Category Archives: Tidbits to Share

Baptist History. That’s a rap!

This is a fun post.  Ashley Unzicker put together a rap on Baptist History last year after finishing a course on the subject at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.  Apparently she has written many raps but this one was a first. She was inspired by the professor and the subject.

At first she was not so thrilled about taking a class about long ago facts and lots of dates, but her tune soon changed:

“Wow, that’s why I believe what I believe,” said Unzicker, who recalled the moment Baptist history became more than a collection of dates and words in a textbook. 

She was also inspired by the many individuals mentioned in the rap, Baptists who made a difference through their faithfulness to Christ.

That’s what this history thing is all about. Discovering why you believe what you believe, and being encouraged in your own faithfulness by seeing the faithfulness of that great crowd of witnesses around us.

Every tradition needs a rap. If the Baptists can do that, why not the rest of us!  Who’s next?

 

Here is a link to the full story. And enjoy the video!

 

 

 

A Sacramental Double-Standard

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Anna Nussbaum Keating wrote an article, Why Can’t My Son Receive the Eucharist, for First Things. In it she briefly rehearses the history of the practice of the Sacrament, and questions why her two-year-old son can’t take the Eucharist until he is 7.

Here is the link:
http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/04/why-cant-my-son-receive-the-eucharist

She raises a question I raised in my posts on Children and Communion, some of the first posts in this blog. Why do we, churches that require the one who receives the Eucharist, require the recipients to understand the sacrament of Communion, when we do not require the same of baptism?

Is infant communion so different from infant baptism? We already teach children who have previously been baptized what their baptism means, and yet, baptism is a gift freely given. It is not dependent on one’s intelligence or comprehension. Formal instruction occurs after the sacrament has been experienced.

She ends with the hope that maybe things are ripe for a change in the Roman Catholic Church, a going back to the earlier practice of infant communion:

Perhaps now is the time to rediscover the practice of infant communion. Pope Francis has said that the Eucharist is “not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” He has also written in his Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel that, “The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded. . . . Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community, nor should the doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason.”

It does seem a double standard, doesn’t it.

(Thanks to Michael Bird’s post on the blog Euangelion for posting on this article – http://www.patheos.com/blogs/euangelion/2014/04/communion-for-children/)

Book Review: Those Terrible Middle Ages

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A post to share with you:
“Yes, folks, we have been lied to. The “Middle Ages” were a time of incredible art, rich cultural expression and solid tradition, and unparalleled freedom—especially for women!”

St. Catherine Catholic Culture Center

The Middle Ages is privileged material: one can say what one wants about it with the quasi-certitude of never being contradicted.

–Régine Pernoud

Book Review: Those Terrible Middle AgesNow the center of my studies on Catholic liturgical tradition, under my magnifying glass to determine what the phrase “Christian Culture” really means, the Age of Faith (a.k.a. Middle Ages) has become my obsession and object of envy. During the last few months I have read several books that have convinced me that everything I knew about them (which sadly wasn’t much) had been skewed and misrepresented. Of all the works I have lately read on this topic, the feisty prose of Régine Pernoud in Those Terrible Middle Ages!: Debunking the Myths is my absolute favorite.

This book really made me mad, as books that point out the errors of our modern thinking always make me mad at the culture I have been formed in.  Yes, folks, we have been lied to…

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It Was Well With My Soul

Last post I shared a picture of the four Spafford girls, the girls who tragically drowned in the horrible sinking of the ship Anna Spafford and her daughters were aboard in 1873, while Horatio, husband and father, remained  in America. Horatio would write one of the greatest hymns of the era in reponse to their loss, “It Is Well With My Soul”.  I found the picture in an article by Kate Uttinger. I had never seen a picture of the children, as many times as I have heard, and told, the story.

The article was fascinating on another account too.  It tells the story of what happened afterward.  I’ve never heard of the Spaffords outside of the hymn story.  And there is a good reason for that.

Horatio Spafford worked closely with D.L. Moody, and was a vibrant evangelist during the awakening in the mid to late 1800’s, meeting Anna through a lecture he was giving. The occasion of their move to France was actually the bungling of their personal finances, much of which Horatio hid from Anna. Moving to France was a chance to start over.

After losing their girls, they threw themselves into their work of evangelizing in Europe, and, to shorten the story, they became enamored with the interpretation of prophesy  and the precise prediction of the return of Jesus. This led them, finally, to move with some followers to Jerusalem where they named themselves “The Overcomers” and sought to be the  first to welcome Jesus on his return, going so far as to host tea parties on the Mount of Olives to welcome Jesus and offer  him refreshment (I kid you not. See the article).  The Overcomers rapidly became very much a cult, with Anna wielding authority and using it as any cult leader does, to further her own power and wealth, and to provide a cover for immorality.  In the meantime, they lost many of their funders, mishandled those they did have, and Horatio died, throwing things  into confusion since none of  the group was supposed to die until Jesus returned.

Jerusalem in the time of the Spaffords and the American Colony

It’s a wild story, well told in the article. It seems a cautionary tale. I’m just not sure what of. Of what happens when you mismanage such terrible grief. Or of the dangers of end times speculation. Or of something else.

It certainly explains why we don’t hear much about the Spaffords outside of that terrible shipwreck.

If you want to learn more, search on The American Colony in Jerusalem, which is what they went by. The picture here if Jerusalem comes from a photo collection of the colony I found on the Accordance website.

Funny story. Since I don’t preach from a manuscript I am able to alter my sermons as I am preaching. One time I decided while preaching to tell the story of “It Is Well With My Soul.” But while I knew the story, I had not rehearsed the details for a while. I had the the children and Anna all dying  in a car crash somewhere in America. Hmmm. Not quite. And a bit anachronistic. Lesson for ministry: check the details of your stories, and be real careful throwing one in off the cuff. Of course, I’m not sure anyone noticed. And it still made the point.

For more see:  “The Shipwreck of the American Colony,” Kate Uttinger. Leben. Vol. 10. Issue 1. pp.3-23.

The “It Is Well With My Soul” Children

It is one of the best hymn stories out there.  The story behind the writing of the great classic hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul”.  You probably know the tragic story of Horatio and Anna Spafford and their four daughters.  In 1873, the family was moving from America to France, but Horatio remained behind to handle some last minute details in their affairs. Tragically, the ship Anna and her four daughters were aboard rammed into another ship 1,000 miles from France, sinking in 17 minutes. There were very few survivors, but Anna was found unconsciousness on some floating wreckage. She and the few other survivors were taken to London, from which Anna penned the heart-rending telegram to her husband beginning, “Saved Alone.” The sinking was considered by many to be the worst maritime disaster before the sinking  of the Titanic.  Horatio Spafford boarded another ship to meet his wife, and as the ship passed the point of the previous sinking, he penned the beautiful and hope-filled hymn, a comfort to so many experiencing suffering.

(Click here for lyrics and the full story)

I have told this story many times in sermons, but I came across an article in which I found this picture of the girls. I never saw their faces, those of  these little girls, the loss of  which tore their parents hearts. I wanted to share it.  Here’s the telegram Anna sent too.

From:  “The Shipwreck of the American Colony,” Kate Uttinger. Leben. Vol. 10. Issue 1. pp.3-23.