It is finished

I am done with seminary. I have handed in all my papers (no finals). I went to my last class. I had my graduation party with 200 plus people and I officially walk on Thursday night. It is still surreal but I feel the margin in my life that is enabling me to relax, think, pray and reflect on my life, work and family. That is glorious. I actually took a Sabbath Monday, which was the first time in at least 2 years. And now I have time to blog once again. Sorry for my absence on the blogsphere although I am sure you found other blogs to read. But it is my hope to begin writing and reflecting on my blog once again. Peace out!

the structure of church

Let me just say that my missiology class has been kicking my butt. Here are some notes from Thursday.

How does placing mission in the very being of God shape the way we do mission?

The problem was and is “that the very forms of congregational life were a major hindrance to the Church's evangelism.” “There are evidently structures which make it difficult or even impossible for the Word to reach the congregation, for the congregation to reach others and for others to reach the congregation. The congregation preaches not only with its proclamation but also with its structures and these can have and effect which is practically hostile to mission.” Dr. Werner Krusche

“The Church‑centred missiology of the 1950s [and today] had[s] inevitably raised the question of the forms of the Church's life. To be convinced on biblical and theological grounds that the Church not only has a missionary task but is itself the form of God's mission (‘As the Father sent me so send I you’) was to be driven to acknowledge that congregations as we know them are not structured for mission. They reflect the assumptions of the Christendom era that the whole of society is already baptized and therefore within the Church. They invite people to come out of the world into the Church: they do not themselves go into the world as those who are sent by God.”

Ecclesiocentrism, in other words, presupposed that the form of the churches were correct. Rediscovering the missionary nature of the church demanded a corresponding stimulation of missionary structures. “What changes in the external structure and self-understanding of the local congregation are needed for it to be able to witness credibly to the message of the kingdom of God in a secular world of rapid social change?” These questions were being asked in the 1950's and we are largely still int he same place 50 years later and the question is still out there.

What say you?

Postmodern Celts???

In my class on Celtic Christianity Dr. Purves listed some characteristics of Celtic Christianity that he is discovering i his reading. I was struck how the mindset and worldview of the Celts lined up with many postmodern Christians. I have heard it said before that the premodern (the Celts) era is very similar to the postmodern era. Could these not also be characteristics of an incarnated church in a postmodern and post-Christendom, 21st century culture?

• Embodiedness, for the Celts life was whole; there was no split between body and spirit
• They had a strong sense of the immanence the nearness of God especially on earth
  
• The believed in and depended on the Power of God and the supernatural
  
• They were Penitential
• Incarnational
• They had a Sacramental world view
• They were Ascetics – they like it tough and with self denial
• Strongly affective, relational and communal
  
• Trinitarian
• Non-dualists
• Liminality – the distance between heaven and earth is very thin
• Missional
• They were Perepatic people or wonderers, journeyers; yet for whom home was important
• They were non-hierarchical and communitarian
• They were oral people, story tellers
  

Man I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

the Celts

From Celtic Christianity by Timothy Joyce:

"To follow the spiritual world view of the Celtic Christians is to embrace a way of life that is a real commitment to the belief that the Trinitarian God is alive in this world, that Christ remains incarnate in his church, that each Christian is called to active discipleship in building up the kingdom of God. Celtic Christianity opens up to us a viewpoint that cannot separate Sunday and the rest of the week, this world and the next, the spiritual and the secular, the individual and the community. It would have great difficulty understanding the privatization of religion that is now characteristic of Western culture and American life in in particular. To wish to learn from Celtic Christianity is to wish to sense the passionate presence fo God in all of life. It is to find God in the ordinary events of life, love, eating, working, playing...

In addition to logic and reason, poetry, song, art and beauty were the tools of knowledge... To follow the Celtic spiritual way we modern Christians will have to do a lot of 'soulwork' to develop our unused imagination, our neglected senses, to complement our rational minds.

