Today in chapel there was what people like to call "liturgical dancing." By this I mean 4 people wearing white went on stage and danced to a song with the intention of conveying theological meaning.
As we were gearing up for chapel my friend Chad and I were wondering about the development of dance in the liturgy. I confess that I haven't really researched it but it seems to me that this must (save for probably some isolated instances) be a very very late development in the worshiping life of the Church.
As Chad and i pondered this we thought that maybe there was some use of dance, though not in the liturgy proper, in some of the early Christian meetings as sort of a hold-over from Judaism. But we figured that the current form of dancing probably comes from late, post-reformation roots - maybe around German pietism or later Celtic Christianity. If this is a correct assertion (which has yet to be proven) I wonder if this use of interpretive dance comes from syncretism with Druidic (which is was today's dance looked like) and other folk groups in those areas.
All wondering about development aside, what purpose does "liturgical" dance serve? First off the name is a complete misnomer. Sure it may be technically part of the "work of the people" and whatnot, but it seems to me that it really doesn't fit with the liturgical history of the Church as a whole.
It almost seems that the Protestant church is trying to harness dance and the other arts but that they really have no foundation for how to use art and/or convey theology through art because when they reacted against Rome they stripped the church of art, thus throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath-water.
I'm not really sure what point I'm making here. In fact, I find this post to be very scattered and incoherent. My excuse is that I'm tired and that I'm trying to read through David Bradshaw's book Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom today.
All that to say that I struggled with liturgical dance when I first encountered it in high school, I mildly accepted it out of a generous attitude in college and now that I understand the development and purpose of liturgy and the church service I find that it doesn't really fit. I would appreciate some thoughts and some suggestions on this issue. Maybe I'm narrow-minded, or maybe I'm just overlooking something. Shoot, maybe I'm right and you can help me articulate why.
- Ben
Showing posts with label Asbury Chapel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asbury Chapel. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thursday, November 01, 2007
On the Eucharist
I'm lying in bed tonight and I just can't sleep until I post this so it'll be quick. As I was lying in my bed I couldn't help but think about the day and how it was a great day. While it may be the great weather, the fact that I didn't do anything, or any combination therein, I firmly believe it is because today I had the Eucharist for the first time since the summer in Duluth.
Surely God must meet us in this Holy Sacrament. I can't explain it fully, but my countenance is lifted, my heart is more joyous, and my outlook is more positive than it has been in weeks (a much needed thing). Glory to God forever for giving us this Holy Gift - for giving us himself in this glorious actions.
Oh, that I could avail myself of this grace more often than once a week!!
I know that I'm firmly alienating myself from most of protestantism with these thoughts, but I can't deny the clear teaching of the Church for centuries and I can't deny my experience today.
Glory, praise, and thanksgiving to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!! Amen.
Surely God must meet us in this Holy Sacrament. I can't explain it fully, but my countenance is lifted, my heart is more joyous, and my outlook is more positive than it has been in weeks (a much needed thing). Glory to God forever for giving us this Holy Gift - for giving us himself in this glorious actions.
Oh, that I could avail myself of this grace more often than once a week!!
I know that I'm firmly alienating myself from most of protestantism with these thoughts, but I can't deny the clear teaching of the Church for centuries and I can't deny my experience today.
Glory, praise, and thanksgiving to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!! Amen.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Misappropriating the Incarnation?
I'm not really in the mood to blog right now, so this post (as have so many others) may be lacking in coherence and a well formulated argument, but I will post it nevertheless because it helps me to process things verbally (or in this case through typing).
We recently had Kingdom Conference on campus which is basically the Seminary's attempt at a four day mission conference nestled in the "church season" they like to call KingdomTide. (We'll avoid my soapbox diatribe against KingdomTide for now).
The topic of this conference was rethinking short-term missions and how we can do them well. I think this is a very important topic because so often short-term mission trips turn into vacations with just enough 'ministry' to ease the guilt of taking a vacation. We also want to avoid what my friend Eric Iverson from Youthworks calls "pimping poor people," or in some cases 'pimping the nationals' we go to work with. We want to make sure we do some good and we want to make sure that we are not only sticking a band-aid on the infection, but that we're treating the cause as well. We want to make lasting changes and almost work ourselves and our missionary friends out of a job. I'm not sure if I explained that well, but either way it's more of an aside and not the topic I wanted to discuss. (Don't you just love my flow of consciousness writing style?)
