Find a Place of Rest on Day Seven (or Don’t be the Vicar of Bray, Sir)

Last updated on: December 31, 2016 at 7:26 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Find a Place of Rest on Day Seven (or Don’t be the Vicar of Bray, Sir) 2016-12-30T21:16:41-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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We are in the Seventh Day of Christmas and approaching the very best part of the Holiday. Soon our secular friends will have “moved on” and left for us the jollification. Advent was arduous, but Christmas is glorious.

This is the most peaceful part of the Holidays, because the consumers and changelings have gone on to the next chance to buy and sell their souls.

Seven is, of course, a number that represents completion. God took six days to make the Earth and then rested on day seven. We reach rest by finding God, because God reveals to us eternal wisdom, justice, and joy.

Perhaps the main distraction from rest is the quest for peace in this life as opposed to peace with God. The great temptation of our time in America is to compromise our ideals for what the Victorians would have called “preferment.” Many a religious person will lose peace in his heart, because he is constantly shifting his views to match the spirit of our age. When Freud said “homosexuality” was a disorder, these changelings condoned the tortures that “modern” psychology practiced on people. When psychology changed, these weak minded men changed their theology to favor “gay rights.”

Why no peace? We have no peace when we waffle, waiver, and change to keep power. There is a wonderful song, The Vicar of Bray, that mocks the wobbling clergy of the Church of England. In the song the “good” Vicar will keep his job, his main religion, no matter the views of the Head of the Church (the Monarch) by changing his theology with the times. Sadly, this spirit does not require a formal state church and exists even in America.

Today we have modern vicars of Bray, leaders of some of our Evangelicals colleges and ministries, who will do, say, or justify nearly anything to keep the treats, preferment, of our political culture. They exist on both the right and the left. Ideas are less important than remaining as self-appointed leaders . . . the support who get gigs on Christian television, publishing, radio, and ministries.

If we were to sing Vicar of Bray today, it might sound like this:

An Evangelical Leader

In good Jimmy Carter’s golden days,
When Democracy no harm meant;
A born again Democrat I was,
And so I gain’d Preferment.
Unto my Flock I daily Preach’d,
Kings are by God anointed,
And Damn’d are those who dare resist,
Or touch the Lord’s Anointed.
And this is law, I will maintain
Unto my Dying Day, Sir.
That whatsoever Party may reign,
I am an Evangelical leader, Sir!

When Ronald Reagan possest the crown,
And free trade grew in fashion;
The high tariff I shouted down,
And the National Review became my passion:
The Republican Party I found would fit
Full well our Constitution,
And I had been a Bircher still,
But for Buckley’s revolution.
And this is Law, &c.

When HW Bush our Deliverer came,
To heal the Nation’s Grievance,
I turn’d mainstream GOP again,
And swore to him Allegiance:
Old Principles I did revoke,
Set conscience at a distance,
Small Government is but a Joke,
A Jest is national building.
And this is Law, &c.

When Roguish Bill became our King,
The Yellow Dogs in Glory,
Another face of things was seen,
And I became quite Moral:
Private misconduct base
I Damn’d, and also Moderation,
And thought the Church in danger was,
From such Prevarication.
And this is Law, &c.

When George the Second time came o’er,
And Compassionate GOP looked big, Sir,
My Principles I chang’d once more,
And so became his man, Sir.
And FOX appearances procur’d,
From our Faith’s Great Defender
And almost every day abjured
Those whom our wars abhorred, sir.
And this is Law, &c.

When John McCain, Obama faced,
And rogues were all in fashion,
My principles evolved once more,
And I became his man, Sir.
And then a Mormon I could back,
To be our Faith’s Defender
And almost every day abjured
Those whom the President defended, sir.
And this is Law, &c.

Then Trump thrice married did become
Protectionist and yellow,
His caddishness I overlooked,
To stop that Garland fellow:
For in my Faith, and Loyalty,
I never once will falter,
And Donald, my anointed king shall be,
Except the Times shou’d alter.
And this is Law, &c.

There is no peace for the man or woman whose politics is shaped by the times or success. There is even less peace for the person whose theology is shaped by politics of the moment. There is no rest for the leader who governs by fear, wobbling from one idea to another as times change. Instead, we must spend this year looking to Jesus: a leader who never changes.

We may not become Vicar of Bray, but we might find peace. To find peace, we must find our ideals and stick to them this side of paradise against all temptation at accommodation.Better to lose preferment, even a spot on FOX, than to gain a cabinet slot and lose our souls.

God give us rest this Seventh Day!

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