RB: Chapter 6b – Restraint of Speech

In this 2nd part I will be using Rule Book of St. Benedict in English 1980 Edition

In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise. – Proverbs 10:19

Benedict, having already discussed that a disciple ought to be silent and listen now turns his instruction to the manner of speech when speaking is appropriate.

“Therefore, any requests to a superior should be made with all humility and respectful submission. ” RB 1980

Herein is wisdom. When we who have employment go and make a request of our employer we do so in the fear of knowledge that the employer holds  power over our employment. We approach to make request in a manner worthy of the respect commanded by the position of the ‘the boss’ or his delegate. In our modern church environment many hold no similar respect when addressing those who the Lord God, creator of the Heaven and Earth who can pour out blessing when we do well and allow cursing when we don’t, appointed over us.  We hold a greater fear of our employers delegate than we do the Lord’s.  It is a statement that ought to cause us stop, reflect and reconsider how we approach and address those God has appointed over us.

“We absolutely condemn in all places any vulgarity and gossip and talk leading to laughter, and we do not permit a disciple to engage in words of that kind.” RB1980

The wisdom of Benedict on this matter makes it clear he understood the scripture in regard to speech and the power it has to either build up or tear down to either bring the brothers of the monastery together or push them apart.

The tongue holds the power of life or death (James 3). It is impossible to know a persons internal state and disposition or to what degree the devil is bringing accusation against ones spirit and any point and time. All the more reason we should speak to one another in humility and grace lest our own speech, as innocent as it seems, assist the devil in his tactical maneuver to further destroy spirit of one Christ died for.

It isn’t that laughter is bad, quite the contrary it can be good for the soul, but more often than not humor usually comes at someones expense, creating strife and division within the spiritual realm to say the least as such speech is contrary to the building up the spiritual Kingdom and can bring hurt and dispair bringing division of the earthy manifestation of the Kingdom in the church via edifying speech and unity.

It easy for one to fault another for being sensitive or thin skinned, but the reality it is we alone in our humility who ought to encourage one another and seek to reign in this manner of unfitting speech as the Apostle Paul did in Ephesians 5:3-4 placing the very speech Benedict is referring to in the same discussion as the avoidance of fornication!

“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.”

The speech of the righteous has such great power!

” The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.”  – Proverbs 10:21

RB: Chapter 6 – Of Silence

Rule of St Benedict Chapter 6

“For it befitteth a master to speak and teach; and it beseemeth a disciple to hold his peace and listen.”

In today’s culture it would appear listening is a lost art. I have always been amazed at spiritual novices who seem eager to one up those who are of greater spiritual maturity and advancement. They do not hold the elders among them with any regard and have not the discipline to hold their tongue, rather they are quick to rebuke and seek to dominate the teacher. What sin this is! A disciple will never grow in spiritual experience if he can not submit to true spiritual authority as would be befitting of the humble servant.

K.P. Yohannan writes in his excellent work Touching Godliness Through Submission:

“Over the years I have watched young people, with great potential, wreck their lives. One of the main reasons is, even with the call of God and the marvelous gifts He has so graciously given them, they became proud.

Within three to five years, these skilled individuals start thinking they know more than their parents, their pastors and the their elders. They no longer seek to learn and understand. The enemy now has the advantage.

It is like a five-year-old cedar tree. It truly is beautiful. It is the real thing, but it will take another 15, 20, even 30 years before the cedar can be a tree that achieves it’s unique potential. A young person who understands submission and chooses to respect his or her elders will make it in the end and also be blessed.”

The postmodern mind has gone beyond the simple questioning of authority  to dictating with vehement contempt seeking eventual overthrow to establish itself as the authority it dis-respects . This is the pride of Lucifer in his power lust to sit in the very throne of God to be like the Most High.

The student is never above his teacher and the servant never above his master – even if the roles eventually reversed the teacher or the master was always first and is worthy of respect if for no other reason than the pre-eminence of position even then is a ‘like’ relationship (Matt 10:24-25). This is humility even acted out in the heavenlies when Michael contended with the devil over the body of Moses dared not bring a reviling accusation against the devil (Jude 9)

Absurd Living

I read a portion today from a work of Henri Nouwen called Spiritual Direction that struck my fancy since I have written on this:

Being formed in God’s likeness involves the struggle to move from absurd living to obedient listening. The word absurd contains the word surdus, which means “deaf”. Absurd living is a way of life in which we remain deaf to the voice that speaks to us in our silence. The many activities in which we are involved, the many concerns that keep us preoccupied, and the many sounds that surround us make it very hard for us to hear the “sheer silence” through which God’s presence is made known (see 1 Kings 19:12). It seems that the noise, busy world conspires against our hearing that voice and tries to make us absolutely deaf.

