CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

Local community is often seen as synonymous with the local church, and the local church is often seen as synonymous with "that church over there on the hill."  For liturgy to truly be meaningful in a local community I think pastors, lay persons, and congregations need to begin to think of the local church as all the churches in a local community.  In other words, the local church is the grouping of the handful (maybe dozens) of churches that are down the road from each other, down the block from each other, or even next door to each other.  The church plant I attend meets inside of another church---talk about the proximity of churches in a locality.  When the local church is thought of as the collective of churches in a community, then liturgy is seen in a fresher, and I would add truer, light.

Liturgy is "the public work," and the local church presents itself to the community through its worship, both inside the church and outside the church in the local community.  The local church is present at the deli when a member of First Baptist Church is buying some lunch meat the same way the local church is present in the community when a parishioner of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church is talking to someone at the local Post Office.  The local church is present in the local community seven days a week.

This re-orientation from the local church as a single church to a collective of churches points the Christians of the local community towards each other in conversation and dialogue.  As the Body of Christ doing the public work through worship, discipleship, stewardship, and fellowship we are all working to see the Kingdom of God come to the shared local community.  We might work in different ways, we might not agree with each others theology, we might not approve of each others techniques (or lack there of), but we must see that we are working together.  We must see each other as an ecumenical movement of the Kingdom in a particular place.  And we must see the collective that is the local church in the local community as being the presence of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace and mercy of the Father. 

The community my church, The Plant is centered in, Allendale, NJ, has a public Stations of the Cross each year that all the churches in the local community participate in on Good Friday.  The pilgrims of Christ go throughout the town to different stations and participate in public worship.  This is a perfect example of  how the liturgy can and should function in the local community: the local church getting together, worshiping together as the public work, and presenting themselves as the presence of Christ inside the local community.

Please read the three previous posts in this series:

Liturgy In the Local Community

Liturgy In the Local Community: The Recovery of Historical Theology

Liturgy In the Local Community:  The Foundation of Your Tradition

I am not a very dexterous individual with my hands.  I am the prototypical kid who is tagged as the "super-smart" kid but couldn't cut or fold his way out of an arts and crafts project to save his life.  My wife can attest to this.  I can't open jars.  I rip open mail.  I have her fold letters because mine will never, ever be straight.  I gave up guitar because I couldn't get my fingers onto the right spot on the fret board.  The only thing I can do with my fingers well is type.  And that is why I blog...

And this is why I almost threw the prayer book against the wall.  I have always used the Book of Common Prayer online, picking and choosing---being a BCP consumerist.  I needed to get over this, and in order to review The Sacramental Life in a meaningful way, I needed to get my hands on the book version.  So I bought a nice leatherette copy with gilded edges.  And the edges stick like you wouldn't believe!  I need to break this book in.  The only thing is that it is so hard for an undexterous person like myself to pry the pages apart so I was sitting there this morning taking a minute or so for each page.  It took me 15 minutes to go through morning prayer this morning because I had to fiddle with the pages.  It really vexed me and I thought about throwing it, my favorite action when I've lost it and cannot control my anger any longer.  Alas, I finished prayer and got all the pages for Morning Prayer Rite 1 undone.

Is this some type of initiation process for the BCP?  Was I a newbie who was appropriately hazed this morning by the generations of Episcopalians and Anglicans who pass their prayer books down from generation to generation so that this never happens to them?

I am just not looking forward to the day twenty years or so from now when I give my copy of Common Prayer to my eldest child and have to go through this process all over again!

Many churches will be celebrating Thanksgiving services in the coming weeks, including The Plant.  For our service this Sunday I created this responsive reading of Psalm 136.  Just download the attachment.  Let me know if you use it!  The text follows below.

Text of the Reading:

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Responsive Reading for Thanksgiving Service (Psalm 136)

 

Leader 1:             Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

Congregation:               His faithful love endures forever.

Leader 2:              Give thanks to the God of gods.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            Give thanks to the Lord of lords.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            Give thanks to him who made the heavens so skillfully.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            Give thanks to him who placed the earth among the waters.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

1:            Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights,-

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            the sun to rule the day,

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            and the moon and stars to rule the night.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

2:            Give thanks to him who killed the firstborn of Egypt.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            He brought Israel out of Egypt.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            He acted with a strong hand and powerful arm.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

1:            Give thanks to him who parted the Red Sea.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            He led Israel safely through,

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            but he hurled Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

2:            Give thanks to him who led his people through the wilderness.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            Give thanks to him who struck down mighty kings.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2: He has judged those in power who have oppressed us-

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

1:            God gave the land of these kings as an inheritance-

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            a special possession to his servant Israel.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

2:            He remembered us in our weakness.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

1:            He saved us from our enemies.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

2:            He gives food to every living thing.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

 

Both:            Give thanks to the God of heaven.

C:            His faithful love endures forever.

