Snow Day
January 2019
This has been a snowy weekend in Indiana, providing a nice pause in the rat race. Church services were cancelled this morning because the county roads are a bit treacherous. I’ve had the chance to get out and take a few pictures and thought I’d put them up for you today, internet willing. Click on each picture for a larger image.
Snow Day
January 2019
This has been a snowy weekend in Indiana, providing a nice pause in the rat race. Church services were cancelled this morning because the county roads are a bit treacherous. I’ve had the chance to get out and take a few pictures and thought I’d put them up for you today, internet willing. Click on each picture for a larger image.
The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: January 12, 2019
SHUTDOWN!
In solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been furloughed or who are working without pay, as well as the vast number of contractors, businesses, and local entities whose livelihoods depend upon the normal functioning of the Federal government, the IM Saturday Monks Brunch is SHUT DOWN today.
We have no funds to provide food and drink for the Brunch.
IM offices and off-site facilities are shuttered and locked.
IM authors and staff will not receive their normal paychecks.
(yeah, like they ever got one!)
Readers will not be able to leave comments.
Email will not be answered.
Word is, Chaplain Mike is holding out for Cubs season tickets, but that has not been confirmed.
A few of the consequences of the actual U.S. government shutdown
(from CNN and other sources)
380,000 federal workers are furloughed and not being paid.
420,000 federal employees are working without pay.
Many tens of thousands of contractors who rely on the federal government but are not full-time employees are not being paid and will probably not receive back pay. Federal contractors could be losing a combined $200 million per day.
With 50% of the Food and Drug Administration not working, the FDA has stopped some inspections of food, including fruit, meat, seafood and vegetables.
Air traffic controllers are working without pay.
FBI agents are working without pay.
TSA agents are working without pay.
Secret Service agents are working without pay.
Federal prison workers are working without pay.
1,650 contracts that the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development has with landlords to supplement rents for low income renters cannot be renewed, which may force them to evict tenants or even face bankruptcy themselves.
The Smithsonian’s 19 museums are closed. As is the National Zoo.
National parks are being trashed, though some private groups are trying to provide some clean up. Some Joshua Trees at Joshua Tree National Park were reportedly destroyed by off-roaders.
Though the shutdown is purportedly about immigration, Border Patrol agents are now working without pay, immigration courts are closed, exacerbating the delays in hearing cases, employers can’t use the E-Verify system to see if workers are in the U.S. legally, and 41,000 active-duty Coast Guardsmen are working without pay.
Government-funded science research projects at universities are being delayed.
The Interior Department’s Indian Affairs bureau serves about 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. The government shutdown has put a pause on crucial functions such as law enforcement, tribal courts, and road maintenance. About half of the bureau’s employees have been furloughed.
USDA federal loans are on hold for people in rural areas.
Several thousand in the U.S. Forest Service are furloughed, halting wildfire prep and training.
The FCC is closed.
Perspectives on the shutdown…
From NPR: David Baker, 35, is an air traffic controller in Norfolk, Va.
“It’s extremely disappointing to know that our leaders can’t get something done,” he said.
Baker and his wife have two boys — ages eight and three. He says every day that goes by, his family feels a heavy financial burden as bills roll in.
“It’s unacceptable,” he says. “We’ve spent the last week calling our mortgage company, our car loan company, calling credit cards and our day care provider saying ‘we don’t know if we are going to make this month’s payment.” It’s hard, he adds, to prioritize whether to go to the grocery store or pay your mortgage. He takes a deep breath and adds, “federal employees deserve better.”
• • •
I think shutdowns are stupid. I think it’s the dumbest way to do government in the world. We start using these stupid shutdown leverage points to try to get our way because we can’t give the other side any kind of a win.
• Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)
• • •
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., called the current partial appropriations lapse “a vegetative, stupid, uncalled for, people-affecting process.”
WSJ says it well…
From End This Stupid Shutdown, by Peggy Noonan
The president at the center of this drama is an unserious man. He is only episodically sincere and has no observable tropism toward truthfulness. He didn’t get a wall in two years with a Republican Congress and is now in a fix. He is handling himself as he does, with bluster and aggression, without subtlety or winning ways. He likes disorder.
