"Is preaching still relevant? — 5 struggles of young pastors — House churches" Ministry Matters in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Wednesday, 3 August 2016
5 common struggles among young pastors by Ron Edmondson
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A couple of years ago, I spent several hours with a group of young pastors. It was a cross-representation of church planters and pastors of established churches. Healthy churches and unhealthy. Growing, plateauing and declining. Most were new in their positions, and I expected to see all of the churches growing soon. It was a sharp group of people.
We talked about a lot of issues, but one of our longer discussions was when I asked them what their greatest struggle in ministry was at the current time. There were some incredible consistencies — actually more than I anticipated. Very different churches and very different pastors — very similar struggles.
I thought it was worthy of sharing here. A large majority of my readers are pastors. And, here is my word to you: You may not be as alone as you think. The title says “young” pastors, and I chose it because this group was, but I suspect these are shared by pastors of all ages.
Here are the five most common struggles among pastors:
Personnel issues
If the church has any paid staff other than the pastor there will be issues for the pastor. I’m finding this portion of our work more demanding than ever. The longer I lead, the more complex this issue becomes, simply because of the changing laws and regulations placed on places of employment, including the church.
I always advise younger leaders, especially those without a background in this issue, to seek professional help in this area, even if it has to be from outside the church.
Navigating bureaucracy
I think this is a particularly heavy burden on younger pastors. The generation entering the ministry is much like the generation entering the secular workforce. They want to do something, not meet about doing something. I share their heart, but granted this is one of the hardest ones to address. (Of course, the church planters weren’t struggling with this as much.)
I often advise young pastors in established churches to write some of their best sermons around casting vision of how we should spend our time as pastors. Jesus seemed to teach and model quite extensively about our need to reach the lost. The Bible doesn’t record a lot of his time in committee. Acts gives good models of leadership and serving the people. People in the first century seemed to do a lot of the work we’ve placed on professional staff.
Balancing ministry and family time
This has always been a struggle. And, frankly, it should be. We need to work hard — it’s a good biblical principle — and we need to protect our family. There’s another great biblical principle. It requires a healthy art of balancing our time. This younger generation of ministers, however, and I think it’s a good thing, won’t automatically let the ministry trump their family. Ministers from my generation and older generations sometimes have. And, many from these generations have told me they wish they hadn’t after it was too late.
My advice to the younger pastor is to keep the heart for the balance, be very intentional with their schedule and use of time and cast vision to the church continually of why they’re not at everything and why their family is so important. The church needs this message too, as they are equally in the struggle.
Developing leaders
This one seemed true regardless of the style of church. And, in my experience, it’s true in most organizations. We are always in need of new leaders. You can’t grow or even maintain without consistently developing new leaders. In a practical sense, leaders come and go, die or burn out. But it’s also difficult to grow and develop as a body without growth in the number of leaders.
I advised them to start systematically and strategically developing new leaders now. In fact, I think it’s more important that you have a system — even if it’s not perfect — than to do nothing. People typically learn best by doing. So, at the least, in the absence of a formal leadership development program, start giving people you see with potential assignments to lead — and let them develop with on-the-job training.
Handling critics
Again, this one was shared less by the church planters, but the interesting twist is that the criticism church planters received was typically from outside the church. Pastors in established churches seemed to receive most of their criticism from inside the church. But, either way, one thing all leaders have in common is criticism. Lead anything and critics will find you. You don’t have to go looking for them. (I love the passage in Exodus 24 where, as Moses was going to the mountain to spend time with God, he made a plan for how to handle disputes among the people.) Because leadership involves change. And change always changes things. (You got that, right?) People often respond to change with an emotion — it could be anger, frustration or sadness — but it comes to us as what we’ve labeled criticism. I’ve learned sometimes it isn’t as much against the leader as it is against their sense of loss, but either way it hurts.
I always remind young pastors and leaders that we must find our strength in our calling, our purpose and in the pursuit of the vision God has placed in our hearts. We shouldn’t ignore criticism. We should filter it. But we should not let criticism control us — in our leadership or in our emotional state — even though that is sometimes the intent of the critic. Part of leading is learning how to stay healthy even in the midst of criticism.
I loved my time with this group. Let me ask, was anything surprising about the list?
I also wondered, are seminaries addressing these issues? Should they?
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
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Is preaching still relevant? by Frank ThomasThis article is featured in the Does Preaching Matter? (Aug/Sep/Oct 2016)issue of Circuit Rider
In our information and technology age, some observers question the relevance and legitimacy of preaching. In a few cases these observers question even the validity and relevance of the Bible itself. Some suggest that preaching is not a valued source for change and reform if it’s drowned among many other proliferating founts of information and motivation.
Let’s remember that competition with dominant forms of discourse was not so different for Paul and the early church. Paul said the Jewish leaders considered the gospel message “a scandal,” and the Greeks considered it “foolishness” (1 Cor 1:23). The gospel always has and always will struggle to be considered relevant amidst the information and motivational systems of human culture. Indeed, we should worry about a gospel that’s too mainstream, too legitimated by the status quo. The gospel must challenge the status quo and even those who challenge the status quo.
Though the gospel runs counter to culture and will always strive for legitimacy, the struggle takes a very specific form in our web-based information age. Despite the almost overwhelming democratization and multifaceted proliferation of information outlets, most of us get our news, information, inspiration, and motivation from sources that favor our already-decided opinion. Those of us who live in the American context live in a divided country, and most of that segmentation is biased by the news, information, talk radio, blog, and cable outlets we consult for information and motivation. We often encounter echo chambers of “group think” rather than diverse perspectives that seek to create mutual understanding from divergent opinions.
Given this competition from the flattened internet news and social media culture, which challenges the legitimacy of proclamation, preaching content and method appear to be changing.
First, I worry that more than ever before people want to hear a gospel that agrees with their favorite information sources. Many preachers cannot preach certain texts or take certain positions without risk of harassment or threatened job security based on the worldview, opinions, and values of particular congregations and their members, who are aligned with perspectives articulated by sources of information and opinion on the left and the right. Does this risk mean that these information sources are more credible than the preached word of God? Or does it still mean that religious perspectives and commitments are compartmentalized as the spiritual aspect of life and not valued outside of that box? After the Pope took a position against unfettered capitalism, one loyal Catholic said to me very authoritatively, “The Pope does not know anything about economics. He should stick to religion.” The preacher and the church should be concerned about serving the God who benefits our selfish interests, especially when the core meaning ofmetanoia is a changed heart and life.
Second, in my experience the preacher must have an even greater intellectual integrity in his or her preaching because people can instantly check and contest the sources of the preacher’s information. For example, when the preacher states facts about Paul’s life, the preacher better assume that someone will check those facts, even on the spot during the sermon. A certain kind of looseness with facts or sources is dangerous and taints the intellectual credibility of the preacher, which is very important in this database era. Some listeners feel that if they can get information on their smartphone or tablet instantaneously, why can’t the preacher do his or her homework? Intellectual sloppiness is punished in this information era, and the gospel message is discredited by it.
Third, by listening to the millennial generation, I have discovered that they’re not as interested in what the church or preacher says as what the church and preacher do. The congregation offers a tremendous amount of preaching, but millennials are concerned with the nature of the agenda after the benediction. Millennial movements can happen on very short notice, through alerts and notifications fed to their phones. Like-minded people can gather in minutes to support a cause or address an injustice. Millennials wonder why it takes the church so long to take action. If Jesus worked on behalf of the poor, why does it take the church so much discussion to get to any action? This information age highlights the inactivity of the church in justice causes, and this inactivity in the name of Jesus is a credibility gap.
Fourth, while older people, such as myself, are dependent on more traditional outlets for information and motivation, young people seem more dependent on social media. With groups such as Black Lives Matter and the realities of the Arab Spring, we discover that groups can broadcast a live narrative that’s often in contrast with traditional news media. These groups broadcast their own narratives live from the scene. As an older person, who is not as familiar with social media and more adept at traditional media, I often miss the perspectives and thoughts that are delivered instantly across platforms that are outside my skillset.
If we don’t adapt to the communication systems of our time, then our lack of information will create a credibility gap for the church and preacher. I recently secured a digital media coach to help me understand how to preach and communicate the gospel in this information age. I’m learning Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud, and Periscope, to name a few. While some of these platforms are ever changing, I’m discovering that these tools can help reach people. I wonder if the church loses credibility because it will not do at least some of its communication with the tools of the information age. Putting up a website is not enough.
Preaching is changing because the currency of credibility has changed. The currency of credibility in the new information age is authenticity (connection between words and deeds), intellectual accuracy and honesty, social action, and a willingness to at least learn and sample the proclamation tools that now drive formation of audiences and human cultures. We can only reach people in this internet age, and especially and particularly people who do not come to church, with their currency of credibility. We must struggle even more with the question: How do you get the word of God to people if they’re not coming to church? The apparent answer is through authenticity, intellectual accuracy and honesty, social action, and a willingness to sample the new tools for proclamation and communication.
Despite all of this change, one thing seems to stay the same. In times of national crisis, such as 9/11, mass shootings, or natural disasters, church attendance rises and the preaching of the clergy—not only Christian clergy but also imams and rabbis—becomes a valuable source of love, grace, strength, and encouragement. This purpose for proclamation during crisis might be a form of civil religion, but I believe that life is fragile and vulnerable enough that we will be pushed to go beyond our divided opinions to a timeless message of truth and hope. The church will not need to strive for legitimacy; rather we will be asked for our perspectives and opinions. What would normally be considered foolishness and a stumbling block will be sought after again. My prayer is that the church will be ready with its message of faith, hope, and love in traditional congregations and in virtual or alternative communities.
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What are house churches? by Dave Barnhart
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Back to the future
I’ll confess that when I first heard about the idea of house churches, I thought, That’s not real church. I thought the only reason a congregation would meet in a house instead of a larger traditional or contemporary church would be because they couldn’t afford a building or they didn’t have the vision or ability to grow into a “real church.” I knew, of course, that the early church started in homes. What I didn’t understand was why anyone in a free country would continue to do so when larger churches with exciting youth programs, riveting preachers and spectacular worship music are not hard to find.
Now, here I am, starting house churches.
House church movement
House churches are nothing new, though you’ll sometimes hear them referred to as part of a “house church movement.” I’ve been hearing about this “movement” for decades, and it’s often touted as the next big thing. I’ve heard visionary pastors say, “The age of the megachurch is over, and the age of the microchurch is beginning.” I believe this kind of hype clouds an authentic work of the Holy Spirit, who is interested in diverse ways to reach diverse people. House churches are another manifestation of the body of Christ and meet needs not always met by larger or more traditional churches.
In some places, house churches are the norm. Because of strict government control of religion in China, for example, most churches are underground and are unofficial house churches. A Pew study estimates the total number of Christians attending house churches in China is around 35 million people.
Some people prefer the terms simple church or organic church, recognizing that these small, more independent groups of believers can meet nearly anywhere: businesses, bars, restaurants, parks or shelters. The key features of these churches are that they are simple and easy to replicate.
We turned our efforts toward house churches because the people we were trying to reach — those who have been hurt, burned or turned off to church — often associate pews, sanctuaries, vestments and hymnals with spiritual oppression. Even fog machines and contemporary music turn them off. They speak of the “institutional church” in harsh terms, and their immediate reaction to seeing a 5,000-seat venue is a visceral rejection. “Jesus didn’t need that,” one friend says. Although I’m somewhat more circumspect about the many ways God can share the gospel, I understand the theology behind their critique. They want to see authentic community lived out in relationships.
Attractional vs. missional
Even churches that meet in alternative venues with hip music put most of their energy into creating an event that attracts people: the worship service. A church’s effectiveness is often measured by the size of its worshipping congregation. While I believe these metrics are important, it’s worth asking what we’re really measuring with attendance figures. Does a large gathering indicate faithfulness or discipleship?
Leaders like Alan Hirsch suggest that an alternative to the “attractional” church is the “missional” church — one focused on going and living out the gospel in new places. Certainly some large churches are also missional churches, but the focus in missional churches is practices, not programs. Rather than getting people to come to church, the goal is to take the church to people.
It’s important to point out that there’s nothing wrong with an attractional church, but the reality is that an attractional church will only reach a certain segment of the population that’s already predisposed to attend events. It’s also possible for a house church to be focused on attracting people to church rather than taking church to people.
History of house churches
From the very beginning, Jesus’ followers have met, eaten, prayed and worshipped in homes. It wasn’t until sometime around the year 240 that buildings were set aside specifically for use by worshipping congregations. According to church historian Everett Ferguson, a site in Dura-Europos in Syria reveals a home that was remodeled to accommodate a Christian congregation. Two rooms were combined to make one large worship space, and another room was converted into a baptistry. Christians started building larger buildings specifically for church use in the third and fourth centuries. When the Roman emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of his empire, the building boom began in earnest.
So, for 300 years, the church existed primarily in homes. In John Wesley’s day, Methodism was essentially a small-group renewal movement within the Church of England. People met in homes for Bible study and accountability. Later on in the United States, circuit riders often held worship services in people’s homes as they followed Western expansion.
What happens in a house church?
House churches vary as much as “traditional” churches. They may have an order of worship or no set plan at all. They may gather around a meal. They may or may not do corporate singing. Our house churches split our time four ways: We check in and pray for one another, we spend some time in liturgy and Scripture reading, we have a message and discussion and we share Communion. If someone with musical talent is available, we also sing.
In everything, the emphasis is on keeping things simple and replicable. If the house church becomes overly dependent on one person or one structure, it cannot reproduce itself.
Pros and cons of house churches
It’s important to note that some of the greatest strengths of house churches are also their greatest weaknesses.
