studying the minor prophet-Habakkuk

This is the 3rd sermon preparation period in the last month or so that finds me exploring minor prophets. I find, that so far, I'm getting increasingly interested in what I can learn from these typically "unpalatable" books. Habakkuk looks like it's got all kinds of pregnant ideas to look at and learn from.

If this interests any of you out there (and you can figure out how to run the comments button below this post) I'd love to learn how this little message from God speaks to you.

both can be liturgical

Yesterday I had the privilege of continuing my journey through area churches-this time the St. John Lutheran Church. As has been the case previously, I was impressed with some similarities to all other churches and, mostly, enjoyed meeting the people I already know from the community. However, I did find this gathering a step apart in uniqueness from what I'm typically accustomed to.

The whole experience was richly permeated with ritual and symbolism. Things began to commence as a young man quietly approached the "stage" with a candle lighter and lit each of the candelabras. Then, before leaving the stage, he made a little bow. Soon the pastor, clad in modest vestments, began his journey to the front pausing to bow and then approaching the cross to pray. Hymns were simply sung, prescribed prayers were rotely repeated, readings were observed, and lofty speaking was made. The choir assembled at the front for a couple of special pieces (hymns) which were simply but beautifully performed, almost making me want to join them (made me reminisce of my choir days in college). The end of the service was marked by a long pastoral prayer (again made by the pastor facing away from the congregation at the cross) , another hymn sung, and the candle guy snuffing out the candles.

I was mixed in my internal reactions to this service. Religious tradition typically reeks to me of dusty meaningless repetition. And yet as I participated in this unentertaining, but very symbolic service, I almost felt a little cleansed at the end. It was kind of strange. The simple hymns seemed to penetrate my heart in contrast to the "dry" readings. In talking with a lady after, I sensed that what went on there was very meaningful to her and a variety of others.

In the book mentioned in my last post, the author talks about high church vs. low church (the rough difference being that high churches have everything very ritualistic, symbolic, and prescribed while low churches value spontaneity and informality). The point was made that both styles of church are actually liturgical (liturgical is another term for high churches because it refers to following a liturgy or prescribed way of doing worship). While many churches pride themselves on doing things spontaneously in an effort to be real and authentic, they often actually end up with a different form of liturgy. There are all sorts of rigorously observed but "unwritten" protocols and codes. Even the prayers which seem to come "off the top of the head" are often very similar beginning and ending with much the same words.

Ritual, ceremony, and symbolism are an integral part of our humanity. Just look at Christmas, marriage, birth, birthdays, deaths, holidays, etc. and it becomes very appearant that we like to do certain things in certain ways to commemorate important events and relationships.

I'm not settled on what this all means to me ultimately. I just know I detest dry ritual getting in the way of the excitement of spontaneity and yet I'm mildly mysteriously drawn to how certain ceremonies and disciplines seem to bring a depth of meaning and experience that may be beneficial at times too.

In closing, I like how one Pentecostal pastor defined the difference between a liturgical church and a non-liturgical one. One has the service written out and the other doesn't.

sabbath-part 1

Someone loaned me this book a couple of weeks ago. I was excited to start reading it at some point because it seems like a theme that maybe God wants me to consider as I've also recently acquired another book on the Sabbath which I haven't yet read, and several others I still wish to purchase. For these reasons, I figure this may end up to be a series of posts over time on the subject of Sabbath. Now, for some who don't know me, I'm no stranger to the concept of Sabbath. For as long as I can remember being mentally aware of my surroundings (meaning childhood-not an unhealthy mental condition) I have been immersed in a faith system that practices Sabbath keeping-of sorts.

The last several years have found me struggling with the whole concept of Sabbath as I've understood it. While there are parts of it I've appreciated, on the whole, I've wanted to be liberated from it. It has felt a bit like a choker chain to me-a day where you cease enjoying life, attempt to make God happy, and (in my case as a pastor) work more than any other day of the week (doing a work that's not considered "work" to most people in my faith system). I've simply shifted my focus from a legalistic practice of Sabbath to what the Sabbath symbolizes for me spiritually.

I'm kind of intrigued as I've come across these books as of late that are going to challenge me in the practice of Sabbath, but in a fresh new way. I've only started the above pictured book (read the intro and chapter one) but I sense in it a liberating way to approach the practice of Sabbath.

