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On May 10, 2020 By In Family and Children

Mothers as Theologians of the Future

We cannot begin to think of mothers without speaking of our first mother, Eve. She was unashamed of her calling to serve in the Garden. Her duty was to make Eden a place where God’s name would dwell forever. She was future-oriented, planting a vineyard for the happiness of the Garden (Prov. 31:16) and her husband. Though Eve fell, the vision of the future does not. And so, mothers press on to that higher calling.

Faithful mothers are theologians of the future knowing well their eschatology in a fallen world. She lives in such a way to influence her children and her children’s children. It’s why young men call their moms in college because they are equally passionate about the future. They find commonality in their planning.

On this Mother’s Day, children must bless their mothers and husbands must praise their wives! A good queen makes the name of Yahweh known in her Garden, for she lives in harmony with the Lord of the future. And especially today, we show honor to whom honor is due.

But the journey is far from over. As mothers get older and gain more biblical wisdom, they become wise matriarchs in communities. They theologize about life and apply the Gospel in new ways to their offspring and community. People are drawn to her understanding and begin to say: “Go to her. Seek her counsel.” But this does not happen overnight. The faithful mother builds her days now on loving truth; her theology is the resurrection of Jesus, who gives her new strength every day.

Remember mothers, it is not your husbands that give you an identity; it is Christ who names you. When you are overwhelmed by your duties, your salvation is in the risen Jesus. The empty tomb identifies you; it’s the resurrection that shapes your future.

Christian mothers, in one way, set the rhythm for the rest of the world. C.S. Lewis put it this way:

“To be a mother is a woman’s greatest vocation in life. She is a partner with God. No being has a position of such power and influence. She holds in her hands the destiny of nations, for to her comes the responsibility and opportunity of molding the nation’s citizens.”

Mothers, do not ever allow someone to say that your role is not valued. You are co-heirs of grace. Your children are future warriors trained by the mighty hands of ordinary moms who embrace the future like Mary, Sarah, Ruth, and so many others.

For every diaper you change, for every alphabet letter you teach, for every kiss, for every song, for every meal you make, for every joy you instill in your children and others in your community, therein is the testimony of God’s grace in the world.

Moms, you are God’s gift to the Church and your families. Be encouraged in your calling. We need your wisdom, and the world needs it also. Do not grow weary in well-doing. You are shaping the future with your actions. Happy Mother’s Day! And may the God of all peace sustain and nourish you with His grace now and forever. Amen.

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On May 9, 2020 By In Worship

When Evangelicals Tell the Church to Stop Singing!

The absurdity in this COVID age is not simply that the government wishes to impose particular restraints in the life of the church without authority and violating sphere sovereignty, but that Christians are eager to support those policies and comply with them.

In the beginning there were examples of regulations against meeting in large numbers (understood in the early stages), then, upon setting guidelines for re-opening, certain city officials demanded that individual churches keep a private file for 30 days of all those who attended church (including entrance/exit time and other personal details); then, there were specific observations made to the effect that the Lord’s Supper was to be avoided for safety concerns.

Now, evangelical voices are siding with researchers on the dangers of aerosolized transmission in the church service. Scientists say that “It seems that the virus can spread in this manner; but we don’t know how infectious these tiny particles are.”

What’s the end result of all of this? That congregations should consider a ban on singing or that we should sing less and more quietly or that we delay the opening of church altogether (despite the green light of many officials that they can open) until a vaccine is available.

The rationale for such approach is one I have heard dozens and dozens of times through much of this conversation. It goes like this, “To love our neighbor is to not expose them to any potential risks of getting COVID, and therefore these measures however drastic are clear examples of our corporate commitment to love one another.”

Again, to stress the absolute obvious: precautions are good and prudent. People who are at high risk should take extra caution and religious leaders should offer extra grace. But now we are entering into the realm of the insane when the state (CDC, WHO, whomever) and even evangelical voices begin to demand for the sake of “love” that we retreat from our liturgical duties to appease the gods of the air.

The Church is giving in too much. The sign of our weakening is that the voices of doom from the outside are beginning to shake the very foundation of our faith within. Singing brings walls down, topples empires, brings fear to the devil, soothes the sick and hurting, establishes order and might I add is a marching order from the God who sings over us. Enough already! Singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is probably the most needed medicine in the church today.

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On May 8, 2020 By In Podcast

Episode 77, What would Jesus Tweet? A Conversation with Dustin Messer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:46 — 16.9MB)

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The prolific Dustin Messer joins KC Podcast to talk about his latest article at Break Point What Would Jesus Tweet? We discuss the nature of rhetoric on social media and the important functions of truth and love in the process of communication in our day.

