Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Best Definition of Missional Ever

The president of Luther Seminary, Richard Bliese, recently quoted an African missionary in his quarterly letter, who said:

"In working with young people in America, do not try to call them back to where they were, and do not try to call them to where you are, as beautiful as that place might seem to you. You must have the courage to go with them to a place that neither you nor they have ever been before.
"

I need to learn from the wisdom of this African missionary. I confess that a lot of my energy as a pastor is still invested in either calling young people back to where they were, or calling them to where I am. I need to step out in faith, like Abraham and Sarah.

As in Heb. 11.8 "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going."

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Pre-baptism instruction

Pastors: What do you tend to use as the source for your pre-baptismal instruction? a) Catechism, b) Liturgy, c) Erlander, or d) other? If other, what? And how do you like what you are currently doing?

Parents: Do you remember pre-baptism instruction for the baptism of your child? What was it like? What do you need, hope to learn when you attend it?

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Ascension of the Lord

The Ascension of the Lord

This Feast is celebrated on the 40th day after Pascha, which always comes on Thursday of the 6th week. It has received its name from the commemoration and event glorified on this day, the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh to heaven (Мark. 16:16-20; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:4-12). On the last day of His visible stay on earth the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to all the apostles who have gathered together and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the coming of the Holy Spirit on them that was promised by Him. He "has led them from the city of Jerusalem to Bethany" on the Mount of Olives 1). While on the way He talked with them about the organization of His Church on earth. On the top of the Mount of Olives the Lord, explaining to the Holy Apostles what their purpose will be, said to them: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth". And when He had said this, the Savior lifted up His divine hands and blessed His disciples. "And when He blessed them 2), He receded from them, and went up again into heaven". The Apostles reverentially bowed to the Lord, Who blessed them, and with trembling and amazement watched Him ascend to heaven while, finally, a cloud took Him out of their sight. But the Lord was not slow to comfort His disciples with such an unexpected and regrettable separation. Behold two men in white clothes revealed themselves to the Apostles. They were Angels whom the ascended Savior as Lord and Master of the Angels sent to earth to the Apostles. The Angels said to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven". Having heard from the angels such a comforting message, the apostles, filled with the deepest joy, left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem. So glorious was the visible ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, which His Disciples told us. But His further invisible Ascension to an eternal divine kingdom to His Father was much more glorious, as this is described in the church hymns in the present day, in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets.
The angels with the sound of the trumpet met the Lord who has gone up and accompanied Him (Ps. 46: 6). The Holy Spirit ordered the heavenly Powers to open the gates of the eternal kingdom of glory for the Redeemer: "Raise your
gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates: and the King of Glory shall come in" (Ps. 23:7). And our Savior, "went up to heaven, from where He also had come", as the Son of God, Only-begotten of God the Father, has received that divine glory which He had by the Father before the creation of the world; went up to heaven, as the Son of Man, having exalted mankind in His person "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion " (Ephesians 1:21). The very God the Father with love expected and received to Himself His beloved Son, the theandric Jesus Christ Who Himself sat on His right hand as it has still been described in the Old Testament by the Holy Psalmist: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (Ps. 109:1; refer to Rom., 8:34; Heb. 8:1). Thus, our Savior not only has ascended to heaven, but also sits on the right hand of God the Father 3) i.e. as the God-man and Redeemer of the world, He has taken on all authority, greatness and glory even in His human nature, which belong to Him in His divine nature, as well as He, after His Resurrection, told the apostles: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Mt. 28:18).
The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord is great in its own meaning, as it verifies the fulfilling of the divine plan in us about the salvation of man and all the world and about the highest glorification of the human nature, which in the person of Jesus Christ is raised higher than the light-bearing spirits and who is seated on the throne of divine glory. And this assures all of us that from now on the entrance into heaven opens for those born on earth, where Jesus has gone as a Forerunner on our behalf (Heb. 6:20) and where His journey to heaven becomes a path for all His true followers 4). Together with this "the present feast", the Blessed Augustine says, "reveals to us in Jesus Christ the mystery of man and God," witnessing to the undivided and unbroken union of the divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ "Who ascended in both natures". In the Divine Services of this Feast, although they describe the sad thoughts that the Apostles originally had, being orphaned, they mainly changed them into a high feeling of joy 5). For, as St. John Chrysostom teaches: "Today people have become like angels, men have been united with the bodiless ones, and from this relationship came a great union. The Lord of all, having ascended to heaven, has reconciled the race of man with the Father. We, who were deemed unworthy on earth, today have ascended to heaven with our own essence. And the nature, from which the cherubim protected paradise, today itself sits upon the cherubim". That is why even the Holy Church in its hymns for this day, calling believers to sing the song of victory to the Lord, Who ascended and causing us to sit together with Him on the right hand of the Father, exclaims: "The earth exults, and heaven rejoices today at the Ascension of the Creator of creation"; "All the world, visible and invisible, celebrates. The angels exult, and men continually raise up doxologies". Calling her children to the
