All Saints Below and Saints Above

In my ongoing engagement with the matter of real presence and so forth, I keep going back to the "Hymns on the Lord's Supper." Historically for Methodists (particularly outside the United States), the hymns were the primary means of catechesis. Unfortunately, the "Hymns on the Lord's Supper" was not generally the hymnal most Methodists used (obviously because it was an issue specific hymnal). The standard hymn book used by the Methodists in Wesley's day was his "Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists." They supplied other supplementary hymn books that focused on particular points of doctrine or times of the year (for example, the "Hymns on the Trinity" or the "Hymns on the Lord's Supper" or the "Hymns on the Nativity" and so forth). At any rate, in my own theological and liturgical reflections, I keep coming back to the notion of how it is that we receive Christ in the Eucharist who is the paschal lamb who is at the same time offered "once for all". Classic protestantism found this to be irreconcileable. I, however, don't think so, and the reason is connected to the notion of time in relation to eternity. What does it mean for Christ to be an "eternal sacrifice"? Liturgically (and I suppose this is a bit more eastern, maybe in connection with the liturgy of St. Chrysostom), time and space seem to suspend while the altar becomes the axis mundi of reality. Therefore, we see the very Paschal Lamb slain on Calvery, while at the same time we behold the glorified and risen Christ with whom we are joined as "a holy and living sacrifice." Where do I support this "time suspension" theory scripturally? I look at Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4. I contend that the prophet Isaiah and John of Patmos are beholding the very same scene: Christ crucified, glorified, and almighty ( pantocrator). With this in mind, the classic protestant critique that Catholics re-sacrificed Christ (or attempted to) is false. Yes, it is Christ crucified, but because in the context of worship, time and space are suspended and the entirety of God's economy converges at the altar (vertically) and disperses out into and among the people (horizontally) (this is why we talk about the Eucharist as the sacrament of sanctification and indeed the greatest of the sacraments). Ok. Why am I going on about this? I pulled out the "Hymns on the Lord's Supper" and all this that I had been ponduring over the past many months about time/space and real presence seemed to be summed up in one hymn. Here it is:

Let all who truly bear
The bleeding Saviour's name
Their faithful hearts with us prepare,
And eat the Paschal Lamb.
Our Passover was slain
At Salem's hallowed place
Yet we who in our tents remain,
Shall gain his largest grace.

This Eucharistic feast
Our every want supplies;
And still we by his Death are blessed,
And share his Sacrifice.
By faith his Flesh we eat,
Who here His Passion show,
And God out of His Holy Seat
Shall all his gifts bestow.

Who thus our faith employ,
His sufferings to record,
Even now we mournfully enjoy
Communion with our Lord.
And though we everone
Beneath his cross had stood
And seen him heave, and heard him groan
And felt his gushing blood.

O God! Tis finished now!
The Mortal pang is past!
By faith his head we see him bow
And hear him breath his last!
We too with him are dead,
And shall with him arise;
The cross on which he bows his head
Shall lift us to the skies.


By the way, the line "At Salem's hallowed place" is in reference to Melchizidek. He was the king of Salem in Genesis 14 who offered bread and wine to Abram. Now, this hymn focuses more on the Sacrifice of Calvary than anything else, but there is this sense of time/space suspension that Wesley is conveying. We see Christ crucified, and it is the very Christ offered by Melchizidek. How is this possible, except that we are drawn into the enternity of God through the avenue of divine worship. It is Christ sacrificed "once for all" because is the very same event at Calvary that we behold each time we celebrate the Eucharist. Furthermore, this is why the Sursom Corda (Up hearts! or Lift up your hearts) is so important to the liturgy. We affirm that we are "lifted up to the Lord", that is, we are entering into God's eternity where the contraints of time and space are meaningless. This is why the offering of the sacrifice is necessary, though with the corralary that we are offerred in union with Christ's one offering. I could probably go on and make a further argument using both Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, but this is already long. Anyway, that's enough reflecting for today.

Peace

Barry

I Like These Type Things for Some Reason

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 96% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 89% Roman Catholic 82% Emergent/Postmodern 57% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Classical Liberal 29% Reformed Evangelical 29% Fundamentalist 18% Modern Liberal 14% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Bible in One Hand; Remote Control in the Other

So TV has come back into my life. We were seperated for quite a while, trying out new things...you know, just taking a break from each other. I was pretty happy without TV, but you know how TV is; just can't seem to live without me. I figured, hell, give it a couple weeks and see if we still love each other. Well, I don't want to sound all sentimental, but I think I'm going to ask TV to stay.

