Preaching Without Reaching

Here is another post on preaching this time from Touchstone magazine editor, David Mills. He writes on the "irrelevance of relevant preaching". The article appeared in the July/August issue of Touchstone and online. You can subscribe to the magazine here and, of course, you should so at once.


A taste:

This was true of my friend, who had a creative but not a verbally precise mind. He was worried that the technical terms—the insider language—would drive people away. He told the preacher whose sermon he praised to replace “legalism” with “perfectionism,” and “licentiousness” with “permissiveness,” because most people would much more easily understand the new words.

My friend did not see the problem with this, and most of the preachers on the e-mail list to which my friend posted his comments did not, and several academics with whom I discussed it did not. The preachers and the academics, whose vocations depend upon knowing what words mean, did not see any difference between the old words and the new, and indeed approved my friend’s attempt at translation.

I am sure the man in the pew would understand the new words more easily. Of course. But he would not understand nearly so clearly the truths the preacher was trying to convey to him—the biblical truths the preacher is by his commission as a minister required to convey to him—because the new words do not mean the religious problems the original words define.

A preacher might want to preach on perfectionism and permissiveness, but those were not, given the passage of the day, the problems on which the preacher was trying that day to preach. He had been given God’s needed word to say about legalism and licentiousness.

Petersen on preaching and listening

Pastor Petersen proves again his abilities as a perceptive thinker, as he considers the sermon once more in another post.

He sets forth how hearers and preachers approach sermons differently.

Well worth a look.

On sermons and baseball

There are a few good bloggers today with thoughts on sermons.

Rev. Paul McCain wonders if sermons are too short these days. Sermon starvation.

Rev. William Weedon, commenting on that post, answers that brevity is not necessarily a bad thing.

I must say the bad sermons I have heard have tended to be long, disorganized affairs with the preacher going on at some length but to no apparent purpose. The most well built sermons are not necessarily long or short but to the point. They have a coherence and a structure that comes form having thought out what will be said. They are "narratives" in that they begin somewhere, they go somewhere and then end. One thing follows upon another and what comes before is connected to what comes after.

Rev. David Petersen compares sermons to cooking, making the point that an individual sermon is most likely quickly forgotten, like a meal. Yet that does not mean it is not effective. It is the point of a sermon to, over the course of a lifetime, impart the saving truth. One bit at a time.

I have thought the same thing often but in terms of a baseball analogy (much less Scriptural than Rev. Petersen's example). The best hitters are those who simply make contact. They do not hit a home run every time. They have good mechanics ... they do their job.

Same with preachers. They need not hit a home run every week. Just make contact. Have good mechanics, do good preparation, organize your thoughts. Make the Gospel the main thing. Week in week out, deliver the word. If you hit one out of the park every now and again ( ... how one knows this it is hard to say... ) give God the glory and then next week get back in the pulpit and preach the Gospel again.

Hispanic Churches Add English Services

Here is a switch:

Hispanic Churches Add English Services

Hmmm, just in time for Lutherans like us to finally try and reach them in Spanish they are reaching their own in English. Ah, irony.


As a complement to the regular 11:30 a.m. Spanish service at the independent Pentecostal church, where they've worshipped Papi for years, there's now a 9:30 a.m. English one where the faithful praise God the Father.

While churches from every imaginable tradition have been adding Spanish services to meet the needs of new immigrants, an increasing number of Hispanic ethnic congregations are going the other way - starting English services.

It's an effort to meet the demands of second- and third-generation Hispanics, keep families together and reach non-Latinos.

The Christian faith appeals to all the senses

The first few paragraphs of a nice sermon by the Uneasy Priest. You can read the rest of it here.

The Christian faith appeals to all the senses. The focus in God’s House is on altar, pulpit, and font; the places where Jesus’ Word and Sacraments are delivered. Our ears hear God’s Word. Our mouths confess His Name and offer the sacrifice of prayer and praise. Our mouths also receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Hands hold hymnals, Bibles, and catechisms. Occasionally we may smell incense, a visible sign (and smell) of our prayers rising before the Throne of Grace as the psalmist writes in Psalm 141.

Take away two sensory locations, the ear and the mouth, and everything changes. The ears cannot hear the Word of life. The mouth may be opened but with no tongue to speak it is impossible to make words of prayer and praise. That’s the situation of the man in Mark chapter seven. Not only is he deaf-mute, he comes from the Decapolis, ten cities clustered outside Judea. He’s a Gentile. He’s not one of God’s chosen people. Jesus should have nothing to do with him. What good is he anyway? He neither hears nor speaks.

What good is your ear when you will not hear the Word of the Lord and keep it? What good is your tongue when you will not return praise and thanksgiving to the Lord? The ear and the tongue are dangerous tools. The ear hears many things each day. Ears can’t help but be fine tuned to hear dangerous things like gossip, slander, and lies. Though you may not be able to hear as well as you once did, it always seems that you have perfect hearing when items about others come up. The ear’s partner is the tongue. You can’t hear something without the tongue forming syllables and putting words together. The same tongue and mouth that offer prayer now will speak words of hate, half-truths, and foolishness later.

