"Normally we read the psalm in its entirety...There is no explanation of the psalm, it is simply read. In some ways this is an interaction wiht the poetry of our faith. As with many of our interactions with the Bible we are careful to not overlay too much of our interpretation or explanation on the text. The experience of having the psalm wash over us is plenty powerful; it doesn't really need our help."
That was taken from Reimagining Spiritual Formation by Doug Pagitt.
I read the book Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic four years ago. I was completely amazed by a section within it. Amazed enough that I remembered it four years later when reading the above quote from Doug Pagitt. I've included the whole section here. I debated on clipping out just a few lines, but didn't think that did it justice. If you just want to read my thoughts, then hop on down to the bottom. However, without David Currie's story my thoughts have a little less meaning.
"One of the aspects of Catholic worship that surprised me initially was the central role of the Bible in the worship service. Every Catholic church is on a three-year cycle of Scripture reading. A Catholic who attend Mass faithfully will hear almost all of God's word over a period of three years (with the exception of some genealogies, etc.). That is a schedule most Evangelical churches would do well to emulate."
"I tried to come up with some objective method of measuring the feelings of different churches for the Bible and what it says. I decided to time the percentage of Sunday morning worship spent in Scripture reading in three different types of churches. It seems plausible that the amount of time spent in the Bible would indicate regard for what it said. If a church spent no time in Scripture at all, it would be hard-pressed to demonsrate that it cared about what the Bible taught. I timed the services when the regular pastor was present, avoiding any special holidays that might distort the results. I did not count the time spent in talking about the Bible, just the time spent actually reading, singing, or reciting the inspired word itself."
"I think Evangelicals will find the results surprising. I chose two large churches, one Evangelical and one fundamentalist, both with an average Sunday attendance reaching well into the thousands. The Evangelical church, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, spent less than 6 percent of its Sunday service in Scripture. The fundamentalist church, in northwest Indiana, which considers itself to be biblically based, spent 2 percent of its morning in Scripture."
"My own Catholic church would be very similar to any Catholic church in this country, because the missal is standardized. When I travel I can attend any parish church and know right where we are reading. Catholics at Mass spend more than 26 percent of the time in Scripture. Although exact percentages will vary from week to week, time in the Bible during Mass approximately quadruples the amount of time spent in the Bible during morning worship in the other two churches."
I think the church I attend would fall into the same category as the 2% church. The only time that Scripture is read is briefly in a sermon before a preacher tells us what that small section really means. It baffles me that we don't read more of the Scripture and just let its words stand on their own. It is almost as if we are afraid of what people might start believing if the Scripture isn't filtered through the protectors of theology in our churches. We take the verses that call us to a radical discipleship and sanitize them so that we are able to follow them in our culture without being looked down upon. We enshrine Scripture with our own words, so that we can be certain that Scripture will never shake our manufactured faith. It's time to let Scripture stand up and become a central element in our gatherings and not just a necessary springboard to say what we want to say. If we do that, we would see an increase in radical discipleship among us.
***
Thanks for your prayers if you prayed for my meeting yesterday. It went as good as can be expected. It mainly centered around me being given more responsibility in my father's business. The problem was that the responsiblities were being taken from other people as we reorganize the structure of Clem's Collectibles. I think it is good for all of us involved, and I think they saw that too.
Watch out for the potholes.
Watch out for the potholes.
The Love of My Child
Writing a daily blog is a chore sometimes. I constantly spend all day thinking about what I am going to write next. Today was no different. On my way home from work I turned off the radio and prayed about what to write about. Nothing came. I continued to pray, sing, create silly poems, and all of the other insane stuff I do when I am alone in the car. Still nothing. I gave up and decided that I would pray and think about it as I was going to bed. Usually if I don't have a post by the time I go to bed, I have it by the time I wake up.
Then I came home. I was running about an hour late tonight because I had an order due today that I was still working on. Isaac was already done eating when I arrived, so I took my plate to the table to eat while Lindsay finished up her meal. Isaac asked me if I wanted him to sit with me. I told him he could play. Then, Lindsay and I were talking. She asked me how I was feeling today. If you don't know me and my health, some evenings I am completely exhausted and have to go to bed at seven while other evenings I am completely fine and feel normal. I told Lindsay that I was feeling good. Isaac was playing on the other side of the room when I said that. We tell Isaac that I'm on a strange diet because I'm not feeling good. When he heard me say that I'm feeling good, he ran across the room to his jelly beans (something I'm not allowed to have on my diet). He then asked me, "Would you like a jelly bean?"
