Common ground

11 August 1999

References:

Acts, Chapters: 10 -11:18 especially; And a voice came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean" And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not callcommon." This was done three times. (Acts 10:13-16a, & 11:7-10a)

I simply taught, preached and wrote God's Word: otherwise I did nothing. And when I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Phillip and my Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a Prince or Emperor inflicted such damage upon it. The Word did it all. (Martin Luther)

Lord, send workers to your harvest and do not allow humanity to be lost for lack of pastors, missionaries and people dedicated to the cause of the gospel. (John Paul II)

Mankind is a decadent bunch, especially when it comes to our religion. Because we were created in the image of God but through sin and our fallen nature, we have become a religious species. Since we have lost true fellowship with God, we by nature create religion to justify our unrighteousness. The self-righteous self-godliness of the atheist, the Bible calls the ultimate form of foolishness, but we, the people of God, do a pretty good job of creating our own religion and foolish religious divisions. Especially those of us that trace our roots to the Protestant Reformation. "By God I am right, and to hell with the rest of you." It is really not to big of a step from what Jesus said and did in the gospels to religious people of his era, to surmise that: 1. "Thank God I am not like them." or, 2. "God, I am just like them!" Not much common ground.

From time to time, God in his wisdom allows us, his religious people, to come to the end of our religion and we are left alone and empty in ourselves. The last time that happened to me was last Monday night, August 2, 1999. When that opportunity occurs, the great gift of the fundamental beliefs of the Reformation, truly become a gift of abounding grace, from God alone, by faith alone, because of Christ alone. The scum-bag that I am, is true, but I have been purchased by God in Jesus Christ on that old rugged cross, two thousand years ago. Through his propitiatory sacrifice, I am justified by his righteousness, not my own. Hallelujah! Through him I have entered into the kingdom of God and have been adopted as his child along with the rest of his chosen people throughout his covenant covering all time. Since all of eternal importance has been done by him, I did, and can sleep well any night. In the morning however, we must move on. In some mysterious way sufficient in ourselves but yet drawing life from God through the Holy Spirit.

After pouring a large cup of plain old coffee with a little sugar, I plop in the easy chair. "Lord I still have no desire to do this any more, it is just too difficult for me to handle. I want to retire to the woods and let them all go to hell."

It was a letter addressed to Julliette Freeley, a lady that used to live a few doors down the street, I used to look in on her, before she passed on some seven or so years ago. Periodically she still gets some mail addressed to her, because when she died her mail had been forwarded here. Virtually all of it now is of Roman Catholic origin. There it was, through the window of this envelop, a coin with the likeness, of the pope, hand raised in blessing. "Just what I need now some more religious gump, now why are they looking for money? Just like them Catholics, statues aren't enough, now its coins, but at least its not Holy water from the Jordan, or Olive oil from Israel, that I have been offered from time to time. I wonder what the coin says."

As I opened the envelope the card with the coin slipped from my hand and because, the coin was heavier, as it fell, the coin side became the bottom so the pledge or contribution side of the card was left showing. Reaching down I was shocked to read the first line: Dear Father Bannon. Roman Catholic or not it was a letter from family. I now wanted to see just what Father Bannon had to say. Having just completed a book on the history of the Irish problem, Father Bannon must be from the more traditional wing of the family. I, on the other hand, must be descended from the nonconformist (Scotch Presbyterian) side. The other Protestant side was represented by Anglicans. Briefly the whole struggle, stems as much from, class, vocational and political influences as much as from religious differences.

I know nothing about my Bannon religious heritage, I do know however, my great grandfather, as well as my entire family line fit the nonconformist attitude quite nicely. After all that is why we must be strong Protestants, or not religious at all. For we truly are a hard and stiff necked bunch.

It seems that Father Bannon is the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Connecticut and he was asking for money to buy milk and to support one of his students for one day. One of the paragraphs of the letter especially touched me: "Think of the joy you will give the Holy Father, who so urgently speaks with great concern about the reevangelization of our Western world." That is something I can really agree with, in fact that is why I am so discouraged, most of my friends, many who get this letter, and others are committed to this very task and the 'church' in quotes doesn't seem to give a damn. The introductory referenced quotation above is the prayer on the medallion which Father Bannon says to give to someone who comes ". . .in your path who may have a (religious) vocation. Give it to him."

They say when you find four Irish men, or Irish priests, or Irish whatever, you always find a "fifth" or some other container of whiskey. The quotation from Martin Luther above, I have framed and it hangs on my dining room wall. I know a lot of American Evangelical Christians that would find this quotation offensive, but hey I already admitted to coming from nonconformist stock. I do recognize that drugs are the greatest problem in society today and alcohol abuse is the greatest of these. There was a recent case where someone sued some one of Irish roots because they were all drunks and consequently unable to function properly in society, so I am definitely aware of the problem. I personally do not have a problem with booze, I can take it or leave it and unless it becomes a religious issue, I virtually always leave it. I do have a major problem however, with potato chips and ice cream. We all know that ice cream is really a foretaste of heavenly fair, so overindulgence in bit a heaven, is OK, praise the Lord. Potato chips however, I must leave in the store, for I do have the will power to eat just one. One complete bag at a time. The Martin Luther quotation is really an opportunity to share about our religion and how it must be centered in the Word of God, and Christ, and not in Bothers Martin, Phillip and Amsdorf and their fellowship around a few steins of local brew.