Intimacy: Communities are physically close to one another. No “back pew” exists to fill up first when people arrive early. Guests are immediately known by name. While this creates a strong sense of community, it also can scare off people who prefer to remain anonymous. Those who are uncomfortable sharing much about themselves can feel ill at ease.
Hospitality: Some people think they can’t host a house church because there’s dog hair on the couch or crumbs on the table, and the stress of making the house perfect for guests every week scares them away from the idea. We’ve chosen to use the language of Jack King, whose blog post on “scruffy hospitality” points out that it’s more important to “welcome people into my humility than my standard of excellence.”
Leadership development and discipleship: In a house church, everyone is a potential leader. Anyone who can read may read Scripture, liturgy or prayer. Anyone may lead singing. Because of this high degree of involvement, the level of spiritual growth is high, but it requires commitment.
Stewardship: I’ve served a large church with thousands of members, and I recognize that there’s an economy of scale that smaller churches don’t have. More resources mean more ministries to more people. But proponents of house or simple churches point out that 20 percent of typical church budgets go toward building rent, mortgage, maintenance and utilities; 38–50 percent goes toward staff; and only about seven percent goes toward programs and ministries. House churches don’t have to pay for buildings, meaning more of their members’ giving can potentially go toward mission and ministry. Theoretically, house churches can give a greater return on investment for their giving dollars — it’s just that there aren’t as many of those dollars available to do large projects.
House churches are clearly not for everyone, and many house church leaders are wary of the idea being hyped as the next big thing or having it co-opted as a mere growth strategy. But for some groups of faithful followers, they are a tie to our past and a window into our future.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
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Teenage jihadists, Hillary's 'God gap' and
the legalization of marijuana
By Shane Raynor
Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Photo: Bigstock / Gino Santa Maria
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When politics trumped faith
By Hannah Adair Bonner
Bigstock/ehrlif
As a child, I was taught that the most important characteristic about a political candidate was their faith: as a Christian nation, we needed Christian leaders, preferably born again and evangelical. Learning to swim in waters so thick with political convictions and action, it felt at times as though the world around me inhaled religion and exhaled politics, and somewhere inside us one became the other.
The political world changed over time, and so did my faith. Once I learned that I could fail and God would still love me, I started to understand grace and fell in love with being a part of the Methodist movement that places grace at the center. Once I released the list of “Don’ts” that I clung to as a life-preserver in a terrifying sea of sin, I found solid footing on all the “Do’s” of a loving God. I began to walk forward. I found passages in John and 1 Corinthians and Isaiah that became old companions on the journey; my oldest and my dearest friends, always faithful, always present.
The years passed and I journeyed far and wide seeking to be a good Methodist, to “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
I messed up plenty — as often as everyday and as recently as this morning — but I put my heart and soul into it. I tried so hard. Every day. I tried to live with faithful discipline, love with liberal generosity, and learn with determined optimism. With time, I learned that faith was not about what I did or did not do, it was about the fact that God loved me and that love required a response.
One of the biggest changes I had to make was the choice to accept my calling to preach after being raised in a church that taught that women were not to be clergy. I wrestled so hard with it; the struggle most intense between the age of 20 and 25, when one of my deepest points of identity fought for it’s very survival against the erroneous teachings of my youth that tried to tell my calling that it deserved to die; that it was heresy; that I was heretic.
My calling won, and I proceeded forward as United Methodist clergy, fully ordained, fully credentialed, fully amazed by what God had done with a little girl who had never imagined she’d live in a world that wanted to hear her voice.
As my faith grew, it brought me to acquire a set of my own deep convictions: some the same I had been raised with, some different, and some quite the opposite. I came to understand how Christianity had been co-opted and used to justify the expansion of Empire after Empire; how the same Empire that had issued Jesus’s death warrant, would be the first one to recognize the power of misusing his name.
I decided that my faith could inform my politics, but that for the sake of my faith, it was too dangerous to mix them together in the same bowl and end up losing track of which was which.
My faith changed, and so did the political world around me. When I crossed paths again with the Republican Party of my youth, I saw a stranger before me and I felt betrayed. I may not have found myself in sync with the Republican Party, but I expected that when we came across one another he would at least look familiar and we could be civil with one another. He had, after all, sat at my dinner table every evening growing up. I may have taken a different path in life, but I felt unreasonably aggravated that the old path did not feel familiar.
When I bumped into the Republican Party, he told me that Barack Obama, a member of the United Church of Christ, was a Muslim; and that Mitt Romney, a member of the Mormon religion, was closer to the evangelical Christian ideal. I was so confused; I felt like the whole world had been turned upside down. I had been okay with all the changes that had taken place within me, but I felt betrayed by the changes that had taken place within the world I left behind. I no longer recognized the Republican Party when he told me that Donald Trump was a Christian man; although there was a flicker of familiarity when he claimed that Hillary Clinton was not a Christian, that was an old song he had sung all throughout my youth.
Yet, when Hillary spoke, I could not deny I heard the echoes of her Methodist upbringing in her words; I heard that earnest determination, that Wesleyan intensity, that I shared with other Methodist women like Jarena Lee, Harper Lee, and Sandra Bland.
On Trump’s tongue, I heard poison. A poison that threatened to destroy everything I am and everything I love. Fear. Hate. Mockery. Sexism. Racism. Xenophobia. Power. Greed.
I wondered how could the political realm I had grown up in have changed so much? Then again, maybe it never changed; perhaps we are only just becoming aware of the repercussions. While we were inhaling religion and exhaling politics, did we never realize that the direction of the wind might change? Did we never realize that we might choke on our own exhaust?
Maybe it was politics that trumped faith all along. We just failed to see it clearly until now.
This post originally appeared on the author's blog. Reprinted with permission.
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Did Prince visit my wife in a dream?
By Clifton Stringer
Prince playing at Coachella in 2008. Wikimedia Commons/penner/CC 3.0
Did Prince visit my wife in a dream?
Here's the scoop.
Early in the morning of June 1, my wife had a dream that felt very real. She dreamed she was at a party, and feeling awkward. There was a celebration going on, people dancing, a band playing onstage and a famous guitar player present, identity mysteriously unknown. But Lindsey was feeling massively self-conscious. In her dream she was dressed in army green cargo pants and a long olive green silk shift. (She bids me to clarify: not her usual wardrobe.)
Then in the midst of her interior wardrobe crisis, Prince appears. Not the young, avidly risqué, Purple Rain Prince, but an older Prince, a fatherly Prince, perhaps Prince as a wisdom figure. He walks up to her and says, with utter seriousness:
"Hey, it's not what you wear, it's how you wear it."
And he gives her a hug.
And she feels comforted, and feels much better.
Later the same day — after we talked and had a laugh about this funny, amazing, and actually quite edifying dream — Lindsey noticed that Mayor Steve Adler of her beloved hometown of Austin, Texas, had declared June 1, 2016 "Prince Day."
Coincidence?
In any case, this Austin-curious fact was the occasion of more smiles and laughter in the Stringer apartment in Boston.
To be clear, I feel no pressure to draw any conclusions from this experience of Lindsey's, this event or encounter which happened in a dream.
But I do wonder. Has Prince, the formerly living, formerly Artist Formerly Known As Prince, made any other post-mortem appearances or comforting errands?
And, also, I do question… Are we all just way more closely interrelated in mind or soul than we tend to imagine? Such that space and time, life and death are, at least in some ways and times, porous, permeable, pervious to prayers, wishes, contact? As heirs of the rationalist fold of the European Enlightenment, we habitually imagine not... yet...
Yet, sometimes, the dying or dead visit in dreams, with striking and auspicious timing.
In 2010, David Bentley Hart wrote over at First Things:
I was fairly close to both Angela and Jacob throughout our teens; at least, we were all part of the same circle. I briefly entertained the hope of something closer between Angela and myself, and for a few weeks she was more or less my girlfriend; but Jacob “swept her off her feet,” and they were at one school and I at another, so I had no chance. It made no difference to our friendship, though.
Unfortunately, I largely lost touch with Angela when I started attending university. Over the course of the next six months, we crossed one another’s paths only three times or so. On the last occasion, she had just returned from a visit to Paris, from which she had brought home, among other things, the Pléiade edition of Montaigne she proudly showed me.
And that was that. Two and a half years later she was killed when a drunk driver struck her car in an intersection; she was alive for several hours after the collision, but never regained consciousness. That was twenty-five years ago tomorrow.
I learned of her death three days after, from Jacob. (Their romance had not survived their remove to separate colleges, but they had remained friends.) I won’t bother to say how the news affected me, but I will remark that I had had what in retrospect seemed to have been a premonition of it. On the night of her death, Angela had suddenly, for no discernible reason, come into my mind, attended by an inexplicable sense of aching melancholy, which at the time I simply took for acute nostalgia.
Jacob, though, had had something that seemed like much more than a premonition. On the night of Angela’s accident, apparently during the hours when she was lying in the hospital unconscious but still breathing, he had had a particularly vivid dream in which she and he had spoken to one another in a strange house that, after the fashion of dreams, was also somehow a garden (if I have the details right).
Their conversation, which had been pervasively sad, concerned her imminent departure for somewhere far away; and it seemed to Jacob that it was understood between them—in that way in which, in dreams, many unspoken things seem simply to be presumed—that she was leaving on a journey from which she would never return. She told him, he recalled, that she had come only to say good-bye.
Now, these things—my vague intuitions, Jacob’s haunting dream—may have been merely coincidences; but, frankly, I can’t make myself believe that the universe is quite large enough to accommodate coincidences of that kind. What was most extraordinary about our experiences, however, is that they were not that extraordinary at all.
That is, it is rather astonishing how common these encounters with the uncanny really are. You may not recall any yourself, but it is quite likely that you need only ask around among your acquaintances to discover someone who does. I myself have had at least two others, one utterly trivial, one of the most crucial importance, and both together sufficient to convince me that consciousness is not moored to the present moment or local space in quite the same way that the body is.
Then, after commenting on the inadequacy of materialist/physicalist accounts of consciousness, like Daniel Dennett's, Hart concludes:
Whatever the case, I cannot help but believe that on the night when Angela lay dying, some portion of my consciousness was remotely, flickeringly aware of the fact; and that she, or something of her, was able to reach out into Jacob’s dream to make her farewells. But, even in admitting I believe such things, I would never claim to understand them.
Claim to understand such things, certainly not. But... nonetheless... Christians can be forgiven for noticing that they bear a kind of fit with or open orientation toward our doctrine of the communion of saints. "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints...." Western Christians say those words of the Apostles Creed quite a lot, and Eastern Christians share the doctrine. They name a mystery, at one level, the mystery of our connection to one another, across centuries and locales, in a way that exceeds the material and is mediated by God.
The perhaps weird or surprising intellectual frame toward which the Christian faith draws its adherents is expansive enough to accommodate the countless Marian apparitions and meetings with saints credibly reported through the centuries, as well as near death experiences, encounters with angels, demonic possessions, and myriad other phenomena which plainly occur and are as plainly difficult to understand.
There's no reason, in principle, Prince couldn't make an appearance now and again.
Do be in touch if you've seen him.
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See David Hart's whole post here.
For interesting articles on the faith of Prince, look no further than here and here.
For a good lecture which, at length, discusses two 'folds' of the Enlightenment in the context of Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar's responses to such, find Cyril O'Regan here.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of Christ the Lightgiver in the Converge Bible Studies series.
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How is it with your soul?
By Joseph Yoo
Bigstock/Wayne0216
John Wesley would open up all small group meetings with the question “How is it with your soul?” That’s a far deeper question than, “How are you?”
I mean, how is your soul doing? How is your spirit faring? Really, how are you?
It’s a jarring question because we often ask, “How are you?” out of habit and usually get impatient when someone has the nerve to actually tell us how they are doing.
Perhaps it’s a question we like to avoid because answering it forces us to really take stock on the health of our souls — which often leads to admitting that we may not be doing as well as we want others to think.
I've had to step back a bit here and there to really ask myself, “How is it with my soul?”
I've been going through a season of transition. I recently transferred conferences. We had to pack, find a place to live and move from California to Texas.
It’s really easy to get lost in all the demands of life. So we work, work, work and work. We’re so consumed and busy with work that we may not realize we’re running on steam. Sure, we take days off and vacations, but a lot us are still connected to our work. We work so hard and so much, we may be in danger of losing our humanity; losing the image of God in us.
So it’s imperative that we reflect often on the question that Wesley opened meetings with: How is it with your soul?
This question steers me to analyze my life and my habits.
What are the things that I’m engaging in that bring my soul closer God?
What are the things that I’m doing that are putting a wedge between God and myself?
What are the things that I’m doing in my life that really make my soul shine brightly and flourish?
What are things I’m engaged in that are draining the life out of my soul?
It’s really embarrassing to admit that I seem to be doing things that are not helpful to my soul. Or to be more accurate, activities which aren’t that important, but take precedence and priority over God.
The question also forces me to ask, “Am I confusing routine with commitment?” It’s rather easy to get routine mixed up with commitment because we do our stuff: go to church; read the Bible; pray before certain events/meals. And these things become habit… almost second nature.
The question, “How is it with your soul?” can help make sure that we still find life in things that we may have taken for granted because of their routine-ness.
Someone once told me that prayer is to our souls as breathing is to our bodies. Wesley’s question helps me to make sure my soul is breathing.
Reminding me…
to pause;
to pray;
to wonder;
to be in awe;
to laugh;
to cry;
to sing.
It reminds me that it’s OK to be human. And that it’s more than OK to admit that I’m not doing well and need a little help from my friends.
