A Word to Awana Citation Achievers

          Last Wednesday, I had the privilege of watching several high school seniors receive their Awana Citation Awards. These young men and women successfully finished their time as Awana clubbers, representing 10 years of Bible memorization, teamwork activities, service work, and various special projects. The journey towards a Citation Award starts in 3rd grade, the first year of Awana's Truth & Training club, and continues through the Trek (7th and 8th grade) and Journey (high school) clubs. 

From the Awana website:
A teenager earning the Citation Award must be a graduating senior. Adults can also earn the Citation. In completing the award requirements, the achiever will have memorised 836 verses, read the entire Bible and completed the 10 third- through 12th-grade handbooks and manuals.

I earned my Citation Award in May 2008, and I still remember exactly what being on stage and receiving it felt like. Would that all Awana boys and girls could strive for such a moment! The Citation is recognised as a prestigious award by many churches and organisations, and a number of Christian colleges and universities award various scholarships to students who have earned one. (As a note, mine earned me $1000 per year at San Diego Christian College.)

During my final year at Awana camp as a camper, the senior's teacher (a certain Mr. Houser,) gave us all some sage advice:

A Citation award is a tool. 

Some tools are earned/bought/received, and then stored in the shed indefinitely. Others are used often at first, but then gradually forgotten about. Others are tossed aside after a period of time, seen as archaic or useless. 

But, some tool are appreciated, and recognised for their usefulness, and are utilised often for the betterment of their owners life, and the lives of those around him. Will you leave your tool to rust in the shed? Or will you find uses for it in the situations that life presents?

That parable struck a chord with me; I've never forgotten it, and its truths are more and more evident with the passage of time.

Of the many fellow clubbers who I've seen earn Citation, some have fallen away, shunning Christianity and the life that the Lord offered them, preferring to pursue the countless and stark attractions of sin. Others have sought to serve two masters, joining their fleshly desires with their faith, and are enduring harsh consequences in an impossible lifestyle. These are people that I saw as my peers, and some I even looked up to. Such is the way of the world; God does not change, and His Word (both the Bible and the Logos Himself) warned us of such individuals.

But there's always a bright side: For every Citation earner who has fallen away, there are many more still that have risen to the challenge and continued on the paths of righteousness, paths that God has laid out and offered to them since the beginning of time. Some serve in their churches as leaders and pastors. Others serve their community as firefighters, law enforcement, and in the military and other government service positions. Some serve as missionaries in far-flung countries, while others travel to their 'lowly' office or job site every day, knowing that the Lord has given them the opportunity to minister and be an example, like many apostles, in the Agora --- the busy markets and places of exchange.

There are lawyers, doctors, teachers, salesmen, chefs, and construction workers who share the achievement that sets you and them apart as leaders in the Body of Christ. Finally, some are pursuing the toughest occupation of all: Raising Godly children in an increasingly hostile world. It is these people who chase after the highest calling, and the one with perhaps the greatest earthly rewards.

In essence, here is my message to Citation earners, from one Awana alumnus to another: 

Your Citation award is a tool, perhaps one of the greatest tools of your young life. The 'tool' portion is not the award itself - in all its monogrammed plastic glory - but rather the journey of the countless Bible verses and studies you've endured. Few Christians have the training you now possess, and fewer still have the grasp of the Bible that have obtained. Follow the path of righteousness the Lord has laid out for you, and it will be there for you when the need to use it arises. Whether your mission field is a third-world country, a business office, or a classroom, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the verses you memorised, and that will open the doors for sharing your faith in Christ. Though your friends and fellow earners may fall away, stay strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

A related word of advice: If and when your friends and fellow Citation earners do fall away, do not shun them and throw them out of fellowship with you. Instead, continue to act as a beacon of light in their lives. Unless they completely shun you, you are still their friend! Christianity may come to seem foolish in their minds, but continue to exude the love of Christ, and the wisdom granted to us via the Holy Spirit. Keep a vigilant watch over your actions and deeds, lest you be seen as a hypocrite, for even though we may not think it, we are each witnesses and missionaries to those around us.