The joy of the saints' company

Two closing thoughts that are tangential to AC XXI, but explicit in Ap XXI: we do not deny that the saints in heaven intercede for the church in general. Granted, there is no explicit Scripture that teaches this outside of the dream in 2 Maccabees where Jeremiah is seen pleading for Jerusalem. But Scripture does teach that the angels intercede for us (Zechariah 1), and since we know that our Lord, the premier Saint, lives to intercede for His Church to the Father, it is quite sound to hold that the saints in heaven join Him in His intercession for the pilgrim church on earth.

Thus, do not allow yourself to be drawn into typical Roman or Eastern polemics about the intercession of the saints as though we denied it; we do not. Rather, what we have always denied is that the fact that they intercede for the Church in general justifies the practice of the saints on earth invoking the saints in heaven. And since this is so, it is contrary to the Gospel to require people to pray to the saints in heaven. Second, the joy of the saints' company is not that they invite us to focus on them. Rather, the very mark of the saints is that they invite us to focus with them upon the Lamb who redeemed them with His own blood, sanctified them in the waters of Baptism, and made them shining witnesses to the glory of His resurrection. They are not dead. They live in Him. Their spirits join us (and we them) in the Divine Liturgy (Hebrews 12!) and we sing a united song with angels, archangels, and with all the company of heaven. "Holy, holy, holy!"

From the Concordia blog on the Lutheran confessions

Barbarism of the mind

Barbarism is never finally defeated; given propitious circumstances, men and women who seem quite orderly will commit every conceivable atrocity. The danger does not come merely from habitual hooligans; we are all potential recruits for anarchy. Unremitting effort is needed to keep men living together at peace; there is only a margin of error left over for experiment however beneficent. Once the prisons of the mind have been opened, the orgy is on. … The work of preserving society is sometimes onerous, sometimes almost effortless. The more elaborate the society, the more vulnerable it is to attack, and the more complete its collapse in case of defeat. At a time like the present it is notably precarious. If it falls, we shall see not merely the dissolution of a few joint-stock corporations, but of the spiritual and material achievements of our history. --Evelyn Waugh

Posted on First Things which got it from New Criterion.

Actually....

The good news on Leo I was crowing about was premature. That volume online was Migne, PL Volume LVI.

I NEED VOLUME LIV!

I am beginning to think it has not been digitized.

Sigh.

Anyone want to sacrifice a few hours and FIND IT FOR ME ONLINE? Or go to a local theological library and photocopy the entire thing one dime at a time?

I am on a quest!

Sine labore nihil

Hey hey, rejoice with me I found the Migne Patrologia Latina volume of the complete works of Leo the Great, Pope of Rome, in the 450's. I must say Google books may be controversial but it wonderful for amateur scholars like me.

I also found this this amazing sitewith all sorts of links to patristic material in the original language. Hat tip to the blog, Thoughts on Antiquity. Of course, the site is all in Latin! So dig in and remember ... Sine labore nihil.

Father Reginald reads Pope Leo in Latin

So I'm looking the sermons of St. Leo the Great online in Latin. Just something I'm looking for. Haven't found the texts yet ( can anyone help?) But I did find this:

Fr. Reginald Foster reads the sermons of St. Leo Magnus in Latin for your listening and learning pleasure.

Is not the Internet a marvel? You can listen to( but not apparently .. read) the original Latin sermons of Pope Leo from 450 AD.

That is wild.

Here is sermon one.

The NYT on the ELCA Gay Clergy Decision

Advocates Hail Lutheran Act on Gay Clergy Members

The country’s largest Lutheran denomination officially bars openly gay people from the ministry. But in a move that advocates for gay men and lesbians are hailing as a step toward changing that policy, the denomination is urging its bishops to refrain from disciplining gay members of the clergy who are in committed same-sex relationships.

Evangelicals Behaving Badly with Statistics

This is an excellent article dealing statistics and how churches and para-church organizations abuse them.

Here is the intro:

American evangelicals, who profess to be committed to Truth, are among the worst abusers of simple descriptive statistics, which claim to represent the truth about reality, of any group I have ever seen. At stake in this misuse are evangelicals' own integrity, credibility with outsiders, and effectiveness in the world. It is an issue worth making a fuss over. And so I write.

By simple descriptive statistics I mean elementary ways of quantifying differences in the world, such as percentages and averages describing distributions and trends in populations. Now, I am not among those who believe that the ability to quantify is the true test of authoritative knowledge. I am not even a quantoid-geek type of sociologist. But I do think that statistics can often usefully represent what is going on in reality. They can help to get at what seems to be true about what is actual. So statistics are well worth doing well and getting right.

