the king's abbey

Musings on 1 Peter (3:22)

2012-01-25T22:00:00.001-08:00

22: These words give me goosebumps. Jesus, forever bound by human flesh, ascends to the very throne room of the Ancient of Days as recorded in Daniel 7. Coming on the clouds of Heaven, He takes His seat at the right hand of the Father. Here is reason enough to do away with the notion of Heaven being a dimensionless non-space, where spirits float in the aether. In reality, the throne room must be more solid than the upper rooms of our own world. He was able to walk through walls here, but not because He was ghostly. The walls themselves were but shadow to His resurrected body. Just as the flood is a shadow of baptism, and baptism a shadow of the cross, so this world, in all its glory, is a shadow of what lies ahead. Shadows are not more substantive than the object which casts it. Indeed they pale in comparison. Heaven, therefore, casting the shadow we call Earth, must be more real, more solid, more definite than we can know or dream. Heaven alone holds the throne that will support His glorified body. Heaven must be not only real, as in having an address, but also solid, a place suitable for the human body. We should think of Heaven as Lewis does in The Great Divorce, as a spatial existence where we in our present state resemble smoke and shade, but in the glorified condition carry the full weight of real bodies, borne by a very real ground. Too often, Christians are frightened by the thought of a disembodied existence where gregorian chant is our only means of communication. This is a lie and has done much to damage our perception of who Jesus is and what He is currently up to. He sits enthroned, on a throne we would break our knuckles on were we to rap it. A physical throne for a physical God. From this very real throne, He rules the nations of men.

This truth should bring us comfort. To think of our Lord as He is, sitting enthroned in a real throne, one we could touch were we there, instead of in some abstract space that somehow sits outside of existence, gives our mind real handles to grasp the Lordship of Christ. Consider this. If Heaven is a dimensionless non-space, then Jesus really only exists in our thoughts as we think of Him on a throne. With this mindset, when trials come we place our hope in an abstract thought that even we don't really understand, even though the thoughts are ours. But if Jesus, fully God and fully Man, sits in a real location, then He really does rule, for it is suddenly outside our own minds, and not dependent on our willing it into existence. This is the truth behind our hope. Jesus does not rely on us to be what He is. He does not require our mental comprehension nor our mental assent to rule as Lord and King. Here lies the danger of our speaking of Jesus sitting on the throne of our hearts. Through the Spirit He does enter our very person, working to change us from the inside out. But Jesus of Nazareth Himself sits at the right hand of Power, judging the world. Indeed, angels and powers and authorities have been subjected to Him. Here again is our comfort, and the thrust of Peter's encouragement to the Dispersed. Every angel, every demon, every king, every counselor, every lord, every governor, every mayor, every city councilman will answer to the authority of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself told Pilate, "You would have no authority over Me at all unless it was given you from above." That authority has been given to our crucified and resurrected Lord. It just goes to reinforce what Peter has been saying. When you suffer, which you will, trust in Him who rules the one at whose hands you suffer. Trust the One who writes your story, the dark parts and all. As Kuyper majestically proclaimed, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” This is hope-full. This is bedrock comfort. As David asks, "Where can I flee from your presence?" The answer is nowhere.

Musings on 1 Peter (3:21)

2012-01-24T22:44:00.001-08:00

21: It has been said before that our God loves to tell stories. The whole body of His revealed Word speaks to the same thing, has at its base the same story. In the fabric of historical events the Master Author weaves types and shadows, the very form of the story being a prophet of things to come. This truth alone is enough to give one courage. It means our Heavenly Father knows what He is doing. Everything we experience, every trial we go through, every joy we are given comes to us from the pen of the Author of life. If that rubs you the wrong way, if you feel constricted by the complete and total sovereignty of God, consider life without it. We can not pick and choose the things that come from God. Either everything or nothing. If nothing comes from His hand then we are lost for there is no God. If nothing comes from His hand then there is something outside God Himself. If there is something outside God, then God has a beginning, a source, a font from which He sprang. If He did, and we live in a world along side God, as it were, then at least these three problems arise. First, all of Scripture must be thrown out. It no longer speaks truth, and therefore is of no value to people. Second, all hope is lost, for we cannot trust in God to right all wrongs, to defend the defenseless, to save people from their sins. Third, all of life becomes meaningless, for if there are things God does not know, or is not in control of, then there is no hope of final judgment. If there is not final judgment, then there is no justice in the world. If there is no eternal justice, then life on this earth descends into chaos, into utter nonsense. What does it matter if I steal from my neighbor? (As a side note, this is the very real and logical end of the evolutionist. This is why it is so dangerous for Christians to try and find middle ground between the Bible and the Theory of Evolution. Notice I did not say science.) If God did not create the world, if He does not continue to sustain it, and if that means He does not have complete and total sovereign control over every single detail of every single life, both human and non, then there is no foundation to what Paul says when He declares his confidence in the love of God through Christ. Only if God created the world can we say "Neither death nor life, nor angels or principalities." Only if He continues to sustain this world can we say, "Nor things present nor things to come, nor powers." Only if He has complete and total sovereign control over every single detail of every single life can we say, "Nor depth nor height, nor any other created thing in all of creation." Only then can we have hope that nothing can separate us from the love of our Father, which has been proved in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. So put away the desire for control in your lives. Don't be concerned with free will and the power to choose. Sit back in faith and watch the story of your life unfold before your very eyes, with all its ups and downs, trusting a Father who loves you, who knows your need better than you ever could. Every page of your story has been written for two reasons: That God may be glorified through you, and that you might learn to rest in Him. By such rest we are conformed to the very image of Christ.

