The Crafting of a Sermon - #3

This morning at staff meeting Holly Benner asked a question about John 20:11-12 - As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. I'm back in my home office and looking at Craig Keener's response. Craig writes: "The angels were at the head and feet of where Jesus had been, marking the holiness of the site of the resurrection." Then, in a footnote, he writes: "Simenel, "Jean 20," compares the position of the cherubim on the mercy seat, hence the tomb with the ark of the covenant; this is possible but may be overreaching; after all, Jesus' presence was gone from the site." (Keener, John, 1188)

Important: in preaching do not overreach.

This is challenging, since I believe, hermeneutically, that more is contained in the text thn simply the literal meaning of the text. Years ago, in my doctoral dissertation on metaphor theory, I was much influenced by metaphor theoreticians like Paul Ricoeur who aregue that, in metaphorical language, even all language, there is a "surplus of meaning." (See Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning) The narrow hermeneutical world of fundamentalist biblical literalism errs in many ways, one of which is the error of anachronism; viz., applying a relatively recent and provincial theory of interpretation to an ancient text that never was read only "literally." And, of course, we must define "literal."

We here face a preaching decision. Or, I think, the need for guidance and discernment from God. Should I track down Simenal's idea of the cherubim at the mercy seat? I don't think so. For now I am going with Craig's take on this. If others along the way say differently than I'll look into it.

John 20:14-16 - Craig calls Mary's encounter with Jesus one of several "recognition scenes" in the Gospel of John. (Ib., 1189) I like this. This is a "My Lord and my God!" moment. It's dramatic. The eyes widen. The heart beats faster. Initially Mry does not recognize Jesus. It could be because she was weeping. (Keener, Ib.) Mary thought Jesus was a "gardener." That makes sense, since the tomb was in a garden (the word can be better translated as "orchard," or "plantation").

We read, in John 20:15 - Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Craig comments: "That Mary offers to carry Jesus away if the present burial site was inappropriate suggests great devotion; to protect his body from the dishonor of an unmarked or unmourned grave, she is willing to exert what, for Mary by herself, would have likely involved tremendous physical effort." (Ib., 1190)

Jesus reveals his identity to Mary by simply revealing her name to her. "Mary." Jesus has already said that "his own sheep would recognize his voice, especially when he called them by name (10:3-5)." (Ib., 1190-1191) This is a good connection. Thank you for commentaries (again)! it seems simple, but I might not have noticed it. This seems important to me, since I find myself touched when Jesus speaks "Mary," and that becomes the moment of recognition.

Craig points out that God has a history of calling people by name. For example:

• Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. (Genesis 22:1)
• The angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. (Gen. 22:11)
• And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, "Jacob! Jacob!"
  "Here I am," he replied. (Gen. 46:2)
• When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." (Exodus 3:4)
• The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." (1 Sam. 3:10)
• "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things... (Luke 10:41)
• "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. (Luke 22:31)
• He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4)

Craig writes: "In Scripture and in other early Jewish sources, God often secured his people's attention by calling them by name, often a double name." (Ib.) OK. But I call a lot of people by name. This seems important to me. Yet I imagine myself listening to a sermon that points out some kind of significance in calling a person by name. I might wonder, "What's the uniqueness about that?" Yet I remain touched, when Jesus says "Mary." My own father, at the end of his life, called me by name when he said, "John I love you." I can barely write that sentence... it means so very much to me... that he spoke my name.. the name he had given me. It feels far mkore powerful than had he left my name out and simply said "I love you." That would have been great. Yet the addition of my name, the personalization of this encounter, takes the words "I love you" out of the ballpark. What was already a home run has become a 700 foot home run. I am thinking something like this. I'm thinking about the importance of names and namingnin ancient Hebrew culture.
 
Mary responds, very personally, with the words "my teacher." That's more intimate than simply "teacher." It's like "I am my beloved's and he is mine..." Mary is saying, "You, Jesus, are my guide, my instructor, my Rabbi... you belong to me...  you are the one I take direction from... you are the one in whom I place my trust... You are my mentor...  my sherpa...  my platoon leader...  my coach...  my Shepherd..."
 
There are things hear that, I feel, many of us need to hear. I'm asking God to develop his thoughts in me about this moment right here. I'll deliver them to the people on Sunday morning.

