Author: gracenote1230

80* Q.   How does the Lord’s Supper
               differ from the Roman Catholic Mass?

A.    The Lord’s Supper declares to us
that all our sins are completely forgiven
through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ,
which he himself accomplished on the cross once for all.^1
It also declares to us
that the Holy Spirit grafts us into Christ,^2
who with his true body
is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father^3
where he wants us to worship him.^4

But the Mass teaches
that the living and the dead
do not have their sins forgiven
through the suffering of Christ
unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests.
It also teaches
that Christ is bodily present
under the form of bread and wine
where Christ is therefore to be worshiped.
Thus the Mass is basically
nothing but a denial
of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ
and a condemnable idolatry.

^1 Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26-28; 10:10, 12-14; John 19:30; Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:19-20
^2 1 Cor. 6:17; 10:16; 12:13
^3 Heb. 1:3; 8:1
^4 John 4:21-23; 20:17; Luke 24:52; Acts 7:55-56; Col. 3:1; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 1:10

*Question and Answer 80 reflects the polemical debates of the Reformation and was added in the second German edition of 1563.  The second and fourth sentences of the Answer, as well as the concluding phrase, were added in the third German edition of 1563.  After the fourth sentence, the third German and Latin texts have a note to the section on consecration in the Canon of the Mass.

As detailed in the preface to the Book of Confessions, these condemnations and characterizations of the Catholic Church are not the position of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and are not applicable to current relationships between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Catholic Church.

 

81   Q.   Who should come
               to the Lord’s table?

A.    Those who are displeased with themselves
because of their sins,
but who nevertheless trust
that their sins are pardoned
and that their remaining weakness is covered
by the suffering and death of Christ,
and who also desire more and more
to strengthen their faith
and to lead a better life.

Hypocrites and those who are unrepentant, however,
eat and drink judgment on themselves.^1

^1 1 Cor. 10:21; 11:28[-29]

 

82   Q.   Should those be admitted
               to the Lord’s Supper
               who show by what they profess and how they live
               that they are unbelieving and ungodly?

A.    No, that would dishonor God’s covenant
and bring down God’s wrath upon the entire congregation.^1
Therefore, according to the instruction of Christ
and his apostles,
the Christian church is duty-bound to exclude such people,
by the official use of the keys of the kingdom,
until they reform their lives.

^1 1 Cor. 11:20, 34; Isa. 1:11; 66:3; Jer. 7:21[-26]; Ps. 50:16

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LORD’S DAY 30 (Q/A 80-82)
“Catholic”

For autobiographical disclosure, I was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Exact location? The Black Construction Camp Chapel in the city of Harmon on the island of Guam. The date? October 3, in the year of my birth (you’ll have to guess my age).  My father’s family is Roman Catholic, my mother’s family is from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP). Both of my grandmothers were passionate about the particular faith traditions and emphases: my paternal grandmother had her statue of Mary the Mother of Jesus, her rosary beads and candles; my maternal grandmother had her Bible, notepad and pen, jotting down insights for next Sunday’s older adult Bible study class and to record prayer concerns for family and friends.

It wasn’t until later in college I became Presbyterian. And it wasn’t until I prepared for the ordained ministry that I encountered the various strands of the Reformed faith, Presbyterianism, and beyond that, the various kinds of Protestantism, the variety of worship practices, and the Eastern Orthodox side of the Christian community. Graduate studies in liturgical theology and ecumenical theology, combined with worldwide travel further expanded my encounter with and appreciation for being “catholic.”

When I became pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in central New Jersey, were it not for the lawn sign that indicated this community of faith belonged to the part of the body of Christ called the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), this congregation would have been non-denominational. It was no wonder, then, that when we moved to weekly celebration of the Lord’s Table, some in the congregation called it “becoming Catholic.” When we started to use the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, this was called “Catholic.” And when the term “Eucharist” was used, that was seen, by a few, as “too Catholic.” As a compromise, the worship bulletins described the sacrament as “The Lord’s Table-Eucharist-Communion;” note the em-dash. This descriptor was a way to include all those meanings, education and appreciation by expansion.

Seven years later, the same objectors now look forward to our weekly celebration. The word “Eucharist” is used interchangeably with “Communion.”  The children of the congregation, including our own, are accustomed to the Sursum Corda (The Lord be with you/And also with you/Lift up your hearts…) as well as the pattern and words of the Great Prayer.

That’s being “catholic.”  Note the upper-case and lower-case “c.”

When we confess the Creed every week, and say “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church,” that statement hinges on the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

The expansiveness of the Church of Jesus Christ, with all its diversity, its variety, is expressive of the expansive ministry of the triune God through the Holy Spirit, who transcends time and space.

Part of the wonder of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is this dynamic relationship between local-global, particular-universal, unique-catholic.

Q/A 80-82 speaks to our Reformed tradition’s grappling with what is being done, what is being expressed, what is being effected at the Lord’s Table-Eucharist-Communion.

Theologian George Hunsinger in his book, Eucharist and Ecumenism (Cambridge University Press, 2008), states that the enduring theological arguments about the Table have been centered on the twin issues of the real presence of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Where is Christ? How is Christ’s presence known? How is Christ’s work on the cross efficacious? How does the Church receive the benefits of the cross?

Being “catholic” in faith necessarily means expansiveness, comprehensiveness, but tethered to particular communities, tethered to certain practices. It is humanly impossible to fully understand as we are fully known by God.

Q/A 80 highlights the cross and the one, efficacious, decisive death of Christ. But even then, that’s not the whole story. For our dying to our lives of sin and our living into the new life in Christ are not just accomplished on the cross. The cross was connected to Christ’s ministry of 30 years, which was connected to his taking on flesh and blood (incarnation). The cross presumed the resurrection three days later, which presumed his ascending to heaven, and through him the Holy Spirit would be sent; which presumed his return.  Our salvation, our reconciliation, our deliverance by God through Christ in the Holy Spirit – the expansiveness and comprehensiveness of it all – is effected in:

incarnation-Christ’s 30 year ministry-death-resurrection-ascension-return

Note the em-dash. We need the em-dash because otherwise God could have parachuted Jesus Christ directly to the cross, accomplish our forgiveness in nine hours, and be done with it. The expansiveness and comprehensiveness of God’s work of salvation are not isolated to one event, even as the event of the cross is decisive, radical, essential and constitutive to the overall work of salvation and reconciliation.

