More Supper with Lusk

Some jottings arising from Rich Lusk’s third Auburn Avenue Media lecture on the Lord’s Supper:

Bread was used extensively in Old Covenant worship: grain offerings and the show offerings.

Baptism is a sacrament which speaks of pure grace. Water is not made by men and they contribute nothing to it. It is “nothing in my hand I bring”.

Bread is part of the good creation but it also requires human work transforming nature. Bread shows that God welcomes our efforts and works into the kingdom: human cultures are taken up into the kingdom. Bread is symbolic of our cultural endeavours as stewards and our faithful exercising of dominion over the world. The sacred – secular divide is shown to be a false dichotomy.

We receive the sacrament as gift but we also offer the bread back to God, grateful for his blessing on our work.

As Warfield and Kuyper point out, God’s original purposes for creation are fulfilled. Redemption brings creation to its goal. Kuyper can even call redemption accidental. There is an eschatology already built into Genesis 1 and 2: to bring the garden to a city, to bring humanity to maturity as a son, to make her a bride for Christ.

Samuel Johnson said animals take and eat but no beast is a cook. Man becomes human (civilised) with the breaking of bread.

We may decide to use leavened and unleavened bread at different seasons of the church’s year. Yeast speaks of the secret transforming growth of the kingdom, of hope. Unleavened bread speaks of Passover and of purity and may be appropriate to Lent.

A Biblical theology of wine: feasting and rejoicing, especially in victory and redemption and accompanying the coming of the Messiah. In the Old covenant worship no-one could drink: drink was poured out before the Lord. Worshippers always left the Old cult thirsty, but now with the promise fulfilled, God shares his cup with his people. Is 62: drinking wine in the courts of the sanctuary in the New Covenant. Old Testament priests could not drink wine while on the job but now we can rejoice in the work of the High Priest fulfilled. Jesus refuses to drink on the cross until his work is completed (just before in Jn, he says, “it is finished”) – Jesus will not drink the fruit of the vine until he drinks it again in the Kingdom. It is as if Jesus has taken a Nazarite holiness war vow as he does his special work.

The Supper is a wedding feast not a funeral ceremony. We are not just toasting a departed friend.

The vine is a picture of the people of God. Christ is the vine and his people are the branches.

Dt 14: drink wine in celebration of God’s goodness. New Testament worship should be even more festive than Old Testament worship since the OT saints only celebrated shadows whereas we celebrate the reality.

Gen 14: Abraham gives Melchizadek his tithe and Melchizadek gives Abraham the bread and wine – eating and drinking after victory.

Judges 9 even says that wine makes God glad!

Psalm 78: the holy warrior drinks a cup of wine and is ready to go into battle.

Wine is powerful stuff. Drinking it is a dangerous business. Drunkenness is a terrible wickedness that must be avoided. At the Supper we are trained in the right use of God’s gifts. The Lord’s Supper too is dangerous and must be used worthily if it is not to be the cup of wrath from which people drink condemnation on themselves.

The early Protestants were accused of being drunk with the joy of the forgiveness of sins.

Eating and drinking shows that the kingdom is here.

Just like the yeast, fermentation speaks of maturing, progress and transformation. The Old wineskins are burst. The gospel is no longer bottled up in Palestine. The cork is out and the Word is flooding the world.

Wine speaks of the blood of Christ. Wine is the blood of grapes according to Genesis.

The one food law in the New Testament is that we must do this: eat and drink bread and wine. We are not at liberty not to do this or to change the menu (e.g. to grape juice).

Peado-Communion:

The supper belongs to the baptised. It is for the whole covenant community: men, women and children. 1 Cor 12 – baptism and cup linked.

A new humanity must include every stage of human life. The whole creation (including children) is redeemable.

Covenant promises and practices always include children. Covenant succession is built in with the next generation sharing in the gifts / signs of the covenant.

Covenant children are regarded as believers, having faith in the Bible.

Jesus invited children into his presence. He surely wants them at his table.

Children are members of the body and we must rightly discern the body at the Supper. Presbyterian: examine yourself! We should not divide the body at the Supper. As Robert Rayburn says, peado-communion is fitting with a Reformed ecclesiology.

Peado-communion is the majority position in church history and dropped out because of transubstantiation. The Reformers failed to reintroduce it and did not really consider the arguments put forward today. We would not look to Calvin to find out whether or not we should use a PC or a Mac.

Anabaptists used the Reformed rejection of peado-communion as an argument against peado-baptism.

In 1 Cor when Paul speaks of examining oneself, he is clearly speaking to adult problems (such as drunkenness at the supper). If this text rules out children from the supper, by the same logic, children who do not work should not eat.

* * *

The supper not only expresses faith but is formative of faith. Doing the supper remoulds us as our faith is embodied. The Supper norms covenant life and shapes the church.

The supper manifests gratitude for a gift. C.f. Rm 1.A restored human life is eucharistic.

The habit of thanksgiving spills over to our common meals.

The Supper is intrinsically social and irreducibly corporate – an antidote to individualism. Gathered worship with the Eucharist as its culmination is the centre of our life. There are no private communions. This is a family meal, a fellowship, communion with Christ and with one another. We manifest and learn our community life at the table and are trained in the manners of the kingdom here. We wait for one another and serve one another. We learn the culture of the New Jerusalem. Our unity is celebrated. Kingdom justice and economics are worked out.

The Supper is a sacrifice and meal of covenant renewal with God and with one another,

We become friends with God at the supper, his companions, those with whom he shares the bread.

The table is about peacemaking and reconciliation.

Do not excommunicate yourself. You are summoned to do this. We must not amputate the body of Christ, depriving it of one of its members.

What's in a name?

Thanks to Ruth Field for pointing to the Times OnLine thingy about names.

Sadly there was no entry for "Marc", which no doubt would be entirely different from "Mark". Cruel discrimination against the Welsh by the nasty English yet once again.

But it turns out "Mark" is in the doldrums.

So Jeffers, if you need a baby name in the next few days, you may like to consider doing the decent thing. Additional middle name perfectly acceptable. (Marcia doesnt get a look in either, by the way, should the baby be of the other genre).

From Times Online here:

MARK:

From the Latin name Marcus, which is based on Mars, the Roman god of war;

Average age: 37.
Average income £30,000.

Most likely to live in the East of England.
Marks are twice as likely as most people to be directors or managers.
Marks are the most likely to have unsecured loans.
The name Mark has had a dramatic change in fortunes. After being in the Top Ten throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, it had dropped to 44th place by 1994, and is not now in the Top 100.

I have some growing up and some wage earning to do if I am to avoid being below average marks, it would seem.

PhD proposal

Some negative sorts might say that its perhaps a bit late to change - as by September I theoretically ought to be half way through my research (time-wise) - but I reckon the PhD I'd really like to be working on at the moment would be:

(1) An account of Auburn Avenue, Federal Vision, James Jordan, Doug Wilson, Peter Leithart, Rich Lusk and their pals doctrines of the Lord's Supper with footnotes

(2) An assessment of continuity and discontinuity between (1) and (a) the Bible, (b) the Fathers and (c) the Reformed Tradition

Unfortunately the C of E are kindly supporting a slightly different project, but I'm open to a bidding war? It might be debatable which project I've so far been working most on. :)

Lusk on Lord's Supper

Some jottings arising from Rich Lusk’s second Auburn Avenue Media lecture on the Lord’s Supper:

Rich Lusk notes that the classic Reformed view asserts that the Lord’s Supper is an offering or sacrifice in a sense, although it is not a re-offering of Christ or propitiatory. In the Supper Christ is offered to us and just like the Old Testaments saints, we eat the sacrifice. The fact that the bread and wine are separated, as the animal was, shows that it is a sacrifice. The Biblical way is always a way of sacrifice and the Christian life is one of sacrifice. Like the peace offering of the Old Testament we participate in eating in God’s presence.

