Theology in Worship

Read through the NT during Advent

2011-11-28T07:44:00.001-08:00

This is an idea I have taken from some of my Eastern Orthodox brethren. Though their season of Advent officially began on November 15, and our (Protestant) season of Advent began yesterday, I have adapted a reading plan that goes through the entire New Testament beginning today and ending on Christmas Eve. I would love for anyone to join me in this, especially since I could use the accountability. Advent blessings be with you!

Schedule to read throughthe entire New Testament during Advent

DAY	DATE	READINGS
1	Mon. Nov. 28	Matthew 1-12
2	Tues. Nov. 29	Mathew 13-24
3	Wed. Nov. 30	Matthew 25-28
4	Thurs. Dec. 1	Acts 1:1 – 4:37
5	Fri. Dec. 2	Acts 5:1 -15:41
6	Sat. Dec 3	Acts 16:1 – 28:31
7	Sun. Dec. 4	Mark 1:1 – 11:33
8	Mon. Dec. 5	Mark 12:1 – 16:20
9	Tues. Dec. 6	James, 1-2 Peter
10	Wed. Dec. 7	Galatians, Ephesians
11	Thurs. Dec. 8	1 -2 Thessalonians
12	Fri. Dec. 9	1-2 Timothy
13	Sat. Dec. 10	1 Corinthians 1:1 – 11:34
14	Sun. Dec. 11	1 Corinthians 12:1 – 2 Corinthians
15	Mon. Dec. 12	Romans 1-8
16	Tues. Dec. 13	Romans 9-16
17	Wed. Dec. 14	Luke1-7
18	Thurs. Dec. 15	Luke 8-16
19	Fri. Dec. 16	Luke 17-20
20	Sat. Dec. 17	Philippians, Colossians
21	Sun. Dec. 18	1,2,3 John – Jude
22	Mon. Dec. 19	John 1-7
23	Tues. Dec. 20	John 8-14
24	Wed. Dec. 21	John 15-21
25	Thurs. Dec. 22	Titus, Philemon, Hebrews
26	Fri. Dec. 23	Revelation 1 – 11
27	Sat. Dec. 24	Revelation 12 – 22

A Lighter Side of Black Friday

2011-11-28T06:43:00.001-08:00

Thispast Friday my wife and I procured that labels of greedy, materialistic,super-consumerist, selfish, and un-Christian. This was a result of our choiceof going out to do some shopping on Black Friday instead of indulging ourselvesin another slothful day of gluttony at home (instead, I did that on Saturday!).Granted, these titles were not directed strictly at either one of us; rather,they came down upon us through blanket statements made on various socialmedias. Not once did I see something to the effect of, “If you are Black Fridayshopping today, be safe, be patient, and remember to wear a smile!” Instead,most cyber-reflection seemed to come from a self-assumed authoritative positionof Lording superiority over followers and friends.

Ofcourse, there are some very ugly aspects to Black Friday. The media loves toshowcase the herds of people standing in line for twelve hours to be first inline for a $299 42-inch, flat-screen television. Stories are spotlighted such asa person who uses pepper-spray to fend off other potential shoppers rushing fortheir item. In no way do I defend these actions or attitudes.

Onthe other hand, there are other facets to Black Friday than many simplisticblanket judgments offer. For starters, Black Friday has become a family eventfor my wife and me. Until I met my wife, I had never been Black Fridayshopping. In her family, it is tradition. Being some of the most financiallysavvy people I know, her family loves it. And I have loved spending that timewith them.

BlackFriday is also good for the economy – something that cannot be ignored in thecurrent climate of our country. I am not blind enough to say that Black Fridaywill solve all of our nation’s financial woes, but it doesn’t further theproblems. And it does it in a way that is more helpful to my wallet.

Forexample, I do not do a lot of shopping for myself throughout the year. (That’sthe kind of super-consumerist I am.) I don’t buy a lot of clothes. Most of whatI have comes through birthday and Christmas gifts or is purchased by gift cardsI receive. I am unwilling to pay $65 for a new dress-shirt. But when that dressshirt is 40% off on Black Friday and I have a $30 coupon I can use on top ofthat, I am very willing to pay $10 for a new dress shirt.

Ihave found that Black Friday helps me practice good stewardship. I am able todo a lot of Christmas shopping early and for much cheaper prices. This allowsme to save more money and in turn use it to support missions, to buy gifts forunderprivileged children, and to offer gas money to a friend struggling to findfinances to get home for Christmas. The time spent shopping for gifts on thisvacation day saves me time later that can then be dedicated to the ministry Ido at church.

Iwas encouraged by this facebook post by a friend on Black Friday, pointingtoward the benefit of stewardship on this day: “I amnot usually a Black Friday shopper, but our Giving Tree kids requested a coupleof items that were on sale. Saved more than enough to pay for the helmet to gowith the scooter--I love it when shopping and stewardship collide!”

Anotherpersonal benefit I have found on Black Friday is that it teaches me patienceand generosity. Sure, the lines can sometimes be long. Traffic can be bad. Thisgives me an opportunity to be patient with others. I often let others go infront of me in line or take the closer parking spot that would have made mywalk much shorter. It also gives me a chance to offer some encouragement toworkers who have been going since 12AM, 4AM, 6AM, etc. Here is an example ofone conversation I had at a register this past Friday:

Me: Thanksfor working today. How long have you been here?

Worker: Since4AM. It’s been a long day!

Me: Yeah,I’m sure it has. I hope it goes quickly and you can get home and rest well.

Worker: Thanks!Yeah, I’ve got just a few more hours.

Me: Well,we really do appreciate you being here for us today, even though I know you’dprobably rather be elsewhere. Thanks so much for what you are doing. May Godbless you greatly over this Thanksgiving and Christmas season!

Worker: Thanks!You too!

Sure, it’s nothing big, but I feel like Iwas able to offer some encouragement to someone who would be out there workingregardless of my presence or not.

Honestly,for the most part, I find most people to be jovial and encouraging on BlackFriday. There are those bad apples that get all the attention, but by no meansis that the vast majority. The friendliness often lends itself to goodconversation while waiting in line. This past Friday I was able to ask a motherand her daughter if they had a church they attended. It turned out they weremembers of a Methodist church in town, so we were able to talk about some ofthe upcoming worship opportunities at our churches. That’s not a conversation Iusually have with people at the mall.

Thoughthese are all some of the benefits I have found for shopping on Black Friday,by no means is my purpose to make an apology of Black Friday, convincingeveryone that they should participate in the day. I will admit that the day isfull of consumerism and materialism, but so is every other day of the year.

Mypurpose is actually pretty simple and has nothing to do with Black Friday atall. The true point of my writing could be summed up in a simple four-wordphrase – “Think before you tweet.” Or post. Or comment. Or whatever socialmedia you use.

Manyof my views on Black Friday could easily be erroneous. It is something I committo keep in prayer. But I can honestly say that the judgment I saw on socialmedia throughout Black Friday troubled my heart greater than anything Iexperienced while out in the consumerism of Black Friday. Perhaps as Christianswe often approach social media as an opportunity to be prophetic. If so,exercise caution. I have found many of these “prophetic” statements to addresssuperficial issues through generalized terms, causing the writer to appear as aself-proclaimed expert. There is often a much deeper-rooted problem to beaddressed and, honestly, social media will not sufficiently do it.

Instead,I offer the suggestion to allow social media as a chance to enter the lives ofothers, and allow them to enter yours. I would have gladly welcomed a tweet onBlack Friday that said, “Enjoying the time relaxing at home with family today. Prayingthat God will find good ways to bless those who cannot enjoy the day and haveto work.” I think this is very different than saying, “Black Friday shows theevil consumerist heart of America.”

MaybeI’m wrong and being over-simplistic myself. Regardless, I pray that we can alltake time to think through the multiple facets of whatever subject we approachthrough social media, addressing it with both careful insight and wisdom.

Lyrical Theology: O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing

2011-05-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Most of the following (lengthy) post comes from a section of a paper I wrote in seminary on the theology of Charles Wesley:

Charles Wesley is certainly one of the most beloved of all hymn writers, especially within the Methodist denomination. Yet, in the midst of Charles Wesley’s lyrical medium, it must not be overlooked that he was also a successful evangelist. Though he did not travel as extensively as his brother John, Charles remained very active in the life of his congregations in Bristol and London. For Charles Wesley, lyrical theology was a way of teaching and preaching. Perhaps still today his greatest influence on the church was his and John’s development of A Collection of Hymns for the use of People Called Methodists, published in 1780 and otherwise known as the large hymnal.

Part of the purpose of this hymnbook was to be a daily devotional guide as much as a musical book in worship. John writes in his prologue to the hymnbook that its purpose was to provide a “full account of scriptural Christianity” and “the experience of real Christians.”[1]

Thus, through the writing of hymns, it was for Charles Wesley that the inner experience of salvation was manifest through the praise of God. This is why, since the early establishment of the Methodist hymnal, the introductory hymn has always remained the same. We commonly know the hymn as “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” Charles wrote this hymn as a reflection on his own conversion experience. The original hymn contained eighteen verses, written by Charles on the first anniversary of his conversion. He appropriately entitled the hymn, “For the Anniversary of One’s Conversion.” John’s final edit for the hymnal pared it down to eight stanzas, beginning with the line “O for a thousand tongues.”

It is not only the backdrop of conversion that gives importance to the study of this hymn; the progression of Charles’ original eighteen stanzas exhibits the brilliance of his lyrical theology.

The first stanza of the hymn begins with a doxological prelude toward God:

Glory to God and praise and love

Be ever, ever given

By saints below, and saints above

The Church in earth and heaven.

There is a deep ecclesial context found within these lines. The individual’s experience of conversion is put into context through the praise of God, calling on the “saints below” and “saints above” who are offering this same praise. Thus, salvation is rooted in the praise and glory of God, and is understood in the context of a communal doxology.

Stanzas two through six become testimonial, offering a description of Wesley’s own experience of salvation:

On this glad day the glorious Sun

Of Righteousness arose

On my benightened soul he shone

And filled it with repose

Sudden expired the legal strife

‘Twas then I ceased to grieve

My second, real, living life

I then began to live

Then with my heart I first believed

Believed with faith divine

Power with the Holy Ghost received

To call the Saviour mine

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood

Close to my soul applied

Me, me he loved, the Son of God,

For me, for me he died!

I found and owned his promise true,

Ascertained my part

My pardon passed in heaven I knew

When written on my heart

Stanza seven then returns to the doxological proclamation with which the hymn first began. Stanzas eight through eleven continue this shift from testimony to proclamation, becoming a sermon of the gospel message of Jesus Christ and reflecting the universal call to salvation so important in the Wesleys’ preaching:

O for a thousand tongues to sing

My great Redeemer’s praise!

The glories of my God and King

The triumphs of his grace

My gracious Master and my God

Assist me to proclaim

To spread through all the earth abroad

The honors of Thy name

Jesus, the name that charms our fears

That bids our sorrows cease

‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears

‘Tis life and health and peace

He breaks the power of cancelled sin

He sets the prisoner free

His blood can make the foulest clean

His blood availed for me

He speaks, and listening to his voice

New life the dead receive

The mournful, broken hearts rejoice

The humble poor believe

Wesley shows in these lines that with the experience of conversion comes the proclamation of the gospel. Furthermore, thought the call for salvation is universal, Wesley gets specific. In stanzas ten and eleven he shows that Christ comes to bring salvation to specific experiences of those to whom the proclamation is addressed: sinners are freed from the power of sin; prisoners are set free; the dead are given life; the sorrowful are given joy.

Wesley takes an important further step in the final seven stanzas of the hymn. Thus far the hymn has been rooted in God’s glory. It has been testimonial. It has proclaimed the gospel. Now he recognizes the need for exhortation, commanding in boldness for others to accept this gospel message:

Hear him ye deaf, his praise, ye dumb,

Your loosened tongues employ

Ye blind behold your Saviour come

And leap ye lame for joy

Look unto him, ye nations, own

Your God, ye fallen race!

Look, and be saved through faith alone

And justified by grace

See all your sins on Jesus laid

The Lamb of God was slain

His soul was once an offering made

For every soul of man

Harlots and publicans and thieves

In holy triumph join

Saved is the sinner that believes

From crimes as great as mine

Murderers and all ye hellish crew

Ye sons of lust and pride

Believe the Saviour died for you

For me the Saviour died

Awake from guilty nature’s sleep

And Christ shall give you light

Cast all your sins into the deep

And was with Ethiop white

With me your chief you then shall know

Shall feel your sins forgiven

Anticipate your heaven below

And own that love is heaven

The structure of the hymn (glory – testimony – proclamation – exhortation) demonstrates that the spiritual life is not to be primarily concerned with pious introspection of the individual; instead, conversion should lead to the praise of God and sharing the good news of the gospel. Teresa Berger writes, “on the one hand, this is developed by a way of a doxology that gives thanks for the events of the past, while, on the other hand, sounding the call to proclamation in the present.”[2]

The Wesleys were evangelists. At the heart of their preaching was the universal call to salvation freely offered to all. Though many of us may not feel as gifted (or perhaps as bold) as the Wesleys, we do have a story to tell. Through this hymn, Charles Wesley brilliantly shows us how our own conversion presents a remarkable opportunity to give praise to God, tell our story of salvation, proclaim the gospel message, and encourage others to take claim of it in their life.

[1] B. Manning, The Hymns of Wesley and Watts: Five Informal Papers (London: Epworth Press, 1948), 14.

[2] Teresa Berger, Theology in Hymns? A Study of the Relationship of Doxology and Theology According to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of People Called Methodists (1780) (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1995), 81.

Celebration

2011-05-02T06:02:00.000-07:00

Warning: this might be the most candid post I’ve yet written.

I am in a strange place today. One of confusion and struggle, torn between joy and grief. And it is all centered around one of the most evil men to dwell upon this planet in recent years.

Of course, I am talking about the news of Osama bin Laden’s death.

