James Janzen

Shabbat

2/13/2019

We arrived in Tel Aviv, just before the beginning of Shabbat and went to bed with the sounds of Marisa our hostess friends enjoying the Shabbat meal.

One of the things we had hoped to do on the sabbath was visit a synagogue. Our hostess told us that there were two within walking distance. Assured that is would not be a problem to come and go, she suggested that we visit both services to get a feel of two different congregations. As well the second service would have an English copy of the readings. Services can last up to three hours and when you don't understand the language, that is a long time to observe.

The readings for the day, which are the same in all synagogues in the world, were Exodus 21:1 - 24:18; Jeremiah 34:8-22;Jeremiah 33:25-26.

—Nothing is amplified. The resonant space and good projection make it unnecessary.
—A large part of the service is chanted or intoned and one portion is sung. In the second synagogue that part was sung by "wonder boy' as the posture indicated. With a beautiful tenor voice and charismatic leadership, the young man (boy?) spurred the congregation to response with enthusiasm, good rhythm and tempo.

—The Torah is shown great respect when brought from its storage place on the wall that faces Jerusalem. A call and response song is sung, the Torah makes its circuit as many touch it reverently.
—Young boys have a special place in the service where they enthusiastically sing
—A meal will follow and the young boys are seen carrying out a variety of drinks and food.
—Men and ladies sit separately—the ladies in a separate partition.
—Spoken responses of agreement are common throughout the intoned portions of the service.
—Although parts are more informal with some discussion taking place, the time of personal prayer time fills the room with a holy hush as all face Jerusalem.
—Rocking back and forth is common in prayer. The term for this is shuckling. A number of reasons are given for this practice.
1) Psalm 35,10, we read, “All my bones shall say: ‘O Lord who is like unto Thee”. This is interpreted as an appeal to involve one’s whole body in prayer.
2) Another explanation explains rhythmic movement as a way to concentrate on praying and learning, and ward off distracting thoughts.
3) According to the mystical text Zohar, a person’s soul emanates from divine light. Every time a Jew engages with the Torah, the light of his or her soul ignites, which is why he or she moves like the flame of a candle. This striking image illustrates the desire of many religious Jews to connect directly with God by learning and praying.

TAKEHOME ITEMS
—high respect for God's Word
—working at total concentration
—working at continuous engagement of the congregation

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Israel Trip Introduction

2/3/2019

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Don't expect great writing for this series of blogs concerning our Israel trip. Just fairly random impressions and experiences that friends and family who would like something more in-depth than the Facebook and Instagram postings, requested. Postings will be sporadic—dependent on schedule and activities.

I cannot remember ever being so well prepared for a trip on the one hand as far as packing is concerned, while on the other hand being mentally completely unprepared. I knew it was happening but even on the plane from Kelowna to Toronto it did not seem real. We left mild winter in Kelowna (+8) and cold -20 temperatures with blowing snow in Toronto) to embrace day temperatures around 20 Celsius.

The approximately 10 hour trip and one hour wait for departure while seated in the airplane was much more bearable because of the entertaining and informative Shimi, a young lady with Canadian citizenship returning to Israel to be with a dying grandmother. The insights were greatly appreciated.

Just before we landed, a stewardess handed me a note indicating that my luggage had not made it on the plane! Took a while to fill out paper work. Then I was handed a small blue package containing black T-shirt and underwear, razor, toiletries.

Part of immersion into a new culture is adding vocabulary or at least bringing new levels of understanding to words that are already part of our vocabulary, in this case, the word Shabbat (Sabbath). We were urged not to delay when we landed because trains and buses will stop running around 2:30 PM and not run again till sundown the next day.

Well, the lost luggage delayed us. Then the train tracks were being repaired meaning no train was running. This had a bright spot since the replacement bus was free. We made it to our airbnb with the help of friendly people - many with excellent English.

Our hostess was in the middle of preparations for a Shabbat meal with friends when we arrived. Our airbnb was located close to the Mediterranean Sea where we enjoyed the sunset, and then a few appetizers before heading off to bed early despite the celebration meal taking place on the other side of the thin wall. Animated conversation in English - often about God - reached our ears as we drifted in and out of sleep. A neat introduction to the country.

More about the meaning of Shabbat to come.

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Summation of 12 Lessons - The Pillars

11/28/2017

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Summary. The Reformation and the life of Martin Luther show that effective long lasting ministry is a result of the integrated presence of personal bible study, prayer, preaching, teaching, training, mentoring, evangelism and the arts. These lessons are like pillars in the house of ministry upon which the roof of beauty and protection rests, provide a place of safety and ministry for those God has entrusted to us. How strong and varied are the pillars of your ministry? May God enable you to develop strength in each area. and in humility work together with others of great diversity.

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Lesson 12 Our highest privilege

11/26/2017

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Photo above by author taken in Wittenberg town square 2017 Reformation 500 anniversary celebration
Text below part of presentation to musicians, artists and worship leaders in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 2017

Lesson 12. The proclamation of the Gospel to all people is the Christian's highest privilege.
Luther had a passion for missions and evangelism. To a great extent, all his actions are typical missionary activity:
     —translation of the Bible into the language of the people
   —creating a body of songs in the language of the people for praise and instruction of scriptural truths
     —clear biblical teaching and education
   —discipleship and mentoring.

