The Craw

A tribute to Emerging Whiskers

There seems to be one thing that unites those who are a part of the emergent church movement...ridiculous facial hair. I can almost hear a Ted Kennedy redux in my noggin, "Mr. Bork, what is up with that beard?" Yes, now Judge Bork (with that neck hair thing) is fully emergent church compliant (ECC). So now, without further ado, the facial hair that moved a generation!

Here in exhibit #1 we see the "Metropolitan." Hearkening back to the high Prussian dukes of the end of the 19th Century this set of fuzz can easily be sported to your local coffee/poetry house. "Dude, I really, really dig Dostoevsky..hey did someone just steal my biscotti!?!"

Neo Amish

This is one that seems no be making a big smash with the younger pastoral set. "Hey auslander, where's the local hookah bar?"

The Lounger

Observe here the beautiful "Lounge Lizard." For the jazzy pulpiteer who quotes liberally from John of Damascus and Thelonius Monk.

The Dead Rabbit

Here is a set o' fur that is a cross between an 1850 "Five Points" Irish gangsta and the Reformed Pastor.

This is my Body, This is my Blood

I have been reading through Matthison's "Given for You: Reclaiming Calvin's Doctrine of the Lord's Supper" and have found it a surprinsingly good read. Not that I thought it would be bad but it was nice to see a popular Evangelical writer (with a forward by R.C. Sproul, Sr.) come out swinging for J.W. Nevin against Charles Hodge. If for no other reason, the book is a great refresher to hit up Calvin's sacramental theology and the Mercersburg theology from another angle. I like this quote he takes from Nevin's "Mystical Presence" regarding the "spirit of the sect" and rationalism which he says share many features (p. 145):

Both systems are antagonistic to the idea of the Church. Both are disposed to trample underfoot the authority of history. Both make the objective to be nothing, and the subjective to be all in all. Both undervalue the outward, in favor of what they conceive to be the inward. Both despise forms, under the pretext of exalting the spirit. Both of course sink the sacraments to the character of mere outward rites; or possibly deny their neccessity altogether.

So the next time you hear a minister tap dance around what you are or are not consuming at the Eucharist, remember the church is truly, though not carnally, partaking of the body and blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are partaking, in Calvin's words, through the mouth of the soul. It is an objective supper of suprasubstantiation not an art exhibit to be admired from afar in our hearts.

Minasan

Here's my whole set. My folks, my brothers and their spouses, and my niece and nephew. The whole Clan Craw. Nice Celtic name but everyone gets confused when they see us Hapa Haole's and our fams.

Here we are at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Branson...Woo-Hoo!

Deal with This

Los Angeles is the vaunted crown jewel of church-planting. Particularly in Presbyterian circles. It is assumed that some sort of hyper-contemporary ancient/future model is the ticket, but is this taking into account the demographic facts? First of all, as can be seen by this chart, Los Angeles is now overwhelmingly Hispanic with a large concentration of Asians and a diminishing White and Black population. So who are these people and what would resonate with them?

Well, first of all, the biggest new group is non-English speakers who originate from heavily argrarian regions of Latin America and Asia. So our super-cool Powerpoint techno rap worship model might not work. Secondly, they come from Roman Catholic or Buddhist backgrounds and so a liturgical model like this would probably work well. As Reformed folk this should not be a stretch. If I hear another white Presbyterian choir singing black spirituals or making salsa caliente praise choruses I'm gonna cry!

But there's another major group, Chicanos. This group is made up of 2nd generation and on of Mexican-Americans. But you can throw in 2nd generation Asians and other Latin Americans. Why? Because they aren't that different from any other American and there is a whole mess of them in LA. Everybody's raised on MTV and Sesame Street but they are often clouded in the mysteries of the "multi-ethnic."  In order to reach this huge group you need, in my opinion, to do only one thing. Do what you would do to reach any other postmodern American. Present the Body of Christ in all its historic robustness.

So before we crack out the congas and kotos maybe we ought crank up the pipe organ and sing the "Lorica."

Lost in the Details

Boy, the Parson Horne is on a roll. This post on his blog really hits the nail on the head about reading the Bible. We have turned the Word of God itself into a "sytstematic theology" by dividing it into chapter and verse and using it as a repository of proof texts.

I recently watched an ordination exam (a very ordinary exam) where the candidate was asked to rattle off a whole string of proof texts. The pattern normally goes something like this:

Examiner: "Jesus' high priestly prayer?" Candidate: "Uh, John 17."  Examiner: "Baking with human dung?"  Candidate: "Hmm, wow...uh, Ezekiel 5?" Examiner: "Sorry son, its Ezekiel 4."

But how do the great biblical theologians handle proof texting?

Exhibit A:  Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "' You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"

Exhibit B: Hebrews 2:6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?

The imprecision is appalling...unless the point is to know and love God's Word rather than knowing all "about it." We need to get caught up in the story and not just study the text. There is a time for studying the text but we are called to love the God who gave the text to us and for us. We could spend all of our time getting lost in the owner's manual without ever getting onto the SeaDoo and taking a ride.

A Different Life

It was twenty years ago now. A young man was embarking on a career as a Devil Dog. He was preparing for a life of adventure and danger...a life without Christ. If you would have told me twenty years ago what things the Lord God had in store for me I would have scoffed in disbelief. But He will do what He will do and He never ceases to amaze us as we participate in the greatest adventure known to mankind, the unfolding of the reign and dominion of King Jesus.

Paedo-Communion...Boo!

Mark Horne has a nice little piece here on the big boogeyman, paedocommunion. He is not arguing one way or another but articulates the fact that it is not a doctrine that was invented at a certain church in Monroe, LA sometime in the early 21st Century. Its worth a look.