I was in worship recently when the woman behind me loudly and a half beat early sang “domain” when the hymn called for kingdom. I was annoyed enough that I changed seats the next day, only to plop down beside another “domain” interposer.
When I can’t pray
Romans 8:26-39
When I can’t pray I often turn to the end of Romans 8. Here Paul pulls back the velvet curtain of revelation. What we see is amazing: a never-ending festivity where there sounds a strained, melodious, mysterious prayer that all the suffering in this present world cannot drown out. At the heart of the festivity is the Triune God praying for us.
By Steve Thorngate
Decades after the first organ console was unplugged to make way for a guitar amp, the worship wars rage on. In any worship committee meeting, there’s a decent chance you’ll observe some tension between proponents of “traditional” and “contemporary” church music.
The terms of this debate, however, are inadequate. There aren’t two styles of music; there are many. And each side of the argument—“it’s our tradition” vs. catering to the (assumed) preferences of “younger people”—seems to miss the point. Isn’t church music supposed to support worship and liturgy, to embody the praise of a gathered community, and to, well, glorify God?
By John T. McFadden
After serving more than 30 years in senior pastorates of the United Church of Christ, including 23 years in one parish, I concluded it was time to pursue a new calling in chaplaincy.
In the midst of searching for a new spiritual home, I had lunch with my young friend, Savannah Louise, who worked at Pepe’s Italian meat market. (In the upper Midwest, you learn not to be surprised by a guy named Pepe running an Italian meat market.) Savannah was worshiping with a church called San Damiano that met in a downtown bar. I had read a bit about San Damiano, an emergent church that grew out of a conservative big-box evangelical church about a year earlier. While I was intrigued, at the age of 58, the idea of wandering into a barroom filled with 20 year olds was as intimidating as the thought of showing up at a Rave wearing a blue blazer and khaki slacks. Still, for many reasons, we decided to try it. The next Sunday morning we met Savannah Louise outside the bar. That was 18 months ago, and San Damiano has been our Christian community ever since.
By Trygve David Johnson
Romans 8:12-25
Sunday, July 20
Double vision
Romans 8 sharpens my eyes to see more clearly a hope I cannot see on my own. Paul has a way of encouraging me to peek over his shoulder. He shares his spectacles of faith so that I can see with him—through the immediate, into a wide-open country of all living hope. Paul’s double vision allows him to see two realities at once: “I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).
In response to the price of oil, Americans do in fact seem to be changing their lifestyles. The Baltimore Sun reports that as many as 1,000 new public transportation passes were sold every month during the last year. Sales of SUVs and other gas-thirsty vehicles are down, while “fuel-efficient” and “economy” are at last the industry’s buzzwords. Thomas Friedman tells us that “green is the new red, white and blue.” In my own small community, we are finally able to talk to people about the practicality of a farmers’ market. The man who does energy assessments on homes suddenly has his calendar full. All of these seem like positive signs—as if Americans might actually “get it” and are making some desperately needed changes that will eventually have an ecological benefit.
But I am skeptical.
By Ken Carter
I used to lead retreats for first-year pastors. I’d often begin by reflecting on the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6: Do not be anxious about your life, consider the lilies of the field, will not God take care of you? Live one day at a time, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well. Then I’d read from Eugene Peterson’s The Message, and pause over a particular phrase. “Relax,” I’d tell the pastors, “Don’t be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”
By Trygve David Johnson
Romans 8:1-11
Sunday, July 13
Imagining with Lars
“There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:1-2).
This is a mind-bending declaration. For Paul, freedom does not come from legislation, a social program or a better moral instruction kit. Freedom is achieved by the saving act of God in Christ, who dealt with sin by taking on human flesh. This is an act that has inaugurated a new world order for human liberty for all who are in Christ. It is only living in Christ, says Paul, that we can experience freedom from what ails humanity. This is not a freedom from relationship but to relationship. It is this relationship that allows us the freedom to live anew.
By Matthew Phillips
In a recent episode of Rick Steves’ Europe, Steves travels to Hook Head, a remote corner of Ireland that juts out in a strategic position protecting the Waterford harbor. In the fifth or sixth century, a monk named Dubhan led a group to this peninsula and set up a monastery. Soon the monks noticed that the bodies of sailors were washing up on their pristine beach: they had perished when their ships hit the rocky coastline. The monks decided to set up a beacon and operated it for the next thousand years.
The monks’ purpose was saving souls, "but they ended up saving lives."
By Richard Kauffman
My daughter and her husband were fretting about an appeal for money they had received. A favorite nephew has hooked up with an evangelical group whose mission it is to evangelize all Muslims in the United States. My daughter and husband were bothered by the nephew’s implication that Christians have all the answers and that the organization would somehow set Muslims straight. They were asking me how they should respond.
By Peter J. Leithart
Rom. 7:15-25; Matt. 11:16-19 & 25-30
Sunday, July 6
The God of sabbath
The God of Israel and of Jesus is the God of Exodus who leads His people from the desert to the promised land, from a dry and dusty land to a well-watered garden, from slavery toward sabbath.
