The Scriptures tell us that after He instituted the Supper, our Lord Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples and then they went out. We know that the psalms sung at the conclusion of the Passover meal were the Hallel Psalms, 114-118. So what did our Lord sing when He was facing death of an …
The Wine Is Better
We gather together now, in accordance with the will of God, and under the protections provided by His Spirit, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that at the conclusion of our service of worship we gather at the table of the Lord. All baptized Christians are welcome at this table, and …
Special Effects, Dry Ice, and Lasers
“Instruments continued growing in size and complexity. Everything else about music grew as well, as colossalism transformed the art. Some theaters seated up to forty thousand people. In one play a thousand mules pranced about the stage. Concerts featured a hundred blaring trumpets, accompanying thousands of actors and acrobats. ‘Not being able to make it …
Metamorphing
“In our entertainment-crazed times, we have to take care not to use stories that have been transformed into something else. I call the process ‘metaphor-morphing,’ or ‘metamorphing’ for short. In this process the basic metaphors of story built into the world by God are reversed. For example, the serpent in the Garden was a dragon, …
Hungry For Praise
“Adulation is one of those things that are impossible to come by if we have to beg for them” (Girard, A Theater of Envy, p. 148).
Guess You Kinda Had To Have Been There
Merold Westphal has another essay in this book entitled “Laughing at Hegel.” I read the whole thing. “Christmas Humpheys says, ‘There is more honest ‘belly laughter’ in a Zen monastery than surely in any other religious institution on earth’ — and the faithful chant before Maitreya, the Messianic Buddha whose avatar is a clown: When …
Westminster Six: Of the Fall of Man, of Sin and of the Punishment Thereof
1. Our first parents, being seduced by the subtilty and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:13; 2 Cor. 11:3). This their sin, God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to His own glory (Rom. 11:32). Although Genesis does not mention …
Westminster Five: Of Providence
1. God the great Creator of all things doth uphold (Heb. 1:3), direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things (Dan. 4:34–35; Ps. 135:6; Acts 17:25–26, 28; Job 38; 39; 40; 41), from the greatest even to the least (Matt. 10:29–31), by His most wise and holy providence (Prov. 15:3; Ps. 104:24; 145:17), according …
Westminster Four: Of Creation
1. It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Heb. 1:2; John 1:2–3; Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; 33:4), for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness (Rom. 1:20; Jer. 10:12; Ps. 104:24; 33:5–6), in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether …
Attraction and Communion
The world is a place governed by covenants. Covenantal law is present everywhere in a similar way to what we call the law of gravity. And as long as we understand gravity as a personal thing, the law of covenants is like it, and is made evident in a powerful attraction. As we have frequently …