I've rediscovered a couple things since I got cable again. First, "Cheap Seats" is brilliant. I love this show. If you've never watched this show regularly, then you should be pistol wipped. Second, there's this new show on FX (otherwise know as soft-core for primetime) called "It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia." Wow. Just wow. This show is wrong in many ways. I would never recommend it to my parishioners (well, most of them anyway). But it's a very intelligent show. Demented, but intelligent (3 and 3-quarter stars). Finally, I get to watch reruns of Futurama every night. This is one of the top three greatest cartoon shows of all time. I hear that's it's coming back. We should all be so lucky to have TV in our lives (I can just see the faces on my former Iredell housemates).

Kal-El is Ka-Razy!

Superman Returns. I give it 3 and a quarter stars. The acting was generally good. I like that guy who played Lois Lane's husband (he's from Oklahoma you know). I really liked how they spliced in footage from Marlon Brando's performance of Jor-El from the original movie. Kind of creepy, though. It's kind of like TuPac. Anyway, it was a decent take on an seemingly tired character. But, I will say with confidence that I enjoyed the movie. One question, however. So, uh...Superman and Lois had a kid together (shock. surprise). It's not so shocking if you saw the love scene (well...assumed sex, anyway) in Superman II. It makes sense that Lois may have gotten knocked up at that point. But, still...um, how do I put this? Ok, so Superman is so strong that he literally carried an entire island into space. That's pretty strong. It's almost a kind of strength that one could...easily loose control of. So, fine. He had sex with Lois. Big deal. But Lois should be dead, right? He should have shot right through her! (Lord I hope none of my parishioners read this). It's not a new question, sure. I know I'm not the first guy to wonder. But, ok, he is Superman, so maybe he has crazy control over himself. Anyway, besides that...well done film. I liked Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, although...well it's a movie thing. The movies never really treated Lex Luthor like the comics. In the movies he's almost an insane comic relief to Superman's ever-serious boy scout-ness. So Spacey was well in line with Gene Hackman's interpretation. Still, the Luther as billionaire business giant (he's the epitomy of Big Business) or even as a mad scientist bent on ruling the world (a part of his character that kindly disappeared by the 1980's), the movies never really treat these aspects too seriously. The special effects were great, and I even enjoyed all of the allusions to Jesus (I, even I, thought it was thought provoking). It kind of reminded me of Mark Waid's "Kingdom Come,"this god complex that comes with being earth's mightiest hero. Of course, I think that there was something a bit shady going on with the telling of this story. Now, this is just me, but, the thing about Superman is that he was always the best of the best. This is classic DC storytelling, right, that the hero will always triumph over evil because the hero is the embodiment of all that is good, right, and moral. The hero is the archtype of the (dare I say) superman. It's German triumphalism. The heroes of Marvel, however, were different. As Stan Lee is constantly saying, "They have flaws." Even Captain America, big boy scout that he is, has a flaw - he is a man out of time. Anyway, my point is that in this Superman movie, the writers took a cue from the Marvel universe and decided that Superman needed to have real flaws to his character. He can't (literally) get the girl this time. What's Superman without Lois Lane? Also, there's this thing about him abandoning the people of earth for five years. He has this internal struggle about what his responsibilities are to humanity. The only thing missing was them jacking the classic Spiderman line "with great power comes great responsibility". I'm not at all pissed about this raping of the Marvel paradigm, because I think it makes Superman more interesting a character all around. But, still, I wonder where it came from. Okay, that's enough about that. Superman Returns. Liked it. Go see it.

My Kingdom for a Super Target!

Well, it's officially official. I have successfully completed seminary and moved back to God's country. The only thing is, I was pretty sure God's country was in Oklahoma, I just didn't know it was the Oklahoma Panhandle. Sigh. Yet, there are more glorious things to be had out here in the desert. I am now the Associate Pastor of Victory Memorial United Methodist Church. That's right. I'm now Reverend Barry Bennett. Life isn't so bad out here in No Man's Land (no seriously). I have a sweet parsonage, a nice office, a great staff (even a secretary!), and lest we forget, a regular salary. Ah, the love of God! Oh, to grace, how great a debtor! And betwixed them thou hast diedst for...oh, hell, I don't know what I'm saying. But really, it is an amazing thing that this God I serve would be so foolish as to choose someone like me for his Church. I can't really explain why, but I am certainly grateful. And to all ye naysayers out there, yes, life in the parish is pretty good. It's busy and demanding, but it's rewarding. I have learned in these past two months of ministry, one must laugh at life. As one of my duties at the church is handling emergency assistance (utilities, food, clothing, etc.), I have been engaged with the true brokenness of humanity. Finding hope in the midst of despair is part of what I do. And, because of this, I must laugh. To that end, I think I will start publishing my "quote of the week". I must be careful, however, that I do not get myself in trouble. The last thing I need is a parishioner calling me up angry because I posted for all the world to see some random funny thought of theirs. But, I'll chance it at least this once. So here it is: the quote of the week.

