Even the Demons Have Faith and Shudder (Well, They Believe...)

That’s the image that stuck with me this week.  James said “faith without works is dead”.  That was one thing.  But the apparent demonstration of faith without works is in citing demons?  I mean, they are certainly creatures of belief.  Seems that every time Jesus tossed one out of a human in the gospels, they were fearful for their own survival.  They were the ones who identified Jesus for who he really was.  And Jesus kept shushing them.

I am not a great fan of the either/or.  What I mean by that is labeling things as black or white, with no gray between.  At first glance, this seems to be a clear dichotomy, faith with or without works.  Demons believe (have faith-although for me, having faith has a positive connotation), but are they without works?  But demons are not demonstrated to be passive agents.  They are active agents of evil.  They have faith, believe in Jesus-or the power of Jesus-but they work actively against that faith (by definition, they are demons).  So there is the either/or, working for or against the Lord?

Demons have faith and shudder, they are afraid, as well they should be.  So their belief provokes a work ethic of attack and assault against what God, through Jesus, is seeking to bring to the world?  But this is not the thesis James is presenting.  James is telling us ‘faith without works is dead’.  The belief of demons provokes evil workings. 

It is with humans, with our faith, if it does not provoke works, then that faith is dead.  The presupposition seems to be that faith provokes action.  If not, it is dead.  It is passive.  Maybe a means of expressing that is “Jesus is my Lord and Savior, He died on the cross for me, rose again from Calvary, welcomes me to the joy of forgiveness and eternal life, and it means nothing to me-I just do what I want.”

A dead faith is an unexpressed faith.  An unlived faith.  A faith that either doesn’t care or doesn’t know what love is (“I Want To Know What Love Is” by Foreigner just started in my head).  Accept demons as Scriptural literal truth or Scriptural literary truth, the actual experience behind them is absolute.  It is the active work of sin and evil in creation.  There is no ‘passive’ sin in the world, it is destructive by nature.

To have faith, to declare faith, to have a living faith, demands a response.  It demands that the love Jesus shows us is shown through us to the world in need.  Demons have faith and shudder-their destruction is nigh.  We have faith and we need to sing out in joy.  Act out in joy.  If we really know that Jesus has done something wonderful for us and in us, how can we possibly do anything different?

Peace,
Pastor Peter

The Moral Agenda: We All Got One

In an effort to quantify Christian belief and practice into something that finds play in the language of the political sphere of life, I find myself using the expression of a “moral agenda”.  What I mean by that is the drawing out of one’s faith into a ‘political platform’ of proposed laws, practices, and other impositions on life that come from the government. 

Some historic examples of the ‘moral agenda’ of the church include the call to Crusade from the papal authorities in the medieval period.  For the promise of forgiveness of sins and the promise of heaven, soldiers from kings on down were encouraged to go East to 'liberate the Holy Land’ from the Muslims.  God's forgiveness as a medium of exchange for political or economic ends came to a head at the moment of the Reformation over the purchases of indulgences.

When tax money is used to pay the salary of clergy, we have another application of the “moral agenda”.  Such things occurred in North America as well as England and elsewhere. 

Blue laws, where businesses are not permitted to open on Sundays because that is the day to go to church is another plank in a “moral agenda”.  A town that does not permit the sale of alcohol within its borders is another. 

We may be more familiar with the calls of Christian Nationalism that are going on here and in other countries.  Such movements often have an extremely thorough ‘moral agenda’ that is foundational to their movement.  Issues like abortion, sexual and gender identity, who gets to be married, and so on are often at the center of such agendas.

And explicitly Christian moral agendas can be at odds with one another.  Take the issue of abortion.  Certain Christians feel that a woman should lose control over her body at the moment of conception.  Other Christians feel that women should have complete autonomy over their bodies at all times.  Both come to these conclusions from their understanding of God's Word.  One group of Christians can then demonize another group for having the wrong moral agenda. 

I believe the blessing of our country is that it is deliberately founded as a secular nation.  That people of faith are free to practice their religions and to be informed by their beliefs in making moral and political choices.  The moral agenda is present, but implicit rather than explicit.  I am very much against any idea of this being a “Christian” nation.  Christian history of political authority runs red with blood.  And if we believe God is all-powerful, what Jesus-motivated reason could we have for wanting political authority?  Like God needs our help.  We would probably do better to obey God instead of always trying to help God along.

