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Wonderful, solid stuff on reforming Eucharistic practice from Peter Leithart here.

Bede's History 2:5 reports how the pagan sons of King Sabert, during a period when the church's fortunes had lapsed, demanded to be fed communion but refused to be baptized:

And when they saw the bishop, whilst celebrating mass in the church, give the eucharist to the people, they, puffed up with barbarous folly, were wont, as it is reported, to say to him, "Why do you not give us also that white bread, which you used to give to our father Saba (for so they used to call him), and which you still continue to give to the people in the church?" To whom he answered, "If you will be washed in that laver of salvation, in which our father was washed, you may also partake of the holy bread of which he partook; but if you despise the laver of life, you may not receive the bread of life."

Though I would not subscribe uncritically to everything implied in that view of baptism, nevertheless there's a bold sacramental clarity there, which is typically lacking in the evangelical American churches today.  Our practice has been to make conversion a completely inner event: you become a Christian completely apart from any external sign or act, and thereby we make baptism effectively irrelevant.  Would any of our pastors today anywhere forbid someone at the table because they had not submitted to baptism?

This idea first penetrated my brain because of a remark Murray J. Harris, one of my Trinity profs made: "The New Testament has no notion of an unbaptized Christian."  Does the church smile when couples live together apart from marriage?  What?  You say the external ceremonial act of a wedding is important?  Even essential?  Then how can we approve those who come to the table apart from baptism?

Because we don't believe anything happens at baptism.  And we don't believe anything happens at the table.  Nothing external matters.  It's all inner, inner, spiritual, inside.  

Gnostic.

Aw, hold your nose and VOTE, already.

Another thoughtful Christian brother, whom I admire in many ways, reports that he will not vote for Bush (nor for Kerry, I assume), because although Bush is good on Terrorism and will probably do the right thing with some Supreme Court nominees, nevertheless he is a wild spender, and *especially*, Bush has floppy, careless theology.  Witness Bush's goofy assertions that "Islam is a religion of peace", his participation in the polytheistic abomination at the National Cathedral after 9/11, and his wrong-headed acts of reverence at a Shinto shrine in Japan.  

Okay, point taken.  Bush is theologically unqualified for any ordainable position in the church.

But we're not ordaining him, are we?  Suck up your high principles, hold your nose, and vote, already.  Unless you have a firm sense that God's judgment on our nation must surely take the form of a John Kerry presidency.  Well, I'm sure we deserve it in many ways; but I'm voting for the lighter sentence.  I prefer mercy.

More nightstand reading: Bede's history (1:32) includes a letter from Pope Gregory (A.D. 601) to the English Christian King Ethelbert.   Two things stand out.

(1) They were expecting the end of the world soon. 

... we would have your glory know, we find in the holy Scripture, from the words of the Almighty Lord, that the end of this present world, and the kingdom of the saints, is about to come, which will never terminate.

I'd like to collect all the church's end-of-the-world speculation through the centuries and put it all in a book entitled A Brief History of the End of the World.  Many of today's end-timers have the idea that only in our day do the signs really point to his soon coming.

(2) They had a simple and straightforward concept of how the church was to instruct and exhort the state:

... Therefore, my illustrious son, do you carefully preserve the grace which you have received from the Divine goodness, and hasten to promote the Christian faith, which you have embraced, among the people under your subjection; multiply the zeal of your uprightness in their conversion; suppress the worship of idols; overthrow the structures of the temples; edify the manners of your subjects by much cleanness of life, exhorting, terrifying, soothing, correcting, and giving examples of good works, that you may find Him your rewarder in heaven, whose name and knowledge you shall spread abroad upon earth.

And we think our particular expression of "separation of church and state" is superior?

Sunday Night Ice Cream for the Nuns

A couple of posts from the Domincan Nuns blog have been kind of fun.  In one entry the Infirmarian tells about an aged sister who is permanently bent over from years of working at the convent's correspondence table.  But more interesting is the entry about the community's Sunday observance.  Daily routine is suspended for time to read, nap, or take walks.  And then "... what seems to be the universal law of monasteries there is always ice cream on Sunday nights--even in Lent!"  

