Seventeen82

  Around this time last year I wrote a piece about why women, and unordained men, should not be leading worship either by the reading of Scripture or by speaking authoritatively from the pulpit in the Lord’s Day morning and evening service. As part of that I spoke about church authority and how Presbyterians have understood this since the Reformation. To touch another third rail on a matter related to that for Seventeen82 I’d like to posit the same principle only applied this time to the creature known as Advent. Proponents of such will tell you that these extra-biblical holy moments are adiaphora, or to put it into hillbilly English, none of my business. However, before we get into my annual “Ben Glaser hates fun and pretty things” lecture we need to revisit the question about church authority and what it means when the Session calls for worship. To do that we will hit the ARP Directory of Public Worship first, and yes before someone posts it I know the ARP directory allows our ...

  A Kissing Church? “Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss” -1 Thess. 5:26 If Paul tells us that we ought to be kissing, hold on while I grab a breath mint ?   What is a holy kiss anyway? Should we institute a time for smooching during the worship service? Should we become a kissing church? When we find a command in  God’s Word , we are called to do  it,  are we not? Paul  doesn’t command that we greet one another with a simple kiss . The command from the Lord is that we are to greet one another wit h a  “ holy ”  kiss.   W hat makes the kiss holy?   While  it is true that  believers ,  in their failings and sins , do not accomplish holy interactions ,  Paul  is calling believers to the same holiness that is found elsewhere in   S cripture .   “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Chr...

  ​ I enjoy looking at trees. Even as I type this, I can look out my office window and see these majestic giants, firmly rooted in their places. Such created things declare to me so much of the beauty and glory of God. During the spring, a tree speaks to me of new life and even resurrection, as they once again come to life after the deadness of winter. At first, you see only a small bud, but even it serves as a guarantee that death is over and life is coming. Eventually, they shed their winter deadness and robe themselves with lush green garments, as Spring turns to Summer. Oh, how important these titans of the field then become, as they serve man in his escape from the simmering heat of a hot July day. What would summer be without a cold glass of lemonade, sipped in one’s favorite lounge chair, under the shade of that old friendly tree?  ​ Likely, the reason I am so taken up with trees is due to my favorite time of year, Fall. Trees do agree with me, as it is then that they d...

  One would have to be in a non-responsive, comatose state not to see that western culture is divided.  America is divided.  If anything, the recent midterm elections have shown that the social polarization of our culture is continuing to drive our political and even our religious discourse.  The divisions are  deep  and people are highly emotional and even irrational, gluing themselves to priceless works of art, disrupting daily life, and storming capitol buildings.  Some days, it really does seem like things are coming apart at the seams.   Each and every  individual feels some sort of pressure to “take sides.”  This environment presents both opportunities and dangers for the church.  The opportunity to share the gospel, to preach and teach, and to call for repentance is self-evident.   But there is a danger as well.  No doubt you have had the experience of folks coming to your church (or to our denomination) because of ...

  “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:5) -How many of us know the words of 2 Tim 4:2 by heart, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” We wouldn’t dream of calling ourselves ministers of the gospel if we were not ready to preach the word! But how many of us, for one reason or another, ignore Paul’s charge to young Timothy, “Do the work of an evangelist?”  Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” (Zechariah 8:23) “Therefore he reason in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.” (Acts 17:17)   “We ought actually to go into the streets and lanes and highways, for there are lurkers...