The Crafting of a Sermon - #2

Inside a prayer tent located in our church's sanctuary.

I have not pulled up my sermon today until now. But it has been in the background with occasional forays into the foreground of my day. Psychotherapeutically, today this sermon has been mostly "ground," and occasionally "figure." Yet it's there, humming in the background. I can't escape it, nor do I want to. I am ready to be fully embraced by it. To spend my days digging into and beneath and above these biblical texts is one of my greatest joys. I estimate I spend 10-20 hours a week on a sermon. These hours are my delight. I get to do this - incredible!

It's almost midnight, and I'm in the office in my home with commentaries next to me waiting to be eaten and digested. I'll take a peek, in just a minute, at Craig Keener's John commentary. But first I must mention that this is "anniversary week" for Linda and I. On Wednesday (August 11) we celebrate 37 years of marriage together. This morning we rode our bikes 5 miles to Lake Erie, and then back - 10 miles total. As Southeast Michigan connects with Lake Erie the terrain flattens out. Actually, we live in the flattest portion of the universe, "flat" being defined as "Monroe County, Michigan" (as in the sentence, "By 'flat' I mean what Monroe County, Michigan, is like.") The fools who declared "The earth is flat and if we sail on the lake we'll fall off the edge!" are from Monroe. Living here, who can blame them for thinking this?

As Linda and I rode bicycles to Lake Erie the only "hills" we met were man-made. Approaching the lake, the 1-foot waves appeared mountainous. All in all it was a wonderful ride, a great way to begin the day.

Tonight I made dinner for Linda - a steak from Whole Foods, baked potato with sour cream and fresh homemade quacamole, fresh-picked sliced tomatoes, and Colonel Sanders's coleslaw. At 10 PM I made a pot of coffee - for me. I can drink coffee and sleep very well. In fact, I think a good cup or two of coffee helps me sleep better.

After all that typing it's midnight! I'm looking at John 20:11-18. Bottom-line for me in preparing to preach is: simply reading, over and over and over..., the text to be preached on. Meditating on it; slow-cooking in it; allowing it to do something to and in me. Then, I turn to excellent commentaries, like Craig Keener on John. What does Craig Keener say about these verses?

Craig is a friend of mine. We share prayer requests with one another. To me, he's as brilliant a New Testament scholar as there is today. He's just...  very smart. And humble about it. When I read Craig's words I hear his voice talking to me. It's an authoritative voice, coming from a heart that converted from atheism to a deep love of Jesus. Commentaries are important in sermon prep. It's essential, to me, that the "commenter" loves Jesus deeply. That's Craig.

Mary "probably did not recognize" that the two white-garmented beings were angels. (John, 1188) I stop here. What's Craig talking about? I turn to the text and read: "Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."

I never thought of it that way. But a new reading of the verses tells me that it seems Mary thinks she's talking to two ordinary people, and not to angels. She does not have a response of fear, which is typical of people when they see an angel. When John writes that Mary saw two angels this does not imply that she recognized them as such. But, one might object, they were wearing "white!" So what? I wore white a few weeks ago on Sunday morning and no one took me for an angel (although Linda likes to look at me). Keener says: "Worshipers wore white or linen in worship services," and priests generally wore white linen. So it seems that the mere wearing of white is not evidence that the white-wearer is an angel. I agree. I also agree that Mary did not recognize the two beings as angels. And I admit that I have never thought of this before. Here's part of the value of good commentaries.

The two angels wore white, and not black. Black clothing represented death; white clothing represented joy and celebration. Craig writes: "The white also probably fits John's 'light/darkness' motif, though the mention of white makes sense, as we have noted, even had he omitted the light/darkness motif." (John, 1189)

I'm stopping here for now. Can you see what's going on? How deep do we want to go? Right now I am thinking I will not bring up the "light/darkness motif" in this Sunday's sermon. It does not seem relevant enough. Maybe this will change as the week goes on?

Six days until I preach this message. There's a lot of groundwork to be done.