Maybe you could benefit from asking yourself, “How is it with my soul?” Or maybe you could help someone by asking how theirsoul is and then genuinely listen to their response.
It’s an important question that we should ask and answer frequently.
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Noah’s Ark mosaic uncovered in ancient Galilee synagogue
By Michelle Chabin / Religion News Service
A mosaic shows a fish swallowing one of Pharaoh's soldiers in the parting of the Red Sea. The mosaic was found at the ancient synagogue at Huqoq. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman
(RNS) Exquisite mosaics depicting biblical scenes — one of Noah’s Ark, the other the parting of the Red Sea — were uncovered this summer by archaeologists excavating a fifth-century synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village near the Sea of Galilee.
A consortium of universities, led by Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uncovered the mosaics during its fifth annual excavation in June.
Magness said the mosaics, like others discovered at the synagogue since 2012, are of “extremely high artistic quality,” based on their artistry and the high number of stone mosaic cubes used in the designs.
Two donkeys in the Noah’s Ark mosaic discovered in June by archaeologists. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman
The Noah’s Ark mosaic includes pairs of bears, donkeys, leopards, camels, lions, ostriches and snakes, just as described in the Book of Genesis.
The mosaic of the parting of the Red Sea features Pharaoh’s soldiers drowning with their horses and chariots.
"Of course the story of Noah’s Ark and the parting of the Red Sea were known to Jews, as well as Christians, at the time because they read the Hebrew Bible,” Magness said. “We have other ancient synagogues where these scenes are depicted, though they are not common in synagogue art."
The archaeologist said excavation experts dug down to a level of soil where, based on findings elsewhere at the site, they hoped mosaics might be found.
“As our site conservator, Orna Cohen, worked methodically to brush away the dirt, little by little, we all stood around and began to see animals. At some point we realized this was a depiction of Noah’s Ark.”
Deciphering the second mosaic was harder, Magness said.
“We could see little bits and pieces of people, fish, chariots. We all stood around and guessed” whether the mosaic depicted a biblical story and if so, which one.
“I won the parting of the Red Sea” guess-a-thon, she said with a laugh.
But the Red Sea mosaic features a twist on the biblical story: a large fish swallowing Pharaoh’s soldiers.
“This represents an elaboration on the story that must have been circulating at the time," she said.
The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation and study.
But a previously discovered mosaic from the site that depicts Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3) is on display at Kibbutz Ginosar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Magness would love to see the mosaics eventually restored to the Huqoq synagogue.
“It would require an enormous investment of money to develop the site, a building with a guard and cooperation between different government authorities that would have to take responsibility. Who owns the land? Who would maintain it?”
Still, she added, “There are conversations at the highest levels to make this happen.”
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Election 2016: Set your mind on things above
By James C. Howell
Bigstock/badboo
'Tis that season again — and no, it's not the season to be jolly. Everyone is frowning, exasperated, a little ticked off or disturbed. Two weeks of nightly conventions are ending, and it would be hard to say we are better people, or holier, because the conventions have happened. Both parties try to outdo one another in negativity, and all the invective only feeds our inner darkness and sharpens our anger. Fear, dread, and a sense of dislocation sprawl in and between us like kudzu.
How does a Christian stay calm, find some spiritual equilibrium, and make sense of it all? God isn't delighted by politics in the United States; but then what does God see in me? It's a bit of a test, a stiff challenge, to be a follower of Jesus right now. You can withdraw, but Jesus clearly asks us to engage our world. You can get drawn into this side or that side's spitting contest. You can get surly in front of the TV and dash off a Facebook retort. You can say "religion and politics don't mix," but if we can't talk about God and God's interest in these things that clearly matter so much, then maybe God isn't relevant to anything at all. Perhaps, if we are humble and open, God can show us "a more excellent way" (as Paul introduced his famous "love" chapter, 1 Corinthians 13).
"For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16) — and yes, that would be this world, the one in which we find ourselves mired, annoyed, confused, and yet strangely hopeful. I don't know many people who've just given up. We cling to some glimmer of optimism deep inside that maybe, just maybe, things will get better, that something good will somehow come out of it all. Maybe for the nation, maybe locally — and maybe just in me.
Between now and election day, I would like to talk about religion, politics, and the state of the soul. How do Christians sort things out and interact with a raging culture in a holy, constructive way? Does God care about the results of the election? Are there genuinely Christian issues and positions? How would we know? Can you read my articles and trust me without getting angry at me?
Let's pray together, for our world but also for our souls. Let's hope that these times together, sharing these words, might bring some healing, hope, and even holy engagement with this world God created, with a world God is more eager to save than we are to have it saved.
This article originally appeared on the author's blog.
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This Sunday August 7, 2016
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Is preaching still relevant? by Frank ThomasThis article is featured in the Does Preaching Matter? (Aug/Sep/Oct 2016)issue of Circuit Rider
In our information and technology age, some observers question the relevance and legitimacy of preaching. In a few cases these observers question even the validity and relevance of the Bible itself. Some suggest that preaching is not a valued source for change and reform if it’s drowned among many other proliferating founts of information and motivation.
Let’s remember that competition with dominant forms of discourse was not so different for Paul and the early church. Paul said the Jewish leaders considered the gospel message “a scandal,” and the Greeks considered it “foolishness” (1 Cor 1:23). The gospel always has and always will struggle to be considered relevant amidst the information and motivational systems of human culture. Indeed, we should worry about a gospel that’s too mainstream, too legitimated by the status quo. The gospel must challenge the status quo and even those who challenge the status quo.
Though the gospel runs counter to culture and will always strive for legitimacy, the struggle takes a very specific form in our web-based information age. Despite the almost overwhelming democratization and multifaceted proliferation of information outlets, most of us get our news, information, inspiration, and motivation from sources that favor our already-decided opinion. Those of us who live in the American context live in a divided country, and most of that segmentation is biased by the news, information, talk radio, blog, and cable outlets we consult for information and motivation. We often encounter echo chambers of “group think” rather than diverse perspectives that seek to create mutual understanding from divergent opinions.
Given this competition from the flattened internet news and social media culture, which challenges the legitimacy of proclamation, preaching content and method appear to be changing.
First, I worry that more than ever before people want to hear a gospel that agrees with their favorite information sources. Many preachers cannot preach certain texts or take certain positions without risk of harassment or threatened job security based on the worldview, opinions, and values of particular congregations and their members, who are aligned with perspectives articulated by sources of information and opinion on the left and the right. Does this risk mean that these information sources are more credible than the preached word of God? Or does it still mean that religious perspectives and commitments are compartmentalized as the spiritual aspect of life and not valued outside of that box? After the Pope took a position against unfettered capitalism, one loyal Catholic said to me very authoritatively, “The Pope does not know anything about economics. He should stick to religion.” The preacher and the church should be concerned about serving the God who benefits our selfish interests, especially when the core meaning ofmetanoia is a changed heart and life.
Second, in my experience the preacher must have an even greater intellectual integrity in his or her preaching because people can instantly check and contest the sources of the preacher’s information. For example, when the preacher states facts about Paul’s life, the preacher better assume that someone will check those facts, even on the spot during the sermon. A certain kind of looseness with facts or sources is dangerous and taints the intellectual credibility of the preacher, which is very important in this database era. Some listeners feel that if they can get information on their smartphone or tablet instantaneously, why can’t the preacher do his or her homework? Intellectual sloppiness is punished in this information era, and the gospel message is discredited by it.
Third, by listening to the millennial generation, I have discovered that they’re not as interested in what the church or preacher says as what the church and preacher do. The congregation offers a tremendous amount of preaching, but millennials are concerned with the nature of the agenda after the benediction. Millennial movements can happen on very short notice, through alerts and notifications fed to their phones. Like-minded people can gather in minutes to support a cause or address an injustice. Millennials wonder why it takes the church so long to take action. If Jesus worked on behalf of the poor, why does it take the church so much discussion to get to any action? This information age highlights the inactivity of the church in justice causes, and this inactivity in the name of Jesus is a credibility gap.
Fourth, while older people, such as myself, are dependent on more traditional outlets for information and motivation, young people seem more dependent on social media. With groups such as Black Lives Matter and the realities of the Arab Spring, we discover that groups can broadcast a live narrative that’s often in contrast with traditional news media. These groups broadcast their own narratives live from the scene. As an older person, who is not as familiar with social media and more adept at traditional media, I often miss the perspectives and thoughts that are delivered instantly across platforms that are outside my skillset.
If we don’t adapt to the communication systems of our time, then our lack of information will create a credibility gap for the church and preacher. I recently secured a digital media coach to help me understand how to preach and communicate the gospel in this information age. I’m learning Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud, and Periscope, to name a few. While some of these platforms are ever changing, I’m discovering that these tools can help reach people. I wonder if the church loses credibility because it will not do at least some of its communication with the tools of the information age. Putting up a website is not enough.
Preaching is changing because the currency of credibility has changed. The currency of credibility in the new information age is authenticity (connection between words and deeds), intellectual accuracy and honesty, social action, and a willingness to at least learn and sample the proclamation tools that now drive formation of audiences and human cultures. We can only reach people in this internet age, and especially and particularly people who do not come to church, with their currency of credibility. We must struggle even more with the question: How do you get the word of God to people if they’re not coming to church? The apparent answer is through authenticity, intellectual accuracy and honesty, social action, and a willingness to sample the new tools for proclamation and communication.
Despite all of this change, one thing seems to stay the same. In times of national crisis, such as 9/11, mass shootings, or natural disasters, church attendance rises and the preaching of the clergy—not only Christian clergy but also imams and rabbis—becomes a valuable source of love, grace, strength, and encouragement. This purpose for proclamation during crisis might be a form of civil religion, but I believe that life is fragile and vulnerable enough that we will be pushed to go beyond our divided opinions to a timeless message of truth and hope. The church will not need to strive for legitimacy; rather we will be asked for our perspectives and opinions. What would normally be considered foolishness and a stumbling block will be sought after again. My prayer is that the church will be ready with its message of faith, hope, and love in traditional congregations and in virtual or alternative communities.
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What are house churches? by Dave Barnhart
Bigstock
Back to the future
I’ll confess that when I first heard about the idea of house churches, I thought, That’s not real church. I thought the only reason a congregation would meet in a house instead of a larger traditional or contemporary church would be because they couldn’t afford a building or they didn’t have the vision or ability to grow into a “real church.” I knew, of course, that the early church started in homes. What I didn’t understand was why anyone in a free country would continue to do so when larger churches with exciting youth programs, riveting preachers and spectacular worship music are not hard to find.
Now, here I am, starting house churches.
House church movement
House churches are nothing new, though you’ll sometimes hear them referred to as part of a “house church movement.” I’ve been hearing about this “movement” for decades, and it’s often touted as the next big thing. I’ve heard visionary pastors say, “The age of the megachurch is over, and the age of the microchurch is beginning.” I believe this kind of hype clouds an authentic work of the Holy Spirit, who is interested in diverse ways to reach diverse people. House churches are another manifestation of the body of Christ and meet needs not always met by larger or more traditional churches.
In some places, house churches are the norm. Because of strict government control of religion in China, for example, most churches are underground and are unofficial house churches. A Pew study estimates the total number of Christians attending house churches in China is around 35 million people.
Some people prefer the terms simple church or organic church, recognizing that these small, more independent groups of believers can meet nearly anywhere: businesses, bars, restaurants, parks or shelters. The key features of these churches are that they are simple and easy to replicate.
We turned our efforts toward house churches because the people we were trying to reach — those who have been hurt, burned or turned off to church — often associate pews, sanctuaries, vestments and hymnals with spiritual oppression. Even fog machines and contemporary music turn them off. They speak of the “institutional church” in harsh terms, and their immediate reaction to seeing a 5,000-seat venue is a visceral rejection. “Jesus didn’t need that,” one friend says. Although I’m somewhat more circumspect about the many ways God can share the gospel, I understand the theology behind their critique. They want to see authentic community lived out in relationships.
Attractional vs. missional
Even churches that meet in alternative venues with hip music put most of their energy into creating an event that attracts people: the worship service. A church’s effectiveness is often measured by the size of its worshipping congregation. While I believe these metrics are important, it’s worth asking what we’re really measuring with attendance figures. Does a large gathering indicate faithfulness or discipleship?
Leaders like Alan Hirsch suggest that an alternative to the “attractional” church is the “missional” church — one focused on going and living out the gospel in new places. Certainly some large churches are also missional churches, but the focus in missional churches is practices, not programs. Rather than getting people to come to church, the goal is to take the church to people.
It’s important to point out that there’s nothing wrong with an attractional church, but the reality is that an attractional church will only reach a certain segment of the population that’s already predisposed to attend events. It’s also possible for a house church to be focused on attracting people to church rather than taking church to people.
History of house churches
From the very beginning, Jesus’ followers have met, eaten, prayed and worshipped in homes. It wasn’t until sometime around the year 240 that buildings were set aside specifically for use by worshipping congregations. According to church historian Everett Ferguson, a site in Dura-Europos in Syria reveals a home that was remodeled to accommodate a Christian congregation. Two rooms were combined to make one large worship space, and another room was converted into a baptistry. Christians started building larger buildings specifically for church use in the third and fourth centuries. When the Roman emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of his empire, the building boom began in earnest.
So, for 300 years, the church existed primarily in homes. In John Wesley’s day, Methodism was essentially a small-group renewal movement within the Church of England. People met in homes for Bible study and accountability. Later on in the United States, circuit riders often held worship services in people’s homes as they followed Western expansion.
What happens in a house church?