We all make mistakes and sin, but the mercy we receive, coupled with a heartfelt yearning to repent, is what has given us the ultimate freedom of Life.

To that end, your 'award' marks the beginning of a term of service to fellow believers. You are armed with the truth, the power, and the light: Follow Jesus Christ's command in Matthew 20, and be a Servus Servorum Dei --- a Servant of the Servants of God. 

The road to your Citation was about the journey, not the destination. It's a piece of plastic; never let its true value become clouded or lost on you!



1 Timothy 4:10-12 NKJV
For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the  Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

1 Peter 3:15 NKJV
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

Luther: "Contribute to the Honour of God"

           My opinions on Martin Luther oscillate between appalled and inspired, usually ending up around neutral. Catholics and secularists love to focus on all his terrible denunciations of the Roman Catholic Church, Jews, and other groups not in agreement with him (including some Protestant sects); Protestants on the other hand love to focus on his successful split from Rome, contributions to Biblical literacy, and his popular theological doctrines. I would never choose to completely 'endorse' Luther, but some quotes of his are very much share-able, including this one from his "First Sunday After Epiphany" sermon - certainly a Lollard precept:

"He who cannot - by the gracious and lovely message of God's mercy so lavishly bestowed upon us in Christ - be persuaded, in a spirit of love and delight, to contribute to the honour of God and the benefit of his neighbour, is worthless to Christianity, and all effort is lost on him."


Those words of Luther hearken back to the words pious assertion of Clement of Rome, who wrote in his epistle of 1 Clement 44:

"Who, then, is noble-minded among you? Who compassionate? Who full of love? Let him declare, 'If on my account sedition, disagreements, and schism have arisen, I will depart. I will go away wherever you desire, and I will do what the many command. Only let the flock of God live on terms of peace with the elders set over it'."

The Spelling of 'Wycliffe'?

John De Wycliffe retains several titles, including Doctor Evangelicus [the Evangelical Doctor] from the period of his preaching, to the popular and famous Morningstar of the Reformation. But a casual internet search reveals that there seems to be no universally accepted spelling of John Wycliffe's name. The first part, John, is fairly easy and comes from the Latin name Iohannes, but there are actually upwards of twenty different ways of spelling his last name! These include but are not limited to: Wicklif, Wickliffe, Wiclefii, Wiclef, Wiclif, Wiclife, Wicliff, Wicliffe, Wyclef, Wycleff, Wyclif, Wycliffe, Wyclyf, and Wyclyffe.

What do records indicate on the subject matter? According to historian Philip Schaff, the form 'Wyclif' is found in a diocesan register of 1361 (from the reformer's tenure as warden of Balliol College), while an official state document from 26 July 1374 presents the name as 'Wiclif'. Over the last century, scholars have primarily used either 'Wyclif' or 'Wycliffe' - the latter of which continues to be my personal preference. How will future historians spell your name?

An Asgardian Canon Table

        
          The prop masters/creators for the film Thor: The Dark World did an excellent job of creating impressive props and set pieces, but for me, one item clearly stands out from the rest. At one point in the film, Thor and Odin flip through a book describing the history of the Ether dark energy, and whose illustrations and illuminations pay homage to Medieval manuscripts from the Carolingian period. The top page in particular is an obvious copy of a Eusebian canon table - concordance-like reference material that was a staple of countless medieval Bibles and New Testaments. The book was clearly influenced by Codex Aureus of Lorsch (aka the "Lorsch Gospels"), a gospels manuscript whose beautiful illuminations and golden-inked cursive script still stand out to this day. (A canon table page from that manuscript is below.)