Which is why when we approach Q/A 81 and 82, the sections that ask “Who should come?” and what about the “unbelieving and the ungodly?”, the same principle applies.  The comprehensiveness and expansiveness of the person and work of the Holy Spirit are beyond what we comprehend.  The responsibility of the Church has been, is, and always will be to proclaim the Gospel, to testify of the Good News, trusting that the Holy Spirit will work in the lives of a whole cast of characters within and outside the Church catholic.

So, yes, I am “catholic.” We all are. Not in the sense that we belong to the once-undivided Church, if there ever was one. We are catholic because in the comprehensiveness and expansiveness of our wrestling, of our grappling with what it means to be people of God, followers of Jesus Christ…there, here, accompanying us, beneath us, above us, inside us, beyond us, among us…is the person of the triune God, who, in His Son, through the Holy Spirit, numbers us among the entire human community, and calls us, and calls so many others, too numerous to count, too large to fathom, and makes us worthy to feast at the Table which the Lord has prepared.

78   Q.   Do the bread and wine become
the real body and blood of Christ?

A.     No.
Just as the water of baptism
is not changed into Christ’s blood
and does not itself wash away sins
but is simply a divine sign and assurance of these things, ^1
so too the holy bread of the Lord’s Supper
does not become the actual body of Christ,^2
even though it is called the body of Christ
in keeping with the nature and language of sacraments.^3

^1 Matt. 26:[28-]29; Mark 14:24
^2 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:26-28
^3 Gen. 17:10, 14-19; Exod. 12:27, 43-48; 13:9; 24:8; 29:36; Acts 7:8; 22:16; Lev. 16:10; 17:11; Isa. 6:6-7;  Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:21; 1 Cor. 10:1-4

79   Q.   Why then does Christ call
               the bread his body
               and the cup his blood,
                   or the new covenant in his blood,
               and Paul use the words,
               a participation in Christ’s body and blood?

A.    Christ has good reason for these words.
He wants to teach us that
just as bread and wine nourish the temporal life,
so too his crucified body and poured-out blood
are the true food and drink of our souls for eternal life.^1
But more important,
he wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge,
that we, through the Holy Spirit’s work,
share in his true body and blood
as surely as our mouths
receive these holy signs in his remembrance,^2
and that all of his suffering and obedience
are as definitely ours
as if we personally
had suffered and made satisfaction for our sins.

^1 John 6:51, 55
^2 1 Cor. 10:16-17

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Lord’s Day 29 (Q&A 78-79)
“MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE”

In a recent group discussion on the church’s liturgy and a gathered assembly’s participation in worship, there was a distinction made between “meaningfulness” and “meaning-making.”

Here’s the hypothetical scenario. A baptized child walks up to receive the bread and the cup and then tugs on his mother’s leg, “I get it! This is the body of Jesus.”  The astounded parent and equally astonished communion servers and congregants in the queue think to themselves, “The Lord’s Table is meaningful. Worship is meaningful.”  Unspoken in these thoughts might be accompanying sentiments of affirmation: “Our church gets it right. We must be doing something right with our worship, that even a child comes to faith here and realizes what’s happening.”

Take a second, far too common scenario.  A baptized child walks up to receive the bread and the cup, but no vocal recognition of its significance. The child does this with her parent maybe quarterly, or first Sunday of every month, or maybe even more frequently. This goes on for years, with still no vocal recognition of its significance.  Was this less meaningful than the first scenario.

Compound either scenario with:

 -increasing, dwindling, or stagnant numbers of worship attendees

 -increasing, dwindling or stagnant numbers of candidates for baptism

 -increasing, dwindling or stagnant financial giving

 -an aging congregation

 -a more youthful congregation

Was worship and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper less or more meaningful with any one of these scenarios and complexifying metrics?

“Meaningfulness” is a value judgment. It comports well with our human desire for results, amplified by an American spirit for progress. Connected to efforts and strategies to evoke, provoke, or invoke “meaningfulness” from our experiences is the related anxiety of “relevance.”  An over-anxious spirit that wants the metrics to correspond directly with and confirm/affirm “meaningfulness” will attend to things that are “relevant.”  Meaningfulness speaks to our aesthetic sensibilities, to an inward impatience, to our interior threshold capacity for repetition and what appears as mundane and unimportant or insignificant. The value judgment of meaningfulness seeks a sense of satisfaction, attainment, that a certain gap or deficit in us has been met or will be fulfilled.

This means that absent any sense of meaningfulness and apparent purposefulness, I will withdraw, not attend, not participate, or, at least, watch, wait and see.

“Meaning-making” is an altogether different enterprise. “Meaning-making” is formational, is enduring, is durable, and requires patiently waiting. Meaningfulness may occur and be realized as like a sudden epiphany.

In the first scenario above, the child comes to realize the significance of the communion table because of formation that has occurred. Perhaps she was taught at home some Bible stories. Her friendships with other kids as they ate at pre-school tables, or the singing of songs, or praying before bed — all of these were places and events where God was shaping a heart, carving a soul, and renewing a mind.

Meaning-making involves God’s initiative, God acting upon us, and we being the recipients, sometimes the respondent, more times the recipient of God’s action. This dynamic relationship occurs throughout our lives. It’s slow going as we plod through crests and valleys of the everyday.

What God does is free us to choose to not be bound by our preoccupation with instant gratification and desire for fulfillment and meaningfulness, and rather to choose the long, narrow, but fruitful road of following the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself by the Holy Spirit, accompanies us, enables us, prays for us and with us, perseveres with us, and preserves us.

One primary way the Lord offers this assurance/this pledge is the visible action of the Lord’s Table.  Eberhard Busch observed that at the Table “Christ keeps fellowship with us sinners and brings us sinners into fellowship with him.” (Eberhard Busch, Drawn to Freedom: Christian Faith Today in Conversation with the Heidelberg Catechism.  Trans. William H. Rader. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2010; p. 251).

Lurking under Q/A 78 and 79 is the expected anxiety of meaningfulness, of truth in advertising. The answer that is given is a No and a Yes.

No, the bread and cup do not become the real body and blood of Christ.

Anxiety, then, emerges: well, if the bread and cup do not become the real body and blood of Christ, then how can what we partake be effective, efficacious, and, therefore, meaningful?  Q/A 78 anchors its response to “assurance.”  It’s a “trust me” kind of an answer. It’s a “there is more than meets the eye” activity going on.

