Friday, December 16, 2011

Keep the Christ in Christmas


-->
They’re called nomina sacra—sacred names. The Earliest Christian scribes who copied the books of the Greek New Testament by hand so that they could be circulated to other churches had a relatively uniform set of abbreviations for divine names. For example-the word for “humanity” in the ancient Greek of the New Testament was anthropos. You can imagine writing that several times could become tedious so the scribes would write two capital letters—an alpha and a nu and then put a line over it. The word for God –Theos—would be abbreviated with a capital theta with a line above it. The nomina sacra for Jesus was Iota Eta and if it was in the nominative case (that is as the subject of the sentence) it would have a concluding sigma. It would look like IHS though many Christians think that means “In His Service.” Perhaps the most profound nomina sacra is the one used for cross, in Greek Stauro and in crucify stauroo. It looks like a smooth, curved capital “P” with a cross bar. It looks like a man on a cross. Of course with the persistent use of Christ, there was a nomina sacra for Christ. It was a chi with an line on top. A capital chi looks like an uppercase X. Nomina sacra were the forerunners of Christian symbols used to this day.

I mention that because this time of year we frequently see Christmas abbreviated as X-Mas. Many people assume that this is an attempt to remove “Christ” from the season. In reality, this particular abbreviation has a long standing tradition in Christian literature. Evenso, many Christians feel that the culture is trying to minimize the central of Jesus and maximize festivities, commercialism and marketing. People think that because the culture is trying to maximize festivities, commercialism and marketing. So everywhere, something of a tug of war that usually gets portrayed as a culture war is waged in this country over the appropriate expressions of religion. Instead of crafting scenarios where we are the victims, perhaps Christians should learn from early generations and see in simple letters and figures, representations of Christ.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Mystal's Judgment of Helping and Moral Superiority

Recently, Elie Mystal, a blogger for Above The Law, took issue with a column by George Will challenging Affirmative Action. The blog post started with the following paragraph and a half.

People who think giving charity to those less fortunate also gives them the right to direct the personal choices of those receiving the charity are some of the worst people on the planet. The biggest offenders are religious organizations: “Ooh, here’s some food. Yes. You like food, don’t you? I bet you’re hungry — I can tell ’cause I can see your ribs. Well, it’s all you can eat in here… first, just say you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior. SAY IT. Wonderful. Bon appétit!”

Organizations do it all the time, but there are plenty of individuals who also think giving a guy a buck gives them the right to tell the recipient how to spend the money. This behavior is the worst because it takes what should be a generous gesture (giving somebody money) and turns it into a cheap way to make a BS point about your moral superiority (“If this man did just one thing more like me, he wouldn’t have to beg for my scraps.”).

The rest of the article was devoted to refuting George Will's stance against Affirmative Action. Mystal's specific arguments about Affirmative Action made sense to me though they were largely based on his summary of arguments made by one of his former professors. He didn't make it as clear in the argument why he distrusted Will's motivation. He had interacted with Will personally. Perhaps he knows something from those interactions that he does not spell out in this article. In any case, from my perspective the complexities of responsible charitable assistance and the complexities of Affirmative Action are too intricate to be grouped together in this manner.

Too much of his criticism hinges on his perceptions of people's motivations. Will is "disingenuous;" some people who give charity are really just advancing their own "moral superiority." Public argumentation about policies and practices should limit the scope of investigation to assessing the harms and benefits of particular policies or practices. People's true motivations are rarely clear to themselves and virtually inaccessible to others. Let's judge trees by their fruits rather than their sap. People can do the wrong thing for the right reasons and the right thing for the wrong reasons. In the end, it's the effect of what people do that can and should be scrutinized.

I have worked in professional Christian Ministry for twenty years. During that time, I have administered thousands of dollars of assistance on behalf of the churches I have served. I have never once treated a confession of faith in Jesus Christ as a prerequisite for giving assistance nor have I ever required someone to listen to a gospel presentation to receive assistance. I am familiar with the work of a number of Christian ministries. None that I know of require a confession of faith prior to giving assistance. A few--by no means the majority--do require people to listen to a gospel presentation first, but none requires acceptance of that presentation. Mystal's claim that "Organizations do it all the time . . ." is an assertion made without the benefit of concrete evidence.

