PHIL ANTILLA IS THINKING

We Dare Not Articulate It

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:11:00 -0500

In a video for the visual media site Work of the People, author and Episcopal Priest Ian Morgan Cron shared a very simple yet profound insight about Eucharist, and the overall experience that we share in community and with God.

Initially talking about his son, who is overheard playing drums in the background, Cron said,

“Some of the most profound moments I’ve had with my son have been when I’m playing guitar and he’s playing the drums and the two of us just sort of lock eyes, that’s amazing - that melody, that song, we’re doing that together. There’s a metaphor, and I don’t want to overhead things but we’re co-creating something in the moment and we’re experiencing each other “unitively”, where we become one, and something really great is happening and you almost don’t dare want to move, you just want to stare at each other while it’s happening. It’s great.”

Trying to make a connection between music and God, the interviewer asks “What is that “divine groove” that comes from this union?” Cron’s response:

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to even guess. That’s like the questions, ‘What happens during the Eucharist?’ And it’s such a shame that people try to articulate this. I like this idea, it’s a very Anglican idea, that we know something happens, but we dare not articulate it.

Matthew 5:3-10

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:05:00 -0500

³ “Blessed are those who don’t believe in God,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are the depressed, the anxious, the confused and the angry, for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the socially awkward, the over-looked, the ignored,
   for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who withstand the mockery Christians and still long for God, for they will be renewed.
⁷ Blessed are the loving,
   for they will be shown love.
⁸ Blessed are the good people of this world, whether straight or gay, american or not, or even democrat, for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are those who act in this world, who fight to make this life better,
   for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those, who in spite of their pure heart, have been kicked in the teeth and drug along the ground,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “And when people mock you, when people spit upon you and your life and your choices and your human nature, when people point out your sin and overlook their own, when people believe that someone like you could never know God, when people say the “Gospel” isn’t for you, rejoice and be bold, because the God of all life, the God of the creation and the God of resurrection, the God of the 1st World and the God of the 3rd World, the God of the Gay and the God of the Straight, the God of every broken-hearted, lost, homeless, confused, weary and peace-depraved person,

is with you.

Always.

"Learning how to wait as a people of nonviolence in a world of war, you’ll know what Advent is...."

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:53:06 -0500

““Learning how to wait as a people of nonviolence in a world of war, you’ll know what Advent is. Advent is patience. It’s how God has made us a people of promise in a world of impatience, and Christ has made that possible — for us to live patiently in a world of impatience.”

- Stanley Hauerwas

Pro-"Life"

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:00:00 -0500

I’ve been thinking about the irony of the pro-life movement.

The more extreme example being those who are so pro-life that they will kill for it. See the irony?

While others many not kill for their cause, they may still act or behave in violent or “verbally-violent” ways.

In the more traditional sense, being “pro-life” means that you are against the idea of women having abortions. Most often, it is because of an argument for the respect and dignity of human life. The overarching statement being: infants not yet born are still human and therefore should not be aborted (others use “killed” to drive home the point).

However, here is where I am confused.

If you are pro-life, doesn’t that mean you are pro-life across the board?

Or do we draw a distinction here?

Are you pro-life?

Or are you just pro-life for infants in the womb?

Are you pro-life for foreigners in countries that our military invades?

Are you pro-life for people who have been convicted of a crime and are charged with the death penalty?

If being pro-life for children means trying to end abortion clinics, does being pro-life for all people also mean trying to end the sale of weapons?

Or is that different?

Or are you just semi-pro-life?

"God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be..."

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:09:54 -0400

“God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be agents not only of his saving grace but also of his common grace. Our job is not only to build up the Church but also to build a society to the glory of God. As agents of God’s common grace, we are called to help sustain and renew creation, to uphold the created institutions of family and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create works of art and beauty, and to heal those suffering from the results of the Fall.”

- Charles Colson & Nancy Pearson , How Now Shall We Live?

Quote from Thomas à Kempis on my office wall: “Keep...

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:40:58 -0400

Quote from Thomas à Kempis on my office wall: “Keep yourself a stranger and a pilgrim upon this earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern. Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for here you have no abiding city.”

Brilliant example of creative media for & within the Church.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:49:27 -0500

Brilliant example of creative media for & within the Church.

"(On the doctrine of Inspiration and interpreting Paul’s writings) My whole energy of..."