Millions of blogs, articles, tweets, and facebook statuses have already been written on the topic. I’ve done a few myself. But I want to reflect for a few moments on what I have been wrestling through over the hours since hearing the news.

My immediate reaction when hearing the news of bin Laden’s death was shock. I thought, “Wow, that’s it.” A man, who for decades has terrorized America, was dead. I didn’t necessarily feel any safer. I didn’t even necessarily feel avenged. I just felt closure.

Then the tweets and facebook statuses began to roll in…

The response was overwhelming. The sense of national pride and victory was poignant. As I was reading, suddenly it hit me – I didn’t feel the same way.

Now, let me explain. I love my country. I am proud to be an American. (My favorite song in 4^th grade was by Lee Greenwood.) But for some reason, my heart was heavy, not joyful, as I began to reflect on Osama bin Laden’s death.

I don’t know why this is. I certainly do not think myself as more holy than any others, nor do I consider my response to be the appropriate one. In fact, my own response has confused me more than comforted me. This was my initial post:

“I struggle to have any love for Osama bin Laden, but for some reason I also have trouble rejoicing in his death. He was definitely evil, but I grieve for his soul.”

I couldn’t bring myself to rejoice over this death. I felt grief. I felt sorrow for a man who rejected so strongly God’s grace and love. And the ongoing tweets and statuses did not help. I felt guilty for not joining in the celebration. I felt anger and shame at some of the things fellow Christians were posting. I felt confusion as many friends and mentors raised good thoughts on appropriate approaches to this celebration.

Yet, in the midst of it all, I kept thinking to myself, “What is the appropriate Christian response? How do I reflect the heart of God in this moment?” I have and offer no definite answers. I can only relate my own process right now.

The best place to begin any search like this is by looking at what the Bible says. The first part of Ezekiel 33:11 states, “Say to them, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.”

Furthermore, Jesus says in Matthew 5:43-48: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Maybe it’s an empathetic heart God has placed in me, but I cannot delight in the death of any person, be they wicked or good. In fact, I grieve harder knowing that another soul has been lost. As a Christian, I cannot bring myself to delight in that. Likewise, I struggle to find that line where I begin to worship my nation over my God.

However, in the midst of this, I have found that my proper response needs to be one of worship. I worship by lamenting over evil and the destruction that evil has brought into this world. I worship by celebrating God’s ultimate victory over death and over the powers of evil. He reigns victorious, and I give Him the glory. I worship by submitting to the Holy Spirit, allowing its peace and comfort to penetrate my life, being okay with not having all the answers I am looking for. I worship by knowing there is a community of faith in this process with me, finding ways to seek out and do justice.

And so, today I celebrate justice, not vengeance. Peace, not violence. A sense of closure for victims, not feelings of wrath. The end of an evil era, not the end of another child of God. I grieve that evil people continue to be at work in this world, and pray that we will continue to stand up against such evil. I pray, not for the destruction of evil people, but that they will repent and know Christ. I celebrate Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. I celebrate that I am a child of God, and that feelings like this remind me He’s not done with me yet.

3rd and 4th Century Catechism

2011-04-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

(This is a very condensed version of a larger research thesis I did this semester. I hope to write follow-up posts soon that consider initiation, conversion, and catechism in today's church.)

By the third and fourth century, as new converts came to accept the Christian faith, the church recognized the need for a time of preparation before new converts (known as catechumens) were allowed to fully enter the Christian community. Thus, a catechism was established as catechumens waited for full initiation into the church through baptism. Though modern scholars debate both the length of catechesis and the preferred day of baptism in the early centuries of the church, most believe Easter was the custom.[1] Regardless, it is mainly agreed upon that by 350 A.D., Lent became a season for intensified instruction of catechumens.[2]

Liturgical evidence provides details to the dedication of the season of Lent for the instruction of catechumens. Documents from third century Jerusalem provide Lenten readings gathered for the instruction of both those within the church and those who were new to the faith.[3] An Armenian lectionary from the fourth century details a series of scriptures with a concluding psalmody to be used in worship every Wednesday and Friday of Lent.[4] Furthermore, this Armenian lectionary lists a series of nineteen Bible readings assigned to catechumens as part of a Lenten pre-baptismal catechesis.

Another liturgical example comes from a fifth century baptismal liturgy. This document directs bishops to “teach that catechumens (as the ancient canons command) shall come for the cleansing of exorcism twenty days before baptism, in which twenty days they shall especially be taught the Creed…”[5] Noting that the “day of baptism” was Easter, the twenty days preceding in Lent were then dedicated to this intensified training and purification. Not only were catechumens to be taught, but they also were to be “exorcised” of all impurities in preparation for baptism. They were cleansed of the old and sinful life in order to take on new life in Christ.

Catechism sermons of Origen give liturgical insight to this Lenten conversion experience for catechumens. Origen assumed that those who had “been received into the number of the catechumens” had already “begun to obey the commandments of the Church.”[6] He urged that the practice of these commandments needed to be encouraged, for he knew that no catechumen could enter baptism without “changing his conduct and habits,” thereby “showing the fruits worthy of conversion.”[7]

These liturgical documents point to catechism as a time dedicated to more than just instruction. Instead, it was purposed for the transformation from one way of life into another. The conversion of Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage in the mid-third century, provides important insight to the understanding of catechism as conversion. Before becoming a Christian, Cyprian lived as an aristocrat in Carthage. He was known for his extravagant wealth and his giftedness for rhetorical speech. However, Cyprian found the lifestyle of his fellow pagan aristocrats to be unsatisfying.[8] Through Caecilianus, a Christian whom he admired, Cyprian was introduced to the Christian community. He found Christians to live in ways that challenged his values. They knew a freedom he had not yet been able to obtain. Cyprian was deeply moved by their lifestyle and began to seek out how someone could be changed to such a heart and mind.

Examining his life, Cyprian found himself to be in slavery. Alan Krider writes:

Cyprian realized the areas of his life where he lived in bondage and sought freedom – his enjoyment of liberal banquets and sumptuous feasts; his love for glittering attire of gold and purple; his enjoyment at being surrounded by admirers who deferred to him; his ambition – and he began to feel deep regret for his life and sought out a means of change.[9]

It is reported that at the onset of becoming a catechumen, Cyprian’s life began to transform.[10] Cyprian felt such deep penitence that as he was instructed through catechism, he began to take on altered ways of life. In his Ad Donatum, Cyprian gives an account of his own conversion to Christianity as he sets forth 120 “maxims of the Lord” which he labels “the religious teaching of our school.” The first of these maxims emphasizes simplicity and sharing, the benefit of good works and of mercy.[11] The second emphasizes care for the poor.[12] The third states “charity and brotherly affection are to be religiously and steadfastly practiced.”[13] Further maxims deal with mutual aid, the “great lust of food,” the “lust of possessing, and money, [which] are not to be sought for,” visiting the sick, and other acts of charity and almsgiving.[14] Cyprian states that the standard of a catechumen’s distinctiveness was identity in Jesus Christ: “there is given to us an example of which we follow, living in Christ.”[15]

If these teachings were a part of the catechesis Cyprian encountered and promoted, they likely reflect standard teachings within the third and fourth century church. Such training would be proper for catechumens as they learned how to behave like Christians before receiving new birth in baptism. On the Apostolic Tradition records that catechumens were expected to behave like Christians before even having “heard the gospel.”[16] For these catechumens, like Cyprian, the experience of salvation came by having a penitential attitude bound with a commitment to join the community of faith in living in a transformed way.

It is imperative to recognize the essential nature of penitence not only at the onset of catechism but throughout. Penitence was more than initial regret. It was also the resolve for change. Initiation into the community of the church meant putting to death the sinful nature and rising again to new life with Christ. Lent was a perfect season for this focus to be made real. Though catechumens were instructed in the ways of Christ’s life, they also began to live as those identified with Christ. Thus, Lent was not only a time for new Christians to think their way into a new life; it was also an intentional time for new Christians to live their way into a new kind of thinking.[17] It was marked by preparation, but also anticipation for when they would finally be welcomed as full members of the community of faith. Alan Krider captures well the heart of Lenten catechism:

In the final weeks prior to their baptism, the candidates received daily instruction in Christian belief; very possibly a local creed was the core of their doctrinal catechesis. All of this reached a peak of excitement in the cathartic rituals of the Easter vigil… They left behind their lifelong accumulation of secular interests, values and loyalties; they renounced Satan; then they were thrice immersed as they confessed their faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They ascended from the water to be clad anew, whereupon the bishop anointed them yet again and signed them with the cross. Finally they were incorporated as brothers and sisters in a new family that prayed together, that exchanged the kiss of peace, and then ate together at the Lord’s Table. The destination so long desired had been reached; the newly born (neophyte, infant) was the member of a new family, a new nation.[18]

[1] See: Maxwell E. Johnson, “Preparation for Pascha?: Lent in Christian Antiquity,” in Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year, edited by Maxwell E. Johnson, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 210-214; Hippolytus, On The Apostolic Tradition (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001) 106; Lester Ruth, Carrie Steenwyk, and John D. Witvliet, Walking Where Jesus Walked: Worship in Fourth-Century Jerusalem (Grad Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 2010), 27-29; Wybrew, 10-12.

[2] Wybrew 11.

[3] Johnson, 213.

[4] Ibid, 212.

[5] E.C. Whitaker, Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2003), 227.

[6] Origen, Homilies on Joshua (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2002), 52.

[7] Origen, Homilies on Luke (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 215.

[8] This account is based on Cyprian’s Ad Donatum, recounted in Cyprian of Carthage, Born to New Life (New Rochelle, NY: New City Press, 1992), 19-24.

[9] Alan Krider, “Baptism, Catechism, and the Eclipse of Jesus’ Teaching in Early Christianity,” Tyndale Bulletin 47 no. 2, (1996): 320.

[10] Ibid, 320.

[11] Cyprian, 70.

[12] Ibid, 71.

[13] Ibid, 73.

[14] Ibid, 78 -87.

[15] Ibid, 41.

[16] Hippolytus, 106.

[17] Richard Rohr, Simplicity: The Art of Living (New York: Crossroad, 1991), 59.

[18] Krider, 322.

The Other 5%

2011-04-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was talking with some of my students at Asbury University about worship planning. One of the students mentioned that when putting together a worship service with their worship team, someone inevitably raises the point that they need to be mindful of “the other 5%.” The 5% she speaks of are those who do not come into the church with the same knowledge and background of the other 95%. In other words, those 5% are the visitors. (These percentages aren’t exact statistics, just examples she used to make a point.) This student then asked me how I approach this concern.

To begin with, I want to note that the “other 5%” are important. Nothing pleases church leadership more than to see unfamiliar faces becoming familiar faces. The church certainly has an obligation of hospitality to those who darken our doorways.

However, I want to offer some further thoughts I have been wrestling with for consideration:

1.) Most visitors likely have a basic understanding of Christianity/the church

Christianity in America is on a rapid decline. Those number of those who claim to be Christian is steadily decreasing, and even more so is church attendance. Hundreds if not thousands of churches are being shut down yearly due to lack of funding, lack of attendance, or consolidation with other congregations.

As for churches that are seeing an increase of visitors, these visitors usually fall within two types of groups: 1) those attending because of a personal invitation by a friend; 2) those attending because they are shopping around (for whatever reason) for a new church. Statistics have shown that less than one percent of visitors attend church because they woke up that morning simply feeling compelled to go to church, or they woke up sensing a deep conviction of their sin, seeking a place to repent. (I apologize for not including citations. A good friend passed these stats to me and I failed to write down the source.)

If this be the case, most likely visitors in our churches enter with some basic knowledge of Christianity. Perhaps those attending because of a personal invitation do not, but they at least have come because of someone who does.

2.) When did 5% of people start deciding 100% of worship?

There has been a trend in worship over the past 30 years to be more seeker-friendly and appealing (though we use the word relevant) to those either outside of the faith or burnt out with the church.

Over and over again, I have seen or heard about churches make decisions on the content of worship based on the 5% that might be entering their doors. They don’t want to confuse or offend visitors. One commen statement used in this approach is, “Well, what if visitors don't understand or have questions?”

My response – Good! Let them have questions! If someone steps into our church and attends worship for the very first time and they don’t have questions, we are probably doing something wrong.

Worship by nature should proclaim something very opposite from what the world proclaims. It holds all other powers and principalities as subjective to Christ. Furthermore, as I said in an earlier post, worship is relevant to every life. It doesn’t need to be made so.

Let us look again at some of the sources I quoted in that same post:

“Worship will eventually be subversive of the surrounding culture, God’s truth transforms lives… Worship inverts values, habits, ideas as it forms our character… The worship response of service includes and demands social action leading to social change” (Marva Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, 52, 72).

“The worship of Yahweh creates a world of justice, mercy, peace, compassion…this is the real world, created in the moment of liturgy, which asserts that every rival claimant and candidate for the real world is false and destructive. Thus doxology is polemical because it means to uncreate – disestablish other worlds and affirm this is a better world” (Walter Bruggemann, Israel’s Praise: Doxology Against Idolatry and Ideology 53).

If we agree with Dawn and Bruggemann, we must acknowledge that authentic worship will raise questions. True worship, a true revelation of the glory of God, will constantly raise questions for 100% of people. Christian life then becomes about journeying and seeking answers together, encouraging one another in the faith, and holding one another accountable to Christ-like ways of living.

However, in the quest to appeal to the 5%, do we begin to eliminate some important questions? Perhaps one fundamental question has been ignored – who is the worship for?

3.) Take personal interest

So, what do we do? As worship leaders, do we continue to design services focused on getting a certain response from the congregation? Do we focus on the praise of God to the point of shunning the people in our context as well as the visitors in our midst? Or is there something more?

I continue to wrestle with this, and by no means do I feel I have the answers. However, I can speak from my own convictions on the matter.

What we can do as the church is take more personal interest in this 5% instead of relying on worship to do it all for us. We can offer to take a visitor out to lunch after the service, ask if they have any questions and be willing to answer and/or discuss them together. We can get to know our visitor's stories, learning about their past and discovering what brought them to church. That's pretty simple, and probably is a common practice.

