Sacrifice

So often, as a protestant I have been guilty of reducing the notion of the O.T. sacrifice to an outdated and no longer necessary function of worship. And yet, while the sacrificial system was eradicated by Christ’s culminating sacrifice on the cross, it is His same sacrifice that establishes the precedent for the “pouring out” of our very selves in acts of worship.
Walter Brueggamann understands the sacrifice as “a deep bodied engagement by bodied creatures with the creator” (183). This becomes both more powerful and pertinent when the sacrifice is understood as a specific “religious action” or liturgy – this sacrifice becomes more than a symbolic manifestation of worship as a conscious act of self purification, an act of “making holy”. For the Israelite, that participation in this liturgy of sacrifice was really a participation in a reflection of the salvation drama of Israel.
Paul extends this idea for the life of the new covenant believer in Romans 12 where he establishes the idea of a living sacrifice as an act of worship. He does this by drawing a link between the O.T. system of redemption and worship and the N.T., where the believers are the sacrifice and what they do in body and mind is offered up in worship as a sacrifice to God. We the believers then are able to participate in the cosmic salvation drama, and as actors in this drama participate in this divine act of becoming holy. Not only are we ourselves reconciled through this kind of participation in the divine nature, but so too is the world around us via our demonstration of the cosmic act of redemption. This kind of imaginative engagement in worship has the potential for grand transformation.

Art as Worship

If you are interested in a great article discussing art as a medium for worship then check out these articles written by my friend Adam here: part I and part II. He is writing as a pastor of worship and arts at South Point Church in Atlanta - the article is both informative and challenging and I would encourage all to read it!

War: What Is It Good For?

War is good for killing.
So why are we so surprised when our soldiers come back from combat and are involved in a high number of homicides and violent crimes? We want to come down and punish these men for their atrocities, but what have we done to assimilate them back into civilian life? We paid for their education of death with our own tax dollars. We sent them to war with the representatives we voted into office. And now we want to condemn them and throw them into prison. Do we understand what is going through their minds? Can we even begin to understand some of the things they have seen?
I am not condoning any atrocities that have been committed by veterans. These actions are still wrong and they must still have consequences. However, I would like to see more of an effort towards re-cilvilianizing our brave soldiers, killing machines though they may be. Truth be told, I am glad they are trained to be killers. They do their job well, and in so doing protect you and I. It is a job we can wish they did not have to do, but can be thankful that they do it well. And so, I tribute to our soldiers.

I’m going away, I’m going away to stay,
Say goodbye, Pack my bags, Let me go
I’m on my way, I’m leaving today.

Here I go to unknown lands,
Carrying my peacemaker in my hands.

I killed today, drew blood from the enemy’s hand,
Raised my piece, Squeezed a burst, All in thirst,
In the violence of things, I took lives today.

Here I am in unknown lands,
Carrying my peacemaker in my hands.

Ice runs through my veins, I can’t see the stains,
Smears of blood, Clots of mud, Adorn my tattered uniform,
I feel no more pain, War has deadened my brain.

I’ve gone away to unknown lands,
My peacemaker’s been active in my hands.

I’ll never come back now, You can’t tell me how,
It feels to sacrifice, Your very life, Or what it’s like,
To fill a vow, I can’t come back now.

It’s over for good in foreign lands,
My peacemaker’s quiet in my hands.

But that’s just fine,
For I’ve passed on in the line of duty,
Which called my name, Claimed my life, to end the strife,
Of a warring world, In unacknowledged valor.

I’m buried away in unknown lands,
My peacemaker rests silent in my hands.

Theodicy

This is a reflection on an entry titled "Theodicy" from Walter Brueggamann's 'Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes'.
I am becoming ever aware of the coldly logical constructs by which I have long attempted to bind God. It seems that the more I come to know Him the less He fits into my categories for Him. This has at certain times caused me to experience great existential tension, and pushed me to consider whether or not I actually believe God to be good, sovereign, and faithful. I confess that I have at times thought of God as a cosmic abusive father.
And yet, it is a definitively Western and metaphysical notion of God that puts such parameters on Him. He should be understood as He revealed himself – in a relational manner. The Old Testament does not deny that bad things happen to good people; in fact, it poignantly affirms this truth and cries out to God for understanding. This is illustrated most clearly by the story of Job. However, even in Job’s case God does not provide a rational for the things that occur.
In the end there exists for the human no answer to satisfy the rationally driven mind. And yet, for the individual dedicated to communion with God there exists such a relationship that as Old Testament theologian Walter Brueggamann says, “makes available God’s own engagement in the midst of inexplicable suffering.” This kind of relationship based on a covenant of mutual fidelity allows us to bring our legitimate complaints to and even against God with the knowledge that he will not only hear our cries but that He will comfort and sustain us through the pain that we suffer. It is nothing short of beautiful that the Sovereign of All would offer himself to us in such a way as to identify with us in the pain that we experience.
It is faith that allows us to dismiss this question of theodicy and respond to intense crisis; a faith that is based upon the historic nature of God’s provision. Or as Brueggamann has more deftly put it, “The practice of faith in all its dangerous commitment provides a way of responding to the inexplicable mystery of evil.”

The End.

I'm not usually one to post much explicitly personal content, but as much as this blog reflects fragments from every part of my life I think it is fitting for me to share some of my life experiences from time to time.
I recently suffered an injury that abruptly ended my senior soccer season. With six minutes left in double overtime I suffered a broken tibia and fibula - requiring immediate surgery. It is definitely not the way i anticipated spending my senior season. But a rod, four screws, and a few weeks time has me on the mend - and thinking that this mishap could be the break that I've needed for so long. I don't know why unfortunate things happen and I won't pretend to be able to read any significant insight into my situation except to say that it has been a good change of pace for me, it has caused me to live in greater faith, and it allowed me to experience the love and care of my community. And so while there is a lot about this situation that remains frustrating, I welcome any circumstance that will affect me to live out a life of the faith I experience.

Wolfhart Pannenberg

Ever a proponent of theology that is anchored in God’s work of cosmic redemption Wolfhart Pannenberg argues that the historical character of the redemptive event must be maintained and asserted in the dialogue with theologies of existence, redemptive history, and with the principles if critical-historical investigation. He does this in response to Bultmann who “dissolves history into the historicity of existence” and against Kähler and Barth who attempted to argue that the “real content of faith is suprahistorical” (or pre-historical in the case of Barth) (314). He sees both of those theologies as yielding to the method of critical-historical investigation for purposes of scientific verification, which in the end has pushed any notion of redemptive event out the door.
Pannenberg goes on to further define history as “event so suspended in tension between promise and fulfillment through that promise [that] it is irreversibly pointed toward the goal of future fulfillment (317).” Understanding that God is a God who acts again and again, that He is a living acting God is what forms the basis for Israel to understand reality as a linear history. Ultimately, Pannenberg will show that “history is reality in its totality”; that is to say that history is the full realization of reality from beginning to end. Or perhaps better stated, history encompasses all of reality past and present simultaneously – of course, this is only possible if it is anchored in God who transcends it all and in the Christ-event which brings the end of history into the midst of history.
Viewing history as the tension between promise and fulfillment brings a new perspective to the nature of our Covenant God and his work in the world. Further, if I am able to properly locate myself within this “history”, then understanding the Christ-event as the ultimate fulfillment of history, as God’s final act of cosmic redemption in the midst of history unfolding, then my location in this promise/fulfillment (what we may call the New Covenant) becomes the basis for my participation in history, empowering my existence towards redeeming the world around me. The implications of these ideas are huge and the reverberations long lasting for believer as we try to live out God's redemption on a daily basis.