Jesus condemns the Jewish leaders for being tone-deaf to the tune of the times. “This generation,” the generation that witnessed the ministry of John and Jesus, can’t keep in step. When John sings a dirge, they dance; when Jesus hosts a feast, they decide to mourn. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” but this generation doesn’t seem to have ears. They need a Savior who restores hearing to the deaf.
Walter Brueggemann reviewed two books on the scriptural roots of violence for the June 3 Century and concluded that churches should not continue their “prattle about love, reconciliation and forgiveness unless they seriously take into account the lethal dimensions” of their religious tradition. At a tri-faith Memorial Day service in southern California, I heard the same note sounded by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders.
The godly mandate to seek peace with justice is central to each faith that calls Abraham their patriarch, said speakers at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. “However,” Muslim leader Maher Hathout asked rhetorically before a packed sanctuary, “if we are so good, why are we so bad?”
My 6 year-old son’s favorite activity once the snow melts is something he calls “bone hunting.” Because we live in an area with lots of wildlife, a person can go walking through the woods and find the bones of many a dead animal—some with flesh still attached, most picked clean. Sam has found a bear skull, many elk legs, a spine with attached head, jawbones, a chipmunk skull. You get the idea.
As impressed as I am with all of these treasures and with bone hunting in general as a leisure time activity, I had a moment of panic the other day when the mother of another six-year-old told me about her son’s plans for the summer.
By Peter J. Leithart
Gen. 22:1-14; Rom. 6:12-23; Matt. 10:40-42
Sunday, June 29
Preachers have often imagined an anguished Abraham staggering toward Moriah as he leads his son to his death. But the biblical account contains no anguish, no heated arguments with Sarah (“Yahweh told you what?”), no teetering on the edge of faith. Abraham is every inch Kierkegaard’s “knight of faith,” the greatest of heroes because he expects the impossible, which is to say, resurrection. (See Kierkegaard’s meditations in Fear and Trembling, available online).
By Bromleigh McCleneghan
I include prayers of confession in Sunday worship because of their theological and ecclesial significance. We need the regular reminder of our limitations, of our tendency to not do the good we want, and to do the evil we do not want. Confession helps us to grow in wisdom and the love of God.
Lately, though, I’ve struggled with confession. I’m a new mother, and I have new guilts dogging my tired soul.
By Jonathan Marlowe
The recently concluded United Methodist General Conference retained its claim that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” The vote was relatively close, and of course there were faithful, intelligent people on both sides.
At one point, a legislative committee proposed replacing the “incompatibility clause” with nonjudgmental language declaring that the United Methodist Church (UMC) is not of one mind on this issue. Part of me agrees with the idea: I would like very much simply to acknowledge our “separate minds” and move on. But then I wonder . . .
By Peter J. Leithart
Gen. 21:8-21; Rom. 6:1-11; Matt. 10:24-39
Sunday, June 22
Tale of two brothers
Whenever a fairy tale begins with “Once upon a time, there were three brothers,” we anticipate that the older brothers are oafs and the younger will be unexpectedly successful. The Bible is the greatest of the “fairy tales,” as well as the history of “brothers,” especially of two men—the first man and the Last Man, the older brother and the younger, Adam and Jesus.
By Tom Steagald
Last week we finally got some clarity on this election season. The pundits were proven wrong. The voters had the power, not the media, and the voters made their choices.
As far as I am concerned the whole process lasted way too long: the heated rhetoric, the words of disrespect sent back and forth, the confusion as to whether all the votes were to be cast and counted. There were conspiracy theories, behind-the-scenes dramas, high-ranking advisers forced out of various camps because of their indefensible comments and shenanigans, pretenders falling by the wayside and then either trashing or endorsing their former competitors.
I am talking, not about the Democratic primary, but about the battle between the Davids, Archuleta and Cook on American Idol.
By Lovett H. Weems Jr.
In 1998, when the Southern Baptists showed their first membership decline in 70 years, some blamed the loss on a new computer system, while others said churches were “cleaning” their rolls. Last year, however, the Associated Press confirmed that Southern Baptist churches lost members. Even allowing for the imprecise nature of church rolls, membership decline should be seen for what it is: an indicator that important things need attention.
What are some of these things?
By Peter J. Leithart
Genesis 18:1-15
Sunday, June 15
An icon painted by Andrei Rublev in the early 15th century depicts the three men who visit Abraham sitting at a table. Though it is a scene from Genesis, the icon also displays the Trinity.
Three men wear sky blue clothing, indicating that they are persons come from heaven. To the left, the Father’s blue robe is nearly hidden by a shimmering cloak of gold. He grasps a staff of authority, and rising behind him are some of the many mansions in his house. The central figure also wears blue and brown, since, as the Son, he joins dirt and sky in one person. Two of his fingers point to the cup of his blood, and the terebinth behind him is the tree of the cross, the tree of life. On the right, the Spirit wears the green of grass and trees and living frogs, while his hand touches the table like the finger of God touching earth. Behind him is a mountain, the high place of all theophanies.
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