TheOrant

Entrapment: The Biblical Art of Cloak and Dagger Rhetoric

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 21:32:00 +0000

I remember when I was in middle school I had a teacher who began class by teaching me of a strange tribe of people that was just discovered called the Nacirema. He described all sorts of odd behaviors that they were discovered to be doing. He told me that the tribe believed that the human body was ugly and that naturally diseased. They fear their bodies becoming more ugly so man's only hope is to avert these characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony every household has one or more shrines devoted to rituals to prevent such progression. Some of the rituals were odd. They applied holy water found in their shrines to their faces and mouths multiple times a day. They preformed ritual purification of their mouths once a year my a mystical healer. Thier women had monthly ceremonies where they placed their heads in ovens, and there were many more odd things that he described to us.

In the end he revealed that Nacirema was American spelled backward. I had been tricked into judging my own society as absurd and was forced to evaluate my culture from a more critical vantage point.

My Teacher had employed an ancient rhetorical device known as entrapment.

Entrapment is essentially framing your message in such a way that the real meaning is not revealed until the listener has engaged themselves fully. The listener is forced to render judgement on themselves when the curtain is pulled back and the subject of judgment is shown to be the hearer.

This is a somewhat frequint rhetorical device in scripture.

David is trapped by his verdict against the man who killed the lone sheep when the prophet Nathan reveals that HE himself is the man who "killed" the lone "sheep" of Uriah in 2 Samuel 12:1-13.

The prophet Amos entraps the Israelite people in his “Oracle Against the Nations” (Amos 1-2) when he reveals at the end of a list of nations upon which the wrath of God had been kindled that the people worthy of the most wrath are the listeners themselves. They are caught in a fervor of "amens" only to be confronted with their own sin.

Isaiah 5:1-7 tells a story of a classic covenant lawsuit, but spins the story at the end and condemns the judges (this very theme Jesus picks up in his own parable based about this story in Matthew 21:33-45 where he uses the expectations set up by this entrapment to condemn the people of his own time.)

This same technique is also used in a short book in the Bible called Zephaniah.

Zephaniah is one of the first prophetic voices to emerge after a period of relative prophetic silence during the reign of a kind opposed to the worship of יְהוָ֤ה called King Manasseh.

Zephaniah seems to take on the rhetorical style of his prophetic predecessor Isaiah by incorporating entrapment.

He moves from Judgment on Israel's Enemies found in 2:1-15 to the Wickedness of Jerusalem condemned in 3:1-7 without indicating he is doing so. He begins talking about Jerusalem as the הָעִ֖יר הַיּוֹנָֽה (tyrannical city) and leads the listeners to condemn the judgment against the rulers, the priests, the prophets, and even the city itself. Then in verse 5 the listener learns the city is the place where יְהוָ֤ה dwells.

Has anyone experienced entrapment in their own life as an effective way to humble you and bring you to repentance.

Part of the reason we have the season of Lent is to allow ourselves to be put in a vulnerable place so that we might become convicted of our hidden faults.

I pray that God would allow me to become entrapped this season.

Why did Protestants Remove the Apocrapha (Deuterocanonical) Books of the Bible

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:13:00 +0000

Help Me Give Up Racism for Lent

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:19:00 +0000

Giving Up Racism: My Project

Today marks the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday. Every year millions of Christians give up certain foods and activities for the 40 days (not including Sundays) leading up to Easter.

This year, in addition to my regular dietary restrictions, in honor of Black History Month, which we are in the midst of and in the spirit of corporal works of mercy for Lent, I have decided to give up racism for Lent.

Although I generally don't think of myself as a racist, I can recognize in myself a lot of white privilege I take for granted and I know that I often participate in structures that prolong the oppression of minority races here in Chicago and the nation at large.

I would like to stop doing this, but I know it's going to be hard.This is where I need help. I don't know the first thing about not being a racist. My friend Dominique Gilliard made a bibliography for me this month, as well as linking to a number of videos on the subject. Compiling these resources I have decided to create a project to help me learn with others about what it means to be a Christian in a world of racial tensions. Will you help me? Take a look at the resources below and JOIN IN the project.

Giving up Racism: Reading List

Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and healing
Let Justice Roll Down by John M. Perkins
The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice from the Civil Rights Movement to Today by Charles Marsh
A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Clayborne Carson,
Race Matters by Cornel West
Linking Arms, Linking Lives: How Urban-Suburban Partnerships Can Transform Communities
Who Is My Neighbor? Lessons Learned From A Man Left For Dead
Jesus and The Disinherited
White Privilege by Paula S. Rothenberg (Feb 9, 2011)

I know I can't make it through all of these alone! This is where you come in.

How you can help

If you would like me to help me please to the following four things:

Choose ONE of the books above to read
READ THE BOOK
Come back here and post FIVE things you learned from the book that will help people like me be less racist!
Decide one action that you can do to help you and your own culture to become less racist, Post that idea too

Post the book that you will be reading in the comments section below!

Giving up Racism: Video Playlist

If you don't have time to read a whole book at least check out the video playlist on racism I just created on YouTube.

Watch Now

The first 3 set of videos that go together are a study that a teacher, Jane Elliot, did with her 3rd grade class in Riceville, Iowa just days after Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis TN. April 4 1968. As you watch, think of the courage it took her to do this assignment, the potential backlash that she knew she would face, & think about what the motivating factors behind her doing this could have been, because living in Riceville, Iowa she sure had the option not to do it, because "it wasn't there issue there in Iowa" in that part of the country.

Freedom Riders

You should also check out the documentary "Freedom Riders"

Watch Now

Where did the Sign of The Cross come from?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 03:49:00 +0000

This Wednesday millions of Christians will gather in churches and receive a cross on their foreheads. In doing this they will be marked with the same sign, in the same spot as millions of Christians have done before for nearly 2000 years. Where did this sign come from? Why is it used? and what did it mean to the earliest Christians?

As Lent approaches I invite you to explore the cross with me!

Much of the reason that the cross has persisted as a the central symbol for the christian faith is the fact that it uniquely expresses outwardly the interior convictions of the communities of faith that have delivered the faith down through history. The cross points to theological themes like atonement, sacrifice, incarnation and laying down your life. It is a visceral reminder to Christians that the work of God in Christ was a tangible expression of love in a bloody tactile way.

Although the cross was not the preeminent symbol of faith in the early church[1], it was the subject of a great deal of thinking by those who sought to teach the faith. These pedagogical pioneers drew inspiration from Hebrew scriptures and the Greek translation of the scriptures known as the Septuagint. In these texts they saw the cross as a symbol that was prefigured in a number of different places.

