Deus Misereatur

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has some oddities and peculiar relishes here and there.  One of them is found in the Collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany. It goes like this: First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.   Hopefully the “glitch” is obvious for the thoughtful, Bible-shaped reader, whether Calvinist or Arminian; “Grant that all who are baptized into his name may keep the covenant they have made.” The problem is (at the least) two-fold: If it’s a covenant we have made, then it is from our own manufacture, concoction and incentive. That would mean it...

We Became Men: The Journey into Manhood Shawn Brower P & R Publishing Company PO Box 817 Phillipsburg, NJ 08865-0817 www.prpbooks.com Copyright: 2012 ISBN: 978-1-59638-386-9; $14.99 Reviewed for Deus Misereatur by: Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber Taking the Trek – 4 ½ of 5 stars There I was, wondering what to pick up for my sons. I was looking for material at the Christian bookstore I could hand to my teenage boys, but was uncertain of the content and ignorant of the authors. I headed home, puzzled about what to do next or where to look. On my arrival at the house I picked up the mail and saw that Shawn Brower had recently written a 240 page paperback for teen boys, “We Became Men: The Journey into Manhood.” My interest was piqued and into the book I dove! Brower comes at his subject with the solid experience-base from being a long-time teen soccer coach, headmaster and teacher of Christian schools, a father of three boys, and himself having once been a teenage ...

“ O LORD , we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people which call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” (1928 Book of Common Prayer ). Clergy, congregations and denominations often struggle with direction, sustainability and viability, especially in cloudy, complex seasons; or at least, one hopes that they do. The human predicament we find ourselves in makes fidelity difficult at times because we live in the twilight between the passing away of darkness and dawning of the light (1 John 2.8b).  True enough, God has entrusted us with his Holy Scriptures and guided the Church in her understanding of the Word of God throughout the millennia. Nevertheless, not every circumstance, or societal moral mess, is covered in a clearly marked way. That means each generation of the Church, in a greater or lesser degree, mu...

{This will only take 2.35 minutes to read} Dawn to Dark: A Book of Christian Prayer R. Douglas Jones The House Studio PO Box 419527 Kansas City, MO 64141 www.thehousestudio.com ISBN: 978-0-8341-2825-5; $14.99 Copyright 2012 Reviewed by: Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur Useful Utility : 4 stars out of 5 The value of having some type of order in daily prayer has been noticed for centuries. From Sacramentaries to Breviaries, Christians have been churning out prayer books that are meant to help structure daily prayer. R. Douglas Jones has added a short work to the mix with his recent 286 page paperback, "Dawn to Dark: A Book of Christian Prayer." Jones covers two weeks of praying that pays attention to the "hours": "Prayer at Dawn", "Prayer at Daylight", and "Prayer at Dusk." The internal order of each session of prayer is fairly standard, including opening prayer, confession of sin, Psalm reading, praise (norma...

I have heard oodles and oodles of talk about repentance over the years. Most of the definitions are based on a denuded, bare-bones explanation of the Greek word μετάνοια (metanoia). Literally this word means “ a change of mind, a change in the inner man ” (Alexander Souter, “A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament,” 157). The way this gets played with is at times quite drab and disappointing. For example, “ Repentance is from a Greek word meaning “to change one’s mind.” When it is applied in a biblical sense, it doesn’t mean changing your ways (or else!). It means that you recognize God is God and you aren’t. It means that you don’t get a vote on what is right and what is wrong. It means that when you recognize God’s authority, you go to God sand tell him so. In short, repentance is knowing who you are, who God is, and what you’ve done or haven’t done, and then going to God in agreement with him and his assessment” (Steve Brown, “Three Free Sins: God’s Not Mad at You,” 38). ...

Soul Recreation: The Contemplative-Mystical Piety of Puritanism Tom Schwanda Pickwick Publications (Wipf and Stock) 199 West 8 th Ave, Suite 3 Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.wipfandstock.com ISBN-978-1-61097-455-4; $35.00; 2012. Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur (12/12)  Puritan Piety (3 stars out of 5) When one thinks of meditation or contemplation, rarely does Puritanism race to the forefront of the mind. Instead, other traditions will be quickly thought of and looked into. But Tom Schwanda, Associate Professor of Christian Formation and Ministry at Wheaton College, seeks to give a scholarly corrective to this perception. In his recent 292 page paperback titled, “Soul Recreation: The Contemplative-Mystical Piety of Puritanism” he lays the groundwork for reclaiming a Reformed and Evangelical heritage of contemplative piety, looking primarily at one 17 th Century Puritan, Isaac Ambrose. In “Soul Recreation, Schwanda strives to raise, a...

LORD GOD , the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, who has broken into the darkness of our lives, coming to our rescue in person; in person as a child born for us, as a son given to us: and in coming to our rescue now the people who once walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who once dwelt in the land of the shadow of deep darkness, upon them a light has shown! We confess our obstinacy and sheer knuckleheaded impiousness. We have followed too much the ruses and innovations of our own hearts, by doing those things we knew we shouldn’t, and not doing the good things we knew we were supposed to. In truth, in more incidents than we can count, we allowed our pride and pleasure to twist our relationships and warp our actions. O God, what a mess we are!  … [ silence for personal confession ]... In spite of what we are, you have promised that if we confess our sins, that you –faithful and just – will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that the blo...