Mere Humanity

i was reading the early chapters of isaiah and was struck by the similarities to our christian subculture here in america. the LORD condemns Israel for their pride and their wealth, while they ignore the widow and the orphan.

i commend the churches that are doing things differently, as i know there are quite a few. but for the most part, we are doing just this. we are living in luxury, and the orphans are starving to death. maybe they arent physically starving, but they are cooped up in foster homes and orphanages where they are physically and emotionally being abused every day. we send our elderly to senior living homes, instead of welcoming them into our homes. and the list can go on.

but it is interesting, because the biggest offense that the LORD comes to is that the leaders are the worst at this.

today, sadly this is no different. i participate in a body where our head pastor is paid a low salary, as far as pastor salaries go. but in comparison to the church body, he makes more than most of the individuals. and as i said, our church is better than many. i have been to churches where the pastors own million dollar homes and drive luxury cars. granted this isnt true for all pastors, but what about the ones who own multiple late model cars (assume they cost at least 15K apiece) and they have a 4000 sf house. even in the cheapest part of the country, they have to be making a substantial amount of money to afford such a house and such cars. meanwhile, there are people in their congregation barely making month to month, not to mention day to day.

these people are to be leading their congregations in the way of the LORD. no wonder Israel has become proud. no wonder the widow and the orphan are neglected. if we as leaders of the church are living in luxury, if we arent willing to live as poor in this world, why would our body do any differently??!!

may we shed of the cumbersome wealth that entangles. may we lead the church to love our neighbor as ourselves, not just the rich and popular neighbor, but the rude, ugly, hungry, socially-inept, obnoxious, clingy, and poor neighbor. may we seek out those who need us the most. may we, like martin of tours, cut off half of our coat to give the other half to one who has none.

may we find true wealth, in heaven.

my wife and i were talking with some couples last night about Sabbath rest and rest in general. and i just wanted to share something that i found this morning with yall.

From a study book of the United Lutheran Church (1923), p. 36.

“We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both.”

i found this to be true in my study of Sabbath in the early church as well. that saturday was kept as a day of rest, Sabbath, and that sunday was remembered as the day of Resurrection. both were actually remembered. and it was the Roman Church who changed the day of rest from saturday to sunday based upon their own authority in the 4th century.

thoughts???

and then more on a full article i thought was interesting….

WHICH day is the Bible Sabbath?
Is it the first or seventh day of the week or does it matter?
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What the Bible Says About the Seventh Day

The seventh day of the week was ordained as the Sabbath at Creation by God’s very own example (Genesis 2:2,3; Exodus 20:11). The nation of Israel was instructed to keep it and chided for not doing so- even before the Law was given on Mount Sinai (Exodus 16:23-30). The Fourth Commandment, which specifies the seventh day as the Sabbath, was so important that God chose to place it at the very heart of the Ten Commandments; it is intimately associated with nine other moral precepts- which were given by the voice and finger of Yahweh Himself and which are appropriate for all humans throughout all generations (Ex. 20:8-11).

Jesus reinforced the Fourth Commandment when he said, “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). His point was that the Sabbath was made as a blessing for the benefit of mankind- not as an oppressive legal yoke. It was made for man- not just the Jews. Jesus also proclaimed Himself Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:2 and observed it regularly (Mark 1:2 1; Luke 4:16-22). Though He frequently denounced the Pharisees for their manmade rules, Jesus always upheld the Sabbath and showed by His positive example how it should be observed as a day of rest, worship, freedom, and joy (Mark 3:4; Luke 13:15-16; Matthew 12:10-12). During His Olivet Prophecy, Jesus urged His disciples to pray that their flight (years in the future) would not be on the Sabbath (Matt. 24:20).

The disciples rested on the Sabbath while Christ lay in the grave; according to Luke, who recorded the fact many years later, they did so “…according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Matthew and Mark, who also wrote long after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, spoke familiarly of the Sabbath as an existing institution (Matthew 24:20; 28:1; Mark 16:1).

