Understanding the death of Jesus...

Remember those days when women couldn't preach or write books of their own sermons?  Amazing, what they do today! Fleming Rutledge is one of those women who has been given freedom to both preach and provide collections of her sermons. She is a well-known Episcopal priest, and preacher throughout North America and the UK. Rutledge has a new book, The Crucifixion, Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ, from Eerdmans.  Her books have been appreciated across denominational lines and this one will be no exception. But this one is different. It's not sermons, but it's about Jesus.

Among Rutledge's goals for this book are to "expand the discussion about what happened on the cross of Christ" and "to encourage the return of that subject to the center of Christian proclamation." She has designed her book for "potential readers, both lay and ordained, Catholic and Protestant, and for members of all denominations." She doesn't want to leave anyone out and she does have in mind "busy pastors, lay people who want to understand their faith better, seminary students, and especially those who are 'drawn to the figure on the cross,'" but are not sure what to believe about him.

Her book has two parts. Part 1 is called The Crucifixion, and sections are on the primacy of the Cross, godlessness, questions of justice, a special section on Anselm and his story for our time, and finally the gravity of sin. Part 2 is called The Biblical Motifs and she discusses many phrases, dominant ideas, and central themes and how those who were there interacted, and some later wrote what they were feeling and thinking about Christ on the cross.

Rutledge asserts that "the crucifixion is the most important historical event that has ever happened," and the "resurrection ratifies the cross as the way 'until he comes.'" There is also much good information about the four Gospels and the letters of Paul. Without Paul, Rutledge says that we might struggle to understand the parables and other happenings in the Gospels. She advises that this quote from Paul can be our hearts' comfort and joy: "Christ lives in me, and the life I now live...is by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20, NRSV).

---Lois Sibley, ireviewreligiousbks.com

A book for forty days of Lent...

The forty days of Lent started on Feb. 10, and if you have not yet found the special book you would like to read during Lent, here's one: Meeting God in Paul, Reflections for the Season of Lent by Rowan Williams and published by wjkbooks.com. It's a small book, just three chapters followed by helpful portions like questions for personal reflection and/or group discussion; a Lenten reading guide with a brief Sunday reflection and prayer; and notes and suggestions for further reading.

These lectures were given by Williams during a Holy Week at Canterbury. For ten years he served as Archbishop of Canterbury, and now is Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Williams uses portions of Acts, and New Testament  stories and parts of Paul's letters to help us learn more about Paul's concerns. He thinks that for many "regular churchgoers Paul's time remains a closed book," and many of us are not understanding how important Paul and his ideas were in his day. We may have heard of him, and we may have gathered assumptions about him and his teachings. And perhaps we have thought of him as a trouble-maker, as we remember his history and experiences with the early church.

Paul was a Roman citizen and a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. Williams thinks of Paul as "really interesting and exciting," and he has written this book to "Sketch in a bit of the background" to help today's Christian community understand those early years. So chapter 1 is called Outsiders and insiders: Paul's social world. In this, Williams brings up the question: did Paul write this? or that? and some might say, "it's a forgery." Williams accepts that "most of the literature under Paul's name, actually does originate from him." Sometimes, perhaps with a helper.

Chapter 2 is called The universal welcome: Paul's disturbing idea. Could it be true that God, the Creator, welcomes us to be a part of his people, his community? Why and how could he do that?

And Chapter 3 is called The new creation: Paul's Christian universe. Williams says that because of Jesus' death, we have been welcomed into relationship with God so that we may boldly say "Abba, Father," And we who believe in Jesus Christ must remember that "our hope in Christ is not just a future event. It's a future that has already started." And it grows on into the "depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God."(Rom. 11.33). Enjoy the read.....

---Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks.com

Are we crazy, or what?

One of the ways to get to know a person is to read what they have written. When I was in college, I was in a group who did this. We wanted to know the authors and we read all we could find about each one. When I was in the library, reading a book by one of these authors, my husband-to-be kept walking by the table where I was. He was checking out which book I was reading, which author did I appreciate most, he wondered. Eventually, we married and "yes" we went to that seminary. There are no regrets, we still love it there.

I am reminded of this because we are ready and eager to learn more about our new Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry. One of the ways to get to know him is to read his two books (I'm sure there will be more). Crazy Christians, A Call to Follow Jesus is the first, published in 2013 by Morehouse Publishing (CPI). This book is a collection of some of Curry's sermons given at  churches and conventions. He served a number of churches before becoming Bishop of North Carolina from 2000 to 2015. And in July, 2015 he was elected the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

He gently calls us all "Crazy Christians" and I begin to wonder why. When I hear the word crazy a certain tune comes into my head and I have trouble pushing it away as it's very powerful. So the tune wanders around as I read Curry's book, which is powerful as well. I consider it a privilege to read his sermons and I discover that he thinks Jesus is "crazy." When Curry speaks of Moses and Joseph and prophets of the Old Testament as well as Jesus' friends and disciples in the New, he is quick to point out that Jesus says: "The greatest among you will be your servant" (Matt. 23:11), and Curry says, "that's crazy!" But after he thinks about if for a bit he says, "what the church needs, what this world needs are some Christians who are as crazy as the Lord. Crazy enough to love like Jesus, to give like Jesus, to do justice like Jesus, walk humbly with God---like Jesus."
                                  
