More than I ask or imagine. . .

Holy Saturday Reading: Psalm 88

The modern existential novel holds no thrill for me except on Holy Saturday.  I am thinking of James Joyce's Ulysses or Faulkner's Light in August as epitomes of this genre.  These and other such novels show an angst and an experience that is not driven by narrative but rather what life is like when the narrative is lost.  There is an ebb and flow and a journey but no plot resolution.  For many readers this is simply unsatisfying.  I want a good story, but the novel will end with nothing there to give that satisfaction of the completed story.

For one day a year, that lack of resolution should stick with us.  Psalm 88 is a perfect Pslam for this day, and is used in many lectionaries for today.  Why is Psalm 88 a good one?  Because it does not resolve. It never comes back to "But I will trust in the Lord" or "wait for Him" or "seek refuge in the Lord's Anointed".  It just ends with no resolution, being in need, oppressed, and lonely.

Reading Psalm 88 identifies with our experience as experience long before existential angst was popular in the 20th century. In fact, the nature of faith is a posture that is honest about suffering and longs for God to redeem even when circumstances seem to not be resolving.  The psalm also reminds us that God "remembers our frame, and knows we are dust" (Psalm 103). Ultimately, our stories, our journeys may not be satisfyingly resolved for us, but our story will resolve in the larger great narrative that God is writing. The satisfaction must wait.

As we wait on Holy Saturday, let us remember Psalm 88:

      1 LORD, you are the God who saves me;
         day and night I cry out to you.
      2 May my prayer come before you;
         turn your ear to my cry.

      3 I am overwhelmed with troubles
         and my life draws near to death.
      4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
         I am like one without strength.
      5 I am set apart with the dead,
         like the slain who lie in the grave,
         whom you remember no more,
         who are cut off from your care.

      6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
         in the darkest depths.
      7 Your wrath lies heavily on me;
         you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. i
      8 You have taken from me my closest friends
         and have made me repulsive to them.
         I am confined and cannot escape;
         9      my eyes are dim with grief.

         I call to you, LORD, every day;
         I spread out my hands to you.
      10 Do you show your wonders to the dead?
         Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
      11 Is your love declared in the grave,
         your faithfulness in Destruction?
      12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
         or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

      13 But I cry to you for help, LORD;
         in the morning my prayer comes before you.
      14 Why, LORD, do you reject me
         and hide your face from me?

      15 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
         I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
      16 Your wrath has swept over me;
         your terrors have destroyed me.
      17 All day long they surround me like a flood;
         they have completely engulfed me.
      18 You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
         darkness is my closest friend.


The New International Version. 2011 (Ps 88:1–18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

What We Really Mean When We Say, "I Know God Forgives Me, but I Just Can't Forgive Myself"

You have done it again.  Last time you swore you would not do this again. It may be a burst of anger, an addiction, a lie spoken in fear, or a hurting of someone you love or yourself.  Immediately the dark thoughts come, "how can there be any fear of God in my eyes?"  You can start beating yourself up making promises to yourself and others about "never again".  After a while the surmounting broken promises to yourself make you think that you are unusually sinful, broken, and lost.   You may even tell a friend, "Yes, I understand God forgives me, but I just can't forgive myself!"

Actually, this quote really shows that you do not understand that God forgives you in Christ.  When you can't forgive yourself, you are really saying, "I can't believe that I have done that!"  It really comes back to you, your performance, and your pride.  Actually, when you are at your worst having blown it and know that there is no good in you, then and only then, are you ready for Grace. 

Grace turns your gaze away from your failures, your broken life, and your pride to look deeply at the Triumphant and Relentless Love of God in Christ.  Psalm 51 and Psalm 103 are great songs of joy in the midst of getting caught or being at the bottom.  Notice in these psalms how the focus is on the "plenteous" grace of God in Psalm 103 and joy in Psalm 51.   Sin promises the world, but only our God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ can really deliever on his promises that we may enter his rest and joy.  So we can boldly claim His promises, we can come, be forgiven, and find joy.  There will be consequences to train you, but they are signs of God's loving discipline as a son or daughter. Those hard times are part of his love because in the end there will be joy.

