Worship Weblog
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Jeremiah, vocation, and hope, in Interpretation
Phillip Thompson gives a provocative ode to vocation in the current issue of Interpretation:
Jeremiah 1:1-10.(Between Text & Sermon).
Philip E. Thompson.
Interpretation 62.1 (Jan 2008): p66(3). (1474 words)Vocation is a divine gesture toward a world under God’s reign. As such, Gilbert Meilaender reminds us “vocation exacts a price and not all can pay it. Even though it may seem to draw us, its point is not happiness.... To follow the vocation does not mean happiness; but once it has been heard, there is no happiness for those who do not follow” (The Freedom of a Christian, 2006, 105). Vocation is compelling, and yet can create a pronounced lack of fit. Such was the case with Jeremiah (see 20:7-9). ...
[A]s a divine gesture toward a different world, to pursue a vocation is to hope. The final two verbs of Jeremiah’s call, “to build and to plant,” bespeak an assurance that God can work newness ex nihilo and create historical possibilities out of unmitigated chaos (Brueggemann, 24). Thus, even as vocation may create a lack of fit and even bring about separation, in so doing, it constitutes us as pilgrims who live in hope (Meilaender, 112).
Also see our worship service series on faith and work
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N.T. Wright on Heaven: ‘Surprised By Hope’
I devoted my first book and much of my thinking and teaching so far to rediscovering a more biblical view of heaven and the afterlife, so I’m thrilled to see a star theologian devote a new book to the topic: N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church.
Time magazine’s website did an interview with Wright last week about the book, under the headline “Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop.” I think Wright is right about Christians being wrong:
Never at any point do the Gospels or Paul say Jesus has been raised, therefore we are we are all going to heaven. They all say, Jesus is raised, therefore the new creation has begun, and we have a job to do.
Wright has been making his case in scattered essays and sermons for several years now--and of course his magnum opus is a huge book on the resurrection--but he’s never pulled together his eschatology into one book like this before. I hope the church takes it seriously and embraces a more biblical hope.
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Too early to think about preaching in the summer?
Preaching Today’s blog says no:
We got dumped with a foot of snow in Chicagoland two days ago, so I’m happy to think about summer! But preaching, rather than weather, is what’s on my mind. What are preachers to do when their people are ‘in and out’ the whole summer? Is it possible to preach a sermon series even though half the congregation may have missed last week’s sermon and will probably miss next week’s sermon, too? Let me share how I approach this.
Also see our guide to Planning Worship for July and August
‘Christ of the Earthquakes’ by Alberto Torres
Alberto Torres portrays Jesus on the cross with his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and Saint John. The Bible tells how at the hour of Christ’s death, darkness fell and the earth trembled. A replica of an anonymous 18th century work in the La Paz Cathedral Museum, this beautiful painting also makes reference to an image of “Christ of the Earthquakes” venerated in the Cuzco Cathedral.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Report from trip to Singapore
Joel Navarro has returned from a trip to Singapore, where he helped lead worship and a conference for the 25th anniversary of the School of Church Music at Singapore Bible College, and provided these pictures.
Above: Lee Chung Min conducts the SBC Choirs, performing Vivaldi’s “Dixit Dominus” and Handel’s “Dixit Dominus,” at the 25th anniversary concert of the SBC School of Church Music.
Below: (from left, front row) conference presenters Glenn Stallsmith, ethnomusicologist for Wycliffe Bible Translators; Dr. Philip Chan of Hong Kong Baptist College; Dr. Joel Navarro of Calvin College.
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Peter Bush on ‘’In Dying We Are Born’
Peter Bush, co-author of Where 20 or 30 Are Gathered from our Vital Worship, Healthy Congregations” series, has a new book out called ‘In Dying We Are Born: The Challenge and the Hope for Congregations.’ It’s excerpted in Alban Weekly:
Wise congregations develop habits that help them to integrate denying self, cross-bearing, and following Jesus into the essence of their identity. These congregations understand that dying to find new life is not a one-time event; rather, it is a way of being the church. Among the habits developed are wonder, remembering, and risk taking.
