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July 4, 2020 - January 6, 2024
worship, friendship and sabbath
Worship is both the supreme expression of our joy and at one and the same time the means by which our joy, our deep joy, is nurtured and cultivated.
It is imperative that we be alert to the great danger of contemporary worship practices to foster nothing more than self-indulgent moralistic therapeutic deism.
while what is happening to us emotionally is critical in worship, the focus and goal is not to make worshipers “feel happy.” While this is the derivative outcome of true worship, if our worship is oriented toward good feelings and a sense of personal satisfaction, the result is nothing more than narcissism.
The Psalms are the guide to true worship and the ordering of the affections.
We enjoy the company and presence of the other for its own sake, not for how it benefits us.
Both worship and friendship are acts of defiance against the deep wrongs and the fragmentation of our world. They are acts of defiance wherein we insist that despite all that is so wrong, we live in hope and deep confidence that all is well and will be well. Christ Jesus is the ascended Lord. And in worship and friendship we learn to live this reality.
The lightness of the comedy assumes the deep order of creation; we can laugh knowing that all is well and will be well. And yet it must be stressed that humor at its best, true humor, never degrades another person or another people.
Sabbath means we trust God; it is an act of faith. Sabbath is about being present in this time and place with contentment and gratitude.
To be content is to be present and to delight in this time and space. This too is sabbath.
there is an ancient Jewish understanding of sabbath stating that we need leisure—that is, sabbath—to grow in wisdom.
Worship. Friendship. Sabbath. Each of these is an act of defiance against the evil of our world, and each is an act that expands our capacity for joy.
The call to rejoice is not an act of denial of the pain of the world.
Women and men of deep joy are not those who refuse to sorrow or grieve; rather they are those who sorrow but who have learned that this is not where they choose to live. They come back to the center.
If we have no place to share our pain, we have no space for growth in grace.
Second, we must also acknowledge that depression is the result of an interplay of diverse factors—while there may well be a spiritual or religious aspect to depression, it often cannot be assessed or treated without attention to the interaction of biological, psychological and relational factors.
we do not live in truth until we live in a way consistent with the fact that our days are numbered,
nothing in our spiritual practice is so fundamental as cultivating our capacity to live in the love of God.
and speak the truth from their heart. PSALM 15:1-2 There are two agencies that more than any other have the potential to be a conduit for this vision of the Christian life: the local congregation and the Christian college. Speaking of the church, if we take seriously the clear biblical expectation and call to spiritual maturity, it will have a profound effect on how we envision congregational life and engage pastoral leadership.
What would it look like for a congregation to be a venue for transformation, where the underlying assumption of congregational life is that through conversion one is initiated into a life of fellowship with the people of God and that together they are on a journey of formation, indeed transformation, into the image of Christ?
If those who are called into religious leadership do not preach and design their ministry around this passion and goal, it will simply not happen.
Can we reconfigure our understanding of the nature of congregational life and the character of the pastoral calling? Can we see the church as having as its defining vision be the maturation of God’s people, growing collectively and individually in faith? And what would it look like if this were the foundational vision for congregational life?
Character—spiritual maturity—is formed only if it is formed in community, which means that character is formed only when it is formed for community.
spiritual maturity has four particular expressions, each distinct but interdependent on the others: Wisdom: a mature Christian has a heart and mind informed by the truth, largely through the witness of the Scriptures. Good work: a mature Christian has clarity about his or her calling—with the courage and humility and capacity to fulfill this vocation. Ability to love others: a mature Christian knows how to love others in Christ as Christ has loved us. Joy: a mature Christian lives with a deep and resilient joy, even in the midst of a fragmented world.
three dimensions of congregational life: worship, teaching-learning and mission.
always find it a little ironic when congregations say they have, for example, an associate pastor for worship and another for spiritual formation and discipleship.
if those called to provide liturgical leadership in the congregation do not appreciate their critical role in faith formation, then they do not truly understand the nature of worship and thus the role of worship in the life of the church.
Indeed, what I am suggesting here is that the entire pastoral staff have a shared vision for faith formation; all are “associates for spiritual formation and discipleship.”
every dimension of congregational life is to this end: that we mig...
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What makes worship a defining and formative event in the life of God’s people is precisely that it is an “encounter,” and the encounter is formative. It is a real-time...
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the formative impact of worship is subtle and incremental. Its impact is cumulative—the fruit of repetition, ritual and consistency.
The Juvenilization of American Christianity,
The so-called worship war missed the point entirely; it was characterized as a battle between old and new, ancient and contemporary. The real issue is whether our worship caters to adolescent sensibilities or fosters a deeper orientation that nurtures genuine adult maturity in Christ.
In worship we are drawn afresh into an experiential awareness of the reign of Christ.
When worship leaders use either instruments or sound systems that drown out the voices of the congregation, they have moved, in effect, into entertainment mode. The genius of great worship leadership is that it prompts, it facilitates, it encourages and fosters the worship of the people of God.
With the Psalms, our worship is a worship with Christ and with one another.
the apostles’ teaching and fellowship and, two, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The church is not merely a gathering of assorted individuals who meet regularly for religious activities. For the church to be a means of God’s transforming grace, we need to then consider what makes the church the church and what actions by the church constitute the means by which the Spirit does the Spirit’s work. The answer is straightforward: Word and sacrament.
the power of the Word is found precisely in counterpoint with the celebration of the holy meal.
we preach each text in light of the Christ event; we read the Scriptures with the Gospels as the canonical center from which we read and preach everything from Genesis to Revelation.
we are not ultimately people of the book but a people who look to Jesus.
And who is this Christ? He is the crucified one: our wisdom is the wisdom of the cross. And he is the ascended one: our wisdom, the wisdom we teach, is the wisdom of the reign of Christ, of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. Indeed all of life is viewed through this twofold lens: the cross of Christ and the reign of Christ.
We have a deficient theology of the Spirit if we do not foster an appreciation of the relationship between the Spirit and the Word and between the Spirit and the sacramental actions of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
We do not then choose between Word and Spirit or between the sacraments and the Spirit; Word and sacrament are the very means by which the Spirit draws us into union with Christ.
In other words, the mutual abiding in Christ is charismatic (Spirit), evangelical (Word) and sacramental (Lord’s Supper).
The church does not in the end need to choose between these: we can be charismatic, evangelical and sacramental. Indeed a full theology of holiness is all three.
A congregation is first and foremost a worshiping community that in turn has been called into service in the world, into mission, as a sign of and embodiment of the kingdom of God. I say that the church is not a school because of the critical priority of worship and the ongoing commitment to mission. And yet the church cannot fulfill the call to worship and service unless the good work of worship and the engagement in mission are grounded in and animated by study—the genuine learning that leads to the renewal of the mind.
We are resolved to be learners; we are, as the church, a community that recognizes the priority of teaching to our common life.
We cannot preach the content of chapters 4 through 6 without equally articulating the great theological vision of chapters 1 through 3.
The renewal of the church, its formation in Christ, is through cultivation of the mind of Christ.