Q/A 79 gives the clincher, consistent with prior sections of the Catechism.  The Holy Spirit is the key to the assurance.  The eating of the bread and drinking of the cup are not empty activities, they are not meaningless; in fact, on the contrary.  What appears like a routine activity is actually quite meaningful, very significant, having cosmic importance, otherwise, our Lord would not have given it to us as a gift of God for the people of God.  The Holy Spirit assures us that by the event of eating and of drinking, we are joined to the very body and blood of Christ, a mysterious union with Christ that is unassailable, undefeatable, indivisible, and final. And with that union comes the assurance of forgiveness of sins, freedom to live for God, freedom from our anxieties and preoccupation, freedom to love and serve the world.

The Lord’s Table becomes meaningful in the meaning-making that is occurring in every moment of our lives, in our worship, our singing, our praying, our confessing the Creed, in fellowshipping, in serving, in studying, in reading, in meditating.

Meaning-making, and the sense of meaningfulness that emanates from that, are not contrived or something that human beings can manage or control.  We can try to make a prayer meeting or a worship service as relevant as possible, but what is relevant to you may not be to another. If the aim is to evoke and create meaningfulness, then we will be disappointed, frustrated, and anxious at every turn. If, on the other hand, we attend to meaning-making, then it becomes more about participating, partaking, and doing.

This means (no pun intended!) confessing the Creed, even if we don’t understand it or don’t get it.

This means praying the Lord’s Prayer even when our spirits are downcast.

This means eating the bread and drinking the cup of our Lord even if we don’t fully understand the mystery of the how (as if we will every fully know and understand).

There is more than meets the eye, precisely because God is the one who is at work. It’s always been that way. A word to Noah to build an ark, a word to Moses to undertake a grand adventure, a promise to a shepherd-boy-king David, a word to child-barren Hannah, a word to a frightened pregnant Mary, the manger, the cross, the tomb, the upper Room.

Because the Holy Spirit abides and transcends time and space, we are joined to the triune God and to one another, and to the activity of the God who acts and has acted in Jesus Christ.

What the Lord has us embarking on since our birth is an adventure of discerning the Lord’s work, the Lord’s Good News in the midst of it all, all the while, the Holy Spirit apprenticing us with the trifecta gifts of faith, hope and love.

So, whenever you eat the bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. There is more than meets the eye.

 

75   Q.    How does the holy supper
                remind and assure you
                that you share in
                Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross
                and in all his benefits?

A.    In this way:
Christ has commanded me and all believers|
to eat this broken bread and to drink this cup
in remembrance of him.
With this command come these promises:

First,
as surely as I see with my eyes
the bread of the Lord broken for me
and the cup shared with me,
so surely
his body was offered and broken for me
and his blood poured out for me
on the cross.

Second,
as surely as
I receive from the hand of the one who serves,
and taste with my mouth
the bread and cup of the Lord,
given me as sure signs of Christ’s body and blood,
so surely
he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life
with his crucified body and poured-out blood.

76   Q.    What does it mean
                to eat the crucified body of Christ
                and to drink his poured-out blood?

A.    It means
to accept with a believing heart
the entire suffering and death of Christ
and thereby
to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life.^1

But it means more.
Through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us,
we are united more and more to Christ’s blessed body.^2
And so, although he is in heaven^3 and we are on earth,
we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.^4
And we forever live on and are governed by one Spirit,
as the members of our body are by one soul.^5

^1 John 6:35, 40, 47-48, 50-54
^2 John 6:55-56
^3 Acts 1:9; 3:21; 1 Cor. 11:26
^4 Eph. 3:17; 5:29-32; 1 Cor. 6:15, 17-19; 1 John 3:24; 4:13; John 14:23
^5 John 6:56-58; 15:1-6; Eph. 4:15-16

77   Q.    Where does Christ promise
                to nourish and refresh believers
                with his body and blood
                as surely as
                they eat this broken bread
                and drink this cup?

A.    In the institution of the Lord’s Supper:^1
“The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed,
took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks,
he broke it and said,
‘This is my body that is [broken]* for you.’

In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying,
‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood;^2
do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.’^3

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord’s death
until he comes.”

This promise is repeated by Paul in these words:

“The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body,
for we all partake of the one bread.”^4

^1 1 Cor. 11:23[-26]; Matt. 26:26[-29]; Mark 14:22[-25]; Luke 22:17[-20]
^2 Exod. 24:8; Heb. 9:20
^3 Exod. 13:9
^4 1 Cor. 10:16-17

*The word “broken” does not appear in the NRSV text, but it was present in the original German of the Heidelberg Catechism.

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LORD’S DAY 28 (Q/A 75-77)
“The Matter of the Table and Why it Matters”

The congregation I serve in New Jersey for almost 11 years combined its two Sunday worship services six years ago and with that merged service came the discussion of whether and how to celebrate the Lord’s Table every Sunday. The earlier service celebrated weekly; the second service celebrated the first Sunday of the month. It became clear in discussions and reflection that we would go the way of weekly celebration. The matter now turned to what to call it.  There was a current in the congregation that naming it “Eucharist” sounded too “Catholic” for some.  More on that later.

This was a teaching opportunity. So I put in the worship bulletin the following:

“Lord’s Supper-Eucharist-Communion”

The dashes, I explained, captured in some way the multiplicity of meaning and significance of what is enacted at the Table.

The Table is the Lord’s Supper: it is the Lord’s, not ours. The Lord Jesus Christ has prepared it, invited us; He is the One who is promised by the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup. He is the both the content of the action, and the One who is given to us “for the life of the world” as the late Orthodox liturgy scholar Alexander Schmemann described.   It’s a Supper because we are fed, we are nourished; it is a feast. What is provided is “bread from heaven,” Jesus Christ who is the manna from heaven, in whom everlasting life is provided, fullness of life, that truly in Him, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  Methodist liturgy scholar Don Saliers describes it as “foretaste of glory divine,” a description that bears the subtitle of one of his seminal works on liturgical theology.  It’s a foretaste because what is displayed and enacted at the Table is akin to the heavenly, marriage banquet described in Revelation 19:9 or the gathering of all nations to sit at Table described in Luke 13:29. We gather at the Table to live into the already accomplished vision, that there is more than meets the eye, a “fourth dimension” reality as the in-breaking of the kingdom reality and God-vision expresses itself among us and in us.

Then there’s the matter of Communion. As with baptism’s counter-cultural claim of us as individuals being joined by the triune God to be in a binding community with one another, the Table is Communion: communion with the triune God, communion with God’s people in all times and in all places. The Holy Spirit uses the ordinary elements of bread and cup for extraordinary means: joining us to the very life of God in Jesus Christ, a binding union into His risen and ascended life that we can say truly and really, that we are eating of His body and of His blood; in other words, we have truly and really become one with our Lord, a full-proof unity. Such unity, accomplished and made efficacious by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, appropriates the fullness of God’s love for us, but we are joined to Christ’s own agenda: to delight in the Father’s will and to do the will of God, which is the reconciliation of the world.  We are brought into the life of God, and are anchored in God’s own heart, and, thereupon, take up what Jesus Christ cares about, take up who Jesus Christ cares about.