Understanding that pretty much 0% of people just show up to church on their own volition, the need for personal invitation to church is strong. We are often afraid unchurched people won't "like" or "get" church. Don’t expect worship to just magically draw them in. In fact, you might even expect it to repel them. But know that’s not a bad thing. It just means you need to talk with them more, explain more, let them ask questions and wrestle through their issues.

As a final thought, maybe the church as a whole needs to stop looking at conversion as a decision, but more as a process. This idea is a discussion to dive into further at another time, but I do wonder how much the drive for "making a decision" in worship has hurt American Christianity. What do we lose when we cease to take ongoing personal interest in the initiation and incorporation of individuals into the community of the Church?

Perhaps we lose people. We lose them because they do not meet the Triune God in worship, standing in awe of His presence. We lose them because we have not taught them the Gospel message and what it means to live new lives repentant of sin. Or maybe we lose them because they just weren’t happy with the font we used for the song slides, so they decided to look for a new church.

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom

2011-04-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?

Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.
To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Wrestling Jacob

2011-03-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of Charles Wesley. His way of weaving together profound theology and scriptural language into lyrical form goes unmatched in my opinion. Wesley’s songs have been used since their creation in the church’s worship. However, in Charles and John’s original collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, many of Charles’ lyrics were meant for devotional use as well. The collection was a means of teaching people Christian life and theology.

One of Charles Wesley’s greatest hymns that seldom gets attention today is “Wrestling Jacob,” also known as “Come, O, Thou Traveler Unknown.” The lack of attention it receives may have something to do with its length, as well as the fact that it is difficult to eliminate verses of the song without disrupting the structure and flow of the hymn.

The hymn takes an “inside-out” allegorical approach to scripture. This approach looks at the a scripture passage, places the person inside the story as if it part of their own testimony, and reinterprets the scripture thusly. In particular, “Wrestling Jacob” is a meditation on Charles Wesley’s own conversion through the story of Jacob and the angel found in Genesis 32:22-32. Charles becomes a figure of Jacob while the angel becomes a figure of Christ.

These lines are rich. They are beautiful. They are moving. Isaac Watts was even quoted in John’s obituary tribute to his brother Charles as having said, “…that single poem, ‘Wrestling Jacob,’ is worth all the verses I myself have written.” Certainly high praise from one of the greatest English hymn-writers of all time.

Take a moment and read through the text of these lines. Place yourself in the story. Bask in their beauty. As we continue in this season of Lent, may these lines resonate with your own journey.

Come, O thou Traveler unknown, 

Whom still I hold, but cannot see! 

My company before is gone, 

And I am left alone with Thee; 

With Thee all night I mean to stay, 

And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell Thee who I am, 

My misery and sin declare; 

Thyself hast called me by my name, 

Look on Thy hands, and read it there; 

But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou? 

Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.

In vain Thou strugglest to get free, 

I never will unloose my hold!

 Art Thou the Man that died for me? 

The secret of Thy love unfold; 

Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, 

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal 

Thy new, unutterable Name?

 Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell; 

To know it now resolved I am; 

Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, 

Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

’Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue 

Or touch the hollow of my thigh; 

Though every sinew be unstrung, 

Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly; 

Wrestling I will not let Thee go 

Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

What though my shrinking flesh complain, 

And murmur to contend so long? 

I rise superior to my pain, 

When I am weak, then I am strong 

And when my all of strength shall fail, 

I shall with the God-man prevail.

My strength is gone, my nature dies,

 I sink beneath Thy weighty hand, 

Faint to revive, and fall to rise;

 I fall, and yet by faith I stand; 

I stand and will not let Thee go 

Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

Yield to me now, for I am weak,

 But confident in self-despair; 

Speak to my heart, in blessings speak, 

Be conquered by my instant prayer; 

Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move, 

And tell me if Thy Name is Love.

’Tis Love! ‘tis Love! Thou diedst for me!

 I hear Thy whisper in my heart; 

The morning breaks, the shadows flee, 

Pure, universal love Thou art; 

To me, to all, Thy bowels move; 

Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

My prayer hath power with God; the grace 

Unspeakable I now receive; 

Through faith I see Thee face to face, 

I see Thee face to face, and live! 

In vain I have not wept and strove; 

Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

I know Thee, Savior, who Thou art. 

Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend; 

Nor wilt Thou with the night depart.

 But stay and love me to the end, 

Thy mercies never shall remove; 

Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

The Sun of righteousness on me 

Hath rose with healing in His wings,

 Withered my nature’s strength; from Thee 

My soul its life and succor brings; 

My help is all laid up above; 

Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Contented now upon my thigh 

I halt, till life’s short journey end; 

All helplessness, all weakness I 

On Thee alone for strength depend; 

Nor have I power from Thee to move: 

Thy nature, and Thy name is Love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey, 

Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome; 

I leap for joy, pursue my way, 

And as a bounding hart fly home, 

Through all eternity to prove 

Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Boldness

2011-03-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I was able to visit a worship service with a friend in Florida. As we were leaving the service, he turned to me and asked, “Why do a lot of churches today feel the need to emasculate God?” (Perhaps some of us would disagree with his terminology, but let us not get caught up in a discussion on semantics and understand that he was using emasculate to mean the act of making something weaker and less effective.) His comment was not meant as a slander against gender, but was directed at the fact the service we had just attended was, for lack of a better term, fluffy. My friend continued by saying we had just sat through nothing more than a Christian group counseling session. Unfortunately, I can’t provide you with an example of this service to help you more fully grasp his point. However, I think my friend was hitting on something deeper that has affected worship in many ways today.

What troubles me is that in many ways I believe we are losing a sense of boldness in our worship. There are many ways in which this plays out – in our songs, our sermons, our prayers, our mindsets, our expectations… Books and articles could (and have) been written about each of these. In no way do I believe in a simple blog that I will be able to offer a solution to this problem. However, I do want to raise a few thoughts for consideration:

1.) Keep worship simple.

In his book, A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer writes the following statements as some of the markers of what a divided life may look like:

- We hide our beliefs from those who disagree with us to avoid conflict, challenge, and change

- We conceal our true identities for fear of being criticized, shunned, or attacked

He ends by saying, “Dividedness is a separation from our own souls.”

Today’s church lives in a historical anomaly. Over the past fifty years style has taken priority in worship over the content. Churches are known for the style of worship they have. Services are split because of style. Many people will often choose (or so we church leaders believe) what service they will attend based on the style.

Unfortunately, this has led many churches to divide their focus between culture and worship. This is true for any style of worship. We can hide behind safe, comfortable forms of worship just as much as we can hide by eliminating any distinct markers that make us Christians. Even more than this, we can also become too tolerant and too accepting of sin, which has nothing to do with our style of worship.

Eugene Peterson approaches this subject through his book, Subversive Spirituality. He writes: “Spirituality is always in danger of self-absorption, of becoming so intrigued with matters of the soul that God is treated as a mere accessory to my experience” (15).

What happens when we begin to lose our distinct character as a people who have been redeemed by God? Have we separated our souls by allowing culture to narrate our worship instead of allowing our worship to narrate the culture around us?

Maybe we’ve just tried to bring too much into worship. We’re trying too hard to relate to the culture instead of letting the profound truth of God speak. We are too divided. Let’s get back to the simplicity of delighting in God as his redeemed children. Then we can proclaim with boldness the truth we know. We can worship with boldness the Eternal God without being overly distracted by the temporal world.

2.) Expect God in worship.

This sounds so primary, yet it unfortunately often gets overlooked. Expect God in worship.

If we fail to convey in the very initial stages of worship that we have entered the presence of God, we make it much more difficult to do so in the latter parts of worship. Likewise, we make it much more difficult to enter deeply and fully into worship. There are some questions we must ask ourselves:

- What is our expectation of worship, both individually and as a community?

- As we begin worship, is the presence of God being revealed? How?

- Does the dialogue of revelation and response continue through worship?

- Are there ways in which we cause the loss of expectation of God's presence in worship?

- In what intentional ways do we prepare to enter God's presence in worship?

Tom Long wrote a great article on this very subject. (The full article can be found here.) Honestly, I can’t say anything better, so I’ll let him do most of the talking on this point: “Worship by definition should guide us to a larger place, should direct our gaze away from ourselves and toward the most vast, holy and mysterious of all horizons. But for all the over-the-top extravagance of many worship experiences, for all the invocations to an "awesome God," much worship today seems curiously trivial, inward and downsized… Just so, when even tacitly we think of the dramatis personae of worship as "just us," when there is no expectation of the whirlwind, worship becomes small and confining. True worship happens in response to the holy and dangerous mystery of God's appearing. Annie Dillard was right to name liturgy as ‘certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed.’ Or to put it in a more modest way, if we genuinely discerned that worship takes place in the presence of the burning bush, would we really spend the time licking the glaze off of a doughnut and sipping a latte?”

3.) Worship is evangelism.

Part of where I think we have missed the mark in worship is by trying to make worship more evangelistic. Instead, we should understand that when worship is done with boldness and truth, it becomes evangelism. Worship is relevant to every life. It doesn’t need to be made so.

In one sense, worship becomes evangelism through the lives true worship forms in us. In her book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn writes, “Worship will eventually be subversive of the surrounding culture, God’s truth transforms lives… Worship inverts values, habits, ideas as it forms our character… The worship response of service includes and demands social action leading to social change” (52, 72).

However, the very act of worship itself can also be evangelism. Walter Bruggemann writes in his book, Israel’s Praise: Doxology Against Idolatry and Ideology: “The worship of Yahweh creates a world of justice, mercy, peace, compassion…this is the real world, created in the moment of liturgy, which asserts that every rival claimant and candidate for the real world is false and destructive. Thus doxology is polemical because it means to uncreate – disestablish other worlds and affirm this is a better world” (53).

Let your worship proclaim to the world that God is real and wishes to create a world of justice, mercy, peace, and compassion. Let the world hear the narrative of God. Let your worship speak against any other ruler, power, or principality in this world.

Worship loudly. Worship unashamedly. Worship with boldness.

Adoption

2011-03-07T06:20:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I attended a chapel service at Asbury University to hear a good friend of mine speak. My friend’s name is Nathan Waggoner. He and his wife, Cydil, have been two of my favorite people since I first met them in 1999. They currently serve as the World Gospel Mission student center directors at Asbury University.

Recently, Nathan and Cydil adopted their second child from the country of Albania. In the past, I had only known Albania as the obscure country Superman had returned from after giving assistance during an earthquake and the place where a fake war was staged in the movie Wag the Dog. Through Nathan, Cydil, Ellie, and Reni, (their two children), Albania has become a central location on my world map. (In fact, I’d say I now know more about Albania than I do about North Korea or Iraq.)

Nathan’s chapel message was one of the most beautiful messages I have ever heard. Nathan spoke on his experience of adoption and what it has taught him about God. It is simple, yet extremely profound. It is convicting, yet beautiful. It is a message I wish everyone could hear.

Fortunately for all of you who were not in chapel that day, Asbury records their services. For this blog, instead of trying to put together words and thoughts of my own that will only fall short of what Nathan had to share, I want to share with you Nathan’s message on adoption. The podcast can be found at the following link. It is about 35 minutes long and is the best 35 minutes you will spend today:

http://www.asbury.edu/podcasts/12845

Be challenged. Be encouraged. Be assured in who you are as an adopted child of God.

Limiting Lent?

2011-03-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

Next Wednesday will mark the beginning of the season of Lent in the liturgical calendar. Many of us are probably familiar with this season as it marks the six weeks leading to Easter. The forty days of Lent (excluding Sundays) are purposed for a time of dedication, devotion, penitence, confession, and repentance. Most likely we are familiar with Lent through acts of discipline – by abstaining from certain things (like ice cream, chocolate, soft drinks) or dedicating ourselves to others (scripture reading, fasting, prayer).

Historically, however, Lent has had a broader focus than personal spiritual discipline. Laurence Hull Stookey writes in his book, Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church, that throughout the ages there have been three main foci in the church during the season of Lent. (I apologize for not having specific page references. I recently loaned my copy of this book to a friend.) These foci deal with three areas:

1) Those joining the community of faith

2) Those within the community of faith

3) Those apart from the community of faith

For those joining the community of faith, Lent was a time of increased initiation. Specifically, the church came along side of this group and provided an intense time of teaching about the doctrines of faith, the practices of the church, and the narrative of scripture. This was done in preparation for their joining the community of faith, marked by their baptism on Easter Sunday.

The second area is what most of us know. Lent focused on spiritual reflection, devotion, and repentance by those within the community of faith. It was a time for the community to dedicate themselves more fully to God, recognizing their brokenness and need for a Savior, preparing their hearts and lives for Holy Week, ending with the great Easter celebration. Fasting and prayer became standard practices for the church during this season, as well as other disciplines such as increased giving to the poor.

Apart from those somehow within the community of faith, Lent also focused on those outside of the church. Though this is something forgotten in many traditions today, the church once understood Lent as a time to deliberately seek out those who had backslidden from the faith or left the church. Similarly, Lent was a time for evangelism, seeking to bring new people into the Christian faith. Thus, there was both an inward and an outward purpose for the season of Lent in the church.

These historical foci bring me to ask the question are we limiting Lent? As I have entered into the season of Lent in the past, I will admit it has only been through foci number two. Has such a strong push toward self-denial led the church to become more self-centered? Certainly self-denial, discipline, and repentance is not a bad thing. But what do we lose when we omit the other two foci of this season?

Here are some questions that maybe we can think through together in our churches this year during the season of Lent:

* Are there those who have backslidden from the faith that we need to seek out and bring back to the church?

* Who has disappeared from our community of faith and will we be intentional about seeking them?

* Who are the unchurched around us that we can be intentional about trying to bring into the church?

* Are there people within our community of faith we need to be intentionally discipling and teaching?

* Are there new believers that need someone to come along side of them and teach them the doctrines of the faith, the practices of the church, and the narrative of scripture?

