Category: Heidelberg

57   Q.   How does “the resurrection of the body
               comfort you?

A.    Not only will my soul
be taken immediately after this life
to Christ its head,^1
but also my very flesh will be
raised by the power of Christ,
reunited with my soul,
and made like Christ’s glorious body.^2

^1Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23
^2 1 Cor. 15:53-54; Job 19:25-26; 1 John 3:2; Phil. 3:21

58   Q.   How does the article
                concerning “life everlasting”
                comfort you?

A.    Even as I already now
experience in my heart
the beginning of eternal joy,^1
so after this life I will have
perfect blessedness such as
no eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no human heart has ever imagined:^2
a blessedness in which to praise God forever.^3

^1 2 Cor. 5:2-3
^2 1 Cor. 2:9
^3 John 17

In the aftermath of super typhoon Haiyan which brought devastation to my parent land of the Philippines, the following song/poem was written by our PC(USA) mission co-worker Rebecca Lawson, who serves with our ecumenical partner, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP):

A Song of Lament and Unending Hope 

“People dying, children crying—where have all the flowers gone?

Somehow we must carry on, while our souls have stopped to mourn.

We must rise up, lift our eyes up—we must not stay here too long.

Our resolve will keep us strong, our struggle is reborn.

Poor ones in a world of pain, rich ones set on selfish gain– how can our HOPE remain UNSHAKEN BY THE STORM?

Give us courage, grant us wisdom… use our hands to help and heal.

Through our acts Your LOVE revealed to people bruised and torn.

Comfort send us, caring mend us—raise Your children from despair Bound as people called to share, our struggle is reborn!”

Bishop Reuel Marigza, UCCP General Secretary, commented:

I feel that this tragedy must not deter us from our calling as Christians, whose commitment to serve is inspired by the giver of life himself, Jesus Christ. These are trying days and challenging times as well. Let us not falter nor shirk from that calling to serve, for this means also serving God, the greatest giver of all.”

In the midst of and in the aftermath of what is being designated as the strongest storm in recorded history (3.5 times stronger than Hurricane Katrina), our sisters and brothers in the Philippines face tragedy with hope, a resilience powered by faith.

Q/A 57 and 58 are far from being escapist or indifferent towards the physical world, nor an apathy towards the deep and real struggles of humanity. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal God-man, because He has risen and is ascended, the salvation which He alone has effected is complete and comprehensive. Truly, in the words of Romans 8:38-39, there is no one and nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Thus, Q/A 57 and 58 see in the benefits of the “resurrection of the body” and “life everlasting” as present realities, not distant, far-flung dreams. This is not an invitation to sit and day-dream about what paradise is or will be. Rather, the benefits of the resurrection and the life everlasting are present here and now because Jesus Christ, the Resurrected One, the One who is from everlasting to everlasting, is present with us by our union with Him through and in the Holy Spirit.

This brings comfort, and, with that, confidence, to live fully with joy in the sight of God.

My dear friend, the late Tom Gillespie, who served faithfully as the fifth president of Princeton Theological Seminary from 1983-2004, shared the following story at the commencement exercises of the Class of 2000:

Former British prime minister, William Gladstone, encountered the young son of one of his friends. The young man wanted the Prime Minister’s advice on his future career plans.

“First,” he explained, “I plan to complete my studies at Oxford.”

“Splendid,” replied the Prime Minister, “and what then?”

“Well, sir, I then plan to study the law and become a prominent barrister/lawyer.”

“Excellent,” responded Gladstone, “and what then?”

“Then I plan to stand for election and become a member of Parliament.”

“Wonderful,” said Gladstone, “and what then?”

“Then, sir, I plan to rise to prominence in the party and be appointed to a cabinet post.”

“A worthy ambition,” replied the senior statesman, “and what then?”

“O, Mr. Gladstone,” the boy blurted out a bit self-consciously, “I plan one day to become Prime Minister and serve my Queen with the same distinction as you.”

“A noble desire, young man, and what then?”

“Well, sir, I expect that in time I will be forced to retire from public life.”

“You will indeed,” replied the Prime Minister, “and what then?”

Puzzled by the question, the young man said hesitantly, “I expect then that one day I will die.”

“Yes you will, and what then?”

“I don’t know, sir, I have not thought any further than that.”

“Young man,” said Gladstone, “you are a fool. Go home and think of your life through from its end.”

Q/A 57 and 58 are invitations to live our lives through from its end. Resurrection and everlasting are in the now and what will be.  That’s what enables us to both struggle with tragedy and to struggle with hope’s promise, power and possibilities.

54   Q.   What do you believe
               concerning “the holy catholic church”?

A.    I believe that the Son of God^1
through his Spirit and Word,^2
out of the entire human race,^3
from the beginning of the world to its end,^4
gathers, protects, and preserves for himself,^5
a community chosen for eternal life^6
and united in true faith.^7
And of this community I am^8 and always will be^9
a living member.