Silly me.  I've always thought that ice cream was for any day in any season that you wanted it.  But here's my problem: such an attitude makes ice cream "normal", and surely something as wonderful as ice cream should be special.  So I try to imagine what it would be like in the home to have ice cream only once a week, and that on Sunday nights.   Every Sunday night, along about 8:00, dad goes to the freezer and the family gathers around the table.  His big hands scoop out large portions of the wonderful stuff and everyone gets as much as they want.

Herein you can see my Protestant sense of loss for what hasn't survived in my church heritage: structure, discipline, feasts, fasts; the extra special as contrasted with the merely normal.  Of course as a good Protestant I will never suffer from superstitious observance of days and decrees "don't touch, don't taste."   We're free of all that, and that's to the good.  

But surely there must be some thoroughly Reformed way to delight together in ice cream that does no violence to the Westminster Confession. 

Painting day tomorrow at the Zion Education Center (a.k.a. the former A to Z printing building).  Our church, Zion Church, 9th and D, has been hard up for Christian Ed space, so we recently purchased a building at 8th and D, which we are calling the Education Center.  It was originally a Lutheran Church of the old style which had the worship hall on second floor.  During the many years since the Lutherans moved on, the building has passed through many hands; most recently a small commercial printing company.  As Zion moves in, we give the basement to the youth, the two large first-floor rooms to two of our Adult Fellowship Communities (AFC's), and the large second-floor room to our third AFC.  (The other half of the second floor will continue under lease as a studio apartment until the Spring, at least.)

And so we've been doing some remodeling and painting.  Our first Sunday using the new space will be October 31.

Speaking of October 31st, this just in: School Says Halloween Disrespectful to Witches

The Internet: An Illustration

It is distressing to see how the oh so very very deeply thoughtful and nuanced evangelicals can find their way to the place where they conclude that they just cannot vote for either candidate.  Say it ain't so: Wheaton's Mark Noll, at whose table I have eaten, whose books I have read, whose charitable way of handling dumb questions from his Sunday School class has been an inspiration for me, has arrived at the conclusion that he just can't vote for either of the major party candidates, since neither one lines up satisfactorily on his Seven Big National Issues.

Okay, okay, we get it: politics is not the answer and both parties and both candidates are deeply disappointing in various ways.  And it is important for Christians to re-train their thinking so that when we hear the question "How are we doing in Iraq?" we think first of the church and Christ's kingdom, and only secondarily of the troops of the nation we happen to live in.

But surely the answer is not to just drop out of the process on high principle.

This is politics.  There are no high principles.  But you still have to do the best you can.

Will the African bishops take the Lambeth Commission's Windsor Report without complaint? Evidently not...  

What does a blog by Dominican Nuns look like?  (Actually, not as interesting as one might hope; especially if they're just going to do this hagiography stuff ... I'd rather know what they watched on TV and what they really think about Kerry.  i.e. are they Kerryzmatic Dominicans?)

Another one of my Trinity profs has things to say about inclusive gender Bible translations like the TNIV and NRSV.  Such translations still make me want to throw up, but D. A. Carson (who has an oversized brain, eats lots of fish, and wears a size 14 hat) demonstrates that it is not as simple an issue as you might be inclined to think: PDF link.

A Bible translation war is the last thing the church needs as it faces the decomposition of Western civilization.  So I don't want our church to dig in and fight for or against the NIV, ESV, NAS, or N/KJV.  But I do think it is worth saying something against the "gender-inclusive" translations such as the NRSV and the TNIV. It is high-handed and irresponsible for a translation committee to choose a translation philosophy that purposefully removes gender-specific language from the English side in places where it is plain and clear on the Hebrew and Greek side.  

Therefore, I am glad to see Touchstone magazine take a stand against such translation shenanigans and goings-on in their editorials.  And I was sad to see Doug Moo, a former professor of mine at Trinity who served as a TNIV translator, take high offense at the Touchstone criticism:

Please cancel my subscription to Touchstone immediately. While I am sympathetic to the general theological concerns of the magazine, your editorial in the April 2002 issue on Bible translation was woefully shortsighted about translation (I wonder how many Bible translations would exist if we did not conform its language "to the mind and vocabulary of people whose discourse and understanding their Bibles tell them is pervaded by sin and error"), arrogant (agree with us on an issue that has never been embodied in an ecumenical confession or you are heretical), and cowardly (you other folks need to resist the trend; we won’t insist on it here at Touchstone). As one of the translators of Today’s New International Version who "presents himself as orthodox," I was personally offended by the tone of the editorial–e.g., "crudely and culpably disposed of by translators who, in ignorance or defiance of Christian faith . . ."–and dismayed to find alleged theological orthodoxy defended at the dismaying and ultimately self-defeating expense of orthopraxy: simple Christian charity toward those who hold different positions well within the boundaries of historical orthodoxy.

