by Michiana Covenant | Feb 10, 2013 | Pastor Peter Wallace, Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice, Psalmody, Worship
What shapes us? What forms us? What is it that makes us “who we are”? Are we shaped mostly by ideas (our intellectual beliefs) or by our practices and customs?
I grew up Baptist — but I became Reformed because I was convinced by the *ideas.* Did that make me Reformed? Sort of. I was a Reformed Christian *intellectually* — but as my friends noticed at the time, I was still fundamentally a Baptist in my ways of living, as one friend told me as I was grumbling about the problems of individualism in American church culture: “Peter, you’re the biggest individualist I know!”
Looking back, if I had continued to be an *ideas* person, who knows where I’d be today. What was it that formed me as a Reformed pastor?
1) Every Sunday morning and evening for more than two years I sat under the preaching of Lendall Smith at Bethel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wheaton, participating in their well-crafted liturgy — and coming to the Lord’s Supper (as I began to grasp intellectually what the Lord’s Supper really was, and trembling as I partook of Christ’s body and blood, as I realized that Paul’s warning really meant something!). And then I spent many Sunday afternoons — and other times — with the Larsons, the Brinks, the DeJongs, and other families — learning and watching their practice of being a Reformed family.
2) Every month for nearly five years (two at Wheaton and three at Westminster) I gathered with other students at the home of Darryl and Ann Hart to talk about what it means to be Reformed. Yes, there was deep theological discussion — but it was embodied in the lived practice of a community.
3) At Westminster I was frequently in the Powlison home (usually on the third floor with David and Sharon Covington). Again, the intellectual found its context in a vibrant fellowship of life together. For two years I lived with Steve and Lynn Igo — and their bouncing boys — participating in their family life and worship (our family worship bears considerable resemblance to theirs!), learning to put into practice the counseling paradigm that we were taught in our relationships with each other.
4) My first year at Notre Dame, I gathered with the Deliyannides and Devlins practically every Sunday in the Allison’s tiny 525 square foot apartment — where we always sang a half dozen Psalms. I had been convinced intellectually for years that we should sing more Psalms — but I had never done it! Ben Allison made sure that it happened. The rituals and practices of those few short months shaped me in ways that my ideas never had.
5) As I was licensed and ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, I was enculturated into a particular way of being Reformed — the boundaries and norms of the Midwest Presbytery shaped me both in explicit and implicit ways — some of which were significantly challenged when Glenn Jerrell walked into my life and gave me another way of being an OPC pastor. Two years of sitting under his ministry at Walkerton reshaped me in many ways (some of which I probably do not even realize!).
6) Plainly the content of what I learned and read has been crucial — but also who I learned it from! When you have learned Union with Christ from Dick Gaffin, Judges from Al Groves, Genesis from Doug Green, and when you have heard Sinclair Ferguson pray his lectures every day before he preaches them, you will never be the same again.
But all of this runs into another way of being and knowing and doing — one that is well-articulated by Matthew Vos’s article on the Super Bowl.
http://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/3864/prizes-and-consumables-the-super-bowl-as-a-theology-of-women/
[Thanks to Mark Hanson for the link — and to be fair, I should note that I watched most of the Super Bowl.]
Vos points out that the customs and practices encouraged by the Super Bowl embody a fundamentally idolatrous way of being human (an Ezekiel 16 sort of culture — for those who weren’t at MCPC a couple years ago, Ezekiel 16 could be summarized as, ‘Cinderella becomes a porn star’).
So much of the church today is trying to make Christianity more palatable to our culture by trying to put the content of Christianity into the forms and customs of our culture (see Vos’s comments on this). I once spoke to a young man from Muncie, Indiana, who said he was looking for a church down there. I asked him, “What are you looking for in a church?” He answered, “I just want to be entertained.”
I was dumbfounded at his honesty (so I didn’t quite know what to say!), but it got me thinking. There are two things that I do not want to do:
1) I do not want simply to entertain him (it would only cheapen the good news of what Jesus has done);
2) I do not want to bore him (that would also cheapen the good news of what Jesus has done!).
Rather, I want him to see that there is something so much more grand and glorious that God has done in Jesus! And that’s where the customs and practices of our life together are so essential. If what we do on Sunday morning is disconnected from what we do the rest of the week, then yes, it will feel jarring (and so if that young man would ever come to MCPC, I don’t doubt that he will find it strange — but by the Spirit of God he should see a strange and beautiful power revealed there!). But if what we do on Sunday morning begins to shape what we do the rest of the week, then we will begin to find the practices of our culture to be strange and jarring.
