Intro to the Reading (from The Message):

When Christin believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. Outsiders, on observing this, conclude that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business - and dishonest business at that. Insiders see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners. Many of the the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undiagnosed or disguised. It’s similar with sinners outside the church. So Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced, and dealt with. The letter of James shows one of the church’s early pastors skillfully going about his work of confronting, diagnosing, and dealing with areas of disbelief and misbehavior that had turned up in congregations committed to his care. Deep and living wisdom is on display here, wisdom both rare and essential. Wisdom is not primarily knowing the truth, although it certainly includes that; it is skill in living. For, what good is truth if we don’t know how to live it? What good is an intention if we can’t sustain it? According to church traditions, James carried the nickname “Old Camel Knees” because of thick calluses built up on his knees from many years of determined prayer. The prayers is foundational to the wisdom. Prayer is always foundational to wisdom.

Scripture Reading: James 1

 1I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello! 

 2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

 5-8If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

 9-11When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

 12Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

 13-15Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

 16-18So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.

19-21Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

22-24Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

 25But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

 26-27Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.

The Meditation:

This letter was written by James, the brother of Jesus, when the Christians were being persecuted under Saul, who would then become Paul, and when there was a great famine throughout the Roman Empire. The ‘religious piety’  we read in the first chapter has been used in the past in ways to manipulate Christians, and for some of us today it may point to the very reasons why we might love Jesus, but hate organized religion.

With that said, there is still a word for us to hear from James. . . God can still redeem this letter for our lives and faith journey today. His piety may seem extreme to us, but what can we learn from his man’s perspective of prayers and his caring for the least of society? Start with the question one of my colleagues asked over lunch this past week: “If all the churches in the world were to burn down tonight and the religion was condemned or outlawed, would here still be a Church? Would there still be followers of Jesus? Why?  [Faith is more about people and relationships…at the root of all the lists of sins found in the Torah – about relationships…mercy, justice, compassion, hospitality, and humility in all our interactions with creation.]

One of the greatest ways we can reflect God’s passion for life giving relationships is to share the one invaluable thing God has given us in life…time. All of our time is limited – we are born and we know we will physically die (and pay taxes). It is what we do with our time that will bring joy not only to ourselves, but to others and to the heart of God. One of the ways we give of our time is by listening…and that can be down right difficult. Have you ever listened to someone but their words went in one ear and out the other?

In the first section of our reading from James, the underlying loving word is for us to Listen…even in times of great pressure and high anxiety. James says that even in the worst of times God is there working to redeem the situation and reconcile it to God’s very self. . . and if God is love, as the Apostle John says in his letter, then we can take comfort that God is there to help. And if we need help, James says open that line of communication up. . . send God a prayer text message or spiritual email (PRAY). Then don’t give up listening for God’s response. . . remember, God speaks to us in thousands of ways…many times through the loving relationships we have with others (take the time to look, listen, and talk). Don’t let fear master you because history has show that those who are overwhelmed with fear tend to make choices that in the end destroy relationships. Listening and prayer is at the heart of this religion James is writing about. “Lead with your ears and flow up with your actions.”

For James, the Christian religion that he understands and that God nurtures is a practical art of listening deeply to God’s heart then responding…and if we are interested in knowing where God’s heart is, look to Jesus, or even the core teachings of Judaism found in the first five books of the Bible. God’s heart points toward relationships, and living our daily lives in ways that shows that we care, our hearts, are also where God’s heart is, which may including thinking about our relationship with creation, our relationship with those who are marginalized in society, our relationship with the economics…in all of our relationships, how can we show mercy, justice (sound ethical decisions), compassion, hospitality and humility?

Influential megachurch moves away from seeker-sensitive services.

Christianity Today | Matt Branaugh | posted 5/15/2008 08:30AM

After modeling a seeker-sensitive approach to church growth for three decades, Willow Creek Community Church now plans to gear its weekend services toward mature believers seeking to grow in their faith.