Many are the disciples who have no vision of themselves or even a vision of their life in Christ. No vision, no purpose, nothing but a sense of just going through the motions of life and of religion to no affect, no increased awareness of God’s Presence and certainly no revelation of relationship – this is absurd living. “Oh if God would only speak to me” is the chiefest of complaints to this not knowing. So I’ll ask, “what is your manner of living?” and also “what is you devotional time like?”

The typical manner of living described to me comes with a barage of excuses and reasons for no devotional time. Life is hectic, schedules are insane and silence is a scary proposition for many. One person told me of his deep hatred of silence!

Moses had to go up to the mountain, Elijah to the cave, Jesus to the garden – silence is vital to hearing the voice of God, being alone with him is prayer and the Word is vital to discerning the voice of God.  To wander through life only presupposing the Voice of God is truly absurd living.

I will have more to say on this later.

Pope Benedict approves structure for admitting large groups of Anglicans into Catholic Church

Vatican City, Oct 20, 2009 / 05:11 am (CNA).- In a Vatican press conference today, Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that an Apostolic Constitution has been prepared in response to “many requests” from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful wanting to enter into full communion with the Church.

Pope Benedict approves structure for admitting large groups of Anglicans into Catholic Church.

Eucharist: Painted Portrait or Photograph

I was watching a movie set in WWII a while back. An American soldier, after arriving in Berlin broke into a German home, unknowing to him, of a Nazi officer who was off serving in the war. The GI picked up off a nearby table a photograph of the Nazi officer in his uniform. The GI gazed at it for a moment then threw it on the floor breaking the glass and the frame. Behind the GI, in the shadow,  looking on was the wife of the Nazi officer who only knows the officer as loving husband whom she hasn’t seen and may never see again looks down at the shattered photograph of her husband with extreme sadness and longing. It was the middle of the night and she was in her gown perhaps dreaming in her sleep of the love and joy of their life together. Not knowing the atrocities being committed by men like her husband only knowing the man in the photograph as perhaps gentile, fun, caring and loving. I wondered how many times she picked up that photograph, held it, reflected, spoke to it, prayed or cried. To the GI this was a photograph of the enemy it meant nothing to him beyond that, to the woman it was the very essence of her husband in who he is to her. Though he is away, off in another place, he is always there with her in that remembrance of their love affair manifested in that simple photograph.

In my mind it was a very moving scene and spoke volumes to me of the value of a photograph.  A photograph is simply a light reflected image on paper, accurate to what is reflected of the object photographed unlike a painted portrait which is an artists representation and interpretation of likeness.

My thoughts immediately were upon the Eucharist. To those who have a deep and intimate relationship with Christ the Eucharist is that photograph of our Lord who is physically away, yet at the same time spiritually very present. As we hold the bread which He said, “is My body” and the cup which He said, “is my Blood” we are in fact holding Jesus Himself as He declared it. We reflect and communicate in deep adoration of our Love whom we hold in this photograph being reminded of His life, His passion, His resurrection and His imminent return.

To those who only see the symbol and consider just the commemoration of His passion is like looking at a portrait which is not of reflected light but rather an interpretation of His actual likeness. It is faulty in that we only see what the artist allows us to see, imperfect as any painted portrait is, but sufficient only as a symbol. Not worthy of the adoring image in which the photograph is.

When we come to the Lord’s Table to partake and we hold in our hands the bread and the cup lets us be mindful of the difference between a painted portrait and photograph. May His reflected light lead us further and into deeper communion with Himself.

Sept 6, 2009 – Time for an Update

Wow I can not believe it has almost been a year since my last “daily” journal update.

I was reflecting back and re-reading my daily entries and meditations from early on in this blog. It reminded me of all of the cool things I was learning in the Spirit. Sure there was immense pain and trial, but through it God’s faithfulness was amplified and I was strengthened and encouraged.

