Seventeen82

  A dear friend and fellow pastor preached my ordination service. In his sermon, he used the illustration of Scylla and Charybdis I write about below. It has stuck with me all these years and has shaped my preaching and my overall ministry.     As Odysseus returned home from the Trojan War, he faced many perils. During his 10-year voyage home, one dilemma he was faced with was how to navigate the Strait of Messina - the narrow passage between Italy and Sicily. On one side was Scylla, a six-headed sea monster with a hunger for sailors. On the other side was Charybdis, another monster who created a giant whirlpool when she swallowed large amounts of water. Homer describes them as being “an arrow-shot apart.” For Odysseus to sail safely away from one, he would have to get dangerously close to the other.      Do you ever feel like that when you’re preaching? (This applies to preaching, but could also apply to living the Christian life in general.) The...

Fathers and brothers of the ARP Synod, please forgive me. At last week’s Synod meeting in Columbia, during floor debate, I spoke to the issue of women in the diaconate. As I did so, I used a term that was both inflammatory and implicitly pejorative. In speaking of issues dealt with in Dr. Cara’s writing which formed that substance of First Presbytery’s memorial, I referred to my belief that “the paper laid waste to the idea that the Apostles intended to form a unisex diaconate” (emphasis added). As I cut the grass at my home on Friday afternoon, I was reviewing the events of Synod in my mind. I came under a deep conviction that my choice of the word“unisex” was needlessly inflammatory. I know full well that no one in our Synod has a “unisex” attitude toward created gender distinctions, etc. In that sense, it was also pejorative toward those who support continuing to maintain the option in our polity to ordain women to the diaconate. In this, I believe I sinned against the peace and uni...

  Summer camp is a natural outworking of covenant theology. Bold statement? Perhaps, but not really. Let me refine that a bit: Quest and Horizon, the ARP summer conferences for middle and high school students held at Bonclarken (our denomination’s conference center), are a natural outworking of covenant theology and what it means for God’s people to hear his promises and grow closer to his people. Sinclair Ferguson offered up this poignant summary of God’s people: “...whenever we read the Old and New Testaments, we are looking at our family album. Learning about church history is simply visiting our relatives. Assembling for worship is going to the weekly family reunion where we ‘come to... innumerable angels... the assembly of the firstborn.’ More than that, we come ‘to the spirits of the righteous made perfect’—some of whom once sat beside us in church. And all this because through faith we, like them – including those who lived under the old covenant—have come ‘to Jesus, the med...

I did not realize until this past Thursday that my article for the month was due on that day (the last day of a busy meeting of General Synod!). Friday was spent driving home, so here is my late effort, which is a partial response to one of the more heavily discussed topics during Synod. The topic itself was not controversial; but producing an official catechism (and whether that was necessary for a special committee to do) was the debated topic. I reflected on this on the way home and here is my humble effort at a catechism. I am sure much more could be done or said, but perhaps this can be a launching point of instruction for little ones within our congregations. Q. How many genders are there? A. Only two, for God created only two. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) Q. Is this only an Old Testament teaching? A. No, for the Lord Jesus Christ quotes this verse, and the Apostle Paul likewis...

  I've been thinking a lot about communication recently, particularly with the regards to the irony that we are more connected than ever before and yet we are worse communicators than we've ever been. I've heard it argued that this is because we are too busy to actually take the time to think about what the best way is to communicate with other people. And I agree. However, I think there are several other reasons why we struggle to communicate despite having countless media in which to do it.  First, I think most of us are overly consumed with ourselves and the lives of those we think are dependent upon us. We have unprecedented opportunities and choices before us every day. As a result, we have more responsibility than ever as we wade through these innumerable decisions. This necessarily causes us to spend the majority of our energy weighing all the options and making decisions that bygone generations either took for granted or didn't have.  Second, I think we are far ...

  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  –Romans 8:1[1]– Romans 8:1 is one of the most hopeful verses for sinners like me. There are other verses, of course, that offer this same hope (e.g. Ps 103:12; 1 John 1:9; Col  2:13 —and many more), but those words, “No condemnation,” ring loudly in my ears today. It’s not that sins being removed and forgiven don’t ring loudly too; but “no condemnation,” as I read those words this morning, rang sweetly and loudly and resonated—probably because I need them so. Many things condemn me. My memory. My heart. My tongue. My actions. God’s Law. The accuser. These all stack up and weigh in upon me. “I am  the  sinner.” “No condemnation.” “I am the  chief   of all sinners. “ “No condemnation.” “My sins have gone  over my head .” “No condemnation.”[2] Of course, there is no condemnation only for those “in Christ Jesus”—that is, united to Him, found in Him, by faith alone. And t...