Nietzsche: A "Disgrace" to His Parents

When the brilliant German philosopher and thinker Friedrich Nietzsche was thirty-eight years old he disclosed that he had "not for a moment been able to forget... that my mother called me a disgrace to my dead father." A little over a year before his eventual mental breakdown in 1889 Nietzsche wrote his mother these words: "Never since childhood to have heard anything deep and understanding said about me - that's all part of my fate; also I do not remember having complained about it." (In Stephen N. Williams, The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity, 21-22)

The disaffirmation of Nietzsche by his parents affected him negatively, as does the disaffirmation of anyone's parents. I have rarely met people who have experienced parental shame and denigration who have sufficiently gotten over it. To experience a mother's and father's blessing is huge; to lack it is devastating. The Vitzian thesis here comes to mind. NYU psychologist Paul Vitz was an atheist who became a theist. In his Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, Vitz resons, using atheists such as Hume, Russell, Sartre, Camus, H.G. Wells, and Nietzsche, that "intense atheists" are victims of a "defective father syndrome."

Surely all fathers are defective. I know, in my own fathering, I was not always operating out of total love and wisdom. But I did always ask my sons to forgive me. I don't see that's anything to brag about, since it should be as common as breathing air. We're all wrong about a lot of things. Why not come into the open about this?

Williams, in his excellent book on Nietzsche, writes that, while his main concern is not with the man Nietzsche but with his ideas, "it is difficult to block out" Nietzsche's being-plagued by parents who were "disgraced" by him. And that this shame lingered with him until the end and affected, even if only subtly, his worldview.

The Crafting of a Sermon - #1

Apparition de Jésus à Madeleine

Artist: James Tissot, French, 1836-1902

I preached this morning on Mary Magdalene running to Peter and John with the news that Jesus' body is gone. They run to the tomb. Peter ends up shaking his head in confusion about this turn  of events. But John the 'seer,' the 'perceptive disciple' (Bauckham), the discerner, the abider, the dweller, sees and believes. I loved preaching this text this morning!

Now I'm already looking at next week. I and my colleague Josh Bentley have been preaching chronologically through the four gospels for almost 5 years. Sometimes I work ahead, but in this case I have not. I have not looked seriously at the verses for next week, which are John 20:11-18. I have never preached on these verses before. I am excited to do so.

Here's John 20:11-18

10Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.



13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"


"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.


15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"


Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."


16Jesus said to her, "Mary."


She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).


17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "


18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Throughout this week I'm going to share how I do this and the progress I am making. Here are some thoughts I now have, before looking at my commentaries.