Turning back to Peter's words here we see the story of the flood fulfilled. From his perspective, the flood, while remaining staunchly historical, was a foreshadowing of things to come. It was a story of death and resurrection, new life being achieved through the medium of water. Now this is not to say that the water itself has any magical properties about it. But the image of water, both in literature and in the physical world, carries with it a suitcase full of meaning: cleansing, quenching, life-giving power. The Greek word behind the phrase, "which corresponds to this" is the word we get 'type' from. The thrust of the word in this context implies 'resemblance,' but the plain meaning of the Greek word is 'hard' or 'solid.' This is helpful as we think of the historical events of the Old Testament as shadows or pictures of realities explained in the New. Where before God spoke in pictures and poetry, He now speaks in fullness and flesh. Now that Christ has come, and has 'tabernacled' among His people, all shadows have fallen away before the light of the Son. We no longer speak as in the early dawn, waiting for the sunrise. We speak as those who stand in the full light of day. In the flood, the Lord brought salvation to 8 people, by allowing them to pass unhurt through the water that was death to the rest of creation. They were saved, and given a new world in which to be fruitful and multiply. This, according to Peter, pictures the reality of baptism. Just as Noah was brought through the death-waters of the flood, so too we are brought through the death-waters of baptism. Just as his family was given a recreated world to fill and be fruitful in, so too we are given a world which is being made new. We too have been commissioned to be fruitful and multiply, to have dominion over all the Earth, for He who has all power and authority in Heaven and on Earth is our Head, even the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, this Baptism itself is picture, a symbol, of the death and resurrection story. Baptism is not simply a washing away, though we are cleansed in the regeneration of the Spirit. It also answers the demands God makes of all who would be His children. Just as the flood was a shadow pointing to the solid reality of baptism, so baptism itself is a shadow pointing to the even more solid reality of Christ's death and resurrection, the Baptism, the ultimate death-waters. Our baptism is a means of uniting us to His, not that the mere outward motions perform the trick. It is an attendant ceremony that gives visual, palpable testimony to the God-worked reality. Much like a wedding. It is not the mere outward form of the wedding that unites man and wife. But neither does God work outside the ceremony, generally speaking. The wedding ritual puts into flesh that which God works "behind the scene." So too the ritual of baptism is the incarnation of what the Spirit has accomplished through the ministry of the Word, namely a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. This we name for ourselves. It is ours by gift. It is the air first breathed coming out of the water.

Musings on 1 Peter (3:18-20)

2012-01-05T23:28:00.001-08:00

18-20: It is with verses like these we are reminded that the writers of the New Testament do not have modern sensibilities. And thank the Lord they do not! We live in an age where the spiritual realm is either mocked as ridiculous and laughable, or feared as taboo and wicked. If modern science cannot test it, it cannot exist, says the first camp. Only witches and workers of dark magic have anything to do with the spiritual realm, says the other. These two camps are both wrong and fail to understand a world in which Christ has risen from the dead. Instead of causing fear and anxiety about "weirdness," these verses should be a reason to rejoice, for they proclaim most majestically the triumph of the empty tomb.

First, Peter succinctly states the Gospel. Jesus suffered and died once. He being righteous had no need to be judged. There was no sin in Him that needed to be paid for with blood. He did not suffer for His own sake. He, being the Son of Man, identified with us in our weakness, and became our representative. As Adam was our head and fell at the first tree, so Christ has become our head and mounted that tree so that we might be reconciled to God. Our first head drove us out of the Garden, whereas our second Head brought us back. In Him, in the righteous One, we, the unrighteous, find our home. In Him we see God.

