Category: Adult formation

Be a rock!

Dr. ChrisLeave a comment

Text: 1 Peter 2.2-10

Jesus spent a good portion of his last days with his disciples preparing them for what would lie ahead. In the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension, he appeared to them many times, as Luke tells us in Acts, “speaking about the kingdom of God,” and preparing them for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.1-11, NRSV). He was preparing them for how they would carry on and minister in his name even as he was no longer with them in body.

We have but a few accounts from this period in the gospels, and during this Easter season we have read and considered several of them. Even with the few accounts recorded for us, we do have much of what Jesus shared with them. We have, in the gospels and the letters of the New Testament, his teaching and their experience of him all filtered through the needs and experiences of the developing church—the wisdom the resurrected Christ passed on to his disciples. Out of that great storehouse of wisdom, out of his experience with the master, Peter says in today’s epistle, “Let’s grow up to become rocks.”

Now in this passage, Peter is the master of mixed metaphors. He begins with newborns, milk, and maturity and moves right on into rocks and buildings. He then segues right into priests and sacrifices, returns to rocks and buildings, shifts back into priests (mixed with a bit of darkness and light), and then jumps straight on into no metaphor at all: a people.

We can forgive him, of course, after all he was a fisherman, not a writer. So given the milk, the rocks, the priests, the buildings, and cornerstones, I think the only really pertinent question, really, is this:

What does it mean to be a rock?

We might chuckle a little, but to ask that question is not really all that far of the mark. Peter just finished telling us about our great share in the living hope of Jesus Christ, the salvation of which angels are envious, and the holiness expected of us who live under the blood of Christ. “So rid yourselves,” he says at the beginning of chapter 2, “of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander, and long for the pure, spiritual milk that by it we may grow” into all of this he just described—our salvation (1 Peter 2.1-2)! For the very first example of what this means, Peter turns to the one thing he knows very well: Be a rock. He does not really say it quite so bluntly, although he could and it would not be out of character for Peter. But in essence, this is what he says: Grow up and be a rock!

Peter knows rocks very well. He knows they can be dead and useless. He knows they can be too large and immovable. He knows they can be lifted and thrown in anger. He knows they can ruin soil and keep good seed from taking root and growing.

But Peter also knows something else about rocks. He know that rocks are solid. He knows that rocks make great foundations. He knows that even the largest rocks can be rolled away. He knows that even rocks can cry out in praise at the presence of their creator.

More than anything, Peter knows that rocks can be crumbled and remade by the one who makes all things new.

In Peter’s memory is his confident proclamation that Jesus is the Christ (even when the wet-behind-the-ears fisherman had no idea what that really meant). He remembers the kindly words of one who did—”upon this rock, I will build my church” (Matt. 16.18). Peter remembers the man who built his house upon the rock, the seed scattered on the stony ground, and the rocks in the hands of Pharisees and others as Jesus and his disciples made many narrow escapes. Peter remembers the rock who slept on rocks in the garden when he was meant to keep watch and pray. Peter remembers the rock that crumbed when it could not stand under the pressure of accusation and denied the Lord.

I am sure Peter remembers as well every stone on which Jesus stumbled as he carried the cross to Golgotha, the rock on which Jesus died. I am sure he still winces at the memory of the huge immovable stone placed to seal the rock-hewn tomb.

But Peter also remembers the immovable rock moved aside and the cool touch of the stone on which the empty burial clothes lay. He can still feel pebbles on the beach where his risen Lord sat cooking fish on the fire and the rock on which he sat when Jesus asked, “Peter, do you love me” (John 21.15)? How could he forget the rock from which his Lord rose into the heavens and on which the angels sat to say he would come again (Acts 1.6-11)?

Then there was the cool stone floor as the tongues of fire leapt in the air overhead and the hard stone of the temple near where Peter stood as he proclaimed “Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainly that God has made him both Lord and Messiah. this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2.36).

Ah, “Peter, you are a rock, and on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16.18, paraphrased).

So Peter tells us in his first letter, prepare your minds for action, discipline yourselves, and be not conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Live in reverent fear, and rid yourselves of malice, guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Long for the pure, spiritual milk and grow into salvation. Be holy (1 Peter 1.13-15). Be a rock! But not just any old dead, immovable rock—be a living stone! “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house…” (2.4-5).

Who better to tell us what this means than Peter, even with the mixed metaphors of an excitable fisherman. What does Peter have to tell us about living stones? A living stone is only useful to the creator, and even then only in the kingdom he is building. In fact, living stones are useless enough in themselves to have been rejected by everyone else. The value of a living stone is not that it is especially beautiful in and of itself and not that it is especially suited to any particular purpose. To be honest, most living stones are rough around the edges, uneven on their surfaces, and maybe even cracked and crumbling.

