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Worship as a place of deep bonding attachment
In the incarnation, God unites with our humanity in Jesus Christ. . . . Reflection on the incarnation and its connection to every aspect of God’s story is the missing link in today’s theological reflection and worship. The link is found in these words: God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. . . . God himself, the incarnate Word, takes up residence (unites) with our fallen self so that he, God, now as a man, can reverse the human condition.
Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 35-36
While certainly this quote is about the significance of Story in worship, I see something else here. It's the issue of attachment. This notion of "God himself, the incarnate Word, [taking] up residence (uniting) with our fallen self" in order to reverse the human condition. We speak of worship as a place of intimacy, which is often a "feeling" oriented word. And I in no way want to minimize the importance of feeling in worship. Feeling is a fruit of what is really happening. The real issue, I think, is the deep emotional bonding that can take place in worship, creating a healthy and whole secure attachment to God and others.
So often, worship conveys the idea that the reversal of the human condition is up to us. In the way we lift up the Son of God, we often unwittingly set him up as a distant object, an ideal, that we are to try an conform our life to. This makes the focus more about behavior than identity which fosters legalism and keeps us locked in the pride-shame cycle. All the while, we are like child-slaves who thirst for the promised freedom of adoption. And isn't this the essence of sin and addiction and every other vice-- searching for freedom in false solutions.
This worshipful dwelling in the deep bonded place of attachment is what forms our true identity. Think about baptism-- going under the water, united with him in his death, enacting our own death, and coming out of the womb-like water alive in his life, raised in his resurrection. Discipleship becomes learning how to abide in this place all the time. posted by John David Walt | at 9/19/2008 09:42:00 PM | 7 comments
Monday, September 15, 2008
FARMStrong Fall Season
It's time to get moving again here on FARMStrong. Three big ideas: STORY. TRINITY. WORLD. Each of them like massive doors opening into the grand cathedral of worship. My thoughts about worship will most often enter into the conversation through one of these doors. If you are interested in the prior conversation along any of these lines, you can click on the appropriate tab and catch up. I repeat myself often, though trying to practice what I call "creative redundancy." ;-)
I am working to effect three major shifts in thinking about worship. Most worship I see and experience is designed around an abstract theme. Much of the worship I see and experience is Unitarian in its approach and most worship I see and experience is oriented around preparation for mission instead of mission itself. So here are the big shifts:
From Theme to Story
From Unitarian to Trinitarian
From Preparation to Missional
I will shoot for two to three posts a week and treasure your comment engagement and interaction. Thanks for joining me here. I welcome you to share this conversation and invite others to join. In addition I will be working off-line to do some farm-improvement work on the blog. It's got a long way to go, but we've come so far. In November we will celebrate entry into our 5th year of blogging. It all started with a single post. Any thoughts you have on improvements or enhancements of the site-- cool tools, widgets, stuff I don't know about and stuff I can't live without-- give me a comment.
artwork by Teresa VanderMolen-- taken from our Fall KingdomTide Reader
Labels: worship
posted by John David Walt | at 9/15/2008 05:30:00 PM | 4 comments
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The many faces of worship FARMStrong is making a comeback soon. It's been a pretty steep start-up season with seminary. We are getting over the hump and soon I will get back to the worship conversations. So much to report and talk about. For now, enjoy this short clip-- one of the many faces of worship out there expanding the Kingdom. Hat Tip to my friend, Big T Kirkendal.
posted by John David Walt | at 9/10/2008 09:39:00 PM | 6 comments
Friday, September 05, 2008
Twittering the Word of God
Have you delved into the KingdomTide Reader yet? (for those of you who requested a print copy, they are in the mail) As part of the Common Text initiative, we are trying a new experiment with Scripture and social networking. Are you familiar with Twitter yet? Twitter is a quite simple social networking tool whereby friends follow one another's lives throughout the day. For some Twitter seems a complete waste of time and yet for others it becomes a profound practice of being mindful of one another and staying connected in the ordinary stuff of life.
The Hebrew vision, which is to say the biblical vision, is that of a Word-Shaped World. Down through the ages, the people of God have been pretty creative with how that actually happens. From writing it on hands, binding it to foreheads, posting it on gates and doorposts and so on, the quest is to create a way of life steeped in the living remembrance of our God. As the psalmist says, "and on his law he meditates day and night."
Christians early on picked up the Hebrew pattern of praying seven times a day. Somewhere along the way these hours of remembrance and prayer took on simple names. Lauds (dawn), Terce (3rd hour, 9am), Sext (sixth hour, noon), None (9th hour, 3pm), Vespers (dusk, evening), Compline (dark, retiring), Vigils (middle of the night).
Enter Twitter. We're calling this particular Common Text Experiment, "Twiturgy." At each of the seven "hours" everyone who participates in the experiment will receive a "twitter" from "Twiturgy" containing a short phrase of Scripture from the day's reading. It will be delivered via the internet to your computer account, your cell phone (smart-phones) or through an ordinary text message per your election.
Here's how to get involved. Go to Twitter.com. Sign up for a free account (takes 1 minute). Type in "twiturgy" in the search box at the top middle section of the screen. When twiturgy comes up click on follow. It's that simple. Beyond this you can use twiturgy as extensively or as little as you like. If you would like twitter to text your phone with the updates, click on settings and then devices and follow the instructions. (hint: the us international prefix is 1).
Give it a try. Cultivating mindfulness of God's Word. What could be a better use of our time or our text! We will check in later to learn about the impact. It's another way the Common Text Project seeks to bring together ancient practices and post-modern means to cultivate a sustainable life of grace. posted by John David Walt | at 9/05/2008 02:26:00 PM | 2 comments
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
KingdomTide Reader Is Here
I want to invite you into a season of Reading Scripture with me. It's a season we call "KingdomTide," occurring between the day of Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent. Between now and the end of November (i.e. beginning of Advent) the community I serve, Asbury Theological Seminary, will be reading Scripture together in a daily fashion. If you'd like a hard copy of the reader please put your name and address in the form of a comment and we will send you one. The reader will be available online here. I encourage you to scroll down to September 1 and read read my opening essay to get more of a sense of what we are up to with this project. We've been at it for several years now and are growing both in depth and worldwide reach. Please join in as another way of sharing the Kingdom together.
More worship conversations coming soon.
posted by John David Walt | at 9/03/2008 06:23:00 AM
| 10 comments
Today...