* How will we within the community of faith dedicate ourselves to fasting and prayer, discipline and almsgiving?

* What repentance do we need to make both as individuals and as a church?

I pray that this season of Lent will be truly blessed for the Church. May the grace of God be with you!

A Debate: Theological Insights Pt. 2

2011-02-09T06:07:00.000-08:00

Continuing discussion on the relationship between Word and Table in worship, I want to share some thought with you from a friend of mine, Dan Hammer. Dan is a worship leader for a church in Seattle, Washington and has a way of thinking theologically through issues in very unique and powerful ways. Talking with Dan some about how Word and Table have a reciprocal relationship in worship, he offered these thoughts:

Something I've been pondering lately is that weaved into the cosmos is the reality when God speaks his word, that word is given concrete material articulation (ie: Genesis 1 – God said let there be light, and there was light.) God who is spirit speaks and his word becomes flesh. John 1 and Hebrews 1 both connect Jesus as the living Word to the creation of the universe.

I wonder if this reality connects also to this discussion that the Service of the Word speaks God's Word and in the Service of the Table, that Word becomes "flesh" (material). The reality isn’t so much about primacy of one over the other, but that material articulation is the unavoidable outcome of the word spoken. To end worship with only the Word tells the story that God's Word returns to him empty.

If we're receptive, the Service of the Word will bring about a head/heart response – rarely a bodily response in the moment. But our bodies lead our participation when we come to the Table – coming forward, tasting, touching, smelling, seeing, hearing – while our hearts are involved too. Our heads are much less so. Perhaps modernity's favoring of the intellect, and even the emotions, over the embodied material has led to the de-emphasis of the Table in worship.

A Debate: Theological Insights

2011-02-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

Regarding contemporary practices in the church, a Biblical understanding of covenant helps us form a proper theology of worship. We must first recognize God as the primary character in a covenantal relationship. John Witvliet writes, “It is God who initiates relationship. The covenant relationship is not one among equals. In covenant, God graciously condescends to establish a relationship with Israel. God’s primacy is also reflected in the act of establishing covenant, for it is God who proposes, makes possible, and enacts covenant.”[1] Worship is dependent upon revelation. God has taken initiative to reveal His glory and to enact a plan for relationship. We respond in worship as we discover the initiatives of God.

We have seen how the Old Testament presents covenant as central to the worship of ancient Israel. Covenant regulates religious life and action. John Witvliet writes, “Israel is reminded that it serves a God of promise and action, a God who initiates relationship, a God who invites thankful obedience and condescends to provide an opportunity for ritual affirmation of covenant love.”[2]

Turning to the New Testament, by Jesus’ establishment of a new covenant, the apostolic church continued the act of historical recitation and dramatic reenactment through celebration of the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a covenantal act of worship that has been practiced through all of church history and still continues today.

The Lord’s Supper simultaneously looks backward and forward, bringing all of history into a present reality. It remembers covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. It makes real the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. It anticipates a coming Kingdom and reestablishment of heaven and earth. In sum, it embodies the entirety of Scripture.

Throughout history, the church has continued to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on a routine basis along with the proclamation of God’s Word. Remembrance is central to the practice of the Table. The Word helps us remember and to live into the experience of the Table. In many denominations, a carefully constructed liturgy has been used to prepare worshipers for receiving the Lord’s Supper. John Witvliet captures the heart of this liturgy: “Beginning with the recounting of God’s deeds and, in particular, those deeds that enact and transform God’s relationship with his people, the traditional eucharistic prayer continues by invoking God’s presence in the feast and imagining the future of God’s relationship with his people.”[3]

The Lord’s Supper is worship through remembrance by recitation of such great liturgies, but also by reenactment. Robert Webber writes:

Bread and wine signify and perform God’s story and communicate the benefit of God’s story to us. When we open our hearts, our minds, and our wills to see ourselves inside God’s story, to think thoughts after him, and to embody God’s story in love, we become broken bread and poured out wine to others in an incarnate, cruciform, resurrected, and eschatological life.[4]

Webber points out in this statement that the Lord’s Supper has a moral obligation that accompanies it. Just as under covenant, Israel was called by God to live out a particular lifestyle, (understood especially in commands to care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien), so too are we called to action of social justice by our participation in the Lord’s Supper. N.T. Wright argues:

The Eucharist is all about God’s life given in Jesus Christ to be our life. It is all about God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, given now to be our breath of life. As we eat and drink, we become walking shrines, living temples, in whom the living triune God truly dwells. And if this scary thought should make us take our fellow Christians more seriously as what they really are, it should also make us take more seriously the tasks to which the living God calls us within his world. We cannot worship the suffering God today and ignore him tomorrow. We cannot eat and drink the body and blood of the passionate and compassionate God today, and then refuse to live passionately and compassionately tomorrow.[5]

In conclusion, the structure of Word and Table in worship follows a covenantal form of worship. Traditionally, the order of a Christian worship service moves through a sequence of gathering, service of the Word, service of the Table, and sending forth. This pattern loosely reflects the outline of the covenant structure. The gathering serves as preamble and prologue, a joyful celebration of the God's dominion and his acts of salvation. The service of the Word exhorts the Scriptures as stipulations defining the relationship between the great Suzerain King and his vassals. The service of the Table is an act of covenant affirmation as worshipers pledge loyalty in the intimacy of communion and mutual participation. The sending forth is a time of benediction or blessing pronounced upon the faithful to go forth and keep covenant with God the King.

Worship is ascribing to God His worth. We worship because He has revealed His glory through covenantal relationship and action. In worship, through the Word, we participate in remembrance through the recitation of God’s great deeds. At the Table, we reenact God’s story and encounter the real presence of Christ. We join as God’s children, bound to Him by the Holy Spirit through the covenant of Christ’s blood. As His covenant people, we are called to a particular lifestyle as we anticipate the future Kingdom God will usher in, and to which we have become heirs. Robert Webber writes this about the character of worship:

In worship we remember God’s redemptive work in history. We especially remember the story of Israel and how it is a type of the Christ event, pointing to the saving events surrounding the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also anticipate the future. Worship connects the past with the future, for it is here in worship where God recasts his original vision.[6]

Every part of worship, whether spoken or acted, should serve to proclaim and bear witness to God’s glory. Practice through Word and Table witnesses to God through acts of remembrance and anticipation. Thus, it is fitting to consider this historic liturgy often spoken around the Lord’s Supper:

And so,

in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,  

we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving

as a holy and living sacrifice,  

in union with Christ's offering for us,  

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.[7]

[1] John D. Witvliet, Worship Seeking Understanding: Windows into Christian Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 74.

[2] Ibid, 77.

[3] Ibid, 80.

[4] Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, IL: Baker Books, 2008), 141.

[5] N.T. Wright, For All God’s Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 31-32.

[6] Webber, 66.

[7] Taken from Service of Word and Table I, The United Methodist Book of Worship (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992), 38.

A Debate: Wesleyan Insights

2011-02-01T04:06:00.000-08:00

Continuing the discussion of the relationship between Word and Table in worship, we turn to insights from the preacher and founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley. We are privileged to have Jeff Rudy share with us today. Jeff is a good friend, college classmate, and a Wesley scholar. He has a great blog you can read here. If you are on twitter, I highly recommend following him - @wesleyanrudy

Wesley and “High-church Evangelicalism”

John Wesley and the early Methodists offer a unique historical paradigm for the relationship of the Word and the Table in worship. In some sense, however, it’s not all that unique in that his perspective is highly shaped in the Anglican tradition in which he was raised and remained his entire life. The ‘via media’ spirit of the Anglican theological tradition is partly evidenced by the tradition’s high placement of both ‘Word’ and ‘Eucharist’ in its worship design. Wesley promoted this even in the midst of the Methodist revival where preaching became very prominent.

There became such an emphasis on conversion and inner religion in many Methodists that it came to a conflict that headed up at Fetter Lane. Many had emphasized conversion and inner religion so much that they said that grace could not be mediated through any external means but was/is done by God directly to the heart of the believer. What was required of the hearers was merely to ‘be quiet’ and ‘wait’ on the Lord. Though Wesley agreed on the principle of needing to ‘wait on the Lord,’ he disagreed that this necessitated a ‘quiet’ (or utterly passive) stance. There were two kinds of ‘waiting on the Lord’: active and passive. Wesley opted for the former because this is the command of God. The problem he saw was that these ‘quietists’ were reacting against an abuse of something and instead of correcting the abuse, they ran in the complete opposite direction. Too many were using the ‘means of grace’ as ‘ends.’ For Wesley, the ‘means’ were always to serve as channels of grace with the end toward loving God and neighbor. He nuanced his position in his sermon ‘The Means of Grace.’ In the introduction to that sermon, Albert Outler suggested that Wesley here embraces a sort of “high-church evangelicalism,” a unique perspective, both then and ever since. In most ‘evangelical’ churches and traditions, there is often less importance on the Table, that it is really just a memorial service of sorts, and that the Word via the sermon takes center stage in the worship service. It is the common perception that in most ‘high-church’ traditions there is lessened stress on the Word as the Table takes center stage. The uniqueness of worship in the Wesleyan traditions is that there is a heritage that elevates both the Word and the Table to prominence.

In Wesley’s sermon, he conveyed that there are ‘ordinary’ (cognate of ‘ordained’) channels of grace; that God conveys prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying graces through the means that God established and commanded us to do, as we ‘wait on’ God. Those ‘ordinary means’ are: 1. Prayer (private, family, and public); 2. Searching the Scriptures (reading, hearing, and meditating upon it; this would include the sermon or homily, in my estimation); 3. Partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The means themselves have no inherent power, but with and because of the presence of the Spirit they do convey grace. Put differently, God sends grace to us through them by the Spirit. Therefore, Wesley’s conclusion was that “All who desire the grace of God are to wait for it in the means which he hath ordained; in using, not laying aside.” To strengthen the case for the Lord’s Supper, in particular, he offered: “Is not the eating of that bread, and the drinking of that cup, the outward, visible means whereby God conveys into our souls all that spiritual grace, that righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which were purchased by the body of Christ once broken and the blood of Christ once shed for us?” (Note that each Person of the Godhead operates herein.)

Wesley developed his case for partaking of the Lord’s Supper at ‘every opportunity’ for many years and this culminated in his late sermon ‘The Duty of Constant Communion,’ which he published in 1787, when he was 84 years old. His case is that partaking of the Supper “constantly” is a command from God and a benefit to us. Though he acknowledges that “constantly” doesn’t appear in the Scriptural command, his argument is by inference that if it is a command, shouldn’t we obey at every opportunity? Furthermore, there is a benefit of partaking in obedience: we receive forgiveness for our past sins and strength to pursue holiness. In other words, in partaking of the body and blood of the Lord, we are not only pardoned, but also enabled to “leave our sin.” “As our bodies are strengthened by bread and wine, so are our souls by these tokens of the body and blood of Christ. This is the food of our souls: it gives us strength to perform our duty, and leads us on to perfection.” This notion helps us see that Wesley was serious about “constant communion.” Nothing was of more importance in Wesley’s theology than the doctrine of Christian perfection (or sanctification). That he would make such a statement that this means (the Lord’s Supper) “leads us on to perfection” indicates that we should partake at every opportunity since the pursuit of perfection is an ongoing process.

Another note, and this is where I think Wesley’s voice speaks most pointedly to the debate that Jonathan has framed: I would be remiss to not mention that Wesley highly valued the primitive church and since we find the early Christians partaking of the Supper ‘constantly’ it stands to reason that we should follow in that practice. In ‘The Duty of Constant Communion,’ Wesley appealed to Canon II of the Dedication Council of Antioch (AD 341), which said, “If any believer join in the prayers of the faithful, and go away without receiving the Lord’s Supper, let him be excommunicated, as bringing confusion into the church of God.” Furthermore, Wesley read the New Testament texts on the Lord’s Supper (from the Gospels and 1 Corinthians) as the early Church practicing ‘continual remembrance’ of Jesus’ sacrificial death.

Finally, as Karen Westerfield Tucker has pointed out in her chapter “On Wesley’s Emphasis on Worship and the Means of Grace” in the Cambridge Companion to John Wesley, Wesley would go on to add ‘prudential’ means of grace to his ‘ordained’ list (see above). Among the ‘prudential’ means of grace are participation in accountability groups and visiting the sick (i.e., works of mercy). To me, this invokes what Webber described many years later (as Jonathan pointed out in the original post on this series) as the Fourth Fold. The “First Fold” of Webber’s paradigm (Gathering) can also be seen in Wesley’s means of grace in terms of his view of ‘conferencing,’ or spiritual conversation with other Christians (i.e., fellowship), which he also included in his list of the ‘means of grace.’ So if Wesley were to converse with Webber on this matter, I think the former would prefer to couch the debate/discussion in terms of the ‘means of grace,’ with special emphasis on the ‘ordained’ means: prayer, Scripture (Word), and the Lord’s Supper. We ‘use’ the means of grace as just that: means to the end of communing with God. As Wesley asserts, these means “must conduce to the knowledge and love of God.”

A Debate: Reformation Insights

2011-01-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

Continuing our look at the relationship of Word and Table through the history of the church, today we discuss the Reformation era. The difficult part of brief overviews in church history is that you can’t look at everything. Once you arrive at the Reformation this especially becomes difficult. Belief, practice, and doctrine begin to diversify depending upon theologian and/or denomination. Thus, there is much disagreement over each. As in the medieval era, my purpose here is not to point out what went wrong or what developments I disagree with in the Reformation. Likewise, I do not wish to try and give an exhaustive account of Word and Table practice throughout the Reformation. Instead, this post will look at two famous reformers, Martin Luther and John Calvin, and what insight they give us to the relationship of Word and Table.

Let us begin with the man who began the Protestant movement, Martin Luther. Recognizing that the word Protestant comes from the root “protest,” it can be easy to think Luther was nothing more than a reactionary, especially when so much of unease in the church today has followed such a model. However, Luther had deep love for the Catholic church and wanted to bring it back to a more biblical and theological grounding from which he believed they had diverted. Of course, much of this dealt specifically with the worship practice of Word and Table, since that was the norm for services in his day.

