Mid-Week Lenten Vespers
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Psalmody Psalm
p. 123
The Lection The
Passion History
The Sermon Hymn #175 When I
Survey 2:43
The Sermon
– Growth and Adiaphora
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for Grace p. 45
The Hymn #558 All Praise 2:8
KJV John 15:1 I am the true
vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not
fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth
it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye
abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is
withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye
bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide
in his love.
Growth and Adiaphora
Spring is a good time to
speak about Jesus as the True Vine.
The Bible is filled with
Creation metaphors, which are impossible to forget. The Song of the Vineyard is
from Isaiah.
KJV Isaiah 5:1 Now will I
sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My
wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and
gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he
looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard,
that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I
will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be
eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall
come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no
rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment,
but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. 8 Woe unto them
that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 9 In mine ears said
the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair, without inhabitant. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one
bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
The Kingdom of God is
compared to yeast growing in dough, a treasure buried in a field, the pearl of
great price, and seed being sown.
The more we learn about
Creation, the more we understand about these comparisons.
Today’s consultants would
like people to think that all growth is good, but Jesus spoke of bad growth as
well as good growth.
Good leaven leavens dough
but evil leaven ruins it. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”
Crops flower, fruit, and go
to seed to feed people – but tares sown among the good seeds will also grow.
When the sower casts the
seed around, the good seed starts to
grow, but weeds also grow and choke the good growth.
In the parable of the True
Vine, the growth and fruiting of the Vine are good, but the Vine must be pruned
– first with cleansing ( justification by faith ), secondly by cutting off and gathering up the deadwood, which
impedes the good growth.
I want to address this in
terms of adiaphora ( matters of indifference ). This term was used because the
Lutherans were forced to compromise after Emperor Charles V took over Germany
after he was done whooping the Muslim forces.
The Lutherans agreed that
many matters are adiaphora and not doctrinal by themselves. Worship varies in
many ways. Practices vary, too.
One is not superior over the
other when no issue of doctrine is involved.
However, this has been used
to excuse a complete abandonment of the Gospel in the name of “growth” because
people like wolf-preaching, as Luther calls it.
Wolf-preaching takes place
when ministers shape their message to please the congregation by avoiding what
the Word of God teaches. Worse than that, the Word of God is turned upside-down
to make the message appealing to as many as possible.
One current example is
having everyone bring in a favorite object (football, computer keyboard) and
fuse it to a frame and call it a Lenten cross. This is the sort of “artwork” that
Picasso did, long ago, and it was clever in its own way. But the cross is not
clever artwork or appealing to the senses. It is not an object that makes us
focus on ourselves and our hobbies, but on what Christ has suffered and done
for us.
No matter how this is
justified, it is another step in trivializing the Gospel of Christ. An ancient
Lutheran said to me, “They call so many things adiaphora that nothing is left.”
Here are some things not
mandated as such by the Scriptures – the exact form of worship, including the
Creeds, the hymns, the garments worn by ministers, church decorations, the name
of the denomination.
But this part is funny,
bizarre, or sad – The reason for dumping so many things is the absolute rule
(from Fuller and Willowcreek) that the name Lutheran, the liturgy, the creeds,
the hymns, and formal wear must be jettisoned to having a “growing” church. The
pipe organ must be removed! (Matter of indifference – not). They MUST have a
praise band, etc.
For a gardener like me, this
is say, “We have to grow weeds now because the crops are too much trouble and
do not give us as many seeds. And weeds grow with rain or without. By golly,
they take over.” And they do.
Here is the adiaphora
section in the Formula of Concord that these Emergent Church types (Willowcreek,
CrossWalk, CrossRoads, The CORE, Grace Point) never quote – my wording –
We dare not give up anything
when it is under attack, because that would be compromising with false
doctrine.
Formula of Concord, Article
10, Solid Declaration
15] Likewise, the article
concerning Christian liberty also is here at stake, which the Holy Ghost
through the mouth of the holy apostle so earnestly charged His Church to
preserve, as we have just heard. For as soon as this is weakened and the
ordinances of men [human traditions] are forced upon the Church with coercion,
as though it were wrong and a sin to omit them, the way is already prepared for
idolatry, and by this means ordinances of men [human traditions] are afterwards
multiplied and regarded as a divine worship, not only equal to the ordinances
of God, but are even placed above them.
16] Moreover, by such
[untimely] yielding and conformity in external things, where there has not been
previously Christian union in doctrine, idolaters are confirmed in their
idolatry; on the other hand, the true believers are grieved, offended, and
weakened in their faith [their faith is grievously shaken, and made to totter
as though by a battering-ram]; both of which every Christian for the sake of
his soul's welfare and salvation is bound to avoid, as it is written: Woe unto
the world because of offenses! Also: Whoso shall offend one of these little
ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged
about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea [Matt. 18:6,
7].
So, the point of this
article is NOT identifying with false teachers, even in the most minor matters
of indifference, especially when forced upon people, as if by law – “it’s the
only way we can grow.”
On the positive side –
The liturgy goes back to the
Old Testament and the Apostolic Church. We must go a long way to prove that the
Word-centered, Means of Grace oriented liturgy is bad for people.
The Creeds are inherent in
the Scriptures, because we have creeds embedded in the Epistles and doubtless
in Revelation, too. Hymns and confessions of faith are parallel – poetic,
easily memorized, and concise.
The Creeds of man are good
because they gather our witness to the Word of God, to clarify what we believe
and practice. As one observer said, the church that gets rid of the creeds will
soon get rid of the Scriptures as well.
Hymns are Christ-centered,
while pop Christian music is me-centered. One song even mocked the other songs,
with the group singing, “Give me this, give me that” as Christian Contemporary
Music.
Jazzing up a good hymn is a
way of saying, “Look at us. Listen to us.” Music should direct us to the Savior,
not the performer.
Why must I wear jeans to be
relevant as a minister? Must they be wrinkled, too? That is another way of
saying, “The Word is not effective, but identifying with the youth is
effective. They will listen to the jeans.” Jesus parable says, “They have the
Word.” But the false teacher, like the rich man in the Lazarus parable says, “But
if only someone preached in wrinkled jeans and a faded shirt! They would listen
to me!”
Likewise, a congregation
invites people with the Gospel with carnivals, pizza events, and block parties.
Nothing says justification by faith like an inflatable
bounce house.
How we speak about the
Gospel says a lot about how much we treasure the salvation given to us through
faith. If we trust man’s methods rather than God’s Word, then we demean the
Gospel as something captured and used by man ( for carnal security) rather than
a treasure owned and given by God alone.
People make this so
difficult, when John 15 simply teaches – abide in the True Vine. There you will
find forgiveness and fruitfulness. Whatever you pray for in My Name, I will
give you, because that will glorify God.
The Gospel begins and ends
with God, for our spiritual benefit.