The Table, and the prayers offered at the Table, goes by several other names:

-Canon of the Mass: canon, because it is lawful to do so; it is a rule of faith (think, measuring rule or rod).

-Mass: the English derivation of the Latin “Missa” – the final benediction a priest would proclaim “Ite missa est” (Go now or You are dismissed) – emphasizing the sending of the gathered assembly to go out into the world to testify of what you have seen, tasted, received the Good News of God in Jesus Christ

-Anaphora: in Eastern Christianity – the prayers of the Table, depicting offering up to God, the bread and cup, the body and blood of Christ, our lives

-The Liturgy – from the Greek leitourgia meaning public work; what the gathered assembly does at the Table is a public act of service – serving God, serving one another; God’s act in Jesus Christ was the grand Liturgy – Christ work of salvation was a public act.

What captures the fullness of what are displayed and enacted at the Table is Eucharist. Far from being too “Catholic” sounding for many Presbyterian/Reformed sensitivities, Eucharistia is the Greek word for “thanksgiving,” used at least 15 times in the New Testament.  Earl Palmer, senior pastor emeritus of the University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, unlocked for me the depth of that term in this way:

-Eucharistia is composed of two parts: the prefix eu- (epsilon/upsilon) and –charist

-Charist shares the etymological root of chara, which is the Greek word for “joy”

-Joy is a surprise

-The Greek word for grace is charis, sharing the root for joy. Grace is a surprising gift of joy.

-Charismata, from which we get the word “charisma” is the word for “spiritual gifts” as 1 Corinthians 12

-The prefix eu- means “good.”  For example “eu+logos” or eulogy, a good word.

-Eucharistia is a good, surprising gift of joy.

Eucharistia is “thanksgiving” for God’s good, surprising gift of joy, Jesus the Christ.

Q/A 75 speaks vividly of the promises of Christ’s body and blood given for us. Christ has given Himself to us; that is God’s promise.

Q/A 76 speaks powerfully of not only forgiveness of sins and being joined to Christ’s own suffering, “but it means more” – the communion aspect because of the Holy Spirit, being joined to Christ.

Q/A 77 speaks communally to our being joined one to another, sharing in Christ’s body (His risen and ascended body) and His body, the Church, the fellowship of believers in every time and place.

As a Filipino American, Pacific Islander, born on the island of Guam, my family enjoys parties, dancing, singing, and food. We make a distinction between eating, dining, and feasting. Eating is the mere function of putting food in your mouth. Dining is eating, but with etiquette and protocols, white tablecloths and utensils properly placed. Feasting, which is what we do, is bringing your whole self to the party, eating with utensils but more often with your hands, bringing the messiness and beauty of your life, family, and faith to the community, allowing the gathered community, the party attendees to hear you, embrace you, laugh with you, cry with you and with one another.

The Table is the Eucharistic feast. We bring our whole selves, even as God as the Lord Jesus Christ has given Himself fully to us. God did not withhold anything of Himself to us. God’s love is poured out, given, offered, shared, at the risk of being rejected, ignored, taken for granted. Love is risky business.

This, and so much more, is why we give thanks to God for Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.

Eucharistia. Thanksgiving. For as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup.

That’s why the Table matters.

 

72   Q.    Does this outward washing with water
                itself wash away sins?

A.    No, ^1 only Jesus Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit|
cleanse us from all sins.^2

^1 Matt. 3:11; 1 Pet. 3:21; Eph. 5:26
^2 1 John 1:7; 1 Cor. 6:11

73   Q.    Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism
                the water of rebirth and
                the washing away of sins?

A.    God has good reason for these words.
To begin with, God wants to teach us that
the blood and Spirit of Christ take away our sins
just as water removes dirt from the body.^1

But more important,
God wants to assure us, by this divine pledge and sign,
that we are as truly washed of our sins spiritually
as our bodies are washed with water physically.^2

^1 Rev. 1:5; 7:14; 1 Cor. 6:11
^2 Mark 16:16; Gal. 3:[2]7

74   Q.    Should infants also be baptized?

A.    Yes.
Infants as well as adults
are included in God’s covenant and people,^1
and they, no less than adults, are promised
deliverance from sin through Christ’s blood^2
and the Holy Spirit who produces faith.^3

Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant,
they too should be incorporated into the Christian church
and distinguished from the children
of unbelievers.^4
This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision,^5
which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism.^6

^1 Gen. 17:7
^2 Matt. 19:14
^3 Luke 1:15, [4]4; Ps. 22:[9-]11; Isa. 46:1-5; Acts 2:39
^4 Acts 10:47
^5 Gen. 17:[9-]14
^6 Col. 2:11-13

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LORD’S DAY 27 (Q/A 72-74)
“The Matter of Baptism and Why it Matters”

 

The South African idea of Ubuntu (meaning “human-ness” or denoting our bond as human beings) is summarized with the principle, “I am because we are.”  A distinctly Christian way of expressing that is, “I am, because we are, because God is.”

Individualism, personal freedoms, and privacy are ingrained in our sense of being American, so much so that our nation’s charter documents – the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution – enshrine the principles; the former declares the “inalienable rights” we have to “live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” while the latter’s first ten amendments are a “Bill of Rights.”

Certainly, governmental intrusion – whether a pure democracy (as with ancient Athens), a democratic republic (as is the United States), a monarchy, or whatever might be the case—upon individuals is to be limited, and, in its oppressive forms, is to be prevented.

Baptism matters because God as Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit desires that we belong to community: the community of God’s people in all times and in all places, and, more importantly, the community of the triunity of God.  The community of believers, whom the Apostles’ Creed in the third article on the Holy Spirit describes as “the communion of saints,” comes into fruition and is strengthened because of the community of the triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We in the Reformed tradition hold to the notion that baptism is not merely an ordinance – something to be done because Christ said so; although that is reason enough to do anything! (If the Lord says to do something, or not to do something, faithfulness requires obedience and allegiance to our Lord’s direction, no matter how uncomfortable, inconvenient, or incomprehensive such instruction may be).

