descenta c o n v e r s a t i o n o n w o r s h i p d e s i g n

Descent: The Biggest Idea Ever j . d . wa lt

Yodh & Kaph d av i d h a r r i t y

Preaching as Worship m i c h a e l pa s q u a r e l lo

Saving Beauty m o r g a n m e r c e r

Hymns: Lament as Worship j u l i e t e n n e n t

Lent is an Active Verb d r e w c a u s e y

The End of the World as We Don’t Yet Know It c h a d b ro o k s

Metanoia s c o t t c a i r n s

Vol. 1 no. 1 Easter 2011

The leVite camp exists to encourage and equip worship leaders and designers in the

world—making work of worship.

Join the conversation at leVitecamp.com

asbury theological seminaryPublisher

j.d. waltEditor in Chief

chad brooksAssistant Editor

amanda esenbock-stamper Managing Editor

stephanie wright Designer

Descent is published by Asbury Theological Seminary,

Wilmore, KY 40390-1199. This issue is dated

Easter 2011, Vol. 1, No. 1.

800.2ASBURYasburyseminary.edu

DESCENT: ThE biggEST iDEa EvErThe Church’s first song sang of the biggest idea ever. Here are some of the lyrics:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of

Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

—philippians 2:5-11

We know the lyrics. Every generation contributes its own melody. The work of worship leadership and design entails not so much the choosing of songs (though important) but the crafting of the score. The score celebrates the God who creates and recreates the Cosmos. Note the distinctive “pitch” and pattern; down then up, descent to ascent.

descent:ThE biggEST iDEa EvEr

J.D. WaltVice President for Community Life asbury seminary

The song comes with a simple but audacious prelude.

Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus. This is the mind of the mysterious God in three persons. Christian worship calls us to behold this particular God and become re-created in the image.

WorShip = bEholDiNg

Therefore, brothers and sisters, I urge you, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your liturgy.

WorShip = bEComiNg

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind; then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

To behold the view is to become transformed by the vision.

DESCENT: WhY? Practical conversations abound on issues concerning music in worship.

Academic conversations abound on issues concerning theology in worship.

But when it comes to the practical conversation concerning how the richest theology inspires the most creative practice of worship… not so much. Descent aims for this conversation.

DESCENT: Who For?Descent is a publication for worship leaders, a term we define broadly to include anyone who has anything to do with planning, preparing for or leading a worship service. At the same time, we would speak to all who

bear the name of Christ and aspire to live a worship-filled life.

So why are those who serve the work of worship so important? Good question. After all, most worship looks pretty simple. Sing some songs. Listen to a sermon. Go home. Those involved must be somewhat gifted and called to this work, but what more is needed?

ThE bolD aSSErTioNSLet me begin by exposing our deepest assumptions. I will do so in the form of three bold claims.

bold assertion 1: Nothing is more central to the people of God than the practice of worship.

bold assertion 2: The practice of worship expresses and forms the personal and collective faith of the people like nothing else.

bold assertion 3: Those who shape, order and lead the practice of worship wield perhaps more influence over the people of God than anyone else.

Following on these three bold claims, I offer a sweeping statement. It our primary thesis and reason for writing; the big idea. Are you ready? It is the primary thesis and reason for the leVite camp. Worship Leaders are the primary practical theologians of the Church. While you may not need a theological degree to lead worship, training in a theological vision for worship is essential.

WhaT iS a praCTiCal ThEologiaN?Theology comes to us from two Greek words: Theos, meaning God, and Logos, meaning Word. Look at the

rich range of connections. God-Word, Word-God, God of Words, Speaking God, God who speaks, Words about God, Words of God. “Theology” is a word too long abused by agendas, held hostage by the so-called “wise and learned,” and relegated to books with words no one can pronounce much less understand. Theology, what began as the playground of awe-inspired Saints has become the labyrinthine lair of specialized scholars. Don’t hear me wrong. I do not mean to eschew the work of academic scholars of theology. With the exception of a few well intentioned heretics, their speculative searching and systematic laboring blesses the church in myriad ways. I offer a corrective. Academic theologians cannot be the sole proprietors of theology. Theology belongs to the whole people of God.

Practical theologians, as living translations, show us how knowledge becomes wisdom, faith becomes understanding and mourning becomes dancing. They translate theology into edible words. “Eat this book,”

says Yahweh to Ezekiel. “When your words came to me I ate them, for they were my joy and delight,” says Jeremiah. “People do not live by bread alone but by every

word that comes from the mouth of God,” says Jesus. Practical theologians translate theology into food for the hungry, clothes for the naked, medicine for the sick and friendship for the lonely and imprisoned. With soil-stained hands, they superintend the process from a

worship leaders are the primary practical

theologians of the church.

Continued on next page

descent 3

seed of wheat to a harvest of grain to the mill for flour to the fire for baking to the people for eating and to the streets for sharing. D.T. Niles once defined evangelism as one beggar sharing bread with another beggar.” How’s that for a theologian’s job description? They incarnate the practical mystery, journeying with us from an earthy altar to the very Table of the Lord.

Who QUaliFiES aS a WorShip lEaDEr?Who are “Worship Leaders?” For purposes of Descent we define worship narrowly and leader broadly. One rightly points out the vast scope of a word like worship. Properly speaking, anything one does for the glory of God qualifies as worship. Here we aim to talk about worship in the frame of what happens when God’s people assemble for the explicit purpose of “worshipping” Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I hope to convince you that what happens in the gathering will determine what happens after the gathering. To be sure, worship is a “lifestyle,” but before it is a lifestyle it must be a distinctive practice.

So who are worship leaders? We define the term broadly to mean anyone who works in a servant capacity to plan, prepare for and lead the people of God in corporate worship. The preacher or pastor? Yes. The bass player? Yes. The sound guy? Yes. The woman who makes slides and runs pro-presenter? Yes. The team that designs the plan for the services? Yes. The organist? Yes. The choir? Yes. The lead vocalist in the worship band? Yes. The announcement makers? Yes. The group responsible for the environment? Yes. The altar guild? Yes. The songwriters? Yes. The Scripture Readers and Prayers? Yes. The drummer? Yes. The dancers? Yes. The Ushers…? Okay, Yes!

