Christ the King Sunday

The season of ordinary time after Pentecost ends this week with the feast of Christ the King. This is not an ancient celebration of the church -- it was only established in 1925, less than a decade after World War I.

Nowadays we look back at the results of WWI and see that people of the early 20th century had placed too much faith in scientific progress and in national governments. In the wake of that war it was evident that governments and science had not saved us; instead they provided more efficient ways of killing each other.

Graves of WWI soldiers killed at Flanders Field

But not everyone emerged from that chapter of history with a clear-eyed recognition of the limitations of human institutions. In fact, some people in power thought that since the war represented a failure in leadership, the way forward was to make government stronger. In countries such as Mexico, officials tried to replace their subjects' loyalties, especially when it came to faith and the institution of the church. In response to this rising tide of secularism and oppression around the world, Pope Pius XI declared an annual feast day for Roman Catholics to remember that only Christ can be the supreme leader of the faithful. Many Protestant denominations adopted the day in the decades that followed. In 1970 these churches agreed to celebrate Christ the King Sunday during the last Sunday of the church calendar, which is just before Advent.

In the Philippines I used to see posters come out during the end of November that looked something like this:

People would hang these images on their front gates or doors. Although I never had anyone there tell me as much, I wonder if the motivation was a subversive one. Were these Christians silently stating their opposition to a government that was often corrupt and inefficient? Was this an annual opportunity to claim ultimate loyalty to a heavenly ruler -- above President or Parliament?

Here in the USA, Christ the King Sunday presents a different kind of challenge -- it usually falls near Thanksgiving Day. Giving thanks is a part of every Christian worship service, most clearly celebrated during the Great Thanksgiving in Communion liturgies. Since showing gratitude for God's grace is part of the rhythm of a Christian's life, recognizing this national holiday during your Sunday service can seem sort of bland. National holidays have a way of doing that. A secular government cannot promote any particular faith, so our leaders make very generic pronouncements about experiencing or having good stuff. But at a Christian worship service we are called to be very specific and particular. What does a Christian have to give thanks for? Jesus Christ, and the grace he showed by coming in human form, by dying and rising again so we can be saved, and by reigning from heaven until he returns to redeem all creation. Those are very specific activities that happened (and will happen) in a particular place and at a recorded time in history. That's why we give thanks to our one and only ruler and king. This Sunday I would rather have a specific celebration of Christ's lordship over and above all human institutions. Leave Thanksgiving for Thursday.

What is Exegesis?

ex.e.ge.sis noun \ek-sə-ˈjē-səs\ - an explanation or critical interpretation of a text

When I was in college I learned that exegesis is the process of understanding the meaning of a passage of scripture. The first and most basic step in exegesis is to read the passage in a translation you can understand. The next step is to read something that a Bible scholar has written about that passage. Many study Bibles come with great notes with this kind of information. There are also books called commentaries that explain many details about the Biblical languages, the setting of the original writing, and how a certain passage fits with other parts of scripture. I also learned that "exegesis" (getting stuff out of) is the opposite of "eisegesis" (reading stuff into). In other words, exegesis is about letting the Bible explain itself. That's the opposite of using the Bible to prove stuff you already believe. (You may have heard people call that "proof-texting" -- that is, picking and choosing only verses that support your ideas.)

A shelf full of commentaries

When I worked for a Bible translation organization, I heard people talk frequently about "doing exegesis." Of course someone translating the Bible should understand what the passage means. But it was difficult to get the translators to tell me exactly how they "did exegesis." Did they just read the passage and some study notes? Did they have commentaries? Did they write up a report of what they learned? Few people liked to divulge their secrets. It was like asking a chef to share her prized recipes.

