I am sitting in my study preparing for Sunday morning.
We are currently preaching through Paul’s first letter
to the Thessalonian church. Our current morning sermon series is called "Portrait of a God-centered church".
As this wonderful pastoral letter moves my soul, I am moved to think about the state of the church in the world.
I am forced to rethink and to rehearse and to consider how we may rebuild our broken churches upon this Thessalonian model, in our own day when the
church at large is inclined to be anything but God centered.
If anything, the modern church has a tendency to be self -centered
and man centered.
This problem is, of course not
unique to our own age, for this has been the constant struggle of the church ever
since she was born on the day of Pentecost.
And I remember that the effects of sin upon our world have had a heavy toll upon us all. The pull is ever downward, as indicated by the law of gravitation.
G = 9.8m/s.
Things fall down, not up!
The tendency is always
towards decay, towards disorder – towards
a state of entropy – as illustrated by the second law of
thermodynamics [1].
So too it is with the church.
One of my favorite poets
is T.S. Elliot[2]. He has expressed himself in powerful poetry on the subject:
"Of all that was
done in the past, you eat the fruit, either rotten or ripe.
And the Church must be forever building
And
always decaying - and always being restored.
For every ill deed
in the past we suffer the consequence: For sloth, for avarice, gluttony,
neglect of the Word of God.
For pride, for
lechery, treachery, for every act of sin.
And of all that was
done that was good, you have the inheritance.
For good and ill
deeds belong to a man alone, when he stands alone on the other side of
death,
But here upon earth
you have the reward of the good and ill that
was done by those who have gone before you.
And all that is ill
you may repair if you walk together in humble repentance, expiating the sins of
your fathers; And all that was good you
must fight to keep with hearts as devoted as those of your fathers who
fought to gain it.
The Church must be forever building, for it
is forever decaying within and attacked from without;
For this is the law
of life; and you must remember that while there is time of prosperity
The people will
neglect the Temple, and in time of adversity they will decry it."
T.S. Elliot recognizes
that the church is in need of constant reformation, for she is constantly subjected to sin and decay.
Every generation must
understand this, and every generation of believers must rebuild her walls which are constantly being assailed.
We cannot live on
borrowed capital.
A house lived in for along time must be renovated.
We cannot presume that our fathers yesterday have done
a good work.
We must work today and labour today to maintain the faith as itwas once delivered
to us by our Lord Jesus.
And that is why I must preach on Sunday, praying that the Word, the gospel will come in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction!
(1 Thessalonians 1:5)
[1]
The Remarkable Birth of Planet Earth, by Henry
Morris: (p. 14) All
processes manifest a tendency toward decay and disintegration, with a net
increase in what is called the entropy, or state of randomness or disorder, of
the system. This is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. ; Scientific
Creationism, edited by Henry Morris: (p.25) The Second Law (Law of Energy Decay)
states that every system left to its own devices always tends to move from
order to disorder, its energy tending to be transformed into lower levels of
availability, finally reaching the state of complete randomness and
unavailability for further work.
[2] T.S.
Elliot : Chorus from the Rock
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