Sunday, December 17, 2006
Advent - Week 2
Peace - The Kingdom of God.
Today we light the candle of peace. Here are a few thoughts about peace:
To have peace, there must be a ruler in the land. Whenever a country is not ruled well, there is conflict within it. The presence of a strong and good ruler brings conflict to an end. Good rulers are able to make wise laws and enforce them consistently, so that people are protected from those who might want to steal from them or hurt them in any way. They also help settle arguments between people. We sometimes call this ‘arbitration’. If they are very good rulers, they also help unfortunate people to find ways of succeeding so they don’t make everyone else unhappy. We sometimes call this ‘social work’.
In the Bible, we read that when there was no king in the land, everybody did what they wanted, and there was no peace. Whenever there was a bad king, God sent armies to destroy their cities. Whenever there was a good king, there was prosperity and peace in the land.
Jesus Christ is our King. He rules the Kingdom of God. This church, SBF, is part of God’s Kingdom. He rules us through the preaching of the words in the Bible, through our taking communion, and through our submission to each other in love. It is the Holy Spirit who makes this possible. He also gives us the wisdom to work through difficult conflicts with each other. This is part of how He brings peace.
But the most important way that Jesus brought peace to us was by making peace with us and His Father by dying on the cross. He did this to make us part of His family. Because of what Christ did on the cross, we have been adopted as God’s children, made part of God’s family. We are part of the house of the Lord that Isaiah talks about:
Now it will come about that in the last days,
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Peace - The Kingdom of God.
Today we light the candle of peace. Here are a few thoughts about peace:
To have peace, there must be a ruler in the land. Whenever a country is not ruled well, there is conflict within it. The presence of a strong and good ruler brings conflict to an end. Good rulers are able to make wise laws and enforce them consistently, so that people are protected from those who might want to steal from them or hurt them in any way. They also help settle arguments between people. We sometimes call this ‘arbitration’. If they are very good rulers, they also help unfortunate people to find ways of succeeding so they don’t make everyone else unhappy. We sometimes call this ‘social work’.
In the Bible, we read that when there was no king in the land, everybody did what they wanted, and there was no peace. Whenever there was a bad king, God sent armies to destroy their cities. Whenever there was a good king, there was prosperity and peace in the land.
Jesus Christ is our King. He rules the Kingdom of God. This church, SBF, is part of God’s Kingdom. He rules us through the preaching of the words in the Bible, through our taking communion, and through our submission to each other in love. It is the Holy Spirit who makes this possible. He also gives us the wisdom to work through difficult conflicts with each other. This is part of how He brings peace.
But the most important way that Jesus brought peace to us was by making peace with us and His Father by dying on the cross. He did this to make us part of His family. Because of what Christ did on the cross, we have been adopted as God’s children, made part of God’s family. We are part of the house of the Lord that Isaiah talks about:
Now it will come about that in the last days,
The mountain of the house of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And will be raised above the hills;
And all the nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways
And that we may walk in His paths."
For the law will go forth from Zion
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Advent - Week 4
Love - The King and I
Today we light the candle of love.
God is love. What does this mean?
Some people answer this question very badly, because they have false ideas about love, which they use to create sentimental pictures of a teddy bear pansy God.
How about this: begin with what we know about God. Then perhaps we can say something about love.
We know that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three persons exist in perfect unity. So when we say that God is love, we mean that the nature of God is the love that binds the Persons of the Trinity together in perfect unity.
The early fathers of the church spoke of this unity as a dance, where each person is ‘in step’ with the others.
Picture a man and a woman dancing together. At times, it can be a slow, romantic waltz, where they hold each other and gaze into each other’s eyes long and lovingly. Sometimes it is a fast-moving reel, where they stomp and kick and leap about. The dance, like all dances, tells a story, and the dancers are actors. The music and the steps weave them together in one rhythm of motion that makes a beautiful and powerful statement to those who are looking on.
