The Gospel
Posted on June 21st, 2007
The Gospel’s climax (at least as far as we know) may occur in the events recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but it does not begin or end there. This is a survey of Scriptures to broaden our understanding of Gospel, to look at a bigger picture than we may be accustomed to looking at. It all begins at the beginning:
Tags: Discipleship, Evangelism, New Testament, Old Testament, Scripture
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Body and blood
Posted on June 3rd, 2007
This morning, like we do the first Sunday of every month, our church celebrated (is that an appropriate word?) communion. I have been in churches with a variety of time tables of practicing this ritual: quarterly, in the evening service, in the morning service, monthly, and one Baptist church and prepared the table with bread and the fruit of the vine every week.
I don’t know that there is a right and a wrong as to when to have communion. I believe
the church has freedom in deciding when to practice it as best fits their worship practice.
But I was struck today by how normal it felt. Communion should never be normal.
We practice monthly here. The last church I attended served communion weekly.
It never got old, routine, or normal then. In fact, I think communion took on
more significance for me while I was at the church precisely because we practiced
it weekly. But here, at only once a month, it just seems every day. Normal. Routine.
Not all that holy, set-apart, sacred. And I don’t like that, not one bit.
Communion, Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, Table, Mass, whatever you might call it, is the
high point of worship in a church. While my tradition does not hold any place for special, saving grace from the cup and bread, Communion is the preeminent time of worship. It is, of all times, when we remember our whole story: from Genesis to Revelation, taking long stops in Deuteronomy, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s not just the Christmas story or the cross or the resurrection. But the whole bundle from creation through loss to redemption and the hope of restoration. Only communion can really capture all of that at the same time.
So it shouldn’t be routine. It shouldn’t be normal. It is anything but.
Tags: Ministry, Worship
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Two sides
Posted on January 16th, 2007
Sometimes my wife finds it frustrating because I always look for two sides to the story. I don’t know why. But I tend to assume that the perspectives of two people are going to be different, at least a little bit, and so I’ll know more and understand better if I can see and/or hear both sides. (Or the three sides, or however many.)
So there is an editorial from Sunday, January 14, 2007, edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer about the religious right. The article compares it to fascism. Nothing like being slammed in the face with a two by four of somebody else’s perspective of who you are, what you believe, and what you think. I’m going to let it soak in a little more – and reread it a couple of more times – before I offer any more thoughts.
Tags: Politics
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