In his classic study of Bible and the Liturgy , Jean Danielou asks how we are to interpret sacramental signs. Do they “possess only the natural significance of the element or of the gesture . . . water washes, bread nourishes, oil heals”? Or do they “possess a special . . . . Continue Reading »
Matthew 5:23: If you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Jesus says that whoever is angry with his . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 42:2-3: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. As Pastor Sumpter has . . . . Continue Reading »
God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul. To say we are living souls is not to say that we have a ghost hiding inside the machine of our bodies. Living souls are bundles of desires, creatures moved by hungers and thirsts. Our desires don’t lead us in the right . . . . Continue Reading »
1 Corinthians 10:16-17: Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf. Today, the communion bread is being . . . . Continue Reading »
Some of you may have noticed during the past week: Lent is controversial. It is controversial partly because Christians have long abused it, partly because some see Lent as a symbolic boundary between Protestant and Catholic. Most of the Reformers retained Lent, but gave it a dramatically new form. . . . . Continue Reading »
Barth described theology as “an act of penitence and obedience” that works through “an attitude of prayer.” And he kept that Lenten image of theology before him by hanging a copy of the Isenheim Altarpiece over his desk. Matthew Boulton explains this in his God Against . . . . Continue Reading »
In her fascinating The Reformation of Ritual: An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany , Susan Karant-Nunn notes that Protestants in Germany continued to observe some traditional medieval Lenten prohibitions: “Night weddings, except for people of high rank, were widely prohibited. In Saxony, . . . . Continue Reading »
Bryan Spinks summarizes some of the debates concerning the Book of Common Prayer in his essay in The Oxford History of Christian Worship . During 1549, Parliament considered the adoption of a uniform liturgy for the church of England, and this event was recorded by Charles Wriothesley: “at . . . . Continue Reading »
Nathan Mitchell points out in his essay in The Oxford History of Christian Worship that “just as Luther wanted to retain Lent, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week (though not their obligatory fasts and ceremonial ‘trickery’), so he wanted all liturgy to ‘center in the Word and . . . . Continue Reading »
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