Monthly Archives: August 2015

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on August 29, 2015
Tags: , , Secular Culture   

Reflecting Biblical Principles in the Middle of Secular Culture — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

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August 29, 2015

“The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.”    John 3:31-36

“When Jesus talks about the presence of the kingdom of G*d, he uses ordinary secular stories or parables. We think of them now, unfortunately, as religious stories. But originally they were not. He takes an ordinary, nonreligious situation: a woman loses a dime; a man gets mugged on a highway; a business man hires workers at union wages; a young man wants to leave home and strike out for himself…He uses stories that have nothing to do with religion and says the kingdom of G*d is like that. But we have so spiritualized it, it has completely lost the secular taste and flavor it had at first…

It’s the story of living, sweating, rejoicing, struggling, dying men and women just like you, just like me. And the story tells of a G*d not apart from their daily, ordinary lives, but smack in the middle of them.” Edmund A. Steimle (1907 – 1988) From Death to Birth   “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 446 – 447)

Here is part of an article I read recently from “Relevant Magazine”  by Cara Joyner titled:  Christians Shouldn’t Be Culture’s Morality Police:  We aren’t called to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles.

“The values of our culture are often in conflict with the values of our faith, but this isn’t new. Many practices of the ancient world would be considered wholly unacceptable by society today. We are neither the first to live in an environment that challenges our beliefs, nor are we the first to disagree on theology. However, we are the first with a hot and ready platform for serving quick, permanently recorded indictments, with minimal responsibility over what happens next. These instant splices are not used to reach the lost. They are only used to reinforce religious persons’ sense that they have chosen the “right” team and that their people agree with them.

When Paul addresses important issues related to sexuality in his letters to the Corinthians, he is speaking to the Church and seems unconcerned with society as a whole:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral … In that case you would have to leave this world … what business is it of mine to judge those outside the Church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you’” (1 Corinthians 5:9. 12-13).

 

image     We were never commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. We were commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, pointing to God’s redemptive story. So how do we walk the line of conviction and intention, engaging with culture in a way that is meaningful, without crossing over into a role to which we were never called? Let’s begin with what we know about Jesus. Jesus Kept Moving. Rather than huddling up and making camp in a town surrounded by His own people, Jesus knew what was at stake and He kept moving. His goal was healing and restoring the broken, not circling around those who were already following.

I like her thoughts on being commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, not being commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. Christian teachings have usually been at odds with secular culture. Our job as Christians is to be counter-cultural — and as such we are called to live differently. As Paul says: “what business is it of mine to judge those outside the Church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.” (1 Corin. 5:9ff) These certainly are words worth contemplating today.

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on August 28, 2015
Tags: Anxiety, ,   

The Gospel Will Address Anxiety in Surprising Ways — Rev. David J. Schreffler

 

image                August 28, 2015

“When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.” He answered them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” Mark 9:14-29

“It may well go without saying, and perhaps it should, that what the gospel always has in mind is “to comfort the distressed”. What may not go so well without saying is that it never undertakes that role prematurely. It is equally concerned “to distress the comfortable.”
Jesus never occupied himself with the way out. One might think that he was intolerably cavalier about that. To him it was the way through that mattered. It was not with him as with us the problems of living that loomed so large; as Bonhoeffer somewhere points out, it was the problem of life. It is…this ultimate anxiety that the gospel addresses; and the gospel addresses it by increasing it!”
Paul Scherer (1892 – 1969) Love Is A Spendthrift “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 441-442)

“It is…this ultimate anxiety that the gospel addresses; and the gospel addresses it by increasing it!” This should be unsettling to you — I know it is unsettling to me. I do not want more anxiety in my life, especially when it comes to my relationship with G*d. I want some assurances, not more anxieties. But then I must remember that living through life involves reaching the end — and once I reach the end of a long tunnel of distress and anxiousness, I once again look at my situation and ask the question “What have I learned?” You see, I will never learn anything about my life and my faith if I am not led to and presented with a threshold of decisions — which way do I go, left or right? And no matter which way I go, I cannot end that journey prematurely — unless my life is taken from me. Living out my life will lead me to journey, after journey, after journey — threshold, after threshold…..and it will be what I learn about myself in the process of making each decision, and how the Holy Spirit guides me throughout as I persevere to the end that will help me for the future. There are no easy outs in the journey of life and faith, just journeys through with the help of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Pastor Dave