The Supper is our sacrificial thank offering towards God. That is what Eucharist means. It is a time for joyful thankful feasting together with the risen Christ, not private introspection about sin.

Calvin says that as in the Supper God offers us Christ, so we offer Christ to God. The movement is primarily from God to us, but also from us to God. We offer ourselves in union with Christ, the only way in which we can offer anything to God.

In response to Christ’s once for all propitiatory offering, we offer our thank offering of Christ and we in him.

The Supper is a re-humanizing reversal of the fall. Our lives are to be eucharistic thank offerings to God. Gratitude is at the heart of it. If Adam and Eve had stopped to give thanks before eating the forbidden fruit, they would surely have realised they should not eat.

Jesus tells us to do this as Jesus’ memorial, not as an individualistic remembrance. Like the rainbow and the Old Testament sacrifices, the memorial calls on God to keep his covenant, renew the world. They plead the blood of Christ and claim the promises of God. The proclamation of the Lord’s Supper is primarily to God himself.

The supper is an objective, true, real, means of grace. It is a cup of blessing. God’s promise makes a blessing intrinsic to it. But the Supper must be received worthily, with a living faith. We may face chastisement if we eat unworthily or even judgement and curse if we eat unbelievingly. Jesus may be really present to judge.

Calvin quotes Augustine as saying that in the elect alone the sacraments effect what they promise. Our faith does not constitute or trigger the means of grace. Faith receives what God has firmly promises. Calvin says that the symbol consecrated by the word keeps its own force and nothing can prevent it from being what it is but its blessing is received only by believers. The flesh and blood of Christ are truly given to the unworthy and unbelievers but not received by them. The supper is a faithful pledge not a bare sign even to unbelievers though it becomes a curse to them. Something powerful and efficacious happens every time we come to the supper. There is no neutrality, as when the gospel is preached.

The Supper is the sacrament of the Church’s unity.

The Supper is an administration of the Word and Promise of God.

The Supper is the Gospel in edible form, it is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for us.

The Supper must not become a theological puzzle to be solved but a gracious offer to be received. We must not be so caught up with metaphysics that we miss what the Supper essentially is. The mystery is that the Spirit unites us to Christ in heaven in this meal.

The Bible is all about eating from garden, to Abraham receiving bread and wine with Melchizedek, Passover, Manna, water from the rock, testing with food and drink in the wilderness, feast days, Is 25, Jesus eating and drinking, wedding at Canna, banquet parables, feeding miracles, Levi’s party, Last Supper, Lord’s Suppers, resurrection meals, Acts 20 – bread breaking, the wedding Supper of the Lamb.

As C. S. Lewis says, God is the ultimate materialist – he created matter. The Kingdom of God comes from another world, but it enters this world and transforms it.

The Supper and the incarnation are the ultimate affirmation of this world.

Ecclesiasties 2:24-25 – working, eating and drinking. 10:19 – feasting and laughter, wine makes merry. Psalm 104 – wine is to gladden men’s hearts. We are to enjoy bread and wine lawfully to God’s glory. Bread and wine are God’s good gifts and the fruit of human labour. They are the most basic of human food, created on the 3^rd day – wheat and fruit. Bread is 1^st, alpha food – basic substance which you need to subdue creation. Wine is last, omega drink – rest, celebration. You don’t start your day with wine but you end it that way. Bread and wine encompass all of life, just as the Lord’s Day is the last (8^th) and the first day of the week.

We are sensible creatures – we are to feel the benefits of the Supper to us as we do this. The crucial doing is the eating and drinking.

The Old Covenant contains 80 feast days (including Sabbaths) and one fast. That’s my kind of religion!

In the Old Testament sacrifices, the Spirit is God’s fire. The sacrificial animal is both Jesus and the people. God is eating you and you are eating Jesus. As the smoke ascends, the sacrifice (representing the worshipper) is incorporated into God, the glory cloud: you participate in and communicate with God. “You are what you eat” is good theology. God’s eating the offering is a sign of his grace and openness, not his neediness.

Jesus’ body: (1) the physical incarnational body of the historical Jesus (2) the bread, “this is my body, given for you”(3) the church is the body of Christ.

As Luther says, we are not only eating Christ, we are eating one another – incorporated into one another. In the words of the ancient slogan, “the Eucharist makes the church”. We eat Christ’s body (the church) and become Christ’s body.

Calvin was a receptionist rather than a consecrationist. It is in eating the supper that it becomes the body of Christ, not in an abstracted consecration. There is no localised presence and no epiclesis. We pray a prayer of thanks not of consecration.

The doctrine of transubstantiation tended to exclude children from the Supper as kids are likely to spill the holy blood of Jesus.

"Adult Cereal" Protests Called Off

I was surprised to see that our local Sainsbury's supermarket has a whole section of shelveds labeled "Adult Cereal".

Fortunately, there seems to be nothing sexually explicit about said cereal products and as far as I could see they would be perfectly suitable for the under 18s.

The labelling is odd, but does not require a co-ordinated campaign of letter writing, boycouts and chaining of oneself to railings. I will not be lying down in front of trollies.

On the subject of protests, did you know that Most Revd Dr Archbishop Rowan was once arrested while celebrating the Eucharist at a Green-And-Comman Woman's Protest, I believe. I guess this puts him in a noble company of arrested prelates, although perhaps Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer had more important causes?

Keyboard instruments

It turns out that the piano makes its noise by hammers hitting strings. It is therefore from one point of view a procussion instrument.

The harpsicord (as the harp like name suggests) somehow makes its noise by plucking strings - like a string instrument.

The organ is all about wind - so is it more like wood wind or brass and has this changed throuh history?

Pianists can be a bit snobby about organists since how hard you hit the keys on the organ makes no difference, where as "touch" is vital for playing the piano well.

You do have all the stops and pedals and more than one keyboard to worry about on the organ but it only takes the same ammount of co-ordination as playing a drum kit and most people can make a sound on that.

Is that all correct, musos?

I played twinckle twinckle little star (first line only) twice badly in front of 4 musicians and 3 examiners yesyerday, and they were all very impressed - or at least they smiled and said nice things...

More Food Anyone?

More foodie insights from Doug Wilson's marvelous My Life For Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home (Canon Press, Moscow ID, 2004) - which you really should get - good, quick, easy reading, well put, Biblical, insights on most pages, different from some of his other books (if basically saying the same thing!), a nice conceit.

God is clearly not a strict pragmatist or narrowly utilitarian. He has made lots of unnecessary things for the shear joy of it. Our cooking should be likewise. Many of the things God has made taste good sauted in butter.

We should not think of the dinning room as if it is a gas filling station. Eating is far more than topping up the tank.

We must avoid gluttony and idolatory as well as fussiness as the doctrine of demons ascetisism. Gluttony is not an extra roast potato or chocolate at Christmas: it is part of the disolute rioutous lifestyle that was a capital offence in ancient Israel. Dt 21:20 see also Prov 23:19-21; Lk 15:13

In the Bible fat is often a good thing. God likes the fat parts and gives us fat to eat. See Gen 27:28; 45:18; 49:20; Num 13:20; dt 31:20; 1 Chr 4:40; Ps 22:29; 36:8; 65:11; 92:12-14; Prov 11:25; 13:4; 28:25; Is 10:16; 25:6; 55:2; 58:11 esp. Neh 9:25 on the blessing of becoming fat. Wilson points out however that we must not eat to unhealthy excess: it is good to be able to tie one's own shoelaces.

Manners at the table are the liturgy of dinning. We must be careful to show good manners in correcting the manners of our children. Remeber that you live (wherever) rather than at the court of Louis XIV. If your son licks his knife, which I believe is not done in the better circles, remeber it is not done to climb down another's throat.

