Evolving

That's a loaded term in some circles, I know. For many years, evolution, along with creation and the origins of things was something that concerned me greatly. My first thoughts regarding such things came about in second grade. I'd obviously, either in school or television, learned about dinosaur fossils and couldn't reconcile that knowledge with the creation stories in Genesis. I searched in earnest in my teens and twenties, then came children and other theological issues, so I gave it a rest, not believing in a strict six day creation, but still trying to figure out what place scripture held and how to interpret them.

The faith tradition I grew up in basically revolved around the Bible and the doctrines that tradition had developed around it. It became a law book and proof text, so that is how I understood the Bible. I'm very grateful for the teaching I received, particularly in my Sunday school classes at the Blue Starr Church of Christ. Unfortunately, regarding the Bible as a law book meant missing really important things, such as Jesus and all he means. It's not that Jesus wasn't important, but he wasn't as important as having the right doctrines and understanding. That makes for a weak saviour, not an all powerful one. I realize now that the faith translated to me was a form of gnosticism. Certainly this wasn't intentional, but as with all things, we humans skew what is meant for good.

So now, at the older age I am, I have experienced the Christian life in communities of the Church of Christ, Episcopalian, Anglican, Lutheran, and now Church of the Brethren, and I've learned good things from them all. One might think I'm simply fickle, and there may be a bit to that, though in fact there have been times I've probably stayed too long in a faith community to ensure that wasn't part of my motivation. I actually have to experience a lot of pain to make so significant a move.

As is probably obvious, my views of both scripture and the church have changed, or to use the loaded term, evolved. It's been an incredible process and I imagine it will continue to be, though at times it has been quite painful and frightening. What I hope is to fiercely hold to what is true without belittling what I have reached past and without fearing what may come.  Peter Enns posted a meditation by Richard Rohr not long ago. In it he says:

You have to learn from each stage, and yet you can’t completely throw out previous stages, as most people unfortunately do. In fact, a fully mature person appropriately draws upon all earlier stages. “Transcend and include” is Ken Wilber’s clever aphorism here. Most people immensely overreact against their earlier stages of development, and earlier stages of history, instead of still honoring them and making use of them (e.g. liberal, educated Christians who would be humiliated to join in an enthusiastic “Jesus song” with their Evangelical brothers and sisters even though they would intellectually claim to believe in Jesus, or adults who can no longer play, or rational people who completely dismiss the good of the non-rational).

 The journey is continuing. In fact, my Sunday school class will be reading Scot McKnight's book, The Blue Parakeet, and a theological reading group I'm part of will be reading Peter Enn's new book, The Bible Tells Me So. It will be interesting to see where this may lead, especially now that I'm no longer afraid, (at least not much), because my faith is in the one faithful one, and not my own understanding of him.

Litany To The Holy Spirit

was the song for the offertory at St. Mark's Lutheran Church this morning. What a lovely way to petition the third person of the Trinity.

Here is a nice version of it I found on YouTube.

HIS LITANY, TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

 In the hour of my distress, 

When temptations me oppress, 

And when I my sins confess, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When I lie within my bed, 

Sick in heart,and sick in head, 

And with doubts discomforted, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the house doth sigh and weep, 

And the world is drown'd in sleep, 

Yet mine eyes the watch do keep, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the artless doctor sees 

No one hope, but of his fees, 

And his skill runs on the lees, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

 When his potion and his pill, 

Has, or none, or little skill, 

Meet for nothing but to kill, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the passing-bell doth toll, 

And the furies in a shoal 

Come to fright a parting soul, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the tapers now burn blue, 

And the comforters are few, 

And that number more than true, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the priest his last hath pray'd,

 And I nod to what is said, 

'Cause my speech is now decay'd,

 Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When, God knows, I'm tost about 

Either with despair, or doubt; 

Yet, before the glass be out, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the tempter me pursu'th 

With the sins of all my youth, 

And half damns me with untruth, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the flames and hellish cries 

Fright mine ears, and fright mine eyes, 

And all terrors me surprise, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

When the Judgment is reveal'd, 

And that open'd which was seal'd; 

When to Thee I have appeal'd, 

Sweet Spirit, comfort me! 