For starters, what if Sabbath is about finding rest from whatever produces unrest in my life, even though the causes for unrest are still present. It's kind of like a God ordained "nap" in spite of all the work still clamoring to get done (could be actual things to be done, things to worry about, etc.)? And, what if the practices for Sabbath keeping center around these 4 general activities: rest, worship, feasting, and play? If those are indeed healthy Sabbath practices, my ears are already perking up. What if Sabbath is not about what you can't do, but about what you have Godly permission to do that typical life doesn't either allow to be done or appreciated fully for various reasons?

outside the box

Below is a statement made by Wayne Jacobsen during a podcast introduction jingle over at The God Journey website. (side note-God has used so many of the podcasts that they've produced over the last 3 or so years to be a real encouragement to my journey)

Thinking outside the box (of organized religion) is not about whether you go to a meeting or not. It’s about breaking free of the obligations of religious performance, and living in the adventure of a relationship with God as our Father. (Italicized comment my own)

That statement packs so much balanced, mature wisdom when it comes to the whole issue of trying to understand my relationship to God, His family of followers (the Church), and organized religion (the church-notice the small c).

As Wayne has said before, you can leave the institution and yet still have the institution in you. And conversely, Jesus said to be in the world but not of it. Sometimes people have to leave something to get it out of their systems, and other times God can have people in systems and yet the systems not be in them. I pray that each one of us are sensing where God would have us and that we would make it our focus to be in relationship with Him and His Body wherever we may be found.

laity ARE clergy

The Greek word for laity is laos, meaning the people. The Greek word for clergy is kleros, meaning heritage or inheritance. Nowhere in the New Testament are either of the words laity or clergy used. However, the Greek counterparts are fairly prevalent, and from what I've seen and heard, never identify different classes of Christians-those who do ministry and those to whom it's done.

To make an ironic point, look at this text in 1 Peter 5:3 where Peter is writing to elders.

Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. KJV

The word heritage used in this text has for it's Greek counterpart, kleros, from which we get clergy. Of course, in this text, heritage is referring to followers of Jesus who have a heritage and hope in Him and these people are, as is stated later in the text, also considered the flock. So elders (leaders) are called not to lord over the kleros, heritage, or simply put-the flock. The clergy, if you will, are the people of God.

Now, clergy was a class distinction that came later as secular ways of government began to infiltrate the church. I just find it curious that a word that was used to refer to God's people as a whole, came to refer to an upper class, professional, religious sect very distinct from the common people.

easy to ignore or go crazy about

This new book is a reprinting of an older book from a few years ago under the same title. Frank Viola is a dogmatic (in my opinion) promoter of the house church movement. George Barna, as some of you may be aware, came out with a rather provocative book a couple of years ago entitled Revolution (I may blog about this sometime). Pagan Christianity is Viola's work dressed up and reworked with Barna and offered as a sequel to Revolution.

Viola basically attacks every aspect of the modern institutional church: buildings, clergy/laity distinction, pastors, the sermon, church services, hierarchical leadership structures, special clothing for clergy and Christian gatherings, tithe as clergy salary, etc. He continually points back to 1st century followers of Jesus and how they appear to have functioned as a Spirit led living organic body of believers where all the members contributed to the Body through the various giftings of the Holy Spirit. He rigorously charts the development of the aforementioned aspects of modern church life over the last 2000 years pointing out how they are products of pagan/secular culture being adopted by the church. Then he points out how he believes those things cripple the Body of Christ from being what Jesus really intended His church to be.

I'm only about a 1/3 of my way between the covers and I find myself very mixed about what I'm reading. I'm enjoying the overview of church history that I'm getting. I also am very attracted to perspectives like this as I tend to agree with many of Viola's conclusions (at least to a degree) about how the things mentioned above do appear to water down the richness of life within the community of Jesus' followers. And yet, I struggle with Viola's black and white tone. He seems to paint a picture of the early church being one of perfection and that it's been a downhill slide since. I believe that neither Jesus nor His early followers abstained from using something just because "pagan" hands had touched it (a point Viola does admit to).

I'm trying to figure out how let this book impact my thinking. It's easy to either go crazy with it because of all of its good points, or to throw it out because of the tone.

The church as typically expressed today has lots of problems, but so it always has. I'm not sure if it's most helpful to attempt to tear away the problems seen with it or to seek to infuse possible solutions within it's current way of doing things?

