by Joel V Webb | Dec 16, 2024 | Orthodoxy Matters
“Monkey see, Monkey do” is a phrase that all of us have heard, and we all understand. We are always learning and imitating what is going on around us. I just became a dad, and while my baby son is too little to really imitate me, I know the things going on around him affect him and his reactions.
We also understand that the stuff that we devote our time to we become more like it. My wife and I really enjoy the show The Office, and we hardly go a day without finding some way to quote the show in our everyday life. In a way, that show has formed a bit of me, impacting how I interact and understand things.
Then we get to the concept of catechesis. This word simply means instruction, or instruction by word of mouth. As someone who grew up in a very low-liturgy protestant tradition, the only time I heard this word was in a Roman Catholic context. This word in fact has been used all throughout Church history to reference the teaching and training of new believers (often with a special title still used in some traditions, catechumens).
For most Protestants we could think of this as an extended period of intensive training, where a new follower of Christ is taught the truth of Scripture, and the practices of the worshiping community before being fully integrated as a Eucharist taking brother & sister in Christ. In many contemporary settings we use Sunday School as the primary way we teach our young ones. I believe this is a good thing! But what has arisen in many Churches is more entertainment and keeping kids busy, rather than intentional teaching of Christian truths.
Many in my generation were in some settings were just given Bible stories and memory verses, expected to content with the philosophies and arguments of a world that seeks to disprove the existence of God.
What intentional catechism provides is in many cases those same Bible stories and verses, but also imbued deeply with transmitting the core truths of the Christian faith. A young person going to college can’t contend with the philosophical argument of an atheist if all they know is Noah’s Ark and know John 3:16 by heart (these are good things still). It has to be more than just head knowledge of a few fact point. Rather, we need to be working towards holistic worldview development of our children.
This is made more poignant and important for myself with the birth of my first child. I see and know the world that they are going to grow up in. All the hundreds if not thousands of messages they will received in active and passive ways. And here’s the dirty little secret that most of us are uncomfortable with. There is no such thing as a neutral message. EVERYTHING is seeking to form and mold us into representing the message that we receive. For commercials it is trying to make us discontent with what we have so that we have to buy more to be happy. Or the education in our public schools. No matter how we put it, schooling is not neutral (despite how some may protest). The current ruling philosophy of our American public schools is materialistic agnosticism, if not antagonism to God. Nothing is neutral, everything is trying to form us.
Instead, we must work diligently to form the next generations to not just know facts about the Bible or about God. But to be fully formed in how they see the world through the eyes of the Christian faith. In many cases we unwittingly have been passive for several generations in allowing the culture around us to form our minds and how we think. Because of this we see our Christian faith just as a thing we do as apart of our lives. This is where we get phrases like “practice your faith privately”, and even Christians believe this!
Instead, Christianity explains everything. The entire reason for our existence, and what happens in the end is contained within the Christian story as seen in Scripture. And how much be believe that story impacts how we live our life. If we are not actually convinced of the truth of this story, and the life-altering reality of that story we will just continue living our lives as any other secular, materialist pagan, rather than as a person whose life has been completely transformed by the power of the message of the Gospel.
A simple place to start with this catechesis for children or adults is three simple things. The Apostle’s Creed, The Lord’s Prayer & the 10 Commandments. For much of Church history this has been the cornerstone of of teaching and forming new converts or children raised in the Church. These things, along with other spiritual disciplines of reading Scripture, prayer, corporate worship, confession, receiving Eucharist and others build us in Christ in every aspect of our lives.
The task is great, but the implications are dire. Let’s get to work.
by Joel V Webb | Apr 29, 2024 | Uncategorized
Article as published on lightandlife.fm
“How are you?”
“Good, just busy.”
This is a conversation that I bet just about everyone has had, maybe
on a weekly basis — especially for those of us in ministry roles. As of
2024, we have more tools of convenience than at any other time in human
history. Yet we are more enslaved to the things we do in life than ever.
This problem is becoming an epidemic of sorts in the church as we try
to do more and more in the same 24 hours we have all had since God first
breathed a breath in Adam.
So what has changed, and, more importantly, what do we do about it?
My life has always been busy and somehow keeps getting busier. Having
grown up in a pastor’s home, I know the general hubbub that goes on to
keep things running every week. But something has changed in the last
couple of years. I’m now married, expecting my first child, working
full-time, and part-time at church while also completing seminary,
producing a podcast, and a plethora of other small things. Phew, I’m
exhausted just thinking about it!
I’ve also noticed that my alone time with God has suffered, my blood
pressure is higher than it was a couple of years ago, and, even with
sleep, I just always feel a little bit tired.
Eliminating Hurry
Maybe this resonates with you and sounds similar in some of the broad
strokes on the million different things you have going on in your life.