The Father should act as the moderator at the table so that all can eat and speak - but that doenst mean he has to be the talkative one or have the biggest helpings.

"Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" is emphatically not an argument against smoking or for exercise or healty eating or not mainlining heroin or anything like that. Ironically, give the way so many evangelicals use the text, the context of 1 Cor 6:18-20 clearly shows that Paul is speaking specifically only of sexual sin. All the other sins listed above come from outside the body and nothing that goes into a man can make him unclean, as I believe the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned in Mark 7:18f.

Eating the Gospel

As Doug Wilson points out, almost all food has died because of man's sin and for our sake that we might enjoy the gift of new life. Every meal speaks to us of the gospel, as does each grain of wheat that dies and falls to the ground and comes to life again and bears much fruit, just like the Son of Man.

How New is New?

With both the New Creation and the New Covenant it is worth asking just how New is New?

In both cases the answer is the same and is found in Jesus.

Just as the new covenant is the old covenant (the one covenant of grace) renewed in a different manifestation (not the Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic adminstration but the Christian administration) so the New Creation is the one old creation made new, not abolished but renewed, fulfilled.

Jesus Christ's physical body provides the prototype or firstfruits of the world (creation) and the people of God (elect covenant): it is the one same old body renewed, transformed and glorified.

It is great good news that God has given up neither on his creation nor his covenant but is bringing both to the most marvelous maturity and fullness in Christ.

Shepherd's Pie and Cwassons

Cooked the Shepherd's Pie with spicey parsnip mash from Nigel Slater's Real Cooking yesterday. Cooked it in about half the time it said, having just come back from church and having hungry guests waiting, and it was still yummy. No signs of food poisoning yet. Could have got it ready to go in the oven the day before actually. And could have managed with half the ingredients too, I reckon. The mash was quite rich and sweet and I wonder if 50-50 potatos and parsnips might have been better?

For pudding my domestic goddess of a wife conjoured up warm cwassons with a hot chocoloate sauce and cold vanilla ice cream from Nigel Slater's Real Food. Quick, easy, fun and delicious. Cwassons are going to be a pudding in our house often now, d.v..

Cwassons, by the way, are a French pastry served for breakfast, if my gifted spelling was too much for you on this occasion.

John Buchan

What a guy! A good BBC4 (didgy box Xams gift from the olds!) documentary last night a reminder of his amazing achievements despite gut trouble: son of a dreamy Scottish presbyterian minster, hard work, sense of sin from mother, grammar school scholarship, Oxford, over 100 books, including founding a genre (more or less), a few biographies and an autobiography, husband, father of four, war reporter, director of Ministry of Information, editor of the Spectator, Tory MP (remind you of anyone?), pro-Israel not anti-semitic, Governor General of Canada, elevated to the peerage, slipped getting out the the bath, whacked his head and died a few days later in 1940. Not bad. 39 Steps has been made into at least 3 films (including one by Hitchcock of which Buchan approved, despite its liberties with the story) and continues to sell 10 000 copies a year.

Hannah

Another great sermon yesterday from Pastor Charles Dobbie, in my humble opinion, which can be heard from the Holy Trinity, Lyonsdown website, d.v..

1 Samuel 1: Hannah.

Pastorally sensitive comments about the problems and pain of childlessness, both for married and singles.

The Bible as theological history.

Hannah as a type of Israel at the time of the Judges - a new thought for me. (I guess it also makes sense to think of Hannah as a type of Elizabeth and Mary because of her miraculous baby and her role in the coming of the Messiah).

God's mercy and power in using Hannah's humble and helpless weakness in his salvation purposes.

Left me wanting more - which is good, as it was the start of a Sunday morning series.

"Sorry, Kids, I..."

Dough Wilson argues that a father must make a point of apologising to his wife and children and seeking their forgiveness as publicly as he sins against them. Whenever he has lost his temper, he must humble himself and say sorry, no matter what the pleas in mitigation. Seems to me this would have a great affect on family life and would lead the others into a posture of grace giving and recieving too. Might even try it.

Incense

Since incense smells lovely and looks so good (if not overdone) and is biblical (being refered to in the NT and used in heaven) I don't understand why we evangelicals don't use it as a sign of our prayers ascending to the Father and being sweet to him? Experimental Friday chapel, anyone? Or we could get some way-up-the-candle-stick bishop in to do it on a Thursday, I guess? Or perhaps the next free church communion?

Sabbath tips

Doug Wilson suggests starting your sabbath celebrations at 6pm on Saturday, like the first century Jewish practice. This has the advantage that a great big feast can be prepared without too much work on the Lord's Day.

Fasting on the sabbath, by the way, is a "pious" form of sabbath breaking since the weekly Easter is commanded as a feast and a delight, not a penitential season.

Gospel Music

We've had this discussion before and I reckon at least one eminent musician (ED, not my wife) was right to argue that not all music is as programatic as I (and it seemed Kevin Vanhoozer) were suggesting. But I still reckon that all music (and indeed all art) corresponds more or less to the gospel and is therefore more or less godly and pleasing to God.

The basic shape of the gospel (and of all stories) is a tick: good creation, crisis fall / tension, redemption, glorification / resolution, better end.

It is legitimate for a piece of music to sound any note(s) in the whole symphony (you could have thrash metal that rages against sin) and all this could be more or less conscious in the mind of the composers.

I guess Jonathan Edwards might be right when he speaks of communal singing as very close to the highest glory - though I don't see why there shouldn't be a huge orchestra too.

Supper a good work

Rich Lusk observes that the mere memorialist (whom he terms a 'mentalist') is as in danger of making the Lord's Supper a human work as the medieval Roman Catholic. An empty symbol cannot do anything except cast you back on yourself and your own works, your abilities to remember and conjour up religious sentiment.

A Calvinistic ('symbolic instrumentalist') view emphasises dependance on the Spirit and promise of God with the Lord’s Supper as God’s gift to us (in which he offers us the whole Chrits, the glorified God-Man), not a work which we do for God but a work which God does for us.

Faith in Christ

We are united to Christ by faith (in the Spirit).

But faith is also a gift of God. Persumably a gift which we recieve from and in Christ. On the basis of our union with and participation in Christ, Christ's faith (and faithfullness) are ours.

No doubt I ought to know this, and I look forward to kicking myself, but just remind me again how all that works: faith in Christ - basis or consequence of our union with Christ, or both?

Did Matthew Mason's dissertation (on faith union in Owen etc. ish.) tell us everything we need to know about this?

Female Headship

Doug Wilson writes:

We need order and hierarchy in order to live together, and it’s important to note that while the Bible teaches the husband is the head of the wife, and the head of the household, in a very real sense the wife is the head of the house…. 1 Tim 5:14… Tit 2:4f…

The idea of a wife as live-in maid and all-purpose drudge is antithetical to the scriptural pattern. The woman of the house is the mistress of her domain (and it is her domain); she has authority that can and should be exercised over members of her household. This extends to issues great and small: The laundry goes here, shoes come off at the door, rinse the dishes before they go in the dishwasher…..

A husband as the head of his wife is an honoured and permanent guest, but he should learn to see himself as a guest…. one of the husbands central duties is that of providing his wife with a domain where she exercises the kind of authority you see throughout … Proverbs 31…. That woman, whose price is above rubies, works in real estate, manages a vineyard, manufactures textiles, labours as a seamstress, works as a philanthropist, and directs all the servant girls. In short, she is the very model of an oikodespotes. (p13f)

Wilson, Douglas, My Life For Yours: A Walk Through The Christian Home (Moscow ID, Canon Press, 2004)

Gobbledygook apologies

Sorry if some of my blog posts have been showing gobbledygook other than that of my own intentional making. I think its due to writing stuff in Word and then copying it into Blogger. All the garbage seems to be invisible if you use Mozilla Firefox, not Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and I didn't know it was doing it.