This Holy Week, know that you are forgiven and be at peace.

What I Saw in Orlando: The Theology Project #fellowshippres

Below is the Theological Foundation session at the Covenanting conference of the Fellowship of Presbyterians.  I many ways I felt as though I had come home theologically with an emphasis on a Reformed and Sacramental Theology of Mission. The vision of this group is be the church in a new way and committing to foster further theological reflection. They take seriously to be Reformed and always Reforming.  There is also a call to be pastors in a way that takes seriously that endeavor.  The demands of pastoral ministry together with theological reflection and applying it to new frontiers will be draining.  To meet all of these demands, the Church must recover what Eugene Peterson calls the Contemplative Pastor in community.  

I need this type of community to read Scripture deeply and often, to read Historical theology, and to have accountability as we pray for our congregations, traditions, and our families.  This new order is like the orders of old where, like Franciscans, we commit to a way of life to bring renewal to the world-wide body of Presbyterians.  

I hope you get a chance to watch this 40 minute video, but if you cannot please was from minute 30 on to understand this way of life, this new order.

 

Jerry Andrews & Laura Smit: The Theology Project from Fellowship of Presbyterians on Vimeo.

Barth Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God

So if reading Calvin is choclate milk, then reading Barth is drinking Scotch.  Too much is dangerous and it is so powerful you have to stop and go. very. slowly. through the work to even taste the various flavors.

Last year a group of bloggers began reading the Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth.  I would have love to start but I was in between ministry calls, moving and expecting a new baby so that may have been crazy.  The most contraversial part of the Dogmatics is Barth's view of Revelation, but I skipped that.   I am beginning with the other bloggers on the doctrine of God, at the same time reading Calvin.

Section 25 is on The Fulfillment of the Knowledge of God.  The summary probably from Torrence says: The knowledge of God occurs in the fulfilment of the revelation of His Word by the Holy Spirit, and therefore in the reality and with the necessity of faith and its obedience. Its content is the existence of Him whom we must fear above all things because we may love Him above all things; who remains a mystery to us because He Himself has made Himself so clear and certain to us.

This first section was only about the first sentance above.  Barth wants to say that God is the object of our study but that in no way limits him or controls him.  Knowing God is only by the Revelation of the Word of God (Christ). However as we study God, he is studying us as well.  He is not limited by our study, but we must remember that He is outside what we can comprehend.  He also starts to the ground work for how faith are the eyes of understanding through relationship.

All in all a good chapter because with all theology we must understand that God will always be outside of our understanding. We can know him truly but not completely.  At this point, I am reading Barth through Calvin and Van Til, but that could be that I need to come to terms in some senses with Barth.

 

For a Merry Christmas Day: God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/ We Three Kings

One of my favorite songs of all time, and so good to hear it this year.  O Tidings of Comfort and Joy to you today. 

 

Have some Christmas Blend too!

 

How Can I Change the World? It begins in the Sanctuary of the Lord.

I have always been a big fan of the idea that you live how your worship.  I firmly believe that worship services train us as God's people to live for him.  Below is an article by Mark Horne on How to Change the World?  Hope you enjoy it.

10 things a church can do to change the world

by Mark Horne

The principle to keep in mind is that we have to change ourselves first.

1. Participate in the Lord’s Supper Every Sunday in Worship
The Kingdom is again and again a feast. The Church is the beachhead of the Kingdom. Does Jesus ever tell a parable comparing the Kingdom to a lecture hall? Does he ever compare the Kingdom to a music concert? Then lets not stop up the Kingdom at the source. Lets get it right. Lets eat and drink.

2. Drink Wine in Church
Duh. How else would you worship a glutton and a drunkard? The Gospel is New Wine that bursts wineskins–not grape juice that sits there inert. You want to know if God can forgive a sinner like you. Get it in a cup and drink it down and you will know. That changes everything.

3. Sing the Psalms
By sing, I mean chant. Don’t remake the Psalms to fit a rhyme scheme. Sing the words that are there according to an accurate translation. What would happen if we did this? For one thing a ton of bad theology would be exorcised.

