Liberation

Twenty-six years ago, yesterday, I joined queues of South Africans at the polls in our first democratic national election. It was heady and celebratory time, and there was a festive air all around the country. We were the world’s sweethearts, and we were free, and it was awesome. Yesterday, as we celebrated Freedom Day, we remembered that time, and renewed our commitment to this liberation. Although there are many struggles in our young democracy, there are, I believe, many signs of life. We have a long way to go, and many of our people are still bound by poverty, crime and AIDS, but underneath it all we remain, essentially, free.

Jesus was all about freedom, but unfortunately, through two quick theological maneuvers, we have reduced the freedom of Christ to its opposite. First, we limit the freedom of Jesus to “freedom from sin” and, second, we define sin as “breaking God’s laws”. Freedom, then, is to be free from breaking the law. In other words, to be free is to obey the law. Strange, then, that Paul offers this encouragement: “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1, New Living Translation). It seems that Christians have always struggled to embrace the radical freedom that Christ offers.

The truth is that the law is a much easier way to live. It offers power, because I can measure and prove my compliance, and so call on the authority of my obedience when I need it. The law offers security because if I obey, I know that I am protected under its precepts. The law offers comfort, because all I have to do is toe the line, and I don’t have to worry about other people and their needs, or get involved in the messiness of the world. The law is so safe that, for those who value security most highly, it feels like freedom.

But, the law is cold and lifeless. When you live by the law, you won’t get the rush of unexpected thrills or subversive challenge. You won’t laugh in wonder at goodness or be grieved by injustice. You won’t meet people who think differently or be forced to re-evaluate your assumptions. You don’t need creativity or risk or the exploration of the unknown. In short, the law requires no life from you at all. Which is why Jesus offers us freedom - with all of its messy, unpredictable, offensive, subversive, chaos - and the invitation to experience it the only it can be known - together in a universe of love.

This is where worship can be a gift to us - or a curse. If we seek to remain bound by law, worship will easily support this desire. It can be easily controlled and directed, and can offer an emotional high that convinces us that we are truly free. Or it can lead us into the radical freedom of true lovers. During the apartheid years in South Africa, free lovers of all races gathered together and worshipped, even when it was illegal to do so. In every age, artists - natural free lovers - envision what freedom can look like, and express it prophetically.

Today, there are still many who are not free in our world. But, if we will allow our worship - and the Christ we worship - to take hold of us, we will fall in love with freedom to such an extent that we won’t rest until every last creature is truly and unrestrainedly free. Which is, after all, what Jesus died and lives for.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Biophilia

One of the reasons I fell in love with my wife, Debbie, is her intense love of life. The sight of a newly bloomed flower, a bird in flight or an ancient tree can send her into raptures of delight, and can still make my heart stop after all these years. Her biophilia has changed me, has given me life, and has inspired and nurtured my own creativity and love of all that lives, in remarkable ways. I know that the source of her love of life is largely within herself and her commitment to pay attention to the world fully, but I also know that the fire that keeps this love alive in her is her experience of the resurrected Christ.

As we continue to celebrate Easter (which is not just a single day, but rather 50 days, from Easter Sunday to Pentecost), we have the precious opportunity to encounter resurrection in a whole variety of ways. My favourite resurrection truth, though, is that resurrection opens us to the love of life. When he rose, Jesus proclaimed that life is the most resilient, most irrepressible reality in creation, and it is available to all who are willing to embrace it.

One of my greatest frustrations is when people of faith speak of the resurrection as only a “past and future” reality. It amazes me how we can fall into the trap of seeing the resurrection as a once off, past, historical event that happened to Jesus, and then follow this up with the mistake of seeing our own resurrection as only a future event in some otherworldly place. As true as these two ideas may be, the power of the resurrection is neither in the past nor in the future - it is right here and right now. When Jesus offers us abundant life (John 10:10) he is not making a promise for some far off time. Life is a gift that we can receive and enjoy in every moment - and faith in the resurrection should be the doorway to access this life.

When we are consumed with resurrection life, we find ourselves living in constant celebration. Every moment - even those of great tragedy or pain - is filled with glory, with possibility, with hope and with creativity. Resurrection people are unable to speak the language of cynicism. Resurrection people see the world and all its creatures as alive with God’s purpose, God’s beauty and God’s energy. Sacredness is everywhere, transformation is a constant reality and every moment is pregnant with the potential for a divine encounter.

