Archive for November, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I am so thankful for all of you who continually support me verbally, spiritually, emotionally, and blogging-ly.

Special thanks to my wife, Amanda, who is with me through thick and thin. To Giselle, for making me smile everyday.

To my seminary cohort, who continually support me and help me advance socially and intellectually. To my friends, who I don’t see too often, but I am thankful for you too. To my parents, who have never stopped loving me. To my brothers, for always making me laugh. To my in-laws, for taking us in at just the right time. To all those in all areas of life, Thank You!

Glory and thanks (always) to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be. Amen.

Highlight(s) of the week: (1) My seminary retreat. Guest speaker was Andy Crouch, who was awesome! His theme was “Live More Musically” (see notes 1, 2, 3, and 4). (2) Practiced Sabbath this past Sunday, which for me was really turning off my phone. I really enjoyed spending the time with my family without any distractions. (3) Amanda was runner-up for “Teacher of the Month,” which is voted on by students. This is actually a greater achievement than it sounds because she only teaches two grades (versus others who teach 3 or 4) and has only been there for one month. I’m proud of her.

Live More Musically session 5

Why do we worship on Sunday?

The Jewish people have never forgotten on what day is the Sabbath – the seventh day of the week
•    then, we hear of a group of Jews who worship on the first day
o    something so great happened on the first day that they saw time in a new way
o    N.T. Wright – the change from Saturday to Sunday is one of the biggest evidences of the resurrection of Christ
o    The Lord’s Day – the early Christians called it the “eighth day” – what God had done is so huge that the seven days couldn’t contain it

The change to Sunday touches billions of people today – people on Sunday often do something different than they did every other day

Time
Practices remind us of Discipline
Breath in singing reminds us of Sabbath – we have to stop in order to breath
Dissonance reminds us of Suffering

Only when notes are playing in time do they make any sense

daily quiet time? – comes from a Western, modern idea that humans are like machines – but humans are like music
•    we treat people like machines that do the same thing every day over and over again until you die
•    the early church structured their lives around Christmas (Christ’s birth) and Easter (Christ’s resurrection)
o    before Christmas, spent four weeks preparing – Advent
o    after Christmas, celebrate what God  has done
o    for 40 days, Lent – leading up to Easter
o    days after Easter, celebrate Easter

o    we treat in our churches one day – Christmas and one day – Easter
o    Andy’s family during Advent –  fast by eating vegan every meal – remember every meal that there is no meat and no dairy – light Advent candles and read Scripture
•    12 days of Christmas to Epiphany – they feast
•    40 days of Lent, fast from foods
•    Easter, feast

feasting and fasting

Humans aren’t made to be monotonous beings – we need variety

Let’s live meaningfully in time now anticipating eternal time

Psalm 84

session 3 was a Q&A. Q&A’s are difficult to take notes on so…

Live More Musically session 4

read Psalm 22v1-18 alongside playing “Prelude 8 in eb minor” by J.S. Bach

When we set out to live musically, I wonder if we realize it’s going to involve minor keys
•    minor key – works in reverse way of major key
o    major key – resonates, works with the way of the universe
o    but minor keys – the key of dissonance – create in our ears that we can’t consciously hear it – something is not quite settled

Dissonance | Suffering

Andy – went to voice coach and realized that he has a natural limit to his voice (8 notes) and if he goes out of that he will lose his voice
•    so, the thing he loves to do – leading worship – he can’t

Also, liked to write
•    part of editing Regeneration magazine – put in a lot of time, effort, and fundraising, and it eventually went “down the tubes”

Andy fell into the miry clay
•    wife got a job in Swarthmore, but he missed Boston (his home)

What does it all mean? All those years of friendship and ministry? – what did it mean to grieve that?

What in your life is dissonant?

