I'll be back...

...sometime after I return to the U.S. and can keep the language straight on the blog.

Blogger keeps changing the language of my headers and the commands after I post even after I keep going back to reset the default language as English. I'm giving up on this place for a while until I can get to someplace where the servers speak English to blogger.

The second language is ok and all, if I used it more often, but it is a language that is only spoken by the local elite class, the school-children and/or official government publications. I have to stop and think about what was I doing and what I need to do in a new language when everything switches without notice. I'm not that good with that kind of jumping around yet.

I'll still be around and will keep things as up to date as I can in the meantime. Until then, you can find me here.

God bless

An Anglican Bishop Speaks to The Episcopal Church

A scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to the extravagantly broad and liberal theology which is so much in vogue at the present time. The tendency of modern thought is to reject dogmas, creeds, and every kind of bounds in religion. It is thought grand and wise to condemn no opinion whatsoever, and to pronounce all earnest and clever teachers to be trustworthy, however heterogeneous and mutually destructive their opinions may be. Everything, forsooth, is true and nothing is false! Everybody is right and nobody is wrong! Everybody is likely to be saved and nobody is to be lost! The atonement and substitution of Christ, the personality of the devil, the miraculous element in Scripture, the reality and eternity of future punishment, all these mighty foundation-stones are coolly tossed overboard, like lumber, in order to lighten the ship of Christianity and enable it to keep pace with modern science. Stand up for these verities, and you are called narrow, illiberal, old-fashioned and a theological fossil! Quote a text, and you are told that all truth is not confined to the pages of of an ancient Jewish book, and that free inquiry has found out many things since the book was completed! Now, I know nothing so likely to counteract this modern plague as constant clear statements about the nature, reality, vileness, power and guilt of sin. We must charge home into the consciences of these men of broad views, and demand a plain answer to some plain questions. We must ask them to lay their hands on their hearts, and tell us whether their favourite opinions comfort them in the day of sickness, in the hour of death, by the bedside of dying of dying parents, by the grave of a beloved wife or child. We must ask them whether a vague earnestness, without definite doctrine, gives them peace at seasons like these. We must challenge them to tell us whether they do not sometimes feel a gnawing ’something’ within, which all the free inquiry and philosophy and science in the world cannot satisfy. And then we must tell them that this gnawing ’something’ is the sense of sin, guilt and corruption, which they are leaving out in their calculations. And, above all, we must tell them that nothing will ever make them feel rest, but submission to the old doctrines of man’s ruin and Christ’s redemption and simple child-like faith in Jesus. –J.C. Ryle
Taken from Holiness, chapter 1

Rejecting dogmas, creeds and every kind of bounds in religion sounds so familiar until I realized that once again the good bishop is speaking across time to a people he didn’t know, about truths he definitely understood. And he understood the abandonment of those dogmas, creeds and all bounds in religion would have implications for the comfort that the Gospel brings to this world.

If the teaching of the scriptural view of sin is passe and abandoned, there is no Good News to offer this world. What need would there be for it? Good is only measured against that which is less good or bad. What comfort does Christ’s atoning death for our sins offer to religious people who find that humans are basically good and perfectable, though sometimes making mistakes on the way to perfection? What comfort is the crucifixion of Christ and His glorious resurrection if we are not all marked, stained, and soul-darkened wretches living bound in a marginally lit dungeon and in desperate need of freedom, light and cleansing?

I do not mean to pick on The Episcopal Church, but the example is, unfortunately, obvious. I pray that better teaching and leadership will come to her through the knowledge of the depths, heights, width and breadth of God’s loving kindness and grace. Listening to some of the teaching coming from The Episcopal Church in our day one would quickly come to the conclusion that Christ’s death was meaningless and of no consequence or comfort to our world today. Our sin is meaningless under such teaching.

That is eternally tragic.

Church Membership

Our congregation had a recent discussion about church membership during a quarterly business meeting. Discussion may be understating the case, it was fairly heated at points.

The presenting issue was presenting people to the church and then having the congregation vote on them for membership. A former pastor in the congregation pointed out that he has seen this happen several times in our midst and always wondered what basis this has in Scripture. He couldn’t find any and I have to agree with him.

So when it was brought up, I mentioned my agreement with his viewpoint so the whole congregation could know where I stood on the issue. My concern is setting our membership process up so that it looks like we have higher standards for joining the church than the broader church of Jesus Christ.

The issue for me is not having members recorded in a local church, but how they are brought in. If we could vote “No” to someone who is baptized and can give testimony to their faith in Jesus Christ and desire to be a member in this congregation, even with a letter of transfer from an overseas church, are we not setting ourselves up to be like the Pharisees in Matthew 23 who run to put burdens on the backs of converts?

This church is congregational in government and has four elders who spoke up as well to defend the practice. This had come up in a meeting with the elders a few days earlier and they were not happy. The defense of the practice of voting up or down on new members centers on statues, bylaws and governmental regulations for organizations. It was also pointed out that the missionaries who planted the church 35 years brought this with them when they came to the island and planted this church.

This will be an unhappy period in this congregation as it faces down what it means to be the church locally and a part of the wider Church, the body of Christ. There will be a lot of issues in play, including, are others in different churches and with different theologies from ours, actually people whom we will meet in heaven or not; as well as how to set standards for membership without losing the grace we have all received from Jesus Christ. It will also indirectly affect how leaders are developed within the congregation. This will be bigger than any of us imagines.

