Sunday, September 4, 2011

In “Studying the Lectionary” for this week in 2008, Aaron J. Couch writes:

Rather than establishing a procedure for excommunication, Mark Allan Powell (Currents in Theology and Mission, December 2003) suggests that Matthew presents Jesus as authorizing the Christian community to resolve disputes concerning the application of religious law (for example, what constitutes adultery [5: 27-30] or when divorce is permitted [5:31-32]). Jesus promises that, as risen Lord, he will be present among even two or three who gather in his name, authorizing them to determine how covenant statutes apply (are bound) or don’t apply (are loosed) to the situation that has led to disagreement among his followers about what constitutes sin.

What is at stake is nothing less than the unity of the church. In light of the preceding verses, which describe a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep on the mountain in order to seek one lost stray, the process must be understood, not as the steps necessary for exclusion, but as steps that may lead to reconciliation. Like the shepherd seeking and finding the sheep, the Christian community must make every effort to uphold unity among its members. Because the process is realistic about the presence and power of sin at work in the lives of believer, it recognizes the need to overcome division and restore estranged brothers and sisters to their place in the family of God.

The subject of religious law has gained a new currency in American politics today. Ignorance and racism has led legislators in several jurisdictions to propose unnecessary legislation, making illegal the use of Islamic law by secular courts in the United States. How can preachers use this week’s gospel passage to help congregations understand the distinction between governmental law courts and the rules by which communities of faith govern themselves?

Homily Service: an ecumenical resource for sharing the word. Vol. 41, No. 4 (1 September 2008 – 25 November 2008), p. 5.

Aaron J. Couch is co-pastor of First Immanuel Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon, where he shares ministry with his wife, Melinda J. Wagner.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

In the May - August 2008 issue of Homily Service, Debra Dean Murphy invites preachers to consider the specificity of Jesus’ command that his followers take up the cross.

The familiarity of verses 24-26 has often led to a tepid and confused theology of the cross; one which assumes that my private anxiety - a difficult relationship, financial hardship, uncertain health - is my personal cross to bear. While certain forms of emotional of physical suffering may be redemptive, the cross Jesus speaks of in Matthew 16 and elsewhere does not represent the sum total of our personal worries and aggravations. It is, instead, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer claimed, the suffering that comes from our allegiance to Jesus Christ alone. The cross, Bonhoeffer insisted, is not random suffering, but necessary suffering; it is rejection for the sake of Jesus Christ. Verse 27 (where the LM concludes) is in keeping with Matthew’s general insistence that judgment will be meted out according to deeds, action, performance, and not according to what we say, think, or feel. Verse 28 seems to indicate Matthew’s belief that the Son of Man’s coming was imminent. This verse and others continue to preoccupy some Bible readers, causing them to create timetables and offer predictions of Jesus’ return. They would do well to pay closer attention to Jesus’ teaching about the way of the cross and the cost of discipleship.

The public religiosity of American society exceeds that of the rest of the industrialized West. Is the American obsession with the imminence of the “end times” indicative of a psychological desire to have the opportunity to suffer for the sake of Christ on the part of those who believe that their ordinary lives afford them no such opportunity?

Homily Service: an ecumenical resource for sharing the word. Vol. 4, issue 3, p. 180.

Debra Dean Murphy is Assistant Professor of Religion and Christian Education at West Virginia Wesleyan College. She serves on the board (and is an avid fan) of The Ekklesia Project. She is the author of Teaching That Transforms: Worship as the Heart of Christian Education

Renewing our common priesthood

In the current issue of Liturgy, Fritz West discusses liturgical renewal within the churches of the Reformed tradition. Among his many interesting observations is the way in which the use of a common lectionary makes a powerful witness of the reality of the priesthood of all believers.

In keeping with the didactic character of Reformed worship of the sixteenth century, Hageman makes ‘‘lex orandi lex credendi’’ an imperative—‘‘Cultus must express creed.’’ To begin with, it must reflect the priesthood of all believers, that is, it must be corporate— not clerical—worship. (This includes preaching from posted scriptural readings rather than topical preaching, whose choice of scripture is inherently private.) (p. 47)

Over the decades the lectionary has come to be widely used, either regularly or occasionally, by—in some Reformed denominations—as many as 80 percent of all congregations. Admittedly, lectionary readings are rarely used as intended; they seldom form a ritual of reading containing all three readings plus a psalm in the Liturgy of the Word in a service of word and sacrament. Typically it is used as a list of preaching texts, with one or two readings being read in a service (with the Psalm treated as a reading rather than as a hymn). Despite this unfortunate reality, it does make for the public reading of scripture, that is, scripture chosen by the church rather than the pastor (thus furthering the priesthood of all believers, yet another aspect of Hageman’s reformed liturgic). (p49)

What other aspects of liturgical renewal make the priesthood of all believers powerfully present?