This righteous One was put to death in our stead. This was His plan all along. He, being both Son of Man and Son of God would die for us, once and for all. As Man, He represents all mankind; as God, He brings the Divine presence to His people, tearing the temple curtain in two. Peter next says that while Jesus was dead in the flesh, yet alive in spirit, He proclaimed His victory to Satan and his host of demons. Jesus had told His disciples that He had come and bound the strongman and was going to plunder his house. The spirits in prison are these bound demons. Their power has been taken away. All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Jesus, and the fallen spirits, demons, were the first to hear about it. This passage tells us two things. One, that the spirit world is real. It is not something to be laughed at, nor is it to be feared. It simply is, like apples. The spirit world is a created 'substance' though admittedly vastly different from our own sensed experience. But it is created nonetheless, and as such has always been under the sovereign rule of God. Before the time of Christ, angles played a different and more substantial role in the politics of this world. The Archangel Michael, the prince of Israel, is said to have contended with the prince of Persia, another archangel, presumably fallen. Though fallen, this archangel of Persia held some office that was recognized as legitimate in the scheme of the Old Covenant world. With the advent of Christ, all was about to change. Demons, or fallen angels, were being cast out left and right, and the head demon, Satan himself, was rejected and defeated in the wilderness. In the crucifixion, Jesus put the final nail in the coffin of the demonic hosts' very real authority over the sons of men. Their wicked rebellion, dating back to the days before Noah, was finally, and completely put to an end. This is what Jesus went and told them. At the risk sounding inappropriate, I imagine Jesus giving them a full on raspberry. In effect, He tells them, "Your days are done. I win. You lose." Any authority they had has now been given to the Conquerer of death. This is the second thing this verse tells us: Jesus is now King, and no one can contest His rule.

Far from being a troublesome text, these are words of solid hope and joy. We will suffer as Jesus suffered. We are counted as righteous in the economy of God, and so will suffer as the righteous do in a fallen world. But we do not suffer alone. Nor are we left to the whims of devils. Our Lord sits on His throne, high and lifted up, the train of His robe filling the temple. He has triumphed over death and his minions. Therefore, do not fear. The spirit world is real to be sure, but we serve the God, who as both Spirit and Man, reigns over all things from on high. This is our God. In Him we find peace.

Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-25T20:28:00.001-08:00

The night is cold. As cold as ice. Black trees stand still, pasted against a deeper black sky. The stars stand at attention, waiting, holding their breath, yet motionless in the moonless sky. Moist breath escapes into clouds, quickly rising, leaving behind the cold earth. Wooden staffs, like cold metal in the hand, stand in watch over the rising stench of sheep. All is quiet. All is still. The sound of one's breathing is lost in the dull and lonely landscape. And then... a light, brighter than the sun, descends and hovers midair above the ground and declares, "Peace. Do not fear." The radiating warmth of this celestial being begins to melt the fears and slow the beating hearts. But only just begins before he declares his message. "Unto you a child is born. Unto you a son is given." Fear and beating heart return. "In David's City you will find Him." Did he just say 'lying in a manger'? But the question dies on the lips as every anxiously-waiting star begins to race to join the bright one. As they come closer, they increase in speed and heat, and by now it is quite warm. The host is blinding. In a pool of water, one sees the reflection on hands and knees. The sky is full of luminosity. The sky has come alive. All heaven has broken loose. But the light isn't the only sensation, nor is the warmth, nor the rushing wind from beating wings. The music. The music is beyond anything ever heard before. The song seems to fill the air beyond its natural capacity for sound. For a brief moment, the sky has no ceiling, and the lords and ladies of the heavens join the angels' song. Terrifying glory explodes in harmonic beauty and real, pre-earthly joy erupts in resplendent wonder. Unable to stand, the shepherds lie prostrate on the grassy hillside. Hoping the awesome immortal creatures would quickly depart, lest their mortal bodies expire, incapable of receiving such unmediated glory, they forever find themselves longing to hear that brief chorus one more time. As the heavenly host completes their song, or perhaps simply takes their singing elsewhere, darkness once again fills their fields. And yet, was it quite as dark as it was before?

I am almost convinced that Luke thought he needed to add the words the shepherds said to one another after the angels departed. Not having been there, I'm sure he wasn't able to grasp fully the horrifying intensity of the experience. I imagine the shepherds lying stupefied in their fields, unable to move. When they do finally get up, I can't imagine a calm discussion about what to do next. I imagine shared looks of incredulity, followed by all-out sprinting. It is hard to run and belly laugh and weep at the same time, but they must have managed somehow.

We have been to services. We have read the texts. We have had only a very small taste of an experience distantly related to that of the shepherds on that cold night so long ago. And yet we fully know the joy they felt. We have been told the whole story, the good news that even the heavenly choir longs to look into. It is telling that anytime good news is heard, singing is sure to follow. Good news requires good song. And as we sing, as we throw back our heads and raise our voices to the heavens, we invite the angelic choir to join in our praising. As they join their voices to ours, we realize that all of creation has been singing without rest since that cold moonless night. We are the late comers, bringing our small and humble voices to creation's community sing. We join our heavenly governors and lift our hands and praise the Child laying in the manger.