The judgment that people who do this are among "the worst people on the planet" is an unjustified hyperbole. He claims that such people are driven by moral superiority. I agree that moral superiority is bad--by the way, I think Jesus felt the way Mystal does about moral superiority--but I'm not sure I'm prepared to condemn the morally superior in the hottest places of hell. At best, Mystal makes a good argument that people who oppose Affirmative Action are uninformed or misguided. The link between Affirmative Action and charity is not clear. Further, labeling the well-intentioned who attach strings to their assistance as "the worst people on the planet" would require greater detailing of the harms involved.

Finally, such an argument does little to aid a genuine dialogue on the ways assistance can be offered in helpful ways. Many people desire to be helpful, compassionate good neighbors AND unfortunately enact their helping behavior in unhelpful, prejudiced, judgmental and destructive ways. Many of the people inclined to help are also inclined to be self-reflective about their helping behavior. Repeatedly I have seen people engaging in helping behavior and simultaneously assessing their own embedded prejudices and assumptions. People are mixed bags and not as neatly categorized as heroes or villains in the way that Mystal seems to do.

In a complex world filled with challenging problems, the sort of unelaborated assertions given by Mystal frustrate people who are searching for ways to exercise their compassion in wise and truly helpful ways.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Reflection on Mark 1:35-39

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

The patterns of regularly resting appear occasionally in the Gospels. Here and in Mark 6:45, Mark tells us that Jesus retreated to pray. When Mark tells the story of Jesus calming the furious storm, he explains that “Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Disciples Bible scholars Gene Boring and Fred Craddock write, “At the very beginning of the narrative, Mark presents Jesus both as one filled with divine power who does what only God can do, and also as one distinct from God, a needy human being who seeks communion with God in prayer.” (People NT Commentary, p. 111). Jesus as a person made of flesh and bones had the same needs for rest and prayer as anyone else.

Resting is also portrayed in scripture as a divine activity. The Creator rested on the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:11). The longest of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-21) is the one most neglected—the command to take one day a week and give yourself and everyone else a break.

The context preceding this little story narrates the way Jesus traveled throughout the land healing those who were hurting or sick. Many interpreters suggest that the tension between Simon Peter and Jesus—they “hunted” for him after all—was due to competing agendas.

ost interpreters see this as a tension between the Disciples who want Jesus to set up shop, enjoy his popularity and Jesus who wants to extend the message to others--all?

What does all this mean for us? One of the big questions of Christianity is the significance of Jesus for us today. Jesus lived and died. That is an historical fact. But that his living and dying have some on-going importance to us is a statement of faith. What then is the on-going significance of the life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Ask the question in almost any church in the southern part of the United States and the answer you’ll get back is “Jesus died for our sins.” This is certainly true but is it sufficient? Consider this passage from Dallas Willard, former USC professor of philosophy and spiritual formation expert.

There is absolutely nothing in what Jesus himself or his early followers taught that suggests you can decide just to enjoy forgiveness at Jesus' expense and have nothing more to do with him.

Some years ago A. W. Tozer expressed his "feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical Christian circles--the widely-accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to him as Lord as long as we want to!" (I Call It Heresy, Harrisburg, PA.: Christian Publications, 1974, p. 5f) He then goes on to state "that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures."

This 'heresy' has created the impression that it is quite reasonable to be a "vampire Christian." One in effect says to Jesus: "I'd like a little of your blood, please. But I don't care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won't you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I'll see you in heaven." But can we really imagine that this is an approach that Jesus finds acceptable?

And when you stop to think of it, how could one actually trust him for forgiveness of sins while not trusting him for much more than that. You can't trust him without believing that he was right about everything, and that he alone has the key to every aspect of our lives here on earth. But if you believe that, you will naturally want to stay just as close to him as you can, in every aspect of your life. (RENOVARE Perspective, Vol. V, No. 4, October 1995. First published in a Biola University bulletin. Available in The Great Omission, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2006. complete article at: http://www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=71)

Willard calls such disregard for Christian discipleship “Vampire Christianity”—it only wants the blood of Jesus. Jesus came not only be our Savior but also to be our Lord. The advocacy for Christian Discipleship—taking our daily commitment to living as Jesus would have us live—is not done so that we might earn our salvation. Salvation comes by grace—God’s free gift. But the one who made us and who loved us enough to die for us also knows us well enough to direct our path toward the most authentic life possible. Discipleship is our way to reach a truly joyful and authentic life.

