A Sunday Conflict

What does one do with a Sunday conflict of interest? Last Sunday was Pentecost and Mother's Day. Take a quick straw poll of people who went to church and find out what their service was about. Choosing one over another expresses a priority or choice is being made.

If you want to know the theology of a congregation look at what they are singing. If you want to know the theology of a church look at the attitude to the presence or absence of sacraments and which seasons of the church year are celebrated. Christmas and Easter What about the whole season of Advent or Lent? What about Pentecost? Ascension? Ash Wednesday? What is actually celebrated? Anniversaries? Birthdays? National Holidays? Thanksgiving? Sacraments and time given to them in the community? What are the sacraments or sometime known as ordinances? They are an outward sign, instituted by the church, that conveys an inward, spiritual grace through Christ. The main two are Baptism and the Eucharist/Holy Communion. Many Christians recognize parts or all of these seven Sacraments or Divine Mysteries or ordinances: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, ordination, confession, anointing of the sick, and marriage. Which do your community practice?

The Postmodern critique and specifically deconstruction asks us to look at not what is there but what isn't there because it's absence is significant and says more than what is actually included. Thus the absent is actually made present because of its exclusion. Not being included because of ignorance of the option is one thing but not being included reveals values both conscious and unconscious. So what is your value system, your worldview, your theology?

An Evangelical Manifesto

Seventh, Evangelicalism is distinctive for the way it looks equally to both the past and the future. In its very essence, Evangelicalism goes back directly to Jesus and the Scriptures, not just as a matter of historical roots, but as a commitment of the heart and as the tenor of its desire and thought; and not just once, but again and again as the vital principle of its way of life. To be Evangelical is therefore not only to be deeply personal in faith, strongly committed to ethical holiness in life, and marked by robust voluntarism in action, but to live out a faith whose dynamism is shaped unashamedly by truth and history. Evangelical Manifesto

I'm an evangelical but very much ashamed by some others who take the label. Their lives, attitudes and behaviour do not match their words. Their Gospel is shallow and seems irrelevant and unconnected to the Christ of the Bible. In the USA there is now a movement, seeking to separate evangelicals from "two opposite tendencies to which Protestantism has been prone: liberal revisionism and conservative fundamentalism." I've only started to look over their material but I'm already very interested. More from the seventh assertion

The Evangelical principle is therefore a call to self-examination, reflection, and a willingness to be corrected and to change whenever necessary. ... to be Evangelical is to recognize the primacy of the authority of Scripture, which points us to Jesus, and so to see the need to conserve a form behind all re-form. We therefore regard reason and faith as allies rather than enemies, and find no contradiction between head and heart, between being fully faithful on the one hand, and fully intellectually critical and contemporary on the other.

I need to spend time reading and thinking about their position. The Steering Committee contains people who I deeply respect and whose intellectual work has been soundly challenging. Want to read more? They are here.

Some technology

I have come to be quite connected to some of my technology and recently disconnected as well.

My TV finally died and after 10 weeks I put outside on the curb and it disappeared overnight. My PDA, a Handspring Visor, has finally died. Sadly because I had bibles, dictionaries and all manner of things installed on it! I'll probably want to ultimately replace it with something that does a similar job.

However my ipod nano is taking up some of the slack. I bought lanyard earbuds so I wear this necklace around my neck from which the ipod is suspended. This means I don't have to have ear buds on all the time nor coil them up and put them in my pocket. I also bought a Noma Pocket Power Charger R4 which is a battery pack and recharger. This allows me to listen on the move and on my travels recharge without a computer. This really worked well at Christmas when I was away and also when I went to the UK. It also recharges spare AA NiHM batteries for my camera, razor etc. In the tiny ipod I carry the ESV NewTestament, my to-do-list from my computer, my contacts book, my calendars, more music and video than I have time to listen to.

The problem whether you have the latest technology, or the most beautiful cello it is the ability of the person, both technically and artistically, who uses it that counts. In life and spirituality in the end technology is no substitute for relationships, serious relationship, whether with music and the instrument or with God.