Worship Weblog
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Meditation on Psalm 20: Anointed
Reading 6: Psalm 19-21
Psalm 20 focal phrase: “The Lord will help his anointed.” focal word: anointed Psalm 20 might not be the first psalm you think of on a list of messianic psalms. But that word ‘anointed’ stopped me in my tracks. The Hebrew is MShYH, from which we get messiah. The Greek is christos. (The Hebrew for “help” or “save” here, by the way, is YSh’—from which we get “Joshua” and “Jesus,” which mean “savior.”) Everybody knows the name “Christ,” but few people know, or at least dwell on, what it means: “anointed.” That might not be the first word that comes to your mind when you think of the second person of the Trinity. But when we learn to hear the echoes of the Old Testament word “anointed” and “anointed one” when we hear the name “Christ,” we can get to know more deeply who Jesus Christ is. (It can also help us make sense of the word “the” in the title “the Christ,” which sounded strange when we heard the title of Mel Gibson’s movie: The Passion of the Christ.) “‘Jesus’ was the name given to the child at his circumcision (Luke 2:21); when the title, ‘Christ,’ is used, that ... should be understood as a specific reference to the Savior’s office as Mediator, the agent of reconciliation between God and [humankind],” says The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary. “The appellation ‘anointed one’ derives from the ancient Near Eastern custom of consecrating with oil persons who undertake the responsibilities of a high office.” Israel did this for prophets, priests, and kings. But as the EBD notes, “Because these Old Testament figures were anointed for only a short time and discharged their offices imperfectly, Israel anticipated the arrival of the Anointed One, who would be anointed ... by God, with the Holy Spirit.” We no longer install leaders by dumping oil on their heads, and so it’s harder for us to fully appreciate these roots of the name “Christ.” (It helped me to learn that some linguists think the English word “cream” derives from the archaic English word “chrism,” for a substance used for liturgical anointing, which comes from the Greek “christos.” The theory is disputed, but I cherish the picture of whipped cream on a piece of pie as a sort of anointing.) But we do still christen, or baptize. We are anointed to join Christ in his baptism. And Paul says in Romans 6, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” His death. That will echo more deeply in our souls over the coming week. It’s a mistake to read the royal psalms as primarily messianic prophecies, as find-the-messiah riddles, as only retroactively operative. Psalm 20 wasn’t written for the immediate purpose of foreshadowing Jesus; it was written for worshipers to sing to and about their king, their commander-in-chief, on the eve of a big battle, a pep rally for war (with the healthy reminder, often ignored by modern superpower nations, that military might is not a source for faith and hope). But it would also be a mistake to miss the Psalms’ clues of the coming Christ, as the travelers did on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Jesus tells them, “Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” And so it’s fitting to arrive at Psalm 20 on the eve of Holy Week. Our king, the Anointed, Christ, rides on a donkey tomorrow into a battle like we’ve never seen. He will win by losing. He will conquer by dying. The battle will be brutal. But God will give his Anointed the victory. When we cry, “Give victory to the king, O Lord,” God will answer with Easter.
More Meditations on the Psalms
Related Resources
Psalms for Holy Week
The Biblical Psalms and Christian Worship
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Friday, March 30, 2007
Worship Planning Idea: Baptism and Easter - A Festival Service for Eastertide
From John Witvliet in Reformed Worship:
Baptism is a sacrament of Easter. As Paul teaches us, in our baptism we are buried with Christ and are raised with him to newness of life. This insight led many early Christians to designate Easter as the most fitting occasion for baptism. Adult candidates prepared for their baptism during a season of study, prayer, and renewal that later became known as Lent. They were baptized as a part of the Easter Vigil service on the eve of Easter or early on Easter morning, a practice that continues in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and is being restored by many churches today. These services sparked the genesis of what we now call the Apostles’ Creed, which was originally spoken by those baptized in response to questions asked by the worship leader. We will emulate that pattern in this service.
The seasons of Lent and Easter focus our attention on the monumental events of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. In this service we remember and celebrate these events, probing their meaning for those united with him in baptism. May we claim again God’s promises made to us in our baptism and restore our vision for the kingdom of God.
For more worship planning ideas, see WorshipHelps, Reformed Worship, CEP ‘This Week’, and other sites
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Worship Planning Idea: A Service on Discerning God’s Will
From Ron Rienstra in Reformed Worship:
The success of Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life is evidence of the deep desire people have to discern God’s will for their lives. We sometimes speak of this as discovering our vocation or hearing God’s call. These concerns are lifelong, but are especially sharp for young people trying to choose the way in which they can minister to the world in Christ’s name, and in which they can flourish and grow into all God intends them to be. A group of such students at Fuller Seminary, tired from a year’s worth of academic work and anxious about their futures, did the initial planning for this service, centered on the theme of discerning and responding to God’s call.
