Blog - Page 272 of 318 - John H Armstrong

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 […]

The Day the Christian Right Redefined the Meaning of "Christian"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:28-05:00April 2nd, 2007|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

Over the past thirty years a redefinition of the meaning of the historical term "Christian" began. This change came about because of the influence of the Christian Right politically and culturally. I can still recall, as a young pastor, getting my first voter’s guides delivered to my church so that I could help my congregation learn how they should vote with regard to the correct social and international issues. There was a list of twelve issues and how candidates stood on them. The point was that their answers revealed how close they were to the "Christian" position. While no candidates were endorsed it quickly became clear who was and who was not on the correct side with this list in hand. Some of the issues on that list, like abortion, were genuinely moral ones. Others, like a particular approach to national defense, were far more complicated and clearly had little or no biblical support. These kinds of issues were simply not black and white Christian issues, at least in terms of biblical and historical ethics. I refused to give out these guides and have […]

Why Take Lent Seriously?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:29-05:00April 1st, 2007|Categories: Spirituality|

The late Orthodox writer, Alexander Schmemann, wrote a classic small book that has provided me with real help during this Lenten season. Schmemann, who is very often a writer who moves both my mind and heart deeply, asks the question I needed for this year’s Lenten practice: “How do we take Lent seriously?” In the light of our fast-paced modern lifestyle how can modern Christians relate to this ancient practice with deep meaning?

Schmemann writes that we can take Lent seriously “when we consider it first of all on the deepest level—as a spiritual challenge which requires a response, a decision, a plan, a continuous effort” (Great Lent. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press: Crestwood, New York, 1969, page 90). Following the traditional Orthodox approach to Lent Schmemann suggests that we best observe Lent when we have prepared for it by meditating on the five Gospel themes offered in the East for the pre-Lenten season. These themes are: desire (Zacchaeus), humility (The Publican and the Pharisee), the return from exile (The Prodigal Son), the judgment (The Last Judgment) and forgiveness (Forgiveness Sunday).

While […]

John Paul II: A Tribute

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:29-05:00March 31st, 2007|Categories: Roman Catholicism|

Those who know me are not surprised to learn that I sincerely admired Pope John Paul II for many years. At first, like many Protestants, I saw him only as the pope, thus as a person standing in some kind of opposition to my own Christian faith. After I began to grasp what I believed about the Creed’s affirmation regarding "one, holy, catholic church" I found my heart melted to love all Christians everywhere. It was not hard for me to love John Paul II when I spent time getting to know more about him and spoke with some who knew him. The real clincher was George Weigel’s masterful biography, Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1999). Karol Wojtyla loved Christ very deeply and was a monumental figure in the twentieth century. He also genuinely inspired people to live better lives.

John Paul II made his final public appearance two years ago yesterday, March 30, sitting in complete weakness on the balcony overlooking Vatican Square where thousands expressed their deep love for him. A […]

What We Do Really Matters

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:23:29-05:00March 30th, 2007|Categories: Biblical Theology|

What we do in this life truly matters. Many Christians live and act as if this were not so. Somehow we have so severed faith from real life that we have millions of evangelicals who now insist that they are Christians based upon a once-in-time decision. This must be one reason why we see the high numbers of evangelicals in all the polls who demonstrate no consequent connection between what they believe and what they actually do. We really do not live as if "faith without deeds is useless" as James clearly teaches. To some extent, maybe to a very large extent, mistaken and incorrect evangelical teaching is responsible for this huge problem.

A biblical scholar, and good friend, recently pointed out to me that with the possible exception of Philemon every book in the New Testament makes eternal salvation or damnation contingent upon what we actually do in this life. See, for example, passages like Matthew 6:15; 7:21; Luke 13:3, 5; Romans 2:13, 16; Galatians 6:8; Hebrews 10:36 and James 2:24. These types of passages once troubled me profoundly because they […]