Advent 2011

2011-12-14T09:01:00.001-08:00

It is Advent. We have a tree. There are lights on it. It shines in the corner of our living room, invading the darkness behind the two windows on either side. It makes our living room glow. We love this season. On the first Sunday of Advent, we get a tree and my job is to find every "Christmas Decorations" box that tries to stay out of the way 11 months of the year in our garage. Jen then delights to open them all and find the right combination of lights and ornaments and decorations to express our whims and fancies for the given year. This season we have included red balls to an otherwise silver and gold theme. I think it is perfect. It brings cheer to our guests, and Lord willing, to those who walk passed our unveiled windows. That is our hope, at least, that our house and our space would speak something of what sentimentalists call "The True Meaning of Christmas." We want to shy away from sentimentalism, but the sentimentalists' only problem is being an 'ist.' Sentiments are in themselves real and good. If we do not feel different during the Christmas Season, there is something wrong with us, as in malfunctioning organs. This is the season for celebrating the Incarnation of God. Those three words alone are enough to give one goosebumps. How does an infinite and eternal God become incarnate? How does that work? How can He who spoke galaxies into existence with no more than a mere breath, enter into the virginal womb of a teenage girl living in Nazareth on a certain day on the calendar roughly 2000 years ago? This God then is born, with flesh that can be broken, and blood that can be spilt. And then the entire sky full of stars, who, it turns out, have been angels this whole time, descends to sing about it to a flock of sheep and their shepherds. If that weren't enough, one of the angels sticks around for a couple years, and leads a group of magicians from the east to the very house where this God-Child was living. Not to mention all the dreams and annunciations and prophecies and blessings and foretellings and men going mute and babies jumping in wombs for joy...

How often, I wonder, do we read these chapters with glossy eyes, and miss the "Oh my Freaking Word!!" aspect of this story? Perhaps we have wanted to protect ourselves from the Precious Moments Christmas Specials, having grown sick of the Hallmark Cards we see everywhere. Perhaps, though, in reacting to this, as we should, we have swung the other way and divorced our true sentiments from the season. Perhaps not. Perhaps we can still wish someone Merry Christmas and have an echo of the angels song hanging in the air. Perhaps we can welcome family and friends into our homes, not only bearing gifts like the magicians, but desiring to worship the Christ-Child through the gifts as well. Perhaps we do decorate, hanging mistletoe where we are reminded to kiss the Son. I pray we can. I pray we do.

I pray we all celebrate this season like Christians, and that means with red-faced joy. May our songs be loud, may our greetings be warm, and may our eggnog be strong. Let us love our family, let us love our neighbor, and let us love our Lord. It is the season to feel things and to feel them deeply. Feel the joy of salvation, feel the peace of incarnate reconciliation, feel the hope of the Second Coming. Let your heart lift at the sound of a carol, and let your step keep time with the angels song.

Happy Christmas every one. God has blessed us all.

Musings on 1 Peter (3:17)

2011-11-29T22:15:00.001-08:00

17: We have been encouraged to live well before all men. To live in such a way that warrants the question, "Why do you have such hope?" is to live the life of the Spirit. Psalm 118 speaks of the stone that the builders rejected, the stone that became the chief cornerstone. This stone is the one which the whole building rests upon. This stone determines our own position in the building. This building - made with living stones, little peters, both broken and unyeilding, fallen and firm, wretched and redeemed, sinner and saint - this building will rise and will stand in the face of a cruel and wicked world. Can we not expect eggs to be thrown, windows to be broken, graffiti on the walls? We live in a world that hates Christ. As Christians, as little Christs, will not the world hate us as well? Will they not see our testimony of hope and despise us, ridicule us, revile us for it? Why would they not? To their eyes it is foolishness. In the light of their wisdom it is nonsense. To live by dying, understandably, does not at first seem like a good idea. It is not a safe place for the one protecting his own skin. But what the world does not understand is that we all live by dying. Either others die to our needs and demands - in which case, a tyrant emerges - or we die at the needs of others. Something must give. We, by the Spirit's leading, have chosen a life of selfless giving. This flies in the face of self-preservation, and therefore the world labels it suicide. But it is at precisely this point that they fail to understand how God's world works, not having eyes of faith. All the world is a tomb; this they understand well enough. But it is an empty one. And that has changed everything. Creation, fallen and broken, longs to see the physical and temporal restoration of all things, a restoration that has begun in the hearts and lives of the people created to inhabit it. To the blind world, we are rejoicing in a mausoleum. We are setting up shop in the cemetery. "Why?" they say. "What do you hope to accomplish?" "Spring," we reply. Spring.To the eyes of winter, spring seems ridiculous. The bare branches, shivering in the snow, will laugh at ideas of warmth and foliage. And so they persecute. They scorn. They despise. Even if the faithless world leaves us alone, we still must deal with a fallen wintered world, where bodies break and the ice grows strong. It is the testing ground of our hope. Do we really believe in a spring? Do we really believe that the tomb is empty, that all will be resurrected? Do we think Christ-like in all things, for the joy set before us? Do we endure our cross? Or do we complain, and whimper, and actually consider our sufferings - these momentary light afflictions - as something worthy to be compared to the indescribable glory to come? To put flesh on Paul's words, it is like preparing for a ten-year, all- expense-paid vacation to your dream-location. A few seconds before you board the plane, you get a toothache. Not even a very bad one at that. In those brief moments, would we despair of ever seeing our waiting paradise? Would we say to ourselves, "It just isn't worth it. It just hurts too much. Maybe there won't be a vacation. Maybe there is no such thing as a dream-location at all,"? Of course not. The joy of a ten-year paid-vacation would be overwhelming. So overwhelming that a little toothache would probably go completely unnoticed. Now, I do not wish to make light of our present sufferings. They are many, and they are real. But neither do I want to make more of them than the apostle Paul does. And when it comes to toothaches, he had the worst. We are going to suffer, because Christ suffered, and we are not better than our Master. It is better to suffer for the right reasons than for the wrong ones. Suffer for hope rather than for stupidity. Suffer for trusting in truth rather than doubting what is real. When we suffer for righteousness' sake, we suffer the blows on the outside. By the mercy of God, we are given armor for this, and its name is Hope and Joy. But if we suffer for wallowing in our own filth, we suffer the blows on the inside, and no armor in the world can protect us from that. In the mire, we call our sin by another name. We spew our own filth onto those that rub us the wrong way, on those that expose the sin we are hiding. So trust not in yourself. Hope in God. Spring will come. These branches will bear fruit. The Sun has already risen, and the snow has already begun to melt.

