Notes for Nashville on The Reading Life of the Pastor

The Reading Life of the Pastor

Finding the Book - Josiah the King

* The author in purgatory

A Background Working Assumption: We already read within our Theological Tradition, know our vocabulary, affirm our confessions, and it is this theology that we seek to see shape the piety and practice of those we serve. We continue to read and study here,

The Vocational Communicator: What you hear whispered in the dark, shout from the housetops; Isaiah - awakened to listen and only then able to bring a sustaining word to the weary. Where is our dark, quiet place where we hear, where we comprehend?

Reading Aptitudes - What’s our Level? Do we even know how to read?
James Boice’s first Graduate Degree

Reading as Joy and Reading as Work

The Word Heard - What people hear in your Public Reading/Speaking and its relationship to Private Reading.


Briefly on Books

Bacon: There are books to be chewed, swallowed, and digested; others to be tasted. After an overview of contents, take two test chapters. Look for summaries. Read from the center, to the front or the back.

Three Kinds of Literature - Current, Curious Antiques, and Timeless; it is the latter to which I draw your chief attention. Here is found what is completely relevant precisely because it does not seek to be so. It echoes the eternal and the universal.

Look for the universal experiences: food and hunger; sex; power; guilt and shame; heroic conquest; vindication; hypocrisy and justice. Here we find that elusive but immediately apparent quality we call ‘beauty’; this is transformational.


When it comes to reading it may be increasingly anachronistic to even employ the word ‘books’ in the discussion. Technology has shifted so dramatically that our sons and daughters may view actual books with the same amazed curiosity with which we gaze upon 45 records or model T autos: we still possess something of the same genre but but its so completely transformed as to make what preceded it next to worthless, except perhaps as furnishings for a period movie set. Whatever the future holds for books however I am convinced that reading will continue. The real question for us is what kind of reading will continue. Will it be effective or ineffective reading, and what criteria can be used to make such a judgment? This is an especially compelling issue for those who find themselves in or aspire to be in Pastoral ministry, a vocation of prayer and ‘ministry of the word’. If we are ‘servants of the word’ we have to ask ourselves whether we have truly been shaped by words, whether written or spoken, and how we might grow more effective in our use of words by our encounter with excellent words.

Masters of the Collections - Ecclesiastes 12.

I. Literary Reading: T David Gordon in Why Johnny Can’t Preach

The Need to Read Texts

The Gift of Poetry as Means of Grace
From Donne, Herbert, Eliot, and Frost
Choose your poet; Dante had Virgil; who is yours? The same might be said of the theologians! Choose a chief guide.

The Christian Imagination
- From Lewis and Tolkien to Wendell Berry and Walker Percy; from Spenser and Milton to Anne Lamott and Marilynn Robinson


II. Theological Reading: Francis Schaeffer on Stacking Wood

The Narrow Straits of Deep Reading (Necessary! Choose one a year)

Between Tel Aviv and Budapest: The Cross Current Rivers of Wide Reading
Lessons from a Great Methodist
The Gentile Contributions
Receiving Good Gifts
Select the best and take them as representative rather than the worst.


III. Historical Reading: Metropolitan Kallistos on Memory and Mystery

Overcoming Ecclesiastical Amesia: Pelikan

CS Lewis on Old Books

Surveying Surveys

Biographies and the Need for Heroes and Contextualization

History beyond the Church
- Choosing a Period, Person, or Event


Liturgical Reading: Ambrose, Chrysostom, Gregory, Cranmer, and the Shape of Public Praying and Sacramental Observance
* The forgotten ordinary means of grace

Liturgy as Theological ‘Source’

Reading Prayers
- Writing Prayers

The Rhythm/Cadence of Leadership
Liturgical Pace
Liturgical Language


Memorizing Hymns (Why 150 is a workable goal)
Hymns, not Choruses
Great Hymnody

The Daily Psalter and the Cure of the Soul (vast array of human experience)


Contemporary Societal Reading

Ken Myers at Mars Hill Audio as Editor
Specializing and Summarizing
Read within key spheres of influence: arts, technology, business, and politics (think of the array of ‘sources’ used by Tim Keller in any of his sermons/books).
Read Controversially (but think Church and Culture, not just intra-ecclesiastical conflicts): contemporary atheism, Islam, etc.





















