Pro-life and end-of-life issues
August 28, 2006
In my sermon on the 6th Commandment I urged those over the age of 60 to take a special interest in the future of pro-life issues, because their lives are “next in line” to be counted as worth “terminating” because of economic and social pressures. Such is the progression of the culture of violence and death around us. We must develop and apply a biblically informed view these issues which many of us face (or will face): living wills, medical directives, managed care, physician-assisted suicide, deciding when to discontinue treatment, talking to children about death, and helping the grieving.
Later in the day I remembered an oustanding resource that I want to recommend. In 1998, First Presbyterian Church of Jackson, Mississippi, the Christian Medical and Dental Society and Baptist Medical Center of Jackson sponsored a weekend seminar called Breathtaking Decisions. The seminar gathered physicians and other health care professionals, ethicists, theologians and pastors who delivered lectures on a wide range of end-of-life issues from a Christian perspective.
You can see the list of topics and speakers and find information on how to order individual lectures or the entire set from the library section of the First Church, Jackson web site. I would recommend purchasing the entire set. Click here.
The Sweet Dropper and ‘The Bruised Reed’
August 25, 2006
Puritan pastor and theologian Richard Sibbes, whose nickname we have borrowed for our weblog (click on the left-hand column for the reason why), was a master physician of the soul. Here is a link to an article that first appeared in The Banner of Truth magazine in 1988, analyzing Sibbes’ main line of thought in his best-loved work The Bruised Reed. The Banner of Truth Trust has reprinted the work, and it is available in paperback at goodtheology.com.
Sibbes writes of our Lord Jesus Christ,
He is a prophet wise enough, and a priest full enough to make us acceptable of God. If we want any grace, he is a king able enough, rich enough, and strong enough to subdue all our rebellions in us, and he will in time by his Spirit overcome all.
Right ends, wrong means
August 23, 2006
At July’s Reformed Youth Movement conference, The Rev. Sandy Wilson, senior minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, shared the following assessment of what teenagers are offered by the world in its rebellion against God:
- Acceptance through performance
- Popularity through conformity
- Happiness through anaesthesia
- Purpose through selfishness
- Protection through violence
- Provision through dishonesty.
Notice that there is nothing wrong with the ends–God does not hate acceptance, fellowship, happiness, etc. But God hates the aforementioned means–selfishness, violence, pride, etc. All around us we and our children are being told subtly (and not so subtly) that power and money, information and technology, lust and greed, pride and anger, manipulation and management are the ways to get things done. And a clever and determined person can get a lot done by these means. But such is not the way of Christ, who said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here (John 18:36). You can build a kingdom by fighting. The Romans built a most impressive one. But it was not the kingdom of Christ.
We can build our families or church community through many means, and we can get things done. But are we employing God’s means–prayer, humble reliance on the grace of the Holy Spirit, faithfulness to Scripture, putting others ahead of ourselves, suspicion of the world’s paths to ‘success’?
Learning the language of lament
August 21, 2006
From depths of woe I raise to thee the voice of lamentation…[Psalm 130]
My God, O my God, have you left me alone? Why have you forsaken me, deaf to my groan? [Psalm 22]
If you have worshipped at FPC Kosciusko during the 2006, you may have sung those words. Have you ever sung like that in public, gathered worship? Have you ever sung or prayed that way in your own prayers? Dr. Carl Trueman wrote an article in Themelios 25.2 entitled, ‘What Do Miserable Christians Sing?’. He gives a profound answer (though not the only answer) to the question of why we include Psalm-singing in our worship services. A large percentage of the Psalms deal with feeling bad–heart-break, sadness, anger, torment, brokenness, and the like. But contemporary Christianity and its traditional Southern Protestant grandmother has little room for these; after all, when I love Jesus, ‘Now I am happy all the day,’ right? “Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before,’ right? What do the saints sing when they are broken-hearted, depressed, lonely or despairing? Frankly, the standard diet of hymns and contemporary worship music has no language of lament–and this is not a good thing!
Dr. Trueman writes, ‘In the psalms, God has given the church a language which allows it to express even the deepest agonies of the human soul in the context of worship. Does the absence of such cries from contemporary worship indicate that the comfortable values of consumerism have silently infiltrated the church, making us consider them irrelevant, embarrassing, and signs of abject failure?’
Worship brings us into the presence of God, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. It is indeed something glorious and triumphant. But it is also the gathering of the church militant–those who fight on against the world, the flesh and the devil. The focal point of our worship is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant, who had nowhere to lay his head, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and who was obedient to death–a death foretold and expressed beforehand in the Psalms. We need God’s resources to cope with periods of suffering, despair and heartbreak. We need to learn the biblical language of lamentation. Learning to lament also helps speak credibly and compassionately to shattered and broken people to whom we may be called as witnesses of God’s mercy and grace. Many of them have already written Christianity off as shallow and unrealistic. Have we given them reason to think so?
