Conference Preview: Encountering the Gospel in Worship

The following preview comes to us from Alex Mejias of High Street Hymns who will be leading a breakout session Friday morning entitled "High Street Hymnody: Encountering the Gospel in Worship". For more info about the fantastic work that High Street Hymns is doing, go here. To register for the conference, here. 

“They [the righteous] praise only God’s grace, works, words and power as they are revealed to them in Christ. This is their sermon and song, their hymn of praise.”

- Martin Luther

In Colossians 3:16, Paul encourages the church to, “let the word of Christ richly dwell within you… teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” In doing so, Paul reveals power of music to shape the body of Christ in the Gospel. Paul S. Jones writes that, “musicians and preachers actually share in the ministry of the Word.” As those who are entrusted with the music of church, how are we proclaiming the Gospel and enabling spiritual formation through song? How are we not doing so?

During our time together, we’ll look at both the theological and practical side of corporate song in the Church. Drawing from the Church’s rich tradition of hymnody and liturgy, we’ll explore some possible ways of encountering the Gospel through music.

p.s. Church musicians are invited to drop in and join us for this special session, free of charge. Just be sure to email us at info@mbird.com to reserve your spot.

On the Usefulness of Fables

Excerpts from Philipp Melanchthon's short treatise (1526 or so) 'On the Usefulness of Fables':

'There is altogether nothing more beautiful and pleasant than the truth, but it is too far removed from the sight and eyes of men for it to be beheld and known fortuitously. The minds of children need to be guided and attracted to it step by step by various enticements, so that they may then contemplate more closely the thing which is the most beautiful of all, but, alas, all too unclear and unknown to mortals... Therefore, extremely sagacious men have devised some tales which first rouse by wonder the children's minds that are sleeping as if in lethargy. For what seems more unusual to us than that a wolf speak with a horse, a lion with a little fox or an oak with a gourd, all in the manner of men?...

'I believe that fables were first invented with that intention, because it appeared that the indolent minds of children could not be roused more quickly by any other way of speaking... For we see that the most serious and wisest of men have used this kind of teaching, and I cannot say easily what a great public evil it is that it is now banished from the schools. The learned admire the sagaciousness of the poet Homer so greatly that they place him beyond the common condition of mortals and clearly think that his mind was roused by some divine power. Yet he wrote about the war between frogs and mice...

'[Finally,] there are so many fables in the Holy Scriptures that it is sufficiently clear that the heavenly God Himself considered this kind of speech most powerful for bending the minds of men. I ask you, what greater praise can fall to fables than that the heavenly God also approves of them?'

For the Love of Gerhard Forde (and The Cardigans)

From page 107 of his classic On Being a Theologian of the Cross, in reference to Thesis 26 of Martin Luther's Heidelberg Disputation:

“We see that the law simply cannot bring into being what it commands…The law says, ‘Thou shalt love!’ It is right; it is ‘holy, true, good’. Yet it can’t bring about what it demands. It might impel toward the works of the law, the motions of love, but in the end they will become irksome and will all too often lead to hate. If we go up to someone on the street, grab them by the lapels and say, ‘Look here, you’re supposed to love me!’ the person may drudgingly admit that we are right, but it won’t work. The results will likely be just the opposite from what our ‘law’ demands. Law is indeed right, but it simply cannot realize what it points to. So it works wrath. It can curse, but it can’t bless. In commanding love law can only point helplessly to that which it cannot produce.”

A great cover:

Thanksgiving Song No. 4: Derek Webb's "Thankful"

And you thought (Reformational) theological anthems were a thing of the past?! Try this one on for size... Happy Thanksgiving:
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The Ragamuffin Gospel

For some reason (i.e. the Holy Spirit) I felt like re-reading Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel this weekend. I guess I've been a little desperate and needy, and as is always said on this blog, "We need to hear the gospel again every day." Few people have been able to write about the gospel like Manning, and I figured I'd share a paragraph that stood out. Enjoy!

"Justification by grace through faith" is the theologian's learned phrase for what Chesterton once called "the furious longing of God." He is not moody or capricious; He knows no seasons of change. He has a single relentless stance toward us: He loves us. He is the only God man has ever heard of who loves sinners. False gods--the gods of human manufacturing--despise sinners, but the Father of Jesus loves all, no matter what they do. But of course this is almost too incredible for us to accept. Nevertheless, the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by His mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of His beloved Son. This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.