So long as you have your Quote Book with you, here’s some recommended reading:

Journals

- First Things

- Touchstone

Why? Ecumenical and Contemporary, as well as offering excellent book reviews!


Literature: Virgil could not enter Paradise but he was an effective guide for Dante to other realms!

- The Christian Imagination - Leland Ryken

- Poetry as a Means of Grace

- Oxford Book of English Verse (Quiller-Couch)

- Greatest Poems of the English Language (Bloom editor)

- Pocket Book of Verse

- Works of George Herbert

- Works of John Donne

- Works of TS Eliot

- Complete Poems of Robert Frost

Fidelity: Short Stories by Wendell Berry


History and Biography

Surveys (own a few for quick reference and big picture; then buy specialized studies; same for major periods, like ‘Reformation’).

Church History in Plain Language - Shelley

Church History - Justo Gonzales

History of Christian Thought - Gonzales

Credo - Pelikan

Christian Theology Reader - McGrath

Sets:

The Christian Tradition - Pelikan

Series from St Vlad’s (see Andrew Louth)

Ante Nicene Fathers in translation

Faith of the Early Fathers (3 vols) - Jurgens

Do not ignore Nazianzus; Nyssa; Basil; Cyril of Jerusalem

History in Roman Catholic Perspective: Paul Johnson; Fr John Laux;

US Christian history: Mark Noll; Daryl Hart; Hatch; Marsden

Read biographies to read more deeply the periods of great significance or persons of lasting influence - Constantine, Athanasius, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Cranmer, Tudors, Calvin, Knox, Bucer, Spurgeon; Lewis; lloyd-Jones, Nevin; Van Til; Bach, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Edwards, Newman, Vatican 2, Bonhoeffer, Bavinck, John Paul 2; Do not forget the lives of the great influencers and history shapers: Churchill, etc.

Scripture Reading

McCheyne’s Plan

Daily Office

Book of Common Prayer Psalter


Liturgy and Hymnody

Redeemer Book of Hymns

Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal (1958)

Divine Liturgy - Chrysostom



Pastoral Vocation

Eugene Peterson (all)

Alistair Begg

William Willimon



On Preaching

Between Two Worlds - John Stott

The Preachers Portrait - John Stott

Sermon excerpts in Office of Readings (Liturgy of the Hours)

Why Johnny Can’t Preach - Gordon

Exegetical Preaching - Haddon Robinson

Chappell

Doriani

Proclaim - me (ha!)

A book on liturgical preaching with the lectionary in view is begging to be written*
Listen to great preachers!!


Non-Reformed Theology

The Orthodox Way - Kallistos Ware

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic Christianity - Peter Kreeft

Note Biblical-Exegetical works of Leiva-Merikakis, Bruner, Witherington, Bock, Wright, Sacra Pagina series of NT commentaries, as well as Anchor

The Great Silence: An Ancient and Anonymous Homily for Holy Saturday

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.
For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Hymn for the Day: This Joyful Eastertide - King's College Cambridge.

Lets Get Cookin!

Lots of work in the kitchen today - swiss chard dip, avocado hummus, curry shortbread crackers, a massive English Trifle, and then wrapped it up with an old Romanian Easter favorite: plecinte - a braided bread stuffed with a super sweet mixture of cream cheese, cottage cheese, raisins, and sugar. The resident Romanian here says its pretty good.