This is part of living musically

fugue – musical composition of “voices”
•    fugue weaves between major and minor – eventually as you develop the minor key it ends of in a major key and vice versa
•    as they work together, you hear a sense of harmony

•    better metaphor for Christian life than you are a sinner (dark, deep, minor), then Jesus (happy), but you’re still a sinner (dark, deep, minor)

Christian life is more like a fugue – multiple voices, keys, tensions playing at the same time – theme takes time to develop

Some things are still unresolved

fugue – Bach deploys dissonance to bring about beauty
•    Fugue 8 in d# minor by J.S. Bach

Psalm 22v1-18 – greatest explanation of human dereliction
•    after v18, the psalmist immediately changes his mood – “you have rescued me”
•    when he is mocked, he remembers when he was delivered, and looks for his second deliverance

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

-Exodus 20v8-11 TNIV

I think the idea of “sabbath” (or rest) has been lost on many of us, Christians (particularly, in America). We ultimately have fallen into the idea that we (the Church) need to be best, fastest, quickest, coolest, most exciting people because otherwise the world will look elsewhere. I think this is somewhat true, and there is great benefit in attempting to attract the “un-churched” (for lack of a better term). However, in our attempts to be these things, we have inevitably lost sight of the beauty of sabbath, the beauty of rest.

Andy Crouch reminded us at my seminary retreat that God asked the Israelites, a people of agriculture and farming, to take a rest (a sabbath) from such things for one day. I can imagine their Canaanite neighbors looking at them and tilling in their fields saying, “Ha! What a foolish idea! They’ll get stuck behind. Don’t they know you can’t stop farming for sake of losing everything you already did?” Strange, right? God is constantly asking his people to do something that is completely ridiculous in the eyes of their neighbors (building a large boat for a worldwide flood is another good example). But by taking a Sabbath, the people (a) separate themselves from their society - they are different; (b) they better relate with each other - Jubilee, the ultimate sabbath, spends time relieving each other of debt, etc.; (c) and they relate with God himself - “on the seventh day, God rested.”

My thoughts here are three-fold: what would it be like for God’s people (the Church) to rest on Sabbath (a) in relation to society, (b) in relation to each other, and (c) in relation to God himself?

As far as society is concerned, I’m speaking from my background as an American. My father recently came back from a trip overseas to visit a plant in Europe the company he works for had just purchased. He told me that Europe, which is known for its extensive holidays (another form of rest), is struggling to keep up with America, which has less extensive holidays (rest) because it is so production-driven. Thus, Europe may have to adapt to keep up. What?! Isn’t this a shame? We are forcing the world to become like us - a production-driven people, and hence, more stress-filled lives. [I presume you understand that less rest can easily produce more stress.]

So, if the people of God in America rested, sabbath would become a counter-cultural statement. Rest is subversive to the American message (even the American dream?). Our neighbors would look at us and say, “Ha! What a foolish idea! They’ll get stuck behind. Don’t they know you can’t stop producing for sake of losing everything you already did?” Unfortunately, the Church in America, in it’s being Americanized, has adopted the attitude of production, instead of, the biblical attitude of rest. What would it be like if we all on a certain day just stopped (!)? America would hate us because our lives are telling them - “Calm down. Rest. Sabbath.”

Also, I think rest would help us relate better to one another and God. Imagine spending the day resting with people. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? What if we turned off our phones and our laptops? What about if instead we feasted (feasting, not fasting, that’s for other days) together? Shared stories together? Spent time getting to know each other? Playing games together? Our relationships would be deeper and more meaningful. But success in these areas would be more difficult because, get this, we would actually have to stop and get to know each other (ha!). I’m not being sarcastic. That’s hard.

We would also learn to rest and reflect on the glory of God. Sunday is a great day for this, but it doesn’t have to be Sunday. It could be Saturday. It could be Friday. But what day could some of us take to reflect on God’s glory? Praise him. Pray to him. Spend time with him. Worship him through his creation and with our lives. Isn’t it interesting that in the Ten Commandments God really explains the reason for Sabbath almost as much (in our English Bibles, not sure of Hebrew) as he does for creating false images? Perhaps, putting work and labor above God is idolatry? I’ll leave that one up to you.

The problem is that we don’t want to stop, do we? We don’t like it. It’s comforting having my cell phone on me at all times. It’s comforting being on Gmail. It’s comforting. But interestingly, God isn’t into the business of always being comfortable. In fact, he’s very much in the business of uncomfortability - Have you ever asked someone with leporsy to dip themselves 7 times in a dirty, filthy river to get healed? Or have you ever presented yourself in front of a king (dictator) without him calling for you and knowing full-well that he could kill you for doing that? God is very much in the business of being uncomfortable.

