Bloodfest: light v dark

"You are the light of the world."

+ + Matthew 5:14a + +

Light has no opposite.

When light and dark are in contrast to each other, dark loses. It's really weird when you think about it. If you go into a dark room, it is dark because the light has been blocked out, maybe with walls, doors, or blinds and curtains. Night is really just the earth blocking the sun. Shadows are merely an object eclipsing a light source.

So what is darkness?  Simply it's the absence of light. 

In thinking about it there are a few things I can think of that follow this pattern. Cold is not the opposite of hot, it is absence of it. Science teaches us that when energy is introduced to an object it's particles move faster thus it heats up. So cold is just a lack of heat. The principle is that there are some things that do not have opposites, instead what we think of as opposite is really just one thing in greater or lesser levels. (FYI: I think this conversation is at some level relevant with good and evil.)

Have you ever played hide and go seek in a dark barnyard or the woods? If you have I'm sure you've sat in a shadow and watched barely breathing as a person walks inches from where you're hiding. They couldn't see you because you were not in the light, they were. I've hid in places at night where during the day, I'd be be easily seen. 

There are some interesting parallels between this and what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount when he says we are the light of the world.

• first it means that the darkness cannot stand up to the light. 
  
• second, it means that darkness is really just an absence of the light. 
  
• it also means that the issue with defeating darkness is an issue of shining the light into the darkness.
  
• we like it in the darkness because we can hide there.
  

sermon on the mount set to melody

Ever try singing it? I'll admit that I have only tried it once...man, it took a long time. But, it was definitely a great "immersion practice" we are all getting the hang of right now.
The video here is a recording of the song called "Your Love is Strong" performed and written Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot. In the past 9 months, he has released 4 solo EPs, which I highly recommend - since we're on the topic.
Back on the topic track here, this song is his own version"Our Family Prayer" & other parts of the Sermon set to beautiful melody.
CHALSIPADAJEDA - maybe use it in addition to your daily immersion in the text. Go find 99 cents in the cupholders of your car and hit up iTunes. much love.

i can't sing and can't play a guitar

the reading has made me think about becoming a worship pastor. for years i thought that I could never be a worship pastor for two reasons: 1.) I can't sing 2.) I don't play an instrument.

but after the reading that I have done in the packet, i've begun to think, maybe the people who limit a worship pastor to simply a person who can play an instrument and sing are the people who have a poor mindset. worship is so much more than just musical elements (not to say they're not important).

i think we should have worship pastors who can't sing nor play instruments

The Pastoral No

(from page 283 - Planning and Leading Worship as a Pastoral Task)

"They are willing to say no to a text or narrative or image or song that is inaccurate, simplistic, or sentimental."

At first this line struck me as almost insulting, essentially giving pastors the power of censorship over what is presented to the congregation during the "worship service". As a highly intelligent, well educated Christian I should be able to decide for myself what is theologically "sound". Yet as I type this I realize I am echoing the teachings of the post-modern/Western culture that characterizes my generation. In so much of daily life I am forced to critically evaluate and filter the things I encounter, be it in books, movies, TV or music. As a Christian I should be relieved that there is someone else doing the hard work for me for a small period of time.

Amazingly enough I am called to be this person for those for whom I will be a leader in worship (which is the label we used in my home church). As pastor I am responsible for showing the congregation where the good food is. In the words of Psalm 23 I am to lead them to green fields and quiet waters. Which can only be done if I myself have frequented them often enough to know where they are.

As we are discerning in crafting our pastoral ministries we will teach our congregants to have the same discerning taste with everything they encounter. By introducing them to the depth and richness of Scripture, liturgy and the Christian tradition we will open their tastes to things that are better for them and more satisfying. As pastors it's the difference between throwing happy meals to the kids in the back seat, and inviting them to linger over a home-cooked Thanksgiving (perhaps Eucharist???) dinner.

What that requires is an ability and willingness to say "No". A diet of "cotton-candy gospel" will leave a congregation famished for the Bread of Life. It's easy to give into the screaming demands for junk-food theology, but as leaders it is our responsibility to say, "You can't have any more candy until you eat your veggies". No matter how much they cry or pout. As they mature hopefully they'll learn to eat well of Scripture even when you aren't there to ensure they have a well-balanced diet. It is the difference between discipleship and perpetuating spiritual infants (1st Corinthians 3).