We in the Reformed tradition do baptism first and foremost because Jesus Himself was baptized. He submitted Himself to the waters of the Jordan – being baptized into death, and baptized into the righteousness of new life, receiving the declaration from all eternity that He was and is God’s beloved Son; His baptism initiates all other subsequent baptisms – giving our baptisms their power, meaningfulness, and purposefulness because He is the very meaning and purpose of baptism.  Jesus Christ is baptized into the vocation, the holy calling of living out the triune God’s commitment that He be the anointed Savior, Jesus Christ is, in Karl Barth’s description, the elected One, in whom all His followers are elected in Him.

I have officiated many baptisms – mostly infants,  several young adults, and a few adults; I have also received several anonymous phone calls from adults who request: “Would you do my baby?” Upon further inquiry, this is code language for: we and our family will pay you to splash water on our baby, say the baptismal formula (“N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”), smile, give the baptismal certificate, and be done in 5 minutes, never to see us again.

In the words of worship scholar Lawrence Stookey in a book he authored by the same name, “Baptism: Christ’s Act in the Church.”

That’s what baptism does. God uses the element that covers more than 80% of the earth, and constitutes most of our body. What for a chemist is merely two hydrogen atoms connected to one oxygen atom by a covalent bond, God uses water to impart His promise: the Good News that in Jesus Christ, we are daughters and sons of God – not by our will, nor by our might or plans or merit – but by God’s sheer and certain love.  You and I belong to each other, because, in the words of the ancient covenantal formula, “I am the Lord your God, and you will be My people.”

We need baptism. We need God. The Holy Spirit binds us and bonds us with Jesus Christ, with the triune God, and with all of God’s people. And when we are tied to God, united to God, God’s goodness, God’s righteousness covers us, sets us free, frees us to take on our Christ-given vocation: to be disciples of Jesus Christ and witnesses of God’s promise in Christ. We need baptism as it calls us into community – as both gift and as call.

For all of the pride we have to secure our individualism, baptism critiques that individualism and says, it’s not possible, nor faithful, nor tenable to live as an individual; baptism is the sacramental crowbar that loosens your grip on your precious individualism.

As 21^st century Christians, the significance of water as binding and bonding us together becomes all the more important and urgent. Renewing and re-receiving our baptismal calling to God and to one another, on a planet of 7 billion people. Half of my congregation is from Cameroon, and we have shared many congregational prayers about their families back home who have suffered and died from a cholera epidemic. The still unresolved rupture of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan that has poisoned the soil and from which millions of gallons of radioactive water has spilled into the Pacific Ocean.

Water, which brought death to Pharaoh’s armies when the Red Sea was parted, also brought life in allowing the fleeing Israelites to flee Pharaoh.

Baptized people of God – you have died with Christ, as you now live with and in Christ.

69   Q.    How does baptism
                remind and assure you
                that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross
                benefits you personally?

A.    In this way:
Christ instituted this outward washing
and with it promised that,
as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body,
so certainly his blood and his Spirit
wash away my soul’s impurity,
that is, all my sins.^1

^1 Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3

70   Q.    What does it mean
                to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit?

A.    To be washed with Christ’s blood means
that God, by grace, has forgiven our sins
because of Christ’s blood
poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross.^1
To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means
that the Holy Spirit has renewed
and sanctified us to be members of Christ,
so that more and more
we become dead to sin
and live holy and blameless lives.^2

^1 Heb. 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:5;22:14; Zech. 13:1; Ezek. 36:25
^ 2 John 1:33; 3:5; 1 Cor. 6:11; 12:13; Rom. 6.4; Col. 2:12

71   Q.    Where does Christ promise
                that we are washed with his blood and Spirit
                as surely as we are washed
                with the water of baptism?

A.    In the institution of baptism, where he says:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.”^1

“The one who believes and is baptized will be saved;
but the one who does not believe will be condemned.”^2

This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism
“the water of rebirth”^3 and
the washing away of sins.^4

^1 Matt. 28:19
^2 Mark 16:16
^3 Titus 3:5
^4 Acts 22:16

---

 

 LORD’S DAY 26 (Q/A 69-71)
“Holy Movement, Wholly Moves”

The late Lutheran scholar of liturgy, S. Anita Stauffer, specialized in the study of baptism, specifically baptismal fonts. In contrast to many of the baptismal fonts we have in our sanctuaries that look like ash-trays or bird-baths on a pedestal, many ancient fonts were pools, in-ground pools. They came in circular shapes (symbolizing the fullness of God’s love, the community), octagonal (symbolizing that Christ’s rising occurred on the eighth day, which is also the first day of the week, thereby meaning that that day was both creation and new creation), and cross-shaped.

The cross-shaped fonts had steps on the transepts. In one scenario of certain Christian communities, the ones being baptized would descend one set of steps to the bottom of the font where the bishop/priest/pastor would be to meet them. The water would be up to the waist, and they would be submerged or effused with copious amounts of water, being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, receiving the name and identity of a child of God redeemed in Jesus Christ. They, then, ascended the opposite steps where awaiting elders and deacons would cover them with aromatic oil, anointing them with the Holy Spirit, a new scent to marinate the baptized and the gathered community to the new reality that had been sealed, and then the baptized would be clothed with a white garment signifying being clothed in and with Christ.

What we see in such a ritual act is both mortification and vivification – dying and living; descending into the waters into Christ’s death, rising from the waters into Christ’s resurrection life.

The 16^th century Reformers described that the Lord Jesus Christ’s work in his life, death, and resurrection (the Good News) resulted in the so-called duplex beneficium, the two or double benefits: namely justification and sanctification.  This means that by the triune God’s work in the agency of Jesus Christ’s unique, distinct, and radical life, in his decisive and final death, and in the power and revolutionary resurrection, we have been embraced by God and set on a path to live a life worthy of the calling we have been given – to live as ones redeemed by Christ through His Spirit.

Our family live in our first home. It was exciting to purchase our first home; it was even greater to move in and make it our own, decorating it the way we like, having parts renovated,  and learning the difficult craft of maintaining it. I can tell you of many trips to Home Depot, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, cleaning the pool, shoveling snow. The title deed of the house is in our name. We pay the mortgage, we pay the taxes. Yet, the bank holds the title until we fully pay off the mortgage. It’s both a done deal, and it’s not yet.

Baptism by water tells us it’s a done deal; the mortgage of life-death-new life is done. Christ did it. Finished. Nothing more you need to do. It’s all Him. It’s God. God moved. God moves. The Holy Spirit has been given as the guarantor, the seal, the One who convicts and convinces you your identity of being owned by God is done. Own it, move in, you are welcome, live into your new life.

At the same time, there’s some renovating to do, there’s a whole lot of fixing, of beautifying.  There’s living into, there’s movement.

