Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn

Epiphany Feast and the Spirituality of Carrot and Raisin Lemon Jello

Posted by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn | Jan 2, 2010 | Uncategorized |

Wednesday January 6th is The Epiphany. The earliest event associated with the Epiphany is Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by his cousin, the Prophet John. John asked the Jewish nation to purify themselves by walking through the Jordan River as Joshua and the nation had done over a thousand years earlier. “Reclaim the land” was John’s agenda. “Be the true people of g-d.” “Repent of your sins and be baptized,” in other words ‘listen to the former prophets (Isaiah, Amos, Joel, etc), do what they say, stop disobeying Torah, stop accommodating the Romans (idolatry, e.g. coinage, contracts, kosher, etc) and embrace your true heritage. [Bible: Gospel of Mark chapter one] As Jesus walked out of the Jordan on to the promised land a voice from heaven is heard, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (v.11) The story of Jesus begins with his designation as the true Son of the Father, the true obedient Hebrew son. So begins the ministry of Jesus, announcing a new era, a new kingdom, the salvation of all peoples. From this beginning the new people of g-d are born and charged: “go make disciples,” go make other true sons and daughters of the Most High’s Son. The church is commissioned. The church begins. What is interesting here is the New Testament says the first church was defined...

Candlelight

Posted by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn | Dec 25, 2009 | An Unbidden Life, Uncategorized |

It is the night of nights. There is a winter storm upon us. But we gathered and worshipped our new King, lit candles and sang Silent Night. Many people showed up in spite of the weather. I remember when we cancelled church in 2003. At 5:15am we stood out back the movie theater in the freezing rain and ‘called it.’ I watched the television and saw our church name among the church cancellations. I thought up a some small church who might not have needed to cancel. Why? Because they had a church building! In that small church that morning, someone showed up and made coffee, shoveled the doorway and turned on the lights. Maybe a handful of people showed up and they had church – no audio/visual, no big production. Just small souls in a small service, gathered around the one cup. Fellowship came afterwards. There was no place to go. The few scraped together a meal of sorts, dry and Bisquick driven. More coffee. They had little church because they had a big gift: a church building. I will always be grateful for our church building. This night my heart goes out to those churches who do not have a church building of their own. Tonight I think of the young mother, Mary and her little baby, and Joseph who had to handle all the mess...

Rethinking “The Priesthood of All Believers”

Posted by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn | Dec 23, 2009 | An Unbidden Life, Uncategorized |

I have been (slowly) digesting Simon Chan’s Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life and I am barely past Part One: The Theological Principles of Spiritual Theology, and I got to chapter five, “The Church as the Community of Saints” and these words struck me down… …when Luther invoked the universal priesthood of all believers and abolished the monastic system, the idea of the church was radically reconceived. Theoretically, it should uplift all believers [to become priests] but in actual fact it tends to reduce them to the lowest common denominator. We wanted to make everyone in the church into robust saints but succeeded only in making mostly mediocre ones. We expected everyone in the church to be the remnant reaching out to the world. But there is a whole body of people belonging to the visible church who are at best partially committed. Where do they fit in? We need a theology that makes sense of their presence. – p105 [Cf. 1 Peter 2:9 for the basis of the doctrine of ‘priesthood of all believers’] I believe this is true at our church. We asked people to sign the Full Participants covenant to wholeheartedly strive towards (not perfect) our basic discipleship pattern of Surrender to Jesus, Come Together as the church, and Love Others. But when people raised their hand or signed up signifying submission to...

Someone Hid the Innercity Again

Posted by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn | Dec 17, 2009 | Uncategorized |

It happened again. Someone moved the graffiti-painted street sign, the demolished brick blocks from the EASTLYNN apartment building, and the prayer write up about our church’s involvement at The Hope Center. To be fair, they left one block standing. All of these prayer symbols were sitting on the floor in our Soul Sanctuary, in the back in the middle of the Prayer Circle. Yes, the inner city was in the way again. It was a stumbling block – literally. You had to walk around it. That is the point: all of us have figured out how to avoid and ignore entire zip codes of crime, violence, poverty, oppression and death. Can’t really blame any normal-thinking person for doing so, can we? We have no reason to go to the innercity. As Henri Nouwen tells us ‘the innercity is a funeral home – the dead go there to be forgotten.’ Why hang out in a funeral home? Because Jesus never saw anyone as dead. They were sleeping, waiting to be awakened. The ‘dead’ are eternally alive (damned or redeemed.) Those who stand with Jesus cannot believe the lie that says the inner city is dead, hopelessly dead. We must put the inner city back in our way, back in our Prayer Circle, back in our driving routes; we must create reasons to be with our fellow humans in the inner...

A Prayer for Mealtime

Posted by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn | Dec 3, 2009 | Uncategorized |

O King of the Universe, Lord of Bread, We accept this meal as a moment of your grace, a favor we did not earn.We realize you give us mercy and blessings.We bought this food, but you gave it to us. We enjoy the rising sun that you want to arise.We enjoy the coming darkness because you give us rest as a grace. May you reveal yourself to us Lord Jesus in the breaking of the bread.May we share our blessings with others who have little food,And be the hands of Jesus.May we eat in peace and enjoy all good gifts from heaven....