"I like Yoda. He's a good guy."

Classic.

It's a Divine Life

So here's my thought: facutly jazzercise. I mean, really. Wouldn't that be hilarious? Duke Divinity faculty jazzercising. Just the thought makes me laugh. Or better yet...faculty super hero personas. I suggest a five member team of earth's mightiest super scholars. David Steinmetz is "The Tecnocrat". He has a super intellect far beyond that of normal, old senile men...and his walker converts into various cool futuristic type of tools and weapons. Stanley Hauerwas is "Tex". He's just basically the asshole that everybody loves to hate and hates to love (and he can fly). Elen Davis is "Sister Shalom" (also the token woman). She can conjur up all kinds of Old Testament fury, like pillars of fire and lighting and thunder (though generally only in close proximity to mountains) and other wrath of God stuff. Willie Jennings is "Rampage" - basically your run-of-the-mill super strength, super invulnerability, with an attitude sort of hero. Finally, we round out the team with "The Padre" (also known as Warren Smith). He's got kickin' hand to hand combat skills, but also super advanced armor that gives him the ability to fire energy beams from his fists. Together, this team of super scholars fights evil (process theology, gnostics, Bowser) and oppression (Yale) whenever threats arrise.

Ok, so that's about as nerdy as it gets. It's late, and I'm tired, so whatever.

The "Man" Has His Own Blog

This is just a point of interest. It seems that bishop Will Willimon has his own blog. I find this funny, basically because I've always kind of felt like Willimon was a little caught up in himself. Don't get me wrong. I think he's a great voice in the Church and, from the little I've read, a good bishop. But, come on, the title of the blog is "A Peculiar Prophet" (the title of the recent book written in his honor). Now, I will concede that he probably doesn't keep the blog up himself. It's essentially postings of his sermons. I'm sure his assistant or someone else in the Northern Alabama Conference office does all the work, but still, it seems a bit...I don't know...odd. After all, this was the same guy who had a website devoted to his "campaign" for the episcopacy in 2004. Anyway, if you're looking for regular words from the bishop of Birmingham, check out his blog at willimon.blogspot.com

You Heard Me!

Here's why I'm a big nerd: I can actually recite from memory "In brightest day or blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight; Let those who worship evil's might, beward my power - Green Lantern's light." Oh, yes, my friends. I know the oath of the Green Lantern. Yet, I'm convinced that we all have small things that make us big nerds. Bo, for example, owns 783 orange shirts (one for every Eddie Sutton basketball victory). Bud can sing all the words to every song on the Cornhusker highlight videos. Thunder gets sick joy from beating up on 9 year-old Uzbek children via his Halo uplink. John Thompson keeps 3 full cases of KY jelly on hand at all times...just in case of an emergency. Jonathan Kelly...well, he loves Jesus and America too, so I guess that's kind of nerdy. My point is that it's ok to be weird, mainly so that you can have something to shove down your friend's throats when they start gettin' all cocky about their pure Thomism or New Perspectives or paradigm shifts or problematized jibaty-jee and cookaly-coo. So I leave with this, an excerpt from that greatest of tomes, William Shatner's Star Trek Movie Memories.

"He'd have found Scotty bored out of his mind to the point where he's now spending his days taking apart the Klingon bird of prey last seen in Star Trek IV in a futile attempt to at last uncover the secrets of her cloaking device. Uhura is next, equally bored, working for a Federation radio station as the host of a call-in advice program. Chekov too is uneasy, yawning his days away at a chess club while repeatedly trying in vain to defeat highter life forms with special Russian strategies. Finally, Kirk finds McCoy most unhappy of all. Hailed as a conquering hero, Bones is nonetheless drunk and disorderly at a high-society medical dinner in his honor. Disgusted by the money-hungry healers he's forced to endure in the civilian world, even the dependably cantatnkerous Bones jumps at the chance to once again become useful aboard the Enterprise."

Pure gold.

To Make the World Safe for Democracy?