"So where is all this going Jerry, seems as if we are getting a wee bit of blarney or perhaps you spent the weekend with four or more of your Irish friends!"

"Actually, I was just getting to that."

Last Tuesday, was really a pretty good day, I took the last message on Meyers Falls and changed very little, even though it had what I thought to be a little more of a sharp edge, than I would like now days, but looking at the Lord's infinite plan, perhaps there needs to be a little more cutting surgery and a little less blarney, from time to time. We of reevangelists of the western world also had a great time in the Lord with Rob Gorringe, missionary to the last Christian nation (Tonga) that evening.

As I have reflected upon this last week or so, what I think I have learned is that "Our religion gets in the way, way to much in what the Lord wants to do through us." Read the portion in Acts, Peter, the son of thunder, the nonconformist Irish Jew, is rebuked three times for his religion and the good Dr. Luke, the writer of Acts, feels that is important enough to repeat it verbatim, twice. Three times two is six, six times we are told, "What God has cleansed you must not call common. What God has cleansed you must not call common. What God has cleansed you must not call common. What God has cleansed you must not call common. What God has cleansed you must not call common. What God has cleansed you must not call common."

Getting back to Father Bannon, and me, and our religions. We have a very different definition of salvation or the gospel. But contrary to what is many times said, in context our definitions of the Grace of God are quite consistent. My definition of salvation says that salvation is by the grace of God alone, and traces its roots to the Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin and others. Father Bannon's definition of salvation traces its roots to the Council of Trent from the same era. The question for most of the Evangelical Protestant Church is which one do you believe is true. The fact is most modern Evangelical Christians are doctrinally more Roman Catholic than they are Protestant. Check it out.

Moving on however, the great thing about the grace of God is the whole thing is such a mind blowing mystery and as best as I can tell from my recent research, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." I therefore must conclude that since Father Bannon and I are really in the same line of work, we must also be on the same side, even though that is highly offensive to my nonconformist Irish religious roots.

This brings us to Meyers Falls, Oikosvirtual and something that Brother Martin's religion might find quite disturbing, at least in the context we are dealing with. Both Martin Luther's, Word centered destruction of the papacy, and the remaining papacy, both have the underlying model (hermeneutic) of the City of God of St. Augustine. Studying the life of the Augustinian monk you are amazed just how quickly Brother Martin sold out to the German "princes and emperors". Part of the reason must be his underlying Augustinian hermeneutic. In western society, the City of God is in tension with the City of Man, and since we are superb creators of magnificent cities we have created a magnificent religious infrastructure to support our understanding of creation. The virtual town of Meyers Falls fits into those models and that tension. "What God has cleansed you must not call common."

Oikosvirtual however is modeled on the "Garden of God" which is a better model for this whole earth scene. It is the wilderness, the desert, the frontier. Every plant and animal is strategically placed by God to show the effects of sin and death and His unsurpassed creative ability. The place where the power of God's common grace in creation exhibits it self and humbles the headstrong, and the religious man. Maybe after all we are all really just nonconformist (Presbyterian ) Irish men. While this model may be different from what you are familiar with: "What God has cleansed you must not call common." That is where I want to live, except that centrality of God may change my religion. After all I come from good Irish stock, (at least in name, in actuality I'm really quite and American mutt), perhaps there are four or five of you out there and we could get together.

All kidding aside, we need to see western culture reevangelized as well as complete the work of taking the gospel to the whole of creation. The whole concept of this journey from my perspective has been laid out through this electronic newsletter over these last couple of months. There has been just a we bit of blarney, here and there. But I am reminded that God must have a sense of humor, or he would have never made me one of his children. "What God has cleansed you must not call common."

All these Chronicles of Diversity articles, including the tract, Where is the church? and its now Jpeg graphics, are now uploaded on the website meyersfalls.com or oikosvirtual.org. They both lead to the some place just a little different model on how to take you through a journey of faith till we will one day see face to face, what we now only see through our imagination or virtual space. That hope comes to us via a Jewish Messiah and whom the church calls the original vicar of Rome. The one and the same Peter reported in Acts 10 & 11. "What God has cleansed you must not call common." Amen.

Prayer plants

I find it amazing that through the grace of God, just as the basic outline of the Diversity cruise through virtual reality has been outlined, I have come to this place where "virtually" all my funds have been committed. The real faith journey now comes in the real world. I am very thankful for last weeks experience. It is great to see how God gives us insights into his excellence. I feel very strangely that this is what I have been called to do, but I do not know what doors will open from here and when. While I have never been at this place before, since I am still here I have God's promise that he will make a way in the wilderness. I will do my best to wait for his leading. That is really the decision that took place last Monday. To ride this train until the last station (to change the metaphor) for because of the finished work of Christ, this is the only train bound for glory. This train. Please pray for my ticket, its at the will call window, where ever that is.

There are other more complex issues of course, but the Lord knows their solution and timing also.

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you,

May his face now shine upon you,

May you show forth the light of his countenance, and

May he give you his Shalom....

Jerry