Below is a message I sent out to some pastor friends, but which I think is appropriate for all.
La Paz de Cristo sea con vosotros, pw (Google translate should help you if you can't figure this out.)
Dear Brothers in Christ,
Hurtling
backwards at 253 KM per hour, four hours on the train leaves me with no excuse
for not sending a “Friday” e-mail. Actually sending it will have to
wait until I get back to Sevilla, finishing up a weekend of travels, to Madrid
for a service including a baptism on Saturday, then on to Valencia, where the
congregation of actual members has dwindled to almost nothing. Beneficial
conversations with the deacon there, a good egg who is in a seminary by
extension program with the goal of ordination. Getting from here to
there studying by extension, on the side, while working full time, and heading
a household, is a daunting task.
The
CTSFW website posts the OT and NT readings from the Treasury of Daily Prayer,
which can be really handy for devotions on the go. But they struggle
to keep it on the right day. The variable date of Easter is
seemingly too deep a mystery for the webmaster. But this limitation
proved a benefit today, as the readings for this day, if it were not Pentecost
Monday, would rightly come from Ecclesiastes and John 6. Actually
probably from yesterday, May 24th, since I’m 8 hours or so ahead of
Indiana. Anyway, the readings are the point, to which I will Lord
willing get soon.
Do you
ever notice how the Bondage of the Will pops up everywhere, once you get your
head wrapped around it, (insofar as this is possible)? The
Preacher’s mournful lament in Eccl 1 seems to me representative of the honest
and wise human who has come as close as we of our own powers can come to the
reality of our bondage, without yet being enlightened by the mystery of the
Cross. Vanity. Everything new is old, and pointless to
boot. Eat, drink and be merry, for this is as good as it gets, and
tomorrow we die, (which just so happens to be a world view altogether common in
Spain.)
The
John 6 reading is the aftermath of Jesus telling His disciples that they must
chew on His flesh and drink His blood or they will have no part in His
Kingdom. As the crowd grumbles at this hard teaching, Jesus and John
throw down a series of free-will and human reason destroying maxims, (as if
eating His flesh and drinking His blood weren’t enough already). “This
is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted by the
Father.” “He knew who would betray Him” and yet allowed it to
happen! “One of you Twelve is a devil.”
Lord have mercy. Any
one of these, pursued to the tying up of all its logical implications, is
enough to destroy for us the Gospel, and with it our feeble faith. The
music of the liturgy that accompanies Peter’s words from John 6 is altogether
too cheerful. The bouncy tune and the added alleluias contradict the
desperation of Peter’s reply to Jesus’ question, about whether the Twelve also
want to leave. Of course they want to leave. Their reason
and will are screaming at them to leave. All the sensible people have
already left. “But Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of
eternal life?”
Peter
can only, and just barely, hold on to the Gospel of Life. But that
is enough, and actually an overstatement, because it is the Gospel that is
holding on to Peter. God’s gracious will continues to unfold, the
Cross looms near, and with it comes the Resurrection, where all our
impossibilities and the vanities of our bound lives dissolve in peace and
joy.
The
song we have drawn from John 6 to introduce the Gospel ought to be in a minor
key. But no matter, the words are good and right to memorize, and
sing, for they do end in joy.
God
grant you to remain with Jesus, hearing His Word of eternal life, for it is for
you, and your people.
La Paz
de Cristo sean con todos vosotros. D
p.s. While you were
reading, we hit 300 km/hour. Say what you like about socialism, the
Spaniards have sweet trains.
