Systematic Theology – The Land

Communion And Community

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: 8-19

Genre: Speech

Track: 08 of 19

Dictation Name: 08 Communion And Community

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us begin with prayer. Oh Lord our God unto whom all glory, honor and praise belongeth, we come into Thy presence mindful of the riches of Thy grace, of Thy daily and innumerable blessings. Thou hast beset us before and behind with Thy mercies and Thy providential care. Lord be merciful unto us that so often ungratefully we complain about our lot, forgetting how rich Thou art unto us. Give us grace to be ever joyful, grateful and ever obedient in Thy service knowing that Thou hast called us, Thou wilt care for us and bring us to Thy appointed place. Our God we thank Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our scripture is Matthew 10:42-45 and our subject: Communion and Community. 42-45, Communion and Community. Matthew 10:42-45. [Actually it’s Mark 10:42-45]

“But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

[Man interrupts] Excuse me Rush but that was Mark.

[Rushdoony] Oh yes. Do you want to begin over again for the tape? I’m sorry. [Laughter]

Excuse me our scripture this morning is Mark 10:42-45.

“But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

We have seen that God’s plan for the earth and for the universe is its recreation, all things shall be made new. There shall be a new heaven and a new earth and in that new creation there shall be perfect communion between God and man. This is set forth very clearly in many passages and certainly in Revelations 21 and 22. Moreover Paul tells us in Romans 8:19-23 that the earnest expectation of all creatures and of all creation is the total liberation from sin and death into the fullness of communion and community with and under the triune God. God’s law is designed to further that goal. All the laws that we get in scripture concerning the earth and concerning the harvests make clear the goal of God. That God has as His purpose in the material world around us, in harvests, in everything we do, the movement towards that perfect community. Let’s glance first at several verses in the law. For example in Exodus 22:29-30:

“Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

30 Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.”

Then again in Leviticus 22:10, 12, 13:

“There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.

12 If the priest's daughter also be married unto a stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things.

13 But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's meat: but there shall be no stranger eat thereof.”

Again in Numbers 18:26:

“ Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.”

Then again we read in Deuteronomy 14:28-29:

“At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:

29 And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.”

And this shall be the priest’s due, we read in Deuteronomy 18:3-5:

“And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

4 The first fruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.

5 For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever.”

Now what is the relationship of these particular laws with what our Lord said in Mark 10:42-45? Here we have on the one hand specific laws about the priest’s portion and about tithing to the poor. On the other hand we have something with regard to authority, the nature of rulership. Well, as we look at these laws in the ‘old testament we see that apart from the tithe the priests were to receive the heave offerings, primarily the shoulder, the first fruits of the vegetable and the grain, of the fruit harvests and of the vintage of wine. The poor tithe every third year and sixth year was a sharing with the Levites whether or not they were poor the Levites shared together with strangers, the fatherless and the widow.

In between the third and the sixth year the poor were to receive the gleanings of the field so that we had a considerable help extended to the poor. The premise of these laws were first in the celebration of God’s bounty men are to share with others so that as we receive we are to give. Second, in some form all people in the covenant and strangers are to share in this bounty. The priest’s portion alone is restricted to his immediate family, those under his authority. Then third, the presbyter or bishop must exercise according to Titus 1:8 leadership in this. He must be a lover of hospitality, he must set the pattern for the communion of faith. Now, as we look at these laws giving to priests, giving to the poor, we see a double movement in God’s law from start to finish. First there is the upward movement. The priests and the Levites were to receive from all the people including the poor, this is an important point we must not forget. No one was exempt from tithing because he was poor. Now this is an argument we hear very often today and people as they look at their income and say I don’t think I can afford to tithe, I’m practically at the poverty level but God doesn’t make any exceptions. He requires something from all men: the tithe. It’s God’s tax. This tithe was paid to the Levites according to Numbers 18:21-28 who then tithed a tenth to the priests. Now this is a very important consideration because it is clear from this that worship only received a fraction of the tithe. The Levites were the instructors of Israel, they had charge of what we would care health, education and to a degree welfare as well. As a result the tithe has a far broader scope than worship. The ministry today of course is Levitical and the Levitical tithe thus includes pastors, evangelists, Christian schools and their teachers, Christian ministries apart from worship, educational foundations which are Christian in character and much more.

