A timely sermon by Martin Franzmann for our age of church charioteers who ride rough-shod through church in the name of leadership and missions, cracking their whips of worldly wisdom in an all out attempt to drive the flock of Christ so as to make the flock become more of a flock than the Good Shepherd saved, saves and continues to gather us to be.
- pmwl
- pmwl
THE
WAITING BRIDE OF CHRIST (Whitsunday)
And
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hearer!: say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of
life freely.
REVELATION
22:17
I
believe in the Holy Spirit . . . . And I believe one holy Christian and
apostolic church.... And I look for ... the life of the world to come.
These
three belong together: the Holy Spirit, the church, and the hope of the world
to come - one Spirit, one body, one hope of your calling.
The
church, the waiting bride of Christ, is a fit subject for our contemplation on
Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit.
Her
song, "Come" is a fit subject for our singing.
Oh,
come,
Thou
Son of Man, who walkest amid the candlesticks,
Whose
eye is on the church,
O
Thou, girt in splendor and robed in magnificent mercy,
Come!
O
Thou Lamb of God that wast slain,
Thou
that openest the seals of Thy Father's book,
Thou
Lord of all happenings on earth -
Let
the last riders of destruction ride their dreadful last -
Oh,
come!
O Thou
Rider upon the white horse,
Thou
Over-comer of all opposing hosts,
O Thou
Lord of lords and King of kings,
Oh,
come, take up Thy power and reign!
Send
out Thine angel armies into every highway, road, and lane,
Out
into every hot and steaming pavement and all the stinking alleys of our world,
And
make them cool and sweet and pleasant pathways for Thy feet.
Send
out Thy re-creating angels, and let them shout for joy and take up the song of
the primeval "Very Good!" once more.
Send
Thy cleansing couriers out through every field and wood, and put the first
morning's dew on every branch and leaf again.
Set
free the groaning creation, set all free –
Till
every little bird twitches his tail in ecstasy,
A
living metronome for the angelic and unending
Alleluias
of the world to come. Oh, come!
Such
meditation and such song would he altogether seemly, altogether comely, in this
Whitsuntide.
But we
are being interrupted.
Here
comes Freiherr (Baron) von (of) Aktivismus (Activism) with his company.
Here
are Messrs (masters).
Here
and Now (both muttering, "Let us have no eschatological non-sense,
please!");
Here
are Mr, Research and Mr. Statistics,
Mr.
Graphs and Mr. Charts,
Mr.
Extrapolation,
Mr.
Civic Consciousness –
and to
give the proceedings the benefit of her patrician air, Her Grace, the Countess
of Misericordia (Merciful) Cum (when) Lacrimis (tears) Effusis (are flowing).
They
have an indictment against the waiting bride, and they will make short shrift
with her.
The
trial will be a mere formality.
They
have a branding iron hot and ready to impress upon her clear and innocent brow.
They
will brand her with a capital Q, for she is guilty of quietism!
Who
will save the waiting bride?
Who
will appear in defense of her song?
Let
St. Paul appear for the defense;
he is
an apostle and knows a thing or two about the apostolic church.
"When
my Lord sent me out into the cities of the Gentiles to raise up churches for
His glory there,"
St.
Paul says, "He bid me build into their lives a triple movement, a triple
beat.
I bade
men turn from idols;
serve
the true and living God;
wait
for His Son from heaven :..
even Jesus,
who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess. 1:9, 10)
Let no
one dare to change this triple beat;
let no
one presume to shorten it to two - all three are necessary to the life and
health of the church, all are indispensable.
I
could tell you a sad story of what happened in Corinth when the church no
longer said, "Come!"
What
harlotries men practiced with their bodies when they forgot that these bodies
were to be resurrected bodies.
"Moreover,
Freiherr von Aktivismus (Baron of Activism), if you had not been so wrapped up
with your graphs and your statistics, so ready and so eager with your capital
Q, you might have considered who is singing, `Come.'
This
is the Spirit singing.
If you
want activity, have a look at Him.
He has
been active since creation, active in history, rousing up a Gideon, for
instance, more potent than the men and horses of Egypt;
He
spake by the prophets - it was one of these men of the Spirit who was moved by
Him to say, `I will have mercy and not sacrifice.'
Men
full of the Spirit and wisdom looked after the widows and the fatherless
in the Jerusalem church.
"It
is the bride of Christ who sings, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, willing
His will, the will of Him who said, `My Father has been working hitherto, and I
work.'
"You
might have considered also, Freiherr (Baron), to whom they are saying, `Come!
They
are crying to Christ, who says, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with
Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
They
are invoking Judgment Day with their song.
"You
might have noted also, all you capital Q gentry, how the inspired bride
says, 'Come!'
She is
inviting all men to join in the cry:
`Let
him that hears say, Come!
And
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.'
If you
had not been so proud of your tears, Countess Misericordia (Merciful), you
might have noted: She is not wallowing in her hope; she lives by it.
She
who is ready to share the water of life will give more mundane waters too.
This
dainty bride, this single-hearted and high-hearted girl, will have washed a
dozen dirty babies and have kissed them too while you, Freiherr (Baron), are
gathering statistics on the incidence of babies that need washing.
While
you, countess, weep hot salt tears, she will have given fresh water and cool to
thirsty travelers."
So far
St. Paul.
"Travelers"
- we cannot forget, if we live in the rhythm of St. Paul's triple beat, that
our charity to travelers: drink to
travelers on their way to Canaan, in the wilderness; food to travelers in the wilderness; tents for travelers in the
wilderness, tents that they can strike and travel on again.
If we
stop singing, "Come," our well-intentioned charity will trap men in
the wilderness.
We
shall build air-conditioned housing units in the wilderness, built to last a
thousand years. Look at them - who would ever want to leave them? -each unit
with a balcony looking toward Egypt affording a fine view of the fleshpots.
When
the church no longer cries, "Come!"
when
the church no longer looks to the end,
then
means become ends;
that
is, they become idols from which we can no longer turn to serve the living God.
Take
this fine thing with the ominous name,
the
church's "image";
the
church that has forgotten her coming Lord
will
worship her own "image" instead of her Lord.
Or let
us move in close to home, to our theology.
What
happens to exegesis,
when
exegesis no longer says, "Maranatha!" (Our Lord comes)?
Exegesis
can become an autonomous Wissenschaft (pursuit of scholarship),
a cerebral vanity,
Fair
complete with merry-go-rounds of exegetical fads,
with
cunningly constructed mazes of conjectures and hypotheses,
with
contending calliopes (loud music) that fill the air and intoxicate the senses,
but do
not say, He comes, He comes to judge the earth,"
and do
not shout, "Lift up your hearts!"
When
liturgies forgets that all worship is waiting for the Lord,
then
we begin to worship our worship
and to
adore our adorations;
then
we begin to genuflect before encrusted chasubles
and
play the harlot under every green tree with esthetically selected traditions.
But
where the Spirit is, there is liberty.
He
sets us free, free from idols,
free
to serve the living God.
He
gives us a high hope that sets us free from ourselves, from grim introspection
and fruitless preoccupation with our own religious psychology.
He
sets us free, not least, for praise.
So let
us forget that hot and searing capital Q.
Let us
sing a little and live - and serve - a lot. Amen.
Martin H. Franzmann
Pgs 71-76 Ha! Ha! Among the Tempest.
CPH 1994
Thanks to my dear brother Rev. David Fleming for sharing this sermon with me.
