faith. MacCulloch puts it like this:
The book conceives the overall structure of Christian history differently, I believe from any of its predecessors. Within the cluster of beliefs making up Christian faith is an instability which comes from a twofold ancestry. Far from being simply the pristine, innovative teachings of Jesus Christ, it draws upon two much more ancient wellsprings, Greece and Israel. …The first generation of Christians were Jews who lived in a world shaped by Greek elite culture. They had to try to fit together these two irreconcilable visions of God, and the results have never been and never can be a stable answer to an unending question.
The importance of Greek culture and philosophy for the development of the Christian faith may be seen in the simple fact that the sacred book of this Second Temple era Jewish sect was written, not in Hebrew or Aramaic, but in the Greek language. Jesus is the “Christ,” (christos) and the “Word” (logos), and, as MacCulloch says, these words “tell us what a tangle of Greek and Jewish ideas and memories underlies the construction of Christianity.” Throughout church history, theologians of the Christian church have looked not only to their Jewish roots and the stories of the Hebrew Bible but also to Plato and Aristotle in order to explain the mysteries of God and his ways. In fact, the work of historians like N.T. Wright even in our own day reveals that Western Christianity’s preoccupation with Hellenistic ideas over the centuries has often diminished our appreciation for Jesus’ primary connection with Israel’s story.
In the days of Jesus, it was Rome that ruled the world. In the centuries before the beginning of the Common Era, it had transitioned from a Republic to an Imperial Monarchy, and, when Jesus was born, the memory of its miserable seventy-year civil war was still relatively fresh. The Gospel of Luke sets Jesus’ birth in the context of Caesar Augustus’ rule and the Pax Romana for which he received praise. Using imperial language, Luke 2 announces Jesus’ coming as “good news for all people,” bringing “peace on earth.” This baby, like Caesar, was exalted as a royal “savior.” Luke is describing a Christianity that came into the world as an alternative empire. Early Christians were accused of “acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus” (Acts 17:7). On the other hand, Christians like Paul were able to make practical use of the Pax Romana and their Roman citizenship to advance the cause of Christ around the Mediterranean. This mixed relationship with imperial power continued for a long time, surviving both severe opposition and persecution as well as benign neglect until the fourth century when Constantine issued his edict of toleration, and later Christianity became the official religion of Rome. The Church became “Christendom,” and it is only in our own day that we are beginning to speak of a post-Constantinian church and the end of Christendom’s rule.
One reason that the story of God’s people is so marvelous, messy, and multifaceted is that our faith, from the beginning, has been so intimately connected, not only with Israel, the fount of God’s revelation to the world, but also with the history, people, and cultures among whom Israel dwelt. We’ve been a motley family from the beginning.
And this is just the beginning of our tour through this labyrinthine household…
I am employed in the health care field. Working as a chaplain for a corporate entity has taught me a great deal, and has helped me reflect upon the make-up of the “corporate church” in America and the nature of its leadership.
If you have read Internet Monk over the past two years, you know that I have a heart for pastors and their true work and a desire that good pastoral theology be honored. Here are a few posts from the past that you can review, which run along those themes:
The main burden of these articles (and on my heart) is that pastors take care of people. That is the very definition of the title, and the title defines the calling. Being a pastor means working personally with people to help them live in the Gospel of Christ.
So, naturally, we proclaim Christ! We warn everyone we meet, and we teach everyone we can, all that we know about him, so that, if possible, we may bring every man up to his full maturity in Christ. This is what I am working at all the time, with all the strength that God gives me. (Col 1:28-29, Phillips)
Our attitude among you was one of tenderness, rather like that of a devoted nurse among her babies. Because we loved you, it was a joy to us to give you not only the Gospel of God but our very hearts—so dear did you become to us. Our struggles and hard work, my brothers, must still be fresh in your minds. Day and night we worked so that our preaching of the Gospel to you might not cost you a penny. You are witnesses, as is God himself, that our life among you believers was honest, straightforward and above criticism. You will remember how we dealt with each one of you personally, like a father with his own children, stimulating your faith and courage and giving you instruction. Our only object was to help you to live lives worthy of the God who has called you to share the splendour of his kingdom. (1Thess 2:7-12, Phillips)
Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
• 2Cor 10:3-5, NRSV
• • •
I am not a “handy” person. It’s not that I’m incapable (or so I imagine), but rather that I’ve never taken the time to learn and practice the art of making or fixing things. As a result, I have also never invested a lot of money in tools beyond the basic items needed for general tasks. On several occasions, this has caused me headaches, because a project presented itself that required something beyond a basic tool. When possible, I procured what was needed, but at other times I made the foolish mistake of trying to make do with the wrong instruments. The outcome usually wasn’t pretty. Something that could have been made or fixed easily (and correctly) with the proper tool ended up being butchered by a “hack job.”