One of the major texts that early fathers looked at was Ezekiel 9:4. This passage states that a mark will be placed on the heads of certain inhabitants of Jerusalem. This mark was the taw, and in the Hebrew of the day it was written like a multiplication (X) sign or a plus (+). This sign had already been established in the Jewish tradition as a sign employed in funerary functions. The Christians were quick to pick up on this, and they connected the sign in Ezekiel with the sign that Jesus speaks of in connection to the son of man in Matthew 24:30.

The Taw had two counterpoints in the Greek script, the Χ (Chi) and the Τ (Tau). These two had connections in the minds of many early believers. The Chi is the first letter in the word Χριστός which is the word for Christ. The Tau already had a history in the church as having significance as a symbol of victory known as a Tropaion. It didn’t take long for these cross symbols to make their way into the piety of the early Christians, and it was taught by both Tertullian,[2] Justin Martyr,[3] Origen and Jerome.[4]

One of the most influential thinkers in the Latin tradition was a man named Tertullian. He believed the apostles themselves were martyred because they were the very ones of whom Ezekiel spoke who had been sealed on their foreheads with the letter tau, which, he explained, was like the Latin "T."[5] The cross was a symbol that one could point to as seen in not only Ezekiel 9:4 but also Exodus 12:22[6] where the Israelites apply a mark in blood over their doorposts to protect them from the Angel of death on the Night before they would leave slavery in Egypt in a Exodus passing through the Red Sea toward the promised land.

Another early christian thinker was a philosopher named Justin Martyr. He drew connections to the cross from all over the Hebrew scriptures.[7] He saw the cross in the form that Moses took as he held out his hands while the Israelites fought in Exodus chapter seventeen. He connected it to the blessing of Joseph in Deuteronomy[8] for he saw in the horn of the beast described[9] a picture of the cross. He saw the serpent of bronze raised up to save the Israelites[10] as a type and a sign that pointed to the cross as well. He sees the cross in the stance of the prophet Isaiah,[11] in the cry of dereliction from the psalmist[12] and wood of Noah’s ark.[13]

The symbol of the cross was not only seen in the writings of the past, but also in the worship life of the church at the time. The first place the cross had began to show up in the practices of the early church was connected to the practice of baptism. Baptism was seen as the place where you were marked with the cross. Just as the tau was placed on the heads of the Israelites in Ezekiel 9:4, so too the cross was placed as an invisible symbol on the heads of those who were united to the cross in baptism. The connection of baptism to the cross was first made by the Apostle Paul[14] and this theme was picked up and developed by many in the Early Church.

Ambrose of Milan, the fourth century bishop of Milan who became one of the original doctors of the church, connected the cross to baptism in such a way that he didn’t believe baptism was possible without the explicit connection. In his work De mysteriis he argues that the baptism is only consecrated as a result of the preaching of the cross. He compares the action of Moses casting the wood into the water in Exodus 15:25 to the declaration of the cross by the priest over the waters makes them “sweet for the purpose of grace.”[15] This was likely a reference to the making of the sign of the cross over the waters before a baptism as a form of exorcism.[16] Abrose also reflects on the role of the cross durring the second (of three) emissions. This immersion reflects on the work of the son and Ambrose sates that this action unites the baptised to the “sacrament of the cross.”[17]

Ephrem the Syrian, a fourth century hymnographer and theologian, also believed that the power of baptism was dependent on the power of the cross. He stated that you can not know forgiveness in the water of baptism unless it is built on the baptism of the the passion of Jesus Christ. Ephrem also described his own baptism as an act of bathing in the water that rushed out the side of Jesus[18] when his side was pierced with a lance.[19]

Augustine, arguably the most influential theologian in all of Christian history, pointed to the cross in baptism as a seal. He stated that since it was placed on the head of the baptised it should be the lense through which the life of the baptised is lived. This life hermeneutic of the cross should lead people to submit to the life and passion of Jesus. Augustine states that having the cross on your forehead means you have just as high of a call on your life to holiness as any priest or bishop.[20]

Augustine did not see the cross as a sign that was only symbolic in baptism. He also developed a number of metaphors in which the cross became the primary symbol. He saw the cross as a mousetrap where the death of Jesus so delighted the devil, the commander of death, that he was drawn into the trap and death’s power was lost.[21] A similar image is employed by Gregory of Nyssa where the cross becomes the bait, and the divinity of Christ is the hook that catches the devil.[22]

Augustine also read Matthew 5:15 allegorically, teaching that the lampstand that Jesus talked about that would not be hidden was the cross itself. The house that contained the lamp stand was the world, and the cross has the power to fill the whole world with light so that even those who killed Jesus would be able to become friends of God through the cross.[23]

Augustine also saw the cross as a chair upon which Jesus taught the world. On the cross He taught the thief beside him, the beloved disciple and His own mother. From the cross he sets an example for all Christians to learn by.[24] The cross in a sense become a cathedral from which Jesus most powerfully exercised his office as teacher.

The cross also becomes a Boat in Augustine’s thought. Although he acknowledges that philosophers are capable of knowing a great deal about God by observation of God’s creation, he believes they will never be able to reach God because of their pride. He says of them,

“They were able to see that which is, but they saw it from afar: they were unwilling to hold the lowliness of Christ, in which ship they might have arrived in safety at that which they were able to see from afar and the cross of Christ appeared vile to them. The sea has to be crossed, and do you despise the wood?”[25]

Only through the humility of Christ are men able to seek God in the humility required to approach Him.

One final image of the cross employed by Augustine draws on a word play in Latin. In the story of Zacchaeus found in Luke 19:1-10 we learn of a tax collector so short that he needed to climb up a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus as he passed by one day. Jesus sees him in the tree and calls to him. Zacchaeus comes down, meets with Jesus, and is converted. Augustine exhorts all people to be humble like Zacchaeus and climb up the tree of the cross. Then Christ can pick His followers like fruit from the tree. All people must love the cross and fit it on their foreheads. The Latin word for the fruit of the sycamore is translated “silly figs”. Augustine calls all christians to be “silly figs” that are found on the cross of Christ.

The cross was truly a powerful symbol for many of the early Christians. In it they found a way to live and a powerful medium to express truth. Often times it was an easy image to grab, but few of the early Christians spent a great deal of time trying to figure out where exactly the cross fit into a robust soteriology. As the cross moved from a symbol of salvation to a means of salvation it revealed that there was a lot of theology that was still undefined.