But God has chosen the living stones to be used to build something even more precious than they are by themselves. In the master builder’s hands, living stones are precious because they submit to his skill and his purpose. Living stones are useful, because they have been broken and are ready to be made into something new. A living stone in the master’s hand takes the shape of the cornerstone, Jesus Christ himself—the first chosen and precious stone, the very foundation on which we are grounded, and a stumbling block to those who do not believe (2.6-8).

On our own, we are but a useless rock, tossed aside and of little account. Used by the master, hewn into the shape of Jesus and laid on his foundation, fulfilling our function by his design, and laid alongside all other living stones who have submitted to the master to become a spiritual house of his own making, we become the holy priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people (2.9-10).

Notice, by the way, that we are not houses, but a house, not priests, but a priesthood, not people, but a people, a nation. We are one body, one entity, built upon the one foundation that is Jesus Christ to fulfill his purpose. That purpose, as Peter tells us is 1) to worship—“offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” and 2) to proclaim the gospel—“that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (2.5,9). This is the very simple nature, mystery, and ministry of the church.

Peter tells us in a very straightforward way that God has done something wonderful for us through Jesus Christ. Certainly he has given us the great and wonderful gift of salvation for which we longed—the salvation that even the angels envy. But this is not reason to rejoice in our good fortune or to rest on his grace without concern. This is reason to prepare, to discipline ourselves to be obedient and holy, and to live the new life he has given us—together.

To fulfill that purpose means to grow up and be rocks—living stones that the Lord takes and builds into the church: The church that looks like and is built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ; the church that is conformed to his plan and his image; the church that is a holy priesthood that worships its Lord sacrificially, the church that proclaims his mighty acts of salvation by being his people; and yes, the church that is a stumbling block to those who see the living Christ in us and must make the choice of darkness or light, of death or life. Our calling is to be one household, one priesthood, one nation, and one people—God’s people, living stones who glorify God by being used of him.

Yes, Peter proclaims, you have been recipients of his great grace and glory, now grow up and be rocks! Be eager to be used. Be eager to fulfill your intended function. Be eager to be hewn and reshaped. Be ready to minister as God’s own people, living stones, useful rocks.

Peter goes on in the next chapters to explain further what that means in terms of relationships to the lost, to authorities and earthy masters, to wives and husbands, and to one another. I encourage you to read on this afternoon. Consider Peter’s word’s of wisdom, of life, and of submission to the will of God.

Before we go, I hope you’ll allow me one last mixed metaphor. Our cornerstone, our head, and our foundation was also the Good Shepherd we remembered last week. Peter, the rock, crumbled under pressure when Jesus was taken to be crucified. Peter was broken, and useless, and had gone back to the only thing he knew to do: fishing. Sometime during the weeks we now remember between Easter and Pentecost, Peter the crumbled and useless rock encountered the Good Shepherd on the shore (John 21). Much like the very first time he encountered his Lord and was undone (Remember Luke 5.8—“Go away from me Lord,” he said. “I am a sinful man!), when he realized his worthlessness in the face of Christ’s worthiness, and when Jesus put his fears to rest and called him to follow. Much like that time years before when Peter the useless fisherman was made into a fisher of men, this time Peter heard the words that would pick up the pieces of broken and useless rock and make him into a living stone. “Do you love me,” Jesus asked three times, and three times to Peter’s affirmation he responded—”Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep” (John 21.15-17). “Peter, you are broken now, you are ready to be what I need you to be. Be my living stone. Fulfill the purpose I had for you from the beginning. Peter, follow me.”

As before, Peter followed. Peter knew what it was to be a living stone. Peter knew that who he was and what he did were all wrapped up in submitting to the master’s building plans. As Peter tells us all, it is time to grow up and be rocks, crumbled and remade into living stones, dead rocks reborn into the living people of God, useless rocks chosen and remade into a spiritual household, the church of Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we sit this morning on our soft cushions in this building of brick and mortar, reflect on these questions: Are you a dead and useless rock, or a living stone? Are we but a pile of rubble, discarded rocks with no purpose but our own, or are we God’s people, one household, one holy priesthood, a holy nation?

“We are living stones,” I hope we can say, “built upon the one foundation, God’s own people!” Yes?

Think about one last question, the one Peter answered with his life—the one he tried to get us to answer with ours.

What are we going to do about it?