Now, this always brings up, “Well, we don’t want to be legalistic.” So, most respond, “So, let’s just drop the idea.” However, I’m not talking about legalism. I’m saying let’s find what is preventing us from resting, from sabbath, and removing it for one day. For me, it may be turning off my phone, not going on Twitter, and not running to a million places in one day. For my wife, she could use the phone because people call her for different reasons than me. They call her for chances to rest like spending time with family. People usually call me to do something. For my wife, it may mean that sabbath day she doesn’t cook. That sabbath day she doesn’t clean. [And it doesn't have to be Sunday! I mean, tell Rick Warren or Rob Bell to rest on Sunday.]

Sabbath is a subversive act. It subverts the messages of our societies. It subverts how we “surfacely” relate to each other. It subverts our “too busy-ness” to spend time with God. Sabbath, perhaps, is the most subversive thing we can do. Sabbath, perhaps, is the thing that can most separate us from this world.

So, stop reading this blog (all 2 of you), turn off your computers, and go rest. Do it! Rest. Calm down. Sabbath.

What can we learn from people who lived musically?

Practice | Disciplines

•    discipline – an uninteresting thing that you do over and over again until you get good at it

•    the Christian life is basically about the same thing

Breath | Sabbath
•    set aside your work and do not do what you normally do

•    we need to breath in order to talk/sing
o    somehow we think we can do ministry without resting

•    If we want to live more  musically as Christians, we have to learn to stop what we are doing – take a “breath”
o    take a day of rest

Psalm 131

Early church read, “pray without ceasing,” and asked, How do we do that?
•    They said it has to do with breathing
o    when you breath in, prayer; when you breath out, prayer
•    Prayer
“[breathe in] There is Another, [breathe out] who lives in me.
[in] There is Another, [out] who completes me.
[in] There is Another,  [out] whose righteousness is mine.”

In prayer distractions become the material of our prayer

“Live More Musically” session 1

-Harmony: note C (major) is a combination of various frequencies
-we all are searching to live our lives in harmony with what God has designed
-Rhythm
-first thing we hear is the rhythm of our mother’s heart
-Meaning
-you want the song to give meaning to the moment you are in
-Improvisation

How do we get these things?

Playing a CD vs. Playing a violin
- how do they differ?
Violin: (a) personal investment, (b) discipline - time, (c) unpredictable, (d) preparation/maintenance, (e) flaws, (f) creativity, (g) active, (h) one place, (i) expensive, (j) tired, (k) few can do

CD: (a’) easy, (b’) instant, (c’) predict., (d’) batteries, etc., (e’) perfection, (f’) not, (g’) passive, (h’) many places, (i’) cheap, (j) infinite, (k’) anyone

What happens when you pratice and continue to? You eventually enjoy it.

What happens when you continue to enjoy it? You become satisfied.

The whole culture tells you that the way to live more musically is to be at a sustainable satisfaction (i.e., buy the CD) - get it now!

But lasting satisfaction comes with the hard road of practice

What’s addiction? Starts with the first time being very very satisfying
-keep looking to get it like the first time - but you can never get it
-eventually you kill yourself looking for the same satisfaction

Jesus, “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life will find it.”
-if you start with what is unsatisfying you’ll find lasting satisfaction

We must convince people to lie their lives in the logic of “practice” and not “purchase”

The Psalms
-Psalm 1 - “happy” and “delight”
-all the psalms are about how to be happy
-you being blessed comes from giving of yourself
-but it comes from “practice” (not purchase)
-as you pratice it produces longevity
-ends on a dark note - last word “doomed”
-scornful isn’t just unhappy - it is refusal to be happy
-what is doomed? Being unblessable - not allowing blessing

The way of God is about being the person who is delighted

Just wanted to give my daughter a shout-out on my site.

Happy 7 Months, Giselle! Mommy and Daddy love you so much, and we can’t imagine our lives without you. We know you can’t read, but I just wanted to tell the world.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18v9-14).