ThE high STaKES WorK oF WorShipPeople learn their primary theology not through reading but in worship; the way we gather, the invoking of Deity, the songs sung, the manner and mode of praying, the Scriptures selected and heard, the witnesses’ sharing, the sermons preached, the responses evoked, the approaches to the Table and the way of sending forth. These are the elements of worship. Regardless of what one calls them, or whether they are written down or not, this list captures what happens in most any worship service. All of these elements work together over time to profoundly shape a person’s and a peoples’ image of God, their vision of self and others and their sense of purpose and work in the World.

Who prepares for and puts all of this together week after week after week? Worship leaders. But all of these elements listed above are only the “motions” of worship. What worship leaders of all stripes must understand is how the motions of worship connect to the movement of the Kingdom which flows out from the mystery of God; namely the mind of Christ. HE IS THE DESCENT. He calls us to belong to him so intimately and follow him so closely that his mind literally becomes our own. His story scores the Church’s song.

J.D. Walt serves as Dean of the Chapel on the Asbury Theological Seminary Kentucky campus. He blogs at jdwalt.com.

he is the descent.

he calls us to belong to him so

intimately and follow him so

closely that his mind literally

becomes our own.

Continued from page 3

6 descent

yodhI will open my hands to learn

about offering—for that I

must trade my dry body for your living water—all ten fingers joined

together in reliving my sin. I am a tired pilgrim confessing, always

trying to swallow what you’ve poured

into the broken bowl of my hands.

kaphWhat do I know about offering? I have nothing to give you but these weary words, the deep hollow of my hands, my palms’

empty faces. I believe. I believe in what it means to be apart— I believe in the weight of my own weaknesses. I want

you to know that I will learn how to find you, that I am learning how to gather your symbols together,

all the pieces of you that have been scattered. My palms wait to be filled of you,

to pull you from earth’s black soil. You are every word I want to know.

Ask me to offer my palms pressed together as a gift

so that I might move into you. My hands

will open like wings beginning to pump:

again and again I

believe.

descent 5

David Harrity is a writer, teacher and literary critic from Kentucky. His poems have appeared in many periodicals and magazines nationally and internationally. Between 2008 and 2010, he conducted a series of writing workshops at Asbury Seminary on the poetry of pastoral imagination. Currently, he works as a college professor teaching English and Theology in Louisville where he lives with his wife and two children.

Artist statement:These two poems—Yodh and Kaph—are from a large serial poem titled “Direct Address.” Using the mystical and symbolic nuances of Hebrew letters, these psalmic poems seek to understand the relationships between the physical and spiritual, between the finite and infinite, between the Creator and the Created. As far as craft is concerned, the pieces tend to reflect their symbolic meanings in form and line structure—Yodh being symbolic of water, Kaph being symbolic of a wing. Ultimately, I hope the poems reflect a deep respect for the biblical psalter as a Hebraic and Christic text, and reflect the complexities of faith in a complicated, fragmentary, and ephemeral world. These two poems, reprinted with permission, originally appeared in Ruminate Magazine, Issue 9.

My hope in sharing this essay is that the Spirit of God will continue to call and raise up men and women to be faithful hearers and speakers of the Word in the manner of Ezra, of whom the Book of Nehemiah states: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to see the Torah of the Lord and to do it …” The story of God’s rebuilding of Jerusalem from ruin, of God’s restoration of Israel after years in exile, is a major expression of evangelical faith in the biblical witness to the God of Israel and Jesus Christ. The story begins with Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the King and a devout man who grieved, wept and prayed over Israel’s condition, calling upon God to remember his promises, to be steadfast in his covenant love, to be gracious and merciful towards his sinful people. With confidence in God that was grounded in the story of God’s faithfulness in the past, Nehemiah reverently addressed the “great and awesome God” to intercede on behalf of his people:

“Remember the instruction you gave you servant Moses, saying: “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”

he first seven chapters of Nehemiah tell the story of returning and rebuilding in just 52 days during which Nehemiah brought organization, visibility, and security to a community of returning exiles. At the same time, the story makes it clear that Nehemiah is neither the source nor the center of this action but only its servant and instrument. It is rather the living God whose mercy and power brought an end to exile, just as it is the living God who calls and welcomes a displaced and disobedient people who have endured hardship, suffering, and disappointment.

I think there are many pastors, congregations, and Christian people who live in exile today. They have not been physically displaced to another

Dr. Michael Pasquarello IIIGranger E. and Anna A. Fisher

Professor of Preaching asbury seminary

preaching the Story

of god w i t h i n t h e n a r rat i v e

o f wo rs h i p

6 descent

country, nor have they been dislocated from their church buildings. For that matter, they may even be numerically, financially, and organizationally successful. However, in spite of such culturally approved outward signs many feel lost and abandoned in a North American church that continues to forget the God whom we have been called to know, love, and serve; a church, in both its liberal and conservative expressions, which continues to distance itself from an identity which is given by the work of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of Word and Sacrament. A church, in both main line and evangelical traditions, where many feel like strangers rather than friends who have been addressed by the Word and invited to the Lord’s Table. A church where many feel more at home in the narratives of worship provided by a world which has set itself against the mind and will of God revealed in

the story of a crucified Lord who rules heaven and earth through the power and wisdom of a Cross.

This contemporary accommodation of Christianity is directly related to amnesia; a deep loss of shared memory and life, a story that provides the means to go on. This forgetfulness has contributed to the deformation of Christian worship and debasement of Christian speech in our time; a widespread loss of prayerful, reverent attention to the Word of God in worship which is our most precious resource for sustaining Christian identity

in identity-denying times and places. And this loss of vital memory, language, and life as God’s people has contributed to a pervasive sense of homelessness among Christian people who struggle to remain faithful to their calling in an increasingly indifferent and even hostile world. A church that has lost its story, its memory of the past, can only wander about aimlessly in the present and despair of the future. For only when we recover our storied identity are we able to discern our vocation in the present while listening for God’s Word and Spirit who lead us into the future.

