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Psalm 65
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Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. O you who hears prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. (ESV)
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A Pious and Christian Manner
Monday of Pentecost 16
9 September 2013
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Piety is a worthy pursuit. Holiness is to be sought. The Word of God commands it. But how is it to be pursued, how do we seek it? Often we are like the man for whom, as Alexander Pope offers in his translation of Virgil, "Hills, vales and floods appear already crost; And, ere he starts, a thousand steps are lost." When the question of piety is asked we think we already know the steps that must be taken and lose a thousand in the process. We think that piety is reached by being pious. We think that holiness is reached by acting holy. It seems so simple. Yet, in our simplicity we have already headed in the wrong direction. We have failed to count the cost; we don't have a proper battle plan (Lk 14:28-33). We have not been rightly equipped for piety and holiness in our daily lives.
Christ Himself is the fullness of piety and holiness for us Christians. We must come again and again to Jesus as our holiness and righteousness before God, because Him "God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1Co 1:30). While pursuing "our own" holiness we will have started out on a path that most certainly leads away from Jesus and God's true ways of holiness in Him. "Our own" is but filthy rags (Is 64:6) in the sight of the One who knows what is in man (Jn 2:25). Our own piety fails the test every time, because it is not the piety of Jesus. In fact, reliance on our own piety will lead inevitably to the opposite result from what it claims to do. Our own piety claims to be meritorious in the sight of God and that it contributes to our own salvation. But should no more want our own salvation than we should want to produce our own piety. They are equally useful, in other words, they lead away from Christ and His salvation, which is His gift to us.
Your own piety is as useful as swimming away from the life raft when your ocean-going vessel founders in a storm. Yes, you are doing it your own way. But the chance that you will find your way to safety is nil. The waves will easily swallow you. The cross of Christ is our salvation, it is the life raft that will bring us to the harbor of the church and to our heavenly home. To strike out on our own will bring death and separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rm 8:39). Any piety won't do. Only the piety of Jesus will avail before God. Therefore we cling to Him as our only hope, trust Him for every good gift, and pass through this life with all its trials and troubles with Him as our comfort and strength. This is what it means to live in a pious and Christian manner.
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Augustine of Hippo
"If you wish to live in a pious and Christian manner, cling to Christ according to that which He became for us, that you may arrive at Him according to that which is, and according to that which was. He approached, that for us He might become this; because He became that for us, on which the weak may be borne, and cross the sea of this world and reach our native country; where there will be no need of a ship, for no sea is crossed. It is better not to see with the mind that which is, and yet not to depart from the cross of Christ, than to see it with the mind, and despise the cross of Christ. It is good beyond this, and best of all, if it is possible, that we both see where we ought to go and hold fast that which carries us as we go.
"This they were able to do, the great minds of the mountains, who have been called mountains, whom the light of divine justice pre-eminently illuminates; they were able to do this, and saw that which is. For John seeing said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." They saw this, and in order that they might arrive at that which they saw from afar, they did not depart from the cross of Christ, and did not despise Christ's lowliness. But little ones who cannot understand this, who do not depart from the cross and passion and resurrection of Christ, are conducted in that same ship to that which they do not see, in which they also arrive who do see."
Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on John, 2.3
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Prayer
Lord Jesus, You are my piety. Keep giving me Your cross, that I might live in its benefits unto my salvation. Amen.
For all those undergoing therapy for the weaknesses attendant upon aging, that they may be strengthened in their bodies and built up in their spirits
For Chloe Elise Afinowicz, who was baptized into Christ yesterday, that she may be kept in the holy Christian faith all her days
For President Matthew Harrison and the Praesidium of the LCMS, that the Lord would use them as He sees fit to the glory of Christ and the extension of His kingdom of grace
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Art: Eyck, Jan van The Adoration of the Lamb (1425-1429)
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 � Scott R. Murray, 2013
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