For more worship planning ideas, see WorshipHelps, Reformed Worship, CEP ‘This Week’, and other sites
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Related Publication
Ten Service Plans for Contemporary Worship, Volume 2
Worship Planning Idea: Taize Chant on Micah 6:8
From Clay Schmit at WorshipHelps:
Many Christian traditions suffer from a lack of musical resources on the issue of justice. Here is one based on Micah 6:8 you might try. It is written in the style of a Taize chant. In other words, it is a simple line of scripture set to a repeatable refrain. It can be used in worship on its own as a canticle (scripture set to music), sung as a refrain to prayer petitions, or interspersed with scripture readings.
continued…
For more worship planning ideas, see WorshipHelps, Reformed Worship, CEP ‘This Week’, and other sites
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Translating “my familiar friend” in Psalm 41
From Wayne Leman at Better Bibles Blog:
One of the most delightful Hebrew idioms I discovered recently is found in Psalm 41:9. The psalmist refers to his close friend as, literally, “man of my shalom.” Isn’t that beautiful?! Someone you can trust, in whom you can confide, is part of your shalom, your peace.
Of the 21 English versions I am evaluating for translation of Hebrew idioms, every one translated the idiomatic (figurative) meaning to English, as, for instance:
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InSites e-newsletter: latest edition
The quarterly InSites e-newsletter features the work of over 20 religion websites funded by the Lilly Endowment. Read the latest edition.
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Site seen: MOBIA
Above: Kiki Smith. Processional Cross (detail), Sculpture, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, NYC, 1990s. Photo:Thomas Magno. From mobia.org
Museum of Biblical Art www.mobia.org
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Bookshelf: New Testament Words
Barclay, William. New Testament Words (Westminster John Knox, 1974)
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
Classic Reflections on Lent and Easter from the CCEL
From the Christian Classics Ethereal Library:
Athanasius (c. 295-373)
Have no fears then. Now that the common Savior of all has died on our behalf, we who believe in Christ no longer die, as men died aforetime, in fulfillment of the threat of the law. That condemnation has come to an end; and now that, by the grace of the resurrection, corruption has been banished and done away, we are loosed from our mortal bodies in God’s good time for each, so that we may obtain thereby a better resurrection. Like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish in our dissolution, but like them shall rise again, death having been brought to nought by the grace of the Savior. That is why blessed Paul, through whom we all have surety of the resurrection, says: “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?”
-from “Death of Christ,” from On the Incarnation
(p. 14,15)
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Meditation on Psalm 18: Gored
Reading 5: Psalm 18
Psalm 18 focal phrase: “the horn of my salvation” focal word: gored “Horn” is one of those poetic images that needs an explanation. I actually thought it was a little more poetic than it turned out to be. I was thinking “horn” as in “horn of plenty,” with salvation spilling out. Especially when you read the Vulgate, which has “cornu salutis meae”—“horn of my salvation”—with “cornu” as in “cornucopia.” Or maybe “horn” is some ancient military instrument or shield. Or “horn” as in “blow your horn,” the announcement of salvation, as when Joshua blew down the walls of Jericho in Joshua 6 with ram’s horns. But most of the commentaries I checked say that “horn” is just a “horn”—the horn of an animal. The Hebrew word is qeren, for animal horn, the same one used in Genesis 22 when Abraham is called off on his sacrifice of Isaac and sees “a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.” Why “horn”? An NIV footnote explains, “‘horn’ here symbolizes strength.” A footnote in the Contemporary English Version—which translates verse 2 as “my shield, my powerful weapon, and my place of shelter”—is the most helpful of all: “The Hebrew text has ‘the horn,’ which refers to the horn of a bull, one of the most powerful animals in ancient Palestine.” When I look at the number of ways the word “horn” is used figuratively in the Old Testament, I still can’t quite believe that this rhetorical flourish actually has in mind the pointy protrusion of a bull. But as I reflected on this phrase, I challenged myself to take the literal meaning and run with it. What does it mean, then, to praise God as the “horn” of our salvation? The NIV Study Bible points to two verses that integrate the literal and figurative meanings of “horn”: first, Moses’ rather gruesome tribute to Joseph and his tribe in Deuteronomy 33:
A firstborn bull—majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he gores the peoples, driving them to the ends of the earthAnd Jeremiah 48, where losing your horn is the mark of defeat: “The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.” Relatedly, Psalm 82 says:
I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast’, and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn; do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with insolent neck.’ ... All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.These verses make it a little less strange to praise God as the “horn of our salvation.” But I still find it hard to relate to the language of attack and defense in Psalm 18. In fact, I’ve been struggling with the Psalms’ exultations of God’s violent deliverance throughout my psalm readings so far. I find it hard to celebrate war and death, even when it’s God’s hand working through them. (Psalm 18 is adapted from David’s song in 2 Samuel 22, after he escaped Saul). And I struggle to apply them to my own life, which is free from persecution and military attack. I’ve come up with three guesses. First, these psalms about deliverance remind us to keep celebrating the acts of God in the biblical story: the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, the defeat of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, the rescue of Daniel’s three friends from the fiery furnace in Daniel 3, the miraculous prison breaks of Peter in Acts 12 and Paul in Acts 16. Second, we can celebrate our ultimate deliverance, the fact that no matter what suffering or death we experience, “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But third, and most directly, there are some echoes, some faint, some furious, of this previous and future deliverance in our current lives. Just this past week, the brother of a colleague in Africa was inexplicably spared his job after several of his coworkers were fired for being Christians. The six-month-old daughter of another colleague, after weeks of chemotherapy on her tiny body, was pronounced cancer-free. This kind of deliverance doesn’t always happen, but when it does, our souls leap. And in these moments, the image of an animal’s horn isn’t entirely disagreeable. Let’s be honest—because the Psalms are nothing if not honest—don’t we kind of like the image of God as a charging bull, horn poised for attack, not just waving a wand over a medical chart but actually goring that cancer, driving it away? Don’t we take comfort in standing behind a horn so sharp that sometimes it scares persecutors away? Deliver us from evil, we pray. God has in the past, and God has secured our eternal refuge. And once in a while, even now, we see evil with holes poked in it, deflated, defeated.