Luther was called to reach his large “Jerusalem”. His faithfulness resulted in the Reformation spreading to the “Judea and Samaria” of his day and ultimately to the “ends of the earth”. His teaching helped give birth to Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. Zwingli, Calvin, Crammer, Tyndale, Cromwell are only a few of the many leaders impacted by Luther’s teaching. Key figures of the Lutheran church include Gustavus Vasa of Sweden (1559) who founded a mission among the Laplanders; Heyling, of Lubeck, laboured alone as a missionary in Abyssinia; Frederick IV, of Denmark, established the East India mission at Tranquebar (1706) where one of the missionaries, Ziegenbalg, translated the New Testament into Tamil (1715). The list goes on and on.

This is what Luther concluded from Col. 1:23, Mark 16:15 and Psalm 117:
the Gospel and Baptism must traverse the whole world."

From Haggai. 2 he concluded:
"God wants to bless not two or three nations but the whole world." The course of the Gospel to all nations is an act in progress in Luther's conception, "The Kingdom of Christ passes through the whole world."

Luther thought of evangelism in very practical terms as a duty and obligation of every child of God.
"Christians should also bring forth much fruit among all the heathen by means of the Word, should convert and save many by eating about themselves like a fire that burns amid dry wood or straw; thus the fire of the Holy Spirit should consume the heathen according to the flesh and make room everywhere for the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ."

The priesthood of all believers resulted in Luther's high regard for missionaries and the mission calling of the church. The whole church was seen to have the responsibility to do mission work. All Christians are needed to witness and serve with their talents and gifts of grace. He was aware of the fundamental importance of the preaching and felt that the primary work was not to be done by societies or individuals but by the church:
"For if all the heathen are to praise God, it must first be established that He has become their God. If He is to be their God, they must know Him and believe in Him . . . . If they are to believe, they must first hear His Word . . . . If they are to hear His Word, preachers who proclaim God's Word to them must be sent to them."

"The preaching of the Gospel was begun through the apostles and continues, and is carried farther through the preachers here and there in the world, is driven out and persecuted; yet it is made known farther and farther to those who have never heard it before. . . . Or, as the saying goes, when someone sends out a message, the message has gone out, even though it has not yet come to the intended place or the specified location but is still under way."

In Luther's theology this world is a battlefield with a battle between God and Satan. Missions means fighting. Man can never be in a neutral position in this world. He is either in God's kingdom or satan's. Preaching the gospel is not possible without cross and suffering. True knowledge about God is possible only through the word, the gospel. This is the fundamental basis and motivation for mission, evangelization, and reformation. For Luther, the proclamation of the Gospel is the Christian's highest privilege, and he should begin by exercising it in the normal situations of life. In a sermon he preached in his own home in 1533, he said:
"The noblest and greatest work and the most important service we can perform for God on earth is bringing other people, and especially those who are entrusted to us, to the knowledge of God by the holy Gospel" (WA, 53, 415).

If all the heathen are to praise God, He must first have been made their God. If He is to be their God, they must know Him and believe on Him and let go of all idolatry. For man cannot praise God with idolatrous lips and an unbelieving heart. If they are to believe, they must first hear His Word and thus receive the Holy Spirit, who purifies and enlightens their heart by faith. For one cannot come to faith or receive the Holy Spirit before one has heard the Word, as Paul says ( Rom. 10:14) : "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?" (Gal. 3:2) ( WA, 31 I, 228f.).

Luther also expressed his profound missionary vision in hymnody. He composed the hymn "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein” (May God bestow on us his grace) in 1524, based on Psalm 67, that is the evangelistic counterpart to the doctrinal song"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” English translation follows (Original German at end of blog)
May God be gracious to us
and give us his blessing;
May his face with its clear radiance
enlighten us to eternal life,
So that we understand His works
and what pleases him on earth
and thestrength and salvation of Jesus Christ
may become known to the heathen
and they may turn to God

Then the heathen everywhere
praise and thank you, God,
and the whole world rejoices
and sings with great joyful noise
that you are judge on earth
and do not let sin prevail;
your word is the protection and pasture
that maintains all people
to travel on pilgrimage on the right way.

Let the people in their good deeds
thank you, God and praise you;
the land produces crops and is improved,
your word is well regarded.
May the Father and the son bless us,
May God the holy spirit bless us,
to him let all the world give honour,
revere him most of all.
now from your heart say : Amen!

Luther was not perfect and in some areas did not go far enough down the path of biblical understanding. Yet compared to where he was when he started, he journeyed far down the path. Although Luther did not live in a time or region of the world where overseas, cross-cultural mission was in vogue, he nonetheless had a passion for worldwide missions. As many have pointed out, it was not as well developed as ours today, nor as free of racial bias as we like to believe our perspective of missions is. Yet, considering the cultural field in which he lived, his statements remain inspirational.
I am by no means of one mind with those who set all their store by one language, and despise all others; for I would gladly raise up a generation able to be of use to Christ in foreign lands and to talk with their people. . . It is good that the youth be practised in many languages. Who knows how God will make use of them in years to come? It is for this end also that schools are established.

