Came across this prayer today by Alexander Whyte…
“Lord, I give myself to you and whatever I cannot give, please take.”
Giving up Lent for Lent
As I sit at the church office waiting on the Ash Wednesday service to begin I have come across a though provoking article at the God’s Politics blog. It is called Giving Up Lent for Lent.
This week, Christians around the world begin Lent – the 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and repentance leading to Easter.
In seminary, one of my friends eagerly awaited his yearly celebration of Lent, calling it his “favorite church season.” Since Lent starts with a morbid reminder of human mortality – “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” – I always wondered if he needed therapy more than ashes on his forehead. As Christmas faded into fond memory, I dreaded Lent’s approach. Only it stood between Easter and me. Forty days of guilt whenever I ate chocolate.
A few years ago, I stopped struggling with my bad attitude toward Lent. I gave up Lent for Lent. I skipped Ash Wednesday, made no promises to God, and instituted no rigorous prayer schedule. I wanted to enjoy one March with no onerous spiritual obligations.
An odd thing happened, however, during my Lenten non-observance. I began to understand and experience Lent in new and deeper ways. When freed from expectations and requirements, sermons and scriptures spoke to my soul.
While your at the blog check out Tony Jones’ thoughts on Mitt Romney and Mormonism.
Is The Rev. Timothy Lovejoy Emerging?
“Well, uh, before you make any rash decisions, let me just remind you that the church is changing to meet the needs of today’s young Christians.”
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches…Part 2
I continue my review of the book Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches today with a discussion of John Burke’s chapter; Burke’s chapter is titled “The Emerging Church and Incarnational Theology.” Like all the other chapters in this book it provides lots of fodder of thinking and conversation. From the beginning Burke offers a warning to all theologians and pastors, but it especially applies to the emerging movement; he writes, “We must be very wary of reinventing theology for the sake of being the new, ‘new thing,’ which is very much a trend of the cultural flow in which we swim.” He’s right. We should not be new for the sake of being new. As my Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox friends are fond of reminding me, “there is no need to reinvent the wheel.” I agree, but they sometimes seem to forget that we can improve upon the wheel – sure it will always be round and always be used for a similar purpose, but there are different size wheels for different uses; for instance, a bicycle wheel wouldn’t work very well on a semi. Add the tire into the mix and a whole new set of questions arise. On the other hand we have the disaster that was “New Coke.” Coke thought people wanted something different, new, and hip; and they soon discovered people like things the way they have always liked them. New can be good, but not new for the sake of new – and not new because the culture wants new.
A large part of Burke’s chapter is focused on the religions of the Global Village – he asks what is it that as Christians can learn from our interaction with the people of the global village and from their diverse religious practices and beliefs. He also notes that we must understand the culture in which we swim. This is essential if we want to do missions today. This has never been questioned when we do overseas missions, but for some reason lots of people re weary to do this when it comes to local mission. This is an important call that the emerging missional church is putting out – we must understand our culture to engage our culture. You cannot do mission the same way in the backwoods of Georgia as you do in urban Chicago. Sure, people all have the same basic needs and desires, but the way you communicate to these people may need to be different. In a sense, they speak a different language. So, as Burke notes, our theology must seek to answer the questions of the global village, and most importantly it must show people what Scripture says about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a way that makes Jesus attractive rather than a way that puts up walls around Him.
There is much that could be drawn out of Burke’s discussion about the religions of the global village. His claim that all of these religions have some sense of truth and morals is overall valid, but often these values are different than those of Scripture; and I believe that the values of Scripture are what we should prize above all. As Burke reminds the emerging church – Scripture has authority.
Burke discusses the call to “come as you are” and the “theology of messy ministry” in ways that are helpful to this discussion. I commend them to you when you read the book. What I want to note in closing is how hopeful the religions of the global village can make us. Granted, many people living among us do not have a proper view of Jesus – for whatever reason this is, whether no one has ministered to them, whether they have rejected Him, or maybe the church has built wall around Jesus. But people are searching for something – spirituality is cool again. It is our call to help people in their search and share with them what we have already found. This is going to be hard – it is going to be messy – and there are going to be some really screwed up people in our churches – but aren’t those the people Jesus came to save. Isn’t that what the Kingdom of God is all about – Taking the messy and the ugly and making it beautiful?
Coming tomorrow is a discussion of Dan Kimball’s contribution to this book.