The past week I had the priviledge of seeing John Michael Talbot twice in concert – just him and his guitar. John Michael was in pain with a herniated disc or two that caused him to have to sit with an ice pack. As he played and ministered in pain God’s supernatural grace was made manifest and I could feel the breath of the Spirit reminding me of that grace experience in the midst of my ‘pain’. Suddenly I found myself deeply missing my daily time of contemplation. I have devotional time, reading books, the Bible Study, etc – but not that deep time of contemplation and meditation that opened my heart up for a true communion with God that for years I thought were for people of another time.  Daily life had given way to busyness resulting in spiritual atrophy. I was living my life somewhat as an urban monastic adopting as it were the Rule of Benedict to hold before me a framework of prayer, devotion and reading. Powerful times and powerful experiences! The Word of God in Scripture had never become more alive to me as it did in those times. The Holy Spirit manifested Himself with an outpouring of His gifts that still have me in wonder over the grace God poured out. Yet still I find I have let thorns and thistles come up and are now challenging the life that was bearing so much fruit.

It is important for me to make a priority of simplifying my life once again – I am not involved in personal training right now, no diet plans to manage for competitors, no Bible studies to prepare for, right now it seems God has placed before again a door of opportunity to get alone with Him and continue this Journey to the Deeper Life.

The Living Church – Part 2

Every good book describing a healthy church covers at least Acts 2:42-47 and this one is no different.

Here in Chapter 1 John Stott covers what he calls the essential marks of a living church hence the title Essentials.

On the outset he describes a 3 – fold commitment.

1. We are committed to the church
2. We are committed to the mission of the church
3. We are committed to the reform and renewal of the church.

He then moves into discussing vision and distinguishing marks of a living church which takes us into Acts 2:42-47 with a caution against looking at the early church as a ideal model that many “idealize or romanticize” of overlooking it’s blemishes as gazing with “tinted spectacles”.  Much of what troubled the church then, he points out, is what troubles us today.

Many of the emerging and neo-monastic upstarts of the past year have miserably failed trying to ‘model’ the church in Acts 2. I am glad that Stott takes the time to move in to the text to highlight some essentials, in particular 4 marks that Luke makes a point of mentioning.

1. They are a learning church
2. They are a caring church
3. They are a worshiping church
4. They are an evangelizing church

Stott spends time hitting some finer points contrasting them with current trends and ideas such as anti-intellectualism, extreme poverty, flipant worship, etc. There is a more thorough discussion as each as these 4 marks are broken down and further expounded in later chapters.

The learning church is committed to the Word. “Fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles is the first mark of an authentic and living church.”

The caring church is generous, ready to give as they have been given by God. “The Holy Spirit gives his people a tender social conscience.”

The worshipping church is devoted in breaking of bread, communion, koinonia and prayer. Stott zeros in on something I think is key. Their worship was first both formal and informal and second it was joyful and reverant. That is they did house to house with free expression, but also in the temple with formal worship that was more ridgid.

“Young people tend to be impatient with the inhereted structures of the church. Understandably so, for some churches are too conservative, too resistant to change. One might say they are stuck in the mud, and the mud has set like concrete. There favorite formula seems to be, ‘As it was in the beggining, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.’ We must of course listen to young people. But the Holy Spirit’s way with the institution of the church is more the way of patient reform than of impatient rejection… If may generalize, older people prefer the more formal and dignified services in the church, whereas youinger people prefer the more spontaneous and liberated meeting in the home. We need to experience each other’s preferences. The early church had both, and we need both.”

The first three marks is where many churches stop. They preach and apply Acts 2:42 to the best of their ability, yet they fail to recognize these are only the internal marks there is fourth external mark contained in Acts 2:47 and this is the final mark discussed in this really thought provoking chapter,

They were committed to the mission. Acts 2:47 contains 3 important truths regarding how the church grew through evangelism which seems implied in the greater context.

1. The Lord added to the Church: “Doubtless he did it through the preaching of the apostles, the everyday witness of church members and their common life of love. But He did it.”
2. He added to their number those being saved: “Salvation and church membership went together; they still do.”
3. The Lord did both these things “daily” or day by day. “Their witness was as continuous as their worship. And the Lord honored it…

“We urgently need to return to this eager expectation. I know some churches which haven’t had a convert for ten years or more. And if they got one, they wouldn’t know what to do with him, her or it. so extraordinary would this phenomenon appear to them! But the early church anticipated the arrival of new believers, and made provision for their nurture.”

