bobjots : redux

Remembering those who have gone before us on this day, the Festival of All Saints :

Almighty God,

You have knit your people together in one communion in the mystical body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you,

Through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.

Amen

My pastor sent me this image from The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus. Apparently he thought it was appropriate, perhaps for more reasons than one. I think some of you would think so too :

And some good reads for Reformation Day which falls tomorrow :

The 31st of October is commemorated every year in many churches of the Lutheran tradition (and some of the Reformed tradition) as Reformation Day. Translated into Malay, this would be Hari Reformasi .. hehe .. interesting connotations eh? Interestingly, Reformation Day is a civic holiday in Slovenia despite the population of that country being primarily Roman Catholic - go figure :)

Scuttlebutt has it that on this day in 1517 (a mere half a decade after the establishment of the Johor-Riau Sultanate - which is today the Johor Sultanate and one of the successor states of the Malacca Sultanate), an Augustinian monk and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, the Rev'd Fr. Dr. Martin Luther, nailed a collection of points for debate.

Having spent more than half of my life as a Christian in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, I have been blessed by the constant reminder of the reality and presence of the third person in the Trinity; the Holy Spirit; in one's daily lives - the power and life changing Spirit that manifests himself or herself through signs, wonders and the miraculous in this day and age.

If one actually does take the trouble to read up on what a lot of Pentecostal and charismatic theologians (Amos Yong is one person who come to mind) have to say about the Holy Spirit, we will find a very different picture of God in action among us today than is normally presented to us from the pulpit and popular teachers and writers. In popular Pentecostal and charismatic imaginations, the Holy Spirit; while seemingly alive and vibrant; seems to be limited in the area of signs and wonders only .. and occasionally as the "divine oracle".

An excerpt from the Order of Daily Prayer as adapted by Lutheran Zephyr from the forms of the Responsive Prayers in the various major Lutheran worship books :

Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal,
have mercy and hear us.

Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.

Gottesdienst is a German word that roughly translates to "God service". Historically churches which belong to the Lutheran tradition used a form of liturgy known as the Gottesdienst or Divine Service in English.

It has its roots from Martin Luther's revision of the Latin mass that was in use by the Western Church then and was published as the Deutsche Messe (download PDF'ed version here) or German Mass. Interestingly the Deutsche Messe was almost completely chanted, similiar to the contemporary Pre-Tridentine (pre Council of Trent that was held from 1545 to 1563) Latin mass, apart from the sermon.

Are you a blogger? Do you wear your faith on your sleeve? Do you identify with or belong to a congregation that subscribes or derives her beliefs on the Christian faith from the formulations of the Augsburg Confession and the other credal documents contained within the Book of Concord? In short, are you a Lutheran blogger? If you are, stand up and be counted.

I made a little 120 x 120 button that you can see on the right navigation bar of my blog. As you can see, it isn't linked to anything yet (although I might be linking it to the Lutheran Blog Directory later). In this age and time, when we Christians tend to focus on individualism, it might be a good idea to have an occasional reminder as to what keeps us together.

You can put it up on your blog and link it to this entry temporarily by putting up this code snippet :

<a href="http://www.bobjots.org/2007/09/lutherans_who_blog.php" target="_blank"><img src="your_server_location/lutheran_bloggers.png" border="0" alt="Lutherans Who Blog"></a>

I'd appreciate it if you could save a copy of the image on your own server (hover your mouse button over the image and right click, the select Save Image As) rather than link the image directly from this server. I'd also appreciate if you could drop a comment here or contact me if you have put it up so that I can get in touch with you if I set up a directory or blogroll.

Another timely reminder was received in my e-mail today, especially after the wonderful conversation I had last night with the wonderful folks last night of a spiritual formation group hosted by Bangsar Lutheran Church. The message can be summed up as follows :

'The Apostles (church leaders) didn’t have time to do everything, but focused on prayer and teaching. The aim is not to turn all church leaders into social workers. We’re not replacing theology with sociology – although both are helpful. But, in teaching the whole word of God, the Jerusalem church promoted and supported holistic mission, meeting both spiritual and physical needs. This became a normal and integral part of local church life. The resulting mission had dramatic results - spreading God’s word, increasing the number of disciples and obedient church leaders.'

I have had the opportunity for some level of retrospection in my public call to Christians; particularly those who are Malaysians; to come out in support of the Tamil daily, Makkal Osai, in the wake of their suspension by the Ministry of Internal Security. The suspension came about after Makkal Osai published; in what they later said was totally accidental and have apologised for; a doctored icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus where Jesus is seen holding on to a cigarrette and a can of beer.

I felt strongly about this as a Christian leader publicly called for the banning of the publication despite their apology and went to justify it on the basis of a precedent being set in the suspension and subsequent folding of another daily, The Sarawak Tribune, after they reproduced a set of cartoons that depicted the Prophet Muhammad offensively. This, I felt, was very inconsistent with the basis of Christian teachings which calls Christians; among other things; to :

Again, Shane Claiborne has some good ideas to share :

Some additional resources on the Christian perspective on social justice can be found here but before you proceed ..

With an estimated one billion children suffering from extreme deprivation today, it is more vital than ever that we pray. Although the problems facing children have never been more serious, we believe in a God of hope, who is greater than any of these things. He tells us to "be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (Rom 12:12), and we come to him this weekend in response to that call.

This Sunday (June 3, 2007), Bangsar Lutheran Church joins Viva Network and other Christians all over the world to pray together for God’s hope and healing to transform life for the desperately poor, the orphaned, the exploited and the neglected. Pray that the reality of who God is will touch children’s hearts, bringing peace and joy to those who feel hopeless and afraid.

To blog about thoughts on:

• PKR Congress
• Lina Joy Verdict
• Whats The Point Of Going To Church

.. Arminian: While you love me and have a wonderful plan for my life, I have the power to resist your will. If I did not, love would not be possible. For our relationship to be loving it needs to include the possibility of breaking up--something I am doing right now ..

.. New Perspective on Paul Scholar: Rather than earning God's blessing, it is established on the basis of our covenant courtship (I asked your dad to date you didn't I?) which requires the proper response of an intentional and deliberate pursuit of marriage. Yet there is no such pursuit, therefore God's blessing on or relationship is no longer maintained ..

.. Emergent: The question if whether we are in relationship or not is mired in Modernity's obsession with propositional truth. A better a way to look at this is to enter into God's story about how he lead us together and is now leading us apart ..

.. Lutheran: I want our relationship to continue, but first there are a few things about you that God wants to change. Here is a list of 95 that I made. What? OK, then, I guess we're done ..

As some of you might already know, I recently made a decision to join the Lutheran tradition. The congregation I go to is very small compared to my last one .. along the lines of 3% of the size of the latter congregation. To have an idea of the general size of the congregation, my membership transfer certificate bears the serial number; BLC 0045. My wife got number 46. Average weekly attendance during Sunday worship would be roughly about double that amount.

Via the padre ...

What type of Christian are you?
Lutheran You are a Lutheran and a true Reformer! You don't want to give up the traditions of early Christianity, but you have to be able to find it in the Bible at least somewhere. Ordination is important but not enough to effect the operations of the Church. The Holy Communion Liturgy is probably a big issue in your congregation and there are a lot of opinions as to how often it should be celebrated. You don't pray for your dead, not really anyway. You do a lot of remembering the dead though. You like to pray together in formalized ways but at home you like to pray using your own words.
Take The Quiz Now!	Quizzes by myYearbook.com

Wow .. the result came out as a surprise. Have I really shifted so much over the years?

I just wrote this in the About Page for a new site I'm working on and thought I'd cross post it here just for the heck of it ..

So why would a good Protestant even want to bother with the Apocrypha? Before I even answer that, there are a few points I want to make :