[…recalling the time when he was young, and he and his brother made a disaster out of preparing Mother’s Day breakfast for their mother…] Even when Christian worship is at its best, it is much like that Mother’s Day breakfast. It is always the work of amateurs, people...
Is there no real difference between worship and entertainment? I believe there is a world of difference, even though I have some inkling as to why today’s culture has confused the two… ENTERTAINMENT typically results from the WORK OF OTHERS, for my interest, pleasure,...
In all its elements,…Christian worship is the action of God, of Jesus, and of the community itself for the community, and therefore the upbuilding of the community. From this center, it can and should spread out into the wider circle of the everyday life of Christians...
There is but one God, “in whom we live and move and have our being,” and when we worship we stand before the mystery of that deep and eternal Reality to whom we give different names. From Jews, we learn of God’s faithfulness; from Muslims, of God’s sovereignty and...
The purpose of this Christian society called the “Church” is, first: to glorify God by our worship. We do not go to church just to hear a sermon. We go to church to worship God. from Peace with God
Worship is the expression of the Christian believer’s relationship with God. However that relationship is very complex, since God is at one and the same time our Creator, Redeemer (through Jesus Christ), Sustainer, Indweller (by the Holy Spirit), Friend and Judge. I...
Do not bother looking for Lent in your Bible dictionary, because there was no such thing back then. There is some evidence that early Christians fasted forty hours between Good Friday and Easter, but the custom of spending forty days in prayer and self-denial did not...
The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a Eucharistic community, ceaselessly...
The cross is not and cannot be loved. Yet only the crucified Christ can bring the freedom which changes the world because it is no longer afraid of death. In his time, the crucified Christ was regarded as a scandal and as foolishness. Today, too, it is considered...
People today sometimes talk about Easter as if the great message is that there really is life after death after all. That’s a very modern perception, which would occur only to somebody who had been brought up with the secularist denials of life after death. If that’s...