More Meditations on the Psalms
Related Resources
The Biblical Psalms and Christian Worship
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Alban Weekly on humble leadership
Traditionally, humility is understood as a virtue. And humility is a Christian virtue because, like all other virtues, the practice of humility opens us to Christ’s presence; or more specifically, it enables us to pay attention to Christ’s presence and guidance. Humility orients us more toward the spiritual so that we can live a life of Spirit. Another way to understand humility is to view it as a state of being in which we become radically open to God throughout our lives. Humility is a way of life in which we become consumed with seeking God’s direction rather than living purely according to our instincts, conditioning, and insights. For the Christian, humility integrates our spiritual and human natures in a way that allows us to become united with Christ.
So what is the nature of humble leadership?
Prayer for Illumination
Open our eyes to see our Creator’s glory.
Open our ears to hear our Teacher’s wisdom.
Open our hands to offer our Comforter’s gifts.
Open our mouths to sing our Triune God’s praise.
Open our hearts to offer our Redeemer our love.
- Prayer at Eastern Ave. CRC on March 25, 2007; from The Worship Sourcebook
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Meditation on Psalm 14: Fool
Reading 4: Psalms 14-17
Psalm 14 focal phrase: “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’” focal word: fool Suppose for a second that this line isn’t just a rebuke of atheists. Put aside the philosophy of it—does God exist?—and suppose this psalm isn’t about scoring points against Stephen Jay Gould. Suppose it’s about you, me, all of us, and our folly. Who is the fool who says there is no God? Suppose it’s the rich man in Luke 12. He strikes it rich, builds bigger barns, and wallows in his luxury. “I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” (It cracks me up that he actually addresses his own soul, voicing an inner monologue; it’s either a humorous touch, or a device that shows how utterly isolated he is.) God responds, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” In a sermon on this passage from Luke, Rev. Thea Leunk says that Jesus, by using the word “fool” here, is invoking Psalm 14. If so, it’s an interesting way of interpreting the psalm. The fool who denies God does not have primarily have a crisis of doctrine, but a crisis of overall perception of her own importance and self-reliance, in relation to God. The fool’s folly, Leunk says, is the folly of “the wrong perspective ... the folly of forgetting that God is the one who provides blessings like good harvests and barns stuffed to the rafters.” She concludes, “Only those who live in relationship with God will have peace about their future,” and quotes The Message: “fill your barns with God and not with self.” The fool who says “there is no God,” then, believes the folly of smug self-sufficiency. This fool is a prisoner to personal ambition, and a prisoner to greed. Our wealthy, materialistic culture is full of these fools. And so, sadly, is the church. If this is folly, what is wisdom? “The only way to stop being anxious over what we have not been able to grab onto is to let go of the things we have in our hands,” Leunk says. “Our generosity towards others is the surest mark of how well we have mastered this truth of Jesus’ teaching. The disciple who is at peace, who understands what it is to rely with confidence on God’s provision, is the disciple who gives like God gives—with generosity, with pleasure.” The opposite of hoarding is generosity. The opposite of self-reliance is self-giving. There’s nothing inherently wrong with material things, or even with big barns—God’s kingdom is a place of abundance and feasting. But when our barns, our things, our riches, give us a sense of false security, false self-sufficiency—when they alter our perception of our own importance and God’s providence—then they’ve made us foolish. I wonder if the Spirit is saying to us as we watch TV commercials or thumb through catalogs, check our stocks or build our dream house—I wonder if the Spirit is saying to us, “Don’t be a fool.”
More Meditations on the Psalms
Related Resources
The Biblical Psalms and Christian Worship
Thursday, March 22, 2007
‘Building Blocks of Relationships’
Tim reflects on the ‘language school’ metaphor from The Biblical Psalms in Christian Worship at his blog.
The decline of Religion sections in newspapers
From Martin Marty’s ‘Sightings’:
Sarah Pulliam wrote an obituary for a formerly vivid medium in which we did our sightings. It appears in the April 2007 issue of Christianity Today, and has a second life on the web (see “References,” below). Its headline: “Religion Sections Deleted.” Pulliam was referring to three kinds of phenomena: The Dallas Morning News, formerly publisher of the best Religion section, killed that section in January. The second-best, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “folded its Faith and Values section into the Living pages,” where it’ll be harder to find. Meanwhile, The Wichita Eagle is dropping its religion editor, and some other papers are doing the same.
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Church Profiles
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