Uri Brito

On January 1, 2024 By Uri Brito In Culture 1

Resolutions for Church-Friendly Family

Merry 8th Day of Christmas and a Happy New Year! Here are the five resolutions I encourage you to take seriously as members of local churches in 2024:

a) Resolved to attend corporate worship every Lord’s Day unless providentially hindered. We live in a society that treasures entertainment and personal hobbies on Sundays, but God has made his commandments clear. If you compromise on this, you are placing your offspring at the altar of preference and convenience, and the fruit will be disastrous.

b) Resolved to be engaged in the life of fellowship. This is, of course, an extension of the first, though it does not carry the weight of the first. The solution to knowing your community is to be around it beyond Sunday morning. There are activities where it is good and right to attend and there are seasons where attending such activities/events are not profitable nor necessary. Wisdom needs to be considered often. For the life of any Christian body to grow in love and holiness, you will have to work extra hard to maintain a good community life, which demands a commitment, but the rewards are beyond measure.

c) Resolved to grow in the knowledge of God and His Word. One of the great threats of our day is apathy: Christians who sit week after week without increasing their knowledge of the Bible or who are content with the bit of knowledge they have.

Dear friend, it is a sin to not desire to know more about God. To be indifferent as a Christian contradicts the Lordship of Jesus. Jesus demands your souls and bodies. Don’t give him your crumbs.

d) Resolved to be hospitable Christians. Your home—however big or small—is meant to be a garden that provides refreshment to those who enter. I am exhorting you to take your calendars and mark one day a month when you plan to have folks over.

Some families are more gifted in this area ( a gift which has been built with years of practice) and will have people over for meals every week—and you are free to go above and beyond—but I am encouraging 12 days a year where you will intentionally invite some (one) over your home for a meal or dessert or some kind of fellowship. If you need help implementing any of these things, send me a note, and I’d be pleased to offer some suggestions. As one who has been practicing hospitality since the beginning of our marriage, I have learned much from these years and am eager to share any lessons.

e) Resolved to live out the Church Calendar in 2024. Depending on your context in a local church, you can still practice many of these things as families and on your own. If your congregation’s leadership is adamantly opposed to the calendar, I would refrain or, at the very least, talk with them. But in most cases, local churches are indifferent to private practices. Remember that everyone has a calendar. We don’t allow the government or other institutions to determine our calendar. The Church has its own. It takes some practice and creativity to use the calendar wisely. For example, most evangelicals in our culture think that there is only one day of Christmas on the 25th. Anything after the 25th becomes a preparation for the new year. But the Church has set aside 12 days to celebrate Christmas.

So, there are things we can do to make these seasons even more festive and meaningful. Ultimately, the church’s life is the only true life there is. Live it out faithfully this new year and commit your joys and sorrows to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.

On December 18, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture 1

Pope Francis and the Sexual Revolution

The pontiff’s opening words on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in 2013 noted:

“My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today…be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city.”

What has this evangelization wrought in a decade but decadence and a concrete movement toward old-fashioned modernism! The audacious hierarchy of Rome brought all the fruits you would expect of a fallen man playing the role of vicar of Christ on earth. The man who came to power to strengthen human bonds is now eagerly dissolving the very fabric of society established in Eden.

Romanism will enter into the most challenging chapter of its history with a declining population (even in South America, the home of Francis) and a growing apathy to traditional forms. The Catholic Charismatics was an attempt to preserve the Church amid a changing demographic in the 60’s, but now what will become of a Church that claims dogmatic authority led by a pope playing out his socialist and progressive schemes before an ever-changing society? There is no certainty this transition is the last among a wildly revolutionary play on sexual ethics. The Church that prided itself in theological stability and coherence through centuries is now plagued by its own ecclesiology.

Conservative bodies need to be prepared to absorb this hungry generation of Roman Catholics who have observed dogma and tradition faithfully after Vatican II but now will look to find refuge somewhere where creational norms of sexuality have not evolved with time.

I believe the conservative Protestant tradition–especially among the Reformed and Lutheran–must be prepared to educate a massively illiterate Catholic population. Only the Bible and the vast Reformational tradition can provide that security; only the Scriptures can be the source of evangelization.