It’s OK not to be ‘OK’. We strip our worship of its honesty and its gospel beauty and power when we take the minor key of lament out of our worship.
Why do I mourn and toil within when it is mine to hope in God? I shall again sing praise to him; he is my help, he is my God. [Psalm 42]
The Call-Revisited
August 17, 2006
Yes, we’ll even talk about rock music from time to time…Through the wonder of internet music technology, I have been reacquainting myself with one of the best, though least-remembered, bands of the 1980′s–The Call. They came on the scene in northern California in the early ’80s with a sound and ethos influenced by U2 and Simple Minds–emotion-laden lyrics, post-punk/anti-war angst, and an out-front spirituality shaped by Christian themes. Lead vocalist and bass player Michael Been describes himself as a Christian, although he is quick to add that he does not subscribe to the way he sees Christianity being practiced by many of its adherents–and, sadly, he has a point there. Few singers convey as much emotion and sincerity in their craft as Been does.
Their best work was their 1986 release Reconciled. However, the 1997 (and re-released in 2005) ’The Best of the Call’ compilation is a must-listen. The single ‘Let the Day Begin’ may strike a chord of remembrance in you political junkies out there. In 2000 the Al Gore presidential campaign used it as the anthem for various rallies. Interestingly, The Call was not asked for permission to use the song, but, like most musicians, they didn’t mind the free publicity.
Click on the cover art images below to go the Amazon site featuring samples.
Out of the mouths of children
August 13, 2006
The story I shared in Sunday’s sermon about the two-year-old’s erroneous yet understandable recasting of the opening line of ‘Holy! Holy! Holy!’ (Holy, holy, holy, Lord God and Mommy…) has started some folk thinking back to some similar family memories.
As for the Palmertrees, our current favorite is four-year-old Rachel’s recitation of Romans 6:23, but the gift of God is a turtle life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Once her sibilings were thrown into convulsive laughter over her ‘interpretation;’ yet she did not appreciate the humor. When Ruth Anne told her, ‘It’s not a turtle life. It’s eternal life!‘ Rachel confidently retorted, ‘It’s a turtle life and it’s not funny!’
As a pastor, I would love a collection of similar stories. If you have some, share them by clicking on the comment link to the left and posting.
Didn’t hear the sermon? That’s a shame. Check fpckosciusko.org later in the week for the download.
‘The ashes go on singing…’
August 10, 2006
We love Martin Luther. His name speaks of the recovery of the precious doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, of Christian freedom, and of standing for Christ in defiance of wicked authority. His name also sings as author of the great warhorse hymn ‘A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.’ But Luther was not a ‘one-hit wonder.’ He was a prolific hymn-writer and talented player of the flute and lute. Under Luther’s leadership, congregational hymn-singing was restored to the worship of the Church in Germany and beyond.
Concordia Publishing House recently released a 4-CD set, Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth. This is the first complete collection of all the hymns, ballads, and chants composed or authored by Luther. This four-CD set provides numerous vocal and instrumental settings combining Renaissance, Baroque, and modern instruments. Historic narrative is provided, quoting Luther concerning music, worship, and liturgy. The booklet with the lyrics and notes is priceless.
Luther wrote hymns, settings of psalms, musical versions of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and the creeds, and especially moving is the ballad on the first CD ‘A New Song Now Shall Be Begun,’ in which Luther memorializes two young Augustinian monks who were martyred in Belgium on July 1, 1523. The title of this entry is borrowed from the ballad.
You can sample the songs here and order from the same site as well.
FPC and Lagniappe PC, Bay St. Louis
August 8, 2006
It has been said that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, perhaps that statement deserves some critique, but there is a bit of publicity about our most recent Lagniappe trip to work alongside our brethren with the Lagniappe PC mission work in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. A clarification is in order: Despite what the blog entry indicates, there is no name change in the works for our church! I am merely the victim of Andy Chapman’s twisted sense of humor.
From organ recital to prayer meeting
August 7, 2006
When Jean Larroux was with us at FPC in May, he reminded us that it is better to be redeemed than it is to be “better.” But often our prayers indicate that being “better” is good enough, thank you. Our prayer meetings and prayers in public worship must never become mere “organ recitals”–a prefunctory review of everyone’s aches and pains with prayer attached to the end. I am convinced that God wants us to call on him for some much better things. David Powlison has written an excellent article on this aspect of prayer. You should read it. Here’s a sample:
Is God interested in healing illnesses? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Yet he is always interested in making his children wise, holy, trusting, and loving, even in the context of pain, disability, and death…We all tend to pray for circumstances to improve so that we might feel better. Such requests are honest and good—unless these requests go no further. Detached from God’s purposes for sanctification and hearts that groan for his kingdom to come, such prayers become self-centered.
Even when we approach prayer, we need to ask ourselves, What really needs to be changed in my life? How can my life most glorify God?
