Blog - Page 271 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Finding Your Sweet Spot

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 10th, 2007|Categories: Books|

Max Lucado’s book Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot (Nelson: Nashville, 2005) is not a book for scholars. Lucado, in fact, is not a scholar at all. But he has written a wonderfully readable and immensely practical book. A friend gave it to me several months ago suggesting that it was his favorite “life-changing” book for 2006. I put it aside thinking at the time that I wouldn’t benefit that much from reading it. (I am quite sure that my pride shows forth abundantly when I conclude about a matter in this way.) I have always appreciated Max Lucado, at least as a clear and effective writer. He writes with an elegance and simplicity that I envy (not sinfully I think).

This easy-to-read book reasons that God gave each of us a uniqueness, a talent, or a carefully designed skill, something that is yours to develop and thus use to honor and serve him in the fullest sense. By using this personal uniqueness, which Lucado calls "finding your sweet spot" (a sports metaphor), you will fulfill your reason […]

Why Illness Does Not Define Me

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 9th, 2007|Categories: Personal|

I have endured a chronic illness since 1998. At times this illness has forced me to stop almost everything I thought I needed to do. This has been true at different various stages of my life since age 49. Last week I had to cancel a number of appointments and once again found this terribly hard to do. Saying "no" is a very hard thing for me to do. (I think this is a major flaw, not a heroic tendency in any sense of the word.)

I believe some people need to say "no" much more often in order to get to "yes." I am one such person. Maybe you can identify with me in some way. I am a people person, thus I like to get people’s appreciation, and I long to hear "well done" from my peers. I feel the sting of deeply personal opposition when I get it, which is sometimes quite often since I am a public person with public views.

I reflected deeply upon these personal issues over the days of Lent. I am profoundly […]

He is Risen

By John Armstrong|2007-04-08T16:45:32-05:00April 8th, 2007|Categories: Lordship of Christ|

Without the resurrection Christianity falls apart. With it the Church has a clear word that marks it and equips it to engage the entire world with a message of hope. I pray that you found today’s celebration of his resurrection a time of incredible joy filled with the gospel of peace. It brings to a close a long phase of the church year and opens up to us a whole new season to follow.

All Christians, East and West, celebrated Easter on the same date this year, which doesn’t happen too often. This fact, in itself, brought a sense of the unity of the church to my own mind today. May the Holy Spirit give all Christians a deeper experience of their inherent unity in the months ahead. Amen.

The Easter Vigil

By John Armstrong|2007-04-07T18:32:20-05:00April 7th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

Holy Saturday, or the Easter Vigil, is the seventh day, the day Christ rested in the tomb. In the synoptic accounts this day was clearly the Jewish Sabbath, which provided the early church with appropriate symbolism. The day is meant to be a quiet one since today the church remembers Christ dead and waiting for the great day of resurrection. There is no communion served on this day in Church history. It is also meant to be a day of darkness and remembrance. In a world of darkness we remember that there is no future without the hope which is linked to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

Traditionally the vigil allows the Church to remember those who have departed and who wait, with us, the resurrection. While Good Friday is traditionally a day of fasting most do not fast on this Saturday. However Christians observe this day Holy Saturday has always been a time of reflection and waiting, a time of weeping that lasts for a night while we await the joy that comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

In […]

A Good Friday Tenebrae Service

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:25-05:00April 7th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

The world of liturgical celebrations is, as I have noted, not the world I grew up in as a Christian. Only during the last ten years have I begun to value these traditions and how they touch both the body and soul powerfully. Good Friday evening brought a new term into my vocabulary, which to some readers will show my previous ignorance. (All one can do about ignorance is work at removing it once you see it. It is a good thing to do.)

The Good Friday service I attended last evening was a Tenebrae Service. The service included a liturgy built around the events of Good Friday. Various prayers of confession and contemplative music that was fitting to the solemnity of the evening were used. The hymns included: "My Faith Looks Up to Thee," "Ah, Holy Jesus," "Go to Dark Gethsemane," and "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" (I must wonder how some contemporary music could be suited for such an occasion but I am not passing judgment by asking the question since I still have more to learn.)
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One Unbroken Time of Worship

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:26-05:00April 6th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

Holy Week is the greatest of all weeks for Christians. Many churches have various celebrations throughout the entire week. I have already commented on Maundy Thursday. Today is Good (in the East it is Great) Friday. This darkest of days, when our Lord was crucified, is a good, or great, day because on this day our salvation was secured by the action of Jesus our Lord. When I am now asked, "When were you saved?," I answer, "On a Friday outside of Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago!"

