Archived Posts For 2007 September
not in love with Jesus
Posted on September 17, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Emerging Questions, Worship | 7 Comments
This is an issue I’ve heard Mike Frost get quite excited about, and I’m very keen to hear some reaction:
Today our congregation was asked to sing, “Jesus, I’m in love with you”–a line that shows up, in one permutation or another, in several songs that occur frequently in our worship leaders’ rotation.
Well, I didn’t sing it. It’s wrong, and I try not to sing wrong lyrics.
First, I’m not in love with Jesus. The locution “in love with” is one I reserve for one person only: my wife. I love my sons, I love my siblings and parents, I love my friends, I love my country, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I love God. But I’m not “in love” with any of them. And I daresay most of the rest of us use this phrase in exactly the same, highly-restrictive way.Second, it gives me the homoerotic creeps to declare that I am “in love with” another man. And I don’t apologize for saying so. A gender lens is interesting here, for a lot of men feel as I do (many have told me so), while many (not all) women seem to love telling Jesus that they are in love with him. I saw them, swaying with closed eyes and waving hands in the air this morning, singing exactly that. Maybe, indeed, they are in love with Jesus. But they shouldn’t be.
For the third point to make is a theological one. Jesus is not your boyfriend, not your fiancé, and not your eventual husband.
From Prof. John Stackhouse’s Weblog, Via Dan Wilt
I find it a difficult argument to disagree with: and I think it offers some pretty big challenges for the songwriters and worship leaders and it represents a really big deal for the theology that comes with it. So - tell me, singers, songwriters, general advocates for the “I’m in love with Jesus” worldview - why is Professor Stackhouse wrong?
(P.S - Have a read of Professor Stackhouse’s whole post before commenting, to save on duplication. Thanks)
the parable of the three servants - part 1
Posted on September 14, 2007 by Gerry Beimers
Filed Under Bible Study | 3 Comments
Matthew 25:14-30 (New International Version)
This post is going to happen in two parts. That’s because you may have this parable figured out and so I don’t need to write. It’s also because I’ll lose the file if I leave it too long and I don’t have time to finish writing it at this point in time.
A few weeks ago, in a speech to Christians, John Howard referred to the “Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14-30) as a great example teaching free enterprise. This nonsense got me slightly riled. Another misapplication relates to the word talent. If you check “talent” on dictionary.com, the sixth entry is “a power of mind or body considered as given to a person for use and improvement: so called from the parable in Matt. 25:14–30.” While this is indeed a current English language meaning for the word talent, the nonsense application to the parable was apparently developed around the year 1430.
So what is this parable all about? Go and read it now! Let me start by saying I prefer to call it the “Parable of the Three Servants.” It is a parable about the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew’s term equivalent to the kingdom of God), about the way God operates in his kingdom.
How would you like 170kg, 68kg, or 34kg of gold to trade with? (no wonder Howard thinks it’s about free enterprise) Anyway, if you read the text carefully you will see that the gold was not “given” to the servants, it was entrusted to them to trade for the master. The amount entrusted was in proportion to the smarts of the servant. The servants did not become owners of the gold, but it was their responsibility to trade with it. The parable focuses on successful trading by two servants and extreme caution by the third.
Jewish teachers used to say that anyone who immediately buries money entrusted to him is no longer liable, because he has taken the safest course possible in protecting the money. On the other hand, if a man wraps the money in a cloth and it is lost, then he is responsible to replace the money.
So there’s a bit of background. Tell us what you think this parable is about. I will respond with part 2 (esp. if Geoff pressures me further…).
pick and mix
Posted on September 12, 2007 by Rebecca Matheson
Filed Under Emerging Questions | 6 Comments
Real scenario (19yrs old) edited for grammatical reasons
“I hear a lot of people talk about finding Jesus, or getting saved. I am a person who is really questioning a lot of things in her life and also wondering if religion can be a new part of my life? How do you know what’s right?
A question I want to ask and I know it may sound silly, but how do I know if Christianity is right for me?
I sent away for a New Testament- it should come in 4-6 weeks hmmmmm - I think I may go buy a Bible tomorrow morning. I feel this kind of rising feeling in my chest even as I write. its as though Something is bursting inside - OK that probably sounds crazy - but its almost like this overwhelming sense of hope - I don’t know where it came from hmmmmmm. Sorry that probably sounds weird.
