I recently re-read a very good article by David Yeago, from the spring ’97 edition of Pro Ecclesia, “Messiah’s People: the Culture of the Church in the Midst of the Nations”. He argues that main-line churches seek validation from the surrounding culture in the “‘ceaseless crisis of legitimation’”, instead of seeking the Lord and His Kingdom, His own ‘culture’. And he has this telling footnote about liturgies that are sparsely attended:

“…from the time the church first had buildings for worship until sometime in the modern period, it seemed too obvious to need argument that the church, being the kind of community it is, would hold worship in them each day, even if few of its members had leisrue to attend. By contrast, mainline clergy almost universally assume that it is somehow wrong, a culpable waste of time, to persist in offering a service of worship unless enough people how up to ‘make it worthwhile’. Market-share confers legitimacy; what does not successully appeal to the consumer has no right to go on.”

I have been guilty of the above. But we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this present world and so renewed in our minds. We are called to honor the Lord, even if there are so few. By the way,I printed 12 bulletins for this evening and that’s how many we needed. It seems that the attendance at the Ascension on Bethany was probably all of 12.

Keep the Faith.

Robert Capon, an episcopalian, catches this by describing God´s presence as that of an iceberg beneath the water that is ever present and becomes occasionally visible above the surface. This is the sacramental idea really well described.

He decribes the reformed view as being sort of like a sewing machine needle that descends and perforates time and space and then recedes again to be distant rather than ever immanent.

I believe this is exactly why the reformed think of God´s relation to evil and to his creation as more adversarial and as a great battle.

Lutherans can see, in the incarnation especially, as God being in communion with His creation while at the same time never being at risk of conflating creator with creature/creation or being neo-amimistic in even the slightest way.

Lutheran poetry vs a certain Reformed urgent need for the imposed structure of rules also becomes rather evident….

Yes. Ascension Day is something Lutherans would be good to try to reclaim for so many reasons.

I would be most interested to hear your thoughts on how all of this might affect one´s view of vocation Dr Veith! John Milton´s “..to serve my Maker and present my true account …”worker bee calvinism vs……..what exactly….