My Head Hurts

My head hurts. I started reading an online debate posted on Al Maxey’s website between Al and Darrell Broking. The topic of the debate was “Patternism,” the idea that the NT is a specific blueprint or pattern that determines every aspect of Christianity so that every church will look pretty much alike in every detail. OK, by the way I described the topic, you can tell I’m not a subscriber to that idea. The reason I started reading the debate was an email sent to Al and posted in his Reflections (a weekly email post that I read). Al posts all of his emails-- supporters, detractors and all in-between. Most of the emails aren’t quite so vitriolic as this one--

Al, you are lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut and just as venomous. Hypocrite!! Judgment is coming, and the Hell you deny is awfully hot! It is pretty clear that you belong to the postmodernistic Emerging Church Movement, or the "Church of Make-Believe." You all write about "grace," "the cross," and "love," but you actually root none of these concepts or items in New Testament teaching. You've merely co-opted the imagery to fool folks into accepting your leadership on your journey into theological oblivion and subsequently into the abyss. Blind leader of the blind!! Folks like you are Socialists and Marxists in their social views as well, which is where you will eventually wind up - in the political camp with the far left of the Democratic Party. You're all a bunch of half-baked, ultra-ultra-liberal New Age hippie freak-types who have more in common with the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus and the Nazi Martin Heidegger. By the way, Al, the Nazi Heidegger, your philosophical godfather, says "Sieg Heil" to you in your bunker! We were close to the truth about you when we were ragging on you about the military.

Well, isn’t that special! Can you believe anyone would respond to someone with whom they disagree in such a juvenile, infantile rant?  Would anyone see this as Christlike behavior? Did Jesus say, "They will know you are my disciples by the vehemence and ugliness with which you nail heretics?  No, Jesus said something about love, a topic the author of th email evidently doesn't much appreciate.

Sadly, the author of this paragraph isn’t a ten year-old in need of some serious woodshed time but rather a preacher in our area.  Evidently there aren't enough heretics nearby to root out (he disfellowshipped us several years ago), so he had to go after Al Maxey some 2000 miles away in Alamogordo, New Mexico.  So many heretics, so little time!

What’s the point of bringing this up on my blog? Well, I spent so much time reading through the debate that I might as well get a blog for my trouble… and not just a headache.

Excessive Celebration

I’ve mentioned Al Maxey several times in this blog.  If you aren’t subscribed to his Reflections email, you should be.  Al occasionally makes mincemeat our of some of our Church of Christ sacred cows, and he does God’s kingdom (and especially our little corner of it) a great service in the process.  He was also the first preacher I ever heard preacher who wasn’t wearing a tie (he was in a Hawaiian shirt… he was also in Hawaii), so I liked him before he ever said anything!

In this week’s installment of Reflections, he takes to task a preacher who was taking liberal churches to task for the highly offensive practice of... applauding at baptisms.   Players in the NFL sometimes get penalized for “excessive celebration.”  To clapp and cheer when someone gives their life to Christ and has their sins washed away is excessive celebration that has no place in church!

Al points to the celebration at the homecoming of the Prodigal Son where they was music and dancing because the lost was found and the dead was alive again (Luke 15:24).  This is the joy that is expressed in heaven when the lost one comes home (Luke 15:7,10).  It is the kind of joy expressed by the Ethiopian Eunuch who “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).  It is hard to see why expressing that joy together in the assembly would be inappropriate.  On the contrary, it is inappropriate not to express joy!

Why would anyone be so critical of spontaneous applause of approval and joy when someone is baptized?  It is basically seen as a worldly violation of worship protocol that is neither decent nor in order.  Al quotes from the preacher (named John Waddey)--

"One way to respond to those trying to justify their practice is to ask if they would applaud at their mother's funeral. If not, why? Would they have applauded at Christ's death and burial? Why not? Baptism is a symbolic re-enactment of the death and burial of Jesus Christ. Is that an appropriate time for applause?"

Waddey rightly points out that baptism is a sacred of reenactment of Jesus death and burial.  But then no one claps (in my experience) when someone goes into the water.  In our experience here at Denbigh, applause break out when the person comes UP OUT OF THE WATER! Baptism is also a picture of Jesus’ resurrection and our resurrection from sin into a new life.  So Al responds to the funeral analogy like this-- 

Waddey wondered if someone would actually dare to applaud at their mother's funeral. John, if she rose up out of that coffin ... YES, I would applaud. God help me, I might even shout and leap into the air! Should we express great joy (as do the angels in heaven) when someone arises from the watery grave? If not, why not, John?! For those who are offended and distracted by such expressions of joy over a brother brought to life, there is ample room outside the Father's house in the darkness with the elder brother! He didn't care for the celebration either!

Amen! I don’t believe that excessive celebration is one of the problems that we have in church… following baptisms or at any other time!

O Fill My Cup

I don’t know whether anyone out there in Blogville gets Al Maxey’s e-newsletter Reflections. Each month there is a long article by Al that appears in Reflections, and all of the articles are posted on his website. Many of his articles, though by no means all, raise questions about some of our traditions in Churches of Christ. Such is the case in the issues I received yesterday.

As you may know, there is a branch of our movement that practices communion with only one cup. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. I have been places that used one cup to emphasize the unity of the church in communion, though I was careful to make sure I sat on the front row so I got the first sip. (In was also wine rather than grape juice; a little germ killer “for thy stomach sake” isn’t a bad idea in such a setting). The problem is that these brothers and sisters insist that one cup is the only right way to do communion. Multiple cups are sinful.