OUT

Paul Vieira in his book Jesus Has Left The Building has 7 chapters (out of 17) with a common word in each title, OUT. These chapters identify what he believes to be 7 characteristics of the early body of Jesus' followers. Here are the titles with a few of my own summaries and/or comments.

Inside OUT: They Were Amphibious
I mentioned this a few posts ago where I called Christians frogs. People that are called to live amphibiously in two communities-the culture at large and the spiritual family of the body of Christ.

OUT Of Order: They Were Chaotic
They lacked heavy human structure and control and were thus guided by the mysterious and often seemingly messy ways (at least to human eyes) of the Holy Spirit.

Hung Out: They Knew Their Teacher
Learning and spiritual nourishment came from discipleship (i.e. living life with their great mentor-Jesus), not passively listening to the lectures of some great religious guru.

OUTlook: They Were Ruined For This World
The world and its ways lost its appeal to them in light of following Jesus, and it earned them the titles of either holy or crazy.

Down and OUT: Prayer Gave Them Their Mission
Prayer, coupled with the belief that God actually speaks to His followers, is where they got their marching orders. Boardrooms full of human strategies probably weren't nearly as relied upon as they are today.

OUTcry: They Remembered The Poor
A strong trust in God's care lead them to not fear poverty and thus share their blessings with those in need, thus taking Jesus personal mission to the poor seriously.

OUTspoken: They Had A Voice To The Culture
Rather than living exclusively in the bubble of their own sub-culture, they infiltrated the popular culture and thus earned a voice to be able to speak into people's hearts and lives.

If you go to Paul's Website, you can download free audio readings up through chapter 10 of his book at this point.

another strong minor

This coming weekend I'm going to be leading my church family through an exploration of another Old Testament minor prophet during the sermon. This time it will be the book of Nahum.

Here's some questions for reflection.

1. What can we learn about God in this book?
2. Why does God sound so strikingly different in this book as opposed to the Gospels?
3. How does this little book make you feel?
4. What is some of the historical context of this book?
5. What message (if any) do you think the Holy Spirit is teaching you through this?
6. What are some problems or questions you have re: Nahum?
   

Even if you're not a member of Cariboo Central, please feel free to leave feedback in the comments if you wish

7 clicks in the blogosphere

Below are a few posts in the blogosphere that I've found interesting. They're only 7 different mouse clicks away! Have fun!

Britney Spears and Church Burnout
What can and often does happen to popular young church professionals.

Authentic Community
This is my ever deepening longing!

Becoming a Legend by Doing Nothing Special
The tension of my heart.

Embracing the Ordinary
Not a natural craving, but maybe where the real value of life is found.

Ways Following Jesus Messes Up Your Life
Does Jesus mess up our lives or fix them? Maybe it's both!

A Touching & Challenging Story
This touches back to the articles above on learning to flourish in the ordinary!

Sacred vs. Secular
A Reader's Digest version of church history that makes a stimulating point.

church hopping

This morning found me engaged in the same activity as the previous two Sundays-attending area churches other than my own.

2 weeks ago I was at the larger of the Pentecostal churches.
Last week was the Alliance church.
Today was the Evangelical Free church.

I've felt inspired to embark on this pilgrimage to experience other parts of the Christian family within my own town. (It may also have come partly from reading the book Jim & Casper go to Church. See my earlier post.)

So far, the most enjoyable part has been running into folks that I already know. This includes, of course, the ministers as I have monthly meetings with them at the Ministerial Association. But it also includes a variety of people, at each church so far, that I've either met or come to know from other interactions within the community. It's also interesting to be an attender as opposed to the leader/performer. I find myself both enjoying aspects of my experience that I'm sure many churchgoers enjoy and asking the ever present (to me) why about so much of what is done. The differences between the congregations are very minimal, at least on the surface. The colors and flavors vary, but the substance of what goes on is the same. For all intents and purposes, I could be visiting different congregations/flavors of my own denomination and having a similar experience (except for meeting the particular people that I'm meeting).

I plan to keep hopping from group to group each Sunday, eager to meet more familiar faces and to be open to what God may want to teach me from this experience.

glossary for paul

“What Paul Meant”, by Garry Wills, was both a trudge and coast (for me) to get between its covers. Along the way, he makes some revealing propositions regarding the apostle Paul.