The church of today is more similar to the church of the fifth century than to many other eras... Today culture largely ignores the real Christian tradition. In fact, at times, it is hostile and antagonistic to Christian claims. Western civilization is decaying as once the Roman empire did. A new type of Dark Age gathers around us. that was the scenario for the blossoming of the Celtic Church. Might it not be the way again today?"

Do you think Joyce is on to something?

Jesus

It has been over a month sine I posted last and I think this is the longest I have gone without posting. So if there are any regular readers out there I am going to try and get back in the swing of things. I have an idea to post on some of the stuff I am reading for my new classes. I am taking a class on Christology, Missiology and Celtic Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological seminary. So I thought I would post some quotes from the books I am reading, thoughts on lectures and interesting conversations. I hope you will enjoy the posts.

In Christology we are reading a collection of essays from a text called Who Do You Say That I am? edited by Mark Allan Powell and David R. Bauer. The first few chapters are on Jesus' understanding of his own Christology. How did Jesus understand himself? There was some good stuff in the first chapter by Ben Witherington III. The whole of the chapter was on how all of Jesus' understanding of himself was based upon relationships. His relationship to God the Father as Son of God and Son of Man similarly as the Messiah, the anointed one, as one who had been anointed by God and the Lord in relationship to his subjects. These titles and understandings were redefinitions of the social relational and religious status quo and therefore stood in stark contrast to the cultural norms of Judaism. Here is quote from the end of the chapter.

"Jesus did not come on the scene of first-century Judaism to conform to anyone's preconceived expectations about prophets, sages or messiahs, much less to our expectations at the end of the twentieth century. He came to make known something about God and something about humankind and something about their interrelationship in the crucible of a volatile environment, in which proclamations about the intervening saving reign of God were dangerous and could get one crucified because of what such messages implied about ones own relationship of power to both God and God's people."

Why has relating to Jesus lost it's risk? Why as followers of Jesus are we no long suspect of upsetting the social and relational apple cart? Why is the intervening saving reign of God no longer dangerous? Does the Gospel have nothing to do with the redistribution of power? Have we domesticated Jesus and the inbreaking of his his kingdom? Your thoughts?

Me and Matisyahu

I can now chat with Matisyahu in Hebrew. Today after 2 months and a 3.5 hour final I finished Biblical Hebrew. Thanks be to God! I celebrated with Bob Ruffel, a pint of a great red IPA and an ostrich burger at the Sharp Edge. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me, prayed for me and coped with my grumpiness over the past two months. A special thanks to Katrina who carried our family, our home and ME through this time! One more year to go. 3 Electives, Hebrew Exegesis, Christology, Missiology and Homeletics. Mark your calendars for a late May '07 Graduation Bash!

1 down 1 to go

8 days ago I emailed in my Greek exegesis paper on Galatians 6:10-20 (which was an enjoyable, insightful and I think a well written). That marked the end of Greek for seminary, thanks be to God. I then spent 4 full days and nights with my amazing and now bronzed wife in Miami. We slept, beached, read, ate, people watched (lots of topless sunbathers and thonged men and women) and did what "15 year-weds" do. Last night in worship my good friend Byron Pryor gave an amazing message on Mark 4 and through it God really inspired me to be more reckless in the sowing of the Word of God in the fields he has me in. Oh the joy of being able to entrust the word to reliable people who are qualified to teach others. And then to have the privelage to sit under and be transformed by that teaching. My community has given me a great gift. I have a sabbatical from being the primary communicator at our worship gatherings for the months of June and July. For... tomorrow (June 6, 2006) I start Hebrew. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9am - 12pm in June and July. Two semesters of work in two months - some call it suicide Hebrew. Pray for perseverance and joy in the next few months. Shalom!

picture share

I am enjoying playing with my camera. It is theraputic! It is helping me look for beauty and oddity in life in my everyday activity.