Hear this final admonition from Peter:

Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks, must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4.10-11)

Live your baptism!

Dr. ChrisLeave a comment

Romans 6.1-11

From the days Christ himself commanded that his disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…,” the church has been obediently baptizing new converts (Matt. 28.19–20, NRSV). From the day of Pentecost, when Peter spoke, full of the Spirit, and “…those who welcomed his message were baptized,” the apostles, and the apostolic church that followed, were true to Christ’s own example and command and brought all who would repent into the community of faith through baptism (Acts 2.41). In fact, virtually no account of conversion in the New Testament is relayed without reference to the immediate, even concurrent, baptism of the new believer.

Of the people in Samaria to whom Philip was proclaiming the gospel, we read in Acts 8, “they were baptized, both men and women” (8.12). Even Simon the magician, “believed, and after being baptized, he stayed with Philip…” (8.13). Shortly after Philip opened up the scriptures to the Ethiopian Eunuch, who with urgency was baptized along the road, the blinded Saul obediently sought out Ananias, had his sight restored, and was told, “And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name” (8.26-39; 22.16). Cornelius and his entire household, and the jailor from whom Paul and Silas were delivered, and his entire family were all baptized into the great and wonderful journey of life in Christ and his church (10.22-48;16.25-34).

Throughout the New Testament, no other ritual or practice is mentioned or alluded to more than baptism. It’s as important to the new covenant as circumcision was to the old. Its imagery hearkens back to the waters of creation, the water for the thirsty in the desert, and the prophesied outpouring of the Spirit. It’s the act which Peter says was prefigured by the flood through which Noah and his family was saved and which “now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” and that Anglican John Wesley called “…the initiatory sacrament, which enters us into covenant with God…perpetually obligatory on all Christians…” (1 Peter 3.20-22; Wesley, Treatise on Baptism, I.1).

Baptism is one of only two sacraments enjoined by the entire church from its earliest days to its latest years. And it’s the one event in the life of the believer that happens but once and yet is to be remembered for a lifetime. “Remember your baptism,” is the cry of the ancient ritual, accompanied in some traditions by the splash of water across the faces and shoulders of the congregation from a soaked branch of hyssop.

What is so important about this ritual of getting wet that is worth such urgency and remembrance? And why have so many Christians in recent years then treated it so lightly, as so much empty words and actions, that they have ignored the command of Christ, the witness of scripture, and the example of the early church and treated baptism as incidental or even unnecessary?

The answer to both questions, as you might expect, can be found in scripture, especially in the person to whom it gives witness. “In the beginning,” John tells us, “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1.1). “…the Word became flesh and lived among us,” and John the Baptist, he who baptized for repentance and foretold the coming of the Word, baptized Jesus, the Word himself (1.14).

The first quiet and miraculous act by Jesus, the incarnate Word, was to change the water in the jars of purification, water set aside for washing away uncleanness, symbols of the cleansing of sin and defilement, into wine—new, pure wine from Jesus, the incarnate word, a foreshadow of the wine of his own blood that would be shed for our purification (John 2.1-11).

Shortly after, in the still of the night, Jesus reveals to a confused and seeking pharisee the mystery of rebirth by water and the spirit, a strange notion made even more mysterious as he connects it with eternal life found in belief in himself, the incarnate Word of God (John 3.1-21). What follows is a dispute over the new baptism of Jesus and his disciples and the continuing baptism of John the Baptist in which John helps his perplexed disciples understand his own secondary importance to the incarnate Word, through whom the Spirit is given and eternal life found (3.25-30). And then in chapter 4, the incarnate Word, whose disciples have been baptizing in his name, superseding John and annoying the pharisees, sits at the ancient well of Jacob in Samaria, the favored source of water for the thirsty, and offers himself to an outcast and sinful women as “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (4.14).

As the Word incarnate and the living water returns to Cana, where, we are reminded, “he had changed the water into wine,” Jesus heals the son of a desperate government official who is near death (4.46-54). Then in chapter 5, by the pool of Bethsaida, Jesus the living water heals the man who cannot make it to the waters that heal (5.2-15).

Do you see it? Do you grasp it?

Only a short time later, after he feeds thousands with abundance out of scarcity, and after he stills the chaotic waters of a raging sea, Jesus utters the words we use so often in that other great sacrament—eucharist:

Very truly I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of his blood, you will have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. (6.53–55)

The bread of life and the living water!

Jesus, the Word incarnate, God among us in the flesh, the very agent and substance of creation, has made everything new—even the water of birth, of satisfaction of thirst, of healing. Jesus even masters the waters of chaos in the storm (John 6.16-21).