NOTES
[1] Barbara Baert and Lee Preedy, A Heritage of Holy Wood: The Legend of the True Cross in Text and Image (Boston, MA: Brill, 2004), 20. [2] Tertullian, “Against Marcion, Book III,” trans. Peter Holmes, New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/03123.htm, (accessed February 14, 2012), 22. [3] Justin Martyr, “The First Apology,” trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm, (accessed February 14, 2012), 55. . [4] Iain M. Duguid, Ezekiel (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 141. [5] Tertullian, “Against Marcion, Book III,” 22. [6] Barbara Baert and Lee Preedy, A Heritage of Holy Wood: The Legend of the True Cross in Text and Image (Boston, MA: Brill, 2004), 19. [7] Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 89-108,” trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01287.htm, (accessed February 12, 2012). [8] Deuteronomy 33:13-17 [9] μονοκέρωτος in Greek, ראם in Hebrew. Both indicate a wild beast with horns, sometimes translated unicorn. [10] Numbers 21 4-9. [11] Isaiah 53:9. [12] Psalm 22. [13] Justin Martyr, “Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 125-142,” trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/01289.htm, (February 14, 2012). [14] Romans 6, Colossians 2 [15] Ambrose, “On the Mysteries,” trans. H DeRomestin, E. DeRomestin, and H.T.F. Duckworth, New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3405.htm (Accessed February 20, 2012). [16] Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2009), 637. [17] Ibid, 643. [18] Ibid, 510. [19] John 19:34 [20]John Cavadini “Images of the Cross in Saint Augustine”, The Cross in Christian Tradition : From Paul to Bonaventure Elizabeth A. Dreyer, ed.,(New York :: Paulist Press,) 148. [21] Ibid, 154. [22] Gregory of Nyssa:, “The Great Catechism: Chapter XXIV,” Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.xi.ii.xxvi.html, (Accessed February 20, 2012). [23] Cavadini, 155-157. [24] Ibid, 157-158. [25] Augustine, “Tractates on the Gospel of John: Tractate 2 (John 1:6-14),” trans. John Gibb, New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701002.htm, (Accessed February 20, 2012).

God ♥'s Religion

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:52:00 +0000

There has recently been a good deal of Religion bashing. Slogans like "religion kills" and "it's not a religion, it's a relationship" are common in the evangelical world. There was recently a viral video that has revived more then 19 Million views entitled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus."

Hating religion is very popular.

Because of this it's easy to import the anti-religion bias into scripture. This seems to happen a lot when people read the writings of the prophets. The prophets write at times of crisis when the people of God have begun to turn their back on him, and God is not pleased with what they are doing.

This tendency can easily be interpreted by people with an anti-religon bias as God hating the religion of the people. This, however, is the furthest thing from the truth.

As I have read through the Eighth Century Prophets (Isaiah Hosea Micah Amos) over the last few weeks I have noticed that although the prophets in the Old Testament condemn what people are doing, they are not condemning the structures and systems of their society in which the people are abusing.

The king at the time might be condemned, but the HOPE is not for no king but rather for a king true to the heart of God who trust in the LORD.
The people are called Harlots because they are seeking help from other nations (and other nations God's), but the solution is not to cease being a nation. RATHER God calls the people to be a nation that trust in His promises rather then the horses, chariots and deities of empires.
Rituals are condemned for being empty, but the hope is not that rituals will pass away. RATHER the prophets call for rituals that flow from a life of justice and mercy and praise. God seeks rituals based in trust and obedience with righteousness and justice

The prophets don't condemn structures but they remind people of WHY structures exsist in the first place.

Worship if not a formula to gain favor today, but the means through which God shapes the people for participation in the economy of heaven.

This economy is one that seeks God and Neighbor about yourself. This economy values Justice over comfort. This economy sees the Humble exhaled and the exhaled made humble.

Religion is designed to be the school through which God leads people to this understanding. In fact it's the BEST way to teach people about how to live and worship with God. THAT is why it's so despicable when it is manipulated to try to gain power and influence for people in the economy of this world.

God's harsh words against the structures that existed in the days of Isaiah, Hosea, Micah and Amos are not due to a HATRED of the structures, but a LOVE of them.

Hosea redeems his wife BECAUSE she is his wife

Micha keeps coming back to hope to a future of rituals with heart, not a future without them

Isaiah offers proclamations of a nation that trusts in God, rather then a world free of nations

Amos holds onto the promises of the covenant with Israel, not an undefined affection

All of these things are not being free from religion and structure, but actually receiving freedom from the structures themselves

Yes SYSTEMS FAIL but the bible points to a redemption and resurrection of religion rather then ruining and ravishing them.

Jesus, Aristotle, Courage, and the American Way

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:03:00 +0000

Ben Steel talks with Billy Kangas about what it means to be a man of virtue in light of Christ in the 21st century

Why I Need The Saints

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Loosing my keys is on my list of top five most frenzy inducing life situations. In it’s very nature it strikes most often at times when I am already running late and need to be somewhere, (I don’t generally go looking for keys as recreation). Add to that the helplessness of not being able to find something, and I’m generally a mess. Suddenly the world has stopped, and can’t start again until I find my keys. Friends, Family, hygienic maintenance, these all become barriers to finding those prized pearls without which I find myself grounded and sedentary.

One such encounter with the dreaded loss of my primary means of entry into my car happened one June morning. My wife, Joan, and I were gearing up for a long trip to Michigan to visit family and we discovered that the keys were missing.

How could they be missing! We had to go! Soon I was turning up pillows, dumping out the contents of clothes hampers and rifling through the trash. Joan went outside and started to look around out there. Suddenly a thought came to me, almost like an assurance of where Joan had left the keys. I rushed into the other room and put my hand deep in the crack of my couch and triumphantly pulled out my car keys, they were just where I thought they would be!

I rushed out to tell my wife. Holding the keys in a clenched fist above my head primeval exhibition of victory I cried out, “I found them!”

Joan calmly looked back at me without missing a beat, and said, “well of course you did, I just prayed to saint Anthony.”

Saint Anthony is one of the hundreds of popular saints that help Catholics live their lives as better followers of Jesus. Saints are an powerful antidote to one of the maladies of human life that we all experience, vainglory. Vainglory is the perpetual human condition to be blowing ones own horn at all times and at all places. Its a natural tendency. In my own perspective I am the center of the universe. Judging the world through my own empirical data set I can easily come to the conclusion that I am the most important person there is.

I have never accomplished anything that I wasn’t a part of. There has never been an experience in my life I didn't take part in. Every morning I am the first person I encounter. Every night my own thoughts are what accompany me as i sleep. All the evidence seems to point to a world that’s all about me.

Of course we know that this is not the reality of the world. We all learned when we were children that other people have lives that we are not the center of. Every day things happen in the world that have nothing to do with us. We know we are not the center of the universe, but deep within us that is a narcissistic tendency that makes it difficult to see the world through other eyes. We can even bring this tendency to how we formulate ideas about God. This is referred to at the heresy of selective theology.

