Why We Do What We Do When We Do Worship

Every worship service has an order of some kind or another that guides us from our busy schedules to a focused time of building our relationship with God and then back out again to serve in the world. As Christians, our primary purpose as a gathered body is to worship God. These are an example of the acts, or movements, of worship and what they mean for us:

Gathering: We enter, leaving our distractions behind, expecting to meet God in worship.

Praising God: We admire God directly through prayer and song.

Confession/Assurance: We name our shortcomings and acknowledge God’s grace and transforming power.

Witnessing/Testifying/Sharing: We share with each other how we’ve seen God at work in the world and ask for the help of others in bringing our concerns to God.

Hearing God’s Word: We hear the words and see the stories of the Bible; of God's persistent love for God's people.

Responding to the Word: We try to figure out together, with the help of God’s Spirit, how we ought to place ourselves in God's ongoing story. What does the Bible mean and what effect should it have on our lives?

Affirming Faith: We name the truth we know about God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit and God’s relationship to humanity and all of creation.

Praying Together: We bring to God prayers for ourselves, those dear to us, for our neighbors, for the church and for the world.

Blessing/Sending/Commissioning: We leave renewed in hope expecting to meet God in the world and are reminded of our "job description"--how we should serve as Christ's hands and feet in the world.

Further reading:
Yoder, June Alliman, Marlene Kropf and Rebecca Slough. Preparing Sunday Dinner: A Collaborative Approach to Worship and Preaching. Scottdale: Herald Press, 2005.

JUST FOR FUN: THE HERO FACTORY
Have you ever considered creating a costume for yourself and taking to the streets to pursue justice for the innocent as a full-fledged superhero? Give this web app a try and test-run your super-get-up before investing your allowance in bolts of high-tech fabric and kevlar thread. The app allows for various choices between guy and girl costumes, hair and skin color, shirts, pants, capes (I'd recommend avoiding capes--they cause problems), accessories and more. In my attempt to create a non-violent, Creation-caring, eco-superhero identity for myself I ended up with the ensemble to the right. Quite stylish, if I do say so myself.

Creative Work for Justice: The Home Dome

Twelve year-old Max Wallack, a young inventor, while on a trip to Chicago saw many homeless people living on the streets. "I felt very sorry for these people," says Max, "and ever since then, felt that my goal and obligation was to find a way to help them. As a contestant in PBS' Design Squad Trash-to-Treasure contest Max designed an emergency shelter for homeless people, refugees or disaster victims. Made entirely of trash, Max's prototype shelter “The Home Dome” is a yurt or igloo-shaped structure made entirely from Styrofoam peanuts packed into plastic shopping bags. The dwelling is anchored down when the occupant lies down on the attached bed. Max's creation does double-duty in providing care for those without shelter and in preventing materials from ending up in the landfill. As contest winner, Max had the opportunity to create a professional model of his Home Dome.

Creative work like the kind that Max engaged in by creating his Home Dome brings to mind the vision of Isaiah 25:
4 For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, 5 the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled. 6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Design Squad Trash-to-Treasure

Ideation Station

The Genealogy of Jesus

I have always found biblical accounts of family trees to be a sure-fire antidote for sleeplessness. They drone on, verse after verse, with “this man begat this son, and that son begat this son and he bore another son.” But there’s a genealogy in our Bible that bears further examination because of how it is different from the others you may have read.

At the beginning of the book of Matthew (the first of the four books called Gospels, and the first book of the New Testament) we find the list of Jesus’ ancestors. Mixed in with the same old “so-and-so was the father of so-and-so” are the names of five women:
Tamar (Genesis 38),
Rahab (Joshua 2),
Ruth (the book of Ruth),
“the wife of Uriah” (Bathsheba; 2 Sam. 11 & 12),
and Mary the mother of Jesus.

That women show up is uncommon but not unheard of; there’s a genealogy in 1 Chronicles 1:1-2:4 in which four women are named. What makes this one significant is that the women who are named found themselves in very difficult situations and—with exception of Mary—are all Gentile women.

Now ‘Gentiles’ simply meant ‘the nations’ and was the name given to those peoples who did not belong to God’s chosen people—the Israelites. Even though—and precisely because—these other nations had all the advantages of wealth, power and military prowess, God chose a people with no power to be his chosen people.

God’s promise to Abraham: “I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me." Genesis 22:17-18

God revealed his will and word to the Israelites and held a special relationship with them so that they might bless the nations. But over time, God’s chosen people tried to gain power on their own and become like the other nations, neglecting their special relationship with God and forgetting that they were to be a blessing to the Gentiles.

