Some Thoughts Heard around the Web on…the Bible

Loving the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be
January 2, 2012, by Rachel Held Evans

My relationship with the Bible has been a lot like that of a daughter to her parents.

I’ve been through the happy, childlike dependency stage, the one where I believed the Bible was impenetrable, the stories of Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, and Joshua and the Battle of Jericho as true and as good as my mother’s scent.

Then, as a young adult, I fumbled through an angry stage, one where I realized that after Joshua “fit the battle of Jericho,” God told him to kill every man, woman, and child in the city, and that coursing through some of my favorite Bible stories were the currents of genocide, xenophobia, patriarchy, and misogyny. I began to doubt what I’d been told about the Bible’s exclusive authority, inerrancy, perspicuity, and internal consistency. Like a teenager suddenly made aware of her parents’ flaws, I screamed and hollered and slammed doors. I sunk into quiet withdrawal, feeling angry and betrayed that the Bible wasn’t what I’d once believed it to be.

Over the past few years, however, I’ve worked up the courage to re-approach the Bible, this time with a different set of expectations, and I get the feeling that I’m in the early stages of learning how to relate to it the way that an adult child relates to her parents, a way that honors and respects the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be.

The Bible isn’t an answer book.

It isn’t a self-help book.

It isn’t a science or history textbook.

It isn’t even a single book – but rather an ancient collection of letters and laws, prophecies and proverbs, stories and songs, spanning thousands of years and written in languages and cultures far removed from my own.

And so the question I’ve been asking lately—especially after my “year of biblical womanhood”—is how do I relate to the Bible as a grownup? How do I honor it and value it and celebrate it for what it is, not what I want it to be?

Continue reading “Some Thoughts Heard around the Web on…the Bible”

Daniel Jepsen on Newt Gingrich, the Religious Right, and Rank Hypocrisy

NOTE FROM CM: Oh boy, another presidential election year is upon us in the good ol’ US of A!

Here at Internet Monk, we don’t usually talk much about politics. It was the Apostle Paul who warned us, “Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge…” (1Tim 6:20). It seems to me that whenever we take up the topic of US politics, we are at best walking close to the edge of that, inviting a lot of useless controversy and opinionated ranting that, in the end, serves little purpose.

However, against my better judgment, we will feature more articles on various aspects of the subject this year. I’ll hold my nose with one hand and keep another finger on the “moderate” button, and we’ll try to host a few political conversations. Since this is primarily a religious blog, we will limit our subject matter to material that speaks to the intersection of faith and public affairs.

We begin today, with a piece by my good friend and colleague, Rev. Daniel Jepsen, a pastor here in central Indiana. Dan has helped us with our Liturgical Gangsta posts, and he blogs regularly at Daniel Jepsen: Random Musings on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Like me, Dan is usually a pretty low-key, laid-back kind of guy. On this occasion, however, the Christian Right set him to ranting…

• • •

Newt Gingrich, the Religious Right, and Rank Hypocrisy
by Daniel Jepsen

I am not a political person. Though there was a time when I felt very adamantly that one party was right, and the other wrong, three decades of adulthood have taught me the wisdom of the biblical admonition, “Don’t put your trust in men”. Frankly, I don’t care as much about politics as I used to because I don’t think politicians can solve our deepest problems.

I am a little hacked off right now, however. I just read that the American Family Association’s founder and chairman, Rev. Don Wildmon, has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president, and will be campaining for him. The AFA is one of the most hardline religious right organizations in the country. Their webiste lists their mission statement as:

The mission of the American Family Association is to inform, equip, and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of American culture, and give aid to the church here and abroad in its task of fulfilling the Great Commission. Beneath this they list action steps, the first two of which are:

  1. Restrain evil by exposing the works of darkness;
  2. Promote virtue by upholding in culture that which is right, true and good according to Scripture;

This group has now endorsed as our country’s leader a man who has perhaps the worst record of personal sexual morality of any presidential candidate in the last 50 years (and yes, I am including Slick Willy). And the AFA is far from alone. A recent CBS News poll shows Gingrich has the support of 34 percent of white evangelicals in Iowa, while the next highest candidate is at 17 percent.

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Ben Witherington on Bad Protestant Ecclesiology

In his New Year’s Day post, Ben Witherington puts his finger on one of the matters that soured me on evangelicalism. Long a theological question in my mind, it became a personal and vocational issue for me when I served in my last position as a minister in a local congregation.

Witherington’s piece is about one aspect of evangelical Protestantism’s ecclesiology that he (and I) find deficient: the lack of authority, accountability, support, and a sense of belonging outside the context of the local congregation.

Ben is talking about the autonomous local church, the independent local church, the non-denominational local church in which there is too much authority given to the local leader or leaders, and too little connection to any kind of authority outside that setting.

