Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 20th

Eph 1:19 That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he [God] exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

This Sunday marks the end of the Church year, and does so with another ‘thematic’ approach: “Christ the King.” The best write-up I’ve ever encountered on this feast comes from the Roman Catholic “Days of the Lord” series. This very thorough treatment is a bit long to quote here, so instead I’ll quote the statement found in the 2002 Year A Sundays/Seasons book:

“Christ the King” is a johnny-come-lately to the schedule of festivals and observances on the church calendar. It has neither the biblical warrant of Easter nor the antiquity of the forty days of Lent. Christ the King Sunday I the invention of a 20^th century Pope, Pius XI. Yet Christ the King Sunday is on the calendars of all of the Protestant churches that keep a church calendar. No doubt the appeal of the day is rooted in the need Pius XI saw in 1925. Europe was still reeling from World War I, and economic uncertainty abounded. People were bending the knee and doing obeisance to human saviors and political parties that promised to rescue them. Religion was increasingly relegated to the private sphere. In response to this, Pius XI called for an annual Sunday feast day to assert the kingship of our Savior. The observance of Christ the King proclaimed that no earthly ruler or power is LORD. The day proclaimed Jesus is king not only of our hearts and our private moments and personal salvation, but of all time and space.

With this in mind, even though the gospel reading of the day is the JUDGMENT scene of the separation of the sheep & goats, I like these verses from the day’s second reading in Ephesians as the basis for our meditation.

One of the things that really stands out to me in this passage is the tense of the verbs. Everything that St. Paul is talking about has ALREADY HAPPENED. Very often we as Christians tend to think of ourselves as “left behind” and alone in the enemy territory of the world. Jesus **WILL come again to judge the living & the dead, but right now it’s a free-for-all & it’s all just spinning out of control. This passage from Ephesians begs to differ. Jesus is already reigning: (a) by the power of God, vs 19; and (b) over every possible earthly rule, power or authority, vs 20.

The problem right now is that Jesus’ reign does not represent the ONLY power in the world. And this brings us to a profound irony: one would think that if the Christians simply banded together and DEFEATED all of the other powers in a military pre-emptive strike…and forcibly Christianized the entire world, that this would somehow make the reign of Christ more visible, real, and good. It wouldn’t. Every example of ‘ChristenDOM’ history has ever known has been a corrupt perversion of the reign of Christ. Clearly the thing to do is LET HIM REIGN HIS WAY.

How is that? Well, we need to remember what he said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” He’s not the type of king, and his kingdom isn’t the type of kingdom that uses the world’s regular tools. His kingdom isn’t based on the power of the sword, but rather on the power of the Gospel. If the church has a call to mission in furthering Christ’s kingdom, it is NOT to pick up the sword and conquer the earthly powers in his name, it is rather to pick up the GOSPEL and conquer the world with the LOVE of Christ. American Christianity in particular seems to have largely forgotten this.

The other thing that stands out to me from this text is the use of the word POWER. As the biblical exegetes frequently note, in the Greek the word is ‘dunamis’…it’s the word we get our “dynamite” from. Paul says that it’s this dynamite power of God that raised Jesus from the dead that has seated him at God’s right hand and declared him ruler of all. But it’s also the same power that has worked in our lives via baptism; and empowers us to live godly lives. In short, the POWER that raised Christ & made him King over all is the same POWER that drives the Gospel and will ultimately ensure its victory.

cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sun Nov 13th

Matthew 25:14 "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.' 21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 22 "The man with two bags of gold also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.' 23 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 24 "Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' 26 "His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 " 'Take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For those who have will be given more, and they will have an abundance. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

So, having completed our side-stops of Reformation Sunday and All Saints Sunday, we're now back in the Gospel of Matthew, and back with another parable.

On first glance, this parable would appear to be fortuitous as we (and so many other churches) steam toward "STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY".... always traditionally held around Thanksgiving week. As a brief aside, the topic of why have a stewardship drive in Autumn was recently raised at the circuit conference I attend. The consensus from our more seasoned clergy was that it all went back to Harvest. It really wasn't that long ago when the ebb and flow of personal economies for most people had a LOT to do with where they stood at the harvest time of year...and so it was that time of year when they felt most-able to pledge whatever for the Church. Fair enough.