Woodrow Wilson was really an idealist. Not that I'm against idealism, but one must reckon with one's own idealism, knowing what virtue it intends as its goal. Wilson, of course, was a Princeton, Enlightenment scholar. His "common good," I daresay, is not the same common good I strive towards. I, for one, see the common good as eternal communion with the virtue - God, who is "The Good". Well, anyway, democracy is not the eschatological hope. It is not that place where "we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise" (to coin a great Wesley hymn). So why am I going on about this? I watched Jarhead last night. My good friends, Bo and Bud, were with me. It is a disturbing look at the psychological effects of military conditioning. What happens, the movie begs, when one is programmed to kill, to be ok with killing, and to want to kill, but is denied the opportunity to kill? These young marines are trained, nay, re-programmed to desire killing, almost as a sexual release. There is a very telling scene when the marines are gathered to watch a scene from "Apocolypse Now." It's the scene when the helicopters are coming into the Vietnamese village to lay it waste. Civilian Vietnamese people (many children) are slaughtered on screne. The marines yell and screme at the movie they are watching, not in horror, but in eager anticipation. It's almost orgiastic. The main character in the film expresses on his face the look of a man caught up in the ecstasy of sex as he watches people being gunned down. This is what the marine corps did to these young men. It made them into killing machines who craved death. But, the conflict in the film is that they are denied their orgasm. The main character is trained as a sniper and goes to the Persian Gulf (Gulf War I). However, he never fires a shot. He almost gets to kill someone, but is denied that pleasure. The end of the war shows marines dancing and partying around a giant fire in the desert, shooting their guns into the air - shooting at nothing. It's ironic. They shoot. This is what they are supposed to do, what they are formed to do, yet they shoot at nothing. Ultimately, this is not the release they desire. They want to kill, but they can't. The death is inside themselves. Very disturbing, especially since I have a brother in the Marine Corps.

Eddie Sutton: Humble Servant in the Vinyard of God

Well, for all practical purposes, Basketball season is upon us. What this means for everyone, of course, is that Eddie Sutton is about to take the court for his 16th season at the helm of Oklahoma State University. Now, for those of greater ignorance out there in the world, Oklahoma State University (not Duke and certainly not North Carolina) is the home to the greatest basketball coach of all time. That man is Eddie Sutton (now it is arguable, of course, whether Eddie or his mentor Henry Iba take this title, but I digress). Basketball had its golden age in the plains. As any fool knows, the game was invented by James Naismith, a physical educator at a New England college. The game quickly spread out of the hostile conditions of New England to the plains, where sports dominated local life. It was the great rivalry between Henry Iba of (then) Oklahoma A & M College (now Oklahoma State University) and Forrest "Phog" Allen of the University of Kansas that made the game what it is. Oh, ye naysayers, harken to my voice! Basketball is what it is today because of Henry Iba. Naismith never could have conceived what his indoor game for physical ed. would become. Here are some highlights from the Basketball Hall of Fame website about Hank Iba.

"There are few in basketball circles who don't know about the legendary Henry Iba. As a collegiate coach at Oklahoma A&M and a three-time mentor of our Olympic teams, Iba did more than win national championships and gold medals. He transcended greatness. Mr. Iba's teams were methodical, ball-controlling units that featured weaving patterns and low scoring games. Iba's "swinging gate" defense (a man-to-man with team flow) was applauded by many, and is still effective in today's game. Behind dominating 7-foot center Bob Kurland, Iba's Aggies became the first to win consecutive NCAA titles (1945 and 1946). A&M teams won 14 Midwestern Valley titles, and were largely responsible for generating most of Iba's 767 victories, third best in NCAA Division I history. "Hank" also coached at Maryville College and the University of Colorado. He is the only coach in history to win two Olympic gold medals (1964 in Tokyo; 1968 in Mexico City), and he will also be remembered as the coach of the 1972 Olympic team that lost to the Soviet Union in a controversial ending."

Eddie Sutton played for Iba from 1955-1958. He is, today, a giant among coaches. Don't believe me? Here are some facts:

-Only coach in NCAA Division I history to record 30 or more wins in a single season at more than one shcool (won 30 or more games at Arkansas in 1978, Kentucky in 1987 and Oklahoma Sate in 2004).
-Just the third coach in Division I history to reach the 700-win mark in 32 years or less.
-Only Dean Smith won more games in his first 35 years as a Division I head coach.
-Four-time National Coach of the Year (1977, 1978, 1986, 1995).
-Eight-time Conference Coach of hte Year (1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1993, 1998, 2004).
-One of just two different coaches nationally to win coach-of-the-year in four different conferences.
-First coach in NCAA history to lead four different schools to the NCAA tournament (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, OSU).
-Led teams to 26 NCAA Tournament appearances in 35 years, including 12 consecutive from 1977-88.
-20 of his teams have finished the season ranked among the nation's top 25, including 11 top-10 finishes.
-Has produced 25 20-win seasons, including three 30-win seasons.
-Has had only one losing season in 35 years as a collegiate coach.
-Has won conference championships in the SWC, SEC, Big Eight, and Big 12.
-Ranks second among active Division I head coaches in games coached with 1,080.
-Ranks second among active head coaches by victories.
-Ranks seventh all-time in victories among all Division I coaches.

So there you have it: Eddie Sutton. Humble servant. Basketball legend. GO POKES!