A DEBT OF GRATITUDE

We continue to commemorate the post-resurrection days of our Lord Jesus.  If you count off forty days, you identify Ascension Day [May 29^th this year - Thursday].  Traditionally, we count off ten more days to arrive at Pentecost Sunday [June 8^th this year]. These ten days approximate the period of time that the [reportedly] 120 followers gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.

The Church has traditionally recognized Pentecost as the close of the Easter season and the beginning of the longest liturgical season of the year – ending in November when the Advent Season restarts the church year!  It is frequently referred to as ‘Ordinary Time’ and encourages the Church to focus on the life and teachings of Jesus. 

So, you see, today we continue to celebrate the most holy season of the year as we anticipate the birth of the New Testament Church on Pentecost Sunday!

All of the above is – of course – a pattern given to us by the tradition of the church over many years of observation and practice!  Nowhere are these practices laid out for us in scripture.  Many churches do not give any recognition to these liturgical elements. 

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It does, however, merit our attention to reflect on the massive work done by the apostles and church leaders during those first three hundred years. They did not have the benefit of years of reflection and practice to draw upon!  In the earliest years there was surely some floundering for understanding and queries about how to move forward. 

The Christological debates were clearly foremost in their minds.  How did this happen? How did God come down to earth? How could Jesus have been God?  The traditions that we consider as resolute had to be thought through thoroughly with much debate and long-term consideration before they became accepted as authoritative guidance for the Church! 

Things that we consider orthodox had to be distilled.  Things like the virgin birth had to be discerned, debated and declared as official doctrine.  There was a strong counter-belief that Jesus was a man that God ‘adopted’ to be the ‘Son of God’.  They debated among themselves when this ‘adoption’ took place.

o   Was it when Jesus was baptized – clearly a special moment when God spoke from the heavens?

o   Or was it when He took Peter, James and John up the mountain of transfiguration – another special moment graced by Moses and Elijah as well as the spoke words of God?

The Church nearly divided over a debate that argued that Jesus was not eternal as the Father was. Just the observation of a triune God had to be thought through and accepted!  This was one of the primary reasons for the next major conference – the Council of Nicea [in 325 A.D.].

The Council of Nicaea was the first council in the history of the Christian church that was intended to address the entire body of believers. It was convened by the emperor Constantine to resolve the controversy of Arianism, a doctrine that held that Christ was not divine but was a created being. The council deemed Arianism a heresy and enshrined the divinity of Christ by invoking the term homoousios (Greek: “of one substance”) in a statement of faith known as the Creed of Nicaea.

 

The Council of Chalcedon was called by the emperor Marcion and met in modern-day Turkey [451 A.D.].  It was well-attended and exceptionally well documented. It approved the earlier Nicean Creed and created its own creedal statement – known as the Chalcedonian Creed.  It determined that:

“We all teach harmoniously [that he is] the same perfect in godhead, the same perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man, the same of a reasonable soul and body; homoousios with the Father in godhead, and the same homoousios with us in manhood ... acknowledged in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” 

 We may scoff at these ideas and wonder about their naiveté in considering such proposals, however, we have the benefit of their deliberations at our disposal. All consequent generations benefit from the painful, deep, theological ruminations that took place in these first three hundred years! 

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Gracious God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Some of us have never appropriately thanked You for the spiritual leaders who worked so diligently to understand the deep workings that You initiated with the Incarnation! 

Surely You were vigorously at work to protect the Truth and expose erroneous thinking.

This guiding work persisted through three full centuries before the Church finally discerned the Truth that we now hold as precious and dear! 

However, even today there are attempts to undermine the fundamental truths of our faith!  Continue to raise up apologists to respond to these challenges to our spiritual/biblical foundations!     

Protect Your Church!

Guide Your Church!

Embolden Your Church!

Stir in Your followers a similar desire to expand Your Kingdom to the ends of the earth!

FOR YOUR KINGDOM’S SAKE!

AMEN!