Dan's Marinations

Now there's something you would not expect to hear a Christian minister to say.  This very true statement obviously requires explanation.  It began in early October when a hospital I visited had the Christmas portions of Messiah  playing through their piped in background music.  Even if it's really early, at least it's glorious music I thought.  The displays of ornaments, artificial trees, lights, etc. in Lowe's in late October I could almost grasp because folks may want to begin buying that stuff early to avoid too much holiday rush. A couple of things pushed me over the edge, however.  Hearing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" on the week before Thanksgiving as I scrolled through the radio stations in the car began it.  A beautiful warm November day over a week before the turkeys hide to avoid becoming dinner, and I have to hear snowy Christmas songs?  Churches too often buy into this by cranking up "Joy to the World," and "O Come All Ye Fait

I've heard people from time to time tell others something like this, "you ought to come to our church we really need you."  Many of the people that I've heard say this are faithful Christians and church members.  I also respect that they say this from the best of intentions.  In one instance, I know that it refers to a church that does desperately need new members.  However, "we need you," is one of the worst slogans for evangelism I can imagine. From a practical standpoint, "please join our church, we need you," is more likely to drive someone off than it is to induce them to join.  This sort of phrase invests all sorts of hope that this person or family will somehow fix a church that is broken, will somehow save a church that is dying.  I doubt that anyone that a church would actually want to have will join if he or she is going to be looked at as some sort of savior/hero figure.  The person who would like to join understanding that he or she w

Rev. Joe Nelms delivered an interesting pre-race invocation before a NASCAR Nationwide series race Saturday.  At an event like this, there will typically be an invocation at which the minister delivering will thank God for the beautiful weather and the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S.  The prayer will include petitions for the safety of the drivers and the fans as well.  Rev. Nelms wasn't content Saturday to offer up such a typical prayer.  He thanked God "for the Fords, the Dodges, the Chevrolets, and the Toyotas..." for the"Sunoco racing fuel," and for his "smokin' hot wife."  He ended the prayer with "in Jesus name, boogity, boogity, boogity, Amen!" Of course this has created a lot of stir amongst radio and TV talking heads and on the internet.  I'm loathe to be openly critical of another minister, but I guess I'll have to make an exception in this case.  I can't speak for Rev. Nelms' intentions with the prayer, and I ha

If you've read the previous musings on atonement theory, you'll remember that the most common ways Christians have looked at this topic are known as:  the classical or ranson theory, moral influence, and substitutionary atonement.  Now I'd like to muddy the waters even more, before hopefully providing a clear path out of this where believers can live peacefully with each other without hurling theological handgrenades. In addition to the three views of atonement that looked at earlier, there have been any number of others.  In fact, one former member of the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry was well-known for reportedly asking ministerial candidates in interviews to list seven or eight different theories.  The great theologian Anselm of Canterbury was famous for promoting a theory known as "satisfaction."  In the early 20th century Gustav Aulen wrote of atonement in terms of victory of sin and death in Christus Victor .  The notion of atonement as victory ove

For many of you who read these ramblings the idea of atonement I critique today will be familiar.  Love it or hate it, most Protestants have heard the language of substitutionary atonement more than any other.  If you are among the more conservative Protestants, this is probably the language that comes to mind first when you think of atonement. In very condensed form substitutionary atonement works like this.  Jesus is born of a virgin, and leads an absolutely sinless life.    Because he is sinless and perfect Jesus alone is able to atone for human sin by taking the guilt/penalty for the sins of the world.  In essence Jesus becomes a substitute for us.  Both the virgin birth and sinless life are essential for this model of atonement because the atoning sacrifice must be perfect in order to bear sin for everyone else.  Since he bore the penalty of sin, we don't bear it any more and we have peace with God.  Typically, substitutionary atonement is thought of in penal terms were Jesu

One of the more unfortunate aspects of discussion of atonement in the current culture is that it has become polarized.  It is difficult now to separate this academic discussion from the emotional hand grenades that have been lobbed back and forth between liberals and conservatives for years.  I hope that you who read this can take a look at some of this different atonement language again.  None of them is sufficient all by itself, just as none of them is totally without merit or warrant.  In this week's entry and in next week's, I will critique the favorite atonement theories for liberals and then for conservatives.  I guess that if today's post doesn't step on your toes, that next week's will. As the ransom theory began to fade in popularity in the middle ages, Peter Abelarde made famous the idea that Jesus is primarily an example for us.  Focusing primarily on the love of God, he believed that God's love was so great that he could forgive without anything be

As will become clear, the difficulty in looking at the atonement is not that any one theory is really bad, but that all of them are insufficient.  No one theory can do justice what occurred because human language is insufficient to adequately describe it.  The first of the various ways believers have looked at the atonement is as a ransom.  This is sometimes called the classical theory of atonement.  The term "classical" theory stems from the fact that the early church fathers used ransom language far more than any other in describing Christ's death.  This remained the predominant view of atonement until the middle ages when it was subjected to withering criticism. In the pages of scripture there is no lack of warrant for looking at the atonement as a ransom that was paid on our behalf.  The term "ransom" is used seven times to refer to what God/Jesus does for us.  The related term "redeem" or "redeemer" is found over ninety times.  Both te

With the memory's of last weekend's Holy Week services fresh in our minds, I'd like to take the next several marinations to reflect on atonement.  That Jesus' death atones for human sins is a fundamental part of our faith.  All of us fall short of the glory that was intended for us.  All of us stumble far too frequently.  None of us is worthy of the blessings God offers.  None of us, on our own merit can have any sort of meaningful relationship with God.  If that is the human problem, Jesus death is the solution.  It atones for our sins.  By it we are freed from the penalty of our sins, and to a certain extent are freed from the presence of sin.  The New Testament uses language such as "redemption," "propitiation," "ransom," and "sacrifice" in referring to Jesus' death.  All these loaded theological terms carry a lot of freight, and serve to convey the point that Jesus does make us right with God. If it is clear that Jesus d