No you aren't forgetting a holiday or anything.  Tomorrow is the usual day I take time during lunch to be alone and quiet and meditate.  I took a walk last week and really enjoyed it.  This week I am going to take the time to go searching for Advent candles for the new liturgical season.

I know it sounds geeky but I am really looking forward to it.  It's the first Advent at The Plant, the church plant I am a partner in, and it's making me giddy, and a little nervous, working toward establishing our own unique tradition as a faith community.  That means picking out the candles is important!

This is a meditative experience for me, which is counter-intuitive going into a place like Crate & Barrel or Pier 1 Imports.  People go there to shop, and I usually go to those places to shop, but this time I am picking out some pieces that will be redeemed through their use.  These candles and candelabras will be set apart, holy things used in holy worship.

In many ways it grounds the whole liturgical experience for me.  Starting in the new Christian year on November 30th I've decided to bake the bread for communion.  We'll be decorating for worship services more.  The church plant is moving into a new season just as the church is moving into a new season, and I think that is cool.  It's our first Christmas together as a community, and every little part counts.  Even the candles.

The Lutheran Zephyr has some ideas on how to make the beginning of Advent important and stick out from the secular holidays of Thanksgiving and Commercial Christmas, a nice application of some of the points Evan made yesterday in his post on The American Church's Collapse Into Idolatry:

Beef up Advent.  I like the old practice (in Anglican/Episcopalian circles, I believe) of a six-week Advent season.  This would avoid the awkwardness of kicking off Advent over Thanksgiving weekend, and grant more time to this wonderful season.

End the church year intentionally.  Perhaps a six-week Advent season could be preceded by Christ the King (a 20th century liturgical innovation), and All Saints before that (check out Christopher's blogpost about the timing of Advent).  That is, All Saints could essentially lead us directly into the end of the church year (thematically it could work nicely) and then Advent.  Christopher suggests perhaps a mini-season of All Saints.  I'm not sure what I think about that, but I do like using All Saints as a shift, a liturgical marker pointing the Church toward the year end and Advent.

Teach more.  These seasons and themes are important, and the ways we celebrate them in worship is critical to our proclamation of the Gospel.  However, we can also do well to teach these themes and support their integration into the lives of our members through intentional education programs and devotional materials (daily lectionary readings, pericope groups, email prayer and devotional readings, etc.).

I think all these ideas are good.  If it was up to me I would focus much more on the de-emphasis of secular holidays than the re-emphasis of liturgical holidays on the calendar.  The church is sending a message to Christians that secular holidays take precident over Church holidays (how many churches celebrate Mother's Day more than Pentecost?)  Christians should be reminded that while Thanksgiving is an important family holiday we celebrate Thanksgiving every week in the Eucharist.  And gift giving should be a tad more reminiscent of Boxing Day in Canada, a holiday of giving to the poor, and not giving to ourselves as much?  Just some possibilities.

Guest Blogger Evan Curry on nationalism and Christian oddity:

I love Stantley Hauerwas, and I think he is one of the best thinkers of our day. However, I like more that he challenges me to think outside of the norm. In his address to a group of youth workers (ha!), Hauerwas very early in his speech states,
• How many of you worship in a church with an American flag? I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.
• How many worship in a church in which the Fourth of July is celebrated? I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.
• How many of you worship in a church that recognizes Thanksgiving? I am sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.
• How many of you worship in a church that celebrates January 1 as the “New Year”? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.
• How many of you worship in a church that recognizes “Mother’s Day”? I am sorry to tell you that your salvation is in doubt.

I am not making these claims because I want to shock you…but rather to put you in a position to discover how odd being a Christian makes you (Hauerwas, S. (2007). The Princeton Seminary Bulletin, Vol. 28. No. 2.“Why did Jesus have to die?: an attempt to cross the barrier of age.” emphasis added).

(I think every church I’ve ever attended has done at least one of those things so…I suppose my salvation is in doubt.) My first reaction is to say, “Ahh…who cares? Our congregations are just being nice.” But then it hit me. The last part – the purpose of the statement is to “put you in a position to discover how odd being a Christian makes you.”

How odd? What’s so odd about being Christian? But that’s it! I, in no way, think it’s odd to be a Christian! I mean, the only thing odd about most of us being Christians is saying, “You can’t go to heaven when you die unless you believe in Jesus.” Yes, that’s odd. But nothing else makes us odd? Is their nothing else that distinguishes us?

Now, here’s where the knee-jerk reaction tends to kick in – “Ah! I knew having drums in church would come back to haunt you all!” Or “We told you not to switch from the King James Version to the New Living Translation!” Or something like that. However, I don’t think that’s very beneficial (if at all correct).

The problem may be that we are not odd in the sense that we are more American than we are Christian. I think this always came up during the past election season – “Who are the real Christians? Well, those who are against abortion, homosexuality, protection of illegal immigrants, and for capital punishment, capitalism, and democracy.” Have you ever had those conversations with someone, where they think the “Christian” thing to do is the American thing to do? I have. And in this way, we aren’t very odd, are we? We are the same.

