Catholicity, Orthodoxy, and Lordship
Human history is about the rightful King and His allies invading a dark Reich. Everyone chooses sides. There are no neutral countries; the pretense of neutrality and agnosticism is only a cover for darkness. The living God and His Christ are not optional, take it or leave it, to each his own. The choice is this: live or die, know Him or else. Be forgiven by the wonder of what Christ did for you, or receive what you’ve done fair and square on your own head. -David Powlison
Liturgy is grounded in acts. Every act leads to another act. In liturgy, skipping to a meal before be- ing cleansed (washing of hands) is improper. Liturgy requires table manners. The liturgy shapes us. The word “liturgy” itself refers to the “work of the people.” Theologically, however, what happens in worship in the gathered assembly is not so much our work, but “the continuation of the service of the ascended Lord Jesus for his people.” a We can say that liturgy is the work of God on our behalf, or as theologian Jeff Meyers puts it, “It is God’s service to us.”
In light of a wonderful study this morning on J. Gresham Machen, here are a few quotes from this stalwart of the faith:
“Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist.”
“For Christians to influence the world with the truth of God’s Word requires the recovery of the great Reformation doctrine of vocation. Christians are called to God’s service not only in church professions but also in every secular calling. The task of restoring truth to the culture depends largely on our laypeople.
To bring back truth, on a practical level, the church must encourage Christians to be not merely consumers of culture but makers of culture. The church needs to cultivate Christian artists, musicians, novelists, filmmakers, journalists, attorneys, teachers, scientists, business executives, and the like, teaching its laypeople the sense in which every secular vocation-including, above all, the callings of husband, wife, and parent–is a sphere of Christian ministry, a way of serving God and neighbor that is grounded in God’s truth. Christian laypeople must be encouraged to be leaders in their fields, rather than eager-to-please followers, working from the assumptions of their biblical worldview, not the vapid clichés of pop culture.”
“The Gospel does not abrogate God’s law, but it makes men love it with all of their hearts.”
“The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him; the greater our progress in theology, the simpler and more child-like will be our faith”
In the preface to Colin Duriez’s Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship, he writes that “It was Tolkien who helped to persuade Lewis, for many years as an atheist, that the claims of the Christian story, in its humble setting in first-century Palestine, should not be ignored, appealing both to the intellect and the imagination.” (preface, x)