The ideas are relevant to all this — but disembodied ideas are a mere fantasy!
by Michiana Covenant | Dec 2, 2012 | Marriage, Pastoral Notes
I find it immensely useful to read feminist critiques of patriarchy as a means of reminding me of my own sinful tendencies. After all, too often the critique is accurate! Consider this quote from Allan Johnson’s “The Gender Knot”:
“When men’s reflection is obscured by the reality and demands of women’s own lives, men are vulnerable to feeling left out and neglected. Like cold-blooded animals that generate little heat of their own, this dynamic makes it hard for men to feel warm unless the light is shining on them at the moment, something well-known to women who spend inordinate amounts of time worrying about whether they’re paying enough attention to their male partners, about whether they should be sitting quietly and reading a book or spending time with women friends when they could be with the men in their lives. It is a worry few men wrestle with unless women complain.” (p12-13)
If our “patriarchy” is rooted in a heavenly Father’s love and concern for his children, then we should be far more “warm-blooded” than this! If our meaning and purpose is found in Christ, the one who humbled himself to bear our sin and guilt, then our presence should warm and encourage others.
Certainly the feminist critique of modern American patriarchy has a lot of accurate points. No Christian should endorse the sort of social system that encourages the sexual objectification of women and the cold-blooded male who exists for his own glory. When humility becomes the central focus of masculinity, then we will see a patriarchy worthy of the name.
by Michiana Covenant | Nov 4, 2012 | Baptism, Pastoral Notes
What is baptism? What do the scriptures say about what baptism is – and what baptism does?
At the day of Pentecost, when asked by the people, “what shall we do?” When they see that the promised Holy Spirit had been given to the followers of Jesus (and not them!) – they realize that unless they, too, receive the Holy Spirit, they are doomed! And so Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
So baptism is all about two things: the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And the rest of the New Testament fleshes out what this means. Ananias will say to Saul of Tarsus, “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16) Paul will speak of baptism as “the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). In Romans 6:3-4, Paul asks, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” In Galatians 3, Paul will add, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ….And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Gal. 3:26, 27, 29)
When you think about how all these passages speak of baptism, it is not surprising that Peter will go so far as to say in 1 Peter 3:21, that baptism saves us. He starts by saying that baptism corresponds to the flood – that just as God brought Noah and his family safely through water, so now, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Christ.”
Notice how Peter says this. Baptism now saves you. So we must also say that in some way, baptism saves us. But how does baptism save us? Notice that Peter says that it is not that getting wet saves us – but the “appeal to God for a good conscience” (or “pledge of a clear conscience toward God”).
In other words, baptism saves by faith – through the resurrection of Christ.
If we take the NT seriously, then we must say that baptism is the washing of regeneration, and also that baptism only regenerates by faith.
Think about Simon Magus – who was baptized, but did not have faith, and so Peter said to him, “You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right with God…For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” (Acts 8:21, 23) So obviously, just getting baptized does not result in a changed heart!
Think of it this way. What makes a car go? Gasoline. But gasoline can only make a car go, if you push on the accelerator. In the same way baptism saves. But baptism can only save, if you believe God’s promises. Like all the blessings of God, baptism must be received by faith.
As the Westminster Confession puts it:
“Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world.” (Confession 28.1)
Calvin’s Genevan order of baptism adds:
“All these graces are conferred upon us when God is pleased to incorporate us into his Church by baptism. For in this sacrament he testifies to us the remission of our sins. And for this cause, he has ordained the sign of water, to signify that as by this natural element the body is washed of its bodily odors so he wishes to wash and purify our souls. Here we have a sure witness that God wishes to be a loving Father, not counting all our faults and offenses. Secondly, that he will assist us by his Holy Spirit so that we can battle against the devil, sin, and the desires of our flesh, until we have victory in this, to live in the liberty of his kingdom. Those two things are accomplished in us, through the grace of Jesus Christ: it follows that the truth and substance of baptism is comprised in him. For we have no other washing than in his blood, and we have no other renewal than in his death and resurrection. But as he communicates to us his riches and blessings by his word, so he distributes them to us by his sacraments.” (Geneva, 1542)
But if baptism does not benefit us apart from faith, why do we baptize our children? Remember that in Acts 2:38, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” What does he say next? “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39)
Which promise? The promise of repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Peter says “the promise is for you and your children” to a group of Jews and proselytes in Jerusalem he is using Abrahamic language. Everyone present would assume that “for you and your children” would mean that their children were included in the promise, just like Isaac was included in the promise to Abraham.
