I remember seeing this on the original air date of February 20, 2007; but had forgotten about it until a conversation yesterday about Craig Ferguson prompted me to look it up on YouTube. I am still astounded at what is a very impressive monologue–he says a lot of counter-intuitive stuff there, not the least about how “not right” it is that we find so much enjoyment in ridiculing the weak, broken, and vulnerable. While I presume Ferguson is not a Christian believer (though he is certainly aware of something beyond himself–if only that great ultimate reality called ‘friends’ or ‘community’), I found myself renewedly aware of the deep, self-saturated sinfulness of my own sense of humor. Embarrassing.

tan·gent
idiom– 7. digressing suddenly from one course of action or thought and turning to another: The speaker flew off on a tangent.

The quoted article below is by Leithart, The Cross of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, in (of all places …) Credenda Agenda. It’s an excellent article, host magazine notwithstanding (its association with Doug Wilson makes me more than a little nervous … but I suppose that puts me in the same boat as those who railroad Leithart without actually taking the time to listen carefully, huh?).

“The Crucifixion is the fountainhead of all my values,” wrote the German-American philosopher and historian Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “the great divide whence flow the processes most real in my inner life, and my primary response to our tradition is one of gratitude to the source of my own frame of reference in everyday life.” He adds, “our chronology of B.C. and A.D. makes sense to me. Something new came into being then, not a man as part of the world but The Man who gives meaning to the world, to heaven and hell, bodies and spirits.” A bride who receives her husband’s name is set in a “new realm” and all her actions are “credited” to that realm. In the same way, “in His name we [as His bride] enter a realm of freedom unknown to mere heirs” (Christian Future, hereafter CF, p. 102).

This paragraph neatly captures the pace and sprawl of much of his writing. He begins with the historical event of the crucifixion, and immediately goes existential, describing how the cross is frame for his own experience. In the next sentence he has moved from inner life to the crux of history, endorsing the division of time between B.C. and A.D. Characteristically, he employs a marital image to describe the historical change that comes with Christ, and, obsessed as he is by speech, he cannot stop himself from inserting something about new names.

From here Leithart continues to touch upon several themes with which I find myself perpetually and persistently grappling with, not least of which is, on the one hand, the pressing sense of urgency to speak of the existential, moment-by-moment reality of the cross for life coupled with, one the fore-finger of the other hand, my own frustrating inability to find words to make that connection and, on the thumb of that second hand, the complementary frustration of our cultural inability – and impatience – to try to hear and understand the connection. Alas …

“Session” – derived from the Latin, sessio, meaning “seated” or “sitting” refers primarily to King Jesus’ shepherdly oversight of His Church, the Body of Christ, from where he is “seated” today at the right hand of God the Father. Secondarily and derivatively, in the local congregation, it refers to the exercise of this oversight through men called, equipped and led by His Spirit, and recognized by the congregation by the work of the same Spirit, for the accomplishment of His Mission and the display of His Glory in and through the congregation.

What strikes me the most here is the clear, comforting and yet sobering statement that Jesus Christ is the head of His Church — not the elders or pastors. Such an understanding of submissive shepherding stands in stark contrast to our culture’s view of leadership, does it not?

A couple of months ago I was teasing a friend about his frequent usage of very l-o-n-g sentences. The particular object of my chastisement was the following 114 word … er, ‘grammatical unit,’ expounding on Ephesians 3.

Since, by our place in Christ by the abounding grace and mercy of God our Father, we have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his Son’s marvelous light, being carried with him, as it were, through our baptism into him, through death and into the glorious light of his resurrection, Paul prays that we would be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that we may be increasingly filled with the fullness of God’s goodness and grace and righteousness, filled with the knowledge of his will according to the wisdom and understanding of his Spirit.

About a month passed before my friend forwarded along the following quote (with vindicated glee I might add). After penning a sentence of 103 words (or 83 if you count the three multi-hyphenated words as one each …), N.T. Wright interrupts himself:

(The reader may be thankful that this is in English. In German, that entire last phrase [a hyphenated "word" of 13 words in length] might become a single word. As it is, I make no apology for the length of the sentence thereby concluded. All these things need to be held together – a task extremely easy in the first century for someone like Paul, and apparently next to impossible for those whose soteriology never had an Israel-dimension and who don’t want to start thinking about one now.) — N.T. Wright, Justification, p 96.

So the next time someone in the church accuses you of being long winded or verbose, rest assured that you are in good company. Smile and then appeal to Paul’s own wordiness demonstrated in Ephesians 1 — there was a reason he did not chop it up like the NIV does!

Yesterday I was talking to the kids about Good Friday and Isabel said it should be called Sad Friday. She thought about it a minute and said that it is Happy Friday because Jesus died for our sins.

Out of the mouths of babes.

