Category Archives: Church Calendar

The Organic Process

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Have you noticed the organic food craze that has been sweeping the United States for the past decade or two? As a kid growing up I never remembered seeing an “Organic” or “All Natural” label placed on the food my mom would put in the shopping cart. But people today are demanding that their food be grown without pesticides or artificial fertilizers and in an ethical and sustainable way. People are looking at the size of their chicken breasts and questioning if a chicken really should be the size of a turkey! You can blame the farmers all you want for this, but their livelihood depends on their crops. Furthermore, many of them have no other option due to industry pressure, other than to grow conventionally. Today the revolution in farming is to return to the ancient practices that have brought forth a safe harvest for millennia.

So what does this have to do with the church and church planting? People are tired of getting their spirituality super-sized and a drive-through window. Like the pressures of the agricultural industry there have been pressures on churches in all denominations to ascribe to business models of management, un-scriptural leadership techniques, manufactured sermons, financial pyramid schemes, marketing that is tacky and shallow, and a view of church growth that states “bigger is always better.” Like those people who question the way crops are grown and the size of chickens, there are some of us who are asking the question, “Has church always been like this?” Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not rallying against any specific church or denomination any more than I am rallying against any specific farmer. However, I am saying that ancient Christian practices are never more needed than they are today.

Perhaps the way forward for the church is to re-appropriate for today those ancient practices: daily prayer, weekly Eucharist, abiding in the church calendar, healing ministry, and radical hospitality. What if instead of one large farm in town, there were multiple smaller farms that worked together to grow crops that are sustainable for the community? What would it look like to plant churches that have a neighborhood feel, a deep spirituality, an outward focus to the broader community, and an unshakable love of God and neighbor?

I want to see what it would look like to grow such an organic church community in Medina. Where would we start? What does such a community look like? How do we grow a movement?

Lent Reflections: The Servant of Gethsemane

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Last week my friend Joshua Toepper (www.trinitarianmission.com) and I spent the day hiking, praying, and listening to God at the Abbey of Gethsemane. The following video is a reflection from one of the statues in the woods:

Re-Imagining ‘Fat Tuesday’ in the Waters of Baptism

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Today is Shrove Tuesday, the day before the Ashes of Wednesday that inaugurate the 40 day season of longing, Lent. Dating back to as before 1000, Shrove Tuesday (‘Fat Tuseday’) is a time to prepare for the season of Lent. Shrove’s origin is from the English verb to shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by the means of confession and penance. The origin of the celebratory aspect of “Shrove Tuesday” predates “Fat Tuesday”, “Carnival”, “Mardi Gras” and the Protestant Revolution. The idea was for people to release the “high spirits” before the “somber” season of Lent.

We have somehow translated “Shrovetide” or “Shrove Tuesday” into a variety of traditions that lack the bite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does eating pancakes have to do with preparing for lent? The rationale is that all the fatty ingredients that go into pancakes are often fasted during lent. Consider Mardi Gras or Carnival. What do the activities associated with these celebrations have to do with preparing for lent or even Christianity? Why does the church feel compelled to “celebrate sin” for a day before a season of fasting?

I want to suggest that we need to re-align our understanding of the Tuesday before Lent. We need to re-ground it in the narrative of Scripture. Specifically, we need to saturate it in the waters of our baptism into Christ. In yesterday’s post, I noted that it is immediately after Jesus’ baptism that the Holy Spirit sends him into the wilderness to fast and pray for 40 days and to be tempted by Satan. What better way to prepare for the fasting and temptation of Lent than to follow our Lord and remember our baptism into his promise.

It is often noted of the Reformer Martin Luther that when tempted by Satan he would reply, “I AM Baptized.” Notice this is not a past action according to Luther, but a present promise of the benefits of being in Christ. How much more fitting would it be for us to remember our Baptism into Christ the Tuesday before Lent than to celebrate in spite of it.

Transfiguration Sunday and the Longing of Epiphany

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Yesterday was transfiguration Sunday which marks a peak of ascent in the Christian calendar and journey. It is from the vantage point of the mountain of transfiguration that we see behind us the season of Epiphany and before us the season of Easter. Behind us is Christ’s baptism and before us is his death and resurrection.  It is from this vantage point that along with Peter and James, we see Christ transfigured before us and then from out of a cloud of unapproachable light, we hear the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Matthew 17:1-9).

These words spoken from God the Father act as a segue from Epiphany into the season of lent. From the action of Christ’s baptism (in Epiphany) to its meaning for us (Easter). The first phrase from the clouds of the Mountain of Transfiguration was first spoken at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel:

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:16-17

After these words were spoken at Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3, we find Jesus being, “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights.” (Mat. 4:1) This brings us to the longing of lent:

  • To not live by bread alone, but by the words that come from the mouth of God. (Mat. 4:3-4)
  • To not put the LORD to the test (Mat. 4:5-7)
  • To dismiss Satan with our worship of “The LORD our God, serving him alone.” (Mat.4:8-10).