James said that our faith without works is dead.  I agree with that statement (which is probably good as I believe the Bible is God’s Word).  But how we do faithful work is something good Christians need to think about (to build a theology about).  Political power and its pursuit in the name of doing the work of faith is a place where I believe we need to tread very lightly.  Power and temptation and corruption are proven bed fellows across the world and throughout history.

Thinking in terms of a moral agenda, what I, as a person of faith, want to see put into political and legislative practice, is an important way for us to be clear in our faith and how we wish to see it work.  It is a good way for us to keep an eye on things when they are working badly or turned to sin. 

Peace,
Pastor Peter

Faith Versus Works: A Historic Battle

So, we were gone for a week or so on vacation, but we are back and sharing once more.

It is the historic theological battle of the Reformation, about how they were thinking about their faith in God Almighty.  Martin Luther, the first and perhaps best known reformer, rediscovered the central truth of the New Testament of “sola fide”, faith alone.  It is only by faith in Christ that salvation can occur.  What that means is that Jesus does everything on our behalf.  His death on the cross, his resurrection on Easter morning, that is sufficient to our salvation. 

The importance of this rediscovery is when we set it against the political reality of the day.  The Roman Catholic church, well, the Church, was universal across Western Europe.  Its power was unparalleled in human history.  So politics, economics, military events and preparations, all of these mixed into the faith structures the church governed. 

It had also grown far from the original biblical message.  There was a point where the rich could purchase ‘indulgences’, essentially pay to have their sins forgiven.  In our day and age, that may sound underwhelming.  But imagine a time where an essential part of the political and religious landscape is the ongoing worry of whether our souls would end up in heaven or hell?  That part of the work of the divinely appointed monarch was to work for the salvation of their subjects?

Among all the pieces of the Bible that Martin Luther was reading and studying were the words we have from James, “faith without works is dead”.  This, in a time where works all but bypassed any faith as a portion of the Christian experience.  It is said that he would have removed James from the New Testament if that were up to him.

It is virtually impossible to understand the political power of the Church at the time of Martin Luther.  Yes, the Roman Catholic Church still exists around the world.  It is still the largest denomination of Christianity, but to consider that it had the power to call for war?  That it had the power to deprive kings of their kingdoms through excommunication?  That the authority of the church was sufficient to declare an entire nation going to hell as a political means of influence to bend a king to its will?

The declarations of America as a Christian nation by certain lines of theological thought are tame in comparison.  But the results are not so different.  Whenever the church aspires to political and economic authority in the world, it is attached to a moral agenda that the legal authority is pressed into service to enforce.  It takes a Reformation to push back against such power-grabbing.

Today’s situation is different however.  Yes, there is a push for a certain moral framework to be the law of the land.  But it is no longer a monolithic agenda.  The church is diverse, blessedly so.  There is a wide swath of how people think through what it means to act as a Christian.  To what our ‘moral agenda’ encompasses.  To how we act on our moral impulses. 

For me, the guiding principle is to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And the way we are called to love ourselves is how God loves us.  And God so loved the world that God gave us Jesus to die on our behalf.  That is ‘sola fide’, by faith alone.  God’s faithfulness is sufficient.  The counterbalance of James is then not to sit back on our laurels and wait for salvation.  It is the call to live out love in a world in need.  Yes, God did everything we need to be saved from our sins.  And we, in turn, are called to do everything we can to demonstrate this love to a world in need.  We are all Children of God.  We are all loved.  We have realized that love in our lives.  Our call is to see that love realized in the lives of all.

Peace,
Pastor Peter

Monday Morning: Day Late, Dollar Short

Homespun theology from James continues this week.  How do we tackle the question of “class favoritism” in church?  “Class”?  Do I mean like my favorite grade in school?  Or is this some odd application of Marxist thought about class warfare?  Or is it simpler than that? 

We are starting up a new worship in a community, inviting people in to come join us, and we show favoritism to the more obviously well-to-do, because they are the better donors, the more influential, the better heeled in the community?

