Sad but True

With as many serious problems that there are in the world, some people are incredulous at the thought that the use or non-use of instruments in a church assembly would be a grave matter for anyone. But I know that it is extremely important for some folks.

I wish that I could persuade everyone for whom this is a concern, to apply these words from Paul to this issue:  

    ....Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
      Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honour of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 
                                                                       Romans 14

Right now, I can't think of a better passage than this to address the instrumental music "issue." I cringe just writing the sentence, because it feels like defeat to even consider the use instrumental music in a church gathering an issue - aren't there better, more significant things to occupy ourselves? Still, this is an honest concern for some, especially, if not exclusively, those who on Sundays go to buildings marked "Church of Christ" to sing, pray, listen to preaching, etc. with other believers.

To get a perspective on this issue, let's rewrite the initial passage of Romans 14 and see if it doesn't ring true to the original:

  

       Also those who use instruments in their assemblies, use instruments in honour of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain from the use of instruments, abstain in honour of the Lord and give thanks to God. 

Now let's look at what Paul said earlier using this "update:"

         Those who use instruments in their assemblies must not despise those who abstain from using them, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who use instruments; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

I think that there is a reason why this understanding of the Romans passage escaped the notice of that particular branch of the Restoration from whom we in the Churches of Christ descend. In essence, they believe that a passage from Ephesians 5 is a clear, unambiguous command regarding assemblies hat trumps Romans 14. 

Let's take a quick look at the Ephesians 5 passage:

         Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It seems hard to believe that someone could think that this passage is about not using instruments in assemblies, but that is what I was taught and what I believed when I was young. For many years now it seems clear to me that in this passage Paul gives us a way of living during evil days. He is saying, "Don't get drunk, filling yourself with wine. Instead, fill yourself with God's Spirit. Instead of living in debauchery, you should live in praise." 

I believe that mangling this passage into a command that tells us not to use instruments in our assemblies constitutes a serious misreading of the passage. To make the English translation (Southern dialect) conform more closely to the Greek, "Consider how ya'll live," and "Ya'll give thanks to God the Father at all times." Not only do these words address how all of us should live instead of what we should do when we are in assembly, they do not forbid the use of instruments or anything else -  except to forbid being foolish (which, of course, includes "getting drunk on wine").

But what does Paul tell me that my attitude should be toward those brothers and sisters who strongly believe that they must abstain from the use of instruments in assembly? Taking my clue from Paul in Romans 14, I think that the answer is clear.

   

        

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...

Since I Don't Preach: It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfun...: This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an al...

It's All Happening at the Zoo (as Simon and Garfunkel once told us)

This past week you probably heard the stories of animals in the northeast that sensed the earthquake before it arrived. Lemurs sounded an alarm, apes abandoned their food, flamingos rushed into a huddle, and a gorilla let out a shriek before the magnitude 5.8-quake. I also saw on ABC news videos of dogs that before earthquakes rushed to get out of rooms or began barking excitedly.

This fascinates me and apparently fascinates our newscasters. How did these animals know? What is this sixth sense that these animals have?

Maybe why this fascinates us so much is that it points to realities that we cannot see or feel or hear. But those realities definitely exists. There are ways of knowing things that not only can we not use, we don't even understand. There is a dimension to reality that we remain oblivious to.

Two things to note: Apparently, not all animals, maybe even the vast majority of animals noticed anything. I saw interviews with various pet owners that said their pets basically slept through the quake or were just as startled as themselves when it occurred. Evidently, not everyone was paying attention to what they could have known. Second, there was obviously a lag time between the animals alerting and the earthquake that caused them to alert. The reality that was true and real to them was invisible to the rest of us and there was no way that they could "prove" it.

There has to be a lesson here somewhere.

This is in the Bible?

No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 Those born of an illicit union shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

 No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.) You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live. 

                                                                                    Deuteronomy 23: 1 - 6

I do not know how the Jewish people interpreted this passage of scripture during Jesus' time. I know that unlike our times, every Jewish male had memorized this passage along with the rest of the Pentateuch. This passage was not unfamiliar to them. I know that for "hardliners" the statement, No… Moabite shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord – even to the tenth generation shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord… You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, must have been something of a problem scripture as they tried to reconcile it with the story of Ruth, the wonderful Moabite woman whose welfare was very directly promoted by the Jew, Boaz. And it was the third generation from her that David, the greatest king of Israel, the friend of God, was born.