The change comes on the heels of an ongoing four-year research effort first made public late last summer in Reveal: Where Are You?, a book coauthored by executive pastor Greg Hawkins. Hawkins said during an annual student ministries conference in April that Willow Creek would also replace its midweek services with classes on theology and the Bible.

Whether more changes are in store for the suburban Chicago megachurch isn’t clear. Hawkins declined CT’s interview request, and senior pastor Bill Hybels was unavailable for comment.

Since 1975, Willow Creek has avoided conventional church approaches, using its Sunday services to reach the unchurched through polished music, multimedia, and sermons referencing popular culture and other familiar themes. The church’s leadership believed the approach would attract people searching for answers, bring them into a relationship with Christ, and then capitalize on their contagious fervor to evangelize others.

But the analysis in Reveal, which surveyed congregants at Willow Creek and six other churches, suggested that evangelistic impact was greater from those who self-reported as “close to Christ” or “Christ-centered” than from new church attendees. In addition, a quarter of the “close to Christ” and “Christcentered” crowd described themselves as spiritually “stalled” or “dissatisfied” with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. Even more alarming to Willow Creek: About a quarter of the “stalled” segment and 63 percent of the “dissatisfied” segment contemplated leaving the church.

As Willow Creek expanded its research into churches of varying geographic locations, sizes, and ethnic and denominational backgrounds, the church said the same general pattern emerged, an indication that the problem extends beyond Willow Creek.

Dave Terpstra, teaching pastor of The Next Level Church in Denver, a Willow Creek Association member congregation that draws about 600 people on Tuesday nights, said he’s unsure Willow Creek can provide greater depth to mature believers by its moves, especially since more traditional churches wrestle with the same issue.

North River Community Church in Pembroke, Massachusetts, recently completed the Reveal survey. Senior pastor Paul Atwater said he recalled Hybels telling pastors that Willow Creek planned “to get deeper” about 10 years ago at its annual leadership summit.

“They got more challenging” by bringing in teaching pastors like John Ortberg, Atwater said, only to see attendance drop. “I think they’ve paid the price before in different ways to address their early, surface-level depth, and maybe this is another step in that trend.”

Greg Pritchard, author of Willow Creek Seeker Services, told CT the church “sporadically has recognized it was not teaching a robust enough biblical theology and needed to turn the ship around.

“It is a huge shift,” Pritchard said of the church’s planned changes to its services. “But they’re still using the same marketing methodology. Willow appears to be selecting a new target audience with new felt needs, but it is still a target audience. Can they change? Yes, but it will take more than just shifting their target audience.”

Church planting is hard, many pastors would say. But it’s where much of the church growth is happening in America at a time when most churches are dying.

Fri, Apr. 25, 2008 Posted: 13:30:24 PM EST

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Church planting is hard, many pastors would say. But it’s where much of the church growth is happening in America at a time when most churches are dying.

“Two-thirds of all churches in America are plateaued and declining,” said Pastor Rick Warren after speaking Thursday to thousands of church planters at the Exponential Conference in Orlando, “and if it weren’t for the growth that’s taking place in church plants and megachurches, Christianity would be declining.”

Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif., says the growth in church plants and megachurches has helped keep the Christian population in the United States from dropping.

His comments come as the latest statistics from the Southern Baptist Convention, of which his church is a part of, show baptisms have dropped for the third straight year in 2007 and total membership dipped. Some say membership has plateaued and is on a trend toward decline unless change happens within the 16-million member denomination. Southern Baptists are now being seen as one among many major Protestant groups that are declining.

News of the denomination’s decline was released during the April 21-24 Exponential Conference where over 2,700 church planters and leaders attended to analyze the DNA of successful reproducing churches. The annual conference has been touted as the “mother of all church planting conferences”

Today, church planting has reached an all-time high with approximately 4,000 new churches planted every year in the United States, according to the “State of Church Planting USA” study. Church plants are also starting out with larger crowds with hundreds joining the first worship service, and the survival and success rate of church plants is at 68 percent.