–Douglas J. Moo
West Chicago, Illinois

At the very minimum, the church should carefully debate whether such a blanket translation policy is wise.  For example, I don't hear anyone discussing the point that God's language should transform our language, not vice-versa.  God gave us the Bible in language that reflects male headship in a way that gives the vapors to modern feminists and those who eat at their table.  Before we just flip the switch and decide to neuter Biblical English on behalf of our culture (and what a culture!), shouldn't we at least be asking whether or not God is trying to teach us how to think his thoughts after him in truth, even at the level of male and female pronouns?  

So where is the TNIV study paper on that question?  And what did the churches say when Rupert Murdoch's Zondervan company submitted that translation philosophy to them for their counsel and advice?

Doug Moo is a brilliant guy and has done much useful service in his teaching, research, and writing.  But he's wrong on this one.

(Maybe I'll send him a gift subscription to Touchstone.)

Fellowship 9/11

REALLY funny.  (Thanks to P.Duggan, Hierogrammate)

18 weeks:
http://www.righttolife.org.uk/politics/images/baby1.jpg

I giggled so loud I woke up Jana as I read some Douglas Wilson last night.  I finally read through his booklet Contours of Postmaturity: InterVarsity Press Comes of Age.  Nobody has more fun pointing out that the emperor has no clothes than Wilson.  What other writer trundles his canon onto the battlefield firing salvos against "exegetical skylarking in excelsis", "epistemological catfish in the punch bowl of narrative ethics" and "more than a few stones from the driveway in our narratival Cream of Wheat."

His point is that IVP *used* to be a self-consciously evangelical publishing house, but he shows that on the evidence of some of their more recent offerings (well, actually 10 years ago, now), they've come a long way, baby.  Wilson reviews three over-the-edge books that take themselves oh so seriously, but pretty much end up serving as little more than illustrations of the truth of those verses in the Bible about houses and sand and floods.

Wilson is the flood-type reviewer you hope your sand-castle book will never have to be tested by.

Happy birthday, Sam.  It was a Friday the 13th in 1978 in Highland Park, Illinois that Sam made his first appearance.  We lived in a two-bedroom apartment over the garage on a many-acred estate in Lake Forest (free rent plus a small salary for some goundskeeping duties) while attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  I was in my third year of a one-year master's program, auditing a few classes of general interest while working full-time on my thesis.  I think I was also working the 3:30 a.m. pre-loader shift at U.P.S.  (At one point in my life, I was a card-carrying member of the Teamsters.)   We lived in Lake Forest, went to church in Libertyville, school in Deerfield, and if I had to find any of it today, I wonder how soon I'd get lost. That's when we bought our old studio Kimball piano (recently retired, though it still sits in our living room), and Jana started teaching piano lessons.  I wonder.  If she has taught an average of 10 students per year for the last 25 years, that makes 250 kids.  

All of which is to say, Sam has been a delightful son over the years.

Very pretty old Episcopal church in Dallas; Church of the Incarnation.  They have the baptismal font in the corner at the back of the sanctuary by the doors.  I like the symbolism of that: baptism is the entry into the church.  Nice stained glass in the traditional style. (What would that be? Pre-renaissance?)  I had a chance to snap some quick shots down one of the side aisles, which did a progression on Jesus' public ministry.  Here's the transfiguration.  (click the picture for a larger version). 

They also had an alcove on the front wall off to the right of the communion table that I didn't know what to make of.  I asked the man who served as crucifer / acolyte / assistant.  He said it was used for the communion elements.  I wasn't too clear, but I got the idea that they kept the elements there before and after communion, rather than leaving them on the communion table the whole time.  (There was no communion during the wedding, though from what I could see, it looked like the priest did sprinkle the kneeling bride and groom with some holy water.  The assistant held a bowl and the priest dipped a utensil of some kind in it...)