Worship Quote of the Week

In contemporary society the heart is reached through participation, and all approaches to worship—traditional, contemporary, or blended—need to relearn how to achieve services characterized by immersed participation. Robert E. Webber

Everything is Spiritual?

First, I would like to thank Chad for his good post below. This is exactly what I'm hoping for here-- the meaningful and personal engagement with the reader. He immediately sparked my thinking and engagement. I want to extend the dialogue and I debated doing it in a comment and decided it was too much fun for a comment. I'm going for a post. Now that, my friends, is a successful blogpost-- when it inspires another blogpost. ;-) So thanks Chad. Now allow me to take on the Kalas quote from your post.

“Becoming familiar with sacred things can hurt us-because the sacred becomes normal.” (E. Kalas)

On the one hand I want to applaud this statement and say put it up over the door of the office.

On the other hand-- I want to say, "Dr. K! Wait. . . . . isn't that the point. . . . . for the sacred to become normal. Isn't that precisely what happens in the incarnation-- the sacred becoming normal; a normal human person-- at least the "normal" God had in mind. I mean isn't that what Rob Bellinger--I mean Bell, is talking about? ;-) Everything is Spiritual! Right? It is only when the sacred becomes normal that the normal can become sacred again.

Kalas chooses his words carefully. So maybe his emphasis is on "familiar," as in "familiarity breeds contempt." But isn't this the risk of the Incarnation everywhere it happens-- that God will be treated with contempt. (see John 1)

It's interesting that the word "familiar" descends from the Latin word, familiaris, leading to Familial. It is a "Family" word. (i.e. "children of God" see also John 1) The word means "well known from long and close association," and also "in close friendship; intimate." Would the goal be to become "unfamiliar" or "less familiar." Surely not.

So maybe the real problem I have with the saying has to do with the notion of "things." Maybe that's the problem-- worship becoming about "things." Things, like lights, cameras, sound, accoutriments, amenities, candles, icons, art, instruments, songs, liturgies, robes, bulletins, books, hymnals orders of worship and so forth. Worship is about the God, after all. Familiarity with the God seems a worthy end of worship doesn't it. Familiarity with God leads us to a proper understanding and appropriation of things. A proper approach to God tends to help the "things of worship take on symbolic or iconic or sacramental dimensions. On the other hand, a reverencing of things tends to make God distant. It creates a religious world that obscures God.

I think I do get what Chad is driving at here with his reference to the Kalas quote. He's saying don't go to sleep at the wheel. Stay vigilant. He's saying wake up to the sacred, sacramentality of our every day worship work. And he's exactly right. In the end I think I prefer the way Eugene Peterson talks about the things of worship. You are going to be tempted to think I am taking this in an entirely different direction. Peterson says that over the door of every sanctuary where the Triune God is worshiped should be a large sign that reads, "Beware the God!"

where moth and rust do not destroy

Planning and Leading Worship as a Pastoral Task:

I have had the luxury of using our reader for almost a full year, I guess you can call it a benefit of being on the team for two years. Both times, one of my favorite article is this one. After 6 years of being involved in planning, leading and running worship-I understand how sometimes it just seems to be a task that must get done.

I have a quote written on a piece of masking tape in my bible from Dr. Kalas from last years NSO chapel.

“Becoming familiar with sacred things can hurt us-because the sacred becomes normal.”

Everytime I read this quote it jumps out at me. It really speaks to the situation we have as worship designers. The article outlines four self-images of the worship planner, and I think the last one of “Spiritual Engineer” is the most dangerous. We feel the need to always “out-bling” ourselves at every service. How often have we thought that we can get enough of a holy frenzy going on for the Holy Spirit to come down (I have blogged about this before, you can read the post here). As the article states we sometimes think we have the task of “turning an ordinary moment into a holy moment”, and that is something the church has been facing for thousands of years. But we can’t do that, and this idea always reminds me of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, screaming and cutting themselves in an attempt to call down fire.

In our attempt to make a moment holy we have to daily be stepping back and remembering that we serve the Holy One, and a moment is not just Holy to him, but His entire makeup screams holiness, it is the output that shapes all other outputs of God.