I shall try to do better.

Do any techy types know if I can copy things from Word without importing all this unwanted stuff? I tried hitting the Remove Formatting button but it got rid of my line breaks too.

Wright's Sacraments Soundbites

N. T. Wright’s Jan ’07 Calvin College lectures on Space, Time, Matter, New Creation and the Sacraments, which can be heard here, contain lots of good, stimulating things – and some stretching stuff:

Here are some paraphrased jottings arising:

Being immersed in the sacramental life of the church, talking about the sacraments is a bit like talking about eating or breathing. We are able to feed on the Supper without understanding everything that’s going on, just as we benefit from our breakfast without having a full understanding of the medical processes involved in its digestion.

Isaiah 54-55, pattern of new covenant, new creation and memorial offering

From the New Testament point of view, heaven is very important, but it’s not the end of the world. The goal of this creation is its fulfilment not its abolition: all things are to be made new in Christ, renewed, transformed and glorified.

The New Creation will not be some kind of atemporal eternality. God made time good and he made plenty of it.

Even the New Creation will be a project / programme (a growing tree with the leaves for the healing of the nations) – there will be work to be done.

What would it look like for time and matter to be redeemed?

If you can’t imagine what a non-corruptible physicality that’s a problem with your imagination, not with the concept.

[Wright spoke briefly about hell and denied being a universalist]

Since we have an embodied salvation we have embodied signs of it in the sacraments.

Good Friday is the 6^th day of the week, the day of the creation of mankind and Pilate says, “Behold the man” [an interpretive maximalist moment!].

When you hear someone say, “in a very real sense” they probably mean, “I really want to assert this but I’m not sure how”. Likewise to say something is “mysterious” or “mystical” can just be a way of saying we don’t understand it.

In the Supper we eat food that comes to us from God’s future as the people of Israel ate grapes in the wilderness from the promised land, before entering it.

Isaiah 6; 11; Hab 2: Is the earth full of the glory of God or is it yet to be filled with it?

In our attitude to matter we need to avoid on the one hand superstition, magic and idolatory and on the other dualism, gnosticism and escapism.

Sacraments are in a way the opposite of speech acts (which do things by speaking). These actions (like a handshake or a kiss) do and say more than can be said in words.

The speech acts or acted speech of the sacraments prepare us for action.

In theological discussion you always have to say everything you believe or someone will accuse you of deliberately missing something out.

Luke 24 – word and sacrament go together. Sacraments without words would have no defined meaning. The sacrament is the word / story brought to action.

Churches with the pulpit only in the centre are like mosques where the word alone matters and sacraments have no place in the cultural life.

Though we must avoid errors like panentheism and pantheism, with the eastern orthodox we may learn to see the whole world is sacramental, or at least full of sacramental possibility for the Christian.

I am not a panentheist but because of 1 Cor 15; Rom 8 I am an eschatological the-en-panist – God will be all in all.

In the Anglican tradition we say of confession to an authorised minister that all may, none must, some should.

Some kind of penance, confirmation and ordination could be seen as a drawing out of what is implicit in baptism and the supper.

I would be happy to use sacramental language with a small ‘s’ of marriage, eating a meal and saying grace, and washing.

Baptism reminds us the watery creation narrative.

As the Lord’s Supper is a new Passover, Baptism is a new Exodus – through the waters of the Jordan into the Land of the New Covenant.

Paul talks about things happening through the sacraments. He dosen’t say its as if things happen or that we should keep something in mind.

I once heard a Roman Catholic cardinal say that world is full of baptized non-Christians.

Even in the first generation there were people in the church who were baptized and participating in the eucharist without a living faith (1 Cor 10-11) and they were courting disaster. They must be warned that God is not mocked.

Its not that someone has to have their Christianity all sorted out before they can be baptized but that there are times when Paul appeals for faith on the basis of baptism.

God welcomes us as we are but God’s welcome never leaves us as we are. Baptism is a call to holiness.

We sometimes talk about “baptizing” an idea as a superficial incorporation of an idea into the church – but that is not a proper baptism. Baptism is a call to die and rise, to be deeply transformed.

Martin Luther: when all else fails and the world seems dark I say to myself: “I have been baptized”.

Baptism is not a bare ritual. We must avoid ritualism and anti-ritualism.

Some Protestants are tempted to think that doing anything at all smacks of works / merit righteousness but we are to be embodied Christians. We must embrace creation.

The natural focal range of a new-born baby is the distance between its mother’s breast and its mother’s eyes.

I suspect that some children have a deeper and fuller faith than many who say the creed every week. Just as a small balloon and a big balloon can both be full, so a small child and an adult can both be full of the love of God, even though the adult needs to have a greater grasp of the love of God to be full.

In the eucharist we taste the new creation so that we can be agents of new creation in the world. That needs more than political and social activism. It needs the power of the Spirit.

The eucharist is not sympathetic magic so that the clock-work under the altar works properly.

Augustine: believe and you have eaten

We must avoid Western dualism between spirituality and action in the world.

As Torrance has suggested, some of the new Thomists like Eric Maskill might not be far off what Calvin is trying to say about the Eucharist.

Love is the highest and richest way of knowing – respecting the one being loved and entering into appropriate relationships with it

Maybe protestants can talk about eucharistic sacrifice since from in Bible, from a human point of view, sacrifice is always a response of gratitude, love and praise to grace.

I’m not saying there aren’t serious disagreements between Roman Catholics and Protestants on the Eucharist and that if we thought about it we’d see we all agree after all.

Roman Catholic polemicists sometimes accuse Protestants of adding something else to Christ’s sacrifice by the Eucharist since Protestants insist that the Supper is not a repetition of Jesus’ sacrifice.

In the eucharist sacramental time takes us back to the crucifixion and forward to the new creation in the present.

The Orthodox allow little children to participate in the eucharist and even give them a morsel of bread at their baptism.

Restricting admission to the Lord’s Supper to the confirmed was a medieval innovation by a bishop who wanted to boost numbers of confirmation candidates.

You can celebrate the eucharist anywhere (on a beech or in a hospital) but it is worth doing it in a wisely designed worship space, just as it is best to drink a fine wine from the best glasses rather than from plastic coffee cups.

The eucharist and baptism are narratives, stories: God’s story, Israel’s story, Jesus’ story, the world’s story, our story. The liturgy must tell this story.

Unity is central to the Lord’s Supper. All those who believe in the Lord Jesus and are justified by faith (Gal 2) belong at the same table.

Since the eucharist is a public event proclaiming the unity of the whole church, it is desirable that in normal circumstances authorised ministers should preside. Lay presidency (like a common law marriage) might lead those who preside over time to be thought of as “common law” ministers.

The minister wears a robe to preside at the eucharist not to say how important he is but to show that he doesn’t do it as a private individual but as an authorised representative.

If you don’t leave yourself open to the charge of antinomianism you probably haven’t preached grace quite loudly enough.

We baptise once and celebrate the eucharist regularly because you can only be born once but you need many meals, as the people of Israel came through the Red Sea once and received the Manna daily. Rebaptism is a theological nonsense though pastoral rededication may be helpful for some.

The union of complementary unlikes is one of God’s most fundamental laws. It is not possible to have gay marriages.

Sacraments are to the Christian life as sex is to a good marriage: they colour and give life to the whole, although they are not going on all the time. The whole Christian life is sacramental as a marriage is sexual.

What would Jesus Eat?!

Its quite amazing some of the stuff Christianbook.com is promoting (ie. emailing me about, for some reason):

"Christian" Diet Books

The Makers Diet Book & Day-by-Day Journal,
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The Hallelujah Diet,
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What Would Jesus Eat?, Paperback Edition,
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"Christian" Exercise Helps

Sweating in the Spirit DVD,

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PraiseMoves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga, DVD,
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Fit 4 Life: Gospel Workout, Compact Disc [CD],
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J L Austin's Sacramental Language

Its striking that J. L. Austin, the founder of speech act theory, used language borrowed from the sacraments when arguing that words actually do things.

