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So I’ve been reading a fair amount of Pauline epistles (which is a fancy biblical way of saying Paul’s letters, i.e. Colossians, I & II Thessalonians, etc…) and trying to garner some wisdom about the body of Christ, the church if you will, from these letters. 

And initially it’s very interesting. Because the initial part of most of Paul’s letter looks like the following:

“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:” (I Corinthians 1) 

“To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia” (II Corinthians 1)

“To the churches in Galatia:” (Galatians 1)

“To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.”   (I Thessalonians 1)

 ”To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ” (II Thessalonians 1)

Then Paul will write a greeting, like grace and peace be with you (it’s where I got my sign off if you care) and then he’ll start the main section of his letter. But as I studied this a few questions came to mind:

+Some introductions (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians) are a little different and don’t (to the best of my understanding not knowing how to read Greek) contian the word church. Why not?

+Where did the word church originally come from anyway? Is it in the Old Testament?

+What was the cultural element that Paul was writing to? 50 people? A city’s worth? House churches? Buildings?

Thus of course all this begged further research and study: (and procrastination of other things like thesis work and school homework):

The Online Etymology Dictionairy defined the progress of the word “church” as follows:

church

O.E. cirice “church,” from W.Gmc. *kirika, from Gk. kyriake (oikia) “Lord’s (house),” from kyrios “ruler, lord.” For vowel evolution, see bury. Gk. kyriakon (adj.) “of the Lord” was used of houses of Christian worship since c.300, especially in the East, though it was less common in this sense than ekklesia or basilike. An example of the direct Gk.-to-Gmc. progress of many Christian words, via the Goths; it was probably used by W.Gmc. people in their pre-Christian period. Also picked up by Slavic, via Gmc. (cf. O.Slav. criky, Rus. cerkov). Romance and Celtic languages use variants of L. ecclesia. Slang church key for “can or bottle opener” is from 1950s. Church-mouse, proverbial in many languages for its poverty, is 1731 in Eng. (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=church)

Which Wikipedia reaffirmed as:

The term church originated from Greek “κυριακή” – “kyriake”, ^[1] meaning “of the lord” and later began to replace the Greek ekklesia and basilica within English-speaking Christendom, c. AD 300, though it was used by Christians before that time (Acts 20:17). The German word Kirche is also related to the same root. However, in other European languages, ekklesia prevailed such as in French église, Spanish iglesia, Portuguese igreja, or Italian chiesa. The Romanian word for church, biserică, derives from Latin basilica. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church#_note-0)

So, not a whole lot of help there, but there was one interesting point: In Greek writing there are different forms of the same English word (love is probably the most common example here, with the whole agape, eros, and phileo conundrum).  So what form does Paul use when he writes his letters?

 So thanks to biblegateway.com and an online translator (as well as Wikipedia again), I can state with limited assurance that Paul uses the word  εκκλησια, which is ekklesia. (At least I saw that word perpetiated throughout the first verse of the Greek texts I was looking at).

This of course (in truest Rob Bell decontruction tactics) prompts more questions.

What does  εκκλησια, ekklesia, even mean?

Have we lost part of the cultural relevance of the word?

and, how would the original hearer of the message (i.e. the people that the letters were written to) recieve this greeting?

But as for now, my office hour is over, and I need to go to go get some thesis work done (and eat). So more on this soon.

grace and peace (χαριτος και της ειρηνης)

i almost posted an emotional rant. decided against it. somethings are best not shared on the internet

grace and peace

Everyone has their soapboxes. That issue, idea, or rant that the person holds near and dear to their heart and will defend and proclaim vigourously to anyone who will listen. Usually friends will warn new listeners with a causual, “Oh, don’t get him started, he could talk about_____ all day…”

But the listener is interested nonetheless. Because the soapbox speaker speaks with passion. This issue (or whatever) is something the speaker has put much thought into. One such issue for me is the church, or moreover, the body of Christ.

I can easily recall at least half a dozen times when friends have come to me and confided in me that they are discontent with the way church is presently. Their complaints/concerns vary from the semi-noble ”this church isn’t doing enough service work,” to the understandable, yet unacceptable “i’m just not getting anything out of this,” to the common and frankly immature “i really just don’t like the music there.” They have unwittingly opened a can of worms. They have placed the soapbox in front of me and I have no choice but to stand on it and declare my message:

“Church is not about you.”

But it is. But it isn’t.

