We serve the living God. We are a people who have been ushered into new life. We have heard the word of life declared. This is the bread of life; this is living wine. Life is a mystery, and only the dead think they understand it. Life is glory; life is movement; life is joy; …
Common Era, Humbug!
N.B. This is an old exhortation. It is not really Advent yet. Nor is it 2002. But I stand by everything else. This is the second Sunday of the Advent season. As Christians, we seek to live our lives before God moment by moment and day by day. Unfortunately, we tend to taper off after …
Root and Fruit
“We must affirm then that at the deepest level there can be no mature Christian character which despises culture, any more than there can be a truly Christian culture which is not rooted in character” (Richard Taylor, A Return to Christian Culture, p. 17).
Culturally Lost
“We have no idea why we are here, where we are supposed to go, and how we are to conduct ourselves on the way. But in the meantime, our government schools solemnly teach third graders how to use condoms. Countless fathers desert their wives and children. Pastors dishonor their calling through their rampant adulteries. Thieving …
Deep Scandal
[Speaking of Matt. 18:1-9] “The first thing to notice is how the disciples’ lapse into mimetic rivalry evoked from Jesus a discourse on scandal and scandalizing. As I said, it seems at first a non sequitur. From the mimetic point of view, however, it is the perfect response. Jesus recognized his disciples anxiety about their …
Some Liturgical Housekeeping
Introduction: As a congregation we have grown a great deal over the years. We are very grateful for what God has given us, and we are even more grateful for what He has taken away from us. By faith, we trust that as the years go by, we will grow our roots even deeper into …
Worship As a Daily Office
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the ends of the earth, My voice goes out to You. When my heart is overwhelmed, Lead me O God, Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. You have …
What Pagans Always Do
Christians have been living in exile for far too many years. This exile is the exile of an arbitrary dualism, one that separates our private faith and the public faith. This is the heresy of modernity, and the political expression of that heresy is the ideal of liberal democracy. According to this heresy, what you …
Failing Better Next Year
In our nation, this week is set apart as Thanksgiving week. We, of all people, should be prepared to overflow with gratitude to God as we gather together with family and friends to rejoice before Him. We do this, not because we have substituted a cultural holiday for what the Lord requires, but because for …
Speaking Mush to Power
Here is an interesting and valuable article on American Empire, N.T. Wright, the emergent church, and Pauline studies (HT: Justin Taylor). And here are just a couple of random (and brief) observations on the same general subject. I am not going to argue for these; I am just going to say them. 1. It is …