Whatever you do, get this kid in your youth group

You can’t get away from this issue – Catholicvote.com presses the button

Thanks to Lori Murphy for the link.

The view outside my family room bay window

We have been looking out the window for some time watching a wild turkey raise her young. Now they are as large as she is, but they still fall into line.

Who is worthy to receive? The Boston Globe reports on the open communion movement

And you always thought that the sacrament of communion was for Christians! How retro of you.

The Boston Globe has an article on the increasing practice of open communion among those religious groups whose tradition has been closed communion, particularly the Anglicans. In such traditions, this sacrament has been reserved for the baptized and converted. It symbolizes a life characterized by feeding upon Christ, who is the true bread from heaven. It is not calculated to define who is holy but who is wholly the Lord’s.

Sometimes I am stunned by how sloppy the “learned clergy” think about such things. Their gut reaction is to be dismissive of anything that smacks of insiders or outsiders, no matter what the Scriptures themselves teach or the tradition of the church has proven as wisdom. They set one set of Scriptures over another – the call to love your neighbor as yourself trumps the requirement that some be refused the “love feast” for their public and unrepentant immorality. After all, who are we to judge? For them the Lord’s Supper is just a sign that one has a spiritual appetite (whatever that means) and in some sense or the other seeks God in one sense or the other through one religion or the other.

I come from an evangelical tradition of open communion. This means simply that the Lord’s Table is open to believers from wherever they may come. But it is for believers. Then the congregation is admonished to “clear the heart” in such things – is this a sincere act on my part, do I need to deal with an area in my life where I am denying the very faith I profess, do I need to be reconciled to my brother before I profess in this act of communion I am in some sense reconciled to God? People from my tradition believe they have “fenced” the table if they give such encouragements and warnings. Then the people must determine in their own heart whether or not this is an observance they can take in good faith.

I am as open to closed communion. It is right for the church to exalt the Lord’s Supper in its meaning and to keep it unstained so far as we are responsible to do. In a previous church of mine the leadership in a clear way asked of a particularly group of people who were publicly walking in the flesh and against the ways of Christ to refrain from the Lord’s Supper. To some people this was tantamount to consigning them to hell. They just couldn’t understand that the church had any say in any way about it. The Lord’s Supper was off bounds for the church to interfere with. It was the ultimate symbol of every Christian’s autonomy. I disagreed then. I disagree now. The Lord’s Supper belongs to the church for right administration so that it does not become the table of demons but the table of Christ.

If the church makes a good faith effort to “fence the table” and some still partake unworthily, the church has fulfilled its duty. People of good conscience will hear and respond with a teachable and honest spirit. There are always the willful, nobody is going to tell me what to do, minority.

Of course, no one is surprised that this controversy is taking place in the Anglican church. If they can’t get it that open homosexuality among priests is forbidden, then how could they ever be expected to get this one right?

A homeostasis machine – something I am not

David Brooks op-ed about Obama is right on the money. He writes about Obama, “he has shown the same untroubled self-confidence day after day. There has never been a moment when, at least in public, he seems gripped by inner turmoil. It’s not willpower or self-discipline he shows as much as an organized unconscious. Through some deep, bottom-up process, he has developed strategies for equanimity, and now he’s become a homeostasis machine…there hasn’t been a moment when he has displayed rage, resentment, fear, anxiety, bitterness, tears, ecstasy, self-pity or impulsiveness. “

Is this a lack of passion, a cool detachment that will make him passive in a crisis? Will this make him unreadable to leaders of other countries and movements, some of whom seek to do us harm and might read his equanimity for a lack of will? Will this get us into trouble or keep us out of trouble?

“Where’s the outrage?”, we often ask. We want to see human emotion, see the heart on the sleeve, feel the rise of the heat. But the other side of the story is that some “strong” leaders unnecessarily tempt their opponents to anger and not to their better angels.

I am reminded of Jame’s observation, “Human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose.” (Jas 1:20) We overcome evil by good. It says of Jesus that he did not cry out in the streets and that a bruised reed he did not break and a flickering wick he did not snuff out. I think that Jesus knew that one style of ministry makes way for more good in the long run and one style invites the devil to the table.

Those who know me would not say I am a homeostatis machine. Which is another way of saying that at times too much of me fills up the room – what I feel, what I want, what I hate, what I love, what I, I, I, I, I….. The issue fades away and personalities suck the air out of the room. Too much is on the line for that to happen. We need a lot of people sitting at that table giving their best. A leader’s style can keep more people at that table or fewer. We don’t want another Nixon sitting in the Oval Office all alone, muttering to himself while a Kissinger shakes his head wondering what went wrong.

Morning and Evening with Charles Spurgeon

Morning, October 19

“Babes in Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:1

Are you mourning, believer, because you are so weak in the divine life: because your faith is so little, your love so feeble? Cheer up, for you have cause for gratitude. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and most full-grown Christian. You are as much bought with blood as he is. You are as much an adopted child of God as any other believer. An infant is as truly a child of its parents as is the full-grown man. You are as completely justified, for your justification is not a thing of degrees: your little faith has made you clean every whit. You have as much right to the precious things of the covenant as the most advanced believers, for your right to covenant mercies lies not in your growth, but in the covenant itself; and your faith in Jesus is not the measure, but the token of your inheritance in him. You are as rich as the richest, if not in enjoyment, yet in real possession. The smallest star that gleams is set in heaven; the faintest ray of light has affinity with the great orb of day. In the family register of glory the small and the great are written with the same pen. You are as dear to your Father’s heart as the greatest in the family. Jesus is very tender over you. You are like the smoking flax; a rougher spirit would say, “put out that smoking flax, it fills the room with an offensive odour!” but the smoking flax he will not quench. You are like a bruised reed; and any less tender hand than that of the Chief Musician would tread upon you or throw you away, but he will never break the bruised reed. Instead of being downcast by reason of what you are, you should triumph in Christ. Am I but little in Israel? Yet in Christ I am made to sit in heavenly places. Am I poor in faith? Still in Jesus I am heir of all things. Though “less than nothing I can boast, and vanity confess.” yet, if the root of the matter be in me I will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the God of my salvation