We have to understand our task of “worship”. It is not just music filler before the sermon. And the sermon is not the apex of our worship. We have the goal of completely integrating the entire service as a unitive whole. When we design a service that is fully integrated together and shows the journey through the Biblical Story of a Triune God who desperately loves this world we have accomplished designing worship. Then we are truly focused on God in our entire service, through the announcements to the benediction.

Defining Worship

Tim Hughes has begun a good conversation on his blog concerning the definition of worship.  I encourage you all to read the thread of comments and give it some thought.  And I ask the question of you:  how do you define worship.  As I have said on my own blog.  The way we define worship determines the way we design worship.  

What is missing in the conversation?

Dan's Thoughts

I have struggled with worship services for years. I have attended small churches (25-150), medium sized churches (350-400), a large church (1000-1500), and a mega church (7,000-11,000) and in each church I struggled with the services. As I sit back and reflect on the churches, I feel as if there is something missing, and for years I haven’t been able to put my finger on it.

In the Webber piece (1st in the reader), he talks about how the church’s focus should be on joining in with the story of God (an objective experience). He compares this with the way it really is – us telling God how worthy he is and how much we love him (a subjective experience).

When we travel somewhere, my job is to drive (Stephanie’s job is to fall asleep). So I get tons of time to think about things. This weekend as we drove home, I was rolling the idea of worship as an alternate reality. I had heard somebody use this term, but it had never sunk in. As we were going for a while, I began to realize what is meant here: as we worship we are living our lives completely differently – we view reality differently.

Worship is the understanding reality that all our attempts at power and security are futile. It rejects the upward movement mindset of capitalism, the struggle between economic stratospheres of Marxism, and religion’s struggle with becoming a better, more enlightened being. Worship is the recognition that God is in control, that he is acting within history, He is truly holding all things together, and then submitting our lives to his lordship.

When we make worship about the subjective and not the objective we end up missing the story as we only begin to focus on our needs and ourselves. We become the main players in the story, and God becomes just a deity to appease. As worship becomes about us, we very quickly lose the ability to see the world for the way it truly is. This is because we’re only concerned with ourselves. Worship only becomes self-expression.

When worship is about self-expression, we begin to have “worship wars” as people are concerned with their personal preference. As self-expression drives worship, worship often becomes about performing. It becomes hollow, repetitive, and meaningless. It becomes a race to say the most dramatic, the most expressive, and the most ______ statement possible-even if it isn’t necessarily true.

When worship is presenting an alternate reality it becomes something that is exciting. It becomes something that is alive with possibilities. It becomes hopeful. It drives us to become different people. It connects us with the mind of God. It leads us to new places. It is not repetitive, nor is it hollow. This is what I have been missing all these years…

WORSHIP DESIGN READER: Check-in

Team,

I am wondering if you have been able to crack the cover of the Worship Design Team Summer Reader yet.  If so, please post a comment on which article(s) you have read.  It will help me know how to engage the conversation here in the coming days.  Sound good?

THE SERMON: Reading Practices

Hello ChAlSiPaDaJeDa

Love that word.  

I've loved your posts on THE SERMON so far.  I want to refine the challenge though.  

We are 18 days in to the 30 day challenge.  For the next 22 days I want to challenge you to read the sermon aloud to yourself.  It is important for your own ears to hear the Word as well as for your mouth to speak it.  I want to take a step back from interpretive or application oriented work or comments.  In this phase we aren't so interested in what it means as what it actually says and how it says it, it's progression, it's cadence, it's feel and so forth.  I want you to focus on reading and hearing the THE SERMON.  And I want you to make a post oriented around your experience of the text and any observations yielded by this process.  This is what I would call the "walking around the text" process.  We are surveying THE SERMON like a work of art, beholding its beauty, listening for its rhythm, hearing its wisdom and submitting ourselves to its mastery.  Make sense?  I'll try to make a post soon to give you an example of what I am getting at.  

Love your enemies

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)

I have been meditating on this verse and God has been teaching me through it. Here is what I am learning.