Given the topic we had a speaker in chapel that lectured on improving short-term missions. Our speaker was Dr. Miriam Adeney, a professor at Seattle Pacific, who was a fairly good speaker. I liked most of her points but during one of her lectures she said something that I remember thinking was a very poor analogy at best. In her effort to emphasize making long-term connections through short-term missions she said "What if Jesus had dropped in on earth for only two weeks?" This seemed to me to be an odd analogy and I remember taking some issue with it when she said it. I didn't really get too worked up over her comment until I saw it listed as the "Heard Around Campus" quote of the week from last week. I guess it seems that someone (and since they put it in there, I'm assuming multiple someones) thought that it was a very profound statement.
While it is a good point in that Jesus didn't just "drop in" and we should cherish that because the incarnation is absolutely essential to our salvation and for knowing the mind and the heart of God. It seems to me that she is just citing an extreme case to make a small point about missions. Maybe this is just a type of logical fallacy (and as I type this I think it is, but I can't remember it) or maybe this could be a form of Godwin's Law. To be sure, I have been guilty of such errors (regrettably too often in conversation) but this analogy just seems wrong to me and I'm having trouble articulating it. Maybe I'm not making sense but it just seems to me that placing relationship building in short-term missions (or in any sense) on the same level with the Holy Incarnation is just too extreme of an analogy. It bothers me even more that students (or at least one student) thinks this to be worthy of the quote of the week. Doesn't it bother anyone else that we just use the incarnation as a means to justify almost anything. The incarnation is one of the most glorious things and we treat it as though it were just an example that we should draw from when we want to make our argument fool-proof.
I'm not saying that I disagree with Dr. Adeney's points, I'm just disagree with her argument style/example. Maybe I wouldn't be so quick to point this out if I didn't think that we deified community here at Asbury. Maybe you're thinking that that last statement may indeed be the exact same fallacy that I'm arguing against, but I don't think it is, because I've heard some discussions (many of which come out of the chapel office) that make it seem (and I really think it is the case) that the seminary is more concerned with making sure our students value community than it is that they value and rightly think on the incarnation, the Trinity, or a plethora of other essential doctrines of the Church.
Maybe I'm making a bid deal out of nothing, but maybe these comments by Dr. Adeney and their glorification by the student(s) is just the tip of a bigger problem that is well entrenched in Western Christendom.
- Ben
We recently had Kingdom Conference on campus which is basically the Seminary's attempt at a four day mission conference nestled in the "church season" they like to call KingdomTide. (We'll avoid my soapbox diatribe against KingdomTide for now).
The topic of this conference was rethinking short-term missions and how we can do them well. I think this is a very important topic because so often short-term mission trips turn into vacations with just enough 'ministry' to ease the guilt of taking a vacation. We also want to avoid what my friend Eric Iverson from Youthworks calls "pimping poor people," or in some cases 'pimping the nationals' we go to work with. We want to make sure we do some good and we want to make sure that we are not only sticking a band-aid on the infection, but that we're treating the cause as well. We want to make lasting changes and almost work ourselves and our missionary friends out of a job. I'm not sure if I explained that well, but either way it's more of an aside and not the topic I wanted to discuss. (Don't you just love my flow of consciousness writing style?)
Given the topic we had a speaker in chapel that lectured on improving short-term missions. Our speaker was Dr. Miriam Adeney, a professor at Seattle Pacific, who was a fairly good speaker. I liked most of her points but during one of her lectures she said something that I remember thinking was a very poor analogy at best. In her effort to emphasize making long-term connections through short-term missions she said "What if Jesus had dropped in on earth for only two weeks?" This seemed to me to be an odd analogy and I remember taking some issue with it when she said it. I didn't really get too worked up over her comment until I saw it listed as the "Heard Around Campus" quote of the week from last week. I guess it seems that someone (and since they put it in there, I'm assuming multiple someones) thought that it was a very profound statement.