Robert Herrick

Leadership

Frank Viola has written a blogpost on leadership in the church. I posted it to my Facebook page, but also want to link to it here. This is what I said about it on my FB page:

I am in great agreement with this post. I think much of what has gone wrong in the church is that we no longer trust the Spirit to lead and instead set up barriers in order to protect what God has promised to sustain. In essence, we desire to control and mechanize what is a living organism, the body of Christ.

Why would we want to do that if we really believed that Jesus gives life and leads and protects? What would the church be like if we functioned as a body, instead of like a business or government?  Jesus stood the world's ideas of leadership and authority on their head. What if we embraced that truth instead of trying to turn them back around?

These thoughts have been bubbling up in my consciousness for a while now, as those of you who read my blog know, at least a decade. Yes, I'm a slow learner. They go against everything our world tells us, don't they? No wonder the church keeps sliding into these models when we as members continue to. Moment by moment I want to live in the upside down world in which Jesus lives. It means giving up control, authority, and self interest. I hope that one day I see Jesus's view of power and authority as the real, intuitive way.

Kyrie Eleison.

Interview with Scot McNight

I've become a big fan of Scot McKnight. His blog is a great resource for new authors and trends in American Christianity, but he is also a thoughtful writer who is willing to make waves, redirecting our vision to Jesus and his mission, in a most irenic way. Here is a link of an interview with with Scot by Frank Viola, a writer and thinker whose thoughts about the church and its purpose are really resonating with me these days. Enjoy!

Pressure

Saw this wonderful quote attributed to Archbishop Rowan Williams over on Ian Morgan Cron's blog in the comments:

The Church is what happens when a group of believers come under the pressure of Jesus.

Feeling pressured? I am. Perhaps it is the weight of glory, being conformed to Christ.

All Hallows' Eve

I am of a different mind ten times in the course of a day. But I resist the devil, and often it is with a fart that I chase him away. When he tempts me with silly sins I say, “Devil, yesterday I broke wind too. Have you written it down on your list?”

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.

- Martin Luther

Tomorrow is All Saints Day, when we remember all who have died  in the Lord.  Today, or technically tonight, is All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween.  All Hallows' Eve, historically, is a day when the Christian community has said to Satan, "You have no power over us.  Our Lord has defeated you and the powers of sin and death, therefore, we trust in his love and power and will be victorious."  Thus comes the tradition of dressing up in costumes - to mock Satan.


It is also Reformation Day and for many Protestants, the day when we commemorate the reformation of the church. Is it any wonder that Martin Luther, who struggled mightily with Satan and accepting Christ's power of forgiveness and atonement, would choose All Hallows' Eve to nail his Ninety-five Thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg?  This document that mainly challenged the use of indulgences required by the Church to pay for one's self or loved ones out of the punishment of purgatory, would be seen by many.  (Unknown to Luther, it was soon after printed in the vernacular so that it could be read by even more.)  A very daring act for a monk and teacher in the Church.  An act that flouted and dared the powers of evil which had become entrenched in the hierarchy of the Church at that time.

This day is largely a secular holiday in the States. While I don't minimize the destruction that can be done with the wrong attitude, I really hope that soon, we who are Christians can reclaim the attitude and perspective in which it began nearly two thousand years ago.  This is a day to remember whose world this really is, and that for the spirits and forces that would destroy, their power is not only limited, but has an expiration date.

C.S. Lewis says in his preface to The Screwtape Letters,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

So, today, to the Devil who would tempt and discourage and destroy, I say, "Boo!", and remember all those who've gone before me, who in word and deed, often at great sacrifice, did the same.