So what is so important about this ritual of getting wet that is worth such urgency and remembrance? Jesus Christ himself!

Baptism is the wonderful, physical symbol, that points beyond itself to the to the great mystery and spiritual reality of the new life of the incarnate Christ! Christ, who is the spiritual reality of God given to the world in and through the physical reality of creation—which is what we call “incarnation”—is at the very center of the action we call baptism that is given all meaning and substance by the work of Christ. Jesus Christ himself, the living water, is the person who is the very substance and center of our baptism!

And so Paul not only assumes that we have been baptized in full obedience, he recalls our baptism again and again in order to make sure we live our baptism.

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6.1-11)

Amen and amen!

Then why have so many of us in recent years ignored the command of Christ, the witness of scripture, and the example of the early church and treated baptism as incidental or even unnecessary? And why have those of us who have been baptized and who would never question the reality of the grace of God and the regenerative activity of his Spirit in the sacrament, trivialized it by the way we live our lives?

I think the answer also lies in what we read in John, and Paul’s letters, and even the Old Testament. When so many have emptied our lives and the church of a living faith in the living Christ and have separated the ritual from the living, saving work of Christ Paul described in Romans, we have reduced baptism to a meaningless external form and have sought the internal work everywhere but the place God intends to offer it. As we have sought the newness of Christ as shown through the witness of the New Testament, and as we’ve looked for the spiritual promise of the new covenant, we have forgotten the power and meaning of the incarnation and the fact that Christ’s redemption touches all of life—body and spirit.

In other words, anyone who insists that the performance of baptism is enough to save without a real and personal participation in and knowledge of the one to whom it points, is not obedient to the Lord they claim to serve. And anyone who treats baptism lightly and insists on being able to enjoy a saving and growing relationship with the incarnate and living Word while ignoring his command, the witness of the apostles, and the example of the early church is not obedient to the Lord they claim to serve.

Baptism is nothing without Christ, but without baptism, we risk living without Christ. Baptism directs us to Christ and marks us as his own. Through the powerful physical symbol of submersion under the water and the activity of Christ himself, baptism embodies the truth of our death to sin and life in Christ and the reality of life giving and cleansing presence of the living water in our lives. Baptism embodies

…the power of Christ over the waters of chaos that would otherwise overwhelm us.

…the wellspring of the Spirit of Christ and the new creation he makes of us.

…the unity of all who are baptized into Christ Jesus, who bear his name and his cross.

Wrapped up in the mystery of the incarnation, the water and the Spirit, is the great sacrament of our new birth that marks the real change in our lives and participation as new creatures in the community and Kingdom of our victorious Lord. Through baptism into the death and resurrection of our Lord, we partake in his victory over sin and death, over the powers of this world. And beginning with our baptism, we live the fullness of new life even as we rejoice in the promise of eternal life in the world to come.

And so again we hear from Paul, this time in his letter to the Colossians.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

If with Christ [in baptism] you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?

So if you have been raised with Christ [in baptism], seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal [of baptism] there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (2.8–15, 20; 3.1–17)

Remember your baptism, Paul is saying. Remember that you were buried with Christ and raised with Christ. Why? So you can live your baptism!

To those who are about to be baptized, I wish you the joy of knowing the living water even as you are surrounded by the water of the pool as you feel its coolness on your face as it rushes over your body when you come up clean and refreshed from its depths.

And I admonish you, from this point forward—live your baptism!

To those who have not yet been baptized but who have begun to walk with Christ, although you have not yet been obedient in baptism, I pray that you will soon let go of all that holds you back and let Christ and his church welcome you fully into the community of faith and unreserved participation in his death and resurrection.

Very soon—come and be baptized!

To you who do not know Christ, I invite you this day, as you witness the great mystery and power of baptism, to also witness the realty of Jesus in the lives of these who proclaim it through their obedience. See their repentance as they enter the cleansing water. Witness the wonder of their new creation as they emerge from the depths. Hear and know of the life-giving victory Jesus Christ as you see before you those who have accepted his love and committed themselves to his service. And even this day, come as we pray in a few minutes to confess your need before the only one who can give you eternal life, repent and be baptized!

And finally, to all here who have been baptized, remember your baptism! Remember the change Christ has made in you. Put off the old earthly and sinful ways. Refuse to be ensnared by the charms of selfishness, the temptations to sin, the priorities of the world. Accept with joy and obedience the newness of life. Allow the work of Christ begun when you accepted his Lordship and obeyed in baptism to be perfected in you as you grow in grace and holiness.

