Ouch, Kendal

Sabbath

One of our community members posed a great question this week that I thought might be good fodder for blog discussion. His question was related to the Sabbath, commanded in Exodus 20:9-11:

9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Here is the question: Do you have a day set aside for rest? Do we sin if we do not take a Sabbath? Does the Bible set out parameters on what we can and can not do during the Sabbath? (i.e. Can I sit and watch movies all day? Can I clean the house and run errands?) These are just some of the thoughts running through my head. Does anyone else struggle with observing Sabbath?

I think this will be a tremendously useful discussion, because if there's one thing Americans DON'T do well, it's resting. Blog away.

The Closet

A few weeks ago I wrote a post expressing some needs for our prayer closet at the CD offices. Thanks to some generous friends and some college students on spring break, we now have a place to kneel and pray undistracted. Thanks to Patrick, Kenneth, and Thomas for their prep and painting work, and to the Lord for the providential way He uses blog posts to provide kneelers. I know God hears all prayers offered from all places in the name of Christ, but I'm just sayin'... more effective prayer closet = more effectual prayers!

It's Baked Goods Tuesday!

The Life and Legacy of John Calvin

Today at Coram Deo's Sunday gathering, we took a break from the Gospel of Mark to consider the life and legacy of John Calvin. We do this sort of biographical sermon once a year; it is our way of obeying Hebrews 13:7: Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

These sorts of sermons are always an exercise in editing... there is more to tell about great historical figures than I can possibly fit into a sermon. Not everything I could tell would benefit everyone; but certain things might be of significant benefit to some.

So, in the interest of additional detail for those who want it, here are two quotes which testify to the cultural legacy of Calvin, as well as a list of the books and resources I consulted which might prove fruitful for further study or reading.

[Calvin taught that] the form of life which is most praiseworthy in the sight of God is that which is useful to society: ‘however much we may admire celibacy or a philosophical life cut off from everyday life,’ the persons best fitted to govern church and society alike are those who have immersed themselves in the experience and practice of everyday life. Christians are encouraged, even required, to invest in and commit themselves to the world. There is no place in Calvin’s thought for the medieval monastic attitude towards society… Believers must actively immerse themselves in the secular sphere, without passively allowing themselves to be submerged by it.

It may be said that one of Calvinism’s greatest legacies to western culture is a new attitude toward work, and, supremely, manual labor. Work, far from being merely an inevitable and somewhat tedious means of obtaining the basic necessities for existence, is perhaps the most praiseworthy of all human activities… work is thus viewed as a profoundly spiritual activity, a productive and socially beneficial form of prayer... [this view of work as] a dignified and glorious means of affirming God and he world he created is one of the most important contributions of Calvinism to western culture.

(Both quotes are from the biography of Calvin by the eminent Oxford historian Alister McGrath.)

References
Parker, T.H.L.: Portrait of Calvin (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1955).
Parker, T.H.L.: John Calvin: A Biography (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975).
Miles, Robert Whitfield: That Frenchman, John Calvin (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1934).
McGrath, Alister: A Life of John Calvin (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1990).
Wallace, Ronald S: Calvin, Geneva, & the Reformation (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1998).
Zachman, Randall C.: John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and Theologian (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006).

I said it was going to be a good show

... and it was. Thanks to all who came.

Help Us Pray

Acts 6:4 notes that the Apostles delegated certain practical ministry tasks to others so that they could devote themselves "to prayer and to the ministry of the word." And elders in local churches are to follow the example of the Apostles, making prayer and Scripture study central (1 Tim 4:13-16; 1 Tim 5:17) and leaning on the spiritual gifts of others to assist in the many practical demands of church ministry.

Here's the problem: in our technologically driven cyber-world, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a quiet place to pray. I leave the city and drive to a monastery once a month just to escape the nagging pressures of email, cell phones, and to-do lists. When the Coram Deo pastors moved into our own offices eight months ago, one of our priorities was to create a "prayer closet." We have a perfect closet in mind - a tiny 15 square-foot space that's not really usable for anything else. We've even done some construction work to make it more functional. And yet, as we have allowed the urgent demands of ministry crowd out the important, the prayer closet has never been finished. Nor has it ever been prayed in, except maybe when Patrick hit his finger with a hammer while tearing out some shelves.

This month we intend to move the prayer closet from idea to reality. One of the items we need is a prayer kneeler. We are asking our friends and partners to prayerfully consider buying one for us and having it shipped to the offices. (Kneelers aren't exactly the sort of thing you go down the street and buy. And the Catholics seem to have the corner on the market, which may tell you something about the state of prayer in the evangelical church.)

Here is a link to one that is reasonably priced and seems appropriately functional. If you'd like to bless the work of prayer at Coram Deo in this way, we'd be grateful.