God is the ultimate source of love. He loved us into creation. It's His love that won victory on the cross for us, and it's His love that will be consumated when the Bride, the church, is ready.
Hate is an attribute of Satan. But love through Christ is the conquerer.
I think we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us because as children of God, living in His will for our lives, if someone is our adversary, then their brokenness is possibly being used and manipulated by the enemy for Satan's advancement.
By praying and loving our enemies, we unite with God in His love. Through prayer in His love, we have the authority to cancel Satan's plan of division, additional pain, and further brokenness. Through loving and praying for our enemies and persecutors, we can be agents and ambassadors of God, working in his healing redemptive plans for God's kingdom advancement.
In this time between the Fall and New Creation, battles are being waged. We are given the opportunity to choose which weapons to use: Love and Prayer, or Hate and Gossip. Both have power. When the time for a battle arises, which weapons will you choose?

knock, knock.......

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened."

This passage has really been come alive for me these last couple of weeks.

I was thinking about the different levels of attempting to obtain something and how they relate to comfort levels. For instance, you can ask for something from any comfort you so choose. You don't even have to get up and out of your chair, that's why they invented the iPhone 3G :) . You can also ask for something in an impersonal, anonymous way. No one else has to know about what you are trying to obtain or how really important this is to you.

Seeking is a little more intentional. It implies a little more sense of urgency than simply just "asking" for something. Yet I think this could still be done comfortably and, if you really wanted to, without anyone knowing what you're seeking for or disclosing how urgent the matter really is or how you really feel about it.

Knocking on someone's door however? Now that's a personal, all-up-in-someone-else's-face kinda thing- it's full disclosure. That is unless you like to go knocking on folk's door wearing a ski mask while attempting to disguise your voice (I don't recommend this btw, especially at night). There's not much comfort here. You got to get up and go to be able to do this. It’s an act of letting your guard down and letting others see what you are really in of. It’s being willing to forgo comfort for the sake what you are wanting to obtain.

What does this say about our lives as worshippers? I had this thought that maybe it’s that we can be as comfortable as we choose to be. After all, worship does not depend on us. When we worship we are participating in Christ’s worship of the Father that’s already and ever will be “in progress.” So we can’t make worship “become” worship even more than it already is. Yet there is just something about this knocking business, something about not letting ourselves approach our participation as worshippers in a comfortable and casual sort of fashion that just seems richer. There is also something about letting our guard (pride, religiousness, tradition, etc) down, and allowing a full disclosure of ourselves before God and the people of God in worship that just seems like its what we were meant to do, it is certainly something Jesus does.

Another thing, Jesus says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I had this thought that this works the other way around too. In other words, when we choose to knock on the Father’s door and not simply approach Him in an impersonal or anonymous way when we gather to worship, He’s more than glad to open up the door for us his children and invite is in to feast with him. His Son has already provided the meal and the table has already been prepared (by the power of the Holy Spirit) =). It’s the perfect fellowship-the Father, the Son (with us!!), and the Holy Spirit. It’s certainly a great place to be. And all it takes its a knock. So, I say lets knock-and knock with confidence....

An Off Topic Post

Last week I sat down with alice and showed her the ropes of blogger/google docs and google reader. I navigate through around 50+ blogs a day and I couldn't do it without an RSS reader. In an earlier post JD mentioned checking out his blog and thinking about subscribing via a reader. What a reader allows you to do is subscribe to your blogs and read them in/at one single interface. I have been using a different type of reader, but I am now in the process of switching over to Google reader because it allows me to check my feeds at any computer. If you need any help getting going, just let me know.

Could we get arrested for reading this?

How would the seminary react if we all got arrested? Seriously, what would happen if the chapel interns, JD, and Peg were arrested? (I think we’d all be politely asked to leave the institution…)

Chad in response to JD’s initial post threw out on the table the fact that this sermon is subversive social commentary. Subversives end up in jail. Not exactly the goal of a seminary chapel intern program, but it is what happens when people actually read the SoM.

Gandhi based much of his subversion of the British Empire on the principle of loving ones neighbor. Martin Luther King Jr. modeled this pattern. Both were very familiar with jail. Both assassinated. I know that Shane Claiborne has been arrested several times (and last I checked we were trying to get him to come here), and he said in his first book, that the government has a good sized file with his name on it. Interestingly enough, the month before he came and spoke at ATS, Brian McLaren was arrested for protesting (a common subversive practice) in Washington.