Pray for us.

J.C. Ryle on 21st Century Religion

I say, then, in the first place, that a scriptural view of sin is one of the best antidotes to that vague, dim, misty, hazy kind of theology which is so painfully current in the present age. It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably 'something about Christ and something about grace and something about faith and something about repentance and something about holiness', but it is not the real 'thing as it is' in the Bible. Things are out of place and out of proportion. As old Latimer would have said, it is a kind of 'mingle-mangle', and does no good. It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet. Now I believe the likliest way to cure and mend this defective kind of religion is to bring forward more prominently the old scriptural truth about the sinfulness of sin. People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven and live like pilgrims, until they really feel they are in danger of hell...Let us bring the law to the front and press it upon men's attention. let us expound the Ten Commandments and show the length and breadth and depth and height of their requirements. This is the way of our Lord in the sermon on the mount. we cannot do better than follow His plan. We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus and stay with Jesus and live for Jesus, unless they really know why they are to come and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whome the Spirit has convinced of sin. without thorough conviction of sin, men may seem to come to Jesus and follow Him for a season, but they will soon fall away and return to the world. - J.C. Ryle
From Holiness, chapter 1

I sure wish they knew how to use the journalist's paragraph back then. Two-three sentences and then a new paragraph.

But I think the good bishop has put his finger right on the issue of Christianity at the beginning of the 21st century. We are so afraid of offending our friends and family, not to mention those who listen to us, that we have watered down the real issue in coming to faith in Christ.

Not that we should beat people over the heads with sin and dangle them over the flames of hell, but we should not be afraid to step and note sin when it happens and be willing to name it when we see it. It is hard to offer grace and mercy when the reason it is needed is belittled. Sin is real. Let's call it for what it is using the Bible's standards as our definitions.

Plagiarizing Sermons

Kendall at T1:9 offers us this great post on pastors plagiarizing other pastors messages. I posted the following comments as my intial response to the issue:

Solomon once wrote that there is nothing new under the sun. He might have been right.

I find it hard to believe that after 2000 years of preaching the Gospel that every preacher is saying something has never been said before. Or even required to do so.

I would argue contrary to popular perception in the pew, that the sermon probably has been preached somewhere else depending on the hermeneutic used, linguistic and cultural context and a few other factors. This would especially be so for preachers, priests, and pastors who tend to deliver expository sermons in such a way that they stick close to the outline of the text.

I would also argue as one of my own homilectical Old Testament profs said in seminary, sermon preparation is a lifetime of learning, influences and God-given experiences pouring out into a message for the congregation every week. It is not merely sitting down with the text, a commentary or two (or twenty) and crafting a message for that coming Sunday morning. All of the preacher’s life is in play in sermon development, including things the preacher may have read 15 years ago and barely remembers except for the life change wrought by the Holy Spirit in the words of another preacher.

That said, the preparation of a message that is entirely or mostly drawn from someone else’s material without attribution is sick. As others have pointed out here, just saying “One commentator/preacher said…” goes a long way. Rick Warren and Steve Sjogren have both promoted this mentality of lifting other’s (their’s especially) messages as if their congregational message would fit my congregation.

A few years ago I can remember a well-known pastor, preacher and author telling an audience of fellow pastors from all over the map of Christianity that there were only a few A-list preachers in the U.S. Thus the trend will be to use the messages of those A-list preachers, either via satellite video feed or in the delivery of their message by a local pastor. And he thought this was good.

There is an ego involved in this enterprise. The promotion of sermonic dependency does not create strong congregations, nor bold pastors who can lead their congregations through difficult times. They become what Ayn Rand, I believe, termed “second-handers.” People who live on second-handed experiences and thoughts and thus never truly live their lives.

We need pastors, preachers and priests who are transparent in the pulpit who can speak of their own wrestling with the text and life, even if not with the same style as a radio or TV preacher with a dozen books to their name. Congregations want authenticity from the pastor/preacher, which is why the trust level is broken when the reality of the plagiarism is discovered.

Lots of other good comments and discussion followed. None of this is to say that Sunday morning or any other service ought to be the Pastor’s Preaching Show. I’m a firm believer that the message and worship should not be about who is up front, but rather ought to be pointing to Christ in everything.

Pastors who plagiarize other pastors’ sermons are either insecure in their calling and standing before their congregation due to the inevitable comparisons to other well-known preachers; or they are insecure due to other factors, such as a need to be about growing the church, hitting homeruns with their messages every week, or the inevitable time crunch that comes with being a pastor in the 21st century. It could also be that they are lazy and prefer to do other things with their time.

It is a sad trend unfortunately that has been with us for a while as one of the commenters on the thread noted in mentioning Thomas Wingfold’s being outed as a plagiarizing pastor in George MacDonald’s The Curate’s Awakening (a great book BTW, I would highly recommend it). A book that was originally written in the 19th century. If it wasn’t new then, we shouldn’t think it is new today.

Just so everyone is aware: The original article that Kendall refers to is here.

Modern Christianity, Mega-Church, Community Crusades

It is easy to get crowds together for what are called ‘higher life’ and ‘consecration’ meetings. Anyone knows that, who has watched human nature and read descriptions of American camp-meetings and studied the curious phenomena of the ‘religious affections.’ Sensational and exciting addresses by strange preachers or by women, loud singing, hot rooms, crowded tents [arenas?], the constant sight of strong semi-religious feeling in the faces all around you for several days, late hours, long protracted meetings, public profession of experience - all this kind of thing is very interesting at the time and seems to do good. But is the good real, deeply-rooted, solid, lasting? That is the point. And I should like to ask a few questions about it.