Psalm 36

2011-11-26T18:57:00.001-08:00

Sin is a talker. Sin saddles up next to the wicked and whispers sweet nothings into their ear. David says of the wicked, "Sin speaks deep in his heart." There is no God, it says. These words tickle the ears and comfort the hearts of unrepentant sinners. No God, no consequence for action. No God, perfect liberty to live in such a way that pleases and gratifies every desire. "My sin can never be found out," they say. "My sin cannot be hated." An interesting and telling fear. Innate in every human is the need to be loved and respected. The lack of these two gifts, often self-induced, leads to all manner of rebellion, under the name of 'compensation.' We convince ourselves that our own actions and personalities cannot be hated or despised. The problem could never reside in us. More sweet nothings spoken deep in our heart. Aptly named, for they are sweet to the ear, but have no substance. We lie to ourselves, convinced by our own sin, that no one will hate our iniquity. It is the rare individual who works evil out of pure apathy. The common sinner will truly believe his sin will be seen as noble and true. David speaks rightly, "he has ceased to act wisely." A nice way of saying he has descended into nonsense. He who becomes wise in his own eyes becomes a fool in the eyes of everyone else. The deceived sinner turns inward, seeing no one else, trusting no one else. He lies awake at night, trusting his own counsel. He has lost all discernment.

What a contrast with the mercy of our heavenly Father! David makes the difference plain to see. The wicked turn inward, almost collapsing into themselves. The steadfast love of the Lord however, "extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds." As high as the mountains reach, so too His righteousness; as deep and as unfathomable as the great ocean depths, so too are His judgements. The salvation of the Lord spans His creation, to both man and beast. This point exemplifies the nature of both sin and righteousness. All sin is inward focused. Love and righteousness are entirely outward in their trajectories. Sin lies in bed at night, plotting pettily. Righteousness sheds light on all, brings light to all, becomes light in all that dwell in truth. It seeks not only the wellbeing of others, but of all creation. It views this world as a garden to be tended, as a gift to be enjoyed, and as a city to be filled.

David encourages us with the truth that there is no where we can go where the faithfulness of God has not already gone. Whether it be the uttermost depths of the sea, or the furtherest reaches of the stars, He is there, and there He loves. This love is precious precisely at this point. It is a treasure more valuable the gold. For in His love we rest, we feast, we drink, we see. In the shadow of wings we take refuge. On the abundance of His house, we feast. From the river of delights, we drink. In His light, we see light. The children of mankind partake of the fountain of life, life that is breathed and spoken.

Father we ask that you would continue to show us your steadfast love and your righteousness. We only know you because you have known us. We are only upright in heart, because we dwell in Christ. Keep us Lord, from the arrogant one, and do not let the wicked drive us away from Your presence. Indeed, how could they for You are all places. All places are before Your face. And there the evil cannot stand. Wickedness and injustice have no strength in their knees. They collapse before you, unable to stand before you. They seek to use their borrowed strength to rise against you, but they cannot. In this truth we rest, knowing our cause will be heard, and our righteousness, which is Christ, will be upheld. Blessed by the Name of the Lord. And Amen.