Selective theology shows up in many ways. When I choose to make one doctrine more important then another simply because I feel more comfortable with it, that’s selective theology. When I choose to only use ideas about God that I can get my head around, that’s selective theology. When I look at how my church does things and decide that that is the best way to worship God, that’s selective theology. The list could go on and on.

The problem is viewing faith as something that I HAVE rather then something WE have as a community of faithful throughout time. Saints are a good corrective to the problem of selective theology. They connect us to lives and people throughout time, and around the world. they open our eyes to the ethnocentrism, nationalism, philosophical assumptions and the oligarchy of the living. Saints offer a democracy of the dead to us. They are living voices that can speak into a living faith and open up worlds to us that we never could understand without them.

All you Holy men and women, inspire us, teach us. open our eyes to the greatness and glory of God, and pray for us!

What is prophecy and how do we recognize it?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:17:00 +0000

Last week I started a debate on facebook about the charismatic movement and it's compatibility with the Lutheran tradition that I grew up in. I have always had a love for charismatics, but have often run into people within the Lutheran church that do not agree with my stance on the issue.

This really brought home an age old question: What is prophecy and how do we recognize it?

How does one tell a prophet sent by God from one not sent by God?

It's easy to look back at the Prophets in the Bible and simply say God spoke then, but won't speak now. This provides a list of prophets that have been approved by the church. If you want to know if a prophet is genuine all you have to do is see if he's in the Bible. If he's not then you can just throw him out.

This is not a healthy approach to prophecy. It might be easy, but it limits God to someone who used to speak, but has stopped. It can even imply that God is limited in his power in some way.

Another option is that of the appraiser.

In this context a person who says they have a word from God is put in lockdown. Their teachings are evaluated in the light of the scripture and the creeds. Their writings are scrutinized. Their theology is tested.

This is a better option, because it allows God to speak, but it too has it's problems. It limits God to only being able to speak through people who have all their theological ducks in a row. By this test many prophets in the Bible would have trouble. Sometimes the message of the prophets was condemned by the religious establishment of their day, and sometimes not so perfect people were called to speak the word of the Lord. Saul prophesied in one place and he doesn't have the best track record of being faithful to God. There is even the story of balaam's ass speaking at one point.

On the other end there are people who say they speak from God, but they speak messages of driven by greed, pride and power. Many false prophets have come and led many people into danger. These people are not rare. Every generation seems to have a handful of would-be-prophets. If we accepted everyone who said that they had a message from God things would get out of control pretty fast.

At this point I don't really have a great answer. How can we recognize that God has spoken to people throughout history and can still speak through people in history, and yet avoid manipulation and narcissism from taking over.

Here is my simple rule... test the message.

It seems that most false prophets that have come along could be easily recognized by people who have a decent amount of biblical literacy and some training in historic Christian theology.

This is why false teachers often discourage their followers from getting a good theological education, and mock people who desire to go "deeper" in their faith.

If a leader wants to give you a message from God, but doesn't want you to delve deeply into the Word of God you know you have a problem. A message from God will point to the action of God. A prophet does not come to tell you to be nice to everyone. A prophet comes to call a people called by God to remember what God has done, is doing, and promises to do.

This is Centered in Jesus.

If Jesus can be removed from the prophecy and the message remains essentially the same you are probably dealing with a false prophet.

How do you understand sacrifice in light of Christ?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Some people today point to a golden era in church history where everyone got along. This golden age simply did not exist. Within the pages of the New Testament there are many accounts of warring factions vying for the authoritative interpretation of who and what Jesus was and what and how Jesus did whatever it was that Jesus did.

The theological discussions within the church in the earliest days were ugly.

Sometimes the fights were conflicts in personality or preference, but more often the conflicts were between contrasting worldviews.

There was a clash of two worldviews within the early church and how those worldviews were resolved would forever change how Christians spoke about God. On the one hand there were Greek thinkers, who looked to Greek philosophy to form their ideas about the world and God. On the other hand there were those influenced by Hebrew though. These believers drew from a Hebrew worldview of God and history.

Many of the Greek thinkers were deeply influenced by the ideas of Platonism. They believed that our physical existence was simply a shadow of a higher reality and God was a unchangeable force so beyond the world that nothing we could do could ever impact God’s mind or heart or decisions. They did not see the death of Christ as something that impacted God, but rather something that impacted man. Sacrifice was something that you did in order to make yourself welcome with God. It was the fulfilment of a vow (The Other Christs, Moss). Sacrifice was a gift.

The Hebrew understanding was somewhat different. God was seen as personal and involved in the life and History of humankind, in particular the life of the Jewish people. God was at work in the world seeking to accomplish a goal. As his people walked in ways contrary to the plans that God had instructed them in they were required to sacrifice. This was not seen as much as an act that was only impacting the giver, but they actually believed the sacrifice could touch God in some way. Sacrifice was expiratory and propitiated a wronged deity (Gorday. Origen’s Theology of The Cross, 108).

For there to be any serious consensus on what the Cross actually did there would have to be a great deal of thinking within the Early Church.

Why people with masculine gender identity hate going to Church

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:50:00 +0000

Over the weekend I read through a book called Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow. I got a free copy from Thomas Nelson and figured it was worth a read.

And it was worth a read. There was a lot of good insights that were expressed. I found myself inspired at many times while reading through the book. As a man in professional ministry there is a lot I have experienced that he has warned against and I will be much more thoughtful in the future so that I can communicate the faith to people in the most effective ways as possible.

HOWEVER

I won't recommend this book to any members of my church. There were a lot of assumptions about masculinity and I think that giving someone this book might cause more harm then good.

Although David tries to make it clear that the assumptions about masculine preferences are not limited to men, the feel of the whole book make me feel uneasy. For a book that seeks to inform pastors and church leaders on how to have a properly nuanced sensitivity toward gender there is very little care given to how this might be revived by a man or women who does not fit neatly into a gender box.

In light of recent comments by John Piper it is more important then ever for people to stand up for feminine christian expression. The book is dismissive of these sorts of expressions and I think can be hurtful to people of both sexes.

It was a good message BUT it was not wielded with enough care.

ALSO

I was struck by David's anti-liturgical bias. I find it interesting that he spends time criticizing the praise songs that are sung and the feeling oriented worship of his own tradition, but still manages to point to these sorts of worship experiences as more "masculine" compared to liturgical traditions that are represented as drawing in males in spite of themselves.

David, there is a reason that the Orthodox don't suffer a "gender gap" and that when songs like "A mighty fortress is our God" are sung men start showing up.