By the way, I highly recommend Manning's newest book The Furious Longing of God.

Peace.

The Darjeeling Limited and The Theology of the Cross

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited was released on Criterion two weeks ago, and if you know what's good for you, you'll add it to your Christmas list post-haste. It's a beautiful edition of a beautiful movie that boasts surprising, albeit inadvertent theological resonance. I'm serious. Even if you find Wes' films overly stylized or precious (or whatever people say about him - I obviously worship the guy), or if you wrote the film off as a tedious feature-length tribute to Satyajit Ray, I encourage you to look again. There is much to appreciate here.

The film tells the story of three privileged brothers, the Whitmans, and their "spiritual journey" to India following the sudden death of the father and the prolonged absence of their mother. As we find out, each sibling has chosen to "deal with," i.e. distract himself from, his pain in a different self-destructive fashion: Francis (Owen Wilson) through suicidal recklessness, Peter (Adrian Brody) through emotional isolation, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) through co-dependency, and all of them through (absurd) substance abuse. They are portrayed as a remarkably dysfunctional yet loveable bunch, arrested in their development to a comic degree, yet clearly doing the best they can with the hand they've been dealt. That is to say, they're looking for healing. Sort of.

Unfortunately, things don't quite work out that way. Through a series of ridiculous events, they end up making things much worse for themselves, until they are kicked off their train, and their assistant quits. The Whitmans are ready to give up and go home. Which is where this first clip opens [warning: slight language]:
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Luther didn't start the fire, but he's the reason it's still burning.

We are beggars; this is true.

. . . last written words of Dr. Martin Luther, (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546)

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Luther didn't start the fire: St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

In the year 427/428, St. Augustine endeavored to reevaluate his prolific writings in order to correct them of “anything that offends me or might offend others (Augustine, 8) Among his various corrections and explanations, he offered a new insight into his interpretation of the identity of the speaker in Romans 7.14-25. Referencing his book entitled An Explanation of Certain Passages from the Epistle of the Apostle to the Romans, he states:

In this book I said: “However, when he says, ‘We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal, adequately shows that the law can be fulfilled only by spiritual men, the kind that the grace of God transforms,” I certainly did not want this applied personally to the Apostle who was already spiritual, but to the man living “under the “Law” but not yet “under grace.” For prior to this time, in this was I understood these words which, at a later date . . . I reflected upon this more deeply and I saw that his own words can also be understood about he Apostle himself: “We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal
( 96-97).

The above quote is where Luther got THIS from. . .

Luther didn't start the fire: Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498)

From here: (born Sept. 21, 1452, Ferrara, duchy of Ferrara — died May 23, 1498, Florence) Italian preacher, religious reformer, and martyr. He joined the Dominican order in 1475 and was sent to Florence to lecture at the convent of San Marco, where he became known for his learning and asceticism. His apocalyptic preaching maintained that the church needed reforming, that it would be scourged and then renewed. After the overthrow of the Medici family (1494), Savonarola became leader of Florence, setting up a democratic but severely puritanical government, notable for its "bonfire of the vanities," in which frivolous materials were burned. He also sought to establish a Christian republic as a base for reforming Italy and the church. He was opposed by the Arrabiati, supporters of the Medici, and by Pope Alexander VI, who attempted to restrain his unusual interpretations of scripture and his claim of prophecy. Savonarola was tried, convicted of heresy (1498), and hanged and burned. Despite popular veneration, attempts to bring about his canonization have been unsuccessful.
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Another Zinger from Luther

"Someone asked Martin Luther what we contribute to salvation, and he said, 'Sin and resistance!'"

-Michael Horton, in a Christianity Today interview by Mbird's 2011 conference speaker Mark Galli

Luther didn't start the fire: Peter Waldo (1170-1184)

From here: Some men's personal lives are eclipsed by the movements they start. Peter Waldo was such a man. He appears on the scene of history in 1170 in Lyons as a successful businessman who, touched to his core by a traveling minstrel's religious ballad, gave away his money to live in poverty as a preacher of the Gospel. Having persuaded a sympathetic priest to translate large sections of the New Testament from Latin into the regional language, Provençal, Peter wandered through Lyons, bringing the message of Christ to anyone who would listen to him. He soon had the Gospels memorized. A number of young men, impressed by his intelligence and sincerity , followed him in giving away their possessions and found a new joy and freedom in living according to the spirit of the Gospels.

