Come, Buy, Eat - A video for the Bread of Life

I made this little video for our Sunday worship service - we'll be focusing on the 'Bread of Life' discourse in John chapter six.  There's nothing really special about the video, no great special effects.  But I know that different people learn in different ways. Some people learn by watching. Some by hearing. Some by doing...
We try to include a variety of expressions in our worship so that everyone (hopefully) can feel comfortable in at least some part of the program.

This video is for those who find a plain 'reading' of scripture to be boring.  (Though, it will not be quite as beneficial to those who illiterate or visually impaired...)

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - Week 32

Here, once again, is this weeks' Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) background image.  You can, of course, use this for something other than a powerpoint presentation. Use it in your school, work, church or personal projects. I only ask that you share it freely and that you tell others that you found it here.

Ante-Nicene Fathers – Justin’s Hortatory Address to the Greeks – True Apologetic, True Religion

Earlier this year I challenged myself to begin reading through the 10 volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers (the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325) that I’ve been packing around with me for a few years now.  I was interrupted my progress; we moved again and all my books went into boxes.  They are only now beginning to find their places on shelves. 

I’ve just finished reading Justin Martyr’s Hortatory Address to the Greeks- an apologetic writing designed to convince Greek intellectuals of that Christianity is the True Religion and that they should abandon the errors of their polytheism.  And this he does by appealing, not to Christian scriptures – which Justin recognizes that they will not accept – but rather by showing that Greek philosophers, poets, and even dramatists have been, in subtle ways, teaching the truths of the Christian faith, albeit in sometimes confused and hidden ways.

The Apostle Paul used this same technique at Mars Hill when he addressed the Greek philosophers there (Acts 17) and what he tried to do in Lystra when the people confused him and Barnabas for Zeus and Hermes (Acts 14).   “This is true apologetic, and also true evangelism, where the content of the gospel is preserved whilst the mode of expression is tuned to the ears of the recipients….[he] endeavors to have as much common ground with his audience – even while he is at work undermining their position!”[i]

But, unlike Paul, Justin’s writing isn’t very stimulating.  He’s dull.  Reading this work was, for me, almost a painful drudgery – but his ideas are interesting.  It took me a while to get through this writing.

Justin begins by demonstrating the conflict and contradiction among Greek philosophers and poets. From philosophers like Thales of Miletus, and Anaximander and Heraclitus of Metapontus to Pythagoras and Epicurus and even to the holy trinity of Greek philosophy - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle there were contradictory ideas about the nature and cause of everything.  One said that water was first principle of everything – everything comes from and returns to water – while another declared that fire was the first principle.  Plato taught that there were three first principles: God, Matter, and Form, while his student Aristotle taught that there were only two: God and Matter. 

To Justin this lack of unity among the philosophers was evidence of their ignorance.  “You see, then, the confusion of those who are considered by you to have been wise men, whom you assert to be your teachers of religion: some of them declaring that water is the first principle of all things; others, air; others, fire; and others, some other of these fore-mentioned elements; and all of them employing persuasive arguments for the establishment of their own errors, and attempting to prove their own peculiar dogma to be the most valuable.  … How then, ye men of Greece, can it be safe for those who desire to be saved, to fancy that they can learn the true religion form these philosophers, who were neither able so to convince themselves as to prevent sectarian wrangling with one another, and not to appear definitely opposed to one another’s opinions?”[ii]

In contrast, Justin presented the Christian faith as being at the same time – older than Greek philosophies and harmonious – that is, without internal contradiction or argument.  “Wherefore, as if with one mouth and one  tongue, they have in succession, and in harmony with each other, taught us both concerning God, and the creation of the world, and the formation of man, and concerning the immortality of the human soul, and the judgment which is to be after this life, and concerning all things which it is needful for us to know…”

Of course, even in Justin’s day there were various interpretations of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures – some of which were mutually contradictory and the debates were sometimes acrimonious.  Either Justin was 1) very naïve and actually believed the way he understood the Christian faith was THE way that ALL Christians believed or 2) he was trying to present his argument in a clear and uncluttered way so that the Greeks he was addressing could recognize the truth of Christianity without becoming confused by the arguments within Christianity. 