Sermon Notes for Easter Sunday 2011

Man Alive!
1 Corinthians 15:1-6, 12-22
Feast of the Resurrection
April 24, 2011

This whole message of resurrection has always been a hard pill for people to swallow. The Jefferson Bible has Matthew’s Gospel end with the burial of Jesus. Many people today are ‘practical Jeffersonians’ - people who want a very non-dramatic, perfectly rational, almost algebraic faith: no mysteries, no mess; no inexplicable or embarrassing miracle stories for which to account. But of course this is exactly what authentic Christian Faith isn’t. We’re all about a Virgin Birth, and walking on water, and water into wine, and dead people rising in new life. Its always been that way.

Before I get ahead of myself though, let me pause for just a moment, to go back over what the last few days have meant in terms of our Faith. In short, Jesus was dead. He was a dead as my mother was when I saw her in her coffin. His body limply fell from the cross when they pulled out the spikes and untied the ropes that had held him to it, and his dead weight would’ve been hard for the mourners to carry. His body was cold, blood covered him, bruising marked him, his back was shredded, his tongue was swollen and protruding from dying thirst, and his eyes were lifeless, staring out emptily at those who came to care for his body. The Pieta has it right – Mary his Mother in agony, and Jesus dead.

See, this whole resurrection story makes no difference if he didn’t really die, if he wasn’t really dead. But he was. Historians differ on the resurrection but they never differ on the death: the Romans were expert executioners, and Jesus was dead.

That’s why the words in Matthew and Acts and here in Corinthians are so crucial. The dead man Jesus had come back to life. Not only was he alive, but alive now in such a way as to never die again. And that makes all the difference. On Friday, hope died. On Sunday, hope showed up victorious and split time in two, starting creation all over again, only this time with a new Adam – this One rising from the dead in a Garden whereas the first Adam had dragged us all down to death in a Garden. And for Paul, that meant everything. Literally.

I. The Resurrection Priority – 1 Corinthians 15:1-6, 12-15
The Value of Repetition when it comes to the Main Thing
Not saved by believing in the events or the results, but by believing in the Person.
Paul’s Preaching was Christ Crucified and Raised
The Reign of Death Overthrown
The Reign of Death Secured
The choice is stark
Big Picture Living – Dealing with the Biggest Issues: Sin and Death

II. The Resurrection Promise – 1 Corinthians 15:16-22
Release the Bound: New People
What it means to be forgiven and accepted

Raise the Departed: New Life
- What is means to face death now

Reverse the Curse: New Creation
- What it means to embrace the future in hope


We come to this day with a three-fold prophetic declaration about God’s great loving plan, easy to say, easy to recall, easy to pass along:

Christ has died
Christ has risen
Christ will come again

Because he has died our past is forgiven; because he has been raised, our present has purpose and power; because he will come again, our future is bright.


Man alive! Let’s rejoice!

Quotable: Corrie Ten Boom on Memory and Providence in Personal History

This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.
- Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place

Preparing for Resurrection Day

The First Duty of Intelligent Men

The Anglican Bishop of Durham from 1984 to 1994 was a fellow by the name of David Jenkins. The Rt. Rev. Jenkins was a highly regarded academic, but he was no Christian apologist. In fact, quotations from his writings and sermons turned up in Muslim tracts in various parts of the world as evidence for the movement of Christian leaders to the Islamic position on Jesus. How so? Jenkins denied the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, and the bodily resurrection. Let’s not even go into what he thought of Scripture. In other words, Jenkins was just a little shy of orthodoxy on what most of us would count as the basics of Christian Faith.

Things came to a head in the public media over his selection as a Bishop at the third most senior see in the Anglican world when, three days after his consecration at York Minster Cathedral (The Bishops of Durham are consecrated there rather than in Durham), lightning struck the Cathedral directly above where the new Bishop was enthroned and set fire to the great Church. Anglican officials sought to play down this event, but the Times and the Telegraph and all the other London media would have none of it. In an odd twist, the secular media had more faith in the apparent displeasure of the Almighty than did the Bishops of the Church! The Cathedral had been around a while, after all, and had never been struck by lightning until the powers that be had the temerity to promote a complete apostate to the position of Bishop. Jenkins gave up the position, he continued to make waves, briefly banned from preaching in 2006 after swearing during a sermon, and then, later, blessing a same-sex union between two men, one of whom was an Anglican Priest. He may wish to steer clear of cloudy skies!