• Method: I will print these verses around and carry them in my pocket throughout the week. I will just read them, get familiar with them, make them mine. When insights or questions come I'll write those down. I will study them, using commentaries I find valuable. I'll meditate on them and let them study me. I'm asking God to speak through the text and beyond it to me, and to my people. I'll pray these verses, asking God about them.
• At first glance the verses don't seem real preachable. I will not be misled by this. I must remember that God has told me to preach every verse, every word, and every punctuation mark of the 4 gospels. I think now of how fruitful this has been. Our people at Redeemer are a Jesus-literate people! This still strikes me, as it did over five years ago, as of the utmost importance.
• "Mary" here is Mary of Magdala, aka "Mary Magdalene." A year or so before this Jesus cast 7 demons out of her. She never forgot that, and hung with Jesus until the bitter end. She loved Jesus.
• Angels appear to Mary. I spoke a few weeks ago about angels, as we've slow-cooked in the empty tomb stories. I believe in the existence of angels. I now wonder if I should say some more things about this on Sunday? I trust that God will show me what to say. Pause: God will show me what to say. In preaching, my trust is in God. I wouldn't have it any other way. I also wouldn't want to listen to a preacher who didn't put his or her full trust in God. God, give me revelation on this. I know there are many who are Jesus-followers who struggle with the idea of angels and demons. I interpret that as a matter of our Eurocentric, Western enculturization. In preaching I do not want to come at the text from a Cartesian or Humean worldview.
• Mary of Magdala is weeping. She is really, really heartbroken. She thinks the body has been stolen. She doesn't know where Jesus' body is. She refers to Jesus as "my Lord." Now I've got a lot of thoughts going through me. How would I feel if Linda died, was buried, and graverobbers stole her body? Even though she was dead I know I would feel for her. The body of the love of my life is in someone else's possession. I feel violated. I ache for her, though she does not ache at all. I'm angry and sad and concerned. Maybe the angels know? What the heck has happened to my Lord's body!!! Mary cries this out amidst tears and desperation. Jesus' body is missing. With a trace; i.e., with graveclothes intact. I know the feeling of losing something or someone precious. It's gone. It's a very weird feeling. It can be accompanied by fear if you think you've been robbed. Who would have done such a thing? Who could have done such a thing? I will need to preach the tears of Mary of Magdala, bringing the people into her situation.
• Mary turns around and there stands the Missing One. Only she does not recognize him. How is this possible? When you are not at all expecting to see something you might not really "see" it even if it is right before your eyes. (I never bought into the idea that Superman could disguise himself from the entire world by merely putting on a pair of glasses. I know that If I put on glasses and walked around the house everyone + my dog would know who I am, and especially my dog.) Her eyes are flooded with tears, so physically maybe she doesn't see so clearly.
• Mary thinks this man is the gardener. They have a little dialogue. Jesus goes with the dialogue. Why? Why doesn't he take of his glasses immediately and say "Mary, it's me, Superman!" Why this little game? Or perhaps: Why not? There's no logical inconsistency here. And maybe this is not a game at all? Maybe Jesus is breaking it to her slowly? After all, Jesus once cast 7 demons out of her. He knows what's in her heart and what she is capable of.
• Jesus then calls her by name. "Mary." Now, right now, I feel touched by this. It feels beautiful and loving to me. Whenever I feel something like this in preparation for preaching I take it seriously, as possible revelation from-God. It's like God is saying to me: "Preach this, John." The way Jesus says her name... it's unique. The fact that he addresses her by name... it's personal and intimate. However she hears this, it is enough and dead-on. Jesus says "Mary" and it's like turning on a light switch. It's the illuminative moment. Now I am thinking this. A person today thinks Jesus is not real, and then turns around and it's him and he calls their name, and they know it's him because of the way he says their name. It's a revelation of his real presence happening in the place of total non-expectation. I like this very much! In fact, it happened at my conversion. One moment I didn't believe in a God who was experientially with us; the next moment my world is rocked and I meet Him. (I am now thinking of checking out a book I have called Conversions, and re-reading some of them, looking at these kind of sudden revelation-moments that come in the land of zero expectations.)
• Whoaaa... I am now engaged in this text! I am with the text and the text is with me. This usually happens, and just now it has. It is, for me, exhilarating. It is going to be a very good week of total immersion in this passage.
• Jesus tells Mary - "Don't hold on to me." What shall I say about this? If I were her I'd want to fall down and at least grab his feet. It's can't be a physical "holding on." It must mean, I think, an emotional holding on. Like when Jesus talks to his disciples about needing to go away.
• Where is Jesus going? He says: "I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." This is so fun! I am diving off a high cliff into the deep, blue, crystal waters of the Trinitarian perichoretic dance...  I've got to be careful not to swim around in these waters too much. Yet I want to, very much. I've been upgrading my Trinitarian studies. This text gives me another excuse to do so. And with that blessing received I'll stop writing for a while, but I won't be able to stop thinking about this passage. Which is good, for me and for my people.

The 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America

This year’s top rabbi is Yehuda Krinsky (center), leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Here's Newsweeks list of "The 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America."

Julia Roberts Converts to Hinduism

Julia Roberts has announced that she has become a Hindu. This happened while she was in India filming the movie "Eat, Pray, Love."

"Roberts, whose parents are Baptist and Catholic, was so captivated by the ancient religion, she experienced her own spiritual awakening during the shoot and returned home as a Hindu.


She tells Elle magazine, "I'm definitely a practising Hindu."

The actress reveals she regularly goes to temple to "chant, pray and celebrate" and even takes her husband Danny Moder and their three kids, three-year-old Henry and five-year-old twins Phinnaeus and Hazel, with her.

Roberts has also adopted the belief in reincarnation and she hopes her next life will be a "quiet" one.

She says, "Golly, I've been so spoiled with my friends and family in this life. Next time I want to be just something quiet and supporting.""

