Falsely So Called

Hebrews says, “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled…” In the United States, our legal system calls things “marriage” that the Bible most certainly would not. But if we only looked at that one verse from Hebrews, we could believe that the thing called marriage that isn’t, is “honorable”. We could pull in other teachings about marriage and how great it is and what it means spiritually, and encourage people to accomplish those great things and represent those great truths by practicing the thing falsely called marriage. If this stood for a few generations, most people would forget that it is a perversion of what the Bible calls marriage.

What if there are other Christian practices that this has happened to, in the forgotten past? How do we trust that what we understand to be the biblical and Christian practices of Church gatherings, pastoring, church leadership and decision-making, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, ordination, etc. are the things the Bible is discussing?

Like we can with marriage, we can compare other Scriptures to our practices, right? We can ask, “Did God say anything else about these practices? Did God address what we are doing, regardless of what it is called, in positive or negative ways?”

I believe it is possible for God to reveal corrections to us* if we are humbly seeking Him, and if He wants to at the moment. It seems like sometimes He doesn’t want to, and I’m not quite clear why.

I want to have respect for generations of believers who have been inviting God’s discernment, and to value their conclusions. I don’t see any honest way to do this without acknowledging that there have been stretches of time where Christianity (the public institution, anyway) has promoted false understandings of things, and it has taken a long time to straighten some of them out. I have to acknowledge that different parts of the Church, distanced by geography (at least) have for long periods of time held different beliefs from one another.

How much weight should we put on our own experiences? If our experiences seem to line up with a teaching, and be fruitful for the Kingdom of God, does that indicate that these understandings and practices are the things God intends?

*Who ought “us” to be, though? Is it my job, without holding a position of authority in the Church, to discern these things? For myself? For the Church? For society? Is it my job to say anything to others if I believe I have discerned that our conventional practice is wrong?

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

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Jesus Gave Thanks

“Thank you, Jesus, for this food. Amen.”  – the prayer children have offered in my house before meals for as long as I can remember

We bless our food with a tiny word of thanks.

Before we share in the Lord’s supper in most churches, thanks is made to the Father who gave Only Son.

Thanks is in the story Paul tells of the Lord’s supper.

The Lord Jesus

On the same night in which He was BETRAYED

Took bread and when He had

GIVEN THANKS

He broke it…

Was Jesus simply giving a token prayer before eating?  In the middle of the feast?

I’m ashamed to confess that I never believed Jesus was sincere.  He said ‘thanks,’ because He couldn’t eat until He’d done so…  Except that I don’t actually believe that.  So what was He thankful for?  Was He only saying “thank you” for the next bite?  For a feast He had fervently desired to eat with His disciples before He suffered?  For the suffering?

Again, I have doubted Jesus’ sincerity, when He said “Not My will, but Yours be done.”  He meant it, surely.  As a declaration of submission.  That’s what I thought.  But in truth, it’s a prayer, not a declaration.  He’s been begging His Father.  And the begging doesn’t stop when it changes.  He begs for God’s will to be done.  Wants it.  Receives the will of the Father with joy, maybe as joy.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.” James 1:2 (NLT)

Such were my thoughts when this morning, day after the traditional anniversary of the Last Supper, I picked up Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts after a long pause.  Half a chapter had been waiting for me to find solitude in which to hear it.  God saved it up for me for this day, I believe.  She writes…

“Let God blow His wind, His trials, oxygen for joy’s fire.  Leave the hand open and be.  Be at peace.  Bend the knee and be small and let God give what God chooses to give because He only gives love and whisper surprised thanks…  I hadn’t known that joy meant dying.  What did I think hard eucharisteo and the table of the Last Supper meant?  …follow Christ to the table of eucharisteo, the table of surrender that gives thanks for what is given – this is joy!”

Who gave thanks?  Who was doing the giving?  What did the giving cost?  What did the Giver do?  He is the one who gave thanks.

Not token.  Not insincere.  Grateful.  Trusting.  Joyful.  Sorrowful, too.

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

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