Greetings!
Peace, mercy, and grace be with you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We enjoyed cooler weather this week and some much needed precipitation in the mountains; the fires there are better controlled, yet still persist and could flare up again. We hope and pray all is well with all of you.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
The Voice 14.38: Arguments Undervaluing Romans 14:1-15:7, 4: Application Issues
Yes, we continue our monthly exploration into how Christians try to end around what Paul said in Romans 14:1-15:7. Even many who will assent to the principles in the abstract all of a sudden get uncomfortable and start coming up with various application challenges and issues. Again: what would possess us to not want to find ways to welcome and receive one another in Christ?
The Letter of James | James 5:13-20
We conclude our exploration in the Letter of James. James would have us be advocates in prayer. Much has been said and made of confessing sin to one another. And the hardest thing to do remains to welcome back someone who has departed from the faith.
Lesson: Restored Fortunes | Psalm 126:1-6 | Hope in Psalm
Outline | Podcast | Conversation
It’s not the most often considered psalm, but Psalm 126:1-6 remains quite powerful in its visceral and emotional force. We can imagine Jewish people going up to Zion in its restoration and being happy as if dreaming. We can imagine the disciples mourning and weeping and then disbelieving for joy when Jesus died but was raised again. We can imagine someone sowing in tears but reaping in joy. And we ourselves can look forward to the moment at which we will reap with joy, as if dreaming, when we obtain the resurrection of life when the Lord Jesus returns.
Our image of the week comes from the British Museum and is a musical instrument we call a sistrum. Originally of Egyptian design, and most often used there, it would feature metal disks on the bronze hooks and would be shaken as musical accompaniment to religious rituals and for festivals. This sistrum dates from the Roman period, but many have been found from over a thousand years earlier. The Israelites would have at least been familiar with the sistrum; perhaps it had some use in Israelite music, and perhaps even as part of chanting psalms at the Temple service. Or, perhaps on account of its association with the Hathor and thus fertility cult in Egypt, it was expressly not used in the Temple service. We would like to know much more about the instrumental accompaniment of psalms than we presently do.
Book Reviews
There has been a notable, and important, shift toward attempting to better understand Christian faith and practice in terms of some kind of joint participation with God in Christ.
In Paul and Union With Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (affiliate link; galley received as part of early review program, but read in its final form), Constantine Campbell presents his study and case for understanding union with Christ for Protestants.
The “exegetical” part of the study featured considerations of all the various ways in which Paul spoke of being “in Christ.” The author also considers similar prepositions. Throughout the author has placed a lot of confidence in the ability to come to hard and fast conclusions regarding fine distinctions in grammatical constructions; I do not maintain the kind of faith the author does in the integrity of such exploits. Nevertheless, the author does well to show how often Paul spoke of Christian faith and practice as grounded and rooted “in Christ” in more than a merely metaphorical way.
The “theological” part of the study considered the metaphors Paul used in relation to union with Christ and grounds “union with Christ” in Protestant theology. The author would probably protest such a narrow definition of his task, but at every point possible, the author will staunchly defend his Protestant priors. His attempts to resist the plain language of Paul regarding baptism as the means by which one becomes unified with Christ in Romans 6:1-11, suggesting it is merely metaphorical, and on the basis of such an uncritical reading of 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 that almost any Christian who has encountered the passage could easily refute, was quite telling. The author even feels the need to attempt to redeem and rehabilitate “imputation” as a theological concept, even though he seems cognizant of the many arguments and challenges which are therein presented. When we can all confess “imputation” was one of those times where the Latin translation of the Greek term led to people making inappropriate conclusions - just like is insisted upon and expected in all kinds of Trinitarian doctrinal conversations - we will all be much better off.
The author is correct, and does well, to suggest Paul very much considers union with Christ, with flavors and nuances of union, participation, identification, and incorporation as fundamental in his theology and thus his explication and exhortation regarding Christian faith and practice. This is definitely a resource worth considering when trying to make sense of Paul’s theology; whether or not it becomes the kind of work to which one must make reference and to become the basis of the theological study, as the author seems to expect in his conclusions, I am not so sure. I was expecting a bit more humility and a bit better from the author, admittedly, and so the work is a bit of a disappointment in that regard. I believe Snodgrass handled the subject better in his study on participation, and maintained greater theological dignity and integrity by being willing to go where the evidence required him to go in questioning some of the Protestant bona fides.
However you might feel about the COVID-19 quarantine experience, one thing remains difficult to dispute: a lot of things have changed for local churches as a result.
The COVID-19 pandemic hastened certain trends and itself catalyzed many others. Thom Rainer and his group at Church Answers try their hand at providing encouragement and direction in the wake of this experience in The Post-Quarantine Church: Six Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation (affiliate link).
The title is not a little overblown: no matter what, the Lord’s church will persevere and continue. Yet that we are in the midst of a major phase of change within local churches cannot be denied, and these changes transcend all sorts of confessional and dogmatic boundaries.
The six challenges and opportunities involve how churches gather; how they relate to the digital world and community; reconnecting with the local community; dedication to prayer; creative reconsideration of facilities; and how to effectively lead meaningful change.
One’s mileage will vary when it comes to the conclusions in this book. For congregations who do not maintain much when it comes to property, there’s not much to creatively reconsider, for instance.
But it is right and good to give serious consideration to how we pray and for what. We should consider how well “placed” a congregation is in its local community, and how its members can best reflect Jesus to their communities. While there has been a lot of skepticism and negativity about online engagement, the fact of the matter remains: most people who might check out a congregation are going to first consider its online presence. Asking or expecting people for an in-person visit to a congregation is a step too far for many people; many might be willing to listen to a podcast, check out a video, or something of that sort and try to become more familiar before being willing to venture out.
And then there’s the whole matter of providing a means of access for those who are unable to get out on account of medical difficulties.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a revelation for a lot of reasons: many hearts and minds were exposed. It catalyzed a lot of conversations, changes, and transitions. Not everything we experienced was good or healthy; but if we cannot find anything good to come out of the experience, and doggedly insist on doing everything the way we have always done it, such says more about us than the experience, and not for the better.
Not everything should change all the time. But we should seek to step back at times and get a sense of how we might be able to more effectively jointly participate in Christ, better reflect Jesus to the community around us, and in so doing glorify God.
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
Ethan