I mean…Jesus was odd. He told his disciples to find tax-money in a fish. He spit in the dirt and wiped it on some dude’s eyes to heal him from blindness. When the religious leaders brought him the adulterous woman and wanted to stone her (according to their laws, rightfully so), Jesus knelt down and drew in the sand. Jesus comes and claims to be the King of Jews when everyone knew Herod (Caesar’s appointed) was. Are you kidding me?

I think we’ve neglected to remind ourselves how odd we must really be. The problem is that we are not Americans first, but we are Christians first. We should always stop and think – What would Christ’s response be to such and such? For instance, it hurts me to see Christians who support torture. Supporting torture to save lives of Americans is not “Christian” but American. Would Jesus torture someone? I doubt it. Also, is it “Christian” to make as much money as you possibly can no matter the cost to others? I doubt it.

It may be that the downfall of the American church is just that – it’s American. We are citizens of heaven to the entire world. We aren’t just Americans. We are Christians, and that requires us to put down our nationalistic-idols and follow Christ wholeheartedly to reach all those in need of salvation across the globe. Would above-stated person support the torturing of Americans to save Iraqi lives? I doubt it. As Christians, we should be offended when anyone, anywhere is being treating unjustly.

It is odd being citizens of heaven for the whole world when those around you can only care about themselves. It’s odd (in America) to say, “I don’t celebrate the 4th of July in church unless I am going to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, etc.” It’s odd to say, “We don’t display an American flag in church unless an Iraqi one or Afghani one can be right next to it.” It’s odd to pray in the same breath for the Iraqi citizens that have lost their lives along with American troops. These are just small things. But there are other things that can make us very odd.

Where else can we put down our nationalistic-idols? Where else can we become more odd?

[View the full version of Stanley Hauerwas’ “Why Did Jesus Have to Die?: An Attempt to Cross the Barrier of Age”]

Thomas accidently posted this under the title The American Church's Collapse Into Adultery...he apologizes for blogging without the influence of caffeine.

Guest Blogger Evan Curry---Have you ever heard "honesty is the best policy?" Everyone says it, right? Have you ever put that into practice? "Uhh..." - yeah, my thought exactly.

I had an exit-interview from my job today - a job from which I got laid off about two weeks ago - a decision I didn't necessarily agree with, but with the economy in the state that it is, I guess I could've expected it. But I mean, who likes being laid off?

My thought going into the exit-interview was, "Honesty is the best policy. Just be honest, and tell them how it is." Fortunately, on the way to the interview, I had a bit of a revelation - "how honest should I be? Brutally honest? Would Jesus be brutally honest?" So, I sat in my car and said, "Honesty isn't the best policy. Perhaps, charity is."

As I sat down and spoke to the exit-interviewer, he asked me to reflect on some of the weaknesses of the organization. I told him but with charity. Did I need to tell him that I felt unjustly let go, and that the place is now "going down the tubes," and if you don't do something about it, you're organization won't be around in 5 years?!!! It would be honest. It's how I felt. But I couldn't speak to a person like that and then claim that I'm reflecting the love of Christ.

Was Jesus honest at times? You'd better believe it - have you and your friends ever been called a "brood of vipers" by someone? Not very sensitive, Jesus. But vengeance is the Lord's so I thought Jesus could judge the organization, if he wanted to. Jesus tended to stick up for people when the religious were holding them down with unrealistic restrictions.

But Jesus also did many things with charity - the woman caught in adultery, for instance (cf. John 8). He told people the truth-he was honest-but he did it with some charity. Was it the exit-interviewer's fault that I was laid off? No. So, I decided to show some charity while I was being honest.

I think this carries over nicely into our worship. How many of us have been in church leadership where someone was honest about his or her dislike but lacked charity? I think every church leader could raise his or her hand and shout "Amen!" at that one.

I think it's about time that we are honest and charitable. And maybe being charitable means being quiet? I know you may not like PowerPoint in your services, but be charitable about how you approach it. I know you may not like the preaching coming from the TNIV and prefer the NIV, but why not be charitable about this? Be honest, but be charitable, be understanding, and find a good approach.

And maybe, just maybe, being charitable is being quiet and putting our preferences aside. If we learn to be charitable, we can learn to love and promote unity.

Then, charity, not honesty, is the best policy.

 

  It's great to see a contemporary artist capturing the ancient today in both old and new techniques.

 

Explore her portfolio here.

For a contemporary art of different but equal power see the work of  Jan Richardson, part of the CCBlogs network.

