xphiles

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Matthew 6, Psalm 51, Joel 2, 2 Corinthians 4.

Ashes.  Marking foreheads with the sign of the Cross.

"Remember you are dust..."

On the face of the woman who just buried her mother. 

The little child.  The newborn baby.  How can I make sure not to get any of it in his eyes?

"...and to dust you shall return."

On the forehead of the young man now a couple of years into living with a brain tumor.  On the wife of a man whose doctor just had to use the "c" word, cancer.  Do I really need to remind these folks of mortality?

The almost intimate act of brushing aside hair, the sloppiness of ashes.  The heartbreak of saying those words to someone who likely won't be with us next year.

The teen who is invincible.  The retiree who can hardly stay standing as I touch his face.

"Remember you are dust..."

To the man who labors for the church behind the scenes every day.  To the couple who backbite and spread gossip but are sweetness and light to your face.

The man whose secret sin, exposed for the world to see, would crush anyone not sustained by the grace of God: he staggers away, stained and tear-drenched.

"...and to dust you shall return."

I can still feel the ashes on my own face, my visage marked by a sign of cleansing, repentance, mortality, and renewal.  I need those ashes.  I need God's grace.

But I can still feel the ashes on all of their faces too.  What a terrible, wonderful beauty God's mercy is.  What a piercing love Jesus brings; a sword, indeed.

Remember that you are dust.  And to dust you shall return.

Remember that you are God's.  And to God, may we all return.

Technorati tags: Ash Wednesday Lutheran dust repent

 

Inter-Religious Emergers?

Some very interesting conversation going on in regards to this release from Emergent-US.  Basically, emergent Christian leaders meeting with post-modern Jewish leaders in an attempt to talk about building sacred communities in our cultural context.

You can read some of the debate here and here.

The main area of concern seems to be that McClaren's words may indicate that Jewish-Christian cooperation will advance the Kingdom of God. 

Hmmm.  What does this mean?

Blogs Behaving Badly

If you read many "emerging church" blogs, you've probably seen, at least from a link's distance or so, the kerfuffle between a rather vocal "emergent critic" blog and an "emergent" blog.  You can check out the aggregator / link blog that is the source of the controversy by clicking here; I offer these links as neither an endorsement nor a call for anyone to go to the various blogs and complain.

Basically, some emerging church bloggers feel that the emergent no blog, along with other, related ones, take internet postings dramatically out of context, distort them, and do not allow for adequate feedback and conversation in their comments.  The aggregator blog is supposed to be a place where comments can be freely made.  Emergent no's bloggers (and bloggers of other, similar blogs) feel that the aggregator is misleading and dishonest.

I find the whole situation profoundly disappointing.  There isn't much turning of the other cheek.  There isn't much interpreting the neighbor's actions in the best possible light (as Dr. Luther reminds us the Commandments require us to do).  There have been threats of lawsuits - something Paul says indicates we've already lost.

The Unblogged Life - Pastoral Ministry and Healthy Living

Well, I obviously haven't been blogging much.  Many thanks to those of you who still check back, or who watch the RSS feeds!

Where've I been?  It's not quite honest to say "I've been too busy."  I mean, I have been - in the sense that there has been a ton of other "stuff" occupying my time.  But that's not the heart of it.  It's a facile reason, but not the real one.  I'd rather characterize it as having been living an unblogged life.

There have been a number of very powerful blog posts of late reflecting on the dangerous, sometimes tenuous calling and life of "pastor types."  Scott Williams has had a number; I found a lot to think about in this one.  But poke around his stuff if you haven't already.  And then bounce on over and read this by the Internet Monk.  I won't pretend to approach the degree of reflection, wisdom, or humility either of these guys have.  Nor do I intend for this to turn into a whining session on the travails of pastoral ministry.  But I do want to stop living the unblogged life.

Bemusement Park

Mark Hasty blogs!  That discovery makes me glad.

It should make you happy, too.  Click, and read.  Yeah, the first post over there right now is on the whole ELCA and sexuality thing.  I should probably blog about that at some point.  No, wait, I shouldn't.  Anyways, if you don't really care about Lutherans and sex, scroll down a bit on his blog.  And poke around a bit.

Mark was a couple of years ahead of me at Luther Seminary.  Quite possibly one of the funniest Lutherans God ever created.  I'd take his music tastes pretty seriously, too.

(In an e-mail, he also calls me on the carpet for stealing his seminary license plate for my gmail address.  Guilty as charged!)

Law vs. Legalism

Found this great post by Alan Hartung (yeah, I'm about a month late in commenting on it...).  In my perspective, a lot of folks thinking and talking in the "emergent" conversation (in North America, at least, but that is only a limited subset of the movement!) have roots in the evangelical tradition and are trying to move beyond/ out of the definite legalistic tendencies in that tradition.  In Alan's post, the question gets raised: once you take out the legalistic structures that encourage conformity to particular behaviors that define "holy" or "righteous," what guides the kind of transformed life of kingdom holiness that emergent folks hunger and thirst for?

Bearing

More thoughts from The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles...

Early on, the authors spend some time expounding classical OT & NT verses about blessing those who curse you, loving enemies, etc.  Now, in an early Christian document, I for one would expect the application to be made to persecutors, those who revile the Church, etc.

But catch how they end the section: "Bear, therefore, with one another, ye servants and ye sons of God."  Ouch.  Even those they can confidently name as servants and heirs of God, they know will have conflicts, quarrels, and the need to forgive one another, bear with one another, etc.  Even within the Christian community, we find those we are tempted to call enemies.  We injure each other. 

The more things change, the more they stay the same, no?

Tomb, Candy Store, or Something Else?

Andrew Jones has gotten a little smack laid down on his blog of late.  My best interpretation is that it is around his use of the term monastery.  Click, read.  (A 21st century version of "tolle, lege"?)  Said smack is in the comments (in two linked posts).  I'll not rehash it here, except to say that it raises questions of the current day's Church in its relationship to the past.  Is the past a tomb, a candy store, or something else entirely?

Lutheran - Emergent? What Can Lutherans Bring to the Table?

This is a continuation of a train of thought begun here and continued here.

So what could Lutherans bring to the table in conversation with Emergents?

Lutheran - Emergent? What Can One Say to the Other?

In a previous post, I tried to come up with some ideas of how the Lutheran movement and the Emerging Church conversations have some converging realities.  (That post has some background and some disclaimers.  Please go check it first before reading this one!)  Now I want to speculate as to what the two movements/ conversations might be able to give each other as mutually-exchanged gifts.

I'll start with what I think Lutherans could gain from listening to and interacting with Emergents.  Then I'll try the other direction in a new post.