Jenkins once referred to the resurrection story as ‘a conjuring trick with bones’, refuting the idea and suggesting instead that what the early Christians experienced was merely visionary and mystical. Jenkins claimed he was misquoted, and maybe he was. But there is no denying that he denied the bodily resurrection, the atonement, or eternal judgment for that matter. John Dominic Crossan is a former Roman Catholic Priest who holds to similar views. In fact, Crossan thinks that the body of Jesus was discarded after death and, like most other victims of crucifixion, eaten by the dogs that feasted on the remains of prisoners executed by the Romans.

Some years ago, George Orwell wrote, “We have now sunk to the place where stating the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” Charles Colson takes up that quotation in a recent column in Christianity Today and reminds us that in our own time Orwell’s words ring true for us in regard to the most basic of truths we treasure as the Faith once and for all delivered to the saints. “Our doctrines are truth claims”, writes Colson, and “they cannot be mere symbolism. This is important to remember as we celebrate the Resurrection.” I’d love to see Colson and Jenkins in a steel-cage, no holds barred debate to the death; Jenkins might win, but Colson would rise from the dead and smack him with a bolt of lightning.

Actually we are in a constant debate with our world, and if not with David Jenkins, then at least with his ideas and mis-belief. I regularly meet Christians who wrongly imagine that the resurrection was mystical and not historical and physical. These folks just haven’t been told the truth or weren’t listening closely. Our belief in the resurrection does not mean we simply hold to continuing existence after death – that was hardly news in the ancient world. No, what we hold is that the dead body of Jesus was made alive again through the power of the Holy Spirit, and transformed, or ‘glorified’. It is this belief that lies at the foundation of our hope of resurrection, not only for ourselves, but for the whole creation. We need Easter – and Christmas and Good Friday and Ascension and Pentecost – to go on stating the obvious. God has acted decisively in history through Jesus Christ and this powerful intervention is the basis of hope for all.

We live in hope, laboring beyond ourselves for generations to come and a world not yet seen. Jesus did not come simply to give us a better life now, but eternal life forever. The commercial Jesus, the Jesus that simply offers you a new product to consume to make your life better, is not the Savior of the Scriptures. Paul wrote that ‘if we have hoped in Christ for this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.’ Faith is for this life, but it extends far beyond this life into the eternal, making the coming kingdom a current reality, but also fixing our eyes on a prize that transcends this world, and thus redeems this world. Hope is not the opiate of the people, it is the energy of the people.

This is why Isaiah tells us that this message of hope really is for all people. Today’s feast is as universal as the enemy whose defeat we celebrate today. Many today, whether ‘religious’ or secular, don’t believe Christ died on the cross and rose again from dead, but that event is their hope for deliverance from death. Telling them the truth about this momentous event is our first duty. Its why Paul wrote the Corinthians, “I delivered to you of first importance… that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Through death Christ defeated death. The greatest calamity and horror we know is overcome by the powerful love and loving power of Christ’s tomb-emptying victory.

So then, in the face of contradiction, heresy, and unbelief, in the face of cynicism, doubt, and fear, let us heartily with one heart and voice acclaim with the boldness and joy only heaven can supply, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Return – these are not doctrines for mere debate, but the dogmas that are our life. We live because the One who is Life has come and ever lives to give us his life eternal.

What is the Cross?

Here is a very fine article from First Things: www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/04/christ-and-him-crucified

When I Survey The Wondrous Cross : Choir Of Kings College, Cambridge

Happy San Jacinto Day!

Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!

Happy San Jacinto Day fellow Texans!

"I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could."

- Davey Cassidy

"You can all go to hell, but I will go to Texas!"