And then comes this reading about the Master/Lord who gives "talents" (the original word in the text) to his servants...which sounds like a term right out of the time/treasure/talent stewardship motif, and the passage seems to fit like a glove for a stewardship sermon.

Let's PRO/CON that idea:

PROs:

-- vs 14 The Master entrusted his wealth to them. We sing it well in the old hymn of the church: "all things come OF THEE, O Lord, and OF THINE OWN have we given thee. The easiest thing in the world for us is to FORGET that all of our blessings come from God. Too often we credit ourselves, our work ethic, or foresight, our training, our moral living, etc. etc. etc. as reasons why we're not in the same dire financial/economic straits as others. This is PRIDE; arrogance; and an offense even against the 1st commandment. In this parable the servants have NOTHING that has not been entrusted to them by their master.

-- vs 15 The Master entrusts his good gifts to us equitably, but not evenly...which makes sense. He gives: each according to his ability. In other words, Jesus doesn't expect MORE out of us than what he already knows we're capable of. This fits very nicely with the typical stewardship motif. FAITHFULNESS, not miracle-working, is all the Lord requires.

--vs 15b The Master/Lord leaves for a protracted period of time; Then he went on his journey. Stewardship is about faithfulness in the INTERIM. It's also about TURNS. During his earthly ministry it was Jesus' turn to be the focal point. Now that he has ascended into heaven--but not yet returned--it is the turn of his faithful ones to minister on his behalf; it is their turn to demonstrate their commitment to his teaching; it is their turn to, simply, demonstrate their commitment.

--vs 16 There is a job to do, there is work to be done, as a matter of FAITHFULNESS. vs 16 says the 1st servant put the talents/bags of gold to work; by implication, the second servant also did. Very often this is a part of The Faith that we forget. Christianity, however, is NOT A PHILOSOPHY. It's not a set of principles that we adopt at the cognitive level. It is first and foremost A PRACTICE; a WAY OF LIFE; A DISCIPLINE; AN ORDER; An example of the difference I'm attempting to make, goes like this: (a) there are LOTS of hobbyists out there who can tell you anything you want to know about Army history; battles won & lost; historical data on weapons & development, etc. etc. etc. And then there are (b) people who PUT ON THE UNIFORM and serve. In baptism we are given the uniform....and the assumption is that we will keep it on & serve a lifetime enlistment.

--vs 19 We will have to give an account to Christ one day as to how we appropriated the time/treasure/talent he blessed us with. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. In the creeds we talk about how he will come again to judge the living and the dead. There are multiple aspects to Christ's judgment, however. There is the judgment of whether we are in The Faith; Have we accepted or rejected the Gospel? That is obviously the most important question of judgment. But it's not the only one. There's also the question of discipleship/faithfulness. How and to what extent did we demonstrate our faithfulness to Christ's kingdom as opposed to the kingdom of this world? In a lot of ways it's a simple question of mathematics. You should be able to show it on a balance sheet. What's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? The believer's balance sheet should clearly reflect the DIVERSION of his/her time/talent/treasure toward the Kingdom of God.

So....

Wow. It's a slam dunk. This passage is clearly all about stewardship & is tailor-made for stewardship time of year. Except.... there is a fairly major CON to be considered:

CON:

-- vs 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Probably the biggest 'con' for the argument that this is a strict time/talent/treasures stewardship passage is found in the JUDGMENT scene of the person who didn't multiply the Master/Lord's money. In other words, if in the parable the Master/Lord = Jesus; the servants = Christians and the bags of gold = time/treasure/talents that Christ gives to all based on abilities, then the parable ends with someone LOSING HIS SALVATION and being CONDEMNED TO HELL because he didn't pledge as much as he could've on Stewardship Sunday... or because he didn't volunteer to help put up the church's Christmas lights; or because he didn't volunteer to sing in the choir.