A Mid-Week Thought from the Bottom of Evan Curry's Glass

“Then [Jesus] took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them. ‘Truly I tell 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 14v22-25 TNIV)

I’m more of a beer lover than I am a wine lover; just for preference sake. I drink certain beers with certain foods and in certain times of year. For instance, I drink Oktoberfest beers during October (that’s simple enough to explain). I don’t really drink wine so I can in no way claim to be a wine “connoisseur.” But I know wine lovers do the same. Certain wines go with certain foods and with certain times of year.

Over the years, there has been a tension inside of evangelicalism, in particular, about drinking alcoholic beverages. However, for much of church history, wine (alcoholic) was seen as “the fruit of the vine” to be used during the taking of the Eucharist. Due to the “moral” issues evangelicals had with alcohol, they have often (if not always) refrained from using wine in the Eucharist and thus substitute grape juice.  (Keep reading to take the survey!!!)

It seems to me that Jesus used wine during the Last Supper, and, as part of reminding ourselves of his death we would follow the same pattern. But I’ve never had wine with Communion in my evangelical churches. Evangelicals who disagree with wine at Communion, or alcohol in general, usually use (what I believe to be) poor arguments against it.

1. First, the wine was more like grape juice. OK…two problems. (a) Where did they get refrigerators to prevent fermentation? (b) Then, why are they warned not to get drunk on it? That’s a lot of grape juice.

2. Second argument, wine was better than the water of the day. True, and this is probably the same in many third-world countries today so should we ask them to refrain from using wine?

3. Third, we may have recovering alcoholics in our congregation, and we don’t want to tempt them to fall back into that. At church? Really? The fact that they are at church is already a step forward, don’t you think? (I’ll come back to this. Kids are also used as excuses to hide behind).

4. Four, my favorite – we don’t want to offend those against alcohol. Well, at least we are playing it safe with the whole Jesus died a bloody, gory death on the cross, and now you are eating his “body” and drinking his “blood.” Good thing that’s not offensive in any way (obviously, I’m being sarcastic). Not buying this one either.

I’m not trying to engage in a pro or con alcohol debate, but I think we can get past this when we think about how beautiful a picture, with some creativity, Communion can paint if we use wine again.

My question is this, What if we used certain wines for Communion for certain times of the year? What if we followed the church calendar and chose wine accordingly? Like I said, I’m not a “wine person” so I’ll need your help here. I’m going to use a “condensed version” of the Western church calendar (West, only because most of you are from that tradition; and, if you weren’t aware there was a church calendar, then, you’ll need Wikipedia). So fill in the blanks in the comments below:

1. Advent: around Christmas season, I would use wine to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I would do that because _________. (Maybe something that people drink at the birth of children? Or at Christmas?)

2. Ephinany: for the coming of the Magi, I would use wine to express __________. (Maybe something people give others as a gift?)

3. Lent: during Lent, I would use wine because __________. (Maybe something to help remind us of the “bitterness” of our sins?)

4. Easter: during Easter season, I would use wine because ___________. (Maybe around Good Friday something deep red and heavy to remind us of the blood of Christ? At Easter, something celebratory, sweet, and light to remind us new life in the season—like flowers blooming—and in the resurrection?)

5. Ordinary Time: during the rest of the year, I would use wine to express __________. (Maybe something generic?).

I think this would be beneficial for evangelicals on a number of levels.

(1) Kids and alcoholics could see alcohol being used for beauty and life, instead of revelry and something in which to drown your sorrows.
(2) We would restore the old tradition of using wine.
(3) But ultimately, it would help us give reason for why we chose a certain wine to present a certain truth. We could explain it to our congregations why we use this certain wine in communion.
(3b) It would help us refrain from seeing it as a “boring ritual” because we are using some type of creativity. How ‘bout this? – We could even have lay people say why they chose this certain wine this week to express such and such a truth.

I’m interested in what people have to say about this. So, please leave comments and fill in the blanks above. Also, I’m not sure where we are all on this. Would everyone get offended? Would you be offended? Would you appreciate this change and creativity? Is this even possible? If so, please take a few moments to fill a quick survey about this topic.

The cold of winter is too
Quickly upon us, the leaves
Too Quickly lay upon the ground
To die?

Lord, do we cool and
Fall as the leaves? Do you allow
Your servants to breathe and fall
Without a sound, ungrafted from
The limbs to slide way into the
abyss?

Dust is the end of all leaves.
Do you send us to the dust?

Life surges through my viens
As water through the roots
Unto the leaf. 
I feel eternal.
Will I be quick or dead?

I made some changes to the poem after writing it down...for better or worse?

Guest Blogger Evan Curry asks the question: How does the Holy Spirit lead us into all truth in our Tradition?

I have to say that I often struggle with the role of the Holy Spirit in much of anything outside of comforting people when they lose their jobs (“let the Spirit lead you,” kinda thing). So, when people ask me, how does the Holy Spirit play into the relationship between Scripture and tradition? I often respond with a blank stare, thinking to myself, “I’m not sure I could even tell you since the Holy Spirit transcends my own comprehension. He/she/it’s work is unfathomable and so mysterious in my mind.”