Of course statistics are generally well known for their misuse. Anyone can easily twist, misrepresent, and lie with statistics. And it takes a bit of basic knowledge for even well meaning people to avoid common statistical pitfalls. But none of that exempts evangelicals from having to use statistics responsibly. The problem is, they often do not.

Why do evangelicals recurrently abuse statistics? My observation is that they are usually trying desperately to attract attention and raise people's concern in order to mobilize resources and action for some cause. In a world awash in information and burdened by myriad problems, some evangelicals may justify the problematic misuse of statistics to get people to pay attention to what they think are good causes. But this is inexcusable. Such desperation, alarmism, and sloppiness reflect the worst, not the best, in evangelicalism.

She gets changed, so that those around her don’t have to.

Here is a note Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote to a NYT reporter on abortion. Very well stated. One thing that struck me was her saying that abortion forces a woman to change to fit the society. That is so true.

Here is the sentence she wrote: That abortion adapts women to a hostile situation, rather than challenging and changing that society — adapts her physically, like a whalebone corset does.

And

But it seems like abortion is a funnel that women’s complex situations get stuffed into — she gets changed, so that those around her don’t have to.

Here is the whole note. Mathewes-Greene's article is here.

I feel bad that I’ve gotten rusty on this topic—lately I’m writing more about Eastern Christian spirituality, etc. So I’ve forgotten all my statistics, and hope I can be a useful interview.

The main general reflection-thing I’d say is that it seems that the abortion issue is “cooling off” — not that advocates on either side are any less passionate about it, and not that the political fight is concluded, but that the public has lost interest. Other issues have grabbed their attention. I first noticed this in 2000, when Newsweek’s 6-page comparison of Bush and Gore on important issues did not include abortion.

So I like to say “The abortion debate is over,” meaning that folks aren’t listening any more. The “fight” isn’t over, from the point of view of either side, but the debate is over because we’ve run out of interested listeners. The auditorium is empty and the lights have been turned off.

I think in a way this is a good thing. That there is a lot of ambivalence about abortion out there, as well as much submerged post-abortion grief. This needs a “moment of silence” to be able to rise to consciousness, so people can admit and recognize these conflicted feelings, and move to a new stage. As long as the debate is hot, people immediately think in terms of “which side are you on,” and these deeper questions — about what abortion really is, about how it makes us feel, how it affects our relationships and our sense of ourselves—keep getting stuffed down.

One of the women I interviewed in my book “Real Choices” told me that after the abortion she felt she couldn’t tell anyone about her sad feelings. She said that if she told pro-life friends she was depressed about her abortion, they would reject her, saying, “You had an abortion? You’re a murderer!” And she couldn’t tell her pro-choice friends because they would say, “What are you complaining about? You had a choice. Are you a traitor to the cause?” It seemed like there was nowhere to go. As the heat cools off, voices like hers can be heard.

I think that as these conflicted feelings rise to the surface we’ll be better able to understand what abortion does to a society, and admit how many of them are negative. That abortion adapts women to a hostile situation, rather than challenging and changing that society — adapts her physically, like a whalebone corset does.

When I was a college feminist and championed women’s right to abortion, I thought of it as something liberating. I had no idea that there would be so *many* abortions—I think the total now is 47 million. We all thought it would just be a few “hard cases.” But it seems like abortion is a funnel that women’s complex situations get stuffed into — she gets changed, so that those around her don’t have to. And the idea that an abortion was a liberating experience was quickly overturned by the reality that women go into it pressured and panicked, and come out of it weeping. Abortion is not something any woman wants. And if women are doing something 3500 times a day that they don’t want to do, this is not liberation that we’ve won.

More Elvis

More Elvis and religion stories

... a 52-year-old, Elvis-crooning Anglican priest who calls himself "Elvis Priestley."

... Randy Curtis, Danville’s own Elvis impersonator, has a “hunka hunka burnin’ love” not only for the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but also for God, and the people he entertains.

Here is a page that seeks to debunk the assertion that Elvis was a practicing Christian.

But dont tell Joe Moscheo.

LCMS on the ELCA Decisison on Homosexual clergy

Two statements from LCMS leaders on the recent ELCA decision not to discipline clergy who live in an open homosexual relationship:

LCMS President Gerald Kieschnick writes in part:

News of this action troubles me greatly and is causing serious concern and consternation among the members and leaders of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). We in the LCMS hold firmly to the conviction that, according to the Holy Bible, homosexual behavior is “intrinsically sinful.” We are deeply disappointed that the ELCA, by its decision, has failed to act in keeping with the historic and universal understanding of the Christian church regarding what Holy Scripture teaches about homosexual behavior as contrary to God’s will and about the biblical qualifications for holding the pastoral office.

and Concordia Theological Seminary President Dean Wenthe writes in part:

It is, therefore, simply tragic that the majority at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, Saturday, August 11, 2007, has refused to discipline those willfully engaged in that which Sacred Scripture identifies as “intrinsically sinful”, namely, homosexual behavior. Such a step is a radical departure from two thousand years of Christian teaching across churches and denominations. A physician can only assist a patient by naming the disease. By denying its existence the physician harms the patient.