Do those who attend these meetings become more holy, meek, unselfish, kind, good-tempered, self-denying and Christ-like at home? Do they become more content with their position in life, and more free from restless craving after something different from that which God has given them? Do fathers, mothers, husbands and other relatives and friends find them more pleasant and easy to live with? Can they enjoy a quiet Sunday and quiet means of grace without noise, heat and excitement? Above all, do they grow in charity, and especially in charity towards those who do not agree with them in every jot and tittle of their religion?

These are serious and searching questions and deserve serious consideration. I hope I am as anxious to promote real practical holiness in the land as anyone. I admire and willingly acknowledge the zeal and earnestness of many with whom I cannot co-operate who are trying to promote it. But I cannot withhold a growing suspicion that the great ‘mass-meetings’ of the present day, for the ostensible object of promoting the spiritual life, do not tend to promote private home religion, private Bible reading, private prayer, private usefulness and private walking with God. If they are of any real value, they ought to make people better husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and brothers and sisters and masters and mistresses and servants. But I should like to have clear proofs that they do. I only know it far easier to be a Christian among singing, praying, sympathizing Christians in a public room, than to be a consistent Christian in a quiet, retired, out-of-the-way, uncongenial home. The first position is one in which there is a deal of nature to help us: the second is one which cannot be well-filled without grace. –J.C. Ryle, Stradbroke, October 1879

You would think he lived a hundred years later with this statement and watched the rise of stadium events, mega-churches and TV and radio preachers. I cannot help but wonder if the past 120+ years haven’t proven him right. Can we honestly say that we are witnessing a more holy, and godly culture and world today than we did then? Have all these mega-churches, with their myriads and myriads of programs for every niche of Christendom created more godly people who are influencing their society around them or not?

Bishop Ryle is right. The need of the day is not more programming or better stadium and arena events for Christians, but a return to the basics of simply and consistently following Christ in their local church with a pastor they know and who knows them. There is nothing wrong with zealousness in following Jesus, but when the zeal doesn’t produce transformed and holy lives, then it is not merely wrong it is sinful.

Sunday Prayer

ALMIGHTY Father, who have given your only Son to be
for us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of
godly life, give us grace that we may always receive with
thankfulness the immeasurable benefit of His sacrifice,
and also try day by day to follow in the blessed steps of
His most holy life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Resurrection Authority

Have you ever stopped to think that if the story of Jesus’ resurrection is true, then everything changes in life?

Jesus’ followers meet Him on a mountaintop in Galilee in Matthew 28. Some worshipped Him, some doubted. Some were ready to believe and worship Jesus as the Risen King, others weren’t so sure.

Jesus tells them “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He just helped eliminate the doubts of the doubters. He is risen, they can touch Him, talk to Him, hear Him, eat with Him and walk with Him among who knows what else. He is alive.

Because He is alive, all authority has been given to Him to rule over this universe. He conquers sin and death by rising from the dead. He is handed authority over the spiritual realm of the universe as He defeats Satan’s plan at the Cross and in the Resurrection. By rising to life, He asserts His authority over the physical universe so that death is shown to be powerless in front of Him.

With that authority He demands our allegiance. He tells His followers to go make other followers by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the act of initiation into the kingdom of God that Jesus is establishing. It is the first act of obedience for those who wish to follow Jesus.

But being baptized is not enough. Jesus commands His followers to teach the following generations of Jesus followers everything that He has taught them. This teaching is more than information, it is a lifestyle that matches Jesus’ lifestyle. Too often Christians have reduced what it means to follow Jesus down to mere assent to a basic level of information. But this is not enough. If we would be followers of Jesus we need more than information, we need to live out and obey His commands.

Jesus taught His followers information, but then He demonstrated it in action. Sometimes He did the reverse, by demonstrating the lifestyle and then teaching the information that made sense of His actions. To obey Jesus means we are commanded to match His teaching in both doctrine and practice; information and lifestyle. The words of Jesus must be seen in our lives not just heard from our lips.

This requires transparency as we let others see what God is doing in our lives as we seek to follow Jesus. It requires a willingness to go wherever in the world Jesus would send us. It requires a confidence that He is risen from the dead and is with us wherever we go and whatever we do just as He said in Matthew 28, “I will be with you to the very end of the age.”

Jesus has been granted all authority in heaven and earth. He sends His followers to the ends of the world because He has authority there. He commands His followers to baptize in His Name and teach His commands because He has authority granted to Him by the Father, authority that is demonstrated by His rising from the dead.

Will we believe the facts that the tomb is empty? Will we have confidence in Jesus’ authority? Will we obey Him, by going where He sends us, introducing others to Him and seeing them baptized in His Name? Will we obey Him by living and teaching the things that He teaches in the way that He lives?

These are the questions that smack us between the eyes as we consider the implications of Jesus’ resurrection. What will we do with that information? How will Jesus resurrection and authority apply to our lives?

Sunday Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, You Who gave Your only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; grant that we may put away the old leaven of malice and wickedness in order
always to serve You in purity of life and truth, through the merits of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Weekend Funnies

What kind of nerd are you?...

