"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008 | |||
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Humble Folk | |||
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We approach the Sunday on which we will celebrate All Saints
Day (November 1) this year. November 2 is actually All Souls Day in the
Catholic and Anglican calendars. I'll leave the curious to research the
distinction between the two feasts. In any case I decided not to follow the All Saints readings this year, but instead to find an All Saints theme in the assigned readings for the Sunday. Matthew 23:1-12 is a bit harsh in its condemnation of the teachers of the law and Pharisees, but it offers a great description of the humble character of God's saints. I got stuck on verse 9 a bit today. It's typically used to castigate the Roman Catholic practice of referring to clergy as "father," which Anglicans and Orthodox do as well. But if we take it with absolute literalness, we would have to hear Jesus as prohibiting the title even for our natural fathers, and in the next verse prohibiting the title "teacher" for any Christian. But that of course runs counter even to Protestant practice. It's clear that people in the New Testament church were known as teachers and there are a couple clear instances of New Testament writers using the term "father" without qualm. Paul did so in I Corinthians 4:15. Thus the stricture against these titles is not an absolute rule, but a rhetorical device aimed at the kind of spirit of equality and brotherhood (verse 8) which is to exist in the Christian community. It does not mean there are no leaders, teachers or authorities in the church, but that when these positions are held they are to be places of service rather than places from which to command honor. Now, let us all tremblingly pray for God to teach us those hard lessons which lead to real humility. In the meantime we can be inspired (and humbled) by considering the examples of humility that have been given to us in saints and martyrs who've gone before. | |||
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Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
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