joy of the Ascension of the Lord, the Holy Church at the same time according to the words of the angels said to the Apostles after the Ascension of the Lord (Acts 1:11), in its hymns for this day reminds us also about the second coming, strengthening us by this victory to lift up "our eyes and thoughts to the heights", to focus our sights "together with our mortal feelings to the heavenly gates" and to beg the Lord that He "spare our souls, granting remission of our sins". In agreement with this even the Saint Gregory Diologos in his homily on the day of Ascension teaches: "Let us make haste, beloved ones, with all our heart to follow Him to where He has ascended. Let us reject any predilection for earthly objects 6). Having a part in the inheritance of heavenly abodes with Him, let us not search for blessedness on earth. We should take care and think about how He, though now ascended to heaven with meekness, will at one time be revealed with fear and with a terrible presence, and with severity will demand from us all that He now teaches with meekness. Let no one resent the time given for repentance. Let no one neglect himself while there is time. The Savior on the dread judgment seat will demand an account more strictly from us than He would have patience with us now. Brothers, never forget this. Let your spirit in the middle of the present sea of life be stirred up by the mighty storm; soon you will reach a quiet haven in the heavenly fatherland; soon you will be in the light of the unapproachable glory. Now the Lord ascends to heaven for you. Let us reflect more often and more attentively to what our faith teaches us. If we have not become stronger in the deeds of faith and piety, if our physical powers are still weak, then, at least, let us follow our Savior in our readiness and love for Him". "And if we live piously," as Saint John Chrysostom teaches, "and that we remain unshakably pious, always with diligence multiplying this good; and if we are deprived of all boldness and we recognize in ourselves alone only sins; then we would be corrected to get that same boldness, and there together also with one mind to meet with due glory the King of Angels and enjoy this blessed joy of our Lord Jesus Christ".
The establishment of the feast of the Ascension undoubtedly goes back to the earliest times. Besides the importance of the commemoration of this event on this holiday, that they speak of it from the earliest times positively witnesses to its antiquity. So, already the Apostolic Decisions prescribed it to be observed on the fortieth day after Pascha. St. John Chrysostom calls this feast a great and most important one and relates it to the category of feasts undoubtedly established by apostles, that is Pascha and Pentecost. The Blessed Augustine also calls it a most ancient and universal feast.
Troparion, tone 4
Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, Granting joy to Thy disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Through the blessing they were assured
That Thou art the Son of God,
The Redeemer of the world.
(Text tr. OCA 1967)
Kontakion, tone 6
When Thou didst fulfill the dispensation for our sake, And unite earth to heaven: Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, Not being parted from those who love Thee,
But remaining with them and crying: I am with you and no one will be against you.
(Text tr. OCA 1967)
The Megalynarion
We magnify Thee, O Life-giver Christ, And we honor Thy divine Ascension With Thy most pure flesh into heaven.
Paramoeas: 1) Is. 2:1-3. 2) Is. 62:10-63:3,7-9. 3) Zech. 14:1, 4, 8-11. Matins Gospel Mark 16:9-20; sel. 71. Epistle Acts 1:1-12; sel. 1. Gospel Luke 24:36-53, sel. 114.
On the feast of Ascension at Matins after the Gospel we sing: "Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ"; at the Liturgy we sing the festal antiphons which describe the prophecies of the Divine glory of the Savior, who ascended into the heavens with exclamations and the sound of a trumpet. Instead of "It is truly meet" we sing the 9th Ode Irmos of the canon: "We magnify you, the Mother of God". Besides this, at the beginning of the church services on this day and following until Pentecost we do not read the prayer: "O heavenly King" because it is the prayer to the Holy Spirit, whose coming the Church is still waiting for during these days, and after the blessing of the priest the reader directly reads "Holy God". Just as on the day of Ascension, and the following days up to the Leavetaking of the feast at the liturgy instead of "We have seen the true light" we sing the Troparion "Thou hast ascended in glory". The feast of Ascension is one of the Twelve Major Feasts. The Leavetaking of the feast falls on the Thursday of the 7th Week after Pascha.
Notes:
1) According to the explanation of the Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, the Lord selected the Mount of Olives for His Ascension, as one may consider, that it was His favorite place before which He
blessed with His repeated visits and prayer, and is where He began His special saving Passion for us, even unto death with spiritual grief, and His very difficult prayer, resulting in the outpouring of bloody sweat. Having returned to the place of the beginning of His sufferings to the place where He completed His glorification, He through this has signaled that His suffering and glorification compose one harmonious structure of the salvation for us the plan of God, one golden chain produced in the hearth of the wisdom of God, for the raising up again to heaven man who fell from paradise.