Live your baptism!

Hermeneutics of continuity diagram

Dr. ChrisLeave a comment

Another attempt to visually represent a rich, dynamic process!

Hermeneutics is the entire process of interpretation, from exegesis to application, while exegesis (as the first part of that process) is specifically the process through which we establish the author intent, asking the questions about historical/cultural, literary, and theological context to establish the intended meaning of the passage.
 
When we work exegetically, we are working with what we might call two layers of context: the community of God as they used the book or passage as scripture (which is an interpretive layer, which means the community was interpreting what was received through oral and/or written tradition), and the community of God in which the events or issues were first experienced. As we work exegetically with those layers of context, we also consider, then, the biggest context into which all scripture fits: the big picture of God’s creative and redemptive purpose and activity, considering how the book or passage fits in that overall story and is it be understood in light of all that God has been doing (and plans to do) with his people, the world, and the entire cosmos.
 
When we understand the text well, having worked through those initial layers of context, we have essentially completed what we call the exegetical process, and we should have a pretty good sense of the meaning and purpose of the passage. But to understand, then, how we should see the church in our time in light of what we have discovered, we work through the remaining two layers of context. We need to make sure we account for the ways the church has understood and used the truth of scripture over time, drawing on things like apostolic faith and practice as it was realized through the early centuries of the church under the guidance of the early church fathers. We consider what we have discovered in the context of the ongoing faith, practice, and scholarship of the church over time such that when we finally consider what the passage means for us in our time and place, we are doing so in ways that take into account the continuity of the church’s theology and practice over time as well.
 
When we apply the text in the context of the community of God in our time, then, we have a rich sense of the way the text fits in that great big picture, and we can draw from the text both challenges to our assumptions and desires about God and what he has to say to us and a good sense of what he intends for us to be and do that fits in continuity with all he has said and done in and through his people through time, offering a much better-grounded sense of scripture and its meaning.
 
An example from the gospels might help:
 
When we start to approach any passage in the gospels, we are starting essentially wth what the author has put into writing to communicate with his audience (the church in his time and the issues he intends to address as he draws on the things Jesus said and did to do so). We enter the text by way of the ‘interpretive’ layer of the received text, the layer of the gospel writers, their audiences (the church in their time) and what they saw as especially significant about Jesus’ identity, purpose, and message.
 
There are other layers about which we need to be concerned if we are to place our exegesis in even deeper context. In the gospels, as with any historical narrative, for instance, we have the following layers of context to consider:
  1. Jesus, his audience, their expectations, and his message to them (the original context of the events as they happened decades before the gospel writers dealt with them).
  2. The gospels as they fit within the full sweep of God’s creative and redemptive purpose and activity, which is reflected in the perspectives of Christ, the gospel writers, and the church through the ages (biblical theology–the canonical context).
  3. The church as it circulated and used the gospels in worship and then came to affirm them, together, as the normative witness to Christ for the whole church (the applied context–as it is historically been understood).
  4. And finally the church in our time as it too receives the gospels as well as all of the reflection on them by the church through the ages as the authentic and normative witness to Christ as well as the understanding of all that he meant and means for the church in every age (the applied context–as it is contemporary to us).
With exegesis, if we are doing this well, we start with those first three contexts, making sure we consider the historical/cultural and theological context in which Christ was working (asking good questions about his intent in doing and saying what he was), and making sure we consider the interpretive context in which the author of each gospel was working to interpret and apply the tradition of the church about Christ to the church in their context (asking good questions about the author’s intent in using the events in Jesus’ life as he does, thinking of the historical/cultural, literary, and theological assumptions and issues related to the church in the time and region each gospel writer is addressing). All of this is related to the way God worked with his people in light of his covenant purpose for them and the world.
 
With the rest of the hermeneutical process, we work through the remaining layers of context to fit the church through the ages, and the church in our time, into what we have discovered (we call it ‘application’, but that implies that we take something from the text, and I tend to think a better image would really be one of ‘submission’, as we submit who we are and what we do to all that God has to say through the wisdom and experiences of his people that we have in scripture).

Holy Week devotion

Dr. Chris1 Comment

The following is a guide for individual and family devotion during Holy Week. A PDF of the guide can also be downloaded from this link: Holy Week devotional guide.

Daily prayer

Suggested for use with the readings for each day in Holy Week for individual or family prayer. Adapted from the Greek Orthodox prayer book for Holy Week.

Blessed is our God, always, now and forever. Glory to you, Lord!