^1 John 10:11
^2 Isa. 59:21; Rom. 1:16; 10:14, 17; Eph. 5:26
^3 Gen. 26:4
^4 Ps. 71:18; 1 Cor. 11:26
^5 Matt. 16:18; John 10:28-30; 1 Cor. 1:8
^6 Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:10-13
^7 Acts 2:46;Eph. 4:3-5
^8 1 John 3:21; 2 Cor. 13:5
^9 1 John 2:19

55   Q.   What do you understand by
               “the communion of saints”?

 A.    First, that believers one and all,
as members of this community,
share in Christ
and in all his treasures and gifts.^1

Second, that each member
should consider it a duty
to use these gifts
readily and joyfully
for the service and enrichment
of the other members.^2

^1 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:9; Rom. 8:32
^2 1 Cor.6:17;12:12-21; 13:5; Phil. 2:4-6

56   Q.   What do you believe
               concerning “the forgiveness of sins”?

A.    I believe that God,
because of Christ’s satisfaction, ^1
will no longer remember
any of my sins
or my sinful nature
which I need to struggle against all my life.^2

Rather, by grace
God grants me the righteousness of Christ
to free me forever from judgment.^3

^1 1 John 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:19, 21
^2 Jer. 31:34; Ps. 103:3, 10-12; Rom. 7:24-25; 8:1-3
^3 John 3:18

Last week, we saw in Q/A 53 that even as Reformation Day necessarily recalls the theological and ecclesiastical divisions that resulted from the 16^th century continental Reformation, the common unity effected by the Holy Spirit is comprehensive, continuous, and serves as our confidence and comfort in the triune God’s work through Christ to redeem a broken world.

Q/A 54 through 56 speaks of our common calling in being the Church, the called out community that is holy because God is holy, and which is catholic because of the broadness of God’s work and the diversity of the members of the Church.  Because we have been assured of forgiveness and redemption, we are called to offer our whole selves to the witness of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit’s work, as the work of the triune God, is not just for a person, for a me, even as the Spirit’s work is deeply personal to each of us; when God touches each of our lives, it’s always in view of bringing us into a wider community – the community of God (who is perfect community – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and the community which belongs to God (i.e. the Church).

As I write this reflection, delegates from the PC(USA) have joined several thousand Christians, communion of saints, for the 10^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, South Korea. The WCC, a fellowship of about 350 churches from six continents, offers common witness with/for about 500 million Christians from mainline Protestant, Eastern, and Orthodox traditions, as well as continuing relationship with the 1 billion member Roman Catholic Church (which holds full membership in the WCC’s Faith and Order Commission). Still yet, the WCC engages with Pentecostal traditions, other ecumenical bodies, and non-governmental organizations.  Even as I keep track of proceedings in Busan via the Web, Twitter, and Facebook from my home in New Jersey and upcoming travels to California and Kentucky, technology connects, as more decisively our common faith, common baptisms, and the common Table give powerful witness.  Added to this number, millions of others not part of the Council, but still part of the fellowship. Added to this, the communion of saints who have completed their baptismal journeys and who belong to the eternal company of the great cloud of witnesses.

While we confess our common unity that is decisive because of the triune God, we also experience deep division in the body of Christ. We in the Reformed tradition are still prohibited from sharing the Lord’s Table with our Roman Catholic and Orthodox sisters and brothers. But we can rejoice that after over 500 years of division, there is mutual recognition of our baptism between Reformed churches in the United States and the Roman Catholic Church. We in the PC(USA) have our own family divisions as congregations have been dismissed, or are in the process of being dismissed to other ecclesial contexts, even as we can confess quite confidently that the experience and visibility of division, while real and serious, do not, in any way, vitiate or diminish the unity which  the triune God has effected in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

This simultaneous confession of a body divided, a body united is not  a contradiction, but a tension which the Holy Spirit gives us faith, hope and live to live with, to pray with, and to trust in God’s work.

This is similar to Q/A 56 assuring us that forgiveness of sins has been effected by God through Christ and which the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives testifies to the complete and efficacious work of Christ, while at the same time we are continually called to confess our sins, to forgive those who trespass against us, even as we have been forgiven.  No contradiction, just a tension, in which the Holy Spirit is active, especially when the hard work of forgiving one another and forgiving ourselves need to happen.

We confess that we believe and belong in the one holy catholic church., even as we are divided, so that in our divisions we work and pray for the unity which we confess.

We confess that we believe in the communion of living saints, even as we are joined to the communion of saints who are absent from the body but present with the Lord, so that we may finish the race following the way of the Lord.

We confess that we believe in the forgiveness of sins, even as we need forgiveness ourselves and even as we need to forgive others, so that we may have a deeper and continual awareness of God’s own forgiving love.

In the tensions and ambiguities of our lives and faith, there, in the midst, at the periphery, and in the winds of the rhythms and vicissitudes of it all, the Holy Spirit is and always will be.