And in another article we read:

"During filming in India last year, Julia completely immersed herself in the Hindu culture and was "astounded" during a visit to the Taj Mahal. The screen beauty was apparently "astounded" by the white marble structure, which is the most famous mausoleum on the globe and listed as one of the "seven wonders of the modern world".
At the time, a source said: "Julia was breathless, absolutely astounded by the Taj. She looked on in wonderment as her guide explained the intricate patterns and designs on the marble surface. "The Taj is a legendary symbol of love and hopefully the monument will be an inspiration to her for her latest film.""

What can we say about this?

• She's got big-time spiritual bones in her body.
• She's looking for answers to the Big Questions, like most of us are.
• She's not a philosophical naturalist (that's for certain!).
• She's closer to Shirley MacLaine than to Katharine Hepburn.
• She's had a religious experience.
• She won't stick with it. (This is just my opinion. We'll see. Actually, that's what some people said about my conversion to Christ, and they were wrong. But being blown away by the Taj Mahal strikes me as not a profound enough religious experience, and one that will fade.)

Easter Sunday Tomorrow at Redeemer

After preaching chronologically through the four gospels for the past 5 years we are finally slow-cooking in the teriyaki sauce of Jesus' resurrection.

Tomorrow I'm preaching out of John 20:2-10 and Luke 24:9-12. The tomb is found empty. In a hermeneutical "criterion of embarrassment" moment the women run to tell the disciples. Peter and the disciple Jesus loved run to the tomb, the latter winning the race and bragging about it. John (the disciple Jesus loved) looks inside the tomb, sees enough, and so does not go in. Peter goes in, looks around, and wonders what the heck happened to the body. The expensive linens appear deflated like a balloon that lost its air, and the jaw-holding face-linen is folded off to the side.

John, the beloved disciple, "believes." It's at this belief-point that I will focus tomorrow. I think God is giving me words to say about this, and am excited to present them to my church family. "Resurrection" (what happened to Jesus) is not "resuscitation" (what happened to Lazarus; I got this years ago from Pannenberg). "Resurrection" is not simply "He is risen," meaning his dead body came back to life.

Tonight at Newport Beach Cafe

Beth Bentley preaching.

Holly Benner leading worship.

9 PM


Newport Beach Cafe
5071 N Dixie Hwy
Newport, MI

Beth on the Sea of Galilee

Holly in NYC (with Heather & Jake)

Baptism: Crossing a River of No Return

(Josh Bentley [R] about to baptize someone in the Jordan River in Israel. We'll be having baptisms this Sunday at Redeemer.)

In some cultures today the most radical spiritual thing you can do is get baptized. In 1990 I was teaching at Asia Theological College in Singapore. I asked one of my Chinese students, a young man named Kek, what was the hardest thing about becoming a Jesus-follower. He immediately told me, “It was when I got baptized. Then my parents knew I was a ‘serious Christian’.” David Reid, in his introduction to Baptism: Three Views, writes: “An Asian theologian recently related to me how some Chinese non-Christians view baptism, telling their sons and daughters that it’s okay to worship and study the Bible with those Christians, but just don’t get baptized! As nonbelievers they recognize that to be baptized is to cross a river of no return. This perspective is strikingly biblical and instructive. Baptism is a serious proposition.” (Kindle edition, 107-19)

Jesus famously said, as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Disciple-making, that is, “making” people passionate Jesus-Lovers and followers, includes “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This seems important. As is “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” In terms of the latter, we have been doing this at Redeemer, literally teaching our people everything, every word, every big and little thing, that Jesus said and did and commanded. But regarding baptism, what is it?

Definitionally we have this:

βαπτίζω,v \{bap-tid'-zo}

1) to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk) 2) to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one's self, bathe 3) to overwhelm (See also Baptism: Three Views, Kindle edition, 208-18)

Operationally, it’s hard to get “sprinkling” out of this, as in infant baptism as practiced in Roman Catholicism and the Lutheranism I was born into. While I can applaud the Lutheran emphasis on infant baptism as exemplary of a faith that is fully disconnected from one's deeds, I do not see the textual evidence for this. I was baptized as an infant. I am thankful my parents did this. But when I became a Jesus-follower and studied the texts for myself, I came to believe in "believer's baptism"; viz., that as one chooses to follow after Jesus and does so "baptism" is a sign of one's immersion in and identification with the Jesus Movement.

Textually, people are becoming Jesus-followers and getting baptized through the book of Acts. At the risk of being accusing of piling on scriptures, consider the following.