Some priests of Lyons, disturbed by Peter's popularity, tried to curb his activities. Peter appealed directly to Pope Alexander III in Rome. The Pope responded in 1179 by praising the group's poverty but said that because they had no theological training they could preach only if the archbishop of Lyons gave them permission. The Waldenses, as they had come to be known, felt that their message was too important to be checked by traditional Church discipline, and they rejected the Pope's directive. They were excommunicated at a Church council in Verona by the next pope, Lucius III, in 1184.

The Waldenses continued to live by their understanding of the New Testament rather than by the procedures of the Church. They refused to accept the existence of purgatory because it is not in the Bible. They rejected the practice of venerating the saints for the same reason. Not just priests, they said, but any person can consecrate the sacramental bread and wine. They rejected the authority structure of the Church as unbiblical. Their refusal to take oaths and also to participate in war made them unpopular with the secular as well as the Church authorities. Peter Waldo himself was not heard from after his excommunication in 1184. His followers were harassed by the Inquisition. They escaped when possible to the nearly inacessible mountain regions of northern Italy, where Waldo's ideas managed to survive over the centuries despite periodic attempts by Church authorities to eliminate them. More Here.

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Reformation Rap - The Heidelberg Catechism

Heidelberg Catechism by avoice

Lyrics

Verse 1: Yeah I'm on a mission like a couple spies, and that guys is the reason why I catechize. The good news we almost forgot I recognize, Heidelberg rediscovering the gospel prize. It's not scripture but the truth in it will mention he, introduction hide and seek the 16th century. Written in a time when your mind was the weaponry, this document is back into the populace shouts to Kevin D. Better than you think not as bad as you remember, purpose driven truth, from Frederick the elector. He would initiate, the 129 questions to illustrate truths like Christ propitiates. All in a document, whose purpose was to teach children, a guide for preachers, and confessions in a church building. And this is all fact The Heidelberg Cat has been around but now it's seem like it is coming back.

Hook: We believe in the cross, believe in his life, we believe in his death, believe he's the Christ.

We believe that he rose from grave yes it is him and we read the Heidelberg Catechism

We believe in the after life and we believe nothing's after Christ, so we stand our ground,
Cuz the truth's been around from the word to the Heidelberg.

Verse 2: Year of the Heidelberg resulting in renewed passion, and we could see it in our lives lights camera action. Let's take a gander and address a few questions from Heidelberg document then look at the answers. But before that make sure that, you know how it's broken down, in a Q & A format, a few sections. Suggestions how to read this not to sound promotional, but Kevin put it in his book to make it a devotional. Each question each answer has a bit of commentary, so the application of it is not some involuntary. Mystery, the history screams through rings true but I'll just leave that up to God, cuz that's between you. to believe, but to believe you gotta read you and then you meditate on all the truths that the Heidelberg will illustrate. What's that the catechism homey where you been the good news we almost forgot let's get it in!

Verse 3: From the word to the Heidelberg, we see that what's the comfort of life should come first. And in death that I with, body and soul but belong to the savior, commentary from me man, tell this to your neighbor. Moving on, how many things are necessary for thee, enjoying this comfort, to live and die happily? Three, my sin's misery, deliverance from sin, and gratitude for God is how the answer ends. Let's stretch it out the Lord's day 23 the granddaddy of them all, questions 59 and 60. What good does it do to believe in all this? In Christ I am right heir to the promise. Paraphrase, anyways I'm kinda limited I'm just trying to say a couple things my man Kevin did. On the Heidelberg, go and get you one, and by the way CJ homey this was fun.

