Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant

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Currently browsing thread: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant Petersen Mar 27, 2009 05:52:21

Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant
Petersen email Posted on: Mar 27, 2009 05:52:21	If nations knew what war would cost, how long it would take, what terrible complications and consequences it would have, they would never wage war. The hubris of men is nowhere more clearly seen than in those who start wars. The same naive thinking afflicts us again and again: we think war will be quick and glorious. We are guilty of the same hubris in the Ministry. We think we can hatch a plan, engage in a campaign of niceness and catechesis that will turn our enemies into friends, and make us into great entrepreneurial successes, or that we can at least be more clever than our fellows and win their honor by our spiritual superiority. But the Ministry is as bloody, tedious, and uncertain as the siege of Syracuse or the slow march through the Pacific toward Japan. It takes time and it costs lives. Some martyrs bleed on the inside and are only known by the saints in heaven. War is never quick. The outcome is never certain. No plan endures on the battlefield and sometimes the best-trained, most qualified and experienced soldiers, are taken out in an instant by the random and impartial violence of war. I have sons of my own, both in the flesh and in the spirit. I, too, worry for them, and fear for them. Will they be comforted with the comfort God would give? Will they know the joy that He has for them when so many live without it? Will they recognize the snares the enemy has laid for them? Will they be strong enough, brave enough? Have I passed on to them all that is evil and weak in me? Will the Lord provide, where I so utterly failed as a father? Will their wives be worthy of them? Will their congregations treat them well? Will the bishops do their duty? I should not fear, nor worry. The weaknesses in our wall are all strategic. Like the feints of Hannibal on the Italian peninsula, they draw the enemy in, they expose his weapons and intent, they encircle and destroy him. Was there ever a less trustworthy soldier than Judas, a more terrible breach of our wall and defense? It is still so today. The wall is kept by the Lord. He gives us a share in His Kingdom and thus honors us. He uses us, even as He used the holy martyrs of old, but in this we cannot fail. If God is for us, who can be against us? Really? Who? God is also for our sons. Though we would spare them suffering if we could, their character is not hurt by bloody noses and broken hearts, by wounded hip sockets, or even by the fear that drives them back to the cross, to ever greater dependency and gratitude for the grace of God that forgives sins and sees to the war. If the enemy's advances, coming as they might by weakness in our lines, causes us to rally once again around the Standard, a bronze serpent on a pole, a carved image of a bloody man on a cross, then this too is most obviously good, and is in fact not a retreat at all, but the actual defeat of our enemy. And there around our Standard we find fellowship, brothers, all have failed at times, all have cried in fear and sorrow and given-in; but so also, there are heroes here, who held the line, who pulled another out of the fire, who did not love their lives to the end, who brought us comfort and turned our eyes to the East and the coming of the Son. So, Leonidas, if they should fill the sky with arrows, we shall rejoice, and fight in the shade. We cannot lose. They will be undone. The Lord is with us. We shall not dine in Hell, but with the Lord, in heaven, forever, in a grander hall and banquet, with more fervent joy and comradery, with better wine (and maybe beer and mead), than all the false promises of Valhalla or the Elysian Fields combined.

Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant

Petersen
email
Posted on:
Mar 27, 2009 05:52:21

If nations knew what war would cost, how long it would take, what terrible complications and consequences it would have, they would never wage war. The hubris of men is nowhere more clearly seen than in those who start wars. The same naive thinking afflicts us again and again: we think war will be quick and glorious.

We are guilty of the same hubris in the Ministry. We think we can hatch a plan, engage in a campaign of niceness and catechesis that will turn our enemies into friends, and make us into great entrepreneurial successes, or that we can at least be more clever than our fellows and win their honor by our spiritual superiority. But the Ministry is as bloody, tedious, and uncertain as the siege of Syracuse or the slow march through the Pacific toward Japan. It takes time and it costs lives. Some martyrs bleed on the inside and are only known by the saints in heaven. War is never quick. The outcome is never certain. No plan endures on the battlefield and sometimes the best-trained, most qualified and experienced soldiers, are taken out in an instant by the random and impartial violence of war.