This is the dance of Christ and His bride. It is the dance He dances with you and I. And it is the dance that we all dance with each other. That dance is Love. And when we dance it right, it makes a powerful statement to the world. That statement is the word of the gospel.
What are the steps in this dance? They are words and actions. Christ, by his words and actions, leads us. We, by our words and actions, follow him. Christ comes to us blessing, healing and teaching. He lays down his life for us so that we might live. We, in response, go out to the world extending His blessing, healing, and teaching. And we lay down our lives for others so that they might live.
This is the dance of Love. May Christ lead us onward in His steps, teaching us to love each other as He loved us. And may we learn to move together in the pattern of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Love - The King and I
Today we light the candle of love.
God is love. What does this mean?
Some people answer this question very badly, because they have false ideas about love, which they use to create sentimental pictures of a teddy bear pansy God.
How about this: begin with what we know about God. Then perhaps we can say something about love.
We know that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three persons exist in perfect unity. So when we say that God is love, we mean that the nature of God is the love that binds the Persons of the Trinity together in perfect unity.
The early fathers of the church spoke of this unity as a dance, where each person is ‘in step’ with the others.
Picture a man and a woman dancing together. At times, it can be a slow, romantic waltz, where they hold each other and gaze into each other’s eyes long and lovingly. Sometimes it is a fast-moving reel, where they stomp and kick and leap about. The dance, like all dances, tells a story, and the dancers are actors. The music and the steps weave them together in one rhythm of motion that makes a beautiful and powerful statement to those who are looking on.
This is the dance of Christ and His bride. It is the dance He dances with you and I. And it is the dance that we all dance with each other. That dance is Love. And when we dance it right, it makes a powerful statement to the world. That statement is the word of the gospel.
What are the steps in this dance? They are words and actions. Christ, by his words and actions, leads us. We, by our words and actions, follow him. Christ comes to us blessing, healing and teaching. He lays down his life for us so that we might live. We, in response, go out to the world extending His blessing, healing, and teaching. And we lay down our lives for others so that they might live.
This is the dance of Love. May Christ lead us onward in His steps, teaching us to love each other as He loved us. And may we learn to move together in the pattern of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Advent – Week 1
Hope - The Return of the King
Today we light the candle of hope, and we meditate on our hope in the return of our King, Jesus Christ.
In Tolkien's epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, there is a prophecy that one day a king will return to the ruined land of Gondor to restore the land to its former glory and bring peace.
In order for the king to return, all sorts of terrible things have to happen to prepare the way. Many wars must be fought between men, elves, orcs and creatures too terrible to speak of. Two small, weak hobbits, Frodo and Sam, must sneak across a dark land filled with hostile goblins, ascend a mountain and cast the most evil thing in the world into a lake of fire.
There are many points in that journey where the two hobbits are too discouraged to continue, especially Frodo, the one to whom the greatest responsibility has been given. However, it is the determination and hope of the servant-hobbit Sam that enables Frodo to continue.
Today, we are surrounded by evil. The land around us is, in more sense than one, ruined. It is not hard to think of things that tempt us to despair.
In the words of Samwise, as the hobbits climb Mt. Doom,
We wouldn't be here at all if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually--their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten.
Consider, for a moment, Christ, who did not turn back from the cross, even though he knew the suffering it would bring. He showed up for the cross even though he actually knew what it meant to show up.
As Christians, our hope includes the fact that we will suffer. We hope in the fact that we will share in Christ's sufferings. And because we do, we share in the victory of the cross over death, and we share in his reign in the coming Kingdom. With this hope in mind, we say "Come Lord Jesus" and we will, by God's grace, endure until the end. Amen.
Hope - The Return of the King
Today we light the candle of hope, and we meditate on our hope in the return of our King, Jesus Christ.
In Tolkien's epic masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, there is a prophecy that one day a king will return to the ruined land of Gondor to restore the land to its former glory and bring peace.