Greek is done......... hopefully

Well the test took 4 hours. It was REALLY hard. At 12 noon when it was supposed to be done about 3/4 of the class was still working say he extended it an extra hour. Exhausting! The last question was almost two full paragraphs of translation. I felt good about 80% of my work. Thank you for all who prayed. I did feel God prompting me on a number of things, mistakes corrected, words remember in the last 5 minutes. All glory and honor to him no matter the results. I hope and pray that I passed the class but even if not he is all the more glorified in my weaknesses.

By the way the quote at the end of my last post was not Barth but the Apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians 1:20 "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God."

Sola de Gloria!

Greek............................................

Over the past few months I have been suffering and struggling through Greek as a faithful subversive in the PCUSA ordination process. Tomorrow the bell tolls. Tomorrow is my term 2 final and when and if I pass I move on to exegesis which is much easier and more enjoyable. Thanks to everyone who has suffered with me; put up with my complaining and whining; and prayed for perseverance and good memory retention. Throw up those prayers one more time between 9-12 tomorrow.

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.

i am a procrastinator

I just want the world to know how much i hate studying (especially greek) and how difficult it is for me to stay focused and pay attention. here are just 10 things i have done other than study in the past two days:

1. type up this blog
2. watch monday night football
3. listen to new music on itunes
4. read other people's blogs
5. set up a new desktop picture and screen saver on my laptop
6. call people to go out to lunch
7. unload the dishwasher
8. watch sports center
9. find the procrastinators creed online
10. sleep

well i have to go take a lunch break, anybody want to come?

a living tradition innovatively rooted

Two more values of the Open Door:
Innovation: We value creativity because we believe that God is creative and that being made in God's likeness means we are creative beings as well. We celebrate the goodness and beauty of God’s creation. We express imagination is expressed in a variety of forms that inspire and reflect the beauty of God.

Rootedness: We honor the historic Judeo-Christian Church, and have a desire to root our vision and beliefs in scripture and the creeds of the Church. We seek to cultivate a deep and intimate relationship with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in all we do.

To value innovation and rootedness may seem to some like a postmodern paradoxical contradiction but I think they are keys to the faithfulness of the church throughout time and in particular this post modern time. I read an article today about being a part of a Living Tradition I like that phrase and think it speaks of being part of innovatively rooted tradition. A community with a living tradition has as John Calvin says, “the constant endeavor, day and night, is not just to transmit the tradition faithfully, but also to put it in a form we think will prove best.” That is rooted inovation and a living tradition. Here are some selctions from the article entitled, What it means to Stand in a Livng Tadition by Douglas F. Ottati, from Jesus Christ and Christian Vision.

A living tradition is a primary source for a community’s distinctive identity. It is ‘the story’ of community transmitted for reappropriation in each generation by means of varied artifacts and activities. A living tradition shapes the present life by furnishing a common memory or heritage that, in turn yeilds a guiding orientation… The vitality of a community depends upon the continuing viability of its tradition [rootedness]. When the tradition ceases to be reappropriated and extended, the characteristric orientation of the community dies [innovation]… A living tradition enters into the constituion of meaningful life because by persistent questioning and interpretation, it continues to yeild an orientation that makes sense of the conuing expereinces of a society of persons… To stand in a living tradition, then, is to participate in a dynamic process of interpretation – one that moves between received heritage [rootedness] and the realities and chalenges of the present world in order to express a continuing and vital orientation or identity [innovation]… [We must] prize both the cloud of witnesses from other times and places available in books and libraries and close relationships within present Christian congregations for these provide critical avenues towards one’s own judgement about the distinctive past, the vital present, and the beckoning future of the Christian movement…

To stand in a living tradition is to participate in a community that is consciously informed by its common memory, actively engaged in the realities of the present, vitally concerned about its future direction and genuinely repsonsive to personally creative acts of appropriation… it is to recognize that the historical tradition although indespensible is not an exclusive source for a communitiy’s present identity. Vital contributions are made by other resources as well.

Thanks be to God for the Open Door missional community that is striving to“consciously be informed by its common memory, actively engaged in the realities of the present, vitally concerned about its future direction and genuinely repsonsive to personally creative acts of appropriation."