House churches vary as much as “traditional” churches. They may have an order of worship or no set plan at all. They may gather around a meal. They may or may not do corporate singing. Our house churches split our time four ways: We check in and pray for one another, we spend some time in liturgy and Scripture reading, we have a message and discussion and we share Communion. If someone with musical talent is available, we also sing.
In everything, the emphasis is on keeping things simple and replicable. If the house church becomes overly dependent on one person or one structure, it cannot reproduce itself.
Pros and cons of house churches
It’s important to note that some of the greatest strengths of house churches are also their greatest weaknesses.
Intimacy: Communities are physically close to one another. No “back pew” exists to fill up first when people arrive early. Guests are immediately known by name. While this creates a strong sense of community, it also can scare off people who prefer to remain anonymous. Those who are uncomfortable sharing much about themselves can feel ill at ease.
Hospitality: Some people think they can’t host a house church because there’s dog hair on the couch or crumbs on the table, and the stress of making the house perfect for guests every week scares them away from the idea. We’ve chosen to use the language of Jack King, whose blog post on “scruffy hospitality” points out that it’s more important to “welcome people into my humility than my standard of excellence.”
Leadership development and discipleship: In a house church, everyone is a potential leader. Anyone who can read may read Scripture, liturgy or prayer. Anyone may lead singing. Because of this high degree of involvement, the level of spiritual growth is high, but it requires commitment.
Stewardship: I’ve served a large church with thousands of members, and I recognize that there’s an economy of scale that smaller churches don’t have. More resources mean more ministries to more people. But proponents of house or simple churches point out that 20 percent of typical church budgets go toward building rent, mortgage, maintenance and utilities; 38–50 percent goes toward staff; and only about seven percent goes toward programs and ministries. House churches don’t have to pay for buildings, meaning more of their members’ giving can potentially go toward mission and ministry. Theoretically, house churches can give a greater return on investment for their giving dollars — it’s just that there aren’t as many of those dollars available to do large projects.
House churches are clearly not for everyone, and many house church leaders are wary of the idea being hyped as the next big thing or having it co-opted as a mere growth strategy. But for some groups of faithful followers, they are a tie to our past and a window into our future.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
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Teenage jihadists, Hillary's 'God gap' and
the legalization of marijuana
By Shane RaynorDemocratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Photo: Bigstock / Gino Santa Maria
On this episode of the News and Religion podcast, the panel and I discuss the recent attack by two teenage jihadists on a church in France, the possibility of the Democratic party attracting more religious voters in November and the trend of more Republican voters and Americans in general favoring the legalization of marijuana. Guests are Joseph Yoo, Rebekah Simon-Peter andMark Lockard.
Subscribe to the News and Religion podcast:
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Subscribe to the News and Religion podcast:
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TuneIn
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Sponsored
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When politics trumped faith
By Hannah Adair BonnerBigstock/ehrlif
As a child, I was taught that the most important characteristic about a political candidate was their faith: as a Christian nation, we needed Christian leaders, preferably born again and evangelical. Learning to swim in waters so thick with political convictions and action, it felt at times as though the world around me inhaled religion and exhaled politics, and somewhere inside us one became the other.
The political world changed over time, and so did my faith. Once I learned that I could fail and God would still love me, I started to understand grace and fell in love with being a part of the Methodist movement that places grace at the center. Once I released the list of “Don’ts” that I clung to as a life-preserver in a terrifying sea of sin, I found solid footing on all the “Do’s” of a loving God. I began to walk forward. I found passages in John and 1 Corinthians and Isaiah that became old companions on the journey; my oldest and my dearest friends, always faithful, always present.
The years passed and I journeyed far and wide seeking to be a good Methodist, to “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
I messed up plenty — as often as everyday and as recently as this morning — but I put my heart and soul into it. I tried so hard. Every day. I tried to live with faithful discipline, love with liberal generosity, and learn with determined optimism. With time, I learned that faith was not about what I did or did not do, it was about the fact that God loved me and that love required a response.
One of the biggest changes I had to make was the choice to accept my calling to preach after being raised in a church that taught that women were not to be clergy. I wrestled so hard with it; the struggle most intense between the age of 20 and 25, when one of my deepest points of identity fought for it’s very survival against the erroneous teachings of my youth that tried to tell my calling that it deserved to die; that it was heresy; that I was heretic.
My calling won, and I proceeded forward as United Methodist clergy, fully ordained, fully credentialed, fully amazed by what God had done with a little girl who had never imagined she’d live in a world that wanted to hear her voice.
As my faith grew, it brought me to acquire a set of my own deep convictions: some the same I had been raised with, some different, and some quite the opposite. I came to understand how Christianity had been co-opted and used to justify the expansion of Empire after Empire; how the same Empire that had issued Jesus’s death warrant, would be the first one to recognize the power of misusing his name.
I decided that my faith could inform my politics, but that for the sake of my faith, it was too dangerous to mix them together in the same bowl and end up losing track of which was which.
My faith changed, and so did the political world around me. When I crossed paths again with the Republican Party of my youth, I saw a stranger before me and I felt betrayed. I may not have found myself in sync with the Republican Party, but I expected that when we came across one another he would at least look familiar and we could be civil with one another. He had, after all, sat at my dinner table every evening growing up. I may have taken a different path in life, but I felt unreasonably aggravated that the old path did not feel familiar.
When I bumped into the Republican Party, he told me that Barack Obama, a member of the United Church of Christ, was a Muslim; and that Mitt Romney, a member of the Mormon religion, was closer to the evangelical Christian ideal. I was so confused; I felt like the whole world had been turned upside down. I had been okay with all the changes that had taken place within me, but I felt betrayed by the changes that had taken place within the world I left behind. I no longer recognized the Republican Party when he told me that Donald Trump was a Christian man; although there was a flicker of familiarity when he claimed that Hillary Clinton was not a Christian, that was an old song he had sung all throughout my youth.
Yet, when Hillary spoke, I could not deny I heard the echoes of her Methodist upbringing in her words; I heard that earnest determination, that Wesleyan intensity, that I shared with other Methodist women like Jarena Lee, Harper Lee, and Sandra Bland.
On Trump’s tongue, I heard poison. A poison that threatened to destroy everything I am and everything I love. Fear. Hate. Mockery. Sexism. Racism. Xenophobia. Power. Greed.
I wondered how could the political realm I had grown up in have changed so much? Then again, maybe it never changed; perhaps we are only just becoming aware of the repercussions. While we were inhaling religion and exhaling politics, did we never realize that the direction of the wind might change? Did we never realize that we might choke on our own exhaust?
Maybe it was politics that trumped faith all along. We just failed to see it clearly until now.
This post originally appeared on the author's blog. Reprinted with permission.
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Did Prince visit my wife in a dream?
By Clifton StringerPrince playing at Coachella in 2008. Wikimedia Commons/penner/CC 3.0
Did Prince visit my wife in a dream?
Here's the scoop.
Early in the morning of June 1, my wife had a dream that felt very real. She dreamed she was at a party, and feeling awkward. There was a celebration going on, people dancing, a band playing onstage and a famous guitar player present, identity mysteriously unknown. But Lindsey was feeling massively self-conscious. In her dream she was dressed in army green cargo pants and a long olive green silk shift. (She bids me to clarify: not her usual wardrobe.)
Then in the midst of her interior wardrobe crisis, Prince appears. Not the young, avidly risqué, Purple Rain Prince, but an older Prince, a fatherly Prince, perhaps Prince as a wisdom figure. He walks up to her and says, with utter seriousness:
"Hey, it's not what you wear, it's how you wear it."
And he gives her a hug.
And she feels comforted, and feels much better.
Later the same day — after we talked and had a laugh about this funny, amazing, and actually quite edifying dream — Lindsey noticed that Mayor Steve Adler of her beloved hometown of Austin, Texas, had declared June 1, 2016 "Prince Day."
Coincidence?
In any case, this Austin-curious fact was the occasion of more smiles and laughter in the Stringer apartment in Boston.
To be clear, I feel no pressure to draw any conclusions from this experience of Lindsey's, this event or encounter which happened in a dream.
But I do wonder. Has Prince, the formerly living, formerly Artist Formerly Known As Prince, made any other post-mortem appearances or comforting errands?
And, also, I do question… Are we all just way more closely interrelated in mind or soul than we tend to imagine? Such that space and time, life and death are, at least in some ways and times, porous, permeable, pervious to prayers, wishes, contact? As heirs of the rationalist fold of the European Enlightenment, we habitually imagine not... yet...
Yet, sometimes, the dying or dead visit in dreams, with striking and auspicious timing.
In 2010, David Bentley Hart wrote over at First Things:
I was fairly close to both Angela and Jacob throughout our teens; at least, we were all part of the same circle. I briefly entertained the hope of something closer between Angela and myself, and for a few weeks she was more or less my girlfriend; but Jacob “swept her off her feet,” and they were at one school and I at another, so I had no chance. It made no difference to our friendship, though.
Unfortunately, I largely lost touch with Angela when I started attending university. Over the course of the next six months, we crossed one another’s paths only three times or so. On the last occasion, she had just returned from a visit to Paris, from which she had brought home, among other things, the Pléiade edition of Montaigne she proudly showed me.
And that was that. Two and a half years later she was killed when a drunk driver struck her car in an intersection; she was alive for several hours after the collision, but never regained consciousness. That was twenty-five years ago tomorrow.
I learned of her death three days after, from Jacob. (Their romance had not survived their remove to separate colleges, but they had remained friends.) I won’t bother to say how the news affected me, but I will remark that I had had what in retrospect seemed to have been a premonition of it. On the night of her death, Angela had suddenly, for no discernible reason, come into my mind, attended by an inexplicable sense of aching melancholy, which at the time I simply took for acute nostalgia.
Jacob, though, had had something that seemed like much more than a premonition. On the night of Angela’s accident, apparently during the hours when she was lying in the hospital unconscious but still breathing, he had had a particularly vivid dream in which she and he had spoken to one another in a strange house that, after the fashion of dreams, was also somehow a garden (if I have the details right).
Their conversation, which had been pervasively sad, concerned her imminent departure for somewhere far away; and it seemed to Jacob that it was understood between them—in that way in which, in dreams, many unspoken things seem simply to be presumed—that she was leaving on a journey from which she would never return. She told him, he recalled, that she had come only to say good-bye.
Now, these things—my vague intuitions, Jacob’s haunting dream—may have been merely coincidences; but, frankly, I can’t make myself believe that the universe is quite large enough to accommodate coincidences of that kind. What was most extraordinary about our experiences, however, is that they were not that extraordinary at all.
That is, it is rather astonishing how common these encounters with the uncanny really are. You may not recall any yourself, but it is quite likely that you need only ask around among your acquaintances to discover someone who does. I myself have had at least two others, one utterly trivial, one of the most crucial importance, and both together sufficient to convince me that consciousness is not moored to the present moment or local space in quite the same way that the body is.
Then, after commenting on the inadequacy of materialist/physicalist accounts of consciousness, like Daniel Dennett's, Hart concludes:
Whatever the case, I cannot help but believe that on the night when Angela lay dying, some portion of my consciousness was remotely, flickeringly aware of the fact; and that she, or something of her, was able to reach out into Jacob’s dream to make her farewells. But, even in admitting I believe such things, I would never claim to understand them.
Claim to understand such things, certainly not. But... nonetheless... Christians can be forgiven for noticing that they bear a kind of fit with or open orientation toward our doctrine of the communion of saints. "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints...." Western Christians say those words of the Apostles Creed quite a lot, and Eastern Christians share the doctrine. They name a mystery, at one level, the mystery of our connection to one another, across centuries and locales, in a way that exceeds the material and is mediated by God.
The perhaps weird or surprising intellectual frame toward which the Christian faith draws its adherents is expansive enough to accommodate the countless Marian apparitions and meetings with saints credibly reported through the centuries, as well as near death experiences, encounters with angels, demonic possessions, and myriad other phenomena which plainly occur and are as plainly difficult to understand.
There's no reason, in principle, Prince couldn't make an appearance now and again.
Do be in touch if you've seen him.
***
See David Hart's whole post here.
For interesting articles on the faith of Prince, look no further than here and here.
For a good lecture which, at length, discusses two 'folds' of the Enlightenment in the context of Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar's responses to such, find Cyril O'Regan here.
Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of Christ the Lightgiver in the Converge Bible Studies series.
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How is it with your soul?
By Joseph YooBigstock/Wayne0216
John Wesley would open up all small group meetings with the question “How is it with your soul?” That’s a far deeper question than, “How are you?”
I mean, how is your soul doing? How is your spirit faring? Really, how are you?
It’s a jarring question because we often ask, “How are you?” out of habit and usually get impatient when someone has the nerve to actually tell us how they are doing.
Perhaps it’s a question we like to avoid because answering it forces us to really take stock on the health of our souls — which often leads to admitting that we may not be doing as well as we want others to think.
I've had to step back a bit here and there to really ask myself, “How is it with my soul?”
I've been going through a season of transition. I recently transferred conferences. We had to pack, find a place to live and move from California to Texas.
It’s really easy to get lost in all the demands of life. So we work, work, work and work. We’re so consumed and busy with work that we may not realize we’re running on steam. Sure, we take days off and vacations, but a lot us are still connected to our work. We work so hard and so much, we may be in danger of losing our humanity; losing the image of God in us.
So it’s imperative that we reflect often on the question that Wesley opened meetings with: How is it with your soul?
This question steers me to analyze my life and my habits.
What are the things that I’m engaging in that bring my soul closer God?
What are the things that I’m doing that are putting a wedge between God and myself?
What are the things that I’m doing in my life that really make my soul shine brightly and flourish?
What are things I’m engaged in that are draining the life out of my soul?