Certainly obedience to Christ’s teaching is part of Christian discipleship. So also is following Jesus example. Jesus indicated that he had set an example for us in certain acts of service (John 13:14-17). And Paul emphasizes that the way Jesus died reveals how we should live (Philippians 2:5-11). The writer of Hebrews names Jesus as the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). First Peter also points to the example Jesus gave through his obedience in suffering as the path we also should follow. The line from Peter’s letter that we should following “in his steps” became the title for one of the most popular Christian novels ever written—Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps, who gave us the question “What Would Jesus Do?” So clearly, the New Testament suggests that parts of Jesus life—particularly the way he died on the cross—serve as examples for our own living. But can we claim that the whole of Jesus life serves as our example for godly living?

I believe the whole life of Jesus is exemplary. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Gene Boring writes, “The call to adopt Christ as example is not analogous to ‘a child’s placing foot after foot into the prints of his father in the snow,’ (a quotation drawn from another writer), but more like making our own creative adaptation of a pattern” (Abingdon Commentary on 1 Peter, p. 90 in personal manuscript). The most common call Jesus gives in the gospels is “Follow Me.”

This perspective that Jesus sets an example for our whole lives is the basis for our Advent theme. Jesus is fully human and Jesus shows us how to be fully human. Jesus rested and paused, he prayed and lived a life of dependence, not only to because he himself experienced weakness or fatigue but also to reveal to us our needs to rest and reflect. Jesus gives the example of what it means to be fully human. It means that he was aware of his humanity, his need for boundaries, his dependence on God, and took intentional steps of faithfulness in order to place his humanness in the hands of God. We are called to be fully human, not super human. The life in the spirit is not ignorant of one’s own human needs. We place our needs before God. In the busy season that lies ahead, we often forget to breathe, to take time to be in God’s presence and truly restore ourselves. Jesus also sets the example for us of resisting the agenda of others when that agenda is not in line with God’s will for our lives.

Discussion Questions:

1. What does the phrase “Pause to Breathe” mean to you?

2. What are the ways you like to “Pause to Breathe”? Think about this question in terms of time available to you:

--Pausing to Breathe for 5 minutes.

--Pausing to Breathe for 1 hour.

--Pausing to Breathe for a Day (Sabbath).

--Pausing to Breathe for several days.

3. What barriers present themselves in your life as you seek to find time to pause to breathe?

4. What are the expectations people have of you that tend to pull you in different directions?

5. Do you find that pausing to breathe or having a regular time of prayer and meditation enables you to focus more clearly on the agenda God has set for you? Does it enable you to avoid the trap of being sucked into other people’s agenda for your life?

Monday, November 14, 2011

What the Soul is in the body the Christian is to the world.

This week's goal is to listen to a sermon a day. Today, I listened to a sermon by Jim White of Southwest Church of Christ in Omaha, NE. I didn't know anything about the preacher or the church before I listened to the sermon. It's the first I found that looked worth the time when I went trolling for sermons in iTunes. It was a good sermon. But what I found most interesting was the quotation from "The Epistle of Mathetes to Diogenetus." He quoted a large portion from parts 5 and 6. It was an early defense of Christianity.

I appreciate the letter. At the same time, it reflects an anthropological dualism that sees the soul as good and the body or flesh as corrupt. But the bulk of the letter is poetic in its description of the ideal Christian. And well worth examination.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Prayer for Stalcup Lecture

Dr. Sharon Watkins delivered this year's Joe A and Nancy Vaughn Stalcup lecture on Christian Unity, June 12, at East Dallas Christian Church. As usual, Sharon did a good job. She's one of my favorite preachers. She reminded us that God's vision of the world calls us to live now as we sense God may want to be in the future. Ecumenism is not just about getting along but there is a future-orientation that our cooperation may be going somewhere.

I was given the assignment of praying the prayer of confession and offering the assurance of pardon.

Here's what I said.