2) The evangelist did not say: "when you bless" but "when you have blessed", i.e. God blesses, and yet does not end His blessing, but continues to bless, and meanwhile ascends to heaven. According to the explanation of the Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, he specifically says that God does not want to end the blessing, but continues to endlessly bless the Church and all those believing in Him. Having received the blessing of Christ through the Apostles they distribute it to others, and thus, all those belonging to the Holy, Catholic (Sobornaia), Apostolic Church are made participants of the one blessing of Jesus Christ and His Father, "blessing us all in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens (Ephesians 1:3). As the dew "of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion" (Psalm 132:3) this blessing descending on any soul rising above the passions and carnal desires is higher than the vanities and cares of the world. As the indelible seal, it marks those who are in Christ, so that at the end of the ages according to this sign He will pronounce to them from the midst of all the human race: "Come, receive the blessing"!
3) The Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, teaches: "Having heard that the ascended Lord "sits at the right hand of God" should not present to the mind anything corporal and sensual, but should think only that Christ has the same authority with the Father Almighty, is one in glory with him, one in the ruling consideration for all the world, and especially for the Church that is saved. In general, do not boldly turn the tested ideas at this immense height to flight: there is "unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:16). If before the created light of the visible sun you have blinded your eyes, how is the uncleanness from the mud in the eyes of your mind not removed before the eternal light of the Sun of the spirits, before Which even the highest of the Angels close before the person? And the Apostolic eyes from nearby could follow the Lord Who is ascending; the cloud took Him and hid Him from them. And as they during this time "worshipped Him": so even you, after a modest look to heaven in faith, fall down, son of ashes, humbly into the ashes, even before the inscrutable greatness in almost silent awe."
4) The Ascension of the Lord, similar to His death and resurrection, includes the most precise paradigm in the plan of our salvation, and therefore was predicted and celebrated, in all its greatness even by the Prophets. And the Holy Apostle Peter, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, in the hearing of all the Judeans asserted that "Heaven must receive Christ Jesus until the time for establishing all" (Acts 3:21), i.e. up to the end of the world. The time for the humiliation of the Lord has forever ended in His cross and tomb. After the resurrection the acceptance of all Authority by Him on earth and in heaven (Matthew 28:18), the time of glorification has essentially come to Him. But rough, corrupted by the sins, gravitating under the curse, our earth, obviously, is not a place of rest and glorification, but of temptation and wandering. The earth serves as a dwelling place only for those who are from the earth. But the Son of Man, "Who descended from Heaven" (John 3:l3), did not belong to the earth. To tell the truth, "having shared in our flesh and blood" (Heb. 2:14), He had a body from the earth. But how long this body was similar to ours was as long as He lived on earth similar to us. In the resurrection His body changed and has accepted such properties that was visible, and at the same time became invisible, was tangible, yet passed through closed doors, accepted food, and was not subject to change. The resurrected Savior was on earth for forty days; but during this time He has been seen only when He revealed Himself to the Holy Apostles. Where and how He spent His other time is not known. But, obviously, the earth could not be still His dwelling place. For a body immortal, glorified and deified, it is much more natural to dwell in heaven than on earth. Already immediately after the resurrection from the dead the Savior tried to ascend to the most heavenly world, to the Father (John 20:17). And if He still remained on earth, then it is because of special love for the disciples and for the need to continue His conversations with them, "speaking of the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). And when also this need has been satisfied, and when these holy chains begin to have power, then the Savior was glorified for His extreme effort on the cross for humanity. Similarly the fragrant incense is directed from the Mount of Olives to the eternal Sun. There, where all is in compliance with His purity and glory, and where He should be until that time, so that by His action and by His power all will be cleansed and enlightened and filled, and the very earth will be divested of its roughness and curses. Then the earth will be able to become the place of the visible eternal dwelling of God with men (Rev. 21:3). This was demanded also with new, great applicability of the Son of Man after His resurrection. As in the situation of humiliation He was forced to be an offering for all, so that in the situation of His glorification it fell to Him to become the manager and the head of all. But where ordinarily is the place for the head? Is it above the whole body? According to the same law (if the law is also necessary for the Law- giver) returned and now: as the Head and the Ruler of the whole world, the God-