Arise, O Yahweh
O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
But you do see,
for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
Yahweh is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.

4. Pray the Psalms
Arguably this is redundant with the point above. But I want to stress that God wants us to pray things like:

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!

There are people and whole churches who claim to be Bible-believing who think this is sinful to pray. You can’t change the world for God if you think He is really a Pharisee unless he has the help of your styleguide by which to edit his prayers.

5. Tell people in church that God has forgiven them.

Don’t preach that God forgives some people somewhere some time. Tell the professing Christians in front of you, and their children, when they confess their sins together, that God has wiped each one of their slates clean. The good news that is going to change the world is not that God forgives someone somewhere at some time.

(Yes, God forgives them at other times, including when they pray apart. But these things are not opposed. Rather, one helps the the other. Those who are trained to believe that God hears and forgives them will be encouraged to trust God for the same at other times and places.)

6. Believe the whole Bible and teach it like God really meant it.

Because saying, “You’re getting too much of your theology from the parables” mostly means, “Jesus was a stupid peasant who told misleading stories that we have to carefully strip down to a single point that we found in Paul’s Epistles”–or rather, “that we found in Westminster Confession” (or, “… the Councils of Trent” or whatever). I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that God isn’t blessing churches who don’t like the Bible.

7. Preach Jesus as King but Avoid Petty Politics

Jesus is Lord and he wants a visible unified entrance to the Kingdom (Church) as a witness to that fact. We have to obey what Jesus says, but we also have to recognize how divisions and arguments actually can undermine the theocratic Faith. So find some highly obvious points in the public square to harp on (i.e. abortion), but try not to get bogged down in minutia (don’t preach Christian libertarianism, socialism, or whatever from the pulpit).

8. Let the Great Commission be your commission

If you think you know what this means, go read it, and ask yourself what this says about being “born again,” “faith,” or “evangelism” compared to what it says about obedience, theocracy, baptism, and ongoing teaching/training of everyone.

9. Worship like the Bible matters

Does it not strike anyone as odd that, if you want to attend a worship service that took you systematically through Scripture, you would be better off in an Episcopal, formal Lutheran, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox service rather than a Baptists, conservaitve Presbyterian, or “Bible Church” assembly? Is God supposed to speak to us in the Church or not? If not, how are we supposed to see anything change, let alone the world?

10. Live Corporately like Matthew 18 is in the Bible

I mention the whole chapter on purpose, by the way, because it is obviously focused on humility and forgiveness, and in that context gives directions for accountability and purifying the Church. I think that is important because, while not one church in a hundred includes Matthew 18.15-19 in their real canon, some that do can be so zealous (I’m using a euphemism) about it as to reinforce the temptation to neglect it. But it is in the Bible and it is an operating instruction from the Lord Jesus. So obey Him.

My Credo Part Two: I Believe in God the Father Almighty

 

This is my opening paragraph on my statement of faith. I followed the Apostle's Creed, and as always being anchored in History always wins.

"I believe in God the Father who created all things invisible and visible.  I believe that God’s Creation was good revealing the way things are supposed to be in Peace (Shalom), comprehensive human flourishing.  Every human being lives in God’s world with a longing to know the Creator behind all beauty, pleasure, love, and goodness.  I believe that humanity committed cosmic rebellion, sin, against God’s created Peace.  This rebellion infected every part of humanity and left no part of the human heart or mind untouched, thus we are totally depraved.  God began putting this beloved Creation back together through Abraham, Isaac, Israel, and ultimately and finally, Jesus and his people, the Body, which is his Church."

It is a very simple story, but one that we often forget.  Being a story teller, I wanted to embellish and say more about the Creation Narrative and poetry.  I wanted paint the picture, but then I could have turned in the Bible and just highlighted the whole thing. 

