“Ship” is actually “the state or condition of being” and has nothing nautical about its origin. It is a synonym of skype and is not “another part of the compound word.”
Her point, I believe, is that “darkness cannot exist in light” and that when we worship, the things that are dark scatter like cockroaches when we flip on the light of worship.
♦♦♦
Paula begins to tell a story of how she struggled with eating disorders. While playing a Bible trivia game as a “young believer,” she fell on the kitchen floor worshiping God. (Paula, if you don’t know the answer, just pass; you don’t have to get all dramatic.) She claims that some of her bondage was lifted, but that she still had some left because “sanctification is a progressive process; you go from glory to glory to glory.”
Matthew: “And by progressive, I don’t think she means Jim Wallis.”
I know that Paul in 2 Corinthians speaks about us reflecting the glory of God, which is beautiful but I think does not change the fact that we are sinners. What I have no idea about is what these people mean on a functional level when they say we go “from glory to glory to glory.” I think I need an English-to-Evangelical dictionary. But I do know how I feel about progressive sanctification, namely, that it’s hooey. And here’s why: I believe, and my Lutheran tradition teaches, that we are all (watch me get all fancy on the Latin here) simul iustus et peccator — simultaneously saint and sinner. Back to my own sinfulness, which at this moment is taking the form of pointing out how bizarre our little Paula White is.
How does Paula wrap this message of how to come into the presence of God? By saying this: “Won’t you have an attitude of gratitude and open up the spiritual possibilities by coming into the presence of God through entering in his gates with thanksgiving with a thanks offering, a peace offering, which says, ‘God I’m bringing a sacrifice, I bring something of value to me [screen has an address and phone number with “honor God with a special thanksgiving offering”] in exchange for what is truly valuable…your presence.’ Get up and call that toll free number right now or go to the website or PO box, but you have to do it God’s way, enter his gates, his passage to the secret place of bringing God’s presence into your life. Worship him with an offering saying thank you for what you have done when you call the toll free number and you sow your seed of sacrifice this thanksgiving season with an attitude of gratitude. I believe God has great things for you.”
I just watched what could only be described as a preach-a-mercial. It’s so similar to the feeling I get when I’m flipping through cable channels and see what seems innocently enough like a talk show or an exercise program, only to feel the sting of betrayal as the 1-800 number hits the screen. What bothers me the most is this: her insistence that “you have to do it God’s way.” That’s a very insidious thing to say because the implication is that Paula White has some way of knowing what “God’s way” is and that her teaching equals “ God’s way.” Therefore not to follow what Paula says is equal to disobeying God.
I am also disturbed by the fact that we mainline progressive Protestants need to have a deeper focus on what worship means. Not that we have to adopt Paula’s idea that worship is when we tell God how great God is while we’re the middle of God’s own furnace, like some “this hurts me more than it hurts you,” or “it’s for your own good” abusive logic. And worship certainly doesn’t have to mean listening to “Jesus Is My Boyfriend” praise music in you car. But how can our vocations as the baptized be lived out in the world as a conscious act of worship? For doxological living is in the reality of us being fully creature and God Creator. God is then not something we tack on to our lives but is the source of life itself in whom we move and live and have our being.
THE ROUNDUP
Old Testament passages cited: Nine.
New Testament passages cited: Eight.
Cost of products offered: Depends on how much you want to get out of God’s furnace.
Doctrine of God: God has low self-esteem and puts us in furnaces until we start to tell him how great he is; then he’ll let us out.
Mentions of Jesus: One —Jesus’ blood allows us to repent.
Cups of coffee: Two.
Thought for the hour: What does living a life of worship look like? Perhaps actually acting and living as though God is the source of all life.
Intermission
REFLECTION ON
THE BLANK SCREEN
Simul lustus et Peccator
THE LATIN ABOVE means “simultaneously saint and sinner,” and, as a matter of fact, is tattooed around my right wrist (because, as I mentioned before, I’m just that much of a theological fancy-pants). Why, you may ask, get a fancy-pants Latin tattoo about sin on my wrist? Because in my tradition we hold that we are all 100 percent sinner and 100 percent saint. But wait, Nadia, you say, that’s 200 percent. Well, yes and no. You see the two 100 percents are simultaneous. There is no process of sanctification, good works, prayer, yoga, recycling, Bible study, or holy living that makes us even 99 percent sinner and 101 percent saint. Much less like 10/190. As Luther says, we are at the same time the Old Eve (or Adam) and the New Creature. The really liberating thing about this is that when we all come to the table fully aware that we are sinners, that we are broken on some level and never perfect, then the temptation to pretend otherwise is greatly diminished. To embrace your sinfulness and saintliness is not the same as being intentionally immoral. It is to be realistic and to recognize that no one can possibly be 100 percent honest all the time, can always think of the neighbor before the self, can always honor God in everything we do, can at all times decrease in self so that others may increase. Even if our actions come close to this (they never do, but if they did) then we still are stuck with the reality of our minds and the thoughts of our hearts. When Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 that even if you look on a woman in lust you have committed adultery, this was not to set the bar so high that you feel defeated, or then again maybe it was exactly that. You see, the spiritual poison of our own righteousness is problematic (saying “here are the rules we must follow to please God and to be sanctified, and I follow those rules so I have good reason to be prideful about my sanctification because I earned it”). Jesus knew this was ridiculous. I like to think of him basically saying to those self-righteous guys, “If you seriously think you are without sin, you’re just kind of an idiot.” Of course that’s the sarcastic Jesus in my head. Thank goodness the real Jesus is more gracious than I am.
Jesse Duplantis Ministries
(Being Charlie in God’s chocolate factory) 6:00 a.m.
We all grab more coffee as Matthew, my husband, leaves to pick up the pastries I ordered from our local bakery. It’s time for Jesse Duplantis, a very entertaining Cajun preacher straight from New Orleans. He looks a bit like Cornelius from Planet of the Apes, but in a silk suit and with a Cajun accent.
As we settle in I tell Jay and Annie about my favorite part of the only other Jesse Duplantis sermon I’ve heard, during which he talked about his “sinner friends.” Here’s an excerpt: “I believe you should have sinner friends. Jesus was a friend of sinners,