In order for the king to return, all sorts of terrible things have to happen to prepare the way. Many wars must be fought between men, elves, orcs and creatures too terrible to speak of. Two small, weak hobbits, Frodo and Sam, must sneak across a dark land filled with hostile goblins, ascend a mountain and cast the most evil thing in the world into a lake of fire.
There are many points in that journey where the two hobbits are too discouraged to continue, especially Frodo, the one to whom the greatest responsibility has been given. However, it is the determination and hope of the servant-hobbit Sam that enables Frodo to continue.
Today, we are surrounded by evil. The land around us is, in more sense than one, ruined. It is not hard to think of things that tempt us to despair.
In the words of Samwise, as the hobbits climb Mt. Doom,
We wouldn't be here at all if we'd known more about it before we started. But I suppose it's often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually--their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten.
Consider, for a moment, Christ, who did not turn back from the cross, even though he knew the suffering it would bring. He showed up for the cross even though he actually knew what it meant to show up.
As Christians, our hope includes the fact that we will suffer. We hope in the fact that we will share in Christ's sufferings. And because we do, we share in the victory of the cross over death, and we share in his reign in the coming Kingdom. With this hope in mind, we say "Come Lord Jesus" and we will, by God's grace, endure until the end. Amen.
Advent Reading – Week 3
Today we light the candle of joy. And we remember that everything good in this world begins with a small seed. Jesus came as a baby and grew into a man.
What is joy?
Joy is a discipline that we learn over time. We are not born joyful. We learn to rejoice. We grow into the joy of God.
Where does joy come from?
Our joy begins with a small seed. That seed is the word of the cross.
What is that?
The word of the cross is the message that God became one of us, and that he suffered all things, died and was buried.
What does joy have to do with that?
In the Bible, St. Paul says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. When he says this, he is referring to the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. Also, in the Psalms it says that ‘weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’ This Psalm is also talking about the resurrection.
I don’t get it. What’s your point?
The point is that our joy comes from the fact that Jesus rose again.
Why does that give us joy?
Because Jesus defeated death by doing two things: rising from the dead, and living forever. He says that those who believe in him will not stay dead after their bodies die. Their spirits will be with Him and, one day, He will raise all the dead.
Oh, I see. So we won’t stay dead and will go to heaven one day. Well that’s alright…but that seems a long ways away. How does that help me now when I feel sad?
The best way to have joy is to remember that God is in control, He loves you, nothing is wasted, and you won’t feel sad forever. It also helps to talk to other people (like your mom and dad) and realize you’re not the only one who has ever felt sad. Your sadness is normal. Have a good cry if you have to. And then maybe go for a walk. God is with you in all of this, and He loves you. And so do I.
OK. I think I get it. So can we light the candle now?
Today we light the candle of joy. And we remember that everything good in this world begins with a small seed. Jesus came as a baby and grew into a man.
What is joy?
Joy is a discipline that we learn over time. We are not born joyful. We learn to rejoice. We grow into the joy of God.
Where does joy come from?
Our joy begins with a small seed. That seed is the word of the cross.
What is that?
The word of the cross is the message that God became one of us, and that he suffered all things, died and was buried.
What does joy have to do with that?
In the Bible, St. Paul says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. When he says this, he is referring to the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. Also, in the Psalms it says that ‘weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’ This Psalm is also talking about the resurrection.
I don’t get it. What’s your point?
The point is that our joy comes from the fact that Jesus rose again.
Why does that give us joy?
Because Jesus defeated death by doing two things: rising from the dead, and living forever. He says that those who believe in him will not stay dead after their bodies die. Their spirits will be with Him and, one day, He will raise all the dead.
Oh, I see. So we won’t stay dead and will go to heaven one day. Well that’s alright…but that seems a long ways away. How does that help me now when I feel sad?
The best way to have joy is to remember that God is in control, He loves you, nothing is wasted, and you won’t feel sad forever. It also helps to talk to other people (like your mom and dad) and realize you’re not the only one who has ever felt sad. Your sadness is normal. Have a good cry if you have to. And then maybe go for a walk. God is with you in all of this, and He loves you. And so do I.