This is an uncomfortable topic.  Do churches really judge people based on their outward appearance?  Well, James certainly believes that we do.  And he is not shy about speaking up on the subject, “Do you, with your acts of favoritism, really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?”  Whoa, James is questioning the faith of someone who makes these kinds of judgments about people? 

Seriously, the poor, smelly person that I would prefer to be upwind from, over and against the well dressed, socially appropriate individual?  James is actually saying that the validity of our faith is on the line based on how we treat people differently?  Dirty clothes versus fine clothes?  What about their language?  What if they are ‘foreign’?  Immigrant?  Addict?  What about the color of their skin?  Their accent? 

Yah, so James is pretty direct in his words.  The law: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  Then, verse 9: ‘⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.’  And if you break one piece of the law, you break the whole thing.  In the eyes of God, this puts the person who shows partiality on par with adulterers and murders.

Homespun theology, straightforward thinking about God.  It also carries with it an uncomfortable directness.  Does James really say all that?  The passage is below, James 2: 1-13:

“My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? ²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” ⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”

To sound colloquial in a way my parents did, “How about them apples?”

Peace

Pastor Peter

Ten and Ten...Again

So who are we?  We are the Regulars, the ten (plus) who worship regularly on the Lord’s Day.  Who are we?  We are the extended community of family and friends who call the church home.  For reasons of health, of work, of timing, not everyone is able to come out on Sunday mornings.  During Covid, we added a virtual presence to keep people with us.  Who are we?  We are the people who have contact and connection but have slipped away.  Ten and ten is as much an invitation to return to the worship and work of the church as anything else.  Who are we?  We are a neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.  By God’s grace we exist, in the freedom of the Holy Spirit we worship, by the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ we have new life, eternally in the life to come, renewed by grace in the life right now. 

So, week 1 of checking in on the Ten and Ten challenge, ten members of our church family who are not among the ‘regulars’ and the $10K for our roof challenge.  The cliched response might be a graphic of the old Uncle Sam Recruiting Posters:  We Need You For…  Funny how today, a graphic might be a meme instead.

The First Presbyterian Church of Perth Amboy has a ‘founded’ history of two hundred and twenty years.  And I say founded history, because its roots in the community go back even further.  The ‘official’ founding was in 1802, but there was a Presbyterian Meeting House in the City before that dates to the Revolution and even earlier. 

What makes me really proud of that earliest history is our place in the Loyalist City of Perth Amboy during the Revolution, with the Royal Governor’s Mansion and Ben Franklin’s son serving as the king’s stooge…er…governor until his arrest. We Presbyterians served on the side of freedom. Not sure exactly what we did, but it was so irritating to the British that they turned our Meeting House into a stable. Holiest horses of the Revolution says I! Makes me want to boast to all the other pastors out there.

Taking us even earlier, if you go down to the International Park on the corner of High Street and Sadowski Parkway, you will find a quote pointing back to the Presbyterian minister and his flock who came ashore here in 1683.  We have been here since the very beginning.  Now, one story I was told is that they were aiming for New York but missed, well, things happen when Jesus takes the wheel. And Jesus brought Presbyterians to Perth Amboy.

Something that really blew my socks off about the history of our church was the final chapter of the Sanctuary do-over in 1902.  In 1802, a white clapboard church was erected on the site of the present church.  That architecture can be seen ALL over the state and the eastern seaboard.  But, in 1902, the sanctuary was replaced with our present sanctuary. I never gave it much thought, but I assumed the final chapter of the first sanctuary was demolition and removal. My socks were blown off when I found out it was still around.

They moved it several blocks up Market Street and re-purposed it as a residence, the function it still serves today.  In those days, things were not just thrown away, but reused, renewed, and recycled.  How is that for a life lesson for today? This is OUR church.

So ten people of our church community to come join us this summer?  Renew old acquaintances, enjoy the fans, worship the Lord in the post-Covid environment?  What’s the church worth to us?  A new roof?  How much else?  Ten and ten, reuse, renew, rejoice?

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Homespun Theology: Living the Life of Faith

Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  So says James in Chapter 1, vss. 23-24.  You don’t just show up and see what’s going on.  The Christian faith is about doing things in a new way.