Jesus was an excellent storyteller. He tells this story about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other “sinners” and proudly points his finger at the tax collector. However, the tax collector, who is a “sinner,” is very humble and recognizes his own sin.

You know what I love about this story? Jesus gets you like this sometimes. I read this passage, and I say, “Oh, man. Ha! That Pharisee is one proud dude. I’m glad I’m not like him. I’ll never be like that proud Pharisee.”

And then I realize…I am.

I fell into the “trap.” As soon as I point my finger at the proud Pharisee for pointing his finger at the tax collector, I’ve done the exact same thing the Pharisee did.

I am the Pharisee.

Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy are those who repay you
according to what you have done to us.

Happy are those who seize your infants
and dash them against the rocks (Psalm 137v7-9 TNIV).

For my seminary class on the poetic books of the Old Testament, I was assigned the following: Respond to the statement: “I would never preach on Ps 137:7-9 (above), the language is too vindictive and violent.” Below is my response. I find this to be a fair reaction to Psalm 137, but I do not think one should follow through with such a feeling and never preach on it. Like I said, below is my response. I hope you find it beneficial.

–

My first reaction is to say, “Then don’t.” I think the worse thing that could happen is for a preacher to engage into this text with such a response to the “baby dashing” of Psalm 137. This is most often a mistake, and I would prefer one not to make rash judgments on the passage because it offends his or her modern sensibilities. Thus, we must cautiously interpret the biblical passages such as these due to our sensibilities.

It seems that the psalmist is reacting to some great injustice, and his response is to cry out to God to save him/her. In order to do so, he/she leaves vengeance to God, asking him to repay his/her oppressors with violence of similar magnitude that was inflicted upon his/her people.

If we are going to be realistic, the world, even though a modern one, is still full of injustice. It is difficult to imagine anyone in the Western world responding in such a way as Psalm 137. However, much of the Middle Eastern world would likely call upon their God to respond to their injustice in such a way. Thus, this may not be a modern issue but rather a geographical one.

I do find it difficult to reconcile the non-violence of Jesus with the psalmist here. It may simply come down to a difference between the old and new covenants (i.e., Old and New Testaments). However, I would like to proceed as if it were no different.

The issue stands with injustice. God, being a just god, is constantly called upon by the biblical community and is asked to save his people from injustice. It is improbable to that one would see the God of the Old Testament (OT) turn a blind eye to injustice, whether it is by his people or against his people (Israel is at times as much of the problem as they are the solution).

The same is true for the God of the New Testament (NT) seen through Jesus Christ. The God of the NT also does not turn a blind eye to suffering. In fact, he responds to it. Matthew 25 is a good example of this. The ones who do not help “the least of these” (the oppressors) are sent away to where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. These oppressors are not necessarily even violent, but they are oppressors nonetheless.

Jesus Christ speaks of himself as judge (John 5:30). Even the Apostles’ Creed states that Christ will return in the future to judge the living and the dead. Thus, Jesus even partakes in judging the wicked. Thus, from both the OT and NT, we see that God judges the oppressors and saves the oppressed.

Also, one cannot discount the emotion of the psalmist. It is often the response of someone who has suffered a great loss through an act of violence to react in such a way – “God, get ‘em.” However, the psalmist is properly following the torah in that he/she is not taking vengeance upon him/herself. Less we forget the words of God to his people,

It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
In due time their [i.e, oppressors] foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
and their doom rushes upon them (Deuternomy 32:35 TNIV).
We must conclude that it is not only reasonable to call upon God to judge, but one is even justified in doing so. I do not intend to be simplistic, but, if I am being honest, how God decides to judge is “up to him.” But everything is up to him. This idea is even stated by the apostle Paul in Romans, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (12:19). Therefore, the psalmist is justified to seek God’s revenge upon his oppressors, and we are, as well. However, as is always the case, vengeance is God’s alone. It is not something we take into our own hands. And we must always be patient for God to do so, for, as we wait patiently for Christ’s return, we must wait patiently for that day when all oppressors (or the wicked) will receive their just reward.