It saddens me to see pastors and people just barely hanging on, overwhelmed by the chaos of our culture and discouraged to the point of despair by the decline and divisions of the church. Many folks seem to be grasping for anything or anyone who seems to have

an answer, a solution, a new idea, the latest fad, method or program that is guaranteed to work. And so we have 10 steps, three points, six proofs, and more principles of purpose than we know what to do with. And then, there are requests such as “Please find us a young pastor with children who will preach with

charisma, personality, and charm!” I am sure you know what I mean.

Perhaps the greatest need our homelessness has created is a need to remember the scriptural witness to the story of God who creates and saves —in other words, a story of homecoming. The story of Nehemiah and Ezra brings to remembrance news that is good and that brings great joy. But this is also news of what God continues to do among our Sunday morning assemblies. These weekly gatherings are homecomings of sorts. In

these gatherings, God mercifully renews our life in the covenant he has made through the calling of Israel, the life and ministry of Jesus, and the out—pouring of the Spirit to raise up the church as a living household which is the visible presence of God’s presence in the world.

These weekly gatherings are sacred, as are all the sacred assemblies in which the Word is heard and a Holy Meal is consumed in communion with the Risen Lord who speaks with such power that his voice raises the dead. And these gatherings are invitations to come home, assemblies in which we are blessed by God dwelling among us calling the world into his rule of love, joy, peace, and goodness in the Holy Spirit.

But the rebuilding of the wall was only a prelude to the restoration and reconstruction of a people which is the work of the Word and Spirit. Ezra opened the book in the sight of the people and when he did so the people stood listening attentively with reverence and love. Perhaps this means the Torah was held up at this point, just as it is in the synagogue today; just as Scripture is held up in many congregations when it is read, “The Word of God for the people of God,” and the people respond, “Thanks be to God.” This is not a mere meaningless ritual. This is a liturgical activity, not as in high or low church, but as in the work of the people for the praise of God: “And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God; and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen’ (Yes! Yes!); lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” And this is not merely a matter of preaching style or technique; rather it has everything to do with the identity of God and our identity as God’s people, those who are chosen and beloved in Christ, the Son of the Father who speaks the

i think there are many pastors, congregations, and christian people

who live in exile today.

Continued on next page

descent 7

whole narrative of creation and salvation through the Spirit’s power.

And Ezra, the faithful scribe, did not simply talk about the Bible. This preaching is not the transmission of information followed with a time for motivation; nor did he give lists of things to know and do, as a form of “practical application,” which in the end still leaves us in control with little room for God to speak and be heard. Ezra’s reading and speaking were acts of worship, listening to God and speaking of God, so that in hearing and believing the congregation was moved to offer their thanks and praise to God as one. What we see in this story is the congregation of God’s people hearing and receiving the Word with joy. They were “all ears” as they listened to God calling them with fresh power out of the past into a future unfolding in their midst. As Jesus would announce in his first sermon in Nazareth after reading from the prophet Isaiah, “Today this is fulfilled in your hearing.” The power of this story is the power of God, the Word who creates and redeems all things. And this story is still read, proclaimed, and heard as a primary means of grace in which the Triune God welcomes his people home.

What a great story about a great God. In situations that outwardly give every indication of God’s abandonment,

the Word of God is opened, read, and spoken in a manner that satisfies the deepest longings and desires of all who listen. The lively, life-giving Word re-narrates the story of God and his people from creation to the Exodus, a story which points forward to its fullness in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and a story which anticipates a glorious consummation in the City of God around the Lamb who is seated on God’s throne. This is a story of divine love lavished extravagantly upon a poor, little community; a story capable of softening the hardest of hearts and turning sadness to joy; a

story capable of inspiring wonder and amazement in the presence of astonishing goodness and mercy. Such listening prompts us to rejoice in God’s generous provision and to gladly share in a similar manner with the poorest and neediest of our neighbors. And our assembling and listening to the story of God continues to narrate our life through

the practice of worship to this very day. The Spirit is with us through the ministry of the living Word, Jesus Christ, who invites us to his Table as glad recipients and participants in the grand story of God’s work of blessing, healing, and restoring the world.

What a strong word of encouragement for us. Despite our loss of memory, identity, and vitality, God continues to be with us through faith that comes by hearing the Word. Because God has been faithful in the past, God continues to address us in the present,

while the promise of final redemption calls us into a new future God is speaking through the power of his Spirit. And the Word we hear in our proclamation is the story in which we live, move, and have our being; God speaking us in the Spirit’s witness “today.” This is church at its best; a people gathered by the Spirit for offering thanks and praise to the Father through the mediating presence of Christ.

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and your Word proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today.1

1 The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989) 6.

Dr. Michael Pasquarello teaches preaching and historical theology at Asbury Theological Seminary.

and the lord we hear in our proclamation is the story in which we live,

move, and have our being; god speaking us in the

spirit’s witness “today.”

Continued from page 7

8 descent

in his novel The Idiot, russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s main character suggests that the world will be saved by beauty. Although the reader sympathizes with this young man as he is mocked by his peers, it is difficult to fully embrace the salvific power of beauty outside the pages of

a good novel. In contemporary culture, we might be more likely to affirm—if not in our words then certainly our actions—the power of knowledge or strategy before we would affirm the power of beauty. And the Christian tradition is not immune to this skepticism of beauty either. When faced with the realities of limited time and means, those thinkers and practitioners who shape the worship of the Church are tempted to measure ministries by a standard of effectiveness rather than a standard of beauty.