But let me take a stab at this – In John 16, Jesus explains how he must leave soon, but he will be sending the Spirit to be with the disciples. He continues with a slightly odd statement –

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you (vv. 12-15 TNIV; emphasis added).

Now, I’m just aiming into the dark on this, but is it possible that Jesus had so much more to say that he sent the Holy Spirit to guide his Church into all truth and this came full-scale into our tradition, in our story?

In Romans 8 (before our favorite verse 28), the apostle Paul speaks about how creation, God’s people, and the Spirit groan together in waiting for the renewal of all creation. He explains,

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God (vv. 22-27; emphasis added).

What are we all (creation and God’s people) groaning for? The complete adoption of God’s people and the redemption of their bodies. We hope for this, and we wait for it patiently. In the meantime, the Spirit intercession-groans to God on behalf of his people.

Now, hold on to that thought, and let’s use the Eucharist for example – a tradition that has taken place every Sunday for about 2,000 years. There has been much debate on what happens with the bread and wine (err…grape juice, kids) during the tradition, but I do not desire to engage in this debate at this time (at all). In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul claims to pass on this tradition that he received from Christ, and, then after repeating the statements of Christ, Paul says, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (v. 26). The ritual reminds us of the past and the future simultaneously. Jesus’ past death is why we partake of the Eucharist, but the Church does so until his future coming.

It seems from Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 11 that the Church is simultaneously reminded of her past story and her future one and brings them both together to create her story in the present, and all this takes place through – the relationship between Scripture and tradition. The “hope” in Romans 8 (Scripture) completes itself in Jesus’ final appearing. But in the meantime, the Spirit intercession-groans for us, and we wait patiently for our hope to be fulfilled, but until then, we use tradition to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. This past-present-future phenomenon comes together in our tradition only by the Holy Spirit.

The Church, in reading Scripture, is led by the Holy Spirit into all truth. As the Spirit intercedes in groans, we wait patiently, but we worship by partaking in our story along with the Spirit until we all (creation, Church, and Spirit) can celebrate on the day our hope is realized.

The Holy Spirit leads us to worship. He/she/it leads us to all truth. We find this in our reading of Scripture – which we believe is God’s truth, and who leads us into all truth? I think you know – the Spirit. We find this in our creeds – that we believe are truth and are led there by the Spirit. We find this in baptism – which we finding as expressing the truth of the resurrection and so are led there by the Spirit. We find it in confession – which the Spirit leads us to the truth of our need for Christ. We find this in prayer – like the Lord’s Prayer (or the Our Father) which we find in Scripture and believe its truth by the leading of the Holy Spirit (try forgiving the debts of others without the Spirit’s leading).

Scripture is our story. Our tradition is our story. It is a true story, and, through Scripture and tradition, the Spirit leads the Church into all truth.

Guest Blogger Evan Curry——I have increasingly become aware (throughout my own worship and interpretation of Scripture) of the difficulty of sola scriptura, that is, Scripture alone is authoritative for the Church. As a Protestant I know that it is one of the foundations of Martin Luther’s theology. In my church-life, every time I’ve come to question sola scriptura, I am quickly reminded that it is what makes Protestantism “great,” and so we can now remove ourselves from dead rituals and traditions that have for so long “plagued the Church” prior to Martin Luther.

However, I’m not so sure what sola scriptura has evolved into is what Luther ever intended.

I think Protestants have forgotten that the Church had no “scriptura” in canonical-form until the early 300s CE. How did they handle issues of the faith for 300 years? You guessed it – tradition. How did they determine how to live as the Church through those times? Modeling the faith through...tradition. For the early church, tradition was part of their story. It’s explained who they were. Tradition is what brought life to the writings they had received from the apostles.

Here’s where I have to turn this topic over to a statement made by Stanley Hauerwas –

When sola scriptura is used to underwrite the distinction between text and interpretation, then it seems clear to me that sola scriptura is a heresy rather than a help in the Church. When this distinction persists, sola scriptura becomes the seedbed of fundamentalism, as well as biblical criticism. It assumes that the text of the Scripture makes sense separate from a Church that gives it sense. Perhaps those among us who maintain such a position forget that for much of the Church’s life most Christians could not read, but that did not in itself make them less faithful…That Christians have learned of Christ and Christ’s relationship to Israel through biblical scenes portrayed on church windows and stone carvings and statues of the saints, alive and dead, should be sufficient for us to realize that the text of the Scripture is not mean to be “preserved intact” separate from the Church [p. 27-28; Hauerwas, S. (1993) Unleashing the scripture: freeing the Bible from captivity to America. Abington Press: Nashville].