53   Q.   What do you believe
               concerning “the Holy Spirit”?

A.    First, that the Spirit, with the Father and the Son,
is eternal God.^1

Second, that the Spirit is given also to me,^2
so that, through true faith,
he makes me share in Christ and all his benefits,^3
comforts me,^4
and will remain with me forever.^5

^1 Gen. 1:2; Isa. 48:16; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Acts 5:3-4
^2 Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 1:21-22
^3 Gal. 3:14; 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:17
^4 Acts 9:31
^5 John 14:16; 1 Pet. 4:14

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LORD’S DAY 20 (Q/A 53)
“Hinge, Pivot, Fulcrum – On the Holy Spirit”

 
October 31 is Halloween, but, more importantly, it’s Reformation Day. Even as that day recalls the divisions that resulted within the medieval Church, it also points to division among the various Protestant factions as they, too, splintered into Lutheran, Reformed, Zwinglian strands, and even within those segments, there were further divisions along particular theological foci.  Reformation Day helps us to recall the formal cause of the continental Reformation was the doctrine of justification (salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ’s righteousness alone); the material cause was the doctrine of Scripture, resulting in an articulation that Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) is the unique and distinctive authoritative Word of God written.  I’ll reflect upon these doctrines in future sections of the Heidelberg Catechism and their applicability to the contemporary witness of the Gospel.

Martin Luther supposedly remarked that the doctrine of justification is “the article upon which the Church stands or falls.”  Anglican evangelical theologian James I. Packer described justification as the “hinge upon which everything turns.”

I think John Calvin and Karl Barth would describe the person and work of the Holy Spirit as the hinge, pivot, and fulcrum upon which all else balances. Calvin and Barth gave great emphasis to the person and work of the Holy Spirit as the person of the Godhead who unites believers to the ascended Lord and the heavenly Father, and to all of God’s people in all times and in all places. For instance, in Calvin’s own reformation of the medieval liturgy, he saw that in the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving of the Lord’s Supper, the portion called the Sursum Corda (“Lift up your hearts”)  in the dialogue:

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.

This is the portion where the Holy Spirit lifts the heart/life/faith of the gathered assembly, thereby connecting the Church, the body of Christ, to the ascended and glorified Christ.

The Reformed prayers at the Lord’s Table depends upon the Holy Spirit to bless the gathered assembly and to make the bread and cup be the communion of the body and blood of Christ.

The Holy Spirit applies the benefits of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension to believers. The Holy Spirit enables, empowers, comforts, and teaches what Jesus taught. The Holy Spirit breathed life into Christ in the deathly tomb.  St. Augustine, in attempting to describe the metaphorically the internal life of the triune God, called the Holy Spirit the love which the lover (the Father) and the beloved (the Son) share.

Recall the Heidelberg Catechism is concerned about giving comfort and confidence in our life and in our death, in body and in soul, and the basis of such comfort and confidence.  Q/A 53 is concerned with how the benefits of the redemption effected by Jesus Christ is received, lived out, sealed in our lives.

The first section of the answer to Q. 53 drives home the point that the Holy Spirit’s unity is with the heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ.  The work and witness of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the world are integrally related to that of the Father and the Son; theirs is a complete unity, uniformity, and unanimity…a perfect love.

The second section of the answer to Q. 53 emphasizes the gift of the Holy Spirit. The triune God gives the Holy Spirit, who is God.   And as gift, the Holy Spirit works in our lives for our benefit, comforting us, and abiding with us forever.  As gift, the Holy Spirit, as with the entirety of the Godhead, cannot be managed, cannot be controlled…only received. But even here, nothing of our will can negate or vitiate the determined work of the graciousness of God. The Spirit will come whether we want the Spirit to come or not; the Spirit will prompt us, will prod us. It’s in the interaction of the  Holy Spirit with us that the dynamic and authentic relationship that God desires with us and for us happens…in the messiness and beauty of life.

Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on us.
Melt us, mold us, fill us.
Spirit of the living God
Fall afresh on us.

50   Q.   Why the next words:
               “and is seated at the right hand of God”?

A.    Because Christ ascended to heaven
to show there that he is head of his church,^1
the one through whom the Father rules all things.^2

^1 Eph. 1:20-23;5:23; Col. 1:18
^2 Matt. 28:18; John 5:22

51   Q.   How does this glory of Christ our head
benefit us?

A.   First, through his Holy Spirit
he pours out gifts from heaven
upon us his members.^1

Second, by his power
he defends us and keeps us safe
from all enemies.^2

^1 Eph. 4:10
^2 Ps. 2:9;110:1-2; John 10:28; Eph. 4:8

52   Q.   How does Christ’s return
               “to judge the living and the dead”
                comfort you?

A.    In all distress and persecution,
with uplifted head,
I confidently await the very judge
who has already offered himself to the judgment of God
in my place and removed the whole curse from me.^1
Christ will cast all his enemies and mine
into everlasting condemnation, ^2
but will take me and all his chosen ones
to himself
into the joy and glory of heaven.^3

^1 Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23, 33; Phil. 3:20; Titus 2:13
^2 2 Thess. 1:6-7; 1 Thess. 4:16; Matt. 25:41
^3 Matt. 25:34

My late maternal grandmother, Purificacion Dionida, who diligently attended and taught Sunday School classes for older adults used to describe God as “the One to whom all good superlatives belong.”  If she were alive today, she would spurn the use of email or Facebook; from her little desk, she churned letters from her manual typewriter, or her preferred method: the good ol’ hand-written letter.  I recall several birthday and Christmas card/letters where she reminded me to always pray and thank God with every good superlative.

It wasn’t until I began seminary that I learned of an ancient Near East way of expressing preeminence was to compare one unit to a larger unit: king of kings, lord of lords, song of songs. That is to say, of all the kings, this king is the real deal and surpasses all others. This lord surpasses all others. King Solomon’s song is the par excellence of all songs.  Thus, superlative of superlatives.