God had said to Abraham, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.” (Genesis 17:7) You find the same idea in Paul’s call to the Philippian jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)
Or as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it:
“Infants as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and through the blood of Christ both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are promised to them no less than to their parents. Therefore they are also by Baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.” (Heidelberg Catechism 74)
by Michiana Covenant | Oct 8, 2012 | Ginger Wallace, Marriage, Parenting, Pastoral Notes, Women, Women's Ministry
by Virginia Wallace
I said yes. Because it seemed like the right thing to do. I am not the leader-type – but I am also not the type that likes to be told how to raise my kids – or how I am not raising my kids – or respecting my husband, or whatever the thing is that everyone else thinks that I should do.
This is why I said ‘yes.’ Because I thought it was what I was supposed to do – even though my first thought was – NO – this is not what I do. In fact, going to China with my husband is not what I do, not when it means leaving my children behind. God made me a woman. This much is obvious. God also made me a wife – this too is quite clear. He also made me a mother. And here I want to stop. This seems like it should be enough for me to handle. And if I think about it and be realistic – this is all I can handle – though I can’t even handle this on my own.
So, why am I HERE? Because God created us to be more than this. He created us to need each other – to bear one another’s burdens, to build up one another towards faith and good works – to show forth his glory to all men. To show hospitality to the stranger, to care for those afflicted – to wash the feet of the saints.
1 Timothy 5:9-10 gives us good insight in this way, to show us what we should have been. It’s kind of a look backward:
“Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, having a reputation for good works, if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, has devoted herself to every good work.”
This is what we are called to be now:
a wife, known for good works
a mother, opening her home to strangers
a servant, caring for those in need.
What does this look like right now? Will it look different next year? When my youngest is five?
Yes. It will look differently at each stage or season of your life. If you have young children and are trying to just figure out how to get enough sleep much less show hospitality or do good works, or care for the less fortunate – this can look overwhelming!
But think about it in less grand terms:
Hospitality (which means ‘love of strangers’): you take your little ones to the playground – then meet someone and invite them to come in your home for a meal or snack – or tea!
Good works: I offer to babysit (which is actually like a playdate for my kids) while a friend runs to get groceries/run an errand. I make double the amount of supper to give a friend a meal on a rough day.
Washed the feet of the saints? This could mean a nice pedicure – or if you think about the principle behind this practice, it could mean something as simple as folding her clean laundry while you chat, or it could mean working to love her as she likes to be loved (speaking in a way that shows you care about her – not yourself [and giving a pedicure is not out of the question!!]).
Caring for the Afflicted: visiting those in the hospital, cleaning the bathroom for someone who has just had a baby. Sometimes this may mean letting your neighbor’s kids into your home and ministering to them – showing them what a family of God looks like.
Think of Proverbs 31. This woman was not just taking care of her own husband and kids. She had servants and they had kids (husbands), there were people that she looked after because it was her responsibility. She didn’t do everything herself – she managed everything! What did her children learn from this? Did they learn how to serve and love others? Did they practice this?
This woman is a glory to her husband – she is his GLORY!
She was his glory because of her heart attitude while she was his wife, while she mothered his children, while she gave hospitality, while she washed the feet of the saints, while she cared for the afflicted.
What is your heart attitude? Whose glory are you seeking?
We are Christ’s bride – and so must seek to be HIS Glory – He has washed and cleansed us – He has clothed us with His own beautiful Glory – and we shine!
Ezekiel 16 talks about God’s amazing mercy to His unfaithful bride – how she was an unwanted babe, left on the hillside to die – her cord was not even cut, she was not cleaned, nor loved.
But God said to her, Live! And he made her flourish and grow into a young woman – she became his bride. He clothed her in fine linen and jewels. She ate only the best food, she grew beautiful. Verse 14 says, “And your renown went among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the LORD.”
God’s glory – she was His Glory.
But she wanted her own glory, her own pleasure, her own renown. The rest of the chapter tells in great detail of her faithlessness – how she sought after any and all other men (idols) – how she was a princess – and now was a porn star.
We cannot read this chapter and not be utterly disgusted with how awful our sin is to God, and yet how merciful He is when we repent and seek His Glory – and not our own.
We are glory seekers. But we are flawed by the effects of sin and we seek our own glory instead of God’s.
We need to ask the question: Whose glory am I seeking?
One way I find helpful is: How am I loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength right now? How am I loving my neighbor as myself right now?
[This talk was given to a women’s gathering in East Asia in the fall of 2012]
by Michiana Covenant | Jun 17, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
There are three questions that drive the book of Job:
1. Job’s question: Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul? (3:20)
2. Satan’s question: Does Job fear God for no reason? (1:9)
3. God’s question: Have you considered my servant Job? (1:8)
The wisdom debate with the friends drives Job to see past his own original question to ponder Satan’s question in chapter 21. He quotes the wicked as saying, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?” (21:15), and finally concludes, echoing Psalm 1, “The counsel of the wicked is far from me.” (21:16)
And indeed, as Job comes to his final summary in chapter 27-31, you can even see how Job is pushing towards God’s question — although he can only affirm God’s description of him: “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil.” He does not identify himself as “the servant of the Lord.” Until he sees himself as the suffering servant, he will not understand his own question!