Our new life – in Christ, for Christ, with Christ—moves because the Holy Spirit moves. What the Holy Spirit does is enables us to move by washing us, continually renewing us by renovating our lives. It’s the already and the not yet, fully owned and living into the ownership. Or to put it in the classical dictum of the Reformation in describing the reality of our lives: we are at the same time just/righteous and sinful (Latin: simul iustus et peccator).  And because of that, we live and move and have our being in the triune God.

65   Q.    It is through faith alone
                that we share in Christ and all his benefits:
                where then does that faith come from?

A.    The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts^1
by the preaching of the holy gospel,
and confirms it
by the use of the holy sacraments.^2

^1 Eph. 2:8; John 3:5
^2 Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:22-23

66   Q.    What are sacraments?

A.    Sacraments are visible, holy signs and seals.
They were instituted by God so that
by our use of them
he might make us understand more clearly
the promise of the gospel,
and seal that promise.

And this is God’s gospel promise:
to grant us forgiveness of sins and eternal life
by grace
because of Christ’s one sacrifice
accomplished on the cross.^1

^1 Gen. 17:11; Rom. 4:11; Deut. 30:6; Lev. 6:25; Heb. 9:8-9, [11-]24; Ezek. 20:12; 1 Sam. 17:36[-37]; Isa. 6:6-7

67   Q.    Are both the word and the sacraments then
                intended to focus our faith
                on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross
                as the only ground of our salvation?

A.    Yes!
In the gospel the Holy Spirit teaches us
and by the holy sacraments confirms
that our entire salvation
rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross.^1

^1 Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27

68   Q.    How many sacraments
                did Christ institute in the New Testament?

        A.    Two: holy baptism and the holy supper.

LORD’S DAY 25 (Q/A 65-68)
“PROOFS, PLEDGES, PROMISE: DIVINE-HUMAN ENGAGEMENT” 

Freddy and Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” have this famed dialogue:

Freddy:
“Speak and the world is full of singing,
And I’m winging Higher than the birds.
Touch and my heart begins to crumble,
The heaven’s tumble, Darling, and I’m… “

Eliza:
“Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?
Don’t talk of stars Burning above; If you’re in love,
Show me! Tell me no dreams
Filled with desire. If you’re on fire,
Show me! Here we are together in the middle of the night!
Don’t talk of spring! Just hold me tight!
Anyone who’s ever been in love’ll tell you that
This is no time for a chat! Haven’t your lips
Longed for my touch? Don’t say how much,
Show me! Show me! Don’t talk of love lasting through time.
Make me no undying vow. Show me now!
Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!
Don’t waste my time, Show me!
Don’t talk of June, Don’t talk of fall!
Don’t talk at all! Show me!
Never do I ever want to hear another word.
There isn’t one I haven’t heard.
Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;
Say one more word and I’ll scream!
Haven’t your arms Hungered for mine?
Please don’t “expl’ine,” Show me! Show me!
Don’t wait until wrinkles and lines
Pop out all over my brow,
Show me now!”

You can view it on YouTube beginning at 0:34 at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zyF0ZOy3k

As 21^st century people, we are a people of words, multiplication of words, no longer merely in written form, but in a TGIF world as Leonard Sweet describes it, i.e. a Twitter, Google, iPad, Facebook world. The exponential growth of words are beyond human comprehension.

With words come the ways we relate, engage one another, communication to purvey information, communication to make promises and pledges. Yet, we experience so many times, as with the number of words that make up those pledges, promises that are broken again and again. Countries that pledge aid relief in the midst of natural disasters, but are forgotten a few months or a year after the fact. Banks and investment firms that promised secure investment and sound mortgages, but then as millions found in 2008, billions in exposed mortgage securities, leaving many homeowners and investors out in the cold. On a micro- level, broken relationships, marriages that struggle. Or we grab hold of what sounds like a healing balm of comforting words from well-meaning family and friends who assure in the midst of trial, “Things will be okay.” We take it as promise. But then, the prayer concern turns awry, and rather than resulting in healing for the terminally-ill loved one, death comes knocking.

God knows our hearts, God knows our limitations, God knows what we desire; after all the triune God is the Creator of us all and knows us better than we know ourselves.

What distinguishes the one, living and true God, the God of Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Ruth, and Esther, revealed fully and finally in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, is that God is not mute, God speaks, God acts (see Isaiah 44:9-22).

God speaks words, God spoke the first word (Genesis 1:3), and God is the Word (John 1:1), the Speaker, the Word Spoken, and the Breath of God, to borrow a famed analogy used by Orthodox theologians.

Eliza Doolittle expresses what we need as human beings: proofs of the pledges of the promise. We are sentient beings, and, therefore, we need to engage all senses for words to be internalized. Our cognition is enhanced, for instance, when studying for a test, if you memorize facts by writing it down on flash cards, saying what you’re writing, looking at what you’re writing, hearing yourself say the words. If it be possible to eat each flashcard with a distinctive flavor as like the prophet Daniel eating the scrolls, and allow the facts to metabolize, that would enhance our test-taking abilities!

But you get the point. And that’s what God provides in the sacraments – gifts of God for the people of God.  The promise proclaimed in the Gospel – Jesus Christ came, lived, died, and rose again to redeem and reconcile humanity to God’s self in the power of the Holy Spirit—comes to us through words spoken, read, digitized, incensed, poured, splashed, baked, eaten, fermented, drank.

Several years ago, I lost a dear friend to a sudden heart attack. God worked faith in his life at an older age, and in the eight years that Roland Romero and I served together, he was passionate about teaching from the Scriptures, lucidly articulating the doctrines of the Christian faith in ways that made anyone go, “Thanks be to God.” In one Bible study as he was discussing God’s work of election in our lives, he explained:

Imagine that you are a hungry man and thinking about “what should i eat?” as well as “is chicken tenders healthy for me?” But you don’t realize that the refrigerator in the kitchen has food for you to eat and that food has been provided for you. Not only don’t you realize it but you don’t have the will to go to the refrigerator because of your ignorance of that source of nourishment, and because your will is turned towards other sources that don’t nourish at all. What the Holy Spirit does in this situation is to transform your understanding so that it is illuminated upon your mind and heart that the refrigerator has food and that food is for your benefit. But the clear understanding is only one critical element. You also need the will and the strength to walk to that refrigerator, having now recognized it as source for nourishment, and to open that refrigerator, obtain the food that has been given, eat the food, receive nourishment, delight in the food and the giver of the food, and, then tell others of what you have seen and heard and tasted.