I also wondered why their pulpit (?lectern?) was in the shape of a large brass eagle.  With a stole.

Somewhere in Oklahoma, we got passed by the truck that delivers for the Road Runner cartoons:

Nice trip to and from Texas for my niece's wedding. Eleven hours in the car on Friday to get there.  Eleven hours on Sunday to get home.  

This sign at one of our gas stops caught my eye and really made me think.  "Yeah.  What else *do* I need??  That should be enough for anyone!"  I mean it; I'm gonna simplify my life.  What else do I need, man?  Nothing, that's what.  Yeah.

Jana read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe aloud as we drove.  Man, we can't even get past the dedication to Lucy Barfield without choking up.  

How to make a million dollars

Write a tight, fun screenplay entitled Nancy Drew and the Secret of the Hidden Diary.  Long-abandoned Keene Manor has a new owner: a reclusive old woman (think Maggie Smith) rumored to be a certain Nancy Drew of uncertain past. She rattles along to all comers in an unending stream of confused stories about all the mysterious adventures she had as a young woman.  (Think of Granny Wendy in Hook).  Certain neighborhood kids befriend her (after passing the obstacles of the elderly housekeeper Miss Gruen, and Nancy's gruff, secretive lawyer, George Fayne).  But wouldn't you know it: the kids discover evidence that leads them to believe that perhaps at least some of Nancy's stories might be true after all.  Soon they find themselves faced with deepening mystery and peril at every turn, and their only hope is that Miss Nancy and the lawyer will be able to help them solve the mystery and save the day.

[Alternative story line: Keene manor is slated to be razed for a new cineplex (or pick you symbol of lost childhood fun).  The kids get involved in helping the old woman save her house (for the children she never had ...), only to be sucked in to a mystery larger than any of them had dreamed.  The Joke: at every turn, the kids all think in terms of video games, while Nancy imagines some cheesy plot device "just like the time when I ..." (that doesn't work), but it does lead to something else ...]

(Before you get too far with your screenplay, just be sure you deal for rights with all the real-life Nancy Drew Industry lawyers.  And if they won't deal, write it as a transparent rip-off with strikingly similar characters ...)

And after you make your million, be sure to tithe it.

The 1928 Book of Common Prayer has this:

For the Unity of God's People.

O GOD, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of Peace; Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and concord: that as there is but one Body and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It strikes me that very few in the conservative and evangelical churches would be comfortable praying this prayer without reservation. We are sensitive to the importance of correct doctrine. We are suspicious of churches that differ from us. We are unhappy with the faithlessness of the oldline churches who in the course of their pursuit of ecumenical reunion have denied the fundamentals of Biblical faith so carelessly. So we just can't bear to make such a prayer. When was the last time the prayers in your church included any mention of our current divisions and desire for unity? (Few conservative churches have anything like a Pastoral Prayer, anyway -- where would such a prayer "fit" even if we wanted to pray it.)

To be sure, there are no shortcuts to unity among the churches. But it is a problem and a challenge that we are way too comfortable ignoring completely.

No blogging for a few days.  Some of us are off to a wedding at the Church of the Incarnation, an Episcopal church in Dallas. I expect to be jealous of the form and beauty, while simultaneously wary of those darn girlie-man Episcopalians.

So, no prayer for unity from these lips!!!

I've been walking to work pretty regularly since some time in July.  Yesterday I drilled one new hole in my belt.

Bravo, African Churches!

The August/September issue of First Things is now online.  (The online version trails the print version by a month, giving those who *pay* for a subscription the First Look.)   I always look to The Public Square editorial section by Lutheran-turned-Catholic R. J. Neuhaus.  The "While We're At It" items are always worth reading.  For instance, I have been aware that some of the African bishops in the Anglican communion have offered to assume oversight over any Episcopal churches in America who don't know where to turn since their national leaders have manifested such gross unfaithfulness by ordaining that unrepentant homosexual "bishop" in Connecticut.  But I hadn't heard the news that something similar has happened among the Lutherans.  The Lutheran Church in Sweden has refused ordination to any candidate who does not go along with the ordination of women.  So now the bishop in Kenya has offered to ordain those who have been refused.  The arrogant Swedes are exercising the same ecclesiastical tyranny that was shown by the PC(USA) in the 1970's when they told the newly received former PC(US) churches that if the local churches did not ordain women "elders", then the governing body would come in and dissolve the local sessions and appoint the essential women.  All in the name of Christian love and theological inclusiveness, of course.