- Davey Crockett

Behold I Will Make a New Covenant

Palestrina-Music for Maundy Thursday -6-

Hymn for the Day: Choir of New College - Victimae Paschali

Quod Est Veritas?

Christ before Pilate. The Judge of the Living and Dead is subjected to judgment and condemned to the death of the cross. All this and more to bear the judgment due to us and grant us by grace the righteousness which is his alone.

What hath Jerusalem to do with Hollywood? - Reformation21 Blog

Trueman nails it.

What hath Jerusalem to do with Hollywood? - Reformation21 Blog

My Song Is Love Unknown - King's College, Cambridge

Hymn for the Day

Tuesday Morning Prayers

Father of Mercies and God of all Comfort, our land is thirsty and dying, ablaze with killing flames rather than vibrant color. Apart from thy mercy our hearts are drier still: brittle, barren, and burning. As thy mercies are new every morning, send upon us the life-givng showers of thy Word and Spirit that we may embrace the Passion of Jesus and live for him who suffered in our place, our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.

Midday Worship Throughout Holy Week

Behold the Lamb!

Preachers this Week at Redeemer's midday services -

Monday - Rev Danny Shuffield

Tuesday - Rev Dr. Kenneth Campbell

Wednesday - Rev John Ratliff

Thursday - Rev Tim Frickenschmidt

Friday - Rev. Jack Smith

Services begin at 12 and are about 35 minutes in duration. Rev Dr George Dupere will lead in worship.

Maundy Thursday Feasting and Eucharist at 6:30

Good Friday services at 6:30 and 8:00.

Costa Coffee TV Advert - Monkeys and typewriters

Love this.HT Kris Lundgaard.

Daily Scripture Reading for Holy Week

Some Suggested Readings for Holy Week

Palm Sunday: John 12:12-19; Psalm 24, 29; Isaiah 42:1-9; Zechariah 9

Monday - Cleansing the Temple: John 12:20-36; Psalm 51, 69; Isaiah 49:1-12

Tuesday - Facing his Enemies: John 12:37-41; Psalm 6, 12, 94

Spy Wednesday - Judas Seeks to Betray Christ: John 12:42-50; Psalm 55; 74

Maundy Thursday - Last Supper and Gethsemane: John 13:1-38; Matthew 26:17-56; Psalm 102, 118; Isaiah 50-53; if time allows - John 14-17

Good Friday - Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus: John 18-19; Matthew 26:57 - 27:61; Philippians 2:1-11; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; Colossians 1:1-14; Genesis 22:1-14; Exodus 12:1-14

Holy Saturday - The Great Sabbath as the Savior Rests from his Redeeming Work of New Creation: Matthew 27:62-66; Psalm 16-17; Ezekiel 37:1-14

Easter Day - The Son of God is Risen from the Dead: Mark 16:1-8; John 20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:1-22; Psalm 148-150; 118

Quotable

"Getting the Gospel right is just as important as getting the Gospel out."
- Michael Horton

Sermon Notes for Palm Sunday 2011

My Place in His Story
Philippians 2:5-11
Palm Sunday, the Last Sunday in Lent
April 17, 2011


Today we mark Jesus' Royal Procession into Jerusalem as Messiah, and with those who first welcomed him shout in acclamation, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!" Why does he come to the city? He enters Jerusalem to die so that we might enter New Jerusalem and live forever.

“God is not so much the object of our study as the cause of our wonder. The task of Christian Faith is not to offer easy answers to difficult questions but rather to lead us deeper into a mystery.”
- Kallistos Ware

“Wonder”; “Mystery"; never are these two words more our inheritance than they are in the course of the next seven days. Christians around the world today mark Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, hailed as king and Deliverer, his opponents saying, ‘The whole world has gone after him’, he knows he has come to be enthroned, but on the cross, lifted up, but in crucifixion. In this way, in this great outgoing of his love for his father and his brothers, Jesus will reconcile fallen man and holy God, break the power of death, and reverse the reign of the powers with his humility.