On December 18, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture 2

The Pastor’s First Duty

Pastors have a fundamental responsibility to shepherd within before they can shepherd without. While the negative world provides us plenty of opportunities to uphold truth, if those propensities and proclamations are not shaped by the garden of the Church first, the opinion pieces will fail to get a hearing. They will only draw the untrained and uncivil pugilist to your corner, who eventually may swallow the young clergy. Therefore, that percentage dynamic should be heavily weighed in favor of the immediate parish concerns (I Pet. 4:17).

While much of theological and pastoral output can benefit the outside community, the minister’s primary goal is to meet the needs of his people. He is a local shepherd, accountable to a local body (Heb. 13:17), connected to a local people.

We are experiencing a monumental decline in pastoral candidates in mainline traditions and a slight decline in more conservative bodies like the Missouri Synod Lutheran.* While there are sociological demands for modern pastors to confront every conceivable moral issue, the minister represents God to his visible assembly, whom he addresses from the pulpit and to whom he administers the elements of bread and wine. His particular dispositions must be used accordingly; his gifts need to be activated rather than re-creating him after the image of some publicly acclaimed character.

While there is tangible evidence of institutional dereliction among seminaries, there is still a more significant fault among those who have demands of pastors that do not place them first at the feet of their congregants before the feet of outside inquiries.

Of course, every pastor has a public face, but his local image shapes that public image. To reverse that dynamic is to create influencers rather than shepherds. The decline of candidates stems from expectations that ministers must embody nearly renaissance gifts, and no man can endure that level of pressure for sustained periods of time.

Too much pastoral theology in our day, put the Table and Pulpit secondary, and the political halls and podcasts as primary. But ministers are heavenly professionals tending to the first garden of God before moving into the land and world.

On December 5, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture, Family and Children Like

Why We Hate Advent!

No one likes to long for things. No one likes to wait. We are consumerist beings expecting everything to be hand-delivered not one second too late; preferably, one second earlier. It’s for these and other reasons that we hate Advent! It’s perhaps for this reason also that we join together Advent and Christmas conceptually. We don’t grasp what Schmemann called the “bright sadness” of this Season, so we rather incorporate it with a happier season.

But we usually don’t hate Advent intentionally; we hate it emotionally–almost like a visceral reaction. We hate it because words like “longing,” “waiting,” “expecting,” “hoping” don’t find a comfortable home in our hearts or vocabulary.

So, I propose we begin the process of un-hating Advent. But we can’t simply un-hate something we have long hated. It takes time to undo our habits. We must try to see Advent for what it really is; a season of practice. It’s a season to warm up our vocal cords for the joys of the world, to strengthen our faith for the adoration of Christ, the Son of the living God.

Few of us treasure the practice time, rehearsal, the conductor’s corrections to our singing, the coach’s repetitive exercises before the big game. Ultimately, we hate Advent because we don’t like to practice.

Sometimes, however, the solution to stop hating something is to reframe the way you think about that something. Imagine you sit under a tedious professor who reads from his notes with no modulation in his voice. To make matters worse, he rarely if ever looks up to engage your eyes, but buries himself in his manuscript. While the material is wonderful, you long for that intimate connection between the content and the character. The next class comes along and suddenly you have an engaging lecturer who is interested in connecting with you. He will add a couple of funny lines to ensure you are awake. Those professors almost always make a greater emotional impact than the tedious lecturer.

Advent is like longing with an engaging professor who not only enjoys teaching but looks up to you and seeks to connect with your eyes and heart. If adventing (waiting) was only a process of listening without engaging, it would be a duty without pleasure. But Advent is being guided by someone who looks into the eyes of affliction and who speaks from experience.
So, yes, it’s about perspective. To Advent is to wait actively, to long hopefully, and to engage the dynamic prophets who prophesy and proclaim Messiah Jesus.