I have sons of my own, both in the flesh and in the spirit. I, too, worry for them, and fear for them. Will they be comforted with the comfort God would give? Will they know the joy that He has for them when so many live without it? Will they recognize the snares the enemy has laid for them? Will they be strong enough, brave enough? Have I passed on to them all that is evil and weak in me? Will the Lord provide, where I so utterly failed as a father? Will their wives be worthy of them? Will their congregations treat them well? Will the bishops do their duty?

I should not fear, nor worry. The weaknesses in our wall are all strategic. Like the feints of Hannibal on the Italian peninsula, they draw the enemy in, they expose his weapons and intent, they encircle and destroy him. Was there ever a less trustworthy soldier than Judas, a more terrible breach of our wall and defense? It is still so today. The wall is kept by the Lord. He gives us a share in His Kingdom and thus honors us. He uses us, even as He used the holy martyrs of old, but in this we cannot fail. If God is for us, who can be against us? Really? Who?

God is also for our sons. Though we would spare them suffering if we could, their character is not hurt by bloody noses and broken hearts, by wounded hip sockets, or even by the fear that drives them back to the cross, to ever greater dependency and gratitude for the grace of God that forgives sins and sees to the war. If the enemy's advances, coming as they might by weakness in our lines, causes us to rally once again around the Standard, a bronze serpent on a pole, a carved image of a bloody man on a cross, then this too is most obviously good, and is in fact not a retreat at all, but the actual defeat of our enemy. And there around our Standard we find fellowship, brothers, all have failed at times, all have cried in fear and sorrow and given-in; but so also, there are heroes here, who held the line, who pulled another out of the fire, who did not love their lives to the end, who brought us comfort and turned our eyes to the East and the coming of the Son.

So, Leonidas, if they should fill the sky with arrows, we shall rejoice, and fight in the shade. We cannot lose. They will be undone. The Lord is with us. We shall not dine in Hell, but with the Lord, in heaven, forever, in a grander hall and banquet, with more fervent joy and comradery, with better wine (and maybe beer and mead), than all the false promises of Valhalla or the Elysian Fields combined.

Comments...

Mar 30, 2009 09:40:46 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - Pr. John A. Frahm
Good post expressing the theology of the cross for the ministry.
Mar 28, 2009 04:58:19 Congrats! - Dan at Necessary Roughness
You got Jeff Schwarz's vote for Issues Etc Blog of the Week!
Mar 27, 2009 09:27:48 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - Mike Keith
What a truly wonderful post.

I have three children. There have been times when I have begun to worry about what sort of Church will be left for them. Then I think - what arrogance! This is not my Church to try and shape and mold to my liking. This is the Lord's Church! He will see to it. Yes, He may work through me and others to accomplish this and we must strive to remain ever faithful in our teaching and preaching and believing (1st Petition) - but such worrying is the way of unfaith. Yet, I still worry.

All we can do is seek to remain faithful in the time we have been granted. Our children will have to fight their own battles - though after we are gone - we know they will not be alone.
Mar 27, 2009 09:24:06 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - wcwirla

Quote:

The outcome is never certain.
Quite the contrary! The outcome is assured: "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against her."

"It is finished!" Amen.
- Mar 27, 2009 09:28:02 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - Petersen
  Obviously, I hope, and explicitly stated in this post, the ultimate outcome is known. What is not known are the outcomes of individual actions. Luther could not have known he would escape martyrdom. Polycarp could not have known that he would suffer it after being spared for so long. And what did Abraham know of Isaac's sacrifice before the angel stayed his hand? What they knew was the ultimate outcome and the Truth. That got them through and gave them courage.
  - Mar 27, 2009 18:07:26 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - wcwirla
    
    Quote:
    
    What is not known are the outcomes of individual actions.
    Ah, yes. That would be a theology of glory rather than the bloody Man on the cross in whom we then find the gift/grace of suffering and even martyrdom.
Mar 27, 2009 09:21:02 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - Sean
helpful. non moriar sed vivam et narrabo opera Domini
Mar 27, 2009 06:25:32 Re: Some Thoughts for Leonidas on the Church Militant - Pr. Tom Fast
John Kleinig once said "Satan is an idealist. The Holy Spirit is a realist."

Your sober(ing) comments reflect a third article realism. Thank you for that.

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