Lord of Mercy and Compassion,

We come before you with recognition that we have not fulfilled Christ’s prayer that we would be one; our disunity and fragmentation comes at the expense of our most faithful witness. We confess to you that we have grown complacent in our efforts. We have stubbornly refused to change our patterns and move beyond our comforts even at the prompting of your Holy Spirit. We have longed for a future brighter than the past without assessing honestly the changes we need to make in the present. Remind us again that the call of prophecy is not to wait and see if prophecy comes true but to respond faithfully here and now. Lord, we so easily convince ourselves that because we have changed our attitudes we have changed our actions. We only recognize how entrenched our attitudes are sometimes when our actions are called to account. So, take our broken actions and attitudes, our apathy and stubbornness and heal and restore according to your will. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

We remember the words of scripture that if we confess our sins God’s is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. God does not deal with us according to our sins but according to our potential for repentance. May we live in the grace our God provides.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Diagnosis

North America is increasingly going to look like a mission field. (1) The narrative, formative rituals, virtues, and convictions of Christians will become less and less familiar to more and more North Americans. (2) The strategies of church growth that have driven church planning for the past 50 years will see declining effectiveness in the near future. They have, in fact, already started to see this decline. Church growth strategies assumed that full-formed Christians were looking for the best vendors of religious life and churches could effectively attract these potential clients through worship style upgrades and life-style appealing programming. As churches move into the future, we will discover that (a) we lack the resources for excelling with this approach to ministry; (b) the pool of fully-formed Christians is growing ever smaller (see #1). (3) Responding to this changing reality should not be motivated by the desire for organizational survival but must be motivated by a commitment to the Gospel. In short, we must be obedient even unto death. If we seek to hold onto our way of lives—the existing patterns of practicing faith—we will loose them. If we willingly relinquish our way of lives in preference for another way of life we feel is discerned as God's call, led by the Holy Spirit, in conformity to Christ, we will find our lives.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Seven/Eleven Songs

I have heard a countless number of people refer to Praise and Worship songs as “Seven/Eleven” songs--“the same seven words sung eleven times” (ironically a seven-word statement). I thought it was witty the first time I heard it but, I've now heard it more than eleven times. The phrase tends to end conversations between members of a church who could be sharing spiritual journeys rather dismissing each other. So, I decided to do a little math.

The closest thing I could find to a list of the most frequently sung hymns was from a summary report concerning a Presbyterian Hymnal. I took the lyrics to these hymns and individually placed them in a text analysis tool that gave me the total number of words used, the total number of unique words (any word that's repeated was only counted one time), and several other statistics. I also calculated the ratio of words to unique words—the lower the ratio, the less often any single word was repeated. So, the higher the ratio of words to unique words, the lower the density. I did the same thing with CCLI Top 8 songs. I removed one of the CCLI top songs because it was a contemporary arrangement of Amazing Grace.

Below are my findings.
Hymn Name Words Unique Words Hard Word Ratio
Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound 99 72 2 1.38
Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow 25 19 1 1.32
Be Thou My Vision 134 71 3 1.89
Glory Be to the Father 31 22 1 1.41
Great Is Thy Faithfulness 123 83 6 1.48
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty! 127 68 7 1.87
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee 185 116 3 1.59
Here I Am, Lord 167 67 0 2.49










Average Hymn 111.38 64.75 2.88 1.72










Mighty to Save 166 72 8 2.31
How Great is Our God 135 59 1 2.29
Blessed Be Your Name 214 67 5 3.19
Here I Am to Worship 242 72 4 3.36
Everlasting God 92 40 4 2.3
Your Grace Is Enough 173 54 2 3.2
Jesus Messiah 102 62 2 1.65
Holy is the Lord 119 41 3 2.9










Average Praise Song 155.38 58.38 3.63 2.66

You can see my work here:

As you can see, the hymns do have more unique words to total words—a lower ratio of unique words to total words. But the difference between 1.72 total words to 1 and 2.66 words to 1 unique word hardly warrants the claim of superiority. The average hymn used about 65 unique words while the average praise song used a little over 58 unique words--not that great a difference