In the last three weeks, no matter your political persuasion, there was annoyance and downright frustration at and directed towards Washington D.C. as open conflict erupted between Democrats and Republicans, factions within the Republican Party itself, between the House and Senate, and between the Congress and the White House, resulting in a government shutdown and a debt ceiling crisis that would have resulted in the U.S. government defaulting on its debts, with dire consequences for the global economy.

In the midst of the partisan gridlock, whose consequence was the furloughing of 800,000 federal employees (including a cousin of mine who worked for the Department of Energy who was told that he would be receiving an IOU), the chaplain of the U.S. Senate, Barry Black, would daily invoke the wisdom from on high. This caught the attention of The New  York Times, which on October 6 wrote a piece titled “Give Us This Day, Our Daily Scolding: Senate Chaplain Shows His Disapproval During Morning Prayer.”

Here’s what he prayed on October 3 in the Senate chamber:

Have mercy upon us, O God, and save us from the madness. We
acknowledge our transgressions, our shortcomings, our smugness, our
selfishness, and our pride. Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew
a right spirit within us. Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting
to sound reasonable while being unreasonable. Remove the burdens of
those who are the collateral damage of this government shutdown,
transforming negatives into positives as You work for the good of those
who love You.

         (Congressional Record, 113th Congress, 1st Session, vol. 159, no. 135, p. S7143)

Or this on October 4:

Today, give our lawmakers the vision and the willingness to see and
do Your will. Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagines
itself to be above and beyond criticism. Forgive them for the blunders
they have committed, infusing them with the courage to admit and
correct mistakes. Amen.

         (Congressional Record, 113th Congress, 1st Session, vol. 159, no. 136, p. S7171)

What Chaplain Black expresses and invokes upon our policymakers is what only the God of gods, the Lord of lords can do and accomplish: the humbling of hearts, minds and wills that have gone wayward, that arrogates to itself authority, ultimate authority, to determine the fate of not only the 800,000 federal workers, but 300 million Americans, and, beyond that, the economy and livelihood of nearly 7 billion. Deep down, when given the right circumstances, capacity and power to effect  one’s intentions and will, human nature likes to lord over others.  Altruistic, noble aims may be articulated, but the heart is deceitful and can quickly transform to the miry muck where, by the time we know it, we think our position, or those who have joined us, are now the superlative of superlatives…the bottom line and the top line.

Q/A 50-52 are remarkable in asserting both the ultimate and decisive lordship of Jesus Christ and the benefits that emanate from that reality. This goes against human effort – individual, collective – to control others, to lord over others.

Q/A 50 reminds us Christ is head of the Church, and through Him, God rules all things. All. Not some, not part. All.

Q/A 51 reminds us that through the Holy Spirit, Christ provides and Christ defends and protects. Not in the past tense, but continually in the present and ongoing.

Q/A 52 reminds us that Christ is the judge….judge of the heart, judge of our lives, judge of all.

Christ’s ascension, and through Him, the gift of the Holy Spirit, expresses the totality and comprehensiveness of His rule and ways.

When the nonsense of human exercise of authority results in injustice, suffering, violence, or the neglect of the poor, needy, and sick, we find our true and certain hope in the Lord Christ, who is the superlative of superlatives of all that is good and righteous.

This is far from a complacency, apathy, or indifference towards the world and the world around us. Far from it.  The Protestant Reformers were not escapists. Remember that the Heidelberg theologians were commissioned by the political leader of the Palatinate region, so the Reformed faith that was being expounded was a thorough-going public theology.

Q/A 50-52 is a stark reminder for both those who govern and those who are the governed that all works, all service – indeed every facet of our lives and our relationships – are to be done with and in the view that the triune God, through Christ, in the Spirit is the head, is the defender and protector, is the judge. And whenever our human natures inch towards or are comfortable in feeling like the superlative of superlatives, there, at the door of our hearts, and at the doorstep of every power and principality, is the ascended One, knocking, and setting us and the world properly in its place, in this life and in the life to come.

46   Q.   What do you mean by saying,
               “He ascended to heaven”?

A.    That Christ,
while his disciples watched,
was taken up from the earth into heaven^1
and remains there on our behalf^2
until he comes again
to judge the living and the dead.^3

^1 Acts 1:9; Matt. 26[:64]; Mark 16[:19]; Luke 24[:51]
^2 Heb. 4:14; 7:15[-25]; 9:11; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 4:10; Col. 3:1
^3 Acts 1:11; Matt. 24:30

47   Q.   But isn’t Christ with us
               until the end of the world
               as he promised us?^1

A.    Christ is true human and true God.
In his human nature Christ is not now on earth;^2
but in his divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit
he is never absent from us.^3

^1 Matt. 28:20
^2 Matt. 26:11; John 16:28; 17:11; Acts 3:21
^3 John 14:17[-19]; 16:13; Matt. 28:20; Eph. 4:8, 12;
also cited: Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John 50

48   Q.   If his humanity is not present
                wherever his divinity is,
                then aren’t the two natures of Christ
                separated from each other?

