This Side of the Pulpit » Entries tagged with "quotation"
Impracticality of God
More great writing and wisdom from Pr. Peters Hardly anything you see or we do on Sunday morning is practical. Not the vestments or the liturgy, not the organ or the choir, not the paraments and painting or the wooden pews and kneelers. But that is the point. It was practicality that got us in trouble in the first place. We sought a short cut to achieving our dreams of glory and it came with a price tag of death, disorder, and disappointment. We don’t need a better life now as much as we need a life that is stronger than death, mercy to forgive our sins, and hope to carry us through a life too filled with suffering, disappointment, and pain. Christian faith does not guarantee a path void of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Ceremonies and Their Purpose
Here is an excellent post by Fr. Larry Beane (yes, a Lutheran “Father”–believe it) about our worship “style” or “height” be it High Church or Low Church. There are really too many passages worthy of being a pull quote, but here’s one: Ceremonies are not about looking pretty, but rather about communicating well and with excellence. Ultimately, it’s all about charity, humility, and love. A man who loves his wife will “take pains” in the way he acts around her, treats her, and speaks to her. Christ took great pains for us on the cross. And we “take pains” to confess this truth with clarity and in love. In the final analysis, it is all about God’s grace. My congregation has grown in ceremonies over the years I have been here, from a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Power and Humility
Rachel Held Adams writes about Mark Driscoll* and such mega-church consumerist evangelicalism: When you build your church and your culture around hierarchy and power, you are naturally going to be 1) highly-organized, and 2) personality focused. But when you build your church and your culture around humility and service, you are naturally going to be 1) organic, growing at the grassroots level, and 2) less dependent on one or two flashy personalities and more dependent on the daily faithfulness of regular people…. The Mark Driscolls of this world pull in (and publicize) the big numbers because that is how they measure success…. We are part of a living, growing Kingdom in which the last will be first and the first will be last, in which the peacemakers and the merciful and the meek … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Sign of the Cross
Making the sign of the cross over yourself is an ancient practice. Sure, some do it in a superstitious way…or at least seem to. But maybe we shouldn’t judge. Rev. Todd Peperkorn writes, Making the sign of the cross is catholic, but not simply in the Roman Catholic sense. It has been practiced by Christians almost since the time of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. It has probably been around as a Christian practice as long as folding one’s hands to pray or saying before meal prayers. So in terms of its historic practice, Christians have been making the sign of the cross as long as there have been crosses. Read more of his post here. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Small Business Congregations
This seems to be making some rounds. I stole it from incarnatus est: The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers and the shop they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns—how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money…The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in town and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. It is this … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Repenting and Not Repenting and Still Repenting
On this coming Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican (in the One Year lectionary), I ran across the following and had to share: But if repentance is too much for you, and you sin out of habit even when you do not want to, show humility like the publican ( cf. Luke 18:13): that is enough to ensure your salvation. For he who sins without repenting, yet does not despair, must out of necessity regard … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Violence and our Culture
“The problem of violence isn’t out there in bad music and bloody films. The real problem is in here, in us, and it won’t be fixed by v-chips,” he said. “We’ve created a culture that markets violence in dozens of different ways, seven days a week. … When we build our advertising campaigns on consumer selfishness and greed, and when money becomes the universal measure of value, how can we be surprised when our sense of community erodes? “When we glorify and multiply guns, why are we shocked when kids use them? When we answer murder with more violence in the death penalty, we put the state’s seal of approval on revenge. When the most dangerous place in the country is a mother’s womb, and the unborn child can have his … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Love and Trinity 1
Christ gave us peace; He bade us be in agreement, and of one mind. He charged the bonds of love and charity to be kept uncorrupted and inviolate; he cannot show himself a martyr who has not maintained brotherly love. Paul the apostle teaches this, and testifies, saying, “And though I have faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I give all my goods to feed … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
Eucharisto
Perhaps the greatest single failure in the Christian life is the refusal to give thanks. Thanks that is dependent upon success or the fulfillment and pleasure of our own will is indeed thanksgiving – but is weak indeed. It is easy to give thanks for our pleasures and self-satisfactions (though even then we often forget to give thanks). Fr. Stephen Freeman (source) You could say that thanksgiving to God in every circumstance is the mark of a Christian; it is our daily activity, the source of our joy, the fountain from which our hearts beat and our days become something more than rote and given. They become life and joy and full. It is absurd and appears to be the height of foolishness to give thanks for the cancer, … Read entire article »
Filed under: The World
What the Fathers Preached:Luke 14:1-11
And it is not easy to keep one’s soul humble in the midst of difficulties, just as it is not easy not to be proud and prosperity and honor. And the proud, the more they are flattered, the more disdainful they become. The manner of one who is humble of heart is modest and somewhat downcast. Such as these also dress simply and for use, not cultivating hair, or particular about clothing; so that the appearance mourners put on is natural to them. And as to dress, but the outer garment (tunic) be held in place by a girdle, not fastened above the waist, like a woman’s, nor yet loosely, so that the garment is slack, which looks foolish. And as to your manner of walking, let it not be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Theology
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