My main question is: how do I know this is right for me?”
I was fairly stunned when this cropped up on a Christian youth discussion board that I follow, excited yes, but baffled. How do you answer to such a very post modern search for right?
why I still go to church
Posted on September 11, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Church, Why I... | 4 Comments
As someone who has been interested in the “emerging conversation”, and believe that there is a lot wrong with the model of institutional church we find in western society, I’ve been forced to reconsider whether or not “going to church” as an activity is still something I ought to be doing. It’s been important for me to attempt to separate out the feelings of obligation or habit that come from attending a church service on Sunday mornings for essentially the entirety of my life. I haven’t needed to wrestle with whether or not discipleship and ministry should happen in community: that seems to me to be self-evident. But whether or not attending a regular church service is integral to working out my faith has become an important question for me. For the sake of clarity, my church service occurs on Sunday mornings. I don’t believe that it needs to; it just does. So when I refer to Sunday mornings, the day, time and details is flexible.
1. Sunday Morning is my primary point of contact with wider church
Most of the people I walk closely with, I tend to see during the week. My youth group kids, my small group (although circumstances have changed a bit recently there), my mentor-type person, etc. But if I’m going to have any sort of input, interaction or connection outside of the people in my immediate “circles”, it has the best chance of happening by rocking up on the Sunday morning and chatting with people.
2. Being part of a wider community
Rocking up on a Sunday morning has been a constant remider for me that the picture of ministry in our church is much bigger than the things that I do. It connects me with a church who is out-working their faith in many varied ways, and reinforces the point that we’re all pushing to further the same kingdom. It wouldn’t be uncommon for happenings (whether positive or negative) in the youth group to become overwhelming in their importance in my mind, and being able to step back from them and recognize the vastness of the work of the kingdom, even feeling that the last hope for our teenagers doesn’t rest on my shoulders. It has been the most valuable reality check and certainly helps to shift my focus back onto letting God work.
3. There’s just something about…
Worshiping. Hearing a sermon even. Taking communion with 200 odd people (and I do mean odd). Standing together with a community of people and sharing a wider mission together. One of the things I miss about not being in an Anglican church (and haven’t been since I was 13), is that it’s much rarer for us to speak a prayer together. And there’s something special about joining together in worship, in prayer, and affirming the same beliefs together.
4. Being Equipped
I know it’s not the fashionable thing, but I do enjoy a good sermon. Sometimes I even enjoy average ones. And while the old war horse cliche about people never being able to remember what was preached on a Sunday, I do think that I develop and grow through the words preached in sermons. And it’s a part of growing my theological thinking that I don’t control myself: which is a good thing for someone who wants to be very careful about not creating a picture of God that’s “whatever is best for me”.
So that’s my list. Or some of my list. There are more reasons, better reasons, and probably even truer reasons. What reasons do you have for going/not going to church?
feeds and submissions
Posted on September 11, 2007 by Geoff Matheson
Filed Under Site Notices | Leave a Comment
Couple of quick little things: reminder that if you want to keep track of the posts on here, you can do that by subscribing to http://amateurtheology.org/feed/. But if you’re really clever and keen then you’d be very wise to subscribe to all the comments (where all the really meaty stuff of the blog happens) at http://amateurtheology.org/comments/feed/. If you’re not up with why you’d be interested in “subscribing” to a “feed”, this link is a pretty good explanation of what RSS feeds are about.
The other quick thing is that I’d like to start a series on “Why I…”. The idea being that we’d get a whole bunch of people to write posts on “Why I am a …” or “Why I believe in…”. It doesn’t need to be too controversial (although it’s OK if it is :)), but it’d be good if it was more specific than “Why I believe in Jesus”, or “Why I am a Christian”. The first installment will come later today: “Why I Still Go To Church”. Any submissions can be sent to submissions@amateurtheology.org. That would be wonderful. Stay Tuned for “Why I Still Go To Church”.
(Edit: I forgot to mention - if you have posted anything in the past that you think would be worth re-publishing on AT, either a “Why I…” post or anything else, that’d be cool too.)