• Paul was for gender equality.
• Paul was not against Jews.
• Paul’s writings are the closest writings we have of the early body of Jesus’ followers, written well before the Gospels (which were probably a mishmash of 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th hand accounts themselves).
• Paul’s writings probably give us the clearest picture of what it looks like to live life as a follower of Christ soon after His ascension.
• Of the 13 books often attributed to Paul’s authorship, only 7 can be most certainly identified as his.
• Luke’s account of Paul’s life in Acts of the Apostles (yes, Luke is the author of Acts) was likely written more from a theological agenda than historical accuracy, including some of the popular stories like Paul’s conversion. Much of Luke’s writings don’t seem to mesh well with what Paul says about himself in the writings known to be his.
• Paul, like Jesus, never intended to start a religion. Religion was what got them both killed.
• Paul believed in ultimately living by the rule of love, similar to Jesus.

In the appendix of the book, many terms from Paul, that we use nowadays, are cleaned up. In other words, based off of our view of Paul from a well developed 21^st century religion (Christianity), we interpret words from his writings in ways that he had no intention of meaning. Following is a rough rendition of this glossary. Listed first is the popular term and second is what it more likely meant to Paul.

Christians Brothers

A family of both Gentiles & Jews that believed in the risen Messiah-not a term for a new religion.

Christ Messiah

A term, not Jesus last name as it can almost sound in the way it’s used nowadays..

Church Gathering

Simple gatherings of the “brothers/sisters”. Not a hierarchical structured religion.

Gospel Revelation

Preach Bring the Revelation

Faith Trust

Justification Vindication

Be Converted Be Summoned

Salvation Be Rescued

Redemption Release

Grace Favor

Apostle Emissary

Messegers sent between gatherings. Not rulers. Paul even indicates there were women emissaries (apostles).

Bishop Overseer

Supposedly Paul only uses this term once in “his” writings and it’s in reference to informal leaders, not a ruling structure with titles.

To further get my mind around Mr. Wills’ writing, I will need to go back again sometime for a closer read. For now I’m intrigued by what I do understand!

frogs

Tonight I asked my children at the supper table, "What kind of animal do you think a Christian should be like?" A frog was not one of their answers. But frogs would be the answer found in this latest book that I've just completed reading.

Paul shares an inspiring story of how God has directed his life, very supernaturally at times, and how he's increasingly asked the question "why?" when it comes to so much of what we do in organized religion and the results we get. He reveals a story of God using him and some friends at an early age to be part of a quickly growing ministry, and then at the height of it all, asking them to cease. From there he goes on to serve at a multi staffed church for a season, and it's in that environment that the why questions really begin to flourish, until God leads him out of that system.

Then he spends time working through various parts of Scripture (Old & New Testaments) expounding on how he believes God is calling a new generation to leave the safety and familiarity of "religious props" and follow Jesus wherever He leads in our world on a mission to expand the Kingdom of God.

This is where he incorporates the term amphibious. Frogs, which belong to this class of animals, need to swim in the water to stay moist, and yet must come out to get warm as they posses no heat of their own. Similarly, followers of Jesus are called to swim in the great sea of culture to love people for Jesus, and yet must come out and find renewal in time spent with other close relationships with fellow believers. It's a dual world we're called to live in.

And...it's only in water that frogs reproduce! Good thought there!

I don't really have the hang (or discipline) of doing a proper book review. I'm simply attempting to share some of my excitement about what I'm reading. I think I'll be talking more about this book in upcoming posts.

I would encourage you to get a copy of it if you want a challenging read!

winter drooling

About this time of year my winter drooling is in full force. I pour over maps, pictures, and websites dreaming/planning of where my family and I will find ourselves in terms of outdoor excursions this summer. The picture above is the Green River in Utah. While not likely this year, I do hope to paddle the calm 120 mile stretch of river from the little town of Green River down to the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers in an upcoming year.

Below is where we plan to paddle this summer-the famous Bowron Lake circuit. At a 116 kilometers long, we hope to take about 10 days in August to soak up the scenery and be reminded of God's expressed majesty through nature.

Below is us in our former boat last summer. While we had many great adventures in that little watercraft, it was time for it to find a new home for obvious reasons (at least I think they're obvious-can't you see how loaded we are?)
Below is a depiction of what will be our new boat. While not the exact model, this is how it will generally appear. It will be a handsome 3 feet longer, 4 gigantic inches wider, and 2 towering inches deeper in the middle than our previous one. Those are impressive numbers as they equate to 600lbs. more load capacity-a real issue for us!

So, until April (the time for receiving the new watercraft), I just moisten pictures and maps with anticipation!