A.    Certainly not.
Since divinity
is not limited
and is present everywhere,^1
it is evident that
Christ’s divinity is surely beyond the bounds of
the humanity that has been taken on,
but at the same time his divinity is in
and remains personally united to
his humanity.^2

^1 Acts 7:49; 17:28; Jer. 23:24
^2 Col. 2:9; John 3:13; 11:15; Matt. 28:6

49   Q.   How does Christ’s ascension to heaven
                benefit us?

A.    First, he is our advocate
in heaven
in the presence of his Father.^1

Second, we have our own flesh in heaven
as a sure pledge that Christ our head
will also take us, his members,
up to himself.^2

Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth
as a corresponding pledge.^3
By the Spirit’s power
we seek not earthly things
but the things above, where Christ is,
sitting at God’s right hand.^4

^1 1 John 2:1-2; Rom. 8:34
^2 John 14:2; 20:17; Eph. 2:6
^3 John 14:16;16:7; Acts 2; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5
^4 Col. 3:1; Phil. 3:14

My family and I just returned from an exhilarating moderatorial trip to visit our sisters and brothers of the Yukon Presbytery, 22 congregations faithfully serving the state nicknamed “The Last Frontier.”  The largest state in terms of square miles, there are many parts that are not populated, left for many to behold the pristine surroundings, majestic snow-capped mountains, roaming caribou and brown bear. In Anchorage, we were at the Presbytery meeting where I witnessed and experienced something remarkable that I often don’t see in meetings: presbyters sharing the joys and struggles of their congregations, praying over each others congregations by name, praying for each other, laying hands on each other. In the time I was with the presbytery, there was a small portion for a nominating committee report, but so much of the time was spent in worship, in fervent prayer, in feasting over  the traditional maktuk (whale meat, skin, blubber), and sharing one another’s lives.  During one open mic time, an elder prayed, “Lord, thank you that we are not alone.”

We traveled to the northern slope, about a 2 hour flight from Anchorage to Barrow, the northernmost city in the United States, as it sits on the Arctic Ocean. I had the privilege of worshipping with the Inupiat and Tongan community of the Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church, founded on Easter Sunday in 1899 by famous Presbyterian missionary, Sheldon Jackson. Barrow is a whole different world than Anchorage and with the rest of the United States.  Barrow is literally a desert: dry cold, compacted snow and ice, no vegetation. We were there for 32 degree Fahrenheit temperatures but temperatures during the winter dips to a deadly  -45 degrees, with wind chills bringing that to nearly -70 degrees. Fruits and vegetables are flown in, making garlic at the local market cost $6.19/lb. Most people have, at most, a high school education, if that. Many people earn money through the oil and gas industry. Imagine the opening snowstorm scene of Star Wars, Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back…that’s Barrow.  Natives subsist on whale, seal, caribou, bison, duck, and geese.  Alcoholism, substance abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse are commonplace. During the months of November and December, people in Barrow live 24/7 without daylight. From mid-May to mid-July, they live 24/7 with only daylight.  It’s a whole world away from Middlesex, NJ or from so many parts of the lower 48 states.

In the midst of these contexts, faithful Christians serve. The Utqiagvik Presbyterian Church is the oldest and biggest community in Barrow. Of the 4500 residents of this village, most have been one time or another been baptized at the Church, and almost all can expect to be buried at a funeral officiated by whomever is serving as the pastor at any given time.  I am deeply grateful to the Utqiagvik community, who are faithfully and humbly served by Pastor Duke Morrow (who is also moderator of the Yukon Presbytery) and his wife, Li (short for Lisa). They’ve been there for 2 years. Duke is from Detroit. When he passed out in the sanctuary one time, he had to be airlifted to Anchorage. While there is a local hospital, any major medical procedures need to be done at Anchorage. He and Li continue to serve faithfully; it is a true calling.

Throughout this particular trip, I couldn’t help but think of our visit two months prior to the Synod of Boriquen in Puerto Rico. That context, too, is a different world from what many in the PC(USA) are accustomed. These two contexts, on diagonal opposites geographically, are different and distinctive, yet united. We are united, we are not alone.

I thought of the four sections of this week’s Heidelberg Catechism.

Q/A 46 through 49 discusses the meaning and purpose of our Lord’s ascension. In my travels, I’ve spoken extensively about the importance of the ascension, as connected to the resurrection, as connected to the crucifixion, as connected to Christ’s ministry, as connected to Christ’s incarnation.  In the ascension, we confess Christ’s full presence by virtue of the giving of the Holy Spirit (who is also referred to in several of the apostle Paul’s letters as the Spirit of Christ), and we confess at the same time, without contradiction, Christ’s full absence.  Jesus Christ is fully present and fully absent.  Christ did, indeed, ascend bodily into heaven as testified by holy Scripture.  Through him, our heavenly Father gifted to us the Holy Spirit. By the giving of the Holy Spirit, we live with the trifecta gifts: faith, hope, and love. It is with and through these gifts of God for the people of God that we live, and move and have our being in the life and heart of the triune God…because of the Holy Spirit.  What this means is that we live, at the same time, with a degree of certainty, and a degree of mystery. Binding these two together is the Holy Spirit, who unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ, to our heavenly Father, to the communion of saints, both the living and the dead, in all times and in all places.