Now of course SOME might think that's just the sort of 'shot in the arm' a good stewardship drive needs! Threaten people with hell fire & damnation in order to motivate them to give. How 'bout a little FIRE, Scarecrow?!? And while it might be nice at one level to have the 'benefits' of more "dedicated" people around, and perhaps a smaller deficit in the treasurer's report, this particular exposition of the text does serious harm to the GOSPEL. And there are PLENTY of plain-language portions of the Bible that teach and repeat that the Gospel of salvation is offered FREELY. Condemnation is based on rejection of Jesus Christ, and that alone.

In that sense, my thoughts about this passage going in would have to conclude that the third servant is not condemned because of his lack of generous pledging to the church; because of his poor or mis-management of his time/treasure/talents.

It is, however, still a matter of "stewardship"... if you look at it a certain way.

One of the reasons the TNIV uses "bags of gold" rather than the older/traditional unit of 'talents' is that it wants to impress upon us THE IMMENSE VALUE of the stuff in the story that the Master has given out. Either these "servants" in the text are the equivalent of 'treasury secretaries' for local potentiates, or the parable is using immense hyperbole. Scholars tell us that ONE Talent was the equivalent of 20yrs labor for the basic day-laborer receiving 1 denarius a day. Hence, the ONE talent, TWO talents, and FIVE talents distributed by the master are immense sums. Sometimes the point of a bible story in using immense or hyperbolic sums is to illustrate that, in reality, the thing under discussion is....in the words of our Mastercard commercials: PRICELESS.

What if...

What if the "TALENTS" apportioned to each servant according to their 'abilities' is rather a metaphor for GRACE/SALVATION? Grace is grace, but our need for it is not uniform. Some most certainly need more than others--which accounts for the varying amount given. Continuing on, the first two servants RESPOND to the grace given them by PRACTICING THEIR FAITH; by doing those things that now come most natural to them. But not the third servant; That servant is not interested in RESPONDING to what has been given; that servant is not interested in PRACTICING what has been given. Instead, he buries it in the ground AND WALKS AWAY. OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND.

This accounts for the severe judgment that awaits him, for as I always say, there is NO GOSPEL behind door #2.

And in the end, this also brings the question of "stewardship" down to its most important question.... what will you do with the grace of the Gospel that has been given you?

cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 6th

Rev 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 'Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,' nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water.' 'And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

1John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

This coming Sunday is another designated Sunday, another thematic Sunday, another festival Sunday.....ALL SAINTS SUNDAY.

The day itself occurs on November 1st (October 31st being "All Hallow's Eve, aka Halloween), but we routinely transfer the celebration of the festival to the nearest Sunday so as to give it our maximum attention in worship.

There are a LOT of things that could be said about All Saints day. The celebration of the saints, and the belief therein has made it into the language of the Church not just in scripture passages like those cited above (and there are many more), but also in the creeds (we believe...in the communion of saints) and also in our basic communion liturgy (therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven). Taken together, our scriptures, our creeds, our liturgy, clearly we can say that the concept of saints/sainthood is big on the radar screen of the Church.

One of the things that I appreciate about both the day and the readings appointed for the day is the emphasis on both THEM and US.

THEM: (Rev 7)... Every time I visit with a family to plan a funeral service for a loved one that has just passed away, it isn't long before the question of "I hope they're ok"....comes up. As parents we typically go through this sort of thing the first time we drop our child off at daycare or preschool. As we're driving away, we utter a little prayer that they'll be ok... that everything will work out alright... that they'll like it there... that they'll enjoy it... that they'll be safe, etc. etc. These are precisely the sentiments we express in our prayers of commendation:

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your 
servant N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of 
your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your 
own redeeming. Receive him/her into the arms of your mercy, 
into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the 
glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
 
May his/her soul and the souls of all the departed, through the 
mercy of God, rest in peace.

The beauty of Rev 7 (and other passages) is that it tells us that our prayers are ANSWERED. They are 'alright' there. All is well for them there. They haven't ceased to exist; they haven't lost their identity; they have being, purpose, joy, and all in the presence of their Savior. And of all of those verses in Rev 7, vs 17 is probably the most meaningful for us as we contemplate those we know personally who have died in the faith: For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water.' 'And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. NO TEARS. They are happy.

But as I mentioned earlier, there is not only a "THEM" aspect to our All Saints celebration, there is also an...