Almighty God,
your saints are one with you
in the mystical body of Christ:
give us grace to follow them
in all virtue and holiness
until we come to those inexpressible joys
which you have prepared for those
who truly love you;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God now and for ever.
Amen.

Good Friday

"Mass" Marketing Has Gone Too Far!

I can't think of anything to make something so sacred appear so irrelevant to children as this seems to. This is not like children reenacting the ceremony with saltines and grape juice, which would be normal for children to do as they mimic important activities. To me this seems to be a way for someone to make money. At least when children mimic with saltines, the host will not end up in the bottom of a toy box.

How To Bore A Church

Over at Quiddity, Andrew Kern writes,

"How to bore a child: Try to entertain him.".

I would say the same applies to the church.

How to bore a congregation with God's word: Try to entertain them.

From my childhood I've heard many sermons, from Sunday mornings and evenings, to special speakers brought into the church for special evangelistic efforts. I've also spent most of my years attending Sunday School. What I've invariably found is that those who try to be funny throughout the sermon, or to make Sunday School "fun", end up being remembered as being entertaining, but not for the message from God's word they are trying to convey. Humor can be a tool to convey a point or put an audience at ease, but a constant stream of cleverness often just puts the focus on the speaker or teacher rather than on God.

Really, the Bible is truly fascinating enough if its message is clear and not clouded. Preached in love, intelligence, good will and good humor it will result in something real to hold onto - and a congregation engaged in real, exciting thought and action.

Fragmented Evangelicalism

Alan Jacobs in First Things illustrates how fragmented Evangelicalism is in his article, Do-It-Yourself Tradition. He focuses on how one branch finds doctrine not to be enough, (Remember Thomas Howard's, Evangelicalism Is Not Enough?), and refers mainly to four authors, Halter, Smay, McLaren and Wilson-Hartgrove. What he finds is a desire to pick and choose traditions and disciplines. He even has a little fun with McLaren and Wilson-Hartgrove in their affinity for a sort of monastic life with out the authority of the Catholic Church. These authors are very different from others who have embraced tradition while embracing Catholic authority, such as Kreeft, Howard, Hahn, and more recently, Francis Beckwith, in this way.

I find it interesting that there are other traditional churches, Anglo-Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran, yet these are not embraced by the authors Jacob points out. Perhaps it is part of our post-modern world that we want to pick and choose. I would think this would make it more difficult to live in community, which these authors desire, rather than easier.

Back to Jacobs, he ends by agreeing that we must change and proposing two models. The first is Kierkegaard's Knight of Faith, whose life is so devoted to Christ that what those around him can detect is that he becomes more solid. He adds that this is much harder than it appears because of having to live it out in the world and then points to the monastic life for those who are too weak to be devoted to Christ in the world. Finally, he calls us to truly look to the ancients to give us guidance for the times we are facing.

All this is interesting to me for a number of reasons. Mainly because I find tradition almost irresistible. There have been times when I so wished I could honestly embrace the doctrines of the Roman Catholic or the Orthodox Church. Alas, I'd have to set aside my true beliefs and understanding which I could not do with integrity. So, I understand the appeal of picking and choosing that McLaren and others advocate, but I see a real danger in this, and that is wanting to have everything ones own way.

I'm Hip!

Well, according to Brett McCracken, I am. That is, I'm hip except for the smoking, goth part. Can one be hip at age 42?

Are you hip?

Ash Wednesday

I was not raised in a liturgical tradition, so the idea of church seasons was new to me as an adult. While those raised in such a tradition may take it for granted or even tire of it, I find it refreshing and helpful in keeping the whole of Christian life in proper perspective and balance. As the season of Lent is upon us, I look forward to this time of discipline and intentionality. It is sort of like recalibrating and becoming resensitised to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Below is a video with a short explanation of Ash Wednesday and Lent. I particularly like the inclusion of the Orthodox tradition of Forgiveness Sunday.