Concordia Theological Seminary prepares pastors faithful to Jesus’ living voice in Sacred Scriptures. Pastors who will name the evils and sins that destroy human beings and then present the healing, forgiving, life-giving words of the great, good physician Jesus.

We are grateful for the clear witness of President Gerald B. Kieschnick and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in support of Sacred Scripture. It is a privilege to prepare pastors for such a church even as we pray that all may return to, and hear, the pure voice of Jesus and be healed by His presence.


Click on the links to read their entire statements.

Anthropologists vs. Atheists

Here an anthropologist of religion takes on the recent spate of atheists. (HT : Arts and Letters Daily.) Believers will say phooey to both but the anthropologist does have _some_ contribution to make.

There is some truth in this paragraph about these profound moments. Of course such moments are not the origin of God rather they are instances where God can lead us, in our dependence, to more easily see the God who made us and entered our world of birth and death in the person of Jesus.


Of course, you don't have to follow Girard into those obscure and controversial regions in order to endorse his view of the sacred as a human universal. Nor do you have to accept the cosmology of monotheism in order to understand why it is that this experience of the sacred should attach itself to the three great transitions—the three rites of passage—which mark the cyclical continuity of human societies. Birth, copulation and death are the moments when time stands still, when we look on the world from a point at its edge, when we experience our dependence and contingency, and when we are apt to be filled with an entirely reasonable awe. It is from such moments, replete with emotional knowledge, that religion begins. The rational person is not the one who scoffs at all religions, but the one who tries to discover which of them, if any, can make sense of those things, and, while doing so, draw the poison of resentment.

Book List

Here are some books I've read over the last 2-3 months. Just sharing.


American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon
Written by Stephen Prothero


A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings
Written by Stella Tillyard
All I knew about George III was that he went mad and was king during the American Revulotion but this book fleshes out his scandalous family and the celebrity culture that took hold in the ... yes... the mid 1700's. Nicely done.


Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam
Written by Mark Bowden
Comments: Very well done history of the Iranian hostage crisis. Gives a good sense of that time in the US in the late 70's.


Easter Everywhere: A Memoir
Written by Darcey Steinke
Comments: A memoir of the daughter of a Lutheran ( I am almost positive it is LCMS) pastor growing up in the 1960 and 70's. Fascinating well written. Her parents lose their faith, divorce etc. She arrives at a vaguely Christian gnosticism. Worth reading. An easy read as well. She does a bit of reading her present views back into her past but an honest account.



Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich
Written by Mark Kriegel


The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
Written by Debby Applegate
Comments: Outstanding. A very well done biography of a preacher you probably have not heard of but enormously famous in the 19th century. Read it ... very entertaining. Came out in 2006.


A Royal Affair: George III and His Scandalous Siblings
Written by Stella Tillyard
Comments: All I knew about George III was that he went mad and was king during the American Revulotion but this book fleshes out his scandalous family and the celebrity culture that took hold in the ... yes... the mid 1700's. Nicely done.


A Drinking Life: A Memoir
Written by Pete Hamill
Comments: I'd give 3.75 stars. Well done. Very well written. Quite coarse and vulgar in spots. A good memoir on growing up ... in Brooklyn ... in the 1940's and 50's ... under the pull of alcohol and dreams of the future and the weight of family and history and your father.


Aloft
Written by Chang-Rae Lee
Comments: Excellent novel. In the vein of Updike.


Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
Written by Koren Zailckas
Comments: Here is a terrifying memoir to read as you send your 18 year old daughter to college: a young woman recounts her drunken teenage and college years. Very nicely written.


The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Written by Jeannette Walls
Comments: Read this two years ago. Well written memoir of a strange family and parents who pursued crazy dreams and how it affected their kids. Easy reading. Good for the beach.


The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Written by Erik Larson
Comments: Actually read this one a couple of years ago. Excellent popular history. Great story of the World Fair in Chicago in 1893 and the buildings it left behind plus a great murder story. Well done.

Cajetan

August 7th is the day in the Roman breviary, apparently, to remember Cardinal Cajetan.

Now for Lutherans this is a dark name. He was the Cardinal who came to examine Luther at the Diet of Augsburg in 1518. He serves as a grand example of the late medieval Roman Catholic hubris and error for Lutherans. Now that may or may not be accurate ... but it is simply the role he has played in Lutheran storytelling.

But read the Roman Breviary on him and Luther is not mentioned! It is interesting to view history from the other side. There is, no doubt, not a small measure of hagiography in the account but it is fascinating nonetheless.