Scripture cannot be removed from the Church. The Church does not rely solely on Scripture, but it relies on its story, equally. How does God, then, use Scripture and tradition together? Hauerwas explains further, “God certainly uses Scripture to call the Church to faithfulness, but such a call always comes in the form of some in the Church remind others in the Church how to live as Christians – no “text” can be substituted for the people of God” (p. 28; emphasis added). We constantly see the same thing in the Hebrew Scriptures – the prophets are always pointing the people back to remember their story, their tradition, in order to remind them what it means to be “God’s people” in their land.

Is Scripture neglected? Does tradition take precedent? No, Scripture and tradition always bounce off one another. Try to explain Jesus’ divinity without the Nicene Creed when confronted with Jesus’ rejection of divine status in Mark 10:18. If Scripture alone is our authority, Jesus is not God, for he rejects it, as he does in other places. But the Nicene Creed reminds us – Jesus is “of one Being with the Father.” Thus, the Nicene Creed assists us in our reflections upon Mark 10.

On the other hand, Luther’s reasoning for sola scriptura allows Scripture to hold accountable the Church and (at that time) the selling of indulgences. Scripture and tradition must go hand-in-hand.

If we hold Scripture and tradition hand-in-hand, reminding ourselves what tradition has to say about Scripture, and Scripture about tradition, it influences our worship and how we live as “God’s people.” We remember the importance of the Eucharist, and it is not reduced to a boring “ritual;” instead, it brings life. We remember the importance of baptism, not as “some thing we just do” but as something that brings life. We remember the Church’s stance of non-violence, and we second-guess our tendencies to partake in any of its forms. If we do so, we will live stories of justice, embrace, love, and service. We will remember our heroes and heroines, and we seek to live in the Christ-like ways they did. Scripture walking hand-in-hand with tradition brings life, not death (as many have supposed), to the Church.

If we do not take seriously the relationship between Scripture and tradition, I’m afraid sola scriptura becomes more of a heresy than a help.

Please note: I in no way hope to draw a conclusion about this topic here, but I hope it opens doors to serious dialogue not only between Protestants but also with our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters.

I was the head organizer of the Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference this past weekend.  It was an awesome experience, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I got great feedback, I met delightful people---but I am mentally and physically exhausted after the weekend.  That's why I am taking the week off.  If I do post some poetry it's because it's already been set up and I just have to click a button.

The first guest post, by Evan Curry, will be following this announcement.  I'll be back next week rip roarin' and ready to go!

Also, one more thing.  If you have written anything poetry wise on the Eucharist, or have a short meditation or reflection on the Eucharist, please send it to everydayjournal [at] gmail [dot] com.  Thanks.

These are some poems, posts, and pontifications I have enjoyed over the last week or so.

James Smith shares a poem he wrote as a speaker at a conference droned on and on.  Haven't we all been to a conference like this?  Or a sermon so boring we start reading Lamentations so it will brighten our mood? A selected stanza:

God, of course, is no theologian.
He is a poet hidden and violated,
muzzled by the theologians.
As long as there are theologians,
God's existence will remain in question.

Peter Rollins shares about his The Fidelity of Betrayal tour.  I am the Tom Turner he speaks of in his update.

Peter Lienhart shares a quote connecting the loss of liturgy in our world to the postmodern suspicion of deconstruction.  Not sure if I am there with him on his indirect critique of deconstruction, but a good quote to jumpstart conversation nonetheless.

“The liturgical language of religion is therefore the last human defense against the slipperiness, ambiguity, and uncertainty of all human acts of speech; and even these liturgical guarantees are widely known to fail.”

The Foundation of Your Tradition

In the last Liturgy In the Local Community post I discussed why an ancient-future perspective on theology and an ecumenical outlook are important for the local church to consider.  The local church should not only bring an ecumenical ancient-future outlook to their worship but also reflection on the positives, negatives, and realities of their tradition.

It would be misleading to think that an ancient-future church can happen in a vacuum, and even more naïve to ever think a non-denominational church is tradition-less or foundation-less.  All churches have traditions and foundations---some wear it as a badge of honor, others live with it, and still others pretend they don’t.  But all churches come out of a tradition, even if it is a tradition of having no traditions (i.e., the free church tradition share many common distinctives and traits that form a core of what they identify with as “free churches”).  

We should not be scared of the far reaching totality and diversity of church history.  In the same way, we should not be scared of our own denominational and sectarian traditions.  We need to respect the traditions we come out of and how they have shaped the theology and practice of the local church.  These traditions took shape for a reason, and recovering the identity of your own tradition will enable the local faith community to find their identity in the great river of Tradition.

This discussion is the third part of a five part series that has included Liturgy In the Local Community and The Recovery of Historical Theology.

There has been some online chatter lately about the zany John Crowder, a charismatic who uses colorful language to describe the Holy Spirit and our relationship with God.

John Crowder wrote a book The New Mystics which looks promising.  I am giving the book to a pastor at The Plant, Rob Parker, who will be up and blogging shortly (I'll announce it) so he can read and review it as he has a better handle on the goings on of charismatics than I do.  The table of contents looks promising, we'll see how the book does in the eye of its beholder.