It is Good Friday as I write this.  This is perhaps the darkest, yet most triumphant day in our calendar as Christians.  It is dark, for on this day our Lord suffered public humiliation, torture, and execution for a whole lot of poor sinners like me.  It is triumphant because in a way only God can arrange, this death led to life.  The suffering was the way to victory.  As a minister of the Gospel Holy Week is the highlight of the year for me.  The procession of services from Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally the worship on Easter morning are the services I look forward to most.  I relish this time of the year because it is absolutely the core of our faith.  Apart from the events of this weekend the church is little more than a social organization clothed in fancy, churchy language.  Now for the confession, I have a love/hate relationship with actually preaching during this season.  Yes, I would rather preach Maundy Thursday and Easter than any other day of the year.  What Chr

I recently was listening to a lecture by John Bell from the Iona Abbey in Scotland.  A member of the Church of Scotland, he's a popular writer and speaker on the subject of music and worship.  In this lecture, Bell described one of the problems he sees in contemporary Christianity, the tendency to seek too much from worship.  He said that in years past there were three spheres of worship.  First, there was private prayer and study.  This was the foundation of the individual's spiritual life.  Secondly, many also had specific family devotions led by the head of the household.  Thirdly, everyone went to public worship.  The contemporary problem he pointed out was that for far too many Christians there is little private spiritual life.  Private prayer and study, private spiritual disciplines, personal devotion to the means of grace, are far too uncommon.  This is a dangerous phonomenon.  Our spiritual lives are our own responsibility, not the church's, not the minister's

What is it with all these Christians with funny smudges of ashes on their foreheads tonight?  Why do folks who ordinarily show some degree of common sense do something as silly as get oily ashes smeared on themselves?  I'd like to muse a little bit on this whole Ash Wednesday business, and hopefully shed some light on why we do it.  In some Christian circles there is great skepticism of Ash Wednesday and Lent, or anything liturgical for that matter.  This can come from learning too well the lessons of the Reformation.  If we believe in Sola Scriptura, why bother with ashes and Lent if neither are mentioned in the Bible?  If we truly are saved by grace through faith, what's the point of it?  Sometimes we "modern" folks can get too suspicious of traditions. The short answer to these objections is quite simply that ritual acts and symbols do actually mean things.   A person can be married with or without wearing the ring, but the ring means something, hence the tradi

Just as my last posting was prompted by this current series of sermons, so this one will be as well.  Last Sunday I preached on the raising of Jairus' daughter.  When word came that the synagogue ruler's twelve year old daughter had died, Jesus' response was simply, "do not fear, only believe."  This Sunday I will address the hemorrhaging woman who was healed in a story sandwiched inside the overall account of Jairus' daughter.  To her Jesus said "your faith has made you well."  Numerous times in the Gospels when Jesus healed, he cited the individual's faith.  Last month I attended a large conference at which one of the presenters, a popular speaker on the topic of prayer, very passionately dealt with healing and faith.  He repeatedly encouraged us to name the specific need for which we prayed, and to claim that healing in faith.  To his credit he took an expansive view of Jesus' work on the cross.  He reminded us, correctly, that the cross

Currently in our church I am doing a series of sermons on the miracles of Jesus.  This upcoming Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 the sermon is about an exorcism in Matthew 12:22-29.  Rather than load the sermon with background material, caveats, and hedges, I've decided to let this blog do that work.  For starters the world in which Jesus lived was very conscious of angels and demons.  Nearly everyone- Gentile or Jew- believed in supernatural powers that were at work in the world.  When Paul refers to "powers and principalities" he is referring to such powers.  It was a world in which it was widely assumed that a person could be actively controlled by an evil spirit.  In this environment there were any number of exorcists practicing their art.  Even pagan religions had specified rites and incantations to free someone from demonic possession.  There were also Jewish exorcists at work calling on the power of the true God, Yahweh .  In this environment Jesus practiced his ministry, a

Fear is one of those human emotions that we all feel at times, and which can be healthy.  Fear of deadly snakes is good, fear of big trucks going 75 mph can be healthy.  At times scripture itself says we should fear God.  All too often though, fear exerts a paralyzing grip on us, even preventing us from accomplishing the very things we say we want.  A couple of generations ago, in his first of four inaugural addresses Franklin Roosevelt said that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  At that point the country had been mired in the Great Depression for a couple of years and we were three and a half years removed from the disastrous crashes of October 1929.  In this context Roosevelt spoke what amounted to brilliant words.  I've heard that FDR had a second rate intellect, but a first rate temperament.  The first rate temperament was on display in those words.  He correctly realized that as long as the nation was gripped in fear, banks would not loan money, busin

My suggested resolution for New Year's is to not make one!  I confess that I'm pretty skeptical of the whole enterprise of making the resolutions.  Admittedly, many of the resolutions are for worthy goals:  losing those pesky 15 pounds, exercising more, reading more, praying more, drinking or smoking less.  I tend to be leary of resolutions simply because they set us up for failure.  I'm far too much of a realist to be too optimistic about human ability.  Far too often what happens is that we make a grand resolution, but then only 3 months into the new year our grand plans fall apart.  The running peters out, the cake sneaks back into the diet, the commitment to pray a certain amount each day falls short; that is the way it is with us frail humans.  Our tendancy toward sin, toward failure of all sorts is far too great.  The resolution lasts a couple of months and sometime later we realize that we didn't and couldn't live up to it and the result is being plagued by g