man is seated "on the right hand" of God the Father, "in the heavens far above all rule and authority and power and dominion" (Eph. 1:20-21), that, in the expression of the Holy Apostle Paul "to unite all things" in Him "things in the heavens and things on earth" (Eph. 1:10), to accept divine "worship from all knees" not only "on earth and beneath the earth", but also "in heaven" (Philip. 2:10), "to reign" over all in heaven and on earth, and over all worlds, "until He has put all his enemies under His feet" (1 Cor. 15:25, Heb. 1:13), that all visible and invisible, all tribes and tongues confess, "that Jesus Christ" is truly "Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philip. 2:11), "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16). If there were no Ascension to heaven and glorification of the God-man, then the matter of our expiation would remain incomplete, unfinished and uncrowned. Being raised upon the cross, the Savior took all to Himself only up to the height of a cross; meanwhile He took all even up to the height of heaven, even up to the throne of glory (John 14:3). Therefore, "having accomplished" on earth "the work which Thou gavest Me to do" Father, "yes created" (John 17:4), He ascends to heaven to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32), prepared a place for us in the mansions of the Heavenly Father (John 14:2). But the mansions of the Heavenly Father, which the blessed one prepared for us, is open for all, but is not accessible to all. For the entrance into them it is required that we here on earth be clothed in appropriate dress, worthy of heaven. These clothes are prepared for us by the suffering of the God-man, adorned and sealed by His priceless blood; but under the divine plan of the management of our salvation, it belonged to the Most Holy Spirit to create our vestments in the "light and pure fine linen of righteousness" (Rev. 19:8). And the Son of God, after the end of His great work upon earth, i.e. after the forgiveness of people by His death, after His descent into Hades and after His resurrection, after His visible and solemn departure to heaven, so that His ascension opens the way to the invisible benefaction of the activity of the Comforter Spirit, only through whose assistance we can "put off the old man with its practices", and "to put on the new", with the primordial "righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:9-10). "It is to your advantage that I go away", the Savior told His Apostles, "for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7). And before the Descent of the Holy Spirit to earth "it was necessary for Christ to enter into His glory" (Luke 24:26) to receive "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Mt. 28:18) to ascend to heaven and "to sit on the right hand of the Father, (Mk. 16:19). For "the Holy Spirit was not yet" on earth while "Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). Thus, in the trihypostatic council of God it follows that the fulfillment of the work of reconcilement, which remains with us on earth, is already not of the Redeemer Son of God, but of the Holy Spirit, Who, abiding in us, would regenerate in us a strengthened, consoled, spiritual life, and "helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26), also "intercedes for us with sighs too deep
for words (Rom. 8:26). But under the same plan of the management of our salvation it follows that also the Son of God "through the cross destroyed the enmity (Eph. 3:16 sic) between heaven and earth, went up to the heavenly saints who stand with Him before God the Father ever to decree peace to the world and to save those of the sinners, who, repenting their sins, even up to seventy times seven (Mt. 18:22), again will come through Him to God with faith and a broken spirit. And our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal High Priest, passed into heaven "now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb. 9:24), "to make intercession for them"(Heb. 7:25), for us guilty before the righteous judgment of God, so that, "if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John. 2, 1). (See details in the Collected Works of Innocent, Archbishop of Chersonese, vol. 1, pp 353-359; Words and speeches of Sophonius, Bishop of Turkestan, vol. 1, pp. 15-23).
5) After the cloud hid the ascending Lord from the visible sight of the Holy Apostles, their hearts were filled with sadness, as before, when the Lord only told them before about His going to the Father (John 16:6). The faith of the Holy Apostles still could not reach the end of the Ascension of the Lord (John 14:25, 16:7); they now only saw that the Lord will no longer live on earth and they will no more see His corporal eyes. But their reception, then, of the message being revealed to them by the Holy Angels was for their faith to the end of what they could not reach, or, at least, to what their intellectual insight was not now directed. This message distracted them from their sad thoughts that the Lord will probably not be present any more among them, to talk with them, but has poured into their hearts faith and hope that the Lord who disappeared from their visible sight has ascended in divine glory, as well as He Himself told them before, that He will come again in the glorious image in the opening of the eternal kingdom of glory. And the Holy Apostles "returned to Jerusalem with great joy". Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow said, "They rejoice now because their faith opened their mind to the perfect understanding of the mystery of Christ: they believe and know that as Christ through His resurrection shattered the gates of Hades and opened the exit from it for the believer, so through His ascension opened the gates of heaven and the entrance into it for the believer. They rejoice because their love is perfect. It is delightful for them that their beloved Savior ascended to heaven in blessedness and glory, though they remained on earth for ascetical feats and suffering. They rejoice because their hope is perfect. They wait for and feel that the ascended Lord, according to His promise, will soon send them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And that, finally, according to the angelic announcement, "This same Jesus, who ascended into heaven, will so come" (Acts 1:11). And that He may come to keep His other promise: "I will come again and receive you to Myself" (John 14:3). And