Isaac loves jelly beans, and he knows that I can't have them because of my diet. However, when he heard that I was feeling good, the first thing he thought of was giving me a jelly bean that he loves. I was deeply touched. I explained to him that just because I am feeling good tonight doesn't mean that I can have sugar. I told him that I appreciated that he wanted to give me a jelly bean.
Matthew wrote in Matthew 18:2-4: "He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'"
I hope that I am as quick to love God as Isaac was in loving me. I think I need to work on that.
***
I have an important meeting today around 2:00. If you could pray about it, I would appreciate it. More details to come later.
Watch out for the potholes
Then I came home. I was running about an hour late tonight because I had an order due today that I was still working on. Isaac was already done eating when I arrived, so I took my plate to the table to eat while Lindsay finished up her meal. Isaac asked me if I wanted him to sit with me. I told him he could play. Then, Lindsay and I were talking. She asked me how I was feeling today. If you don't know me and my health, some evenings I am completely exhausted and have to go to bed at seven while other evenings I am completely fine and feel normal. I told Lindsay that I was feeling good. Isaac was playing on the other side of the room when I said that. We tell Isaac that I'm on a strange diet because I'm not feeling good. When he heard me say that I'm feeling good, he ran across the room to his jelly beans (something I'm not allowed to have on my diet). He then asked me, "Would you like a jelly bean?"
Isaac loves jelly beans, and he knows that I can't have them because of my diet. However, when he heard that I was feeling good, the first thing he thought of was giving me a jelly bean that he loves. I was deeply touched. I explained to him that just because I am feeling good tonight doesn't mean that I can have sugar. I told him that I appreciated that he wanted to give me a jelly bean.
Matthew wrote in Matthew 18:2-4: "He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'"
I hope that I am as quick to love God as Isaac was in loving me. I think I need to work on that.
***
I have an important meeting today around 2:00. If you could pray about it, I would appreciate it. More details to come later.
Watch out for the potholes
I want to only hear the Gospel
In church we should only preach about one thing, the Gospel. If we were to sit down and examine the Gospel, we would see that it contains two major themes. First is Christ and his example. Second, that there are two kind of good works. One is is completely done, that of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Through it we are saved through faith. But good works don't just stop with Jesus on the cross. They are to continue through us. The second good work described in the gospel is us bringing our neighor the help they need.
If we are teaching anything different from the Gospel, we are leading people astray. But the most dangerous person isn't the one who just teaches things outside of the Gospel. The most dangerous person is the one who only partially teaches the Gospel. He is the one who teaches only the example of Christ without the death of Jesus on the cross. He is the one who teaches Jesus on the cross without the call for us to follow Christ's example. This person is worse than one who teaches without the Gospel because he abuses and corrupts God's word. Paul wrote, "For we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence" (2 Corinthians 2:17)
The one thing we can be sure of is that this Gospel couldn't be revealed to those who just contemplated nature, nor could all the ingenuity, reason and wisdom of this world have thought it out. The Gospel is supernatural. Who would be able to discover by means of his own efforts that faith in Christ makes us one with Christ and gives us for our own all that is Christ's? Who would be able to discover that no works are of any value except those intended to benefit our neighbor? Nature teaches no more than that which is worked out in the law. Nature will always fall back upon its own work. Then, naturally, a person will think that he fulfills the commandment by founding some institution or organization. Another person will think he fulfills the commandment by fasting. Another by the kind of clothes he wears. Another by going on pilgrimages. People will try to fulfill the commandment with all sorts of methods. Yet all their methods are useless, for nobody is helped by them. That is the way the world is today. The whole world is blinded and veering off course due to the doctrines and works of men. Faith and love, along with the Gospel, have perished.
The Gospel if preached properly, is a supernatural sermon and light that will focus on making only Christ known. It will awaken this blinded world. The Gospel is a heavenly light that teaches nothing more than Christ. In Christ we completely receive God's grace and of our human achievements are completely cast aside. The Gospel exalts only God making it foolish for man to boast of his own strength. The preaching of the Gospel should give God all the glory, for it is through his love and goodness alone that we are saved through Christ.
The Gospel can tolerate nothing but the truth. The teachings of men are just earthly light and human glory. The teachings exalt being of good reputation and receiving fame. It makes souls be prideful in their own works. The Gospel glories in Christ, in God's grace and goodness, and teaches us to boast and live in Christ.
