controversy

Jesus used controversy to engage the religious elite. It’s odd that some of us who aspire to follow Jesus sometimes (often?) fall into the same sort of closed-system thought that afflicted the Pharisees. Perhaps paradoxically, following Jesus involves an ongoing openness to changing ones own current opinions about what it means to follow Jesus!

music & worship

In the Seventies I led the singing for a youth Bible study. A few years later, it became acceptable to play those types of songs in church services. In the Eighties I joined a church where there was a rock band instead of an organ.

Over the years we shorthanded the phrase, “A sequence of songs about our relationship with God that helps facilitate an atmosphere conducive to a collective experience something we identify as worship” into “Worship”. At first it was just a convenience of language; we knew the music was not actually worship – or at least it was not the sum total of worship.

But over the years our linguistic laziness contributed to a serious error; one that seems to be common to most of the “contemporary worship” movement. We began to equate our 20-ish minutes of singing with worship itself. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a handful of dopey little songs!

The first few sentences of the twelfth chapter of Romans contain some of the most important insights available to us on the subject of Christian worship. This passage forms a “hinge” that connects the two essential elements of Paul’s theology: 1) the Gospel achieved by God; 2) the Gospel applied by us.

“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give Him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed. Thus you will prove in practice that the will of God is good, acceptable to him and perfect.”
Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12:1-2 (Phillips – Revised Edition)

One of our principle works of faith is to abide in the moment of transformation, remaining open to change and continually yielding to realignment with the Spirit of Christ. We must return again and again to God’s mercies, with our eyes wide in wonder at the endless interventions of grace into our lives.

Music is uniquely effective in both softening and empowering us to worship. Music isn’t worship, but it is a pivot-point where the whole human soul (physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual) can turn toward God.

Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

Teachable

Cognitive Flexibility means taking a “bend, don’t break” approach to beliefs. It is to be teachable.

In 2nd Timothy 2:24-25 Paul writes, “…the servant of the Lord must not engender strife, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those in opposition.”
(21st Century King James Version)

Complimenting the explicit phrase “apt to teach” is the implicit characteristic of “apt to learn”.

Perhaps it’s slightly counterintuitive, but maintaining a teachable mindset calls for fearlessness. The fear of being wrong and – even worse! – going public with it by changing my attitudes, opinions, and ideologies is frequently enough to keep me from becoming genuinely open to new ideas.

I suspect that cognitive flexibility is at least as difficult to cultivate as physical flexibility. Stretching is a uniquely irksome form of pain. Sometimes I have to remind myself of why this intention is important in my quest to more fully engage my life. But, as with my body, I want my intellect to enjoy the entire range of motion for which it was designed.


Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

clay resoftened

Modeling clay becomes cold and hard after a few days of no touch. It has to be patiently warmed and softened in order to return to responsiveness. My hands learned the process a long time ago; the rhythm, heat, and fragrance of transformation are still present to me. Squeezing, pressing, folding... renewing the tactile bond between the clay and my skin... settling into creative interaction.

I used to waste time feeling guilty in moments of awareness that I’d again become hard clay. Now I try to respond with gratitude to that awareness as though it is the Spirit’s touch, initiating a new session of softening. It’s an invitation to change and creativity.

river (part two)

Riverbanks make a river possible. Limitations facilitate flow.

Riverbanks aren’t absolutely rigid; they aren’t permanently fixed. Flow affects limitations.

The reciprocity of a river and its banks teaches me things about the paradoxes of faith-life: focused and flowing -- settled and questing...

The current is power, direction, intention, movement... submitting to boundaries.

The banks are shape, form, structure, support... organic and malleable, responding to the stream of change.

river (part one)

Has a more inspiring description of worship ever been conceived than Ezekiel 47:1-12?

Water flows from under the altar, out of the temple, increasing exponentially until it is a great river. It flows eastward into the Dead Sea, transforming the brine into freshwater. (Interestingly, the marshes are left salty; presumably as a source of preservative and seasoning.)

The formerly “dead” sea becomes as full of fish as the Mediterranean. The riverbanks are lined with trees bearing nutritional and medicinal fruit. The picture is of lavish abundance – of fullness and healing.

This transformative power floods from the temple - the iconic center of worship in Ezekiel’s culture. He’s portraying a world profoundly changed by, and a way of life instigated and sustained by worship.

ebb and flow

"Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: 'It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.' You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life; by your love I am sustained; and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love.

My only real temptation is to doubt in your love, to think of myself as beyond the reach of your love, to remove myself from the healing radiance of your love. To do these things is to move into the darkness of despair.

O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let me know that there is ebb and flow but that the sea remains the sea. Amen."

Henri Nouwen
From A Cry for Mercy

Unplowed

“Sow for yourselves righteousness’
Reap the fruit of unfailing love,
And break up the unplowed ground;
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”
Hosea 10:12 (NIV)

Unplowed ground is a picture of the lifelessness that comes from being hardened in our ways.

Humility keeps us soft enough for God’s seeds of change to take root in our lives.