In the passage we’ve just read, probably quoting an early Christian hymn, Paul recalls the whole story of Jesus in three great movements, and calls us to recognize our place in Jesus’ story. Paul says that Christians are to have ‘the mind of Christ’. That isn’t about intellectual ability, but spiritual humility, an attitude not an aptitude.

But what is this attitude of Jesus Christ? Paul sets it before us in stunning, dimension shattering terms, summoning us into the wonder that is God revealed in Jesus Christ. He does this in three great movements:



Movement One: Eternal Glory as God the Word, the Son of God

Movement Two: Temporal Humiliation as the Word Incarnate, the Son of Man

Movement Three: Everlasting Glorification as Lord of All to whom every knee will bow.


I. God Before Time – Philippians 2:6
A. God before all worlds – Nicene Creed: “One Lord Jesus Christ,…begotten of his father before all words; God of God, Light of Light; True God of True God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father…”
• The One who was begotten in time by a Mother without an earthly father, was begotten before time from the Father without a Mother.
B. The One Moses and Isaiah saw: the ‘form’ of the Lord.
• This is the One who has come to us. This means that when we see him and hear him, we see and hear God.

II. God In Time – Philippians 2:6-8
A. Fully and Completely Man; Fully and Completely God.
• Fully God for only God can save; fully man for salvation must embrace man and reach into the depths of who we are to efficacious.
• Christmas Vespers: “A Marvelous wonder has this day come to pass…what he was he has remained, and that which he was not he hast taken to himself…”

B. But Why? Harpagmos (Only here in the NT)- “something to be exploited for personal gain.” God is Saying ‘No’ to the Power Grab and ‘Yes’ to the Power of Weakness.
• Adam grasped for power to be as God; God embraces the self-llimitations of humanity to grasp not power, but us, fallen sons and daughters of Eve, rescuing us from ourselves and death.
• The King arrives on a donkey and he comes not to demand the death of his followers in an insurrection against the powers but to offer his death as a sacrifice in loving submission to his Father.

C. Don’t Skip Friday!
1. The Cross as Ultimate Humiliation
2. Why this Terrible Day and Scene?
a. From a human and historical perspective: politics of scape-goating and power.
b. From God’s perspective: reconciliation: “I stretched out my arms…”
- Looking upon the cross we see not only a suffering man, but suffering God.
- This is his life-creating death.

III. God Over Time – Philippians 2:9-11
A. The One before every knee shall bow come and bows before us this week.
• He stripped himself, took a towel, and kneeling, he washed their feet.
• Peter was right; we are the ones who should bow; but we cannot do so in faith unless Christ has first knelt before us as our Servant and washed us with his blood. We love him because he first loved us.
B. Now exalted, “he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.”
• We do not yet see every knee bowed, the kingdom come in all its glory. Yet we do see him who was made for a little while lower than angels, now ascended and reigning. We confess him and bow before him.
- Yet even now, as we come with our Hosannas, his voice thunders across the centuries and into our hearts and says. “Come, all you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He bids us come and dine; once again he cleanses us in his House and sets before us the Feast of his Love, his body broken, his blood shed.
- So come; the One with outstretched arms bids you welcome.

He whom none may touch is seized;
He who looses Adam from the curse is bound;
He who tries the hearts and inner thoughts of man is unjustly brought to trial;
He who closed the abyss is shut in prison;
He before whom the powers of heaven trembling stand in worship, stands before arrogant earthly powers;
The Creator is struck by the hand of his creature;
He who comes to judge the living and dead is condemned to the cross;
The Destroyer of death is enclosed in a tomb.

O Thou who dost endure all these things in thy tender love,
Who hast saved all men from the curse,
O long-suffering Lord, all glory to Thee.

Morning Prayers

"O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up." O Savior, teach me today that my life is found in you and not in what is around me; teach me to look upon your face so that I might more clearly see your image in the face of others; teach me to look up, forgetting what lies behind, pressing forward to lay hold of that for which you have laid hold of me. Amen.