this holy joy as the Right Reverend Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese teaches, remained forever the inalienable property of the souls of the Holy Apostles, the inexhaustible treasure of their heart, the plentiful source of comfort for all their subsequent life. Nothing in the world could take away from them this holy and life- creating joy of the Lord. As they seem lonely and helpless in the world, "like lambs among the wolves", how many are surrounded by their enemies and persecutors, how they met their "trouble in the cities, trouble in the deserts, trouble from the pagans, trouble from relatives, trouble from malevolent brothers". They always and incessantly rejoiced in the Lord, rejoiced in the work and ascetical feats of the annunciation of the Gospel of Christ, rejoiced in temptations, troubles and misfortunes, rejoiced amidst slander and intrigues, prosecutions and persecutions from the Jews and the pagans, rejoiced even in the very suffering for the name of Christ.
6) If we do not vainly carry on ourselves the all holy name of Christ, if for this we were buried with Him through baptism into death (Rom. 6:4), in order to live with Him for ever and ever; then it is already impossible for our souls to be attached to anything terrestrial and temporal, it is impossible for our hearts to be intimidated by this temporal dwelling. It would mean to renounce everything that is made for us by the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God. It would mean to act contrary to the all-good counsel of God for us, contrary to our own faith and belief. We believe that for this the Son of God came down to earth, "that for us He will ascend to heaven"; for this also He arose and again ascended to heaven in order to open the way even for us to ascend there, "where the forerunner Christ went for us". Also what could attach our heart to the earth? Doesn't the earth even when we water it return thorns and thistles to us? On earth aren't there passion and vice, evil and untruth, poverty and sorrow, illness and suffering, crying and tears? Aren't our ancestors and parents, relatives and acquaintances, in the earth, and doesn't it also swallow up our body and transform it into corruption and ashes? Sooner or later we should leave it necessarily. Death will overcome and place us before God in heaven. But what then will happen to us if we are infatuated with the earth but be foreign to heaven? Can we live, so to say, in the heavenly abodes if we do not now get used to ascend there in our mind and our heart, to live there in our spirit, to breathe and feed on the heavenly air? Can we be installed in the community of Holy Angels and the chosen of God if we are not one with them in spirit and our heart? Can we not be pulled together with them in our thoughts and feelings, in our character and deeds? So, we need to draw near with the inhabitants of heaven before hand, to now get comfortably used to the paradigm of heavenly life, to before hand get accustomed to live with our spirit in heaven in order that upon death we do not leave for the abyss of Hades. How will we achieve it?
Certainly, we will not by own power and not by earthly means. "No one will enter heaven, except those who go to heaven with the Son of Man, who exists in heaven". No one can even raise us to heaven, except Him. Only He has the strength to lift up with Himself all who are attached to Him in faith, who love Him with all their heart, with all their soul and all their mind, who turn themselves to Him entirely and undividedly, with all their soul and heart, who with their whole part and destiny will love eternal life in Him, who will make the first and main purpose of all their activity the center of all their hope and desire, all intentions and aspirations. Such He will attach to Himself by the power of His grace. He will lead all the minds and hearts of those who, living in the flesh on earth, live in the spirit in heaven higher to heaven: "for where your treasure is, there also will be your heart", and where the heart is, there is the whole person, there is all his life and activity. For the true Christian all treasure is hidden in Jesus Christ, who ascended to heaven, and that is where his heart is, and where his life is (Philip. 3:20). If we shall only think of heaven, to wish and search only for the heavenly, neglecting all the terrestrial, the fears for our earthly affairs, for our fleshly necessities and needs, for our family and citizen duties are in vain! It is vain to think that all our affairs will then come to extreme frustration! On the contrary, then all our earthly affairs will accept a correct and successful course. All our work will be accompanied by blessed success. All our pleasant occupations, which they neither were nor of what they consisted, will be spiritualized and will be consecrated with the blessings of God and will receive the God-pleasing vision of the God-fearing services to the Lord, fulfilling His most holy will. If all the people with their mind and heart would strive for God their Father, wishing to please Him, as His good and obedient children, keeping His holy commandments, searching for heavenly blessings and the high place of the fatherland with all their desire and would do everything for the glory of God and for the salvation of their souls; if they would have expelled all evil passions, which make people both malicious and unhappy, from human societies, then would not human societies be truly blessed and happy? Would not our earth also become a most abundant paradise blessed by the Lord? At least, there would not be so much untruth and evil in it, tears would not pour so much, and cries and groans would not be heard so much, there would not be so much trouble and sorrow, which people create for themselves with vices and depravity, with their evil and untruths, with their unquenchable thirst for carnal pleasures, earthly treasures and contemporary honors. (See details in the Complete Collection of Sermons of the Right Reverend Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese. vol. 1, pp. 199-207).
S. V. Bulgakov, Manual for Church Servers, 2nd ed., 1274 pp., (Kharkov, 1900), pp 599-604 Translated by Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris © June 6, 2006. All rights reserved.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Theological Analysis of Stanley Hauerwas Sermons from a Cross-Shattered Church: Part IV

