No Moving On From the Cross

Americans weren't always this good at learning lessons from acts of violence and murder.  The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 put a long term paralyzant in our blood. It was weeks before we were able to look away from the images of smoke and sorrow long enough to ask ourselves, "what can we learn from this?  How can we better ourselves and the world in response to this tragedy?"

But now we're seasoned lesson-learning veterans.  The day after the shootings in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT, we asked what we could do to reduce gun violence and to treat mental illness.  As ambulances were still rushing people to Boston hospitals, we could already see silver linings in the smoke clouds as we praised the helpers, the brave ones who rushed into the carnage to aid their neighbors.  Even before we knew how many people died in this evil act, we had focused our eyes on the good acts of humanity, desiring to make more of that goodness manifest in our lives.

We've been well trained since September 11, 2001.  Now, when tragedy strikes, we only look at the violence and murder for a moment.  Then we move on to the more important thing-making the world a better place in response.

I think this is how American Pop-Christianity views the cross.  The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a tragic event.  It's just so utterly sad and shameful that Jesus had to die for our sins.  But now that we've spent a moment looking at all that violence and murder, now it's time to move on to the more important thing.  So how do we make our lives better in response to that tragedy?

As evidence, I submit the mission statement of one of the country's largest congregations:

"As a community, we’re devoted to building an engaged, passionate, spiritually healthy community of people that makes up [our congregation]. We’re also devoted to engaging and impacting one another and others, believing that Jesus himself set an example of service and that we’ve been given the responsibility to follow it."

And if you'd like the point illustrated in picture form, here's the same thing from another mega-church:

These aren't egregious examples.  Hop on the webbernet, check out the mission statement of the congregation down the road from you, and you will probably find something exactly like this, something that basically states your journey starts with Jesus.  First look at his cross.  Then move on to figuring out how you should live in response to that cross.  Our congregation is here to help you do that.

So do these congregations deny that Jesus died for their sins?  No. But that death, that bloodshed, it's not the epicenter of the faith.  It's not the substance of their preaching and teaching.  Rather, the cross was that tragic event that should set you on the path of self-discovery.  The cross was that brutal act of violence meant to inspire you to better yourself and the world.  Stare at the carnage for a day, maybe two, but then move on.  Because, just like the children of Sandy Hook, Jesus will have died in vain if we don't learn the right lessons.

But the cross is its own lesson  And we don't move on from it.  Jesus didn't die so that we could better the world.  Jesus died to save the world.  Jesus died to give us life, to give us the love of God.

And that's what the Church is for-to give us the things that Jesus won for us in his death.  The Church makes disciples by giving us the cross found in baptism and teaching.  The Church nourishes us with the same body and blood that were broken and shed on Calvary.  The Church's mission is not to engage and impact.  Her mission is to put the cross of Jesus on your flesh, in your eyes, your ears, your mouth.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:1-2  

"And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."  1 Corinthians 2:1-2  

The cross is not 9/11.  It's not the Sandy Hook shooting or the Boston Marathon bombing. There is no moving on from the cross.  Because, unlike the death of everyone else, the death of Jesus Christ is life.

The Parable of the Seamstress

Once upon a time, Hazel sewed her family's clothes.  She lived in an era when there were no department stores or major clothing labels.  And Hazel's family couldn't afford the services of the nearest tailor, so Hazel sewed because that's what was necessary to survive.  And because it was necessary to survive, Hazel taught this skill to her daughter Sarah.  

When Sarah grew up and had her own family, she found that this skill was no longer a necessity.  For a reasonable cost, and with the aid of a department store or a catalog, she could contract someone else to do the hard work of measuring and cutting and stitching.  But even though she didn't need to sew anymore, Sarah still pulled out the Singer from time to time.  She'd sit down with her daughter Kimberly in her lap and make a garment or two around Christmas.  Sarah did this because the feel of the thread on her fingertips and the vibrations of the sewing machine on her palms reminded her of her mother, and she wanted to give some of those memories to her child.

