Pastor Will Weedon has written an excellent post again. If for some strange reason you read my blog but not his, go and read what he has to say. Especially if you are a pastor, and particularly if you are not.
Mon 23 Apr 2012
For His Name’s Sake
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Sermon
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Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church
Misericordia Domini (Third Sunday of Easter)
22 April 2012
(Audio recording available here: OSLC Sermon Downloads
Text: Psalm 23; John 10:11–16
We are always in danger when we come to texts we know and love well to be lulled into a sense of comfortable familiarity. Today, we are in particular danger, since we have before us perhaps the best loved of all passages in the Bible together with the image of Jesus of which most of us are especially fond. So before we focus on what God’s Word is telling us about the Good Shepherd, we need to clear away some misconceptions.
Most of all, I would like you to forget all those lovely pictures and paintings of Jesus smiling gently with a lamb over His shoulders or, worse still, in His arms, smiling into the distance or in the direction of the onlooker. This romantic Good Shepherd is always dressed in freshly laundered white linen and carefully groomed: He is a comforting figure for children, Jesus’ little lambs, to contemplate, and we adults tend to get a warm, fuzzy feeling when we think of this Jesus. You wouldn’t mind entrusting your sheep to Him, together with your toddler, pet rabbit and hamster.
Comforting, perhaps. But this Good Shepherd would be utterly unrecognisable to king David and to those over ten centuries who sang his Psalm, ‘The LORD is my shepherd’. A clean, tidy, middle-class-looking shepherd is about as realistic as a besuited miner emerging from the pits squeaky-clean. Anyone who lived outdoors and handled sheep on a regular basis would look and smell like someone who lived outdoors and handled sheep on a regular basis. It was a rough job for rough men. The young David had to fight off bears and lion in order to guard his father’s sheep. That made him a good shepherd, but it didn’t make him a poster-boy for chic and serene male beauty. You wouldn’t want him at your dinner table, not before he’d had a thorough bath and a stint at finishing school.
Sun 15 Apr 2012
Hearing Is Believing
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under John, Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Sermon
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Sermon preached on Quasimodo Geniti (Second Sunday of Easter)
Text: John 20:19–31 (Ezekiel 37:1–14 1 John 5:4–10 )
15 April 2012
Our Saviour Lutheran Church
Fareham
It’s one of my favourite paintings, and as far as I know one of the best known of Caravaggio’s many masterpieces: Doubting Thomas. Jesus is revealing the wound in His side, with an expression of patient endurance, with perhaps a tinge of pain. Thomas has his forefinger in the wound, with a look of utter astonishment painted with perfect realism on his face, while two other disciples look on. Caravaggio captures with extraordinary skill the moment of belief, when Thomas is forced to believe against all his better knowledge what the other disciples had already told him: Jesus really is alive. But he would carry forever the title of Doubting Thomas, because it is more blessed to believe when you haven’t seen, yet he only believed when he saw.
But as I have often said, the epithet ‘Doubting’ is not really fair on Thomas. It makes it sound like he is somehow inferior to the other disciples, a lesser apostle, perhaps even a deficient sort of man. There are those good people who believe without seeing, and then there are the thomases who need evidence. When in reality he wasn’t Doubting Thomas but Everyman Thomas. He really believed, as we really believe, that seeing is believing. That, if in doubt, you need to verify what you hear with the other four senses.
Now, this may be a sound principle in some situations, but it makes for very poor theologians—and under that heading, I include all who claim to know anything about God. Indeed, the very misery of mankind for which Christ died and rose again began with seeing as the instrument of believing. God had said to Adam that he may eat of every tree in the garden, but on the day that he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. But because the snake promised Eve that her eyes would be opened by the eating, Eve looked at the tree and she “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate”.
Tue 3 Apr 2012
Here we go again!
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Our Saviour Lutheran Church
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Tomorrow morning, 33 children will descend on the Scout Hall that serves as our church building on Sundays and other select dates. For the second Holy Week running, we are hosting a one-day Children’s Activity Club.
This year’s theme is Alive! Through story-telling and song, we will go over the events of Good Friday and Easter, focusing on the key question: why would Jesus do all that? Answer: he did it for me.
And we’ll have plenty of time for relevant and irrelevant crafts, games and other fun.
It’s always exhausting, but above all it’s great fun, and a great opportunity to engage with the young people of the area.
We always pray that the seed sown in these clubs will take root and bear fruit in God’s good time.
You can pray that, too! Thanks.