Since I have been at Duke Divinity School, I have learned a specific process for "doing exegesis." My Bible professors actually have a form to fill out. We are required to read several commentaries, another book or two on that part of scripture, and some academic articles. We then write up details that we discover: definitions of key words in the passage, discussions about different translation techniques, how it could be applied in a sermon. Most importantly, we have to come up with questions that we would explore further. If you are interested you can click here to read an exegesis paper on Philippians 2:1-18 that I wrote earlier this year. I probably spent about 15 hours of reading and writing for this assignment.

Even though it is time-consuming, writing an exegesis paper is some of the most fun I have had in seminary. All verses in the Bible are rich with meaning, and it is a joy to dig into the various ways of understanding them. But it also makes me a little bit sad. When I sit in the Divinity School library in Durham, North Carolina I have access to anything ever written about the Bible. I have yet to come across a book, dissertation, or article that I cannot find on the shelf here or download from the library's website. This is an embarrassment of riches. It makes me think about all the people translating the Bible into their own languages. Many of those mother-tongue translators work in out-of-the-way places, far away from academic libraries. Even if (big if) their internet connections were solid enough to access academic articles online, they don't have the financial resources to get the passwords to unlock the websites. Even then, many of the best commentaries are written in such an academic style that they go above the heads of folks who don't speak English fluently.

Of course many others have recognized this problem. Some people spend their lives writing and sharing down-to-earth exegetical summaries that mother-tongue translators can read. But it is not just about how expensive it is to buy the necessary books.Understanding the Bible is hard work. It requires a lot of time to research and study just one chapter.  Maybe some of my translator friends didn't like to talk about their process because it exposes inadequacies. All translation projects run on deadlines, so there is only so much time to "do exegesis." God bless those who work with limited time and resources to bring God's Word to people who don't have it.

Praying Through the Night

I have always marvelled at people who can pray all night long. Several years ago when I was studying linguistics in Dallas, I attended a Korean church for a class assignment. On their calendar of upcoming events was an all-night prayer service, starting at midnight on Friday. Seeing that made me feel like the worst Christian ever. I've never gone without sleep so that I could pray, and I often fall asleep in the middle of praying. So instructions like this one from Hippolytus in the 3rd century have always been guilt-inducing:

Pray before your body rests on the bed. Rise about midnight, wash your hands with water, and pray. If your wife is present also, pray both together. Do not be lazy about praying.                                                      

Sleepy Apostles

I'm not a night person. If I had gone into the garden with Jesus on his final night, I would have definitely fallen asleep too. Trying to keep Hippolytus' practice of midnight prayers would just make me feel miserable from sleep-deprivation and guilty for having a bad attitude about it. (We won't even discuss what would happen if I woke up my wife at midnight.)

But recently I was reminded of a magazine article that I read a while ago. It claimed that sleeping straight through the night for 7 to 8 hours is a modern phenomenon. Our ancestors didn't sleep like that. Before the invention of electric lighting it was very common to spend your nights like this: go to bed at sundown, sleep for a few hours, wake up and do stuff, and then go back to sleep until morning. Historians have found that people used to talk about "first sleep" and "second sleep" -- two distinct shifts of nightly slumber. It was normal for people to get up around midnight and do all sorts of things: talk to family and neighbors, snack, plan out tomorrow's activities, and ...  you got it -- pray. Some writers suggest that humans are more creative when they have these middle-of-the-night periods of wakefulness.

Many folks in the Bible dealt with God in the middle of the night. Bruce Malina and John Pilch are Bible scholars who have studied the book of Revelation. They claim that John's heavenly visions were inspired by constellations in the night sky. For example, the characters such as the living creatures, the elders, and the Beast and the Woman were specific groupings of stars that ancient Mediterranean folks would recognize. It makes sense that John would have experienced his revelation in the middle of the night, between his first and second sleeps. God might have used the constellations that John could actually see that night to speak those prophecies.

So, do you want to be more creative, enhance your prayer life, and hear from God? Go to bed earlier! In North America this time of year it gets dark around 5:30pm. That should give you plenty of time to get in two sleeps and some creative midnight moments before dawn.