As I have attended ”church” for most of my life, I have gone through different phrases of what the word ”church” even means. there’s the physical definition, the church is a building. There’s the transidential definion, the church is the group of believers who meet together. Then there’s a host of other definitions as well. And we struggle with the semantics.

Because even though at times we acknowledge church to be more than a building and we acknowledge it as a group of people, we fail to ackowledge it as the Bible does, a Body. A connected unit that works in collaboration, suffers together, and rejoices together.

I’m slightly under-the-weather today.  My throat is a little sore (again, don’t worry Mom, it got better, then came back it hasn’t been consistently sore…) And my nose is runny. And in turn my whole body  aches a little. My whole body suffers with my nose and throat. Together.

And last night, a friend rubbed my shoulders. And it felt great. In fact the great feeling seemed to transcend my shoulders and make my whole body feel good. When one part is honored, all the other parts rejoice.

And when people decide to leave “church” for most reasons, they do themselves a disservice (usually-there are excpetions to this thought), and they do a disservice to the Body itself. It would be as if my shoulders left my body. And the rest of my body couldn’t celebrate with my shoulders any more.

That’s what I mean when I say church isn’t about you. Church cannot be a self-serving place, where solely our own needs our met and not the cares and concerns of our fellow believers or the world around us.

Now that Ephesians is wrapped up. I think I’m going to tackle a topical issue of the Body of Christ/Church. This coincides well with the book I have bee reading (the Shape of Things To Come) and has been something I have been meaning to study for a while.

 I’ll keep you posted.

grace and peace 

Go read this for Martin Luther King Day. It is amazing.

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Grace and peace

I use more gas in 4 weeks of break then I use in 3 months of semester. Especially Christmas break, when it’s cold outside and walking places can be trying. But when the semester comes around I walk everywhere. Class, work (which is teaching a class), church, friends houses. I usually walk (or ride my bike, but walking goes along with the theme tonight, so let’s just roll with it).

So after driving to the Ley’s house for an amazing dinner (thanks!!) and driving back. I showered and then continued to read “Sex God” by Rob Bell. (a book that I serendipitously picked up while cleaning the Manastery, matched exactly where I was at, and in true Nooma form I entitled this blog entry “Walk” in order to obey the strict {or not so strict} post-modern naming rule of all Nooma videos and Rob Bell related ideas) Bell mentioned Ephesians quite frequently in his book. I was pleasantly surprised.

And he catalyzed a lot of themes that I had been noticing in Chapters 4 and 5 of Ephesians, but had here to for (which is a great connecting phrase by the by {another one!!}) been veiled in mystery to me. And the main idea that I garnered: walk.

And as much fun as driving is, i do truly love walking places. I love being within walking distance of downtown Akron, campus, church, friends. And I love going to those places. Because much of the time walking is about a destination. Where we are walking to, but there are times when a walk is more than a destination. I took a walk with a friend of mine who was in town (we actually walked all the way to the Northside and ate at the Vegeterranean {new organic-vegeterian restaraunt in Akron} and it was quite delicious!)
and we didn’t care so much about where we were going, but the time we spent together getting there. Catching up. Laughing and sharing. Seeing how the great city of Akron had changed. There’s a lot to be said about the way one walks (just ask Aerosmith and Run DMC)

Or you could ask Paul,

***This is from the Holman Christian Standard version of the Bible, so a little different from NIV here…

Ephesians 2:1-2 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit now working in the disobedient.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them”

Ephesians 4:1-2 “I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds [us].”

Ephesians 4:17-18 “Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now [you are] light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

Ephesians 5:15-16 ” Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”

And it’s clear that Paul is talking about the way you live, but yet he chooses to use the expression walk (or so I’m told, apparently in the Greek it’s literally “walk,” but you may find it translated in the NIV as “live”). And what’s great about these passages is what’s between them. Application. The how-to’s of walking.

Speak the truth. Do not steal, but build and give back. Don’t get drunk on wine, rather be filled with the Spirit. Be kind and compassionate. Don’t talk crudely, but give thanks. Sing and make music in your heart. This is how you ought to walk.

There’s a lot of depth here. More than I can express in this blog. But there is one thing I feel pertinent to note. Our walk is a unique one. Unique in the idea that both the walk and the destination are the same. We walk with Christ, by Christ, through Christ (I am the gate, I am the way, I am the Shepherd) and He is also our destination. He is the end to what we have journeyed for!

grace (most excellent and un-understandable grace) and peace