While it is a good point in that Jesus didn't just "drop in" and we should cherish that because the incarnation is absolutely essential to our salvation and for knowing the mind and the heart of God. It seems to me that she is just citing an extreme case to make a small point about missions. Maybe this is just a type of logical fallacy (and as I type this I think it is, but I can't remember it) or maybe this could be a form of Godwin's Law. To be sure, I have been guilty of such errors (regrettably too often in conversation) but this analogy just seems wrong to me and I'm having trouble articulating it. Maybe I'm not making sense but it just seems to me that placing relationship building in short-term missions (or in any sense) on the same level with the Holy Incarnation is just too extreme of an analogy. It bothers me even more that students (or at least one student) thinks this to be worthy of the quote of the week. Doesn't it bother anyone else that we just use the incarnation as a means to justify almost anything. The incarnation is one of the most glorious things and we treat it as though it were just an example that we should draw from when we want to make our argument fool-proof.
I'm not saying that I disagree with Dr. Adeney's points, I'm just disagree with her argument style/example. Maybe I wouldn't be so quick to point this out if I didn't think that we deified community here at Asbury. Maybe you're thinking that that last statement may indeed be the exact same fallacy that I'm arguing against, but I don't think it is, because I've heard some discussions (many of which come out of the chapel office) that make it seem (and I really think it is the case) that the seminary is more concerned with making sure our students value community than it is that they value and rightly think on the incarnation, the Trinity, or a plethora of other essential doctrines of the Church.
Maybe I'm making a bid deal out of nothing, but maybe these comments by Dr. Adeney and their glorification by the student(s) is just the tip of a bigger problem that is well entrenched in Western Christendom.
- Ben
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Christ Our God?!?
Over the past few weeks there has been one phrase from church that has been constantly on my mind - the phrase "Christ our God." This phrase is repeated numerous times during the Divine Liturgy and is very clear in it's meaning - namely that Christ is our God and we worship him.
For some reason over the past few weeks this phrase has stuck out to me more than usual and thus I have been forced to wrestle with it's profundity and simplicity. I have been forced to realize what it means to truly say that Christ is our God. To say that in a seemingly nonsensical sense that we worship a man, but not just a man, we worship a person who is both fully God and fully man.
This truth is something I will die for and yet it is something that although I try, I cannot fully understand and so I am forced to stand in the paradox of confident humility.
While this is indeed is a good meditation, it was not where I had planned to go with this post, so let me get back on track.
As I have thought and have been forced to meditate on this phrase I have been equally dismayed by it's absence from Protestant services. I think I first noticed this because when I first started to think on this phrase I felt slightly uncomfortable and began to analyze why. I then realized that I don't usually hear the phrase Christ our God in worship. As I thought I realized that while I may have conversations about Christ's divinity and would defend it in a theological debate any day, I never have really experienced protestant worship that verbalized Christ as God and the object of worship in a doxological sense.
Now, I realize that I am opening up myself for a great critique here as I'm sure one could find a few counterexamples and will believe that to suffice for a refutation of my assertion, but I disagree. Think about our worship services, for you Asburians think about our Chapel services (which, though they should be the exception are likely to fail even more than our churches) when was the last time that the service was thoroughly Trinitarian? When was the last time that a service was Christo-centric in the sense that it drew your worship toward Christ and caused you to bless, worship and affirm Christ as both God and man? Are our services Trinitarian - rarely. Are they Christo-centric - mostly, but this Christo-centrism seems to be a thin veil in front of bland and vague affirmations about God, rather than a specificity that is uniquely Christian and prayerfully meditative of Christ as the object of our worship - the fully divine, fully human , God-man.
Now, I am not fully opposed to songs of worship that are very concerned with the intimacy to be had between the Christian and Christ (love songs with Jesus, if you will), but these are not a proper starting place. We must start with the foundational faith and then allow room for mystical expression and intimate experiences.