But the game didn’t start with Donald Trump. Two decades of cynical, game-playing failure produced him.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have been just as unserious. Brinkmanship and insults—“malice and misinformation,” “soap opera,” “tinkle contest,” “as if manhood could ever be associated with him.” They are playing to their new, rising base and smirking slyly as the bear ties himself in knots. They demanded time to rebut the president immediately after his Oval Office speech. By tradition the networks offer response time after the State of the Union, not after every presidential address. This is because of a certain deference to the office. You allow a president—even if you hate him—to speak in the clear. He’s trying to lead; you let what he says settle in. Then the next day you formally hand him his head. If every presidential address is followed now by swift and furious rebuttal, we’ll never achieve any rough unity again.
In the end Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Pelosi’s speech was no more a success than the president’s: it broke no new ground, didn’t even try to persuade. Trevor Noah caught the mood: They looked as if the hostess at IHOP just told them there’s no senior discount.
Mr. Schumer and Mrs. Pelosi should stop. They should end the drama.
Who cares if it’s a wall, a fence, a bulwark, a barrier, smart tech, increased personnel? Get it done. Climb down. Make a deal.
Who cares how both sides spin the outcome, claim bragging rights, issue the cleverest taunt?
Just solve it. It’s been 20 years.
• • •
What’s this have to do with Internet Monk?
The author of 1Timothy writes, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (1Tim 2:1-2).
We must look at a text like this in a different light as members of a democratic republic. In our system of government, the people actually hold the authority (under the ultimate rule of law) and our elected representatives are the servants of the people. We sometimes view them as the ones in power and I have heard many biblical passages like this taught (incorrectly) from that perspective. But we have no “kings” and those in government are not “authorities” over us. They represent us and it is our duty to hold them accountable.
The goal remains the same: that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives of godliness and dignity. And various types of prayer are always appropriate in supporting our public servants. But in addition, faithful living in a modern democratic society allows for and requires much more.
Internet Monk is here to explore and encourage Jesus-shaped spirituality, and that is not confined to private devotion. It is my opinion that in a situation like this government shutdown, Jesus, in the tradition of the prophets, would encourage us all to both trust in God and work for justice and peace, especially for the most vulnerable.
We should require that our representatives speak the truth to us, and only support those who do.
We should encourage bipartisan cooperation, which involves sacrifice and compromise for the sake of the common good.
Through the various means that are open to us as citizens, we should communicate these values to our representatives and hold them accountable through giving or withholding our support and our votes.
This is not just about being good Americans, it is about being good followers of the One who teaches us to pray that his kingdom will come and his will be done on earth as in heaven.
• • •
NO COMMENTS TODAY
Think (and pray) about these things.
My mother-in-law passed away Monday morning from a catastrophic stroke that occured the morning before. She was a remarkable woman in many ways in how she transcended her circumstances and I wanted to pay tribute to her today.
Margaret Peddle was raised in various remote communities in Northern Ontario, the largest of which was Englehart, a small community halfway between North Bay and Timmins. Her father was a Hydro Power worker, and his job took them across the North.
They had several family difficulties, Margaret’s sister Kay ran away from home and had a child who was raised by Margaret’s parents. Margaret’s brother Calvin died during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
The family did move down to Southern Ontario, to the town of St. Catharines. At age 16 Margaret snuck into a bar with a date, and emerged with another date, a dashing Air Force airman named Gord whom she would eventually marry.
Pain was a frequent companion. Marg suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as Crohn’s disease, which almost took her life when her children were very young. Still in spite of the Arthritis, one of her pleasures was knitting sweaters for the extended family.
She was a tiny lady. Just 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 100 pounds. But she was fiercely protective of her children (and later grandchildren), and wouldn’t be afraid to stand up for them no matter the situation.
Gord’s air force career took the family to Cold Lake Alberta, another out of the way place in the Canadian North. She viewed the isolation as a blessing. Because of the air force base she was able to get quick access to a major center for her health, and she also saw it as a great place to raise a family free from many of the big city concerns.
Marg worked a number of entry level jobs to help support the family: As a server at a coffee shop or as a clerk at a drugstore. While she only completed high school herself later in life, she had the vision that education would be important for her three children. Each completed professional degrees in the Management or Healthcare fields.