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On May 7, 2020 By In Culture, Family and Children, Music

10 Notes on Food, Feasting and Friendship

I begin with the assumption that the church has been powerfully de-ritualized this quarantine season. Habits die quickly or become rusty when not exercised. As Dru Johnson notes in his book Human Rites, we need to know our rites. The more we understand our rituals the more meaningful they become. And we have forgotten those rites and/or meaningfully ceased to practice them. I offer ten brief notes on three main rituals we need to recover in this age.

First, we eat without thanksgiving. Gluttony exists because thanksgiving does not. Eating is not a neutral exercise. Christians eat as acts of triumph over the world.

Second, the ritual of eating is undervalued in America. In this country, food is consumption. We eat because we want to, therefore we eat without intentionality. When rites become trite, our experiences become trivial, and the doors for abuse open wider.

Third, corporate eating is de-valued because we allow teenagers to rule over the table. Parents must re-assert their authority over the table, and keep food at the table and not on laps in front of laptops.

Fourth, feasting suffers when worship looks like a funeral. If every head is bowed and eyes are closed, we cannot see the feast or hear the feasters. Feasting is diminished when worship is feast-less in character.

Fifth, feasting is best formalized and appointed. When it is that way, it can be adorned with fancy napkins and plates. It allows family members to long for something better. We are gnostics to think that immediacy is best. Christians understand that better feasts means preparing more to enjoy best.

Sixth, feasts are more meaningful when we incorporate singing. Feasts in the Bible are celebrations of our freedom from bondage. Singing to Yahweh a new song is declaring Pharaoh will never rule again.

Seventh, there is no friendship without Christ. There are shared experiences and stories, but friendship is rooted in a shared Christ.

Eighth, relationships change and are re-directed. Someone who was a friend in eighth grade may not be a friend now. God gives us a rotation of friends through life because He knows that our changes will require new people to speak into our particular phases of life.

Ninth, many of us are worse friends than we think, but we have better friends than we deserve.

Tenth, all rituals require practice. All rituals require meaning. All good things require work.

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On May 2, 2020 By In Politics

When Kansas City Comes After Church Membership

If ever there was a time to heed Francis Schaeffer’s warning against authoritarian government, the time is now. Schaeffer urged the Christian to speak and act on the absolute to combat the arbitrariness of the state. The federal and local governments must avoid at all costs the interference with the sphere of the church. The church functions independent from the state since they offer a different sacramental table than what the government offers. We offer bread and wine to weary sinners and the state offers the sword to wicked sinners.

If there is to be any joint enterprise it must be on the assumption of mutual agreement between the spheres in times of absolute necessity. Kuyper notes that all government authority “originates from the Sovereignty of God alone.” When the state assumes a self-serving authority beyond God’s boundaries, there can be no harmony between the spheres.

As churches all across the country re-open, Kansas City, Mo. is demanding that churchgoers turn over membership lists along with personal data as a way of tracking and isolating individuals exposed to COVID-19. This act is a clear violation of the fundamental nature of the church. Our loyalty is to a heavenly regime and not some local authoritarian eager for notoriety and power. We don’t need much blood to call the attention of a hungry lion, and the government (even at its local level) seeks only a sample of blood to jump at the opportunity to seize a table that belongs only to the church.

There is no virus that can take the authority of the church, and certainly there is no virus powerful enough for the church to hand over her keys to the civil magistrate. The keys of heaven and hell belong to the institution of the church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Church membership is a distinct document used for the benefit of the local church and her members. It does not belong on the desk of a bureaucrat and it is certainly not to be used for surveillance no matter how well intentioned it may be. Let the church be the church. Leave the bread and the wine where it belongs.

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On April 30, 2020 By In Podcast

Episode 76, Thinking Christianly During COVID; An Interview with Andrew Sandlin

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:37 — 28.7MB)

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Andrew Sandlin has been a sober voice throughout this season. On this interview, Pastor Brito engages Andrew in Kuyperian talk as they apply a distinctly biblical view towards the Church’s response to this pandemic. Andrew argues that this pandemic reveals the intellectual bankruptcy of secularism, but also the failure of the church to deal biblically with this crisis.

Show notes:

You can follow Andrew on Facebook and Twitter.

He is the president of the Center for Cultural Leadership.

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On April 28, 2020 By In Podcast

Episode 75, On Friendship: A Conversation with author, Drew Hunter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:42 — 22.7MB)

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Pastor and author, Drew Hunter, wrote a concise and helpful work on the topic of friendship. In this interview, we take the time to define friendship, talk about Scriptural examples of friendship, as well as offer lots of helpful ways to move forward with pursuing this great gift. You will want to share this episode.