But Kimberly couldn't even tell you how to thread a needle anymore.  Her grandmother sewed out of necessity.  Her mother sewed out of nostalgia.  But Kimberly doesn't sew at all because, without necessity, nostalgia rarely makes it to the second generation.

The Christian faith is necessary.  You are dead without it and nothing in this world can replace the salvation that Jesus gives to those who hear and believe His Word.  But when your pastor doesn't see you for months at a time, when you let every conflict bump the Divine Service off your Sunday schedule, when you never talk theology with your children, you teach them that the Word of God is nothing more than a trinket we pull out of the closet whenever we want to taste the sweetness of our familial heritage.  And when you teach that to your children, your children will not grow up to be Christians.  They will not believe anymore than Kimberly sews.

Virginia's Sunday Morning Windows

Virginia woke one morning to the sound of thunder and church bells.  "Oh, that's right," she thought.  "It's Sunday.  But the weather sounds terrible, and I have a lot of things to do around the house this morning.  So maybe next week."

Seven days later, the bells sounded again, their metallic clang ricocheting off the growling thunder and the drum roll of fat raindrops slapping the pavement.  "I know, I know," she told herself.  "It's been awhile since I've been to church.  But it's really nasty out there, so I'll just wait until things clear up."

But things didn't clear up.  With each passing season, the bells never rang without an accompanying rain shower.  For weeks and months and years, Virginia's Sunday morning windows rattled from the one-two punch of the bells and thunderclaps.  As she graduated and got married, as her children grew from infants to toddlers to teens, the roads remained far too slick to hazard a trip to the church.

Then, one Sunday morning, the rain stopped and the sun began to shine.  A soft heat began to radiate on Virginia's Sunday morning windows.  And even though the bells didn't clang that morning, Virginia told herself, "ok, now I'm ready.  Now that the rain is done, I'll go back to church."

But when she pulled into the lot of that old building, she didn't have to fight anyone for a parking spot.  She was the only one there.  Getting out of her car, Virginia saw that the church doors were locked and the windows were boarded.  Peering in through a crack, she saw that the font where she'd been baptized was dry, the altar where she communed was bare, and the pulpit where she heard the word was empty.  Then, stepping onto the same grass where she'd done cartwheels while her parents shook the pastor's hand on the Sundays of her youth, Virginia saw that the ground was now pierced with the shards of that bell she'd heard calling her for so many years.

So Virginia sat down and wept.  "There used to be so many people here.  What happened?" she asked herself aloud.

"They got old and died," a voice responded.

Virginia looked up and saw the gardener standing in front of her.

"And the younger generation, people like you, they didn't come back, at least not in time."

"But if God wanted me to be here, if he wanted me to come back to Church, why did he make it so difficult?  If he wanted me to follow the bells on Sunday mornings, why did he keep allowing all those thunderstorms?"

"O you of little faith," the gardener replied.  "It was the rain that made the bells ring."

God’s Word and grace is a passing downpour, which does not return to where it has already been. It has been with the Jews; but what’s lost is lost, and they now have nothing. Paul brought it to Greece; what’s lost is lost, and they now have the Turks. Rome and Latin-speaking regions have also had it; what’s lost is lost, and they now have the pope. And you Germans dare not think that you will have it forever, for the ingratitude and disdain will not let it remain. Therefore take hold and hang on tightly, while you are able to grab and to hold. Lazy hands are bound to have a hard year.

-Martin Luther

A Parable for Abused Pastors

And the Lord sent Nathan to the District President.  He came to him and said, "A rich man had a daughter with tuberculosis.  He married her to a man, but the man fell sick with her disease and died.  So the rich man married her to another man, who also contracted her infection and he died.  Five times this happened until the rich man could find no other suitors willing to marry his daughter.  So the rich man went to one of his servants and said to him, 'Marry my daughter or you will starve."  The servant protested, saying, "But master, surely if I do this, I will be like those men before me, falling ill and dying in my youth.  The rich man responded, “Surely not!  I give my word that, if you love her enough and be patient with her, my daughter’s disease will not take your life as it did those men before you.”