Augustine, church father and preeminent theologian, remained skeptical of beauty until he saw that God himself is true beauty. Carol Harrison, writing on Augustine’s understanding of God and beauty, asserts:

…[the world] is saved by God, who is Beauty, and by the revelation of Himself as Beauty, in His creation, His providential ordering of history, His Scriptures, and most of all in His Incarnation as man. And such revelations save because they meet man in the temporal, into which he has fallen, and because of their beauty evoke in him a love for their source, and hope and faith for the ultimate vision of it. Thus, he is himself reformed, made beautiful, or saved.

Our experience of beauty—beauty in creation, beauty in history, beauty in God’s self-revelation in Scripture (that which guides us in truth and goodness) and God’s self-revelation in the person of Christ, the God-man (he who guides us in life in these bodies)—saves. It saves because they train our desire on things that cause human life to flourish abundantly, vibrantly, radiantly. Christ, according to Isaiah, was not an attractive man, and the Gospel writers reveal that his life is tragic by anyone’s standards. What beauty shines in the face of Christ? Kindness, unfailing kindness, righteous anger at wrongs, true wisdom in the righting of injustice, compassion for weakness, forgiveness offered freely, fortitude under duress, and love and grace that comes from full and complete reconciliation with God and others. Christ’s life—characterized by faith, hope, and love is beautiful as it conveys the promises of God in life, death and resurrection.

When we approach the life of the Church, it is good to remember that the exercise of our faith in every aspect of our lives cannot be reduced to what is useful because God’s self-revelation to humanity speaks of beauty. Without the beauty of love that we can see, hear, and feel —the love that is embodied and incarnated in our shared lives together—even our worship can be ugly. Until we are open to what we can become instead of what we know or do, our work will be effective but never radiant. And so, we are challenged in the face of many obstacles, to choose beauty in the way in which we honor God, trusting that God will fill each of our actions with the beauty that springs only from the divine.

Morgan Mercer recently graduated from Asbury Seminary with a Masters of Divinity focused on social ethics and religious practice. She currently lives and works in New York, N.Y.

Morgan MercerM.Div. graduate asbury seminary

unti

l w

e ar

e op

en t

o w

hat

we

can

beco

me

inst

ead

of w

hat

we

know

or

do, o

ur w

ork

wil

l be

eff

ecti

ve b

ut n

ever

rad

iant

.

Savin

g bea

uty

descent 9

Piano

Pre - cious to the

Lordis the

death of His

saints.

5

Pre - cious in His

sightis the

death of His

saints. Un -AndWe

lessthushave

awethis

9

seedcar -hope

fallsryin

toinjars

theourof

ground,livesclay,

itsthehard -

lifedeath

pressed

re -ofon

mainsJe -ev' -

a -susry

lone.Christ,

side,

SoSoper -

forthat

plexed,

sal -the

struck

13

va -worlddown,

tionmaybut

toseenot

beHisdes -

found,life

troyed -

Je -byfor

susthewe

diedwayknow

towethe

saveliveKing

Hisandof

own.die.Life!

Lament for Martyrs Julie Tennent

Psalm 116:15

John 12:242 Cor. 4:10-11

2 Cor. 4:7-9

2010

Fine - last time

on august 5, 2010, a faithful christian optometrist named dr. tom little, and nine other members of his medical team were martyred in afghanistan. Tom had worked in Afghanistan for 33 years, was

dearly loved by the Afghan people he sacrificially served, and had been invited to come back to the remote mountain village in Nuristan province for an eye clinic, where he had gone several times before. To get to the village 160 miles north of Kabul, Tom and his team drove land rovers across miles of rough terrain, and then had to hike on foot over a 16,000-foot mountain pass which vehicles could not cross. The village is so remote that the villagers told Tom that “no one ever comes here to us or cares about us but your team.” After two weeks of providing care, the team was returning across the mountain pass, when they were ambushed and killed one by one, with the Taliban later claiming responsibility. Tom’s wife, Libby, who had served with him for 33 years in Afghanistan, was in New York at the time with their three daughters, and was given the journal found in the pocket of Tom’s jacket which detailed the days of the clinic and the team’s travel up until the day before his death. In a powerful testimony, she shared with thousands of gathered Christians at the Lausanne conference in Capetown, South Africa later that year (October 2010) some of the stories and reflections from that journal.

Three days after Tom’s death, a conference of workers from Central Asia was gathering in Chiang Mai, Thailand at which my husband,

Julie TennentFirst Lady

asbury seminary

hymns:Lament as

Worship

10 descent

Dr. Timothy Tennent, had been invited to speak. Sev-eral of the workers who came to the conference had worked closely with Tom Little in Afghanistan, and one couple in particular were very dear friends who had been an integral part of Tom’s team for many years. The opening night of the conference, as the workers arrived in Chiang Mai stunned by the news they had just received, a somber pall hung over the gathering. We could not just go on with “business as usual” and open the con-ference with the music and worship that had been planned. Every-one present deeply felt the need to express the lament of our hearts, not just individually, but corpo-rately as the body of Christ in community. We turned to the Scriptures, and the wife of the couple who were such close friends of Tom and Libby Little began to read from John 12:24 and reflect upon the salvific nature of Christ’s redemptive death, which continues to unfold through the lives and deaths of His people called the church. We also read from 2 Cor. 4:7-10, and then broke into small groups of

prayer and lament, together pouring out our grief mixed with the promises of faith and hope and res-urrection that plant seeds of life in the midst of this world of dying. There is a longing, however, at times such as these, to sing our lament and our grief, to

express it in emotive ways beyond words, with music that joins

the agony of our hearts’ grief with that mys-

terious hope which transcends the

grief and lifts our hearts be-yond it. We had no such song to sing that night.

As our small group was pray-

ing, the words of Psalm 116:15 kept

running through my mind with such urgency that

I could barely keep them from pouring out into the prayers. They were like

a pounding refrain of God’s overarching meta-narrative and sovereign purposes in the midst of our poignant emotions of grieving, reminding me that even in death and senseless tragedy, God’s servants are not forgotten

or abandoned by Him. Their death is precious in His sight, and redemptive in His providence.