On the mountain of transfiguration where we stand in the Church calendar we are invited into this season of Longing, of Lent with the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” So we respond to the Epiphany of Jesus as God with obedience; listening and following Christ into a wilderness season of Lent that leads to the death and new life of Easter.

The Epiphany of Suffering

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During this past week suffering and death have been ever before me: From a philosophy class I am taking on Suffering, Tragedy and the Christian Faith, to a Time article written by Rob Bell concerning him getting his call to be a pastor in the midst of severe headaches, to a guest lecturer in Chapel talking about growing up in the persecuted Church of Columbia, to filling out ACPE (Association of Clinical Pastoral Education) applications about my views of spiritual care and suffering, and last night hearing a friend’s testimony about God’s presence with him in the midst of his young wife’s death. These events bring me to today:  the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the First day, and the eschatological eighth day… and then I’m reminded of the “reason for the season”, Epiphany – Christ being revealed as God in the Gospels… in the midst of suffering.

Before the Passion of Lent and the Resurrection of Easter comes the Epiphany of the B.C. proclamation in Isaiah 53, “Surely he has borne our infirmities   and carried our diseases;  yet we accounted him stricken,  struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions,  crushed for our iniquities;  upon him was the punishment that made us whole,  and by his bruises we are healed.”

The picture  and the Isaiah 53 passage above are an attempt to articulate the reality of suffering, tragedy, sin and death in light of the reality of Jesus as LORD. It attempts to show that the cross is not only a historical event, but it is also a reality of God’s cruciform love for the world. I remember Robert Mulholland saying in class, “The Cross is not just something Jesus DID, it is a revelation of  WHO God is.” During the season of Epiphany we see Jesus transfigured before us as God: Healing diseases, exorcising demons, and raising the dead. We follow the reality of Jesus as God in Epiphany into the reality of Christ’s cruciform love revealed in the Passion of Lent.

My Birthday And Epiphany – Part II

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It’s always exciting when my physical birth date falls on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as it did this year. In Sunday’s post I looked at the birth narratives in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and how they revealed Jesus as God. In this morning’s post I will look at this “birth” motif from the perspective of the Gospels of John and Mark.

The Gospel of John begins immediately with the Word (logos gk.). The closest hint to the physical birth of Christ comes in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” The opening setting of John is in Bethany across the Jordan. John the Baptist is preparing the way of the Lord with his baptism of repentance. John explained his reason for baptism, “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And Jesus came and was revealed as God in Baptism. This revelation of Jesus as God, theophany is celebrated during the season of Epiphany (I wrote a post about theophany a few weeks ago).

The narrative of Mark also starts with, “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” Like John it goes right into the ministry of John the Baptist as the path by which Jesus’ earthly ministry enters.  John proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And just like that, “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” Just like the baptism account in Mark, Jesus is revealed as God in his baptism.

Both John and Mark as opposed to Luke and Matthew stress the adult ministry of Jesus that begins with his baptism. They include no genealogies, birth narratives, or childhood accounts of Jesus. The emphasis of the beginning of Mark and John appear to be on John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus’ baptism, and subsequent ministry. John Stott says, “Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience.” If the labor of our physical birth is the human rite by which we all must become part of a human community, then water baptism is the Christian rite by which Christians are imparted with the Holy Spirit that cries out in our hearts as adopted Children to God,  ”ABBA FATHER.”

My Birthday And Epiphany – Part I

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Today is the Lord’s Day. Today is Epiphany. Today is also … my 28th birthday!

Whether we know our exact date of birth or not, all people have a day in which they were revealed to the world through their birth. My day came 28 years ago on a cold morning in northern Ohio. During the season of Epiphany we reflect on how Jesus Christ is revealed in the Gospels as LORD. What do the Gospels have to tell us about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth as his revelation to the world? What does Jesus’ birth narrative(s) tell us about our own birth?

The Gospels of Luke and Matthew tell us about the revelation of Jesus the Messiah from the onset of their narratives. After a genealogy of Jesus’ ancestry, Matthew 1:18 explicitly states, , “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” In Matthew chapter 1 we are told how the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth and in Matthew chapter 2 of the wise men traveling from the east as a result of a rising star of the newly born King of the Jews. Their response to King Herod for their coming, that “they may worship him.”

In the Gospel of Luke we have a more detailed account of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, and the accounts of the angels with the shepherds, Simeon, and Anna the prophet. These two Gospel accounts testify that the birth of Jesus was somehow different than my birth 28 years ago. And still, the birth is scandalously common: Jesus was born as an infant, from a woman, in a zip code, to parents. Unlike my birthday visitors of grandparents, relatives, and family friends, Jesus had angels, shepherds, wise men (kings?), and prophets testifying that the Messiah,called Emmanuel, “God With US” has been born. They testified with Simeon in Luke 2 that they, ”Have seen [God's] salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people,  a light for revelation to the Gentiles   and for glory to your people Israel.”