This is a remarkable reality and confession. This is a benefit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have in heaven our eternal high priest, the Lord Christ, who forever prays for us, intercedes for us, saves us.  How do we know and trust this? Because of the convicting power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who, as Jesus taught his disciples, teaches and comforts us in the ways of Jesus Christ.

Whenever we human beings try to tilt the balance towards so much certainty – we become prideful and frustrated towards others whom we judge not to be as enlightened or wise as we are. When we tilt the balance towards so much mystery – we become cynical, where an unhealthy sense of doubt can creep into our faith, and, at its worst, we can become like what Jesus described, a reed blown here and there by every wind of doctrine, not anchored to the certain redemption of Christ’s salvation and God’s revelation in Christ. So many conflicts erupt when we want more certainty and thereby become overly dogmatic, or when we want more mystery and thereby want more freedom from strict rules or laws.

What the Holy Spirit does because Christ is ascended is anchor us to the heart and life of God, anchor us to the Good News of Jesus Christ, uniting us to the wider family of God, as a sure guarantee that we are never alone.  The Holy Spirit empowers us, enabling us to live lives that testify of Jesus Christ, and the goodness and grace in Him.  So, whether we are in a winter desert, in a sandy desert, on a tropical island, in the corn fields of Nebraska, the beaches of Malibu, or whatever might be the case, we are never alone. Our lifeline is the Holy Spirit, who unites us to the triune God and to all of God’s people, pledging to us that God is for us, God is with us, God is in us; in other words, that God is God, and we belong to God.

40   Q.   Why did Christ have to suffer death?

A.    Because God’s justice and truth require it: ^1
nothing else could pay for our sins
except the death of the Son of God.^2

^1 Gen. 2:17
^2 Heb. 2:9,15; Phil. 2:8

41   Q.   Why was he “buried”?

A.    His burial testifies
that he really died.^1

^1 Acts 13:29; Matt. 27:60;Luke 23:50[-53]; John 19:38[-42]

42   Q.   Since Christ has died for us,
               why do we still have to die?

A.    Our death does not pay the debt of our sins.
Rather, it puts an end to our sinning
and is our entrance into eternal life.^1

^1 John 5:24; Phil. 1:23; Rom. 7:24 [21-25]

43   Q.   What further benefit do we receive
                from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?

A.    By Christ’s power
our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with him,^1
so that the evil desires of the flesh
may no longer rule us,^2
but that instead we may offer ourselves
as a sacrifice of gratitude to him.^3

^1 Rom. 6:6-8, 11-12;Col. 2[:11-12]
^2 Rom. 6:12
^3 Rom. 12:1

 

44   Q.   Why does the creed add,
                “He descended to hell”?

A.    To assure me during attacks of deepest dread and temptation
that Christ my Lord,
by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul,
on the cross but also earlier,
has delivered me from hellish anguish and torment.^1

^1 Isa.53:10; Matt. 27:46

LORD’S DAY 16 (Q/A 40-44)
To Hell, In Hell, and Back”

The cartoon robot character, Buzz Lightyear, in the movie, The Toy Story, pretends to fly “to infinity and beyond.”

There’s no pretending when we are confronted with real pain and struggle – of the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, congregational, organizational, communal, national – sometimes those  pains and struggles seem like “to infinity and beyond.”  The deep and pervasive effects of sin, violence, war, illness…even death itself, or even sojourning through the valleys of the shadows of death, have a quality to it that obscures light, life and joy.

Christian Wiman, in his recent pastoral-poetic-prophetic memoir and reflection, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, as he invites us to walk with him in and through the struggle of a living hell – a cancer that leaves him to prepare for a needed bone marrow transplant, which chemotherapy has rendered his body enervated, emaciated. His is a serious, thoughtful, no-holds barred wrestling with God, the bright abyss, where he and we are brought to the very precipice of faith, looking down and ahead and seeing nothing, wondering if there is anyone or anything ahead and below.

Wiman says this about Christianity:

I’m a Christian not because of the resurrection (I wrestle with this), and not
because I think Christianity contains more truth than other religions (I think
God reveals himself, or herself, in many forms, some not religious), and not
simply because it was the religion in which I was raised (this has been a
high barrier). I am a Christian because of that moment on the cross when
Jesus, drinking the very dregs of human bitterness, cries out, My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?.  .  . I’m suggesting that Christ’s suffering
shatters the iron walls around human suffering, that Christ’s compassion
makes extreme human compassion—to the point of death, even—possible.
Human love can reach right into death, then, but not if it is merely human
love. (p.155, emphasis not mine)

His confession is similar to that of Simone Weil or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or even the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk (my favorite prophet, who I characterize as Job minus the three meddling friends), who find comfort and consolation in the God who knows us, who desires and who, in fact, to be in our life, to be in our places, to be in our hellish moments.

Q/A 40 through 44 are powerful assertions of what God does with our Good Fridays. God as Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit doesn’t run away from our sin, doesn’t discard us, doesn’t flee from us, but comes toward us and becomes as one of us. Jesus Christ comes as one of us, and to have his existence with us as full and authentic, Jesus experiences our hell, becomes one with us in the hell of this world, feeling it, carrying it in his heart and soul, receiving the effects of it…and the ultimate consequence of it: death itself. The Son of God going to the depth and darkness of death itself, the Creed and the ancient ecumenical Church saw this as so critical to assert that Christ really, truly, fully died. “He descended into hell” re-iterates His death. He experienced death, the pain that accompanied it, and the anguish that embraced His heart and His soul.

