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Robert Webber again . . .

Quote of the Week

Response is a necessary element in the communication that takes place at worship. It is the complement to God’s speaking and acting. . . . Response, from the very beginning of worship to the end, must be a powerful inner experience of actually being in the presence of God.
. . . New Testament images of our relationship with God in worship teach and advocate a mystical, inner experience of awe and wonder.

Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishing, 1992), 110, 114.

October 17, 2011

A Bend in the Road

A trusted friend recently wrote to me:

“I believe as I continued to pray that God showed me that you are coming to a bend in the road of your life.  I don’t see it as a gentle bend, but a 90 degree turn, in an unexpected way, not bad, you just can’t see past the bend, stay faithful, God is faithful, continue around the bend in faith and God will see you through, don’t follow the bend and you will go off the road, ,  If this bears witness to what God is showing you be blessed, if not, discard.”

I am thankful for friends who are willing to risk being bold. I pray that God would give me wisdom and discernment in the days to come and give me the grace to stay on the road.

Ordinary Days in Ordinary Time

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Ordinary Time – Our church calendar is divided into two major segments of the year. Beginning with the Sunday following Thanksgiving, the church first observes Advent, then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and finally Easter. All of these seasons help us to remember and celebrate the birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ during the first six months of the church calendar. And finally we get to Ordinary Time, that six month long season of the year that teaches us that along with the major events  of life we spend a good deal of this life primarily taking care of business. I can remember in my younger days having a burning desire for every day to be packed with adventure and excitement. Now I have learned to appreciate the fact that some days, actually quite a few days of our lives, are fully occupied with those ordinary chores and pleasures of everyday living, void of the highs and lows that are inevitable.

So we seek to take advantage of the calmer seasons and to allow our awareness meter to increase a few bars. May we learn to become more aware of those who we get to spend these ordinary days with and strive to be fully present in the moments we are together.  May we push back against the activities that tend to fill our waking hours and leave us unsatisfied and isolated from fulfilling relationships, the “junk food” activities like television, video games, and online communities where it is much easier to role play and fantasize instead of taking the risk of honestly sharing with those we care about face to face. And so we pray, “Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being. We humbly pray You so to guide and govern us by Your Holy Spirit that in all the cares and occupations of this life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”

Stormy Wind Fulfilling His Word

Psalm 148: 7 “Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,”

 

“He who has not been tossed by stormy winds has never seen the might of his Lord’s power; has not found in all its fullness how blessed is the haven of the Saviour’s love.” – Mark Guy Pearse, 1842 – 1930

 

 

Stormy Wind Fulfilling His Word – complete homily by Mark Guy Pearse

My sermon – drawing heavily upon Mark Guy Pearse’s homily

 

The Door

We know that the metaphor of a door can mean many things. The first time that the word ‘door’ appears in scripture is when God is speaking to Cain, the first-born of all humanity, and warns him that “sin is crouching at the door”. We, too, must be careful which doors we open.

The word door is used often in scripture, many times being used as a metaphor; an open door, a locked door, a wide door, a narrow gate or door, and in many other ways.

Let’s consider a closed door for a moment. I think it is the closed doors of our lives that we most often dwell on. We wonder what might have been, what if we had been given the opportunity we feel that we so much deserve? What if so and so had made a different decision? And if we are not dwelling on our past then we are worried or anxious about our future. Will this door open for me? When will it open? Why won’t it open now?

Jesus said, “I am the door.” Once we enter through that door and become one of His disciples, He calls us to live a life of faith with our hope and trust in His goodness, and His faithfulness, and His sovereignty. On the other side of the coin from doubt, worry, and anxiety can be arrogance and even greed or lust or self-centeredness. Recognizing this truth will help us always come to the Lord with a humble, submitted, and grateful heart. We can learn to live our lives with a deep sense of wonder and mystery when waiting outside of a closed door, knowing that the One who has the key knows us better and loves us more than we can comprehend.

The hall is a place to wait in, not to live in.

And in the “Preface” to Mere Christianity he includes a disclaimer that cautions the reader against regarding his mere Christianity “as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions–as if a man would adopt it in preference to Congregationalism or Greek Orthodoxy or anything else” (11-12). To make his point clearer, Lewis creates a helpful metaphor:

It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in.

stolen from:

http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/wardrobe_metaphor.html