Schofar, Scho Good

It's Memorial Day, and I want to say thanks to the troops who've given up so much for many. I don't just mean soldiers, but all who went into any battle and lost their bodily lives with the God-given conviction they were fighting for something good. There's no Martyr's Day, so I guess this is the closest I can get to that. Regular soldiers are cool, too, as long as they don't murder, rape, and pillage in the process.

Among the odder things I've been doing lately is visiting a Messianic church here in Knoxville. For those folks who have no idea what that is, it's a church of Jews who acknowledge Jesus as being the Jewish Messiah. Except they don't call him Jesus. They call him "Mashiah Yeshua", which I guess is the correct Hebrew form of the name "Jesus Christ". They both mean the same thing: Jesus/Joshua/Yeshua The Anointed One. My friend Natasha was the one who invited me to visit (she's a Russian Jew who moved to Knoxville when she was still a kid), and I attended the service for the second time this past Saturday. Natasha is also leaving for Russia today, to be with her dad, and then plans to move on to Israel in a couple of years, so I wanted to visit the Messianic church with her there one more time while she was still in town.

I'm not too familiar with what a regular Jewish service is like, but my understanding (from speaking with one of the members of the church) is that there is a lot of traditional Jewish liturgy, but all of it is given meaning that they didn't neccesarily have in their original context (or given their true meaning, depnding on how you look at it, I suppose). Of course they sang a lot of songs and did things specific to a Messianic congregation.

The worship is a decidedly different flavor from any I've ever seen... there are a lot of traditonal Jewish melodies and rhythms, and a lot of songs have an upbeat tempo but are in a minor key. The more I think about it, though, that odd tension between a joyous rhythm and a mellow key makes sense... we have joy, but we also hope for things we haven't seen. We have the hope of a new Jerusalem, but we still see the brokeness that remains in the world and within us. The Jewish songs capture that tension for me in a way no contemporary Christian song does. The same dynamic, one might argue, can be found in the old Reformed hymns, with their solemn melodies but joy-filled words. You can't dance to those hymns, though. There is a lot of dancing at a Messianic service.

I was so taken up with the worship that I asked Natasha for a CD, and she gave me one yesterday just before the Cedar Springs service. I've been listening to it non-stop since... it's really good stuff. I don't understand 99% of it, since a lot of it is in Hebrew, but I've already learned one phrase:

"Sh'ma Yisrael, Adonai Elohaynu, Adonai Echad (Hear Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One)"

You Can Open This Box

Well it's been a while hasn't it? I think I stopped posting just before Easter, and then just never got round to starting again. Well I've gotten into quite a few things this past month and a half, but I guess the first thing I want to share is that Pandora is a good thing. Gretchen Paxton thinks that sometimes it sucks, and I guess your mileage will vary, but if you like music and you like getting introduced to new music, and you like free streaming music on the net, then quite reading my ramblings and click that link now!

Still here? Well... that's all I was going to share for now :p.

Who Is This, So Weak and Helpless?

Who is this, so weak and helpless,
Child of lowly Hebrew maid,
Rudely in a stable sheltered,
Coldly in a manger laid?
’Tis the Lord of all creation,
Who this wondrous path has trod;
He is God from everlasting,
And to everlasting God

Who is this, a Man of Sorrows,
Walking sadly life’s hard way,
Homeless, weary, sighing, weeping
Over sin and Satan’s sway?
’Tis our God, our glorious Savior,
Who above the starry sky
Is for us a place preparing,
Where no tear can dim the eye

Who is this? Behold him shedding
Drops of blood upon the ground!
Who is this, despised, rejected,
Mocked, insulted, beaten, bound?
’Tis our God, Who gifts and graces
On His church is pouring down;
Who shall smite in holy vengeance
All His foes beneath His throne

Who is this that hangs there dying
While the rude world scoffs and scorns,
Numbered with the malefactors,
Torn with nails, and crowned with thorns?
’Tis our God Who lives forever
’Mid the shining ones on high,
In the glorious golden city,
Reigning everlastingly

William How
(1823-1897)

Wow



Just wow.