What Are the Theological Weaknesses Revealed in These Sermons of Hauerwas?


Hauerwas’s preaching is, to a certain extent, stronger on the iconoclasm than the building up. His assessment of the situation is stronger than his remedy, you might say. Although he says he is identified with the recovery of the virtues in the Christian life (and this is certainly true in much of the rest of his authorship), I am not convinced this is illustrated in his sermons, or if so, it is done so in a way I do not recognize. Specifically, what I mean by this is that although his incredibly imaginative in his challenge to the church and its accommodation to liberal politics, when he offers the constructive vision of what the strange new world of the gospel might be like, this amounts primarily to quoting the texts themselves and saying them again. This is not problematic, exactly, but it does seem to lack the energy that the earlier parts of the sermons exhibit. Which is to say, there are some ways in which the first third of the two sermons is more compelling than the final third.
Or maybe the issue is that, since Hauerwas does not do theology “straight,” as it were, and describes these sermons as “tight,” the constructive portion of the sermon is more suggestive than straightforward, and that is the weakness, a weakness he admits to in his introduction.

Nevertheless, the result is that he might be subject to the criticism of being fideistic in his approach to preaching. I feel some nervousness in making this claim, because I very much appreciate these sermons and his theology. However, when Hauerwas says, “Theologians are not ‘thinkers.’ We are servants of a tradition in which the creative challenge is how to be faithful to what we have received” (13), this does sound like a kind of fideism. It certainly is non-foundationalist, a term he readily accepts as descriptive of his approach to theology. Furthermore, it may not be surprising that I am critiquing an apparent fideism in his approach, because two of his greatest influences—Wittgenstein and Barth—were also accused of a form of fideism. I myself have also been accused of it.

Finally, a couple of practical critiques. His sermons are very, very tight, and seem more written than oral in approach. I imagine listening to these sermons and not being able to follow all the way along because I would still be reflecting on a sentence earlier in the sermon when he had moved on to other ideas. They are also at times a bit suggestive rather than clear. This is true of Hauerwas in general, and is both part of his appeal and mystery. I like it when reading, but wonder if it works when preached. Also, again, although as a Lutheran I have no problems with a call to the communion table at the conclusion of the sermon, some of these final paragraphs in the sermons seem somewhat tacked on rather than organically arising out of the sermon, its text, and its topic.

Theological Analysis of Stanley Hauerwas Sermons from a Cross-Shattered Church: Part III

What Are the Theological Strengths of Hauerwas’s Way of Preaching?


One strength of Hauerwas’s way of preaching is that it really does illustrate a Christian conviction that narrative is important for the intelligibility of an action description. He says, “We are able to distinguish one event from another by telling a story shaped by concepts that depend on the lives people live.” This illustrates his conviction that “sermons are crucial if we are to recover the stories that make it possible to recover Christian practical reason. Put differently, I try to use sermons to develop imaginative skills to help us see the world as judged and redeemed by Christ” (16). Hauerwas accomplishes this nicely in both sermons. A reader or hearer comes out the other side of the sermon with a different social imaginary in place, in the first sermon thinking differently about wisdom and the university, in the second sermon thinking differently about the relation between marriage and the church.

Second, Hauerwas recognizes that preaching is political, part of the ongoing “politics of speech” (13). He is strongest in this point in his commitment to nonviolence, which he considers “a hallmark of the Christian way of being in the world” (145). His commitment to nonviolence even brings him to name such in a sermon at a wedding. I think this is the only wedding sermon I have ever heard where the final paragraph includes a sentence, “Terror and war do reign in our time” (127). However, instead of negating or diminishing the wedding, this statement and his way of speaking it re-contextualizes the wedding itself and makes it a sign of hope in a terrifying world.

