The fourth post called “Charity is the Best Policy” for my week of writing for Everyday Liturgy can be found here. Blurb -
- Have you ever heard “honesty is the best policy?” Everyone says it, right? Have you ever put that into practice? “Uhh…” – yeah, my thought exactly…(more)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Communion, Eucharist, Everyday Liturgy, Wine
Post 3 for Everyday Liturgy can be found here.
Also, please take a few moments to answer a quick survey I made about using wine in Communion/Eucharist – click here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Everyday Liturgy, Holy Spirit, Tradition
My second post called “The Holy Spirit and Tradition” for Everyday Liturgy can be found here. Enjoy!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Emergent Village, Everyday Liturgy, Twitter
Announcement: Emergent Village found my first post “Is Sola Scriptura a Help or Heresy?” on Everyday Liturgy and placed it on their Twitterfeed.
Am I famous now?
Thanks,
Evan
Post 1 called “Is Sola Scriptura a Help or Heresy?” for Everyday Liturgy can be viewed here.
Announcement: I will be guest blogging for Everyday Liturgy this week so my friend Thom Turner have a break after he put on a killer Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference. Most of my creativity will be focused there. I will post links to the site on this blog so you (all two of you) can always keep up.
Thanks,
Evan
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Come Ye Disconsolate, cure, heal, Heaven, pain, prayer, sorrow, Thomas Moore
Lyrics by Thomas Moore. I used this during worship at youth group because I feel the last line in each stanza is a wonderful reminder to those in pain and sorrow. I do not interpret this to mean, “Heaven is our ‘way out.’ So, just hold on, wait for death, and everything will get better (as if death was not the enemy but a friend).” I find that view to stand firmly against Christian teaching. But I do believe that the One in heaven knows our pain and sorrow, and there is nothing he cannot cure.
Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.
Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure!
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
“Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure.”
Here see the Bread of Life, see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above.
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Christ, Church, Emergence, emergent, emerging church, Jesus, Mars Hill, Phyllis Tickle, Reformation, Rob Bell
I had a chance to listen to Phyllis Tickle give a sermon titled “Ancient Disciplines for the Church” at Mars Hill Bible Church (i.e., Rob Bell’s church). She reflected upon that about every 500 years there is a major change in the Christian Church. 500 years ago, we experienced the Protestant Reformation. 500 years before that, the Great Schism (East and West Church split). 500 years earlier, the Council of Chalcedon. 500 years before that, what she calls “the Great Transformation” — Jesus comes on the scene, followers of Judaism transform to followers of Jesus (which is obviously where this all started for the Christian Church). I think you get the picture. Phyllis Tickle continues to talk about how today we are experiencing the “Great Emergence.” Whenever a 500 year period passes and a new one comes on the scene, the old is not done away with, but the new is tacked on and removes some of the old skin (so to speak). For instance, Roman Catholicism was not done away with by the Protestant Reformation, but the Reformation removed some of the old skin that layered Christianity (such as the rethinking of the priesthood to “all Christians are priests,” etc.).
As I personally reflect on our past 500 years and look at the Great Emergence, I see that the Emergence is simply saying, “Let’s keep the good of the old, but we’ve gone too far with this, this, and this.” For instance, good ol’ Protestantism does not die here, but we say, “The emphasis of personal, spiritual growth is good, but we’ve gone too far in getting rid of anything we perceive to be ‘Roman’ such as images of any kind in church (some Protestants even have removed the image of the cross…yikes!).”
The question arises in my own mind, then why are people so afraid of the Emergence? Then it hit me – it ultimately comes down to power. Subconsciously, people are afraid that if the emerging church (or the emergents) get their way, we will no longer be in power, and they will be. Now, we all want control. Even emergents speak the same way about whatever has gone before them, “Well, if we fix this, this, and this, and we do such and such, and if we are leading the way, it will all get better.” Unfortunately, this all boils down to the “Us vs. Them” fiasco. Those who dislike the Emergence, deny its influence and condemn it, why?…because it’s a power struggle. Those who are part of the Emergence, poke fun at the old regime and deny its influence, why?…because it’s a power struggle. “If they are out and we are in, it will be perfect.”
The solution then is, I believe, to accept the good and the bad from both. Build off of the past 500 years, remove the bad, and add some good to it. We should not deny the influence of the Great Emergence (or that it exists…which it does). The Reformation brought a lot of good, right? And a lot of bad, too. But no Protestant is sitting there saying, “I wish that Reformation never happened because it has brought about a lot of baggage.” They are saying, “The Reformation brought some baggage, but also some good. Let’s get started!” Or now one is saying, “That pesky John Calvin! I wish he never existed.” They don’t because in many ways what we deem “bad” has made us a better, stronger church. For instance, particularly in the past 100 years, conservative Protestantism (if I may use that term) has fallen short by emphasizing the rescuing of “souls” so much that they neglected the social aspects of the gospel. On the other side of the spectrum, Emergence reminds us that one’s physical condition is important, but it must at times remember that so are “souls” (I don’t believe either would deny this things in word but often can by implication in deed). If we do so, we can become a stronger church.
Therefore, I conclude: we must put behind our “us vs. them” struggles–our power struggles–and we must accept the new Emergence as a chance to remove some of the old skin. Simultaneously, we must remember our past and the influence it has had on the world. Thus, by looking back, we can create a greater future for the Christian Church and its mission for the world.
You can listen to Phyllis Tickle’s talk on Mars Hills’ website here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: absence, civil rights, Jesus, justice, oppression
My recent trip to Birmingham, AL, has brought me to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. If you get a chance to visit, do it. It’s worth it. The Institute brought the harsh realities of segregation between blacks and whites in the American South.
As I walked the Institute, I saw images of blacks being hosed with high-powered fire hoses. I saw pictures of police letting loose dogs to attack demonstrators. I saw white people standing around two black teenagers hanging lynched in the trees, watching and smiling as if they were watching fireworks on the 4th of July. I saw images of the KKK, whites beating blacks, bombing their churches, and I thought, “Where were the ‘good’ people?”
(side-note: I know not every black person was innocent and white guilty. I know whites marched with Dr. King. That’s not the point. Just follow me here…)
Where were all the good people who thought segregation was evil? Where were they when black teenagers were being lynched for talking to white women? Where were they when the police of Alabama hosed down demonstrators and attacked them with dogs? Where were they when the Freedom Riders were being beaten to a pulp? Why didn’t the stop the oppression? Then it occurred to me – where am I when oppression happens around me?
I think of what a man in the Bible named James says that when you know that you should do something good and don’t do it, it’s wrong! Jesus also says that we must help the “least of these,” the down-trodden, the helpless (cf. Matthew 25:31ff).
Absence is a form of oppression. When I watch oppression happen and don’t do anything about it…that’s oppression in itself! When I watch the poor get poorer and the rich get richer and don’t say anything against it..I am the oppressor! When I consume more and more taking from others…I am the oppressor! You may not stop Darfur, third world debt, racism, war, or poverty; but you can start by sticking up for someone, or getting coffee with a hurt person, or buying a meal for a homeless man.
If we understand that we are all connected and Jesus calls us to love others as we love ourselves, we will realize –
Absence is oppression.