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:56:00 -0400

“(On the doctrine of Inspiration and interpreting Paul’s writings) My whole energy of interpreting has been expended in an endeavor to see through and beyond history into the spirit of the Bible, which is the Eternal Spirit. What was once of grave importance, is so still. What is to-day of grave importance - and not merely crotchety and incidental - stands in direct connection with that ancient gravity. If we rightly understand ourselves, our problems are the problems of Paul; and if we be enlightened by the brightness of his answers, those answers must be ours.”

- Karl Barth - The Epistle to the Romans

Being Holy and the Social Gospel

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:34:00 -0400

I have always been fascinated with the Social Gospel. It seems so simple, so obvious, and yet so often overlooked.

Call it what you want; social gospel, social justice, missional, Christian, socialist… either way, the ideas expressed in the Social Gospel are not only accommodating with our Christian doctrine, but encouraging and challenging to our call as followers of Christ.

As a member of the Church of the Nazarene, we have a long history with the Social Gospel, even before there was such a determined thing. Think back to the Los Angeles Church of the Nazarene and their clear ideas of serving the poor incarnationaly and providing the destitute with food, shelter, clothes and the hope of the gospel.

Furthermore, there is a strong relationship between the Social Gospel and the Church of the Nazarene’s quest for Holiness.

I often think that in our desire for perfection, we easily become too consumed. Think back to the Church of the Nazarene from 1915-1945. Part of American Protestantism was focused on the modernism and the social gospel, while the other portion was fundamentalist and in strong rejection of it. While there is certainly a case to be made against socializing with “evil” people, this got an upper hand on the early COTN. What once was a denomination bent on helping the poor, was now a church that needed to distance themselves from the lower lives of society. It was necessary to abstain from vices so that we would not be associated with the corrupt people outside of the Church.

Even in 2010, we deal with this. What then is the connection between Holiness and the Social Gospel?

“The spiritual perfection of Jesus consists in the fact that he was so simply and completely filled with the love of God and man that he gave himself to the task of the Kingdom of God without any reservation or backsliding. This is the true standard of holiness. The fact that a man is too respectable to get drunk or to swear is no proof of his righteousness. His moral and religious quality must be measured by the intelligence and single-heartedness with which he merges his will and life in the divine purpose of the Kingdom of God. By contrast, a man’s sinfulness stands out in its true proportion, not when he is tripped up by ill-temper or side-steps into shame, but when he seeks to establish a private kingdom of self-service and is ready to thwart and defeat the progress of mankind toward peace, toward justice, or toward a fraternal organization of economic life, because that would diminish his political privileges, his unearned income, and his power over the working classes.”

-Walter Rauschenbush, “A Theology for the Social Gospel”, pg. 51

theology battleship

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:53:55 -0400

I love theology.

To me, it’s like an art. Maybe even a dance.

There are certain moves you should make. Certain ways to speak. It’s a dialogue that exists between two or more people, but simultaneously exists in a timeless way. When I speak, I am entering into a conversation that is thousands of years old. When I take part in theology, all of history is my dialogue partner.

When I am in a moment of dialogue, discussing topics of theology, I do my best to speak as Christ himself would speak. I listen. I question. I bob & weave.

For the most part, I even maintain a calm tone. I am focused more on saying a few things simply rather than saying a many things ambiguously. Yet there are times when I debate. I banter over a certain idea. Yet even in these moments, I stay focused on the purpose of theology - to lead us in worship of God. You may think “theology” has other motives, but this is it - worship. Any theological conversation that isn’t rooted in a desire to be drawn closer to the living God, that doesn’t bring you to a position of humility and amazement, that doesn’t lead you to worship, is simply a waste of time. There is not point to “winning” theology.

So the purpose of theology is worship.

Why then do so many people play “theology battleship”?

Each person taking turns, launching their best “attack”. Doing their best to “sink” their opponents theology.

The game lasts several turns, both opponents fighting to the very end. Each desperately trying to stay afloat.

Until ultimately, one miserably declares - “you sunk my theology”

I think we can do better than this.

the Church in the old empire

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:10:49 -0500

I recently read this statement which described the early church of the Nazarene. It said:

“Nazarenes protested fine, expensive church buildings, rather everything should say “welcome” to the poor”

This is obviously interesting, since few churches of the Nazarene these days follow this idea.

However, I am not “against” large churches. Nor am I against the idea that a church can’t cost money.