Revise Our Taking

Courtesy of Jenny Hooley ...

A LENTENT PRAYER
You, you giver!
You have given light and life to the world;
You have given freedom from Pharaoh to your people Israel;
You have given your only Son for the sake of the world;
You have given yourself to us;
You have given and forgiven,
and you remember our sin no more.
And we, in response, are takers:
We take eagerly what you give us;
we take from our neighbors near at hand as it is acceptable;
we take from our unseen neighbors greedily and acquisitively;
we take from our weak neighbors thoughtlessly;
we take all that we can lay our hands on.
It dawns on us that our taking does not match your giving.
In this Lenten season revise our taking,
that it may be grateful and disciplined,
even as you give in ways gracious and overwhelming.
Amen.

(Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth - The Prayers of Walter Brueggemann [Minneapolis:Fortress: 2003]

SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 11:25-30 (For further meditation, compare Jesus' life described in Isaiah 53 with Jesus' words in Matthew 11:25-30 ... a new definition of "easy" and "light" I guess)

It's Baked Goods Tuesday!

To Share In His Suffering

Every time I try to articulate my perspective on suffering I get stuck.

On one hand, I know that my hardships and afflictions are relatively insignificant compared to what I see around me; much less what I am aware of around the world. On the other hand, I cannot deny that I get sick, stretched, slandered, and snubbed. Privileged as they are, I feel burdened by my circumstances and frustrated with my struggle against sin. It’s dishonest to say I don’t suffer, isn’t it?

I get stuck because something doesn’t feel right about this dilemma. It assumes that suffering is a bad thing. I don’t want to say it’s a bad thing because my salvation was accomplished through Jesus’ suffering, and if there ever was a “bad” suffering it would have been that the pure and innocent Son of God was beaten and hung on a cross. I’m not glad He suffered, but I am thankful. I can’t say I wish it hadn’t happened.

Some preach that Jesus suffered so we wouldn’t have to, but everyone suffers in a fallen world. It’s more than physical hardship. It’s also emotional pain, relational woes, soul unrest, and spiritual attack. This is why the poorest man can also be the happiest. The point is that Jesus suffered, not to preclude us from suffering, but to give meaning to it.

Whether we are talking about the common hardships of life – the seemingly random and inexplicable things – or the more acute hardships in life – terminal illness, disaster, severe spiritual attack, etc. – we can embrace and even rejoice in suffering because we know that it produces perseverance, character and hope (Romans 5:3).

It might be fair to say that we are justified by Christ’s suffering and sanctified by ours. In this way we are remind that suffering is not merely a setback to our agendas, but rather a reorientation to the agenda of God to form the character of Christ in us.

In other words, the same hardship could be good or bad depending on your goal. Those who have their minds set on earthly things are, in Paul’s words, “enemies of the cross of Christ … But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body” (Philippians 3:18-21).

Earlier in this passage Paul says he wants “to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings.” That’s why the phrase “enemies of the cross of Christ” is so poignant. It indicates that those who spurn suffering and make their primary aim comfort, success, and pleasure are at odds with the cross of Christ, the very symbol of His suffering. To shun our suffering is to shun His. To embrace His suffering is to embrace our own.

I realize I have left a lot unsaid here. So poke the holes and fill in the gaps with your comments.


SCRIPTURE READING: 1 Peter 4 (and Philippians 3 for more context to the verses quoted in this post)

The Choice to Suffer

Lent is a time reflection as we remember the suffering and death of Jesus, and a time of repentance as we make room in our lives for the life of Jesus, which we will celebrate on Easter Sunday.

We have been talking a good bit about repentance and humility. Both of these have to do with our will to respond to God’s grace by turning from our ways and emptying ourselves of pride. Now we turn our contemplation to suffering, which is different in the sense that it’s not something we specifically choose.

Many people do give up something for Lent, but not as some kind of self-inflicted suffering. The heart behind denying our usual comforts and pleasures is to help us turn from our self-absorbed lives so we can remember the sacrificial life of Jesus. He is the one who chose suffering.

The mystery of Jesus’ suffering is that it is guided by the Holy Spirit of God. As it says at the beginning of Luke 4, Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit,” and is “led around by the Spirit in the wilderness”.

Our wilderness is not literal, but we are in the same way tempted to sustain ourselves, to escape our vulnerable humanity, to chase after our aspirations without thought of others. Jesus offers another way, a humble way, a way that waits patiently - despite the suffering - for the Spirit of God to lead Him along the road to the cross.

Jesus reveals to us what it means to embrace our humanity without short cuts. And we live into that humanity as we surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit, wherever He may lead us. The season of Lent is about waiting, maybe even suffering the loss of things that have come to define our lives, because we know that our life is dust— and because we are looking forward to resurrection life.

SCRIPTURE READING: 2 Corinthians 1:1-11