O heavenly king, comforter, the Spirit of truth, ever-present and filling all things, the treasure of all blessings and giver of life, come and dwell within us; cleanse us from every blemish, and save us, O blessed one.

Holy God, holy mighty, holy immortal, have mercy on us. (3X)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning is now, and shall be forever. Amen.

Read the psalm

All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, pardon our sins; Master, forgive our iniquities; O holy one, visit and heal our infirmities, for your name’s sake. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.

Read the Old Testament and epistle readings

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

Read the gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Glory to you, O God. Our hope, our Lord, Glory to you.

Prayer—seek God bringing praise, petitions, and gratitude to him.

Help us, save us, have mercy upon us, and protect us, O God, by your grace. Amen.

Glory to you, O God, our hope, Glory to you!

May Christ, our true God, the Lord, who willingly came to his passion for our salvation, through the intercessions of his all-pure and holy mother; the power of the precious and life-giving cross; the protection of the honored powers of heaven; the supplications of the honored, glorious prophet and forerunner John the Baptist; the holy, glorious, and all-laudable apostles; the holy, glorious, and victorious martyrs; our saintly and god-bearing Fathers; the holy and righteous divine ancestors Joachim and Anna; of the blessed Clement of Rome, our beloved patron, and of all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, as a good, loving, and merciful God. Amen.

Monday

The mission and anointing of the servant upon whom the Spirit of God rests and who has come to establish justice.

Psalm 36.5-11; Isaiah 42.1-9; Hebrews 9.11-15; John 12.1-11

Tuesday

The commission of the Messiah, the light to the nations, and the scandal of unbelief.

Psalm 71.1-14; Isaiah 49.1-7; 1 Corinthians 1.18-31; John 12.20-36

Wednesday

The passion of our Lord and his betrayal.

Psalm 70; Isaiah 50.4-9a; Hebrews 12.1-3; John 13.21-32

Three special days—a time to die to sin

Adapted from Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time, pages 123-134

Our spiritual journey is rooted in the great mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, which is remembered especially on the three great days in Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (called the paschal Triduum).

We have the opportunity to observe these three days with the humility and focus befitting the redeemed who owe our lives to Jesus Christ and what he suffered on our behalf. Therefore, these three days should not to be taken lightly or frittered away in casual conversation, the search for pleasure, or the pursuit of business. In these days we experience and encounter our own reality in the reality of Christ’s horrible death and burial and in his triumphant resurrection from the dead. If we miss these days, we have missed the heart of our spiritual pilgrimage.

Therefore we ought to organize our time and commitments in such a way that we can center entirely on our own participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus and do our best to set aside anything that might interfere with the deep spiritual focus these days bring to us and the unique ways the Holy Spirit can speak to us through their observance.

Maundy Thursday

We pass with Jesus into the darkness of his last night in which his determination to go to the cross is set in vivid contrast to the powers against which he must struggle. We walk that path with him.

Psalm 116.1-2, 12-19; Exodus 12.1-4, (5-10), 11-14;1 Cor. 11.23-26; John 13.1-17, 31b-35

Good Friday

We worship with both the sorrow we bring through our identification with Jesus in his death and the joy we experience knowing that his death was the death of death, the ruination of the powers of evil.

Psalm 22; Isaiah 52.13-53.12; Hebrews 10.16-25 or 4.14-16; 5.7-9; John 18.1-19.42

Holy Saturday

A day of rest and preparation for the great service of resurrection (the vigil).

Psalm 31.1-4, 15-16; Job 14.1-14 or Lamentations 3.1-9, 19-24; 1 Peter 4.1-8; Matthew 27.57-66 or John 19.38-42

Suggestions for reflection and discipline during Holy Week

Take time each day

  • To remember God’s mighty acts of salvation and consider what they mean to your spiritual journey and to Falcon Ekklesia as the body of Christ in our community.
  • Reflect on the past year:
    • How have you entered into his death this year? What sins in your life need to be brought to death?
    • How have you been raised to new life in his resurrection this year? What in your life still needs renewal?

Consider reorganizing your time leading up to Easter and make it a point to be participate in all the celebrations of the church. Demonstrate the importance of your faith, your submission to Christ as Lord, and your grateful love for his sacrifice by refraining from anything that would interfere with the worship of the body of Christ and your own focus on Christ’s death and resurrection.

Extend the fast through the week, perhaps through simplfied meals each day, continuing to limit your diet, or abstaining from a meal or two each day.