Episode Resources:

Here are three articles at Desiring God. 
10 things to know about what the Bible says about friendship. 
Friendship and leadership in pastoral ministry. 
You can find a few articles and excerpts with Crossway.  

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On April 23, 2020 By In Scribblings

Bonhoeffer’s Optimism in Prison

I have been reading through Bonhoeffer’s “Letters and Papers from Prison” for some doctoral research. It’s 600+ pages of gem after gem. I underline at least three sentences per page. The more I read, I notice two consistent themes in Bonhoeffer’s imprisonment.

The first is his optimism. He is not cavalier about the difficulties of the optimist. In fact, he says to be a pessimist is “more sensible.” A pessimist leaves his disappointments behind and face people unembarrassed. On the other hand, optimism is not looking at the current situation, but it’s a power of life. For Bonhoeffer, this is the quality that allows him to tolerate setbacks. But most importantly, it’s an aggressive posture since it refuses to let the opponent lay claim of the future. Surely there is “stupid and naive optimism,” but the optimism Bonhoeffer asserts is the ability to desire a better future on earth while vigorously preparing for it.

The second is doing theology. Bonhoeffer sees times of uncertainty as ripe to think clearly about God and his world. He says that in such moments he has to “practice what he has told others in his books and sermons.” It’s the time when theology flows out of your fingertips; when theology becomes true theology in its pure embodied practice. After all, what good is a theology that cannot be lived out in isolation? It was in prison where the German theologian observed that one cannot live by meditation alone. For Bonhoeffer, isolation is tragic because it takes away one of God’s great gifts which is communicating with one another. Theology communes and is livable.

He concludes by noting an added gift of his quarantine; one which would sustain him until the day of his execution. He observes that in his separation and loneliness he suddenly began to give thanks for the small things. And that, for Bonhoeffer, was true optimism and good theology.

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On April 21, 2020 By In Podcast

Episode 74, When Harvard Goes After Homeschooling: Conversation with Steven Wedgeworth

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:03 — 20.5MB)

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The Harvard Magazine decided to take this COVID-19 season to attack homeschooling. Their article attacks homeschoolers and calls for legislation limiting the liberties of homeschool parents in America.

On this episode, Pastor Brito talks with Pastor Steven Wedgeworth, Associate Pastor of Faith Reformed Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Canada and Co-Founder of The Calvinist International. They discuss various features of the article and the plethora of naive assumptions from the author.

Follow Pastor Wedgeworth on twitter.

Music by Smith Leithart

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On April 18, 2020 By In Culture, Family and Children

A Response to Social Distancing

Contrary to cults, Jesus did not rise ghostly on the third day. He was raised in the flesh. The Easter season brings with it an essential topic for conversation at the COVID-19 table. One of the most painful reminders that we still live in a fallen world is that we are–for good order and prudence–inhibited from hugging, kissing, and shaking the hands of our neighbors. The terminology “social/physical distancing” pushes back against the Christian faith. We are the most embodied religion on planet earth because of an embodied risen Lord, and yet, at this stage, we are urged to avoid resurrection affection to the saints. But the Christian faith receives God in a journey of social nearing to his people. We may rightly say it is contrary to our religion to avoid physical connection with others. But alas, we find ourselves in this pitiful state.

This entire affair is one element of God’s judgment on his people that we too rarely consider. The Apostle’s life is one where he longed to be with God’s people and greet them with a kiss. Paul was not content suffering for the cause of Christ in a prison cell away from God’s people. He did not appreciate his isolation from church life. While the Gospel prospered even in Paul’s imprisonment, he longed to see the people of God (Rom. 1:11).

The apostolic model calls us to use this time to meditate on how little we show physical affection to those nearest to us. If anything, we need to consider how few tangible acts of love we offered before the pandemic kept us away from the presence of others. It is a scientific affirmation that hugs between fathers and sons, for instance, improve physical and psychological well-being.a There is too much at stake in this conversation beyond economics. Easter comes with tangible consequences.

It is common to think that the Pauline imperatives belong to an ancient culture where physical affection was time-bound, but we now live in a more personalized western environment where our interactions do not require physicality. But it’s important to note that this is not the Western perspective. While some may feel this way in this country, Latinized countries and the vast majority of European nations practice some physical form of greeting one another.b It is entirely possible and likely that our germaphobia is linked to our dismay of what the Bible and the vast majority of cultures consider normal.

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  1. The humble hug represents security, reassurance and love – and as well as emotional benefits there is well-documented scientific evidence that regular hugging improves physical and psychological well-being. Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that the bonding hormone oxytocin rises substantially the more hugs a person receives. https://www.menshealth.com/uk/health/a754361/why-hugs-are-good-for-father-son-bonding/   (back)
  2. https://jetfarer.com/brazilian-kissing-culture-greetings/  (back)

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