It was Paul’s custom to use the Sabbath for preaching (Acts 17:2). He did so in synagogues and elsewhere (Acts 13:14-15; 16:13). Gentile believers observed the Sabbath (Acts 13:42, 44). For a year and a half in Corinth, Paul worked during the week and reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, teaching the Word of God (Acts 18:4, 11). James and Paul, along with Jesus, spoke very positively about the importance of the Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath is an integral part (Romans 2:13, 21-22; 7:7-12, 22; James 2:8-12; Mark 10:17-19).

Finally, history reveals that early Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, continued to faithfully observe the seventh-day Sabbath for many decades after the Messiah’s resurrection and ascension. And down through the centuries to our day, there have always been faithful Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and have walked in the joy of the liberty of God’s seventh-day Sabbath.

What the Bible Says About the First Day of the Week

The term “first day of the week” is used only eight times in the New Testament (the word “Sunday’ is never used). Four of these occurrences (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1 ; John 20:1) are simple time references to the day following Jesus’ resurrection, to the disciples’ early morning discovery of the empty tomb. Note that the women brought spices to the grave of the Savior on the first day, something they would not do on the Sabbath (Luke 23:56). Two other first-day references relate to Jesus’ later appearances on that same day (Mark 16:9; John 20:19). The second of these describes how the disciples were assembled behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. Certainly this cannot be construed as some sort of Sunday ’sabbath’ celebration. Jesus gave not so much as a hint that the first day was to be kept holy.

Paul once preached on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7); this is generally understood to be a Saturday night since, according to Biblical reckoning, days began with the evening. The next morning, he continued his journey toward Jerusalem. No hint of Sunday observance here.

The Corinthians were commanded to take up a collection for the poor saints of Judea on the first day (1 Corinthians 16:2); but the phrase “lay by him in store” indicates this was a private inventory activity, not a public religious activity.

The above eight texts are the only ones which speak of the first day of the week. Carefully examined, they prove nothing at all in favor of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. In fact, they indicate the opposite.

History reveals that it was at least a century or more after the death of the Savior that the first day of the week gradually came to replace the Sabbath. This change was in response to anti-Jewish bias in the Roman Empire. In order to curry favor of Roman political leaders, the Roman church moved away from the pure religion of Jesus and the apostles; it moved to accommodate the pagan, Roman world, of which Sunday observance was a part. Many Catholic and some Protestant writers cheerfully admit that it was church tradition, not Biblical authority, which brought about the popular acceptance of the first day of the week for worship.

we met together last night with a few other artistic-minded individuals from our community. we discussed all kinds of things, but the crux of the meeting was about how our community could use our creativities to glorify God and reach the rest of our community in various ways.

for the first time, i realized how lacking a typical church community is when it comes to the arts. there is often auditory art when it comes to our singing during the service. and from time to time there are groups that hold benefit concerts and various other things.

but for the most part, we tend to stick all artists into the role of “worship” team and ignore the vast majority of abilities that transcend sunday morning singing. in every church there are people with creativity and desire to paint, to dance, to write, to sing, etc. even though most of our churches include musicians in the service, it is very limited by the confines of the service. there is no room for creativity. it is the same old songs and the same type of music, day after day, week after week.

now i am not suggesting that we should include heavy metal as part of our service or some such thing. but that is because i believe being a church is much more than just a service once a week. we are called to live as a community. this means that we could come together as a community and use our abilities on other days of the week than just sunday. we “worship” God on sunday in the service, but sometimes, i believe we find more true worship when we are loving our neighbor in a small community gathering. does God need a guitar and drum set on sunday to bring Him glory?

as God says through his prophet Amos:

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

23 Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

so maybe teaching a group of kids in the community how to sing because they desperately want to learn is more glorifying than our singing on sunday morning. maybe what we do the rest of the week, not just sunday, with the gifts God has given us is important.

my wife and i were talking about what this could look like in practical ways. we came up with some good ideas, i think. but i would like feedback from you the reader. in what ways can glorify God and build His kingdom through art?