US: (1John). In this short, but dense, passage the author tells us that even if we can't quite grasp what lies ahead, it's going to be great when we get there. For now we live in a reality of partial-revelation. We have the label of "children of God"... and we're living in the present reality of being children of God, yet there remains a fuller and more complete revelation yet to come: But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In that sense, our All Saints celebration is about the great heroes of the faith and about our loved ones who've gone on before us in the faith, but it's not SIMPLY about that. It's also about the fact that WE'RE HEADED THERE TOO. We're on the same track. Their God is OUR GOD. Their Savior is OUR SAVIOR. Their hope is OUR HOPE.

Do we always live this perfectly? Are we always hoping in the hope perfectly? Are we always able to keep our doubts & questions in check perfectly? Of course not. We have all of the struggles that come with being in our present state of imperfection--which includes (in no small part) the arrows of doubt & disbelief hurled at us by The Enemy. Here it bears remembering that what makes the Saints Saintly was not their perfection, but rather their persistence. That's what the author of 1John means when he says; All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. "Purifying oneself" is a very old concept going back to Jewish thought/custom and the idea of ritual purity. Jewish believers retained the actions of ritual purity as a matter of practicing their faith; they did these things as a matter of LIVING, and MAKING PRESENT, and OBJECTIFYING the living faith that was in their hearts. So often we hear people mistakenly say: I don't need to go to church in order to believe in God; I don't need to worship with others in order to believe in God; I don't need this or that in order to believe in God. They mistakenly believe that FAITH can exist just fine in the circular vacuum of their heart. This is a TOTALLY FOREIGN concept to each and every generation of worshiping people the Bible presents. FAITH, in order to stay alive, needs to be practiced. Celebrations like ALL SAINTS remind us that we're not just practicing our faith for a present 'benefit,' but that there remains yet a glorious future reality when ALL of God's people will be gathered together in the New Creation... where seeing our Savior will mean being just like him...FOREVER!

cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Oct 30th

Jer 31:31 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbors, or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Rom 3:21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the "law" that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Hurray, it's Reformation Sunday again (upcoming this weekend)! The triumph of Luther! The triumph of Protestantism! The triumph of "German-ness!"

Of course none of that is true. With the yearly festival of the Reformation we must always admit that for every gain, there was great loss.

Yet, the Reformation remains a festival of the Church worth celebrating--especially when one keeps the focus on GOD, on his WORD, and especially on his power and commitment to continually rescue and renew.

It is that aspect of God's love and his commitment to us that has been on my mind lately as I've begun another year of teaching confirmation class. One cannot teach the Genesis story of creation and the fall into sin without being struck by God's commitment to rescue and renew. God tells Adam & Eve in Gen 2:17 that they must not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, for the day you eat thereof, you will surely die. And then, of course, THEY EAT! And what follows is The Fall.

As a person who tries to take the Bible seriously, I am frequently amazed at how often the effects of The Fall are either underplayed or ignored. Frequently The Fall is used as a simple category whereby to discuss humankind's penchant for sin. It **is that. But it's so much more. It is nothing short of the FALL of the cosmos! When God pronounces the string of 'curses' upon Adam & Eve in chapter 3, he is relating to them what has already happened or begun to happen as a result of their choice to disobey him. It is much like a parent telling his/her child that since they left the milk out of the refrigerator, it has gone sour and there will be no cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning.

When I explain, or at least attempt to explain, the COSMIC IMMENSITY of the Fall to a confirmation class, I liken it to a science project for school....the proverbial Peter Brady volcano science project. If you're making that thing...and halfway through, it's not going right, what do you do? You scrap it and start all over.

The story of the Fall is the perfect example of something that started out well, but then went horribly wrong. If we wouldn't think twice about scrapping our projects and starting over, one would naturally have expected that of God. Yet he didn't. One of the greatest examples of divine love is that he didn't scrap his project and start all over. He continued to work with the mess that WE CREATED.

Ok, great..... what does that have to do with the Reformation, and more importantly, themes for our Reformation Sunday meditation? Just this... as I ponder the work of God for us, I'm constantly reminded of (and astounded by) God's dedication to RENEWAL.... and Reformation at its best is all about God and renewal.