Mon 26 Mar 2012
Eating and Eating
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Lord's Supper
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Listening to an outstanding sermon (mp3, in Finnish) by the Rev. Markus Pöyry, a very gifted young pastor serving a Luther Foundation congregation in Finland is to blame for the following:
I wrote this post quite some time ago about my misgivings concerning the term ‘spiritual eating’ to refer to the reception of the promise of Christ in faith. The Formula of Concord, the last of the Lutheran confessions, make this a key distinction, possibly following Martin Chemnitz (my education is patchy!). Luther refers to this, but as far as I know, it wasn’t a key idea in his system.
My problem with this kind of language is this: it creates far too much room for receptionism (both of the Anglican and the Lutheran types), and poses the danger of diminishing the importance of the physical eating of the physical sacrament.
Of course, there is a biblical root for the idea of spiritual eating: John 6. Jesus appears to use the language of eating as a metaphor for faith in him. And in the Lutheran exegetical tradition, the whole of John 6 has been understood as referring to faith in Christ rather than the sacrament, for a number of reasons which I won’t rehearse here.
However, there is a problem: the language of Jesus. For part of John 6, Jesus speaks of eating using the generic term esthiō. However, when the argument between Jesus and the Jews gets heated, he switches verbs to trōgō, which means to ‘chew, munch, masticate’. It’s physical, concrete, bodily activity.
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat (esthiō) the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on (trōgō) my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.”
When things begin to fall apart and disciples begin to desert Him, Jesus has plenty of opportunities to correct the misunderstanding. “Hey, calm down, I was talking about spiritual eating.” But He doesn’t.
And the rule of thumb is: if Jesus says something, we should pay close attention. When the word is ‘munch’, teeth are involved.
(This is also why I have little time for the pious suggestion that it is irreverent to chew the host. Jesus didn’t seem to think so, and while I may be holier than thou, I don’t want to be holier than Him.)
Given that the notion of spiritual eating is a mainstay in classical Reformed teaching, and as such a method of writing out the spiritual benefit of the physical eating of the body and blood of the Lord, I really do think we do better to use more direct and unambiguous language.
Sat 24 Mar 2012
Confessional Lutheran Pastor Defrocked in Sweden
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Church, Church of Sweden, Mission Province
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HT: Chris Barnekov of Scandinavia House
Leading Swedish Confessional Pastor Defrocked for Support of Mission Province
The consistory of Lund Diocese has declared Pastor Jan-Erik Appell no longer authorized to serve as a pastor in the Church of Sweden. Pastor Appell is retired after nearly 40 years of faithful service. A complaint was filed by an anonymous accuser over his current service on behalf of a Mission Province congregation in Kristianstad, in the southern Sweden’s Skåne (Scania) province. The decision, rendered March 14 was published yesterday, March 22. Pastor Jan-Erik Appell is chairman of the board of Kyrkliga Förbundet (The Church Federation), which sponsors the Lutheran School of Theology in Gothenburg, the Gothenburg Lutheran High school, the Confessional weekly magazine Church and People, and other leading Confessional Lutheran institutions in Sweden.
Sun 4 Mar 2012
Hanging on like a pig to a loaf
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Matthew, NT, Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Sermon
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Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Fareham, on Reminiscere Sunday, 4 March 2012. You can listen to the audio here.
Readings: Genesis 32:22–32 1 Thessalonians 4:1–7 Matthew 15:21–28
The Christian faith has recently been in the media more than usual. In addition to the usual disparaging voices by various loud atheists, several benign outsiders have come to the defence of the faith. Newspaper columnists and even one atheist philosopher have given their support to the positive effects of religion in general and the Christian faith in particular—at least in its tolerant and woolly mainstream Anglican forms. At first glance, this is a nice change from the usual cynicism and scepticism. However, the party was very quickly spoiled by the atheist Times columnist and former politician Matthew Parris. He argued convincingly that these new defenders of the faith were hardly desirable company for genuine Christians. Above all, they want a social Christianity for the sake of social harmony and stability, without Jesus. Although he does not believe in the teachings of the church, Parris argued that it’s hard to doubt the existence of Jesus of Nazareth for the simple reason that if he did not exist, the church would never have made him up. Jesus is far too disturbing and unlikely a character to have been fabricated by people who were out to invent a religion out of their own heads.
There are few Bible passages that confirm Matthew Parris’ judgement better than today’s Gospel. How many times have you heard of, and told others about, the loving Jesus who does not turn away those who turn to Him? Of the loving Jesus who fulfilled the prophet’s word about not destroying a broken reed or snuffing out smouldering wick? The one who came to care especially the weak, the powerless, and the outcasts? You can imagine someone inventing a Jesus like that. But it’s hard to imagine anyone inventing a Jesus who ignores a woman who personifies the powerless and weak, who in her desperation turns to Him for help. And when He finally does open His mouth to reply to her, we hear these harsh words that have caused so much embarrassment for Jesus’ subsequent disciples: “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs.”