It’s really embarrassing to admit that I seem to be doing things that are not helpful to my soul. Or to be more accurate, activities which aren’t that important, but take precedence and priority over God.
The question also forces me to ask, “Am I confusing routine with commitment?” It’s rather easy to get routine mixed up with commitment because we do our stuff: go to church; read the Bible; pray before certain events/meals. And these things become habit… almost second nature.
The question, “How is it with your soul?” can help make sure that we still find life in things that we may have taken for granted because of their routine-ness.
Someone once told me that prayer is to our souls as breathing is to our bodies. Wesley’s question helps me to make sure my soul is breathing.
Reminding me…
to pause;
to pray;
to wonder;
to be in awe;
to laugh;
to cry;
to sing.
It reminds me that it’s OK to be human. And that it’s more than OK to admit that I’m not doing well and need a little help from my friends.
Maybe you could benefit from asking yourself, “How is it with my soul?” Or maybe you could help someone by asking how theirsoul is and then genuinely listen to their response.
It’s an important question that we should ask and answer frequently.
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Noah’s Ark mosaic uncovered in ancient Galilee synagogue
By Michelle Chabin / Religion News ServiceA mosaic shows a fish swallowing one of Pharaoh's soldiers in the parting of the Red Sea. The mosaic was found at the ancient synagogue at Huqoq. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman
(RNS) Exquisite mosaics depicting biblical scenes — one of Noah’s Ark, the other the parting of the Red Sea — were uncovered this summer by archaeologists excavating a fifth-century synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village near the Sea of Galilee.
A consortium of universities, led by Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uncovered the mosaics during its fifth annual excavation in June.
Magness said the mosaics, like others discovered at the synagogue since 2012, are of “extremely high artistic quality,” based on their artistry and the high number of stone mosaic cubes used in the designs.
Two donkeys in the Noah’s Ark mosaic discovered in June by archaeologists. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman
The Noah’s Ark mosaic includes pairs of bears, donkeys, leopards, camels, lions, ostriches and snakes, just as described in the Book of Genesis.
The mosaic of the parting of the Red Sea features Pharaoh’s soldiers drowning with their horses and chariots.
"Of course the story of Noah’s Ark and the parting of the Red Sea were known to Jews, as well as Christians, at the time because they read the Hebrew Bible,” Magness said. “We have other ancient synagogues where these scenes are depicted, though they are not common in synagogue art."
The archaeologist said excavation experts dug down to a level of soil where, based on findings elsewhere at the site, they hoped mosaics might be found.
“As our site conservator, Orna Cohen, worked methodically to brush away the dirt, little by little, we all stood around and began to see animals. At some point we realized this was a depiction of Noah’s Ark.”
Deciphering the second mosaic was harder, Magness said.
“We could see little bits and pieces of people, fish, chariots. We all stood around and guessed” whether the mosaic depicted a biblical story and if so, which one.
“I won the parting of the Red Sea” guess-a-thon, she said with a laugh.
But the Red Sea mosaic features a twist on the biblical story: a large fish swallowing Pharaoh’s soldiers.
“This represents an elaboration on the story that must have been circulating at the time," she said.
The mosaics have been removed from the site for conservation and study.
But a previously discovered mosaic from the site that depicts Samson carrying the gate of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3) is on display at Kibbutz Ginosar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
Magness would love to see the mosaics eventually restored to the Huqoq synagogue.
“It would require an enormous investment of money to develop the site, a building with a guard and cooperation between different government authorities that would have to take responsibility. Who owns the land? Who would maintain it?”
Still, she added, “There are conversations at the highest levels to make this happen.”
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Election 2016: Set your mind on things above
By James C. HowellBigstock/badboo
'Tis that season again — and no, it's not the season to be jolly. Everyone is frowning, exasperated, a little ticked off or disturbed. Two weeks of nightly conventions are ending, and it would be hard to say we are better people, or holier, because the conventions have happened. Both parties try to outdo one another in negativity, and all the invective only feeds our inner darkness and sharpens our anger. Fear, dread, and a sense of dislocation sprawl in and between us like kudzu.
How does a Christian stay calm, find some spiritual equilibrium, and make sense of it all? God isn't delighted by politics in the United States; but then what does God see in me? It's a bit of a test, a stiff challenge, to be a follower of Jesus right now. You can withdraw, but Jesus clearly asks us to engage our world. You can get drawn into this side or that side's spitting contest. You can get surly in front of the TV and dash off a Facebook retort. You can say "religion and politics don't mix," but if we can't talk about God and God's interest in these things that clearly matter so much, then maybe God isn't relevant to anything at all. Perhaps, if we are humble and open, God can show us "a more excellent way" (as Paul introduced his famous "love" chapter, 1 Corinthians 13).
"For God so loved the world..." (John 3:16) — and yes, that would be this world, the one in which we find ourselves mired, annoyed, confused, and yet strangely hopeful. I don't know many people who've just given up. We cling to some glimmer of optimism deep inside that maybe, just maybe, things will get better, that something good will somehow come out of it all. Maybe for the nation, maybe locally — and maybe just in me.
Between now and election day, I would like to talk about religion, politics, and the state of the soul. How do Christians sort things out and interact with a raging culture in a holy, constructive way? Does God care about the results of the election? Are there genuinely Christian issues and positions? How would we know? Can you read my articles and trust me without getting angry at me?
Let's pray together, for our world but also for our souls. Let's hope that these times together, sharing these words, might bring some healing, hope, and even holy engagement with this world God created, with a world God is more eager to save than we are to have it saved.
This article originally appeared on the author's blog.
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This Sunday August 7, 2016
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
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Lectionary Readings:
Lectionary Readings:
Sunday, 7 August 2016
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Luke 12:32-40
Scripture Text for Isaiah 1:1 This is the vision of Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of ‘Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y’chizkiyahu, kings of Y’hudah:
10 Hear what Adonai says,
you rulers of S’dom!
Listen to God’s Torah,
you people of ‘Amora!
11 “Why are all those sacrifices
offered to me?” asks Adonai.
“I’m fed up with burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fattened animals!
I get no pleasure from the blood
of bulls, lambs and goats!
12 Yes, you come to appear in my presence;
but who asked you to do this,
to trample through my courtyards?
13 Stop bringing worthless grain offerings!
They are like disgusting incense to me!
Rosh-Hodesh, Shabbat, calling convocations —
I can’t stand evil together with your assemblies!
14 Everything in me hates your Rosh-Hodesh
and your festivals;
they are a burden to me —
I’m tired of putting up with them!
15 “When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
no matter how much you pray,
I won’t be listening;
because your hands are covered with blood.
16 “Wash yourselves clean!
Get your evil deeds out of my sight!
Stop doing evil, 17 learn to do good!
Seek justice, relieve the oppressed,
defend orphans, plead for the widow.
18 “Come now,” says Adonai,
“let’s talk this over together.
Even if your sins are like scarlet,
they will be white as snow;
even if they are red as crimson,
they will be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you will be eaten by the sword”;
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.
Psalm 50:(0) A psalm of Asaf:
(1) The Mighty One, God, Adonai, is speaking,
summoning the world from east to west.
2 Out of Tziyon, the perfection of beauty,
God is shining forth.
3 Our God is coming and not staying silent.
With a fire devouring ahead of him
and a great storm raging around him,
4 he calls to the heavens above and to earth,
in order to judge his people.
5 “Gather to me my faithful,
those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. (Selah)
7 “Listen, my people, I am speaking:
Isra’el, I am testifying against you,
I, God, your God.
8 I am not rebuking you for your sacrifices;
your burnt offerings are always before me.
22 Consider this, you who forget God,
or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to save you.
23 “Whoever offers thanksgiving
as his sacrifice honors me;
and to him who goes the right way
I will show the salvation of God.”
Hebrews 11:1 Trusting[Hebrews 11:1 Habakkuk 2:4] is being confident of what we hope for, convinced about things we do not see. 2 It was for this that Scripture attested the merit of the people of old.
3 By trusting, we understand that the universe was created through a spoken word of God, so that what is seen did not come into being out of existing phenomena.
8 By trusting, Avraham obeyed, after being called to go out[Hebrews 11:8 Genesis 12:1] to a place which God would give him as a possession; indeed, he went out without knowing where he was going. 9 By trusting, he lived as a temporary resident in the Land of the promise, as if it were not his, staying in tents with Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, who were to receive what was promised along with him. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with permanent foundations, of which the architect and builder is God.
11 By trusting, he received potency to father a child, even when he was past the age for it, as was Sarah herself; because he regarded the One who had made the promise as trustworthy. 12 Therefore this one man, who was virtually dead, fathered descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky,
and as countless as the grains of the sand on the seashore.[Hebrews 11:12 Genesis 15:5–6; 22:17; 32:13(12); Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10; 10:22]
13 All these people kept on trusting until they died, without receiving what had been promised. They had only seen it and welcomed it from a distance, while acknowledging that they were aliens and temporary residents on the earth.[Hebrews 11:13 1 Chronicles 29:15] 14 For people who speak this way make it clear that they are looking for a fatherland. 15 Now if they were to keep recalling the one they left, they would have an opportunity to return; 16 but as it is, they aspire to a better fatherland, a heavenly one. This is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Luke 12:32 Have no fear, little flock, for your Father has resolved to give you the Kingdom! 33 Sell what you own and do tzedakah — make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, riches in heaven that never fail, where no burglar comes near, where no moth destroys. 34 For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also.
35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit, 36 like people waiting for their master’s return after a wedding feast; so that when he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him without delay. 37 Happy the slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes! Yes! I tell you he will put on his work clothes, seat them at the table, and come serve them himself! 38 Whether it is late at night or early in the morning, if this is how he finds them, those slaves are happy.
39 “But notice this: no house-owner would let his house be broken into if he knew when the thief was coming. 40 You too, be ready! For the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him.”
The John Wesley's Notes-Commentary for Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
Verse 1
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[1] The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Vision — Or, the visions; the word being here collectively used: the sense is, this is the book of the visions or prophecies. As prophets were called Seers, 1 Samuel 9:9, so prophecies are called visions, because they were as clearly and certainly represented to the prophets minds, as bodily objects are to mens eyes.
Saw — Foresaw and foretold. But he speaks, after the manner of the prophets, of things to come, as if they were either past or present.
Judah — Principally, but not exclusively. For he prophecies also concerning Egypt and Babylon, and divers other countries; yet with respect to Judah.
The days — ln the time of their reign. Whence it may be gathered, that Isaiah exercised his prophetical office above fifty years altogether.
Verse 10
[10] Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Of Sodom — So called for their resemblance of them in wickedness.
The law — The message which I am now to deliver to you from God, your great lawgiver.
Verse 11
[11] To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
To me — Who am a spirit, and therefore cannot be satisfied with such carnal oblations, but expect to have your hearts and lives, as well as your bodies and sacrifices, presented unto me.
Blood — He mentions the fat and blood, because these were in a peculiar manner reserved for God, to intimate that even the best of their sacrifices were rejected by him.
Verse 12
[12] When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
To appear — Upon the three solemn feasts, or upon other occasions.
Who required — The thing I commanded, was not only, nor chiefly, that you should offer external sacrifices, but that you should do it with true repentance, with faith in my promises, and sincere resolutions of devoting yourselves to my service.
Verse 13
[13] Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
The solemn meeting — The most solemn day of each of the three feasts, which was the last day.
Verse 15
[15] And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Blood — You are guilty of murder, and oppression.
Verse 16
[16] Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Wash — Cleanse your hearts and hands.
Verse 17
[17] Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Learn — Begin to live soberly, righteously, and godly.
Judgment — Shew your religion to God, by practising justice to men.
Judge — Defend and deliver them.
Verse 19
[19] If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
If — If you are fully resolved to obey all my commands.
Shall eat — Together with pardon, you shall receive temporal and worldly blessings.
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
Verse 1
[1] The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.
Called — All the inhabitants of the earth, from one end to the other: whom he here summons to be witnesses of his proceedings in this solemn judgment, between him and his people, which is here poetically represented. For here is a tribunal erected, the judge coming to it, the witnesses and delinquents summoned, and at last the sentence given.
Verse 2
[2] Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Zion — The place where he was supposed to reside, and where he would now sit in judgment.
The perfection — The most amiable place of the whole world, because, of the presence and worship, and blessing of God.
Shined — Hath manifested himself in a glorious manner.
Verse 3
[3] Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
Our God — The prophet speaks this in the persons of the worshippers of God. Though he be our God, yet he will come to execute judgment upon us.
Cease — Or delay to sit in judgment.
Tempestuous — This is a farther description of that terrible majesty, wherewith God would clothe himself when he came to his tribunal.
Verse 4
[4] He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
Call — To the inhabitants of them, all angels and men, whom he calls in for witnesses of the equity of his proceedings.
Verse 5
[5] Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
Gather — O ye angels, summon and fetch them to my tribunal. Which is poetically spoken, to continue the metaphor, and representation of the judgment.
My saints — The Israelites, whom God had chosen and separated them from all the nations of the earth, to be an holy and peculiar people to himself, and they also had solemnly devoted themselves to God; all which aggravated their apostacy.
Those — Who have entered into covenant with me, and have ratified that covenant by sacrifice. This seems to be added, to acquaint them with the proper nature, use and end of sacrifices, which were principally appointed to be signs and seals of the covenant made between God and his people; and consequently to convince them of their great mistake in trusting to their outward sacrifices, when they neglected the very life and soul of them, which was the keeping of their covenant with God.
Verse 6
[6] And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. /*Selah*/.
Declare — God will convince the people of his righteousness, and of their own wickedness, by thunders and lightnings, and storms, or other dreadful signs wrought by him in the heavens.
