Place Holder: See NewPhilly.org
I wish to thank my son for setting up this site for me. It has been a wonderful testing site, useful for testing new themes before using them at NewPhilly.org, and for that reason we have left it intact. However it is primarily a placeholder against the day that it will be used. By contrast NewPhilly.org is very active, serving up tens of thousands of pages each month. A number of us post articles on the site, and our goal is that it should be “a daily newspaper,” and “discipleship resource,” for our congregation and friends. Please visit NewPhilly.org. WNG
The 8th Essential: The Definitive Revelation of God
We have come to the end of our journey. In this sermon we deal with the 8th and final Essential, “The Second Advent of the Lord in Glory.”
No aspect of Christian theology has become as controversial and as layered with competing opinions and arguments as the doctrine of the 2nd Advent of Jesus Christ. I am going to cut right to the chase, and give you what I believe to be the simplicity on the far side of complexity:
The 7th Essential: The Unity of the Church
For almost 15 centuries, the church possessed a visible unity in the form of the Catholic Church. In 1457 the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian Church, became the first protestant church. Since that time 38,000 (FN1) other protestant churches have been formed. Today protestant churches are forming at the rate of 300 a year. These numbers do not include the many fiercely independent congregations that are scattered all over city and world.
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The 6th Essential: The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 meekness, and self-control; against which there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. Galatians 5:19-26
The 6th Essential is “the fruit of the Spirit” in the life of all believers. The term “fruit of the Spirit” is used only once in the Revised Standard Version of Scripture.
The Highest Treason
The action in the play “Murder in the Cathedral” by T.S. Elliot takes place just before the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1160 to 1170 AD. Four tempters offer scenarios that parallel the Temptations of Christ. The first three tempters are priests, the fourth may be the devil himself.
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The Heavens Proclaim God’s Righteousness
In Psalm 97:6 we read:
The heavens proclaim (God’s) righteousness;
and all the peoples behold (God’s) glory.
In both testaments righteousness is the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship. “The heavens proclaim (God’s) righteousness” to all peoples because the rising of the sun on another day makes good on the promise of the procession of days. The sun goes down in the evening, and rises-up in the morning. The Psalmist admires God for the consistency of the natural world. Even the constellations that mark the seasons of the night sky testify of it, albeit wordlessly. (Cf. Psalm 19) “All the peoples behold (God’s) glory,” because all see the same starry sky, and admire its precision. If only the psalmist knew what we know, he would be still more amazed! If only we would stop to consider the blessings of the common life as the Psalmist did, we would be still more amazed. By the by, those who deny that God is present in a natural revelation as well as in the special revelation to which the Scripture bears witness will stumble over verses like this. God bless! Finis.
Hint: Do a search on “righteousness” to get the full story.
Righteousness
The story of Judah and Tamar is a racy story, about sex and incest. According to Genesis 38:1-30, Judah bargained for Tamar and gave her in marriage to Er, his eldest son. Er was wicked, and God punished him. He died. Judah ordered his next son Onan to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for her, i.e. to marry her and raise up children. He slept with her, but practiced cotius interruptus. He, too, was wicked, and God punished him. He died. Judah had another son, Shelah, but Judah persuaded Tamar to remain a window until Shelah grew-up a little. The drift of the story is that Judah regarded Tamar as bad luck. She had cost him two sons, and he did not want to loose a third.
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Now Concerning…
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul uses the phrase now concerning five times. He addresses marriage (1 Cor 7-24), the possibility of marriage for those who are single (1 Cor 7:25-40), food offered to idols (1 Cor 8), spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12), and the contribution for the church in Jerusalem (1 Cor 16:1-2). According to 1 Cor 7:1, the phrase refers to a written communication that Paul had received from the church in Corinth. Much of the letter is in response to questions the members of the church had about issues of some great importance to them. Some of the questions concern us more, some less. Yet we know that if they had not asked those questions, we would be the poorer for it. There are those who say that the Christian life should be free of questions. They will find no support in scripture. The pursuit of truth often takes us through a stage of asking questions. That is o.k. Faith seeks understanding, and ask more questions of life than unbelief. Faith asks more questions because faith seeks to please God, not just self. John Calvin says that the mature Christian lives in a stage of perpetual adolescence. The adolescents I know are always ready for something new, always ready for surprises, always asking questions. Say, that is not a bad way to live. God bless you! Finis.
Lagniappe
Lagniappe refers to “a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase.” In some small bakeries, customers have come to expect a 13th donut or beignet when buying a dozen. A “Baker’s Dozen” is lagniappe. More broadly speaking, the word means “something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.” The word is used in Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, and various parts of the American South, especially in Louisiana, Charleston,SC, southern and western Mississippi, the gulf coast of Alabama, and parts of eastern Texas. When I use the term, it means that I have gotten something unexpected and really welcome for no additional effort on my part. Your reading this is lagniappe. I hope someone does something equally nice for you.
A Short History of the Moravian Church
A Short History of the Moravian Church was written in 1957 by the Right Rev. Herbert Spaugh. It was initially updated in 1996 by the Rev. Dr. Worth Green, and revised several times since. Posted to the web immediately after its revision, it has been viewed by as many as 1,200 people in a single month. It is a work in progress. Please contact Dr. Green with any corrections or suggestions for improvement.