Recall that this Catechism began in Q/A 1 to reassure us as followers of Jesus Christ that our comfort in life and in death, in body and in soul, is that we belong to our faithful Savior and Lord.  Q/A 40 through 44 drives home that point. In every single moment, in our waking and in our sleeping, in our living days and in our mini-deaths, and even when death knocks on the doorsteps of our homes, we are not alone.  In the deepest and darkest despair of the hellish moments and torments of our individual and corporate lives, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is not an abstraction; He is not a theory, an idea, a philosophy, or a stand-offish Sovereign.  Here we have hanging on Calvary’s cross is the Son of God – God in flesh and blood – who takes on hell, who lives in our hell, who knows it inside and out – but who in the end is not consumed by it, not vanquished by it, but who, as Fleming Rutledge says, looked at the “fangs of death” and rendered it powerless.  And because of Him, we are not left alone, and we are finally rescued from it all.

37   Q.   What do you understand
by the word “suffered”?

A.    That during his whole life on earth,
but especially at the end,
Christ sustained
in body and soul
the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.^1

This he did in order that,
by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice,^2
he might deliver us, body and soul,
from eternal condemnation,
and gain for us
God’s grace,
righteousness,
and eternal life.

^1 1 Pet. 2:24;3:18;Isa. 53:12
^2 1 John 2:2; 4:10;Rom. 3:25

38   Q.   Why did he suffer
“under Pontius Pilate” as judge?

A.    So that he,
though innocent,
might be condemned by an earthly judge,^1
and so free us from the severe judgment of God
that was to fall on us.^2

^1 Luke 23:14; John 19:4
^2 Ps. 69:5;Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21;Gal. 3:13

39   Q.   Is it significant that he was “crucified”
instead of dying some other way?

A.    Yes.
By this I am convinced
that he shouldered the curse
which lay on me,^1
since death by crucifixion was cursed by God.^2

^1 Gal. 3[:10]
^2 Deut. 21:[23];Gal. 3:13

We were at a Little League baseball game the other day. One of our batters was up. He struck out and the kid announcer mistakenly asked over the loud speaker why the batter didn’t hit a perfectly good pitch, shaming the batter in the process and silencing his own parents who were equally surprised at that remark. The announcer’s father, who is a friend of ours and who was seated next to us, darted up to the announcer’s booth, where the opposing team’s coach beat him upstairs demanding that only one person was allowed in the announcer’s booth. The announcer’s twin brother wasn’t supposed to be there so he was dismissed from the booth, leaving the offending announcer up there to remain. The twin brother couldn’t understand why he was dismissed when it was his brother who made the offending remark.

Baseball, like so many sports, relies on taking a fall for the good of the team. Bunting a ball to be struck out at first base so that the man on second base can make it to third. Offensive linemen taking the deadly tackles and hits to prevent the football quarterback from being sacked.

God becoming human as Jesus Christ is not a sport, but what Christ does in becoming human is for the good of the “team,” i.e. the fallen creation which would prefer living free from God, rather than living freely in God.

Craig Barnes insightfully points to our crippling guilt that causes us to wander from place to place, school to school, career to career, seeking never to be anchored to any particular communities or commitments, but moving endlessly. Such movements are symptomatic of restless hearts – restless for home. And part of being restless is that we are alienated from others, alienated from ourselves, and alienated from God. To be free from God, or to seek to be free from God, we find that we are never really free. We are shackled to our own desires, to our own wants, giving in to our wandering lusts, given over to our own will and ways. We are cursed because we choose violence over peace, hate over love. We break the heart of God because we were not created to live in the way we do. Given the right conditions, the exhibitionist violence we read about in war-torn Syria or the terrorists that took hostages and killed several people in a Nairobi, Kenya shopping mall recently can erupt from the heart of a mild-mannered suburbanite. The Scriptures are right and true, “No one is righteous, no not one.”

God enters our human condition. We are cursed because we continually choose sin’s will and ways.  Let’s say the “W” word. Wrath. When we as human beings are hell-bent on breaking God’s heart, notwithstanding the occasional acts and thoughts of good, God is indignant. Angry. We see glimpses of this as parents who become heart-broken when their children make bad choices. It’s an anger that comes from love, because as parents we know that our children are capable with so much more.

Multiply the sin acts, sin choices, sin motives, sin thoughts of the heart – multiply it 1000 times, or even 8 billion times, 365 days a year. This is not merely the faraway murders of Latin American drug cartels, or the senseless kidnappings in the southern part of the Philippines, or the human trafficking that occurs in this country. This is every act, every thought, every will of every human being. James 2:10 reminds us that that breaking one part of the law means we break all the parts of the law, and are held accountable for all of it.

God enters that situation. God as our Creator knows what we were created to be.

