'Lord' is fading at some churches (Barf alert)

Arizona Daily Star ^ | April 22, 2007 | Stephanie Innes

[Zakeet]

God has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church service.

At Tucson's largest Episcopal church, St. Philip's in the Hills, the creators of an alternative worship service called Come & See are bucking tradition by rewriting what have become prescribed ways of worship.

For the faithful, that means God isn't referred to as "him," and references to "the Lord" are rare. "Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.

"The way our service reads, the theology is that God is love, period," St. Philip's deacon Thomas Lindell added. "Our service has done everything it can to get rid of power imagery. We do not pray as though we expect the big guy in the sky to come and fix everything."

St. Philip's isn't the only local church to re-examine its language. Other local religious leaders already are eschewing the use of "Lord" for similar reasons. First Congregational United Church of Christ in Midtown even has a different name for The Lord's Prayer. They call it "The Prayer of Our Creator."

"We do still use the word 'Lord' on occasion, but we are suspicious of it," First Congregational pastor Briget Nicholson said. "Inclusive language is important. Our United Church of Christ hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God.' but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God.' It's gender-balanced."

[HiTech RedNeck]

I guess they don’t have much use for lady, either.

[Zakeet]

Boy, I wouldn't make it in their church. I just counted, and I used the word "Lord" over 20 times in my sermon this morning:

Excellent message.

Restoration is one of the most important parts of our Lord's purpose for coming to this earth, and it not pronounced nearly enough from the pulpit these days.

Thanks.

[AnAmericanMother]

Episcopalian usual suspects ping.

[lightman]

I've been fighting this nonsense for most of my adult life and it seems to be spreading like a metastasized cancer across the Body of Christ.

[alpha-8-25-02]

Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:16
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:17
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7:18
“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:19
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:20
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Matthew 7:22
“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

Matthew 7:23
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
(NKJV)

[altura]

God isn’t the Big Guy in the Sky??????

Who knew?

[wayne_b24]

Isaiah 5:20

[Salvation]

Excellent — then they should read Revelation!

[Salvation]

Things don't get watered down in the Catholic Church! Here are today's readings:

April 22, 2007

Third Sunday of Easter Psalm: Sunday 15

Reading 1 Responsorial Psalm Reading 2 Gospel

Reading 1
Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41

When the captain and the court officers had brought the apostles in
and made them stand before the Sanhedrin,
the high priest questioned them,
“We gave you strict orders, did we not,
to stop teaching in that name?
Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching
and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
But Peter and the apostles said in reply,
“We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,
though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior
to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We are witnesses of these things,
as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The Sanhedrin ordered the apostles
to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them.
So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,
rejoicing that they had been found worthy
to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,

and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading II
Rev 5:11-14

I, John, looked and heard the voices of many angels
who surrounded the throne
and the living creatures and the elders.
They were countless in number, and they cried out in a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength,
honor and glory and blessing.”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and in the sea,
everything in the universe, cry out:
“To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor, glory and might,
forever and ever.”
The four living creatures answered, “Amen, “
and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Gospel
Jn 21:1-19 or 21:1-14

At that time, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat
and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples

after being raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
He then said to Simon Peter a second time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Jesus said to him the third time,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time,
“Do you love me?” and he said to him,
“Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted;
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.”
He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.
And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

or

At that time, Jesus revealed himself to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.
He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,
Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “ am going fishing.”
They said to him, “e also will come with you.”
So they went out and got into the boat,
but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore;
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?”
They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat

and you will find something.”
So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in
because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “(It is the Lord.”
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat,
for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards,
dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them,
and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples
after being raised from the dead.

[SuziQ]

"Lord" has become a loaded word conveying hierarchical power over things, "which in what we have recorded in our sacred texts, is not who Jesus understood himself to be," St. Philip's associate rector Susan Anderson-Smith said.

Is she reading different 'sacred texts' than the Bible? That's the only way her comments could be explained. Jesus knew who He was and what He was about, and his followers were drawn to Him because they saw what He was about, as well. They believed He was the Son of God, who is Lord of all.

This is what happens when the 'grievance crowd' gets hold of any institution. The feminists don't like the idea of men in authority over women, so they try to make God to be 'gender-free', or dual gender, even though Jesus Himself taught His followers to call God, 'Father'.

[Old_Mil]

As the Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and UCCers no longer qualify as “Christian” under any historical definition of the term, it’s no surprise that they would abandon the use of the word “Lord”. Perhaps someday they will reinstitute it’s use as an Adjective modifying the name “Cthulhu”.

[lightman]

[anglian]

Since Ba‘al means 'Lord', there is no obvious reason why it could not be applied to Yahweh as well as other gods. In fact, Hebrews generally referred to Yahweh as Adonai..............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal

***This can’t be true since Hebrew already had a word for "lord," that being ba’al. Ba’al is also the name of the satanic sungod named "Lord," the false god of the Babylonians and Canaanites. So it is certain Yahuweh would not have applied that title to Himself.

[highlander_UW]

I suppose they have the right to worship whatever they want...but they shouldn’t dare call what they’re doing Christianity.

[anglian]

Your Bible probably says "And the Lord/’adonay sent the word to Jacob."

God did not say that. He wrote: "And Yahuweh sent the Word to Ya’aqob." This was a blatant substitution. Yahuweh was erased and ‘adonay was scribbled into the text itself. Most of the replacement deities are in Messianic passages like this one, so the rabbinical deception was deliberate.

The 90th Psalm opens with "Lord," regardless of which Bible you are reading. Lord was rendered from the Masoretic substitution of ‘adonay for Yahuweh. Fortunately, based upon the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint, we know David wrote "Yahuweh." This is one of 132 times that the Masoretes were guilty of making this specific copyedit, purposely changing Scripture to suit their agenda.

[Huber]

Thanks to Fractal Trader, Salvation and An American Mother for the ping.

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail Huber if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
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Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com
Humor: The Anglican Blue

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[More and more I am seriously questioning whether much of the news of the Episcopal church should be categorized as having anything at all to do with traditional Anglicanism! --Huber]

[AnAmericanMother]

That actually was the custom in Scandinavia back to the dawn of recorded history. Didn't seem to have any effect on the divorce rate. It's only recently that marriage has fallen out of favor there.

But for a couple of 20th century Americans not of Scandinavian heritage to just do it out of the blue . . . probably just a coincidence.

[AnAmericanMother]

"I'm sorry, but if there is a Lord, by implication there is a Lady," he said.

Dear Queen of Heaven, please pray your Son to enlighten the darkness in this poor man's mind. Thank you.

[reagan_fanatic]

A church that obsesses on the gender or hierarchy of God has lost its focus and its way.

Jesus IS Lord. Accept that fact and move on to more important things, like preaching the Gospel and saving souls.

[aomagrat]