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NTS on Awe in Revelation 4&5
The Strategic Arousal of Emotions in the Apocalypse of John: A Rhetorical-Critical Investigation of the Oracles to the Seven Churches
By David A. DeSilva
New Testament Studies, Volume 54, Issue 01, January 2008, pp 90-114
doi: 10.1017/S0028688508000064
Revelation 1.12-16; 4.1-5.14 can be understood largely as representations of God, Christ, heavenly personnel, and heavenly court ceremonial designed to arouse genuine awe - and this, most strategically. The extensive scholarly literature on Revelation’s interaction with, and opposition to, Roman imperial cult and court ceremonial leaves now little room for doubt that John attempted to evoke such a response, in part, to draw members of the audience away from the possibility of being impressed by the emperor, especially through all the pomp and circumstance of the manifestations of imperial cult in their cities, and to be more impressed - to feel more awe - in response to Jesus. The Glorified Christ trumps all the pretensions of human rulers and their pomp, their ‘aura’. John’s own response reflects the emotional response he seeks to kindle among his audience - being so overcome by the vision of Christ as he exists now in his post-resurrection, post-ascension state, that physical strength fails (Rev 1.17).
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‘Thomas’ by Rex Hausmann
‘The painting “Thomas” deals with the nature of Faith, and how at the end of one’s life, when all the intricacies are finished a beautiful composition is created.’
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ByFaith magazine on missionaries and the weaking U.S. dollar
The weakening U.S. dollar is having a profound effect on missionaries scattered all over the world, including those affiliated with the PCA’s Mission to the World (MTW).
“It makes things more expensive in their local currency and increases their cost of living,” said Bill Goodman, MTW’s director of field operations. “This problem is widespread throughout the world—it’s not just Europe that is being affected.”
While previous economic changes have caused support shortages for missionaries in the past, the breadth of this problem is unprecedented.
Christianity Today recently reported that “according to the U.S. Center for World Mission, many missionaries are finding their dollars worth 8 to 12 percent less than they expected this year. In Europe, dollars have lost 45 percent of their buying power since 2002.”
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Friday, February 08, 2008
Image journal’s website redesign
Image has a beautiful new website at www.imagejournal.org. Check it out, and also see their newsletter and new blog.
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NTS on Paul, redemption, creation, and the ‘cosmic covenant’
Romans 8.19–22 and Isaiah’s Cosmic Covenant
By Jonathan Moo
New Testament Studies (2008), 54: 74-89 Cambridge University Press
doi:10.1017/S0028688508000052Paul claims that creation’s final release from this bondage will not be attained until the full revelation of the children of God, an event that Paul equates with a future ‘redemption of our bodies’. Yet there is ambiguity in the status of the ‘children of God’ in Romans 8, who both are and are not yet God’s children, and this ambiguity likely reflects the tension in Paul’s view of the resurrection life and the new creation, which belong at once both to the unseen future and to the believers’ present life in Christ. When this tension within Paul’s eschatology is situated within the dynamic context of a cosmic covenant provided by Isaiah, there may even be created an opening for those who desire to interpret Romans 8 ecologically. For Paul, God’s children and the created order are inevitably co-sharers in both suffering and glory; but, more than that, as through the Spirit the children of God are enabled ‘to become what they are’, there is perhaps hope even in ‘the present evil age’ that individuals and communities orient themselves toward God and creation in such a way that the [ktisis] itself gains glimpses of its longed-for hope of freedom.
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SJOT on the Messiah Figure of the Old Testament
The Messiah Epithet in the Hebrew Bible
By Thomas L. Thompson
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, Volume 15, Issue 1 June 2001 , pages 57 - 82Abstract
Rather than a reference ‘’to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet’’ as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term ‘MSH’ in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David’s role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ‘’the poor man’s song.’’ Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.
continued...
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‘ChurchBeat’ blog
We’re following with interest a new blog by Chris Meehan for the website of the Christian Reformed Church called ChurchBeat.
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‘Redeemed One’ by Virginia Wieringa
We celebrate with Symposium attendee Virginia Wierenga that two of her pieces were accepted for the Celebration of the Arts these past two weeks at First United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids. She displays her two vivid pieces on her blog. Also see her Anastasis banner.