i just thought this was interesting and wanted to share it, but first i want to add something to keep in mind when reading the article i would retitle the article to be something like doctor receive conscientious objector status and receives huge debt and rejection from many of her close friends and family:

Boston Globe Staff / January 10, 2008
A federal appeals court ruled yesterday in favor of an anesthesiologist who asked to be discharged from the US Army as a conscientious objector after the military paid $184,000 for her to attend Tufts University School of Medicine.

more stories like thisIn a 2-to-1 vote, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld a judge who in October 2006 halted the Army’s effort to force Dr. Mary Hanna, 31, of Somerville, to report for active duty, ruling that an Army review board’s denial of her request for conscientious objector status “was without a basis in fact.”

The court’s majority opinion cited testimony from priests, superior officers, and an Army investigator assigned to the case, who all concluded that Hanna, a devout Coptic Orthodox Christian, “sincerely opposed participation in war because of her religious beliefs.”

In his dissent, Michael Boudin, chief judge of the First Circuit Court, said that the case presented “a close call,” but that US District Judge Nancy Gertner should have deferred to the Army review board, which found the timing of Hanna’s claim suspicious and concluded her statements lacked “passion and sincerity.”

When Hanna enlisted in 1997, she committed to serve four years of active duty and another four in the Reserve in exchange for an Army-paid scholarship for her medical training. But just before Christmas 2005, as she neared the end of her anesthesiology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Hanna notified the Army that she had rekindled her faith in God and that her religious beliefs were “incompatible with military service.”

Hanna, an Army Reserve captain, offered to repay the Army scholarship, plus interest, and wrote in her application for a discharge as a conscientious objector that she was a pacifist and “cannot participate in war in any form.”

According to court records, a brigadier general wrote, “The solemnity of her convictions is clear . . . and they do not appear to have been born of a desire to avoid service.”

But the Army review board voted, 2 to 1, to reject Hanna’s discharge, questioning her sincerity and the timing of her request, which was made shortly after another anesthesiologist was discharged on the same grounds.

The US attorney’s office, which represented the Army in the case, declined to comment.

i just received some comments on a post i wrote i while ago about the interaction of the “Law” and “Grace”. they spurred me to write a little more on the subject.

let us think about the Law as a law. what do laws do in our society? they almost exclusively restrict us from doing something. in america, we dont have laws that demand us to give to the poor. because we have an ideal as americans that people should be free to choose how/where/what/etc they give.

so almost all laws are those which tell us what we cannot do.

however, this is a very foreign concept to a Hebrew mind. God gave many restricting laws (negative), but He also gave many positive commands. for instance, “take care of the widow and the orphan”. or “love your neighbor as yourself”. these require that we DO something. so when a hebraic mind thinks “Law” they think negative and positive commandments. more than this, there is the overarching principle behind the “Law”. our principle behind the laws in america is generally the declaration of independence and the constitution. these documents form the foundation for our laws. but these two documents were created with a theme of freedom as well. they were freedom from tyranny. they protect the people from the government. we have separation of powers and the ability to have independence.

this however is vastly different from the principles behind Torah.

Torah has the concept that we were to follow the “way of YHWH”. Torah means much closer to “teaching” than “law” in our western minds. you see, Torah was intended to show us God’s will and to teach us how to live in His paths. in order to do this, there are certain things that we can and cannot do. almost without exception, we continue to believe these commandments, negative and positive, still apply to us today. for instance, dont murder or commit adultery or covet. or for example, love your neighbor as yourself or protect the widow and the orphan.

in light of this difference or perspective and language and culture, etc, are we truly NOT supposed to follow God’s commands in the OT? or do they apply today just as much as ever?

more importantly, as i believe we can all agree that we are to obey many of the commands (like dont murder), which commandments still apply to us today? which teach us how to follow our Lord Jesus better? how do we apply commandments to our lives today? how can we love our neighbor better today? how can we take care of the poor and the immigrant?

may the Lord bless you and keep you
may He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you
may He give you peace