This is the first Sunday in the traditional season of Lent, and as we enter this season we’ve made some changes in the liturgy. We will not be raising our hands, and we will say rather than sing some of the dialogue between the pastor and congregation. Several of the prayers are Lenten prayers, focusing on the suffering and death of Jesus. Why do we do this? Isn’t every Sunday a celebration of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus? Don’t... Read more
A few minutes ago, you each answered a question I posed to you. I asked you if you would take her as your wife, and whether you would pledge yourself to her as her husband. I asked you whether you would take him as your husband to love and honor him. Both of you have made these promises “so long as you both shall live.” Here I am talking again, and in a few moments, you will be making further... Read more
Thanks to my student Larson Hicks for the substance of this post. Until a command is fully carried out, we don’t have a complete grasp of what the command means or requires of us. “Take Normandy Beach,” solider are told, but that order demands courageous charges, sacrificial death, skillful feints, accurate shooting, tactical retreats of its thousands of participants. “Let’s tighten up the defense,” the coach says in the huddle, but the import of that demand is only apparent at... Read more
Much as I admire the Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians, I believe they erred when they stripped the church calendar to an annual cycle of fifty-two Sundays. They reduced the rich melody of the earlier calendar to a repetitive ticking of the clock. But the problem actually goes deeper. (more…) Read more
Paul appears to be describing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in Colossians 2:11-12. The “stripping of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” refers to the crucifixion of Jesus, which fulfills what the rite of circumcision symbolized – the removal of flesh. What is this “flesh” removed in the circumcision of Jesus? I think it refers to the dress, symbols, markings, and other ceremonies and cultural boundaries that characterized ancient peoples, along with the attitudes... Read more
Paul says that one can only say “Jesus is Lord” by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). He adds later in the same chapter that we are incorporated into the body, the one-and-many body of the visible church, by “one Spirit” (12:13). Surely Paul exaggerates. Anybody can say Jesus is Lord. Anybody at all can receive baptism and join the body of Christ. Why should these simple events require an act of God? We can get some insight by remembering the... Read more
ERH sees faith not as a “religious” issue but as one of the driving forces of history. All revolutions begin in faith, and the faith that drives historical change is a faith that is reckoned as justice: “Faith is a belief in things unseen; it goes against hope, it defies all odds, all probability, all chances. Faith in your mission enables you to break down the protecting walls of law and continuity. Faith drove Abraham from his country. And faith,... Read more
Was the American Revolution a Revolution? ERH concludes it was a “half-revolution” rather than a total revolution on the scale of the Russian, French, Puritan, Reformation, and Papal revolutions. Evaluating the revolutionary character of the American Revolution rests partly on the question of what “revolution” meant to the participants. ERH notes that there were two notions of revolution in play during the 18th century. In the “English” sense, revolution meant a preservation or restoration of an existing order of things:... Read more
To outsiders, the Roman Catholic church appears to have a uniform liturgical tradition, of long standing. Rosenstock-Huessy points out that the uniformity of the Mass is a rather late development. During the 19th century, “the movement of Solesmes united all the churches of the Catholic world by introducing the Roman mass and liturgy in every diocese. Centralization in cult and worship reached a climax.” Only then did bishops become what Gregory VII wanted them to be: “the pope’s stewards and... Read more
Within two verses, John accuses Diotrephes of refusing to “receive us” and refusing to “receive the brethren” (3 John 9-10). The first refers to an acknowledgement of authority; receiving “us,” the elder and his co-workers, would mean listening and obeying. The second refers to hospitality; receiving the brothers means welcoming and providing for them. Is John perhaps hinting at some inherent connection between submission to authority and hospitality? Do these two forms of receiving something from outside somehow require each... Read more
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