The image is of Cardinal Cajetan holding the baby Jesus in his arms which he has received from the Blessed Virgin. A startling image for a Lutheran! I love the old practice of painting in contemporary people into ancient scenes. This painting though derives from a vision Cajetan is said to have had one Christmas night when he beseeched the Virgin to lay Christ into his arms.

Here is one paragraph from the Roman Breviary online summarizes part of his life:

He was a great advancer of care in the worship of God, of splendour in the house of God, of exactness in the holy ceremonies, and of the often receiving of the most holy Eucharist. The hideous forms and dark convolutions of heresy he more than once unmasked and abolished. He would remain in prayer with abundance of tears as much as eight hours at a time. He was often thrown into trances, and was celebrated for the gift of prophecy. One Christmas night at Rome, when he was praying before the Lord's manger, he was deemed worthy that the Mother of God should lay the Child Jesus in his arms. He sometimes spent the whole night in whipping himself, nor could he ever be persuaded to soften the hardness of his life, but witnessed that he was fain to die in sackcloth and ashes. In the end he fell ill with grief at the offence against God, which the people of Naples committed by rebelling against the establishment of the Inquisition. Refreshed by a vision from heaven, he departed thither.

Luther punk

.. is a blog that looks interesting. Only spent a couple of minutes looking but I will add it to my google reader. Here is his intro:

I am a Lutheran pastor, a husband, and father to two wonderful kids. I am slowly immersing myself in the world of Benedictine spirituality, finding a sense of rhythm in the offices and study of the Rule. At the same time, I am a rockabilly, honky tonk and punk enthusiast, a collector of tattoos, and a lover of big engines (currently digging my 5.7L Hemi). Mostly, I am just your run of the mill sinner/saint. Keeping these things in balance is a tough act, and this blog attests to that fact.

Anyone into Benedictine spirituality and rockabilly can't be all bad.


Plus this amusing exchange (If this happened to me you gotta believe it would make it into a sermon very quickly) :

I just killed a rattlesnake at church. It had gotten inside. He was pretty small. I took him out on the portico and crushed his head. That is all.
#
he didn’t bruise your heel, did he?
#
Wow! Prophecy fulfilled!
#
the 12 year old boy in you really enjoyed it didn’t he? :)
#
No bruises, but prophetic nonetheless.
And Ruth, um, well, yeah!
#
Good thing here in NJ we don’t have to worry about rattle snakes. Only gang violence and pollution.
#
You destroyed one of God’s own creatures? I hope that, at the very least, you had the decency to cook and consume the non-crushed portion of the poor feller :)

Sin is not canceled by lawful living

A nice selection from Luther. Thanks to The Journeymen whoever they are.


The greeting of the Apostle is refreshing. Grace remits sin, and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has overcome these fiends now and forever. Only Christians possess this victorious knowledge given from above. These two terms, grace and peace, constitute Christianity. Grace involves the remission of sins, peace, and a happy conscience. Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live up to the Law. The Law reveals guilt, fills the conscience with terror, and drives men to despair. Much less is sin taken away by man-invented endeavors. The fact is, the more a person seeks credit for himself by his own efforts, the deeper he goes into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the grace of God. In actual living, however, it is not so easy to persuade oneself that by grace alone, in opposition to every other means, we obtain the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.

The world brands this a pernicious doctrine. The world advances free will, the rational and natural approach of good works, as the means of obtaining the forgiveness of sin. But it is impossible to gain peace of conscience by the methods and means of the world. Experience proves this. Various holy orders have been launched for the purpose of securing peace of conscience through religious exercises, but they proved failures because such devices only increase doubt and despair. We find no rest for our weary bones unless we cling to the word of grace.

The Apostle does not wish the Galatians grace and peace from the emperor, or from kings, or from governors, but from God the Father. He wishes them heavenly peace, the kind of which Jesus spoke when He said, “Peace I leave unto you: my peace I give unto you.” Worldly peace provides quiet enjoyment of life and possessions. But in affliction, particularly in the hour of death, the grace and peace of the world will not deliver us. However, the grace and peace of God will. They make a person strong and courageous to bear and to overcome all difficulties, even death itself, because we have the victory of Christ’s death and the assurance of the forgiveness of our sins.” - Martin Luther

Ancient Byzantine Church discovered under Holiday Inn

Yes, that's right. In Tiberias in Israel.

Two cities, two loves

Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, "Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength."

And therefore the wise men of the one city, living according to man, have sought for profit to their own bodies or souls, or both, and those who have known God "glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise,"--that is, glorying in their own wisdom, and being possessed by pride,--"they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." For they were either leaders or followers of the people in adoring images, "and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." But in the other city there is no human wisdom, but only godliness, which offers due worship to the true God, and looks for its reward in the society of the saints, of holy angels as well as holy men, "that God may be all in all."

Augustine, City of God, Book XIV Chap. 28

Sweeeeet Tea

I am a transplant to North Carolina by way of Texas, California, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois ( a long story ) but one thing that has made its way into the depths of my being is sweet tea. It is simply the best non- alcoholic beverage ever invented.