Lets Get Cookin!

First of all, my new two volume set of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" arrived yesterday. Fabulous. That's like Calvin's Institutes for the Kitchen. I purchased the set with the gift certificate graciously given me by the Redeemer Ladies Bible Study group - you are wonderful friends!

Favorite quote so far: "Food, like the people who eat it, can be stimulated by wine or spirits. And, as with people, it can also be spoiled." - Childs, Book 1; Ch.1

Secondly, I had to do 'quick and dirty' last night, so I put together some sauteed chicken breast filets stuffed with three cheeses, hugged by some bacon wrapped green beans and an arugula salad. The sauce from the pan 'made' the chicken; amazing what vermouth, butter, a dash of cream, and cooking juices can accomplish!

Why God Often Gives Us More than We can Handle in 24 Hours and Less Money than We Think We Need

"Most morality is a lack of opportunity."
- Mark Twain

The Persecuted Church of China

First Things blog - which should be art of one's daily reading list - notes the continuing persecution of the 'unregistered' Church in China by the authorities in that country. All here will be free this Sunday to go - or not go - to worship as they please; remember in your prayers today those Christians in China (and many other nations as well) who do not enjoy this essential liberty.

www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/04/11/christian-worshipers-arrested-in-china/

Miserere Mei Deus

Morning Prayers

Great Word of the Father, you are the uncreated God; yet you took to yourself the likeness of the creature to save by your death those you had fashioned in your image for life. Help us to receive all we encounter this day as your gift which serves to further restore in us the beauty of your likeness, so marred by our great fall, and bring us at the last to your heavenly kingdom. Amen.

Lets Get Cookn'!

Felt like shakin and bakin today, but settled for Swiss Chard Parmesan Dip. Yep, it was very, very good. Great starter.

Its a little embarrassing seeing it on a paper plate, but hey its really just fancy toast, right?

The Five Rules of the World

In "Operating Instructions", Anne Lamott writes of a Catholic Priest named Tom Weston and his "Five Rules of the World". They are as follows:

1. You must NOT have anything wrong with you.

2. If you do have something wrong with you, you must get over it as soon as possible.

3. If you can't get over it, you must pretend that you have.

4. If you can't pretend that you have, you must not show up; you should stay home because its hard for everyone else to have you around.

5. If you are going to show up you should at least have the decency to feel ashamed.


Yep, that pretty much sums up the way the world works. Good thing the Church isn't like that, huh.

Quotable

One thing I cannot bear is tacit consent. I love this quote which I came across today while reading Anne Lamott's "Operating Instructions".


"In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot."

- Czeslaw Milosz

Sermon Notes for Fifth Sunday in Lent

The Liberty to Love and the Love of Liberty
1 Corinthians 8

After answering the Corinthians’ questions about family life, Paul turns to an issue they’ve raised which, on the surface, appears almost irrelevant to Western Christians, and not all that important to our daily lives. Why should we bother taking any time at all with an issue like the location of lunch and what’s on the menu? We don’t have to worry about hanging out in the dining porticos of polytheistic temples dedicated to various so-called gods, do we? Eating meat sacrificed to an idol? So what? But like so many things that appear irrelevant at first glance, and just as Paul makes clear, lurking beneath the surface is the essence of the problem in our Christian Community. The “irrelevant issue” is the window by which the mostly deeply rooted sin of all among the Corinthians can be seen in its stark horror. This is a chapter that should terrify us. 

