The irony of proclaiming to have no creed but the Bible and to “speak where the Bible speaks” while quoting theologians and commentators (but passing it off as my own “bible study” and never attributing the sources) in classes and sermons was not lost on me.
I became fully aware that “we must obey God rather than men” was actually, “we must obey God as interpreted by my favorite men.” […]
If we substitute “sola scriptura” with “sola patristics” we have the same issues. The “sola” is about infallibility and a perfect message that can be perfectly interpreted and thus we can be assured we are right before God and can judge others. Sola scriptura has to prove the inerrancy and perfect harmony of scripture in order to stand. Sola patristics seeks to prove absolute inerrancy and lock step unity of “The Fathers” in all things dogmatic, pastoral and ecclesial to stand. (Why inerrancy in an imperfect world is so important to us is another blog post some day….)[…]
We are called to be craftsmen of the spiritual life, building the household of God according to the gifts we are given, not just scholars.How do we know we have the “phronema of the Spirit”? Jesus said, by your fruits you shall be known: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23). If your dogma is not manifested in this way, your dogma is serving the phronema of your flesh: vainglory, conceit, provoking, engaging in fruitless disputes, and not restoring the lost in a spirit of gentleness, looking to your own sins. (Galatians 5:24-26, Timothy, Titus).
The Orthodox phronema, explicated over 2000 years through creeds, canons, liturgy, sacraments, holy elders, bishops, monastics and laity is simply this: Salvation is not a passing grade on a dogmatics seminary exam, it is the life you learned to live after you were offered a mysterious, free cure for your cancer from your Creator who loves you to death.
In the end, it is not wrong to study the cure, it is wrong to not take the medicine.
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In the year 1831, it seems, this church was repaired and several new additions were made. One of them was a new steeple with a bell in it, and once it was set in place and painted, apparently, an extraordinary event took place. “When the steeple was added,” Howard Mudgett writes in his history, “one agile Lyman Woodard stood on his head in the belfry with his feet toward heaven.”
That’s the one and only thing I’ve been able to find out about Lyman Woodard, whoever he was, but it is enough. I love him for doing what he did. It was a crazy thing to do. It was a risky thing to do. It ran counter to all standards of New England practicality and prudence. It stood the whole idea that you’re supposed to be nothing but solemn in church on its head just like Lyman himself standing upside down on his. And it was also a magical and magnificent and Mozartian thing to do.
If the Lord is indeed our shepherd, then everything goes topsy-turvy. Losing becomes finding and crying becomes laughing. The last become first and the weak become strong. Instead of life being done in by death in the end as we always supposed, death is done in finally by life in the end. If the Lord is our host at the great feast, then the sky is the limit.
There is plenty of work to be done down here, God knows. To struggle each day to walk the paths of righteousness is no pushover, and struggle we must, because just as we are fed like sheep in green pastures, we must also feed his sheep, which are each other. Jesus, our shepherd, tells us that. We must help bear each other’s burdens. We must pray for each other. We must nourish each other, weep with each other, rejoice with each other. Sometimes we must just learn to let each other alone. In short, we must love each other. We must never forget that. But let us never forget Lyman Woodard either, silhouetted up there against the blue Rupert sky. Let us join him in the belfry with our feet toward heaven like his, because heaven is where we are heading. That is our faith and what better image of faith could there be? It is a little crazy. It is a little risky. It sets many a level head wagging. And it is also our richest treasure and the source of our deepest joy and highest hope.