In her Foreword, The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, 26th Presiding Bishop, just before Curry, advises readers: In Curry's books you might "Read, savor, dream, and sing---and then discover the Spirit all around you in unexpected people, places, and invitations."

Curry's second book, also published by Morehouse, this one in 2015, is called Songs My Grandma Sang and if you are a grandma, as I am, you may know exactly what she was teaching the children in her family as they were growing up. Singing was an important part of that teaching. Children remember what they are singing about Jesus. It doesn't go away but buries itself way down deep inside until the Holy Spirit calls. J. Neil Alexander writes in his Foreword, "God's people are a singing people and if our children are going to have faith, they are going to have to learn to sing" including their grandma's songs of faith. There is much preaching in this book, too, and Alexander writes of it: "When Bishop Michael preaches, you expect to be instructed, inspired, propelled, and sent." So here he comes. Are we ready?

Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks

Walking with God and our Prayers

With All Our Prayers, Walking with God through the Christian Year is a new book published by Eerdmans and written by John B. Rogers, Jr., who is retired after being pastor in four different Presbyterian congregations. Rogers calls this collection "Prayers of the People, or pastoral prayers," culled from the many prayers he and his congregations have shared over the years. He writes that "these prayers focus....intentionally on issues of faith, and on pastoral situations in congregations, in communities, and in the lives of individuals and families."

Rogers invites all readers..."to take an intentional journey" with him and with God through the Christian year. I am always intrigued by Presbyterians who delve deeply into The Book of Common Prayer, as he does, and he makes it easy to follow. Each prayer has a descriptive name on his Contents page, including the names of the special days in the Christian year, followed by special days like: Sunday before Memorial Day, Confirmation, Prayer after September 11, 2001, World Communion Sunday, Reformation Sunday, All Saints' Day, and more.

We have already slipped past Advent, but we can pause and hear what Rogers says about that special time. He writes: "Eternal God, before we speak, even in prayer, we must listen....we remember that the universe exists because you spoke it into being....'let their be light'....we remember that we are because you created us male and female in your image....we remember ...you told us your name: 'I Am....Among you as God'....And now, in Advent, we prepare for the coming of him who bears your name,who is your promise in person, your Word made flesh --- even Jesus Christ our Lord."

There are many practical, useful prayers here. It's as though Rogers knows us and knows what we would pray for. Under the heading Prayers from Deep Within. Rogers says "we are grateful for the gift of prayer," but sometimes we wonder: what should we pray for, who should we pray for? We don't know what to say. We might pray: "O God: to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid..." and then pray "help us to relax,....give us wisdom, perspective, and understanding," and so we pray on as best we can. There are lots of pages on Lent and Easter, with good suggestions for our prayers and a reminder of Ps. 100: "It is he that made us and we are his" (NRSV). This is one of the best books on prayer that I have seen. Highly recommended.

---Lois Sibley
ireviewreligiousbks

Literary Lives of Inklings...

The Fellowship by Philip Zaleski & Carol Zaleski, new from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is a hefty book, 644 pages, but because its subtitle is The Literary Lives of the Inklings, we are immediately drawn in. Yes, we want to read about their literary growth but we would also like to hear about their families, their histories, their ups and downs throughout their own cultures and it's all here, thanks to the Zaleskis. who must have spent years tracking down all these details.

The authors concentrate on the four most prominent members of this group who called themselves the Inklings, and first they tell some of the stories about J. R. R. Tolkien, who was older than the others. Then they move to C. S. Lewis, then Owen Barfield, and finally Charles Williams. But the Zaleskis move back and forth, depending on who was doing what, alone or together, when the group began spending their Thursday evenings together at Lewis's at Magdalen College, or their Tuesday mornings at the pub they called the Bird and Baby. In both places, these men enjoyed sharing what they were writing or doing in their teaching and learning. Often two or three of them would go hiking and it's easy to imagine them throwing their words up into the sky, discussing and considering each other's opinions as they walked.

Tolkien thought the name Inklings was a pun, suggesting a group with half-formed ideas that dabbled in ink. But the Zaleskies remind us that in spite of the Inklings modest self-image, which was part of their charm, their ideas did not remain half-formed and their inkblots were not mere dabblings. Some of them became quite well known, even famous, and some of their work amounted to genius.

This was the time of the Great Depression and on through World War II and into the 1950s. The Inklings were in and around Oxford, a city in the English Midlands and some of them came and went for awhile during the two wars of those times. Several of them were professors, some were married and parents and some not.

Three Anglicans and a Catholic walked into a pub...

Let's look at what the Zaleskis said about Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and Barfield. Barfield was perhaps the most brilliant but the least published. His day job for 30 years was as a barrister in his father's firm. His fascination with words led him to see them as the clues to the development of history, indeed the evolution of human consciousness. Early fascination with music gave him an imaginative, less rational feeling for words.

