4/2/2023 0 Comments Denarius bible verseIn a context like this, my sermon on Palm Sunday about penitential seasons was taken by some as a critique of specific practices at Trinity instead of what it was intended to be, a simple statement of the reasons why we observe seasons like Advent or Lent, the way we do. In recent discussions, some students' at Trinity may have felt that their desire to observe Lent in a particular way was dismissed by some of their friends at Christchurch as "work's righteousness." And coming from the other directions, some of you have been made to feel like the liturgy we have settled upon is not really with the program, is not really grown up yet, but you like it fine. But we want you to be careful to do it in a charitable way that honors Christ and endeavors to preserve our spirit-given unity. We do want you to engage with one another. We don't want you to ignore these matters. In other words, this is addressed to NSA students and those who are not NSA students. And so here's a renewed word of exhortation, whether to NSA students, to Grayfriars, or to anyone else who is engaged in studying and debating many of these issues. We are very grateful to God for our tight sense of unity, but our different practices are still there, and they have become increasingly apparent over time. We share Christmas Eve and Good Friday services.Īnd once every month, the sessions of our two churches meet together to address areas of common concern. We have developed a shared liturgy for those joint services. We have maintained a pattern of joint services three or four times a year. Since that time, things have gone very smoothly. That was the kind of thing we wanted no part of. Too often, church plants are nothing more than a controlled crash, a cross between a plant and a split, a church splant. We were endeavoring to do exactly what Paul requires of us here. We did this, both churches did this, so that no one could say that those differences were the reason for our separation. We knew at that time that we had some differences of opinion on certain liturgical matters, and so we asked the new church to keep their liturgy identical to ours for the first year, which Trinity readily agreed to do. As you know, about four and a half years ago, we planted our sister church, Trinity Reformed Church, here in Moscow. Unity unattended is disunity in about 15 minutes. He tells us to endeavor to do this because if we don't, unity is not the kind of thing that can be put on autopilot. In the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 3, Paul tells us that we should endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. This week, you will hear Douglas Wilson's talk, Desire Runs Deep, from our audio collection titled Desire, Envy, Competition, and Ambition. Welcome to the All of Christ, for All of Life podcast, where we equip men and women to be faithful in every aspect of life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |