An Easter prayer
Dearest Jesus, The world is in darkness, the night lasting forever, so it seems. And You are ... dead. I saw..
More Stories from this Author
The Seven Last Words from the Cross
by Fleming Rutledge. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005. ISBN 0-8028-2786-1. Pb. 81 pp. $12.00.
One of the great traditions of the Christian Church is to take time, during Holy Week, to reflect upon the words Jesus spoke from the Cross. Sometimes this happens in a three- hour service on Good Friday, in which the combination of the crucifixion accounts in the four Gospels are read and interpreted in turn. Out of this tradition, Fleming Rutledge has created a series of mediations that are helpful for personal reading, reflection, and devotional use at any time of the year.
Paradigms and Jesus
The first time I heard the term paradigm, I thought something had come back to haunt me from my unsuccessful trigonometry past. Curious, I asked a seminary professor about the term and received a copy of David Bosch's Transforming Mission. I read this voluminous writing. Bosch covered it all from the paradigms of the Enlightenment, the Medieval Church, the Protestant Reformation, the Ecumenical movement, Postmodernism and many more. Later I attended a church conference where the leader presented a paradigm that he believed Jesus initiated. He called it the "missional" church model.
The work of Christ for our redemption
Editor's Note: The following essay is the eighth in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. Author Johnson explains: "The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction."
The work of Christ for our redemption (atonement) is another place where the current divisions within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) beg for a better way forward, for three reasons. (1) The current Modernist-Pietist Church milieu has narrowed the work of Christ largely to the role of example. (2) Many people today put two atonement ideas into false and unnecessary competition with each other. (3) The "classical" view of atonement, neglected by both sides but deep within the Bible and the Reformed tradition, offers a powerful way to reconfigure the total work of Christ for our redemption. This essay explains these assertions.
Can baseball teach us something?
I grew up loving baseball. Although I played Little League, I was never really very good at it. But I loved the game.
The season of Lent anticipates Easter, but almost as important for some of us is the anticipation of the baseball season during Lent. Everything is fresh and new. Fresh beginnings. New opportunities.
Even today, as one in his mid-50s, my heart stirs through spring training as it prepares us for the new season. What joy! What excitement! What anticipation that game engenders for some of us!
Procurator
Easter 8 Introduction
A lot was going on that first Easter morning. Bewilderment was an emotion shared not only by Jesus' friends, but also by his enemies. Pilate, who had seemed almost skeptical in granting the chief priests' request for a guard to be set on Jesus' tomb, Make it as secure as you can... now finds his ironic words ringing true after all. And what had appeared to be merely the regrettable, yet necessary execution of a rather enigmatic figure he had personally considered harmless, is now threatening to expand into a crisis, perhaps even a potential insurrection. Even as he ponders a plan of action, however, Pilate still finds himself drawn in a curious kind of sympathy toward that strangely dignified and self-possessed victim of whom, just two days before, he had thought he was washing his hands forever.
Listen, sisters! Listen, brothers!
based on I Corinthians 15
Text: ©2006 Carolyn Winfrey Gillette.
Used by permission.
Tune: BEACH SPRING
(God Whose Giving Knows No Ending)
Listen, sisters! Listen, brothers
To the news that we proclaim;
Spread the word and tell your neighbors:
We have life in Jesus' name.
All because God loves us dearly,
Jesus died for all our sin.
On the third day, God showed clearly:
Love has conquered, death can't win.
Churches, denomination face property issues like “a marriage gone bust”
This is not a land for the faint-hearted.
As congregations involved with the New Wineskins Association prepare to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- many of them bound for what they see as the promised land of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church -- first they will wade through the swamps of property disputes.
Already, roughly 10 lawsuits involving church departures and property are pending in courts across the country -- and, in other places, presbyteries and congregations are trying to negotiate their way towards some sort of amicable parting.
Living in hope
Whether it be spouted by the Jesus Seminar scholars, the Da Vinci Code author or The Lost Tomb of Jesus producer, this is the season when magazines give undeserved attention to Jesus' detractors. In spite of their allegedly formidable arguments, confident Christians worldwide will gather in huge numbers on Easter morning chanting, "He is risen. He is risen. He is risen indeed."
Such affirmations continue undeterred, because the arguments supporting the resurrection and the legacy of Christ-changed lives far overwhelm lame claims about some Passover Plot.
Is Christ alive in your church?
This is a good question for church officers to consider, especially at Easter. But what does it really mean? If we preach Christ raised from the dead on the third day, do we have a concrete sense that he still exists and is vital in our midst? Or are we thinking in symbolic terms, "He lives in our memories" or on a more pedestrian level that we encounter at funerals, "I just know that Uncle Fred is looking down at us right now"?
How alive is Christ in your congregation?
Open Poem: “Might-y” Faith
In light of the coming revisions to the Book of Order - I hope the responsible parties will keep in mind our..
Response to Casey Jones ‘Faith is a result of salvation?’
Background links: "Marks of the True Church" (Original article by Merwyn S. Johnson) "Faith is a Result of Salvation?" (Open letter response..
“Season of Prayer” request by Montreat Conference Center Board over church’s request to leave PC(USA)
The board of directors of the Montreat Conference Center is asking for a six-month "season of prayer, study and dialogue" regarding the request that Montreat Church has made to be dismissed from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
The historic North Carolina congregation -- where Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, has long been a member -- voted 311-27 on Jan. 21 to ask to be dismissed to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Forgiveness: Breaking the cycle of violence
Any discussion of forgiveness must surely open with the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer which reads,
Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. (NRSV)
This prayer was crafted within the piety of first century Judaism and its famous eighteen prayers (Amidah) most of which are thought to have been in use at the time of Jesus.
One of those prayers (No. 6) is called "For forgiveness" and reads,
Forgive us, O our Father, for we have sinned; pardon us, O our King, for we have transgressed; for thou dost pardon and forgive. Blessed are thou, O Lord, who art gracious, and dost abundantly forgive.
Where is the “P” for peace? Or the “U” for unity?
I asked a non-Presbyterian friend not long ago to read what has become not so fondly known by some as "The PUP Report," and to give me his views as an outsider on what all the stir is about. He said, after a serious reading of the document, and an additional look at the actions of the 2006 Birmingham General Assembly, he was a bit mystified by why anyone would get upset over what our denomination had done. Nothing much seemed to have really changed. The Book of Order is still the same. The actions of the Assembly did not change the paragraph that seems to concern some so much.
“Whom shall I send … ” to New Orleans?
Recently, I joined 49 other adults in traveling down to New Orleans. For the sake of this trip and our well being throughout our weeklong stay, our group raised more than $28,000. I am certain that we left the dozen homes we worked on in better condition. I am also confident that $28,000 could have been used to reconstruct many more buildings if we had only donated the money to local causes.
The question then becomes, why did we go?
In most Presbyterian circles, the term "calling" is debated and discussed almost ad nauseam, but I trust that the reader's constitution is strong enough to permit a little discourse on the subject. Though we represented many different churches from across North Carolina, each individual committed to the same Bible verse for the week, Isaiah 6:8: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
The question still becomes, why were we sent?
14 church-related projects to share $1 million
(PNS) The Mission Development Resources Committee (MDRC) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) recently awarded more than $1 million in grant money to 14 church-related projects across the United States.
The short-term start-up funds will enable congregations, presbyteries, and synods to organize new churches, transform existing congregations, or develop church-based community outreach programs.
Evil and the Justice of God
by N. T. Wright. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 2006. ISBN 0-8308-3398-6. Hb., 176 pp. $18.
Every pastor and every politician should read N.T. Wright's newest book, Evil and the Justice of God. It serves as both a concise explanation of what the Christian faith has to say about evil and also as a way of understanding all of the terrible things happening in the world around us.
Wright starts by discussing the problem of evil, which is not only a philosophical riddle but a terrible reality in our world today. Wright says that most of us in the West have accepted the Enlightenment myth of progress. Thus we tend to ignore evil in the world for as long as we can, and when it slaps us in the face, we respond to its existence in immature and inappropriate ways.