During the week of the conference, the words of Scrip-ture that had been shared that night began to take form in a song of lament, with the verse from Psalm 116 pouring forth as a recurring refrain or antiphon, much as it had done in my mind during the prayers of that evening. The final night of the conference, we gathered one last time, and sang this corporate song of lament. The wife who had shared the verses of Scripture sang the verses which were taken from those passages she had shared, and the whole gathered community joined in on the refrain together. The music and the act of singing together gave voice to the mixture of lament and hope like no other experience could do. For me, the corporate singing of lament is similar to the “Spirit praying for us with groaning too deep for words,” and results in a lifting of focus that brings peace to the soul which transcends human under-standing. This is the power of lament, which, far from its antithesis of despair, is actually the cry of faith—a voicing of trust in the One who we know has carried our grief and borne our sorrows.

Julie Tennent is an accomplished organist and a published hymn writer. She serves the mission and ministry of Asbury Seminary alongside her husband, Dr. Timothy C. Tennent, the eighth President of the Seminary.

descent 11

Download Lament for Martyrs

this is the one who comes from heaven onto the earth for us suffering ones, and wraps himself in the suffering one through a virgin womb and comes as a human. he accepted the suffering of us suffering ones,through suffering in a body which could suffer, and set free the flesh from suffering. through the spirit which cannot die he slew the human-slayer death. He is the one led like a lamb and slaughtered like a sheep; he ransomed us from the worship of the world as from the land of Egypt, and he set us free from the slavery of the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls with his own spirit, and the members of our body with his blood. This is the one who clad death in shame and, as Moses did to Pharaoh, made the devil grieve. This is the one who struck down lawlessness and made injustice childless, as Moses did in Egypt, This is the one who delivered us from slavery to freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal Kingdom, and made us a new priesthood, and a people everlasting for himself. This is the Pascha of our salvation: this is the one who in many people endured many things. This is the one who was murdered in Abel, tied up in Isaac, exiled in Jacob, sold in Joseph, exposed in Moses, slaughtered in the lamb, hunted down in David, dishonored in the prophets. This is the one made flesh in a virgin who was hanged on a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was raised from the dead, who was exalted to the heights of heaven.This is the lamb slain, this is the speechless lamb, this is the one born of Mary the fair ewe, this is the one taken from

the flock, and led to slaughter. Who was sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night; who was not broken

on the tree, who was not undone in the earth, who rose from

t h e dead and resurrected humankind from the

grave below. O mystifying murder! O mystifying injustice! The master is obscured by his body exposed, and is not held worthy of a veil to shield him from view. For this reason the great lights turned away, and the day was turned to darkness; to hid the one denuded on the tree,

obscuring not the body of the Lord but human eyes. for when the people did not tremble, the earth shook. when the people did not fear, the heavens were afraid. when the people did not rend their garments, the angel rent his own. when the people did not lament, the lord thundered from heaven, and the most high gave voice. “Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me. I set free the condemned. I gave life to the dead. I raise up

the entombed. Who will contradict me? “it is i,” says the christ, “I am he who destroys death and triumphs over the enemy, and crushes Hades, and binds the strong

man, and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.” “It is I,” says the Christ, “So come all families of people, adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins. For I am your freedom. I am the Passover of salvation, I am the Lamb slaughtered for you, I am your ransom, I am your life, I am your light, I am your salvation, I

am your resurrection, I am your Kings. I shall raise you up by my right hand, I will lead you to the heights of heaven, There shall I show you the everlasting Father.” he it is who made the heaven and the earth, and formed humanity in the beginning, who was proclaimed through the law and the prophets,who took flesh from a virgin, who was hung on a tree, who was buried in earth, who was raised from the dead, and ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the father, who has the power to save all things, through whom the father acted from the beginning and forever. This is the alpha and omega, this is the

beginning and the incomprehensible end. This is the Christ, this is the King, this is Jesus, this is the commander, this is the Lord, this is he who rose from the dead, this is he who sits at the right hand of the father, he bears the father and is borne by him. to him be the glory and the might forever. amen.

melito, bishop of Sardis, was a prominent figure

of second-century

Christianity. A leader of

the Church in Asia, Melito

was, according to Eusebius

of Caesarea, a supporter

of the Quartodeciman

theory. Hippolytus reports

that he was among the

earliest proponants of the

two natures in Christ, and

Jerome echoes Tertullian

in noting that Melito was

considered a prophet by

many in his own day. The

present text, On Pascha,

was written c. 167/168,

and is the earliest Christian

sermon that has survived

from antiquity.“on

pasc

ha”this is the one who comes from heaven onto the earth for us suffering ones, and wraps himself in the suffering one through a virgin womb and comes as a human. he accepted the

suffering of us suffering ones,through suffering in a body which could suffer, and set free the flesh from suffering. through the spirit which cannot die he slew the human-slayer death. He is the one led like a lamb and slaughtered like a sheep; he ransomed us from the worship of the world as from the land of Egypt, and he set us free from the slavery of the devil as from the hand of Pharaoh, and sealed our souls with his own spirit, and the members of our body with his blood. This is the one who clad death in shame and, as Moses did to Pharaoh, made the devil grieve. This is the one who struck down lawlessness and made injustice childless, as Moses did in Egypt, This is the one who delivered us from slavery to freedom, from darkness into light, from death into life, from tyranny into an eternal Kingdom, and made us a new priesthood, and a people everlasting for himself. This is the Pascha of our salvation: this is the one who in many people endured many things. This is the one who was murdered in Abel, tied up in Isaac, exiled in Jacob, sold in Joseph, exposed in Moses, slaughtered in the lamb, hunted down in David, dishonored in the prophets. This is the one made flesh in a virgin who was hanged on a tree, who was buried in the earth, who was raised from the dead, who was exalted to the heights of heaven.This is the lamb slain, this is the speechless lamb, this is the one born of Mary the fair ewe, this is the one taken from