There is an old Jewish proverb, form the Jerusalem Talmud, that says this:
“Every person will be called to give an account for every good thing they beheld in life and did not enjoy”. As people of the resurrection, we are called to enjoy all the goodness we can behold, wherever we may behold it. And it is our worship that teaches us to do this.

As we meet the risen Christ in the sanctuary, we can’t help but notice all the beauty and creativity that makes this divine encounter possible. Our liturgies are the poetry of worship. Our symbols, stained glass windows, banners, sculptures and icons are the art of worship. Our music and ritual is the theatre of worship. In all of this creativity we are opened to the surprising, unconstrained life of God, and we are invited to experience this life first hand. Then we are challenged to leave the church to live out this life in every moment and every place.

So, why not choose life right now? Just do it!

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Necrophilia - the love of death

It’s easy to forget how radically subversive the resurrection actually is.

In the corridors of power, in the halls of the wealthy, in the darkest and most impoverished slums of the world, and in each of our own hearts is a natural, but destructive tendency, to fall in love with death. It is from this necrophilia (literally: love of death) that most, if not all, of our brokenness, woundedness, dividedness and suffering comes.

What is this love of death of which I speak? It is the natural human tendency to embrace and nurture attitudes and actions that lead to pain and destruction. When we choose cynicism and apathy over the more difficult, but life-giving, choice for hope and action, we have chosen necrophilia. When we choose hatred and the harbouring of grudges over the more difficult, but life-giving, choice for love and forgiveness, we have chosen necrophilia. When we choose expediency and self-interest over the more difficult, but life-giving, choice for sustainability and shared interest, we have chosen necrophilia. When we choose legalism and judgement over the more difficult, but life-giving, choice for grace and understanding, we have chosen necrophilia. In every moment, every relationship, every situation in which we allow our darker, less noble selves to guide our decisions and actions, we have made the choice to love death. Whenever we allow ourselves to be part of what destroys and divides our world and its creatures, we have become lovers of death.

The Pharisees would never have thought of themselves as lovers of death, until they were faced with what real, abundant life would mean. Where Jesus offered them grace, they retreated back to the safety of law. Where Jesus offered them love, they retreated back to the status of power. Where Jesus offered them a part in the larger, inclusive reality that God offers to all human beings, they retreated back into their sheltered, exclusive “old-boys club”. And, in order to prevent the truth being seen, they killed the one who offered them life. The ones who claimed to love life, had revealed themselves to be lovers of death.

But, here’s where the resurrection becomes so subversive and powerful. The love of death has no power over the love of life. Jesus loves life so much that he is prepared to die in order to remain free from the love of death. Paradoxical isn’t it? He goes to the cross still loving life, and still offering life to anyone who will leave their love of death behind. And if that’s not enough, he reveals the fundamental powerlessness of death by rising again. When life and death come face to face, life is the last one standing, as death kills itself by trying to kill life.

Our worship in this Easter season is intended to remind us of life’s indestructibility, and to lead us into the love of life. If we can commit to resurrection sufficiently that we will refuse to do anything that cooperates with death - even when it brings us pain and suffering, we have truly embraced the resurrection, and we will find, even if death tries to silence us once and for all, that we have truly found life eternal.

So, where are you tempted to get familiar with death? Where is necrophilia at work in you? What can you do to commit yourself again to the love of life? Do it. Do it now.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Resurrection Worship

Christ is Risen!

This is the message that was proclaimed around the world this past Sunday. This is the message that continues to be proclaimed for the fifty days following Easter Sunday. The Easter season is not over - it includes the three faith foundations of Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost. In Christian worship, every Sunday is considered a celebration of the resurrection, and now, this fifty day season is considered to be one long Sunday - an extended resurrection celebration.

This begs the question: How then do we celebrate this long Easter appropriately? Perhaps a closer look at the Easter story can help us to answer this question.

The first thing I notice is that the resurrection is like a divine game of ‘hide and seek’. Jesus constantly appears and disappears. He keeps surprising his followers, and often they don’t even recognise him. I find this to be a challenging reminder that Jesus cannot be “nailed down”. As followers of Christ we are too tempted to think we know him and understand him better than others. We find it all too easy to exclude those who disagree with us, and convince ourselves that they’ve missed the boat.

But, the ‘hide and seek’ Jesus reminds us that he refuses to be co-opted into our agendas, groups or belief systems. The only appropriate response to the Easter miracle is humble adoration, acknowledging, as Isaiah did, that “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT).