We may think that whatever we read between the covers of the Bible has to be accepted in a completely straightforward way, but obviously, the writers of the Old Testament did not feel that way as can be seen in the story of Ruth. It appears to me from the way that scripture is sometimes understood in scripture itself that discernment is needed in the way that we understand the its authority. God revealed himself to Moses, spoke to Moses and Moses gave us God's words. But Jesus distinguishes at times between what God says and what Moses says. (See Mt. 19, It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.) 

Understanding God's will can confuse us. But Jesus was not confused. He knew that this command in the Old Testament that said, You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live, was not meant to keep him from loving everyone, no matter their ethnicity, religious background, their appearance, or their customs. It wasn't meant to keep him from dying for them. What if we thought that everything in the Bible needed to be understood through Jesus and the two commands that Jesus gives us, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves? His love is the authority by which we understand what God’s will is.

Learning How to Pray, Part 3

There are two other "prayers" that I have learned to make part of my daily prayers. The first one is  "Lord have mercy on me" and is called "The Jesus Prayer." I think that I first saw it in the book, The Way of the Pilgrim. Some people take it from the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, others from the Canaanite woman who had a sick daughter, and still others from Bartholomew, the blind man outside the city of Jericho. It seems to have become a prayer of the early desert fathers and from there, it became important in the Orthodox churches. Many people have used it as a "centering prayer," one that they repeat over and over. I, instead, try to make it a point to pray those words early in the morning. It is designed to open my heart to God as I realize that I am like everyone else who comes to him, in need of mercy.

The second "prayer" I got from what I understand is a Jewish custom. Scot McKnight says that three times a day, people who are serious about their Jewish faith will repeat the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." But we know that Jesus added something else to this foundational scripture. Jesus said that there is a second commandment that is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This was a scripture found in Leviticus 19: 18, tucked away with a lot of dos and don'ts that make Leviticus a tough book to get through. But Jesus says that this little command is like the great Shema. 

So,  I also have made it my practice to pray the two commands that Jesus says that "all the law depends on." It is a reminder and my prayer to God to help me love him and love others - that boils our task down to the essentials, doesn't it?

Learning How to Pray, Part 2

Some people see prayer as a divinely-sanctioned way to get what they want. Pray and receive. When they do not get what they want, there is a crisis of "faith:" there must not be a God.

To be sure, we are told to ask for what we need (Jesus) and to pray for what makes us anxious (Paul), but neither of those instructions define what prayer is or reveal its importance to us.

In the prayer that Jesus gave us, we see that prayer molds us to want what God wants as we become who God is. We ask for all to worship God as we worship him ourselves. We pray that his will is done, pointing our hearts to consider what his will is. We pray that his kingdom come, causing us to meditate on what that kingdom is like and considering our part to play in this coming. We pray for what we need for the day, training ourselves to be content and thankful on a daily basis. We ask God for forgiveness, not because of an anxiety-ridden fear of exclusion, but as a reminder of the character of God that we now share: we forgive as he forgave us, learning the price of love. When we pray for his guidance and protection, we are reminded of our own weakness and his strength and power to save. We are remembering who he is as Creator and who we are as the Created, and in the remembering a completely natural and appropriate humility is nourished.

We pray and so from the heart are being molded into the free people of God, beautiful in humility, shining in graciousness, free to laugh, love, create and serve without fear.

Learning How to Pray, Part 1

‘When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  ‘Pray then in this way:
  Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name.
   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven.
   Give us this day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors.
   And do not bring us to the time of trial,
     but rescue us from the evil one.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.  

                                                                                Matthew 6

A long time ago I was taught that it was suspect to have written prayers - that would be praying "by rote." Later in life, when I began to understand that God was a real being who, amazingly, was actually interested in me and loved me beyond imagining, it seemed so natural just to talk to him about whatever was on my heart. The idea of me taking someone else's prayers and trying to pray them would be like taking someone else's notes on a Valentine card and giving it to my wife as if they were my own - how could I? To do that would be fake.

Of course, what I could never quite come to terms with was the idea that God gave us an entire book of prayers (they are called the Psalms), and Jesus told his disciples, "Pray then in this way...." and he goes on to give them a very specific prayer. Why was God giving us prayers for us to pray that weren't "from the heart?"

Loving God passionately where you gush out your thoughts to God in one continuous stream of praise and pleas is good and beautiful. But I have discovered that learning how to pray and letting God mold me means learning from him what to say and think even in my prayers.