I hope it was the latter, but I’m guessing it was more of the former.

He then cites numerous Greek writings in order to demonstrate how they were influenced by and teach the same thing as Moses and the Prophets.   He finds arguments against Greek polytheism in Orpheus, Homer, Sophocles, Pythagoras, and Plato.  But if these disguised their monotheism within polytheist teachings it was because they feared to be branded an “enemy of the Greek” and being forced to drink the hemlock like Socrates. 

Justin almost seems to make Plato a Christian before Christ.  Other Christian apologists and theologians like Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and St. Augustine were influenced by Plato and neo-Platonism and Platonic ideas became authoritative within Christianity during the middle ages.  Many platonic ideas still permeate much of Christianity.

As an example, Justin points out that Plato’s idea that there are three First Principles was, in fact, learned from Moses.  He cites the instructions given to Moses concerning the construction of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25.  The plans were “seen in heaven” and were constructed on earth.   The Platonic ideal!

The upshot of Justin’s argument for the Greeks is that it would not have been an offense for them to accept the teachings of Christianity – they already knew much of it from their own poets, dramatists, and philosophers.  All that they needed was the courage to set aside the errors of their fathers and to embrace the true religion. 

---

[i] Green, Michael Evangelism in the Early Church, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI, 1970.

[ii] Justin, Hortatory Address to the Greeks IV

Ase, Oh Ase! Where Have You Gone?

I was goofing around with some ominous science fiction type sounds for a new song when I realized that I could put one of my favorite classical melodies over what I was playing.


 

The melody is from Ase's Death by Edvard Grieg - part of the Peer Gynt Suite.

I used the following sounds from the Freesound Project: 
Clicky 03
Clicky 07 
Clacky 08 
Clacky 09
Bumps 01
Crackles 04 

Feel free to download my little song if you like it.


Here's another interesting variation by Duke Ellington and his orchestra:

Wisdom is Far Away

I have tried my best to be wise. I declared, "I will be wise!" but it didn't work.  Wisdom is far away, and very difficult to find.  I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and the reason for things, and to prove to myself the wickedness of folly and that foolishness is madness. - Ecclesiastes 7: 23 - 25 The Living Bible




I have placed this song into the public domain.  Download it. Share it.  Use it. 

What is the Connection Between Doubt and Dr. Pepper?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive a van-load of boys to camp. Three and a half hours with 8 boys ranging in age from 6 - 10 years old.  What fun.  What joy.  During the time it took us to get to camp the boys were engaged in the normal conversations of boys: who would win in fight between the Hulk and Ghost Rider, who could belch the loudest, and etc...

But at one point I overheard the conversation drift towards religion and the variety of religious experiences.  One of the boys told the others that his mom is "Agnostic."   They asked him what that means, so he told them:

"It's when you're not sure that God exists and you only drink Dr. Pepper."


When I asked him to explain the connection between doubts in the deity and Dr. Pepper, the boy looked at me like I was the crazy one and the boys went back to their debate, Hulk -v- Ghost Rider.

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - Week 31

Here is this week's Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) image.  You are free to use these images in your work - school, business, church, personal, whatever.  I only ask that you share them freely and that you tell others that you found them here.

I Am Not Used to This!

My friend James McGrath is becoming something of an internet celebrity.  Recently the Facebook group "Christians Against the Tea Party"  have taken several  quotations from his blog and made them into posters.

Well... Here's one more.

He Was About to Pass By Them

In my preparation for this morning’s sermon (Sunday, July 22, 2012) from Mark 6: 30 - 56
I was struck by one sentence in particular – and for a long time I really didn’t know what to do with it.

Jesus had dismissed his disciples to leave while he finished speaking to the crowds.  The disciples left in the boat and made their way across the lake. Jesus said goodbye to the crowd and then, as he does so often, went off to pray by himself.  Then, very early in the morning, he went out to them, walking on the water.  The disciples were still in the boat, rowing frantically against strong storm winds.

And then Mark drops this easily overlooked sentence: He was about to pass by them (Mark 6:48).