What this means is that our worship needs to be filled with awe and humility, and with a new desire to recognise God’s greatness and glory. This is true of every Sunday, but in the aftermath of resurrection, we have a special opportunity to embrace this humbling journey. It also means that we need to make a new commitment to living by faith, recognising that ultimately our lives are not in our own hands, but in the nail pierced hands of the risen Christ.

The second thing I notice in the resurrection story is that the first witness to the resurrection is not one of the “inner circle” of disciples - Peter, James and John. The first person that Jesus encounters after he is risen is Mary Magdalene - a woman with a dubious past, who was brought to vibrant life during Jesus’ ministry. So unlikely is she as a witness, that the apostles are unable to believe her at first. Peter and John both run to the tomb to check it out for themselves (perhaps feeling a little peeved that Jesus didn’t choose them to be first?).

What this means is that the resurrection continues the work Jesus did before his death - including the outcast, raising up the oppressed and breaking down our arbitrary lines of class, race, gender, orientation, economic and educational status, and religion. As we worship, then, we are called to embody the resurrection life that is available to all, and that includes all. We are also called to seek ways to bring that life to those who most need it - the poor, the excluded, the wounded and the grieving.

May the next fifty days not be just a celebration, but also an offering of practical, Christ-honouring, and justice-bringing service. Resurrection is about the offer of new life. So, too, must the worship that flows from it be.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.

Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Carrying Crosses

How has your week been? Under the usual juggling of work, family and personal needs has there been a sense of some deeper significance? Maybe you’ve recognised it – the truth that this is the most important week of the year. Maybe you have shared in special times of worship to remember the events that happened two millennia ago. This is Holy Week – when we reflect on the suffering of Jesus.

But, what makes this week important is not the remembering, nor the understanding we might gain. This week is what theologian Marcus Borg calls a “thin place” - a place where the ‘line’ between spiritual and physical realities grows thin. It is an opportunity for us not just to remember Jesus, but to encounter him. It is a moment when the stories we read can become our own lived experience. If we allow this week to do its work, everything can change.

For Jesus, the cross was not something he went through alone. We celebrate that Jesus “died for us”, offering us life, forgiveness and the hope of heaven, but there is more to it than that. Peter says it this way:

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21 NIV).

This is a disturbing thought, but until we embrace our own crosses, we are not yet followers of Christ. Perhaps we can explore three ways this challenges us.

FORGIVING
We know that Jesus’ dying words of forgiveness were for us. We also know that Jesus calls us to forgive, although we all find excuses when it gets too hard. But, Jesus doesn’t ever limit forgiveness. He was betrayed by a close friend, and disowned by another. All but a few (mostly women) ran away when he was arrested, and even people he had taught and healed called for his execution. Yet, Jesus never utters a word of condemnation. Whatever pain others have inflicted on you, the cross calls you to the liberating work of forgiving.

NOT JUSTIFYING
Do you have a compulsive need to justify yourself? Do you work really hard to explain to others why you are right? It’s natural to do this, but it breaks down relationships, because in making ourselves right, we make others wrong. Jesus refused to do this. In spite of the accusations he remains silent, allowing his life to speak for itself. Perhaps this week you can try to let your life speak for you, and give up the quest to justify.

BEING KIND
I am always deeply moved by Jesus’ kindness in the midst of his own pain. He has the compassion to speak kind words to a dying thief beside him. He has the kindness to commend his grieving mother to the care of John, his beloved disciple. This challenges me to refuse to use my pain as an excuse for unkindness. Rather, I am challenged to make a new commitment to compassion.

As we reflect on Jesus’ suffering this week, we can open our hearts and embrace the cross, not just as something Jesus did for us, but as something he calls us to do for him and others. And if we can make the commitment to follow Jesus’ sacrificial example, our worship, this week, really will change everything.

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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.

Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

On the Side of the Least

This week two significant events come together.

In South Africa this past long weekend we celebrated Human Rights Day - the remembrance of the massacre of political protesters in the Sharpeville township on March 21, 1960. Today, this is a moment when we re-affirm our commitment to equality and liberty, and to support the basic rights of all human beings.

This coming Sunday, Christians around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday - the remembrance of Jesus’ donkey-riding, crowd-applauding entry into Jerusalem. It is easy to overlook the fact that this was also, essentially, a political protest.