We must do a better job at teaching our people the faith and for most this will not effectively happen in the classroom or the pulpit, but my making these truths essential parts or our worship both in song and prayer. If we continue on the path of only emphasizing the essential truths of the faith in classrooms and teaching them only to pastors then the faith will cease to be passed down to the coming generations.
The early fathers closely linked godliness with correct theology and action. We wonder why our people don't live righteously- could it not be that it is because they are not grounded in the Truth?
For some reason over the past few weeks this phrase has stuck out to me more than usual and thus I have been forced to wrestle with it's profundity and simplicity. I have been forced to realize what it means to truly say that Christ is our God. To say that in a seemingly nonsensical sense that we worship a man, but not just a man, we worship a person who is both fully God and fully man.
God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
- Athanasian Creed
This truth is something I will die for and yet it is something that although I try, I cannot fully understand and so I am forced to stand in the paradox of confident humility.
While this is indeed is a good meditation, it was not where I had planned to go with this post, so let me get back on track.
As I have thought and have been forced to meditate on this phrase I have been equally dismayed by it's absence from Protestant services. I think I first noticed this because when I first started to think on this phrase I felt slightly uncomfortable and began to analyze why. I then realized that I don't usually hear the phrase Christ our God in worship. As I thought I realized that while I may have conversations about Christ's divinity and would defend it in a theological debate any day, I never have really experienced protestant worship that verbalized Christ as God and the object of worship in a doxological sense.
Now, I realize that I am opening up myself for a great critique here as I'm sure one could find a few counterexamples and will believe that to suffice for a refutation of my assertion, but I disagree. Think about our worship services, for you Asburians think about our Chapel services (which, though they should be the exception are likely to fail even more than our churches) when was the last time that the service was thoroughly Trinitarian? When was the last time that a service was Christo-centric in the sense that it drew your worship toward Christ and caused you to bless, worship and affirm Christ as both God and man? Are our services Trinitarian - rarely. Are they Christo-centric - mostly, but this Christo-centrism seems to be a thin veil in front of bland and vague affirmations about God, rather than a specificity that is uniquely Christian and prayerfully meditative of Christ as the object of our worship - the fully divine, fully human , God-man.
Now, I am not fully opposed to songs of worship that are very concerned with the intimacy to be had between the Christian and Christ (love songs with Jesus, if you will), but these are not a proper starting place. We must start with the foundational faith and then allow room for mystical expression and intimate experiences.
We must do a better job at teaching our people the faith and for most this will not effectively happen in the classroom or the pulpit, but my making these truths essential parts or our worship both in song and prayer. If we continue on the path of only emphasizing the essential truths of the faith in classrooms and teaching them only to pastors then the faith will cease to be passed down to the coming generations.
The early fathers closely linked godliness with correct theology and action. We wonder why our people don't live righteously- could it not be that it is because they are not grounded in the Truth?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Did Easter really happen?
I believe so, but if you attended a recent chapel at Asbury Seminary you wouldn't be able to tell. I've never been to services that are more void of joy in the weeks following Easter in my life. I'm not sure what the problem is but the services are dry and joyless. There is no excitement when the leader says "Christ is risen" and there seems to be even less excitement when the people respond "He is risen indeed." When we sing song proclaiming the resurrection they are listless and flat. We celebrate the resurrection with our words but our physical expressions and our emotions don't attest to the fact that Christ is truly risen.
Could it be that the end of the year rush has gotten students down? Well if it is the case that school work can rob you of the joy of Christ being risen from the dead then I would wondering if you have any business being a pastor.
I'm not sure if this is the case but I wonder if the problem is with the chapel services themselves. I don't want to say this is definitive problem, but I would like to offer it as a possibility. It seems to me that lately in chapel we have misplaced our focus. Instead of focusing on the major things (i.e. CHRIST'S RESURRECTION) we decide to focus on music, call to worship creativity, and other things. It seems to me that we may be allowing ourselves to become blinded by things that should just be natural expressions.
Allow me to offer one example.