One of the biggest trends in church planting today is the multiple venue church, or the multi-site church. The idea is that one church meets in multiple locations which are fed video satellite preaching from the main church campus.

Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church, is expanding outreach and already transitioning from a multi-site church to a “poly-site” church – reproducing different kinds of campuses to reach different kinds of people – where the mission becomes the priority rather than just reproducing the same church, he said.

While some believe the large church trend will soon die out, Warren says the next generation of churches is going to be even bigger.

“They’re going to be far larger than the boomer generation of churches because they’re not limited to one campus anymore,” he said in an interview featured on the Exponential Conference Web site.

Warren’s Saddleback has planted over 40 independent “daughter churches” in Southern California and it recently launched a multi-site initiative with a goal of 10 campuses by the year 2010. According to Saddleback’s multi-site church blog, its new campuses in Corona and Irvine drew 490 and nearly 2,000 attendants, respectively, to the first service.

“Reproduction is the mark of health,” Warren commented.

Meanwhile, Alan Hirsch, co-founder of Shapevine and the founding director of Forge Mission Training Network which focuses on developing missional leaders in western contexts, believes church plants in America need to adopt a more missionary stance.

“I think here in America, I think church planting is still very bonded to church growth methodology and ideas,” Australian-born Hirsch said in an interview featured on MondayMorningInsight, a Web site for pastors and church leaders.

“It (America) hasn’t really thought through … the nature of the church as a mission agency. We simply have to adopt a missionary stance in relationship to our culture,” he continued. “We’ve got to break the monopoly that church growth thinking has over our mindset. Because unless we do that we’ll never become a truly missionary agency.”

The Exponential Conference featured other well-known speakers, including Tim Keller, founding and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian; Ed Stetzer, former church planter and director of Lifeway Research; and Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Community Church.

Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter

The pastor of Europe’s largest evangelical church gave advice on how to revive Christianity and the Church in the United States Tuesday evening during a Q&A session based on questions submitted by American Christians.

Thu, Apr. 24, 2008 Posted: 09:57:29 AM EST

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The pastor of Europe’s largest evangelical church gave advice on how to revive Christianity and the Church in the United States Tuesday evening during a Q&A session based on questions submitted by American Christians.

Sunday Adelaja, founding pastor to the 30,000-member God’s Embassy Church in Kiev, Ukraine, was the featured guest of a teleconference hosted by Strang Communications, the publisher of Charisma and Ministry Today magazines.

God’s Embassy Church boasts more than two million converts and 600 church plants worldwide.

During the Q&A, Adelaja emphasized how the Church should not be pulpit-focused, but rather concentrate on how to reveal Jesus Christ to people if they want to experience growth.

The Nigerian-born Christian leader used his own church as example, saying that his church first experienced massive growth after four fruitless years when he started to go out and fed the poor and took care of the drug addicts and alcoholics in Ukraine.

He also encouraged every single church member to influence and impact the culture for God.

“Do not let your people get comfortable with sitting down in the pews,” Adelaja advised a pastor who submitted a question during the teleconference. “You have to literally push them out of the pews and strengthen them so they can go out there and invade the darkness of the world because they are the light of the world.

“You have to really keep on pushing them to believe in themselves that they can change the world for God.”

The influential European pastor said that the mayor of Kiev, the chief justice of Ukraine, and the prime minister of the country all come from his church.

Adelaja was also critical of U.S. churches, saying they were a “far cry” from real churches and that this generation of Americans have not seen the real church yet.

“The way things are now in America, the way we do church is kind of like a program,” Adelaja observed. “We are doing church as a club. We are trying to make people feel good, to entertain them, or try to keep them. So because of that concern – we don’t want them to go or to lose them – we kind of try to suit them.

“We are pleasing men instead of pleasing God,” the megachurch pastor continued. “I think we need to change our focus and our focus has to be ‘what is the heartbeat of God?’ ‘What does God desire?’ ‘Does He really want me to just make these people happy and keep them here forever until they die or I die? Or is it better for me to fire them up and encourage them to go and live their life truly for God and for kingdom?’”

