 An open letter to the Presbyterian Church (USA) On essentials: Regarding the theme of the 218th General Assembly By Jim Henkel Monday, December 10, 2007 General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick introduced the theme for the 2008 Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly by talking about "essentials." "I hear a good bit of conversation in the church these days about 'essentials,'" writes Kirkpatrick. "Some are concerned about the church's fidelity to the Reformed faith; others, about the essentials of faithful Christian living. All seem to want us to honor and celebrate our diversity, while being clear about the core values and common expectations for our life in Christ that hold us together as a community." The stated clerk then turns to the "prophet Micah's day," for an example of another time when the people of God were having a similar "conversation" about "essentials." In doing so, he highlights a single verse from Micah's brief prophecy – the one that happens to serve as the source for the 2008 G.A. theme: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). Quoting this important insight out of context misses the core message of Micah's proclamation against idolatry and the greed and debauchery that flow from its practice. After the common pattern of prophets to eschew conversation in favor of pronouncement, Micah declares with constancy and consistency that, even as the Lord's own judgment rolls over His people with invasion-force strength, their sure help and certain hope is to keep trusting the God of their salvation. The proof of that trust does not lie in following the prescribed rituals and offering the ordered sacrifices demanded by doing business as usual. It is evidenced by stepping beyond these rote behaviors into an obedience that reflects God's own heart and mind of steadfast love, compassionate forgiveness and untiring faithfulness (Micah 7:18-20). The Lord does require that His people "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with [their] God." When trust resides in God alone, His people will act like it. Such trust was completely absent from Israel, and Judah was waffling during the 61 years that Micah kept warning: O Israel, O Judah, only God should be your God. Put away every idol! Banish falsehood! Cast out greed! Do away with empty ritual! Take no comfort in real-estate! Renounce opportunism! Recant profiteering! Hope in the Lord! Our God is God! Out of Micah's entire prophecy, the theme distilled for the 218th G.A. is: "Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God." The error in this distillation is confusing moral obligations with the essential tenets of the Christian faith. The ethical imperatives of love, justice, kindness and humility flow from placing trust in the one God and Father of all and in the one who comes forth for Him from Bethlehem to be ruler and shepherd of his people (Micah 5:2, 4; Matthew 2:1-6); even His only Son, the sole Savior, Jesus Christ. Micah's primary concern is to engender the right belief that will give birth to correct action. There is no chicken-egg controversy over which comes first: principled behavior or belief in God. Stated Clerk Kirkpatrick is found to admit that we cannot attain the high ideals demanded by the Lord, through Micah, without walking in relationship with God: "It is only through prayer, dependence on the love of Christ, and being open to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we will be given strength to live out Christ's call to justice and compassion." This is the foundation for faithful Christian living, according to Kirkpatrick. He seems to echo the very counsel of God at 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves (declare their abject dependence), and pray and seek my face (yes, so far so good) and turn from their wicked ways (oops!), then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." The theme of the 2008 G.A., as introduced by our stated clerk, refuses to call the PCUSA to repentance. It is impossible for anyone who is skipping along life's path hand-in-hand with Sophia to enjoy a humble walk with the God of all creation (Exodus 20:3-6). Christ Jesus instructs us to pray to "Our Father in heaven" (Matthew 6:9), but we sit at table with those who drink milk and honey from the cup of "mother earth." It is impossible for anyone who remains wrapped in "the sin that clings so closely" to run the race of obedience in a pure and holy imitation of Christ Jesus (Hebrews 12:1). The Bible tells us to "flee sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18), but we ordain those who give themselves "up to dishonorable passions" (Romans 1:26f). It is impossible for anyone who refuses to keep the commands of Jesus Christ to receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15). Speaking as His Father speaks, Christ Jesus commands: "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." This command is not held in honor among us (Hebrews 13:4), for our G.A. entertains overtures that separate male from female by inviting a man to take the woman's place at a husband's side or a woman to take the man's place in the wife's bed. Yes, and we also tolerate the ordained service of those who are dedicated to performing marriage ceremonies – in the name and under the auspices of our denomination – for every gay and lesbian couple in the country. It is impossible for anyone who will not abide in the Word of Jesus Christ to also abide in His love (John 15:7-10). Hear and live in His Word: "I am [the Christ, the Son of the Blessed]! And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). From His own lips we have this declaration – that He is indeed "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). He