During lent I suggested, using the Orthodox Church as my example, that we not only proclaim "Christ is Risen" in English, but that we also proclaim it in other languages (ideally those that are represented in our seminary community). It seemed good to the group that this was a good idea and thus we decided to press forward with it and even got a banner made with all the languages. The problem is that somewhere between idea and praxis this small expression has blinded us. It seems that we are striving so hard to "make this work" and "get enough mileage our of it" that we are forcing the issue. It's almost as if it is a showcase and we're trying so hard to be intercultural that we are allowing it to be our focus rather than the joy of the resurrection which indeed allows us to proclaim that there is "no longer Jew nor Greek."
I think this idea is great but it seems that it only works when the the focus is absolutely on the Resurrection and not on the means to convey the truth of it. It seems that this problem of focusing on the means rather than the truth to be conveyed has been a protestant problem for such a long time, but I digress.
This is just one example. I am completely befuddled as to how a SEMINARY community to be so lackluster and joyless in the weeks following Easter. I shudder to think that many in this community are merely semester away from leading churches in the celebration of our Lord's resurrection.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm completely out of my mind but this is what I observe. Maybe I'm not observing correctly because I sit in the balcony running sound or maybe I'm just comparing this to the amazing joy and celebration that was had during the Pascha Vigil at my church. I'm not sure, but if what I am observing is correct then I am scared to death for the western protestant church.
May the Lord rekindle his people and fill them with joy for truly Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!!
Could it be that the end of the year rush has gotten students down? Well if it is the case that school work can rob you of the joy of Christ being risen from the dead then I would wondering if you have any business being a pastor.
I'm not sure if this is the case but I wonder if the problem is with the chapel services themselves. I don't want to say this is definitive problem, but I would like to offer it as a possibility. It seems to me that lately in chapel we have misplaced our focus. Instead of focusing on the major things (i.e. CHRIST'S RESURRECTION) we decide to focus on music, call to worship creativity, and other things. It seems to me that we may be allowing ourselves to become blinded by things that should just be natural expressions.
Allow me to offer one example.
During lent I suggested, using the Orthodox Church as my example, that we not only proclaim "Christ is Risen" in English, but that we also proclaim it in other languages (ideally those that are represented in our seminary community). It seemed good to the group that this was a good idea and thus we decided to press forward with it and even got a banner made with all the languages. The problem is that somewhere between idea and praxis this small expression has blinded us. It seems that we are striving so hard to "make this work" and "get enough mileage our of it" that we are forcing the issue. It's almost as if it is a showcase and we're trying so hard to be intercultural that we are allowing it to be our focus rather than the joy of the resurrection which indeed allows us to proclaim that there is "no longer Jew nor Greek."
I think this idea is great but it seems that it only works when the the focus is absolutely on the Resurrection and not on the means to convey the truth of it. It seems that this problem of focusing on the means rather than the truth to be conveyed has been a protestant problem for such a long time, but I digress.
This is just one example. I am completely befuddled as to how a SEMINARY community to be so lackluster and joyless in the weeks following Easter. I shudder to think that many in this community are merely semester away from leading churches in the celebration of our Lord's resurrection.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm completely out of my mind but this is what I observe. Maybe I'm not observing correctly because I sit in the balcony running sound or maybe I'm just comparing this to the amazing joy and celebration that was had during the Pascha Vigil at my church. I'm not sure, but if what I am observing is correct then I am scared to death for the western protestant church.
May the Lord rekindle his people and fill them with joy for truly Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!!
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Chapel at Asbury
Although I've only attended three chapel services here at Asbury (including the one I attended as a prospective) I can honestly say that they have each been some of the most precious times of corporate worship and fellowship that I have ever experienced. I really can't pinpoint it but each time I enter the chapel God has spoken to me in wonderful ways. Although the experience is more than emotional I am always brought to tears in one way or another. The Spirit of God is so powerful in that place when the Asbury community gathers to worship. There are no egos, there are no self-serving motives, there is only pure radiant passion for Holy Triune Godhead.
I can't even begin to explain how I feel every time I leave chapel here at Asbury. I don't leave chapel thinking "that was a good sermon" or "the worship was good," instead I leave chapel longing for all of my friends to be here with me to experience God the way that I have just experienced God. I leave thinking "God is awesome" or "I've just encountered a Holy God who loves me and I have been changed."