Thanksgiving Day 2011

2011-11-24T10:05:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Day. The parade is on the TV, Reformation-era Thanksgiving hymns are on the stereo, and two eager carcasses are bubbling away on the stove in a warm bath of onion-apple water and brandy. I lean over to my wife and tell her "thanks honey." She asks what for, and I reply, "I don't know. It's just Thanksgiving." She chuckles, and I get back to finishing the dishes. As I'm loading silverware into the dishwasher rack, I'm thinking about what I just said. What is gratitude without reason? Honestly, it isn't anything. It's just words. Thanksgiving must have a reason because it is a response, not the initial act. I am thankful for something and to someone for services rendered unto me. I am thankful to my wife for her love, and her patience, to name just two from the warehouse of reasons. If I am to be truly grateful, I must know what it is I am grateful for, what it was that someone did for me.

In this regard, Thanksgiving Day is not unlike every Sunday of the year. In fact, Thanksgiving Day is only possible because of the year's abundance of Sundays. Every Lord's Day we celebrate what our Fathers called The Eucharist, a greek word simply meaning "I Thank." This term was applied to the Table because it is at precisely there that we, as God's guests, say thank you to our Host. We have been invited into the household of God. Our feet have been washed. We have entered the door. We have sat at His feet with Martha's sister and listened to His word. We are now called to the table: "Dinner is ready!" comes the longed-for voice. At the table we find a feast of bread and wine spread before us. And we are bid, "Come and eat. This is given for you." The only response is to say "Thank you" and eat.

Those two carcasses bubbling away on the stove speak volumes of the true meaning of Thanks. Every "thank you" finds that it is a response to some form of sacrifice. Someone did something for you that took, at the very least, time that could have been used doing something else. Instead, they sacrificed that time for your benefit, and in response we say "thank you." Every true and loving sacrifice finds, at its root, the cross. Death for life. In the death of the God-Man there is life, for in His death, death died. Death is no longer our enemy, but our mode of life. As we love others more than ourselves, we are picking up our cross, we are dying daily. It no longer carries the stigma of fear and the unknown. Rather, death now has become the very way of life. It is the very basis for our thanksgiving.

And so I give thanks for the turkey. I give thanks for the carcass that, even in death, is giving us not only mere sustenance, but depth of flavor and rich joy. It is by means of death that we live and enjoy our table today. It is by means of the Death, and the subsequent conquering of Death, that we live and enjoy life at all. So let us live. Let us enjoy. By doing so we say, "Thank you."

Musings on 1 Peter (3:15-16)

2011-11-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

15-16: Have no fear, Peter encourages us. Do not fear the one at whose hand you suffer, for you endure in the hands of one far stronger. In the inner man honor Christ. With not only your outward actions, but with the inward thoughts of the heart, honor Christ. In honoring Him we acknowledge that He is God, and that we are not; we confess our complete dependence on Him, owning our own inability to live uprightly in our own strength; and we trust the story that He is telling through the different chapters of our life, knowing, as we do, the last page of the book. We honor Him as holy. We acknowledge Him to be set apart, a name above all names, the name which every tongue will confess, and in front of whom every knee will bow. He is the Lord, and there is no other. We confess our own unholiness, our falling short of the standard. But we trust that His righteousness, and the beauty of His holiness covers us, and transforms us into sons and daughters worthy of the Name, made holy and set apart for service under His banner. It is through acknowledging, confessing, and trusting that we are able to give a defense of the hope that resides in us.

We are to be ready at all times to defend the faith to those who question our hope. This presupposes a transparent cup, where the outside allows outsiders to see what the cup contains. If our external lives do not give anyone the notion to ask about our hope, we are failing to honor Christ the Lord as holy. If to the watching world we look no different than every hopeless son of Adam among their ranks, then we need to take a hard look at the inside of our cup, and ask if there really is hope within. What hope do we have that our lives have purpose, that our suffering has meaning, that every day is drawing us closer to a three times Holy God who has declared Himself our Father? Do we live in such a way that such hope is plain to see? We are children of the Living God who made all things. He is in the process of making all things new. He has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and placed us in the kingdom of everlasting light. If there is no hope in Him, there is no hope anywhere. But indeed there is hope, for we belong to Him. Therefore be at ease to live in such a way that banks on that hope. This hope is not a wishing well, it is a foundation of solid stone. It will hold the house of life through wind and storm. And this is the defense that we give when onlookers see our house standing firm against the rain. Why do we hope, they ask? What reasons do we have for hoping against all hope that our lives will not crumble into nothingness and eternal void? Our defense is this: First, we are already nothing. In our own shirts we are of no importance. We can crumble no further than our father Adam already did. Secondly, there is no void, for the God of Heaven and Earth has filled every conceivable and inconceivable space with the beauty of His holiness. The risen Christ has turned the world upside down and emptied its pockets. Light has filled the dark corners. The mountains have been brought low, and the valleys are lifted up. The world is a different place. It has a new center of gravity. He sits enthroned in Heaven, and He has called us friend. Who can help but hope? This is our defense. This is the reason for the hope that is within us. We are in the middle act of a three act comedy. Everything is jumbled and confused. The villain is still at large. Not all wrongs have yet been made right. But they will. The sun rises and we know that day is here. The Son has risen, the Day is upon us. Therefore Christian, hope. As the with the passing of night, so too with our sufferings. After winter, spring.