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Science/Math Nerd
Social Nerd
Drama Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Anime Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Like I needed to be told this. My house is drowning in books. Barnes & Noble are sending me to rehab before I drive all the good business away standing in the aisles drooling with that scary insomniac look.

Oh the anguish when my family says its time to sell a few titles at the yard sale or the used book store. How will I ever decide?

Heard On the Street

Is it still church when the pastor doesn’t show up, but gives his message by video?

The following set of facts is a true story overheard literally on the street last night.

Everything else went as it usually does in this very large church in a very large city. The congregation was led in music by the normal group of people, an associate pastor led the congregation in prayer and the offering was taken while someone sang and again led the people in another song. Then the pastor showed up on the screen, but becasue the place was so big, no one, but those in the absolute front of the church knew he wasn’t stnding in his usual place. It wasn’t until the end of the service when people stood up to leave that they realized he wasn’t there, it was all a video broadcast.

So, again, is still church when the pastor doesn’t show up to preach but gives his message by video?

I’m not just talking about video simulcasting to multiple sites, but actually not being physically present to preach at one of the sites because he’s away, travelling back from a conference, or dealing with prior commitments. Pre-recording the week’s message so the flock still get to see their beloved pastor on the screen and hear his voice speaking to them, just earlier in the week. And making this the standard operating procedure, not just a once in great while kind of thing. All of this taking place in a church of thousands, with some exceptionally gifted and well-known preachers and Bible teachers on the staff who could easily pinch-hit out of the jam.

Have we really reduced worship in the word to a video series? What happens after the beloved pastor leaves or dies? Can we still run his picture and message on the screen as a re-run?

Something tells me this is not going to be a healthy trend for the church. Worship in church on Sunday mornings (or Saturday nights, as is also the case in the above example) must be more than a lecture series centered around the personality and speaking style of one man. This is, in my humble opinion, bordering on idolatry.

I just wish this were an aberration but apparently this trend is growing. We’ll have to come back to this some other time.

Duke's True Confession?

Confession time: I'm no fan of Duke. The school wore out its welcome with the breathless hype of its basketball team in the 90s. I respect Coach K for what he has done there, but I'm tired of hearing about it.

Now comes this from the infamous Duke lacrosse team storyline:
Mark at WannabeAnglican posted a letter from the Duke Trustees announcing their admiration for the character of these young men who are now pronounced innocent by the state DA. It concludes as follows:

Throughout the past year President Richard Brodhead consulted regularly with the trustees and has had our continuing support. He made considered and thoughtful decisions in a volatile and uncertain situation. Each step of the way, the board agreed with the principles that he established and the action she took. As we look back and with the benefit of what we now know there is noquestion that there are some things that might have been done differently. However, anyone critical of President Brodhead should be similarly critical ofthe entire board.

In closing, we express our relief for today's outcome and recognize the character that our three students, their teammates and all of their families have shown over the past year. Furthermore, we hope that the resolution of this unfair, divisive and painful episode can serve to unite us all. There is much to learn from the events that we have lived through, and we intend to put this learning to use. Duke is a great university that steps up to challenges and opportunities, and together we will use this moment to make our community stronger.

But if I'm remembering things correctly there are some other areas that might be addressed by the school:

• a very successful coach lost his job;
• some of the team members transferred to other schools to find a safer place for their education;
• these three lost their reputations, no matter what the DA and MSNBC report;
• faculty and students were allowed to create an atmosphere of hatred for the lacrosse team on campus;
• protests were targeted at the team and these young men specifically;
• relations between town and gown were shredded, not to mention neighboring schools;

I'm certain more could be said.

Now we are supposed to believe Duke leaders that these young men are men of excellent character?

If this were real BS I could power a medium-sized city for at least a year. As it is this is standard Bravo Sierra from people who are hoping the school endowment won't have to pay out too much cash.

My respect for Duke is even less after this.

Word in Worship

My liturgical church friends will think this post is strange, but having spent the past twenty years or so inside the free-church, low-church, evangelical world I do not think it is so strange or off the wall.

If proper worship consists of Word and Sacrament, how can we do a better job as evangelicals in our worship in the Word? After all most evangelical churches spend a lot of time in the preaching of Scriptural truths or at least offering messages that are hopefully based on those truths.

My experience has led me to believe that the average Sunday morning service at an evangelical church lasts between 75 and 90 minutes. Some go longer, some go shorter depending on the church, the occasion, the preacher and other variables in the service.

Of that time, my experience both as a pastor and as an observer has been that the preaching of the message often takes up approximately 20-45 minutes. The longer the service generally is, the longer the message generally is as well. Thus somewhere between one-third and one-half of the service is the message.

But many liturgical critics of such evangelical service have noted that evangelicals are Scripture starved in their services. In other words the only Scripture read is that which pertains to the message. This is in contrast with more liturgical churches which offer readings in at least two and often three lessons.

When I mention this to some evangelicals there is an immediate defensiveness and quizzical looks flow across their countenance. They are rightly known as the people of the book, they preach Scripture, their authority is Scripture alone. How dare anyone suggest that they are not using or committed to using Scripture in their services!

Yet too often this is just the case. So how might the situation be improved? First, churches should begin a practice of using the readings from an appropriate lectionary. This will often bring up charges of moving into Rome or some such accusation. I would only point out that the lectionary does not belong to Rome. Anglicans, Lutherans, some Presbyterians and even some non-affiliated Emerging churches use the lectionary to their great profit. Such use of the lectionary has the advantage of bringing in readings from the Old Testament, New Testament letters and often a third reading from the Gospels.