Himself — In his own person. God will not now reprove them, by his priests or prophets, but in an extraordinary manner from heaven.
Verse 7
[7] Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.
Hear — Having brought in God, as coming to judgment, he now gives an account of the process and sentence of the judge.
Testify — I will declare my charge against thee.
Thy God — Not only in general, but in a special manner, by that solemn covenant made at Sinai; whereby I avouched thee to be my peculiar people, and thou didst avouch me to be thy God.
Verse 8
[8] I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me.
I will not — This is not the principal matter of my charge, that thou hast neglected sacrifices which thou shouldst have offered.
Verse 23
[23] Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
Glorifieth — He and he only gives me the honour that I require, and not he who loads my altar with sacrifices.
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Verse 1
[1] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The definition of faith given in this verse, and exemplified in the various instances following, undoubtedly includes justifying faith, but not directly as justifying. For faith justifies only as it refers to, and depends on, Christ. But here is no mention of him as the object of faith; and in several of the instances that follow, no notice is taken of him or his salvation, but only of temporal blessings obtained by faith. And yet they may all be considered as evidences of the power of justifying faith in Christ, and of its extensive exercise in a course of steady obedience amidst difficulties and dangers of every kind.
Now faith is the subsistence of things hoped for, the evidence or conviction of things not seen — Things hoped for are not so extensive as things not seen. The former are only things future and joyful to us ; the latter are either future, past, or present, and those either good or evil, whether to us or others. The subsistence of things hoped for - Giving a kind of present subsistence to the good things which God has promised: the divine supernatural evidence exhibited to, the conviction hereby produced in, a believer of things not seen, whether past, future, or spiritual; particularly of God and the things of God.
Verse 2
[2] For by it the elders obtained a good report.
By it the elders — Our forefathers. This chapter is a kind of summary of the Old Testament, in which the apostle comprises the designs, labours, sojournings, expectations, temptations, martyrdoms of the ancients. The former of them had a long exercise of their patience; the latter suffered shorter but sharper trials.
Obtained a good testimony — A most comprehensive word. God gave a testimony, not only of them but to them: and they received his testimony as if it had been the things themselves of which he testified, Hebrews 11:4,5,39. Hence they also gave testimony to others, and others testified of them.
Verse 3
[3] Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
By faith we understand that the worlds — Heaven and earth and all things in them, visible and invisible.
Where made — Formed, fashioned, and finished.
By the word — The sole command of God, without any instrument or preceding matter. And as creation is the foundation and specimen of the whole divine economy, so faith in the creation is the foundation and specimen of all faith.
So that things which are seen — As the sun, earth, stars.
Were made of things which do not appear — Out of the dark, unapparent chaos, Genesis 1:2. And this very chaos was created by the divine power; for before it was thus created it had no existence in nature.
Verse 8
[8] By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
Genesis 12:1,4,5
Verse 9
[9] By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise — The promise was made before, Genesis 12:7.
Dwelling in tents — As a sojourner With Isaac and Jacob - Who by the same manner of living showed the same faith Jacob was born fifteen years before the death of Abraham.
The joint heirs of the same promise — Having all the same interest therein. Isaac did not receive this inheritance from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but all of them from God. Genesis 17:8
Verse 10
[10] For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
He looked for a city which hath foundations — Whereas a tent has none.
Whose builder and former is God — Of which God is the sole contriver, former, and finisher.
Verse 11
[11] Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.
Sarah also herself — Though at first she laughed at the promise, Genesis 18:12. Genesis 21:2.
Verse 12
[12] Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
As it were dead — Till his strength was supernaturally restored, which continued for many years after.
Verse 13
[13] These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
All these — - Mentioned Hebrews 11:7-11.
Died in faith — In death faith acts most vigorously.
Not having received the promises — The promised blessings.
Embraced — As one does a dear friend when he meets him.
Verse 14
[14] For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
They who speak thus show plainly that they seek their own country — That they keep in view, and long for, their native home.
Verse 15
[15] And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
If they had been mindful of - Their earthly country, Ur of the Chaldeans, they might have easily returned.
Verse 16
[16] But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
But they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly — This is a full convincing proof that the patriarchs had a revelation and a promise of eternal glory in heaven. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: seeing he hath prepared for them a city - Worthy of God to give.
Luke 12:32-40
Verse 32
[32] Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom — How much more food and raiment? And since ye have such an inheritance, regard not your earthly possessions.
Verse 33
[33] Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
Sell what ye have — This is a direction, not given to all the multitude: (much less is it a standing rule for all Christians:) neither to the apostles; for they had nothing to sell, having left all before: but to his other disciples, (mentioned Luke 12:22, and Acts 1:15,) especially to the seventy, that they might be free from all worldly entanglements. Matthew 6:19.
Verse 35
[35] Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
Let your loins be girt — An allusion to the long garments, worn by the eastern nations, which they girded or tucked up about their loins, when they journeyed or were employed in any labour: as also to the lights that servants used to carry at weddings, which were generally in the night.
Verse 37
[37] Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
He will come and serve them — The meaning is, he will show them his love, in the most condescending and tender manner.
Verse 38
[38] And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
The Jews frequently divided the night into three watches, to which our Lord seems here to allude.
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FREE by Chris Andrews
Luke 12:32-40
Sometimes the gospel is a mystery. Sometimes Scripture is difficult to understand. The words of Jesus in Luke 12 fit the category of difficult. Jesus says, “Sell your possessions, and give alms” (v. 33). Jesus prefaces this sentence with something else. He says, “Do not be afraid, . . . for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (v. 32).
In my culture there is more talk about saving than about giving. There is emphasis on retirement plans and making sure that enough is stored up to guarantee the standard of living we have come to believe is our birthright. How does a preacher find a sermon in these words?
Perhaps the key is the command of Jesus to not be afraid. In truth, a lot of us are afraid. In fact, fear may be the dominant sense of our world. Burglar alarms and personal weapons combined with healthy diets and sensible planning for retirement have not stopped the dread of anxiety that most of us deal with every day of our lives in this society.
When I was young and something frightened me, it was comforting to hear my parents say, “Don’t be afraid.” The authority of their adulthood, their bigness, took away my fear with only their word. If they said, “Don’t be afraid,” that was enough. They had the situation in hand. Everything would be all right. There was nothing else to do. Fear melted with the warmth of that gentle word of assurance, “Don’t be afraid.”
But we are not little anymore. Who speaks this word for us in an adult world? Is Jesus able to speak to adult fears that come in the middle of the night and cause us to toss and turn sleepless in our beds? Is Jesus able to speak to us when our dreams march by like defeated soldiers? Can Jesus say something to us when it is three o’clock in the morning?
Well, maybe the answer is in Jesus’ words after all. “Sell your possessions,” he says. Why? To become poor? No. To become free. So much of the ministry of Jesus was about helping people become free. He still does this today.
I think of the day Jesus was confronted with the surprising sight of a man being lowered through a roof so he could receive Jesus’ blessing. We are told that the man was paralyzed, and it must have been a severe condition because he had to be carried on a stretcher by his friends. We may think of that man and believe there is a great amount of difference between him and us. But are we not paralyzed too? Are our hands free, able to extend in gestures of help and love to anyone, anywhere? Are our legs unbent, able to walk into any hellhole of human misery in an act of reconciliation? Are our tongues free to announce to any who hear that God loves all his children, not stiffened with the grip of envy and gossip? Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants you to be free!
Freedom. I think of Jesus standing in front of his friend Lazarus’s tomb and calling, “Come out!” (John 11:43). I can almost hear the collective gasp of the people witnessing this gravebound corpse shuffling from the darkness of his tomb toward the light of the rest of his life. Jesus said, “Unbind him, and let him go” (v. 44). Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants you to be free!
Freedom. I think of that miserable little fellow named Zacchaeus, up a tree and all alone and Jesus saying, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5), and Zacchaeus hurrying home to a supper that included the food of his redemption. Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants you to be free!
Freedom. I think of Jesus speaking in the lives of his contemporary brothers and sisters, asking questions that at first can seem so threatening: “Are you happy?” “Do you like what you’re doing?” “Is there meaning in your life?” “What would you do if you could do anything?” I was in seminary with two men who were brave enough to let those questions into their souls. One was a Harvard-educated lawyer. The other was a research chemist with a big oil company who had earned a doctorate from an Ivy League school. They walked away from wealth and power and prestige to serve rural churches in Kansas. Both of them said the issue wasn’t about giving up possessions, it was about removing fear. Once they were free of their need to build up fortunes on earth and stay in control of everything, they began to live happy lives.
Don’t be afraid. Jesus wants you to be free!
Our sanctuary was being renovated and was closed for a time. The contractor put a sign on the door that read “Danger.” Perhaps we should have left the sign up. Let the world know that to follow Jesus is dangerous and exhilarating; confusing yet clarifying; scary yet thrilling; quiet yet bold.Don’t be afraid! Be free to live spontaneously before the mystery of God. Be free to live a life that lasts beyond death. Be free to live in this world unafraid. Joy to the world! We are free! read more
WORSHIP ELEMENTS: AUGUST 7, 2016 by Hans Holznagel
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Color: Green
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Theme Ideas
God's anger and God's pleasure, with individuals and with nations, are seen in today's readings. What makes God angry? Isaiah 1:10-20, the peak of argumentation in God's lawsuit against the people of the covenant, and Psalm 50, a liturgy of covenant renewal, offer strong answers. God does "not delight in," "cannot endure," is "weary of," even "hates" the people's ritual worship (Isaiah 1:10-15) and "will not accept" it (Psalm 50:9). The answer is not against worship itself (Psalm 50:8), but at what the people are doing elsewhere. What pleases God? Ceasing evil and learning to do good (Isaiah 10:16-18), and giving thanks (Psalm 50:23). Hope is also found in Luke 12, where Jesus tells the disciples it is God's "good pleasure to give you the kingdom," and urges readiness and simplicity. Finally, hope is found in Hebrews 11, where it is said that "God is not ashamed" of the faithful, courageous, forward-looking people of the covenant.
Call to Worship (Psalm 50)
The mighty One summons us from sunrise to sunset.
Out of perfect beauty, God shines forth.
God calls to heaven and earth,
"Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me."
The heavens declare the righteousness of God,
the judge of people and nations.
Let us not forget God, but with thanksgiving
as our sacrifice, let us be a people of justice.
We worship the God of our salvation.
Contemporary Gathering Words (Isaiah 1, Psalm 50)
Sometimes God gets angry.
People and nations don't do what they should.
Today, God reminds us of our covenant,
asking us to wash and make ourselves clean.
Learn to do good. Seek justice.
Remind us, O God, and show us the right way to go!
Praise Sentences (Hebrews 11)
Praise God for things seen:
for stars and heavens,
for sand and seashore.
Praise God for things hoped for:
for things not seen.
Praise God for the gift of faith!
Praise Sentences (Hebrews 11)
For mothers and fathers, strangers and foreigners,
the faithful of past generations,
we give God thanks and praise.
For their trust in God,
now entrusted to us,
we give God thanks and praise.
Opening Prayer (Psalm 50, Luke 12)
Gracious God,
thank you for seeking us out,
for gathering us before you,
for not keeping silent
in the face of our need.
Thank you for calling us into account,
and for challenging us with strong words
to be a people of covenant and justice.
Thank you for assuring us
that we need not be afraid,
for it is your good pleasure
to give us your kingdom.
In courage and hope,
we come before you this hour,
to hear your Word and prepare our hearts
for the unexpected hour of your coming.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Opening Prayer (Hebrews 11, Luke 12)
Creator God,
maker of stars and seashores,
reveal your word to us this day
in which all things were made.
Redeemer God, caller of disciples,
light our lamps this day,
dress us for action,
and open the doors
of our hearts and minds.
Sustainer God,
sender of the Holy Spirit,
renew in us the faith of our ancestors,
that we might claim it as our own
in covenant with you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Prayer of Confession (Isaiah 1)
O God,
your call for justice is so clear
that we are amazed at how easily
we fail to hear you
over the din of daily life.
We want to cease to do evil.
We want to learn to do good.
Yet, we rarely do all we can
to rescue, defend, and plead
for those in need.
As you have sought us out,
so we seek your pardon.
Grant us courage, we pray,
as persons, as communities, and as nations,
to bring about the justice you desire. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Hebrews 11, Luke 12)
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
the conviction of things not seen.
People of faith, God is not ashamed
to be called your God.
By God's grace we are forgiven.
Let the church say amen.
Amen.
Benediction (Luke 12)
Have your lamps lit.
Be dressed for action.
Be generous; give alms.
Be unburdened by possessions.
Where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.
Go in peace. Amen.
Benediction (Isaiah 1:16-19)
Cease to do evil; learn to do good.
Seek justice; rescue the oppressed.
Defend the orphan; plead for the widow—
and you shall eat of the good of the land.
Go in peace. Amen.From The Abingdon Worship Annual edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © Abingdon Press. The Abingdon Worship Annual 2017 is now available. read more
WORSHIP CONNECTION: AUGUST 7, 2016 by Nancy C. Townley
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Color: Green
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1:
L: The Lord calls us today to be people of justice and mercy.
P: Our worship is hollow if it focuses only on our own gratification.
L: The Lord asks that our words of hope become actions of peace.
P: Thanks be to God who challenges and calls us.
L: Let our ministry together bring peace and justice.
P: Let our lives reflect God's love and mercy. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2:
L: The Lord comes to us this day. Are you ready?
P: We are ready!
L: The Lord challenges us to be in ministries of peace and hope. Are you ready?
P: We are ready!
