Posted on 04/27/2016 8:41:02 AM PDT by Salvation
The second reading from last Sunday’s Mass (5th Sunday of Easter) is very Catholic, and too informative to merely pass up. It presents the Church as rather highly organized and possessed of some of the structures we know today in full form. Granted, some of these structures are in seminal form, but they are there.
We will also notice qualities of the original kerygma that are at variance with what some modern thinkers declare should be the methodology of the Church. The soft Christianity of those who replace the cross with a pillow and who insist on solely inclusion and affirmation is strangely absent in this early setting.
Let’s look the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 14:21-27) and see there the true path of priests, teachers, and leaders in the Church. Four steps are prescribed for our consideration, by noting that they went forth announcing, admonishing, appointing, and accounting.
I. Announcing – The text says, After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples …
Notice that the happiness is linked to the harvest. By proclaiming the Good News, they yield a great harvest. As Catholics, we are not sent out merely to proclaim a list of duties; we are sent to proclaim the Gospel. And the Gospel is this: God so loved the world that He sent his Son, who by dying and rising from the dead has purchased for us a whole new life, free from sin and the rebellious obsessions of this world. He is victorious over all the death-directed drives of this world. Simply put, he has triumphed over these forces and enabled us to walk in newness of life.
God save us from brands of the faith in which rules and obligations are all that is heard by sour-faced saints, dead disciples, fussy Pharisees, bored believers, and frozen chosen. Save us from Pharisaical philosophers who are obsessed with particulars not even commanded by God, who sneer at things they consider beneath than their preferences.
No, we are sent to announce a new life, a life free from the bondage of sin, rebellion, sensuality, greed, lust, domination, and revenge. We are sent to announce a life of joy, confidence, purity, chastity, generosity, and devotion to the truth rooted in Love.
Yes, here is a joyful announcement rooted in the cry Anastasis (Resurrection)! New Life! The old order of sin is gone and a new life of freedom from sin is here!
Did everyone accept this as good news? No. Some, indeed many, were offended and sought to convict Christians as “disturbers of the peace.” Some don’t like to have their sin and bondage called out as such. They prefer bondage, sin, and darkness to light, holiness, and freedom.
As Catholics, we announce what is intrinsically good news, and we ought to start sounding like it by proclaiming it with joy. We must proclaim it without the bitterness and anger that are indicative of those who are more interested in winning an argument than in joyfully announcing something wonderful, freeing, and true.
II. Admonishing – The text says, … they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
Preaching/teaching is a process. You don’t just preach or teach once and then move on; you return and reiterate. Paul and Barnabas are retracing their steps back through towns they have already evangelized. They do not just come, have a tent revival, and move on. They return and, as we shall see, they establish the Church.
Notice what they do:
1. Encourage – They strengthened the spirits of the disciples.
2. Exhort – They exhorted them to persevere in the faith.
3. Explain – They explained by saying, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
Let’s focus especially on the last the point. Paul and Barnabas teach that if you’re not willing to endure the cross, no crown will come your way. If you can’t stand a little disappointment, if you can’t stand being talked about, if you think you should always be up and never down, then I’ve come to remind you: No cross, no crown.
Yes, beware of “cross-less” Christianity. We do have good news to proclaim but there is also the truth that we get to the resurrection and the glory through the cross. There is a test in every testimony, a trial in every triumph. There are demands of discipleship, requirements for renewal, laws of love, and sufferings set forth for Saints.
Good preaching combines the hardship and the happiness in one message. It is a joy to follow in the footsteps of our Lord, who endured hostility, hardship, and the horrors of the cross but still triumphed and showed that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. Yes, He caught the wise in their craftiness and showed that the thoughts of the wise in this word are futile (cf 1 Cor 3:20). He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (paradoxically) by the cross (cf Col 2:15).
Thus, St. Paul and Barnabas announce the cross, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles (cf 1 Cor 1:23). Many today insist that the Church soft-pedal the cross, that she use honey, not vinegar. No can do. We joyfully announce and uphold the paradox of the cross. We must be willing to be a sign of contradiction to this world, which sees only pleasure and the indulgence of sinful drives as the way forward, which exalts freedom without truth or obedience, and which calls good what God calls sinful.
Too many so-called Christian denominations have adopted the pillow as their image and have a “give the people what they want” mentality. That is 180 degrees out of phase with the cross.
The Catholic Church does not exist to reflect the views of its members, but to reflect the views of its founder and head, Jesus Christ. As He went out to die, Jesus announced the cross without ambiguity, saying, Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me (John 12:31-32).
And so we announce the cross not merely as suffering, but as life, power, and love. By the power of the cross, it is possible to live without sin, to overcome rebellion, pride, lust, and greed; it is possible to learn to forgive and to live the truth in love.
The world will hate us for this. But such hardships, such crosses, are necessary preludes to the hallelujah of Heaven. The Church can do no less than to point to the cross. The center of our faith is a cross not a pillow. And the cross is our only hope (Ave Crux spes unica nostra (Hail, O Cross, our only hope).
