Postscripts From The Catholic Spitfire Grill

BUT…I think there is a very big difference between being concerned when retailers prohibit the use of expressions such as “Merry Christams” and demanding that retailers call their winter marketing campaigns “Christmas” sales instead of “Holiday” sales. After all Christmas ISN’T a secular holiday and shopping really has nothing to do with it. Maybe I should prefer that retailers call it it “Holiday Shopping” so as not to confuse that with The Feast of the Nativity. Maybe those secular retailers know something that we should know. There isn’t any such thing as “Christmas Shopping.”

Or put another way. I am certainly not a mathematician but with issues such as this it helps me to view scripture as a tessellation or even more complex than that more like a simple fractal. A growing polynomial that with each new iteration reveals a clearer view of the overall but at its core remains the same. Each repetition of the pattern locks things more completely into place. Each step is built on the last and together they all click into place and provide a revealing picture. Once the pattern is established, it is only necessary to clearly delineate changes from it.

God’s pattern of authority starts with the husband and father of a family. We see this early in Genesis when God says to Eve “yet your urge shall be for your husband and he shall be your master.” (Genesis 3:16b NAB) As I outlined in my previous post, this pattern repeats it is reiterated within the family and used to establish authority within the Jewish faith and in Israel. God chooses the first leader(s) and then that leadership is passed on through them. That is the scriptural context. If Jesus meant to do something different; then, I would expect that to be clearly spelled out. If He meant, that authority in His Church would be passed along in a way similar to what was already established in scripture and culture, I would expect there to be minimal instruction. So when in Matthew 16:13-19 Jesus says “And so I say to you, you are Peter [Rock], and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” I see this as a commissioning of leadership in a manner similar to Aaron, Elijah, and David…the expectation is that leadership will continue from Peter. Time and again we see in the NT, that Peter is the chief apostle. (And I am cheating here with an apologetic list, I can come up with many of these on my own but I would not be able to be quite so thorough on my own.) Jesus tells Peter that his faith my strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:32), is given charge of feeding Jesus’ sheep (John 21:17); Jesus’ resurrection was announced to Peter by an angel (Mark 16:7); headed the meeting which elected Matthias (Acts 1:13-26); led the Apostles in preaching on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14); received first coverts (Acts 2:41); performed first miracle after Pentecost (Acts 3:6-7); inflicted first Church punishment (Acts 5:1-11); excommunicated the first heretic (Acts 8:21); received revelation to admit Gentiles into church; (Acts 10:44-46); led first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:7); pronounces first dogmatic decision (Acts 15:19); Paul visits chief Apostle after conversion (Gal 1:18); etc…. Early church history confirms the legacy of a chief apostle, the writing of the early church father line up with the pattern established in scripture.