Category Archive

I finally finished reading the rest of the Agenda for Synod 2008, and here are my highlights: (not that the material left out is unimportant):

The Candidacy [for ministry] Committee examined the issue of the status of ministry associates. It was their understanding that being a ministry associate does not automatically allow one to preach, [167]  but is determined by the mandate of the position the MA fills. Synod 2007 decided that MAs can be called as solo pastors given that “economic need” is present and the other relevant Church Order articles could not be followed. [170] The Candidacy Commitee recommends dropping the “economic need” clause, [171] and adopting a guideline to give a standard for whether it is appropriate to call a MA. [171]

The Contemporary Testimony revision seems excellent. They revised the report to avoid cliches and keep the wording meaningful, also responding to new issues in our changed contemporary situation. Scriptural references are listed at the bottom with explanatory sentences rather than footnotes in the text, which turns out to be very nice. As they changed some of the thematic developments, the report discourages word-for-word comparison with the 1986 version. [211] I don’t have the patience to study the whole document, but it reads well and is clear and relevant, as is its goal.

The Faith Formation Comittee had in its mandate two issues of most interest: children’s communion and infant dedication. Children’s communion is studied intensively, but no recommendations are stated for this year; they plan to end up producing thorough documents about this. [241] They plan to organize communication about topics in this area: putting together a web site, sending discussion points to councils, and organizing representative correspondents. [239-240] They put forth an interesting recommendation that Synod hold a discussion about these matters in the form of a luncheon. [241]

There were a few overtures concerning the new hymnal, slated for release in 2013. Overtures 6 and 7 deal with some proposal not to include the confessions in the hymnal; I didn’t see anything about this (perhaps I just missed it). Overture 8 wishes to ensure there is a seperate Psalm section in the hymnal, as in all previous. I think this issue has sides that are about balanced - having a seperate Psalm section reinforces the importance of singing the Psalms, however it also makes them harder to find, discouraging their use.

Overture 9 asks Synod to establish an “Environmental Policy Task Force”, to write up a list of guidelines for those that wish to live environmentally responsibly. I would have thought this should fall outside of Synod’s juristiction, however it is painfully obvious even at my own church this is needed, as people do not all see environmental responsibility as the important moral issue that it is. I strongly urge Synod to adopt the recommendation in this overture.

If I forgot anything important, be sure to let me know!

I decided to go on a trek into the local subdivision to see what I may. I went on foot, an increasingly unpopular means of transportation.

In about two hours there, I saw maybe ten people. Perhaps this is because of it being a Sunday afternoon, but I find their ability to hide more than a little impressive.

I noticed there were there churches in the area; all were evangelical and of some size. Two were right beside each other. The other was a five-minute drive away, with no sidewalk leading to it. How is that for fostering a sense of Christian unity? Last time I checked, a car ride is just inviting meeting new people. (sarcasm intended).

But I see what the first issue is. Somehow all these people need to be convinced to get out of their little boxes.

Hunting around for some examples of Gothic art (inspired by James Smith’s post about why he loves Gothic architecture), I stumbled upon the incredibly beautiful Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (the Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry for those who don’t speak French). I have used the pictures of the crucifixion and resurrection in previous posts; but I would like to post one of my favourite pictures in there (many of the other stunning pictures are on Wikimedia Commons).

This entire piece is one great work of contrast. Foremost, Job is naked and half-buried in mud, whereas his friends are richly robed. The house behind Job is made of mud and falling apart, but right beside it is a castle, complete with moat (and curiously a fence that is partially knocked down). In the frame, there are skeletons, and smaller pictures of a grave-digging and a funeral processon, but the frame itself is intact and finely detailed.

But notice also that the “tone” of the picture is not extremely somber, like it seems the subject matter demands. The very bright colours, and especially the bright and clear sky in all the pictures, gives a vivid contrast to the pit of despair that Job is in.

But to me this is where the illustrator “hides” his message. It exposes the disconnect between circumstance and the hope we know we have. In both Job’s situation and in ours, despair is met with and is even present in despair.