The human teachings of men will try to satisfy, but they cannot. They will leave a barren land and deadly hunger. The only complete satisfaction our heart will ever find is when it hears Christ rightly proclaimed in the Gospel. The angel said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).
Just in this little verse we can see what the Gospel is, a joyful sermon concerning Christ our savior. Whoever preaches rightly will preach a Gospel of pure joy. How is it possible for anyone to hear of greater joy than that Christ is given to us as our own? The angel does not only say that Christ is born, but he makes the savior personal by saying "to you is born..a Savior."
The Gospel is not just a history of the life of Christ. It is a powerful story that enables all who believe it to receive it as their own. It wouldn't be any benefit to us if Christ had been born a thousand times, and people would daily sing and preach the story of him to me in a most beautiful and eloquent manner. What would any of it if I never heard that Christ was born for me and was to be my very own? If any voice tells me that Christ was born for me and he is to be my very own, even if they do it in a poor untrained manner, my heart listens with joy for it is always a lovely sound which penetrates my soul. There is nothing else to be preached.
Taken and modified from Martin Luther's Christmas Day Sermon:34-44
Watch out for the potholes.
If we are teaching anything different from the Gospel, we are leading people astray. But the most dangerous person isn't the one who just teaches things outside of the Gospel. The most dangerous person is the one who only partially teaches the Gospel. He is the one who teaches only the example of Christ without the death of Jesus on the cross. He is the one who teaches Jesus on the cross without the call for us to follow Christ's example. This person is worse than one who teaches without the Gospel because he abuses and corrupts God's word. Paul wrote, "For we are not peddlers of God's word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence" (2 Corinthians 2:17)
The one thing we can be sure of is that this Gospel couldn't be revealed to those who just contemplated nature, nor could all the ingenuity, reason and wisdom of this world have thought it out. The Gospel is supernatural. Who would be able to discover by means of his own efforts that faith in Christ makes us one with Christ and gives us for our own all that is Christ's? Who would be able to discover that no works are of any value except those intended to benefit our neighbor? Nature teaches no more than that which is worked out in the law. Nature will always fall back upon its own work. Then, naturally, a person will think that he fulfills the commandment by founding some institution or organization. Another person will think he fulfills the commandment by fasting. Another by the kind of clothes he wears. Another by going on pilgrimages. People will try to fulfill the commandment with all sorts of methods. Yet all their methods are useless, for nobody is helped by them. That is the way the world is today. The whole world is blinded and veering off course due to the doctrines and works of men. Faith and love, along with the Gospel, have perished.
The Gospel if preached properly, is a supernatural sermon and light that will focus on making only Christ known. It will awaken this blinded world. The Gospel is a heavenly light that teaches nothing more than Christ. In Christ we completely receive God's grace and of our human achievements are completely cast aside. The Gospel exalts only God making it foolish for man to boast of his own strength. The preaching of the Gospel should give God all the glory, for it is through his love and goodness alone that we are saved through Christ.
The Gospel can tolerate nothing but the truth. The teachings of men are just earthly light and human glory. The teachings exalt being of good reputation and receiving fame. It makes souls be prideful in their own works. The Gospel glories in Christ, in God's grace and goodness, and teaches us to boast and live in Christ.
The human teachings of men will try to satisfy, but they cannot. They will leave a barren land and deadly hunger. The only complete satisfaction our heart will ever find is when it hears Christ rightly proclaimed in the Gospel. The angel said to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).
Just in this little verse we can see what the Gospel is, a joyful sermon concerning Christ our savior. Whoever preaches rightly will preach a Gospel of pure joy. How is it possible for anyone to hear of greater joy than that Christ is given to us as our own? The angel does not only say that Christ is born, but he makes the savior personal by saying "to you is born..a Savior."
The Gospel is not just a history of the life of Christ. It is a powerful story that enables all who believe it to receive it as their own. It wouldn't be any benefit to us if Christ had been born a thousand times, and people would daily sing and preach the story of him to me in a most beautiful and eloquent manner. What would any of it if I never heard that Christ was born for me and was to be my very own? If any voice tells me that Christ was born for me and he is to be my very own, even if they do it in a poor untrained manner, my heart listens with joy for it is always a lovely sound which penetrates my soul. There is nothing else to be preached.
Taken and modified from Martin Luther's Christmas Day Sermon:34-44
Watch out for the potholes.
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