Pax.

If Our Lives Are Ugly

can we accept beauty?

A portion from Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal:

Leys was sitting in a café where other customers were chatting, playing cards, or having a drink. The radio was on, tuned to a station that relayed idle chatter and banal popular music (you are lucky these days if popular music is banal only). But suddenly, and for no apparent reason, it played the first movement of Mozart’s clarinet quintet, transforming the café into what Leys called “the antechamber of paradise.” The customers stopped what they were doing, as if startled. Then one of them stood up, went over to the radio, and tuned it to another station, restoring the idle chatter and banal music.

There's a grocery store I frequent that plays orchestral or chamber music, most often Vivaldi, while all the others in town play some sort of pop music. There are both contemporary and traditional liturgical worship services at the church in which I belong. Why is there only one grocery store that will play Vivaldi and why are there more folks in attendance at the 11 AM contemporary worship than at the 11 AM liturgical service? Is it that beauty makes us stop? Is it that it refuses to stay in the background, or is it that one must pay attention when there isn't the constant rhythm of popular music?

I may be wrong, but I have a suspicion that beauty takes us outside of ourselves to see the possibility of something greater, and that, in our current culture, makes us uncomfortable, because if what is reflected back exposes the dreariness of our lives, it is almost too much to bear.

Below is Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. My heart always aches from 2:17 - 4:33. Take time to listen.

St. Nicholas

Here is a great blog post by Fred Sanders at The Scriptorium Daily from last December. I remember it so fondly, I had to look it up again this year. Here is one small part:

Back at Nicaea (to the tune of “Up on the Housetop”)

Back at Nicaea, Three-Two-Five
When St. Nick was still alive
He was a bishop wise and gracious
Hanging out with Athanasius
Ho, Ho, Ho! You oughta know
Ho, Ho, Ho! You oughta know, oh
Santa was not on the roof, roof, roof,
He was defending the gospel truth.

He came to stop a renegade
Preacher who taught the Son was made;
Nick knew that it would be quite odd
If the redeemer were less than God.
Ho, Ho, Ho-Mo-Ousios!
Hey Arius, Don’t you confuse us,
Santa was there with verve and moxie,
Taking good care of orthodoxy.

Arian doctrine was so bad
It made poor old Santa mad
Laying a finger aside his nose,
Up from his seat bishop Claus arose.
“Ho, Ho, Ho, sub-ordination?
Ho, Ho, Ho, there goes salvation.”
Then with some mighty pop, pop, pops,
Saint Nick was busting the bad guy’s chops.

Christopher Hitchens. Believer?

This just up over at The Corner on National Review. It appears that Mike Potemra has just witnessed a debate over the existence of God between Christopher Hitchens and Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete. I've always loved reading Hitchen's articles. He is so clear, biting, passionate and logical, except not so clear and logical when he writes about God. From Mike's witness, Hitchen's problem is confusing professed God followers with God Himself. Never a good idea, though some of His followers get confused on that point sometimes also.

Segmented

One of the things that really bothers me about society is its segmentation of ages or life stages. Rod over at Crunchy Con has posted a letter from a single woman who can't find her way into the society of fellow crunchy cons because she is single. This is such a shame, particularly when most crunchy con's are people of faith. While society continues to fragment itself, the church should be moving in the opposite direction; building unity by having the old teach the young, letting the young aid the old, and everyone sharing their gifts with one another because we are all members of the body of Christ.

There is so much that needs to be done to rectify this, but one thing that could help would be to offer hospitality. Inviting someone to one's home who does not share the same station is a good start; whether they be older, younger, married, single, richer, poorer, working class, white collar, professional, etc... Hospitality is a command given to all Christians, and is even listed as a qualification to be an elder in the church, yet it seems to be one of those "old-fashioned" commands that is easy to ignore.

While not a cure-all, it could be a start. If you have any other suggestions, please add them in the comments.