(more…)
Sun 19 Feb 2012
Believing is seeing
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Luke, NT, Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Sermon
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Sermon preached at Our Saviour Lutheran Church on Quinquagesima Sunday, 19 Feb 2012 (typos and all).
You can listen to the sermon on the Our Saviour website.
******
Seeing is believing. So we are told, and so we feel. We find it easiest to believe that which we can see, because who could doubt what is before their own eyes. That’s why there are some areas of human knowledge that are more frequently disputed than others. No one is capable of doubting the roundness of the earth these days, since we have all seen the photos from space. On the other hand, when it comes to the theory of evolution or man-made global warming, we have to rely on the word of scientists, since the evidence is not something we can easily verify by our eyes. And so there are sceptics as well as believers. Because seeing is believing.
But in order to see properly, you need the right kind of eyes looking at the right thing. Faulty or impaired vision prevents you from seeing things as they are, and you are left in ignorance. Likewise, even with 20:20 vision you can be left in the dark if you don’t know what to look for, or if you are looking at the wrong thing. How many people have suffered needlessly when physicians have failed to diagnose correctly their illness, not from any incompetence but because they were looking for the wrong thing? How many scientific discoveries were missed or delayed because the scientists failed to recognise the facts that were staring them in the face? Or in more mundane settings, how many times have you failed to recognise a friend simply because you didn’t expect them to be there at that time? If it is true that seeing is believing, it is also true that much of the time we see what we expect to see. That’s the secret behind the art of magicians and camofleurs alike.
Fri 17 Feb 2012
On megastars and small-time ministers
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Church
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The entire congregation of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, plus visitors. I'm not a megastar.
As has become well known, Mark Driscoll has managed to be very rude about Christian ministers in the UK. The essence of his criticism is that there are no nationally famous young “Bible teachers” in this country, and so we are a lot of cowards who aren’t telling the truth.
I have no doubt that there are plenty of cowards who aren’t telling the truth here, as anywhere. I suspect one or two may even be lurking in Washington State (Driscoll works in Seattle). But I would contend that the proportion of cowards amongst the anonymous small-timers is unlikely to be significantly higher than amongst the megastar peers of Driscoll.
In fact, in the light of what the Bible has to say about the nature of sin, I would even contend that cowardice is positively helpful if you want to be famous and grow a large church. It is the coward who preaches to itching ears what they want to hear, often becoming popular in the process. It is the coward who can only believe in the veracity of his message and the genuineness of his call if it is affirmed by the approval of crowds.
By contrast, it takes great courage to preach sin and salvation in a culture that doesn’t believe in the former or the need for the latter, and to be condemned to unpopularity or (even worse) oblivion. It takes great courage to confess the reality of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church”, which the gates of hell cannot overcome, when leading a dwindling and ageing congregation. It takes great courage to be a small-time nonentity, faithful to the Lord and His flock, because there is nothing else to commend it than the promises of God’s word.
[Disclaimer: I'm not making any claims here about whether or not Mark Driscoll himself is a coward. Only that he's both wrong-headed and wrong on this point.]
Tue 10 Jan 2012
Iran Pastor Likely to Remain in Jail Another Year
Posted by Tapani Simojoki under Persecution
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We continue to pray for Pr. Yousef Nadarkhani, imprisoned and facing the death penalty in Iran. Here is an update on his situation:
An Iranian court is likely to delay its verdict in a case concerning Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who is facing death penalty for converting to Christianity, to allow authorities to further coerce him to convert to Islam as he remains in jail.
The evangelical pastor’s lawyer has learned that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has asked the presiding judge over the trial, Ghazi Kashani, to delay the pending judgment and keep him in prison for another year, Present Truth Ministries said in a statement Thursday.
Nadarkhani, a 32-year-old house church leader from the Church of Iran denomination, was convicted of apostasy last year and was sentenced to death by hanging. However, the Supreme Court of Iran asked for the retrial of his case by a lower court in the city of Rasht in northern Gilan Province.
The deliberate delay is meant to let the case “slip away from international attention” even as the authorities continue to “use whatever means necessary to cause him to convert to Islam,” said Jason DeMars, the founder of the ministry that was first to report on the pastor’s arrest two years ago.
Read the rest of the article here:
Iran Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani Likely to Remain in Jail Another Year, Christian News.