the flock, and led to slaughter. Who was sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night; who was not broken

on the tree, who was not undone in the earth, who rose from

t h e dead and resurrected humankind from the

grave below. O mystifying murder! O mystifying injustice! The master is obscured by his body exposed, and is not held worthy of a veil to shield him from view. For this reason the great lights turned away, and the day was turned to darkness; to hid the one denuded on the tree,

obscuring not the body of the Lord but human eyes. for when the people did not tremble, the earth shook. when the people did not fear, the heavens were afraid. when the people did not rend their garments, the angel rent his own. when the people did not lament, the lord thundered from heaven, and the most high gave voice. “Who takes issue with me? Let him stand before me. I set free the condemned. I gave life to the dead. I raise up

the entombed. Who will contradict me? “it is i,” says the christ, “I am he who destroys death and triumphs over the enemy, and crushes Hades, and binds the strong

man, and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.” “It is I,” says the Christ, “So come all families of people, adulterated with sin, and receive forgiveness of sins. For I am your freedom. I am the Passover of salvation, I am the Lamb slaughtered for you, I am your ransom, I am your life, I am your light, I am your salvation, I

am your resurrection, I am your Kings. I shall raise you up by my right hand, I will lead you to the heights of heaven, There shall I show you the everlasting Father.” he it is who made the heaven and the earth, and formed humanity in the beginning, who was proclaimed through the law and the prophets,who took flesh from a virgin, who was hung on a tree, who was buried in earth, who was raised from the dead, and ascended to the heights of heaven, who sits at the right hand of the father, who has the power to save all things, through whom the father acted from the beginning and forever. This is the alpha and omega, this is the

beginning and the incomprehensible end. This is the Christ, this is the King, this is Jesus, this is the commander, this is the Lord, this is he who rose from the dead, this is he who sits at the right hand of the father, he bears the father and is borne by him. to him be the glory and the might forever. amen.

accompany them with Singing—the Christian FuneralThomas G. LongReview by Marcus Green

overview “Surely the task before the church now is to retrace our steps and to recover the grand liturgical theater

in which Christians embrace their dead with tender affection, lift up their voices in hymns of resurrection, and accompany the saints to the edge of mystery” (Accompany them with Singing, 75).So I found myself saying to people, “I’m reading a brilliant book about funerals”, and getting the kind of look that statement deserves—except, it is a brilliant book about funerals. I’ve been ordained and in pastoral ministry for seventeen years and I wish I’d had this invaluable resource for each and every funeral I have ever taken—and there have been very many.Tom Long wrestles the funeral out of the torpor of the “occasional office” and places it full-square in living Christian worship. He powerfully disparages the notion that funerals are for the living, has no time for theology that makes the body a shell for the “immortal gas” of the soul, and issues (repeated) rousing calls for the Christian community to own the worship that surrounds the celebration of another baptised saint of God completing the final mile of this earthly race with the sound of singing. I tell you, it is a glorious vision.The book has two main sections: Background, and the Church’s Ministry in Death. In the first half, Tom Long works through a history of Christian funerals, recent developments, an understanding of the body and soul and heaven and hell—and yes, if you’ve been reading a certain other book of note that has covered some of these themes with rather more publicity, this is a worthy addition to your library. You may agree or disagree with Long; but his arguments will compel you to listen and to learn. In the second half he aims to be more practical. What do we actually do for the dying? What are our priorities? What shapes our liturgies? His lists of the four marks of

a good funeral, and the eight purposes of a good funeral are especially helpful to any pastor who has to plan a service and work out what worship is for and about in this circumstance. Mind you, these aren’t the only lists, and occasionally I got slightly overwhelmed by the number of categories I would be reeling off if I was following all of them for every funeral...

big idea“I want to explore Christian funerals—what they do, what they mean, how they work. The overarching goal of this book is quite practical. Specifically, it is to help priests and ministers who guide parishioners and congregations at the time of death to preside over funerals that genuinely embody the hope of the gospel” (4).The book is determinedly ecumenical in its outlook. This is not about Baptist or Methodist or Episcopal funerals; snippets of worship form all traditions find their way into these pages, commended and critiqued, in order to find a truer Christian theology. It is packed full of hope and gospel and sees the combination of proclamation and liturgy as a powerful endeavor of the church in sending saints on the final mile of their journey home.

little idea 1“The best preparation for dying a Christian death, then, is living a Christian life” (110).Within a couple of pages of opening his chapter In The Hour of Death, Long has quoted Tolstoy, the mediaeval Ars Moriendi and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, as well as a killer illustration from Mary Lou Wiseman’s Intensive Care. With a supreme preacher’s care he picks out illustration after illustration to make clear and memorable points. The book is littered with them. I could open it at random to make the point. Just a moment—that’s what I did here.

little idea 2“In a funeral, what is true about all worship, namely, that the gospel story is re-enacted in dramatic form, comes to a particular focus around the occasion of death” (78).Tom Long has a wonderful grasp of liturgy and the power of Christian worship, and like a dog with a bone will not let it go. He sees how the Church can re-grasp the truths at the heart of death and resurrection, core gospel material, and begs us to worship afresh the Lord of life as we commend our brothers and sisters to his glorious, tender care in hope and faith. The grief of

those who mourn finds its place amongst the songs of resurrection.

Take homeIt’s challenging, it’s full-on, it’s thought-provoking and it takes no prisoners. Would that every text on every pastoral and theological subject were so arresting and so well written. Would that I had had this seventeen years ago before ever I stood to take my first funeral. No matter; I have it now. And so should you.