Differing from the medieval mindset when approaching the Table, Martin Luther denied the Lord’s Supper as an act of sacrifice. Luther wrote, “It is quite certain that Christ cannot be sacrificed over and above the one single time he sacrificed himself…”[1] For Luther, Table fellowship was something more than a re-sacrificing of Christ. The Table instead was a place where one experienced the living Christ. However, Luther also disagreed from the Catholic mindset that the bread and wine at the Table were turned into the literal body and blood of Christ.

Although he disagreed with the mindset over the mode of Christ’s presence, Luther did insist that Christ was still somehow manifest bodily at the Table. Thus, Luther believed at the Lord’s Supper that Christ was “just as near to us physically as he was to those who touched him during his earthly life.”[2] This being the case, Luther maintained that both a physical and spiritual “consuming” must take place in worship, which can only be done by faith. Since faith comes by hearing the Word of God, Word and Table are necessary in worship in order to both physically and spiritually meet Christ.

It is important to note that although Luther had problems with the theological abuse of the Catholic practice of Word and Table in his day, he did not think the liturgy itself was something to be dismissed. Instead, he promoted the idea that both sermon and Table were to be understood as community acts. Thus, one of the most significant changes Luther made in the early Reformation was to put the liturgy of the service (sermons, prayers, hymns) in the vernacular of the people. Similarly, instead of making the practice of the Table something to be visualized and adored by the people, Luther began to allow lay participation at the Table in every Sunday service. Liturgy and practice were communal and was done in worship through both Word and Table.

Another great influential Reformer was John Calvin. Though often known more for his theological developments in other areas, Calvin had much to say about the practice of Word and Table in worship. Calvin understood the Lord’s Supper as “an aid to our faith related to the preaching of the gospel…an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promises of his goodwill toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith; and we in turn attest our piety towards him in the presence of the Lord and of his angels and before men.”[3]

There are some noteworthy things to point out regarding Calvin’s view of the Lord’s Supper. First, the Lord’s Supper must be related to the preaching of the gospel. He writes, “a sacrament is never without a preceding promise but is joined to it as a sort of appendix.”[4] When joined to the Word, the Lord’s Supper has “the same office as the Word of God: to offer and set forth Christ to us, and in him the treasures of heavenly grace.”[5] The primary direction of the Lord’s Supper is therefore God to us, not us to God.

Secondly, as an outward sign and seal the Lord’s Supper assures us that God’s promises are reliable. It is not that the Word is insufficient. However, we are weak, and so God in his grace provides seals to assure us of the truth of his promises. The Lord’s Supper does what the Word does, but better, because it also contains a visible component. He writes, “The sacraments bring the clearest promises; and they have this characteristic over and above the word because they represent them for us as painted in a picture from life.”[6] Thus, they make the Word “more vivid and sure.”[7]

Thirdly, the Lord’s Supper must be received by faith. Calvin states, “This is the God-ward movement as, in response to his promises, we attest our piety.”[8] However, even this God-ward movement is dependent on God’s prior, gracious activity. The Spirit must work through the Lord’s Supper to confirm our faith. He says the Lord’s Supper properly fulfills its office “only when the Spirit comes… by whose power alone hearts are penetrated and affections moved and our soul opened for the sacraments to enter in.”[9]

Within this context, Calvin views the Table in worship as a banquet whereby we feed on Christ. Christ himself is “the only true food of our soul,” but God gives “visible signs best adapted to our small capacity.”[10] So, for Calvin, the Lord’s Supper is thus a covenant sign and seal, annexed to God’s Word.

[1] Martin Luther, “That These Words of Christ, ‘This Is My Body,’ etc., Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics, 1527,” Luther’s Works Volume 37: Word and Sacrament III Robert H Fischer ed and trans, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1961), 143.

[2] Ibid, 94.

[3] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), IV.xiv.1.

[4] Ibid, IV.xiv.3.

[5] Ibid, IV.xiv.17.

[6] Ibid, IV.xiv.5.

[7] Ronald S Wallace, Calvin’s Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament (Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1995), 133.

[8] Calvin, IV.xiv.7.

[9] Ibid, IV.xiv.9.

[10] Ibid, V.xvii.1

A Debate: Medieval Insights

2011-01-28T06:11:00.000-08:00

Today we continue to discuss the relationship between Word and Table in Christian worship by looking at insights from the medieval era. Unfortunately, the medieval era of Christian worship often gets a bad rap. Any era of Christian worship will have its faults along with its strengths. There may have been many ways by which the church needed reform in the medieval era, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t strengths for us to learn from today. The Table is central to this era. A weakness may be that services became more directed toward Table than the reciprocal nature of Word and Table, but years from now scholars may look back upon our era and claim the opposite as true. My purpose isn’t to point out all of the faults and failures of the medieval era. Instead, I hope to show the relationship of Word and Table during this period of church history.

In many ways, the Table set the social vision of the medieval world. Christianity was not only public by this point, but it had even become the unifying factor to the Western world. The social life of medieval people was grounded in a communion ecclesiology in which the sacrament formed the body of the church. They understood that this kept them in union with one another as well as the historical body of Christ, who is the head of the church, by receiving his body and blood at the Table. Thomas Aquinas could cite John of Damascus to express the understanding that “it is called communion because through it we communicate with Christ, both by partaking of his flesh and divinity, also communicating with and being united to one another through it.”

There was much change in worship practice and theology during the medieval era. Medieval theology was fixated on Christ’s work on Calvary and understood the Lord’s Supper as an effective sacrifice for actual sin. The sacrificial aspect of the Lord’s Supper grew in importance while the meal and celebratory mindsets faded. The mood at the Table changed from a commemorative feast to a somber event that represented Christ’s death. Sin became a preoccupation within the medieval church. Services were regularly held as belief grew that the Lord’s Supper was as affective for atonement as Christ’s work on the cross.[1]

Participation by the laity became very minimal during this time. Prayers and songs used in services were conducted in Latin, a language unfamiliar to the common person. The altar-table receded further from the congregation’s view. The bishop or priest, who formerly faced the people at the altar-table, now stood to consecrate the bread and wine with his back turned toward the congregation. For various reasons, people ceased to receive communion frequently, though the Lord’s Supper was still central to each worship service, and instead found the Lord’s Supper as a time to pray for their own and others’ salvation.[2]

Thus, emphasis often fell not on receiving Christ but on seeing and adoring the Eucharistic miracle in medieval worship practice.[3] In order to still convey the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper, as well as help laity feel a connection to the ceremony, movements around the Table became highly choreographed, each one representing an event in the biblical passion narrative. Laurence Stookey writes, “At the very beginning, for example, when the priest first ascended the altar stairs, the faithful were to envision Jesus walking up the staircase to the house of Pontius Pilate to face judgment and sentencing.”[4] Each action at the Table had a strong allegorical component to the Gospel story.

Furthermore, in the medieval era, the arts became a very important medium of portraying the Word when attending services of the Table. It was a highly visual experience. The choreography certainly was one aspect of this. The exquisite cathedrals were built to portray the idea of entering into a transcendent realm of heavenly worship. Artwork was displayed around the worship space through paintings and stain-glassed windows to help people be surrounded by and placed within the narrative of scripture. Though what we would typically understand as the “sermon” today may have not been central to worship, there were still ways by which the church proclaimed and experienced the Word. Though it may have had its faults, and though the participation of the people may have been limited, through intentional visual means, the medieval church understood the importance of both Word and Table held together in worship.

[1] Laurence Hull Stookey, Eucharist: Christ’s Feast With the Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993),72.

[2] James F. White, A Brief History of Christian Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), 90.

[3] Stookey, 75.

[4] Ibid, 75.

A Debate: Early Church Insights

2011-01-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I began a discussion concerning the primacy of certain practices in Christian worship services (which can be read here). Specifically, this debate is over the importance of the Word vs. the Table in Christian worship. In attempt to hold the two in a reciprocal relationship, there are some thoughts I would like to share based on biblical, historical, and theological research. Today we begin our historical approach, looking at the early church. (Old Testament insights can be read here, while New Testament insights can be read here.)

Spirituality in the early Christian centuries was profoundly pervaded by Eucharistic sensibilities and biblical illumination. Worship was the place for Christians to encounter the scriptures, especially since many could not read and almost no one owned or could afford books. Congregations absorbed the words of scripture proclaimed in various ways through worship. More than just the sermons, prayers often recounted scriptural truths and recalled the mighty acts of God. Yet, at the same time, the early Christian mindset was that the Word was also experienced through the Table. The real presence of Christ was found at the Lord’s Supper.

As the structure of the Lord’s Supper developed, eventually it was no longer celebrated as a shared meal. Gradually the “breaking of the bread,” along with the reading of Scripture, the saying of prayers, and the singing of thanksgiving songs, became established into a more elaborate Christian service. These elements were arranged in a well-defined order, setting in place a more standardized service of Word and Table.

Justin Martyr, in his Apologies (written around 150 A.D.), gives a detailed account of the ceremony, placing emphasis on both the practice of Word and Table:

On Sunday we have a common assembly of all our members, whether they live in the city or the outlying districts. The recollections of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as there is time. When the reader has finished, the president of the assembly speaks to us; he urges everyone to imitate the examples of virtue we have heard in the readings. Then we all stand up together and pray. On the conclusion of our prayer, bread and wine and water are brought forward. The president offers prayers and gives thanks to the best of his ability, and the people give assent by saying, “Amen”. The eucharist is distributed, everyone present communicates, and the deacons take it to those who are absent.[1]

The Didache, one of the earliest Christian documents, alludes to the practice of the Lord’s Supper. Similar to Paul’s writings in I Corinthians, section 14 of the Didache notes: “And on the Lord’s day, gather together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your sins so that your sacrifice might be pure.”[2]

Writings abound in these early centuries as the church Fathers spoke to the importance of the Table. Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch are two of the earliest church leaders we see addressing the issue. Table celebration is the beating heart of the teaching of Ignatius, seeing it as the true unifying factor of Christianity. He went so far as to say that denial of the Table in worship is the very mark of heresy.[3]

These early Fathers of the church often approached the entirety of scripture – both Old and New Testaments – through the lens of Christological interpretation (meaning they read/interpreted all things through an understanding of Christ). In this manner, Table celebration began to appear all over the Bible. Mike Aquilina writes of this:

The narrative of the Last Supper often appears in this context, as do Jesus’ Bread of Life discourse and the eleventh chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. But these “literal” references, while foundational, were only the beginning… Thus, while [Origen] believed that Jesus’ multiplication of loves was a true and miraculous event, he also believed [Jesus] performed it as a sign prefiguring the Eucharist.[4]

The early Christians used this same method of interpretation for the wedding feast in Cana, where Jesus turns the water into wine. Fathers such as Tertullian, Cyprian, and Cyril understood the “daily bread” mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer to refer to the Table celebration. This also extended to the Old Testament, as certain events or characters were seen as a foreshadowing of Christ and the Table. For instance, the Table in Psalm 23 was understood by Cyril of Jerusalem as a foreshadowing of the Lord’s Table in the New Testament, in the continuing church, and ultimately in the heavenly banquet. In this manner, Word and Table were inseparable not only in worship but also in the basic theology of Christianity.

It should be noted that during these first centuries, Christianity was a persecuted underground movement. The legalization of Christianity in 313 A.D. under the Roman Emperor Constantine led to significant changes for the church. Constantine supported and encouraged Christianity, so there was a significant increase in the number of believers. Latin became the standard language of the liturgy, as it was the common language of the Roman world. Secrecy and security were no longer issues for Christian worship. Furthermore, the church was now able to own property. Christians no longer met in homes, but instead built structures for themselves or met in basilicas given to them by the Empire. Christian worship became public. This will be important as we move into the Middle Ages.

Mindful of these significant changes in the church, Laurence Stookey writes: “Even as assumptions about the nature of the church and Christianity’s role in society were altered, the service of scripture with sermon and prayer culminating in the Eucharist was a weekly corporate experience...”[5]

[1] Henry Bettenson, ed., The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection of the writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Athanasius (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956), 62.

[2] Ibid, 52.

[3] Mike Aquilina, The Mass of the Early Christians (Huntington: Our Friendly Visitor Publishing Division, 2001), 75.

[4] Ibid, 41.

[5] Laurence Hull Stookey, Eucharist: Christ’s Feast With the Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), 70.

A Debate: New Testament Insights

2011-01-26T05:21:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I began a discussion concerning the primacy of certain practices in Christian worship services (which can be read here). Specifically, this debate is over the importance of the Word vs. the Table. In attempt to hold the two in a reciprocal relationship, there are some thoughts I would like to share based on biblical, historical, and theological research. Today we look at some insights the New Testament gives us to the practice of Word and Table, specifically drawing upon some of the themes provided in yesterday’s insights from the Old Testament.

There are also many references in the New Testament to the established covenant itself. Specifically, this is seen in the way several of the New Testament writers apply the covenant theme “I will be their God and they shall be My people” to the church (see Heb 11:16; 1 Pet 2:10; Rev 21:3). The New Testament church viewed itself as the new Israel and true heir of God's covenant promises (see Gal 6:16). Like Israel assembled at Mount Sinai, this church understood its role as a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God's own people (see 1 Pet. 2:9; cf. Ex 19:5-6).

The most obvious reference to covenant in the New Testament is in Jesus’ gathering with His disciples to celebrate the Passover. The parallel between Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper in Matthew 26:27-28 to the covenant ceremony at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 24 is not unintentional.

Exodus 24 describes the gathering of the Israelites at Mt. Sinai after being delivered from slavery in Egypt. Chapters 20-23 describe the covenant God establishes with Israel, as was earlier shown. In Exodus 24:8, the covenant is ratified as Moses takes the blood of young bulls and sprinkles it on the people saying, “Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” Finally, in Exodus 24:9-11, following this covenantal ceremony, seventy elders ascend the mountain with Moses to eat and drink before God.