Wait… what?  Jesus’ disciples are straining against the storm, in serious danger of being shipwrecked or drowning and he’s just going to walk right on by them?  I mean, what the heck, Jesus?

Did he just not see them?  Or perhaps he didn’t care? 

But before we try to understand this little (but curious) statement, it helps to back up a bit.

In the previous verses Jesus has demonstrated his mighty power by performing miracle after miracle.  He calmed storms, cast out demons, healed women, and raised the dead.  Then Jesus entrusted this power and authority as well as his message and mission to his disciples.  He sent them out in pairs with the authority to cast out unclean spirits and the power to cure the ill, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel and to call men to repentance.

Mark then gives us a brief interlude with a flashback to the death of John the Baptizer (the only non-Christocentric story in his gospel).

When the narrative picks up the disciples have returned and are excited to tell Jesus all that they had done.  They’d come back with stories about those that they’d healed, and the lives that they’d seen restored to wholeness.  Jesus, being a good leader, recognized that his disciples needed some time to regroup, to talk about their successes and their failures, to share experiences. 

But the crowds of people recognized them.  Them.  Mark is very careful to let us know that the crowds recognized and followed them – the disciples. (6: 33)  The people of Galilee were all stirred up by this band of men who followed Jesus  - and they ran ahead to meet Jesus and his disciples in the lonely place. 

Now, instead of being frustrated with crowds, instead of gritting his teeth and asking why they can’t just leave him alone for ten minutes, Jesus saw the crowd as sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion for them. He sat down with them and began to teach them as well.  But as the day stretched into late afternoon and early evening, the disciples pressed Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that they could go into the surrounding towns to get something to eat.

Jesus, rather nonchalantly, told the disciples to take care of it.  You feed them.  To which the disciples looked around at each other and said, ‘with what?  We could easily spend 200 denarii feeding them…’

Jesus suggested that they figure up how much food they have among them.  It wasn’t much – five loaves of bread and 2 small dried fish.  Nevertheless, Jesus thanked God for this bounty, broke the bead and distributed the food among the people.  And, as we know from our Sunday school lessons, there was enough for everyone to eat – with leftovers.

At this point Jesus dismisses his disciples to go on ahead of them in the boat saying that he’d catch up with them after sending the crowd home.  And this is when Jesus is ready to walk right on by the disciples as they’re straining against the storm.

But instead of just passing them by, Jesus got into the boat with them, calmed their fears and the storm ceased.  And Mark tells us that they were amazed because they did not understand about the loaves. (6:52) Never mind the storm.  Never mind the wind.  Forget the rain and lightning.  Ignore their terror.  They were amazed because they did not understand about the loaves.

Soon after the boat made landfall, and immediately the crowds of people recognized him – Jesus.  Earlier the crowds recognized and ran to follow them, the disciples.  But now, after their failures, the crowds ignore the disciples.

So what does it mean?  Why was Jesus perfectly content to let his disciples flounder in the boat as he walked right on by them?

Those who are parents know that they can’t continue to do everything for their children.  When they’re infants we feed them, bathe them, dress them, carry them – but eventually they grow and begin to feed themselves, clean themselves (except boys… boys can’t seem to get it…) dress themselves, and walk on their own legs. 

And we have to let them do these things – on their own.

When they begin to learn how to ride a bike we run along behind them holding the seat to help them balance – but if we’re still holding them upright on their bikes when they’re 30 years old then something is seriously wrong with us and with them. 

We have to let them learn to ride their bikes without us – even though we know it means that they will fall and will skin their knees and scuff their elbows.  We let them grow up.

And I think that is why Jesus was going to pass right on by them as they rowed against the winds and waves.  He was trying to let them grow up a bit.

After all, he’d already given them his power and his authority.  They’d gone throughout the countryside healing the sick, restoring the broken and proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God.  They’d come back with stories of the wonders they’d seen and the wonders they’d performed themselves.

But when Jesus asked them to feed the crowd, they balked.  We can’t do that. 

We can’t do that?  Really?  They had just returned from a short term missionary trip during which they themselves had performed mighty deeds – but they were unable to feed the crowd.