In a letter of March, 1522, Luther stresses the vital connection between missionary proclamation and the power of God's Word-in the threefold sense of Christ, His Gospel, and the Scripture that conveys it:
"This noble Word brings with it a great hunger and an insatiable thirst, so that we could not be satisfied even though many thousands of people believe on it; we wish that no one should be without it. This thirst ever strives for more and does not rest; it moves us to speak, as David says: `I believed, therefore have I spoken' (Ps. 116:10 ).

Here we have Luther's philosophy of missions, distilled in six scriptural words: "I believed, therefore have I spoken.”

And if we truly believe, then we consider it the highest privilege to speak at home and cross culturally through the creative gifts that we possess.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Es woll' uns Gott genädig sein
Und seinen Segen geben;
Sein Antlitz uns mit hellem Schein
Erleucht' zum ew'gen Leben,
Daß wir erkennen seine Werk',
Und was ihm liebt auf Erden,
Und Jesus Christus Heil und Stärk'
Bekannt den Heiden werden
Und sie zu Gott bekehren.
2
So danken, Gott, und loben dich
Die Heiden überalle,
Und alle Welt, die freue sich
Und sing' mit großem Schalle,
Daß du auf Erden Richter bist
Und läßt die Sünd' nicht walten;
Dein Wort die Hut und Weide ist,
Dei alles Volk erhalten,
In rechter Bahn zu wallen.
3
Es danke, Gott, und lobe dich
Das Volk in guten Taten;
Das Land bringt Frucht und bessert sich,
Dein Wort ist wohl geraten.
Uns segne Vater und der Sohn,
Uns segne Gott der Heil'ge Geist,
Dem alle Welt die Ehre tu',
Vor ihm sich fürchte allermeist.
Nun sprecht von Herzen: Amen!

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Lesson 11 The sustaining power of education

11/26/2017

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Photo above by author taken in Wittenberg museum
(Text below part of presentation to musicians, artists and worship leaders in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 2017)

Lesson 11. Without education, our work will not have sustaining power.
It is amazing to think that we are celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Many of these lessons underscore the reality that many people and factors have contributed to the worldwide impact of the Reformation.
In this lesson we want to briefly explore the educational project of the Reformation based on Bible reading to enlighten the believers and strengthen them in their faith. Without education no religiousness and without religiousness no education! Its leading principle was the priesthood of all believers. According to the Protestant understanding of biblical clarity everyone is able to find out God´s will on their own. The Reformation’s basic assumption was that every man had the right to education. This was also true for girls. As early as 1530, a girls’ school was opened in Wittenberg.

In Geneva too, education was of paramount importance. As soon as the Reformation was adopted, the city of Geneva made public school compulsory. Children, boys and girls, benefited from free public elementary education. Without education no religiousness and without religiousness no education!

Luther rated the schoolmaster’s calling as high as the priest’s ministry:
“As for me, if God chose to keep me away from pastoral functions, there is no other occupation I would more gladly take up than schoolmaster, for next to the pastor’s work, no other is more beautiful or significant than his.”

It is worth repeating the fact that Philipp Melanchthon designed a comprehensive educational system for people of all ages. Melanchton was particularly interested in modernizing the school system in Germany which is why he was called “professor of Germany” in his lifetime. He believed education was a requirement for every man to live in society and to understand the gospel. His aim was to make school compulsory for everyone.

Jean Calvin was also interested in religious education. He wrote a catechism in use in Geneva and in France for more than a century. In 1559 Calvin founded the Geneva Academy where many French pastors were trained in the 16th and 17th centuries. The practice of reading and writing gave the calvinists a cultural lead that lasted over the following centuries, even more so as it was done in French everywhere.

For the Reformers, compulsory education depended first and foremost on the family. Luther, Melanchton, Zwingli, Calvin, and Farel insisted on the paramount aspect of family education for the future of the Church and of society in general. It was the parents’ responsibility to bring up their children to become well-read Christians. Domestic education was completed by schooling. In his sermons, Luther reminded the parents that they should send their children to school.

In our context, it is also worth mentioning that Luther regarded music as an essential component of education. For example, Luther wrote hymns to illustrate the Catechism which he drew up for the new church, knowing that the church's teaching would be best implanted in young minds if it was reinforced with hymns.

He also believed that education was into only integral to a child’s education, but to the education of teachers and ministers as well. As mentioned in the previous lesson, he was so committed to the high place of music in the life of the Church that men had to demonstrate competency in music before they could be accepted for ministerial training.

If we want our ministry to have long term impact, then we need to ensure that we encourage, support and participate in effective education, where ever and whenever, formal or informal, church and family.

(Important source for a lot of the above information - https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-protestant-education-in-the-xvith-century/)

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SWIRLS OF NURTURE

Shabbat

Israel Trip Introduction

Summation of 12 Lessons - The Pillars

Lesson 12 Our highest privilege

Lesson 11 The sustaining power of education

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