I am struck by the notion of this passage. I have been reading (very slowly) the book the Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder, and he connects Jesus death with this message. He claims that Jesus is actually living out his sermon by going to the cross. That Jesus was subverting the powers that be and it ended with his execution for being an insurgent. To the Jewish leaders he was dangerous enough to actually be traded for a well known insurgent.

Now I’m not thinking of ways to get arrested in Wilmore (or am I) but why is it that Jesus, and many others were so dangerous to the authorities around them? Asbury Seminary (who has contact with many of these people) seems to be very buddy-buddy with local law enforcement.

Honestly, are we not living the life of Jesus? Or are they not living the life of Jesus? Why are they creating a comotion and we're content to be here and be good people, preparing for the ministry? If you have any clarity on this issue, what do you think?

(Just for the record I don’t want to be arrested.)

An extension of Jeremiah's earlier post

Below, J did a great job noting that the Beatitudes are focused on action not just rejection. This started life as a comment, but I decided to go ahead with a new post.

So often than not, we ascribe holiness to some sort of denial of action. Holiness is doing-not rejection. This was my favorite conversation last year with our two holiness guru's (leroy and summers).

If we look further in the S.O.M we see Jesus bringing up a few other issues that require simple denial under Jewish law (my bible files them under "concerning..." meaning 5:21-48), but He calls us to a further style of living. Each of these sections starts off with "You have heard it was said...". Last year I taught the S.O.M to a group of older folks in a Sunday School class. One of the issues that I wanted to handle with kid gloves was the section on divorce (5:31-32), because several of the people in the class had been divorced and remarried. All five of these sections note an element of Jewish law that was understood to be pretty important, almost basic for Judaism.

By Jesus starting off with "You have heard that it was said", he assumes that the crowd has a good working knowledge of these laws. So what he does is call them on doing things half-way!!! He takes these basic laws, which can be pretty hard to keep, and calls people to do even more. He puts these new actions in the plain of almost impossible, unnatural even.

This calls them (as us) to action. He calls them to holiness. I often think about the last verse of ch.5, and how it seems to be the perfect (yet utterly terrifying) end.

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" Matt 5:48

According to Lowe and Nida τέλός (perfect) is given the fuller definition of those who have been brought into a community of faith, and it pertains to completion have finished something. The perfect one has complete genuineness, and has no defect whatsoever.

What else is odd about this is how we see both the plural nominative τέλειοι (our perfection) and the singular nominative τέλειός (the Fathers character). Clearly this is how Jesus is ending this giant section on having an active righteousness that is the evidence of the kingdom being alive inside of the believer.

One Step Further

As I've read the Sermon on the Mount I have been amazed at one consistent quality in the sermon. Jesus pushes his disciples beyond what human limits say is possible. The Law of Moses, which they had been raised on, said "Do not murder (Ex 20:13)". Not murdering is pretty easy for most of us. But Jesus raises the ante on his followers, "I tell you if anyone is angry with a brother he will be subject to judgment". Now I have a brother and a sister, both younger, and I know that I've been angry with them for many different reasons (some valid, some not so much)...yet I claim to be a follower of Christ. He goes on, "if any one lusts" he's (or she's) already committed adultery. And again, "if you remember a brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar and go be reconciled". What Jesus expects is impossible....or is it.

I've sat through three days of my forgiveness in counseling class and I've come to one conclusion. Everything is a matter of our source. If we try to forgive our brothers and sisters so we can be reconciled the way Jesus commands (and it is a command not a request or a suggestion) in our own power we will undoubtedly fail. If we try to control our anger, our lust, our thirst for vengeance... we simply cannot do it. We are fallen creatures living in a fallen world, even after we have been redeemed the effects of the Fall still limit our abilities.