In 2010, the truth is that if you want a building or facility to worship in, it WILL cost money. And chances are,it will cost a lot of money.

But the idea that catches my mind is more revolved around the notion of “church buildings”.

Often I think that it would be amazing to see churches rising up not in giant buildings that look like city centers, or arenas, but rather are being built “into” old buildings, or the old “empire” as I like to say.

Like a church moving from their nice stadium like place, to what used to be an old industrial plant. Not only would that be cool, but it has a certain intentionality to it, not to mention an incarnational sense.

Take a desperate urban area like LA, and imagine a church reaching thousands of people daily, that isn’t nestled upon a hill in a giant building that looks like a museum, but rather in an old mall that has been shut down because of the bad economy.

I think of an old mall I used to drive by every day. The only people to be seen at this mall were the poor and the homeless. They were always there, hanging around outside, or loitering around inside. This old destitute mall was their meeting place, a fair capitol of the poor, old empire.

Seems like this is where the Church should be.

Would you join this church?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:51:47 -0500

Would you join this church?

…a simple, primitive church, a church of the people and for the people. It has no new doctrines, only the old, old BIble truths. It seeks to discard all superfluous forms and ecclesiasticism and go back to the plain simple words of Christ. It is not a mission, but a church with a mission. It is a banding together of hearts that have found the peace of God, and which now in their gladness, go out to carry the message of the unsearchable riches of the gospel of Christ to other suffering , discouraged, sin-sick souls. It’s mission is to everyone upon whom the battle of life has been sore, and to every heart that hungers from cleansing from sin. Come

On the day that the Church of the Nazarene became officially organized, this was the first piece of literature they produced; a small advertisement that described what the COTN was like.

I wonder how many of our churches could live up to this today?

It’s a least a goal to aspire towards.

The applicable nature of Christian Perfection; Optimism and Reformism

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:14:18 -0500

While I understand that Christian Perfection has a significant, if not almost entire focus on Holiness towards God, I typically believe (because the Bible has so lead me) that in order to love God, I need to love People; they go hand in hand.

In my current ministry setting, I work as a college chaplain. Each week I have 10-15 conversation with students about life and spirituality, and typically it comes back to some deeper nature of what it truly means to “live” life. We discuss the idea that truly living isn’t just being content or even loving God fully, it’s also working to reform this world; to take care of this world, to express love and caring, even to loose the chains of injustice.

Often, my beliefs of Christian Perfection surface here. Mainly it’s because I believe, as Charles Finney said ““The great business of the church is to reform the world – to put away every kind of sin … . The very profession of Christianity implies … an oath to do all that can be done for the universal reformation of the world. The Christian Church was designed to make aggressive movements in every direction – to lift up her voice and put forth her energies in high and low places – to reform individuals, communities, and governments, and never rest until… every form of iniquity shall be driven from the earth”

These are strong words. But what do they imply?

Reform. Optimism. And that it’s is actually possible to be and feel whole; to love and feel loved wholly.

I guess to some, Christian Perfection may seem inapplicable to their current lives; I would disagree. I think this is what it’s all about - loving God and loving others as best we possibly can.

If we embrace Christian Perfection how can we settle for injustice in the world?

If we embrace Christian Perfection how can we corrupt our environment?

Does Christian Perfection, in loving God wholly, also imply that we are loving people wholly? That we are a dynamic force of love in this world?

I believe that embracing Christian Perfection doesn’t just mean you are fully committing yourself to God, but also to God’s people, and that you won’t rest until they have been taken care of.

The Grand Nazarene Depositum of Christian Perfection

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:42:00 -0500

In John Wesley’s “Plain Account of Christian Perfection” he wrote:

“There is such a thing as perfection; for it is again and again mentioned in scripture.

It is not so early as justification; for justified persons are to “go on unto perfection.”

It is not so late as death; for St. Paul speaks of living men that were perfect.

It is not absolute. Absolute perfection belongs not to man, nor to angels, but to God alone.

It does not make a man infallible: None is infallible, while he remains in the body.

Is it sinless? It is not worth while to contend for a term. It is “salvation from sin.”

It is “perfect love.” This is the essence of it.

It (Christian Perfection/Perfect Love) is improvable. It is so far from lying in an indivisible point, from being incapable of increase, that one perfected in love may grow in grace far swifter than he did before.

It is amissible, capable of being lost; of which we have numerous instances.