There’s been this looming suspicion that something has to give to make a
change. Then I picked up the book “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”
by John Mark Comer. It’s not a long book. And contained in those pages
is a monumental mental shift in how I need to organize my life.
Comer starts by pointing out the problems he faced in his life and
then progresses to lay out the history of how we as humanity have just
gotten too busy for anything. One of the most shocking realities is that
the rapid secularization we see in our culture and the church likely
has many of its roots in the contained busyness that we increasingly see
continuing to devour our lives.
Comer quotes John Ortberg (who wrote the book’s foreword): “For many
of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is
that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we
will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives
instead of living them.”
When I read this, it brought the pit that had been growing in my
stomach right up to my throat as I had to grapple with the practical
reality of what I had just mentally consumed. The image was now clear;
some stuff has to go.
Here’s the tension that we all face. Most or much of what we do is
good stuff. Many of us are working for the kingdom, doing all we can to
share the gospel and see people’s lives transformed as they follow
Jesus. But what often happens is that we fill our lives so much that
life just passes us by as we rush from thing to thing.
In a recent prayer meeting of local pastors, someone shared something they heard that brings all of this to a point:
“If a church found out their pastor broke nine of the Ten
Commandments, the pastor would probably get fired. But if they found out
their pastor was breaking the commandment to keep a sabbath, the pastor
would probably get a raise.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
We live in a time and culture where much of the church is being
rocked by well-known leadership falling to their brokenness in public
ways. Yes, the church needs to deal with these issues and ensure that
those kinds of things have no place in God’s kingdom, especially in
leadership. But once it comes to the question of the Sabbath, we keep it
as an open secret that it doesn’t matter if our pastor does not keep
that one. Why would we want to?
Countercultural Solitude
Our culture and we in the church have become enslaved to busyness,
always working on something. Jesus presents a different way: one that is
slower, that provides a life lived with intentionality. Jesus took
intentional time to be in solitude, and never rushed even when He knew
someone was sick and dying (i.e. Jairus’ daughter or Lazarus). This kind
of life is countercultural in more than just a moral or political way.
It’s something that is practiced by just about everyone regardless of
political affiliation or career.
Many of us are racking our brains trying to find out “what is going
to bring in the youth.” What if presenting the way of Jesus to live a
slower life is the thing their hearts are longing for — not just to be
saved from their sins, but to literally have a different kind of life
where they actually live rather than going from appointment to
appointment?
I highly recommend that you grab a copy of “The Ruthless Elimination
of Hurry.” Comer doesn’t just diagnose the problem but provides a
thoughtful and practical guide from the life of Jesus. If we are those
who claim to be His followers, it also means living as He did. That
doesn’t mean we don’t have times where we are busy, or that life can’t
be full of things to do. But we need to take those things and live life
holding all of them loosely in the light of our relationship with Christ
that is the only thing that can satisfy.
by Joel V Webb | Apr 9, 2024 | Uncategorized
A Synthesis and Review of J. Richard Middleton’s Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God
One of the buzzwords in our culture is that of “deconstructing”, where those of usually Christian faith begin a process of tearing down their beliefs and usually becoming atheistic. What has led to this phenomena that has grabbed a hold of many, especially in the younger generations? While there are many who go down various tracts of talking about various elements of spiritual abuse, toxic environments, bad theology and hypocrisy (all of which are reasons why people are deconstructing) one that many seem to be forgetting to address is that of the problem of pain and evil.
Much of the time, in our world full of brokenness and pain, we look at the problems and issues before us, and seem to get frozen in a state of knowing what to do. Much of our evangelical western Christian culture has given us the view that in the face of pain and suffering we are to unquestioningly respond that “God knows”, and while we may be with people through their pain and suffering, it doesn’t really go beyond that. This at least for me was the way and method of dealing with pain and suffering. “Don’t show your emotion, just swallow the tears, be stone faced and know God has it in the end” Obviously, for someone on the pastoral track, that is not a very good way to conduct pastoral care!
What is the Biblical example when it comes to pain and suffering? I have recently read J. Richard Middleton’s book called Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God which deals with this very question. While it is a more academic work and goes deep into the text, I still find it is very accessible for the regular reader.
Middleton proposes, as I have come to agree with him; that our response to God in the face of suffering is very different from the characters in Scripture. Before we break down what this response is, let’s look at a couple direct examples and see if we can notice the response to God.
Psalm 10:1, Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalm 39:4, “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
Exodus 31:11-12, But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.
Job 15:11, God has turned me over to the ungodly, and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
These are just a couple examples of many throughout the Old Testament (though they are in the New as well) of people during times of pain and/or lament, and their response is to question or push back to God as to why it is happening. Why is this important? Because the idea of pushing back or questioning God goes right to the heart of His reason for creation. God wanted a family, people like Him who could know and love Him. How does one get to know another person? Through dialogue, understanding what motivates them, and through that there is understanding and relationship.