Margaret was not the first in the family to become a Jesus follower. It was in fact her daughter Carrie who came to faith first through a Nicky Cruz crusade in the town of Edmonton, Alberta. (Those who have seen the movie The Cross and the Switchblade will know the reference.) Margaret, and my wife Kim soon took that same step.
Margaret became a devoted reader of her Bible, and grew spiritually as the family moved from place to place. In Ottawa she became the church Librarian, and a key component to the church’s prayer team. Marg was also a listening ear for those who phoned into a regional crisis line. Her faithful witness was a key factor in her husband Gord becoming a Christian about 20 years after her decision.
By 1993 the extended family had all ended up in Hamilton, Ontario. Marg and Gord started attending a local Alliance church. In the early 1990s the denomination in Canada had a prohibition against women elders (It still does in the United States). When the opportunity for women to serve as elders began to crack open, Margaret was among the first few to be asked to serve. For a number of years she was one of handful of women elders in the entire denomination.
Margaret had a servant’s heart. “She was a tiny woman with a huge heart that always sought to console a hurting soul and protect those she loved.” Margaret’s greatest joy was being a mother to Carrie, Mike, and Kim, and a grandmother to Josh, Matt, Amy, and Kaitlyn, and she was very proud of all their accomplishments.
Three years ago she moved into a retirement home. She was still active, and enjoyed weekly meals with her family. She especially enjoyed visiting with her grandson Matt in September, and spending Christmas with her daughters, and my children this year. She will be greatly missed.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. – Colossians 3:12-13
Faith Across the Multiverse, Parables from Modern Science- Part 2, The Language of Physics, Chapter 4: The Kamala Khan Conundrum
By Andy Walsh
We are blogging through the book, “Faith Across the Multiverse, Parables from Modern Science” by Andy Walsh. Today is Chapter 4: The Kamala Khan Conundrum. Kamala Khan is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, Khan is Marvel’s first Muslim character to headline her own comic book.
Khan is a teenage Pakistani American from Jersey City, New Jersey with shapeshifting abilities. Her “conundrum” is the latest update of the Spider-Man archetype; the teenager next door just trying to be accepted as normal by her peers while adjusting to abilities that are anything but. And also, of course, there are the additional issues of her Pakistani culture and Islamic faith in modern American society where she faces the challenge of maintaining her heritage while deciding who she will be as an independent adult.
Walsh is trying to draw the parallel with our personal experiences as our identities as spouse or parent, and contrast that with our identity as a member of the workforce. Younger people might express a tension between their identity as a student and their social identity. These multiple identities are often talked about as if there is a tension between them, that the primary dynamic is one of conflict. He then segues into a discussion of the conception of Jesus’ identities as both human and divine. He says:
In the last chapter, we encountered human free will and God’s sovereignty, two concepts traditionally presented as incompatible. We also explored an alternative model that allowed us to describe those concepts in a way that doesn’t require one to be defined as the opposite of the other. I believe we can accomplish something similar to reconcile Jesus’ divine nature and human natures, this time by moving into the realm of physics. While physics relies heavily on mathematics, it also deals with tangible reality that we can experience with our senses instead of relying primarily on our minds. Likewise, for the Christian, Jesus is God made a tangible reality whom some experienced with their senses in the past, and whom we all may have a chance to experience with our senses in the future.
The model from physics that Walsh presents as an analogy to help us understand the two natures of Christ is the wave-particle duality of light. We covered this fairly extensively in our review of John Polkinghorne’s book, Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship. Light, under certain experimental conditions, will behave as a wave, like the ripples emanating from an object dropped into a pond.
Like a wave, light will be reinforced or experience cancelling interference, a phenomenon in which two waves superpose to form a resultant wave of greater, lower, or the same amplitude. This was demonstrated in the famous double slit experiment, first reported by Thomas Young in 1801. His demonstration of interference by alternate bright and dark lines was taken to be clear evidence for the wave nature of light. One can find YouTube videos giving instructions for repeating Young’s experiment at home.
As the 20th Century dawned, a young Albert Einstein re-introduced the idea of light as a stream of particles to explain the photoelectric effect (the observation that many metals emit electrons when light shines upon them). In 1909 he demonstrated that two distinct terms appeared in Planck’s equations describing black-body radiation [a mathematical relationship formulated in 1900 by German physicist Max Planck to explain the spectral-energy distribution of radiation emitted by a blackbody (a hypothetical body that completely absorbs all radiant energy falling upon it, reaches some equilibrium temperature, and then reemits that energy as quickly as it absorbs it]. Those two distinct terms indicated a duality in the nature of light.
