Chastity? Yes. Marriage? No.

I promise to try to be better about posting on this thing.

I've had marriage on the mind lately, as I'm preparing to wed four couples (and possibly a fifth) next year. With that in mind, I stumbled across an article in Christianity Today about modern trends in the church concerning chastity and marriage. The author, Mark Regnerus, a professor at UT-Austin, says that the American evangelical church has done a very good job of holding to a biblical sexual ethic. However, it has succumbed to a wordly understanding of marriage - one that fulfills self, rather than points to God - and as such, we are watching our ideas of chastity and marriage battle one another rather than complement each other. This constitutes a crisis for the average American Christian family, and is a challenge to the Church to consider what she teaches about marriage, and how she practices it in her communities. Regnerus writes:

"Most young Americans no longer think of marriage as a formative institution, but rather as the institution they enter once they think they are fully formed. Increasing numbers of young evangelicals think likewise, and, by integrating these ideas with the timeless imperative to abstain from sex before marriage, we've created a new optimal life formula for our children: Marriage is glorious, and a big deal. But it must wait. And with it, sex. Which is seldom as patient."

Its a long article, but well worth the read.

Punctuation

If you've been in or around the United Church of Christ the last couple of years, you've seen our now-famous comma logo (see picture) and its tag line "Never put a period where God has put a comma." Over time, the comma has become an interesting point of conversation as we discuss precisely what this means.
Well, someone has finally identified what's going on here. In the most recent issue of "United Church News," a Bruce Farrell from Myerstown (Pa.) UCC had this to say:

"Jesus often teaches that you can have the right theology but the wrong actions. What Jesus is not teaching is that theology is unimportant. Jesus was harshly critical of the theology of the Samaritans...when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well.
"Healthy theology, like good grammar, has a wide range of punctuations: commas, periods, question marks, exclamation points. We in the UCC seem to have one: the comma."

The is an issue not just for the UCC, but for all mainline denominations. Like a run-on sentence, the theology that is happening in the UCC just seems to go on and on and on. At what point does it stop? When do we say, "Here I stand, I can go no farther"? Jesus does use periods. We had better learn how to do likewise.

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A Low-Tech Lent

I just ran across an excellent article on the Town Hall website about a different way of approaching Lent, perhaps the most relevant piece concerning modern Lenten practices that I've read in a long time. Check it out.

The "Passions"

In worship this past week, we talked about where temptations come from - not an external source per se, but, as James tells us, "...each person is tempted when he is lurned and enticed by his own desire" (1:14).  The idea of disordered passions is not something I had really given much thought to, yet it makes a great deal of sense in our Lenten context.
Apparently, the Orthodox tradition is well out ahead of me.  For Lent this year, I'm reading, "First Fruits of Prayer - A Forty-Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew," which is a Orthodox litany of confession by St. Andrew.  In it, he writes this, some food for thought:

I have fallen beneath the painful burden of the passions and the corruption of material things; and I am hard pressed by the enemy.  Instead of freedom from possessions, O Savior, I have pursued a life in love with material things; and now I wear a heavy yoke....I hav cared only for the outward adornment, and neglected that which is within - the tabernacle fashioned by God.  With my lustful desires I have formed within myself the deformity of the passions and disfigured the beauty of my mind.  I have discolored with the passions the first beauty of the image, O Savior.  But seek me, as once Thou hast sought the lost coin, and find me.

Did You See That?

Hopefully, you saw my post of the Marian Hossa goal vs. the Atlanta Thrashers earlier in the season. I think Alex Ovechkin's goal last night against the Canadiens top it. What a play!

On Perfection

While studying for this week's sermon, here's a little snippet I ran across from St. Gregory of Nyssa out of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (well worth your time and money)...

"I do not think it is a fearful thing (I mean that our nature is changeable).  The Logos shows that it would be a disadvantage for us not to be able to make a change for the better, as a kind of wing of flight to greater things.  Therefore, let no one be grieved if he sees in his nature a penchant for change.  Changing in everything for the better, let him exchange "glory for glory," becoming greater through daily increase, ever perfecting himself and never arriving too quickly at the limit of perfection.  For this is truly perfection:  never to stop growing towards what is better and never placing any limit on perfection."