Numbering Our (Lord's) Days

Most years God gives us 52 holy days, sometimes we get a 53rd. If you want to be sobered up, you can calculate approximately how many Sundays you have left in this world. Subtract your age from the average lifespan of man or woman your age, and multiply by 52. (Insurance adjusters have a lot more fun doing this, so talk to one of the insurance professionals in our congregation if you really want to do a deep dive on your projected mortality.) Recent data from the NIH suggests I have 33.94 years left; that’s 1,764.88 more Lord’s Days, 1,768 if I can stretch it a full 34 more years. That sounds like a lot. It might even be enough for us to finish First Corinthians—though, no doubt, some of you have wondered about that. But I never expected to make it to 40 years old, much less 43, so I’m not counting on 1,700 more Sundays. Besides, they go by quickly. How many have I already failed to appreciate and enjoy? There are more Lord’s Days in my past than are likely in my future. That’s not a bad thing; it’s a good thing. But it is a sobering realization. We must learn to number our days if we want to gain a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).

Of course, none of us really knows how many Sundays we have left. Tomorrow might be our last one. Some of us may not even make it there. Maybe the headache I’ve had all day is just allergies, or maybe it is an aneurysm. Only God knows, and I need to be prepared for either possibility. One day each of us will get up out of bed for the last time. There will be a last hug with my daughters, a last fist-bump with my sons, a last kiss with my wife. Then the real fun begins. The last time will be the last of the pre-game rituals, the last miserable moment downrange. Then we go home, where we will be together with all the saints, and we will enjoy every good thing God made for us all the time, world without end.

Sundays should not be taken for granted. Nor should Mondays, Tuesdays, or any other day ending in y. Each one is a gift from God. Your life is but a vapor, your destiny is immortal, imperishable, invincible life. Every Sunday we give thanks for God’s providence. The Church erects another Ebenezer stone and confesses, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” And so he always will. He will carry us every step of the way until we cross the river and enter the City. We are traveling from glory to glory, one Lord’s Day to the next and on to the last. --JME

A Note to a Friend on Creeds and Denominations

I think I understand your point of view and share the sentiment upon which it is based. In one sense, isn’t the Bible enough? Certainly. Let the Word of God be true and every creed perish! But I don’t think frustration with denominations and creeds really are the same thing.

Denominations are a necessary result of the Fall. There is only one Church, but some accounting for man’s sinfulness in his participation in that Church is inevitable and important. Can’t we all just get along? No, not so long as the lesbian archbishop insists on scheduling services for the blessing of pets. There shouldn’t be different kinds of Christians, but there are, and there must be some distinction during the period between Adam’s rebellion and Christ’s return. We’re all sons of Israel, but some of us are not willing to bring our offering to the stockyard shrine at Bethel but insist on going all the way to Jerusalem, which has had its own issues lately.

Creeds, on the other hand, are not a result of the Fall but of revelation. They are simply corporate confessions of belief. Some time on day seven Adam turned to Eve and said, “God is very good. This fruit is delicious, and you are beautiful.” Eve nodded her head and said, “I agree. God is good.” Thus appeared the Edenic Creed circa 4004 BC.

A creed is not a necessary evil; it is a necessary and inevitable good. That does not mean everything in every creed is good. Fallen man does not always understand revelation rightly, and sometimes his misunderstandings come out of his mouth or from his pen. But a creed is meant to be no more, and no less, than a summary of understanding, not a development, not an addition, not a correction, but a summary confession that this is what God has revealed.

To be frustrated with the necessity of creeds is to be frustrated with the preaching of sermons and writing of theology books. We should not be frustrated by these things but rather rejoice in them. Pictures of the Grand Canyon and Mt. Everest cannot do justice, or so I’m told, to the grandeur of those works of God, but we do not resent them for their inadequacies. We rejoice in the representation of what God has done. Revelation requires a response of faith and worship. God speaks, and the Church says, “We believe!” There will be no denominations in the new heavens and earth, and every historical creed will be corrected and perfected. But the Church will still be confessing her faith. We won’t only be reciting the words of the Bible. We will be telling and extolling the wonderful works of God, which is all that a creed is or ought to do.

Now to say denominations and creeds serve different purposes is not to say they are different in every respect. A Protestant is not a Roman Catholic, a Presbyterian is not an Episcopalian, and a Reformed Christian is not a Freewill Baptist. Similarly, most of the historic creeds and confessions have been written in the fires of controversy when false teachers were misrepresenting Scripture and faithful teachers rose up to insist upon the Word of God rightly divided. So Jesus is not a created god; he has two natures (human and divine) united in one Person; the Scriptures are the Church’s ultimate and final authority, not human tradition; and men are justified by faith, not by works of merit. The creeds confess these truths not to divide and distinguish churches within the Church but to identity and affirm what is true in distinction from what is not. Not all creeds get this right, and arguably none say it perfectly. But their shortcomings and inadequacies are no different than our own. I don’t have perfect understanding, and neither do you, and I’ve no sooner finished preaching a sermon than I find something to quibble within it. It turns out my preaching is not infallible, only the Word of God is, and neither are our creeds. But both my sermons and the Church’s creeds are true and authoritative insofar as they faithfully and correctly represent the revealed Word of God. –JME