Adelaja also diagnosed American Christians as egocentric and said that they need to be taught that the focus of their life is not themselves, but God. Adelaja said that as long as pastors teach that the purpose of believing in God is for them to be blessed then people will never influence their culture.

Earlier this year, Adelaja released his latest book, ChurchShift, which broke Amazon.com’s top 10 Bestsellers list. ChurchShift’s mission is to spark a revolution in American culture with the goal of reforming 10,000 U.S. churches so that they will in turn reform American society.

Adelaja grew up a poor orphan in Nigeria and was raised in a Christian home by his grandmother. He did not own a pair of shoes until he was 12 years old and had to earn a living from the age of six. Through the prayers of his Christian grandmother, Adelaja gave his life to Christ at 19 years of age. He traveled to the Soviet Union to study journalism on a scholarship and later founded Embassy of God Church after the Soviet Union was dismantled.

The Embassy of God Church is the largest church in all of Europe with some 100,000 total members, including those from all its satellite locations. Although Adelaja is African, white Europeans make up 99 percent of his church. The church has planted more than 600 churches in more than 45 countries, including 20 churches in the United States.

Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter

Was moved by this… Hope it will touch you, too. (Even the most cliche truths are still truths.) Blessings to you, Pam’la

Tue, Apr. 08, 2008 Posted: 15:19:18 PM EST

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Non-Christians are more receptive to the Gospel today than at any point in recent American history, according to one research team.

“We are seeing a new level of curiosity among those who are seeking out religion – and we rejoice that people are willing to hear about Jesus,” said Sam S. Rainer III, who heads Rainer Research.

While Rainer said he finds the increased receptivity among non-believers encouraging, the problem lies with churches not being able to connect with them and the culture.

“Christians and non-Christians intermingle socially every day, at work, the ballpark, and in the grocery store. But we’ve lost a sense of urgency in sharing the story of Jesus Christ,” he told The Christian Post. “We rush home from work in our cars, pull in the garage by the push of the button, and disappear in our homes to watch two hours of TV, only to get up and do it all over again. We’ll stand for hours in line to purchase a Nintendo Wii, but we cringe at crossing the street to get to know our neighbors.

“Believers, me included, need to do a better job at building a sense of community in our own neighborhoods,” he added.

But there are churches that have contextualized the timeless message of the Gospel to the culture and are connecting successfully with their communities, Rainer noted.

“Nothing excites me more as a pastor and researcher than hearing about churches that connect with their communities and unashamedly proclaim the name of Christ in a way people can understand,” he said.

Ryan Bolger, assistant professor of church in contemporary culture in Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies and co-author of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures, has found many churches that are expressing their faith in ways that resonate with those in the 21st century. And they go beyond outreaches and trendy worship that only aim to draw people to church services.

“Donald McGavran … said a person shouldn’t have to change cultures to find God,” Bolger said, referring to a former Fuller professor. “A person’s difficulty with the Christian faith is often sociological, not theological.”

After five years of research on emerging churches, Bolger discovered places that were expressing the Christian faith in cultural forms that made sense to a population that has become more urban. Churches that have been able to connect with their communities were more relational, focused on practices and less institutional, he found.

Such churches incorporated aspects of people’s daily lives – whether it’s ipods, art or music – into their worship to “weave together the sacred and the secular,” he said in a recent interview featured on Fuller’s Web site. Along with creativity, these emerging churches have refocused on the life of Jesus as a model way to live. Thus, inviting the outsider in, hospitality, forgiving, peacemaking and praying together daily are central, Bolger pointed out.

“It’s not extra, it’s not an outreach. It’s actually the Gospel. So it’s something they have to get right,” he said, noting that the emerging churches look to express faith in the workplace, neighborhoods and in everyday activity and are not necessarily looking for ways to bring people to church services.

“The reason they do that is to ground their faith in the practices of everyday so it’s not a detached other worldly only faith, but it’s something that connects to their everyday,” said Bolger.

Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter

What are your thoughts?

>>>

Unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral over contemporary church buildings, a new study showed.

Mon, Apr. 07, 2008 Posted: 07:55:14 AM EST

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Unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral over contemporary church buildings, a new study showed.

Although billions of dollars have been spent on church buildings and more contemporary designs, church attendance has declined, said Jim Couchenour, director of marketing and ministry services for Cogun Inc., a founding member of Cornerstone Knowledge Network. The network was thus prompted to ask, “As church builders what can we do to help church leaders be more intentional about reaching people who don’t go to church?”

In a study conducted by LifeWay Research for Cornerstone Knowledge Network, the unchurched preferred more traditional looking buildings by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option. Given 100 “preference points” to allocate among four photos of church exteriors, the unchurched used an average of 47.7 points on the most traditional and Gothic options.

The other three options were given only 18.5 to 15.9 points.

“Quite honestly, this research surprised us,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research and LifeWay Christian Resource’s missiologist in residence. “We expected they’d choose the more contemporary options, but they were clearly more drawn to the aesthetics of the Gothic building than the run-of-the-mill, modern church building.”

Stetzer believes unchurched Americans may be drawn to the look of the Gothic cathedral because it speaks to a connectedness to the past.

Young unchurched people particularly preferred the traditional look. Those between the ages of 25 to 34 gave an average of 58.9 of their 100 preference points to the more Gothic church exterior while those over the age of 70 gave that option only an average of 32.9 points.

One survey respondent said modern churches “seem cold.”

“I like the smell of candles burning, stained-glass windows, [and] an intimacy that’s transcendent,” the respondent said.

“We may have been designing buildings based on what we think the unchurched would prefer,” Couchenour noted. “While multi-use space is the most efficient, we need to ask, ‘Are there ways to dress up that big rectangular box in ways that would be more appealing to the unchurched?’”

Most churches that look like a cathedral, however, are in decline, Stetzer pointed out.

“Buildings don’t reach people, people do,” Stetzer said. “But if churches are looking to build and are trying to reach the unchurched, they should take into consideration the kind of building. Costs and other considerations will play into the decision, but the preferences of the unchurched should be considered as well.”

Survey results showed that more than half of the unchurched said the design of a church building would impact their enjoyment of a visit to church. Twenty-two percent said the design of the church would strongly impact their enjoyment of the visit and 32 percent indicated it would have some impact. More than a third said it would have no impact whatsoever on their visit.

The survey was conducted on 1,684 unchurched adults on Feb. 4 and 5. Unchurched people are defined as those who had not attended a church, mosque or synagogue in the past six months except for religious holidays or special events.

Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter

Last week after reading Pastor Christian’s note about Haiti, we invited him to help with Angel Food Ministries at the Shiloh Methodist church. We began helping with this ministry when it began a couple of years ago. When we started helping with it, we thought being involved was a “good thing to do to help others in need”. It is a win-win situation; we get food at a reduced cost, and we help others at the same time. When we order a box of food, it counts toward getting a “free” box of food to give away to someone in need. Any food we won’t use, we put in a box to be donated to the food pantry. We thought the kids would enjoy being involved in this ministry. We want them to learn that helping others is a privilege as well as a responsibility. These are all good reasons for helping with this ministry, right? When we get down to the nitty gritty facts, though, these good points are not the reason that we keep helping with this ministry. The truth of the matter is that we gain so much more by helping than we could ever give back.

I’m certain that each one of you already knows this truth: We can never out-give God. We keep helping with this ministry because of the relationships we’ve developed. People from many different denominations come together to help with this project. People from many different backgrounds purchase food from Angel Food Ministries. We’ve met people we probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. A smile here and there prompts a smile back. People begin to feel comfortable talking. Talk about the weather turns to talk about lost jobs and sick family. You might even find yourself mentioning your own concerns. Wait a minute. . . Wasn’t this endeavor about helping others?

