“In his resurrection [Jesus] conquered the results of sin—which is death—so that death is not the last word written over our life.”

-Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life

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We need to rediscover the power of God’s Word as God’s speaking and communicating to his church now, today. . . . We must stop treating the Scripture reading as a preliminary. In worship there aren’t “preliminaries.” Every part of worship is an intricate aspect of the whole. Therefore, reading Scripture is not a preliminary—something to “get over with” so we can get on to the sermon. . . . There needs to be a revival of attention and care for the public reading of Scripture. We need to experience Scripture as the electrifying Word of God.

-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition

Because of Easter we are in union with Christ and are called to live in our baptismal identity in his resurrection. This essential theme of Easter cannot be communicated in a day.

-Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 148.

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Yes, yes, yes to this quote.  My experience in the evangelical church is that we miss this critical understanding of baptism.  Many times, we reduce baptism to simply a person’s testimony to follow Jesus.  This isn’t a misunderstanding of baptism, but it is a reduction.  And it can make us the hero of the story.  “I want to do this…”

Instead, the church has understood baptism to be a symbol of our death to Satan, sin and self because of the work of Jesus.  The church has also understood it to be a sign of identifying with Christ and his church, the resurrection people.  And, the church has understood baptism to be something that frames the rest of our lives.  We are called to live today in that “baptismal identify”.

One of the greatest discoveries of my Christian pilgrimage has come with the realization that the primary importance in worship is not what I do but what God is doing. In worship, God is present, speaking to me, and acting upon me. It is in worship that God feeds, nourishes, and cares for me. And it is in worship that he gives me his grace, surrounds me with his love, lifts me up into his arms, affirms me as a member of his community, and sends me forth into the world with a fresh vision of his work and a new concern to live for him.

-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition

Biblical history is rich with signs pointing to God’s purposes. But today, I believe, it is in worship that God gives us signs of his grace. In worship God speaks and acts.

-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition

Scripture, history, and theology teach that the common rhythm of the story of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ is fundamental to all Christian worship. It is the framework for free church worship as much as it is the framework for the liturgical churches. There is only one story to be told and acted out.

-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition

When I move toward the Table of the Lord, I say yes to all that Jesus Christ has done for me. And, when I stretch forth my hand to receive the broken bread, I confess that I cannot live by bread alone, that I am in great need of my Lord. When the cup is lifted to my lips and I hear the words, “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation,” I say aloud, “Amen.” I affirm Christ with my heart, my mind, and my whole body; and all my senses—touch taste, smell, sight, and hearing—are evoked into worship

-Robert Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals

God’s goal in history, so to speak, is to win back his world by his own two hands—the incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit—and to unite humanity with the community of God. His original creational purpose will be fulfilled at the end of history.

-Robert Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals

“I make all things new.” Here is the narrative in its fullness. The world and its history belongs to God, and he has been, is now, and will be making all things new.

-Robert Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals