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Called to the Cross
An Opinion by Viola Larson I believe
that God is calling many, really most of those who are Reformed and
orthodox in faith in the Presbyterian Church USA to a ministry of the
cross. What do I mean? We, as the orthodox, have without doubt been
placed in a position that is hard. With the passage of recommendation
#5 of the PUP report it may become harder. With the passage of the
Trinity paper, although received, it may be harder still. It is
difficult and grievous to watch and hear those who confess they are
Christians attempt to maneuver the Church away from her foundations. It
is distressful to watch others dishonor Jesus Christ with their use of
unbiblical teaching and their promotion of unbiblical lifestyles.
Hearing a commissioner on the General Assembly floor, in her attempt to
make a point, refer to the Trinity as mother, child and womb was
painful. Watching the Presbyterian Women go through a whole ritual
celebrating their right to ministry, without once speaking of Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, was distressful. But I believe we are called to
bear this cross, with love, for the sake of the Church and her Lord. We are after all
called to minister to the unbeliever, to the wayward Christian, (which
we all often are), and even to those who are attempting, unknowingly or
knowingly, to destroy the Church. See James 5:19 and also Jude 21-23,
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are
doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have
mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” The
cross that God offers to each person is often that place where He has
put them. If at this time we find ourselves in the Presbyterian Church
USA perhaps it is God’s good and holy intention. In my mind, and
heart, I have a picture of what it means to be a part of those who must
be in ministry under the cross of Jesus Christ. It occurred at the
Presbyterian Women’s Gathering. I was reluctant to take communion on
the last day of the gathering. I was discouraged by the failure of
those who presented the programming to lift up Jesus Christ;
discouraged by their almost constant failure to even speak the name of
Jesus. I was conscious that the cross of Christ was missing from every
speaker’s text or script. Knowing that one speaker had stated that we
all should “publicly acknowledge that there are many plausible paths,
and that yours is one of them,” I feared a tainted communion service. But instead, I
sat among members of Voices of Orthodox Women, members of Network of
Presbyterian Women in Leadership and members of Presbyterians Pro-Life.
As the cup and the bread were passed into our rows and each woman
turned to her sister speaking the words of the sacrament, “This is
Christ’s body broken for you,” “This is Christ’s blood shed for you,” I
felt and acknowledged the communion of other believers and sensed the
presence of Jesus Christ in the midst of his people. And there were
others in our rows, strangers to us, but nonetheless, women with whom
we shared the words of his gift and they seemed glad to hear those
words. And so there was ministry in the midst of communion and ministry
in the midst of apostasy. This is the
ministry of the cross for faithful believers in the Presbyterian Church
USA, to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of heretical and
antinomian views. A call to be witnesses
both to the cross of Christ and witnesses to the rejection of his cross
by others. This is at once a joyful call and a painful call. But Jesus
tells us that if we serve him we must follow him. (John 12:24-26) For
many, that surely means giving over our lives, not for the Presbyterian
Church, but for the people in the Presbyterian Church. Karl Barth
reminded those contending for the Lordship of Christ in Germany that
although something must be done it was simply this, “that the Church
congregations be gathered together again, but aright and anew in fear
and great joy, to the Word by means of the Word. All the crying about
and over the Church will not deliver the Church. Where the Church is a
Church she is already delivered. Let persecution be never so severe, it
will not affect her! ‘Still,’ it is said, ‘Still,
shall the City of God abide, lusty beside her tiny stream’ (Psalm xlvi
5; Luther’s translation).” Susan Andrews while speaking at the Women’s Gathering stated that, “Chaos is as central to our scriptures as is creation and covenant.” She forgot that the Trinitarian God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is the one central theme of our scriptures. If in his sovereignty the Lord of the covenant places us in the midst of chaotic church politics directed toward unorthodox longings he will be with us and his word will be all the more clear and life giving for both the needy orthodox and the needy progressive. The church at Sardis had “a name” as doubtless does the Presbyterian Church USA but Jesus Christ warned that the church was nonetheless “dead.” However, even in the midst of a dead church there still existed a few who had not “soiled their garments,” and Jesus acknowledged and upheld them. The Lord of the church simply calls us to faithfulness, to the cross and to be witnesses of his saving grace bought on his cross.
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