OK. I think I get it. So can we light the candle now?
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The death of Theoloblog.
Greetings to all my blog friends. I would like to announce that as of now, I no longer live or post at Theoloblog.
You can find me here instead.
I'd like to apologize in advance to those who I inadvertently cut from the blog roll. I was trying to clean up my page and start over, and so I chopped all blogs I didn't recognize immediately. Since I'll be leaving this site up indefinitely as a gateway to other blogs, they're still available, but I won't be posting here at all.
If you'd like to be added to my blogroll, please make your presence known to me by email.
Greetings to all my blog friends. I would like to announce that as of now, I no longer live or post at Theoloblog.
You can find me here instead.
I'd like to apologize in advance to those who I inadvertently cut from the blog roll. I was trying to clean up my page and start over, and so I chopped all blogs I didn't recognize immediately. Since I'll be leaving this site up indefinitely as a gateway to other blogs, they're still available, but I won't be posting here at all.
If you'd like to be added to my blogroll, please make your presence known to me by email.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Refining the model.
Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me, hear me, O Lord. Lord, I call upon Thee hear me, receive the voice of my prayer, when I call upon Thee. Hear, me O Lord.
Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice. Hear me O Lord.
+ From Psalm 141, sung at evening vespers +
Continuing the previous post:
We can say the following things about prayer:
1. It is, first, doxology. We call God by name. To pray in an orthodox manner, God must be rightly named. He must first be called GOD, and not 'Santa'. God is free and holy and other than us. He is not bound by our expectations. He is, rather, true to His word.
Interpretation, however, is a receiver-act. It is our act. God is not true to our interpretation, an act of our mind, but rather to His word, an act of His mind. Therefore, to say "Thy will be done" is to invoke a word we have not yet fully understood; it is to expect a world which we cannot ever fully, well, expect.
To ask for God to move on our interpretation of His word is to ask Him to create the world we imagine. It is to ask Him to make His will OUR will, not the other way around. In other words, it is "My will be done."
This is why word-faith prayer is the most rebellious of all heresies.
2. Prayer involves true anthropology, right ways of speaking about ourselves and our needs. We are not just poor, sick, and plagued by circumstantial, immediately felt problems. We are broken in ways we can't detect. Our souls are diseased, seeking rest and salvation in God.
True prayer must include the confrontation between Law and rebellious man. It must break My will upon Thy will. We are sick because we have lost our way; we have fallen out of step with The Way (i.e. torah); we are dying because we have forgotten how to live; we have moved away from the source of Life, the world-creating Word of God and life-giving Breath of God. We have stepped out of the Triune dance.
I don't need a minivan or a new house. I don't need money or a wife or children or a parking spot downtown. The kind of prayer that calls these commodities 'needs' is heretical. I need the Word and Breath of God to form and reform me and give me life. Houses and vans and parking spots are given to those who work hard and/or get lucky. They are peculiarly North American blessings.
Derek Webb's best lyric ever: I mistake my happiness for blessing. I'm blessed as the poor, but still I judge success by how I'm dressing.
So we ask for healing. We ask for provision. What are we provided with? How are we healed?
Those who live at all live by the Word that comes from God.
What does this mean?
3. Prayer involves waiting. My eyes look to the hills. Where does my help come from? Having answered that (My help comes from the Lord), what is that help, and when will it come? Until then, what?
Simone Weil:
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.
Sometimes, the only 'answer' is silence. And that is answer enough.
Buechner:
Before the gospel is a word, it is silence. It is the silence of their own lives and of his life. It is life with the sound turned off so that for a moment or two you can experience it not in terms of the words you make it bearable by but for the unutterable mystery that it is.
It is this dull silence that hope must live in, or else it is not hope.
Prayer occurs on groggy mornings and exhausted evenings. Those who hope in the Lord, they often hope alone, or hungry, or while running for their lives. They may hope while half-asleep, grumpy, doubtful and despondent. Hoping is not the sensation that all shall be well. It is the act of waiting at the door for the savior to knock.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue:
I remember being part of a movement in the late 90s that believed that if enough people prayed fervently and continuously, there would be a great revival in the Church, and lots of people would get saved.