Stott notes that the four marks are really about relationships

1. They were related to the Apostles
2. They were related to each other
3. They were related to God
4. They were related to the world outside

Some churches are sitting around and waiting on a Pentecost to happen as it did at the birth of the Church.

But what we need to do is seek the fullness, the direction and the power of the Holy Spirit. The then our churches will at least come close to the essentials of a living church in apostolic doctrin, loving fellowship, joyful worship and outgoing, ongoing evangelism.

The Living Church – Part 1

For my birthday I received a gift card to a local Christian Bookstore so I went and picked out a few books. The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor by John Stott (IVP, 2007) seemed like a good buy.

I respect John Stott as a doctrinally sound thinker enough to want to hear (read) what he has to say about these changing church times.  He is uniquely qualified as a worker for renewal and reform within the Church of England, not taking the easy road of separation, nor the easy road of compromise. His is a voice that speaks with authority backed by his near 90 years of life experience most of which as a Christian and Evangelical Preacher.

The book is framed utilizing 9 patterns identified in the analysis by Gibbs and Bolger called Emerging Churches (SPCK, 2006). These patterns make up the topic chapters of the book.

Chapters Are:

1. Essentials: God’s Vision for His Church
2. Worship: Glorying in God’s Holy Name
3. Evangelism: Mission Through the Local Church
4. Ministry: The Twelve and the Seven
5. Fellowship: The Implications of Koinonia
6. Preaching: Five Paradoxes
7. Giving: Ten Principles
8. Impact: Salt and Lght
9. Conclusion

I am hoping to provide a review of each chapter in subsequent posts.

Stott also highlight 3 specific ‘core’ patterns:

1. Identifying with the life (or way) of Jesus
2. Transforming Secular Space – rejecting the sacred-secular (dualism) divide
3. Living as Community

Stott notes these are nothing new to the church, but modernism has done much to interfere and erode these core patterns which are historically essential characteristics of any healthy, growing, effective church.

Stott compares Modernism and Postmodernism in simple terms:

Modernism: Proclaims the cold objectivity of science and reason
Postmodernism: Prefers the warmth of subjective experience

Modernism: Committed in the quest for truth believing certainty is possible
Postmodernism: Committed to pluralism, affirming the equal validity of all ideologies, and tolerance as the supreme virtue

Modernism: Declares the inevitability of social progress
Postmodernism: Pricks the bubble of Utopian dreams

Modernism: Exalts self-centered individualism
Postmodernism: Seeks the togetherness of community

Modernism: Supremely self-confident, often guilty of that arrogant ambition the Greeks called hubris.
Postmodernism: Humble enough to question everything, for it lacks confidence in anything.

In my own thinking I have not arrived at the conclusion that modernism and postmodernism are historical periods, but rather coincided through history when ever there are cultural chasms between one generation and the next. Stott seems to support that with the description of postmodernism being a parasitic attachment to modernism. The church of the 50’s struggled with the new rebellion then struggled with the hippie dropouts of the 60’s and70s until there was a rise of postmodernistic tendencies that rejected modernism and became culturally at war with it. Much like Stott is describing.

My observation is the church leadership of the Jesus Movement which reacted against the modernistic traditionalist has  morphed from their energizing and freeing flexibility in reaching the culture with the Gospel it could uncompromisingly give on the cultures own terms  into a modernistic hostile unchangableness which demands that the current culture meet the church on the church’s terms to receive the Gospel. Oddly enough they are becoming like those they broke away from. Historically this over and over proves true.

What has precipitated this avalanche of books [emergent, Purpose Driven, etc] is the sense that the church is increasingly out of tune with contemporary culture, and that unless it comes to terms with change, it faces extinction. Of course it will not die…. Yet alarming statistics warns us of the current crisis, and the language of “seismic” change enforces the situation.

It is not that the church’s calling is to ape the world, for it is called rather to develop a Christian counterculture. At the same time, we must listen to the world in order to be able to respond to them sensitively, though without compromise.

I am interested to see where he goes in some of these topics and his call for more established R.C. churches, not Roman Catholic…

…but for Radical Conservative churches – “conservative” in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but “radical” in relation to that combination of tradition and convention which we call “culture.”  Scripture is unchangable; culture is not. The purpose of this book is to bring together a number of characteristics of what I will call an authentic or living church, whether it calls itself “emerging” or not. I hope to show that these characteristics, being clearly biblical, must in some way be preserved.