That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit renovates our lives again and again. Faith is not a quantifiable entity that the Holy Spirit gives. It’s not a soothing balm to anyone to say in the midst of suffering or to pray, “You need more faith”; that was the error of Job’s three friends in accusing him of not having enough faith or a weak faith.

Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit, the One who illuminates our understanding, who gives us wisdom to what is God-given and salutary for our lives, who unleashes our wills to follow the ways of God, who strengthens us when we are too weak, who directs our course to delight in the giver of every good and perfect gift. (James 1:17)

Q/A 65-68 describes God’s provision of the gifts that our human minds and hearts need. The promise given in the Gospel are embodied by tangible elements: water, bread, cup. While God is supremely and distinctly sovereign, our human responsibility is to be in the hearing, receiving, and tasting of the means by which the Gospel promise is communicated clearly to our lives: in preaching and in the sacraments.

The word sacrament comes from the Latin sacramentum, which the third century theologian Tertullian translated from the Greek word mysterion (from which we get the word “mystery”).  Sacramentum was a pledge or oath that a soldier gave to a Roman  army commander, and more so, to the Roman emperor, who was regarded as a deity. Tertullian appropriated that term as the pledge that assembled Christians make in placing allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even as we pledge our allegiance to the Lord Christ, the triune God is pledging a unilateral promise to us in the sacraments: to be with us, to be for us, to be in us. The proof? As the Gospel attests and to which the Scriptures testify, and of which water, bread and cup seal for us: God’s’ self-giving of Himself in Jesus Christ is the proof-positive of that promise.

So, whenever you come in the hearing and receiving of the Scriptures, of preaching and teaching, and whenever and wherever you see one being baptized, or when you touch or splash holy water, and the next time you receive bread (or a wafer or a cracker) at the Table, and the next time you drink from the communion cup, or intinct the bread in the cup, receive the promise of God.  Receive God’s promise – Jesus the Christ. The mystery has been revealed , the mystery has been given.

62   Q.    Why can’t our good works
                be our righteousness before God,
                or at least a part of our righteousness?

A.    Because the righteousness
which can pass God’s judgment
must be entirely perfect
and must in every way measure up to the divine law.^1
But even our best works in this life
are imperfect
and stained with sin.^2

^1 Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26
^2 Isa. 64:6

63   Q.    How can our good works
                be said to merit nothing
                when God promises to reward them
                in this life and the next?

A.    This reward is not earned;
it is a gift of grace.^1

^1 Luke 17:10

64   Q.    But doesn’t this teaching
                make people indifferent and wicked?

A.    No.
It is impossible
for those grafted into Christ through true faith
not to produce fruits of gratitude.^1

^1 Matt. [7]:18

---

 

LORD’S DAY 24 (Q/A 62-64)
“THE ANTIDOTE FOR EGO, VITAMIN FOR THE HEART”

A friend of ours received unwelcome news from her doctor that her cholesterol and sugar levels were at an elevated state, even after a regular diet of oatmeal in the morning, plenty of vegetables, and tofu at night.  Our family, too, eats pretty healthy – not much fried foods, we read the labels for trans fats and sodium, no soda, moderate portions – but it seems like every week, there’s new news from the “Eat This Not That” twitter feed or Dr. Oz’s show about the blessings or curse of egg yolks, red wine, dark chocolate, blueberries, pomegranate, red meat, different kinds of fish, and on and on it goes. There are those days when my wife and I would like to pull out the butter and cream, slather it onto our brioche bread; we reason that if it worked for the late chef pioneer Julia Childs, who lived to be 81, let’s just enjoy the food we have…moderate portions, of course!

A regular diet which we all do on a daily basis is work. We labor, we put our skills/gifts and education to work. And when we work, we want recognition/acknowledgment for our work. In the area of service towards others, we want recognition for that, some sort of acknowledgement that what we have offered is gratefully received; that’s the human heart.  It’s not possible for our hearts and minds to be completely free of desiring recognition, even on our best days to be truly, fully, consistently altruistic.  The book of Deuteronomy wisely cautioned:

¹⁷ Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. (8:17-18, NRSV)

In 11 chapters, the book of Ecclesiastes speaks of work and wisdom, and concluded:

¹³ The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (11:13-14, NRSV)

Tim Keller, in Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, sounds the note to our contemporary ears, in describing how our human hearts regard work or service as fruitless, as pointless, as for selfish gain, or transform it as idols.

Keller prescribes what the Scriptures and Q/A 62-64 remind again and again —  we live in and with the grace and mercies of God.  Our ballasting in the heart and life of God through the gift of faith enables us to see our work and all forms of service within the perspective of God’s own work in the world and God’s purposes in the world.

Faith anchors us to the heart and  life of God so that when we regard our work and service in ways that are “not right” (unrighteous) and descend into the miry pit of self-pity, or ego, or frustration, or selfishness, or disappointment, or idolatrous (turning work into our own god), faith calls us to a different way, the more excellent way, God’s way.

Here, categories of “righteous” and “unrighteous” are descriptions of not levels or degrees of acceptance, but ways in which we live or not live into the right perspective of what God intends for us when we serve, when we work.  The Catechism is adamant in its assertion that because God has determined to be for us, to be with us, to be in us . . . God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is our sure and certain comfort. Period. No additions, no subtractions.  What is called forth from us is to receive God’s gift with gratitude, and to offer gratitude.

“Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

We get caught up in ourselves when we fall prey to ourselves, or to worldly values that transforms work and service in motives and aims that are different than gratitude. And guess what? We all fall prey to that. Our work and our service are not always about gratitude to God, gratitude for God.

That is why we continually live, and move and have our being in the grace and mercies of God because we don’t know why people do certain things, or what the final results will be, or how salutary or destructive the outcomes may be. And even for ourselves, God knows us better than we know ourselves.

But like eating, whether healthily or unhealthily, we need to eat. And in living, we continue to live, and work and serve — healthily or unhealthily.

The nature of gratitude, which we’ll cover in the next section on the sacraments, is all about grace, and, therefore, about gift.

The gifts that we offer to others in forms of work and service, the gifts that we offer to God, while tainted with impure motives and aims in some form or measure, come with it the power and grace of God that are seen, but mostly, unseen. In that mix, we receive God’s continual gifts – the gifting of God’s own self – who continually anchors us to the heart of His Son, who as our eternal intercessor and High Priest in the Holy Spirit – presents us and our works and service – as pleasing in God’s sight because we are grafted to Christ, joined to Christ, and that which we do, as imperfect and as inconsistently as we do them, are nevertheless our attempts at gratitude, and because offered  with Christ’s Spirit, are received as gifts to our delighting heavenly Father.