Turning to Matthew 26, we see Jesus gathered with his disciples celebrating the Passover meal. This meal was a ceremony done in remembrance of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, the very basis for the covenantal relationship between God and Israel. Specifically, the Passover meal remembered the night where the blood of a spotless lamb marked who would live and who would die as the tenth plague passed over the houses of the Israelites and struck down the firstborn of Egypt (see Ex 11-12). David Peterson writes: “According to Jewish tradition, the blood of the lambs sacrificed at the time of the exodus had redemptive power and made God’s covenant with Abraham operative. When families or groups of friends gathered in Jerusalem to eat the Passover meal, they were reminded in a very personal way of the whole basis of their relationship with God and their existence as a people. Additionally, the Passover had become an occasion for Israelites to express confidence in a future redemption by God, associated with the coming of the Messiah.”[1]

In this setting, Jesus takes a cup and says, “…this is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (see Mt 26:8). Just as Moses sprinkled the blood of bulls upon the people of Israel in order to ratify the Sinai covenant, Jesus distributed His own blood to ratify a new covenant. Sinai established a covenant between God and Israel. The cup of Christ’s blood established a new covenant between God and all who would share in it. Alasdair Heron suggests Jesus “is not merely a sign of the covenant, or a means by which it will be made, but rather is himself the bond of alliance between God and the people, the pledge of God’s faithfulness.”[2]

Jesus' selection of the Passover, therefore, clothes the institution of the Lord's Supper with Israel's history. In fact, as Jesus distributes His own body and blood, God's redemptive purpose in Israel achieves its fulfillment and goal. Peterson explains: “The Lord’s Supper…is not itself to be regarded as the fulfillment of the Passover. In some respects, the Lord’s Supper functions as a Christian substitute for the Passover, focusing on Jesus’ death, rather than the exodus from Egypt, as the means by which God’s people are saved and brought to share in the blessings of the inheritance promised to them.”[3]

In Jesus Christ, we see God fulfilling His obligation to the covenant established with Abram in Genesis 15:17-18. God arranged to take the penalty of breaking covenant upon Himself. As Sandra Richter states: “In this new covenant, God has served as both Suzerain and sacrifice.”[4] Hebrews 9:13-15 echoes this thought: “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance - now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Earlier, we observed how the establishment of covenant had bearing upon the worship of Israel. In the same way, Jesus’ institution of this new covenant in the Lord’s Supper established a worship practice that would carry on in the New Testament church. Bringing together both past remembrance and future expectancy, the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” Paul also reminds worshipers of the participatory element of the Lord’s Supper in I Corinthians 10:16: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

Regarding worship in the gathered community, the book of Acts shows us the standard practice was that of both Word and Table. Oscar Cullmann faces this issue: “The missionary preaching of the Apostles, which naturally did not take place within the framework of the Lord’s Supper, has nothing to do with the worship service of the community. It is not therefore permissible to introduce Acts 5:21 as evidence for a ‘service of the Word’ within the community… Indeed, there was the so-called service of the Word but it existed as missionary preaching for the conversion of the heathen, not for the ‘edification’ of the community.”[5]

The book of Acts in fact shows us that Word and Table were often held in relationship to one another within the gathered community. Acts 2:42 says that the first Christians continued to gather, dedicating themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers. In Acts 20 we hear the account of Paul’s preaching a sermon on the Lord’s day at the gathering for the breaking of bread. At the end of the account, it states, “at the close the bread was broken.” Cullmann goes as far to state this evidence leads to prove the following: “The Lord’s Supper is thus the basis and goal of every gathering.”[6]

Of course, there are many other insights the New Testament gives us to the practice of Word and Table. (See some of the comments on recent blog posts regarding the road to Emmaus in Luke and John 6.) This has already been a lengthy post, but further reflection and comments are always welcome!

[1] David Peterson, Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 120.

[2] Alasdair I. C. Heron, Table and Tradition: Toward an Ecumenical Understanding of the Eucharist (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1993), 13.

[3] Peterson, 121.

[4] Sanrda L. Richter, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008),89.

[5] Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1953), 28-29.

[6] Ibid, 29.

A Debate: Old Testament Insights

2011-01-25T06:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I began a discussion concerning the primacy of certain practices in Christian worship services (which can be read here). Specifically, this debate is over the importance of the Word vs. the Table. In attempt to hold the two in a reciprocal relationship, there are some thoughts I would like to share based on biblical, historical, and theological research. Robert Webber argues that worship remembers God through historical recitation and dramatic reenactment.[1] Likewise, worship anticipates God’s desired future through holy living.[2] Thus, worship reenacts, recites, and lives out the glory of God. One way this is seen in corporate worship services today is through the practice of Word and Table.

A foundation for the practice of Word and Table in corporate worship can be found biblically in the Old Testament. Let us consider the idea of covenant, using it as a structuring principle for Biblical worship in the Old Testament.

The covenant form was familiar to the ancient near eastern world. As John Witvliet writes “…the notion of covenant was one of the primary means by which the people of Israel understood their relationship with God.”[3] He steps in as Israel’s suzerain, calling her to be His vassal. The earliest examples we see in Scripture of God enacting covenant are with Noah in Genesis 9 and Abram in Genesis 15 and 17.

The organization of the suzerain/vassal covenant was generally standardized in the ancient near east. Beginning with a preamble initiated by the suzerain, names and titles of the suzerain were listed. Next, a historical prologue provided the basis for the obligation between the two parties. Stipulations depicting the expectations of each covenantal party followed. If the stipulations were kept, a list of blessings would result. A list of curses stated consequences of not keeping the covenant. Finally, witnesses were called to validate the agreement.[4]

The Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy present an account of God’s covenant with the Israelite people gathered at Mt. Sinai. Exodus 20:2 opens with a preamble naming the suzerain, “I and the LORD your God,” and ends with the historical prologue, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Exodus 20:3-23:33 provide the stipulations of the covenant. Blessings and curses according to Israel’s faithfulness to the covenant are given in Deuteronomy 28:1-68. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 calls heaven and earth as witnesses to this covenant.

A covenant was established by both word and action. Covenant-making was typically accompanied by a ceremony of ratification, usually a blood sacrifice. An animal was chosen, cut in two, and the parties involved in the covenant passed between the pieces.[5] An example of this is the covenant made between God and Abram in Genesis 15:1-21. At other times, the partners of the covenant were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice as is done by Moses in Exodus 24:8. Both of these acts are graphic images of the parties’ identification with the slain animals, as if stating, “May what has happened to these animals happen to me if I fail to keep my oath.”[6] It is remarkable in Genesis 15:17-18, God takes this penalty of breaking the covenant upon Himself: "It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates…'"

Old Testament worship practice applied the covenant to every aspect of Israel’s religious life. In establishing covenantal relationship with Israel, God set forth a certain liturgical pattern they were to follow: Keep the Sabbath as a holy day of rest, observing it as a memorial of Creation and pattern for redemption (see Gen 2:3; Ex 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15); Honor three annual feast days, gathering in God’s sanctuary to offer sacrifices celebrating his bounty, seeking and acknowledge reconciliation and fellowship with him, and eating and drinking together as an expression of joy (see Ex 23:14-17; 34:23; Deut 16:16); Honor the Day of Atonement, on which the high priest takes blood into the central shrine of the sanctuary to atone for Israel’s sins and releases a scapegoat into the desert as a sign that those sins are now gone (see Lev 16); Keep a regular sacrificial system, involving daily and monthly burnt offerings of a flawless animal, pouring out its blood on the altar in order to make atonement (see Num 28:1-15; Lev 17:11).

Walter Brueggemann remarks that Israel’s covenantal relationship to God shaped a particular and unique lifestyle. Israel was called to set themselves apart through acts of ceremonial cleansing and festival celebrations. He writes, “In sum, all of them intend that this distinctive community of YHWH must live out in visible, palpable, material ways – in thick, freighted symbolization – the peculiar, defining mark of covenant.”[7]

Covenantal worship held together the idea of Word and Table, though perhaps Table was not quite the same as we practice today. Sacrifice was certainly important, but so was feasting. The structure of covenant itself would point us back to a four-fold pattern for worship. This is apparent in Exodus 20-24. The breakdown of the covenant features could be listed and compared as follows:

Exodus 20:1 = Prologue = Gathering fold

Exodus 20:2-23:33 = Stipulations /reading/explanation of covenant = Word fold

Exodus 24:1-8 = Act of Commitment/sacrifice/Meal = Table fold of worship

Exodus 24:1-8 = Blessings/Curses, dedication to live accordingly = Dismissal fold

My next post will continue this idea as we consider how Word and Table come together in the New Testament.

[1] Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, IL: Baker Books, 2008), 48.

[2] Ibid, 66.

[3] John D. Witvliet, Worship Seeking Understanding: Windows into Christian Practice (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 72.

[4] Sanrda L. Richter, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), 82.

[5] Ibid, 77.

[6] Ibid, 79.

[7] Walter Brueggemann, Worship in Ancient Israel: An Essential Guide (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005), 16.

A Debate

2011-01-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been engaged in some very interesting discussions on worship, specifically concerning whether the practice of Communion should have primacy in a worship service.

Part of what has spurred this conversation is the understanding of Christian worship historically having four folds by which it has been practiced:

Fold One: Gathering

Fold Two: Word

Fold Three: Response/Table/Thanksgiving

Fold Four: Dismissal

Scholars such as Robert Webber, Constance Cherry, and James White have written about how this four-fold structure of worship recurs both biblically and historically. Webber explains this structure in this way: “To state it very simply, you gather the people, you tell them the story, you break bread, and you go home to love and serve the Lord. This basic fourfold structure is analogous to what we do when we entertain people in our homes or have any kind of meeting. And so it is when we gather to worship together. It is a meeting with God, and therefore we need to think about—well, how do we gather the people? How do we tell the story that is central to Christian worship—the Word, reading the Word, and preaching the Word? How do we respond to the story with thanksgiving, eating together, fellowshiping together—in a way that allows relationships to be repaired, transformed, and established? And then how do we send people forth?”

As stated earlier, in my recent conversations I have been talking with others about the primacy of the practice of Communion (or the Table) in worship. This has led me to question the following: should the Table have equal primacy to the Word in worship? We do not question that the sermon is important in worship, but is the Word preached as important as the Table celebrated? Should it be? Does thinking of the third fold in the different ways of Thanksgiving, Response, or Table affect our value of what is needed?

Though I will take some time in some following blogs to discuss how this has been approached through the history of the church, for now I will offer this very limited summary: In the Middle Ages, the Table celebration was valued more highly than the preaching of the Word. In the Reformation, the opposite became true - the Word was much more highly valued than the Table.

I am interested in seeing if there is a movement more toward the balance of the two. Should we look to the Table as one of many different possible responses to the Word? Should we look at the Word as nothing more than a prelude to the celebration that takes place at the Table? Could there and should there be a reciprocal relationship between the two? Is one not truly fully valued without the other?

Before I offer any of my thoughts, or the biblical, historical, and theological research I have done on this topic, I am curious to hear some of your responses. I look forward to engaging with you in this discussion.

A Resolution

2010-12-31T06:51:00.000-08:00

It is the time of year when many people begin making resolution for the next. This time of year, a couple things strike me:

First, people want to be better than they are. Resolutions prove that there is a longing desire to be something greater than we are at present. Be it healthier, thinner, more patient, more loving, more disciplined, or whatever else, we want to be something different.

Second, we are creatures fixated with time. A new year brings a new beginning in many of our minds. In its most basic scientific terms, a day is nothing more than a rotation of the earth. A year is nothing more than a rotation around the sun. But one day beginning a new year marks something for us. It’s an event that we can lay claim to for change in our lives.

One rotation of the earth can bring a lot of change. Just think of days like 9/11. However, sometimes I wonder if an event-centered approach to life might leave us always longing for something different. When one event doesn’t bring what it should, we just look to the next. We think the event will give us the dedication we need. Though I’m sure many do hold true to resolutions made at the beginning of a new year, I continually hear of those who do not. “But this year will be different,” we think.

I’m not against making resolutions, and I’m not saying events can’t be important to us. Though I don’t remember it, my baptism is an extremely important event that has marked my life. My marriage is an event I live in every day. However, these were events that I have learned to live into instead of events that marked my own self-will to be something better. I think maybe the best resolution we can make each year is a simple one. It’s not an easy one to always live into, but it will envelope our whole lives:

Resolve to live this year pursuing holiness.

Living in holiness is living in Christ’s likeness. To resolve to live a life in holiness will take all of who I am. Though it comes with a requirement of discipline, holiness cannot be achieved by self-will alone. An event does not mark holiness in our lives, but it is a continual act I dedicate myself to every day.

As a theory, this all sounds like a great resolution to make. However, when it gets to the practicality of it, that’s where we often go astray. How do we maintain holiness in our lives? How do we guard against things that are unholy and walk in paths of righteousness?

The pursuit of holy living has become a deep conviction for me as well as some good friends I meet and talk with regularly. Recently, we began to look over some questions developed by John Wesley and a group he met with that came to be known as the Holy Club. This list of questions was a means of daily personal self-examination.

My desire is that every day I live in holiness. If your heart is being convicted of the same, perhaps with the beginning of this new year you can join those of us who have dedicated ourselves to asking these questions daily:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I relly am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?

2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?

3. Do I confidentially pass on to another what was told to me in confidence?

4. Can I be trusted?

5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?

6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?

7. Did the Bible live in me today?

8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?

9. Am I enjoying prayer?

10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?

11. Do I pray about the money I spend?

12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?

13. Do I disobey God in anything?

14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?

15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?

16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy, or distrustful?

17. How do I spend my spare time?

18. Am I proud?

19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?

20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?

21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?

22. Is Christ real to me?

2010 in Review

2010-12-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

As 2011 quickly approaches, I thought I’d take some time to review the past year of this blog. It has been, and will long continue to be, a work in progress, but I have found it to be a blessing and hope that you have too.