Mystagogical devotional guide: Lent-Easter

Dr. Chris2 Comments

The attached PDF is a devotional guide designed to be used throughout the Lenten and Easter seasons. Initially based on the 28 day guide posted on this site, this revision adds material from many sacramental liturgies and portions of the sermons from the great mystagogues of the 4th century. The themes and readings are designed to integrate well with Sunday worship throughout Lent and Easter, and yet the guide can also be used for Advent and Epiphany or any other time throughout the year.

The guide will eventually accompany the book on which I am currently working, but it is ready for use now for both individual and corporate reflection on our sacramental journey into the body of Christ and our ongoing transformation for his mission in the world.

Dr. Chris

Download devotional guide

28 days: a mystagogical study for the family or individual

Dr. ChrisLeave a comment

Devotional Guide for Adults and Youth

The following is a devotional guide to help you reflect on your sacramental experience of baptism and eucharist in light of the Scriptures. Passages are included for each day, along with supplemental passages from the Old Testament that appear in parentheses.

Please use this devotional guide as a means to lead you into meditation and prayer about what God has to say to you through these sacred actions of worship. How has he used them to shape you? How does he want to use them even now to bring you deeper into your new life in Christ? What is he trying to say to you, and to his church, through the words, the symbols, the movement, and the memory of the sacraments?

Please log your journey in a journal, including impressions, insights, experiences, and questions that arise from weekly worship.

Please consider the daily readings and questions as a family, helping your children with the process of writing their reflections in their journals. Make prayer and silence a part of your time together, and allow room for everyone to ask questions and wrestle with ideas. If you have younger children, consider these tips for including them:

  • Have the children read the Scripture passages.
  • Ask them for their thoughts—use simple questions: what? when? where? who? how?
  • Don’t be afraid to add your observations. Children often understand more than we expect.
  • For younger children, ask them to draw pictures of scenes from the passages and then talk about them.

If you are working through these passages on your own, consider using an immersive, prayerful approach:

  1. Find a quiet time and place. Free yourself from potential distractions as much as you can (have someone else deal with phone calls, children, doorbells).
  2. Take a few minutes to clear your mind. Breathe slowly, relax your body, make yourself aware of the simple fact that God is present.
  3. Read through the Scriptures for the day, simply listening at first. Don’t try to pick them apart, don’t seek insight. Just read them, even aloud.
  4. Pause for a moment. Did something jump out at you, a word or phrase? Make note of it in your journal.
  5. Read the Scriptures a second time, slowly. Listen again for anything that stands out, that causes you to linger for a moment. Make note of it in your journal.
  6. Consider what God has brought to your attention. Meditate on the words or phrases that caught your attention.
  7. Talk with God about what he’s trying to say to you. Listen to what his Spirit is saying.
  8. Write in your journal. What is God saying? Is he asking you to do something? Is he communicating something very personal, or something important for all of us? What new insight has he given. Can what he’s said be put into words? What difference does it make?

Week One

Sunday Rom. 6.1-11 (Ps. 51)

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does your baptism really mean in your life?

Monday Matt. 28.19-20 and Acts 2.37-42 (Gen. 22.9-18; 1 Chr. 16.8-36; Is. 42.1-9)

Journal suggestion: Consider why baptism is so central to what we call the Great Commission. What is the relationship between baptism (conversion), teaching (disciple- ship), and the Holy Spirit? What did the newly baptized Christians do?

Tuesday Acts 8.35-39, 10.44-48, 16.30-34, 22.12-16 (Lev. 16. 23-28; Joel 2.28-29)

Journal suggestion: Examine these different accounts of conversion, baptism, and receiv- ing the Holy Spirit. How did it happen? In what order? Was anyone not baptized? Do you associate your own baptism with your conversion to faith in Jesus Christ?

Wednesday 1 Cor. 12.12-13; Eph. 4.1-6 (Ps. 33)

Journal suggestion: How does our baptism relate to how we get along with other Christians? Can you think of relationships you have with others that are clearly different because of your common baptism in Christ? How about any that are still a problem?

Thursday Col. 2.8-15 (Gen. 17.1-14; Deut. 10.12-22)

Journal suggestion: What does it mean to think of baptism as a permanent mark of your new life, like circumcision? Think about what it means to think of baptism and our salva- tion in such physical terms. Does it change the way you think about living the new life Paul talks about? How?

Friday 1 Pet. 3.18-22, Titus 3.3-7 (Gen. 6.12-9.17; Gen. 1.1-31; Ps. 77)

Journal suggestion: How are Peter and Paul describing what the water in baptism does? What does Noah and the ark have to do with baptism? What phrases from these passages stand out to you when you think about what your own baptism means? Think of someone you know who is not a Christian. What would it mean for them to be saved through the waters of baptism?

