On My Desk: On Being Presbyterian by Sean Michael Lucas

Since I’m something of a latecomer to the Presbyterian faith (though I’ve been engaging Presbyterians for years now), I decided to educate myself on what it means to be Presbyterian.

I found in Presbyterian pastor and historian Sean Michael Lucas’s On Being Presbyterian: Our Beliefs, Practices, and Stories exactly what I needed.

As mentioned above, before my conversion to Presbyterianism, I’ve been engaging Presbyterians over the years.  So it’s no surprise that I’m discovering On Being Presbyterian nothing more than filling in the blanks.

Revisiting our Observance of the Lord’s Supper

Yet another post on our observance of the Lord’s Supper.  Why? It’s a means of grace that God’s people should be benefiting from each time it is celebrated (whatever we choose to call it – Eucharist, Holy Communion, etc).

Question: when you eat that bread and drink that cup, are you by faith truly sharing in the body and blood of Christ, spiritually, though not physically?  To clarify, are you being nourished by Christ and all his benefits?

Or has the Lord’s Table lost its meaning for you?  This really doesn’t have to be the case.  Consider how the Apostle Paul wrote two chapters to correct abuses surrounding the Lord’s Table.

It’s simply too important!

It’s meant as a re-presentation of the story of redemption, and how whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we’ve come to share in that story.

Further, whenever we come to the Lord’s Table, we should be sharing in the body and blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16).  We should be feasting and feeding on the spiritual presence of Christ by faith (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4).  It’s intended as nourishment for the journey of God’s people (2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Corinthians 11:26).

So I’m simply encouraging you as a fellow pilgrim, to revisit this sacred meal–as a means of grace, where we commune with our risen and glorified Savior.

If your church has devalued this sacred meal as something we do after the main event, then you need to engage your pastor on the matter.

Reflection for Palm Sunday 2017

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna! ”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;

see, your king is coming,

seated on a donkey’s colt.”

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. –John 12:12-16 NIV

No, Jesus doesn’t ride into Jerusalem on a warhorse, ready to crush his enemies.  Rather, John says he rides in on a young donkey.  Get this: a donkey was an unclean animal, which had to be redeemed (Exodus 13:13). Yet it’s the King-soon-to-die transportation of choice.

We have so much to learn about the heart of Jesus.  Matthew says Jesus is gentle and humble in heart (11:29).

For Jesus, it sure wasn’t about pomp and glory–the things fallen mankind value so much and would do just about anything to achieve.

No, for Jesus, it was conquering the world through love–an unadulterated kind.

May Palm Sunday and the rest of Holy Week remind us all of the power of the gentle and humble love of Jesus, to change lives.

And may we seek to imitate the words and deeds of our Savior King.

What do I think about the new Christian Standard Bible?

Since the online release of the 2017 updated version of the Christian Standard Bible (formerly Holman Christian Standard Bible), I’ve been spending significant time with it.  I’ve even gone to Google Play Store and downloaded the free app.

Here’s my conclusion thus far:

• It reads like the New International Version (NIV) for the most part.
• It’s the NIV for the more conservative American Evangelicals who have taken issue with the NIV.
• If you have the NIV and like it, there’s really no good reason to switch to the Christian Standard Bible (CSB).
• If you have the ESV but want something more readable and conservative, then explore the CSB.

I’ve also taken issue with the Why the CSB? page.  One English Bible Translation in 2017 is simply bearing too much burden!

It’s really not up to this or that Bible translation to address the issue of spiritual growth and why people are not reading as much.  Someone please inform the marketers of the CSB of this FACT!!!

We Make America Great Again by being Stronger Together

Let’s not forget where we came from.

This rhetoric of making America great again by instilling fear and hatred of the other is not what made America a great nation in the first place.  This kind of rhetoric only serves to undermine the greatness that has been achieved.

Furthermore, this kind of rhetoric does nothing to advance humanity.

And if the past is to instruct us in this matter, what made America a great nation is the contribution of those who came to its shores ever since its founding.

So shame on anyone who adopts and spreads this kind of rhetoric of fear and hatred.  And why do we think that the only way forward is to bring others down, especially those who look different than us?

Why not advance together no matter our differences?