The following posts could be considered the “greatest hits” of the blog for 2010. These were the most viewed posts, and continue to gain traffic weekly:

1) Song or Sermon?

2) Leader or Pastor?

3) Poor Worship

4) Enjoyable Worship

5) The Importance of Peer Theology

I was also pleased to have a couple of guest posts during 2010 (and hope to have more in 2011, maybe even by someone not named Tom):

Tom Fuerst – Preaching is Foolishness

Tom Baker – Bogged Down by Logistics

A few people asked me to do some guest posting, which can be found here:

Understanding Worship: Finding the Right Preposition

Sola Scriptura

I am excited for all the possibilities 2011 brings for my own writing development, theological inquiry, and mutual growth with other bloggers/readers. If there are any topics you would like see addressed on this blog, please let me know. (Especially if they are topics concerning Christian worship.) If I don’t think it is a topic that I will adequately be able to address, I will be sure to find someone I think will. Also, if you would ever like to contribute to this blog by guest posting, please let me know and we can talk further about the possibility.

Thank you to anyone who does take time to read this blog. I tell my wife weekly that even if my blog had no readers, I would continue to write. This has been a form of discipline and method of processing thoughts and research for me. It has been very beneficial for me, and I pray that it has for others.

Blessings to you, and here’s to all that 2011 will bring!

John Donne on Christmas

2010-12-27T04:26:00.000-08:00

Here is an excerpt from a Christmas sermon by John Donne. It brings together the whole of Christ's story, which should always be the content of our worship. (You can read more of Donne's Christmas sermons here: http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/Light%20in%20Darkness%20Donne.htm)

The whole life of Christ was a continual passion. Others die martyrs, but Christ was born a martyr. He found Golgotha, where he was crucified, even in Bethlehem, where he was born. For to his tenderness then, the straws were almost as sharp as the crown of thorns after, and the manger as uneasy at first as his cross at the last. His birth and his death were but one continual act, and his Christmas Day and his Good Friday are but the evening and the morning of one and the same day. (John Donne, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, Christmas Day, 1626)

George Whitefield on Christmas

2010-12-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a Christmas sermon preached by the evangelist George Whitefield:

It was love, mere love; it was free love that brought the Lord Jesus Christ into our world. What, shall we not remember the birth of our Jesus? Shall we yearly celebrate the birth of our temporal king, and shall that of the King of kings be quite forgotten? Shall that only, which ought to be had chiefly in remem- brance, be quite forgotten? God forbid! No, my dear brethren, let us celebrate and keep this festival of our church with joy in our hearts: let the birth of a Redeemer, which redeemed us from sin, from wrath, from death, from hell, be always remembered; may this Savior’s love never be forgotten! But may we sing forth all his love and glory as long as life shall last here, and through an end- less eternity in the world above! May we chant forth the wondersof redeeming love and the riches of free grace, amidst angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, without intermission, forever and ever! And as, my brethren, the time for keeping this festival is approaching, let us consider our duty in the true observation thereof, of the right way for the glory of God, and the good of immortal souls, to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; an event which ought to be had in eternal remembrance.

What can we do to employ our time to a more noble purpose than reading of what our dear Redeemer has done and suffered; to read that the King of kings and the Lord of lords came from his throne and took upon him the form of the meanest of his ser- vants; and what great things he underwent. This, this is a history worth reading, this is worth employing our time about: and surely, when we read of the sufferings of our Savior, it should excite us to prayer, that we might have an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ; that the blood which he spilt upon Mount Calvary, and his death and crucifixion, might make an atonement for our sins, that we might be made holy; that we might be enabled to put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, even the Lord Jesus Christ; that we may throw away the heavy yoke of sin, and put on the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, my brethren, these things call for prayer, and for earnest prayer too; and O do be earnest with God, that you may have an interest in this Redeemer, and that you may put on his righteousness, so that you may not come before him in your filthy rags, nor be found not having on the wedding garment. O do not, I beseech you, trust unto yourselves for justification; you cannot, indeed, you cannot be justified by the works of the law. I entreat that your time may be thus spent; and if you are in company, let your time be spent in that conversation which profiteth: let it not be about your dressing, your plays, your profits, or your worldly concerns, but let it be the wonders of redeeming love. O tell, tell to each other what great things the Lord has done for your souls; declare unto one another how you were delivered from the hands of your common en- emy, Satan, and how the Lord has brought your feet from the clay and has set them upon the rock of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ; there, my brethren, is no slipping. Other conversation, by often repeating, you become fully acquainted with, but of Christ there is always something new to raise your thoughts; you can never want when the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is the subject. So let Jesus be the subject, my brethren, of all your conversation.

Let your time be spent on him: O this, this is an employ, which if you belong to Jesus, will last you to all eternity.

Let me beseech you to have a regard, a particular regard to your behavior, at this time; for indeed the eyes of all are upon you, and they would rejoice much to find any reason to complain of you. They can say things against us without a cause; and how would they rejoice if there was wherewith they might blame us? Then they would triumph and rejoice indeed; and all your little slips, my dear brethren, are, and would be charged upon me. O at this time, when the eyes of so many are upon you, be upon your guard; and if you use the good things of this life with modera- tion, you do then celebrate this festival in the manner which the institution calls for.

And instead of running into excess, let that money, which you might expend to pamper your own bodies, be given to feed the poor; now, my brethren, is the season in which they commonly require relief; and sure you cannot act more agreeable, either to the season, to the time, or for the glory of God, than in relieving his poor distressed servants. Consider, Christ was always willing to relieve the distressed; it is his command also; and can you better commemorate the birth of your King, your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, than in obeying one of his commands?

Inquire strictly into your end and design in spending your time; see, my brethren, whether it proceeds from a true love to your Redeemer, or whether there is not some worldly pleasure or advantage at the bottom: if there is, our end is not right; but if it proceed entirely from love to him that died and gave himself for us, our actions will be a proof thereof; then our time will be spent, not in the polite pleasures of life, but according to the doctrine and commands of the blessed Jesus; then our conversation will be in heaven; and O that this might be found to be the end of each of you who now hear me; then we should truly observe this festival and have a true regard to the occasion thereof, that of Christ’s coming to redeem the souls of those which were lost.

Let me now conclude, my dear brethren, with a few words of exhortation, beseeching you to think of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did Jesus come into the world to save us from death, and shall we spend no part of our time in conversing about our dear Jesus; shall we pay no regard to the birth of him who came to re- deem us from the worst of slavery, from that of sin, and the devil; and shall this Jesus not only be born on our account, but likewise die in our stead, and yet shall we be unmindful of him? Shall we spend our time in those things which are offensive to him? Shall we not rather do all we can to promote his glory and act according to his command?

O my dear brethren, be found in the ways of God; let us not disturb our dear Redeemer by any irregular proceedings; and let me beseech you to strive to love, fear, honor, and obey him, more than ever you have done yet; let not the devil engross your time, and that dear Savior who came into the world on your accounts have so little. O be not so ungrateful to him who has been so kind to you! What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has? Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incar- nate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come.

Augustine on Christmas

2010-12-25T04:41:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas friends!

I thought today I'd share some of my favorite excerpts from Christmas sermons by St. Augustine of Hippo. Pay special attention to how he focuses on the paradox of the event. Amazing and beautiful stuff. May this continue to help us adore and delight in the Christ child while standing in awe of God's incarnation.

He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills the world lays in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His greatness. [St. Augustine, Sermon 187 1,1]

God became a human being, so that in one person you could have both something to see and something to believe. [St. Augustine, Sermon 126, 5]

He lies in a manger, but contains the world. He feeds at the breast, but also feeds the angels. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, but vests us with immortality. He found no place in the inn, but makes for Himself a temple in the hearts of believers. In order that weakness might become strong, strength became weak. [St. Augustine, Sermon 190 3,4]

He so loved us that for our sake He was made man in time, through Whom all times were made; was in the world less in years than His servants, though older than the world itself in His eternity; was made man, Who made man; was created of a mother, whom He created; was carried by hands which He formed; nursed at the breasts which He had filled; cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word without Whom all human eloquence is mute.[St. Augustine, Sermon 188 2,2]

He who was God was made man by taking on what He was not, not by losing what He was... Let Christ, therefore, lift you up by that which is human in Him; let Him lead you by that which is God-man; let Him guide you through to that which is God. [St. Augustine, On 1 John 23,6]

Truth, eternally existing in the bosom of the Father, has sprung from the earth so that He might exist also in the bosom of a mother. Truth, holding the world in place, has sprung from the earth so that He might be carried in the hands of a woman. [St. Augustine, Sermon 185, 3]

Chrysostom on Christmas

2010-12-24T05:06:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing homily by Chrysostom on Christmas. May it challenge, convict, and lead you to the awe of the Nativity event.

St. John Chrysostom, “Homily on Christmas Morning”

BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn. The Angels sing. The Archangels blend their voice in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt His glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth, and man in heaven. He Who is above, now for our redemption dwells here below; and he that was lowly is by divine mercy raised.

Bethlehem this day resembles heaven; hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices; and in place of the sun, enfolds within itself on every side, the Sun of justice. And ask not how: for where God wills, the order of nature yields. For He willed; He had the power; He descended; He redeemed; all things yielded in obedience to God. This day He Who is, is Born; and He Who is, becomes what He was not. For when He was God, He became man; yet not departing from the Godhead that is His. Nor yet by any loss of divinity became He man, nor through increase became He God from man; but being the Word He became flesh, His nature, because of impassability, remaining unchanged.

And so the kings have come, and they have seen the heavenly King that has come upon the earth, not bringing with Him Angels, nor Archangels, nor Thrones, nor Dominations, nor Powers, nor Principalities, but, treading a new and solitary path, He has come forth from a spotless womb.

Since this heavenly birth cannot be described, neither does His coming amongst us in these days permit of too curious scrutiny. Though I know that a Virgin this day gave birth, and I believe that God was begotten before all time, yet the manner of this generation I have learned to venerate in silence and I accept that this is not to be probed too curiously with wordy speech.

For with God we look not for the order of nature, but rest our faith in the power of Him who works.

What shall I say to you; what shall I tell you? I behold a Mother who has brought forth; I see a Child come to this light by birth. The manner of His conception I cannot comprehend.

Nature here rested, while the Will of God labored. O ineffable grace! The Only Begotten, Who is before all ages, Who cannot be touched or be perceived, Who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, that is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt.

Christ, finding the holy body and soul of the Virgin, builds for Himself a living temple, and as He had willed, formed there a man from the Virgin; and, putting Him on, this day came forth; unashamed of the lowliness of our nature.

For it was to Him no lowering to put on what He Himself had made. Let that handiwork be forever glorified, which became the cloak of its own Creator. For as in the first creation of flesh, man could not be made before the clay had come into His hand, so neither could this corruptible body be glorified, until it had first become the garment of its Maker.

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me.

Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been ¡in planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

Why is this? Because God is now on earth, and man in heaven; on every side all things commingle. He became Flesh. He did not become God. He was God. Wherefore He became flesh, so that He Whom heaven did not contain, a manger would this day receive. He was placed in a manger, so that He, by whom all things arc nourished, may receive an infant¢s food from His Virgin Mother. So, the Father of all ages, as an infant at the breast, nestles in the virginal arms, that the Magi may more easily see Him. Since this day the Magi too have come, and made a beginning of withstanding tyranny; and the heavens give glory, as the Lord is revealed by a star.

To Him, then, Who out of confusion has wrought a clear path, to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, we offer all praise, now and for ever. Amen.

Irenaeus and the Harmony of Creation

2010-12-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

I read this earlier this morning and thought I'd share it. Great thoughts by the early church father St. Irenaeus of Lyons from his book Against Heresies (book II, chapter XXV). Instead of offering any of my own thoughts right now, I'd love to hear your responses to what he has to say.

For all things originate from one and the same God. But since created things are various and numerous, they are indeed well fitted and adapted to the whole creation; yet, when viewed individually, are mutually opposite and inharmonious, just as the sound of the lyre, which consists of many and opposite notes, gives rise to one unbroken melody, through means of the interval which separates each one from the others. The lover of truth therefore ought not to be deceived by the interval between each note, nor should he imagine that one was due to one artist and author, and another to another, nor that one person fitted the treble, another the bass, and yet another the tenor strings; but he should hold that one and the same person [formed the whole], so as to prove the judgment, goodness, and skill exhibited in the whole work and [specimen of] wisdom. Those, too, who listen to the melody, ought to praise and extol the artist, to admire the tension of some notes, to attend to the softness of others, to catch the sound of others between both these extremes, and to consider the special character of others, so as to inquire at what each one aims, and what is the cause of their variety, never failing to apply our rule, neither giving up the one artist, nor casting off faith in the one God who formed all things, nor blaspheming our Creator.

Fanboys

2010-12-13T06:10:00.000-08:00

As part of a routine of discipline I am trying to set for myself, I recently decided to read something written by a prominent figure in church history every day. On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius seemed an appropriate work for Advent, so a few days ago I pulled my copy off the shelf. Opening the book, I began reading the introduction, forgetting that C.S. Lewis had written the introduction to this particular copy I own. Lewis begins with these lines:

“There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”

I started to think about this, and how unfortunately true Lewis’s words are. In case some of Lewis’s language is a little tough to understand, let me explain in perhaps simpler, more contemporary, and much nerdier terms.

I am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. I’ve read through the books a number of times. I did an independent study on them in college. I’ve spent many hours of my life watching the movies, both regular and extended editions. (However, I’ve not yet gotten to the point of learning to read or write Elvish.)

Likewise, since childhood the original Star Wars trilogy has been at the top of my favorite movies. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen them. I love playing any Star Wars video game I can get my hands on, even though I’m terrible at them. Even though I was thoroughly disappointed every time, I still went to the midnight premier of every one of the prequels. (But no worries, I wasn’t one of those guys who dressed up as a storm trooper.)

All this is to say, when it comes to Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, I consider myself a fanboy.