I think that there may be something to this principle. When the Church humbles herself to pray, God does hear, and turn, and heal the land.
But there are a few problems with the revivalist prayer model. First, there is no model. Second, its success depends solely on the amount of time people spend fervently asking God to do things, specifically to send revival. Thirdly, it has no format for intercessors to structure their prayer time. Fourth, it fails to take into account the fact that the church has never stopped praying. Fifth, it fails to take into account the fact that it is not only the living who are praying, but also all those who have died in Christ.
So, what if a few evangelicals start to meet under a haystack and pray 24-7? This is the Tipping Point for Christendom?
Do the math. Try and estimate how many Christians have died over the past 2000 years. Then, consider that all these saints now pray ceaselessly before the throne of God. Think millions of saints, billions of prayers. Then, think of the thousands of Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican monks that pray around the clock in monasteries around the world. Then, think of the corporate prayers that happen every day at the Catholic Mass worldwide. Then, think of the prayers that millions of Orthodox Christians pray every morning and evening. Then, think of the few thousand Moravian-style 'prayer warriors' out there today, praying in their shared spaces, fanning their own evangelical fervor (which isn't a bad thing!).
Now, more prayer never hurts, and I am happy whenever anyone displays sincere passion about God. But let's be honest. The Moravian, 24-7 (see the link on my sidebar) and House of Prayer movements represent mainly cultural shifts in the evangelical landscape.
I think there are some really interesting things happening in the 24-7 Prayer Rooms. I really get excited when I hear about young people, especially skinheads and punks, becoming excited about prayer, and finding authentic, creative expression for their faith in God.
But seriously. God isn't going to suddenly change America or Europe into Bible belts simply because a few thousand more people start 'REALLY praying'.
Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me, hear me, O Lord. Lord, I call upon Thee hear me, receive the voice of my prayer, when I call upon Thee. Hear, me O Lord.
Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice. Hear me O Lord.
+ From Psalm 141, sung at evening vespers +
Continuing the previous post:
We can say the following things about prayer:
1. It is, first, doxology. We call God by name. To pray in an orthodox manner, God must be rightly named. He must first be called GOD, and not 'Santa'. God is free and holy and other than us. He is not bound by our expectations. He is, rather, true to His word.
Interpretation, however, is a receiver-act. It is our act. God is not true to our interpretation, an act of our mind, but rather to His word, an act of His mind. Therefore, to say "Thy will be done" is to invoke a word we have not yet fully understood; it is to expect a world which we cannot ever fully, well, expect.
To ask for God to move on our interpretation of His word is to ask Him to create the world we imagine. It is to ask Him to make His will OUR will, not the other way around. In other words, it is "My will be done."
This is why word-faith prayer is the most rebellious of all heresies.
2. Prayer involves true anthropology, right ways of speaking about ourselves and our needs. We are not just poor, sick, and plagued by circumstantial, immediately felt problems. We are broken in ways we can't detect. Our souls are diseased, seeking rest and salvation in God.
True prayer must include the confrontation between Law and rebellious man. It must break My will upon Thy will. We are sick because we have lost our way; we have fallen out of step with The Way (i.e. torah); we are dying because we have forgotten how to live; we have moved away from the source of Life, the world-creating Word of God and life-giving Breath of God. We have stepped out of the Triune dance.
I don't need a minivan or a new house. I don't need money or a wife or children or a parking spot downtown. The kind of prayer that calls these commodities 'needs' is heretical. I need the Word and Breath of God to form and reform me and give me life. Houses and vans and parking spots are given to those who work hard and/or get lucky. They are peculiarly North American blessings.
Derek Webb's best lyric ever: I mistake my happiness for blessing. I'm blessed as the poor, but still I judge success by how I'm dressing.
So we ask for healing. We ask for provision. What are we provided with? How are we healed?