So what is Elihu doing in all this?
The simplistic structure is that in chapter 33 he echoes Job (offering to play Job’s advocate — or comforter — one who will “justify” [piel] Job, not as a judge [which would be the hifil], but as an advocate). It was fitting that we covered this on Pentecost Sunday — since Elihu offers to play the Advocate to Job’s Suffering Servant! — and whatever response Job may have had to Elihu, *our* response should be, “thanks be to God we have a better Advocate than Elihu!!”
Now in chapters 34-35 he echoes the friends, paraphrasing and quoting them (in spite of his claim that he will not answer Job with their arguments!), and coming to the same conclusion as the friends: Job “answers like wicked men” (34:36). But is this Elihu’s conclusion? Or is it Elihu’s summary of the friends’ conclusion?
I have become convinced that this is, in fact, Elihu’s own conclusion. He address the friends in 34:2 and 10 as “you wise men,” and “you men of understanding,” and then in 34:34 he says that “men of understanding…and the wise man” will say that Job speaks without knowledge. And Elihu clearly agrees with them: as he concludes in his own statement, “Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.” (35:16)
Elihu is convinced that God will never condescend to answer Job. Therefore Elihu must answer Job on behalf of God. The wise men of the earth must judge Job — and their verdict must be: “Guilty”! And if anyone else had said what Job said, Elihu would have been right.
And if anyone else had said “the Father and I are one,” they would have been right to condemn him! The book of Job serves as a warning to the rulers and judges of Israel — beware! Do not condemn the suffering servant of the Lord! Do not be too quick to condemn the one who claims “I am innocent” — “I am in the right!”
by Michiana Covenant | Apr 15, 2012 | Catechesis, Pastoral Notes, Westminster Shorter Catechism
At 10:00 a.m. every Sunday morning we have a our weekly singing practice and catechism quiz. This week I would like to suggest some reasons why you should participate.
I should start by providing some background: around eight years ago, the elders decided to have a weekly catechism quiz, working through the Shorter Catechism together. We decided that if we were going to have the children memorize the catechism, then we should do it together with them. Since then we have worked through the Shorter Catechism four times (next fall we will start on our fifth time around!). In this last cycle, we have added a really helpful practice of memorizing a couple of scripture verses each week that show where the scriptures teach the doctrines of the catechism.
I would especially like to address fathers and mothers in the congregation (though others may take note as well). If you are like me, then you did not grow up with the catechism. I was a latecomer to Reformed theology and only started memorizing the catechism eight years ago with my children. Since I didn’t grow up with the catechism, I didn’t think of it as something that was very important — but there are a number of observations that I have noticed over the years:
- The catechism provides a vocabulary that overflows into other conversations as well. I cannot count the number of times that we have talked about “the estate of sin and misery”! When dealing with sin, the catechism’s exposition of the Ten Commandments encourages both the memorization of the Ten Commandments, and the application of the commandments in daily life. Likewise, I frequently use the language of the catechism now in talking with my children about repentance and faith. And because they have worked through it many times, they are beginning to understand what it means.
- Parents often wonder, “if they don’t understand the words, what’s the point?” Well, they probably don’t understand the words “hallowed,” “debtors,” “substance,” or “apostolic” — but we still teach them the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed. And over time, as we continue praying, confessing, and reciting, we learn more and more about them. If you wait until they understand the vocabulary before you use it, some other vocabulary will have already taken root in their hearts. Language plays a powerful role in shaping the way we think.
- Catechism memorization works best when it is connected with regular family worship. We have also included it in the children’s home-school work, but when Daddy is also working with the kids on their catechism, it makes a big difference. And when you show up for the catechism quiz on Sunday morning, you send a major signal to your children (and for those without children — you send perhaps an even louder signal!) that this is important.
- The discipline required to keep the practice going in our home for eight years has been useful in other areas of life as well. Family worship, catechism memorization, elder visits — all these things are part of an “older” way of doing things that our culture has rejected — a way of living that embodies the principles of the scriptures and seeks to exhibit them publicly in the life of the church.
And particularly as fathers we are often so busy with our careers — with “providing” for our families — that when we have time for our children, we just want to “have fun” with them. But what do we communicate to our children that way? That “fun” is the meaning of life? If we are to teach our children the great works of God — if we are to lead them in loving God with all our heart, all our soul, and and all our strength — then leading them in the study of the scriptures is our first priority. And the catechism provides a really useful summary of the biblical teaching on “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”