There is an expression in the Reformed tradition of the church, “Sola Fide”, which means ‘faith alone’.  The fuller expression is “justificatio sola fide”, justification by faith alone.  What that means is that salvation in Jesus comes through faith alone.  There is nothing that we, as humans, need to do-nothing we can do-to earn a place in God’s favor. 

This is important because at the time of its formulation, at the Reformation, there was an ‘abuse of privilege’ that the church engaged in when it came to belief in Jesus and salvation for the soul.  The Crusades, generations of invasions of the Holy Land by the Western church, gained traction among the royalty, nobility, and every layer of society because of the bargain made by the church.  Go on Crusade and have your sins forgiven and your salvation assured.  In mass violence.  Past sins, sins while there, future sins. 

This abuse of privilege only grew.  Once forgiveness became a commodity, to be bought and sold, taking it off the market required remaking the marketplace.  When I was taught about the Reformation, I was taught about ‘indulgences’, things the rich could buy that were essentially “get out of hell free” cards.  So, you could do whatever you wanted and buy forgiveness afterward.  If you could afford it. 

When the pendulum swung away from that, it swung away powerfully.  It is not about what we humans can do, it is about what God has done for us.  We are sinners and there is nothing we can do, on our own, to earn salvation.  But God’s got us covered.  In Jesus Christ, we have the free gift of salvation through His death and resurrection.  We must have faith, we must believe.  There is nothing we can do.

But then the pendulum swings in the other direction.  If there is nothing we need do, faith is something where we need do nothing.  We do not have the motivation of heaven or hell behind our actions.  Just mouth the words.  Sure, there is talk about ‘right belief’ and ‘not fooling the Holy Spirit’, but fooling our fellow human beings?  Easy enough. 

So James’ homespun theology.  Get rid of moral filth.  Do what the word says, do not just listen.  If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.  You believe what Jesus tells you and you do what Jesus tells you.  Those go hand in hand.  Simply put, belief in Jesus is life changing. 

It is changing in the life to come, as we receive the gift of salvation, as we are justified for the sins we have committed.  But it is also changing in the life right now.  We live differently.  We work, in Christ, to change our behaviors to reflect the law of love, loving God and loving neighbor. 

How do they, faith and works, connect to each other?  How do they, belief and actions, feed one another?  That is good stuff too, deepens our faith in heart and mind.  But that comes next.  It follows living our faith by faith and action, hearing and doing, assurance of the new life to come and renewal of the life right now.  Thus we are taught by our Savior.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Celebrating America

 We have two things to celebrate tomorrow.  The first is our nation.  July 4, 1776 was the beginning of the Great Experiment.  A nation without a king.  Colonies on their own.  A nation founded on freedom. 

The second thing to celebrate is that we are not done yet.  Freedom is not here yet for everyone equally.  But in comparison to where we were a century ago?  Two centuries ago?  1923?  1823?  Very different times.  But the steps we have taken are monumental.  They ought to give us courage for the steps we have yet to take.

For me, as a pastor, the greatest thing about this nation is that we have the free exercise of our religion here.  We broke away from England, where the monarch is the head of the church.  We broke away from a continent that was wracked with religious wars-in Jesus Name, with deep pain I offer Amen.  We separated church and state in this country. 

I do not want to live in a Christian nation.  How is that for controversy?  I don’t want to live in a Christian nation because there is NO human being or assembly of human beings who can truly lead us as Jesus will someday.  Sin will always get in the way.  Greed will always get in the way.  There will always be “hearers” of the word who will then use it to manipulate people of faith to their own ends.  So it has been since the founding of the church.  Paul railed against people who preached for their own ends and not that of Jesus.  It was all about their own power, not the loving power of our God.

I want to live in a nation where I can freely practice my religion.  When it comes to sharing the truth of my faith with others, guess what?  Jesus will do the heavy lifting to change hearts and minds.  I want to be able to love God and love my neighbor and, by the grace of God, gather with like-minded and like-hearted folks who want to do God’s word as well.

We have that gift in the United States of America.  We have come a long way to demonstrating what freedom is to the world.  We are not done yet, not by a long shot, but I pray God’s blessings to carry us on our way.

Peace,
Pastor Peter