Those who live at all live by the Word that comes from God.
What does this mean?
3. Prayer involves waiting. My eyes look to the hills. Where does my help come from? Having answered that (My help comes from the Lord), what is that help, and when will it come? Until then, what?
Simone Weil:
Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.
Sometimes, the only 'answer' is silence. And that is answer enough.
Buechner:
Before the gospel is a word, it is silence. It is the silence of their own lives and of his life. It is life with the sound turned off so that for a moment or two you can experience it not in terms of the words you make it bearable by but for the unutterable mystery that it is.
It is this dull silence that hope must live in, or else it is not hope.
Prayer occurs on groggy mornings and exhausted evenings. Those who hope in the Lord, they often hope alone, or hungry, or while running for their lives. They may hope while half-asleep, grumpy, doubtful and despondent. Hoping is not the sensation that all shall be well. It is the act of waiting at the door for the savior to knock.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue:
I remember being part of a movement in the late 90s that believed that if enough people prayed fervently and continuously, there would be a great revival in the Church, and lots of people would get saved.
I think that there may be something to this principle. When the Church humbles herself to pray, God does hear, and turn, and heal the land.
But there are a few problems with the revivalist prayer model. First, there is no model. Second, its success depends solely on the amount of time people spend fervently asking God to do things, specifically to send revival. Thirdly, it has no format for intercessors to structure their prayer time. Fourth, it fails to take into account the fact that the church has never stopped praying. Fifth, it fails to take into account the fact that it is not only the living who are praying, but also all those who have died in Christ.
So, what if a few evangelicals start to meet under a haystack and pray 24-7? This is the Tipping Point for Christendom?
Do the math. Try and estimate how many Christians have died over the past 2000 years. Then, consider that all these saints now pray ceaselessly before the throne of God. Think millions of saints, billions of prayers. Then, think of the thousands of Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican monks that pray around the clock in monasteries around the world. Then, think of the corporate prayers that happen every day at the Catholic Mass worldwide. Then, think of the prayers that millions of Orthodox Christians pray every morning and evening. Then, think of the few thousand Moravian-style 'prayer warriors' out there today, praying in their shared spaces, fanning their own evangelical fervor (which isn't a bad thing!).
Now, more prayer never hurts, and I am happy whenever anyone displays sincere passion about God. But let's be honest. The Moravian, 24-7 (see the link on my sidebar) and House of Prayer movements represent mainly cultural shifts in the evangelical landscape.
I think there are some really interesting things happening in the 24-7 Prayer Rooms. I really get excited when I hear about young people, especially skinheads and punks, becoming excited about prayer, and finding authentic, creative expression for their faith in God.
But seriously. God isn't going to suddenly change America or Europe into Bible belts simply because a few thousand more people start 'REALLY praying'.
In the absence of anything to say
I am very tired. I have been tired for a while now. My soul is very weary and it needs a rest. My body is overcompressed and underexercised. My eyes are burning out. I am mean and cranky. I need a week of spa treatment and contemplative leisure.
I remember reading that "the contemplative life is a luxury few can afford," (I think that's Allan Bloom's). I am somewhat enraged at a culture that worships intelligence and talent but affords few the resources to cultivate it. Perhaps it is their wealth that we worship, after all. Or, as the Russian Jewish peasant Tevye says, "When you're rich, they think you really know."
Mira and I are pretty much engaged now, I think...I mean, her parents have said 'yes' to me and we are planning the wedding now...so there you go. I am engaged to the best woman ever. I can't help feeling a little bit of a glow of pride. Pride in her, mostly, because I don't feel I've merited her at all. Perhaps she is my icon of God's 'Unmerited Favour' as we used to say...I should nickname her Charis - or, if we're speaking English (and I sure am) than just 'Grace' will do.
The TTT conference went rather well. Here is the service we conducted on Saturday morning. Photos are coming soon.