Second, I would encourage the reading of the ancient creeds during the service. No, these are not Scripture per se, but they are an excellent summary of God’s Word to us. Part of worship is the re-telling of God’s mighty acts in history to draw people to Himself, His work of redemption in saving sinful people from the consequences of sin. This story is best re-capped in the ancient Creeds.

Reading them in worship would only add to the sense that each passage that is read is a part of the larger story of God’s redeeming work in this world. The Nicene Creed is more detailed than the Apostles’ Creed, yet both cover the same detail. To read the Athanasian Creed would take significantly more time, but is certainly useful to be read from time to remind ourselves of the content of our faith in Christ. There are other creeds found in Scripture or in various church documents which could also be used effectively. (The proposed revision of the EFCA Statement of Faith would be one such document.)

Third, I would propose the music be picked less with an eye to its popularity on Christian radio or sales figures from the Christian Booksellers Association, but more towards a sung Scripture. This would make me old-fashioned and open up a charge of being latter day Puritan, but I can handle that. For starters not every old song is based on Scripture just as not every new song is either. But there are sufficient of both old and new that teach the words of Scripture to the congregation in song that it can’t but help add to the worship.

When thinking about this issue it is best to remember that God says it is His word that is living and active that cuts between soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12). It is His word that is God-breathed and useful for instruction, reproof, correction and training in righteousness so we may be equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is His word that does not return empty but accomplishes what He wishes it to accomplish (Isaiah 55:11). Adding more Scripture to our worship services only plants more seed for God to work and grow our faith. And that is what we want is it not?

Rightly Dividing Worship?

If worship is to be divided into two parts, it should not be divided between “worship” and “message,” nor between preaching and music. If we must divide worship, it ought to come between Word and Sacrament. Even then this is no division, but only a means of worshipping in the ways that God has ordained for worship.

This is the division properly made when we come to worship the Almighty. I think this is also the Scriptural division between the parts of our proper worship. We can see this as we read Scriptures. Beginning in the Old Testament, many times we will find worship begins with God speaking to His people. This either happens in theophany, as at Mt. Sinai, or it might happen through His Law being proclaimed to His people as in the days of Ezra the priest and Nehemiah.

When God’s word is proclaimed the people respond with courage and honor for Him. The proclamation of the Word is not merely preaching, nor is it merely the reading of Scripture. It is the telling of God’s mighty acts in history. The Psalms record these mighty acts as songs, so we could even include music under the proclamation of the word. To proclaim God’s work in history is the purpose of preaching, singing, and reading of Scripture and the recitation of the creeds.

We hear God’s work and actions proclaimed and we respond. This is also seen in Scripture as the people respond to the Lord’s word with sacrifice and ritual. The proclaiming of God’s word leads to a response of giving back to God as a sign of their commitment to Him. In the Old Testament these responses were the sacrifices of animals, produce and offerings of money in the Temple. Today, these sacrifices are the sacramental gifts we offer to God as we are reminded of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The sacrifices of the Old Covenant have been replaced with Jesus’ great sacrifice. He came to fulfill the Law, to bring it to completion and through His righteous, sinless life, death and resurrection; He has finished the work of that Old Covenant. There is now no more sacrifice to be offered for our sins of for our relationship to God. He has done it all. He has provided the acceptable sacrifice.

Thus our response in worship is not sacrifice and offerings for our sins, but looks rather to Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. It would be improper to call them sacrifices in the same way as the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament. The sacrifices of the New Covenant could properly be called sacraments.

There is a healthy debate within the church about how many sacraments have been ordained by God for His people at least since the Reformation. No matter where people stand on this issue, there is general agreement that there are two basic foundational sacraments that God has ordained for His people: baptism and Holy Communion.

The sacraments are our proper response to the Word of God being proclaimed. We hear God’s word proclaimed to us as sinners and by His grace we believe and have faith. This response to the word initially comes in the sacrament of baptism. Baptism is our response to God’s saving action in our lives. Our salvation is seen in this sacrament as it reflects Christ’s saving work as a one-time event. He was offered once for all time, we are baptized once for all time as a sign that we belong to Him.

Recognizing that we cannot be baptized every day for our sins, or even every week, God has provided a second sacrament to remind us of His saving work in our lives, Holy Communion. This is the on-going response of God’s action in our lives from week to week or month to month depending on how often one’s church or congregation comes to the Lord’s Table.

In one sense, coming to the Lord’s Table for communion reminds us of our baptismal faith and that we are secure in God’s grace. This does not mean that the Table secures our faith and salvation, it does not. It does mean that we are reminded regularly that we belong to God as His purchased people who have faith in Christ’s work on the cross. Christ taught His disciples on the night He was betrayed to remember him in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup. These are the signs of His death for us and the New Covenant we have been given by God through Him. As such they keep us focused on Christ’s saving work in our lives as we remember them. The security in such comes from the reminder; it is not made efficacious with the reminder.

These two sacraments were Jesus’ final enduring commands to His disciples. He told them to break bread and the drink the cup to remember His death and resurrection. After His resurrection He commands His disciples to go into all the world to make other disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

True worship, then, is not music and message, but rather Word and Sacrament as we hear the word proclaimed of God’s saving work in human history and offer or lives as an act of sacrifice back to God. This is liturgy’s meaning at its deepest level. Liturgy is the work of the people. We need to return to this work of the people in our worship of God.