This became so vivid for me as our eldest, our 10 year-old son, tried again and again in the last two weeks to make us breakfast: pancakes (regular and fruit-topped), scrambled and fried eggs, and French-pressed coffee.  Breakfast is the most important meal for our family so breakfast preparation is a major enterprise for us. (No continental breakfast for us, hold the Danish and croissants, show us the protein!).  Our son was so meticulous with the measuring cups and spoons, generous with applying the nonstick cooking spray, to the point that he burned his left forearm on the skillet. With his efforts, he savors the praise from the whole family…not mere words of gratitude will suffice, he wants to hear, “Daniel, these eggs and pancakes are awesome!”

As his father, I don’t criticize him for his mixed motives and aims, but offer him encouragement, words of gratitude, savor the breakfast he has made. He enjoys it, and so do we.  Tried and tried he does, with the encouragement we offer and the delight that he has as we delight in him, and now three weeks into this, I can say, Daniel’s pancakes are one of the best I’ve tasted, and he has prepared great fried eggs and made the coffee just how I like them.

That’s how God works in, with, and through our works. While we are not fully consistent with what and how we work and serve, God delights in us, as Christ delights in us and with us, and on that basis, the mutual delighting that the Father has with Christ in the Spirit, and through Christ with us, our works and service are acts of gratitude, gifts of joy for God’s own , Jesus Christ, the gift of joy of the Father for us all.

59   Q.    What good does it do you, however,
                to believe all this?

A.    In Christ I am righteous before God
and heir to life everlasting.^1

^1 Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; John 3:36

60   Q.    How are you righteous before God?

A.    Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.^1
Even though my conscience accuses me
of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments,
of never having kept any of them,^2
and of still being inclined toward all evil,^3
nevertheless,
without any merit of my own,^4
out of sheer grace,^5
God grants and credits to me^6
the perfect satisfaction,^7 righteousness, and holiness of Christ,^8
as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner,
and as if I had been as perfectly obedient
as Christ was obedient for me.^9
All I need to do
is accept this gift with a believing heart.^10

^1 Rom. 3:21-28, 5:1; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 3:9
^2 Rom. 3:9[-18]
^3 Rom. 7:23
^4 2 Tim. 3:5
^5 Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:8
^6 Rom. 4:4; 2 Cor. 5:19
^7 1 John 2:2
^8 1 John 2:1
^9 2 Cor. 5:21
^10 Rom. 3:22; John 3:18

61   Q.    Why do you say that
                through faith alone
                you are righteous?

A.    Not because I please God
by the worthiness of my faith.
It is because only Christ’s satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness
make me righteous before God,^1
and because I can accept this righteousness and make it mine
in no other way
than through faith.^2

^1 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:2
^2 1 John 5:10

---

 “TRUE FREEDOM”
Lord’s Day 23 (Q/A 59-61)

A source of anxiety for any person is being accepted, knowing that I belong to a community, that I am wanted and missed.  It’s been said that the 11 words someone dying wants to hear on their deathbed are:

“I forgive you, I love you, and I will miss you.”

Alain du Boton in Status Anxiety speaks of that anxiety that we all feel in living up to expectations, in trying to put our best feet/face forward, in having as many “likes” on Facebook statuses, or Retweets on Twitter. We can even use the Twitter hashtag (#) to couch our modesty and relegate it to #firstworldissue.

The ancient church theologian, St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, observed that the “The glory of God is humanity fully alive.”  Being fully alive is to be truly free. To be truly free is to have our lives anchored and continually delighting in the One who is the most free, the One who is truly free: the triune God.  The Reformed theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar spoke of the glory of God and the beauty of God as so interrelated to the love of God that to speak of one is to speak of the other..it’s to speak of theological aesthetics.

Humanity, being created in the image of God and that image being replenished in the face of God’s own Son Jesus Christ, is truly and fully alive when our hearts and lives are in the God-man, Jesus the Christ.

Q/A 59-61 is about theological aesthetics, the beauty of God, both in the subjective genitive sense (God’s own beauty) and the objective genitive sense (God’s reflection of beauty given). In the subjective genitive sense – Jesus Christ is the very beauty of God, the fullness of God, God’s face, God’s beauty mediated to us human beings. Jesus the Christ, the human enfleshment of that shekinah glory which Moses was prevented from beholding but was only given the opportunity to see the nape of God, is the glory of God.  In the objective genitive sense, God’s beauty, God’s glory given to us finite, limited, prideful, anxiety-producing, status-driven human beings.

Q/A 59-61 describes the antidote to our tired souls, worn-out ways, and over-strategized egos. In its force, Q/A 59-61 says calm down, let go, you are accepted, you are embraced, you have been made right with God (justification).

When in our Western culture we have been acclimated to the notion that the amount you invest (in money, time, etc.) will result in equal to or greater than the input, Q/A 60 essentially says – you can try your best, you can be at your worst, you can fulfill all the commandments (which you never will) or you can break the commandments (which we do all the time) – but God in Christ names you as one of God’s own because of Christ alone.

The anxiety is not on us. In fact for us human beings, from our vantage point, it’s a covenant of grace. We are to believe, to receive the gift. But note, that this section is within the section on the Holy Spirit. And as we saw in the prior sections, the Holy Spirit works faith in us. So even then, we cannot credit to ourselves that we have a lot of faith or weak faith, or any notion that seeks to quantify what we think we have; all that we have is a gift from God, even the gift of faith. So, from where we stand/sit, our saved-ness, the free gift of love from God to which we are called to believe is, indeed, a covenant of grace. It is God’s sure and certain promise that God is for us, that we live in freedom to live for God, to love God and love one another.

So, the anxiety is not on us. The anxiety, the covenant of works, was on the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who took upon Himself alone the desire of the triune God to seek and to save that which was lost, to reconcile and redeem humanity that is more prone to do things our own ways, to be shackled to our own vices and contrivances, than to be fully alive in God.

Recall the  deep anguish of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, petitioning our heavenly Father to “let this cup pass from me, if it be possible” because of the anxiety of fulfilling to the fullest what the covenant of grace required, which for him was a covenant of works.

In His willingness to succumb to his executioners and to death itself, Jesus Christ shows us what it means to be truly free, as His death and then His resurrection to a new life, is the proof-positive of God’s glory, God’s beauty, God’s love, and God’s freedom all on display.

Thus, what God in Christ through the Holy Spirit does is to call us to true and everlasting freedom. That is, by the anchoring into God’s own life and heart, we are free to love and live, and fully live according to God’s will and God’s ways.