is Lord (Matthew 12:8, Acts 10:36, 1 Corinthians 12:3, Philippians 2:11, Revelation 17:14); but we name Him our Lord only and grant "leeway" to the notion that other powers may have dominion over other souls, to bring them to salvation (217th G.A. Moderator Joan Gray, as quoted in "Atlanta minister is elected moderator," by Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian News Service, June 15, 2006). We keep "the statutes of Omri" instead of the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. We endorse "all the works of the house of Ahab; and [we] have walked in their counsels" (Micah 6:16), and still we dare to assume the right and the responsibility to "walk humbly" with "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"- expecting His blessing (Ephesians 1:3). His promise to such as we are is only "anger and wrath and . . . vengeance" (Micah 5:15). His vow to us, we who will not obey, is to "make [us] a desolation, and [our] inhabitants a hissing; and [we] shall be the scorn of [his] people;" that is, all those who do walk in humble obedience to His commands (Micah 6:16). Until we confess that every other god is a fake, that every other value scheme is fruitless and that every other belief system is futile, we will never attain unity. The only "unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace" that we can ever gain by Christian endeavor is "the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God" (Ephesians 4:3, 13). Our celebrated diversity attests that Presbyterians are all over the atlas regarding this Biblical truth. We are not even close to being on the same map, let alone at the same coordinates. We keep failing to synchronize our cardinal points. Unity eludes us because we do not share a common faith in the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and [the] one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist and through whom we exist" (1 Corinthians 8:6). Sharing similar "core values and common expectations" will continue to fall short of forging unity among us. We need the confident cohesion that comes from the certain knowledge that all who are called to leadership in the Church - every minister of Word and sacrament, along with each elder and deacon – are in complete, high-fidelity agreement on the elemental doctrines of the Reformed faith. We cannot be one until we believe as one: "There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to our call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6, emphasis added). We can do justice until our hearts give out, we can love kindness until our minds fail, we can focus our own understanding on a humble walk with God and strive in that enterprise until our feet fall off; and still die as faithless as the rest of humankind who have no hope (Ephesians 2:12-13, 1 Thessalonians 3:14-14). We have no need of still another call to action – we need to hear and heed the call to come to Christ Jesus alone, to trust Him alone, to serve Him alone. This is the Gospel of God: Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved"(Acts 4:12). This is the Good News which we must receive, and in which we must stand, and by which we are saved – if we hold fast to the Word preached to us by the Apostles; unless we believe in vain: "That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve" (1Corinthians 15:1-2, 3b-4). The PCUSA seems ashamed to subscribe to this Gospel. Our "detailed theological affirmations" are in order, but we refuse to require from our ordained officers a mandated affirmation of "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). It is not nearly enough to give a nod and a wink and lip service to "conversation in the church these days about 'essentials.'" It is time and past time to demand a clear articulation of and a definite subscription to the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. Those who come to the 2008 G.A. trusting in Sophia instead of Jesus Christ will have little trouble embracing the concept of walking "humbly with your God." The animists among us should fit right in, too; after all, we gather to "celebrate our diversity." The purveyors of the gay-rights social agenda will also feel at home under a banner that encourages them to "Walk humbly with your God." Their god grants forgiveness without demanding accountability. Nice touch, but this is not the God of Micah, nor is he the Shepherd of God's people – who, "in anger and wrath," executes "vengeance on the nations that did not obey" (Micah 5:15, cf. Revelation 19:11-12). Progressives, who take delight in re-imagining God in their own image, will flock to this banner, too; as will those who want to "give God a little leeway in matters they don't fully understand," like the plausible notion that there may indeed exist more than one way to salvation. 2008 will be just great! Let's all get together and thank a higher power that it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you "walk humbly with your" deity of choice. The New Wineskins Association of Churches is bold to affirm the supremacy of Jesus Christ and to declare that the Good News we have in Him is essential. Those seeking ordination and/or installation must subscribe to this tenet of our Reformed faith:
The Lord Jesus Christ still proclaims: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives and believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26). Do we believe? Do we believe Christ Jesus is the life, the truth, and the way? Are we absolutely convinced that no one comes to the Father except through Him? (John 14:6). The Rev. Jim Henkel is the pastor of North Benton Presbyterian Church in North Benton, Ohio. |
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