Hopefully the book is better than John Crowder's recent foray into music, Toking the Ghost!  The album is horrendous, horrific, horrible, hack-work, and to get away from the h's sad, pathetic, sacrilegious, offensive, childish, pedantic, and cringe-inducing.  I almost turned the album off two minutes into the first song, but I listened the whole way through, then the whole album again, because I wanted to have a thought-out review of this album and not just one influenced from my almost immediate disdain for it.

So here's my well thought-out perspective on John Crowder and his mis-guided and mortifying music...

John Crowder had a good idea.  He sees the many ways in which the charismatic theology and perspective on the Holy Spirit could be seen not as a revolutionary idea but as a thread throughout Christian history.  From the outline of Crowder's book New Mystics he wants to tie the charismatic into the great stream of Christian thought, practice, and history.  Kudos to that.  I hope he does a good job making the case in his book.

John Crowder executes his idea horribly in the album.  The title, Toking the Ghost, is offensive in itself.  Crowder inappropriately has chosen to use as the guiding metaphors and examples of his project to be not literary, biblical, or cultural symbols or ideas.  Instead of describing the Holy Spirit and the Godhead as our food and wine, our water, our fire—all symbols and metaphors that resonate across cultural boundaries and distinctions— Crowder has chosen to use as his guiding metaphors illicit drug references, potty humor, and Will Ferrell-isms.  He even uses the clip from Talladega nights of Will Ferrell praying to "baby jesus" on this album as a case in point.  Such phrases as "toking the ghost," "smoking baby jesuses," "jehovauana," and tee-heeing at the mention of breasts and breastfeeding narrows the focus of Crowder's project from laity, clergy, theologians, and everyday people to a demographic consisting of 13-18 year old boys.  Maybe he feels this demographic needs to be reached with his message.  I would agree, but they shouldn't be reached by embarassing oneself and stooping to the cultural level of bad stoner movie.  Putting a laugh track behind an exaggerated noise of a person slurping milk from a lactating miracle belittles the dramatic imagery of the Spirit's work in our world and insults those who actually would like serious things taken seriously.  Miracles and the works of the Spirit are very serious business, not a laughing matter.

On a whole, I am encouraged by the foundational belief that Crowder and all Christians should share, that the Holy Spirit is alive and active today, and God works in mysterious, mighty, and powerful ways.  Those ways just should not be described or carried out in such offensive and immature ways.  Hopefully someone will take up a more ambitious project and write and create music or art about the charismatic movement in a mature and serious manner.

Let me also add, as a providential act of grace, at this moment in time Toking the Ghost is not available for purchase on Amazon.com, so even if you wanted to buy this album after my disparaging review you'll have to look elsewhere.

Today on this election day take heed to what conveniently coincidentally prophetically resounds from the morning Psalm in today's reading from the Revised Common Lectionary:

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The LORD will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 146:1-10)

Whoever wins or loses they are not to be trusted...I mean it.  God is to be trusted because he reigns for ever. Princes and elected officials end up pushing daisies like the rest of us.  And, what's more, whenever a politician does something in line with our Christian values and ideals we must remember it is not him or her who does it but God, for he is the one who sets prisoners free (poverty; corruption; racism; oppression; innocence), opens the eyes of the blind (healthcare), executes justice (Supreme Court justices, courts, law), gives food to the hungry (welfare, entitlements, poverty), and watches over the strangers (immigration issues).  God is the orchestrator of all these things in a mysterious way that we cannot comprehend...but he is sovereign and helpful, so do not place your trust in those perish with their five point plans.

The Daily Lectionary is a free service of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/devotions/lectionary/index.htm.

On Friday night my wife was away so I taught myself how to make a podcast.  Easy enough.

Topics covered in this podcast are:

-Christendom and Christianity in America
-Early thoughts on the book The Lord's Supper: Five Views
-The Prayer of St. Francis

Thanks for listening.

I am using Houndbite to store and deliver podcasts.  The page for the ELP#1 is here.

 

The New York Times, of all places, has a short essay on All Saints Day and the metaphorical and tangible reasons behind such a day.  "A Date With the Departed" is not from a Christian perspective, but it touches on the heart of the issue of what All Saints Day is for, and why it is a problem the American culture does not participate in it in some fashion.  In other words, we celebrate the All Hallows Eve (Halloween) with out having the All Hallows Day (All Saints Day).  That's kind of like celebrating Christmas Eve and never having Christmas.

Thomas Lynch writes:

Each stone on which we carve our names and dates is an effort to make a human statement about death, memory and belief. Our kind was here. They lived; they died; they made their difference. For the ancient and the modern, the grave is an essential station. But less so, lately, especially here in the United States, where we whistle past our graveyards and keep our dead at greater distance, consigned to oblivions we seldom visit, estranged and denatured, tidy and Disney-fied memorial parks with names like those of golf courses or megachurches.