Grace and Predestination
Editor's Note: The following essay is the seventh in a series dealing with topics of interest and importance to Presbyterians. Author Johnson explains: "The report from the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church provides us both the occasion and the urgency for theological dialogue within the PC(USA). This and succeeding essays are offered as a constructive effort in that direction."
Sola gratia--grace alone--may well be the heart of the Gospel for Presbyterians, going back to the Reformation and beyond. Salvation, that is, comes from God alone in Christ alone through faith alone by grace alone. Grace preserves the gift character of each item in the list. Without grace each of the other items could become a mere means or a method we humans can manage or manipulate on our own. When that happens, God is irrelevant. One way to move beyond the deep divisions within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) may be to recover the historic, Reformed vision of grace.
Disciple
Lent 6 ¢ Introduction
This week's Face By the Wayside is an anonymous one. He is simply called a Disciple and represents all those nameless ones who took off and followed Jesus because there was something in the way he looked, something in the things he said, something in who he was, that made life richer, fuller, truer than it had even been before. Don't ask them what it was. Most of them, all of them really, didn't even begin to understand until much later, much much later. All they wanted to do was to be near him, to learn from him, to laugh and even weep with him, and maybe even to become just the tiniest bit more like he was, even if it came to walking on water!
Wounded Glory
Between Two Ribs
that spear was cast,
a deadly blow,
an icy blast.
The Warmth of life
came streaming forth
then, earth to mud,
a Balm ....
Of endless worth.
A faith of forgiveness
If you were going to invent a religion, what would you include?
Probably you'd begin with devotion: we humans have a need to worship, pray, and maybe offer expressions of sacrifice to the deity.
Probably you would add some kind of divine revelation. A seer, sage, or prophet can speak on behalf of the deity, offering words of wisdom to address the human condition.
No doubt you would incorporate teachings about morals and ethics. Any decent religion requires its adherents to love one another, to promote justice for all, and to live their lives in the light of high standards embodied by the deity.
Would you also include the notion of the deity becoming human? Most religionists would think it outlandish to profane the life of the spirit like that.
Intentional communities: Living reconciliation, love
When Percy Strickland and his wife, Angie, decided to buy a house, they did what many Presbyterians would never dare to do. They left the suburbs. They moved into an inner-city neighborhood in Richmond, Va. -- becoming one of the few white families in an impoverished and mostly-black area.
They spent the next months meeting the neighbors -- initially, by playing basketball on nearby courts and helping kids with their homework. It got so that every time Percy pulled his truck up to his house, he'd find a dozen or so kids on the front porch, waiting for him.
The Stricklands opened the doors of their home to these children. They started an after-school tutoring program. They got volunteers from their church and the community involved. Others moved into the city and joined their work -- altogether about 10 houses of people.
They have created -- from scratch, from passion, from an open-hearted faith -- an intentional community called CHAT, or Church Hill Activities & Tutoring.
Unveiling forgiveness
When we are hurt or offended, we cover our tender hearts to protect against further "heart attack." Underneath the cover--denial, resentment, or rage--can come pain, memories, and flashbacks. If we are honest with ourselves, we reluctantly admit that in the late show that plays in our mind, we often watch reruns of hatred, resentment, bitterness, hostility, anger and fear. Worse yet, these images and thoughts do not always intrude forcefully. We too often invite and indulge them. Then we feel vandalized, ashamed, and violated because of the ugliness we permitted our minds dwell upon. How can we stop these experiences of un-forgiveness, bidden and unbidden?
Bishop G.E. Patterson dies
Presiding Bishop of the Church Of God In Christ, Bishop G. E. Patterson, passed away March 20 at 4:03 p.m. at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., as a result of heart failure. Patterson was surrounded by his wife, Mrs. Louise Patterson, and his family.
Patterson served as the leader of the fourth-largest Protestant religious denomination in the world with an estimated membership of 6.5 million members. He led the denomination since November 2000.
More information about funeral arrangements will be posted later.