Morning Prayer

Sometimes it hurts to think
Most times it doesn't
But sometimes it hurts to think
How hard it is to get
Just
One thing
Right

I want to love you
I'd love to love you
I want to love you
I'd love to love you
I've a friend who asked me once
If there's a difference
I think there is:
In one case I'm doing it
And the other, I'm not
At least that's the way I see it
But I guess I can see how
You could see it the other way too

The Evil It

As a child It was called "little elf"
But Its father was Satan himself.
It has tasted the goodness of Light
And yet dove into darkness inspite.
Ever hard'ning Its heart It has been:
Now It is given over to sin.
But before Its damnation's assured
Into wickedness It will be lured.
It will hate and be hated in turn
And the way of despair It will learn,
Every dream It has had will be crushed,
Its attempts to cry out will be hushed,
Very soon It will breathe its last breath
For Its heart is the wellspring of death.

Vysotsky

A Theologyless Presentation Of Christ?

Last night I was at the little weekly meeting at the Slays' house (which was actually quite a bit more crowded than I remember it being in the past... Paul had picked up quite a few folks over year I guess) which had just started again for the Spring. It was quite a collection of believers from various nations... there were folks from Iraq, South Korea, Ethiopia, Russia... and I can't remember where Godswill and Ruby were from exactly :p. One of the African nations. We all have had wildly different backgrounds. There were teachers, engineers, an ex-pastor, and an ex-politician. A couple were actually under political asylum. As far as histories go, there were a few heavies last night.

Paul had mentioned to me a couple of times during our conversations that he was interested in dialoging about different cultures and thinking on how the gospel might be best presented in the cultures that internationals return to. Last night he gave us an article by Herbert Hoefer (an former missionary to India; you can find the article here) to read that presented what was to me maybe one of the most important ideas that had come to my attention in a long time, namely, the presentation of Christ as it appears repeatedly in the new testament to new believers in those ancient accounts - minus a lot of theology.

What am I talking about? The article really says it best, so go read it. I'll summarize very briefly: often times in the new testament, the death, resurrection, and ultimate lordship of Christ is clearly proclaimed, but the details aren't. "'Repent, believe, recieve' is the gospel proclamation" is how Hoefer puts it, and very often in the new testament accounts that's pretty much what a lot of people who recieve the gospel get to hear. Hoefer asks what if that is all that is proclaimed initially, and we let the cultures we're speaking to meditate on that and allow the Holy Spirit to lead them to the rest?

Of course questions may (and probably will) come soon after the proclamation... stuff along the lines of "What does that mean?". The point I think though is at least the listener gets a chance to frame it within his or her own worldview first. Then having attempted to make sense of it, they can really repsond with what they think of the gospel, instead of trying to make sense of, in addition to the gospel, the various intepretations or theologies we may be tempted to heap onto those basic facts.

I'm not knocking theology. I love it, and I like a little structure to my beliefs. Scripture itself tells us to watch our doctrine closely. We should all be trying to make sense of what the gospel says and internalizing it, making it a part of our hearts and minds. But the primary worth I see in any school of Christian theology, be it Calvinist, Arminian, or what-have-you, is that people are caring enough about getting it right to try to make a system of thought. Ultimately though, and I think this was one thing that Paul Slay is trying to get at, a system of thought is simply a religious form. The substance of faith is exactly what's in scripture and nothing more.

For the moment, I'm enjoying thinking about the new ways to talk about the gospel with people. I do think I've come across as being pretty heavy-handed when talking about Christ in the past. There's been this mental leash, a sad insistence that I get the internal logic right within myself before I open my mouth, when really, it is the Spirit that works, and it is the Spirit that convinces the heart of the listener. I forget that at the first moment I met my God, I didn't know all the details. I only knew he loved me more than I could imagine, and that Christ on the cross had something to do with that.

That day, my heart truly broke for the first time, I truly wept for the first time, and I knew I was never going to be the same again.