L: Let us praise God who calls us to serve God by helping others.
P: Praise be to God who has given us hope and peace. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3:
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2174, "What Does the Lord Require of You", offer the following call to worship as directed. As the singing parts enter, the leader's voice and the people's response will be heard, almost as a voice-over technique]
Choir [Men only]: singing part 1 of "What Does the Lord Require of You" (they will continue to sing this throughout the whole call to worship]
L: How shall we give praise to the Lord? Shall we offer thousands of rivers of oil? Shall we give ten thousand sacrificial Lambs?
P: How shall we come before the Lord to offer praise?
Choir [Altos singing as the men continue their part]: sing part 2 of "What Does the Lord Require of You" [they will continue singing this throughout the whole call to worship]
L: What shall we offer in prayer in supplication to please God?
P: How shall we show God our devotion and our love?
Choir [Sopranos singing as the other two parts continue]: sing part 3 of "What Does the Lord Require of You" [They will continue singing this throughout the whole call to worship]
L: Will God be pleased with our songs and shouts of praise? Will God love our festivals and our feasts?
P: What does the Lord require of us?
Choir: everyone singing the whole song
L: We are called to do justice
P: We are called to love kindness.
ALL: We are called to walk humbly with our God. AMEN
Call to Worship #4:
L: Get ready! The Lord needs you.
P: We are ready to serve God.
L: Be prepared to serve in ministries of justice and peace.
P: We are ready to serve God by helping others.
L: Open your hearts, your souls, your minds to God's mercy and love.
P: Prepare us for service to you, O loving God. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY/READING, BENEDICTION
Opening Prayer
Surprising God of mercy and love, thank you for calling to us this day. We praise you that you challenge us to show our faith in ministries of peace and justice, offering compassion to all in need. Open our hearts and minds today to hear your words of encouragement and challenge. We offer this prayer in Jesus' Name.AMEN.
Prayer of Confession
Forgiving God, you know how easy it is for us to celebrate with joy the wonders of your love. We create wonderful art to represent the joy we feel. Our music soars to the heavens in praise of you. Yet how often we have left our service to you as mere thoughts and intentions without fulfillment. You ask us to be ready to serve you at any time, but we place our commitment on the "to do" list of life; we will do these things when we get to them. Forgive our hesitancy and our self-serving ways, O Lord. Heal us of the disease of seeking first our own comfort before we engage in acts of justice and mercy. Open our eyes and ears to the cries of those in need. Help us to give and also to receive ministries of love and reconciliation as we serve you with our whole hearts. Then our music, our art, our worship will truly reflect your awesome and abundant love for us.AMEN.
Words of Assurance
It is God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. It is our joy to serve God by helping each other and all those in need. Be assured of God's tender mercy toward you and continue that love in all that you do.AMEN.
Pastoral Prayer
Lord of peace and justice, how easy it is for us to fall into the trap of complacency. We get used to doing things the way we have always done them before. We celebrate your love and rejoice in your gifts through our ministry of worship and sacrament. We place our abundance before you in offerings to enable ministries of hope to flourish. Yet we hang back. We feel that we have done enough. We think that we have met the challenge of your call to us. Wake us up! Shake us up! Get us excited about all the wondrous ways in which we can serve you! Do not let our awareness of the needs of others be expressed only in our prayers for healing and compassion. Shape us to be people of justice and peace, bringing the glorious news of your love to all people. Stretch us out! Make us truly disciples who are always ready to help others. Create in us a new spirit and a joyful energy to serve you. For we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.AMEN.
Litany/ReadingReader 1:
Let's see......my check to help the mission team is ready. The boxes of school kits for the kids are almost packed. And oh, the knitted prayer shawls are being gathered to be mailed out. Look at what we have been able to do!
Reader 2:
You've got to be kidding! You are spending all your time, not to mention your money, on this stuff. When do you have any time for yourself?
Reader 1:
Well, actually....I love doing these things. I know that right now I am unable to go to help with the mission trip, but at least I can give some funds to help the mission team. Our committee at church has had a wonderful time gathering the school supplies for the children. Most of us have grown children and grandchildren and we would like to find ways to help others as well as our own. And I found myself thinking of all those volunteers who have helped in ravaged places. How hard they have worked and our prayers have been with them as well as with the people they have served. Each stitch for me is a prayer of gratitude for their strength and energy. Although I cannot do the work they are doing, I can support them with love and the gift of a shawl.
Reader 2:
Yeah, but what's in it for you?
Reader 1:
Well, if you are talking about reward or recognition, that doesn't matter. All that matters is the joy of helping in whatever way I can.
Reader 2:
You are ridiculous! Everybody wants something. Don't you want something from all of this?
Reader 1:
No. I've already got what I want. Peace and Joy.
Reader 2:
Oh brother......another do-gooder! Will you people never learn that it's everyone for themselves?
Reader 1:
I think you are mistaken. It should be that it is everyone for each other, in justice, peace, mercy, hope and love. That's what life should be all about. Not gathering in for our own comfort or pride, but giving for the joy and love of God.
Reader 2:
Doesn't make sense to me. You just give and give. You aren't getting paid or anything.
Reader 1:
The reward, or payment as you call it, is in the joy of helping.
Reader 2:
Well, you seem happy enough. But I'm not sure that I can do this.
Reader 1:
When you are ready, you will be able to do this. Meanwhile, could you help me load up this last box of school supplies?
Benediction
People of God, made ready by God's love and mercy: Go forth into God's world to serve in ministries of justice, kindness and peace. Know always that God's peace is with you.AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
The traditional color for this Sunday is GREEN.
Note: It is always a good idea to put a sentence or two in the weekly bulletin describing the meaning of the worship center.
Note: Lately our churches have experienced the calls for school kits, prayer shawls, and mission giving. The scripture today calls us to be ready to serve the Lord. This worship setting can be one in which the school kits, prayer shawls, and other offerings can be displayed, dedicated, and offered as symbols of our service and joy in the Lord.
SURFACE:
Place several risers on the worship center. One should be at the center back and should be approximately 8" high (you will place a cross on this one). The others may be varying heights and should be "staggered" around the worship center, but not in front of the center riser. Place two risers in front of the worship center, the taller of the two to the right front and the shorter one to the left front.
FABRIC:
Cover the entire worship center in green fabric. You may use several shades of green if you wish, but I do not recommend using patterned or striped fabric for this display. The fabric should cover all the risers and "puddle" on the floor.
CANDLES:
Place one 10" white pillar candle in front of the center riser on the worship center. (This candle represents Christ). If you are not creating a "dedication" center, place several candle holders and candles on the various risers to represent readiness to serve. These candles should be lighted following the sermon or during the offering portion of the worship service.
FLOWERS/FOLIAGE:
If you wish to use leafy foliage plants, such as ivy or fern, they should be placed to the right and left of the cross. Larger plants may be placed on the floor to soften the look of the worship center.
ROCKS/WOOD:
I do not recommend rocks or wood for this setting.
OTHER:
If you are using this setting as a point of dedication for school kits, prayer shawls, food pantry offerings, you may place some of these items on the risers. Prayer shawls may be draped over the risers. School kits could be set in baskets, which are laying on their sides near the risers. Food pantry offerings may be in baskets or boxes. If you are not doing a dedication you could place uncut loaves of bread, bunches of grapes, apples, and other fruit on the various risers to show the bounty of God's love. The lighted candles are representative of readiness to serve God. read more
WORSHIP FOR KIDS: AUGUST 7, 2016 by Carolyn C. Brown
From a Child's Point of View
Old Testament: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20.Isaiah's message is one children can understand: God is not fooled by people who worship God, but do not obey. Isaiah's references to Old Testament worship practices, however, are a problem. The easiest way to solve this problem is to point out that sacrifices, new moon festivals, and sabbaths were ways people in Isaiah's day worshiped, just as choir anthems, Christmas pageants, Easter flowers, and beautiful prayers are ways we worship today. The Good News Bible offers the clearest translation for children.
Psalm: 50:1-8, 22-23. Consider reading this entire psalm for the sake of clarity. (The jump from verse 8 to 22 is a long one.) When they hear the psalm read dramatically, children hear, in occasional lines, a message that parallels that of Isaiah.
Epistle: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16. This passage is an attempt to define faith. For children, faith is trust. Abraham and Sarah trusted God when they were called to move to an unknown land, and also when God promised them a son, though they knew they were too old to have children.
We are called to trust God as Abraham and Sarah did. Today that means trusting that God loves us and made us with a good plan in mind for us. It also means we know that God is working to make the world a loving, happy place and that we are ready to help.
Gospel: Luke 12:32-40. In its opening verses (32-34), this passage continues the theme of last week's Gospel lesson, but it involves a number of abstract images (the Kingdom, purses that do not wear out, and the location of treasures and hearts) which must be worked through if children are are to understand them.
The second part of the passage focuses on the need to be constantly prepared for God's presence. Three prepared people are noted: servants prepared for their master's return from a wedding feast at any hour; a homeowner prepared for a thief whose approach is known; and a Christian prepared for God's presence. Children need help to find each of these people in the somewhat run-together passage, but they can appreciate them when found. They also need specific suggestions about what they can do in order to be prepared for God (e.g., use well the talents God has given them, be loving, worship God on their own and with others).
Watch Words
Hypocrite may be a new word. Today it describes a person who goes to church and sings about loving God and prays about serving God, but then is selfish and cruel during the week.
Faith is best paraphrased as trust.
Let the Children Sing
When it is pointed out, older children appreciate the connection between worship and discipleship in "Lord Speak to Me."
Conclude worship and begin living as disciples with "Go Forth for God." Though younger children have trouble with the verses, they enjoy singing the repeated first and last lines.
Faith hymns tend to be filled with abstract jargon. For children, sing "Jesus Loves Me" or "The Lord's My Shepherd."
The Liturgical Child
1. Invite different groups within your worshiping community to share in the Prayer of Confession:
Leader: We gather here as God's people to worship, to sing God's praises, to hear God's Word. But to be honest, we want to keep what we sing and pray and hear just between you and me. We are not ready to take it out to our workplaces, shopping malls, playgrounds, and swimming pools. So our worship must include confession. Let us pray.
Choir: Lord of the arts, we love to sing your praises. We enjoy beautiful music and find friends among choir members. But we are not so ready to praise you during the week. We are slow to speak up for you at work, hesitant to stand up for what is right among our friends, and unwilling to live up to our sung praises. Forgive us.
Ushers: Lord of loving friends, we are happy to welcome people to worship. We gladly smile and help them find a seat. But we are not always so open to others. We often ignore people who come our way. We feel no responsibility for those who need our help. Forgive us.
Preacher(s): Lord of the Word, I/we work hard to find beautiful words to praise you and clear words to help others understand your will. But I/we often fail to practice what I/we preach. My/Our actions do not live up to my/our words. Forgive me/us/
Congregation: Lord of the Church, we come to hear words that reassure us and to sing hymns that give us hope. We want to be told that we are O.K. and that God loves us. We would rather not hear your calls to take care of others and to change our ways. Forgive us.
All: Forgive us when our actions do not match our songs and prayers. Amen.
2. Present the psalm with two readers. The first reader takes the part of the narrator and sets the scene for the heavenly encounter with God, reading verses 1-4, 6, and 16b-23. God's outrage should be evident in the presentation. (The New Jerusalem Bible offers an especially clear translation.)
3. Before reading the Luke passage, alert the children to listen for the three prepared people. As you come to each of them in the reading, raise one, then two, and finally three fingers.
4. Create a litany prayer about being ready. The worship leader offers petitions for God's work (name mission activities of the congregation, specific community concerns, and global issues, being sure to include some activities in which children participate). After each petition, the congregation responds, "Let us prepare the way of the Lord!"
Sermon Resources
1. At the beginning of the sermon, have someone assume Isaiah's role and interrupt the service to deliver a paraphrase of Isaiah's message, substituting modern worship practices for the Old Testament ones (e.g., I have heard enough of your fancy music). "Isaiah" would then call for the activities described in verses 16-17 and warn that God is willing to forgive those who change their ways, but will see that those who do not change die. (For a less dramatic alternative, the preacher could take Isaiah's role, after inviting the congregation to imagine how Isaiah's listeners felt when they heard what he said.)
2. Talk about who and what we trust. Describe our trust in appliance-repair people, doctors, pilots, drivers of vehicles in which we ride, the friend to whom we tell a secret, the baby-sitter with whom parents leave their children, or the teacher or coach who teaches us to play a musical instrument or to excel in a sport. Recall current commercials that ask us to trust their products. Talk about the kid who dares us to try something new (perhaps swinging across a creek on a rope or taking drugs). Compare trusting people to trusting God's love and God's call to be peacemakers and loving friends.
3. To explore Luke 12:32-34, bring some props:
—Pull out your wallet or purse. Show the congregation what is in it. Describe your feelings and what you would have to do if it were lost or stolen. Then reread Jesus' message and talk about safer purses.
—Bring several of your treasures (or pictures of nontransportable treasures). Include a variety, such as a collector's item, a hobby tool, a memento of a person or trip, a picture of your family, and so on. Describe the objects' value to you and how you would respond if they were "messed with."Then talk about how protecting our valuables can turn us into defensive worries and keep us from loving people and letting them love us. In the process, encourage worshipers to identify some of their treasures that may be getting in their way. read more
A PARENT IN THE POOL
HEBREWS 11:1-3, 8-16
Our younger son was learning to swim last summer. He felt comfortable so long as he had one hand on the concrete edge of the pool or was standing in water no deeper than chin level. However, convincing him to step into deeper water or let go of the solid surety of the pool wall was not an easy task. He only relented if Mom or Dad were nearby, promising to catch him if he began to sink. Little by little we backed farther away, each time exhorting him to "use those arms, and kick those feet!" but always reassuring him of our presence if arms and feet should fail. In time he mastered the water and now enjoys diving from the board on the deep end. But he still prefers that a parent be swimming beneath the board just in case.