Slate has a nice meditation on the appeal of sweet tea. Read at it at your own risk. It makes you thirsty. I read it and now I am headed across the street to the Catawba Grill for a big glass of the stuff. Hmmmm.


Here is a bit of the article:

Today, offering up a glass of sweet tea on a hot day in the South is as welcoming a gesture as passing the doobie at a Phish show. It's so ingrained in the Southern DNA—Marion Cabell Tyree included the recipe in a cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia as early as 1879—that people now post videos online of their infants sampling the stuff. It's a frequent menu item for the condemned, as well as a centerpiece at church suppers. As an April Fools' Day prank in 2003, Georgia State Rep. John Noel introduced a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor for a restaurant owner not to include sweet tea on the menu. Most Southerners can easily tell the difference between fresh sweet tea and the stuff from concentrate—and unless their sugar jones is too strong that day, chances are they'll send the latter back.

In times of crisis : Bach

I am a big fan of rock music and pop music. But this opinion piece I read this morning in the local Charlotte paper makes a very good case for classical music especially Bach. It is worth a read. Here is an excerpt.

As with drugs crossing the cord, however, I would always be thoughtful of what music I listened to. In April last year at an outdoor concert, my group sat behind three generations of a young family. On stage at one point some leftover from the Grateful Dead sang some sort of "song" that involved a chorus of repeated references to cocaine. In front of me, mother and grandmother enthusiastically sang along, all the while the young mother rocked the toddler in her arms to "cocaine" this and "cocaine" that. What a great start in life.

In the years since my personal trauma was so eased by Bach, his music has continued to be the force field in my life, and, curiously, the particular selection that accompanied me through that hell has remained my favorite. All the pain, all the trauma, has tided away, but the gratitude felt for that selection and the composer remains. I recommend anything of Bach's to anyone in crisis

This is one big turban

Apparently, turban size is related to status.

This guy must have alot of status.

What song was number one when you were born?

This is fun..

Put in your b-day and you get the song.

Mine? Sugar Shack - Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs

Yeah I know that song. I didn't know the artist, though. Pretty silly song.

Anyone else want to try it and share?

"Luther's doctrine has led more people to hell than any other"

I actually enjoy reading this kind of invective. This online attack on Luther's teaching on baptism is forthright and energetic in its denunciation of baptismal regeneration. It is refreshing to read a strong unashamed confession of belief.

Mr. Oswald is pretty close to getting Luther right. He simply thinks his teaching is grossly in error. But he is right : Luther does teach salvation in baptism. There is no sense in trying to capture Luther for your side or another unless you deal with the whole Luther.

The essay does a fair job of presenting believer's baptism as well. The contrast is clear.

God, Mammon, and the "Worship Wars

A provocative take on the worship wars: God, Mammon, and the "Worship Wars".

Just a bit of it:


But whatever side you are on in this issue, all can agree that something unprecedented has taken place in our churches over the past 30 years. For nearly 500 years, since the Reformation, Protestant worship – at least -- has remained more or less the same. Up until 30 years ago, with only incremental changes and modifications, we sang many of the same hymns, recited many of the same creeds, and made many of the same confessions as Calvin, Luther, and Wesley. But about 30 years ago a radical transformation occurred, and that transformation can be summarized in by two words: contemporary worship.

Why did this happen? How could it be that after hundreds of years, the way we worship could be transformed in a generation? Did a bunch of theologians get together and decide that the new way was more biblically sound? Did we try it in a few places and discover that it was more effective at disciple-making? No. It happened because of money, and most evangelicals don’t even know it.

To understand this, consider that when a congregation sings Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” no money changes hands. But when that same congregation sings “God of Wonders,” written by Steve Hindalong and Marc Byrd, both men – and their music publishing company, get a small payday. Why is that? Because “A Mighty Fortress” is in the public domain, but “God of Wonders” is owned by them and both they and their publishers have an economic self interest in seeing that these songs are sung and played in churches around the country.

This phenomenon of Sunday morning worship becoming not a day of praise, but a day of pay, is a recent one. It can be traced to an organization called Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI). CCLI collects fees from churches and then pays the copyright holders – keeping a percentage for itself, of course. The size of the copyright fee depends on the size of the church, but a 500-member church would pay about $300 per year. Currently, approximately 140,000 churches are CCLI license holders. That means that $40- to $50-million per year is collected and re-distributed to copyright owners.

Schmelvis, Melvis, Jelvis

This August 17th is the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis' death. I love Elvis. I love everything about him. His music, his persona, his life story (read the two volume Guralnick book, amazing biography) the reaction he still provokes among people.

Here is some stuff I cam across today on Elvis.
Remembering the real Elvis

Elvis Presley Page

LO, Elvis is among you, a religious flavor to the King.