But be gentle in your reasoning. Trust the sovereignty of God in the manner of your defense. Show respect to all, so that through the purity and grace of your response, the Lord might put to shame those who slander your good name, and revile your upright behavior. It is not our job or our place to convince the unbelieving world that we are in the right. We can no more convince an unbelieving heart than turn coal into diamonds using nothing but our words. Our words carry little power, only reflected power. The One who holds all things by the power of His word, His words have creative power. His words become galaxies of stars, thick with matter. Only such a Voice can speak life where once was death, flesh where once was stone. Our role is to defend with a cheerful and gentle heart. If we do so trusting God for the outcome, the burden of saving people will be lifted from our shoulders and we will be free to simply share what God has done for us. If we are reviled for trusting in such a God then we put to shame those who revile, for their taunting carries no water. They reduce themselves to a playground bully, insecure in their own skin, forced to find fault in others, lest they are overwhelmed by the emptiness within. But this is exactly why we defend our hope in the face of such harassment. God brings low those who lift themselves up. In bringing them low He exposes their need for grace, their need for the hope that is within us. Then we see that He has placed us in just the right spot to not only defend the hope, but also offer it to the lowly. In such a way, the Father brings all His children home.

Musings on 1 Peter (3:10-14)

2011-09-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

10-12: On the heels of Peter's exhortation to love one another and to strive to be a blessing to others, he quotes Psalm 34 as a proof text to show why this kind of outward living works. In song like poetry, David declares that whoever desires to love life and see good days, he should not speak evil, nor deceive others. In other words, do not let your tongue stray into self glorifying speech. Speaking evil of others or deceiving others can only have one purpose, and that is to tear others down, and lift yourself up. To slander and lie is at the root of self worship, not because it desires to hurt others, primarily, though it does. It is the root of self worship because it is necessary to prop oneself up in the eyes of others, to raise oneself to the level of the divine. And the slanders and lies always begin at home. We slander ourselves, and deceive ourselves first, when we attempt such a thing. To be a created child of God is a noble and high honor, to be received with gratitude and grace. When we lift ourselves up we are actually casting ourselves down into the mire, thereby slandering our own noble nature, and deceiving ourselves that we are something better now that we have been self-liberated from the authority of others. It is a lie, a terrible lie that has ruined many a family and many a man. Therefore Peter says, love. Do not speak evil. But this love is not the hippie bumper sticker love, that says love for love's sake. That is rubbish. When Peter calls us to love, he calls us to gospel living, which is a call to death. For only out of gospel death can true life emerge. We die to self, we die to our own passions and desires. We live unto Christ through others, and thereby find joy.

"Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it." Again, don't be evil. To be evil is to be ugly. Evil is an adjective. Evil describes what your heart attitude is, regardless of what the action looks like from the outside. Evil is the apt word to describe everything done apart from faith in the risen Jesus Christ. So turn from it. You have been purchased by the blood of the Son of the Almighty God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. You have been cleansed. You are no longer forced by nature to act in an ugly way. Seek beauty. Seek peace with all, as far as it depends on you. Pursue Peace, real Peace. Again, we do not speak of bumper sticker definitions. Peace without justice, peace without recompense is no peace at all. If Jesus Christ had not taken upon Himself the full and complete judgement that was rightfully mine, there could be no peace. There is no reconciliation apart from confession and forgiveness. If it is true vertically speaking, it is true of the horizontal. If it is true of our relationship with the Creator God, it is true of our relationship with fellow creatures. Therefore seek Peace, the peace that is real, the peace that calls sin sin and seeks to eradicate it like a tumor. A doctor who sees an abnormal growth does not seek peace with his patient by ignoring the cancerous tissue. Peace means surgery, and now, before it grows. Therefore pursue peace, even though the pursuit is not peaceful. The pursuit will often mean strife, and struggle. Surgery hurts. Incisions bleed. But again, this is gospel. The way out of the tomb is through the grave. Do good. Seek peace.

Why? Why do all this? You speak of hurt and bleeding and dying and discomfort. Why should I pursue peace when it comes at such a cost? Why should I do good, when it might bring pain? Because the Lord watches the righteous. The Lord God sees your heart and understands the workings of your will. He who sustains us and holds us and continues to speak us into existence (whether we honor Him or not, interestingly), is the master of turning pain into joy, sorrow into laughter, mourning into a song of life. He is the one who conquered death and sat on its head. The Lord of life watches our way, and provides light and rest to those who walk according to His instructions. His ears are open to those who trust in Him. He listens to those who are in distress. He takes your feeblest efforts to do good, and pursue peace, and transforms them into works of mercy and of grace. He sees the heart, and honors the will. Those who seek to do ill, the Lord has turned against. It is neither prudent nor wise to disparage the hand that holds your life together, to dishonor the Spirit who allows your lungs the very breath they use to curse. Turn from doing evil, and hold fast to what is good. For the the Lord lifts up those who seek the good of others, those who see in others the face of God.