Implementing a Reformed Liturgic: Fifty Years of Reformed Liturgical Life, Liturgy, 26:4, 45-56.

Fritz West is a retired minister of the United Church of Christ and presiding member of the Association for Reformed & Liturgical Worship (AR&LW). He is the author of Scripture And Memory: The Ecumenical Hermeneutic of the Three Year Lectionaries and of The Comparative Liturgy of Anton Baumstark.

In the May - August 2008 issue of Homily Service, Brent Laytham offers preachers some inspiration to help them connect Paul's call to "present your bodies as a living sacrifice" with the sacrament of Baptism.

We are so prone to think we can offer ourselves to God in a spiritual form that lets us do what we want with our bodies.

Baptism is one way we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. It’s no accident that this sacrament of initiation, this doorway into a lifelong response to the mercies of Go, is an act that claims the whole body. I saw a baptism this week that illustrates the point. It was what many pastors would consider an infant baptism gone horribly awry. The child began to squirm the moment his mother handed him to the pastor, and then began to howl the moment the water was poured over his head. As I watched the pastor struggling - both to keep from dropping the child on his head and to keep his pastoral composure - it occurred to me that here was a vision of a body being offered to God, and not just a body but also a whole life. These parents were turning this child over to God for a lifelong transformation by the renewing of his mind. But it all began, rightly, when the church received that body as a living sacrifice.

In what ways do members of your community seek to "reserve" the sacrifice of their bodies to the demands of the Gospel?

The lifestyle currently enjoyed by members of western industrialized nations requires a different "sacrifice" of bodies: the sacrifice of the bodies of people in developing nations upon the altar of our comfort and plenty. How are christians called to address this other, more problematic sacrifice?

Homily Service: an ecumenical resource for sharing the word. vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 176.

Brent Laytham is professor of Theology and Ethics at North Park Theological Seminary. He is the author of God Is Not: Religious, Nice, "One of Us," An American, A Capitalist and God Does Not...: Entertain, Play "Matchmaker," Hurry, Demand Blood, Cure Every Illness

Liturgical Renewal as one dish on the Table

One useful way to describe the liturgical orientation of the various denominations might be to place them on a spectrum running from those whose use of editio typica is mandated by their tradition through those who have published liturgical texts the use of which is effectively optional and on to those whose tradition is actively hostile to the use of written forms of prayer. In the current issue of Liturgy, Karen Westerfield Tucker discusses the uncertainty attendant upon residing in the middle of that spectrum.

Her historical survey of worship in North American Methodist, states that from the 1990s until the present day, those who plan and lead worship in the churches of the Methodist/Wesleyan tradition have had available to them

a virtual smorgasbord of liturgical options—and local congregations happily sampled one or more. Although the authorized worship books of the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Canada showed the direct influence of the liturgical renewal movement, and many congregations utilized texts from those books in full or in part, Methodists also continued to exercise the long-standing option not to use the official materials. For some congregations, Sunday morning worship changed very little from what it was in the 1950s. In some of these places and in others, the music-driven and informal contemporary and praise and worship styles started to take hold and usually appeared as an alternative to the traditional service held at the main worship hour. These contemporary services were principally designed to appeal to the unchurched by offering something contrary to the usual expectations of church: they were informal, used few churchly accoutrements, focused on an engaging and relevant message, and employed music drawn from styles popular to the target constituency. It is ironic that, given the identifier contemporary, this style of worship, for Methodists, was far more traditional, for in fact it resembled conceptually the worship practices of the early Methodist movement.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a polity which provides denominationally sanctioned liturgical texts to its congregations, but simultaneously leaves the choice of whether or not to use those texts up to the judgment of the local congregation?

North American Methodism's Engagement with Liturgical Renewal, Liturgy, 26:4, 62

Karen Westerfield Tucker is professor of worship at Boston University School of Theology and President of Societas Liturgica. She is the author of many books, most recently American Methodist Worship (Religion in America).

Sunday, August 14, 2011

This week's reading from the Hebrew Bible is the climax of the Joseph narrative, presenting not only Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers, but also revealing God's purposes in bringing him into Egypt so that the community of promise might be preserved through the coming famine. In the May - August issue of Homily Service, John E. Smith reflected upon universal plan for the human family which is exemplified in God's preservation of Joseph's family.