Speaking of the need for words to be spoken and taken seriously if they are to be operative (e.g. name a ship or make a bet) he says:

… we are apt to have a feeling that their [the performative utterances] being serious consists in their being uttered as (merely) the outward and visible sign, for convenience or record or for information, of an inward and spiritual act: from which it is but a short step to go on to believe or to assume without realizing that for many purposes the outward utterance is a description, true or false, of the occurrence of the inward performance.

Criticising this way of thinking he argues rather that:

Thus ‘I promise…’ obliges me – puts on record my spiritual assumption of a spiritual shackle…. Accuracy and morality alike are on the side of the plain saying that our word is our bond.

(How To Do Things With Words: the William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1962) ed. Urmoson, J. O. pp9-10)

Similarly:

… one thing that we must not suppose is that what is needed in addition to the saying of the words in such cases is the performance of some internal spiritual act, of which the words then are to be the report…. In the case of promising… it is very easy to think that the utterance is simply the outward and visible (that is, verbal) sign of the performance of some inward spiritual act of promising…. Now it is clear from this sort of example that, if we slip into thinking that such utterances are reports, true or false, of the performance of inward and spiritual acts, we open a loophole to perjurers and welshers and bigamists and so on, so that there are disadvantages in being excessively solemn in this way. It is better, perhaps, to stick to the old saying that our word is our bond.

(Philosophical Papers, second edition (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1970) edited by J. Urmson and G. J. Warnock p223)

A speech act understanding of the sacraments might thus point towards an account of the objective aspect of the sacraments and their powerful efficacious nature that goes beyond mere memorialism and a focus on the private inner state of the individual communicant.

Dismal Prospect

I reckon this version of Once In Royal David's City could do with a rather better eschatological finale than some endless cosmic bus queue:

Not in that poor lowly stable,
with the oxen standing round,
we shall see him; but in heaven,
set at God's right hand on high;
when like stars his children crowned,
all in white shall wait around.

Mission Praise has the rather better: "there His children gathered round, / bright like stars, with glory crowned."

The Uncomfortable Words

Today we knelt in chapel for the Confession and afterwards so that the Comfortable words were actually quite uncomfortable.

Vanhoozer on Word & Sacrament

The church participates in and continues Jesus’ communicative actions through the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments.

The anologia communication [analogy of communication] need not always be verbal: To the extent that the liturgy as a whole unfolds the narrative which identifies Jesus, the whole liturgy is ‘gospel.’” [Marshall, Bruce D., Trinity and Truth (Cambridge, CUP, 2000), p31] The sacraments are verba visibilia (visible words), a felicitous phrase that rightly signals the continuity between words and acts…. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper represent key scenes in the theo-drama. They, too, are communicative actions, less speech-acts than acts that speak, but acts that communicate something all the same…. The sacraments, like the spoken word, have prepositional content (e.g., both refer to the death of Jesus), yet they also require to be performed (embodied, enacted) ever anew….

… the sharing of the body and blood of Jesus draws us into the theodrama. The Last Supper is a complex communicative act whose similarities with the Passover blend the story of Israel (looking back to the exodus and forward to the return from exile) into the story of Jesus (the lamb whose death would redeem not only Israel but the whole world). The supper also hints at the future messianic banquet in heaven – a complex communicative action indeed! Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are deliberate "double dramas” [Wright, N. T., Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1996) 2:554 – referring to the Lord’s Supper] whose purpose is not merely to convey information but to draw us into the action. Indeed, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are means of grace precisely because they are able to draw us into the pattern of Jesus’ own communicative action.

The ministry of the Word and sacrament: each contributes in its own way to the transmissio of the gospel, and thus to the mission of the church.

(Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, pp74-75)

Vanhoozer on Scripture as Sacramental

The question to be asked of Barth concerns the relationship of the Bible’s quasi-sacramental mediation of Jesus’ real presence to the verbal meaning of the text itself. While some of his early critics accused Barth of emphasizing the subjective event of revelation to the detriment of the objective text, it is surely significant that Barth expected the Spirit to use just these words to disclose Jesus Christ. Just as propositionalists would not want to deny the personal element in revelation, so Barth would not want to deny the role of propositions. (The Drama of Doctrine, p5)

I’m more nervous about Barth’s doctrine of the Bible than Vanhoozer sounds here.

Many acknowledge Scripture’s life-giving, sacramental power… : “[T]he church must come to understand Scripture as a sacramental, poetic-like word, not as proposition truths, an expression of human experience, or mere information for practical living.” [Burgess, John, Why Scripture Matters: Reading the Bible in a Time of Church Conflict (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), xvi.] An even happier scenario would be one in which we did not have to choose between the Bible’s truth and its affective power! (p12, 'God's Mighty Speech Acts')

Vanhoozer also notes Donald G. Bloesch’s attempt at a more dynamic spiritual evangelical view of revelation with the Bible as “the divinely prepared medium or channel of divine revelation rather than revelation itself”. [Holy Scripture: Revelation, Inspiration & Interpretation (Carlisle, Paternoster, 1994), p18 – quoted p158.]

Vanhoozer says:

Blosech espouses a sacramental model which sees revelation as God in action and Scripture as the means for encountering God. (p159)

Vanhoozer, Kevin, ‘God’s Mighty Speech-Acts: The Doctrine of Scripture Today’ Chapter 6, pp143-181 in Satterthwaite, Philip E. & Wright, David F. (ed.s), A Pathway into the Holy Scripture (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1994)

What we need is Doctrine

I'm very excited by the prospect of Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A canonical linguistic approach to Christian theology (Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2005) .

Here's a taste of the agenda:

The Drama of Doctrine argues that there is no more urgent task in the church than to demonstrate faith’s understanding by living truthfully with others before God. ... doctrine is an indispensable aid to understanding and to truthful living. Doctrine is a vital ingredient in the well-being of the church, a vital aid to its public witness. ... doctrine, far from being unrelated to life, serves the church by directing its members in the project of wise living, to the glory of God. It [this book] sets out to convince ministers and laypeople alike not to dismiss doctrine as irrelevant, and to encourage theologians not to neglect the needs of the church. It aims to make the pastoral lamb lie down with the theological lion. Its goal is to refute, once and for all, the all-too-common dichotomy between doctrine and real life. Christian doctrine directs us in the way of truth and life and is therefore no less than a prescription for reality. (p xii)

… he who is tired of doctrine is tired of life, for doctrine is the stuff of life. Christian doctrine is necessary for human flourishing: only doctrine shows us who we are, why we are here, and what we are to do. The stereotype of doctrine as dry and dusty cuts a flimsy caricature next to the real thing, which is brave and bracing. Doctrine deals with energies and events that are as real and powerful as anything known in chemistry or physics, energies and events that can turn the world we know upside down, energies and events into which we are grafted as participants with speaking and acting parts. (p xiii)

Pragmatics

I’ve just finished reading George Yule’s little book, Pragmatics Oxford Introductions to Language Study (Oxford, OUP, 1996).

Useful, clear survey, readings, glossary, further reading.

It’s been quite interesting – if not always strictly relevant to The Great Task.

Yule describes pragmatics thus:

“Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader)…. Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning…. Pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning…. We might say that it is the investigation of invisible meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said…. Pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance.” (p3)

At times I’ve felt, “yeah, yeah… this is just stating the obvious” – and giving it a fancy label - but there’ve been some insights and it’s raised a few smiles. It’s the kind of book where the author can have some fun with making up the examples. And Yule hasn’t gone too mad on all the p&q (+>p) business.