On another note. I have been talking with one of my colleagues about prayer recently. His attitude appears typical of non-liturgical evangelicals: Prayer is when I ask God for things so that He may comply or deny. When He complies, He has answered my prayer favourably. When He denies, He has answered unfavourably. And when He denies, it is for a reason that I don't know about, so that He can give me something better in the end. When He complies, it is so that I can give Him glory for it.
It's not an entirely bad or wrong view. But it's a view that adopts as a definition one instance of prayer, and of course instances are not meant to be definitive, but rather, descriptive.
I tend to favor a view of prayer that has us, the people, "lifting up holy hands" as Paul says, in the house of the Lord. In other words, prayer is part of our daily and constant office of worship. The call to that worship is, "Ascribe to the Lord honour and glory, power and majesty." The anthem of that worship is "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come."
In other words, prayer is first declarative before it is supplicative. First, it is the recognition of the identity of God: Holy. Second, it is the recognition of the identity of man: the broken and dependent creature who waits for the salvation of the Lord. Third, it is the waiting itself.
This model is perhaps a bit too general. After all, it could be adopted quite easily by word-faith intercessors. Step one: Identifying God. "Lord, you are the Great Physician..." Step two: Confronting Brokenness. "You know that our Judith here has a life-threatening illness." Step three: the waiting. "We're just gonna hold out for a healing from you, Lord! Holdin on! Yeah! Hallelujah!"
But then, of course, it becomes clear where the prayer model is broken: Theologically and Anthropologically.
Thoughts?
I am very tired. I have been tired for a while now. My soul is very weary and it needs a rest. My body is overcompressed and underexercised. My eyes are burning out. I am mean and cranky. I need a week of spa treatment and contemplative leisure.
I remember reading that "the contemplative life is a luxury few can afford," (I think that's Allan Bloom's). I am somewhat enraged at a culture that worships intelligence and talent but affords few the resources to cultivate it. Perhaps it is their wealth that we worship, after all. Or, as the Russian Jewish peasant Tevye says, "When you're rich, they think you really know."
Mira and I are pretty much engaged now, I think...I mean, her parents have said 'yes' to me and we are planning the wedding now...so there you go. I am engaged to the best woman ever. I can't help feeling a little bit of a glow of pride. Pride in her, mostly, because I don't feel I've merited her at all. Perhaps she is my icon of God's 'Unmerited Favour' as we used to say...I should nickname her Charis - or, if we're speaking English (and I sure am) than just 'Grace' will do.
The TTT conference went rather well. Here is the service we conducted on Saturday morning. Photos are coming soon.
On another note. I have been talking with one of my colleagues about prayer recently. His attitude appears typical of non-liturgical evangelicals: Prayer is when I ask God for things so that He may comply or deny. When He complies, He has answered my prayer favourably. When He denies, He has answered unfavourably. And when He denies, it is for a reason that I don't know about, so that He can give me something better in the end. When He complies, it is so that I can give Him glory for it.
It's not an entirely bad or wrong view. But it's a view that adopts as a definition one instance of prayer, and of course instances are not meant to be definitive, but rather, descriptive.
I tend to favor a view of prayer that has us, the people, "lifting up holy hands" as Paul says, in the house of the Lord. In other words, prayer is part of our daily and constant office of worship. The call to that worship is, "Ascribe to the Lord honour and glory, power and majesty." The anthem of that worship is "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come."
In other words, prayer is first declarative before it is supplicative. First, it is the recognition of the identity of God: Holy. Second, it is the recognition of the identity of man: the broken and dependent creature who waits for the salvation of the Lord. Third, it is the waiting itself.
This model is perhaps a bit too general. After all, it could be adopted quite easily by word-faith intercessors. Step one: Identifying God. "Lord, you are the Great Physician..." Step two: Confronting Brokenness. "You know that our Judith here has a life-threatening illness." Step three: the waiting. "We're just gonna hold out for a healing from you, Lord! Holdin on! Yeah! Hallelujah!"
But then, of course, it becomes clear where the prayer model is broken: Theologically and Anthropologically.
Thoughts?
