Sunday, April 08, 2007
'Spirit of wisdom and revelation'
By The Erudite Redneck
When Mama died, I found myself grieving not only for her, but for my dad, who died in 1989. Double whammy.
Dr. ER left, and although it's temporary, I find myself not only missing her but missing Bird, who in this emotional mess I'm in, is still "Baby Bird." It hit me this morning on the way to church. She's not here to hide eggs for!
Now, we all had a little mini-Easter last weekend. And yesterday I bought myself a hamlet, some predeviled eggs and a dessert and some other things for today, and a chocolate rabbit, the ears of which were gone by the time of the first "Moses, Moses" last night.
But I miss Mama, who was the anchor of my own first family, and I miss Dr. ER, who is the anchor of my own little family.
But there's hope. There's always hope, which is not the same as optimism, and there's faith, which is not the same as superstition, and there's love, the perfect expression of which, in Yeshua of Nazareth, casts out fear and soothes sadness.
The Prayer of Confession this morning at this church:
Lord of Life, we come to this day knowing that it is not just another Sunday. It is our High Holy Day. We know that churches are crowded today, and that the music will be joyous. But we also know that the world is in need of healing and hope, and that we must do more than celebrate an ancient claim made by others. We must live the hope of the Resurrection. We must become Easter People. In the risen name of Christ we pray, Amen!
xxxxxxxxxx
"Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day"
by Josh Tittenberg, age 16
From the NPR "This I believe" series
A snippet: "I believe that ... that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated; when the Middle East will find peace and Africa grain, and the Cubs win the World Series -- probably only once. I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16."
Read, or listen to, it all.
xxxxxxxxxx
A friend and I were e-mailing about "sanctification" yesterday, generally regarded, I guess, as the next step after Christian "salvation."
I wrote to him:
At root, my own is this: It, like salvation itself, is wholly a gift from God through Christ, unmerited and unearned; to detect it in others is impossible; to assume that changes wrought in one's own life should be the same in others' life is a selfish assumption; the first fruit of sanctification, however, is the desire and ability to repent; repentance means turning from sin; all sin, at root, is based on living life on one's own, without God. That's all just off the top o' my head.
I asked him his concept, and he wrote back: "To become more like Christ."
Well, yeah. And then on the way to church this morning, I was think about what I'd written, and how I probably need to update some of my ideas of theology.
What *do* I believe about "sanctification," which is just a label for "what happens, in this life, to one who believes in and tries to follow Christ"?
And this is where it gets spooky, in a real Holy Spirity kind of way. It turns out that the Scripture reading this morning, from Ephesians, is a kind of summation of sanctification as I see it now. But first ...
Just this minute, I was looking on the United Church of Christ's Web site for some summary of "salvation." Here it is, as-is, from Ephesians: "God's Plan of Salvation." That's Ephesians 1: 3-14.
Now, here's the Scripture reading from church, which happened to be Ephesians 1: 15-18:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints ...
The bold part, that's sanctification.
A blessed Easter to all: He has risen.
Or, to put it in redneckese: "He done got up and hauled it out of here!"
--ER
When Mama died, I found myself grieving not only for her, but for my dad, who died in 1989. Double whammy.
Dr. ER left, and although it's temporary, I find myself not only missing her but missing Bird, who in this emotional mess I'm in, is still "Baby Bird." It hit me this morning on the way to church. She's not here to hide eggs for!
Now, we all had a little mini-Easter last weekend. And yesterday I bought myself a hamlet, some predeviled eggs and a dessert and some other things for today, and a chocolate rabbit, the ears of which were gone by the time of the first "Moses, Moses" last night.
But I miss Mama, who was the anchor of my own first family, and I miss Dr. ER, who is the anchor of my own little family.
But there's hope. There's always hope, which is not the same as optimism, and there's faith, which is not the same as superstition, and there's love, the perfect expression of which, in Yeshua of Nazareth, casts out fear and soothes sadness.
The Prayer of Confession this morning at this church:
Lord of Life, we come to this day knowing that it is not just another Sunday. It is our High Holy Day. We know that churches are crowded today, and that the music will be joyous. But we also know that the world is in need of healing and hope, and that we must do more than celebrate an ancient claim made by others. We must live the hope of the Resurrection. We must become Easter People. In the risen name of Christ we pray, Amen!
xxxxxxxxxx
"Tomorrow Will Be a Better Day"
by Josh Tittenberg, age 16
From the NPR "This I believe" series
A snippet: "I believe that ... that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated; when the Middle East will find peace and Africa grain, and the Cubs win the World Series -- probably only once. I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16."
Read, or listen to, it all.
xxxxxxxxxx
A friend and I were e-mailing about "sanctification" yesterday, generally regarded, I guess, as the next step after Christian "salvation."
I wrote to him:
At root, my own is this: It, like salvation itself, is wholly a gift from God through Christ, unmerited and unearned; to detect it in others is impossible; to assume that changes wrought in one's own life should be the same in others' life is a selfish assumption; the first fruit of sanctification, however, is the desire and ability to repent; repentance means turning from sin; all sin, at root, is based on living life on one's own, without God. That's all just off the top o' my head.
I asked him his concept, and he wrote back: "To become more like Christ."