Walsh then notes that Superhero fiction explores the facets of resolving the issues of dual identities. To us older generation, the Superman-Clark Kent duality is the most familiar. Mild-mannered, milquetoast Clark Kent couldn’t possibly be the same person as the indestructible, unconquerable, super-powered Superman, could he? In the pages of X-man Legacy , David Haller is written as having dissociative identity disorder; each identity has its own superpower. As the story begins, David has them imprisoned in his mind and hauls them out of their cells when he needs to exploit a given ability. Walsh says:
Over the course of a world-saving adventure, he realizes the value of employing grace to allow the various parts of himself to integrate organically. Whether that is a viable model for dealing with a genuine mental health concern, I cannot say, but I found it a moving portrait of how to deal constructively with the multitudes we all contain…
Still these are all stories, and fiction isn’t always constrained by the same rules as reality. Integration and unification of identity are clearly the goal for understanding the nature of Jesus, but are those goals plausible? Just as we looked at various experiments that revealed properties of light, we’ll need to look at the data we have for Jesus from the Bible.
Walsh then recounts one of the starkest examples of the human-divine duality in the accounts of Jesus—the story of Lazarus’ resurrection in John 11. Lazarus falls ill and his sisters Mary and Martha send for Jesus, fully aware of his healing ministry. He agrees to come, but knowingly delays while indicating a plan is in place that will maximize God’s glory. When he finally arrives, Lazarus is already dead; the narrative leaves little doubt if Jesus had come right away, he would have found Lazarus alive. Lazarus’ sisters recognize that Jesus might still have the power to help their brother. They seem to be appealing to his divine nature, to exercise authority over life and death in a way no human being would be capable of. And the immediate response they get is the shortest, and one the most famous verses in the Bible: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35); a most human and emotional reaction. Walsh says:
The Gospel of John does record that Jesus ultimately brings Lazarus back from the dead, apparently confirming his divine nature, but not without complicating our ability to understand what that means. Or does it? Maybe what Jesus is really showing us is that our understanding of humanity and divinity is flawed. That fits with our ultimate premise, that Jesus represents God’s ultimate effort to model for us concepts that we would otherwise have been unlikely to arrive at, in order to facilitate communication between us and God.
Of course, far more people dispute Jesus’ claim to divinity that his claim to humanity. But the life of Jesus regularly challenges many of our popular notions about what is significant or distinct about humanity. He intentionally forfeited his life for the benefit of others, instead of seeking to extend it to the maximum possible. And yet, there is also the sense in which Jesus’ entire mission was to make eternal life possible for everyone. In one act he affirmed the desire for our existence to continue, and yet challenged us to consider the cost of how that will be actually realized—“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
Walsh then returns to the wave-particle duality of light for another metaphor. He connects the discrete particle duality of light to Jesus’ humanity. The discreteness is fairly straightforward; humans come in distinct units, and Jesus is likewise separate and separable from the rest of us. The waviness he connects to his divinity. One consequence of waves interfering is that adding two waves together yield one wave. And for our purposes, adding three waves together yields one wave. He says:
This gives us a useful way of thinking about the triune, or trinitarian, nature of God. It’s a difficult one to grasp; the analogies that are often used, such as yolk, a white, and a shell being three parts that add up to a whole egg, don’t really capture what is meant by the Trinity. God is not Voltron; in fact, the early church rejected such a compartmentalized view of the Trinity as heresy. But with waves, we have three waves adding up to one of the same kind of thing, a wave. Going a little further, if you have the single wave, there are techniques to decompose it into multiple waves, but the solutions are not unique and require some assumptions about the nature of multiple waves. This would seem to mirror our difficulty in identifying exactly how God as the Father, as Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit relates differently to us and to each other, or in our need to be explicitly told about the Trinity in the first place rather than just being able to figure it out for ourselves.