I particularly liked the diagram on p66, Figure 7.1, How to get a pen from someone else [if you’ve forgotten to bring one to a lecture] (following Brown and Levison 1987) which distinguishes: (a) saying something or saying nothing (and looking in bag); (b) on record or off record (‘I forgot my pen’); (c) face saving act or bald request (d) positive politeness or negative politeness. These stratergies are not meant to be exhaustive: creating a diversion and making a grab for it is an option this short introduction overlooks.

The conversational maxims (p37) aren’t rocket science and might be quibbleable but I shall be on the lookout for offenders:

The cooperative principle: Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

The maxims

Quantity

1. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).

2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

Quality Try to make your contribution one that is true.

1. Do not say what you believe to be false.

2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

Relation Be relevant.

Manner Be perspicuous.

1. Avoid obscurity of expression.

2. Avoid ambiguity.

3. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).

4. Be orderly.

Following Grice 1975

There’s also some good stuff on politeness and a table showing ‘how to do a disprefered’, that is, how to say something people wont want or expect to hear, such as saying “no” to a request (p81).

Speech Act Theory Bibliography

Though it probably wont be of interest or use to anyone, I thought I'd post this bibliography of speech act theory (especially including some works that might possibly have some vague relevance to the doctrines of scripture and the Lord's Supper) I've been working on. I probably wont consult many of these 40 odd titles but having made a list creates some illusion of work achieved.

ATLA reveals there are further articles and books on speech act and particular biblical texts (e.g. Botha on John 4; Neufeld on 1 John) I haven't bothered too include.

Those who can't get enough of this stuff may want to consult:

Nuyts, Jan and Verschurenen (eds.), A Comprehensive Bibliography of Pragmatics volumes 1-4 (John Benjamins, 1987)

Or perhaps even more useful (!):

Dufon, Kasper, Takahashi, Yoshinaga, 'Bibliography on Linguistic Politeness' in Journal of Pragmatics 21, 1994, pp527-78

Present crisis? What crisis?

Mr Neil G. T. Jeffers has suggested the possibility of a preterist reading of 1 Corinthians 7:26-31, which was new to me and seems well worth perusing.

The view of marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 seems rather more negative than in other passages in Paul (e.g. Ephesians 5) and the rest of the Bible and some of this might be explained if “the present crisis” is the events caught up with the covenant transition and the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Despite a flick through Bruce, Fee and Thiselton, and a bit of Googling, I’ve not been able to find any discussion of this option.

The cosmic eschatological language of time being short(ened) and the present form of the world passing away would be a suitable Bible-way of talking about the coming of the new order in Christ.

Paul could call the event “present” even if it’s a few years off as Jesus had said it was coming in that generation and the fall of Jerusalem is really of a piece with his death and resurrection. Perhaps the birth pangs could already be felt as he wrote.

The fall of Jerusalem would have been of concern to the Corinthian Christians as Jesus had spoken of it in such cataclysmic terms. Any diaspora Jews in the church at Corinth may have been particularly concerned. Though it seems likely that Christians would have been subject to increased persecution by Romans around the time of the Jewish uprising too since it seems that the boundaries between Judaism and Christianity were somewhat fluid to begin with and the Romans may not have bothered to distinguish too much between the church and some Jewish reform movement.

The advice not to marry as the old world is in its death throws fits well with Jesus’ concern for how dreadful it will be pregnant women and nursing mothers when Jerusalem falls (Mark 13:17)

* * *

Speaking of the “present crisis” in 1 Cor 7, Thiselton argues that:

Since Paul cites “present circumstances” or some impending event as that which tips the scales if all other things are equal, clearly nothing in the teaching of Jesus corresponds to the contingent event, to which Paul, in a personal and pastoral capacity, gives considerable weight. (c.f. v25) (p571)

Maybe there’s something in this but it does not rule out a preterist reading since it would still be true that Jesus did not command people not to marry in the run up to the fall of Jerusalem and Paul could reasonably make this wise application on the basis of Jesus’ prediction.

* * *

In a typically idealist sort of way Thiselton does also mentions that: “Thus, arguably the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 might be a concrete symptom or sign of the eschatological anagke_.” (p575)

I also thought these other bits of Thiselton were noteworthy:

Caird’s contribution is to explain in linguistic terms how early Christian writers, including Paul, “regularly used end-of-the-world language metaphorically to refer to that which they knew well was not the end of the world” ([Thisleton’s] italics) [Language and Imagery, 256]. This is not because the world will continue as it is indefinitely. Quite the reverse: events such as the fall of Jerusalem, violent attacks on the church by evil forces, and the relativizing question marks which hang over the world order which has no future all constitute partial “end-of-the-world” experiences which come about because the present world order does indeed stand under judgement and does indeed face a cosmic End. (p581)

[From her “participant” persepective] Israel’s “world” (arguably) collapsed with the fall of Jersualem (cf. Mark 13), but the “observer” world is the universal, intersubjective cosmos. “My” world collapses at death; “the” world, at the End. (p583)

It would be a mistake, however, to ignore the possibility (even probability) that certain specific circumstances instantiated the eschatological question mark over supposed present securities and stability…. Such concrete circumstances bring home the crumbling insecurity of a world order which stands under the apocalyptic judgement of the cross. (p583)

Thiselton, Anthony C., NIGTC The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2000)

Warfield on Scripture

Here's what I hope this the first vaguely hand-in-able part of my dissassertation. Its a 6000 ish word Word document on B. B. Warfield's doctrine of Scripture as a standard Reformed Evangelical doctrine of Scripture.

The next bit of toil is to be on how the philosophy of language, literary theory and so on (especially speech act theory and probably semiotics too) might contribute to the Reformed Evangelical doctrine of the Bible.

My overall project is called Edible Words & Legible Sacraments and is to think about the doctrines of the Lord's Supper and the Bible in the light of one another and consider their relationships.

Sounding Post-Millennial

Although he concedes that “postmillennialism has undergone much systemization in the post-Reformation era”, Kenneth Gentry quotes a number of eminent theologians sounding optimistic about the triumph of the gospel before the final return of Christ.

Here are some highlights:

Origen:

It is evident that even the barbarians, when they yield obedience to the word of God, will become most obedient to the law, and most humane; and every form of worship will be destroyed except the religion of Christ, which will alone prevail. And indeed it will one day triumph, as its principles take possession of the minds of men more and more each day.

Against Celsus 8:68

Athanasius:

… [I]t is right for you to realize, and to take as the sum of what we have already stated, and to marvel at exceedingly; namely, that since the Saviour has come among us, idolatry not only has no longer increased, but what there was is diminishing and gradually coming to an end: and not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer advance, but what there is is now fading away…. And to sum the matter up: behold how the Saviour’s doctrine is everywhere increasing, while all idolatry and everything opposed to the faith of Christ is daily dwindling, and losing power, and failing…. For as, when the sun is come, darkness no longer prevails, but if any be still left anywhere it is driven away; so, now that the divine Appearing of the Word of God is come, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are illuminated by His teaching.

Incarnation 55:1-3

Gentry also cites Eusebius (AD 260-340) Ecclesiastical History.

Calvin:

Our doctrine must tower unvanquished above all the glory and above all the might of the world, for it is not of us, but of the living God and his Christ whom the Father has appointed King to rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the ends of the earth…. And he is so to rule as to smite the whole earth with the rod of his mouth as an earthen vessel, just as the prophets have prophesied concerning the magnificence of his reign.

Institutes 1:12, Address to King Francis I of France

Gentry also points to post-millennialism in Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, Thomas Brooks, John Howe, William Perkins, John Cotton, and the Westminster Standards.

The Savoy Declaration (1658):

in the latter days, antichrist being destroyed, the Jews called, and the adversaries of the kingdom of His dear Son broken, the churches of Christ being enlarged and edified through the free and plentiful communication of light and grace, shall enjoy in this world a more quiet, peaceable, and glorious condition that they have enjoyed.