Is WHERE, WHEN and HOW Jesus died important?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Although the Early Church did not use the cross in the overt and casual way we use it today, they still incorporated it into their theology, liturgy, and identity. When people look at the cross today they generally think of Christianity as a religion. When the first followers of Jesus looked at the cross they thought of it as a place in space and time and a seal that marks people of faith. The way that this twofold understanding manifested itself in the life, theology and worship of the early church is essential to understanding how they viewed the work and death of Christ and the place that death had in their own lives.

The Place
The place of the cross was centered on the historical event of the crucifixion of Jesus. Christians and historians alike generally agree that Jesus was killed on an actual cross made from an actual tree. The cross was set up on a area that was called Golgotha, which was located just outside of a real city called Jerusalem. Jesus was hung on that cross at an actual time, and died on the cross at an actual time, which was around three in the afternoon according to Luke 23:44. As early Christians began to reflect on the historical reality of the cross they began to realize that the cross was a historical event that was so important that the it’s effects were still actively being experienced in their own lives. They believed that the cross spoke a word from God that, when received, could actually bring about salvation across all time.

The entire salvation event was seen as so connected to the historical cross that the Apostle Paul goes so far to point to the Gospel that he preached as a λόγος (word) that came from the cross itself. The historical cross was not just something that people looked to and remembered. It was seen as a active participant in the christian life. To be a christian meant to be united with Christ and the cross on which he was crucified. It is due to this understanding that Paul teaches that the cross is used in his own time, decades after the crucifixion, as an active force which reconciles Jews and Gentiles and a location upon which the χειρόγραφον (certificate of debt) recording transgressions is removed.
One of the Early fathers, Athanasius, saw the place of the cross is where the church is drawn into Christ.

In John’s Gospel Jesus declares that when he is “lifted up” he will draw all men to himself. Athanasius, and many other church fathers, belived that the place where Christ was lifted up was on the cross. They believed that on the cross Jesus made a way for all people to go to heaven. Athanasius was inspired by even the posture of Christ’s death. He states that,

“it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself”(On the Incarnation, 25)

Even the very act of lifting Jesus was seen as having an effect on the cosmology of the spiritual realm. Athanasius points to Ephesians 2:2 as indicating that the air itself was a should be seen as a sphere of the devil, and that by Christ being lifted up into the air the Devil was overthrown and a way was made to heaven.

The Shame of The Cross

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:26:00 +0000

The cross has become the quintessential symbol for the Christian faith. It’s placed on churches, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, lapel pins, necklaces, tattoos and even baked goods. It is a symbol of comfort, a symbol of faith, a symbol of allegiance, and even at times a fashion statement. The casual use of the cross that we see today would not have been what the first Christians would have expected in first centuries after Jesus was crucified. The early Church served a God who they believed had become human, and had suffered crucifixion. This was a huge scandal for the church. Crucifixion was the arguably the most shameful way to die in the first century and to own a leader who was crucified, was in part, to own the shame. This is why the story of the cross in the early church is so amazing. The church was a community that was able to embrace Christ, even in the shame of the cross and was even able to see beauty in the midst of the grotesque. The cross that finds itself so comfortable in our culture today was only able to find it’s place of ease through a gradual process of self reflexion by a community torn between love and aversion toward it.

The History of The Cross

The Cross was adopted by the Roman Empire with the intent to suppress any and intimidate people. It was devised as a method of execution that prolonged the suffering and death of a victim, emaciated the body brought death to the perpetrator at the highest price. Victims were impaled on a vertical wooden stake or on stakes formed together like the letter T. Victims would hang there for hours, or even days. While there they were emaciated alive. Measures were often put in place specifically to lengthen the the suffering of an individual by keeping them alive just a little bit longer. Bodies were so destroyed by the process that of the few that were able to find a pardon and come down before they died, a fair percentage still died. Once dead the body would remain there to rot as an example to the people who passed by what would happen to those who stood up to Rome. In most cases the bodies were not allowed to even receive a proper burial.

It was originally reserved exclusively for slaves and was considered one of the most humiliating and shameful things a person could ever endure, which was it’s aim. It was so humiliating that Roman citizens were only crucified for grave offenses, like treason, and even these crucifixions were not common. In fact Cicero argued that, “the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.” The cross was a beyond the pale and taboo to the extreme for upstanding Romans.

It’s no wonder that the early church did not begin using the cross as the public symbol of their identity in the earliest years. The cross was still in use. Many Christians were still being crucified in the empire up to the time of Constantine. It was only due to the conversion of Constantine to the Christian faith that Crucifixions came to an end in the empire. Constantine ended the practice in honor of Jesus. The cross was a symbol used to openly mock Christians for what they believed. Archaeologists have uncovered an engraving from the time of the early church which reveals a bit of what the mind of the ancient Roman world was like. In the engraving there is a picture of a man with a donkey head being crucified. Next to him is another posture that seems to be worshiping the donkey-man on the cross. The image was a piece of graffiti often referred to as the graffito blasfemo that is thought to have been written by an ancient slave who was probably making fun of his fellow slave for his belief in Jesus. With the picture there is an inscription stating, “Αλεξαμενος ϲεβετε θεον.” This is translated as “Alexamenos, worship God” or “Alexamenos worships God.” It would appear that the slave being mocked was a man named Alexamenos. Scholars believe that the reason that the man has a Donkey head was due to a widely held misconception in the ancient world that the Jewish people worshiped a donkey, which had led them to water while they wandered in the wilderness with Moses. The artist mocks Alexamenos by pointing to how utterly shameful it was to worship Jesus as the Jewish donkey God, since Jesus had been killed in the most shameful way.

To overcome the historical and cultural shame of the cross the church had to re-frame the cross in a new paradigm. It was no longer seen as a place where Jesus was overcome by shame, but a location where shame was overcome by Jesus. The author of the book of Hebrews makes the argument that Jesus καταφρονέω (made nothing of, despised) the shame of the cross, so that the church would not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2-3). In other words the Jesus transformed the cross from a place of shame to a place of victory. The early church found took up this tradition and more fully developed the understanding of the cross as a seal of victory placed on believers and a place of redemption. Both of these themes are worthy of a closer look.

We will take up these themes tomorrow

Prophet from Poetry

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

Poetry is a dying art. Few people write it, read it, or would even know how to if they tried. It requires a heart, an imagination, and the ability to sit within a tension.

In today's sound-bite culture people have lost the essential ability to live within a poem

This is a deeply tragic cultural illiteracy.

Being unable to dwell in poetry means you are unable to dwell in the world of the Bible because so much of the Bible is poetry.

Obviously there are poems that make up the Psalms, but poems also are scattered throughout almost every book of the Bible in one way or another. The prophets are almost entirely written in poetic form and some of the deepest theology in the the new Testament is created employing forms of parallelism in the Greek text that dwell on the rich heritage of Hebrew Poetry (look at Philipians 2 for example).