What we're seeing is the public manifestation of J. Gresham Machen's observation that theological liberalism is a different religion than Christianity, and the two ought not to be confused.  But when they are confused for a season, God raises up some African bishops or the like to bring some clarity to the situation for those who have eyes to see.

The wireless router is still routing, but after spending several unsuccessful hours trying to coax the sick computer on the sleeping porch back to health, we still have basically only one computer online, plus my notebook when I get around to it.  I will probably let the sleeping porch computer sleep the sleep of death.  But the boss at MicroImages lets employees take home some of the fully depreciated computers once in a while, and even now there is one that is scheduled to make its way to our house and take its place on the sleeping porch.

Worship Chorus from Psalm 88?

I believe the church should sing the Psalms in worship.  I believe we should sing whole Psalms straight out of the Bible.  But I admit that I've never been in a church where anybody knows how to do this.  Nevertheless, I believe that we are not excused from working on this project, and that someday Presbyterians will again be called "Psalm Singers."  I am optimistic.  

To be sure, we do sing snippets of Psalms even now.  Once in a while some actual verses from the Psalms appear in our praise choruses.  Not to mention the metrical Psalms we sing from the hymnal.  These are good things.

But let's not pretend that there is no gap between what we sing and what God has given us to sing in the Psalter.  For example, has anyone ever sung a worship chorus from Psalm 88?  Anyone?  Anyone?  The Sons of Korah wrote it.  They gave it to the choirmaster.  It was used in the temple by the people of Israel.  For some reason, God was pleased to put this thing in the songbook, and he evidently is pleased to hear it sung by his people.

But Psalm 88 arguably has more darkness and less hope than any other Psalm in the book.  There is no cheery verse at all.  Nobody who reads it is inspired to write a catchy new praise chorus for the worship team.  What music does this call out of your heart:

... [3] For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol. 
[4] I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength, 
[5] like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand. 
[6] You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep. ...

Well, there are people who are in the depths and don't see any hope.  If our theology and worship is too narrow to include the person whose soul is full of troubles, then our theology and worship need fixing.  How many come on Sunday and leave with the idea that if they are not happy and chirpy and bouncing along in the light, then there is no place for them in the church?

I bought a wireless router at Best Buy.  The goal being to have more than one computer doing Web things simultaneously at home.  The computer in "the Juno room" has been the only one plugged into our DSL line, and it gets used by everyone for their email and also by all the students for other web access.  When I get around to doing email with my notebook computer, I have to carry it in to the Juno room and plug in the network cable.  

Result: "the Juno computer" often has a line of users waiting on one another. 

But in addition to my notebook computer, we have two or three other operational (W98-vintage) machines that could take the load off the Juno computer if only we could figure out how to run multiple computers against our one DSL line.  Well, that's what a "router" does.  The helpful kid in the blue shirt at Best Buy assured me that the LinkSys wireless router would be just the thing, and as an added benefit, the box included a wireless network card for my notebook computer.  Well, after my first attempt at installation and configuration, I was disappointed.  The router worked, but I could run only one computer at a time on the DSL connection.  But with some encouragement from the support desk at Internet Nebraska (my ISP), I made another run at it last night, and now it works as advertised.   The Juno computer showed streaming video of the Bush-Kerry debate while I downloaded email on my laptop.

Now to add another desktop computer on the sleeping porch.  I could buy a wireless card for that computer, but we already have a regular network card and some cable, so I'm thinking I'll just plug it in the old-fashioned non-wireless way.  I already have a hole in the wall between the Juno room and the sleeping porch ...

Tonight I have a part in the particularization service for Grace Chapel.  Zion planted Grace Chapel just four years ago with a core group of 40 and a determined young pastor.  Now they're pushing 200 every Sunday and are ready to ordain their first Elders.  After tonight, Grace Chapel is no longer a "mission church."  

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