#second helvetic confession

[lentdevotions2019]

Tuesday, March 26

Call of the Covenant / Isaiah 55:1-9

Augustine of Hippo

For many churches throughout the world, Easter is a time for baptisms. Whether it happens around a tiny font in the darkness of the Easter Vigil, or in a cold lake at an early morning Easter sunrise service, the day of Christ’s resurrection has always been a special time for Christians to baptize new believers. The year 387AD was no exception for the church in Milan, and for a young man named Augustine.  

Augustine’s mother, Monica, was a devout Christian who shared her faith with her son throughout his life. But Augustine, like many teenagers, was drawn to other pursuits. As a young adult, he had little interest in the things of God, and even less interest in becoming a Christian. But Monica continued to pray, and continued to give witness to her deeply-held faith. In time, Augustine started attended Sunday services at the church where the famous bishop, Ambrose, preached. At first, he was only impressed with the eloquent preacher’s style. But then one day something strange happened. While wondering the streets of Milan, Augustine heard a child singing, “Pick it up, and read it!” Since he could not recall any children’s song with those words, he took this to be a sign from God telling him to grab a Bible and start reading. As he poured over the words of scripture, and the testimony of people like the Apostle Paul, Augustine found himself slowly coming to faith. On the evening of April 24 (387AD) the newly converted Augustine of Hippo was immersed in the waters of new life by Bishop Ambrose of Milan. Augustine was ordained in 391, and elected Bishop of the North African city of Hippo in 395. Revered by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants alike, Augustine is regarded as one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time.

Later in life, Augustine wrote an account of his conversion in his famous Confessions. In it, he penned these beautiful words: Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold, Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee. Thou was with me when I was not with Thee.

“If you are thirsty, come and drink water!” God invites us through the prophet Isaiah in this week’s scripture reading. Like Augustine, so many others down through the centuries have also found themselves parched after a lifetime running from God. The waters of baptism are a sign of the gift of God’s grace that pursues us at all times. Like the water of Isaiah’s prophecy, baptism is a free gift to all who are thirsting for a deeper relationship with God.

Almost 1,200 years after Augustine’s baptism, another great Christian thinker wrote down his Confession. In 1561, Heinrich Bullinger, a minister of the Reformed church in Zurich, set out to put into writing his own understanding of the Christian faith. In The Second Helvetic Confession, he says, “to be baptized in the name of Christ is to be enrolled, entered, and received into the covenant and family, and so into the inheritance of the (children) of God…and to be granted the manifold grace of God.” (5.187)

When have you felt far away from God? Was there a sign or a gift that you were given to remind you of God’s grace?

(C) 2019 Geoff Duffy

[torreygazette]

Parenting on the Supper

It should surprise no one that my children struggle to pay attention throughout an entire church service. Though they are increasingly involved in the back and forth of our liturgy, lapses in focus are systematic silliness, not sinfulness.

However, one portion of the service that grabs hold of the children's attention are baptism and the supper. In particular, Judah goes from the start of the service to the concluding prayer of the sermon asking if the next element is the Lord's Supper. Some might chalk this up to childhood hunger, but I have noticed that it is, in fact, something different.

Here in the sacrament, he gets to use his little boy hands to pass the plate. He gets to use his hands to hold the elements. And he gets to smell. There is a pertinent corporeal practicality. In something akin to Calvin's idea that the sacraments are signs of our weary flesh, the service because something more real for our children. This makes it all the more important for parents to embed deep rooted sacramental theology in their children. The first truth must be the promises of the sacrament,

"This holy Supper also seals to us that the very body of Christ was truly given for us, and his blood shed for the remission of our sins, lest our faith should in any way waver." (Second Helvetic Confessions)

The first thing we instruct our kids is that on the basis of their faith, they can rest assured of God's promises towards them. Not the health or strength of their faith, but the sheer existence of faith that Christ has conquered their sins. The readiness of children for repentance is staggering. And there are few better points to emphasize the simplicity of faith than when a child is holding his cup. The second important truth is the meaning of our language "body and blood,"

"From all this it is clear that by spiritual food we do not mean some imaginary food I know not what but the very body of the Lord given to us, which nevertheless is received by the faithful not corporeally, but spiritually by faith." (Second Helvetic Confessions)

Admittedly, the Reformed tradition has the hardest of all parental roles in educating children about sacramental language. Those on the left (Lutherans) and right (Memorialists) will chuckle to themselves and say it's because we don't just speak plainly. They might have a point since we speak quite plainly about "the very body" but "not corporeally." The clarity with respect to human logic does seem to be missing.

But the most important point we teach during this time is the importance of the sacrament. For portions of the Reformed tradition clearly teaching that eating is necessary for salvation,

"And this eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Lord is so necessary for salvation that without it no man can be saved. But this spiritual eating and drinking also occurs apart from the Supper of the Lord, and as often and wherever a man believes in Christ."  (Second Helvetic Confessions)

 Now some may view this as a cop out. Isn't this merely "faith alone" yet again? The answer is "yes." But the answer is "yes" in a way that is affirming of the weekly consumption of Christ's flesh. By that I mean this, the benefits of the sacrament are renewed weekly just as the Second Helvetic articulates,

"That greatest benefit which he showed to mortal men, namely, that by having given his body and shed his blood he has pardoned all our sins, and redeemed us from eternal death and the power of the devil, and now feeds us with his flesh, and gives us his blood to drink, which, being received spiritually by true faith, nourish us to eternal life. And this so great a benefit is renewed as often as the Lord's Supper is celebrated." (Second Helvetic Confessions)

The "cop out" of faith as eating is reinforced by the reality that every week such eating "so great a benefit is renewed." Every single week I am encouraged to renew the instruction with my children because with each week's consumption the benefits of faith are renewed. That is well within the pale of the Reformed Tradition.

[utahgrace-blog]

Your Life A Photo

1.31

Last Sunday in our early service, we used the opening words of the Second Helvetic Confession to affirm something of what we believe about the Bible.Since we are going through the Bible this year, I thought these words might give us perspective about the usefulness of the Old and New Testaments.

(The Second Helvetic Confession is a statement of belief about Christian faith from the Reformed perspective.  There are various traditions within the Christian family, and the Reformed tradition - which is claimed by Presbyterians and Reformed Christians - grew out of the Reformation in the 16th c.  This Confession was a timely way for Christians in the 16th century to say what they believed about essential matters of faith.)

I have always found these words about the Scriptures very meaningful.

We believe and confess the canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both Testaments to be the trueWord of God, and to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men. For God himself spoke to the fathers, prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through the Holy Scriptures. And in this Holy Scripture, the universal Church of Christ has the most complete exposition of all that pertains to a saving faith, and also to the framing of a life acceptable to God...

This statement not only gives what we mean by the Scriptures and their scope, but also that they are living words as God still speaks to us.

But the phrase I want to highlight is how it frames a life acceptable to God.

A frame is a boundary and border.  A frame of a picture gives order to a photo, holding it together and complimenting the photo.

The Bible frames our life.  How the picture looks is very much up to us.  We get to choose the colors, figures, the shades, etc.  God's Word gives boundaries and order to that.

When we start coloring outside the lines of God's Word, we are "out of bounds" with God's will.

Some people think the Bible is too constricting, and that to read it or take it seriously doesn't allow them the freedom to express themselves as they want.  God actually gives us a whole canvas upon which we can do all types of things with our lives.

The Bible properly frames our life and puts it within God's will.