Miles To Go

Perhaps the greatest piece of music ever written is Bach’s Mass in B minor.  I am awed by the intricate polyphony and structural genius. 

Interestingly, Bach never heard a performance of this great work.  When writing the mass, Bach pandered neither to the Protestant Lutherans nor the Roman Catholics.  He included liturgical elements that offended both sides.  Therefore neither denomination provided a house of worship for his composition during his lifetime.

I often think about Bach when I study the theology of baptism.  My personal convictions on this topic are too Catholic for the Protestants and too Protestant for the Catholics.  Fortunately, in the Christian Churches I have found a place where those kinds of dilemmas are not an issue.   I have found a home for my faith and a place to worship.

The reason this is not an issue in the Christian Churches is not because people do not care.  It is because neither Luther nor the Pope has an authoritative voice in them.  Final authority is reserved for the Word of God.  If following the Scriptures means I agree with the Catholics on an issue then so be it.  If it means that I agree with the Protestants on another then that is okay too.

I am haunted by statistics that compare Christians to the general population in areas of morality.  See article.  It has seemed to me for some time that whatever the world accepts as normal becomes the norm for Christians ten or twenty years later. 

I am haunted by this because my greatest fear as a pastor is not that I will fail.  My greatest fear is not that my church will close its doors.  My greatest fear is not that I will one day face persecution for my faith.  My greatest fear as a pastor is that I will preach and spread a diluted and distorted faith that appears attractive but saves no one.

I am haunted by these statistics because Christ called us to be a light in the darkness, a city on a hill, and it seems that we are happy being a row home in northeast Philly (love my Mayfair friends). 

Should I just take an Ambien and get over it?  Should I turn the other way the next time that reckless and rampant immorality presents itself in the church?  Who am I to judge anyway?