Now we come to a very significant point here. In any area of faithfulness tithing would make the Levites very prosperous. In any area where a large percentage even a sizable minority of Christians tithed we’re going to see the churches prospering, missionary organizations prospering, all kinds of Christian activities, foundations, schools, colleges, hospitals, thriving because there would be a very considerable gift by God’s people then flowing in. God’s tax plus the gifts. Now God does not say there is anything wrong with this, in a matter of fact we are told very clearly by Paul in 1 Timothy 5:17 that those who labor faithfully in the ministry of God are worthy of double honor which means double pay. Now, we come to a chronic problem of virtually every society, the gulf between the rulers and the ruled. On both sides there is contempt, moreover there is not only a contempt but a desire to widen the gulf between them. The rich want to distance themselves from the poor and the poor by their hostility want to distance themselves from the rich. Others sick to exploit that gap as do the Marxists, they supposedly have the remedy for it but they only widen it. They only make it more intense and vicious. God’s law militates against this gap and replaces it with communion and community and that’s what our Lord was talking about. He called attention to the very obvious fact that among all the ungodly power meant exercising lordship over others. Exercising authority, exulting oneself, to put a distance between one and the common people. We see this for example over the centuries in that very often certain types of garments, a certain quality of garment through much of history has been forbidden to any but the nobility and royalty.

They were set apart by their clothing. They were set apart by their weapons. For centuries swords and like weapons were forbidden to peasants. Through most of history this has been a common factor. Anything and everything to put the distance between those beneath you and yourself. And of course this is certainly true in our day. All one has to do is to look at trends and fashions, why do they change so rapidly? They change because as soon as the new fashion is picked up by the common man it is abandoned by the social leaders, the pacesetters. They do not want to be associated with the people. The same is true in art. We have fashions in what is called art nowadays and as soon as one form of art becomes popular it is quickly abandoned because they must be perpetually Avant-garde. They must put a distance between themselves and other artists and the common people. So that the insistence that position and prestige require putting a distance between oneself and the rest of the world is basic to the sinful human scene. First you have on the part of the people a gap, their envy, their hostility to those above them and you have those who are on the top doing everything to create more envy by exulting themselves to the point that they will create that kind of sentiment. They want to be envied, they want people to look at them covetingly. One can go through history and find statements like this on the part of social leaders going back into the middle ages, the early modern age of course it comes all the more to the core because with the dawn of the enlightenment this kind of thing began to dominate the human scene. But God strikes against this in His word. And our Lord in these words condemns it. So shall it not be among you but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister and whosoever of you shall be the chiefest shall be servant of all.

So that the greater the position and the authority the greater the responsibility of service, of reaching out to those below them with assistance, with grace and the pattern: for even for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and give His life a ransom for many. Thus the upward movement can be described as rendering to everyone above us that which is their due. And those who are in positions at the top are to render the service to God that He requires and are always to be mindful that they are under God and therefore have a responsibility to use what they have to render to those below them. Paul says in Romans 13:7:

“Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.”

The upward movements means respect, tithe, obedience, the heave offering and more. Thus the heave offering is a religious duty to render the upward movement to all leaders of society, that is in a Christian society. To pastors, to thinkers, to scientists, to artists, to musicians, to writers, to inventors, to all. The health of a society requires this upward movement. It is a disaster of the modern age and an evidence of the widening gulf between peoples that this is not done. A democratic society without faith creates conflict not communion and community. But as we’ve already seen there is at the same time a downward movement, the upward movement giving to all their due, the downward movement is giving to all their due according to God’s word. The poor tithe, grace, helpfulness, loving kindness, works of mercy required by God represent the downward movement.

The religious ground of it of course is the love of God which reaches down to us. And God’s grace moves down to man in mercy and grace remakes and reorders man and man must then by grace and by the spirit reorder the world around him and below him. The reconstruction of all things thus is a duty in grace and love. Thus as the land yields unto us we are to yield unto those above us and as God gives to us we are to give to those below us and we are told dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return. So we pay a final tribute to the ground itself, tribute to whom tribute is due. Thus God’s picture of society is one of communion and community, beginning with the soil, beginning with the harvest, upward and downward, flow of grace and the flow of blessings from God must continue and flow through us to others. This is the meaning of tithes and offerings. They are to be a part of the flow, upward and downward that there may be communion in all directions. Without that upward and downward flow you have social warfare. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God our world is at war with itself because it is at war with Thee. And Thy word which is truth alone gives us the solution to all man’s ills. OH Lord our God grant that men and nations hearkening to Thy word may reorder all things in terms of Thy grace and Thy law to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes they were one thirteenth at the beginning roughly of the population of Israel. Now with times the population varied and some tribes decreased dramatically and others increased dramatically. We can at two or three times in view of the data we are given calculate the percentage but they were between a tenth and a thirteenth of the population. They performed a great variety of services and this was in terms of their calling.