Luther didn't start the fire: John Wycliffe (1324-1384)

From here: John Wycliffe lived almost 200 years before the Reformation, but his beliefs and teachings closely match those of Luther, Calvin and other reformers. As a man ahead of his time, historians have called Wycliffe the "Morning star of the Reformation." Born in the 1300s, Wycliffe criticized abuses and false teachings in the Church. In 1382 he translated an English Bible—the first complete European translation done in nearly 1,000 years. The Lollards, itinerant preachers he sent throughout England, inspired a spiritual revolution.But the Lollardy movement was short-lived. The Church expelled Wycliffe from his teaching position at Oxford, and 44 years after he died, the Pope ordered his bones exhumed and burned. Intense persecution stamped out his followers and teachings. It would be hundreds of years before men like Martin Luther resurrected the reforms of which Wycliffe dreamed.
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Reformation Day Quiz: Punk Rock Edition

Early Reformation Day Quiz: Can you name the man in this picture?

(Note the Stealth bomber bolo tie and unmistakable Halloween-themed Jack T. Chick tract)

Here at Mockingbird, we're always looking for people, places, and cultural artifacts "out there" that reflect the historic truths of the Christian message (helpfully articulated by the Reformers we celebrate every October 31). One such artifact is this quote from the above-pictured former frontman of the super-important punk band, the Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra:

"For every prohibition you create

you also create an underground."

A major theme here at Mockingbird is the idea that human behavior does not respond well to demand. "Stop that!" "Don't do that!" "Make good choices." In fact, demand to change often provokes revolt, resistance, and rebellion. At best we get reluctant compliance with a huge steaming side helping of subterranean resentment. St. Paul noted this phenomenon in several of his letters to 1st century churches (letters that now make up a major chunk of the New Testament). He wrote to the Romans: "The Law [God's Law for how to behave rightly] came in to increase the trespass" (Romans 5:20). Paul writes about hearing the commandment "Do not covet" and how he was immediately filled with all kinds of covetous desires.

So if St. Paul and Jello are right that demand doesn't create action (but reaction), that prohibition creates an underground, what does change people?

Luther didn't start the fire: Jan Hus (1369-1415)

In celebration of Reformation Day, in addition to Luther, we'll be looking at some of those reformers who are, perhaps, lesser known, but nevertheless paved his way--usually with their lives. One of the pervasive misconceptions about the Reformation is that it was a creation of that fateful day with the hammer in Wittenberg. In fact, as important and decisive as his contribution was, Luther stood on the shoulders of many who had gone before him, people who had been pulling the Papal thread of the re-sewn Temple curtain. Jan Hus was one of these people. From here:

One of Wycliffe’s followers, Jan Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. More (of course) here.

Czech this out:)
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PZ's Podcast: The Gothic

EPISODE 19

I've been thinking about this subject for 50 years, but only recently I think a little light has dawned.

In other words, I begin to understand now, in my head, what my ten-year-old Celine-Dion heart understood right from the beginning.

We're talking about the Gothic, the "Gothic" strain in literature and movies -- the spell cast by the Gothic on all who behold it with unveiled face.

What is the Gothic? Quoting The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales: "A Gothic tale will invoke the tyranny of the past (a family curse, the survival of archaic forms of despotism and of superstition) with such weight as stifle the hopes of the present (the liberty of the heroine or hero) within the dead-end of physical incarceration (the dungeon, the locked room, or simply the confinements of a family house closing in upon itself)."

Podcast 19 looks at three of the Gothic tales of Irvin S. Cobb, including the one story of his that is still read today; Ray Russell's tetanus shot of a tale, Sardonicus, together with his lame though harrowing novel "Absolute Power" (which I would not recommend); Roger Corman's delving interpretations of the Edgar Allan Poe cycle; and that masterpiece of Gothic television, "The Guests", from the original The Outer Limits. The latter combines Luana Anders, Jack Kerouac, an Alien Brain, Gloria Grahame, Christianity, and the original Norman Bates house. (It's Perfect, in other words.)

Moreover, what do the fans tell us? What are the millions of fans telling us? And what is the substance of the Gothic saying about us? That is the question.

Podcast 19's answer? Something in the line of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat'.

To listen click here. To subscribe, here.

