September 2007

Greetings to all on 7 SEP 2007

Word for the Day
Transubstantiation - Over the last thirty years, Anglicans and Roman Catholics, in spite of many obstacles, have produced an Agreed Statement on the Eucharist, which attests ... that Transubstantiation is an important symbol for belief in the fact that Christ, as he says in his word of Institution in the Lord’s Supper, changes common bread and wine into the Sacrament of his life-giving Body and Blood ... there is a change which brings about the Objective Real Presence of Christ in the Elements of Bread and Wine. The fact is that Anglicans, Lutherans, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox (and a few other mainstream Christians as well) believe in this Objective Real Presence. [1]

Quote for the Day
It’s no wonder that Christ sacramentalized our need for food and drink in the Lord’s Supper using hunger and thirst to point us to better fare. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me,” Jesus told a hungry crowd early in his ministry, “and I in him” (John 6.56). In our effort to distance ourselves from the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, we Protestants have understood these claims primarily in negative terms. We spend so much energy emphasizing what Jesus does not mean that his words fail to whet our appetite. But the positive symbolism of the Lord’s Supper is powerful; Christ alone can satisfy. Christ alone can sustain. All that we hunger for must be found in him. [2]

Website for the Day
www.terryrush.blogspot.com
Please forgive if I’ve used this before, but I highly recommend it. Read the entry for Saturday 25 August for some thought-provoking stuff.

Thought for the Day
I have been studying the Jewish teaching style called midrash. A common technique is to unite two seemingly unrelated texts to generate discussion and make an application. Today, we will consider two polar passages.

Have you ever felt like a load of guilt or shame was removed from your soul? We all have skeletons suspended in our closet, things we don’t even want our closest friend or spouse to know. My hope and prayer is that you have been able to break the cycle of sin - repentance - shame and accept the healing that God provides. What a wonderful feeling to be set free from both the sin and the shame!

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Ruach HaKodesh from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. [PSA 51.1-12]

Hyssop is a desert plant that was used in tanning leather and cleaning bones, similar to lye soap. [3] David is begging to be given an “acid wash” rather than the bubble bath that we may imagine to remove his guilt. Sometimes, that may be what we require also. Despite the severity of the cleansing process, David was restored. And we can be also.

In fact, we have the only rabbi who will take us back after we have denied him. Jesus says, “whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven” thereby acknowledging that no rabbi would take back a talmid who publicly denied his rabbi.[MAT 10.33] But wait, didn’t Peter deny Jesus three times? And, yet, Jesus sought out and welcomed back Peter. What a beautiful contradiction.

Have you ever experienced the shame (of the world) for following Jesus? Perhaps you did what was right when no one else did. Maybe you were ridiculed for speaking out against social injustice. I have known people who felt the shame and rejection of the world from their own fellowship because they dared to teach as one with authority and not as the status quo teachers. But didn’t Jesus go against the status quo also?

Sometimes he removes our shame for his purposes. Remember Elizabeth who said that “Adonai has done this for me; he has shown me favor at this time, so as to remove my public disgrace.” [LUK 1.25] On the other hand, he may bring shame upon us for his purposes. Remember Mary, of whom it was said that “Joseph, a man who did what was right; made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame.” [MAT 1.19] We know that he did not break the engagement, and so she was subjected to public shame in order to deliver the Son of Man. And God’s work in us may sometimes bring the shame of the world upon us.

What a beautiful contradiction!

May God Bless
Mike Toole
Lori Moores, ed.

1. Rev. Andrew C. Mead, http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/Sermons/sermon20020530.html

2. John Koessler, Eat, Drink, and be Hungry, Christianity Today, August 2007, p.36

3. Ray Vander Laan, Lessons from www.followtherabbi.com