I think that Jesus was giving them an opportunity to try it on their own.  They’d already demonstrated that they really could do it.  But they still needed help.  And so, like a parent who follows behind the child on the bicycle, when he saw them wobbling and about to fall, Jesus reached out to catch them. 

Jesus was going to walk on by them- was going to let them do it on their own… but they still needed his help.  Perhaps he was disappointed, but he calmed their fears and comforted them - despite their lack of understanding and their hardened hearts.

Sometimes I think that Jesus still wants to pass us by as we’re rowing into the storms.  He’s given us what we need, he’s given us the model, he’s given us the power, and he’s given us the authority….  Will we use it? Or will we, like infants, still clamor for Jesus to fix everything for us, to make it all right?

Thanks to Left Behind and Loving It for some of these thoughts...

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - Week 30

Here is this week's Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) background image.  These images are free for you to use in any of your personal, work, school, or church programs. Use them as you will - I only ask that you share them freely and that you tell others that you found them here.

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - Week 29

Here, once again, is this week's image for use as a Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) background.  I've been making one a week and giving them away. You are free to use these images for your own personal, church, school, or business projects.  Use them as you will, I only ask that you share them freely and that you tell others that you found them here.

Salome - The Exploited Child

Sunday's sermon will come from Mark 6: 14 - 19.  Here's a sermon I wrote a several years ago on this same story.

***

Today we’ll look at a young woman who doesn’t even get her name mentioned in the bible. Her story – or rather one story from her life – is told in 2 of the 4 gospels (and alluded to in one other). We have very few details about her so we cannot speak authoritatively on her life – but we can explore some of the issues and implications of her story.

She is Salome, and though her name is not given in the gospels we know it from extra-biblical sources. (There is a Salome mentioned in the gospels, but this is not her story) Salome’s family was as messed up as any you’d find on daytime television today. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Adultery, Incest, Lust, Jealousy, Murder, and Revenge are all key words in Salome’s family.

Her mother was Herodias. Herodias was the granddaughter of Herod the great (the Herod who slaughtered the innocents in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus). Salome’s father was named Phillip. But Herodias had divorced Phillip to marry his half-brother, Herod Antipas.\

Herod Antipas had also divorced his wife in order to marry his sister in law, Herodias. Herodias was also his niece as her father, Aristobulus, was Herod’s half-brother. Herod Antipas married Herodias, his niece and sister in law. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the great, and was the Herod who mocked Jesus during his trial before the crucifixion.

John the Baptizer had often spoken out against Herod’s marriage to his niece and sister-in-law, Herodias, because it was an illicit marriage. “It is unlawful for you to have her,” he told Herod.

Herod’s first wife (the daughter of a king from Arabia) was still alive; Herodias’ husband Phillip was also still alive. According to the laws of the Jews, both were committing adultery, and also incest.

-Leviticus 18:16 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that would dishonor your brother.

-Leviticus 20:21 “‘If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.

Because of his boldness in speaking against Herod Antipas and Herodias, Herod seized John and had him arrested and imprisoned in the fortress- palace Machaerus on the coast of the Dead Sea, which had been built by Herod the great as a defense against the Moabites and Arabs (according to Jewish historian, Josephus).

Herodias wanted John dead. She hated him. She hated that he dared to speak out against her. She carried a grudge against him and wanted him executed, but she could not because Herod wouldn’t allow it – though he also wanted John dead.

Matthew tells us that Herod feared that the common people, the followers of John would riot if he had John killed. Mark tells us that Herod kept John in safe custody because he liked to listen to John’s preaching – even though it left him confused and perplexed. Herod was afraid of John and knew that he was a good and holy man. Herod was a complexly fearful man. He feared losing his control as Tetrarch (a local ruler - not really a King). He feared that Rome would remove his title. He feared a riot by the followers of John. He feared an attack from Arabia by the king whose daughter he had divorced and sent away. He feared his wife, Herodias.

And he feared the word of God as delivered by John the Baptizer. He wanted to hear it, but also didn’t want to. He knew it was right and true, but also feared it because he did not want to change anything in his life. So he kept John imprisoned, not intending to harm him.