In these types of statements, what you do not say also speaks volumes.  In the area of science and faith, I do think you do damage to force the text to say 6-24 hour days.  I believe the notion of everyone saying that is has to be is already living in the Scientific world and submitted to it.  Science does not give me my values, my worth, my purpose, my family, or my story.  So why would I want to put science there in The Story.  Science is supposed to be about hypothesis and repeatable events, but this is difficult with history. The question of origins is about values.  Is this God's world? Yes  Do we owe him honor and worship living lives in obedience because this is his World and he calls the shots? Yes.  We are not animals helpless to our appetites, and we are not clocks knowing precision.  The Story is accurate and qualitative and its authority wants to do more in us and through us than just tell time. The Story, God's Truth in Scripture, wants us to worship and love with a full thankful heart.

The Fellowship of Presbyterians: Why a New Reformed Body? #MN2011 @fellowshippres

Here is a just posted video from the Conference from Minnesota that I attended last month.

 

 

John Crosby - "Why a New Reformed Body?" from Fellowship of Presbyterians on Vimeo.

NT Wright on the Sweep, Scope, and Beauty of Scripture. Makes me want to read a whole Gospel.

The above video is from NT Wright interviewed about the practice of reading the Scripture.  Whatever you think about the man, you must admit he is passionate about Scripture and wants people to know it.

Take some time today and read a whole book in one sitting.  Let me know if you take the challenge and what book you read.  I will read Mark.

The Moon Was Claimed for The Glory of God through the Lord's Supper

      I just received an email from The Font and the Table, which is a ministry of the PCUSA for Sacramental Renewal. It describes how on the Sunday closest to July 20 Webster Presbyterian Church celebrates Communion because Buzz Aldrin Celebrated the Lord's Supper on the Moon in 1969. Below is the article.

    No doubt you’re familiar with World Communion Sunday. There’s a congregation southeast of Houston, Texas, that takes it one small step – or is that one giant leap? – further. Each year on the Sunday closest to July 20, Webster Presbyterian Church commemorates the day when Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin, then a ruling elder at Webster Presbyterian Church, received communion on the moon as an act of thanksgiving. Here’s an account from the church’s website, an excerpt from the church’s centennial history by Judith Haley Allton, Patricia M. Brackett, and Dana Ray.

In Aldrin’s own words: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements. And so, just before I partook of the elements, I read the words which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ. I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere. I read: 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.'"

Of course, this was an extraordinary situation. Ordinarily, the proper context for communion is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day in the community of faith. It’s worth noting, though, how careful and intentional Aldrin was to connect this act with the communion of his home congregation – using a chalice provided by the church, consulting with the pastor, and receiving dispensation from the presbytery. (Thanks to Webster Presbyterian Church pastor Mark Cooper for this information.) This wasn’t “private communion,” but, as Aldrin so eloquently put it, an expression of “unity with our church back home, and with the Church everywhere,” through the connection of Christ the true vine. In a way, this extraordinary communion was an extension of what we now know as the Extended Serving of Communion.

Beyond taking the extended serving of communion to new heights, Aldrin’s simple act of gratitude is a stellar illustration of the “great” in the Great Thanksgiving, and of the cosmic scope of eucharistic celebration: giving our thanks and praise to the “Lord our God, creator and ruler of the universe” (Book of Common Worship Great Thanksgiving A). Indeed, as we sing with celestial choirs, “heaven and earth are full” of the glory of God. Hosanna in the highest! Presbyterians (and specifically members of Webster Presbyterian Church) have made other significant contributions to the space program. Many are aware that astronaut and United States Senator John Glenn is a Presbyterian elder; his wife played the organ at the church in Webster. Another Webster Presbyterian Church member, Jerry Carr, was on the crew of the Skylab space station; for the duration of his mission, his family had a sign in their front yard counting the days until his return, with the letters K.O.S.P. (Keep Outer Space Presbyterian). A member of the congregation also made the flag and plaque that mark the site of the first moon landing. (Thanks again to Mark Cooper for sharing these stories.) This year’s Lunar Communion service will take place at Webster Presbyterian Church on July 17. We celebrate with them, as the Church in every place is united at the table of the Lord.

Grace and peace,

David Gambrell, Associate for Worship Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)