Well, yeah. And then on the way to church this morning, I was think about what I'd written, and how I probably need to update some of my ideas of theology.
What *do* I believe about "sanctification," which is just a label for "what happens, in this life, to one who believes in and tries to follow Christ"?
And this is where it gets spooky, in a real Holy Spirity kind of way. It turns out that the Scripture reading this morning, from Ephesians, is a kind of summation of sanctification as I see it now. But first ...
Just this minute, I was looking on the United Church of Christ's Web site for some summary of "salvation." Here it is, as-is, from Ephesians: "God's Plan of Salvation." That's Ephesians 1: 3-14.
Now, here's the Scripture reading from church, which happened to be Ephesians 1: 15-18:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints ...
The bold part, that's sanctification.
A blessed Easter to all: He has risen.
Or, to put it in redneckese: "He done got up and hauled it out of here!"
--ER
Comments:
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Hey Er,
I went to visit the resting place
of your sweet momma and daddy. It
was on the way to see my sweet momma.
I too was missing alot of things.
It was the 1st Easter with out my
babies. They were with their dad.
I did get to see them at church.
But they then went on to spend the
day with his family. It got me
more than I thought it would.
I did spend the day with my family.
Which did help. :-)
Jeannie Diane
I went to visit the resting place
of your sweet momma and daddy. It
was on the way to see my sweet momma.
I too was missing alot of things.
It was the 1st Easter with out my
babies. They were with their dad.
I did get to see them at church.
But they then went on to spend the
day with his family. It got me
more than I thought it would.
I did spend the day with my family.
Which did help. :-)
Jeannie Diane
# posted by 
: 7:49 AM
: 7:49 AM
Such a posting as this has so much to respond to. So I'll just pick "sanctification". Given my actual name, as you know it, I am by history sanctified. In truth I am not sure that there is such a state of being as being sanctified. Yes the Egyptions and Greeks and Zorastrians, et. al. believed in it. One clue to its non-existance is that so many have sought it for so long that it almost means anything. As your sources indicate it is associated with pain and with bliss and with sadness and with joy. The only common denominator is that it "sets apart" its recipiants. I have always believed that salvation was a merging not a seperation. Sactification is based on the dichotomy of good and evil, them and us, on the dualism of light and dark. I may have to spend a few more years on it to understand it.
# posted by : 8:02 AM
: 8:02 AM
Re, "pain and with bliss and with sadness and with joy" -- that sounds like a summation of Jesus's life and the Christ experience, speaking dichotomically, of course.
Re, "set apart" -- but in Christian theology, sanctification basically means "set apart" from lost humanity as preparation for unification with God -- or, reunification, which fits in with the notion of salvation as merger rather than separation.
(BTW), Dr. ER has blogged again, and Fenway & Apollo were super cute with their Easter post.)
Re, "set apart" -- but in Christian theology, sanctification basically means "set apart" from lost humanity as preparation for unification with God -- or, reunification, which fits in with the notion of salvation as merger rather than separation.
(BTW), Dr. ER has blogged again, and Fenway & Apollo were super cute with their Easter post.)
But isn't santification the act of becoming Holy? If only God is Holy, then merging with God makes you Holy. But the concept of sactification means to be set apart. Apart from the world, earthly things, you say? But
God is not set apart from the world, the world is contained with him. So to be sactified is a paradox or maybe better, it is an oxymoron. We use words so loosely. The difference just between the term sanctification as uswed in the Roman Church, the Baptist, the Lutheren, and the LDS are so vast as to be unreconcilable. Much more so when cast afield into other "non-Christ-related" religions. So who is sactified?
God is not set apart from the world, the world is contained with him. So to be sactified is a paradox or maybe better, it is an oxymoron. We use words so loosely. The difference just between the term sanctification as uswed in the Roman Church, the Baptist, the Lutheren, and the LDS are so vast as to be unreconcilable. Much more so when cast afield into other "non-Christ-related" religions. So who is sactified?
# posted by : 9:40 AM
: 9:40 AM
Re, "God is not set apart from the world, the world is contained with him" -- this is an assertion and an idea not shared with traditional, mainstream Christianity. Not that I let that kind of thing bother me.
Re, "So who is sanctified"? -- my answer (at the moment): those who work to deny themselves, to seek God and to love Him and their neighbors as themselves.
Re, "So who is sanctified"? -- my answer (at the moment): those who work to deny themselves, to seek God and to love Him and their neighbors as themselves.
That last statement is an excellent non-Lutheran but Protestant version of "sactification". But your first statement in the top of the blog was an excellent Lutheran definition of "sactification".
# posted by : 3:59 PM
: 3:59 PM
It's not faith OR works.
It's faith AND works.
One stems from the other, and vice versa -- and that's very Baptist of me, at least the Baptists of my youth.
I'm ecumenical that way. :-)
It's faith AND works.
One stems from the other, and vice versa -- and that's very Baptist of me, at least the Baptists of my youth.
I'm ecumenical that way. :-)
Hope you had a good Easter....sanctification is the process of the Holy Spirit where we become more and more like Christ...Spirit does the work of conviction, leading us to repentance, leading us to hate sin with a smidgen of the same hatred that God has for it. That's how Scripture lays it out...peace in the southeast
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