Teresa of Avila is quoted as saying, “Christ moves among the pots and pans.” Somehow, while doing the work, words come easier, and more naturally. With a sense of camaraderie established between workers and guests, we both see our common bond, and each of us sees a glimpse of Christ in the other. In my mind, mission work is all about relationships. If we desire to be like Jesus, shouldn’t we be where the people are? What are your thoughts? Do you have a mission you feel passionately about?

 Beth S

From the Presbyterian Outlook:

The chief cornerstone and the game plan
by Kenneth E. Bailey
03/10/2008

It is clear that Jesus carefully planned the first part of the Triumphal Entry. He chose a village where he had friends. One of those friends was alerted to ready a colt and tie it in front of the house at a specified time. Its owner was waiting and watching. The disciples were told where to find the colt and both parties memorized passwords.

It is also clear that Jesus engaged in similar planning for the Last Supper. A man who could recognize the disciples was waiting with a water pot to lead them to a house where the owner had already offered his large, furnished upper room to Jesus. Those involved used passwords again. Meticulous planning clearly surfaces in both of these occasions during holy week. I would suggest a third: the Triumphal Entry itself.

Psalms 118:19-28 is a carefully constructed rhetorical piece with seven inverted cameos and the parable of the “chief cornerstone” in the center. A number of striking features appear. These include:

1.         A pilgrim, and then a crowd of pilgrims enter the temple through the gate.

2.         Thanks for “my salvation” are expressed. As a single written Hebrew word, “my salvation” is ljshu‘a and the name Jesus is jshu‘a. The two words have the same root and resonate together powerfully.

3.         Salvation is not a set of ideas (the Greek mentality) or an act in history (the Old Testament worldview). It has become a person.

4.         A special stone that was rejected by builders becomes the “chief cornerstone.”

5.         The people cry out, “Hosanna” (save us now) to Yahweh. The root ysh‘, from which the name Jesus is formed, appears again.

6.         The pilgrims also affirm, “Blessed is he who enters in the name of the Lord!”

7.         The parade of worshipers carries branches.

 

Is all this accidental, or was some planning done by Jesus and his disciples before they started down the slope of the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley and up into the Temple complex? Indeed, the followers of Jesus no doubt were caught up in the excitement (and danger) of what was happening, but the careful planning evidenced at the start of the parade strongly supports the idea that the rest of the occasion was also arranged.

The seven points of interest in Psalms 119:19-28, noted above, all reappear in the Triumphal Entry. This suggests strongly that Jesus planned a “re-enactment” of the parade set forth in the Psalm. The use of branches as part of a parade is not a traditional Middle Eastern custom and this only occurs here in the entire New Testament.

Of the seven overlapping features noted above, let me particularly note three:

First, the Mishnah affirms that when the second temple was built, the builders found an elevated stone on the old Holy of Holies that was three fingerbreadths higher than the rest of the floor. They assumed that the Ark of the Covenant originally rested on that stone. Probably remembering that in Isaiah 28:16 God promised that he would one day lay a precious cornerstone … a sure foundation in

Zion, they named that elevated stone “the foundation.” Jesus told a parable about a man who built a house and laid the foundation upon a rock (Luke 6:48). That rock was clearly the person and words of Jesus. That is, in the parable Jesus claimed to be “the foundation” promised by Isaiah and he rejected the ideas that the stone in the floor of the Holy of Holies completed Isaiah’s vision.

If this understanding of the earlier parable is in any way correct, then Jesus and his followers would have been intently focused on Jesus as “the foundation stone” of Isaiah as they entered the temple where the other “cornerstone” lay in silence at the center of the Holy of Holies. The approach of the “living stone” to the temple would, in itself, naturally invoke the parable of Psalm 118 with its focus on the stone that the builders rejected. On the following day, when Jesus was challenged for his actions, he told a parable and at its conclusion quoted the parable of the stone from Psalms 118:22. Jesus is the foundation stone of our new temple; he is our Kaaba.