In reality Christians are saved by all the actions of this entire three-day period from Thursday evening to early on Easter morning. I was reminded last evening, as we left the Maundy Thursday service in silence, that Lent has come to an end. The preparation is finished. Now we retrace the last days and hours of Jesus’ death and resurrection remembering that this is where our hope truly lies for eternal life.

At the conclusion of the Thursday service the table and sanctuary are stripped of all adornments. The elements of bread and wine […]

The Washing of the Feet

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:26-05:00April 6th, 2007|Categories: Church Tradition|

A central portion of the gospel narrative is found in John 13 where Jesus prepares for his impending death by gathering his disciples in an upper room. There we are told that he performed the action of the household servant by washing the feet of his twelve disciples (John 13:1-17). I must have read this text a thousand times, maybe more. I have preached it verse-by-verse. But I have never seen a reason to ritually participate in a foot washing service. That ended last evening in a simple, but wonderful, way.

Maundy Thursday is not only an evening for taking the Lord’s Supper, since it was initiated on that evening before Good Friday, but it has traditionally been a time to participate in the washing of feet, at least in churches that practice ancient traditions in worship. Like so many things I have learned over recent years, especially through liturgy, this ceremony seemed so odd to me.

In the service I participated in last evening we went forward in groups of twelve and sat at a long table with a […]

Maundy Thursday

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:26-05:00April 5th, 2007|Categories: The Church|

Today is a church day called Maundy Thursday. The term is derived from the Latin mandatum, which means "command." The origin of this particular day is found in the footwashing ceremony that the Gospel of John describes as a part of passion week. Maundy Thursday is observed on the Thursday before Easter and usually includes the celebration of communion in most churches. The "foot washing" ceremony is still observed in many churches to this day, as a distinct part of the ancient "love feast." For many these events seem far too ancient and removed from modern life. For those soaked in the narrative of Scripture, and willing to enter into the life of the community with faith, they still live with real meaning.

This whole ceremony is part of Lent, the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. Lent, you may recall, is a time of preparation and penitence. For me, as for most modern Christians, it is also a time for study, devotion, personal and congregational worship and deep spiritual renewal. This day is followed by Good Friday and then […]

The Ecumenism I Promote

By John Armstrong|2007-04-04T18:23:44-05:00April 4th, 2007|Categories: Unity of the Church|

Ecumenism is a word that has great value if it is properly used. It is, at least in terms of recent church history, a new word used for a very old idea. It arose in the context of early 20th century missionary conferences. The idea was to heal the divisions in the church for the sake of mission. The common concern was that denominational differences should not hinder the mission of Christ and that John 17 become a reality in the life of those who labored for the kingdom in non-Christian lands. As the liberal social agenda came to the fore and dominated this movement the word then began to loose its original meaning. This is why evangelicals ran away from it.

I am an active ecumenist, but in the older sense. I am also an ecumenist in the new sense, the sense that believes it is right to bring about the coalescing of the members of various Christian churches, East and West, for the sake of Christ’s mission. I believe a healthy ecumenism will stand openly for doctrinal, moral and devotional […]

Trinity United Church of Christ: Obama's Home Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:26-05:00April 3rd, 2007|Categories: Race and Racism|

Much debate surrounds the "faith" of presidential candidate Barrack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois. The media is continually trying to understand the profession of faith that this liberal senator made some years ago at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Christian conservatives are skeptical about Obama’s "faith." Most liberals are clueless, since they are very uncomfortable with serious Christian profession and practice by any public figure. Senator Obama does not fit with the comfortable stereotypes of our time thus few know how to evaluate him or the church he is a member of in Chicago.

I have never met Obama or his pastor, the well-known Dr. Jeremiah Wright. I do know a few people, both in politics and theology, that I trust who know both Obama and Wright. I have also carefully read both of Obama’s books. Long before Obama became our senator I watched and followed Jeremiah Wright for some time. Here is my own impression, if it is worth much to readers.

First, Barrack Obama was clearly an unbeliever in his early life. He had no religious […]