Today our second reading for morning prayer comes from Matthew 17 the account of the possessed young boy, which is also the account of the disciples failure, and a lesson in the power of faith. This is an account which is jam packed with things that we could spend several weeks of sermons unpacking, expanding, studing, and analyzing. A sermon could easily come from any of these topics. But today, as seminarians I want us to look at this account in a different light because in here, between the lines, is another set of lessons. Here we see Jesus teaching in a quiet way that speaks directly to our current and future ministries.
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A Glimpse into the Theology of Crumbs
Crumbs. We dust them off our clothes, and out of our crumb catchers after meals. If we discover some in our bed at night they rudely awaken us, tiny and wholly unwelcome visitors that somehow seemingly snuck into our bed from the pit itself. And did you ever get one in your shirt? They are a nuisance in our times of plenty. They are so undesirable that over centuries we have even taken the word crumbly and in the modern vernacular turned it into the word crummy to describe things that we find lousy, inferior, or poor. We have often heard the term used to describe things, such as in a crummy life, a crummy job, a crummy marriage, a crummy paycheck, a crummy church, or a crummy sermon.
But crumbs are just smaller portions of some greater whole, little bits as the Greek of our gospel lesson literally states, and are not always a bad thing.
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Besides these, there are many areas of overall general agreement between the two documents, after all, both groups hold to the most of the overall truths expressed in the creeds of the historic Church. As to be expected, because each of these documents come from a different group at a different time there will be things that one would feel convicted to include that the other did not for various and sundry reasons. This could be from a lack of belief in that particular item or maybe because at the time of the construction of the document the issue in question was not in dispute for the particular authors in question.
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The last specific comparison to be undertaken here is the comparison of the 1689 and the Articles regarding Holy Communion. In order to understand a couple of points regarding the 1689, it is necessary to back up, as it were, and look at the differences in the document from which the 1689 was taken, the Westminster Confession, and the 1689 as it stands complete after the Baptist modifications. Thus, when dealing with Chapter 30: Of the Lord’s Supper, before launching into a comparison with Article XXVIII: Of the Lord’s Supper, a short comparison will be made between the 1689’s Chapter 30 and the Westminster Confession’s Chapter 29, also entitled “Of the Lord’s Supper,” specifically in reference to sections 1, 4, and 8.
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Interestingly enough, in order to understand what “predestination” means in the Articles contra the 1689 we need to look back at Baptism. In Article XXVII: Of Baptism we find the language of regeneration, language wholly missing from the 1689. Understanding the meaning of regeneration yields the prize of understanding language as it pertains to predestination. For the specific differences in reference to this issue we turn again to Browne:
Another objection is drawn from the Calvinistic scheme. Baptismal grace is supposed to contradict the doctrine of final perseverance. The Calvinistic scheme teaches, that grace is always irresistible, and that grace once given always abides. The soul, once in a state of grace, is always in a state of grace. If therefore grace was given at baptism, it can never fail.
The most rigid form of Calvinism might make this inevitable. Yet, very high predestinarians have thought otherwise. Augustine held that persons might be predestined to grace, but not to perseverance; nay, that they might be ordained to persevere for a time, yet not to the end.[1]
Thus, there is a distinction among those in Baptism of those who may be in covenant for a time and those who will persevere to the end. Although they are predestined to their final state, there is, from our narrow earthly perspective, a state of flux in between. Among those whom we should remember when dealing with predestination are those predestined to eternal life who may not claim that reward until very near their end. These in an eternal sense are as elect and as sure in that election as any, but to us will often appear as heathens. These are, to coin a phrase, the “proto-elect” and a sure reason for a pastoral approach to the doctrine of election. Pastors cannot know in their congregations who are predestined to grace and who is predestined to life, neither can they know among people met on the street who among those they meet, regardless of how they appear at that specific point in time, are ultimately elect of God.
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