FOR GOOD MEASURE: Volume 15, August, 1992

by Paul F. Bosch


Ten Radio Meditations (141-150)
originally composed by ELCIC pastor Paul F. Bosch
for CFCA-FM, Kitchener, Ontario.

These meditation appear in speech-line form. 
With a little bit of editing, 
they may be rendered in paragraph form 
for use in newsletters and guides to worship.
Be sure to credit the author for his work.


141)  Jesus seminar...
142)  Lex orandi, lex credendi...
143)  restaurant rating for worship?...
144)  CCT work...
145)  Israel has kept the Sabbath...
146)  Jahweh = "I shall be there..."
147)  Ten Commandments: an owners' manual...
148)  "Whoever has the gold makes the rules..."
149)  Ritual language:  communal, repetitive, symbolic...
150)  Levels of ritual language...




141)   
You may be aware that there's a group of biblical scholars
     at work in what is called the Jesus Seminar.

They're professional students of the Bible, 
     you might say, 
     most of them professors at Universities.

And they've set themselves the task of trying to find out
     as exactly as possible, 
     given the limitations of history,
     what the real Jesus was like.

Did the real Jesus, for example, 
     really say the things attributed to him in the Bible?

As you might guess, their answer is no, 
     in a good many cases.  

Much of what Jesus is supposed to have said, 
     in the Gospels, 
     they say, 
     is not really Jesus'.

Now, that could shake your faith 
     in the Bible and in the Gospel and in Jesus, 
     except for one thing.

Quite apart from the evidence,
     faith has a way of validating itself, 
     to the human heart.  

That's always been true.




142)  
There's a Latin phrase from antiquity
     that's been helpful to me in my faith journey.

Lex orandi, lex credendi.

You could translate the Latin like this:

The law of prayer is the law of belief.

And what it means is this:  
     There's a potent power in prayer 
     that shapes our lives.

And that power in prayer is at least as potent 
     as the power 
     in our beliefs and doctrines and dogmas and prejudices.

Our prayers, that is, and the way we pray 
     -- the signs 
     and gestures 
     and significations of our worship --
     these all cannot help but have their effect on us.

You are a different person after you pray.

And you're a different person because of your prayers.

They shape you;  
     they mould you into a different person.

That suggests to me two things:

First, 
     you'd better pay attention 
     to what it is you're praying.

And second,
     maybe you shouldn't be praying some of that stuff.




143)  
You may have heard in the news a couple of years ago,
     about the controversy that swirled around 
     the religion editor of a big city newspaper
     who had the courage 
     -- the foolish recklessness --
     to visit city churches 
     and give them a rating, 
     in his weekly newspaper column,
     like the restaurant ratings on the lifestyle pages.

You know, five stars 
     for good preaching, good music, friendly people;
     but only three stars 
     if the music was ok but the sermon was lousy 
     -- It was that kind of thing.

Now you can guess the trouble he caused
     when he printed his reviews in the paper, 
     mentioning the names and everything:  
     churches, ministers. 

I'm not certain 
     he could get away with that kind of thing for very long.

He'd find himself lynched.

But the idea strikes me as a good one.

What if the newspaper reviewer 
     came to your church next Sunday?

Would he give your worship five stars?  three?




144)  
There's an international ecumenical committee 
     that's been at work through recent years 
     -- you ought to know this --
     trying to decide upon common English language wordings 
     for the important parts of Christian prayer life.

It's been a real scandal, for example, 
     that English speaking Christians have been using 
     half a dozen different versions of the Lord's Prayer
     over the years. 

Do you day "debts" or trespasses" for example?

Do you end with the doxology "for thine is the kingdom" or not?

That kind of thing.

Now there's no good reason for all that diversity:
     Christians should be able to agree on some common
     English language versions of those wonderful words.

So this committee has been hard at work
     and they've come up with what they hope
     are some splendid new words for the Lord's Prayer
     and the Apostle's Creed, for example.

Wouldn't it be great 
     if in the future our children 
     no matter what their Christian tradition,
     will all be praying in the same words?




145) 
     I heard a rabbi say this recently:
     "For centuries,
     Israel has kept the Sabbath.
     And the Sabbath has kept Israel."

I love that as a reminder of the staying power,
     the transforming power of religious symbols.

The Sabbath      -- along with other great religious symbols  --
     has the power to shape,      to transform,      to uphold,      to sustain human life.

This kind of religious commitment, that is, 
     is not simply some kind of neurotic self-delusion
     that human beings 
     will somehow grow out of and put behind them.

To keep the Sabbath is to discover that 
     the Sabbath has been keeping you:  
     upholding you, sustaining you.

We wouldn't be truly human 
     without these formative symbols of faith.




146)  
I heard a neat translation the other day
     of that mysterious name of God
     which Moses is given 
     in that episode with the burning bush 
     you can read of in the bible.

You remember the story:  
     Moses is tending sheep in the desert, 
     and he sees this bush 
     that burns without being consumed.

And the voice of God 
     speaks to Moses out of the bush.

"Take off your shoes, 
     for the place 
     where you are standing 
     is holy ground."

And God gives Moses his name, 
     and the mysterious name of God is this,
     in the translation I heard:
     "I shall be there as one who shall be there."

I like that:  
     God is the one who is there,
     the one who shall always be there.




147)
A friend of mine calls the Ten Commandments
     a kind of Owner's Manual for the human race.

I like that:  
     The Ten Commandments 
     are among the great religious treasures 
     from antiquity, 
     and they're familiar to almost everyone:
     "You shall not kill...
     you shall not steal...
     you shall not bear false witness...
     Honour your father and mother..."

Now each of these commandments 
     take on a new meaning
     when you begin to think of them 
     as together 
     a kind of Owner's Manual for the human species.

This what it's like to be truly human.

These commandments: they're not so much
     a laying down of some divine law, 
     that some kind of cosmic cop is going to enforce,
     and slap you in the cooler if you break.

No, these are more simply 
     a description of the way it is 
     with this marvellous piece of equipment 
     we call the human person.  

And if you own one, this how it works.




149)
I heard a cynical twist 
     on the Golden Rule 
     the other day.

You know the real Golden Rule.

Jesus quotes it in Matthew 7:
     "Do to others as you would have them do to you." 

The really cynical version 
     of the Golden Rule 
     is the version from Ronald Reagan's America, 
     according to my friend:


"Whoever has the gold makes the rules."

You have to laugh at that one, 
     partly because it's so often so near the truth.

But it's worth remembering 
     that that kind of Golden Rule
     is promoting a view of human life that is
     precisely the opposite 
     of what the Bible says we're all about.

It's worth remembering that 
     in the Bible, 
     God's harshest judgements are directed against 
     the abuse of the poor by the rich.




150)
I heard a teacher say recently 
     that the language of worship 
     has three unusual qualities.

The language of worship, she said,
     is repetitive, communal, and symbolic.

That was helpful to me 
     in understanding what goes on among Christians, 
     for example, 
     on Sunday morning.

We shouldn't be surprised or distressed, that is,
     to find ourselves repeating religious formulas,
     like "Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer..."

Christian worship is, after all,
      not a private matter.

It's a corporate thing:  
     everybody's invited to take part.

And more precisely, 
     everybody is invited to take a part.

You've got a job to do, 
     a role to fill in Christian worship.

And only you can fill it.


Good worship will invite you to take your place
     on stage, that is, 
     with all the other members of the cast.