Monthly Archives: January 2008

Lenten Reading, Anyone?

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During Lent, many people adopt a discipline of reading, selecting a book or books that either explore spirituality or deepen their understanding of the Bible or the Christian tradition. Among my favorite choices during Lent are classical Anglican authors like John Donne, George Herbert, or Jeremy Taylor. There are several good anthologies of Anglican spirituality available. I would also draw your attention to the following titles: 

Borg, Marcus and Dominic Crossan. The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem. Harper One. ISBN 0060872608 Available here. Borg and Crossan are two of the leading scholars of the New Testament and have collaborated closely over the years. This book is their reconstruction of the last week of Jesus’ life, from Palm Sunday to Easter, based on the Gospel of Mark. There is a great deal here of historical interest, but the authors also engage questions of contemporary faith and life.

Crafton, Barbara Cawthorne. Living Lent: Meditations for these Forty Days. Church Publishing. ISBN 0819217565 Available here: Crafton. Crafton, who visited St. James last year, wrote this book as a Lenten devotional, drawing on the Church’s hymnody. 

Kugel, James. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now. Available here. I’m reading this wonderful book right now. James Kugel, an Orthodox Jew and Harvard professor writes here on two very different ways of interpreting scripture, especially the Hebrew Bible—the first is that of ancient readers, both Jewish and Christian, the second is that of contemporary scholarship. He lays out each approach to particular texts and demonstrates that both are interesting and instructive.

Williams, Rowan. Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0664232132 Available here. This book is drawn from a series of sermons the Archbishop of Canterbury gave during Holy Week 2005 and are based on the ancient creeds.

If your Lenten discipline includes financial restraint, at least the Borg/Crossan and Kugel volumes are available from the Greenville County Libraries, which is how I gained access to them.

An Exciting and Exhausting weekend

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Months ago, when I invited Dr. Shelly Matthews to preach on January 27 I had no idea what else would be going on. Oh, I knew that there were two organ recitals scheduled, but it was only later that we decided to focus on Children’s Church at the 9:00 service. The senior EYC lock-in that was scheduled for the 19th and 20th was postponed until this weekend. I ended up spending about as much time at the church this weekend as I would from Good Friday to Easter.

But it was a wonderful weekend. The recital was beautiful, both times–in fact I heard it in full only on Sunday. I had to slip out early on Friday night to help with final preparations for the reception. I was especially taken with the Bruhns from the first half of the concert, and the Durufle at the end. It was also great to see Hal Gober again, and to meet his wife. Karen and the organ wow’ed all of those in attendance.

At 12:15 AM on Sunday, I celebrated the Eucharist with around 25 of our young people. It was a beautiful night as I drove up the mountain. The moon was shining brightly which gave me an idea for some comments on the gospel I made at the Eucharist. Yesterday’s readings were from Isaiah 9 and Matthew 4, which quotes the Isaiah passage “the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

Then at 9:00, we worshiped with Children’s Church and gave our first and second graders prayer books to celebrate their completing the course on the meaning of the Eucharist. It was great fun to watch all of the kids participate in our worship so enthusiastically and I must say that several of them are almost ready to become readers for our regular services. The energy and excitement during the service was wonderful.

I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this weekend the huge success it was. Karen of course; the members of the organ committee–especially Albert Blackwell; Corrie who put on the reception Friday night and Karen Hipp who did so much to help; the women of the ECW who did the reception on Sunday; Laura Lipscomb and Jennifer Jerina, who organize children’s church and organized as well the children’s participation; Shelly Matthews who preached a fine sermon, as always; Katie, who organized and survived the lock-in, and the staff of St. James, who worked so hard behind the scenes to make the weekend a success: Dena, Becky, and Mike. Great job, everyone!

Our Middle School EYC's hike to Raven Cliff Falls.

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I’ve never been there in January, but Corrie and I have enjoyed the hike both in the spring and the fall. Some of our middle school youth made the hike January 13. They made the mistake of sharing the photos with me. As an aside, when the EYC ski trip was announced for Super Bowl Sunday this year, I mentioned that the last time I had been skiing was Super Bowl Sunday, 1979. Thanks be to God, no pictures exist of that event.

So here is the falls, the kids, and an emu.early-january-08-013.JPG

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So what is sin?

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Over the last months, I have been asked about sin by several parishioners. Today someone asked me, “What does Jesus save us from?” It’s a very good question. In my sermon on Sunday, I said that one important aspect of the incarnation is that in Christ we see the possibility of what humanity might be, what we were intended by God, and prevented by the fall from becoming. In fact, most traditional theology (the Fathers, St. Thomas Aquinas, et al.) argues that salvation offered by and through Jesus Christ goes beyond what we might have achieved on our own had we not sinned.

But what is sin? We tend to think of sin in terms of particular acts–going against the ten commandments, for example. But sin is more than that. As I understand it, sin is above all a way of describing the fact that as humans we are not as God created us to be. There is a fundamental brokenness in us that we experience in different ways: when our body betrays us, when we know what we ought to do, but cannot or will not do it, when we hurt others or ourselves out of sheer maliciousness or even ignorance. That brokenness we interpret as sin. God created us as good, but because of the fall, we are not whole beings.

I reject the notion of substitutionary atonement, that Jesus Christ had to die to save us from our sins, that “he paid the price” or that “there is power in the blood” to quote two familiar 19th century hymns. Rather in his life, in the cross, and in the resurrection, Jesus Christ shows us what humanity might be, could be, should be. In his self-giving love, he overcomes our brokenness and offers us a way that we, too, might overcome it.