Beliefnet offers this list of sites that treat Elvis in a religious way. I love this stuff. It cracks me up. I do think somewhat seriously that Elvis was THE icon the mirror on to which American projected itself in the 50's, 60's and 70's. A spiritual key as much as anything.

Below is the list from Beliefnet which is a laugh just reading much less actually going to all those sites.



All Praise the King
The many faiths of Elvis Presley

It seems everybody wants to claim Elvis as their own, from Jewish impersonators to Christian Elvis fans to those who believe Elvis is God. The religion of Elvis probably won't become a category on the 2010 U.S. census, but 25 year's after the King's death, Elvis worship is still going strong. The following links provide details on Jewish Elvis lyrics, Pagan Elvis rituals, the similarities between Jesus and Elvis, and much more.


Jewish

Schmelvis: Searching for the King's Jewish Roots
A new film and book, both called "Schmelvis," explain Elvis Presley's Jewish roots. Site includes complete Elvis family tree documenting the Jewish connection, as well as more information about the book and movie.

Melvis: The First Openly Jewish Elvis Impersonator
Melvis's standard songs include "Blue Suede Jews," "Love Me Like a Gentile," and "Don't Be Cruel (to a Small White Jew)." Please note: Melvis does not perform on Yom Kippur.

Jelvis: The Jewish Elvis
Elvis impersonator Jelvis, who wears a tallit (a Jewish prayer shawl), bills himself as the "Kosher King."

Elvis - The Jewish Connection
This article, from Elvis Presley News, says that later in his life, Elvis learned Jewish teachings, became familiar with the Hebrew alphabet, and wore a chai (the Jewish world for life) necklace as part of his on-stage wardrobe. Includes a picture of Elvis wearing a Chai pendant.

Christian

Elvis vs. Jesus
Learn what Jesus and Elvis have in common--including astrological signs, sayings, resurrections, and more.

The First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis
A gospel-like rendition of Elvis' life, from his beginnings in the recording business to his death: "And Elvis so loved the world that he died, fat and bloated, in a bathroom." Features new lyrics to the Elvis hit, "Hound Dog:"
You ain't nothin' but a human,
Sinnin' all the time, Just an ungrateful human,
Sinnin' all the time,
No, you don't deserve salvation,
But you can be a friend of mine...

The Official Gospel of Elvis Web Page
Website for the book "The Gospel of Elvis," retelling of the life of Elvis in King James-style English. According to the site, the book "combines the two greatest stories ever told."

Elvis Worship, Catholic-Style
Short essay asserts there is an "aura of Catholicism" in Elvis worship. These Catholic forms common in Elvis reverence include saint's relics, and legends of sightings, miracles, and revered relics.

Elvis Is Dead (Deal With It)
This essay, from conservative Christian Probe Ministries, asks, "What does the fascination with Elvis tell us about ourselves?" The writer encourages readers to give up their obsession with Elvis in favor of Jesus.

Hindu

Hindu Elvis Worship?
A portrait of Elvis hangs in a temple in Karnataka, India, next to pictures of Hindu deities. CNN reported the same story.

Pagan

Pagan Elvis Ritual
"The Lesser Elvis Banishing Ritual of the Sequined Pentagram"--the site describest the ritual's purpose as clearing the area of all Elvis-negative influences.

Elvis Worship

The First Presleyterian Church of Elvis, the Divine
Click on Elvis to enter the church's site. Offers spiritual enlightenment, Elvis-style. Features a list of 31 holy items (such as hamburger buns, cans of sauerkraut, and El Producto cigars), an essay on the "Theory of Elvisivity," and an answer to the question, "Is this a cult?"

24-Hour Church of Elvis
This shop in Portland, Oregon is not really a church, but it does feature a resident "preacher woman." Offers marriages, t-shirts, Elvis ID cards, and Elvis drivers licenses.

Viva Lord Vegas
This 2001 article from The Bulletin, Australia, reports that Elvis worship may be developing into a real religion. "Call it Elvism, the Presleyterian church, Presleyanity, or a term yet to be coined, but it bears unmistakable signs of a cult changing into a recognisable faith," writes Christopher Reed.

Disgraceland Chapel and Meditation Room
The site encourages users to stop and meditate on Elvis and features a "brand new ceiling", a rendition of the central image in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. The chapel also features the Elvis Grotto and Relicquiem.