One of the real problems which has plagued the Protestant movement from Day One is bad or weak ecclesiology. What I mean by this is that in various cases it is both unBiblical, and it is also often unworkable. It is unBiblical because there definitely is a hierarchy of leadership in the early church that extends beyond a particular local congregation, and furthermore, there is a concept of ‘church’ and its leadership structures which transcends a particular local expression of the church say in a house church or a particular local congregation.

To illustrate, he cites the scandal concerning “Bishop” Eddie Long in Atlanta’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Long’s wife recently filed for divorce in another sad chapter in the story of the charismatic minister who built a following of over 25,000 people, but who has been involved in a number of moral and financial debacles.

What went wrong with Bishop Eddie? What went wrong was not merely that there was a cult of personality in this church and too much power resided in the one local church figure. What went wrong, at it’s root, was bad Protestant ecclesiology [my emphasis]. The man had no real accountability outside of the members of the local church — no bishops, no elders, no district superintendents who were not part of that local church who could come in and remove, defrock, or discipline the man.

The evidence of the New Testament and the early church suggests a much different picture, NT scholar Witherington suggests. Though there was diversity and development with regard to the character of local congregations and their organizational structures, it is clear that they functioned both as faith communities with local leaders and as members of the broader “church of God,” under the guidance and authority of trans-congregational leaders. In fact, the local leaders were appointed by those apostles or apostolic co-workers. It is early in post-apostolic writings that the “bishop” appears in the same role, providing authoritative pastoral guidance on the regional level.

Any careful study of the phrase ekklesia tou theou in the NT makes clear that while each congregation would be seen as a fully adequate expression of the body of Christ, at the same time they were seen to be part of the larger collective entity ‘the church of God’ (see e.g. Gal. 1) and as such were accountable to the larger church and to its over-arching leaders — apostles, apostolic co-workers, prophets, teachers, and the like. At any given time, an apostle might come and correct, or rebuke, or appoint new local leadership. There was accountability outside the local congregation.

I have always wondered how those with a doctrine of “the autonomy of the local church” justify their position.

Will we ever learn that our “do-it-yourself,” entrepreneurial approach to faith undercuts the nature of NT Christianity and leads to consequences that tarnish the reputation of our Savior?

iMonk Classic: The Question Is God, the Answer is Jesus

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From January 2009

“Anything that one imagines of God apart from Christ is only useless thinking and vain idolatry.” – Martin Luther

• • •

It’s been a very interesting day. I can’t tell you much about it, but I can tell you something.

When a discussion starts about God, the Christian is not faced with the same choices as other people.

Most people can go wherever they want in the discussion. They can talk about “God as I understand him” or “my higher power” or “my church says that God….” and so on. Really, the choices are practically infinite.

The Christian, on the other hand, must immediately think about Jesus. Jesus from the pages of scripture. Jesus the light, the revealer, the image of the invisible. Jesus in his own words, in the Gospels and in the totality of scripture.

Jesus reveals God, and from there, the discussion can go on.

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Saturday Ramblings 12-31-11

One more day. One more day in a year that has been, well, shall we say, interesting? We are celebrating the last day of 2011 here at the iMonastery with a day-long party. The ladies all brought spice cake, and the guys put forth mulled wine. Then we all looked at that and said, “What are we doing? It’s New Year’s Eve!” A quick trip to the neighborhood market produced chips, salsa, ice cream and twelve packs of Coca-Cola (and one two-liter for the Synonymous Rambler, who insists on Pepsi). Hey, we may be iMonks, but we still have good taste. Well, except perhaps in the matter of the scraps we leave lying around the place. But even those are now swept up and presented here as a heapin’ helpin’ of Saturday Ramblings.

If you were to pick the top religious news story for 2011, what would it be? See if your choice is among Christianity Today’s picks.

And while you have a copy of CT in your hands, turn to the page with the top books of 2011, ala Christianity Today. How many of these have you read?

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On the Post-Evangelical Path

Out of the wilderness; onto a path — this is a summary of my spiritual/theological experience in 2011.

As Antonio Machado wrote, “The way is made by walking,” and I guess I’ve just kept walking through the wilderness long enough that eventually a path appeared. That path remains before me, its direction and character unknown. I am certain there will be twists and turns, unexpected conditions to navigate, places where the going gets hard and slow, and other spots where astonishing vistas may appear, inviting long contemplation and wonder.

I discovered that “I’m a Christian, and I practice my faith in the Lutheran tradition.”

That’s what I wrote on November 4 in a “Wilderness Update.” I followed with a series about how the Lutheran tradition has answered many of my concerns about the culture of revivalistic evangelicalism, in which I spent most of my ministry career.