If we begin to see Advent as an engaging practice for Christmas, suddenly our distaste for the season before Christmas will decrease and our longing will be more meaningful. Perhaps we won’t hate Advent after all. We will long together with the prophets and those first-century saints who practiced well and embraced Christmas with sounding joy.

On November 15, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture Like

5 Ways to Make Fun of Evil

There is an art to making fun of evil. You have to build a resume. You can’t just throw words at evil things like an amateur. You have to be armed with the right stuff so you don’t mock the faith while attempting to mock unbelief. So, what do you need to make fun of evil like a professional?

You need courage.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Courage keeps you focused on the enemy. It keeps our warfare on the right target. It keeps moving when the opposing team seems to have the advantage.

You need biblical fidelity.

^“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Fidelity to the Bible is indispensable to attacking evil premises. You can attempt cute remarks that will get cheap applauses, but only faithfulness to the Bible will provide enduring mockery material.

You need festivity.

“Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” You cannot be a talented mocker unless you know how to celebrate properly; the church needs to be a place for sincere and true festivity among the pagan festivals of the world. We gather on the Lord’s Day because this is the great festival day. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

You need family virtues.

“Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table.” You are to build a repertoire of songs and prayers in your household. Parents are to build memories around the table; children need to embrace doses of virtues in honoring father and mother; in serving around the house.

Finally, take your calling seriously.

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.” You have been chosen by God to do what he has called you to do. You cannot take off the armor of God simply because you decided to entertain yourself in the playground of evil. God has given you a calling. Work. Persevere. Repent and enter into his gates with thanksgiving to mock evil with boldness.

Let us mock evil in the act of praise and adoration. God has called us to make his name holy by mocking the unholy.

On November 1, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture Like

A Brief Explanation of All Saints Day

We celebrate —together with a vast majority of Christian Churches in the world–the feast of All Saints. On this day, we honor and remember the saints gone before us. Traditionally, All Saints Day is the day after All Hallowed Eve on October 31st, and the Church celebrates it on the closest Sunday to the first of November.

All Saints Day is also known as the day when we celebrate the hallowed ones, those who have been honored by God because of their faithful lives. The Bible encourages frequently to give honor to whom honor is due (Prov. 3:27) and it lists the great heroes of the faith while praising them for their mighty actions in the face of grave danger (Heb. 11). All Saints’ Day is the benediction of God upon martyrs, the “well done” upon the faithful, and the clothing in white robes on all those who, from their labors rest.

By celebrating the life of the saints, ultimately, we are celebrating the death of death. We celebrate that in the death of the faithful ones, Satan has been mocked. In fact, All Saints testify to the humiliation of the devil and evil throughout history. The Christian Church rejoices over evil by mocking death. The third-century theologian Athanasius gives a good example of the early church’s attitude toward death:

“Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by jeer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15: 55).”

Only the Gospel gave people hope that death could be defeated and reversed. Only the Gospel promised people glory at death and even more glorious resurrection life at the end of history.

The reality is that paganism cannot compete with All Saints’ Day because paganism cannot offer hope after death. The Christian message can offer a definitive answer to death. Jesus is the answer to death’s grip because Jesus overcame the grip of death.

On October 18, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture 1

Victimization Culture

The victimization culture has become an overwhelming feature in our modern discourse. It offers a culture (henceforth, vc) that is almost always antagonistic toward the cause of the conservative Christian faith. VC looks around its environment for micro-aggressions, eager to act as the moral arbiter. Indeed, this culture attempts to form a new morality that despises a merit-based world–the kind that has defined Western Civilization–in favor of passive rewards.

The argument is quite simple: You are, therefore, you deserve. This new religious class lumps entire cultures into neat associations that help categorize them into antagonists or champions of human rights. If you support their cause, a Nobel Peace Prize is nearby.

What we have is a new generation of youth pre-cooked for victimization. Their entire demeanor is pre-disposed to being offended by the smallest acts or rituals. Ironically, these disgruntled/confused men and women want nothing more than dominion. They want to impose their morality on others, which for their cause means to legislate a no-tolerance agenda towards “fanatics” who believe in the authority of holy writ.

