7/29/12

Why Methodist...

Earlier this month The United Methodist Church's homepage featured this blog post from Chad Brooks, currently studying for ordination in The United Methodist Church.  His post is called "Why I became Methodist" and in many ways his journey has parallels to my own.  Check it out; maybe you can see something of yourself in this post as well...

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7/24/12

Why we need liturgical worship

Each Sunday, the basic pattern of worship in the United Methodist Churches I serve is the same: We Gather; We Listen to the Word; We Respond in Thanksgiving; We are Sent out to Serve.  Each Sunday many of the "fixed" elements - the Opening Prayer (Collect), the Creed, the Gloria Patri, the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, the Benediction are generally exactly the same.  On the Sundays that we celebrate the Eucharist or The Lord's Supper, we use the same series of prayers to prepare ourselves and to prepare the bread and wine of the Table.  Each Sunday I dress in a particular (and peculiar) way - clerical collar, preaching robe (the Geneva gown is a modern combination of the black cassock and the medieval academic garb) and liturgical stole that changes color according to the season of the Christian year.

The reason for this 'regularity' is that we follow the "Liturgy" of The United Methodist Church, as it is found in our official books of worship (the UM Hymnal and the UM Book of Worship) and as it has been handed down to us by tradition.  Liturgy simply means "the work of the people" or "the public service" - it is not simply the words on the page of the worship book, but the congregational act that is shaped by those words.  Our United Methodist liturgy is itself an adaptation and an updating of the classic Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican tradition, which was deeply treasured by John Wesley, an Anglican priest and the primary leader of early Methodism.

In recent years there seem to be three trends in The United Methodist Church's worship that I can see: 1) some want to maintain the pseudo-liturgy of the early 20th Century (an order of: 3 old-time gospel hymns, an offering, a sermon, and 2 more hymns with an altar call); 2) some want to follow many Evangelical churches and convert our worship services into a concert of "Christian praise rock music" with a sermon in the middle of it, and 3) some want to recover the classical liturgy of the church (perhaps with Gospel hymns, rocking Christian praise music, classical choral music, or a bit of all that).  I am in the third camp that believes that, whatever blend or variety of music we use, we need to fully recover the celebration of the liturgy and the sacraments of the Church, as that celebration is ordered in our offical worship books. 

Why?  The reason we need liturgy is because Christian worship is a sacrificial act and a spiritual discipline by which we ascribe glory and worth to the Holy Trinity and offer ourselves to God in ritual ways that will shape who we become.  Yet we are always tempted to distort worship into something else: instead of "ministering unto the Lord" (as the priests in the Old Testament were said to do) we instead make it all about us.  The liturgy helps us to declare God's worthiness without distorting worship into something it is not: a spiritual commodity. 

I recently was talking with a man who is considering coming to our church because "he is no longer getting what he needs" at the Baptist church he attends.  This expression is ubiquitous in American churches and usually when people say this they have in mind a particular emotional connection with what is happening or an experience of learning new things.  That is what they are "getting out of it."  Those are not at all bad things to have, in fact they can be wonderful blessings, but they are not actually the goal of our worship service.  As I have reflected upon that conversation it occurs to me that his (and my and your) deepest need is to offer himself in worship to the Triune God.

Here is a video from an Anglican/Episcopal priest and pastor: the first 15 minutes or so lay out theologically and spiritually why liturgy is important for us (the last few minutes are about his hope for theological renewal in The Episcopal Church).  Though he may be overly critical of exciting music, I believe his analysis is basically correct and is extremely important for the church's future in a consumerist culture; so I hope you will consider well what he says, especially if you are (as I am) responsible for guiding the weekly worship of Christian congregations.

  

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7/19/12

Dallas Willard on the Spiritual Life

Dallas Willard is one of the great spiritual teachers of our day.  He has influenced such luminaries as Richard Foster, whose wonderful book Celebration of Discipline has deeply impacted me and many others, clergy and laity alike.  In the video below he discusses spiritual growth, the importance of the church community, the meaning of "conviction of sin," Redemption in Christ, and more besides.  Dallas Williard is perhaps even better in his interviews than in his full-length books, and always has some dense and wise words that should be pondered.

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7/9/12

The Bride born from the Bridegroom's side

I had yet another "aha!" moment when thinking about the Bible recently, when reading a post at the Scriptorium blog.  The Bible's beautiful complexity, is a continuous source of delight and challenge.  We also see here not only the connectedness of the Bible, but the great overtones of Sacramental theology and of New Creation theology that permeate the whole.

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman a brought her to the man.  Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken."  Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.  (Genesis 2:21-24, NRSV)
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.  (John 19:33-34, NRSV)

To follow the thought below, remember that St. Paul calls Christ the "New (or Last/Final) Adam" in numerous places (such as 1 Cor. 15) and this same theology is implied in other places (for example, in John's Gospel [20:15] Mary mistakes the Resurrected Jesus for "the Gardener," as Adam was in Paradise, etc.).

From St. John Chrysostom:
"There flowed from his side water and blood.” Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit,” and from the holy Eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam. Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water [representing the sacraments of Communion and Baptism] from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

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7/3/12

C.S. Lewis Broadcasts

I am pleased to offer on this blog the following two YouTube videos which are supposed to be the only surviving recordings from C.S. Lewis' famous wartime BBC radio addresses, that eventually were compiled into the book Mere Christianity.  So the following basically represents a rough, early, excerpt from that classic work of apologetics, and actually read by Lewis himself.  If you have ever wondered what the famous British academic sounds like...you can now hear that he sounds just like a very academic British fellow.  Lewis remains one of the strongest influences on my own understanding of the Christian message; may his deep and substantial thinking on matters of Christian faith enrich your own faith!



And here follows part 2:

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