General

# More Great Elvis Links
# Send an Elvis E-Card
# Official Elvis Presley Website

Art and religion

Camille Paglia (Yes THAT Camille Paglia) has an interesting take on religion and the arts. She argues that religion is a must for arts to flourish. Interesting article coming from a, as she says, atheist, pro-choice, libertarian. HT: Arts and Letters Daily

Here is part of her introduction:

I would argue that the route to a renaissance of the American fine arts lies through religion. Let me make my premises clear: I am a professed atheist and a pro-choice libertarian Democrat. But based on my college experiences in the 1960s, when interest in Hinduism and Buddhism was intense, I have been calling for nearly two decades for massive educational reform that would put the study of comparative religion at the center of the university curriculum. Though I shared the exasperation of my generation with the moralism and prudery of organized religion, I view each world religion, including Judeo-Christianity and Islam, as a complex symbol system, a metaphysical lens through which we can see the vastness and sublimity of the universe. Knowledge of the Bible, one of the West's foundational texts, is dangerously waning among aspiring young artists and writers. When a society becomes all-consumed in the provincial minutiae of partisan politics (as has happened in the US over the past twenty years), all perspective is lost. Great art can be made out of love for religion as well as rebellion against it. But a totally secularized society with contempt for religion sinks into materialism and self-absorption and gradually goes slack, without leaving an artistic legacy.


Here is her conclusion:

For the fine arts to revive, they must recover their spiritual center. Profaning the iconography of other people's faiths is boring and adolescent. The New Age movement, to which I belong, was a distillation of the 1960s' multicultural attraction to world religions, but it has failed thus far to produce important work in the visual arts.1 The search for spiritual meaning has been registering in popular culture instead through science fiction, as in George Lucas' six-film Star Wars saga, with its evocative master myth of the “Force.” But technology for its own sake is never enough. It will always require supplementation through cultivation in the arts.

To fully appreciate world art, one must learn how to respond to religious expression in all its forms. Art began as religion in prehistory. It does not require belief to be moved by a sacred shrine, icon, or scripture. Hence art lovers, even when as citizens they stoutly defend democratic institutions against religious intrusion, should always speak with respect of religion. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to expand their parched and narrow view of culture. Every vibrant civilization welcomes and nurtures the arts.

Progressives must start recognizing the spiritual poverty of contemporary secular humanism and reexamine the way that liberalism too often now automatically defines human aspiration and human happiness in reductively economic terms. If conservatives are serious about educational standards, they must support the teaching of art history in primary school—which means conservatives have to get over their phobia about the nude, which has been a symbol of Western art and Western individualism and freedom since the Greeks invented democracy. Without compromise, we are heading for a soulless future. But when set against the vast historical panorama, religion and art—whether in marriage or divorce—can reinvigorate American culture.

Fruit does not make the tree good or bad

This is basic Luther but wonderful nonetheless.


True, then, are these two sayings: "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works"; "Bad works do not make a bad man, but a bad man does bad works." Thus it is always necessary that the substance or person should be good before any good works can be done, and that good works should follow and proceed from a good person. As Christ says, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit" (Matt. vii. 18). Now it is clear that the fruit does not bear the tree, nor does the tree grow on the fruit; but, on the contrary, the trees bear the fruit, and the fruit grows on the trees.

As then trees must exist before their fruit, and as the fruit does not make the tree either good or bad, but on the contrary, a tree of either kind produces fruit of the same kind, so must first the person of the man be good or bad before he can do either a good or a bad work; and his works do not make him bad or good, but he himself makes his works either bad or good.

We may see the same thing in all handicrafts. A bad or good house does not make a bad or good builder, but a good or bad builder makes a good or bad house. And in general no work makes the workman such as it is itself; but the workman makes the work such as he is himself.

Such is the case, too, with the works of men. Such as the man himself is, whether in faith or in unbelief, such is his work: good if it be done in faith; bad if in unbelief. But the converse is not true that, such as the work is, such the man becomes in faith or in unbelief. For as works do not make a believing man, so neither do they make a justified man; but faith, as it makes a man a believer and justified, so also it makes his works good.

Since then works justify no man, but a man must be justified before he can do any good work, it is most evident that it is faith alone which, by the mere mercy of God through Christ, and by means of His word, can worthily and sufficiently justify and save the person; and that a Christian man needs no work, no law, for his salvation; for by faith he is free from all law, and in perfect freedom does gratuitously all that he does, seeking nothing either of profit or of salvation--since by the grace of God he is already saved and rich in all things through his faith--but solely that which is well-pleasing to God.

Taken from "The Freedom of a Christian"

The world may end

Look at this :

CHICAGO (AP) -- Matt Murton got the call to come back from the minors less than a week ago and already he's helped the Chicago Cubs climb into first place.

Murton raced home on Brett Myers' bases-loaded wild pitch in the ninth inning Wednesday night, sending the Cubs to a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and lifting them to the top of the NL Central.

"Some things in the past we got to leave behind us," said Murton, who had a 39-game stint at Triple-A. "It's just a great feeling to be around a winning ball club and have a chance to play in October."

The Cubs, who were 8½ games behind on June 23, finally overcame the Milwaukee Brewers -- at least for a day. Chicago's win, coupled with the Mets' 8-5 win at Milwaukee, puts the Cubs a percentage point ahead of the Brewers.


The Cubs are in first place by one percentage point. It's August. The baseball fates seem to be lining up in their favor.

It may be a sign of the end of all things.

Or, more likely, the build up to a another colossal let down for Cub fans.