Walsh acknowledges his debt to Polkinghorne and his book, Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship, for the analogy with the duality of light. He also agrees with Polkinghorne’s reluctance to push these analogies with quantum physics too far. After all, so many of quantum physics phenomena are beyond regular experience and counterintuitive, so they are described and even named using metaphors to more familiar experiences. People then see a connection between that familiar phenomenon referenced by the metaphor and a topic they are interested in and make the further connection to quantum physics. But I still think that’s OK. After all, there is no other way to understand God’s transcendence except through metaphor and analogy with what is familiar to us. The ancients evoked the splendor of an oriental king on his gilded and bejeweled throne to model God’s majesty and magnificence. Most of us modern’s are pretty unfamiliar with, and unimpressed by, kings on a throne anymore. But quantum physics—even the modern scientists/priests bow in awe to what is seemed to be revealed. I think it is entirely appropriate: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the quantum physics sheweth his handywork.”
The Bible Demands that We Be Unbiblical
by Pete Enns
Speaking of evolution and Christian faith . . .
A crucial question to ask ourselves is: what have we the right to expect from the biblical origins texts? I call it “genre calibration” in The Evolution of Adam.
“Outside” information can “calibrate” the expectations we bring to the biblical texts in question.
This isn’t as odd a claim as you might think. Study Bibles are full of notes that do this very thing, as are seminary and college Bible classes. Whenever we read the Bible against its historical backdrop (i.e., reading it in historical context), we are using that backdrop to affect our understanding of the biblical text.
When it comes to creation texts, part of the backdrop involves (1) the context of the the biblical world itself (other ancient creation texts) and (2) various fields of science that deal with origins (biological, geological, cosmological). So things like genomic studies, the fossil record, and ancient Mesopotamian creation myths help us see that the genre of Genesis 1-3 is not what we call science or history but something else.
What that “something” can generate a lot of heat, but whether myth, legend, metaphor, symbol, story, or some other label, the point remains: seeking from the biblical creation stories scientific and historical information is to misidentify the genre of literature we are reading—to expect something from these stories they are not prepared to deliver.
Which brings me to a rather important point:
The findings of science and biblical scholarship are not the enemies of Christian faith. They are opportunities to be truly “biblical” because they are invitations to reconsider what it means to read the creation stories well—and that means turning down a different path than most Christians before us have taken.
Though, this would not be the first time Christians have had to divert their path from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
We need only think of the ruckus caused by Copernicus and Galileo, telling us the earth whizzes around the sun, as do the other planets, when the Bible “clearly” says that the earth is fixed and stable (Ps 104:5) and the heavenly bodies do all the moving. Sometimes older views do give way to newer ones if the circumstances warrant.
In fact, shifts in thinking like this are a perfectly biblical notion. We find throughout the Bible older perspectives giving way to new ones.
The prophet Nahum rejoices at the destruction of the dreaded Assyrians and their capital Nineveh in 612 BCE, but the prophet Jonah, writing generations later after the return from exile, speaks of God’s desire that the Ninevites repent and be saved.
What happened? Travel broadens, and the experience of exile led the Judahites to think differently about who their God is and what this God is up to on the world stage.
In fact, Israel’s entire history is given a fresh coat of paint in the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which differs remarkably, and often flatly contradicts, the earlier history of Israel in the books of Samuel and Kings.
Why? Because the journey to exile and back home again led the Judahites to see God differently.
I could go on and talk about how the theology of the New Testament positively depends on fresh twists and turns to Israel’s story, such as a crucified messiah and tabling the “eternal covenant” of circumcision as well as the presumably timeless dietary restrictions given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
What happened? Jesus forced a new path for Israel’s story that went well beyond what the Bible “says.”
Simply put, seeing the need to move beyond biblical categories is biblical—and as such poses a wonderful model, even divine permission—shall I say “mandate”—to move beyond the Bible when the need arises and reason dictates.
Being a “biblical” Christian today means accepting that challenge: a theology that genuinely grows out of the Bible but that is not confined to the Bible.
And so I see the matter of Christian faith and evolution not as a “debate” but as a discussion, not defending familiar orthodoxies as if in a fortress but accepting the challenge of a journey of theological exploration and discovery.
For me, that approach is much more than an intellectual exercise—though it is that—but a spiritual responsibility.
WHY I AM NOT A YOUNG EARTH CREATIONIST
1. The Bible Does Not Teach It
Genesis 1 (as well as other “creation” texts in the Bible) is not a historical report designed to explain how God created the universe in a scientific sense.