In 2Corinthians 10-13, Paul is warning the Corinthian church that some “hack” Christian leaders whom he calls “super-apostles” (11:5) are working on them. He is frightened for their spiritual well being, “afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, [their] thoughts [would] be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (11:3).
Every generation is troubled by preachers and teachers who take advantage of the opportunities for corruption that church culture affords. In this part of his epistle, Paul reminds us that both leaders and congregations are responsible to settle for nothing less than true pastoral leadership.
…individual Christians and local churches alike must take responsibility for the styles of leadership they follow. If it is true that Christian leaders are responsible before God for the teaching they provide, the models they display, and the directions they take, it is no less true that Christians and Christian assemblies are responsible for choosing what and whom they will emulate. The problems at Corinth depicted in 2Corinthians 10-13 would never have arisen if the Corinthian church had handled the intruders in a mature and biblical fashion in the first place. That they failed to do so reflects their spiritual immaturity, their unsettling inability to perceive that the norms of their own society were deeply pagan and not to be nurtured in the church.
Carson notes that there were three inappropriate cultural models that shaped the approach of these “super-apostles”:
Judaizing Christianity, which sought to prove its spiritual superiority by emphasizing its Jewish covenant status,
Hellenistic Philosophy, which emphasized forms of polished rhetoric and skillful oratorical presentation, and the ability to attract big audiences and command high fees for imparted wisdom,
Visionary Enthusiasm, which stressed a leader’s esoteric spiritual visions and experiences.
Paul confronts these “super-apostles” who are troubling the Corinthians by “leading” them with the wrong tools. In 2Cor 10:1-6, he notes that these teachers have accused him of “acting according to human standards.” In other words, they have dismissed the Apostle and his approach as inferior and common, not up to their spiritual standards.
Paul responds by saying, “Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.” In other words, yes, we’re common human beings alright, but it’s not human standards that define our ministry. We no longer conduct ourselves “according to the flesh” — the ways of the world system are not the ways by which we operate any longer.
Christian leaders are called to use different tools.
Is it necessary to list the ways in which the American church has become enthralled with the “tools of the flesh”? Much of contemporary church culture glories in its spectacular worship “shows,” polished preachers, professional corporate organization, along with emphases on spiritual enthusiasm, prosperity teaching, “vision” and unmediated spiritual experience, as well as triumphalistic attitudes and approaches in “culture war” confrontations. We tend to like big, loud, and impressive.
In contrast, note what Paul writes in this passage: “I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ…” (2Cor 10:1)
In contrast to the prevailing methods of the “super-apostles” of his day, and the “mega-church” culture of ours, note the concepts and words in this first sentence that describe the tools Paul uses as a true pastoral leader:
Personal Touch (“I myself, Paul…”): Paul believed in personal communication, not just public teaching and reliance upon rhetoric. One senses he would have felt uncomfortable on a big stage or seeing his face on a big screen. He could talk to crowds, of course, but the evidence suggests he did best in face-to-face situations when possible. His letters are remarkably personal, and when he was really concerned about his friends and could not visit them personally, he sent coworkers to represent him.
Respectful Appeal: The “super-apostles” had commanding presence and used their credentials to put themselves in positions of power over others. Paul, on the other hand, sought to influence by lovingly appealing to the hearts and minds of his fellow believers. He eschewed control and treated his brothers and sisters with dignity, recognizing their ability to respond to God’s Spirit and make decisions themselves.
The Meekness and Gentleness of Christ: One is immediately reminded of Matthew 11:28-30 — “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Like his Master, Paul humbled himself to serve rather than exalting himself to lord it over his friends. Don Carson writes: “Meekness and gentleness…taken together, suggest that the person characterized by such virtues will be generous in his estimates of others, slow to take offense, well able to bear reproach, consistently above self-interest.”
With those kinds of tools, one can build a church.
Try to use the inadequate tools of “the flesh,” and you’ll have a hack job on your hands.
I was thinking the other day, “What texts would I turn to if I as a preacher, teacher, or writer wanted to infuse some needed emphases into today’s churches?”
Here’s a few that I came up with (not exhaustive, of course, but suggestive of some key themes):
James 1:27. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
1Thessalonians 4:11-12. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.
Luke 6:20-26. And turning His gaze toward His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.“
Luke 14:12-14. And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Philippians 1:29. “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…”
2Corinthians 4:7-12. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.
This is part two of a three part essay from Martha of Ireland exploring how love, justice and mercy all tie in to our salvation.
has an intriguing subtitle: “The First Three Thousand Years.” Of course, Christianity per se has only been in existence for two thousand of those years. However, it was built upon a foundation laid down in the millennium that preceded its emergence. So MacCulloch does not begin with Jesus to talk about Christianity, but examines the three great cultures that provided the context for the faith and its development: (1) Greece, (2) Rome, (3) Israel.
I was thinking the other day, “What texts would I turn to if I as a preacher, teacher, or writer wanted to infuse some needed emphases into today’s churches?”
The Internet Monk Archives 