To provide a fruitful dialogue in the VC, you need to speak carefully with every nuance, avoid all the pitfalls of potential hurt, navigate carefully the waters of gender ideology, and speak from a position of deference to the greater good of such culture. In this worldview, everyone is fundamentally against you; if they don’t bow down to your needs, they are oppressors. Essentially, this VC has provided a space where the conversation is necessarily evil if you begin from a position of authority, especially the One from on High.

The entire proposal from “Victimization Culture” stems from a “guilty” before proven innocent philosophy. And this is coming down the pipe for “radicals” like us who treasure biblical inerrancy and have little tolerance for mind games played by the Left in this country. No matter how much you assert that the walls of partition are broken down in the name of Messiah Jesus, no matter how often you preach Jesus Christ crucified for sinners, you are still guilty of not performing the act of submission towards the cause of victimization.

I am led to the simple conclusion that we cannot allow our children to be trained under such infidels to the Triune Mission. Faithful worship and faithful cultivation of habits of grace in the church and household is the solution to the day’s confusion. One can be a genuine victim of evil whose life will require community care, love, and truth. We pray churches will embrace such people and lead them to green pastures of comfort and peace.

As an observer of this modern phenomenon, I stand humbled and grateful for a true Victim who suffered at the hands of murderers and unjust men for our cause. He suffered, t yet did not seek to force others to pay him homage but transformed others to love his suffering. True victims are beholden to the cause of a true Sufferer– stricken, smitten, and afflicted for our victory to the eternal praise of his glorious grace.

On October 12, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture 1

Abraham Kuyper Versus the Modernists

What we are experiencing in our times is merely a replaying of classic higher criticism. In the 19th century, Abraham Kuyper argued that modernist scholarship was an attempt to regard themselves as holy. Their worldly wisdom would uphold their elite status because their ethical values were free from religious control.

Kuyper noted that they think they have found the truth, but they have attributed “reality to a mirage, a fairy tale.”^a He further argued that the way out of this moral chaos is to make Christian education indispensable to the success of the Church. Since the state was not interested in the biblical concept of truth, “Christians would have to establish their own schools.”

He knew that modernism could only breathe if it kept the lower middle class distant from the political process. In those days, people experiencing poverty remained far from political engagement since most were not allowed to vote because they did not own land. Therefore, Kuyper entered the political scene eager to appeal to the lower middle class. He knew that the poor in the Netherlands wanted to preserve tradition and conserve Christendom in their communities. He called them to enter the political stage to exorcise the modernists from both Church and State.

Our scene today offers us an opportunity to abandon the antipathy towards politics by encouraging the Church to re-enter the stage of history and fight for society’s good; to see their Christian task as far more than merely a spiritual pursuit of heaven, but to see the Church as the fundamental means by which society is transformed.

The modernists today want nothing with truth but opine from the comfort of tenured status, and we must now seek to leave them to their own devices and begin anew with biblical institutions that presuppose the Triune life at every point of human endeavor.

James E. McGoldrick, Abraham Kuyper: God’s Renaissance Man, 56 (back)

On September 21, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture 1

How to Offend like a Christian

There is no way around it; there is no shortcut to escape it unless you want to forsake it, but the Gospel offends (I Pet.2:7-8). You must drink it straight. For the Christian, the alternative to living out a Gospel that offends is to live as if the Gospel does not matter.

We can move through our workday cavalierly playing the nominal Christian game, remaining quiet when you should have stood firm; you can let Uncle Joe splurt his vitriol against the church and be a good girl, not causing offense anywhere, and masking our way through the next crisis. Yes, we can gain the world’s approval, but we lose our souls.

Is it or is it not the power of God unto salvation and foolishness to the world (Rom. 1; I Cor. 1)? The way you live determines one of these two choices.

So, how do we intentionally live a Gospel that touches the core of anthropology? That hits the center of human pride? That strikes at the root of secular practice? The first way to live a Gospel that is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; to practice those Christian rituals that birthed the Christ-community in the first century. And they were the “foolish” rituals of hospitality, friendship, and sacraments.