Herodias, however, had not forgotten her grudge against the prophet. She waited for her chance to avenger herself on John the Baptizer.Her chance finally came when Herod Antipas held a birthday banquet to which he’d invited the principal leaders, authorities, and commanders of Galilee. This was a late afternoon / early evening meal that would last for several hours. The long celebration banquet was concluded with what was called a comissatio. 

The comissatio was a post-banquet social drinking bout for the men often involving risqué entertainment – usually dancers and or prostitutes.As the dinner concluded and the men became drunker and drunker, Herodias sent her daughter in to dance for Herod and his guests. Salome was a young woman; the men were grossly intoxicated. Her dance was a seductive alluring dance to entice the men, specifically to entice Herod Antipas. 

Entertaining at a commissatio was only for lewd servant women or actresses and prostitutes – not members of one’s own family, and not for descendants of royalty. Herodias, however, was intent on executing John the Baptist and was willing to shame and degrade her own daughter in order to achieve her wicked goal.

Herod Antipas, it seems, was enticed by this dance. He was allured and his lusts inflamed. So much so that after the dance was over he said to her, “Ask me for anything: I’ll give it to you! … Ask me for anything and it’s yours by Heaven, even if it’s half my kingdom.” Herod swore to give her anything; even up to half his kingdom (though he was not a king and had no kingdom to give away, Rome was in control…)

Prompted by her mother, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist to be brought in on a platter. She was lead and instructed by her mother to ask for this gory prize.

Herod was trapped. He had promised, he had sworn to give her whatever she asked for. He had spoken an oath in front of witnesses. The spoken word had power, and rather than look weak and vulnerable in front of his guests, Herod agreed to her request. He sent a soldier from his personal guard to execute the sentence on John. When he returned, the soldier carried John’s head on a platter. He gave it to Salome who in turn gave it to Herodias.

This was child pornography. Herodias used and abused Salome to get revenge on John the Baptizer. Herod and his guests used and abused her to satisfy their drunken lusts. Salome was manipulated like a tool by her mother and seen as an object, a pedophilic fantasy by her uncle/step-father and his guests. The end result was not just the death of John the Baptist, but also the death of Salome’s innocence.

Salome has been an attractive person for writers, composers, and painters. There have been a large number of paintings, movies, operas, plays, and novels about her. And for the most part her character is described as an insatiable virgin who wants to destroy men through sex and sin. Instead of the guilt being on Herodias and the manipulator and pornographer or on Herod Antipas as the voyeur and pervert – Salome has been tagged as a Femme Fatale, a beautiful woman who desires to seduce and entrap men and to destroy them by leading them to sin and death.

Salome, as described in the very brief gospel narratives however, was an unprotected young woman. Her family, the ones who should have been protecting her, and shielding her instead used her to further their own evil plans and abused her innocence. Preachers and commentators and artists have focused on woman’s wiles, and the seductive danger that they are to men, rather than on protecting the innocent.

The world is still putting young women into this mold. From Barbie dolls to Britney Spears young girls see that in order to fit in they need to be sexy and flirtatious. Pornography continues to degrade and exploit women. There are some who argue that the women in these magazines and films are willing participants – even so, they are willingly participating in their own exploitation, not realizing that they could be so much more.

Salome represents not the femme fatale who wants to destroy men, but the young and innocent manipulated by those who should have protected her. She is the face of the children victimized by child pornographers; she is the face of women who grow up believing that they need to use sex to get what they want. Salome is the symbol of a whole generation of young girls and young women who have been taught that they are only a construction of parts to pleasure men’s fantasies.

We need to rescue these Salomes from the manipulative Herodias of this world, from those who would use them to further their own ambitions. We need to rescue these young Salomes from the Herod Antipas’ of this world who are content to see them merely as sexual fantasies.

R2-D2 After the War

 

The VA hospital told him, "We don't serve your kind here."

How Do We Believe in the Miraculous?