Of course the Genesis story mentioned above illustrates that. Our first parents destroyed, but God renewed--offering them hope and salvation (Gen 3:15) instead of his threatened sentence of death. But God's dedication to RENEWAL spans the entire bible. I don't often do this, but since Reformation Sunday is a thematic day, I've pulled from all three of the day's readings to illustrate this.

JEREMIAH: Never was there a more unappreciated (and ignored) prophet than Jeremiah. His message was always negative; always of 'doom & gloom.' Judah, God's people, had repeatedly flouted their covenant responsibilities and relationship--and God's judgment at the hands of the neo-Babylonian Empire awaited them. Yet, even this prophet of doom and gloom had a message of hope and RENEWAL for the people. Once again, even though the 'science project' was ruined, God wasn't going to scrap it. There would be a tomorrow. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, says God through the prophet. What? Israel? Hadn't they made such a shambles of things up to this point? YES. But God is the God of RENEWAL.

ROMANS: One of the difficulties of reading the New Testament--and particularly St. Paul--is that we do so today through the extremely cloudy lens of 2,000 years of history separating us from him--as well as our received Protestant theology that tends to interpret everything Paul says in the narrow understanding of the 16th century debates between Protestants and Catholics. Hence, when Paul talks about "works of the Law," it is traditional in Protestant circles to assume he's talking about "good deeds," like shoveling the sidewalk for the little old lady who lives next to us--and whether or not these deeds are "necessary for salvation." This is unfortunate, for in so doing we often entirely miss the point that St. Paul is trying to make.

Paul's biggest and greatest message was to trumpet the MYSTERY and the COMPLETION OF THE MYSTERY that in Christ God had begun a NEW THING. God had completely done away with the covenant distinction separating Jew from Gentile. Paul taught that since Messiah has come, the mark of the covenant was no longer ETHNIC. It's now open to ALL. And the sign of the covenant is now FAITH. This is the "new thing" that has been made known. And so building on this theme of God being the God of Renewal for Reformation Sunday, we see that not only did God not give up on CREATION, not only did God not give up on his traditional covenant people (from Jer), but in Romans we see that God hasn't given up on all of humanity--but offers salvation's renewal to all, by FAITH.

JOHN: The biggest thing we get from the day's gospel reading is the idea of the now-not-yet. Holding to Christ's truth will set one free. God's RENEWING activity among us is a work in progress. For some, this is a downer. It's easy to look around at the greed, the human irresponsibility, the injustice and inequities in our land (to say nothing of the whole world) and lament that things are such a mess. Where is God? Why has God allowed such injustice to flourish? God is right where he always is; amongst us in His Word & Sacraments; amongst us as the Body of Christ, His Church. He has not defected. Yet, to be sure, in our age--just as in EVERY AGE--there is great need for reformation and renewal. A predominant theme for us this and EVERY Reformation Sunday is the repetition of the theme that the job is not yet done. More reform..... more of GOD'S RENEWAL is needed among us.

THEN & NOW: One of the biggest reasons for the 16th century reformation of the Church had to do with the sale of indulgences: the complete misappropriation of the Church's central message, the Gospel. Today, in our land, the misappropriation of the Church's central message isn't occurring through the sale of indulgences, but it is occurring at some level. In large part the Church of today in our land has become just as corrupt and just as drunk with power as the medieval Roman Church. Political alliances are made; "voters guides" are issued, and the faithful are repeatedly pummeled with messages that trumpet American nationalistic themes of free-market capitalism, national interests of "defense" (aka bending the world to our wishes), and loyal support of totally corrupt corporate and banking systems. THE GOSPEL of Jesus Christ in many "churches" is nearly as hidden and obscure today as it was in the 16th century--and the "Church" as a whole, has been silenced as a voice of opposition to the Kingdom of This World. And make no mistake, 21st century America is every bit as much a part of the Kingdom of This World as every other secular, corrupt, greedy, power-brokering, ruthless, tyrannical, kingdom that humankind ever invented.

"Hordes of devils [indeed] fill the land, all threatening to devour us." And yet, the message of the Reformation, the message of GOD'S COMMITMENT TO RENEWAL goes on & is for us still to this day: "God's word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes, who fear it; For God himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit."

Cheers,

TM