I was happy to see that this series received some notice among the Lutherans themselves, as Gene Edward Veith blogged about the posts and invited discussion. Some Lutheran commenters were appalled that I chose to affiliate with the ELCA rather than one of the more conservative synods, and in fact, as on many blog comment threads, those with strong black and white views about such things dominated the conversation. You can read Veith’s perspectives and the comments here:

I especially appreciated this supportive word from Dr. Veith:

“Don’t get me wrong:  I’m as supportive of the LCMS and as critical of liberal theology as anyone can be.  But to say that Chaplain Mike, in joining the ELCA, is just joining mainline liberal Protestantism is manifestly not true.  What he is finding in his congregation that he is responding to so gladly is not leftwing politics or feminism or gay marriages.  Rather, as he says, he is finding the centrality of Christ, Law & Gospel, vocation, worship, the sacraments, and the other things he is discussing in his three posts.”

And he’s exactly right. The path I’ve started down puts Christ in the center of everything. It also understands the central importance of worship focused on Word and Table. Lutheranism has a strong emphasis on pastoral theology and the role of the ordained minister, as well as a wonderful perspective on the vocations God has given every believer as a priest of God. Luther, of course, is best known for his emphasis on God’s grace in Christ received by faith, and Lutherans make helpful distinctions between Law and Gospel in the Scriptures. I have especially come to appreciate and embrace the sacramental perspective that is at the heart of Lutheran spirituality. The Theology of the Cross is perhaps the Lutheran emphasis most needed in today’s American church, which is often triumphalistic, shallow, and immature.

Finally, everyone needs heroes to admire and emulate, and Martin Luther has long been one of mine. But since exploring and embracing the Lutheran way, I have come to appreciate him even more. Utterly human and remarkably flawed, he put his hope and trust in Christ alone, restored the Gospel to a corrupt church, revitalized congregations and the pastoral ministry, gave dignity to ordinary Christians, their marriages, their music, and their daily lives, and courageously spoke truth to power when necessary.

I’m still a post-evangelical, and the culture of evangelicalism remains of great interest to me. Many of my brothers and sisters continue to practice their faith in revivalistic evangelical churches. I continue to appreciate the good things I gained from my time in non-denominational churches, even though my tenure there ultimately led me to the wilderness.

Now a path has appeared, and I have begun to walk on it.

I Simply Remember My Favorite Things (2011)

Today, we feature another end of the year retrospective.

In this one I list some of my favorite posts from 2011, the ones I enjoyed writing and discussing most. In the process, I’m able to touch on other “favorites” during the year — books, movies, etc.

Again, much thanks is due you, our iMonk audience, for supporting me as I share and discuss the things I love.

Here’s a month-by-month breakdown of my favorite pieces from the past year:

  • Fear Not, Little Flock (Jan 18) — Reflections about my first church, which were prompted by an opportunity to preach in an old, beautiful church building near our home in central Indiana.
  • A Letter from Gilead (Feb 14) — I was awestruck by the translucent prose in Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Gilead, and moved by its story and characters. In this post, I tried (poorly, I’m sure) to imitate her style in a letter recommending this marvelous book.
  • IM Book Review — The Pastor: A Memoir (Mar 15) — Another book review: this time I talked about my favorite writer on the pastor’s life and vocation, who told his story in this remarkable memoir. The Pastor: A Memoir is a must read for anyone who wants to consider the foundational perspectives and practices of Christian ministry.
  • Demythologizing “Radical” Christianity: Part 1 and Part 2) (Apr 19/20) — Reflecting on some articles by Skye Jethani, in these posts I talked about how I’m ready to start a “Remove the Adjectives” campaign to protest the addition of any description to my calling as a follower of Christ. I am a Christian. Period.
  • My Last Post…Ever! (May 20) — As the saints prepared to ascend heaven’s stairway and leave the earth in its distress and disarray, there was only one thing left to say…“So long. Farewell. Aufwiedersehn, Goodnight…” to Harold Camping.
  • IM Film Review: The Tree of Life (June 26) — It is hard to call The Tree of Life simply my favorite movie of the year. It was, for me, an artistic, contemplative experience, a reliving of the experiences of my own boyhood in small town America and what it all means in the big picture. Terence Malick ambitiously frames his impressionistic family tale of nature vs. grace with remarkable visions of creation and the eschaton, combining transcendence and immanence with unforgettable cinematic beauty. “Awe” is not too strong a word to describe my reaction.
  • My View of Scripture (at this point) (July 29) — One of the ongoing matters for discussion on Internet Monk is the Bible: what kind of a book is it, how do we read and understand it, how do we approach its teachings and instructions? Here is a simple, ten-point summary of my perspective on Scripture (at this point in my understanding).
  • Wednesday Morning (Aug 31) — This is a recap of one of the most intense and draining periods I’ve ever experienced as a hospice chaplain. “Be the God of all comfort to us, help us to know and feel your presence at this time. Help us to believe your promise that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ.”
  • The Order of Christian Worship (Sept 1) — In this post, I try to summarize the basic distinctions between liturgical worship and revivalist services, arguing that a basic historic order has been the common practice of the church from the days of the apostles and apostolic fathers, and that it provides the best pattern for truly Christian worship.
  • Sabbatical (October) — Thanks to all who gave extra time so that I could have a time of rest and refreshment.
  • Close to the Fire (Nov 6) — This is the fifth and final installment of my “Gethsemani Journal,” in which I meditate on how “the monks are a sign to the church and to the world, [and] that places like Gethsemani are an exhibit of life’s foundations.”
  • Carl (Dec 12) — This is a reflection about  how a young minister learned “that just dropping by, having a cup of coffee, showing a bit of kindness, and sitting for awhile could make a real difference for somebody. Who knew? And that a pastor, even a young and clueless one, can represent the gracious, healing Word of God to hurting people. And that pastors are made by means we would seldom choose and might never imagine.”