Often before foul shots or at bat, professional athletes cross themselves. Those athletes have spent years mastering their trades and are the world's best at what they do. Even so, the act of crossing is a request that a loving Parent be near giving them sufficient confidence to tread the water before them.
One day an opposing batter crossed himself before stepping to the plate. Yogi Berra, catching for the New York Yankees, called "time out." Standing face to face with the batter, Yogi crossed himself and then asked, "Now what are you going to do?" The truth is, all of us want to know a loving Parent is nearby when we face deep waters, close enough to catch us if we begin to sink.
Our lesson speaks of a sense of confidence that God, the loving Parent, is near. Even when God cannot be seen the author believes in the unfailing nearness. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (v. 1). United Methodist Bishop Bevel Jones says: "Faith is hearing tomorrow's music, and hope is dancing to it today!" Such is the belief professed in this lesson, a "conviction of things hoped for."
The author illustrates primarily by reference to Abraham and Sarah. They followed God's lead even when it amounted to no more than "things not seen." God led them to a new land. Abraham had no idea where that land was or what it held in store, but he faithfully followed because he believed God's plans and purposes were always superior to his own. His faith in turn profoundly influenced Isaac and Jacob (v. 9) and equipped them for faithful ministry, as well.
Long after childbearing years had passed, Sarah believed God's promise that she and Abraham would bear a child (v. 11). "Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore" (v. 12). The author's description of Abraham ("and him as good as dead") is an obvious exaggeration. After age one hundred, Abraham fathered several children with Sarah (herself ninety) and later, with another wife named Keturah. As good as dead? I don't think so.
Several years ago George Jones recorded a song with lyrics that said "I don't want your rocking chair, your Geritol or Medicare." He has a lot of living to do and isn't ready to sit still and worry about his gray hair.
Centuries earlier Abraham and Sarah demonstrated that ageism is not only sinful, it's also silly. Age is rarely an impediment to useful service. Often just the opposite, it enhances our ability to be used by God. By the turn of the new century, retired adults in America will outnumber actively employed adults. Retired persons have experience and wisdom acquired only by living a number of years. Often they have more time to offer the church and more energy to invest in the world than those of us who labor eight to five. Part of the faith espoused in this passage is a faith that God can use people of age to work miracles, and those who discount that cheat themselves.
An even greater statement, though, for persons of all ages is that God is with us, in us, behind, before, and around us. An unseen Presence guides us into what may seem like foreign or frightening lands where we are surprised by victories, beauties, and love. (See vv. 8-10.) When faced with deep waters, a loving Parent is close at hand to lift us if we sink and to lead us where we need to go. (Michael B. Brown)
READY OR NOT
LUKE 12:32-40
An adult Sunday school class was studying sayings about "the end time" in the Gospels. Some were troubled and confused by Jesus' use of symbols to describe the coming judgment: lamps lit, loins girded, wise and foolish maidens, a thief in the night, and so on. In an attempt to modernize the language, the pastor asked if they had seen or experienced something that made them think the end was near. One woman recounted her fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis, back in the early 1960s. Another described feelings of horror when her ancestral home in Hiroshima was destroyed in a nuclear attack. Still others noted destruction of the environment or threat of collision with a comet. Everyone present agreed that helplessness and dread compounded their fears.
In this passage from Luke, Jesus seems to give conflicting instructions to his followers. On the one hand, in vv. 32-34 he tells them not to be fearful, to trust their loving Father, and to divest themselves of possessions in order to help the poor. On the other hand, he tells them to be watchful and on guard lest they be found unprepared when the Son of Man comes. How can we be on guard and have no fear simultaneously? The answer is obscure if we look at this passage in isolation; however, when examined in light of other eschatological sayings of Jesus, the seeming contradiction is resolved. This is because three consistent threads run through all New Testament sayings about the end.
I. Jesus Will Come Again
In this passage, explicit mention of the Son of Man does not come until verse 40. Different titles and metaphors are used throughout the New Testament to describe Christ's return: the bridegroom, the householder, Lord Jesus, Alpha and Omega. The language varies, but the message is consistent; Jesus Christ will come again. Human history is moving toward its culmination. The ultimate victory and power are God's.
The earliest confessions of faith, such as Philippians 2:5-11 and the Apostles' Creed, imply or state this promise openly. Faith in God's promise was a great comfort to early Christians suffering persecution, and it should be an encouragement to us today in whatever sorrow or threat we find ourselves. Evil will not have the last word. God in Christ will return and reign forever.
II. We Don't Know When Jesus Will Come
Verse 40 says the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus says not even the Son of Man knows when this will happen; the Father alone has the secret. Ever since the Ascension, believers have tried to figure out when Christ will return. They refer to "signs of the times" noted in the Bible, as though God's Word were a timetable, but even when Jesus indicated harbingers of the end, he cautioned that no one could predict the date when it would happen. Trying to second-guess God is not only futile, but also contradicts what our Lord instructs us to do.
III. We're Called to Be Ready for Jesus' Coming
It is normal to feel powerless in the face of impending catastrophe, such as collision with a comet. There is nothing an individual or church can do to prepare for such an event. But we can prepare for the return of Christ, whenever it occurs. The Bible tells us how to be ready: by repenting of our sins, believing that Jesus is the Messiah, being baptized in the triune name. Furthermore, we are prepared when we live faithfully as his disciples.In this passage, followers are advised to sell their possessions and give alms. Elsewhere, disciples are instructed to proclaim the gospel to others, that they may prepare for Christ's coming. Finally, readiness means acknowledging there will be tribulations and sorrow along the way, but claiming the divine promise that victory is ultimately the Lord's. (Carol M. Norén) read more
HEBREWS 11:1-3, 8-16
Our younger son was learning to swim last summer. He felt comfortable so long as he had one hand on the concrete edge of the pool or was standing in water no deeper than chin level. However, convincing him to step into deeper water or let go of the solid surety of the pool wall was not an easy task. He only relented if Mom or Dad were nearby, promising to catch him if he began to sink. Little by little we backed farther away, each time exhorting him to "use those arms, and kick those feet!" but always reassuring him of our presence if arms and feet should fail. In time he mastered the water and now enjoys diving from the board on the deep end. But he still prefers that a parent be swimming beneath the board just in case.
Often before foul shots or at bat, professional athletes cross themselves. Those athletes have spent years mastering their trades and are the world's best at what they do. Even so, the act of crossing is a request that a loving Parent be near giving them sufficient confidence to tread the water before them.
One day an opposing batter crossed himself before stepping to the plate. Yogi Berra, catching for the New York Yankees, called "time out." Standing face to face with the batter, Yogi crossed himself and then asked, "Now what are you going to do?" The truth is, all of us want to know a loving Parent is nearby when we face deep waters, close enough to catch us if we begin to sink.
Our lesson speaks of a sense of confidence that God, the loving Parent, is near. Even when God cannot be seen the author believes in the unfailing nearness. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (v. 1). United Methodist Bishop Bevel Jones says: "Faith is hearing tomorrow's music, and hope is dancing to it today!" Such is the belief professed in this lesson, a "conviction of things hoped for."
The author illustrates primarily by reference to Abraham and Sarah. They followed God's lead even when it amounted to no more than "things not seen." God led them to a new land. Abraham had no idea where that land was or what it held in store, but he faithfully followed because he believed God's plans and purposes were always superior to his own. His faith in turn profoundly influenced Isaac and Jacob (v. 9) and equipped them for faithful ministry, as well.
Long after childbearing years had passed, Sarah believed God's promise that she and Abraham would bear a child (v. 11). "Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore" (v. 12). The author's description of Abraham ("and him as good as dead") is an obvious exaggeration. After age one hundred, Abraham fathered several children with Sarah (herself ninety) and later, with another wife named Keturah. As good as dead? I don't think so.
Several years ago George Jones recorded a song with lyrics that said "I don't want your rocking chair, your Geritol or Medicare." He has a lot of living to do and isn't ready to sit still and worry about his gray hair.
Centuries earlier Abraham and Sarah demonstrated that ageism is not only sinful, it's also silly. Age is rarely an impediment to useful service. Often just the opposite, it enhances our ability to be used by God. By the turn of the new century, retired adults in America will outnumber actively employed adults. Retired persons have experience and wisdom acquired only by living a number of years. Often they have more time to offer the church and more energy to invest in the world than those of us who labor eight to five. Part of the faith espoused in this passage is a faith that God can use people of age to work miracles, and those who discount that cheat themselves.
An even greater statement, though, for persons of all ages is that God is with us, in us, behind, before, and around us. An unseen Presence guides us into what may seem like foreign or frightening lands where we are surprised by victories, beauties, and love. (See vv. 8-10.) When faced with deep waters, a loving Parent is close at hand to lift us if we sink and to lead us where we need to go. (Michael B. Brown)
READY OR NOT
LUKE 12:32-40
An adult Sunday school class was studying sayings about "the end time" in the Gospels. Some were troubled and confused by Jesus' use of symbols to describe the coming judgment: lamps lit, loins girded, wise and foolish maidens, a thief in the night, and so on. In an attempt to modernize the language, the pastor asked if they had seen or experienced something that made them think the end was near. One woman recounted her fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis, back in the early 1960s. Another described feelings of horror when her ancestral home in Hiroshima was destroyed in a nuclear attack. Still others noted destruction of the environment or threat of collision with a comet. Everyone present agreed that helplessness and dread compounded their fears.
In this passage from Luke, Jesus seems to give conflicting instructions to his followers. On the one hand, in vv. 32-34 he tells them not to be fearful, to trust their loving Father, and to divest themselves of possessions in order to help the poor. On the other hand, he tells them to be watchful and on guard lest they be found unprepared when the Son of Man comes. How can we be on guard and have no fear simultaneously? The answer is obscure if we look at this passage in isolation; however, when examined in light of other eschatological sayings of Jesus, the seeming contradiction is resolved. This is because three consistent threads run through all New Testament sayings about the end.
I. Jesus Will Come Again
In this passage, explicit mention of the Son of Man does not come until verse 40. Different titles and metaphors are used throughout the New Testament to describe Christ's return: the bridegroom, the householder, Lord Jesus, Alpha and Omega. The language varies, but the message is consistent; Jesus Christ will come again. Human history is moving toward its culmination. The ultimate victory and power are God's.
The earliest confessions of faith, such as Philippians 2:5-11 and the Apostles' Creed, imply or state this promise openly. Faith in God's promise was a great comfort to early Christians suffering persecution, and it should be an encouragement to us today in whatever sorrow or threat we find ourselves. Evil will not have the last word. God in Christ will return and reign forever.
II. We Don't Know When Jesus Will Come
Verse 40 says the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus says not even the Son of Man knows when this will happen; the Father alone has the secret. Ever since the Ascension, believers have tried to figure out when Christ will return. They refer to "signs of the times" noted in the Bible, as though God's Word were a timetable, but even when Jesus indicated harbingers of the end, he cautioned that no one could predict the date when it would happen. Trying to second-guess God is not only futile, but also contradicts what our Lord instructs us to do.
III. We're Called to Be Ready for Jesus' Coming
It is normal to feel powerless in the face of impending catastrophe, such as collision with a comet. There is nothing an individual or church can do to prepare for such an event. But we can prepare for the return of Christ, whenever it occurs. The Bible tells us how to be ready: by repenting of our sins, believing that Jesus is the Messiah, being baptized in the triune name. Furthermore, we are prepared when we live faithfully as his disciples.In this passage, followers are advised to sell their possessions and give alms. Elsewhere, disciples are instructed to proclaim the gospel to others, that they may prepare for Christ's coming. Finally, readiness means acknowledging there will be tribulations and sorrow along the way, but claiming the divine promise that victory is ultimately the Lord's. (Carol M. Norén) read more
AUGUST 7, 2016 - ON THE ROAD WITH JESUS by William H. Willimon
PULPIT RESOURCE
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Welcome to the new Pulpit Resource from Will Willimon. For over three decades Pulpit Resource helps preachers prepare to preach. Now in partnership with Abingdon Press, this homiletical weekly is available with fresh and timely accessibility to a new generation of preachers.
No sermon is a solo production. Every preacher relies on inherited models, mentors in the preacher’s past, commentaries on biblical texts by people who have given their lives to such study, comments received from members of the congregation, last week’s news headlines, and all the other things that make a sermon communal.
No Christian does anything on their own. We live through the witness of the saints; preachers of the past inspire us and judge us. Scripture itself is a product of the community of faith. A host of now-forgotten teachers taught us how to speak. Nobody is born a preacher.
Pulpit Resource is equivalent to sitting down with a trusted clergy friend over a cup of coffee and asking, “What will you preach next Sunday?” Whenever I’ve been asked by new preachers, “How can I develop as a preacher?” my usual response is, “Get in a group of preachers. Meet regularly. Learn how to give and how to receive help. Sort through the advice of others, and utilize helpful insights.”
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WHERE IS YOUR HEART?By Rolf A. Jacobson
Rolf A. Jacobson
Dr. Rolf Jacobson is Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and one of the stars of the "Sermon Brainwave" podcast. In this week's sermon from Luke 12:32-40 he tells a story about a beloved high school teacher who gave him a very special gift. This sermon is from A Sermon for Every Sunday, a series of lectionary-based video sermons designed for use in worship, Bible study, small groups, Sunday school classes or for individual use.read more
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