Secondly, in Psalm 118, the pilgrims cry out, “Hosanna” to Yahweh. In the reenactment, this cry of hope is addressed to Jesus. This can be called “hermeneutical Christology.” Language and symbols that in the Hebrew Bible refer to God are reused and applied to Jesus. Rabbi Hillel, who lived one generation before Jesus, made similar claims. Thus, what David Flusser calls the reality of a “heightened self-awareness” was already a part of the Jewish world of the first century before Jesus was born. There is little wonder that, as recorded in Luke, some of the Pharisees were horrified and said to Jesus, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. Jesus replied, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:29-40.) The stones of the temple immediately come to mind, and surely, the foundation stone in the Holy of Holies was also intended. The temple was still in process of being built. Therefore the temple authorities were indeed “the builders.” For the followers of Jesus, the ‘rejected stone” was already the “chief cornerstone.” The foundation of the new temple was replacing the old foundation and that reality was surely an important part of the so-called “cleansing of the temple.” Was Jesus cleansing it for purer use or replacing it with a new temple — his body?

Lastly, salvation in this reenactment appears as a person. In the first servant song in Isaiah, God addresses the Servant and says, “I have given you [singular] as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.” The covenant is personified. In like manner, in the Psalm text before us, God does not bring salvation nor does he offer it. He becomes “my salvation.” And, as noted, the name of Jesus resonates with the word used.

There is still an irrepressible element of exuberance in the Triumphal Entry. I find it hard to imagine that Jesus specifically instructed his followers to cry, “Hosanna” to him, knowing that this is a petition addressed in the Psalms to God. Perhaps the disciples, understanding what they were doing, themselves chose to cry out to Jesus using that word. At the same time, the courage and boldness of Jesus is heightened when the overall pattern of a “reenactment” of Psalm 118:19-28 is seen in Jesus’ triumphal entry. This possibility opens wide avenues in the mind and spirit for reflection, adoration, and discipleship.

Kenneth E. Bailey is an author/lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament studies living in New Wilmington, Pa.

On Sunday, the NCPC community gathered at Cafe Dulce and celebrated the impending nuptials of Jon and Angela. Below is the advice the couple was given.

Advice from the Ladies

• Be independent; form a bond-just the two of you

• Don’t stop talking; don’t stop listening; don’t stop praying

• There are times to compromise and times not to.  I can’t tell you when to do one or the other….trust your judgment

• Marriage is not 50/50-it’s 75/25 for both people

• You are a team-support each other lovingly, spiritually, physically, and financially

• Always keep a sense of humor

• Be willing to handle your end of the deal

• Make your husband think he’s in charge, but in your heart, know you are the strength in the household

• Communicate!

• If you have had a bad day together, always make up before you go to bed

• Always talk through your problems-don’t let them fester

• Don’t let your parent(s) tell you what to do

• When encountering a problem, don’t go to your parent(s).  Confide in those who can help most:  God, Yourself, a Friend

• Be good to your husband

• Make compliments personal; keep gripes non-personal

• Surprise each other at least once a week

• Always remember to respect each other

• A perfect wife is one who doesn’t expect a perfect husband

• A bride should make sacrifices for her husband, but not in the form of burnt offerings!

• Just smile and say “yes dear”, then do whatever you were going to do anyway

Advice from the Gentlemen

• Save every payday, even if it is $1.00.  Time will be your friend

• Have a hobby, preferably one you both can share.  If not, just go fishing!

• Savor every moment, and don’t let the strength of your love waiver

• Work hard together; DON’T become a statistic

• The single most important phrase to remember is “Yes Dear”.

• Even if she’s wrong, she’s right!

• Rule 1: The wife is always right; Rule 2: When the wife is wrong, refer to rule #1

• The best way for a husband to clinch an argument is to take her in his arms

• Always remember, in any discussion, she is always right

• A perfect husband is one who doesn’t expect a perfect wife

• K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Silly)

• If you don’t mind sharing what you order at a restaurant, order something different than your bride.  If you don’t want to share, order the same thing

• For both bride and groom:  Continue to seek God in your marriage.  Keep good communication going especially with your finances