Yes, the Church announces the cross and admonishes a world obsessed with pleasure and with passing, fake happiness.
III. Appointing – The text says, They appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia.
And thus we see the ordination of priest leaders in every place. “Priest” is just an English mispronunciation of the word “presbyter.” Paul and Barnabas did not simply go about vaguely preaching and then moving on. They established local churches with a structure of authority. The whole Pauline corpus of writings indicates a need to continue oversight of these local churches and to stay in touch with the priest leaders established to lead these local parishes.
Later, St. Paul spoke of the need for this structure in other places when he wrote (to Titus),
This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you (Titus 1:5).
This appointment was done through the laying on of hands and is called ordination today. It was a way of establishing order and office in the Church to make sure that the work continued and that the Church was governed by order. This is why we call the sacrament involved here the “Sacrament of Holy Orders.”
Note, too, that a critical task for leaders in the Church is to develop and train new leaders. Too many parishes depend on individual charismatic and gifted leaders whose inevitable departure leaves a void, not an ongoing ministry or organization. This should not be so. Good leaders train new leaders.
IV. Accounting – The text says, From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Note that Paul and Barnabas are now returning to render an account for what they have done. Accountability is part of a healthy Church. Every priest should render an account to his bishop, every bishop to his metropolitan and to the Pope. Today’s ad limina visits of bishops to the Pope is the way this is done. Further, priests are accountable to their bishop through various mechanisms such as yearly reports and other meetings.
A further background to this text is that Paul and Barnabas are returning to Antioch because it was from there that they were sent forth by the local bishops and priests on this missionary task.
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:2).
Thus St. Paul was not the lone ranger that some think him to be. He was sent and was accountable.
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days (Gal 1:15-18).
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up by revelation; and I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain (Gal 2:1).
The preacher and teacher must be accountable: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So each of us shall give account of himself to God (Rom 14:10-12).
And thus we see some paths for priests, preachers, teachers, and leaders. We must announce the Gospel as good news, with joy and confidence. We must admonish a world obsessed with pleasures to embrace the cross as our only hope. We must continue to develop, train, and appoint leaders to follow after us. And we must be accountable to one another.
A nice and quick portrait of some healthy traits for the Church!
Great testimony explaining your salvation. I was saved when I was 8 when a missionary visiting from Liberia was preaching at my dad’s church, then baptized shortly after that.
I also resent being called a “protestant”; we are not.
He used several different editions throughout his life. Several family members kept his bibles after he died. The book I have is a paperback New American Bible, 1976 edition.
A hell bound, lock-up-your-daughters-here-come-the-drug-dealing-hippies, waste of a man that had been successfully sidetracked by the Satanic lure of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll ... and I thoroughly enjoyed it !
Circumstances directed my inner thoughts to my eternal condition and had me in front of Eddie Klein (a Messianic Jew) at his kitchen table, that night of August 18th, 1981
I can identify with that bro. I do not consider myself a Protestant either. I didn't know it, until people in different religious persuasions told me I WAS one. I don't accept it.
You got saved in 81. I got saved in 1970, at Mountain Home, Idaho, 6 months before I became an unwilling participant in the biggest waste of my time, that there ever has been, the infamous Southeast Asia war games. If I could have figured out a way to get out of it, I would have, but hey, I went to the one place that had the best chapel program, and I came home in one piece. I only had flashback, in 1984. Never had one before, never had one after. Others had really bad experiences.
We do, however, press on to the high calling that is in Christ. 😀😆😃 By all means, carry on.
---- Mark Twain
There are some good versions out there. I prefer the American Standard Version. My wife prefers the Bisaya Version.
“..to deny the Sacraments and still claim Christianity is in error and incomplete”
So your organization was incomplete for 1200 years since the seven sacraments wasn’t nailed down or necessary for salvation until the COT. I think you need to study your organization’s history without those rose colored glasses and ask yourself why would that be. The sacraments became absolutely necessary because the reformation. The rcc was hemorrhaging members and the rcc was willing to do anything to keep the paychecks coming in. So they made up some new rules at the COT on sacraments and now you preach the lie that it has always been that way. This history is in open view on the rcc website. I’ll even make it easy so you may cut and paste “ council of trent and the sacraments”.
Amen. Sometimes I wonder if those of us raised in Christian homes (me in a parsonage) can appreciate our salvation as much as those who have come out of very sinful lives. That must add a new, profound, dimension that I know I can’t grasp.
It's on yer dog tags -- P, C, or H for Hebrew, pick one. Ya gotta go to church call, get buried (one in yer mouth and one on yer big toe), or get yer TS ticket punched by the chaplain.(WWII era)
Which is simply on your say-so, while as said, besides apostles, presbuteros/episkopos are the ones charged with teaching and functioning as pastors/shepherds of the flock, to are to care for the church, and be "apt to teach," and "feed the flock," rebuke, exhort," etc.