But there is another birth that the Gospels attest to and which I am born (along with the great cloud of  witnesses). This birth is revealed to the world through the sacrament of baptism which Christ initiated. In tomorrow’s post I will look at this birth from the Gospels of John and Mark.

The Beauty of Epiphany

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“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows.
For love is the beauty of the soul.”
Augustine of Hippo

Beautiful theology (theology = theos + logos in the greek) is a Word about God that has an inherent sing-ability to it. This is why the ‘worship leader’ is such a vital role in a church. As I have heard JD Walt say many times, “the worship leader is the practical theologian of the Church.” Revelation 14:3 reminds us that before the eschatological throne of heaven we won’t just be quoting the right things, but singing a beautiful new song,

“And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.”

I was blessed to have taken Sacramental Theology with the notorious preacher and scholar, Bob Stamps. Dr. Stamps once said something that has stuck with me through the years, “Our theology needs to be as beautiful as it is correct.” Does this mean that systematic theology needs to be written in prose? Or that a Church’s statement of faith converted to a hymn? While I would enjoy hearing systematics put to prose and singing a church’s confession, what I am suggesting is that our theology should be more like a painting or symphony than a lawsuit or military campaign.

When you read the Gospels during this season of Epiphany do you see how Christ is revealed as God but miss the beauty of that revelation? Do you marvel at the symphony of events that God orchestrated for this unveiling? Do you gaze at the scenes as a priceless masterpiece? Do you marvel at the beauty of the Gospels as you abide in their truth?

Epiphany B.C.

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On Sundays I reflect on the Church calendar as a way to abide in a different time line; to offer my inner most being to the triune God be formed and renewed  into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Last week I wrote about the Kingdom of God and how Jesus Christ is revealed in the poor. This week’s post focuses around the idea that Epiphany is first imagined in human history not in the Gospels, but in the Prophets of the Old Testament.

I am about a month behind on my yearly Bible reading plan for 2010. Since I have had more ‘free time’ between semesters, I have been reading big chunks from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Revelation, and the Gospels. I have found that the Prophets (particularly Isaiah) can give us ‘glimpses’ or a ‘preview’ of the Epiphany events recorded in the Gospels. Jesus and the early church drew upon the imagery, language, and actualized the motifs, promises, and prophetic declarations of some of these OT Prophets.

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. In the Gospel according to Luke (ch. 4) we find Jesus returning from his desert temptation with the Devil, filled with the Holy Spirit he began to teach in the synagogues. This is the  account of one of his ‘teachings’ in Luke 4:16-19:

When he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of the sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim they year of the Lord’s favor.”

The portion of the Isaiah scroll that Jesus read is form Isaiah 61 verses 1-2. If you read the scroll a little further you will find the writer of Isaiah 61 making prophetic declarations and promises from the Lord. If these promises sound too great to us on this side of Easter, then imagine if you both heard and saw the promises of Isiah 61 fulfilled in your neighbor’s son:

“And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In order for us to more deeply understand how Jesus Christ is revealed as God in the Gospels during this season of Epiphany, we need to the 20/20 vision of Pentecost (the Holy Spirit) to see Jesus as the fulfillment of what the prophets longed for. Without God’s grace to see and hear we are like those Jesus spoke to in parables, ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ Or we respond to the Epiphany of Christ with skepticism:

“All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “is not this Joseph’s son?” … And Jesus said, “truly i tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”

How do we respond to Jesus fulfilling Isaiah?

Blogging Through The Church Calendar

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Part of the content of the prayers from my wife and I lately have been concerning spiritual formation in our family. We have been imagining what it looks like to pray, worship, read Scripture, and fast together as a family instead of as individuals.

One solution that can ground us in patterns of formation would be to observe the liturgical calendar of the historical church. This means more than just putting up a Christmas tree and going on easter egg hunts. The church calendar provides structure to our prayers, scripture reading, and spiritual disciplines. So what does this have to do with blogging?

The application of the church year to family spiritual formation inspired me to apply it to my writing. There are four reasons that I have for structuring some of my blog posts around the church year:

1. It commits me to blogging at least once a week.
2. It aligns me with the historical church.
3. It reorients me to an alternative timeline of being.
4. It expands my creativity.

My tentative plan is to dedicate the Lord’s Day (the 8th day) to blogging on the great themes that the church calendar provides. For instance, this coming week is the second week of Epiphany and the feast of Theophany that celebrates the baptism of Jesus, so my writing will be focused around the concept of “theophany.” By dedicating at least one day to blogging through the church year, I am also holding myself accountable to cease from the business of the week and to abide in the rhythm of the church.

Blogging the church year connects me to the examples and stories of the Christian saints that have gone before me, the key movements and developments found in the Holy Scriptures, and with the broader global church. The church year invites me and you to abide in a different timeline that is structured around the revelation of the triune God in history. Writing once a week on the themes and movements of the church year also expands my creativity by inviting me to venture outside of the ordinary themes of my blog into the extraordinary reality of the triune God.

So check back to my blog (at least) each Sunday for posts that are inspired by our journey through the church year.