The Disneyfication of our death rituals have caused a great reversal in how we approach life, death, and dying. Professor June Hobbs of Gardner-Webb University speaks "to a culture that quietly turned the family 'parlor' into a 'living room,' the 'burial policy' into 'life insurance' and the funeral into a 'celebration of life,' often notable for the absence of a corpse, and the subtle enforcement of an emotional code that approves the good laugh but not the good cry. Convenience and economy have replaced ethnic and religious customs."

In the larger culture's quest to escape death and live eternally through convenience and economy a reversal has been made in culture signs and symbols:

The dead get buried but we seldom see a grave. Or they are burned, but few folks ever see the fire. Photographs of coffins returned from wars are forbidden, and news coverage of soldiers’ burials is discouraged. Where sex was once private and funerals were public, now sex is everywhere and the dead go to their graves often as not without witness or ritual.

The only public funerals in the larger culture now are when celebrities, politicians, or police officers die.  We as Christians must begin to recover the rituals of death that we have let go of because the larger culture tells us so, much in the way that we should focus more on incarnation and less on gift-giving consumerism during Christmas season.  During this Halloween season you can argue about whether it is appropriate for a Christian to dress up and "trick or treat?"  We shold also add a discussion to the mix: what are we going to do about the day after Halloween?

This is the next entry in the Text(s) of Scripture series with me and Dave. Our text this go-round is 1 John 2:4-11:

We can be sure we know him if we obey is commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command: its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Thomas:

This passage makes apparent that the Word is not fulfilled until it is obeyed. That is why prophecy is only cautionary and rhetoric if it is not fulfilled. When prophecy is fulfilled, the words achieve their full purpose and meaning. We should view the words of Christ in the same way: that God’s love is not made complete in us until we obey his words.

Obedience has often been maligned for being “works” or “the law” or false “justification.” True obedience is not like this. As John writes, obedience is a journey or pilgrimage: “whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” Obedience is staying on the right path, the path we are on because of faith as well. Faith and obedience need each other to survive and grow—the “law” or “works,” in their sparsest and cruelest followings, do not need faith. Obedience is finding the old within the new, as Jesus himself was the new covenant that fulfills and surpasses the old covenant. This obedience to the Word, to Christ, is not a woeful and bleak struggle against the flesh—it is a purifying pilgrimage that sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Often when the “struggle against the flesh” is framed in conversation the struggle is made out to be futile. We never seem to be able to win out over it. That is the narrow-minded and short-sightedness of viewing obedience as only “works.” When we have faith and works, we can trust that though we struggle, and sometimes struggle mightily, we can rejoice “because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.” The Word is the light that shines on our faith-journey. Our obedience to the Word of Christ is the calling we all follow faithfully as we pilgrimage to the place where the true light is already shining.

If we lose our way, as the person who hates their brother does, we will find darkness precisely because we have strayed from the path of our pilgrimage. We have no longer been obedient to the race we have been called to run, to borrow from Paul. This is why viewing obedience not as “works” but as walking in the footsteps of Christ makes sense of the grim outlook of John’s example here. If we step off the path and are no longer obedient, and the more we are disobedient and venture further and further from the narrow road we have been called to travel on, we loose sight of the Light of the Word and become lost in the darkness. Like a traveler who becomes lost in the wilderness, or a horse who ventures off the path in the night, we may suddenly find ourselves in the impenetrable darkness of this world. We should fear for our selves and our soul, but we should never fear that Christ has abandoned us. His Word is written on his followers’ hearts, and those who have lost there way should repent and begin to follow his commandments. When we follow his commandments, we will find the darkness of our surroundings and our soul begin to fade, as the darkness fades at dawn, and the Light of Christ the eternal Word will guide us back onto the pilgrim’s path.

Dave:

I want to focus on obeying God’s “word” and “walk as Jesus did.” We sometimes focus so much on the “word” as a set of commands and restrictions that we forget Jesus is the incarnate “Word.” You can’t imitate the “walk” of a written word.

Written words can offer instruction, guidelines, and rules useful to a practice. I’ve read lots of things about playing guitar — the rules of music theory, things to avoid or to do (”use the back of your picking hand thumb to produce pinched harmonics…”), stories of other players’ successes and failures. But with any difficult technique, at some point I need someone to show me how it’s done. Then I need to just do it, to get it into my own hands and fingers until it becomes automatic.

So it is, I think, with following Jesus. The written words of scripture are transformative. They begin to seep into our ways of thinking about what life is for and how it should be lived. But the words aren’t given for their own sake, and they aren’t given alone. The walk of Jesus, his way of dealing with people, his way of relating to the Father, his strength in temptation, his heartbreak over evil and suffering, his sacrificial death, is there for us to observe as well. So “word” is only really “Word” in us when our “walk” starts to look like our Rabbi’s.