Genesis 1 is a creative theological meditation on how God, the King of the heavens and earth, formed a good land out of an uninhabitable wilderness to be his Temple, filled it with living things, and appointed human beings to be his priestly representatives and to multiply his blessing throughout the world. When God had finished his work, he rested and began to rule.
This theological meditation reflects both Ancient Near Eastern cosmology and Ancient Near Eastern creation myths and served as:
Genesis 1 and the complementary creation story in Genesis 2-3 were shaped to reflect Israel’s history as an introduction to the Torah.
Genesis 1-3 anticipates the entire story of Israel —
The Hebrew Bible was formed into its final shape after the Babylonian Exile. The early chapters of Genesis (1-11) were fashioned using terms, themes, and myths from Babylonian sources to communicate to the post-exilic community.
After the exile, Israel faced the same choice as the first covenant people, Adam and Eve: God has brought them back to the land. Will they eat from the tree of life and know God’s blessing?
A “clear and natural” reading of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2-3 means reading them in the context they were given and letting them fulfill the purposes for which they were written.
There are actually seven great Creation accounts in Scripture (Gen. 1, Gen. 2-3, Job 38-41, Psalm 104, Proverbs 8, passages in Ecclesiastes, Isaiah 40-66). They are written using different genres and reflecting various traditions. They complement each other and communicate truths appropriate to their contexts within the Bible’s overall narrative.
Let the Bible tell its story.
2. The Bible Was Not Given to Teach It
Genesis 1 and other Bible texts about creation have little to do with what scientists find through observing the natural world.
The Bible should not come into the discussion at all when analyzing the science — it is not about that.
And it is not the job of science to speculate on the supernatural mysteries that may lie in and behind creation — so don’t expect it to.
This is not a matter of choosing to trust the “authority” of science over the “authority” of the Bible. That would suggest the two are designed to speak to the same subjects. They are not.
Let the scientists do science and help us gain an ever-increasing understanding of how the world works.
Let the Bible work faith, hope, and love through Jesus Christ and bring us to God’s new creation.
The young earth creationists believe that Genesis 1 is “literally” a description of creation. I do not. It is this simple disagreement that is the cornerstone of my objection. I believe that Genesis 1 is a pre-scientific description of Creation intended to accent how Yahweh’s relationship with the world stands in stark contrast to the Gods of other cultures, most likely those of Babylon. Textual and linguistic evidence convinces me that this chapter was written to be used in a liturgical (worship) setting, with poetic rhythms and responses understood as part of the text. It tells who made the universe in a poetic and pre-scientific way. It is beautiful, inspired and true as God’s Word.
Does it match up with scientific evidence? Who cares?
• Michael Spencer
• • •
Todd Wilson makes a good effort at his CT article, Ten Theses on Creation and Evolution That (Most) Evangelicals Can Support. But, in the end, it is unsatisfying and unsustainable.
Wilson begins by noting that, with regard to the topic of origins, “There is hardly a more controversial subject among evangelical Christians.” As one of our commenters noted the other day: “And hardly a less controversial subject anywhere else. Sometimes there are not two sides to every issue. There is a right answer and a wrong answer.” My main response to this article is, “Boy, do evangelicals need to grow up and enter the real world.”
I understand that this puts pastors such as Todd Wilson in an uncomfortable position, but so be it. The process that he and his church went through is well known to me from my own experience. A church is stuck in a dogmatic box. The pastor and other leaders suggest a long process of study and conversation to come up with a statement or policy that most everyone can live with. In the end, they develop something that doesn’t really end up dealing with the elephants in the room.
This tension-filled season in the life of our church provided a good occasion to engage in serious conversations about origins issues. We grappled with our doctrinal boundaries as a local church: What degree of diversity will we allow? And given our diversity, what can we still affirm together as a unifying doctrinal core?
The upshot was the development of a series of ten theses on creation and evolution that we believe (most) evangelicals can (mostly) affirm. We weren’t looking for perfect unanimity. Our ultimate goal was to maintain the “unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) and to prioritize the gospel as of “first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3). It was important for us to arrive at a position on creation and evolution that was in keeping with that faithful Christian saying, “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
I’ve been there. I admire the good intentions of the church leadership. However, they only delayed the inevitable sense of dissatisfaction that comes with an unfinished task. The statement they came up with will only keep them in a no man’s land of intellectual dishonesty.