Maybe the most humorous and enjoyable strength of Hauerwas’s way of preaching is his “criticism of the accommodation to liberal political arrangements” (145). This is where much of the beautiful and inviting intellectuality of his prose invests its energy, and to good effect. He wants to make “the familiar strange” (125). This is something shocking, for example, in his use of the term “moron” (73). Sometimes it is humorous: “This is clearly not a marriage made in heaven. This is clearly a marriage made in the university” (124). Sometimes it is both. This is not unrelated to the point made earlier about intelligibility. Hauerwas considers liberal politics unintelligible, and the church’s accommodation to it even more so, and so his preaching is necessarily strong on this point in order to open eyes.

This strength is also a weakness, inasmuch as Hauerwas’s portrayal of the gospel is somewhat dreadful (19) and frightening (76) in its truthfulness.

Theological Analysis of Stanley Hauerwas Sermons from a Cross-Shattered Church: Part II

What Is the Theology Behind These Sermons?


Hauerwas’s theology is for proclamation. He has a very high view of the task of preaching (20). Hauerwas believes that God will “show up” in the words we use (18). A wonderful illustration of this is his conclusion to his wedding sermon, where rhetoric and theology come together to have God and a word of and from God place the married couple in a larger context. “Marriage between Christians is hopeless and impossible if the married are not surrounded by the poor in spirit, if they do not learn from those who mourn, if they lack the resources provided by the meek, if they are robbed of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” (126). Within this throng and strengthened by it, “Jana and Joel become for us our priests making Christ present to us” (127). God shows up through the preaching, and in fact the married couple itself becomes a sermon making Christ present.

This high view of preaching seems to be influenced especially by his reading of Barth and Wittgensetein. From Wittgenstein, Hauerwas gets the conviction that “we can only act in a world we can see—but we can only see by learning to say” (22). This kind of philosophy of language resonates well with many of the convictions of Barth, also very influential for Hauerwas. It might be easiest in shorthand to say that Hauerwas’s preaching exhibits the philosophy of language developed by Wittgenstein, and the Word-event theology developed by Barth. This seeing and saying theme is illustrated, literally, in the second to last paragraph of his “A Cross-Shattered Church” sermon. “So look around you. Expect to see those who are the poor in spirit, those who mourn…” (77). He invites the congregation to look around and see anew based on what he is saying right then in his sermon. This invitation to see differently by saying differently then leads to an invitation to live differently as well, in this case university people who offer a wisdom different from worldly wisdom.

Finally, Hauerwas recognizes that he seldom does theology straight (24). However, in these sermons, Hauerwas does offer examples of how the “unintelligibility” of our lives can be made “intelligible” by the gospel (19). Intelligibility does not mean simple or easy. Take, for example, his invitation to consider this rhetorical scenario: “Ask yourself what would courses in international relations look like if they were taught from the perspective that the cross has abolished war” (76). He later admits, “W are almost certainly not smart enough for such an undertaking” (76). This itself is an incredibly smart move to make if the goal is to make intelligible an idea that seems unintelligible to a community that presides itself on its intelligibility.

Theological Analysis of Stanley Hauerwas Sermons from a Cross-Shattered Church

For this theological analysis of a contemporary preacher, I have selected two sermons from Stanley Hauerwas’s recent book ok, A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching, Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009. I have selected the first because it seems the most indicative of Hauerwas’s overall approach to theology and preaching, and the second because sometimes a preacher’s sermon at special events reveals surprising twists and turns that illustrate their theological presuppositions and commitments even more clearly than their regular Sunday sermons.

In some ways it feels like cheating to make use of these sermons for this analysis because Hauerwas, in a somewhat untypical move, offers an essay in this collection of sermons on “Connecting Some Dots, or An Attempt to Understand Myself.” A reader could simply make use of this essay as a direct resource for performing a theological analysis of his preaching. I will do some of that.

However, Hauerwas’s introduction to the volume and this concluding essay of his also complicate matters, because it is not always clear that he is or is not doing what he says he is doing in his preaching, or aims to do in his preaching, and so a reader of his sermons still needs to draw their own conclusions about the sermons, even apart from Hauerwas’s self-critical commentary on “his work.” This is a comment not just on Hauerwas, but on all preachers. All preachers are at risk of thinking they are doing something in their preaching other than what they are actually doing, and this is what I understand as the purpose of theological analysis of specific contemporary sermons and preachers—to gain clarity on what is actually going on in our preaching despite what we think is going on.

Who Is the God Rendered by Stanley Hauerwas?


Maybe the first thing to be said is that for Hauerwas the cross is “natural”—it is an ontological status in the “being” of God. The cross is God’s power and wisdom (75). So the God rendered by Hauerwas in these sermons is cruciform. Although Hauerwas makes use of the texts assigned for him rather than selecting his texts, it is not surprising that two sermons he selects for this book are on the Beatitudes. This is not just because Matthew is especially influential in Hauerwas’s theological thinking, but also because the Beatitudes, maybe more than almost any other texts in the preaching of Jesus, illustrate God’s cruciformity in the world. They are not recommendations on how Christians should live, but a description of what life will look life if the church lives in imitation of its Lord.