I know that three experiences shouldn't qualify as enough empirical evidence to make a statement like this, but I truly feel that the desire of the people here is for God and the Spirit of God is mighty in this place. I feel like every word is a word of truth spoken out of love. To abuse a phrase that I have quoted time and time again "My heart is strangely warmed" with the very words of the greeting or blessing.
I don't feel that I'm "learning something new" each chapel, but rather things that I have known are being made fresh and are piercing through to my heart. The new things I learn are indeed new and profound, but I don't feel overloaded with information, I feel broken and open before the Lord. I feel that he is present and the he is reaching down to embrace me.
Though chapel is the primary place that I feel this, I also feel this intimacy and the reign of the Spirit in various presidential weekly email addresses and other readings written by Asburians. I truly think that Asbury is succeeding in accomplishing its founding principle which is: "to prepare and send forth a well-trained sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry."
Now I'm not saying that some people don't fall through the cracks while at Asbury. I'm sure there are more than a few people here that are just going through the motions and that have wacked out theologies and ideas, but I still feel that the Spirit of God reigns in this place and in the lives of most of the seminarians here.
I am very confident that this is the place that I am suppose to be right now in my life. God is stretching me ministering to me in new ways. This place seems to be a good fit for me and I believe the reason for that to be because this is where I am called.
I don't say all this to brag on Asbury and to try and convince all my friends who are budding seminarians to come here. I just write all this because it is what God is doing around me, it is what he is speaking to me and it is how he is ministering to me.
There is truly no joy greater than to be in the will of God. For me, right now, it is to be at Asbury Theological Seminary. Maybe net year it will be something different, but for now I am here and am confident that this is the place that God has called me. Although I feared this was the wrong decision I am now assured that it is not.
May you all know God's calling on your life, may he speak his will to you and my you're joy be complete in being where he calls. Blessings to you my friends as you continue on your journeys.
Ben
I can't even begin to explain how I feel every time I leave chapel here at Asbury. I don't leave chapel thinking "that was a good sermon" or "the worship was good," instead I leave chapel longing for all of my friends to be here with me to experience God the way that I have just experienced God. I leave thinking "God is awesome" or "I've just encountered a Holy God who loves me and I have been changed."
I know that three experiences shouldn't qualify as enough empirical evidence to make a statement like this, but I truly feel that the desire of the people here is for God and the Spirit of God is mighty in this place. I feel like every word is a word of truth spoken out of love. To abuse a phrase that I have quoted time and time again "My heart is strangely warmed" with the very words of the greeting or blessing.
I don't feel that I'm "learning something new" each chapel, but rather things that I have known are being made fresh and are piercing through to my heart. The new things I learn are indeed new and profound, but I don't feel overloaded with information, I feel broken and open before the Lord. I feel that he is present and the he is reaching down to embrace me.
Though chapel is the primary place that I feel this, I also feel this intimacy and the reign of the Spirit in various presidential weekly email addresses and other readings written by Asburians. I truly think that Asbury is succeeding in accomplishing its founding principle which is: "to prepare and send forth a well-trained sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry."
Now I'm not saying that some people don't fall through the cracks while at Asbury. I'm sure there are more than a few people here that are just going through the motions and that have wacked out theologies and ideas, but I still feel that the Spirit of God reigns in this place and in the lives of most of the seminarians here.
I am very confident that this is the place that I am suppose to be right now in my life. God is stretching me ministering to me in new ways. This place seems to be a good fit for me and I believe the reason for that to be because this is where I am called.
I don't say all this to brag on Asbury and to try and convince all my friends who are budding seminarians to come here. I just write all this because it is what God is doing around me, it is what he is speaking to me and it is how he is ministering to me.
There is truly no joy greater than to be in the will of God. For me, right now, it is to be at Asbury Theological Seminary. Maybe net year it will be something different, but for now I am here and am confident that this is the place that God has called me. Although I feared this was the wrong decision I am now assured that it is not.
May you all know God's calling on your life, may he speak his will to you and my you're joy be complete in being where he calls. Blessings to you my friends as you continue on your journeys.
Ben
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