But the account of Jesus’ ancestors makes an exciting and bold statement that God’s plan includes the Gentiles—and has since the beginning! Matthew, the writer of the book ,is helping the people to understand that the plan of God has been brought about through history in unanticipated, “irregular” and even scandalous ways. Jesus, as we learn from the Gospel stories, came to fulfill both the hopes of God’s people and Gentiles.

And good times were had by all...

I never tire of funny animal videos. I've played this sneezing panda video at least a dozen times and I cannot stop laughing.



I hope that this brightens your day in the midst of this cloudy, gray weather.

2 Corinthians 11:1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!

Pastor Matt

Open Commenting Enabled

You may now post your comments about my blog entries, even if you do not have a Google account. Below each entry you'll find the comment section. Click the "# comments" link to leave a message. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and questions.

Pastor Matt

Bible Background: Epistles

Several of the books in the New Testament are epistles (a Greek word, epistole, meaning 'letter') of teaching, counsel and encouragement written by the Apostle Paul to specific churches located around the Mediterranean Sea. Paul, once an enemy of the followers of Jesus, became Christianity's first prominent pastoral theologian after seeing a vision of the resurrected Jesus who asked him, "Why do you persecute me?"

The Mediterranean
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Letter to the Romans (Rome): From a cluster of settlements in the mid-eight century BC situated around seven hills in Italy, came a city-state, then a republic, and then an empire. The city of Rome was the hub of the empire's consolidation of the entire Mediterranean region and thus a melting pot of religion and culture. Paul wrote this letter around AD 56 before he had visited the Christians at Rome face-to-face.

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Letter to the Philippians (Philippi): The city of Philippi rested on a fertile plain in the province of Macedonia along a Roman military and commercial highway. Gold was mined from the mountains outside the city. Paul either wrote this letter from Ephesus in AD 54 or from prison in Rome AD 61-63.

1 & 2 Letters to the Thessalonians (Thessalonica): An important Roman city in its region, Thessalonica was a trade center situated along a road connecting Rome to its eastern colonies as far as Byzantium. Both letters were likely written by Paul in AD 51.

1 & 2 Letters to the Corinthians (Corinth): Corinth was a city well-situated for ocean trade. It surpassed Athens as a hub of exchange between Romans, Greeks, Jews, Syrians and Egyptians. It was well known for the value it placed on the accumulation of wealth and was known widely as a city of immorality and frivolousness. The city's Temple to Aphrodite promoted sexual behavior that was opposed by Christians. Paul wrote the first letter to this church around AD 55 and the second around AD 56.

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Letter to the Ephesians (Ephesus): The city of Ephesus was a seaport situated at the intersection of two major overland routes, thriving commercially, and religiously as well due to the Temple of Artemis which housed a statue carved from a meteorite. Likely written by Paul, from prison in Rome, to a cluster of churches around AD 62.

Letter to the Colossians (Colossae): Colossae was a city in the valley of the Lycus river, a branch of the Meander, in southwest Asia Minor. Paul did not directly found this church or know the Christians there, but they were influenced by his teachings. He wrote this from prison in Rome around AD 61.

Letter to the Galatians (Province of Galatia): Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia (in what is now modern Turkey) which was settled by Gaulic or Celtic (from central and western Europe) migrants in the third-century BC. The letter was written by Paul to a group of churches, some of which he had visited, and the date of this letter is less clear--written anywhere between AD 48-55.

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Ways to Pray: Praying with Clay

Clay being formed by the hands of a potter is an image that shows up frequently in the Bible when the writers want to talk about the relationship between God and people. As a lump of clay is molded and shaped for a specific purpose, so are we as individuals shaped by our relationship with God and with the body of Christian believers that makes up the Church.

Isaiah 64:8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Here are two approaches for praying with clay (store-bought or homemade) which you can use and you may come up with your own ideas later on:

1) Use the clay to create a symbol which represents your prayer request or perhaps your reflection on a scripture verse or an image of God. Ask God's Spirit to work with your hands to help you understand.

2) Experience something of what it might be like to be God-the-Potter by shaping the clay into a representation of yourself-as-God-sees-you. Ask God's Spirit to help you understand your God-given gifts and attributes.

• Pay attention to what makes the clay special. Does the clay move easily sometimes and resist at other times?
• After spending time making your "mini-me," reflect on how God might be molding your life--do you yield easily to God's shaping or do you resist?
  
• What has this exercise taught you about God's love for you?

Did you know that you can learn to know when it is God that is shaping you and not peer pressure or pop culture? Pay attention to both inside-signs (like emotions, stirrings, dreams and thoughts, etc.) and outside-signs (affirmation or caution from fellow Christians, a clue from the Bible, something you hear in worship, etc.). My experience is that when both inside and outside clues line-up that God is in the midst of your searching. But I'll be honest and tell you that you won't always have clarity and certainty beyond the simple fact that you are loved by God and that God desires good to ultimately come from your life.