Week Two

Sunday Mark 10.38; Matt. 3.1-17

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does being baptized into Christ mean we should be doing? Answer Christ’s question from Mark 10.38, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” What might it mean for you to drink his cup and be baptized in his baptism?

Monday Luke 3.1-22 (Is. 40.1-5)

Journal suggestion: Consider the questions asked of John when he baptized. What differ- ence did he expect baptism to make in the lives of those baptized? Why is judgement asso- ciated with baptism? What are those baptized being judged about?

Tuesday John 1.19-34 (Is. 35.1-10)

Journal suggestion: How was Jesus different than John? Why was Jesus baptized? What does the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus mean for those baptized in Jesus’ name?

Wednesday John 3.1-15; 22-36 (Ez. 37.1-14)

Journal suggestion: This passage is full: baptism, new birth, Spirit, purification, mysteries, and testimony. How does it all relate? What is hard for you to understand? Having been baptized, what of these mysteries begins to make sense to you? How could you testify to what God has done in your life?

Thursday Acts 1.1-6; 2.14-21, 37-42

Journal suggestion: What did baptism with the Spirit mean for the disciples? What was their response (what did they do)? What was the response of the people to Peter’s witness? What did the apostles tell them to do and say would happen? What did those who were baptized do? What pattern in all of this should apply to us?

Friday Reflection on baptism

Journal suggestion: What does it mean? For you, for the church? What is happening in baptism? How does being baptized change who you are? How does being baptized change what you do?

Week Three

Sunday Luke 24.13-35; Col. 1. 15-20, 24-29

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does eucharist really mean in your life?

Monday Acts 2.37-47; Acts 20.7-12; Acts 27.27-38

Journal suggestion: Consider the New Testament “code” for eucharist: “breaking of bread.” In what context is it done in these passages? Is thanksgiving and gladness associ- ated with the breaking of bread?

Tuesday 1 Cor. 10.1-33 (Ex. 12.1-28, 16.1-17.7)

Journal suggestion: What is really at stake in these warnings from Paul about eucharist in the church? What does Paul’s focus on unity with Christ and one another say about why and how we celebrate eucharist?

Wednesday 1 Cor. 11.17-34

Journal suggestion: What does Paul say about the eucharist in this passages? What seems to be the focus of participating in communion? Consider the language about divisions, fac- tions, and discerning the body. What does our unity in this special act of worship say to those who witness it?

Thursday John 2.1-11; 6.1-14 (Num. 8.5-13; Joel 2.23-24; 2 Kings 4.38-44)

Journal suggestion: Consider the context of these miracles of Jesus’ provision. What do they say about Jesus, about the celebration of eucharist?

Friday Rev. 19. 6-10; Is. 25.6-10, 55.1-5 (Amos 9.11-15)

Journal suggestion: How is eucharist related to the marriage supper of the Lamb? What kind of images are we given about the banquet of the Lord? What do they mean for the Eucharistic meal of the church today? What do they mean for the world? What do you look forward to?

Week Four

Sunday John 15.18-27; John 17.20-24; Luke 22.7-23

Journal suggestion: Reflect on our time together on Saturday evening. Record your impressions, insights, experiences, and questions. What did God say to you?

Big question for the week: what does our weekly eucharistic celebration prepare us to do?

Monday Mark 14.12-25; Matt. 26.17-30 (Ex. 12.1-20)

Journal suggestion: What strikes you about these accounts of the last supper from Mark and Matt.? How are they similar or different? What does this language of covenant and blood mean? What about the reference to drinking in the kingdom of God?

Tuesday John 13.1-30 (Is. 42.1-9)

Journal suggestion: Why would John include this story of footwashing in place of the last supper? What themes are similar to those we associate with eucharist? What does it imply about our relationship with Christ, with others in the church, with the world?

Wednesday John 14-John 17

Read as if you are the disciples and Jesus is talking to you directly, right after you’ve shared bread and wine with him. Journal suggestion: What is Jesus trying to offer the dis- ciples in these words following his last evening with them? What themes keep showing up? What is he preparing them for?

Thursday John 6.22-71 (Ps. 22)

Journal suggestion: Why are these words difficult to hear? What do they tell us about Jesus’ relationship to those who eat his flesh and drink his blood? Why does he give of himself this way?

Friday Reflection on Eucharist

Journal suggestion: What does it mean? For you, for the church? What is happening when we celebrate eucharist? How does worship at Christ’s table change who you are? How does worship at Christ’s table change what you do? What does it mean for the world that the church is eucharistic?