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

At Easter we celebrate the coming of this messenger. For the women visiting the grave, this was the angels by the tomb. For the disciples, this was the women. For the people, it was the disciples. For us, this is the written Gospel.

For great indeed is this news. There is peace between God and mankind, we are set free from the condemnation of death – our salvation is made real. For today the God of Zion has shown that he reigns over death. And on this day it becomes ours!

The voice of your watchmen – they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the LORD to Zion.

When Solomon built the first temple, when the Ark of the Covenant was brought inside, “a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.” (1 Ki 8:10-11 ESV)

In Ezekiel 10, Ezekiel sees this glory of the LORD leave the temple in a vision because of the idolatry of the people. In a later vision, that of the perfect temple and land, he came again to his residence in his city – “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.” (Ez 43:2 ESV)

The glory of the LORD has taken up his residence now inside the temple of each of our hearts. This we can see firsthand in ourselves, as watchpersons, “eye to eye”. The Easter event facilitated the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost; the Spirit, at our conversion and throughout our Christian lives, orchestrates the “dying away of the old self” and the “coming to life of the new”. (Heidelberg Catechism QA 8 In this way the Easter event is yet ongoing inside each of us.

Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

In the resurrection of Christ and the hearts of his chosen, the LORD shows his power. The LORD showed again the “mighty hand and outstretched arm” (cf. Dt 26: with which he brought the people out of Egypt with; he showed his power now over the evil and death which are intrinsic to our world. For his power reached even the “waste places”, where this evil and death is seen the most. Are we not “waste places” also? Then may we “break forth together into singing”, be driven to praise, because of the peace and redemption the LORD has brought to us troubled people. And may we be the examples of “the salvation of our God” which “the ends of the earth shall see”.

Depart, depart, go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

(Is 52:7-12 ESV)

This passage alludes to the (then yet to come) return of the people and vessels to Jerusalem from exile. The Persian king Cyrus told the people to return and rebuild the temple, giving them back the vessels (cups, bowls, and such) used in the temple. (Ez 1) The LORD would facilitate this by protecting his people from harm, as a guard.

Yet God brought his people back from a greater exile, that of his condemnation, through the resurrection of Christ. Upon his death, the curtain in the temple separating the holiness of an inaccessible God from mankind was torn. (Mt 27:51) This is the great accomplishment of Easter. He still protects us by remaining near us (and in us), that we may not have fear.

And in the journey back from this exile, we carry the vessels of our bodies, as our instruments of worship. May they be used as such therefore, in special Easter praise, and in showing through ourselves always how great the good news we have received is.

I have attempted to research the movement known as the emerging church. This movement seeks to create a church that is relevant and engaging in our postmodern society, eschewing the traditional paradigms of what a church is. In my searches, I found an example of such church in Portland. It is called the Evergreen Community.

Like most churches, they meet every Sunday morning. Unlike many churches (some of which might be horrified at this concept), they meet in a pub. They explain that this location is indeed central to their mission link)

Why do you meet in a pub? Well, it’s pretty cheap  Honestly, our desire was to do our worship gatherings in a place that was both affordable and that fit with our philosophy of involvement in the life of the city of Portland. Also, being accessible to those we are trying to integrate into our community was pretty high on the list… And the pub does all that. It really breaks down barriers for people who wouldn’t think about walking into a more traditional church building. It has the added benefit of tending to keep away those who probably wouldn’t fit with our community anyway and might feel more at home in a more “traditional” community.

They describe what typically goes on therein:

A welcome by someone wherein we talk about an aspect of the community- one of our core values or something we are trying to do or be.

We’ll have a few moments of quiet, centering prayer… often accompanied by a reading (usually the whole group, in unison) of a Psalm.

After that, the fun begins…

We generally work through books of the Bible, but occasionally spend some time focusing on different topics. But even when we’re covering a topic, we tend to base it on a section of Scripture- we tend to work verse by verse through the whole passage.

And we talk a lot. For us, the sermon is (at least this is the ideal) the work of the community. We are teaching each other. Whoever is leading that morning still has a role in keeping things on track, doing the majority of the talking, but we do our darndest to get others talking to each other as well. In this way, as a community, we wrestle with the Scriptures.