Music can be an offering and a sacrifice of praise, but it is not the God-commanded offering of response to the word proclaimed. Good worship music is word of God proclaimed. To have true worship that involves God’s word and our response we need baptism and Holy Communion. Forcing music to take on the role of our response pushes it into a role for which it was not designed. It becomes a man-made replacement for God’s gracious and acceptable gift in the sacraments.

Divided Worship?

When did Christian worship get bifurcated between “worship” and “message”? I have heard pastors of all kinds of stripes divide their services this way. I have done it myself without thinking about what was happening with the words I was using. Churches I have attended in the past while in seminary or before also divided their services this way.

In seminary, it was common to hear the unwashed, over-eager, and greatly inexperienced future preachers of America speak of hurrying their churches through the music to get to the main event, their preaching. They were only reflecting their teaching and training that called for a high view of Scripture. Scripture has the final authority in faith and practice, therefore exposition of Scripture must be right next to heaven. Thus the desire to get to the sermon and the musicians out of the picture.

We want to learn from God’s Word. It is imperative if we are going to live as followers of Christ that we hear from God concerning our lives and our relationship to Him. He clearly speaks through His Word to us. Good preaching should focus our hearts and minds on what God has to say to us in Scripture.

For people who are really word-oriented in their outlook on life this view makes sense. Preaching is the most important part of the service for them. They are more apt to evaluate a church on its preaching than any other criteria. This puts a lot of pressure on pastors to hit home runs with their messages every week. Often times that pressure is found inside the pastor as well because he is word-oriented as a basic foundation for his walk with Jesus.

I have heard people in the pews make this distinction between worship and message in the other direction. For these people worship is meeting God in song, really belting out the songs with all of their strength. For some it involves being moved emotionally by the music. If the music doesn’t move then worship didn’t happen. As a result they want to linger on the music and resent the pastor or anyone else insisting on preaching or anything else that brings the singing to an end (like the offering or Lord’s Table). For such people singing and worshipping musically is the main event of the whole service, everything after that is anticlimactic.

Yet to bifurcate Christian worship into worship and message is to miss the importance of the message and the unity of worship. The message should be seen as part of the worship of the healthy Christian. We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12:30) All of those are needed for true worship, including the mind. Music may carry the soul to the heights, but the message should carry our minds to new heights as well. I am convinced that God intends the message to carry our souls as well.

Yet to use music and message against each other is to miss the whole purpose of worship. Is not worship supposed to be our response to God’s incredible grace given to us? Should not worship be both music and message as we hear God’s word spoken, the truth about our lives, and respond with joy? We have bought into a mindset that says we need one or the other as primary when both are needed.

Good Christ-centered preaching will lead us to Him and to His grace every time under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Good Christ-centered music will prepare our hearts for the message, as well as preach the message of the Gospel in a different format. Both ought to be acts of worship and lead to people worshipping God more deeply than they had beforehand.

We need both music and preaching for good worship. To hold one over the other is to wrongly divide worship and misses the reality that we were made to worship God in many ways. Both should help us grow in grace and godliness. That is real worship.

Prayer for Easter Tuesday

ALMIGHTY God, grant, we pray, that we who celebrate with reverence the Easter Festival, may be found worthy to attain to eternal joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Easter Reflections

Some thoughts about Easter after a day to reflect on the message of Jesus’ resurrection in the gospels:

Matthew 28 is almost, but not quite the shortest chapter in the whole gospel of Matthew. I realize that the chapter divisions were not part of the original writings of Matthew and were added over a thousand years later. But to see it put so starkly with chapter divisions is amazing.

The reason I think it is stark is because we can look and see all the verses Matthew devotes to telling the story of Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, trial, execution and burial. 75 verses of Matthew 26 and 66 verses of Matthew 27 detail all of those horrible events. Yet only 15 verses tell the most amazing part of the story, Jesus’ resurrection.

Matthew’s account forces our minds to focus on the simplicity of the truth. It’s the Joe Friday version of the Resurrection. Just the facts, please.

And what a set of facts they are! Just before dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary get up to “go look at the tomb.” On their way an earthquake happens. The ground shakes just as it did in the afternoon on Friday when Jesus died. This earthquake signals the completely opposite story, Jesus is alive.

The earthquake is brought by an angel rolling the stone away from Jesus’ tomb and then casually sitting on it. Yet there are guards posted around this tomb. They are supposed to be keeping the tomb from being opened and Jesus body disappearing. But they cannot prevent the tomb from being opened by the angel.

In fact when the angel appears the guards get frightened out of their wits and fall over as if they are dead men. They faint completely away. Nothing has prepared these battle-hardened and courageous soldiers for what they are seeing. The scene Matthew paints is that they are at their posts with their weapons ready only passed out in fear.

The women come upon this scene, see the guards down and the tomb opened and no doubt think someone has attacked the guards, opened the tomb and stolen Jesus’ body. Then they hear the good words of the angel telling them to not be afraid, He is risen just as He said he would rise. Hurry, go tell His disciples of all this news.

And they run off. But to make sure they have the story right because things could be kind of confusing, after all how can a dead man live, they run into Jesus who says Hello, Greetings. They fall at His feet and worship Him. They are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is alive! They have met the Risen Lord!