There is more to this climax, however, than the Dickens-like outcome to the story of Joseph and his family. This is also the moment that reveals how God has acted through the antics of Joseph’s family to preserve his promise to Abraham and his chosen people. Certainly we admire Joseph in this “ah, ha” moment of tables turned and accountable justice. However, it is not Joseph’s magnanimous nature that is elevated here; rather, it is God’s character and faithful action that is revealed in verse 7: “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.” God acts to preserve the life of Jacob and his family, fulfilling the promise made, and preserving his purpose and the destiny that undergirds the whole project. God reveals himself through this family to bless all the peoples of the earth and to restore humanity to him. His choosing Abraham and his descendants is in order to bless all the families of the earth. (Gen 12:3).

Who is God preserving today, in order to bless the families of the earth? Is God acting through the wielders of secular power (such as Pharaoh) to work out the preservation of communities of blessing?

Homily Service: an ecumenical resource for sharing the word. vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 155.

John E. Smith is the pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Necessary casualties?

Concurrent with the project of liturgical renewal, the project of ecumenism has had a profound effect upon the texts that christians use in their worship of God. The English Language Liturgical Commission (ELLC) released Praying Together in 1998, “for widespread use, it is hoped, in the Churches of the English-speaking world.” (Praying Together, © 1988 English Language Liturgical Consultation. All rights reserved. p. 6)

In the current issue of Liturgy, both Donald G. LaSalle and Sylvia Sweeney make reference to the further refinement of these common prayer texts in ways which are particular to their own denominations (Roman Catholic and Episcopalian, respectively)

The texts of the new translation will also have an impact on ecumenical prayer, since a number of Christian churches have adopted common texts, following the lead of the earlier Roman Catholic translations. As a result, common texts of the Gloria, Credo, and Sanctus have been used by a number of churches. The new translations put an end to this common usage. A Curious Juncture: Roman Catholic Liturgical Renewal after the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century, Liturgy, 26:4, 21-22

In 1998, Enriching Our Worship 1 provided approved rites for the more inclusive celebrations of morning and evening prayer, the Great Litany, and the Holy Eucharist. Enriching Our Worship 1 was meant to be and has been a beginning, but only a beginning, for the larger work of gender inclusion in worship that still lies before us... On the one hand, communities like All Saints Pasadena and Episcopal Divinity School have led the way in helping Episcopalians imagine what a thoroughly Episcopal rite with thoroughly inclusive language might look like. On the other hand, more conservative parts of the church have found less gender-inclusive, more rubrically focused ways to seek to give expression to what they believe lies at the heart of full, conscious, active participation of the faithful. Baptism as the Gateway to Episcopal Liturgical Renewal, Liturgy, 26:4, 39

As the various denominations seek to inculturate the project of liturgical renewal within their own communities, will the work of the ELLC to provide the church with a set of prayers that we have in common be a necessary, though regrettable, casualty?

Donald G. LaSalle, Jr., S.M.M., is the Vicar General of the Monfort Missionaries and former Secretary of the North American Academy of Liturgy.

The Very Rev. Sylvia Sweeney is the dean and president of Bloy House, Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, California. She is the author of An Ecofeminist Perspective on Ash Wednesday and Lent (American University Studies. Series VII. Theology and Religion)

Sunday, August 7, 2011

In the May – August 2008 issue of Homily Service, Beth Herrinton-Hodge offered these thoughts in the “Welcoming the Word” section

Elijah finds a cave on Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. He expects to find God there, but God does not appear in the power of the storm, nor in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire. Where do we go to find God? Do we keep returning to the same place, the place of our ancestors, the place of revered saints, hoping for God to make another appearance? How does God surprise us in new ways? In new places?

Elijah gets away to a cave on Mount Horeb. Jesus tries to get away from the crowds by taking a boat to a deserted place, but the crowds follow him to be healed, to be fed, and to receive his compassion. In these incidents of retreat, these two men encounter God’s power. This power empowers them, sustains them, and gives them the ability to discern and serve, and to do what needs to be done. How can these examples of God’s pervasive presence empower and sustain us in the never-ending tasks of ministry?

Homily Service: an ecumenical resource for sharing the word, vol. 41, no. 3 p. 154.

A graduate of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (now united with Union Presbyterian Seminary) and San Francisco Theological Seminary, Beth Herrinton-Hodge is currently the director of after school programs for Shelby County Public Schools in Lexington, KY and operates her own business, Beth-writes, Inc., which provides technical writing, editing, grant writing, and curriculum development services.