“Maundy Thursday” refers to the Thursday follwing Jesus’ regal entry into Jerusalem on which he gathered with his twelve disciples to celebrate the Passover with them. The Passover was traditionally a time for those gathered to recount to one another and celebrate the great stories of God’s mighty acts of Salvation.

The term Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum (from which we get the English word mandate), from a verb that meants ‘to give,’ or ‘to order.’ The term is usually translated ‘commandment,’ from John’s account of this Thursday night Passover meal during which, according to John, Jesus rose and washed the disciples’ feet to illustrate the unique, upside-down sort of leadership by servanthood that was to characterize citizens in the Kingdom of God. As they walked to Gethsemane after the meal and this surprising illustration, Jesus said:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, you also ought to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. — John 13:34-35

Just as we did in our fellowship around the Maundy Thursday dinner table, I encourage you to recount to one another the great stories of God’s mighty acts of salvation: Who IS this Jesus? When all is said and done, what DID he do — really? And WHY was it necessary for us? We say he is still physically living and working today — tell stories of his continuing work today!

Interestingly, it took me several minutes of searching in order to find just the clip, because there were so many satirical submissions; video collages mixing the Obama children’s chorus with historical footage of the Hitler Youth, Mao’s “Good Little Children” and even recent footage coming out of Pyongyang, North Korean. While those are fairly easy comparisons for most people to make, the whole thing seems eerily reminiscent of the many children’s productions I have seen at church — especially if you pay close attention to the words.

WE’RE GONNA CHANGE THE WORLD
Music and lyrics by Lily Campbell, age 9

We’re gonna spread happiness
We’re gonna spread freedom
Obama’s gonna change it
Obama’s gonna lead ‘em

We’re gonna change it
And rearrange it
We’re gonna change the world.

SING FOR CHANGE
Music and lyrics by Kathy Sawada

Now’s the moment, lift each voice to sing
Sing with all your heart!
For our children, for our families,
Nations all joined as one.
Sing for joy and sing abundant peace,
Courage, justice, hope!
Sing together, hold each precious hand,
Lifting each other up;
Sing for vision, sing for unity,
Lifting our hearts to Sing!

YES WE CAN
Music and lyrics by Kathy Sawada

Yes we can
Lift each other up
In peace, in love, in hope
Change! Change!

Just Courage: God’s Great Expedition for the Restless Christian

Even though I read the words almost twenty-five years ago, I can still picture them upon the page. The words were and have remained so disturbing to me that I remember exactly where I was when I read them. I was a freshman in college sitting up late one night in the dorm laundry room waiting for my clothes to dry and reading John Stuart Mill’s essay “On Liberty.” Writing in 1859, Mill was trying to explain the process by which words lose their meaning, and he casually offered that the best example of this phenomenon was Christians. Christians, he observed, seem to have the amazing ability to say the most wonderful things without actually believing them.

What became more disturbing was his list of things that Christians, like me, actually say — like, blessed are the poor and humble; it’s better to give than receive; judge not, lest you be judged; love your neighbor as yourself, etc. — and examining, one by one, how differently I would live my life if I actually believed such things. As Mill concluded, “The sayings of Christ co-exist passively in their minds, producing hardly any effect beyond what is caused by mere listening to words so amiable and bland.”

I move that we all just continue on as if the observation had never been made. Any seconds?

Lord, have mercy.

O Breath of life, come sweeping through us, revive your church with life and pow’r,
O Breath of Life, come, cleanse, renew us, and fit your church to meet this hour.

O Wind of God, come bend us, break us, till humbly we confess our need;
then in your tenderness remake us, revive, restore, for this we plead.

O Breath of love, come breathe within us, renewing thought and will and heart;
come, Love of Christ, afresh to win us, revive your church in every part.

O Heart of Christ, once broken for us, ’tis there we find our strength and rest;
our broken contrite hearts now solace, and let your waiting church be blest.

Revive us, Lord! Is zeal abating while harvest fields are vast and white?
Revive us, Lord, the world is waiting, equip your church to spread the light.

The true secret to all ministry is spiritual power. It is not man’s genius, or man’s intellect, or man’s energy; but simply the power of the Spirit of the God of the Gospel. ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts (Zech.iv.6) It is well for all ministers (and believers) to bear this ever in mind. It will sustain the heart and give constant freshness to their ministry (and lives). A ministry which flows from abiding dependence upon the Holy Spirit can never become barren. If a man is drawing on his own resources, he will soon run dry. It matters not what his powers may be, or how extensive his reading, or how vast his stores of information; if the Holy Spirit be not the spring and power of his ministry, it must, sooner or later, lose its freshness and its effectiveness. How important then, that all who minister (and live) in the gospel…should lean continually and exclusively on the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows what souls need, and He can supply it. But he must be trusted and used. It will not do to lean partly on self and partly on the Spirit.

— C H Macintosh, Notes on the Book of Numbers, 1861