Preaching and eucharist in declining empire

Preaching and eucharist in declining empire

• 1.
  preaching and eucharist in a declining empire
• 2.
  Empire can bedefined in various ways. Duane Clinker offers three characteristics: 1. An empire expands beyond normal boundaries, so its national interests extend to include military installations abroad, multinational corporations owned by the empire’s citizens, and the interests of its allies. 2. An empire normally develops extraordinary military power. 3. An empire exerts its influence in a variety of ways—through economics, culture, religion, education, and politics. David Korten offers four characteristics of an empire: 1. Empires embrace the idea of material luxury and excess for the ruling classes. 2. Empires are dedicated to absolute military supremacy. 3. Empires emphasize the masculine values of violence and domination over the feminine values of nurture and cooperation. 4. Empires create a ceiling for human development and impede development beyond their current level.
• 3.
  Responses to Empire: Zealots Pharisees Herodians and Sadducees Essenes Disciples
• 4.
  Stages of Empire Expansion Struggle/Recovery Over-extension Divestment/Collapse
• 5.
  How would youexpect an empire to behave after it has passed its prime?
• 6.
  Therefore remember thatat one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
• 7.
  And he cameand preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
• 8.
  Preaching peace ... -Preaching peace through a crucified man (not a crucifying man). - Preaching peace through a way of love & service (not conquest & domination). - Preaching peace with a rhetoric of vulnerability (not coercive speech). - Preaching peace with a call to repentance (not convention)
• 9.
  Preaching peace ... Preachingpeace through an act of guerrilla theatercalled ...
• 10.
  Preaching peace ... Preachingpeace through an act of guerrilla theatercalled ... liturgy.
• 12.
  What are wesinging? Harmony, poetry, and hostility
• 13.
  All things brightand beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all. - Cecil Alexander (1848)
• 14.
  Each little flowerthat opens,/ Each little bird that sings,/ He made their glowing colors./ He made their tiny wings. The purple headed mountains,/ The river running by,/ The sunset and the morning/ That brightens up the sky. The cold wind in the winter,/ The pleasant summer sun,/ The ripe fruits in the garden,/ He made them every one. The tall trees in the greenwood,/The meadows where we play,/ The rushes by the water,/ To gather every day. He gave us eyes to see them,/ And lips that we might tell/ How great is God Almighty,/ Who has made all things well.
• 15.
  The rich manin his castle, The poor man at his gate, He made them, high or lowly, And ordered their estate. All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all.
• 16.
  Onward, Christian soldiers,marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle see his banners go! -Sabine Baring-Gould
• 17.
  John the Baptist: Baptism,Identity, and Hostility
• 18.
  Baptism wasn’t radical.Ceremonial washings were commonplace in Judaism.
• 19.
  What would aceremonial washing mean in terms of identity... overseen by the priests, before entering the temple precincts?
• 20.
  What would itmean for John to leave Jerusalem to baptize?
• 21.
  Where did Johnbaptize? in the wilderness, at the Jordan - not in the temple. He was the son of a priest operating outside the priestly system.
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  But John didnot join a community of Essenes either ... They created closed, hyper-exclusive, hyper- puritan apocalyptic communities in the wilderness.
• 23.
  John chose ariver ... in a public place.
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  What does itmean, then, for Jesus to accept John’s baptism?
• 25.
  What would it mean for the Spirit in the form of a dove to descend upon Jesus?
• 26.
  In Christ ... neitherJew nor Greek ... male nor female ... slave nor free ...
• 27.
  In Christ (inthe kingdom) ... neither Jew nor Greek ... male nor female ... slave nor free ... A new citizenship, a new identity, a new solidarity.
• 29.
  The Eucharist: Tableof Fellowship
• 30.
  In the empire,life is a war.
• 31.
  Life is ameal ... a table ... a banquet
• 32.
  We are reconciled... with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, with our enemies, with all creation.
• 33.
  In John’s gospel: Breadas manna ... Food for a journey of liberation ... en route to a new land, a new way of life ...
• 34.
  For Paul ... Eucharistas passover ... not day of atonement. Meal of liberation ... Meal of anticipation ...
• 35.
  Meal of unity... Meal of solidarity ... Meal of one-anotherness Meal of Exodus from empire
• 36.
  All things brightand beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all. - Cecil Alexander (1848)
• 37.
  Therefore, since weare receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe ... Hebrews 12
• 40.
  Colossians 1:15-20
• 41.
  Christ is theimage of the God who can’t be seen. Christ is the image of the God who can’t be seen. The firstborn of all creation.
• 42.
  In him allthings were created. Things in heaven and on earth - Things visible and invisible - Whether thrones or dominions, rulers or powers. Through him all things have been created. For him all things have been created.
• 43.
  And he isbefore all things. All things hold together in him. And he is the head of the body, the church.
• 44.
  He is thebeginning, the firstborn from the dead. So in everything he has the first place. For in him all the fullness - The fullness of God - Was pleased to dwell.
• 45.
  In Him Godwas pleased to reconcile all things All things to himself, All things on earth, all things in heaven, By making peace through the blood of his cross. By making peace through the blood of his cross.
• 46.
  Christ is theimage of the God who can’t be seen. Christ is the image of the God who can’t be seen. Amen.
• 48.
  Therefore remember thatat one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
• 49.
  And he cameand preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.