It is both preceded and followed by a gradual work.

…Therefore, all our preachers should make a point of preaching perfection to believers, constantly, strongly and explicitly; and all believers should mind this one thing, and continually agonize for it.

What Wesley is talking about is Perfect Love. And to him it means everything. Perfect love is the goal of scriptural christianity. Perfect Love is the thing that will bring us closest to loving God and the world as we have been called to do.

Wesley, the chief person behind “Methodism” believed that “Christian Perfection” was a “Grand Depositum”, a gift, given to Methodist to share with the world.

And as a child of the Methodist Church, the Church of the Nazarene, of whom affirms Christian Perfection heavily in their founding documents, must think about how this history should play into their current future.

I’ve often heard that we need a “revival” of Christian Perfection within the COTN. Whether from my pastors or teachers, I’ve heard testimonies that the importance of Christian Perfection has not been emphasized enough in the lives of the COTN.

I tend to agree with most who are arguing for this. I think it’s not just a valuable “tool” or “part” of our doctrine, I think as Wesley would say, Christian Perfection is the goal of “scriptural Christianity”; thus I’m confident in believing that Christian Perfection will lead me to my truest and most faithful form of relationship with God and the world.

However, often I hear people take the opposing side. “Does Christian Perfection really matter THAT much? Typically, they will even say things like, “I’ve been in the COTN my whole life and it’s never been an important issue, so what should I believe that all of a sudden it’s become important?”

This is what brings me to my current point; if Christian Perfection is the “grand depositum” for Methodists, why should Nazarenes worry about it? Sure we can make it a “part” of our doctrine, but it’s not everything…

Or is it?

It’s important to understand here the historical context of the COTN. We are a Christian, Protestant, Wesleyan, Holiness Revival church. Each part of this doesn’t just stand for “one area” of the COTN, it works together to make up the “whole” of the COTN.

This is why I believe that while we are not Methodists, members of the COTN have too been entrusted with the grand depositum of Perfect Love. We are not stealing it from the Methodists, nor we being a “third-wheel”, as if Methodists had a claim to fame and we just tagged along and stole their identity.

Hardly, especially when it comes to something like Perfect Love.

What are we worried about? That the Church of the Nazarene might take “loving God and the world” too seriously?

I highly doubt that John Wesley, in saying that Christian Perfection was entrusted to the Methodists for the benefit of the whole Christian church, would be disappointed with that very Christian church embracing the message which he so believed to be core and fixing their lives upon it. Therefore in doing this, it has become our grand depositum as well.

the American Church

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:49:00 -0500

Just read a lecture about the American characteristics of the local Church and how they appear in the Church of the Nazarene.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

Out of the lecture, two of the strongest points about American religion that I see present in the COTN is 1) the religious marketplace and 2) the democratic impulse

These have certainly been important, or at least present, in the foundations of our “american church system”. Where I live, maybe like or unlike where you live, there are churches EVERYWHERE.

I’m not joking and you know it. There are churches next to churches. There are entire streets of churches where I live. One must ask the question, “Why do we need so many?

” One answer would be that each church teaches different. The lecture spoke to this. I drive down the street and see ten churches; well partly that’s because there’s a church of the Nazarene, a Catholic church, a Vineyard church, a Baptist church, a Presbyterian church- it’s a literal marketplace of worship centers. On Sunday morning, thousands of people flock to these places to “worship God”, but still are separated due to the fact that they need to worship in place where they “belong”, or where “they agree with the teaching”, or where the music is not too loud or too quite. Just as it said in the lecture, America has created a marketplace. And this is does not exclude the COTN. In Nampa, Idaho, where there are a thousand undergraduate nazarene students, they all know where to go if they want a loud worship service, they all know where to go if they want hymns. More so, the COTN, like many other churches in the area have begun to market themselves. Students know that COTN might have a good college group, but another COTN sends a bus with doughnuts to pick up students - where do you think the students end up going?

This is why some churches even have a marketplace within their marketplace. Yes, random church A might have a 9:00 traditional service, but if they add a “contemporary” service at 10:00, maybe more people will choose to come there.

This is not to say that’s its wrong for churches to provide food, or different services; it’s just showing that there is a willingness on the congregation’s part to see “what the church can offer them”. That offer may be orthodoxy, or vibrant worship, maybe it’s doughnuts and good parking, either way, if the offer isn’t good enough, the congregation will simply go elsewhere - it’s a marketplace.

