Contra Sunday

So this should be the “Hey, I’m rocking it with the holinezz” part of the week.

It’s not.

The thing that keeps leaping out at me over and over and over in this week’s sermon is the idea that we are a nation, a priesthood. We belong to something. We are knit together in ways that go beyond just accidental collections of people like those, say, at a movie theater. We’ve elected (if you’ll pardon the pun) to be identified as part of the post-Cross Israel. We’ve taken the awl and pierced our ear on the doorpost of Christ.

A nation allows room for differences. Color. Race. Creed. None of these things defines a nation; a state is greater than the sum of its parts. If we are a nation, surely we are also to allow for a certain degree of freedom. The bible is not a text book with a nifty index and a bunch of things to do, or not do. It contains, gasp, things that allow for differences between neighbors.

So I don’t get this sudden predilection to self-exile, willingly excommunicate oneself to find perfection of doctrine, total unity in all things. You wind up sailing very close to the wind of cult. Even in the best of circumstances, differences that would take one out of a ‘Big R’ Reformed church, consistently preaching the gospel faithfully, with biblical standards for officers, leadership and discipline – and yet understanding of the Grace we have in Christ to allow for restoration – cutting oneself away from that must be a serious matter indeed.

I think of the recent campaign for recruitment for the Armed Forces in the USA. The army has one that makes a point of saying “I am an army of one.” I think we run the risk of seeing this as a valuable and viable part of our faith. “I am a church of one.” Psalm 133 reminds us that it is good when brothers dwell together in unity. I don’t recall anywhere reading that it’s good to dwell apart but at least in utter conformity.

And this has got me in a funk. Yes, no-one is setting my clothes on fire. Yes, people are not beating me with rattan canes. But that is not my reality. My reality is trying to hold together a fracturing faith in a fracturing culture. We are a nation, a chosen nation, a nation of priests. I don’t get the desire to renounce citizenship. I’ve failed the call to be upbeat in spite of that.

And yet, God is sovereign. He is working out His will and His purposes will not be thwarted. That I can, must and always seek to cling to like a drowning man to a life preserver in a rough sea, knowing that it will bear me up until I come to calm waters and safe harbor once more.

You know, I’m half post-mil by inclination, but I’m with the amils in the call for my Lord to come back.

Soon.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you has sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.  1 Pet 2:9-12

Debate will go on (Indeed, have we not seen it?) about whether this year or next year constitutes the true end of the decade. However you come down on that, this time of year is typically one that leads to contemplation. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a scriptural thing.

For many 2008 held great promise. Gretna core groups were meeting and we began a third service for GRC out in Gretna. Our giving was without precedent. It was a season of realization of many goals. Ministry flourished. Many started to serve and have continued to serve throughout this year and hopefully going forward as well.

Then, 2009 came. It was a rougher year for many and did not seem to offer much of the ‘mountaintop’ experience and feeling of 2008. And yet, we increased our ministry presence amongst the Walt Hill tribe; we sent two teams to Belize; YXL was well attended; leadership is flourishing amongst our young people. in many ways, many things came together in extraordinary ways. And still it did not feel like we were making progress.

And yes, things have been tough. We lost families due to moves, a feeling that they could better serve in other places and even through discipline. The budget has been stretched. And yet we continue.

Mountaintop experiences are, by nature, transitory and seasonal. There are many hurting people in the valleys, too, and we can walk amongst them and share their pain; know what it is to be less than spectacular. The mountaintop is great but in some ways, the valley is real.

Peter tells us we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood. Not because of how we feel or how well we do or anything in us at all. Rather it is based on the work of Christ. We’re a people, a nation called aside to holiness. Citizens reflect their leaders and our leader is Jesus Christ. We are called to proclaim his excellencies.

Peter doubtlessly found this message even in the Old Testament. We can look at Isaiah 43:15-21 or Exodus 19:4-6. This who we are and this is what we are to do. We who were not a people are now a people and we are called to proclaim the glory, mercy and excellence of our King.

As sojourners and exiles, we are called to do holiness amongst the Gentiles. In ‘everyday’ language, this really calls us to do what is right based on who we are, not based on how we feel. In years like 2009, valley years, years hard to live through- we are to flee sin, yes, but we are to stop our ears and eyes to the lies of the enemy. We do not live according to feeling. This right conduct Peter calls us to is just our everyday living. It’s our habitual way of life. We seek holiness not for our own feel-good high, but for the glory of God.

This decade has been called the aughts. Two thousand aught nine. But we should be careful not to be a people of ‘oughts’. We don’t measure success in numbers. Do we want to reach more for the Kingdom? Of course! Have we failed if we don’t? No. We are called to be faithful. Regardless of where we are at the end of next year, or even the next decade – 2020 speaking to us of ‘vision’ – we are in God’s hand, under his will, his sovereignty, his outworking, and He who sees all things sees our future as well.  