The District President’s anger was greatly kindled against the rich man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, this man will never arrange another marriage because he showed no mercy or wisdom.”

Nathan said to the District President, “You are the man.”

These words are not aimed at all men who wear the title "LCMS District President."  I thank the Lord for those men who have defended the shepherds under their care when they were attacked.  And I pray that He may grant us many more men to join the ranks of the faithful.

Tebow Update

After reading some more at the request of a commenter, it appears that Tim Tebow has not sought a trademark on the Tebow pose itself, but merely on the phrase "Tebowing."  

So, just to clarify, I still stand by the following words:

Tebow's legal action is annoying for three reasons.  First, because Matthew 6 commands Christians not to pray to be seen by others.  And even if you weren't originally praying in your signature style to be seen in a pharisaical manner, the fact that the masses have named your prayer posture after you should make it fairly clear that it's time to take it out of the public eye and into the privacy of your room.  

I also stand by these words:

Second, when the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who imitates the way you display your faith without authorized written consent.

If altered to say:

Second, when the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who attaches your name to the mocking imitation of the way you display your faith.

However, in light of this clarification, I retract and apologize for my claim that Tim Tebow's attempt to trademark genuflection is a great example of the ignorance and arrogance often found in Ahistorical Christianity.  Seeing that this was not what happened, the Tebow example simply doesn't fit and I was wrong to make it based off of the rather misleading article I linked in the original post.

I do not, however, retract my statements concerning this widespread problem of ignorance and arrogance in Evangelicalism and Ahistorical Christianity.  Certainly a better example could have been used, but the problem is very real, as the examples of dispensationalism, pentecostalism, and anabaptism certainly illustrate.

So, again, to Mr. Tebow, I apologize.

Evangelicals, this is why you annoy us.

People like to divide things in half.  Two categories.  Black and white.  Republicans and Democrats.  Team Edward and Team Jacob (although both of these teams are dweebs).

When it comes to Christianity, people try to do likewise.  But when they do so, they usually do it wrong.  The categories of Catholics and Protestants don't work because that leaves out all of those in the Orthodox tradition.  (Also, Lutherans don't really like being called protestants.)  And Bible Believing Christians vs Non-Bible Believers, the preferred designations of your more fundamentalisty crowd, aren't terribly accurate.  Because while Episcopalians may not believe what God says in Genesis 1, Baptists don't believe what God says in Romans 6.

Rather, I would suggest (and have, in fact, already suggested in a comedic form) that, if one is inclined to cleave Christendom in twain, the best way to do it is to make Church history the dividing line.

So despite our manifold differences, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and a handful of other traditions (FYI: I hate that term) are united in the sense that church history shapes the way we think and teach and worship and have fellowship.  Historical Christians tend to ask themselves questions like, "how have Christians in previous generations done these things?  What have Christians from the past written on these subjects?  What can we learn from those who were taught by the Church Fathers and the Apostles?  What valuable traditions of theirs should we continue?"  Even if we don't get the answers right, these questions are still swimming around in our minds, generally speaking.  And by asking them, we show respect to those Christians before us by assuming that we can learn something from them.

Among Ahistorical Christians, however, such respect is not shown.  It doesn't bother Dispensationalists that nobody believed in the Rapture until the mid 1800's because they don't think their faith mattered.  Baptists seem perfectly unperturbed that no Christians denied infant baptism until the 1500's because they were obviously too foolish to cast off the shackles of Catholic Paganism.  And if you want an example of how Evangelicals also show their disdain for those Christians who have struggled and learned and taught and worshiped before us, you'll find a great one in New York Jets' backup quarterback, Tim Tebow, who has now trademarked his prayer posture, often referred to as "Tebowing".

