[The cross] is the only ladder which reaches up into the better world; the only way to heaven leads through suffering; there is none other bridge from death to life. This way of the cross to the glories of heaven has been prepared for all men; and whosoever will, let him come. Hanging on the cross, and sitting on the throne of heaven, the will of the Savior is to draw all men unto himself. But he that will not die with him cannot live with him. Our own life, or, in other words, our evil nature, all our sinful lusts, which Paul calls “the body of sin” (Romans 6, 6), the combined force of wicked desires, whose root is willfulness, and whose strength is pride and deceit; — this life of the world in you must die, if you are to live. In the name of God, sacrifice all this! You have been baptized into the death of Christ, and your old man is crucified with him. Let the efficacy of your baptism prove itself. If you believe in the Lord, be assured that you shall not want the grace to mortify the flesh and lead a new life in him. To this end he helps us by means of our many trials and tribulations from without and within, vexations, temptations, sickness, suffering; but the strength itself comes from the death and resurrection of Christ. There are the roots of your new life; and thence it must receive nourishment, if it is to increase. In his word and sacraments he gives to his believers the strength of his life and death; and through these means we of a truth receive grace to mortify the flesh, to take up the cross, and to live for heaven.
If we can be certain of anything in these uncertain times, it is that nearly every modicum of civility, maturity, and decency in our American culture has evaporated more quickly than dew in the southeast Texas summer.
Presidents are no longer remotely presidential (this is not novel with the current administration). Successful businessmen talk to and about others in ways that would've gotten our mouths washed out with soap as children. And everyday average people treat others online in ways that ought to make them utterly ashamed of their vitriol and immaturity.
None of this is news, but it should concern us. It should be especially concerning to Christians, who are by no means above the fray or immune to the temptations of unleashing childish diatribes against others online and in person. What ever happened to the civilized part of our civilization?
Anthony Esolen has written a great piece lamenting this reality. As one on the right side of the political, theological, and cultural spectrum, he does not mind taking aim first at his own. He writes:
That most of the spitefulness is aimed by the left against the right is no comfort for the conservative, because quite enough of it goes the other way, and the general effect is the same. It will do you no spiritual good, and it is unlikely to achieve even a worldly purpose, to be pleased to find that your opponent, who may be to blame for falsehood or cowardice or outright wickedness, has justified your low opinion, and to make that pleasure evident to everyone. It is not a love of truth. It is a love of falsehood in others. One sign of it is the disappointment you feel when you learn that someone is innocent of the sin you had attributed to him.
The rest of his piece, which quotes largely from 19th century Italian author Alessandro Manzoni, shows us that our current state is neither unique to our day nor new in its ugliness.
There is no situation so chaotic that God cannot from that situation create something that is surpassingly good. He did it at the creation. He did it at the cross. He is doing it today.
miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun
1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book
This week features the theological and the technological, food for thought in both areas! Before we get to those posts, here's encouragement for all those struggling to persevere in your Lenten disciplines. Not only do spiritual disciplines draw us closer to Christ and make us more like him, they serve to benefit other areas of our lives:
Regularly doing hard things increases your willpower and mental resilience.
Liberals take positions that make them look good and feel good – and show little interest in actual consequences for others, even when liberal policies are leaving havoc in their wake.
— Thomas Sowell
Note: As an economist, Dr. Sowell is doubtless thinking about political and economic positions; however, the same is plainly true for theology.
I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us, simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul.
— Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Note: While there are many things I do not see eye-to-eye with Merton on, this observation is right on the money.
If you're using the Daily Devotional Guide for your daily bible readings (and I hope you are!), this morning you read Matthew 18.21-35. This reading is one of the very difficult parables of Jesus that we tend to gloss over, explain away, or ignore.
In this parable, a king forgives a man who owed him an inconceivable amount of money: 10,000 talents. Now, some study bibles will do the math to compute exactly how much money this is in current dollars (the ESV Study Bible computes it at nearly $6 billion). What is more shocking, however, is that a) a talent was the largest known denomination of money at the time and b) 10,000 is the largest numeral for which a Greek term existed. In other words, it is not nearly as important to try and run the numbers as it is to realize this is the largest sum of money that could readily be described in that day. One scholar says the combined effect of these two terms together “is like our 'zillions.' What God has forgiven his people is beyond human calculation.”
If ever one wished to render the church’s message obsolete and her existence pointless, adopting queerness would seem a most excellent way to do it. Queer theory is the perfect tool for demolishing any “oppressive” dogma or claim to transcendent truth. But if the church has no truth to proclaim, why does she exist? Or, more pointedly, why should anyone bother with her?