A Knight’s Tale: A Parable of Justification

Posted on April 8, 2009 by me

Here’s a short excerpt from the book I am writing:

Possibly the best illustration of this aspect of justification is in the 2001 film A Knight’s Tale, starring Heath Ledger as William, a thatcher’s son who takes on the totally fictitious persona of Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein so he can participate in jousting tournaments, which are limited to proven nobility.  He makes it to the finals, only to have his identity revealed by his nemesis, the evil Count Adhemar. Following the revelation of “Ulrich’s” true identity, William is arrested and put into the stocks, as he should have been; he was, after all, guilty of fraud.  He knows, and accepts this.

Suddenly, Prince Edward (son of the King, the Prince of Wales), steps out from the crowd to proclaim that per his personal historians, William is indeed descended “from an ancient noble line,” and is then, a nobleman.  If this weren’t enough, Edward adds, “This is my word, and as such, is beyond contestation.”  He then proceeds to knight William under his real name: Sir William Thatcher.

Like William, we are frauds, guilty under the Law, and deserving of punishment.  Our accuser reminds us of that daily. However, here’s the kicker:  Jesus, our Prince, makes this proclamation: “You are noble. You are a child of the King. This is my word, and as such, is beyond contestation.”  If anyone but Prince Edward (except for his father, the King) had made such a proclamation, William would have continued to live in doubt and fear. However, by the Prince’s declaration, even William himself couldn’t contest his nobility.  This is our case as well.  Jesus has proclaimed our justification, our freedom and our nobility, and we ourselves do not have the right to contest it!

We are free before the Law. Not only that – we’ve been adopted into the King’s family, and “knighted” (sealed with the Holy Spirit and attested to in baptism) as proof. The Law has been satisfied, we are declared righteous, we are made royalty, and it has all been done in the open, in sight of our accuser.  (c) Copyright 2009 Alden Swan, all rights reserved

Justification is the crux of Christianity, although most Christians don’t understand the concept whatsoever.  For more on the subject, you can read here and here.

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Feel a Change Comin’ On – New from Bob Dylan

Posted on April 6, 2009 by admin

Sheer Brilliance…

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The Jesus Christ Show? What blasphemy!

Posted on April 5, 2009 by admin

Has anyone heard of this?  I was scanning the AM dial during my drive between churches this morning (from St Paul’s Episcopal to Salem Evangelical) and stumbled across this guy conducting a call-in show pretending that he was Jesus.  The callers call him Jesus, and refers to himself as Jesus.   Rarely has anything I’ve heard on the radio upset me so much.

When I first tuned in, he was giving a rather poor explanation of original sin, comparing the difference between Calvinist and Arminian views. Then, some poor guy called in asking what he should do, as he claimed he kept trying not to sin, but sinned anyway. This “Jesus” impostor began berating him “Dr. Laura” style.  I’m sorry, but nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus berate and belittle sinners. Jesus saves that for the self-righteous.  This phony Jesus’ words were, “If you really cared, you would stop sinning,” going on and on to make the caller feel as bad as possible – I can’t really express how bad it really was.  There was none of the love, forgiveness, grace or power that are evidenced by the Jesus of the New Testament, just this voice of self-righteous condemnation calling himself “Jesus.”  Wow.

Whatever happened to, “Neither do I condemn you?”  Or, “Go, your sins are forgiven?”  This legalistic bullshit really pushed me over the edge.  If teachers are warned to be careful, this should go many times over for someone actually representing himself as Jesus.

I looked online and sure enough, found The Jesus Christ Show.  I expected to find some wacko group behind it, but see that it’s apparently considered mainstream evangelical and been on the air for several years. Nowhere did I find any evangelical leader speaking out against this blasphemy.  Why?  I’m telling you, if I didn’t really know the Gospel, what I heard today would be enough to make me an atheist.

If anyone is confused, here is what Paul had to say in response to this specific situation (which he outlined in Romans 7), from Romans 8:1-4,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

That’s the real Gospel.  No condemnation. Set free from the law of sin and death.  What part of this does Neil Saavedra (who “plays” Jesus) not understand?  Has he read Romans?  Or Galatians?  Here’s what Paul had to say in Galatians 1 about those preaching a false gospel (which adds human effort into the equation):

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

I should not be out of line, then, by calling up this false Jesus and telling him to go to hell, not that it would do any good.  I’m sure I would be branded a liberal and summarily dismissed. That doesn’t bother me; what does bother me is this:  where are all of the other voices calling for the end of this show?  If they’re out there, I’d like to know. I couldn’t find anyone through Google.

I should know better than to even consider listening to Christian radio, but my neighbor Randy is on sometimes, and he’s good.

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The Lutheran Liturgy, Pt. 4

Posted on April 3, 2009 by admin

As indicated in the title, this is my 4th in a series on the old Lutheran Liturgy, from the 1958 Service Book & Hymnal that I grew up with.   As I explained in the first post in the series, I’ve been away from the Lutheran church since the mid 70’s, but recently obtained a recording of the 2nd Setting of that liturgy.   Even before getting the recording, I had begun to recall parts of the liturgy.  I dug out my old hymnal and began using the liturgy on occasion for meditation.   I now find that I’ll have parts of the liturgy running through my mind at various parts of the day; or, more accurately, it’s playing somewhere internally… at time it just seems to resonate.

I have visited a couple of local Lutheran churches over the past couple of years, and have not been impressed at all with what they are currently using as liturgy (every week it seems to be different, like they’re afraid of actually memorizing one… or, perhaps they don’t like any of them, either).  I do really appreciate the Episcopal liturgy, however; in spite of the problems in the EC, I can relate to the Book of Common Prayer. I hope in the near future to analyze and compare the liturgies, and would appreciate any input you’d care to give.

Now, on to the Liturgy. Following the sermon, is the Offertory.  There are 2 optional offertories; this is what our church used:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit
a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou would not despise.
Do good in thy good pleasure onto Zion
build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness
with burn offering and whole burnt offering.

The alternate is

What shall I render unto the Lord
for all his benefits toward me?
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and will callupon the Name of the Lord.
I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the Name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his peoiple
in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee O Jerusalem.

As the offering is brought forward, we sing:

Create in me a clean heart O God
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of they salvation
an uphold me with thy free spirit.

I question using Psalm 51, as it doesn’t seem applicable in the context of the New Covenant, especially as I under Lutheran theology.  Possibly this crept in during the pietistic movement, which also seemed to ignore the core of Luther’s (and Paul’s) theology.

After the offering comes the Prayer of the Church, which I won’t include here due to length.  The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod site has a good explanation of the Prayer of the Church.  Essentially, it is corporate prayer for the needs of the church, the country, the sick, and so on, and is typically followed by The Lord’s Prayer (we used the “trespasses” language).

At this point, the service could close with a hymn and the Benediction, unless it was Communion Sunday.  Our church had Communion once a month, so it always seemed odd to me when churches would do it every Sunday.  I’ve come to appreciate the Lord’s Supper – Eucharist – in a more profound way, so now I look forward to it every Sunday.  As with the Orthodox, RCC and Anglican churches, Communion now seems to be the high point of the service, rather than something tacked on to the end to extend the time (which I always hated as a kid).

I’ll conclude with one more post on the Lord’s Supper, as the old liturgy was a bit more involved than anything I’ve experienced recently in either the Lutheran or Episcopalian churches.

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