Jesus himself used poetry more then any other source to frame and define his action to the Jewish world he inhabited.

Like I said, understanding poetry is essential to understanding the Bible.

I have had difficulty learning how to read poetry poetry in the Bible. For many years I struggled just to get a grip on what the prophets were saying. It's a deep well that it's hard to master completely, but in reading about poetry I have the paradigm of Parallelism as a great starting place to begin.

Parallelism is at the heart of much of Hebrew Poetry.

What parallelism basically means is that one line of poetry has a direct relationship with another line of poetry, and must be read in that relationship in order to be understood.

The meaning of the passage is not just in the lines themselves but in the tension created between the two lines. It's like creating a perception of depth by seeing a truth through both eyes.

Parallelism can function in a number of ways. My teacher, Bob Hubbard, helped me to understand this better using the symbols = < and >

If a line of poetry is = to the line that follows it then the parts of the lines are interchangeable. The second line ECHOES the first line.

An example of this kind of poetry can be found in Amos 8:10

I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;

You could switch Feasts with Songs or Mourning with Lamentations and the meaning stays about the same.

You could also see a form of this kind of comparison where the second line is actually trying to CONTRAST the first line. In this situation the parts are not so much interchangeable but in direct tension with one another semantically.

If a line of poetry is > to the line that follows it. The second line is used to qualify the first line, and help bring the first line into great clarity or more completeness.

This can be done by qualify the time of the first line, the reason for the first line, or the means of the first line. In other words the second line can show how, why, or when the first line came about.

An example of this is given in Amos 5:20

Will not the day of the LORD be darkness,
not light--pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?

The second line deepens the understanding of the first line

If a line of poetry is < to the line that follows it. The first line is used to introduce the second line, and the second line expands or completes the first line.

This can be used to continue the first line, compare something in the first line, intensify something in the first line, so specify something in the first line (this can be spatial, explanatory, for dramatic effect, or give the purpose of the first line).

An example of this is given in Amos 7:11

Jeroboam will die by the sword,
and Israel will surely go into exile, away from their native land

This set of verses lays out a series of events. Line one happens and then line two happens.

This little tool isn't the end of studding Hebrew poetry, but it has helped me a great deal. Ever since I started reading with these eyes the Psalms have come alive to me, and reading through Amos this week was like reading the book for the first time.

Where I am in life right now... A Picture

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:16:00 +0000

In our lives there are many directions we can focus on. In Helen Cepro's Journaling as a Spiritual Practice: Encountering God Through Attentive Writing she encourages people to take time and figure out where you are by evaluating the compasses in your own life.

To Look South is to be focused on the "Sunny exposure" of your life. This is the creative and playful part of your own life. to evaluate this think about what is drawing creativity out of you. Make a collage or write down a name of a person who inspires you!

To Look East is to look toward a rising sun. What is beginning to appear on your horizon? What are you being asked to take hold of? What are you being called to embrace? What areas in your life are in need of transformation.

To Look West is to look at your life and see what is setting. Are there patterns or paradigms that just don't seem to be working anymore? What do you need to let go of? They aren't necessarily bad things, they are often good gifts of God that you need to move beyond in the next chapter of life.

To Look North is to look to what guides you (like the north star, sorry southern hemisphere types). It helps you keep the other directions aligned. What or who loves and guides you? What images of God sustain you? Take time to thank God for these sorts of things!

In The Center if you have thought about all these things write them down on a sheet of paper oriented like a compass. In the middle leave a space. Think about if you are willing to try to live your life by the compass you have just created. If you are, write YES in the middle.

I decided I would try to make a little compass like Helen talks about.

Here is where my life is right now:

Nothing fancy, just a little me

Congregational Vitality

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:08:00 +0000

One thing I love about the Covenant Church is the Congregational Vitality Program. I think a lot of Denominations could use this stuff. Here is a video of John Wenrich giving an overview of the process.

Congregational Vitality Overview from Covenant Communications on Vimeo.

Do you think your church could benefit from something like this?

Our Beautiful World

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:43:00 +0000

No theology today... just wanted to share a little beauty

Great Compline

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:03:00 +0000

Goodnight everyone!

Book Review: Same Kind of Different as Me

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:51:00 +0000

I don't generally review books that aren't strictly theological, but I recently read the book "Same Kind of Different as Me" after I was sent a complementary copy. I thought I would share a little bit about it.

The book takes a look at the lives of two men.One is a successful art dealer, the other is a homeless man. It tracks both of their lives from childhood until they meet, and then begins to share the story of how the met and grew to love and trust one another.

This book is unique among many books like this. It's not a book about how to save the poor, but rather a book about how people need one another.

In it the rich white guy learns from the poor black guy. That was nice to see. Most books of this sort seem to turn the white man into the savior.

I really enjoyed reading it for the most part because it was easy to read and entertaining. It's the kind of book you can read when you just want to relax and read something nice, and the book was nice.

I can't say it was all great though. It's a little over the top at times, and the spirituality sometimes seems forced. There is a way that the poor black man is still turned into the other. He is portrayed as a bit of a mystical prophet in a way that bothered me a little. It seemed forced, and it made him seem like a different "kind" of person. If anyone else has read this book I'd love to hear what they thought of it.

All Saints Day Reflection

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:57:00 +0000

This morning I decided to go to the daily liturgy at a local Ukrainian Catholic church.

It was interesting, beautiful, and difficult

I often take pride in my ability to feel at home in almost any worship context. I grew up in an ecumenical community and grew up going to just about every kind of church you can imagine.

It's good for me to be UNCOMFORTABLE sometimes...

This church make it difficult to feel comfortable. The whole service was in Ukrainian, and there were no worship materials available.

I have been to liturgy many times, I have even been to liturgy in Ukrainian many times, but this was different. This was the first time I didn't have a translation to follow.

Although I knew generally what was going on I was forced to worship with my eyes much more then my ears and mind.

I began to simply pray the Jesus Prayer over and over to myself and watch the movements of the congregation around me. The liturgy in this new context took on a new character and life.

In the midst of my confusion it was still clear to me that these people deeply loved and honored Jesus. Even though I didn't know a single word to pray I was able to worship with my whole heart.

It really brought home the reality of All Saints Day.

We are not united with the saints through a common language or culture. We are not united by a location or time. We are not united by a single liturgy or polity.

We are united by a Single Lord

Glory to Jesus Christ

Have a blessed All Saints Day

Refomation Day - That They May All Be One

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:46:00 +0000

Tomorrow is Reformation Sunday. This is the Sunday where Protestants remember the birth of the Protestant Reformation.