The kicker is this...if we root ourselves in the Triune God then we can avail ourselves of the power He offers. By the transforming power of the Holy Spirit we become the "blessed" people that Jesus refers to in Matt 5:3-12. This radical, life-changing Spirit is only available because of the work of Jesus Christ. He did perfectly what he teaches his disciples to do....ultimately it boils down to obeying the Father. The Sermon on the Mount just neatly lays out what a life lived in glory to the Triune God will look like and the Lord's Prayer shows us how we can actually live it.

blessed are those who mourn

i have been meditating on Jesus' words, 'blessed are those who mourn'

i've never heard anybody say, 'i want to mourn!' ... not once! i have never heard even a good Christian say those words. obviously we're either not getting the point of what Jesus is say or we're just bad followers of Jesus.

i remember the day that Sadaam was killed very clearly. not because i threw a party, but because Stephanie made me run like 5 miles. we were at my parents house and were sitting around after breakfast when we heard the news, so we switched over to FoxNews and watched the wall to wall coverage on the "fair and balanced network." i remember that there was mass celebration of the death of the cruel dictator from Iraq. everybody was praising the fact that justice had been served.

later, as i was running (which led me to mourn...but that's another story) i began to reflect on the fact that nobody was upset that a human being had just been killed. Sadaam was evil, but he was still a human being, and as a human being he is loved by God. the longer i ran the more i realized that even the death of an evil tyrant was tragic. this alone is worth mourning.

think of all the ways that we human beings, as we try and fix things, actually do more harm.

maybe this is what Jesus is getting at here. blessed are the people that see how screwed up things are and realize that in our vain attempts to fix them, only do more damage. maybe Jesus says they will be comforted because they see the damage and the hurt and the pain that is being proliferated and will be agents to bring them to an end.

known for what you do

He's says,
"Blessed are those that ________ <-- ***positive command***"
becoming meek
hungering
thirsting
showing mercy
making peace

Jesus does not say, "Blessed are those that:
dont ____
have never ___
wont _____
dont watch _____
dont attend ____
dont vote for ______

How much of our world looks at Christ followers and thinks, "Those are the ones that dont ___."
Instead of "Those are the ones that do ___."
We are the citizens of a positive command Kingdom - love, give, abide, remember, sacrifice, share...not ones of - dont cuss, dont chew or go with girls that do. (Why is it only the girls that shouldnt chew? When guys do it, it isnt all that attractive either, right?)
Jesus begins His sermon by explaining what the Kingdom looks like, not what it doesnt look like. What the people should participate in, not abstain from. We are a people of participating, not ones of omission.
Blessed are the positive...and not just in their attitudes.

j.

Subscribe to FARMStrong Today. ;-)

ChAlSiPaDaJeDa,

Some of you are aware of my own blog.  I do quite a bit of writing there on the subject of Christian worship.  Rather than repeating my posts on the Levite Camp site, I want to invite you to read my worship posts on FARMStrong.  If you would like to engage in a conversation on the ideas-- which I would welcome--- you can take one of two routes.  

1.  For a more public conversation just make a comment on FARMStrong.

2.  For a more private conversation among our Design Team you might copy whatever portion of the blogpost that you want to talk about and make a separate blog entry on Levite Camp along with your analysis.  We can then engage with you in the comment field.  

Sound good?  If you read blogs via a feed reader please add FARMStrong as it will make keeping up with posts easier.  If you don't understand how feed readers work, talk to Chad and he will explain.  I recommend Google's Reader.  

THE SERMON

Hello ChAlSiPaDaJeDa,

In keeping with our intentions to immerse ourselves together in the Sermon on the Mount, I wanted to offer some words of guidance.

First-- let's work off of a shared translation--- The TNIV (Today's New International Version). You can find a printable version of the text via this link.

Second-- my encouragement is to spend the next 30 days reading the text one time per day in a slow and deliberate fashion. If possible, do it first thing.

Third-- I would like to see a blog post from each one of you over the next 30 days that simply reflects on how the daily reading of this common text is impacting you.

After this we will work together to develop some "rememberizing" strategies (as my son David likes to say).

Could there be a more significant sermon (or collection of Jesus sayings) in all of the Bible? Has there ever been a more significant sermon ever put together? We have a great opportunity to gather around it as a team and then to let it shape our KingdomTide semester ahead.

Hope you are having a good summer. Would you mind entering a comment to this post to let us know that you are up and on board with the blog?

The first one...not really

This post is really just to check out some colors and other stuff. The fun things will come later.