Here are the ten theses Todd Wilson’s church developed:
My comments:
For how long?
Nice try. But all this statement tells me is that we have a long, long way to go.
Sermon: Worship Is Sunday Dinner (Epiphany)
To the bath and the table,
To the prayers and the word,
I call every seeking soul.
• Inscribed on a church bell in Wisconsin
• • •
I became convinced long ago that one of the most important things I could do for a congregation was to teach them about worship. After all, it is what we do, week after week, month after month, and year after year. And yet, most churches that I’ve been part of had very little instruction about worship. We just did it in the way we did it and never talked about it much. I think it is especially important that our younger people receive this teaching, because they often don’t understand why we do things the way we do when we come together each week for worship.
So, we are going to take this Epiphany season to talk about why we worship the way we do. It is my hope that it will be refreshing for all of us to think about these things together.
Way back in the second century, one of the Church Fathers, a man named Justin Martyr, wrote a description of what Christians did when they came together on Sundays.
And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
• Justin Martyr, First Apology c. 150 AD
Before that, the author of the Book of Acts described what it was like when the first Christians met together:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
• Acts 2:42, ESV
In these quotes, we see the basic elements of what we call the “liturgy.” The word “liturgy” means “the work of the people,” and it refers to what we as God’s people do when we gather. These are the actions of worship.
There are two main parts of worship: first, the Word, and then the Table.
So worship revolves around these two poles: the Word and the Table. To these main parts of the service we add a beginning and an end. The beginning is called the Gathering and the end is called the Sending.
In the Gathering we praise God and confess our sins as we come together. In the Sending, we are dismissed and sent forth to serve the Lord in our daily lives.
This is the basic pattern of worship. This is what is called the Liturgy.
Now, if you go to other churches, you may find that they don’t follow this traditional, historic liturgy. There are many churches whose services follow patterns that began in the 1800s when revival meetings were held throughout the southern and central United States. And then, there have also been a lot of changes in the last 40 years or so, as churches began using more contemporary music and less religious symbolism in their services.
I came out of those traditions, and one of the main reasons I left, one of the primary reasons I came into the Lutheran tradition, is because I think the traditional, historic liturgy should be upheld and followed when we gather to worship. Not because I’m a traditionalist but because I believe this pattern of worship makes sense and honors the gospel, putting Jesus at the center and emphasizing the main things we should be doing when we worship.
Think of it this way. Sunday worship is essentially designed to be patterned after a meal gathering. For the early Christians it often involved a full meal and they met around a table.
In the same way we might say worship is our Sunday dinner. It’s our special weekly family meal. Therefore, what we do in worship follows the pattern that happens whenever people get together for a meal.
Let’s say Gail and I were invited to the home of dear friends.
When we arrive, we are greeted at the door and as we enter we say, “Thanks for having us over; boy, that sure smells good; I love what you’ve done with your house” — in other words we thank and praise our hosts.
Before dinner is served, we sit down in the living room or out on the porch together. We catch up with one another through conversation. We share words with one another.
And then we are summoned to the table, where we sit down together and enjoy the meal our friends have prepared and served us.
Finally, after more conversation, we bid our friends goodnight, saying, “We must do this more often. Have a great week. Let’s do this again.” We go home with hearts warmed after a time of renewing this special relationship we share.
We gather. We converse with words. We share a meal. We part, going back into our lives refreshed and renewed.
This is the pattern of worship that the church has historically followed.
It is a meal gathering, but there is one thing we must never forget — it’s not just a gathering of friends. Our host is Jesus himself!
Just as the disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced the presence of the risen Christ when he taught them from the scriptures and broke bread with them at the table, we who are God’s family meet with Jesus and one another in this way every week.
This is our Sunday dinner.
This is what keeps our family alive and vibrant.
This is what keeps each one of us experientially connected to the Lord and to each other.
This is the feast of victory for our God.
This is the joyous highlight of each week.
This is where we are refreshed, renewed, and sent forth into our daily lives again to walk in the newness of salvation.
Come, let us worship the Lord!
Amen.
The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: January 5, 2019
Welcome to our first Brunch of the new year!