What we see at the judgment seat of Pontius Pilate and at the scene of the crucifixion are the breaking of all Ten Commandments, again and again. In that snapshot moment, as the Son of God subjects himself to the earthly judge and jury of Pilate and all the human spectators who aid and abet the death of Jesus Christ, is what every human being does towards God, again and again. We subject God to ourselves, as we subject each other to each other, as we subject ourselves to ourselves. The crucifixion is a microcosm of what is repeated from the Garden of Eden to our time, on a small or large scale. We inflict our alienation to be further alienated from God’s own Son. Jesus received that judgment, to take up the whole of humanity’s alienation and curse.

This is no sports game, by any means. God doesn’t play around. Jesus Christ, God’s only natural son, is the beloved One of the Father. To take up humanity in Himself, and condemned to die on a tree and thereby cursed (Deuteronomy 21:23), Jesus Christ is “at one” (atone) with humanity and “at one” with God, being God’s natural Son.

Jesus Christ is truly and really in solidarity with us, and being God’s Son and God’s anointed Savior, is for us. With us. For us.

Jesus Christ is the intention of God.

The wrath of God, unlike human wrath and unlike human anger, is not reckless, is not meaningless.  The wrath of God is connected to the love of God. God’s love is directed to taking an alienated and broken world, to reconcile and heal it, to anchor it to the heart and life of God.

Even as all were and are against God, in Jesus Christ the chosen One, the One has become for us all.

33   Q.   Why is he called God’s “only begotten Son”
when we also are God’s children?

A.   Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God.^1
We, however, are adopted children of God—
adopted by grace through Christ.^2

^1 John 1:29;Heb. 1:2
^2 Rom. 8:15;Eph. 1:[5-]6

34   Q.   Why do you call him “our Lord”?

A.   Because—
not with gold or silver,
but with his precious blood—
he has set us free
from sin and from the tyranny of the devil,
and has bought us,
body and soul,
to be his very own.^1

^1 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 2:9; 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23

This week, and the two preceding weeks leading to this one, have been heavy. So much is on the line. There is a decisive debate that is occurring in the United States and around the world as attention is placed on Syria and President Obama’s intent to use a military strike in response to the use of chemical weapons allegedly by the Syrian government, which resulted in the indiscriminate death of hundreds of Syrians, including many children.

I’ve been saddened by the deterioration of a bona fide protest by the Syrian people against their own government two years ago that has spiraled into utter tragedy and exhibitionistic violence that is senseless and meaningless. I grieve the death of so many, the reports I received when our moderatorial delegation was in Lebanon last May and met some pastors who risked their lives to travel from their churches in Syria to tell their stories of survival, and watching neighbors die, and countless churches and mosques turned into rubble.

As a father, I am responsible for interpreting the world to my young sons, even as I have to have them exposed to the world. It’s a delicate balance. It requires prayer. It’s overwhelming for me, and it’s overwhelming for them because it’s a lot to receive. What I’ve observed over the last year is that their prayer bandwidth has expanded as they see much more of the world outside of Middlesex, NJ, as we have family discussions at the dining table, and as we bring prayers about our fragile world.

What the fragility and instability of our world brings me to is back to the foundation of who I am, who we are. To be in solidarity with the children, and to be in solidarity with my own children, is to claim my own childhood, to be childlike in seeing the world where I must come before our God in prayerful trust, confidence, with the tears in my heart, with the anguish I feel in my soul at being powerless in not being able to stop the violence that continues as I type this reflection.

Q/A 33 drives home for us that our belonging-ness to God is so connected to Jesus Christ, as God’s only natural son, with great intention. Our heavenly Father loves His Son, of course. And therefore, anyone connected – adopted – with His Son, has intentionally been chosen, that great effort, great effort has been expended to bring you and I into the family, into the relationship that the Father and the Son share.

When I consider Syria and when I consider the children – the ones who have survived, the ones who have died – and consider my own children, and my own state of being a child – I must place all of them, all of us, myself included – into the hands and heart of our heavenly Father. As an adopted child of God, I am reminded again and again to go back to the One who adopted me, who saw from the beginning that I have nothing, that I am powerless, that on our own, we’d be in the wilderness – forsaken and forgotten. Our adoption in Christ is never a state of being removed from the trials of life or the hard realities of it; our adoption in Christ is to anchor our childhood to the parenthood of God.

Q/A 34 hits the nail on the head. We are so powerless and we are so precious, that God moves heaven and earth, God as Christ, leaves heaven to descend to earth, to redeem us, to free us. When the temptation of human nature is to respond to utter violence by inflicting more violence, or to retaliate with more words and wars – we are in desperate need to re-direct our heart’s and soul’s course. When we are set on a glidepath of being wayward children whether individually, as a family unit, a community, a group, a state, a whole nation, a civilization — we are in definite need of a One who can take it all – heaven and earth, who can move mountains and hearts.  The One who holds us all and this fragile world is “our Lord,” the Lord, Jesus the Christ.

Our Lord is not a theoretical, abstract, unreachable sovereign ruler who lords over us. Connecting Q/A 34 to Q/A 33, He is both our Lord and the Son of God, through whom we are intentionally adopted, whose love is unshakeable, who did not make a mistake in loving us, in setting a course to hold us and this fragile world in His care.

What we are called to do as adopted children, freed by our Lord to live in and with the love of God, is to pray and serve with childlike trust. And as with a child, to ask our heavenly parent – Why, Father? How, Father? How much longer, Father? We need your help.  Thank you.