Monthly Archives: February 2017

Table Talk

table talk

Take time to talk at the table.

In this year when we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, it is good to us to remember some of the practical, everyday components of Martin Luther’s life that we can apply to our lives today.

One of those is the idea of Table Talk. Luther would regularly gather around the dinner table with friends, family and students of his for dinner and for conversation. The topics of these conversations would range from religious doctrine and history to instructions regarding government, church, and the academic university. Many who were there took notes on what Luther and others said at these Table Talks, which were eventually compiled into a book called Table Talk. 

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Lectio Divina

praying handsIn the last few years there has been a resurgence in the concept of Lectio Divina (Latin for divine reading) in religious literature. It is a structure of meditative prayer that has four parts: read, meditate, pray, contemplate. It is a way for people to focus on a word, phrase or verse from Scripture and then let Christ speak to them through that Word. Lectio Divina has been likened to “feasting on the Word”: first, the taking of a bite (lectio); then chewing on it (meditatio); savoring its essence (oratio) and, finally, “digesting” it and making it a part of the body (contemplatio).

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Legacy Narratives

legacy narrativeThere is a big trend happening now in what is currently being called legacy narratives.

Legacy narratives are the stories you tell of the events of your lifetime that you wish to pass on to future generations.

Many people are using their later years to write their legacy narratives often with the help of self-publishers who can print their writings in a professional format as a beautiful keepsake for children and grandchildren.

I know that my grandmother was ahead of the curve on this one, and wrote Gramma Speaks Her Piece more than 30 years ago, and we in our family still often refer to something that she mentioned in that book.

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Boundaries

personal boundariesToday marks the 1-year anniversary of this blog. Thank you, dear readers, for joining me on the journey this past year, and I look forward to the holy journey yet to come.

For today’s post I would like to focus on another new reality of communications from Pastor Matt Peeples that we need to be aware of in the church:

Personalized Boundaries

Even though we have more ways to interact with each other than ever before, we also all have an abundance of options to control at what level we wish to interact with one another. We can set up controls to limit the amount of information shared on any given platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and we can choose to block people or hide posts.

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Now and Not Yet

open tomb

Jesus celebrated on E-Day.

Living in this time between Christ’s resurrection and his return can be difficult for us as Christians. This period is often called the “now and not yet.” It is hard to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel when you are dealing with problems and trials in your present situation.

Ed Stetzer, in his book, Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church, helps us to visualize what is going on here. “Think of it like this,” he says. “At the end of World War II, there were two historical dates. The first date is remembered as D-Day—June 6, 1944. The Allied Powers stormed the beach at Normandy and secured the victory, and it was just a matter of time until the war was over. However, the official war continued on until May 7-8, 1945, when the Allied Powers accepted the unconditional and full surrender of Germany. Then the fighting stopped completely” (p. 36).

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Sailboats

sailboatsWe as Christians often struggle with the concept of “works” and “living in the Spirit.” We know that our works do not win us righteousness, but at the same time we are called to live in the Spirit in word and deed in response to God’s love for us in Jesus. It is often tough in our limited humanness to differentiate between the  two. Isn’t living in the Spirit “work” too?

Thankfully, Michael Kelley, in his book Holy Vocabulary: Rescuing the Language of Faith, gives us a picture of how this works by comparing our lives to different types of boats.

Our lives are not to be like rowboats, he says, “where the result depends exclusively on our muscles” (Holy Vocabulary, p. 93). Neither should our lives be like a bass boat, where “no effort is required on your part; all you do is hold onto the steering wheel for dear life” (p. 93).

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