Ash Wednesday
Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today is Ash Wednesday and so begins the season of Lent. Since I grew up as a Presbyterian I did not really observe Lent until I became part of the Anglican Mission in America last year. But I have come to see that there is a benefit of being reminded of our sinfulness; being reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
However, I think that even in Lent we must look ahead to Good Friday and Easter. We are no longer stuck in our sin. But it is good sometimes to be reminded of how dirty we were before we were washed by the blood of Christ.
I hope that all of you have a blessed Lent.
Psalm 51 (for Ash Wednesday)
Psalm 51
Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
my sins are staring me down.
You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I’ll let loose with your praise.
Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem’s broken-down walls.
Then you’ll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar!
A Meditation
Something to meditate on as we journey through Lent looking ahead to Easter…
“If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters. If Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.” – Jaroslav Pelikan
Tony Jones and Buddy Christ
In the Winter 2007 issue of Leadership Journal Tony Jones writes, “Modern Christianity has emphasized the immanence of our Savior, but, pushed too far, we are in danger of making the God of the universe little more than our buddy.” He’s exactly right. I preached Sunday on Luke 9:18-22 trying to show people who Jesus as Savior really is. I think most people make Jesus in their own image, and most people think they need a friend more than they need a Savior.
10 Deadly Sins of Preaching
John Ortberg offers 10 deadly sins of preaching that are helpful for every who ever preaches to remember. To read the entire article go here.
1. The temptation to be inauthentic
2. The temptation to live for recognition
3. The temptation to live in fear
4. The temptation to compare
5. The temptation to exaggerate
6. The temptation to feel chronically inadequate
7. The temptation of pride
8. The temptation to manipulate
9. The temptation of envy
10. The temptation of anger
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches…Part 1
At long last here are some of my fuller thoughts on Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches…
I believe that this book is a very good starting point for someone who wants to know more about the emerging church. I had someone on Sunday ask me where he could find out more about the emerging church (this was after he accused me of being emergent for wearing jeans and showing a video in the middle of my sermon) and told him that the emerging church was very broad and that he should read this book first.
It is a fairly typical point-counter point book which works out well for discussing the emerging church; however, as most of the authors point out it is fairly un-emerging to be having the conversation at a distance and through the written word. The cool thing is that over the next few months Zondervan (the publisher) is organizing in-person conversations for the authors in a few places around the country.
The book is edited by Robert Webber who provides a very helpful introduction and conclusion. The contributors are Mark Driscoll (pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle), John Burke (pastor of Gateway Village in Austin), Dan Kimball (pastor of Vintage Faith in Santa Cruz), Doug Pagitt (pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis), and Karen Ward (pastor of Church of the Apostles in Seattle). While the opinions and theologies of these five are very diverse they all have a few things in common: First, they are all devoted followers of Jesus Christ; they also are all church planters with a heart for those who do not yet know Jesus. And, third, they are all seeking as best they can to be missionaries in their own setting.
What I want to do know is offer my thoughts on each of the contributors’ main chapters in turn, and then offer a brief comment on the responses.
Mark Driscoll’s chapter is on the Emerging Church and the Biblicist Theology and is a fairly straightforward telling of his theological convictions. All the contributors were asked to discuss their views of Scripture, Trinity, and Atonement. Mark goes straight through this list providing a perspective on all three that is orthodox and decidedly Reformed. Mark’s chapter is full of references to the Scriptures; in fact, he seems to footnote everything he says with a Bible verse. I didn’t have any major disagreements with his view of Scripture, but I worry that his methodology of proof texting may lead some away from seeing Scripture as a whole. My question for Mark as it relates to his view of Scripture is “where do you believe the authority of Scripture comes from?” My concern is that Mark seems to occasionally place Scripture over Jesus. He takes the traditional view of the Trinity, and links the relationship inherent in the Trinity to relationships among humans. However, I think that his view of the Trinity also suffers; though, I bet he believes it and just left it out for lack of space there is no discussion about how through the ascension of Christ, coupled with worship and the Eucharist that we are taken up into the life of the Trinity. As Moltmann is fond of noting, it is not just about our relationships on this earth, but the Trinity has lots of say about the Kingdom of God and our relationship with the Godhead. Most helpful in his chapter is his discussion of the atonement, especially his view of an unlimited/limited atonement. Mark contributes an important voice to the emerging conversation. But unlike many people in the Reformed camp he knows how to engage the culture in a missional way for Christ; to see this one must just look at Mars Hill Church.
Since I started writing I have changed my mind…Instead of one long review I will offer a review a day. For the next few days I will post my thoughts one contributor a day. So tomorrow look for a review of John Burke. Kimball will be Thursday. Pagitt on Friday. Ward on Saturday. I will offer a summary of the responses next Monday.