It looks like your head is so full of equating the two, particularly as they are regularly cross-branded in today's churches, that you cannot see that the functions are different as are the titles. Again and again.
Which again is what your assertions seem to evidence, that your head is so full of imagining the functions of pastor, episkopos, and presbuteros not at all (even "dramatically" not) interchangeable, equivalent, and synonomous, that cannot see that episkopos, and presbuteros are actually used for the very same persons, and who are the only ones besides apostles charged with and described as functioning as spiritual shepherds over the flock.
Peter called himself an elder, not a pastor.
Nor need he to, as the later broadly refers to doing what only (besides apostles) episkopos/presbuteros are charged with and described as doing, functioning as spiritual shepherds.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; (1 Peter 5:2)
One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (1 Timothy 3:4-5)
Deacons assist them.
If you want to get an idea of how one operates, attend a "Plymouth"-brethren-type church, where there are no pastors of the...two-class, clergy-run vs subjugated lay people hierarchies.
That is simply another false dilemma, as if , as clergy-run equates to subjugated lay people as with Rome, and God hates a false balance. For Scripture does indeed clearly charges and describes presbuteros/episkopos are being over the flock, and enjoins conditional obedience - not obeisance - to them, and which are to Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine," and "speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority" sound doctrine, even "sharply" in some cases. (2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:13, 2:15)
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17)
Just a couple of comments on a typical volume, "Reimagining Church," by Frank Viola
Just as i suspected. You have bought into the anti-authoritarian "Christ is the head of the gathering or meeting, and so human heads are required, that "the one who plants a New Testament-styled church leaves that church without a pastor, elders...," ("Pagan Christianity," http://www.victoryseekersministries.com/pdf/VSM%2041.pdf) "the New Testament knows nothing of an authoritative mode of leadership,” (Reimagining Church, p. 198) as if 1 Corinthians 14 does not testify to the failure of pastoral "taking the oversight," which is the other extreme from Romanism. If anything, churches like the S Baptist need more consensual centralized accountability, which is the Biblical model, but by street-level brethren given to hospitality, not lording it over the flock, yet with the superintendence and authority such as Timothy and Titus are charged with exercising. The balance is between such an elevated position that a 1 Cor 14 type meeting never can be realized, as only the pastor ever preaches or shares the word, and the flock can never see how the pastor lives or eat with him at home, or even Roman-type lording, and that of having no head pastoral oversight and authority, and to which leadership obedience is enjoined, and the preaching by such as Paul exampled in Acts 20.
The pastor just called me up and asked me, a much unworthy servant, to share the word at tonight's house meeting, and in which time is provided for those present to ask for prayer, and to give a short testimony (which is invited), and worship and corporate prayer follows before the pastor or pastor-appointed speaker (the latter often being the case) gives a message, but i recognize him as the head pastor, and who has unique authority. (I would like to teach on "the devil wants your worship."
You need to unravel in a systematic way until you get back to basics.
Mere bombast, as it is you who ignore what Scripture systematically shows, and insist on reading a foreign ecclesiology into Scripture, as Caths do. I have thus sadly dropped you from my ping list as you represent an opposite detrimental extreme.
Actually, Elsie, catholiciism is far from Christianity with regard to salvation. But the source is a closed tight catholic mind so I don’t bother with that any longer.
What is God’s Gospel of Salvation, TC? You claim to be in Christianity, so what IS what Jesus said to be born from above, born again? What is the ‘work’ God requires to receive God’s Spirit life in your dead human spirit?
Amen! Very similar to what happened to me in 1973, when a close friend got born from above and traveled all the way to Birmingham, AL to witness to me. He was visibly a changed man. I wanted what God had done with/to him, so I asked Jesus to save me, too. It happened that very same night within moments of sincerely asking Him directly. I was so moved that two weeks later I traveled up to East Tennessee to be baptized by the man who led my friend to Christ.
And there is one holy catholic apostolic church, built upon blessed Peter and the other Jewish Apostles and Prophets, with the Messiah (blessed be His name for all eternity) being the chief cornerstone, against which the gates of hell have not prevailed.
First John, Catholic chapter three, Protestant verses thirteen to twenty four,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James
I often state I was saved out of the gutter
The first reading in today’s Mass was from Acts 16. Poor Timothy. Ouch!
That’s great. Were you encouraged to read and study them or were they just there?
The priest gave a good homily on the Gospel reading, which was from John 15. A group of us met after Mass to reflect on where our treasure is, after reading Matthew 6:19-34 and study guides. One of our group is in the hospital, so we gathered in his room. He was looking forward to the meeting all week. A verse from the study guide really touched me: “The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.” Sometimes we forget that people are more important than things.
Peace,
Rich
Thank you for your unbiased observations.
Even further...
1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
3 And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
6 And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
8 And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
13 And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
14 And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
15 And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,
16 And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
17 And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
18 And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
19 And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
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