Among the noteworthy adherents to post-millennialism, Gentry also lists: J. A. Alexander, Robert L. Dabney, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, A. A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, Gresham Machen, Iain Murray, John Murray, W. G. T. Shedd, Augustus H. Strong, B. B. Warfield.

Gentry Jr., Kenneth L, He Shall Have Dominion: A Postmillenial Eschatology (Tyler, Institute for Christian Economics, 1992) pp 79-93

Colossians 2:6-7

God willing I’m going to be speaking at our camp (CPAS Romsey 2 for Pathfinders) re-union tomorrow on Colossians 2:6-7,

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (NIV)

These are often thought to be the key verses of the letter.

To be honest I haven’t done too much work on whether I should be warning the 11-14 year olds against the dangers of Judaizers, Legalists, proto-Gnostics, hyper-Charismatics, all of the above or something different. I’m going to say something about the importance of having Jesus the Christ as your Lord and sticking with him.

Though N. T. Wright says its debatable how much the metaphors in the verses are still ‘live’ for Paul (Tyndale Commentary on Col & Phil, p99), I thought I might go to town on the following. I might even spend the rest of the day looking for suitable images on the inter-web and see if the wife can put them in a power-point presentation we can take with us on a memory stick. How down with the yuff is that? I don’t know how the apostle Paul managed!

• Walking (NIV: live) the straight way with Jesus as Lord, not turning into promising looking blind allies
• well rooted like a tree, securely planted once for all
• and continually built up in Christ, like a house under construction with solid foundations
• confirmed and settled (NIV: strengthened) in the faith, like a properly established legal document
• overflowing like a full jug of wine, with thankfulness

Stirred-Up over Christ The King

This comming Sunday (26th Nov) is designated as the Feast of Christ The King by the Church of England (following the Roman Catholics).

This last Sunday after Trinity, the one before Advent used to be popularly known as "Stir up Sunday", from the Collect for that Sunday:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

BCP Collect for the 25th Sunday after Trinity

It is traditionally the day for making Christmas pudding.

Tom Wright argues that the new fangled Feast of Christ the King is misleading and badly distorts the drama of the Christian year.

Here's a taster:

This story [of the Biblical gospel reflected in the traditional church year] ... speaks unequivocally of the Kingship of Jesus Christ as a past achievement, and hence as a present reality; and it describes the still-future hope of God's final act of new creation. That's the story we tell in the great sequence of the church's year. Placing the 'Feast of Christ the King' on the Sunday before Advent, especially as the climax of 'Kingdom Season', simply unweaves this narrative. It questions the presence of Christ's Kingdom from Ascension onwards; it implies that maybe Christ is only King of heaven, not of earth as well; and it belittles the hope that is set before us in Advent itself. The sooner we get back to the real, robust story, instead of pulling it out of shape, the better.

For All The Saints?: Remembering the Christian Departed (London, SPCK, 2003), p70

Why didn't God make it clearer?

According to Gerlad Bray, "Augustine explained the hard parts of Scripture by saying that God deliberately put them there in order to keep us awake and attentive to his voice.”

No-one disputes that it is much more pleasant to learn lessons presented through imagery, and much more rewarding to discover meanings that are won only with difficulty. Those who fail to discover what they are looking for suffer from hunger, whereas those who do not look, because they have it in front of them, often die of boredom. In both situations the danger is lethargy. It is a wonderful and beneficial thing that the Holy Spirit organized the Holy Scriptures so as to satisfy hunger by means of the plainer passages and remove boredom by means of its obscurer ones.

Gerald Bray, ‘The Church Fathers and Their Use of Scripture’ in Helm, Paul and Trueman, Carl, (ed.s) The Trustworthiness of God: Perspectives on the nature of Scripture (Leicester, Apollos, 2002) p165 quoting Augustine, On Christian Teaching II, 13-15.

How Often To Eat?

Here are some jottings on the frequency of the Lord's Supper:

Some Scripture passages

Acts 2:42 – they devoted themselves to the breaking of the bread

Acts 20:7 - the church at Troas met on the 1^st day of the week to break bread

1 Cor 11:17-22 on coming together as a church to eat the Lord’s Supper with 1 Cor 16:2. meeting on the first day of the week

Some voices from church history

Didache 14:1 (ca. 50-150) and Justin Martyr, 1^st Apology, 67, (ca. 100-165) indicate weekly Communion (Mathison, p292)

Calvin, Short Treatise on the Holy Supper of Our Lord etc. (1540): “If we have careful regard to the end for which our Lord intended it, we should realise that the use of it ought to be more frequent than many make it…. Therefore the custom ought to be well established, in all the churches, of celebrating the Supper as frequently as the capacity of the people will allow…. Though we have no express command defining the time and the day, it should be enough for us to know that the intention of our Lord is that we use it often; otherwise we shall no know well the benefits which it offers us.” (Reid, ed., Calvin: Theological Treatises (Philadelphia, Westminster, 1954) p153)

Calvin, Institutes 4.17.43, “The Supper could have been administered most becomingly if it were set before the church very often, at least once a week.”

Institutes 4.16.45, "we ought always to provide that no meeting of the Church is held without the Word, prayer, the dispensation of the Supper, and alms"

Calvin, Articles Concerning the Organization of the Church and Worship in Geneva (1541): “it would be well to require that the Communion of the Holy Supper of Jesus Christ be held every Sunday at least as a rule.” (Reid p49)

John Owen says:

Q40: How often is that ordinance [the Lord’s Supper] to be administered?

A: Every first day of the week, or at least as often as opportunity and conveniency may be obtained – 1 Cor. Xi. 26; Acts xx. 7

“A Brief Instruction in the Worship of God”, Owen, John, The Works of John Owen
ed. William Gould (London, Banner of Truth, 1968), volume XV, p512

Martin Bucer (Mathison, p293) and Thomas Cranmer (Letham, p58f) also favoured weekly communion.

Letham, Robert, The Lord’s Supper: Eternal Word In Broken Bread (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing, 2001)
Mathison, Keith A., Given For You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine Of The Lord’s Supper (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing, 2002)

Spurgeon:

The Lord’s Supper was meant to be a frequent feast of fellowship. It is a grievous mistake of the church when the communion is held but once in the year, or once in a quarter of a year; and I cannot remember any Scripture which justifies once in the month. I should not feel satisfied without breaking bread on every Lord’s-day.

s1971

G. W. Bromiley says:


The general view of the Reformers was that, considering scriptural precedent and the purpose and meaning of the sacrament, it ought to be administered each week, or monthly at the very least…. The Church of England maintained a weekly ante-communion, but could not insist on more that three communions a year as a rule of membership;

Sacramental Teaching and Practice in the Reformation Churches (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1957) p74


John Stott says in Your Confirmation(Hodder & S, 1958), p97:


The chief expression of fellowship between Christians is the Holy Communion service. It is the central service of the church.... The Acts of the Apostles suggest that every Sunday they met to "break bread". The Lord's Day was inconceivable without the Lord's Supper. Personally, I think we, too, should attend it every Sunday.

I'm told that Alec Motyer also advocated weekly communion.

