It has been a long standing family tradition to give my mom flowers on Easter Sunday. I was thinking about this and I have to ask the question - WHY?
Don't get me wrong, I love dear old Ma, but why do we give her flowers on Easter? Did she rise from the dead for the forgiveness of my sins and make me a promise of eternal life? Last I checked, the answer is- NO! So why do I honor mom on a day dedicated to Jesus and HIS resurrection?
Come to think of it, St. Paul in the book of Ephesians calls husbands to be Christ to his family. I think if anyone in the family should have been honored, it should have been dad, but I don't even think that's appropriate.
I think this is just another sentimental, feminized tradition that has crept into the church that makes it all about the ladies, enables their narcissism and puts Jesus on the back burner in honor of the cult of the goddess.
I can't begin to tell you how many times I have to say no to the ladies in the church because they want to do some sort of emotive, nonsensical thing to make them feel all warm and gushy in the service. HEY LADY, CHURCH AINT ABOUT YOUR EMOTIONS!
This year, I donated flowers to the church and asked that there be no memorial attached to them except this - Soli Deo Gloria. I also suggested (with a smirk) that they should be dedicated "to all the girls I loved before."
If it is about you, it's not about Jesus and if it isn't about Jesus, it Just isn't Christian.
Bitterly yours
The Ranting Reverend
Thursday, April 13, 2006
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8 comments:
hmm... i am sorry to butt in here. i am sure i do not have the whole picture of what you are ranting about, but i'd like to say emotion is a very important part of knowing Jesus. maybe some women you are referring to want to manufacture emotion and perhaps that is what you feel so disgusted toward. in all fairness though, i believe God created women so that they can bring in the softer, emotional part of following and seeking Christ. it is not all about rational theology... i apologize if i have misunderstood your point, but i wanted to ask for some mercy for women.
My Friend,
What part of knowing do my emotions have? 1+1=3 because I feel that it does? Or does it still equal 2 no matter how much it rubs me the wrong way?
Martin Luther and some Roman Catholic theologians had a debate over the issue of knowledge and love. The Romanists said that if you just love each other, the truth will follow. Luther insisted that they had is Bass Ackward, know the truth and the truth brings love. We can not, will not ever induce good theology through more love or more emotions. To stress my emotions is to stress me, thus it is all about me and not what was done by Christ.
There are many times when I FEEL as though God has forsaken me, there are times when I FEEL like He is not there, there are times where I FEEL as though He is just screwing with my mind, but my feelings do not have anything to do with the facts.
The facts are this, I have a Savior, if I am in the valley or on the mountain top. I have a Savior who is faithful even when I am whoring around after the false gods I erect in my life, those pernicious false gods of narcissism, of self indulgence and yes, even of my emotions, I have no less a Savior then than when I FEEL as though He is blessing me in every way.
If I look to my emotions, I am looking in the wrong direction, for I am looking to myself. Hebrews 12:2 "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Saint Paul says in 1Corinthians2:2 "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
I am truly not aware of anywhere in the Bible where our emotions are appealed to in matters of salvation, except in matters of thanksgiving. This is the place where emotions belong in the Christian faith. When we realize how truly sinful and wretched we are, with no merit of our own to show a perfect God, yet He credits ALL of His perfect righteousness to our bankrupt accounts and assumes our debt that we could never pay. If this does not illicit some sort of emotion from a Christian, I need to check your pulse.
End of Rant.
The Ranting Reverend
my brother in Christ,
i am not interested in debating, for i believe we are coming from two different perspectives, but here i am again. i did not say emotion is the basis of our faith in Christ, nor did i say the fact and truth of Christ is secondary to our emotion. as you have written, the fact of the gospel illicit some, no, intense emotion. but the fallacies of "feeling" you have referenced earlier is based on the fallen emotion of our own sinfulness. but can you say indeed that emotions themselves are wrong? feelings that God himself has created in us to experience His truth? it is through brokenness, yes, the feeling of brokenness (based on truth, led by the Spirit), we learn to come to the Lord, repentent. our emotion, sanctified through the blood of Christ, allows us to be humans God created us to be. to feel His love, to feel His joy, to feel His peace... not just facts. why does God see and value our hearts? is it because of all the facts we know? hearts (therefore emotion), moves us closer to Him.
But what does JESUS say comes out of the heart of man?
Matthew 15:19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
The emotions are a thing of the heart. Now, don't get me wrong, God did indeed create us as emotional beings, but our emotions more often than not lead us to ruin as we are fallen and we can't get up.
Our emotional experiences count for nothing before God. The serve, usually to cloud the issues of truth when we look toward an emotive faith life.
I am afraid to "experience God" or to "See Him Face to Face," lest I become like Isaiah and crap my pants and proclaim that I am undone. No one can see His face and live. I am happy (an emotion) knowing (emotion born of knowledge) that I am a dirt bag before a perfect God who finds no fault in me for the sake of His Son who has clothed me in His righteousness in Baptism (Galatians 3).
I know the truth, even when I do not feel the truth.
My deal here is not to say that we should be stoic and have no emotions at all. I am an emotional, passionate person, but rather that emotions have NOTHING to do with my salvation, with my sanctification, with anything at all when it comes to the finished work of Christ on the cross and through the grave.
I am hard pressed to even say that I have faith, for that is usually understood as something that I do, but I KNOW, beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have a Savior and that in and of itself is faith speaking.
See if our emotions are a part of our salvation, then our salvation will never FEEL secure to us. But if we have salvation with or without emotions, we have something solid on which to hang our hats, and our hopes.
I don't FEEL like a Christian most of the time, I am a sinner in thought, word and deed, I am a fallen man with desires and passions that are contrary to God's Word, because my heart is wicked and fallen, and yet, even in the midst of my sin, when I feel so far away from God, I know that I am a redeemed son, who was adopted and named into the heavenly family. For those of you who are gossips (see the 8th commandment) no, I am not out eating babies or sleeping with prostitutes, and yet my sins are every bit as heinous for if you have broken one commandment, you are guilty of the rest (so says St. James).
Our Lord comes to us NOT from within the small still waters of our hearts (gak). There is nothing still or peaceful in our black, dead hearts at all. But God comes to us from outside of our hearts. He comes through His Word which comes in through our ear holes, He joins His Word to the waters of baptism for a "washing of regeneration," He attaches His Word to the bread and wine for a heavenly meal, of the Body and Blood of the Lamb, He speaks to us through the mouths of retarded fallen men in the pastorate, there is nothing internal to us where we find hope and strength, it is all outside of us.
Lean not to your own understanding, Prov 3:5. To even consider our emotions as an important part of the Christian life is to look inward, to our black hearts, instead of outward to the dead guy on the cross and the empty grave.
My fear is this once again, if we trust our felings, we are puting stock into our fallen nature, and corrupt hearts, but if we look to the word that comes from outside of us, then we have a sure thing.
my brother, i love you.
may the Lord bring you much needed healing in your heart.
1) Feelen the love!
2) The only healing that will fix my broken heart will be through the grave, until the resurrection, I SUCK!!!
3) May He heal yours as well in His resurrection.
Peace be with you
The Ranting Reverend
Ranting Reverend,
You are AWESOME! This is the coolest thing I have read all year. Besides it been absolutely hilarious, it's all completely true. When I first became a believer I definitely served an emotional God. I made my emotions the point. But my emotions are not the point; my faith in Christ is. So anyway thank you for articulating something I have always had a hard time doing!
Your Brother in Christ,
Jason
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