Now, let’s apply this to what Lewis says. Let’s pretend that I still consider myself a Lord of the Rings fanboy, but I’ve never seen the movies. Furthermore, I’ve never read the books. Here is all that I have done – I’ve heard other people talk about them. I’ve gone online and read critics' reviews of the movies. I’ve read summaries of the books on Wikipedia. I've done all these things but I’ve never actually spent time in the original material. I don’t think anyone else would consider me to be a true fanboy. It’s like saying John Coltrane is my favorite jazz musician, but I've never heard him play. Or apples are my favorite fruit, but I’ve never eaten one.

Taking this a step even further, I think this issue is a reality too common in the church. Many of us would consider ourselves to be “fans” of Christ or “fans” of the Bible, but how much time do we spend actually reading Scripture? I’m sure we get good summaries of it at church. We probably read some great books that explain it to us. But are we allowing time for reading and discovering what is in the Bible?

Perhaps we are intimidated because we don’t think we can handle it on our own. The Bible seems too foreign and intimidating. This is where we need to take Lewis’s words to heart. There is something that can’t be gained through only hearing about the Bible from others. To be shaped and formed in holiness, we need the Scriptures to penetrate our everyday lives and our everyday schedules. We need the delight and ease of first-hand knowledge of spending personal time in the Scriptures.

This being said, there certainly is a place for the community in helping us read and interpret Scripture as well, but how ready will we be to join that conversation if we are not spending personal time in the Bible? Perhaps we can fake it well, or we can at least get by, but there are new depths of wonder and beauty we will never reach unless we commit ourselves to daily reading God’s Word.

Bogged Down by Logistics

2010-12-08T11:31:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I asked a good friend and fellow worship-leader, Tom Baker, to write a guest post for my blog. I always enjoy conversing with Tom on facebook/twitter/blogs about music, theology, and Christian life. I respect his thoughts and opinions and think more people need to hear what he has to say.

Recently, I wrote a blog on how daily discipline (specifically in prayer and scripture reading) is beneficial for weekly worship. (This post can be read here: http://reluctantjonathan.blogspot.com/2010/12/disciplined-worship.html) I’m glad to have Tom write this as sort of a follow-up to that post because Tom is one of the people that I think best exemplifies time spent daily in the Word of God. His blog is proof of this: http://tombakerguitar.blogspot.com/) Now I’ll shut up and just let you read this wonderful post Tom was so kind to write for me:

My name is Tom Baker and I’m a worship leader. I am in charge of the praise band for the contemporary service at Trinity Hill United Methodist Church in Lexington, KY. Jonathan kindly asked me to share a bit about how I approach worship and I have eagerly agreed to do so.

One of the issues I have when it comes to worship, with regard to my role in the church, is that I am responsible for the logistics. I’m in charge of the band. I need to make sure all of the music is presented well and that all of the equipment properly works. Everything has to be in place. Things need to go smoothly so nothing distracts the congregation or prevents them from being able to connect with God.

This is what we do when we worship - we connect with God. The logistics aren’t that important. We connect with God - that’s the “what”. The “how” doesn’t matter much except insofar as it facilitates the “what”. Since I’m responsible for the logistics, they do matter (at least to me) so they don’t become an obstacle for anyone else preventing that connection to God. However, if my primary (or, too often, singular) focus is on the logistics then I cannot lead worship because at that point, I’m not worshiping. I’m just bogged down in the logistics. I get distracted from my primary purpose (worship) and get fixated on that which is less important (my guitar, the monitors, the words, a wrong note, feedback, etc). These things can distract me from my primary purpose of worshiping God and get me bogged down in the logistics of what is physically happening and what I’m physically doing.

Distractions are all around us. Our lives are filled with things that affect our connection with our Creator/Sustainer and hinder our worship. In worship we connect to God, that which is greater than us, acknowledging our dependence on God, praising what God the Almighty has done for us, surrendering our will to God, and offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. Yet, too often, this sacrifice has not been well prepared. We’re distracted. We lack focus and commitment. We’re not much of an offering.

I don’t say this to be mean. It’s just a fact I am no less guilty of than anyone else. But I’m working to correct this issue. One of the ways I do this is by reading Scripture daily. There’s something to be said for getting up in the morning and starting off your day in the Word. It helps focus attention on God before the day-to-day worries and distractions in this life beat you down. I know it helps me, at least. While the material conditions of each day may be unchanged by this act, I find myself far more at peace with them when I begin each day in the Word. Or, to put it another way, life doesn’t improve from a worldly perspective, but I’m better prepared Spiritually to deal with it.

Also, I very intentionally prepare myself for congregational worship each Sunday. I know the logistics of the Sunday service are going to distract me. I have to prepare myself to be able to focus entirely on worship in a very intentional way or I find that it is impossible to do so. Worship doesn’t (no matter how much we would like to think otherwise) “just happen”.

What I have found helps prepare me for worship the best is reading and meditating on a Psalm each Sunday morning before I pack up my guitars and gear to head off for church. The Psalms are wonderful because they help us to connect to worshipers thousands of years ago. It’s truly amazing to read what the Psalmists wrote for worship and compare and contrast them to what we do in our own services. One of the things that draws me most to the Psalms is seeing, within the context of worship, the presence of not only praises but also declarations of belief, concerns for God’s justice, and even lamentations. Worship has not always been exclusively done in a major key, so to speak. Sometimes I fear we conflate praise and worship, making shallow and superficial offerings of praise only, denying God our entire selves. We are to worship God with our entire beings, our whole selves.

Everything we do can be an act of worship, but we have to intentionally worship. As I said earlier, worship doesn’t “just happen”. We worship in an active, not passive sense. To do that requires intentional preparation and consideration. But when we do worship we don’t want to get bogged down with the logistics. The logistics don’t matter that much, only the connection. I urge you to intentionally connect to God in worship every day.

Disciplined Worship

2010-12-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of talk that a consumerist mindset has taken over in the American church. Most of our culture is built on the premise Burger King has turned into a slogan: “Have it your way.” Personal preference rules. We consume what we want. For instance, you can’t just go to the store and buy a box of crackers any more. Now you get to choose between salt-free, fat-free, reduced sodium, reduced calories, gluten-free, eco-friendly, name brand, generic brand, whole grain, wheat, white, chocolate, vanilla, or the new improved regular crackers. (Okay, maybe not all of those, but you get the point.)

In many ways, this is what the American church has begun to offer. There seems to be a different type of service, a different trend in worship, for every person out there. Tell the church what you want, and they’ll try to make it happen for you.

Recently, I’ve been rereading a book called John Wesley’s Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America. This is a liturgical book outlining a pattern for worship services that Wesley urged American Methodists to follow. In a sense, this book was John Wesley’s last will and testament to his American followers, setting a pattern for Methodist worship in its earliest stages in America. Wesley wanted to take ancient forms of worship practice and spirituality and pour them into the local church. It outlines orders for morning and evening prayers, communion, baptism, marriage, etc. Wesley also gives a guide for daily scripture reading and prayer.

Someone once told me, “Look at what you spend most of your time doing. That will tell you what’s most important in your life.” If we were to agree that in general this applies to worship, then there is no doubt in Wesley’s service orders that the reading of scripture and prayer were most important. The majority of the service is scripture reading or prayer. In fact, the Sunday morning service opens with five scripture readings followed by a prayer of confession, a prayer of pardon, then the Lord’s Prayer. After this, the community then recites multiple Psalms. (As an aside, Wesley also encouraged his followers to read through the book of Psalms once every week.)

This struck me as something amazing. That is a lot of scripture. As I thought about Wesley’s structure for worship, I began to wonder if it would work in the church today. Honestly and unfortunately I don’t think it would. It doesn’t fit our consumerist mindset. It’s not entertaining. It’s not what I want. To be fully honest, we’d probably think it’s pretty boring.

I think some of the reason a service like this would be difficult today is due to the fact we are not disciplined Christians. (And unfortunately for us, discipline and disciple aren’t words too far from each other.) James White writes in his introduction to John Wesley’s Sunday Service, “It took incredible discipline to be part of these worship services.” We aren’t approaching worship as those who have been disciplined throughout the week. I wonder how much daily discipline would enhance weekly worship. If I were to spend more time in the scriptures and prayer, would a service that does the same be more meaningful to me? If I make other things priority with my time, will other things also become priority in my worship?

Maybe a consumerist model isn’t all bad. Perhaps it’s what we are consuming that needs to change. If I spent less time consuming the unnecessary things my life and spent more time consuming the Word of God, something would begin to change. Maybe I’d find that I’m not the one doing the consuming, but instead I am the one being consumed into the life of God.

The Wheelchair and the Worshiper

2010-11-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I discussed Advent as a time of waiting. An aspect of waiting that I would like to hit upon in this post deals with Advent as a time of expectant longing. In Advent, we recall the expectation and longing for the first coming of Christ into our humanity. We also anticipate the second coming of Christ in final victory.

Mentally, I understand this. I have prepared service orders, scripts, and songs for worship keeping these thoughts in mind. However, I have to question how deep is my sense of longing to be in the presence of Jesus Christ? How deeply from my gut do I cry out, ‘Come quickly, Lord Jesus!’? Is my heart so moved in worship that I cannot help but long for the day I will be in the full presence of God? (Not that worship should be equated with emotion, but I do not want to fall into the greater danger of eliminating emotion from worship.)

Yesterday I may have witnessed the greatest moment of worship in my life. Not only was it a glimpse of true worship, but it also helped me see a picture of what Advent truly means.

A young woman has been attending our service for the past few months. For the sake of anonymity we will call her Jane. When Jane first began attending our service, I recognized her from when I was a student at Asbury Seminary. Only recently have gotten to know her, and to my own guilt, still only a very little. I don’t know much about Jane’s history, but I do know for the rest of her life she will be in a wheelchair.

As the worship pastor and music leader for our service, I have a good view of the congregation during the service. (Go ahead and criticize me, but it’s difficult not to notice a big group of people sitting/standing right in front of you.) Jane always sits in the back of the room during our services, but she is always very engaged in every aspect of worship. It is a joy to see her worship.

One of the songs I chose for the service yesterday was the chorus, “There’s a Stirring.” It is a simple but beautiful song, and one I felt appropriate for the first Sunday in Advent. The words to the chorus of this song are as follows:

I will rise up, rise up

And bow down

And lay my crown

At His wounded feet

As we sang this chorus together, I could not help but notice Jane at the back of the room. Her arms were raised as high as she could lift them. Her face was lifted, with the one of the deepest reflections of longing I have ever seen. When she sang, “I will rise up!” she knew a day was coming when she would no longer be in the constraints of her wheelchair, but she would be able to stand face-to-face with her Savior and bow down before Him. Even as I type this now I cannot hold back the tears because in that moment of worship, Jane showed me the true beauty of Advent.

Longing. There’s a lot that I long for in life. I long to be with my wife when we’re apart. I long for rest when the week has been toilsome. I long for peace when I feel troubled. But in this season, I want to long for Christ like Jane. In many ways, the blessings in my life have crippled me. However, this Advent, the image of a wheelchair has taught me a deeper prayer of “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

Hurry up and wait...

2010-11-23T06:44:00.000-08:00

‘Tis the season. Christmas songs are on the radio. Trees are decorating the stores. Lights will soon be on houses. Children (and probably some adults) are sneaking around trying to get a peak at this year’s Christmas gifts. ‘Tis the season. And we have been thrust into it.

Sure, it’s an exciting and pleasant season. It’s the season to be jolly and joyous. Anyone contrary is a mean ol’ Scrooge. For many, it’s a charitable season. Giving in the church seems to increase around this time of year. It’s the one time of year many show concern for the poor by giving to the Salvation Army or donating gifts to families of prisoners.

There is nothing wrong with any of these things (except the fact that many acts of charity seem to end on December 31). However, there is a season preceding Christmas that often goes ignored. Of course, I am speaking of the season of Advent. Advent is the season in the church calendar where expectant waiting and preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ is the focus. It looks to the coming of the Messiah. Many of us probably understand Advent and often practice the season in various ways with our worshiping communities at church. However, I have recently begun to question how much we allow the meaning of Advent to penetrate our everyday lives?

The Christmas season, in the midst of all its wonderful joy and happiness, has become a reminder to me of the trouble our culture has with waiting. I see this come out in myself as Christmas approaches. I admit, I get excited when radio stations switch to 24-hours of Christmas music. One song I often hear played seems to nail how we as a culture feel: “We need a little Christmas, right this very minute, we need a little Christmas now.” We don’t want to wait for it. We want to experience it, at least in part, right now. Unfortunately, this cultural treatment of Christmas has become another symptom of our addiction of instant gratification.

Even more unfortunate, this addiction is just as rampant in Christians as non-Christians. This is due in large part to the lack of discipline in the everyday life of the Christian. Discipline is seen as limiting and not freeing, another lie told from the desires of instant gratification. If we find that we either cannot or have trouble waiting, our desires have become uncontrollable. Desire affects the will and the will affects action. In its darkest sense, this is seen in molestation and rape. Likewise, the desire for material things leads to uncontrollable spending habits and acquisition. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I find that my inability to wait drives me further and further away from a lifestyle of simplicity and generosity. Furthermore, my delight in God is lessened because my desire for God is split among other things.

This is why I need Advent. I need a time of waiting. I need discipline. There are too many material things my heart desires. It is easy for me to acquire more and more unnecessary items in my life.

Instead, I need Advent to penetrate my life. I need a time of waiting. In the midst of a world that works so hard to tell me what I should desire, I need a time of discipline to keep my desires under control. The practice of simplicity in my life helps to rid those things that distract me from delighting solely in God.

We easily make excuses for the things we want and enjoy in life. Seldom, if ever, do we make excuses for practicing simplicity or waiting. It is a shame that many people in the church do not feel the need for simplicity and treat it as if it is a lifestyle preference. Certainly I struggle with the very issues I raise. That is why as this season of Advent approaches, I want to find ways to begin practicing the discipline of waiting. Will you join me? How might we begin to have a sacrificial attitude toward the “things” around us, so that we might live as a people who wait on the Lord?