05.26.07
Posted in Lifestyle, Reading, Theology at 8:06 am by Anthony
I’m slowly reading Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle by Sallie Reynolds Matthews. This amazing book was originally published in 1936 and records Mrs. Matthew’s memories of growing up on a ranch near Ft. Griffin, Texas.
For the nation’s centennial celebrations in 1876, the family traveled to the new, nearby town of Albany to celebrate Independence Day. Writing almost sixty years after that event, Mrs. Matthews recalls how much the world had changed.
The next day we went to the Matthews ranch [remember, she was still a Reynolds at this point--abp] where Bennie and I spent the night and drove on home from there. We always seemed to have plenty of leisure time in those days; boys and girls would visit and spend several days at the two homes. There never was any great hurry to be going. Now we have every convenience to make housekeeping easy and light, running water, both hot and cold, gas and electricity, telephones with which to order everything delivered to our doors, automobiles with paved roads to run them over and if we are in a great hurry we can take an airplane, yet we have so little time for visiting. We rush, rush, rush here and rush there, and I do not see that we accomplish an extraordinary amount. Do not think for a minute that I am one who thinks the old times are best for I do not. I think we are living in the “Golden Age” but I do wonder where the time goes; it flies faster than a weaver’s shuttle. (p. 118, emphasis added)
Written between the two great wars, Matthew’s ideas of a “Golden Age” were common to her time. Few of us today have such a view of our own times. So we yearn even more deeply for the relationships of “the old times,” yet we adopt lifestyles that make time for long, casual visits almost impossible.
As believers, we know that the “Golden Age” is yet to come–an age when there will be no more “rush, rush, rush,” for time shall be no more. It will not be our accomplishments, but our relationships, that matter. Because we know our future, should that not help us set our priorities for the present? Let us allow that vision to shape our lives now!
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05.17.07
Posted in Church Life, Ministry at 2:30 pm by Anthony
I’ve never been very comfortable with the title “pastor.” The biggest reason is that we just didn’t use it in my Church of Christ upbringing. Another reason was that in Africa it tended to be a title that could only be worn by those who had a certain level of theological education, and was often worn with a certain amount of pride and arrogance. And then there’s the idea that the biblical usage is interchangable with elders and overseers, whereas today it’s usually reserved for a credentialed and salaried church employee. The idea of a “Senior Pastor” or “Associate (junior?) Pastor” just doesn’t seem to fit the biblical usage.
I spent some time yesterday and today looking more closely at the biblical use and it occured to me that, with the exception of Ephesians 4:11, the noun pastor does not appear in the New Testament as a title for anyone. In the Ephesians passage, it’s part of what would be better rendered a hyphenated “pastor-teacher,” or “shepherd-teacher.” As Lynn Anderson says in They Smell Like Sheep, “These leaders ’shepherd by teaching’ or, conversely, ‘teach by shepherding’” (p. 83).
With the exception of this occurence, however, the word pastor, as applied to church leadership in the New Testament, is a verb. In both Acts 20:28 and in 1 Peter 5:2, ”Be shepherds,” as in the NIV, or “(to) shepherd” as in the NASB, is one word in the original text. The KJV translates it as the verb “feed,” and that is certainly involved, but to shepherd or to pastor involves more t han dumping food out. It implies tending, nurturing, treating wounds, rescuing, caring for, and leading, as well as feeding.
Pastor is something to do, and not primarily a title to be worn. Those who do it best will probably never wear the title. And to them, titles are more scorned than sought after. Last night in our class on shepherding I asked those in the class to write down the names of three people that they could go to in a spiritual crisis. I didn’t ask anyone to reveal names, but Sister Tincy, our very sweet octogenarian, wanted to honor those who shepherd her by naming them, and they were all sisters in the church who she could always count on. There wasn’t an “office holder” among them.
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05.08.07
Posted in Reading, Scripture at 7:02 pm by Anthony
In The Spirituality of the Cross, Gene Edward Veith, Jr. describes his journey from atheism through mysticism and liberal theology to faith.* He found that the God of the Bible–specifically the Old Testament–revealed a sovereign God who will not conform to our image of what he should be or who we would like him to be.
I remember when I first began to read the Bible seriously. As I read the Old Testament, I was overcome with its sublimity, later horrified by passages such as God’s commands that the Canaanites be slaughtered. I began to realize that God was something “other,” someone far above my comprehension. I realized that I had been constructing God according to my preferences, positing qualities that I liked and ascribing them to the deity I believed in. In effect, I was making God in my image. But the God I was reading about in the Bible, whose energy blasted those who touched the Ark of the Covenant without the mediation of blood, was very different from myself, numinous, holy, and dangerous. And yet He rang true.
I probably never really believed in the vague, domesticated spirit of niceness that I had constructed for myself and found in my humane liberal theology. The real universe, with its danger and consequences and hard edges, such as cancer, shows no trace of having been created by such a sentimental deity. I probably knew, deep down inside, that I was making up a private little religion to make myself feel better, … . But this God I was reading about in the Bible had hard edges. He is absolute, utterly mysterious, and despite all appearances radically righteous. I began to see God in a completely different light, the light of holiness. And I saw myself in the rebellious children of Israel, ungrateful, inconsistent, and idolatrous. (pp. 39-40)
Veith, of course, doesn’t see God as all “hard edges.” He says that
“the reader comes to realize that this God of wrath is also the God of grace, that from the beginning He provided for sacrificial blood to cover His people’s sins, that He came in Jesus, that His wrath is swallowed up in the cross. As we read … we encounter the Law and the Gospel, through which the Spirit works to change our hearts and bind us to Christ.” (p. 39)
*This book is an explanation of Lutheran theology. I find much in common with my understanding of biblical Christianity, but also several important points of difference.
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05.05.07
Posted in Reading, Scripture, Theology at 8:07 pm by Anthony
Tomorrow I’ll be talking about doubt. I came across the following story which, though it didn’t end up in the sermon, I thought was worth sharing.
Missionary Gracia Burnham, who was held captive by terrorists in the Philippines for more than a year and whose husband was killed during the rescue, writes:
Sometimes I wonder, Why did Martin die when everyone was praying he wouldn’t? Why does Scripture lead you to believe that if you pray a certain way, you’ll get what you pray for? People all over the world were praying that we’d both get out alive, but we didn’t.
Her questions made her realize it isn’t always easy to comprehend God’s nature:
I used to have this concept of what God is like, and how life’s supposed to be because of that. But in the jungle, I learned I don’t know as much about God as I thought I did. I don’t have him in a theological box anymore. What I do know is that God is God—and I’m not. The world’s in a mess because of sin, not God. Some awful things may happen to me, but God does what is right. And he makes good out of bad situations.
Corrie Cutrer, “Soul Survivor,” Today’s Christian Woman (July/Aug 2003), p. 50
Incidentally, I’ve heard Gracia Burnham speak about how, during t heir capativity, they were greatly encouraged by the broadcasts of World Christian Broadcasting. This is a shortwave ministry sponsored primarily by Churches of Christ. I’ve been able to do some writing for them over the past few years.
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05.03.07
Posted in Blogging, Family at 11:06 pm by Anthony
The Parker family has a new family blog, The Journey Home, found at parkerfamily.wordpress.com. This will combine the previous version of Clay Pot Journal, as well as Maureen’s long-unused Maureen’s Musings, which have both been imported into the new site. (Hopefully she will post at our new site with a little encouragement from her friends!)
I’ll continue to post reflections here, and the new site will be more family related. So surf on over and follow our family’s journey!
By the way, if any of you in the church have personal sites that you’d like to have linked here, just let me know!
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