This leads me to my next point, the “democratic impulse”. I’d lean towards saying that most of the problems we encounter in the real of “church marketplaces” stems from our democratic impulse. That’s why the local church down the street decides to open it’s doors; because they believe they can “do it better”. I know that sounds rough, but isn’t it true? If not for a democratic impulse, wouldn’t we all just join the “one” local church in the city.

The democratic impulse isn’t all bad though, it’s even encouraging at times. It’s a strange hybrid of something Martin Luther may have liked: let the people have a hand in their church, let the people play a part. However, just like the religious marketplace we’ve created, this too is a double-edged sword. I believe our Church has grown over hundreds of years because certain people have stood up and said “I want to play a role in this process. I have some ideas and I want to push us into some new areas of growth”.

However, the dangerous side is the marketplace we’ve created. It’s the notion that if you don’t like it, then you just change it. Will we soon arrive at a church that has suffered so many changes that it is no longer a Church?

The democratic impulse also must play a role in both helping the Church grow as well as hindering.

For comparison, lets relate the president of the United States and Congress, with the pastor of a local church and it’s church board. Both parties are supposed to work together for progressive leadership of their people. Sometimes the checks and balances keep the President or the pastor from gaining to much power, from being the sole authority, however in many ways the endless control found in Congress or in a church board may at times limit the other party from actually doing any good. And so a local pastor feels stress because the board doesn’t agree with how the worship or the sermons are going. And so they hire a new person. And the other pastor heads off to create a new church. It’s a vicious-circle of a marketplace. And the COTN is not excluded from all of this.

"Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith;..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:21:00 -0500

“

Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled.

My Lord, fill it.

I am weak in the faith; strengthen me.

I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent, that my love may go out to my neighbor.

I do not have a strong and firm faith; at times I doubt and am unable to trust you altogether.

O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you.

In you I have sealed the treasure of all I have.

I am poor; you are rich and came to be merciful to the poor.

I am a sinner; you are upright.

With me, there is an abundance of sin; in you is the fullness of righteousness.

Therefore I will will remain with you, of whom I can receive, but to whom I may not give.

Amen.

”

- Martin Luther

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:44 -0500

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.

"You can tell you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same..."

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:58:01 -0500

“You can tell you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do”

- Anne Lamott - Grace (Eventually)

Welcome to Advent

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:57:06 -0500

This past Sunday marks the first week of Advent.

For those non-liturgical folks our there, Advent is the beginning of the Christian calendar, and it leads us to Christmas, which aside from shopping, gifts, movies and no work, is the time when we try to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Now Advent is much more than a celebration of December 25th. And It’s much more than a birthday celebration for baby Jesus.

It’s 2009, and we might just be a bit disconnected from the true Advent story, so let me remind you.

The Advent, the “arrival” of Jesus, is much more than a birthday, this is a long, and preciously awaited event. Since the time of the early prophets, the Israelites had been promised a savior; a new law was coming. So for almost two thousand years of wandering across the middle east, settling here and then moving there, for almost two thousand years of hopes being built up and then let down, for years of suffering and conquering and years of wondering whether or not their children would live good lives; these Israelite people heard the prophecy of a King, the God in flesh, who would come and restore.

The season of Advent, just as it was for the Israelites, is a season of waiting.

It’s a season of patience.

The birth of Christ didn’t just happen. It’s not a “big-bang of Jesus”. It was a long, and patiently waited for arrival.

So why did it matter that Jesus, the Christ was born? Why does Christmas matter? Why does the season of Advent matter?

Because this is the One we have been waiting for.

And as we wait, as the Israelites waited, as the Church in this season of Advent waits, we draw closer to the arrival of our Saviour. As we wait, we grow; in patience, in joy and in expectancy. So that when the arrival of our Christ does come, we celebrate with hearts that say “finally. this is what we’ve been waiting for”.

So may this beautifully worded translation of Romans 8:22-25 be our devotion for this Advent season.

” All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. ” - Romans 8:22-25; The Message

"Learning how to wait as a people of nonviolence in a world of war, you’ll know what Advent is...."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:54:00 -0500

“Learning how to wait as a people of nonviolence in a world of war, you’ll know what Advent is. Advent is patience. It’s how God has made us a people of promise in a world of impatience, and Christ has made that possible — for us to live patiently in a world of impatience.”

- Stanley Hauerwas