Palm Sunday

Today's readings:

• Ps 118
• Zech 9:9-10, 16-17
• John 12:12-19
• Rev 19:1-8, 11-16

Aaron, a pastor at my church, has said frequently, "I don't do special well." He's not big on the days that we typically set aside as holy, and thats alright. I, on the other hand, do special well. It's important that I observe certain seasons as holy, consciously, because otherwise I will regard no time as holy. (The paradox of Protestant practice in America: because we regard every day as equally full of God's presence and grace, we effectively view no days as full of God's presence and grace. This is not a necessary outcome of Protestant doctrine, but it sure crept in somewhere.)

So this is Holy Week—though this year I do not feel the holy leisure I felt last year, the space to rest and enter into reflection on God's grace through Christ. I'm too rushed by the mix of finals, preparing for Peru, and, of course, seeing to it that everyone else is blessed by the Holy Week services at FBC. Last year's Holy Week was an absurd blessing: a pastor friend of mine left town and asked me to take care of his dog, in exchange for living in his home for a week, which opportunity I seized upon at once. I had a week alone to myself, with no class and surprisingly little work, to pray and rest and attend special services.

I suspect, though, that for most of us, taking that kind of time for reflection is nearly impossible, and that my experience of this week is more the norm. Well, then, here we go—adventures in making time for Christ in the midst of many demands on our time.

Calvinism Between the Lines

Another brilliant entry on the Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks:

Predestined, Really.

For the Days are Evil...

This is tragic:

The Conventicle: Dr Packer Served 60 Days Notice

Dr. J.I. Packer, author of Knowing God and a strong voice for evangelicalism within the Anglican church, has been served 60 days notice for removing himself from the authority of a bishop who supports and blesses same-sex marriage. This is another strong indication of the shattering of the Anglican Communion, as many denominations have split over the same issue (and the more fundamental issue—the inerrant authority of God's Word).

Now is when we must be reminded that Christ walks among the lampstands: that He is in control of His church and upholds it, and that the one who clings to Him will overcome. Please do pray for Dr. Packer, and for the Anglican Church as a whole, as we pass through these dark times. Let us ask Christ that His church will stand as a faithful witness.

Desiring God Conference

We made the Desiring God Blog! Look here.

Psalter resources

I had a few questions about resources for trying out the Four Week Psalter and/or fixed prayer, so here goes:

As for getting into saying the Daily Office (fixed prayers): I recommend this as a regular habit for some people, but not everyone. When it comes to prayer my philosophy is something like "any stick to beat the devil," which means that I will search far and wide for what works to make me more attentive to Christ in my daily life. So when I discover that upon waking my mind is a garbled mess, or that prayer before bed is a quick descent into babble, I am inclined to use the well-articulated prayers of Christians before me rather than keep on babbling in the name of "spontaneity." (The spontaneous is overrated.)

If you want to try this, I would point you first to the Book of Common Prayer, the prayer book of the Anglican/Episcopal church. This is the only Protestant prayer book I have found which carries the weight and beauty of expression, along with theological orthodoxy, which I look for. Moreover it's lightweight both in size and length of prayers—an individual can easily fit it into their schedule, I think.

The BCP breaks down into 4 major times of prayer: Morning Prayer, Noon Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline. These would typically be said upon waking, mid-day, sunset, and before bed. At each time one reads two or three psalms, a reading from the Old or New Testament, a reading from the Gospels, and various canticles (hymns derived from Scripture) and readings that have been read by Christians for centuries. The readings which accompany the Daily Office will take you through the entire Bible (minus the genealogies, etc.) in two years. It will also take you through the Psalter every seven weeks.

Another option which will take you through the Psalter in Four Weeks is Shorter Christian Prayer (Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1999; Amazon.com). This prayer book is an abbreviated Four Week Psalter, containing only Morning and Evening prayer, from the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. This is not quite the entire Psalter in 4 weeks, but it's close, and I have really enjoyed using it. (I have used the longer version, Christian Prayer, which also includes the daytime and night prayers as well as the Office of Readings. This longer version is even closer to being entirely a 4 week Psalter; unfortunately, for whatever reason, you don't get the entire Psalter included until you spring for the 4-volume Liturgy of the Hours.) What I especially like about this prayer book is the observance of the Church calendar; one reads different prayers and Psalms during Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, etc., and so is connected with the historical observance of the year centered around Christ.

What I don't like so much about this particular book is that, because it is Catholic, there is a fair amount I don't agree with in it. For instance, praying to the Saints or to Mary—as a Protestant, this is hard for me to understand or condone. But these are hardly ever central to the prayers, and I've been alright with editing on the fly. (For example, rather than asking Mary that I would grow in my faith, I just address my prayer to Jesus.) This has worked tolerably well for me, but to be honest it is hard to recommend to others. Just a warning.

Finally, as for the Psalter itself, I would recommend reading C.S. Lewis' book, Reflection on the Psalms, which I found very helpful. Praying with the Psalms can be tricky because there's lots in there that we feel very hesitant to make a prayer - all this cursing of enemies and violent revenge against the wicked, as well as the claims to be righteous and without fault! Lewis does a very good job of indicating in what spirit we can read these Psalms, and I found this very helpful to me.

Also, if you are interested in incorporating the Psalter into your prayers but aren't so hot on the prayer book idea, you could easily just decide to read 3 or 4 Psalms in the morning and in the evening whenever you do your regular devotions and prayer.

That about taps my current thoughts about the Psalter; if I run across anything I will share it.