Dispensational Hermeneutic Resource

Every now and again I find a site that is worth sharing.

This site is headed up by Tony Garland Th.M, Th.D. and features university/seminary level information from himself and others for self-study.

The neat thing about this site is the in depth nature of the tools and resources. The free 2 Volume commentary on Revelation, lessons on on Bible Interpretation and Issues in Hermeneutics is worth a visit alone. Other available resources and in depth introductions to Bible books will expose you to the dispensation hermeneutic and its application for interpretation.

http://www.spiritandtruth.org/

This quite is from their doctrine page that will give you a better understanding of their approach of interpretation

The Interpretation of Scripture

Though in some ways, interpretation of Scripture would not be considered ‘doctrine,’ yet it is extremely important as to the method that one approaches in the study of the Bible. In this sense, interpretation becomes an essential doctrinal issue.

‘Hermeneutics’ is the science of interpretation. There are evidences in both the Old and New Testaments as to the method that Biblical truth is to be interpreted. Conservative, normal, and literal hermeneutics takes a very tried and true approach to understanding the Bible that should include observation, interpretation, and application. It would argue for but one sense or meaning for each passage of Scripture. As well, normative hermeneutics leaves no room for a new ‘complementary hermeneutics’ approach in the popularly labeled system of Progressive Dispensationalism.

Though taking the Word of God literally, and at face value, in classical hermeneutics there is room for poetry, figures of speech, illustrations, types, and symbols. But these literary devices do not take away from the foundational or normal interpretative understanding of Biblical truth. Normal interpretation also argues for progressive revelation, i.e., that the Holy Spirit over a period of time revealed certain truths in a progressive fashion. For example, the revelation of Jesus Christ starts in Genesis but is not fully complete until the book of Revelation. Literal interpretation is in opposition to allegorical interpretation. Though the Apostle Paul in Galatians ‘creates’ an allegory in order to make an isolated point or illustration (Gal. 4:21-26), allegory as a system is but an unacceptable philosophical approach to understanding the Word of God. It is clearly contrary to proper Biblical interpretation.

(Luke 1:1-4; 24:35, 44-46, 48; Acts 10:8; 17:11-12; 26:6-7, 26-27)

Give me some feedback and comments on what you find there if you find it helpful or not. a

RB: Chapter 5 – Of the Obedience of Disciples

Rule of St Benedict Chapter 5

The first degree of humility is obedience without delay.

Obedience. A word that makes one cringe ever so much. It grinds against the very pride of man to rule himself and his destiny. Benedict says to us here, “the first degree of humility” that is the first identifiable mark of humility is obedience that is an outflow of an already submitted will that doesn’t consider is own desire and wants.  This is  “unhesitating obedience, which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all.” (RB1980 Liturguical Press).

The lesson is quite simple, if God has placed an authority over one then does it not stand to reason to disobey that authority, even in thought, is to be likewise toward Christ Himself, indeed the Father also!

He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me. Luke 10:16

This is where true humility is put to the test and false humility will be easily revealed. Christ is our perfect example of obedience leaving His place in Heaven by His own will,  to do the will of the One who sends Him. In Him we must imitate what He has shown us in action yes, but also in the very fiber of who we are in Christ. His example was even evidenced in His willful obedience not only to the One who sent Him, but also willful obedience to delegated authority such as that of the Sanhedrin in legal proceeding and even to the wicked dictates of Pontius Pilate authenticating Pilot’s authority by acknowledging Pilate would have no authority except that which given by God Himself! How that kicks against our human nature and how offensive to our pride to even consider submitting to the delegated authority of one such as Pilate. Yes! This we are called to do (Rom 13).

If the disciple obey with ill-will, and murmur, not only in words, but also in heart, although he fulfil what is commanded him, it will not be acceptable to God, Who considereth the heart of the murmurer. For such a work he shall not have any reward, but rather incurreth the penalty of murmurers, unless he amend and make satisfaction.

God looks deep into the heart of a man to see that it isn’t the act of obedience that meets with approval but the heart from which the result finds its true origin. Any man can be compelled ever so gently through persuasion or ever so forcefully through torture to submit unto obedience. True godly submission, however, is  a ready, willing, unhestitating attitude of the heart leaving true Christlike obedience the first evidence of humility and an act of love toward the One who has first loved us.