The Worship architectConstance M. CherryReview by Kyle Mullett

overviewConstance Cherry, in her book The Worship Architect, presents the practice of worship design in a beautifully creative yet systematic

way. She insightfully parallels two seemingly unrelated disciplines: architecture and worship design. In doing so Cherry outlines the five phases of worship design—each phase is likened to the designing of a house:phase 1: Laying the (Biblical) Foundations for Worshipphase 2: Four Load-Bearing Walls of Worship (Worship Order)phase 3: Creating Doors and Windows for Encountering Godphase 4: Adding Style to the Worship Eventphase 5: Nurturing Hospitality at the Worship Event

big idea“As contemporary worshipers in a sound-bite world where interactions can be brief and attention spans short, we do well to remind ourselves that Christian worship is a sustained encounter with God—a journey from our place of origin (physically and spiritually), through meaningful acts of worship as a community, to transformation from having been in God’s presence. The journey is the point” (17).bo

oks i

n pr

evie

w:

12 descent

Cherry, very effectively, bridges the gap between ancient worship practices and the 21st century church. Author and theologian, Dr. Robert E. Webber said this of her book, “Constance Cherry sets forth basic principles and demonstrates how those principles are conducive to virtually any style of worship.” This is the beauty of her book—it isn’t written for a certain sub-culture, within a certain denomination, within a certain region of the United States.

little ideaDid you notice that the concept of worship style was somewhat of an afterthought? This was no oversight. In this 260+ page book, she only gives 40 pages or so to worship style. She poignantly points out that “one does well to remember two things: (1) style is negotiable while content is non-negotiable, and (2) style is contextual while content is universal” (230).

Take homeNo matter your denomination, age, location or style this book will help you to strengthen the life of your congregation.

Worship and the reality of god: an Evangelical Theology of real presenceJohn Jefferson DavisReview by R. M. Kocak

overview “As its central concern this book argues

that American evangelical churches need to recover a sense of the holiness and majesty of God, and of the real, personal presence of the risen Christ in the midst of his people in the power of the Spirit as the central realities of biblical worship ” (33).John Jefferson Davis has written a gift to modern American evangelicals. Davis prophetically calls pastors and church leaders to consider the realities that are shaping the worship experience in most churches. Davis goes to great length in the book to explain the extent that modern and post-modern ontologies (views of reality) have covertly saturated our

lives. As a result, we as Evangelicals now have an inadequate understanding of the nature of the church (ecclesiology) as well as a theology of worship (doxology).After a chapter of introduction Davis structures his book around four themes:

• God, The Church and the Self, Why God has been lost and where we can look to find him.

• Reality in Worship, The Real Presence of God on Sunday Morning

• The Eucharist, Meeting the Risen Christ at the Table• From Ontology to Doxology, From theory to practice in

worship renewal.

Davis uses a lot of very technical and heavy words in this book (ex- ontology, ecclesiology, epistemology, aseity, theanthropic, ect.); however, as a teacher he goes to great lengths to explain and define the meanings of these words. When you are finished reading this book you are not only left challenged, but more theologically educated. The last chapter “From Ontology to Doxology” is written to pastors, elders, deacons, bishops, and church leaders in a way so that they may practically implement some of the theological concepts that were plotted out in the first four chapters of the book.

big idea“Your “God” is too “light”; your vision of the church is too low; your view of your self is too high, and consequently, your worship is too shallow” (38).Davis spends two chapters working specifically on the ontology of God, the Church and the Self and on the reality of Worship. Two theories of reality that impact Christian worship are scientific naturalism (modernity) and postmodern virtuality (postmodernity). Davis goes into depth of what these often loaded terms mean and gives every day examples of how they work to shape the American view of reality. What I appreciate about Davis is that he always offers vision for his critiques. Davis describes the ontology of the church as, “High, Heavy and Theantrophic” and of the self as, “Trinitarian, Ecclesial and Doxological.”

little idea 1“Just as the risen Lord was present to the disciples at Emmaus, so it is today that “he is present ‘in the midst’ at every Eucharist as the true celebrant; present, according to this point of view, rather ‘at’ than ‘on’ the Holy Table, personally feeding his own with the sacred gifts, and imparting his own great gift, the

forgiveness of sins and communion with God through him” (145-146).The chapter on the Eucharist is phenomenal for the liturgical novice and expert alike. Davis takes the reader through the Reformation conflicts, the Eucharistic liturgy of the early church, the four-fold action of historical worship, and traces how the “real presence” in worship has become a “real absence” in the majority of American evangelical churches. The footnotes alone in this section make my heart happy with names like: Gregory Dix, Simon Chan, Brilioth, J.J. Von Allmen, John Robinson, White, Calvin, Luther, ect.

little idea 2“The Bible, the sacraments and the liturgy are the software; the church building, furnishings and musical instruments are the hardware; the mind of the triune God is the heavenly server that archives all the software and the history of its action” (110).Davis is a theologian, ethicist, and worshiper. He has written numerous articles and a book (The Frontiers of Science and Faith) on the relationship between science and faith. Davis draws on this background in explaining some of the abstract concepts of reality and the real presence of God in worship. Davis uses the examples of the World of Warcraft, Google search algorithms, the Matrix, holograms, and cyberspace in his numerous examples. The inner nerd in me smiled many times.

Take homeOverall, Worship and the Reality of God remains a must read for ALL Evangelical students, pastors, teachers, and worshipers. It is a challenging, prophetic, balanced, educational, and timely word for the American church.

descent 13

Some people grow up with the rhythms of the Christian calendar ingrained in their experience of life in the church. I, however, grew up as a Southern Baptist in south Louisiana, and because of that, my interactions with the Christian calendar were fairly limited. I understood Lent through two major

practices I experienced each year: Mardi Gras and fish on Fridays in the school cafeteria. I knew people gave things up for Lent, and that the season was over when Easter arrived, but for the most part, the practice of Lent remained a mystery to me.

Now I lead and design worship for a misfit gang of pseudo-Southern Baptists in Central Kentucky, and the Christian calendar has come to play an unusually large part of the growing life of our congregation. Interestingly, none of our staff come from a background where the calendar was practiced, and most of the people of our church saw it as a relic of the dying institutions of the past. The practice of Lent was nonsensical at best; dead and empty religion at worst.