Tebow's legal action is annoying for three reasons.  First, because Matthew 6 commands Christians not to pray to be seen by others.  And even if you weren't originally praying in your signature style to be seen in a pharisaical manner, the fact that the masses have named your prayer posture after you should make it fairly clear that it's time to take it out of the public eye and into the privacy of your room.  Second, when the world mocks you for your faith, the Bible tells us to rejoice that we've been counted worthy, not to threaten legal action against anyone who imitates the way you display your faith without authorized written consent.

But most of all, Tebow's legal action is annoying for this reason.  He's not "Tebowing."  He's genuflecting, something that many Historical Christians have been doing as an act of worship for a really, really long time.  Check it out:

Here are some genuflecting Orthodox folks.

Here's are some genuflecting Anglicans.

Here's a sweet little genuflecting Catholic girl.

Even Lutherans genuflect.  Not me personally, but a guy I know.

Oh, and lest you think that all these Christians were just jumping on the Timmy Time bandwagon, here's the Angel Gabriel tebowing before the Virgin Mary in a painting from 1490:

Clearly Tim Tebow wasn't the first person to pray or worship on one knee with arm(s) extended forward.  In fact, bagillions of Christians have been doing his schtick for centuries.  And Tebow not knowing that is a pretty excellent example of the ignorance of Evangelicalism that drives other Christians nuts.  Furthermore, Tebow presuming, via this trademark, that genuflecting is his intellectual property is an excellent example of the equally irritating arrogance that comes when you don't think you'd have anything to learn by asking, "How have other Christians done stuff prior to last Tuesday?"

So to my Evangelical friends, I highly recommend asking yourselves that question.  I highly recommend diving into Church history, into the traditions and practices and teachings of Christians who lived a long time ago, long before Mark Driscoll or even Billy Graham.  Do that and you will find a faith that is far richer and stronger than anything you've ever tasted before, a faith that isn't subject to the whims of fads or societal mindsets, a faith that will still be standing when American culture has crumbled to dust.

And to my friends who have already discovered the joys of Historical Christianity, I highly recommend holding the Scriptures in even higher regard than tradition.  Do that and you might just find Lutheranism:-)

Contemporary Worship Apologetics: A Quick Observation

When advocates of historic Lutheran worship argue against the widespread use of contemporary worship, in particular the use of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) in the Divine Service, they often do so using a syllogism that looks something like this:

Major Premise: Music that focuses on the objective work of Christ is beneficial for use in worship, whereas music that focuses on the subjective feelings of Christians is not.

Minor Premise: Most historic Lutheran hymns focus on the objective work of Christ, whereas most CCM songs focus on the subjective feelings of Christians.

Conclusion: Therefore historic Lutheran hymns are beneficial for use in worship, whereas CCM songs are not.

In my experience, most Lutheran advocates of contemporary worship do not argue against the major premise.  So we all seem to agree that it's better for a hymn to tell me about Jesus than to tell me how great the hymn writer feels about Jesus.  And that's good.  Rather, the response I have seen most often from contemporary worship advocates is an argument against the minor premise, the assertion that "historic Lutheran" equals good and "CCM" equals bad.  Quite simply, they counter this syllogism by arguing that there are plenty of bad Lutheran hymns and plenty of good CCM songs.

But, interestingly enough, when it comes to defending their counter-argument through the use of examples, things get very one-sided.  Are these Lutheran advocates of contemporary worship ready to hand us a big fat list of our most cherished compositions that fail to meet the rigorous standards we require of CCM songs (standards such as this)?  Yes, they are.  Do they have countless examples of rather bad "good, Lutheran hymns?"  Absolutely.

But do they also have any examples of really good CCM songs?  In fact, forget "any."  I'll settle for one.  Do they have even one example of a CCM song that is as deeply and doctrinally and poetically focused on the Cross as the best of what we have in our hymnal?  Can they give us just one example?

Can they?  Maybe.  But have they? No, at least not that I've ever seen.  And that's not good.  Because when Christ calls us to be one body, and when you're using music that has been and still is causing division in that body, I think your fellow believers deserve to have their criticisms met with a better response than, "well, you use stuff that's just as bad."