Maxey’s article points to a publication called The Old Paths Advocate (which he renames Odd Paths Advocate) that raised the question of whether or not it was scriptural to refill the one cup during communion. The question was, “What should be done if the assembly proved too large to be able to commune together from the cup normally used by the congregation?” The Old Paths writer points to an elder who decided that the cup could be refilled and then communion continued from that point. That elder argued that as long as one cup was used, it could be refilled as often as was necessary to serve everyone. But this was heresy to the writer in Old Paths Advocate. I'm not making this up; here are his words--

Where is the Bible passage that either explicitly or implicitly authorizes a congregation to refill the cup and continue with the distribution of the fruit of the vine at the place in the assembly where the first cup was exhausted? There is no such scripture… We do not intend to consider even for a moment the idea of 'refilling the cup in an emergency' as described in this article. Such would entail sin and digression. We will not, must not, countenance such a corruption of the Lord's Supper. Uncertain sounds concerning the doctrine of Christ cannot be tolerated.

I thought I had LONG AGO run across all the strange ideas and practices that my religious tradition has come up with in an effort to be scriptural, but this one is a new one to me! I kept waiting for there to punch line in there somewhere. I had a professor who liked to say, “Some positions are so absurd that they must only be stated to be refuted.” This one qualifies, I think.

God calls us to be faithful to Him, and it is through scripture that He reveals His will to us. But continual arguments and divisions over logical nuance has caused more harm to the church than any direct attack of Satan. Paul warns Timothy to warn his people (and us) about such issues, “Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen” (2 Timothy 2:14). And later he says to Timothy, “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23).

So if you will excuse me, my coffee cup is empty and I need to go refill it… if that is OK!

A Good Day

Yesterday was good day. I must admit that it seemed a bit like I spent most of it “goofing off,” but maybe that’s why I thought it was a good day! The elders had the responsibility for most of the service yesterday morning as they presented their vision for our Denbigh church family. I did the call to worship, the closing blessing and the communion devotional, so I wasn’t exactly goofing off, but the “pressure” was all on them. Bob Bean did a wonderful job presenting the vision statement, and all the elders led us closer to God as they led us in prayer. If you missed the presentation, you can read their vision statement here.

I goofed off again last night as our guest speaker was Rick Atchley of the Richland Hills church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. OK, so we really watched Rick on a DVD, but it was great nonetheless. It get an email bulletin called “Reflections” every week or so from Al Maxey, a preacher in Alamogordo, New Mexico. If you haven’t seen any of Al’s “Reflections” articles, you need to check out his web site. Al fell all over himself recommending a sermon by Rick Atchley entitled “Learning Division” as both an explanation and response to some of our struggles for unity and with disunity over the years. So I decided to invest $5… and it was the best $5 I’ve ever spent! If you weren’t able to be here Sunday night, you need to get this DVD. You can borrow the one from here (I’m waiting to hear from Richland Hills if it’s OK to make copies) or order straight from Richland Hills.

Is it possible for us to remain faithful to our Church of Christ heritage while at the same time pursuing and promoting unity among all believers in Christ? Can we maintain a firm grasp on who we are and have been as a distinct people while at the same time reaching out to fellowship others who also stand at the foot of the cross who have not stood in our specific camp? I think both our elder’s vision statement and Rick’s sermon last night showed us that this is indeed possible. Of course, the old saying is “the devil is always in the details.” But we need to see that in reality, the devil is really ignoring the call to unity even though the details at times can get messy!

It's April 1, No Fooling

I thought for awhile about coming up with some totally bizarre and unbelievable story for the blog today, like “Elder’s meeting lasts 15 minutes.” Then I would end it by saying, “April fools!” Sadly, I am cursed with a total lack of creativity this morning. So I’ll opt with one of those “truth is stranger than fiction” posts. I was 10 minutes late getting to work this morning because I had to take a slight detour by the post office. Last night I loaded TurboTax onto the computer so that it would be ready for me to do Tressa’s taxes tonight. Well, one thing led to another, and before I knew it—our taxes were done and mailed them off this morning! Usually, I don’t load the software until April 15, just in time to print out an extension. Dan Hawley and I joke about which of us puts it off the longest. I don’t know what came over me last night! Sorry Dan, I let you down this year.

Something else comes April 1-- It is now THIS month! According to the countdown timer on my Google Gadgets sidebar, there are 22 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes until we leave for our annual trip to the Pepperdine Lectures (we’re spending the 3 days before the lectures in Palm Springs this year instead of our usual Pismo Beach). Another indication that it is getting close to time for the trip is the increasing difficulty I have getting on my computer at home. The closer we get to Pepperdine, the longer Lynn is on the computer reading the lecture schedule, researching the trip, and trying to decide what the weather is going to be so that she’ll know what to pack. Of course, she usually ends up taking everything regardless of the weather. It’s not that we look forward to the trip. Well, OK, maybe just a little.

Quote for the day. This comes from Al Maxey, who has come to be one of my heroes. We writes a weakly email treatise called “Reflections.” Al has a great way of exploring and explaining issues in great detail. So here’s the quote—

I doubt there are many disciples of Christ who can truthfully say they are in 100% agreement with every other disciple in their congregation. I'm not sure there are even any two disciples who are in total agreement on everything taught in Scripture. Yet, we are ready to fight and/or flee over just about anything. This is truly a great tragedy. Our unity in Christ ought to be more enduring than that; it shouldn't crumble whenever two people/groups differ. But, it does ... and when it does, Satan wins yet another battle, and the Body of Christ is weakened just that much more.