As we first talked about the idea of walking through the Christian year in our church, we kept bumping into one question above all the others: “Why are we doing this?” The question reflected a desire to

connect the dots between the stuff we do as a church and the everyday ins and outs of living a faithful life. The people of our church weren’t going to take up this way of thinking without some clue as to why it mattered.

So why should we be a Lent-ing people? To answer this, we first had to understand the difference between regular time and Christian time. Regular time passes in cycles that repeat themselves: sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day, 365 days to a year, over and over again. Regular time follows this path almost religiously, but it is not Christian time. Christian time functions within the same cycles of regular time, but it has something regular time does not: orientation. Time is not a gerbil wheel of endless rotation; time has direction. God spoke and set the world in motion, and all of time and history have been oriented by his merciful action to redeem humanity. This is our reality. To choose to view time any other way is to reject the truth.

Christian time has an orientation, and the best way to align yourself to that orientation is to situate your view of time within the way God has moved in history. This is done most clearly in the life of Jesus Christ; that’s why the Christian calendar focuses on walking through the life of Jesus, from incarnation

to the second advent. As we stand within the life of Jesus, we begin to see the direction in which all time and history is moving, and we can join into that movement. Our actions in everyday life find their true North, as what we say and do are re-oriented in a God-ward direction by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Our disciplines and obedience all find their anchoring point in the story of God, and we begin to understand with greater vision of why we’re “doing this”.

When we Lent, we step specifically into Christ’s journey to the cross, and a lot of things we already do as a church make more sense. Our actions find their “why” in the current of Jesus’ life. The humble path to Calvary gives us sure footing as we seek to serve our world, and brings to light the ways we still need redemption. We begin to see our lives as not our own. Sacrifice makes sense because it leads to redemption; and not just our redemption, but the redemption of others as well. Our story stems from His story, and the momentum of His story moves through the Church into the world. We Lent so that we can find this Holy current and allow it to pull us into the lives for which we were created.

Drew Causey serves as Pastor of Worship and Arts at Hope Community Church in Lawrenceburg, Ky. Drew blogs at exchangedliving.com.

Drew CauseyM.Div. Student

asbury seminary

12 descent

“why are we doing this?”

descent 13

the end of theWorlDas We Don’t Yet Know It

14 descent

Yes, generally Advent is focused on ex-pectation and the promised second coming...but that doesn’t mean it only applies during those 40 days. I have also been known to get to the book of Revelation in two steps, so I am guilty as charged.

During the season of Lent we find ways to break patterns, shock our systems, be more aware of our sins and prepare for Easter. Lent is uniquely Christian. Compared to Advent, it exists only within the framework of the redeemed. It simply doesn’t work well with the Easter Bunny. Lent reminds us of what we have been saved from.

Revelation 7: 15-17 (NET):For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes...

This idea also gets service in Revelation 21:4:He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.

Tears are an important thing in Revelation. Tears play an important role in our salvation. The Greek text is fairly pragmatic. Tears have no metaphorical sense. They are simply a bodily discharge. But when looking at the more expressive Hebrew tradition we find more. Our verses from Revelation allude to Isaiah 28:5:

He will swallow up death permanently. The sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from every face, and re-move his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the LORD has announced it!

For a Jew, tears signify grief. They can be seen as a lament, mourn-ing the destruction brought about by sin. The whole body is engulfed and overcome by grief. Wailing because of exile and death cause these tears. These are tears of recognition, but are an expression of pain, fear and loss.

Tears are also shed when people realize how sin has affected them. They are bear the fruit of sin and deep offense to God. For many the season of Lent provides needed space and invitation for this way of lament.

As I walk through Lent, I can’t help but think about what’s coming. The sure coming of Easter shapes our 40 days. Even while we are in a pattern of descent, both the near and far future frames our song. The

great rebellion falls and death is defeated. In the End, sin will conquered not only globally, but personally, as God offers comfort for our individual failures. We don’t make light of sin. We make lots of holiness. In Lent we harness ourselves to Christ’s dying and rising. We shed tears, but we know how those tears themselves are part of our redemption.

The rubber meets the road with a vision of the future. Perhaps taking the posture of Revelation 7 allows us full lament of our sins, through realizing how God will take them away. The fulfillment reckons with those sins, placing them in their right context. Let us use lent to look forward to the day where the wages of sin, both individual and communal, will be taken away. Our own sins remind us of our need for this process.

Downward Dance

With You I Descend

Know me, Shape me

Christ my Friend.

Chad Brooks is a worship designer and Pastor from Louisiana. He can quickly switch between conversations of sacramental practice and the zombie apocalypse. He blogs at outsideisbetter.net and postmoderneschatology.com.

Chad BrooksM.Div. Student

asbury seminary

tears play an important role in

our salvation.

for those familiar with the larger cycle of the church calendar, you might already have raised an eyebrow. “isn’t advent the season where we think about eschatology?”

descent 15

Repentance, to be sure,but of a species farless likely to oblige

sheepish repetition.

Repentance, you’ll observe,glibly bears the bentof thought revisited,

and mind’s familiar stamp

—a quaint, half-hearteddoubleness that couples

all compunction with a pledgeof recurrent screw-up

The heart’s metanoia,on the other hand, turnswithout regret, turns notso much away, as toward,

as if the slow pilgrimhas been surprised to find

that sin is not so badas it is a waste of time.

metanoia

asburyseminary.edu800.2ASBURY

c o n v e r s at i o n

leVitecamp.comu p d at e s@levitecampt e a c h i n glevitecamp.org

“Adventures in New Testament Greek: Metanoia” from Compass of Affection: Poems New and Selected © 2006 Scott Cairns .Used by permission of Paraclete Press, paracletepress.com

The artistic images of the Passion of Christ found throughout this issue of Descent are taken from a collection of paintings by Ms. Leslie Elizondo. Leslie serves on the staff of the Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry on the campus of the University of Arkansas. Omar Al-Rikabi, Asbury Seminary alumnus and Director of the Ministry commissioned the series.