Williams likewise held a day job outside of academia, as a London editor at Oxford University Press. He also dabbled in the occult while remaining a practicing Anglican. He was known perhaps best for his five imaginative/fantasy novels (Lewis especially liked Williams's The Place of the Lion and invited him to meet the Inklings). Williams also published poetry and wrote Outlines of Romantic Theology, not published in his lifetime, but now in print (Berkeley: Apocryphile, 2005).

We know Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but the Zaleskis also give us a look into their source: Tolkien's story-telling with his children on long Christmas evenings. This Oxford professor (philology and northern European mythology) would make up the stories as they talked, and later polish them. Father Christmas Letters is one example and the published version (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) includes a selection from the annual letters, with Tolkien's drawings. Tolkien was the Catholic in the group, his widowed mother having joined a local Catholic parish with her 8 and 6-year old boys.

Lewis was perhaps the central figure when the Inklings met in "the frayed comfort of [his] Magdalen digs" for long Thursday evenings with lots of tea and pipes (or in the Bird and Baby pub) to read drafts of their works in progress and to offer encouragement and critique to each other. The most rational, Lewis relished a vigorous debate with an atheist, having been one himself. He also was as imaginative as any of the others. Like Tolkien's discovery, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit," Lewis would claim that his Narnia Chronicles started with a mental picture of a fawn with an umbrella.

These four authors had a huge impact on each other as well as on their readers, who continue to search, study, read, share, and perhaps be inspired to write their own special words and works. Lewis, Tolkien, Williams, and Barfield, might be pleased to know that.

---Larry and Lois Sibley,
ireviewreligiousbks

Advent Begins the New Year!

Advent Presence, a new book from Melford "Bud" Holland begins the New Year for us and for Morehouse Publishing. Bud is a priest, storyteller, and photographer. He enjoys talking about "the big questions," and those who know him have been waiting for this book, I'm sure. Earlier, Bud served in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, where he learned much from his friend, Bishop Frank Turner, as they challenged each other with "the big questions." Retired as the Officer for Ministry Development for the Episcopal Church, Bud now serves as an interim priest, consultant, and EfM trainer. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Bud loves to tell stories, and he has a lot of them. It seems that wherever he has worked, or served, or encouraged, he has gathered some interesting stories about the people he has come to know there. Every chapter could begin or end with stories and what we can learn from them. There is a line of type across the book cover that says Kissed by the Past, Beckoned by the Future and it may draw you in to hear the stories.

Did you know, or did you recently hear that now, in the Old Year, before we move via Advent to the New Year, we have already begun to hear of incidents that happened many years ago in the New Year! Why? Does the Lord want us to know now! Yes, he probably does. So some of the stories happened  before January 1, and the stories and incidents were recorded earlier. The Lord wants us to know now! So we begin the New Year knowing what is coming, already praying about what will happen. We may be feeling the presence of God rising in his people.

Bud Holland says that "The yearning for the coming of Messiah was palpable in the hundreds of years leading up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jews felt assured that God would not abandon them." Along with them, we may be singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel on that day and we may be feeling God's presence "in the present moment, kissed by the past, and beckoned by the future."

---Lois Sibley, ireviewreligiousbks

Facing Cancer and Death...

There are many who are facing cancer and death these days. It seems like every day we hear of another friend who has this possibility ahead. When Steve Hayner was diagnosed, he and his wife Sharol decided to begin sharing information with friends and asking for prayers by joining Caring Bridge, a service for those with computers.  And after years of ministry on both sides of the country, the two of them had many friends who wanted to know what was going on. Steve was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2014 and he died in early 2015.

That was a short time, but Steve and Sharol decided right away to be open with all who wanted to know: "how are you feeling?" and before they knew it, they had a book called Joy in the Journey, Finding Abundance in the Shadow of Death, published by IVP Books, at www.ivpress.com. There is a brief preface by co-author Sharol Hayner, who explains that their messages to family and friends on the Caring Bridge website were not intended to be a book, but somehow they grew. And we begin to read about the happenings of the days ahead for Steve and Sharol.

Perhaps I should warn you: this is an amazing, powerful book, in which two people who love each other, and who love Jesus, the Lord of all, share difficult health problems, deep feelings about each of their problems, and....you better have tissues ready, that's all I can say just now....

Steve was serving as president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia at the time of his diagnosis in the spring of 2014 and Steve and Sharol were living in the president's house. Before that, he had served as pastor, preacher, teacher, and for a time as president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, He also served on several mission boards, including World Vision, Fuller Seminary, the Navigators, and others.Steve became "president emeritus" at Columbia Seminary, and they were given the privilege of remaining in the president's house, convenient to Emory Hospital.

Steve was known for signing  his letters "Joyfully," and he and Sharol continued to search for and find moments of being grateful to God and moments of joy in their daily experiences. Their book is unusual, so open in sharing their feelings. so trusting in God, a great example for each of us.

---Lois Sibley, ireviewreligiousbks