In a country that was oppressed by the Roman Empire, and in which Caesar alone was to be acknowledged as king, proclaiming Jesus as Messiah was a profound act of political subversion. When you add to this the cleansing of the Temple, which, in three of the Gospels, happens immediately after this procession, you can’t miss Jesus’ commitment to justice. According to Father Richard Rohr - Franciscan priest, author and speaker - ninety percent of Jerusalem’s economy was built on the sacrificial worship of the Temple, and the corrupt system of selling animals and changing currency which supported it. The poor were being fleeced by the religious leaders and their cronies, and Jesus made a strong, visual statement of protest at this injustice.

Their is no question in my mind that Jesus is a defender of human rights. While some may try and make a debate of this, it is clear that the Bible is strongly biased toward social and economic justice. God, as the prophets taught and as Jesus himself proclaimed, is on the side of the poor and oppressed, and of those who are authentically allied with them.

What does this mean for us as we worship?

Many who will read this article will be among the wealthiest people in the world. (If you live on more than $10 a day - roughly $300 or R2 300 per month - you are among the wealthier than eighty percent of the world’s population). Many of us may have been taught that Jesus came primarily to give us a way to heaven when we die, and we may even have been told that we have no responsibility to the poor, because Jesus said that the poor would always be with us (Matthew 26:11 - although, we often forget that Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 15:11, which gives a clear instruction to be generous to the poor). But, when we see what Jesus was doing that day as he rode into Jerusalem, when we hear what he was saying as he overturned the tables in the Temple, when we understand what it meant for him to defy the authorities, even to the point of death - refusing to play their power-games, their war-games, or their money-games - we cannot avoid the challenge to pray and work for God’s Kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven”.

Our worship, this week and every week, can easily become an escape from the challenges and pain of the world. But, if we allow this to happen, we will find that we are not worshipping Christ at all. The Jesus of the donkey and of the Temple, is the Jesus who champions human rights. And we, who are called by his name, have not truly worshipped him until we have joined him in overturning the tables of injustice, inequality and oppression.
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John van de Laar is a Methodist minister, liturgical consultant and the author of the book Food for the Road – Life Lesson from the Lord’s Table. He holds a Master’s Degree in theology from UNISA, and is the founder of Sacredise.com, an international worship training and resourcing ministry. John is married to Debbie, and they have two sons.
Visit www.sacredise.com for more articles by John, as well as resources for personal and public worship – music, prayers, liturgies, images and drama scripts.

Faith Ancestors

I never cease to be amazed by the way youth is exalted in our society today.

It’s not that I don’t value young people. I believe that the energy and passion of the young are desperately needed in our world. I cheered the youth of the United States on when they helped Barack Obama win the presidency. I believe that the youth of South Africa are an immensely significant force for change, and hold the keys to addressing our current challenges. And when it comes to the Church, I often measure the health of a church by how strong, creative and missional its youth work is.

But, young people are still young people. One of the features of the current Millennial Generation is that they have vast amounts of information, and the most powerful technologies at their fingertips, but, simply because they haven’t lived long enough, they lack the life experience and discernment to sift through it all and tell the difference between what is good and life-giving and what is bad and destructive. The real longing of this generation - whether it’s recognised or not - is for mentors: older people who understand them, speak their language and connect with their world, but who can guide them through the labyrinth of information, ideas, changes and technologies that they face. They need fathers and mothers - ancestors - in the faith. And this includes those who are no longer alive.

In Chapter Eleven of the book of Hebrews, the writer tells the stories of the heroes of faith from the Scriptures. Then in the first verse of Chapter Twelve, he offers this encouragement:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” (NLT)

The point is clear - our ancestors in faith offer us strength, encouragement and an example of how to live well as we seek to follow Christ. This week people around the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, but, of course, he is only one Christian leader among many who can inspire and teach us. From the great biblical saints, to those remembered in each age of Christian history, our ancestors in faith provide a depth and wisdom that we ignore at great expense.

One of the gifts of worship, is that it continually tells the stories of God’s activity in and through men, women and even children. This is not to say that we need to build our lives as carbon copies of these saints, but that, as we worship, we can learn, through them, who God is and how God operates. We can get a glimpse of God’s purposes in our world, and we can find the courage and hope, as they did, to take our place in God’s plan of salvation.

Last week I wrote about the challenges of “consumer worship”. One of the ways this pattern is changed, is by embracing the history and traditions of worship that Christians have used through the centuries. And it is our ancestors in faith, who lived this history and created these traditions, who can lead us into the meaning and life that they offer.

So, who are your faith ancestors? Who are the mentors that you turn to for wisdom and guidance? How can you honour them in your worship of Jesus this week?