Revd Dr Michael Horton's adult catechism of talk on the frequency of the Lord's Supper (related to its purpose) can be heard at:

http://christurc.org/adult_catechism_audio/horton/008_11_26_06_Rev_Dr_Horton.mp3

John Bradford on Bible & Supper

John Bradford seems to think the Bible offers us the body and blood of Christ:

Now to that part of the objection with saith, that we teach Christ to be no more otherwise present in the sacrament than in the word. I would that the objectors would well consider, what a presence of Christ is in his word…. St Jerome, in the third book upon Ecclesiasties, affirmeth that ‘we are fed with the body of Christ, and we drink his blood, not only in mystery, but also in knowledge of holy scripture:’ where he plainly sheweth that the same meat is offered in the words of the scriptures, which is offered in the sacraments; so that no less is Christ’s body and blood offered by the scriptures, than by the sacraments…. [As Jerome says:] ‘Christ’s flesh and blood is poured into our ears by hearing the word’…

And the Supper offers us edible words:

Not that Christ is not so much present in his word preached, as he is in or with his sacrament; but because there are in the perception of the sacrament more windows open for Christ to enter into us, than by his word preached or heard. For there (I mean in his word) he hath an entrance into our hearts, but only by the ears through the voice and sound of words; but there in the sacrament he hath an entrance by all our senses, by our eyes, by our nose, by our taste, and by our handling also: and therefore the sacrament full well may be called seeable, sensible, tasteable, and touchable words.

Writings of John Bradford I, ed. A. Townsend, Cambridge (Parker Society), 1848, pp99-101. Quoted in Rowell, Stevenson and Williams, Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest For Holiness (Oxford, OUP, 2001), pp58-60

Lord's Supper Covenant Renewal

… thou callest the cup ‘the testament (or covenant) in thy blood;’ for the covenant which thou once hast stricken with us in thy blood, thou dost as it were renew the same as concerning the confirmation of our faith, so often as thou reach unto us this holy cup to drink of.

Writings of John Bradford I, ed. A. Townsend, Cambridge (Parker Society), 1848, p260f. Quoted in Rowell, Stevenson and Williams, Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest For HolinessOxford, OUP, 2001), pp58-60

The Feast of St. Charles Simeon

It was good to be told today in chapel that the 13^th November is the day on which the Church of England celebrates the Lesser Festival of Charles Simeon, Priest, Evangelical Divine, who died on 13^th November 1836.

Here’s the Collect:

Eternal God,
who raised up Charles Simeon to preach the good news of Jesus Christ
and to inspire your people in service and mission:
grant that we with all your Church may worship the Saviour,
turn in sorrow from our sins and walk in the way of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Daily Prayer, p516)

Isaac Watts gets a Commemoration in the C of E calendar on Saturday 25th November, but perhaps the experimental character of Friday chapel services at Oak Hill may allow it to be celebrated a day early this year?

Memorable Remembrance

An extraordinary array of organisations took part in yesterday's remembrance parade. I think my favourite group name was the 'Memorable Order of the Tin Hats'.

Theological Index

Search on-line for details of theological articles at:

http://www.ixtheo.de/cgi-bin/ixtheo/maskeeng.pl?db=ixtheo

Children's & Youthwork Resources

Show&Tell are offering free resources for Bible centred children's and youth work.

Psalm 1 & Matthew 5-7

God-willing, I’m going to preach Psalm 1 to the good people of Emmanuel, Hastings on Sunday 29^th October.

They’ve asked me to choose a NT reading and, although this is forward planning gone mad, I thought I might go for Matthew 7:13-29.

It seemed to me there are some interesting parallels between Matthew 5-7 and Psalm 1:

• Mt 5v3ff – “Blessed…”
• 5v17ff – “the Law” – fulfilment in Jesus
• 7v13ff – 2 ways, righteous and wicked, leading to life or death
• 7v15ff – trees, fruit and judgement
• 7v24ff – Wise and foolish builders (righteous and wicked ways again), ruin or safety – depending on hearing Jesus’ words and putting them into practice

Now maybe this is parallelomania. And I’m not sure what the cash value might be.

Preaching group today seemed to think that Mt 7 would make a suitable reading but that it would be best to let it speak for itself and not try to make any links in the sermon. A bit of a shame?

Suggestions for a different NT reading that I could profitably use would be most welcome. Indeed, please email your talks on Psalm 1! I’ve been asked to produce power point slides, of all things, too. I've never before ventured beyond an OHP or a handout, so if you have any power point presentations on your memorey stick…. Though I think my more highly skilled wife is looking forward to the fun of showing me how to make my points waltz across the screen and so on. Sounds like another first dance embarrassment could ensue.

And wouldn’t it be good if we could find a catchy version of Ps 1 to sing that we might easily meditate on it all week?

Paper & ink; bread & wine

Here is Douglas Wilson comparing the fact that the Bible is nothing but paper and ink to the fact that the elements we recieve in the Lord's Supper are nothing but bread and wine, though both Bible and Supper are far more than the physical elements.

What are the conventions for footnoting blog posts, I wonder? The college will probably producing a supplamentary booklet to set out the regulations, I imagine.

Another Oak Hill blog

Dave Williams is blogging away at:

http://davewilliams-random-thoughts.blogspot.com/

A Suitable Ordinand

Cranmer Hall apparently recommended that Nick Howard should not be ordained because of his supposed “unwillingness to listen” to other points of view. Though if these press reports are to be believed, the real offence was caused by Nick’s standing by the Bible’s teaching that homosexual sex is a sin and that Jesus is the only way to God.

The Mail on Sunday:

Michael Howard's son tells how liberal Anglicans have thwarted his ambition

By Elizabeth Day

Last updated at 22:00pm on 30th September 2006

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=407794&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=

Or likewise,

This is London – Evening Standard

Michael Howard's son tells how liberal Anglicans have thwarted his ambition | News | This is London

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369153-details/Michael+Howards+/son+tells+how+liberal+Anglicans+have+thwarted+his+ambition/article.do

* * *

From the little I know of Nick Howard, it seems to me he would be an eminently able minister and a faithful servant of the gospel. He seems to me a gentle and sensible sort. A great shame. Isn’t there some bishop somewhere who’d like to ordain him despite this report from Cranmer?

Top Bible Command

What's the most frequently repeated commandment in the Bible?

"Do not be afraid!"


(Tom Wright, Matthew For Everyone, p118)

A theological put down

"ingenious"

as in "Karl Barth's exegesis is".

Oak Hill Blogs

Welcome to Daniel Roe - http://capreol.us/didyktile/

And have you seen?

Dave Williams - http://davewilliams-random-thoughts.blogspot.com/

Helen Morrow - http://helenmorrow.blogspot.com/

Rachel Warwick, a former member of staff at Oak Hill, has a blog entitled Not "where next?" but "where now?" at: http://rachwarwick.blogspot.com/

Here’s a list of all the vaguely Oak Hill related more or less used blogs I’ve spotted:

Revd Dr David Field - http://davidpfield.blogspot.com/

Ros Clark – I have a question - http://www.ihaveaquestion.blog.co.uk/

Revd Matthew Mason – Mother Kirk - http://motherkirk.blogspot.com/

Revd James Oakley http://www.oakleys.org.uk/blog/

Celal Baker http://www.icarusredeemed.blogspot.com/

Mandy Curley – Safety Girl - http://www.mandycurley.blogspot.com/

Chris Thomson - http://www.christhomson.blogspot.com

Tim Gough - http://www.timothygough.blogspot.com/

Paul Kerry – Freedom is Coming - http://www.freedomiscoming.blogspot.com/

Pete Matthew – Big Pete - http://big-pete.blogspot.com/

Andrew Towner - Towner's Thoughts - www.townersthoughts.blogspot.com

Dawn Evans - www.sisterdawn.blogspot.com

Pete Jackson - http://peteatcollege.blogspot.com/

Dan Green - http://dan-ycm.blogspot.com/

Nick Cornell - http://my.opera.com/nsc21/blog/

Ruth Field - http://www.pickledonion.blogspot.com/

Revd Chris Green - http://www.chris-green.blogspot.com/

Psalms & Covenant Festivity

My jottings on a Psalms lecture handout alledge that Artur Weiser argued that the Psalms were used in the Autumn / New Year covenant festival of the LORD.

I wonder if this might fit happily with the view that we should use the Psalms rather more in the Lord's Day service of covenantal renewal?