BONUS QUOTE: From Michael Moorcock's introduction to his 1996 Tales of Terror and the Supernatural:
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Gerhard Ebeling on Reformation and Reality

A few excerpts from the preface to the English edition of Gerhard Ebeling's Word and Faith (pp.9-10), because it is never too early to begin celebrating Reformation Day:)

We can give expression to our own theological aim only by trying to say what it is that counts in present-day theological work as a whole. Our own theology must be nothing else but a contemporary attempt to answer for theology as such. Answering for something implies, as does the concept of witness, two things: staking our person, in dedication to the matter concerned. Hence it can never be a question for forcing our own theology on to others and making it a law to them, but only of offering our own limited and transitory services as the means of making others free to observe their theological responsibility for themselves. . .

. . . to take our bearings from the theology of the Reformers and at the same time to take modern thought seriously seems to be incompatible, or possible only by means of sorry compromises. For me, however, my vocation as a theologian stands or falls with the opposite view. For we can be evangelical theologians neither without the Reformers’ understanding of the Gospel nor without thinking within the field of present-day experience of reality. . .

My experience and conviction as a theological thinker is this: that there is no need to construct a supplementary and artificial bond between what belongs to the Reformation and to the modern age. Rather, both come properly to light only in mutual encounter, and thus when they are considered together. . .

Simul Justus et Peccator from Johnny Cash

Don't think I could add any commentary to what the man in black has to say here....

Sinner + Saint a la simul justus et peccator......

"The Beast in Me" (Sinner)

"Redemption" (Saint)

Bound and Determined to be Free

Freedom. Few words conjure up more abstract connotations. Like love, in the name of freedom people have killed, been killed and moved to Portland. Enshrined in countless songs, ballads and stories, to be free, it seems, is a universal good. However, as fruitful as it is as a source of motivation and inspiration, and as much as we all want to “live free or die,” behind the scenes, philosophers and theologians have always doubted whether it exists at all. At the heart of the debate lies a very simple question: who is responsible? Are we more William Henley or Alexander Pope, the captains of our own souls or hapless “bubbles on the sea of matter”? 
 

Over at The Stone, the NY Times philosophy forum, this very question has been discussed over the past week in two different ways. In Your Move: the Maze of Free Will, Galen Strawson found himself compelled to present a rather intricate argument against the existence of free will. Based upon a variation of Rousseau’s “society corrupts,” argument, Strawson presents his “Basic Argument”:

1. You do what you do — in the circumstances in which you find yourself—because of the way you then are.
2. So if you’re going to be ultimately responsible for what you do, you’re going to have to be ultimately responsible for the way you are — at least in certain mental respects.
3. But you can’t be ultimately responsible for the way you are in any respect at all.
4. So you can’t be ultimately responsible for what you do.

In other words, only those who have had complete control over their own cognitive formation can, in any meaningful way, be considered free. Since we all have parents and were picked on in middle school, we are all products (victims) of our environment; therefore, we are not free. 

In response, William Egginton, in an article entitled The Limits of the Coded Word, opens his by recounting a recent experiment done with monkeys in which "researchers were able plausibly to claim that the computer could successfully predict the monkeys’ reaction." Despite the questions this raises (see the article) about the existence of free-will, he assures us—by way of Trent, Luther, Calvin and Kant—that these arguments about free will vs. determinism, both in philosophy and religion, are a result of overextending our conceptual/epistemological reach with regards to what can be known. In conclusion, he argues: 

As much as we owe the nature of our current existence to the evolutionary forces Darwin first discovered, or to the cultures we grow up in, or to the chemical states affecting our brain processes at any given moment, none of this impacts on our freedom. I am free because neither science nor religion can ever tell me, with certainty, what my future will be and what I should do about it. The dictum from Sartre that Strawson quoted thus gets it exactly right: I am condemned to freedom. I am not free because I can make choices, but because I must make them, all the time, even when I think I have no choice to make.

Indeed. With Egginton, theological questions over the “bound will” have rarely been about what actually transpires on a day-to-day basis, because most of us are clearly neither robots or puppets; however, Swanson’s argument over where to place blame in the absence of free will comes closest to the beating heart of the enduring argument, because as inveterate moralists, and as the literature can attest, the only question of any importance to people is how to make sure that everyone (except for me) gets what they deserve.
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John Calvin on Self-Knowledge

From my favorite new blog, Reboot Christianity, a quick quote from the first chapter of Calvin's Insitutes:

"Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other."

p.s. I highly, highly recommend their series on Cognitive Biases in Christians.