Second, the God rendered by Hauerwas in these sermons is radically incarnational. Early in his introduction to the sermon collection, Hauerwas says, “That our God is to be found in the belly of Mary is surely sufficient to make you think twice that you know what you say when you say ‘God’” (11-12). Which is to say, the Incarnation of the Son of God in the flesh has radical implications for not only how we speak of God, but also what precisely we mean when we say God in the first place. It is not surprising then, that Hauerwas maintains a very Christological and cross-centered approach to preaching. Most of the sermons are, in fact, incarnational in context. Many are at events like baptism, weddings, and ordinations. God speaks in these events in the world, these are the continuing presence of the church, the body of Christ, in the world. Maybe this radical incarnationality is best illustrated by Hauerwas’s long and powerful quote in his sermon on a cross-shattered church, “Thus we are not asked to love our enemies in order to make them our friends; but ‘we are called to act out of love for them because at the cross it has been effectively proclaimed that from all eternity they were our brothers and sisters. We are not called to make the bread of the world available to the hungry; we are called to restore the true awareness that it was always theirs” (75). Here cross and incarnation meet in a way that renders God as one who, by coming into the world, renders explicit who the world is and who God is in relation to the world.

Third, the God rendered by Hauerwas is a speaking God—specifically speaking through his Son Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh. This is best illustrated in Hauerwas’s wedding sermon, where he begins by saying that the chosen texts do not say what a preacher might want to say or look for for something to say on a wedding day, but then reconfigures them to actually speak, a familiar word made strange and so spoken for the first time. So instead of uttering some words of wisdom, human words that a speaker at a non-Christian wedding could just as easily utter, Hauerwas makes the startling statement, “The fidelity that should be characteristic of a marriage is first learned not in marriage but by intimating God’s faithfulness to his people” (124). I myself have preached something like this more than once in a sermon, and have also recommended it in some writing I have done for our church in preparation for our social statement on human sexuality (http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Journal-of-Lutheran-Ethics/Issues/June-2009/Thank-You-but-No-Thank-You.aspx), but this is not a word that Christians seeking to imitate liberal politics want to hear or say. It gives God too loud a voice at a wedding where the couple and romantic love supposedly should be the focus.

Cont'd...

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Journal of Lutheran Ethics Spectacular Book Review Issue!

The Journal of Lutheran Ethics - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has outdone themselves this time around. Great issue!

Synod Assembly Resolution for Activating Immigration Task Forces

I drafted the following resolution (appropriate edits made by our resolutions committee) for our upcoming synod assembly, and invite other synods to consider the resolution as well.

WHEREAS the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly resolved that all synods of the ELCA should create an
Immigration Task Force, but the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin has not yet formed one; and

WHEREAS a refugee resettlement sub-office for Lutheran Social Service of Wisconsin has been
established in Madison, WI; and

WHEREAS over 100 Bhutanese refugees will be resettled in Madison in 2010, and more will continue to
be resettled in Madison for the foreseeable future; and

WHEREAS it is the call of the church to remember that Israel were once refugees, and it is the call of
our nation to remember that we are a nation of immigrants; as Ralston Deffenbaugh and Stephen
Bouman write in their book on They Are Us: Lutherans and Immigration: "the strangers, our new
neighbors, bring immense spiritual gifts with them.... Many of our new neighbors bring vibrant faith,
love of Scripture, and deeply evangelical hearts. Immigration means spiritual re-enchantment" (5-6);
now, therefore be it

RESOLVED that the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin Synod Assembly directs action to be taking by
the Synod Council no later than August 1st of 2010 to form such a task force, under the leadership of
synod staff, a task force chairperson, and interested task force members; and be it further

RESOLVED that the first focus of the task force will be to partner with LSS of Wisconsin and the
Madison sub-office for refugee resettlement in developing congregational co-sponsorship
committees that will co-sponsor newly arriving refugees; and be it further

RESOLVED that the task force will make use of the guiding documents of the ELCA on immigration to
develop other strategies for ministry with immigrants and refugees; and be it further

RESOLVED that all congregations of this synod be encouraged to review and consider the opportunity
to co-sponsor a refugee family; and be it further

RESOLVED that, recognizing the need for lay and volunteer driven ministry in immigration issues, and
financial resources and significant staff time that are determined to be needed shall be approved by
the Bishop and Synod Council prior to expenditure.

Blogging Is Easy

We're going to host a church event teaching people to blog, January 1, 2021. All are invited.