Ziklag 3.12

Truth begets understanding.

A text message sent to my circuit brothers upon entirely missing our monthly meeting this morning:

I was planning to make it this morning for a brief time, but Lent is truly holding my toes to the fire this year. I pray you all are seeing the blessings of the Spirit in your midst as we are. As dark as the world gets, the Light of Scripture opens doors and moves mountains. This week, David has inspired me with his words to Achish, King of Gath, “ You know what your servant can do.” Oh, what confidence in all circumstances belongs to those who know that they come against their enemies in the name of Jesus. A sling, a stone, and a promise which was only a taste of the glories we each inherit in Baptism. 

Blessings to you all on your Lententide. Now is not the time to shrink back. Now is not the time for silence. The Kingdom of Jesus is always on offense. Don’t be surprised when he is a scandal to the reprobate. Trust that in the darkest hour, the answers to all your earnest prayers shall rise with healing in his wings. 

SOS Discipline - Daily Proverb and Red Letter Reader

Truth begets understanding. Expectations are a cancer. cf Pr. 28:7

If you bought it here, it’s going to break here. cf Mt 6:19

There is a threefold ruin: 1. To advance in weakness, to retreat in strength, to hobble oneself; 2. To treat war on principle, to fight by assumption, to perplex oneself; 3. To command by question, to exercise by committee, to lead with doubt. cf Sun Tzu 3.19-22

From Today’s Stack

Constitution Talk from SP815

Last week we looked at part A of the article on Membership at SP815. This week we zero in on point B.

Article 4.B: Those who desire communicant membership and pastoral care are to request cousel with the pastor(s). Upon satisfaction regarding (1) Trinitarian Baptism, (2) fidelity to Scripture, (3) commitment to the Catechism and its Table of Duties, (4) willingness to accept congregational guidance and fraternal admonition according to Matthew 18, (5) renunciation of syncretistic orders and secret societies, (6) and commitment to ongoing financial and volunteer contributions according to their means, the pastor(s) are to notify the elders of such evidence. The elders are to seek recognition of membership at a voting assembly.

Where point A defines what the congregation may expect from each other as members, point B defines what the pastor(s) may expect from the members as the flock of Christ. Truly, the reason to join a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation is because you desire to be held accountable to these items. You want to go to Church with people who want to go to a Church with people who live and believe and act like this.

We at SP815 are people:

• Baptized into the name of Jesus Christ according to Matthew 28.

• trusting in the Bible as God’s holy and inspired Word without reservation.

• committed to the doctrine of the Reformation as handed down to us by our fathers in history.

• seeking accountability, fraternity and integrity in community.

• severing ties with darkness and guile.

• willing to sacrifice and suffer together for our trust in the Kingdom.

This article also assumes the role of the Pastor as different from the role of the People. But remember, if you haven’t read the Augsburg Confession or the Table of Duties, then those things are far more important than our constitution. It is those documents which found the substance of our purpose. In the Book of Concord, pastor and people are not an assumption, but a deep and consequential biblical Promise.

We also see a foreshadow of the Board of Elders and Voting Assembly, which will be defined in later articles. It’s best to just imagine the Elders as a group of the most established and committed Fathers in the congregation, and the Voting Assembly as the Town Hall Meeting. In the best of times, these are jovial affairs with a chance to potluck or shoot the breeze. In stormier weather, both groups are a bulwark against the world as it seeks to threaten God’s holy assembly in our worship services.

Notice the order then: Membership at SP815 flows from personal faith in Christ to established trust in the Lord’s Supper, and only from there to the rights and privileges of membership in the Voting Assembly. It is our Communion that Article 4 establishes in Membership, and by that we mean the eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of Christ as food to sustain our Holy Spiritual walk together. Here again, Closed Communion practice is a worthy footnote. Here, also, the proverb applies greatly:

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.