I. The Knowledge that Destroys and the Love that Saves
A. Puffed Up or Built Up
1. Corinthian Slogan: “All of us possess knowledge!”
2. Paul's Corrective: “Knowledge puffs up; Love builds up!”
B. Spiritual Snobbery
1. The essence of the Corinthian catastrophe
• From here all the way through chapter 14
2. “I Know”– “You Know Nothing, and it is God’s Knowledge and Love that is Supreme.”
- The Confession of Faith: Common Ground for Love

II. The Liberty to Love not the Love of Liberty
• Real idols rather than the cultural captivity of legalists
A. Exousia vs. Love
B. Weakness and Strength
• The biting irony that in the name of the knowledge of the One God who saves the weak by sacrificing himself, someone would destroy the weak in order to preserve his cultural privilege

III. The Savior’s Self-Giving in Weakness for the Weak
A. Conquering the Powers
B. Liberating the Captives
• Given his path, what path will we embrace?

Fun with Words

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his English class one day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."

Anonymous - New Film Based on the Earl of Oxford Shakespeare Theory

Here's the link to the London Daily Telegraph's publication of the official trailer for the new film 'Anonymous' which explores the theory that the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere - and not the man known as William Shakespeare - is the actual author of the great works associated with the name. I'm of the opinion that the theory is very plausible, and I'm hoping this is an excellent film. Scheduled for an autumn release, I'll be waiting to find out!

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/filmvideo/cinema-trailers/8435377/Anonymous-exclusive-trailer.html

Lets Get Cookn'!

I love getting creative in the kitchen. Here's a shot of my potato au gratin en croute. Yep, its REALLY GOOD! This is a terrific recipe for a BIG evening or family festival. I made the sour cream dough by hand, double-layered it with garlic, parsley, and gruyere cheese between the layers. After chilling, place the pastry in a round baking pan. Then stack up several layers of thinly sliced sweet and golden potatoes inside the pastry with more cheese between each layer. Before baking, pour a big mixture of gently heated heavy cream and minced garlic over the lot. Incredibly delicious and perfect with well prepared beef loin.

Photographic Artistry

I was chatting with a friend last night about contemporary artists and the medium of photography. This only served to remind me of the very beautiful work of Jeff Meyers in St Louis. Some of you know Jeff as a Pastor. Do you know him as an artist? Here is a link to his website with some of the most magnificent midwestern photography you can enjoy.

http://jeffmeyers.smugmug.com/popular/#332313986_eVjdf

Sermon Notes for Fourth Sunday in Lent 2011

Living on the Edge of the World
1 Corinthians 7
Fourth Sunday in Lent
April 3, 2011


The letter from Paul to the Corinthians now turns from dealing with the crucial issues he sees as fundamental flaws in the community that must be addressed to answering the questions the Corinthians have asked in their letter to him. The issues about which Paul is concerned – the centrality of Christ and his Cross, the arrogance of the Corinthians that is at the root of so many of their problems, and their need for a culture that is a visible witness in the world to the world – will be themes he continues to address as he answers their questions.

The Corinthians have questions about family life, on everything from the relationship between husbands and wives to the way singles are to conduct themselves in the church and society. He makes some startling – and for the time - revolutionary statements in the course of his reply. He remarks that women have authority over their husband’s body – the only time in ancient literary history where it is said that a wife has authority over her husband. He notes that being single can be a gift offered to God and that remaining single is often a good thing, so long as one possesses self control, that least mentioned fruit of the Spirit.

Why the radical new approach to the life of the family? The clue is in Paul’s view of the times in which these people lived.

The Sons of Issachar – 1 Chronicles 12:32




At the Ends of the Ages – 1 Corinthians 7:26-31; 10:11
In a Time of War
Radical Responses in a Radical Time


The Covenant Family
Mutual Submission – 1 Corinthians 7:1-6
Sexual Sanity
Safe Sex

Grace-Shaped Relationships - 1 Corinthians 7:12-16
Holy Children
Spouse Saving

Celibate Grace – 1 Corinthians 7:7-9, 32-35

The Relational Canon – 1 Corinthians 7:39-40
There is a first question to ask before all others
There is a Law that is the Christian’s Law – 1 Corinthians 7:19
Loving Christ supremely; loving one another truly, all because he has first loved us
He came as a Celibate to make us his Bride, sanctifying both states and calling us to the holiness that belongs to both, through his grace and by his blood.