On October 31, 1517 Matin Luther is purported to have nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the church in Wittenberg, where he was a teacher. These were serious concerns about a system within the Catholic churches where many dangerous abuses had crept in. His concerns were translated, and gave voice to many of the concerns of people throughout Germany. People took hold of Luther and soon he was at the center of a movement.

What followed was a tide that swept the world.
Luther was eventually excommunicated and many other reformers took up the torch of change.
As protestantism spread the church splintered into hundreds and eventually thousands of different communions.

This is an event that as a member of a Reformation church I take very seriously.

I take Reformation Sunday as a day of repentance.... and I think all Christians should.

Here is my prayer:

"that they may all be one."

Please pray it with me this weekend over and over again.

ALSO

If you want to watch a fun movie that talks about Luther, check out the Luther Movie below.

What ARE Lay Leaders?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:19:00 +0000

In the 1960s the Catholic Church released the document “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity”. In it the Catholic Church strove to add new life to the laity by giving firm theological affirmations about what it means to be a Christian lay man or women. In it they declared that God’s plan for the world is for human beings to “renew and perfect” the temporal order. In other words human being have been created in a special role in the world, and the laity are called to lead the charge. I think the “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity” is a essential document, in it’s emphasis on the importance on the laity in the world and in the church.

If you are not from a mainline, Catholic, or Orthodox background the term “lay leader” or laity might be somewhat foreign. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines the laity as those people who are “distinct from the clergy.” I think that this definition underscores a problem that is endemic to the conversation of about laity. Often laity are defined by what they are not rather than what they are. For example we think of laity as unpaid, or not ordained, or, as the definition states, not clergy. Laity are however more than a collection of those defined by apophatic negation; clergy are people with particular roles and calls. In order to understand the importance of the ministry of the laity in the work of God in the world, an understanding of what positive affirmations can be said about their role is essential.

Recently I had the great pleasure of interviewing some men who are in lay leadership in the church. Although they come from diverse backgrounds and roles in the church, they had a great deal of wisdom that highlights some of the ways that all people are called into service in the church and the world.

What Lay Leaders Actually Are

1. As Christians Laity Are Ordained

The late Alexander Schmemann points out in his article, “Clergy and Laity In The Orthodox Church”, that within the sacramental life of the church all Christians are, in a sense, ordained with the positive power and grace to be Christians. All Christians are ministers. Although the men I talked to are not paid for what they do to serve the church they affirmed that there is a certain call on their life just because they are Christians. When I asked one man why he started doing ministry his response was, “um... because I was there?” He said that It just doesn't make sense to him to, “work 8-5 then relax all evening and play all weekend, taking an hour off for God on Sunday morning, and call that discipleship.” To be a member of the Church of Christ is to have a calling. The Job that pays the bills is a part of that calling, but the vocation of minister doesn’t have a punch card.

2. Laity are an expression of the overall vocation of service

I find it interesting that one of the titles of the Pope is “the servant of the servants of God.” In a very real sense the expression of leadership in the church can most clearly be seen in the expression of service. One man I interviewed told me that leadership in the church “looks a lot like a combination of janitorial work, nursing, errands, valet service, and tutoring somebody else's sons for their exams.” They told me that they prefer lay ministry over ordination because there isn’t the distraction of power and prestige. He told me ordination sometimes “leads to misplaced respect and an unwarranted assumption of wisdom - and [can be] mistaken for humility.” He feels that the more formal power he has the more damage he would do if he were to mess up. All Christians are called to the ministry of service and the more prestigious the call the greater the danger to ones soul, and potential there is for distraction from the foundational call to service.

3. Lay leaders are gifted by God

When asked why they serve, one man responded, “I felt a call to Youth ministry from God and wanted to fulfill that calling, and I have skills relating to teens.” Another responded, “ I want to serve the Lord. I have gifts and training. I see unmet needs and try to meet them.” There is one theme that pervade the motivation for service among almost everyone I have ever talked to about why they serve; they are gifted. Although gifting can be both natural propensities, and learned skills, the lay leaders I talked to all recognized that the gifts they had were given by God for a purpose and that that purpose was what they hoped to achieve in their service in the church. An important lesson I have learned in my years of “professional ministry”, is that God has given the clergy every gift they need to minister to the people, but more often than not that gift is found in the members of the congregation, not in themselves.

4. Lay leaders are more than their ministries

After all this talk about everything that lay leaders are it is important to remember that lay leaders are also more than their ministries. If we affirm only what a person can do and forget about who they are their can be a lot of dangers. One of the men I talked to mentioned that he wished he had known that becoming a liturgist would not be able to sustain his spiritual health. He said, “if you don't have a prayer life outside of the services, you won't have a prayer life. Going to church once or twice a day sounds pious, but if you're leading the service then you’re always looking at the next prayer, the next reading or hymn, and every time you pray, you're flipping pages to the next thing.” If the laity is seen as only people that fill roles of service in the church and not people deeply in need of God’s grace and mercy there can easily be cases of spiritual abuse.

Living in the kingdom of God
To be a Christian is to be one who is at one time both greatly in need to receive God’s grace and greatly called to demonstrate God’s grace. All Christians are ordained into the ministry of reconciliation that Christ has done, is doing, and promises to do. The life is never easy. The men I talked to had many struggles personally and within their vocations, but I was encouraged by their faithfulness to the call of Christ in their life. In the midst of trials they persevere. They continue to serve the Church in all her brokenness because they believe the promise of Christ, that the church dwells with God in all God’s fullness. May we all live as servants of the servants of God, for that is the heart of greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Occupy Your Vocation

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:06:00 +0000

The Lord’s Day Ceremony: Prayer before the meal

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:25:00 +0000

I. The Lighting of the Candle:

Leader #2 [the designated assistant] leads the following meditation.

Leader #2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Heavenly Father, in honor of your Son, true light of the world and Author of Life, I am about to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day. On this day You raised up Your Son Jesus from the dead and began the new creation. May our celebration of His resurrection this day be filled with your peace and heavenly blessing. Be gracious to us and cause your Holy Spirit to dwell more within us.

Father of mercy, continue your living kindness toward us. Make us worthy to walk in the way of your Son, loyal to your teaching and unwavering in love and service. Keep far from us all anxiety, darkness, and gloom; and grant that peace, light, and joy ever abide in our home.

All: For in you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Amen.

Leader#2 lights the candle, then with hands raised over the candle, prays:

Blessed are You, Lord our God, who created light on the first day and raised up you Son, the light of the world to begin the new creation. Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has taught us to kindle the light for the Lord’s Day.

Opening Song and Praise

II. The Reading of the Word

The reading of the Word should be taken from the proper readings for that Sunday. If the leader chooses to comment on the reading, or if he/she desires to share some reflections at this time, it would be appropriate.