The Monk and the Concept of Eternity

          The following folktale is from the introduction to an article by Orlanda S.H. Lie, entitled The Concept of Time in the Medieval World View. The paper is very informative, but my favourite section is definitely the story at the beginning, poignantly illustrating what eternal life might be like. You can read the rest of the paper here: 
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/04/01/concept-time-medieval-world-view/

          Once upon a time a monk left his monastery for a walk in the cloister garden. He had often been pondering the meaning of eternity and heavenly bliss and had frequently  prayed to God, asking him for an illustration of one moment of heavenly bliss. All of a sudden he heard the lovely song of a little bird, perched on the branch of a tree. He stopped to listen and enjoyed his song until the bird flew away. When he returned to the monastery, he was greeted by a porter, whom he had never seen before. “Who are you?” the porter asked. “I am a monk of this monastery,” he answered. “I stepped out for a little walk in the garden.” But strangely enough, he couldn’t find anybody there who looked familiar to him. But not only the people seemed different, somehow the whole place had changed. The monk was utterly confused and did not know what to make of it. When they asked him who the abbot was of the monastery, and whether he could name some of his fellow-monks, he provided them with the names of people none of them knew.  Finally they decided to consult the annals of the monastery. To their amazement they discovered that the monk was referring to people who lived more than three hundred years ago. Moreover, there was also an entry that registered the strange disappearance of a monk who left the monastery one day and  never came back…  And at that moment the monk understood what had happened. This was God’s way of answering his prayer: the pleasure he derived from listening to the bird’s song was God’s way of giving him a foretaste of the timelessness of  heavenly bliss.  If  the beautiful song of this little bird was already enough to make him forgetful of the time, how intensely more pleasurable and  never-ending must then be the joy of heavenly bliss in the after life!

The Evangelists and Their Sources

Here's another interesting introductory document, The Evangelists and Their Sources by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in the late 2nd century. Though some of the actual historicity of these statements may be debatable, this provides a concise and informative history of the Gospels and their authors from the proto-orthodox period:



"Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews in their own tongue [Aramaic], when Peter and Paul were preaching the Gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter's preaching. Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on his breast, himself produced his gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia [Minor]. If anyone does not agree to these truths, he despises the companions of the Lord... He despises the Father also, and stands self-condemned, resisting and opposing his own salvation." [Against Heresies III:1:1]

Medieval Souvenirs

A company I follow on Facebook (18thcenturybibles.org) shared a really interesting web post by Medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel. You can read more of Erik's interesting posts on his page: http://erikkwakkel.tumblr.com/
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"Thin pieces of metal that are bluntly attached to precious illuminated pages. It is not something you see every day in a medieval book - or imagined to see at all in such delicate objects. They are pilgrim’s badges, mementos purchased during pilgrimages to holy sites in medieval Europe. They are really not very different from the Eiffel Towers, baseball caps or Big Bens that we carry home in our suitcases today: they are mass-produced, cheap and highly portable souvenirs. If you went to see the shrine of St Thomas Becket, you would take a badge home, partly to show that you had been (like this one). The badges above are special because the pilgrim attached them to the pages of his prayerbook when he came home, which is how they survived. The shiny pieces of metal are religious instruments, of course, but they also proudly emphasize that the owner of the book went on a real pilgrimage: been there, done that!"

The Didache on: The Weekly Meeting

          On the heels of my last post, the weekly meeting of the church is also mentioned in The Didache, in a concise form that differs with Justin Martyr's description. As a note, The Didache - also known as The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles - was first discovered in manuscript form inside a monastery in Constantinople, in 1883. Written sometime between the late 1st and early 3rd centuries, the document likely served as a handbook for new Christians, outlining the lifestyle necessary for church membership. In his Festal Letter [39:7], Athanasius declares The Didache to be among the list of books "not included in the [Biblical] Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us, and who wish for instruction in the word of godliness." This particular chapter would be an introduction to the church meeting, rather than a in-depth account.

"Concerning the Lord's Day"

from chapter XIV of The Didache

          On the Lord's own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure. But let no one who has a quarrel with a companion join you until they have been reconciled, so that your sacrifice may not be defiled. For this is the sacrifice concerning which the Lord said, "In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is marvelous among the nations [Malachi 1:11, 14]."