• Peter preaches that the people would do well to "repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38-39)
• New believers were immediately baptized. (Acts 2:41)
• As Philip was preaching, when people believed they were baptized. (Acts 8:12)
• When Simon believed what Philip was saying, he was baptized. (Acts 8:13)
• After the Ethiopian eunuch heard the good news about Jesus as presented by Philip, he asked, "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" It became chariot-stopping time, because Philip needed to baptize the EE immediately. Why wait?
• Saul met Jesus on the road, scales fell from his eyes, and he got up and was baptized. (Acts 9:18)
• People who received the Holy Spirit were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:47-48)
• Lydia's heart was opened up to Jesus, and she and her household were baptized. (Acts 16:14-15)
• Paul's jailer gets saved and immediately he and all his family were baptized. (Acts 16:32-34)
• The synagogue ruler Crispus (!!!) gets saved, along with his household, and a lot of people in Corinth, and they get baptized. (Acts 18:8)
• Some Ephesian Jesus-followers are baptized by Paul. (Acts 19:3-5)
• Paul is preaching to his fellow Jews in Jerusalem, gives his life-witness, and says: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.' (Acts 22:14-16)

Baptism is an experiential sign, signifying the spiritual conversion that has taken place in a person, accompanied by an empowering of the Spirit, who can manifest himself in a variety of ways. Bruce Ware writes: "Baptism is the sign and seal of the new covenant, inaugurated by Christ's death and resurrection, signifying the promise for the one baptized that sins are forgiven, that new life in Christ is received, and that God gives the person a new heart and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by faith." (In Baptism: Three Views, Kindle 520-29)

Daniel Reid, in his Introduction to Baptism: Three Views, writes of what might be the most interesting baptism he has ever seen. It was in a Baptist church where a young man was being baptized. Reid writes: "As the boy came up from the water, his father stood up in the congregation and in a loud voice declared, 'This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased!'" (Kindle edition, 120-130) I love that! This Sunday morning we're having baptisms at our church. To be baptized in Jesus' name is an important kairos-moment in the life of every real Jesus-follower. As this happens, God surely is very pleased. I expect that we'll be experiencing the pleasure of God this Sunday morning!
(I need to point out that two of my hermeneutical heroes, Ben Witherington and N.T. Wright, argue textually for infant baptism over believer's baptism. Witherington does agree that "immersion is [doubtlessly] a better symbol of being baptized into Christ's death than other modes of the practice.")

Prayer & Divine Healing

(Heidi Baker)

Dr. Candy Brown's research paper is now out and it has gone and is going (as I write) global. Candy traveled with Heidi Baker a year ago studying persons who received prayer (PIP = "Proximal Intercessory Prayer) for their hearing and vision.

The L.A. Times article says:

"If empirical research continues to indicate that [proximal intercessory prayer] may be therapeutically beneficial then -- whether or not the mechanisms are adequately understood -- there are ethical and nonpartisan public policy reasons to encourage further related research," the lead author of the study, Candy Gunther Brown, said in a news release.

An editorial accompanying the study, released online Wednesday in the Southern Medical Journal, concurred. Dr. John R. Peteet, a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, notes that the authors of the study aren't asking readers to consider a supernatural explanation for the findings. "...but their report challenges the world view of readers who rule out the supernatural, or relegate it to another time," he wrote."

The India Times article says - "The power of prayer really can help cure the sick, according to a new study."

The UK Daily Mail article says: "Professor Brown said one subject, an elderly Mozambican woman named Maryam, initially reported that she could not see a person's hand with two upraised fingers from a distance of one foot.

A healing practitioner put her hand on Maryam's eyes, hugged her and prayed for less than a minute then held five fingers in front of her. Afterwards she was able to count them and even read the 20/125 line on a vision chart. A follow-up study by the researchers in Brazil revealed similar findings."

Candy is Prof. of Religious Studies at Indiana University.

The study will be available online Aug. 5 at http://journals.lww.com/smajournalonline/toc/publishahead.

In September, an interview with Brown will be available on the Southern Medical Journal website.

The study is entitled: "Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Proximal Intercessory Prayer (STEPP) on Auditory and Visual Impairments in Rural Mozambique." Southern Medical Journal, September 2010, Volume 103, Issue 9