[AI translation] You know that today we are inaugurating the newly elected superintendent, two janitors, the new presbyters and assistant presbyters, the officers of our congregation. I am glad that the part of the Thessalonian Epistle I have just read has been read on this occasion. It is about how we, the children of God, who know and have received the good news of salvation, are to turn around to obey God, to take seriously God's will that we should be made holy! This exhortation is addressed to all of us, to the whole church. It is therefore especially addressed to those who make a vow to serve the church of Christ.The presbyter - and in this designation we also include the superintendent, the assistant presbyter and the pastor - the presbyter is a Christian man qualified in the congregation, given by God to serve his glory in a commissioned capacity. It is not only for the sake of good order that some of the members of the congregation who hold the office of universal priesthood are called to special offices, but there is also a symbolic element in this: just as the New Testament says that there is no distinction between the days, so that one is holy in itself and the other profane, and yet there is one day among the others which visibly illustrates the sanctification of the whole life on earth: Sunday, - and just as the Christian man does not seek a place of worship in Jerusalem or in Garizim, for the smallest nook, the innermost chamber, is a temple to him, yet he sets apart a place for himself, builds a cathedral, a cathedral, or a white-walled church, so that in this symbolic edifice he may see his religious feelings and thoughts embodied. As, moreover, the Christian man knows that his whole life is the worship and service of God, yet he exercises the condensed form of it in a special assembly for that purpose: and so it is in the relation of the universal priesthood of every member of the congregation to the separate office of presbyter. So just as there are distinct times, places and acts of worship, so there are individuals specially consecrated to the service of God: presbyters, in whom the congregation beholds as it were a figure of all that each member carries within himself as a life from God. So presbyters represent among the other members of the congregation what Sunday represents among the other days, as the church building represents among the ordinary dwellings. The presbyter/charge, stewards, assistant presbyters, and pastor are living symbols of the servants of God, living symbols of the Christian life consecrated to God in the congregation, living symbols of the self-conscious Reformed church member embodied in the living person.
Such a definition of the office of presbytery is not only a great honour for its bearer, but also a tremendous responsibility. I said before that what the Word of God is speaking about here is for all of us, for the whole congregation, and therefore especially for those who hold the office of the church. He is not talking about the many different kinds of service that the children of God, and especially those who hold ecclesiastical office, have a duty and obligation to do for the glory of God, but about the basis and the root of all service to God: sanctification! God will not accept and bless the service, the good will, the work of a man who has not first given him his heart! It is not, therefore, possible to serve to the glory of God by thinking up something nice and saying to one another: Come on, let us do something good, something great, let us create, let us build, let us make this congregation flourish, let the world and the neighbouring congregations see what the parish of Pasarete can do! It is the blessed result of this sanctification that the various ministries and activities can grow. On the tree of sanctified life, the ministries that glorify God and build up the church bear fruit.
So it is God's will that we should be holy. What are saints like? Not those who are above others by their many fine virtues. It is not the moral heroes who are saints, nor the religious geniuses, nor those who have reached the highest degree of spiritual power. They are not men of ideals, that is, men in whom an ideal has been incarnated, but saints who have come to know, love and embrace the Holy One: God who communicates Himself in Jesus Christ! Those who have become indebted to God for a lifetime for the forgiveness of their sinful lives, who have been caught up by the power of the forgiveness of sins in Christ and drawn into a life of communion with God. Thus, holy people in whose persons the Holy Presence, the Spirit of Jesus, is felt and experienced. Holy are those in whose lives something of the goodness, purity, serenity, peace of the one Holy One shines forth, who are the vessels of the will, the representatives of a will of a very different nature from the will that prevails in this world. People are holy who are in communion with the kingdom of the light above.
Are such saints absolutely sinless? No! Even if Bach were to play one of his works on an old village organ, one would immediately sense, in spite of all the shortcomings of the instrument, that an incomparably great artist was present! And if Christ makes a human life into an instrument, even if it is so audible that something is false here, a string is broken there: the imperfect instrument does not obscure the perfect player! In fact, this is what really makes the difference between the instrument and the artist: the listener does not think to attribute the beauty of the playing to the goodness of the instrument! In the lives of the saints, the distance between them and Christ is very evident. The reason why these men do not suffer from the stains of human glorification is that they glorify the heavenly Father for their deeds. There is no personal cult of the saints, for what is in them is far greater than can be attributed to them. Saints are people who are impossible to believe in, but who make it easier for others to believe in God for the simple reason that God is present in their lives.
It is obvious that this holiness is not a particular quality of man that one practices in certain places and circumstances, but a quality of our whole life that determines our conduct in all places and at all times. Let me illustrate this with an example: A pastor once wanted to visit a believing church member who was a merchant on some business. In the meantime he met a friend, who, when he heard where he was going, said to the pastor, "Think of this man's worship beginning when he has closed the blinds of his shop. Well: holiness is not a ceremonial garment that we put on for an occasion, for a service, for a presbytery meeting, for a service, and then change back into our more comfortable everyday clothes, which do not press our conscience so much. This is Pharisaic holiness, this is the conduct of hypocritical men! True holiness is not more than this, it is something else: living a life under the rule of God, walking with Jesus, turning around - even when you are annoyed, even when you enter the factory gate or go for a hike in the mountains, for sports.
How can we achieve this sanctification? What is important here is what the Word says: "God wills it, your sanctification." (1 Thess 4:3) So it is not the result of our own convulsive effort and struggle. Paul is not saying that God commands or demands sanctification, there is nothing here about what we ourselves have to do. He says: "Your sanctification" is God's will for you. Holiness, like forgiveness of sins, is something that God wants to do for us. Holiness is not something that we should strive for, that we should put all our efforts into, but it is the great gift, the great result that God has in store for his own. Holiness: the work of Jesus himself in his own. So God's will is my sanctification, but is it my will that He sanctify me? Am I ready to allow God to accomplish in me all that Christ's death and resurrection have made possible for me? In sanctification, then, we are not as completely passive as an instrument in the analogy above: we must not only tolerate holiness, but we must also be willing to accept and live it ourselves! Holiness does not consist in striving with all my strength to do as many good works and as varied services as possible, but in striving to obey as fully as possible! In the same way as before: so that when the Lord presses a key on the organ of my life, the corresponding note may actually sound! Do not be stubborn, but obey the artist!
Do you feel how much this is the foundation and root of all the service we can do as children of God in the world, or as presbyters in the church for the glory of God? A life dedicated to God! It is the reality of this way of life that you, as living symbols, must live out with me before the congregation, and the fruit of this life can be the ministries that God and the congregation expect of us! We beseech you, therefore, brethren, presbyters, "and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, according as you have learned from us, in what manner ye ought to turn and to please God, so that ye may abound more and more. For you know what commandments we have given you by the Lord Jesus. (1 Thess 4:1-3) Before you take the oath, pray together with the whole congregation:
Living Spirit of God, come, that I may be holy,
and be one with Jesus on earth below!
Untie me, send me away, fill me with fire!
Living Spirit of God, come, let me be holy!
(Canto 463, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 17 January 1954.
Lesson
1Thessz 4,1-12