• • •

I can’t wait to continue sharing with you in 2012!

Looking Forward, Looking Back

My, my. Another year come and gone. Who won the World Series? Not my Reds? Then who cares?

2011 was the most trying year of my life. And the most incredible. It’s one thing to say that one knows the Lord is always faithful. It’s another to rediscover it anew every day. And as I have come to know the Lord as “always faithful” through the trials of 2011, I would have to say it has been a great year.

Not everything was rough this year. There were many bright spots on my journey. So, without further ado, allow me to share with you my own personal “Best of 2011.”

Best Meal: I used to travel quite a bit, and have been able to eat at some really good out-of-the way places. (I hate chain restaurants. If I am in San Francisco, why do I want to eat at Olive Garden? It will taste the same as the Olive Garden in Tulsa or Nashville or Portland, Maine. I don’t want to eat at any of them…) Now, I’m not traveling as much, but I did have several memorable meals this year. Butterfield’s in Scottsdale, Arizona was amazing. Orange juice comes to your table about one minute after it was squeezed. Great menu of fun breakfast dishes that you have to ask God to forgive you for eating. And to add to my experience, I got to meet the McNeeley family, faithful iMonks all. Great food, great company equals a great meal.

Runners Up: I made a trip to Dallas one Sunday afternoon—a three and a half hour drive—so I could have a Double-Double (animal style) at In N Out. Worth every mile. I took another trip in November with my friend Vic to Ohio for a Bengals game. Our first stop in Dayton was at Five Guys’ Burgers. Amazing burger. Almost made up for the Bengals losing to the pagan Steelers.

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The Twelve Days of Christmas

Okay, I’m late with this, but on the other hand, as I’m sitting here gorged on turkey and ham and Brussels sprouts and carrots and parsnips and roast potatoes and bread sauce and gravy and mince pies and prosecco and sherry trifle and Butlers’ chocolates collection and shortbread and Bailey’s Irish Cream, you’re lucky to be getting anything from me before, oh, St. Bridget’s Day.

There have been four versions of the General Roman Calendar (the Tridentine Calendar, the General Roman Calendar of 1954, the General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII and the General Roman Calendar of 1962) and the one we have now is the post-Vatican II one, which means that some feast days have been dropped, moved, or altered, as well as new ones introduced.  There is also the calendar of Saints of the Day, which has saints’ days not in the General Calendar.  All this means that not all of the Christmastide days have official saints associated with them; some were local, or obscure, or not obligatory for the universal church, or have been dropped.

  1. 25th December – Christmas Day; the beginning of Christmastide.  Vestments for the season are white, the colour of the joy and purity of the soul or gold, the colour of great solemnities.  The Nativity of the Lord: three Masses may be said on this day because of its great importance; the first Mass at midnight; the second Mass at dawn (the second Mass of Christmas Day is also the memorial of St. Anastasia, martyr and one of the seven female saints mentioned in the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Rite I of the Mass) and the third Mass during the day.
  2. 26th December – St. Stephen’s Day; feast of St. Stephen, the Protomartyr (meaning “first martyr”).  Vestments for today are red because it’s the feast of a martyr and red is for blood.  Martha, you ask me, how can I easily tell the difference in art between St. Stephen, martyr, and St. Laurence, martyr, given that they are both represented vested as deacons? I do not want to make an elementary error in identification and be sniggered at as an ignoramus and Philistine!  Relax, dear earnest enquirer, this one is easy.  Just be glad they’re not Dominicans – distinguishing between one guy in a black-and-white habit and another guy in a black-and-white habit is a lot tougher.  St. Laurence will have a gridiron while St. Stephen will be represented with stones, often balanced on his head and shoulders as in this image, which means any laughter will be at his expense and not yours.  Yes – the Catholic Church, making “death by stoning” something to giggle at since the 12th century!  Appropriate carol: “Good King Wenceslas” who looked out “on the feast of Stephen” which is today!

 

Continue reading “The Twelve Days of Christmas”