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The religious makeup of the new Congress
Like the rest of U.S. society…the new Congress is a bit more diverse, with Christians making up 88 percent of the membership, down from 91 percent. Among the non-Christian members are 34 Jews, three Muslims, three Hindus, two Buddhists, and two identifying as Unitarian Universalist.
• NPR
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From The Theological Comedy Awards…
Derek Witten has given out some awards spanning church history, which honor “some of the most gloriously peculiar happenings which Christianity has witnessed.”
Here’s an example:
THE CHURCH CALENDAR AWARD
This award goes to the most humorous historical events related to the church calendar.
Runner up: The Affair of the Sausages
One of the most pristine facts in Christian history is that the Swiss love of sausages sparked the Swiss Reformation.
The short version goes like this: The church clock strikes Lent in Zurich, 1522. The nation begins to fast—compelled not just by tradition, but by law. Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer, has just finished his book on Paul’s epistles. His staff are hunched over the printer, working overtime trying get the ink on the pages. Their empty stomachs are roiling. Finally, the leader of the famished book-printers, Christoph Froschauer, has had enough, and invites the lot of them to feast on some hearty Swiss sausages. They partake (although Zwingli abstains).
Froschauer gets arrested for his crime, and Zwingli is fed up. He pens Regarding the Choice and Freedom of Foods, which argues, employing the novel concept of sola scriptura, that an extra-biblical principle like Lenten fasting shouldn’t be enforced by law. Authorities are livid; pork lovers are elated; the Swiss Reformation has begun!
Winner: The Feast of Fools
For about 300 years in Medieval France, the Feast of the Holy Innocents and the Feast of Fools were widely celebrated from December 28 to January 1. They were, by all historical accounts, a really great time. The idea was to illustrate, right in the church’s liturgy, Paul’s idea that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Cor 1:27). This was done by reversing normal Church hierarchies. Lower ranking church officials were permitted to perform the highest roles. A boy from the community would be assigned the “boy bishop.” In the monasteries, the youngest nuns and monks became abbot and abbess for a day. Also, they’d let a donkey walk down the aisle and the “song of the ass” would be sung, which “evoke[d] the beauty, strength, and virtues of an ass as it journey[ed] from the East, across the river Jordan, to Bethlehem.”
Predictably, the celebrations sometimes got out of hand. The feast was condemned by the Council of Basel in 1431, although it didn’t die out until the sixteenth century. All you pastors out there, I hope you’re getting ideas.
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The far side of the moon…
A Chinese probe has made a historic touch-down on the far side of the Moon, according to the country’s state-run media. It is the first time a probe has visited the region, 60 years after an orbiter gave humans their first look at the area.
Chang’e-4 reportedly landed inside the Von Kármán Crater at 2:26 ut on 3 January, and has sent back its first images. At 14:22 ut the mission’s 140-kilogram Yutu2 rover drove down a ramp and onto the lunar terrain, according to images widely circulated on social media.
As the Moon’s far side is permanently hidden from Earth, the news of Chang’e-4’s successful landing was relayed by a spacecraft called Queqiao. It has been circling around a gravitationally stable point about 60,000 kilometres beyond the Moon since it launched in May.
Then there was this response: “The Flat Earth Society remains skeptical of any government’s claims regarding space travel. We didn’t trust the USA or its allies when they said it, and we see no reason why we should view China, a hostile state, as any more trustworthy. Our society is one of empiricists—we’d much rather experience the world by ourselves than take someone’s word for what the truth is.”
• Pete Svarrior, Flat Earth Society (TFES)
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Washington New Year’s humor from The Babylon Bee…
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Top Ten Biblical Archaeology’s Discoveries in 2018…
Read more about these findings at THIS CHRISTIANITY TODAY ARTICLE.
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A few interesting tidbits…
New Yorkers are moving to the country…
A visit to the border at Tijuana…
Can Christians agree on these theses regarding creation and evolution?
The world’s most dominant athlete is a 23 year-old woman skier
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A voice to remember in 2019…
This is Irish singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy from Dublin, who mixes poetic sensibility, an acoustic folk/pop singer’s narrative depth, and hip-hop style for great production. 2018 was a break-out year for him and I think he has a great future in front of him.
Here’s Kennedy’s first release from a few years ago: “After Rain” —
And here is the official video for his song “Glory” —
The Internet Monk Archives