Now the guards get back into the picture. They come to, get up and some of them head for the city to report everything that has happened. They know the facts of what happened and they report them to the chief priests and rulers of the people. Those leaders do not like this set of facts and invent a story to explain why Jesus’ body is no longer in the grave.

That story requires people to believe some incredible things happened. First, that the guards fell asleep. Any Roman soldier falling asleep on their post or failing to carry out their assignment would be punished by death. No Roman soldier is going to willingly spread the story that he slept on duty unless he wanted to die.

Second, the guards didn’t just fall asleep but they slept so hard that the disciples could move a two-ton rock without waking them up. The rock moves without any noise being made to disturb the guards’ sleep. No noise from the disciples, no crunching of the ground and pebbles as the rock moves. Right.

Third, the guards are supposed to have slept right through the earthquake. Everyone in the city had to have known about it. You can’t hide an earthquake that is strong enough to move a huge rock. The ground is going to shake; people are going to wake up. But yet these guards were so sound asleep they missed the earth shaking?

Fourth, into all of this sleeping by the guards, the disciples just got lucky. They found everyone asleep, they moved the stone away without a bit of noise and they got Jesus’ dead weight out of the tomb without making any noise to wake up the guards. At night, in the pitch darkness no less as the moon begins to set behind Jerusalem. What an amazing coincidence that the disciples just happened to be there at the right time to get Jesus’ body out of the grave. How lucky can you get?

Matthew is just giving us the facts. Facts that show us the truth that Jesus is alive. He was seen by the women running back into the city. The guards saw the angel move the stone and open the tomb as casually as if he had been rearranging his living room furniture. The story is made up by the rulers that has no grounding in reality but is incredibly hopeful in its deception. If the small lie doesn’t work, go for the big one, right?

It is just the facts. We can believe that Jesus rose from dead. The facts are there from those who were present at the time to report the news. Even those who didn’t like the news understood the story and needed to find a way to spin it to their liking and hopefully keep everyone on the same page.

Believe it! He Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Pop Quiz--Which Church Father Am I?

Took a quiz on-line; got some very interesting results. I guess I gave this blog the right name after all...

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

From Mike Aquilina at The Way of the Fathers at http://www.fathersofthechurch.com/

Now if I can only figure out who Melito of Sardis is. Based on some quick internet research, some of his views seem very straightforward (such as the canon), others seem way out of line (such as Jewish responsibility as the sole cause of the death of Jesus). I guess he was a product of his own age and sinful tendencies like all the rest of us.

Prayer for Easter Monday

O God, whose blessed Son did manifest Himself to His disciples in the breaking of bread; Open, we pray Thee, the eyes of our faith, that we may behold Thee in all Thy works; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

He Is Risen!

He Is Risen Indeed!

Easter Day Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, You Who through Your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ have overcome death, and opened to us the gate of everlasting life; we humbly pray that, through Your grace going before us, good desires will enter into our minds, and, by Your continual help, we shall be enabled to bring them to their fulfillment; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer for Holy Saturday

GRANT, O Lord, that we who have been baptized into the death of Your blessed Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, may continually put to death our evil desires and be buried with Him; so that we may pass through the grave, the gate of death, to our joyful resurrection through His merits Who died, was buried, and rose again for us, Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good Friday...

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree,

that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By His wounds you have been healed.

1 Peter 2:24

Good Friday Prayer

MERCIFUL God, You Who have made all peoples, and neither hate nothing that You have made nor desire the death of sinners, but rather desire that they should be converted and live; have mercy upon all who do not know You as You are revealed in the Gospel of Your Son. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt for Your Word and bring them home to Your fold, blessed Lord, so that they may all become one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Amen.

The Last Supper

As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said,

"Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me, one who is eating with Me."

Mark 14:18

So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out.

And it was night.

John 13:30

And as they were eating, He took bread,

and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said,

"Take, this is My body."

And He took a cup,

and when He had given thanks He gave it to them,

and they all drank of it.

And He said to them,

"This is my blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many.

Truly, I say to you,

I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine

until that day when I drink it new

in the kingdom of God.

Mark 14:22-25

Prayer for Maundy Thursday

ALMIGHTY Father, Whose dear Son, on the night before He suffered, instituted the Sacrament of His body and blood; grant that we may thankfully receive the same in remembrance of Him, Who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; even Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Prayer for Wednesday of Holy Week

Assist us mercifully with Thy help, O Lord God of our salvation; that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts, whereby Thou hast given unto us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Tuesday of Holy Week

O Lord God, whose blessed Son, our Saviour, gave His back to the smiters and hid not His face from shame; Grant us grace to take joyfully the sufferings of the present time, in full assurance of the glory that shall be revealed; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Upon Further Review, It's Still Not Funny

Just a few further thoughts on the laughing at Jesus suffering in the play in my congregation last night.

My level of being appalled at the laughter in my church last night is still quite high. My sadness that some people would think it was funny that Jesus was beaten or that how it was portrayed was funny is still overwhelming.

Yet, after the play, as we were closing up the church and a few of us were standing around talking, I was listening to some of the younger people talk and realized there may be a reason for the laughter that rests in our culture. They were talking about a new horror movie that has just opened at the theater on our island. This is a movie that is rated R for prolonged sequences of strong gruesome horror violence, rape and language.

I guess there were scenes in this movie where blood flies and body parts come off given the conversation about it. This was conversation among teenagers and young adults ages roughly 13 to 25. And they were laughing about the violence in the movie. They thought it was funny.