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Teaching was basic but teaching can be by example, as well. Any other questions? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well to give you an example of the kind of thing that once prevailed and prevailed especially in the early medieval era, much more forcibly it was mandatory every year and this was one of a number of rituals of this sort. But the bishop or the pope and in some instances in different forms of services the king rendered a service to a number of the poor such as the service of foot washing. Now, what this kind of thing did, there were a number of ways in which the two were brought together symbolically to indicate that they should be together all the time, the function of it was very important and it attracted nation attention, it united the society. can you imagine what it would be like today, let us say, if the president were asked to wash the feet of some of the slum dwellers in Washington once a year or perform like services to indicate a symbolic unity?

Now granted these things were very often abused and that these same people went away and did things that showed no communion or community but basically what these rituals did was bring attention to something that the normal. There was a requirement of community. And what the modern age has done is to destroy that and we say your only community is as citizens, well that doesn’t mean much of anything. Any other comments or questions? Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] And making things abstract goes back to Greek philosophy. Now Greek philosophy has two polarities, we seek abstraction and this is Platonism and therefore you go only for principles. Or with democratic you seek only the concrete and recognize nothing as real except the atomistic, the totally individualistic. And because our culture has been so heavily influenced by Greek philosophy we go between the principles, the abstractions, and the atomistic. Whereas our faith is a faith that holds to incarnation which is neither abstract nor concrete but brings the two together and says you have to utilize these things because the word became flesh and dwelt among us. There is no abstraction possible for us. We cannot like the Pharisees walk to the other side of the road while affirming in principle the idea of charity but we’re not going to help the man at the side of the road who’s been wounded. Ours is an incarnational religion, we have to incarnate in us the word of God. It has to be written on the table of our hearts. It’s not a religion of principles or abstractions or of brute factuality, democracy; it is the religion of Jesus Christ. We have by the way a great deal of people today who feel that they’re going back to something good by advocating a principled approach to education and other tings and the principled approach is Neo-Platonism. So they’re walking away from the bible. Yes?

[Question Unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] Yes. Up to a hundred and fifty years ago the clergy after their university training went out on an apprentice basis, they read theology under a pastor and some of the prominent New England clergy could have as many as forty or fifty young men reading theology under them and being assigned to various tasks throughout the parish. This was an excellent means of training them. But we abandoned that, now there are some schools which are beginning to reappraise this, there have been tentative moves in the direction of an internship but they’ve been jumped sooner or later. The idea being you go to seminary but then you spend a year before you are ordained out in the field under someone. I think that’s a very good plan. Now just after the war Stanford University went and the great number of laboratories in various sciences all around Stanford decided they would allow some of their students to get their degrees at these laboratories doing practical work there. The program was terminated because all their more brilliant students left the academicians and went over to these laboratories where they were learning far more and were becoming far better scientists.

So there is a hostility to this sort of thing because the academician by and large sets the temper and he governs the entire situation. To give you another illustration, to get a degree in law takes three years, the first year is the year where you really learn something, the other two years you’re just marking time. How much better would it not be if a man went out after the first year and worked in a law office for a year and then took his examination. But the examinations are governed by the academicians and as a result they are artificial. For example, I heard this past week when John Stafford was here how in one state because of a very influential law professor a large percentage of the questions on the bar examination were written in terms of his subject. It became so warped an examination that there was a great deal of protest because a minor area of law was now dominating the bar examinations. So John did not study in terms of that subject because he assumed in terms of the protest that would be dropped for a time and he was right, he didn’t take the course, he did a little bit of reading and he found he didn’t have to have anything on that subject in his examination. Now that’s the kind of thing that prevails. We have become artificial. I think the law schools would greatly improve when they become realistic in terms of their teaching. But each of them are trying to improve their status in terms of things that are technical and academic rather than geared to the needs out in the field. That’s why there are very few who really teach what law is about. Because that’s not what the examinations are geared to.

But the schools that teach what law is about, and there are only one or two are the schools that have an edge as far as producing lawyers who are responsible and effective members of society. Any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that through Jesus Christ Thou hast established thy community upon earth and hast ordained communion between high and low. Give us grace day by day to work to further that community so the kingdoms of this world might indeed become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.