We prefer this dialogical approach over the more traditional monologue of one person speaking sermons and feel it helps people learn and stay involved better.

However, they emphasize that their Sunday worship is definitely not the extent of their church. They have a set of core values listed, which make their priorities clear. If I can attempt to summarize these:

1.  Mission - The church is set up to be a mission to others - “we are here for the church which is here for the world”.
2. Justice - “The Evergreen Community aims to be a group of people who honor God the way that He wants to be honored, not necessarily in the way that is most comfortable or convenient for us. And that means actually doing something for the poor, because that’s what God wants, even if it pulls us far outside of our comfort zones.”
3. Community - The church “experience” is to move in a progression. Only at the beginning are we to be necessarily concerned with whether the church is something for us; it is imperative that progress beyond that to being something for other people.
4. Hope - “Drawing a picture for those we meet of who they could be, of the person God created them to be… and rather than pushing them towards that out of guilt or obligation, pulling them towards it out a sense of love and hope.”
5. History - “We also want to see ourselves not as a disconnected community, but as a group of people who stand in the stream of something much larger than ourselves: the Church down through history. As a result, we want to look back to that history and draw inspiration, resources and role models from it, while recognizing that we aren’t necessarily bound by it.”

And their community is fostered by their smaller size (I think about 130 people). They reflect this attitude like this:

Will you become a mega church and sell out? Our vision from the beginning has been to remain small as a community but grow through multiplication. Our goal is not to build one large church dynasty because it becomes impossible to remain personal and non-programmatic. Therefore, we seek to remain small enough as a community to where we can know and take care of one another, but at the same time we seek to grow through continually starting new communities where more people can gather and seek to love and serve each other and the neighborhood in which we meet and live.

The Emerging Church is something that interests me greatly; I shall in this too continue my research.

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

(Is 53:3 ESV)

Today is Good Friday in the Western tradition. Christians today celebrate (if that’s the right word) and remember the death of Christ on a cross, as the act of redemption. I gave a bit of thought to the significance of this, and came up with the following idea:

I thought that it is important to remember that Christ’s suffering was not limited to the single event of the crucifixion on Good Friday. His life did not just end in sorrow, but he was “a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief”. (Is 53:3 ESV) As the Heidelberg Catechism states, “During his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained … the anger of God”. (QA 37, emphasis mine)

This is evident throughout the gospel. At the beginning of his ministry, the people of his town tried to throw him off a cliff. (Lk. 4) His message was a difficult one: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Lk. 12:51 ESV) He was constantly and bitterly fighting against those with religious and political power.

In the days closer to his death, this grew stronger. He was betrayed by one of those closest to him. Another of his disciples publicly disowned him. He was given an unfair trial, with the use of false witnesses. (Mt. 26:60) The crowd desired his condemnation rather than “a notorious prisoner”. (Mt. 27:16 ESV) He was mocked in front of an entire battalion of soldiers. (Mt. 27:27)

For the crucifixion is something foreign to us. We have seen nobody being crucified, and certainly none of us has gone through that experience. Thus, Good Friday becomes an event in the past, still, we know, of the utmost significance, but we are removed more than a few steps from it.

But who has not been “despised and rejected”, who has not seen at least some sorrow or grief? We all have firsthand knowledge and experience of these: we have been betrayed, disowned; we have taken up hard fights against those with more power than us; we see injustice everywhere.

In this, we also participate in Good Friday. Those were our sufferings he bore. In the reverse, they are his sufferings we have ourselves and see around us. Through his death, one day these sufferings will be removed from us. Also, we in our moments of pain come to comprehend a small part of the agony of Christ, feeling it firsthand ourselves. This gives us a depth and sincerity to our appreciation for the magnitude of what he did, as his sufferings were so much greater yet than all that is in and around us.

What then should we do? Looking upon the example of Christ, who bore our pain and suffered for us, we ought to also attempt then to bear and eliminate the sufferings of others. This is a call for us – to search out ways we can aid, showing people why Good Friday is indeed Good.