As I thought about it later, hearing their laughter about the violence in the flick helped explain why they thought the beating and suffering of Jesus was funny. If they laugh at what the movies portray as gruesome, they will laugh when Jesus gets hit. They will not see what is sad or horrific about either.

In many ways, people who can laugh at such scenes have been desensitized to such stuff or have had their consciences seared by witnessing such things on screen, in music or books for too long. I wonder if they are not borderline sociopaths. I wonder what our society will look like as these individuals grow older and begin raising their own children.

If people see such horror played out on the screen as funny or things to laugh about later, what will happen when such horror and gruesomeness takes place in real life? Will they laugh at the poor soul who was unfortunate enough to be assaulted, raped, tortured and murdered?

Our society is being inundated with extreme violence, and it is not just in the movies, check out promos for network primetime dramas during football or basketball games for example. I know others have probably said it first, but we are deteriorating to the same level as the Romans who were entertained by watching gladiators fight to the death or people get eaten by wild beasts.

The flood of such violence on our society is destroying our compassion for the weak and the defenseless. The very people God says He cares about. The ones Jesus said that when we care for them, we have cared for Him. We can laugh at Jesus’ suffering and torture because we have been taught to laugh at that violence everywhere else in our society.

He came to heal, forgive, and give life. We are promoting harm, vengeance, and death. C.S. Lewis had a character in one of his books who enjoyed tearing apart innocent creatures just because they were innocent and he could do it. He left a bloody trail wherever he went. We are becoming like that character. Lord, have mercy on us and lead us to better paths.

It is Not Supposed to Be Funny

Last night my church put on a drama skit called The Trial during our Sunday evening worship service. It was the culmination of weeks of practice for the 12 people involved in the skit. Overall they did a fairly good job considering only one or two of them have a sense of drama or acting in telling a story. However, no one is going to say they are ready for the big stage as actors or costume designers.

The drama was about the trial of Jesus and was taken as much as possible from the words of Scripture in the four Gospels. One of the ladies in the church had been working on it for a few years putting together the different pieces from the different Gospel accounts to create a harmonized version that told the story of Jesus’ arrest and trial in a simple way.

Given that we are a small church, this was an ambitious undertaking. The hope was that we would use this play as an outreach to the friends and family members of the people of our church. When I looked around, I noticed that the church was fairly full and about one-third of those people were visitors. So I thought it was reasonably successful in being in an outreach.

The idea was to keep the play simple and yet the storyline faithful to the Gospel accounts. In reading the script ahead of time and watching the practices, I thought they had done a fairly good job in keeping to that goal. It wasn’t the Jesus Film or The Passion of The Christ, but for our church and our location it was pretty good.

Yet during the play something unusual happened. After Jesus is arrested and brought to the house of Caiaphas to be tried before the chief priests and rulers, He is beaten by the guards who blindfold Him and tell Him to prophesy who hit Him. It is the first of several beatings in the play that ultimately culminate in Jesus’ scourging as commanded by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

In the play last night every time Jesus was struck people would chuckle. It started early as a little tittering here and there, but by the end people were laughing great big belly laughs every time the actor playing Jesus was hit. When it was just a little tittering I thought that was weird, but by the end I was appalled. It was as if the people weren’t seeing the story played out on stage.

Now I admit no one on that stage was going for an Oscar or a Tony award. It may be that the people were amused by the scene of a very popular elder in the church being struck by another well-liked elder. But when the action was taken off stage but with sound effects continuing to demonstrate the brutality of the beating given to Jesus, the laughing got louder. When the two actors playing Jesus and the Roman soldier came back on stage and the one playing Jesus was covered in stage blood with torn clothes and bloody purple robe on his shoulders, the audience lost it laughing so hard.

How horribly tragic.

Even my almost ten-year-old came up to me right after the play and said, “Dad, that wasn’t a drama. It was a comedy!” What a thing to have left as an impression upon a kid who knows better. The story of Jesus’ trial and suffering became a comedy of laughter for many people. This should have caused us the greatest shock and sadness as we realized what was happening on stage.

The most horrific event in human history should not be seen as a comedy. It is not a laughing matter that Jesus suffered and died in our place. We shouldn’t laugh at His beating or give people a reason to laugh about it as if it were some great form of entertainment like the Romans feeding Christians to the lions.

The seriousness of our sin problem gets downplayed when Jesus’ suffering is seen as entertainment. We dishonor Christ when we laugh or cause other people to laugh about His standing in our place to be punished for our sin and to defeat sin. I am appalled that such a dishonoring of the suffering of Jesus Christ took place in church. I understand when such things happen elsewhere, though I do not like it. But in church? It should never happen.

The suffering of Jesus Christ is no laughing matter. It is not a comedy, people.

Lord, forgive us for making light of your suffering and death. Forgive us for laughing when we should have been crying. Help us to see with better eyes the seriousness of our sin and the greatness of your sacrifice on our behalf. In your precious Name we pray, Amen.

Prayer for Monday of Holy Week

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but He first suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified; Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Behold, The King Comes

"Behold, your king is coming to you,

humble, and mounted on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden"

Matthew 21:5

"Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!"

Matthew 21:9

Palm Sunday Prayer

ALMIGHTY and eternal God, You Who of Your tender love towards the human race sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to make our human nature and flesh His own, and to suffer death upon the Cross, that all peoples should follow the example of His great humility; in Your mercy grant that we may both follow the example of His patience, and also be made partakers of His resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.