This is where I will again recommend checking out Middleton’s book, as he elaborates this concept much more thoroughly than I ever could. It is masterful, and goes to the heart of God’s desire to know each one of us, and lays out how through our lamenting and questioning God, He meets us in that.
For our modern day what is this to look like? Firstly, in the face of suffering and pain we should go to God. But how we go to God may need to look a little different. In Hebrews we are encouraged to, “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). Do we press in and ask God the what and why of what is going on? Do we recite who we know He is, and ask at this time why it is happening? It is in these times of suffering that God can draw near to us. Instead of being settled with “accepting the pain”, do we press into who God is, questioning what is going on.
Having this perspective could drastically change our interaction with pain and suffering in the world around us. If we had the response to pain as our default, would the answers we give as to why there is pain and suffering be more satisfying for those potentially deconstructing? It wouldn’t be a 100% bet, but it would provide a response that is Biblically grounded, and allows us to comprehend the reality of suffering and evil.
by Joel V Webb | Mar 29, 2024 | Uncategorized
Good Friday…a seemingly paradoxical kind of day. One that
represents suffering, pain and death. For us as humans,
disillusionment, fear, betrayal and cowardice. What can be good about
this day?
Of course having the
knowledge of the end of the matter, that answer seems easy. But put
yourselves in the shoes of someone who really didn’t or couldn’t
of known what was happening. This day, when Jesus was brutalized,
beaten and crucified seemed like a complete and utter defeat. All
hopes being dashed and destroyed in but a few hours.
This day, Good
Friday had been preceded by thousands of years of broken human
history of pain, suffering, injustice and sin as humanity did what it
does best; trying to make our own way instead of following God’s.
What we see on this day was the answer to all of that. The story is
an amazing one. How God chose a special people to reveal Himself to
the world be living differently. But even that was not enough because
they often failed and became captive to the very things they were
supposed to show others there was a different way.
The many sacrifices
that allowed temporary fellowship between God and man were now
complete. The promised One who would crush the serpent’s head
accomplished His mission.
If you don’t know
the story, check it out. See what lengths that God has gone to
reconnect with His beloved creation.
While we do have the
joy of resurrection ahead, that does not mean now on this Friday we
can’t lament and acknowledge the pain we all feel and suffer. And
yet, in that pain there is the torn veil. At the moment of Christ’s
death, the symbol of separation was broken to now show the way is
open, and we can now go boldly before our King, friend and Savior!
On this Good Friday,
let us all be thankful for the greatest gift of love that any of us
can and ever will receive. Salvation and forgiveness of sins that
comes from Jesus on the cross.
by Joel V Webb | Mar 24, 2024 | Uncategorized
Death and taxes.
It’s a quippey pretty well known phrase for the reality an inevabilitu of both things. Right now tax season in the USA is coming up in a few weeks. And we just entered Holy Week, as we prepare the remember in solemnity the death of Christ on the cross, and then celebrate His resurrection.
Death is a reality. One that will come to each and every one of us. The last week I’ve considered the reality of this, not just because of Easter. But also because someone who was a friend died, passing from this life to be with the Lord.
Do we consider death?
At times my mind has been captured in the wondering thought of what death actually is. It’s something that whole our culture tries to deny we think about it, but I think many suffer in thinking about it in silence. We try to put out the inevitable reality that death comes for us all.
In my mind this became evident during the pandemic. Many in our culture mentally and emotionally broke at the stark confrontation that death is a reality. We have taken Death, and that it happens and shoved it in a back room, trying to sanitize and forget it so we can go on living our lives.
Thankfully, I don’t think about Death a lot normally. But I think we all should have a healthy understanding of it. Not to live in fear or apprehension, but to actually live life as it was intended…
Knowing that there is more than the here and now.
While for much of human history we have either idealized Death as a way to be remembered, or taken it as something to totally fear.
What Christ does is He gives us ultimate hope and victory in the face of it. Our final enemy is actually defeated. It’s sting has been taken, and it’s finality has been revered for those who trust and giver their entire allegiance to Christ and love their lives for Him.
This is not for the sake of moping around saying, “I’m gonna die, just waiting around while I plan my funeral”, or joyfully going into every deathly situation stupidly. What it means for us, because of the gospel that we can look death right in the face, know that we are in the hands of the King, creator, savior of the entire universe with the ultimate hope and promise that even after we die, it will be reversed in resurrection and we will indeed live again
So as we move into this Easter season, remember and consider the cross. The brutal reality of what it meant, and the impending death that Jesus was aware of from the beginning of His ministry. Remember that death comes for us all…but it doesn’t end there
The cross changes everything. There is resurrection life in Christ
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