Last week -  as my first sermon in this new appointment -  I preached from Mark 5:21 - 43. We talked about Jesus' cure of both the bleeding woman in the crowd and the raising of Jairus' daughter.  We also talked about how these two miracles come as part of a larger cluster of miracles that includes Jesus' calming of a sudden storm, and the restoration of the demonized man.  In fact the entire first half of Mark's gospel seems like one long account of Jesus' power.  We read story after story (and always "immediately") of Jesus' mighty deeds.

But this week (in my second sermon - I'm now established here, right?) we looked at Mark 6: 1 - 13 where Jesus goes back to his home country.  But, as the novel says, "you can't go home again."  The people there are scandalized at what Jesus has to say to them and at the stories they've heard about his miracles.  They are offended.

In these two stories from Mark we have two very different responses to Jesus: in the first we had people seeking Jesus for his miracle power and in the second people who refuse to believe and take offense at any claim to miraculous deeds.

And here's the point where some preachers might somewhat condescendingly ask "Now how will you respond?  In faith like those who searched for Jesus so that they might have a miracle, or in stubborn disbelief like those in Nazareth?"

But I don't like those kinds of sermons...

So instead I spoke a little about myself.  You see, I'm probably more likely to respond like the people in Nazareth; with skepticism and maybe disbelief because I have never seen a miracle. I have never seen a bona fide, certified, actual-factual miracle, never experienced an act of supernatural intervention by the Deity himself or by angelic agents acting on his behalf.

I know that the experience of other Christians is different.  Some seem to have a miracle every day of the week and twice on Tuesday.  They go to the grocery store and God provides a miracle by providing them with a parking space right by the door. But I, myself, have never had a supernatural experience of the miraculous variety.  And, if I may engage in a bit of speculation, this is the probably the case for most of us. Most of us, I think, have not had any great miracle.  After all, if miracles were occurring every day and twice on Tuesday we wouldn't think of them as "miracles."  They would be "regulars."

In his book Life of Jesus Ernest Renan wrote:

"Miracles are things which never happen... We reject the supernatural for the same reason that we reject the existence of centaurs and hippogriffs; and this reason is, that nobody has ever seen them."

In this we have moved from the idea that - I have never seen them, and no one I know has ever seen them so they must not exist.  This is a closed kind of universe wherein "history is a unity... a closed continuum of effects... this closedness means that the continuum of historical happening cannot be rent by the interference of supernatural transcendent powers and that there is no 'miracle' in the sense of the word." (R. Bultman)

But I do believe that God is both personal and transcendent - and that with a God of this sort miracles are possible - even if they haven't been my experience.

I believe that God is personal and that he (pronouns are weak when used for God) wants to know us and that he is interested in us, is concerned for us. God is not just some abstraction. God is not a vague force or entity at the edge of the universe.  And I believe that God is transcendent - that he is beyond the laws that govern the nature of the universe that he has created.  And with that kind of God - miracles are indeed possible - even if I've never seen one.

But the reality is that my faith (and that of most of you as well, I would bet) isn't based on any miraculous event save one - the central miracle of the Christian faith: that God became human and lived and died and was raised up from death so that we might live.  My faith isn't grounded in any miraculous intervention other than that.  That miracle was accomplished once and does not need repeating.




This song was meant to accompany the sermon.  You can download it for free.
In it I used the following sounds from the Freesound Project: 


Interstellar 
Tabla
Beat
Chant of the Motherboard

Space Violin 
Jazz Guitar

Jazz Guitar 2

Don't You Tell Me What to Do

Don't You Tell Me What to Do!

I used a number of sounds from the Freesound Project as I made this song:

Sound Drama FSYzf    

Sound Drama FSY2a 

Sound Drama FSYcc 

Tape Mini Melody 

VyRa 03 

VyRa 02 

VyRa 01 

Vy12 04

Guitar Harmonics A Minor 

Beeps 1
Beeps 2

Reversed Sonar Pad 

And the person shouting is, of course, Captain Jean-Luc Picard. 

Powerpoint Slides for Everyone - Week 28

Here is this week's Powerpoint (or similar presentation program) background image.  As with all of these images, you are free to use it for your own personal, school, work, or church projects.  Use them for whatever you like.  I only ask that you 1) share them freely and 2) that you tell others that you found them here.

Azazel

"The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin."

- 1 Enoch 10:8