N.T. Wright on preaching the whole Bible via one text

The Whole Sweep Of Scripture from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

Interviewer: "How should we read the scriptures?"
Bishop Wright: "Frequently and thoroughly."

Bishop Wright speaks a word to the whole church about reading scripture as it was meant to be read. For the preacher, I found the his word at the end of the video (around the 6 minute mark) especially valuable. He uses a metaphor about seeing the countryside through a window. Only by pressing in towards the window does one get a wide view of the countryside beyond the pane. In worship each week, we press in towards one text in order to see the sweeping countryside of the biblical story. This runs somewhat contrary to the way we often isolate texts in worship, especially in the free church tradition (where we may only read that one text in worship!). I wonder, what ways do you help the congregation keep the whole story in view during worship each week?

From around the Web this week

A man in South Africa, thought to be dead by friends and family, woke up after spending 21 hours in a morgue refrigerator. Workers went screaming from the building after hearing his screams thinking he was a ghost. Lots of applications from this one from thoughts on the resurrection to what it's like to mistake a person for being dead.

CNN's Faith Blog listed ten things they learned in their first year of existence.  Included in their findings, Atheist like to comment on religious stories; Americans, though very religious, don't actually know much about religion; and people are still interested in the Bible.

What does your church communicate about its beliefs through its Sunday morning worship service?  Skye Jethani, senior editor of Leadership Journal writes about his 9-year-old daughter's encounter with two different churches: one liturgical and one contemporary.  In one church she notices the cross, the Bible, and communion.  In the other, she notices they have a coffee shop.  Worth your read.

Finally, to brag on my wife, she has written an excellent piece about grief, the church, and learning to worship not only with, but for one another.

Illustration-a-day: Worship or art?

The other day I was listening online to a concert by one of my favorite singers.  I don't know this woman's faith story.  Most of her music is not faith oriented, but her latest album is an album of gospel covers.  It's a tremendous collection of songs and a the concert was terrific.  At the end of the show, as the credits rolled, the producers showed some backstage footage of the singer discussing her making of the album.  These were her words:

There’s so many performers that I got to listen to and find out about that I had never heard of that were just astonishingly good and that most people . . . that were definitely not household names.  So they're people who came to this earth and did this amazing music that a couple a hundred people heard in a church and then now they're gone.  But this music is out there some of it’s recorded.  It’s so exciting to me that there are people who just made this impossibly beautiful music because they loved it and that was it.

Like I said, I don't know this singer personally.  I just like her music - both the sacred and the secular.  I also know that it's not good to judge a person based on a soundbite.  So I don't want to speak to her whole concept of art and worship, but at least in that short little paragraph, this artist confuses the motivation of art and worship as being identical to one another.  Now, all good art probably walks up to the front porch of worship in some way.  That is, the best art touches upon the transcendent.  But true worshipers make it past the porch, they march right on into the house.  The difference?  Artists sing for the love of the song.  Worshipers sing because they love the one to whom the song is directed.  Gospel music may very well be a kind of art - but those who've been touched by Christ's gospel make art that is first and foremost, true worship.

Illustration-a-day: Meeting a real celebrity

A few years ago, I heard the delightful story of Troy Aikman taking his daughter to a Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana, concert. This was back when Miley was at her most popular and her Hanna Montana concerts were selling out in matters of minutes, not hours, not days, minutes. Troy Aikman, being a dad with connections, he was able to get his daughter front row tickets and a chance to go back stage and meet Miley. Now, back stage, some of the stage hands came up and asked for Aikman’s autograph, which is understandable to any of us old enough to know that Aikman’s main gig in life wasn’t as a commentator for FOX Sports. Aikman laughed, though, as he told of the incident saying, his daughter was befuddled as to why anyone would be paying attention to her dad when someone as great as Miley Cyrus was in their presence. His daughter would later confess to her dad, her dad the three-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback, “This is so cool, I’ve never met a real celebrity before.”

Illustration-a-day: Delight is incomplete until it is expressed

From about September 1st through the first weekend in February, an amazing thing happens in towns all across America. In coffee shops, and in homes, in Sunday School rooms, and in restaurants, men (and a handful of women) who otherwise find it difficult to express emotion, will pour forth their souls concerning the simple, almost silly events, of high school, college, and professional football. If their team loses, it can be horrendous, but if their team wins – oh, how their faces can dance. But what is interesting, is not that people get excited about football, but that they can so enjoy reliving the game. You can take two men, both of whom witnessed the game, and one will say to another, “Oh, could you believe the catch that so-and-so made?” The other, almost interrupting, will reply, “That was amazing wasn’t it. He was all the way stretched out for that one.” The first will contribute, “I didn’t think he had a chance – great catch – great catch.” “Sure was.”

We may laugh, certainly my wife has laughed at me, but reliving a football game is part of what completes a football game. It really isn’t over when the clock stops, it must be rehashed, reexamined, and the good plays must be praised. It is almost mandatory, isn’t it – that good things must be praised? If you go to a good restaurant, you almost feel compelled to tell others about it. If you hear a good joke, you almost feel compelled to share it. Praise, is simply a part of life. Even non-religious people are full of praise. Whether about football, fine art, or fine scenery, people like to praise things.

Thinking on this very same truth, C.S. Lewis noted, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you are for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with (the perfect hearer died a year ago)” (Reflections on the Psalms, chapter 9) Praise completes our enjoyment. What a wonderful way to put it.

Illustration-a-day: People long for the majestic

The poet Gerald Manley Hopkins stated, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” That's true, but to experience that grandeur, you have to stop and look. This past weekend, my family went camping in Central Texas. On the way we had noticed a random spot on the highway where about a dozen cars were stopped on the side of the road. People lined a fence looking out into a rather ugly, uncultivated field with binoculars and large lensed cameras.

My wife asked if I knew what was going on. I'd seen a large nest in one of the trees and something sparked to life in the back of my mind. "I think that must be where the bald eagles nest. I read something about it in a magazine I think. But I'm not sure." We continued speeding on down the road filled with nothing but mild curiosity.

On the way back home, we noticed the cars again, and decided to stop. Just as we did a magnificent bald eagle took off from one tree and soared across the field, wings outstretched, its majestic white head gleaming in the spring sun. People cheered and cameras clicked. We all felt enriched by simply witnessing the grandeur of the moment. For me personally, mild curiosity had been replaced with the desire to offer praise to the Maker of eagles, spring days, and my own two eyes with which I had been able to take in such sights!

James Mays, an Old Testament scholar, explains that all people have a need for doxology, that is the need to be moved by the glory of another. Doxology is a fancy church word that simply means to speak praise. And as creatures, we were created with a built in desire to give praise. It's why we're drawn to stop and look, at eagles, and canyons, and any number of other spectacular sights. We yearn to be moved by the glory of another, but that can only happen if we pull over and take a look.

For pictures of the site on Hwy 29 between Burnett and Llano, click here.