Quote of the Week
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June 8, 2020: The Climactic Point of Worship
The ultimate focus of worship is on the cross and resurrection. Both Word and sacrament point to the cross and resurrection, but the sacrament is the climactic point of worship because of the intensity of its focus, because Jesus Christ is uniquely present, and because the church is nourished and strengthened by feeding on him. . . . A mere memorialism is as much a departure from the early church as is transubstantiation. Leaving both transubstantiation and memorialism behind, we should seek to understand what seems to be the historical view of the presence of Christ in the sacrament.
-Robert Webber, Common Roots: The Original Call to an Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 133. -
June 1, 2020: Final Days
We now live in the final days, the time between the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the return of our Lord. Therefore, Pentecost is an essential moment in God’s saving time, the moment in which we now live, awaiting the return of our Lord.
-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 162. -
May 26, 2020: Emphasize Pentecost
Pentecost plays a crucial role in salvation history. Yet there are many communities that claim to be Gospel oriented who do not celebrate Pentecost. In order to bring God’s people into a full experience of the Good News, an emphasis on Pentecost is necessary. Broadly speaking, Pentecost brings understanding to the followers of Jesus, empowers them in ministry, establishes the church, and points to the end of history when the kingdom of Christ will be established over all the earth.
-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 161. -
May 18, 2020: The Ascended Lord
The early church fathers saw the ascension of the Lord as the lifting up of the human nature of Jesus to the throne of God. The eternal Word was united to a perfect human nature in Jesus. Because Jesus participated in our human nature (without sin) and because through faith we are united with Jesus, our human but redeemed nature, united with Jesus, is lifted to the very throne of God. . . . If we wish to form congregational and personal spirituality, we will call attention to the ascended Lord who eternally intercedes for us and is always with us through the church and the signs of our identity with him (water) and of his continual nourishment (bread and wine).
-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 159, 161. -
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