The Early Church had many failures, but they hosted each other, they loved each other, they suffered well, and they broke communion bread amid famine, peril and sword. These practices toppled an empire, turned the world upside down, gave Nero nightmares, and kept Pilate and his wife awake at night. How is that for a Gospel offense?!

Suppose the cultural forces continue to move away from the authentic values of the Church. In that case, members of this royal offense-saturated community must see the Church of our Lord as the headquarters of counter-cultural measures.

This is no time to rest or to play nice with anti-Christian politicians and lawmakers. We must restore our sense of the good by loving one another and surrounding ourselves with a Creed that cannot be torn by the mobs but is embraced by a genuine community of believers. We must return to those principles that formed us into the unstoppable empire that grew from 12 to billions. We need to declare these things loud and clear.

“We believe in God the Father Almighty!” but they will say, “How dare you!”
“Maker of Heaven of Earth!” but they will say, “That’s not science!”
“And in Jesus Christ our Lord!” and they will say, “That’s not diversity.”
“Who shall come to judge the living and the dead!” and they will retort, “Nobody can judge!”

Every time we get together for coffee, eat with our neighbor, talk about the goodness of God, and practice holy habits, we live the Gospel in word and deed. We are embracing a different creed and causing offense to the worldly dogma.

No, there is no way around it. The Gospel offends! It afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted. Any other message is false and has no power or salvation.

On September 20, 2023 By Uri Brito In Culture Like

The Necessity of Messy Homes

For years, we have had children and adults roaming our house who do not share our last name. We have adopted the ancient ritual of feeding people, and they, in turn, have invested in feeding us when they bring some of their delicacies. The entire exchange is glorious and delicious.

We have folks weekly for psalms and dessert, and then we have our share of friends and guests staying with us overnight or having meals with us. Eggs, chips and dip, toast, butter, coffee, casseroles, pizza, whiskey, beer, soups, and none of those things in that exact order. The whole thing is a glorious mess of humans and food, the kind of mess that makes the kingdom of God glorious. We love the entire process, which creates a sense of normalcy that is utterly uncomfortable in our culture.

The discomfort stems from a sense of unrealistic neatness that keeps the world from being hospitable. Many evangelicals have fallen into similar traps. Christians wish they had more hospitality, but they do not believe it is sustainable if they have a steady number of guests in their homes.

Our general policy is that we clean when guests come over, which means we clean often, and with our eager tribe of children, cleaning is much more effective, especially with Sargent Wifey.

But the expectation–one I am constantly adjusting to as a Latin man who grew up with impeccable clean homes–that things must always be a certain way and that the home must maintain the correct Asian procedural methods of a certain short lady (how racist of me!) is utterly unrealistic and squashes the culture of hospitality.

The reality is that a home without guests doth not spark joy in the kingdom. Of course, I am not suggesting we forsake those cleanliness habits, but I do suggest we loosen our commitment to certain habits as prerequisites for hospitality.

Think of how many opportunities have been missed because we assumed that such and such a person would look down on us if they saw our house a certain way, the clothes on the couch, the boys’ room in utter chaos, etc.? How many opportunities have been ruined for sweet and intimate communion because we are not “spontaneous” kind of people?

Two additional footnotes are important in this discussion. The first is that if dads are not invested in the cleaning, let their steaks burn a thousand deaths. And the second is that there are seasons when such things need to be paused temporarily. Discernment must come in handy.

I remember a time many years ago when I was having a conversation with a young family with two little kids. The conversation was about our church’s focus on hospitality, to which the father replied: “One day, we will have time for that.” Now, I was quite a young pastor in those days, and my boldness was low on the Richter scale, but today I would simply say, “If you wait for the right time when the “right” time comes, it will always feel like the wrong time.” That’s the case because hospitality is built on the foundation of crying babies and broken toys. It’s a gift you learn to give others with plenty of practice.

Sometimes, when I am in the middle of a deep thought concerning the ontological Trinity with my guests, while 15 kids run around us and in the middle of a very “important” point I was trying to make, my littlest one interrupted with an urgent call from nature. I commented that parents have conversations in fragments in such settings. That should be absolutely normal and expected.

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