Ok – I’m not Tim Challies. My break helped me see that. I’m not going to blog every day, have incredible insight after insight, write a book and retire to Canada.

But I want to write. So here’s the deal. Each Sunday night, I’m going to post MY notes on the Sermon. Maybe they are not what the Pastor intended – but they are what I heard.

Then, Wednesday nights I’m going to post how I’ve ruminated on these things during the week; where and how I’ve failed, and where and how I can see a glimmer of success through Christ’s grace.

Nothing earth-shattering or even link worthy I suspect – but an exercise in writing that I’d like to undertake this year, along with a pretty compelling reason to pay attention during the sermon!

Oh, and Contra Sunday? A little play on words – Sunday being the focus of the Blog and Wednesday being how it’s working out in the world, Contra Mundi being Latin for ‘Against the World’. This is a chance to set the bar on Sundays and see how it goes during the week. Sort of pole-vaulting for personal growth.

I’ll understand if you unsub now!

  I know, I know. I’m supposed to be hiatusing or whatever. But some things are worth coming out of hibernation for.

  If you don’t mind alternating between laughing and crying, I can only recommend this blog for you. Thanks to Tim Challies for a link pointing me to it in the first place!

Omaha, Nebraska, once led the nation in terms of restaurants per capita. Oh, I think the ‘honor’ has passed to other cities now, but the echoes of gastronomic gigantism linger on. Within 1 mile of my house there must be close to 50 places I can go eat. It boggles my mind.

So, too, the internet. Only – more. With the click of a mouse, I can be skipping from podcasts on the ancient Minoans, to Coq au Van a la Julia Childs, A rundown of my team’s performance statistics against the hopelessly inept opposition, to free music, to Disney screenshots, to J.I. Packer, to Reilly videos, to banal facebook entries – ad nauseam.

My own Facebook account is now not only suspended, but pending permanent deletion. I had to dig around to find out how to do that. It’s a buried option amongst the detritus of Facebookian sub-menus. In a Hotel Californian kind of way, you can check out, but you can never actually leave. Turns out you can. And, as of yesterday afternoon, I have left the building.

Next up, my Yahoo accounts. Tried to do that yesterday and wavered. What if my Bride wants to sent me a J at 3:45 – a full hour and 15 minutes before she can smile at me in person? The humanity! The horror! Anyway – today Yahoo will slip quietly into the void for me as well.

I have three friends who have, in the past 4 weeks or so, ditched the ‘landline’ telephones in favor of a ‘cell-only’ service plan. Not seeing the sense in paying for a telephone that only stays on your bench near the microwave (or, wherever…)  as well as carrying one in your pants, they have opted to remove the static, delay-ridden device from their lives in favor of the anytime, everywhere convenience of the cell-phone.

Not me, gentle reader. This week, I will be cancelling my cell-phone service. Now, my work provides me with a blackberry and a paid account. I am required to carry it ‘on-call’ once a quarter. I must and will do so – but it is purely a work phone. I get a call from my employer’s voicemail service advising me that I have an urgent call to check up on. Occasionally, a friend who knows the number will try and contact me on the thing. He is invariably disappointed. For me, it’s back to answering the phone on my terms; when I feel like it. Not when it jangles it’s siren call at 65mph on the freeway. In a rainstorm. Between two trucks. Eating a hamburger.

Which leaves this place and brings us full circle back to restaurants. Why operate a small, Mom n Pop eatery with the occasional special when most folks are going to buzz right by your diner for the blog version of Olive Garden? I’d rather shutter the joint and cook for family at home. Most people are either friends, strangers, or idiots. Friends I can count on the fingers of one hand and they know what I think. Why do I care if the rest of world doesn’t know my mind? In truth, I don’t. So – Bye bye, Blogspot. Auf Weidersehen, Wordpress.  These will be gone today. This place will continue, but be stripped of content, set private and used by me as a way to disseminate stuff to folks that actually care. That is, me and maybe one or two others.

Why? Well, why not? The real reason lies in a desire to step back from instant on for everything. I can zap a meal in a microwave in 6 minutes. It takes likes crap, but I can do it. Does it make it better? I’d argue that it does not. I can regurgitate my every brainwave via blogs, twitter and any number of instant publish mediums. Does that make what I say worth reading? Probably not. Scratch the probably. I can send a message via Yahoo that demands a response NOW. BUZZ!!! What’s for dinner? BUZZ!!! Am I so pressed for time; so valuable intrinsically that the time to send and receive an email needs be done away with? That I can’t call and speak to my Bride and ask that question? No… gotta imagine that I am not that important.

I am embracing Ludditism by Choice. I am Thoreau and the offline world will be my Walden. Doubtless, I will be seen as backward, hard to get in touch with, antisocial, cantankerous, and obstructionary. Invite me to lunch and you can tweet my responses to your Facebook page via your iPhone. Oh, but you pick up the check!