III. The Blessing of the Meal:

Leader #1 leads the following blessing:

Leader: This is the Lord’s Day.

All: Let us welcome it in joy and peace.

Leader: Today we set aside the concerns of the week in order to honor the Lord

and to celebrate His resurrection. Today we cease from work in order to

worship God and to acknowledge the eternal life to which He calls us.

All: The Lord Himself is with us to refresh us and to strengthen us.

Leader: Let us welcome the Lord among us and give Him glory.

All: Let us love one another in the Lord.

Leader: May the Holy Spirit be with us, to deepen our devotion to the Lord and

increase our zeal for the particular way of life He has called us to embrace.

The Leader pours the wine into a cup, raises it, and recites the following prayer:

Leader: Let us praise God with this symbol of joy and thank Him for the past week

-for health, strength, and wisdom; for home, love and friendships; for the

discipline of our trials and temptations; and for the happiness that has come to us out of our work. Let us thank Him especially for the great blessing he has bestowed on us in Christ.

All: From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

Leader: We who were dead through sin have been brought to life in Christ.

All: And we will be raised up with Him on the last day.

Leader: Lord our God, you have brought us into the peace and rest of Christ. Now

we live with Him through the Holy Spirit, and look for the day when we will dwell with Him in your everlasting Kingdom. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has created the fruit of the vine.

The Leader drinks from the cup and then passes it to the other members of the family. After the cup is passed, he/she blesses the break saying:

Leader: Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe who brings forth the bread from the earth.

(Dinner follows)

IV. Blessing and Prayers After the Meal

When the meal is over, the father/leader leads the following prayers and blessing:

Leader: Let us bless the Lord.

All: Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Leader: Let us bless our God, of whose goodness we have shared.

All: Blessed be our God, of whose goodness we have shared and through whose

goodness we live.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who feeds the whole world with your goodness, with grace, with steadfast love and mercy. Through your great goodness, food has never failed us.

All: May it not fail us forever and ever, for your great name’s sake.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who gives food to all.

All: Amen

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord our God, for by your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

All: And you have called us as your sons and daughters to share in your life

forever.

Leader: Blessed are you, all merciful God, for giving us new life in Jesus your Son.

All: Amen.

Leader: Blessed are you, O Lord of our God, for the rest we enjoy this day. We welcome this day with gladness. We thank you that we can celebrate Your resurrection by giving this day to you in joy and thanksgiving.

All: Look graciously upon Your servants. Show us Your glory.

Leader: Blessed are You, Lord our God, who gives rest to His people.

All: Amen

(Prayer for your community or church)

Leader: Lord our God, we lift up our brothers and sisters serving in our parish to you. Watch over them. Protect them from the snares of the evil one. Strengthen and confirm them in your grace. Guide and protect us through our shepherds.

All: Bring us all together into the fullness of Your Kingdom where you live

forever and ever. Amen.

(It would be appropriate at this time to intercede for specific needs of your community or church) and for specific individuals who are in need of prayer.)

(Here the leader blesses those gathered according to the Aaroinic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.)

With hands extended:

Leader: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.

All: Amen.

Closing Song of Thanks and Praise

What makes a Christian Leader?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:31:00 +0000

A mentor of mine once said, “you’ll know you’re a leader when you turn around and there is a group of people following you.” That very practical definition has stuck with me it get around who is “in leadership” and who is not and cuts to the core of what an actually is. A leader is anyone that leads people from one place to another. They might lead somewhere good, they might lead somewhere bad. A leader might do a great Job of caring for those they lead, and they might not. Equipping someone to be a leader is as easy as giving them a megaphone and a location to go to. Equipping ministers in the task of discipleship is not so easy.

Jesus commanded his followers that as they went out to new locations they should make disciples by baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey all he had commanded. This passage points to the location towards with all pastoral and lay ministers should be leading, the community of the Trinity. It also shows that one of the primary goals of christian leadership is to create new Christian leaders.

Not only is the Trinity the destination of Christian leadership it is also the vehicle. A good minister in the church leads by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the gifts of the Father, through the authority of Christ. The first mission of a leader in the church is to help define this reality in light of the culture they find themselves in. These three aspects need to be fleshed out a little bit.

By the power of the Holy Spirit - Being a leader in the church means you are joining a movement that has been underway long before they got there, and will be there long after they leave. Christian leadership must be in cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work not the other way around.
With the gifts of the Father - To lead well it is essential to recognise that all good things come from God. This includes the gifts, the people, the resources, and the history of the community you hope to lead. Recognizing and affirming what God has given is essential to effective church leadership.
Through the authority of Christ - Christ has given authority to the church to do great works. Believing in Christ means believing in those he has chosen. This means that those in pastoral leadership need to believe that God is at work in the members, and places trust in the lay leaders. It also means recognizing that there is a particular call in the office of the ministry in which Christ moves in unique ways through the word and sacrament. In all roles it is essential to recognize that Jesus authority is rooted in His humility (Phil 2). To be a christian leader in any capacity requires being a servant of all.

How would you define worship?

missionchrist@gmail.com (Billy Kangas) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:03:00 +0000

Worship in Greek can mean to kiss toward

If I asked 15 people to give me a definition of worship I would probably get 15 responses. It’s hard to define. It’s something that people do, and angels do. It’s something that creation calls forth and the saints around the throne join in with. People have worshiped with the blood of goats, with golden bowls, with candlesticks, and with incense. People worship with pledges of their lives, with ancient liturgies, and with their dying breath as they give their lives in worship as martyrs and saints.

Worship is something that is hard to define as a theology of a practice because almost any definition seems to fall short of the majesty of it all and leave room for someone to say, “I have done it” rather then “I am doing it” worship of God is not so much an act to complete by a posture to maintain. In fact the word for worship in the scriptures, προσκυνέω, describes a bearing of deference much more then a description of action.

I like thinking of worship as a posture of the heart rather then an action to complete because it gives worship more room and more dignity. If worship is an action it seems almost trite to call a song we sing “worship” when placed next to the action of a martyr for the faith, but when it is seen as a posture any action can become a kind of worship. The goal of a worship leader is not to teach people what to do as much as how to go about doing everything. The practice of worship is just that; it’s practice. It takes time to learn how and it’s an action that is never done. True worship is not an action that we do but a response to the action that God has done, is doing, and promises to do. The response of worship is to take all our lives and all our giftings and point them in love toward God. This is what προσκυνέω is all about. In fact it can be literally translated “to kiss toward”.

This is why at the heart of Christian worship there is Word and Sacrament. It is in these places that God has promised to act. By surrounding ourselves with the action of God we are always called to respond in true worship.