Please understand that if I were forced to make a choice between singing only songs written before 1970—the year of my birth—or only songs written since 1970, I would choose to sing only songs written before I was born. I would do so sadly as there are many Christian contemporary songs that I treasure. Please also understand that I think the so-called worship wars of the 1980's and 1990's are not only done but completely irrelevant. Those who want to trumpet traditional hymns as essential to the preservation of the faith and those who want to trumpet contemporary praise music as essential for reaching today's audience have both missed the point. The church is called to praise and make disciples. God receives both traditional hymns and contemporary praise songs as expressions of praise and both are useful ways of fostering faithfulness. Either must be acquired by those coming into the church--we can't assume that either is inherently more useful for the church's mission. It's time to throw away the judgment line and start the conversation about what really matters—testifying to the capacity of diverse music and lyrics to aid our spiritual journeys.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Lenten Reading Plan through the Gospel of John

Wednesday Mar 9, 2011, John 1:1-18

Thursday Mar 10, 2011, John 1:19-36

Friday Mar 11, 2011, John 1:37-51

Saturday Mar 12, 2011, John 2:1-22

Sunday Mar 13, 2011, John 2:23-3:21

Monday Mar 14, 2011, John 3:22-4:3

Tuesday Mar 15, 2011, John 4:4-26

Wednesday Mar 16, 2011, John 4:27-42

Thursday Mar 17, 2011, John 4:43-54

Friday Mar 18, 2011, John 5:1-16

Saturday Mar 19, 2011, John 5:17-30

Sunday Mar 20, 2011, John 5:31-47

Monday Mar 21, 2011, John 6:1-21

Tuesday Mar 22, 2011, John 6:22-27

Wednesday Mar 23, 2011, John 6:28-59

Thursday Mar 24, 2011, John 6:28-59

Friday Mar 25, 2011, John 7:1-13

Saturday Mar 26, 2011, John 7:14-36

Sunday Mar 27, 2011, John 7:37-53

Monday Mar 28, 2011, John 8:1-20

Tuesday Mar 29, 2011, John 8:21-37

Wednesday Mar 30, 2011, John 8:38-59

Thursday Mar 31, 2011, John 9:1-12

Friday Apr 1, 2011, John 9:13-34

Saturday Apr 2, 2011, John 9:35-10:18

Sunday Apr 3, 2011, John 10:19-38

Monday Apr 4, 2011, John 10:39-11:16

Tuesday Apr 5, 2011, John 11:17-32

Wednesday Apr 6, 2011, John 11:33-44

Thursday Apr 7, 2011, John 11:45-12:11

Friday Apr 8, 2011, John 12:12-26

Saturday Apr 9, 2011, John 12:27-43

Sunday Apr 10, 2011, John 12:44-13:17

Monday Apr 11, 2011, John 13:18-35

Tuesday Apr 12, 2011, John 13:36-14:17

Wednesday Apr 13, 2011, John 14:18-15:8

Thursday Apr 14, 2011, John 15:9-27

Friday Apr 15, 2011, John 16:1-22

Saturday Apr 16, 2011, John 16:28-17:5

Sunday Apr 17, 2011, John 17:6-23

Monday Apr 18, 2011, John 17:24-18:12

Tuesday Apr 19, 2011, John 18:13-27

Wednesday Apr 20, 2011, John 18:28-40

Thursday Apr 21, 2011, John 19:1-16

Friday Apr 22, 2011, John 19:16b-37

Saturday Apr 23, 2011, John 19:38-42

Sunday Apr 24, 2011, John 20

Monday Apr 25, 2011, John 21

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sabbath

Christians tend to emphasize the importance of some commandments while almost completely ignoring some others. Ask people to name the 10 Commandments and people will almost instantly come out with: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal. But the longest of the 10 Commandments is actually the fourth commandment that talks about the Sabbath.

Not only that, the fourth commandment is not really about going to church on Sunday. It's about resting. It's about not doing work one day out of seven and letting other people get rest one day out of seven. The first three commandments deal with how one shows proper reverence to God. The last six deal with how we interact with others. The Sabbath commandment is the place where our reverence for God and our respect for one another meet. It's also how we show respect to ourselves as Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the sabbath.” Learning when to turn work off and when to pick it back up again is something that God has given to us as a gift.