Sunday's Message: Dying to Live

Jordan Peterson on the power of Ideology to bring Hell on Earth

Like millions others around the world, I've engaging with the thought of Jordan Peterson in recent years and profited from doing so.

While we do have some philosophical differences, I think Peterson's critique of Ideology-based censorship (sometimes colloquially referred to as "political correctness") and his critique of Intersectional Ideology (also known as Critical Theory, Cultural Marxism, Intersectional Feminism, Grievance Studies, Liberation Theology, Politics of Emancipation, Social Justice Ideology and so on) is extremely timely, important, and perhaps even Prophetic in this particular cultural moment.

I also respect his unswerving commitment to remain civil with his debate opponents, who are not always so civil with him.

So here is a video that describes how radical ideologies, when they become all-consuming (or, as we Christians would say, when they become "idols") also become murderous and deeply de-humanizing.  We need only pay attention to history (so difficult to do in our distracted age) to see that this is in fact the case: 

Psalms Study Video #5

Here is the Bible Study video discussing the Penitential Psalms (Psalms of Confession).

Fathers' Day Message: A Tale of Two Fathers

Here is this week's message from Fathers' Day:

Why the Liturgy is not a matter of personal preference

One "YouTube intellectual" that I've been watching for the last couple of years is a Roman Catholic layman named Brian Holdsworth.

He seeks to explain and defend basic Christian beliefs and practices, and is particularly geared toward "the internet generation."

Much of his content has to do with specifically Roman Catholic questions, but many of his points and arguments could just as easily be echoed by orthodox and Methodists, Anglicans, Lutherans, and other Protestants as well.

This excellent video covers some of the same ground as a blog post I wrote years ago called "The Liturgy questions us: What is 'relevant' anyways?"

The Liturgy means "the work of the people" or "the public service" and is used to describe what Christians classically have done when we gather together for worship.

The liturgy typically includes things like reading Scripture and celebrating Holy Communion with the Great Thanksgiving Prayer.  It typically includes things like the Creeds, the Doxology, the Lord's Prayer, and the closing blessing or Benediction.

Yet in recent years there has been a tendency in many historic denominations to downplay the importance of, or jettison altogether, some of these historic liturgical practices in order to produce a worship experience that is more "seeker-sensitive" and which feels more "relevant."

What this often results in is a truncated liturgy that consists of singing a few songs modeled on contemporary pop music, and then a very practical, sometimes "self-help" oriented" message, based upon a few sentences of Scripture, rather than a sustained reading of one or more longer passages.

Yet there are theological problems with reconstructing the liturgy based upon the cultural fads of the moment (which is usually what is meant by "relevant").  One of the problems with building the service around our own preferences, (as Holdsworth points out) is that, to the extent that what we do expresses only personal or local preferences (or the preferences of the current cultural moment), then our worship ceases to be something that we hold in common with other Christians; it ceases to be "catholic" in the sense of being something that we share in common with a world-wide community of believers.

I've thought about this in terms of music when doing nursing home services.  Christians in nursing homes, coming from all manner of different denominations, all nevertheless treasure many of the same old hymns.  These hymns represent a worship experience that was held in common across denominational lines.

Since many of our churches now follow a "top 40" style of music, where the songs we sing this year will be displaced by newer songs next year, and those in turn will be displaced by still others the year after that, I do wonder whether my generation will share many "songs of faith" in common when it comes time for us to be in the nursing homes.

All that is not to say that I oppose new music; I actually love new music, and every "old hymn" you can think of was once a brand new song that nobody knew; but I think new music and other worship practices should be integrated into a larger worship tradition that is held in common, and remains constantly recognizable across the generations, even as new elements are added in.

Those are a few thoughts and ideas to introduce this video:

Psalms Study Video #4

Here is video number 4, covering Psalms 3-5 as daily Morning and Evening Prayers.

Sunday's Message on Compassion in divided times

Dice and the probability that God is real

There are plenty of different kinds of evidence that God is real.
I remember being struck as a child by philosopher's question: "Why is there something, rather than nothing?"

There are philosophical arguments that God is real, there are historical prophecies fulfilled, there are various kinds of personal experiences and encounters, there are moral truths that we humans cannot quite shake, but which point to a transcendent Standard of Right and Justice.  None of these are, in my view, totally "open and shut" cases that no one could doubt.  But when you add them all together they make a strong case.

Another kind of evidence for God's existence has emerged as science has taught us more about the structure of the Universe (yes, science can actually support our faith in God); we now see that our Universe seems to be perfectly fine-tuned to allow for the emergence of life.  It is a new form of the old question: Why is it thus?  What are the odds that the Universe would be just so?


 

Psalms Study Video #3

Here is video #3 on the Psalms Bible Study, Psalm 22 for Good Friday.

Psalms Study Video #2

Here is Lesson 2 on the Book of Psalms: