Form versus function

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Tim Archer

As I read through the comments this week, I couldn’t help but think about a missiological principle, that of form vs. function. It has to do with what is done and why it is done.

We know that. We do. We feel comfortable substituting the holy kiss with the warm handshake. We look at John 13 and say that Jesus was teaching about service, not creating a new act of worship through washing feet. Many people feel that “raising holy hands” can be accomplished with the heart. [Sometimes we misuse the word "cultural" by saying "That's just cultural."]

There are other areas where we feel that the form and function are inseparable. Most feel that pizza and Sprite aren’t suitable replacements for the elements of the Lord’s Supper. Most members of the churches of Christ feel that water is an intrinsic part of baptism, to such a degree that the term “water baptism” sounds foreign to our ears.

How do we decide? How do we know when fulfilling the function is enough and when to insist on the exact form?

Posted in Biblical interpretation | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

System of grace

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Tim Archer

Not much time to write, but I wanted to throw this into the discussion we’re having this week. Years ago, I heard Dan Coker say, “Many of the church’s problems arise because men try to take a system of grace and turn it into a system of law.”

How fair is that? How do we avoid turning grace into law while still seeking to have an obedient faith? Are statements like Dan’s no more than an attempt to avoid law altogether?

Posted in Grace | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Goats and cheeseburgers

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Tim Archer

Years ago, my family and I were in Buenos Aires. While there, we went to the Abasto Shopping Center. There we saw something we’d never seen: a Kosher McDonald’s. (It’s the only one outside of Israel)

What makes a McDonald’s kosher? Well, among other things, there are no dairy products on site. Exodus 23:19, 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21 say, “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Broad interpretation of these verses forbids all mixture of meat and dairy.

The prohibition about cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk seemingly had to do with a fertility rite that was common in Canaan. The Law was addressing a specific practice from a specific historical context. It really wasn’t written to keep you from having cheese on your Big Mac.

As we look at biblical texts, we need to remember that they have a context, they have an original purpose which may not be identical to our purposes.

We need to remember that laws about not cooking baby goats in their mother’s milk shouldn’t be applied to cheeseburgers.

Posted in Biblical interpretation | Tagged , | 4 Comments

God’s Law

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Tim Archer

The first five books of the Old Testament are known as the books of the Law. Among other things, they contain the commands of the Law which Moses gave to the people. It wasn’t just Moses, of course. This was God’s law for His people.

The Law addresses everything from routine matters of daily life to specific ordinances for worship. We see an example of this in Leviticus 2:

“When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the LORD’s food offerings. “When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the LORD, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the LORD’s food offerings. “No grain offering that you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the LORD. As an offering of firstfruits you may bring them to the LORD, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Leviticus 2:1–13)

No guesswork is involved here. No reading between the lines. No necessary inferences. No Encyclopedia Brown hermeneutic.

When God wants to specify something, He knows how to specify.

Posted in Biblical interpretation | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Repost: Great Songs of Me and Honest Hymns

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Tim Archer

Great Songs of MeA few years ago, for a sermon, I came up with a list of hymns for the egotist. Here are some of the ones I thought of:

  • How Great I Art
  • Now I Lift My Name on High
  • I Exalt Me
  • I Need Me Every Hour
  • I Love Me Lord
  • Just As I Want
  • Just a Little Talk With Myself
  • O, To Be Like Me
  • Praise Me! Praise Me!
  • There is None Like Me
  • Let Me Have My Way With Me
  • Have Mine Own Way

This of course plays off of an old list of “honest songs” that has made it around the Internet:

  • A Comfy Mattress Is Our God
  • Above Average is Thy Faithfulness
  • All Hail the Influence of Jesus’ Name
  • Amazing Grace, How Interesting the Sound
  • Be Thou My Hobby
  • Blessed Hunch
  • Blest Be the Tie That Doesn’t Cramp My Style
  • Fill My Spoon, Lord
  • Go Tell It on the Speed Bump
  • God of Taste, and God of Stories
  • He’s Quite a Bit to Me
  • I Lay My Inappropriate Behavior on Jesus
  • I Love to Talk About Telling the Story
  • I Surrender Some
  • I’m Fairly Certain That My Redeemer Lives
  • It Is My Secret What God Can Do
  • Joyful, Joyful, We Kinda Like Thee
  • Just As I Pretend to Be
  • Lift Every Voice and Intellectualize
  • My Faith Looks Around for Thee
  • My Hope is Built on Nothing Much
  • O, God, Our Enabler in Ages Past
  • Oh, for a Couple of Tongues to Sing
  • Oh, How I Like Jesus
  • Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me
  • Praise God From Whom All Affirmations Flow
  • Self-Esteem to the World! The Lord is Come
  • Sit Up, Sit Up for Jesus
  • Special, Special, Special
  • Spirit of the Living God, Fall Somewhere Near Me
  • Stick Nearby, It’s Getting Dark Outside
  • Sweet Five Minutes of Prayer
  • Take My Life and Let Me Be
  • There Is Scattered Cloudiness in My Soul Today
  • There Shall Be Sprinkles of Blessings
  • We Are Milling Around in the Light of God
  • We Give Thee but Still Think We Own
  • What an Acquaintance We Have in Jesus
  • When Peace, Like a Trickle
  • When the Saints Go Sneaking In
  • Where He Leads Me, I Will Consider Following

Want to add to the list?

Posted in Humor | Tagged | 3 Comments