13-14: Who is there to bring harm if we are zealous to do good? This is Peter's version of Paul's "If God is for us, who can stand against us?" Neither question states that there will be no one standing against us, or that no one will bring harm and suffering into our lives. We live in a fallen world. Pain, suffering, sin, harmful opposition, they are not maybes but inevitables. We live in a world made by God, inhabited by people who hate their Maker. Strife and conflict resulting in difficulties are not a question of if, but of when. At the very least we have conflict happening within our own persons. Not only are our bodies decaying, paying tribute to our fallen world, but our natural desires as sons and daughters of Adam give us who are redeemed by the blood of Christ enough trouble for a lifetime. Beyond our own persons we live in communities where God is not honored as God, nor is He given thanks. People living with mutually exclusive world views will run into hardships. Pain and suffering will be a constant theme, to one degree or another. So no, the question does not mean to imply that there actually might not be anyone out there who might hurt us. Rather that God is God in all, and through all.

Peter's under layering hope here is that God, our Father, is the Author of all things. This necessarily includes any pain and suffering that might result from a life of faith. If God, our Father, calls us to do good, to be zealous to do good, and if this same Father and Author is writing into our story the pain and suffering that accompanies doing good in a sinful world, then we have nothing to fear. In the back of Peter's mind is the time he heard Jesus say, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." What can man do to us in other words? If we strive to do good in all things, and resistance rises, what really do we have to fear? Death? Pah. We belong to Him who conquered death, and made him our servant, an usher standing in the narthex of the cathedral of eternal joys. And really, thats man's only weapon. They can inflict pain, they can torture, they can do really awful things, things that should not be taken lightly. There are horrendous atrocities that occur against the Bride of Christ in this very day and age. In the final analysis, however, all they can do is scrape the surface. They cannot dislodge that which rests in the hands of God Almighty.

Therefore, do not fear. Do not let your hearts be troubled. For you are blessed in suffering for righteousness sake. For it is not your righteousness that you are suffering for. Rather it is the righteousness of the Son of Man, to whom we owe our lives, our freedom, the very air we breathe. His righteousness has delivered us, body and soul from Hell. It is His righteousness that is the bedrock of our hope. For His sake we endure all manner of things. Why? The reason is simple. It is the story that the Author of Life is telling. We are living, breathing characters in a grand drama that is unfolding in time. The great Playwright has chosen us, crafted us, and is positioning us in His story. We are simply called to live in obedience to His story, to love His story, to embrace His story. This great drama is the lifting up of the Son of Man. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Jesus is Lord. He has been given a kingdom, dominion, power and authority in Heaven and on Earth. He is the King. And He is drawing all men to Himself. This is the story we are in. By His grace we participate in this, by living and breathing the story. Every character, if they are to be interesting, and intriguing to the reader, must endure trials. It is the means to growth and maturity. We are dynamic characters, placed in the middle of pain and suffering, not that we might get lost in it, but that we might learn to endure, learn to rejoice, learn to be content in all things. For we are being prepared for an eternal weight of glory. This preparation takes place in the sight of all men, so that they might hunger for it. So that in witnessing our response to the story they might long to know the Author. This is the basis of evangelism. It is expressed in whatever gifts we have been given, and whatever station we have been given to. As a body working together in unison through our different giftings, we disciple the nations, baptizing and teaching them to obey all that we have been commanded.

Therefore do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in Christ. He sits enthroned in Heaven, governing all things. Every moment of every day is a moment of interaction with the Almighty, a moment in which we see Him work, a moment in which we confess our dependance on Jesus.

Musings on 1 Peter (3:8-9)

2011-08-10T18:08:00.001-07:00

8-9: Peter next takes a step back and addresses all of us as one body. "Live like Christians," he says. "Live as you were called to live. Do not act as though you were an unbeliever, as those who speak evil, or revile." We are called to bless, Peter says, and to bless others in and through every aspect of our lives. It is in blessing others that we ourselves are blessed. How do we do this? Peter draws our attention to five different ways. First, be unified in mind. This is difficult for us. We all come from different stations, different backgrounds, with different personalities, etc. In this way Peter calls us to unity as a summation of what he has been talking about this entire chapter. Masters and servants, citizens and governors, husbands and wives, be all of you of the same mind. In other words, no matter what role you play in the grand drama of God's story, have gospel minds. Both masters and servants, have gospel minds. Husbands and wives together, have gospel minds. Together share the same hope and glory of who God is, and what He has called you to do, no matter the reality that He has called you to different roles. Bless one another in the way He has gifted and positioned you to do.

Next we are called to sympathize with one another. Literally we are to step into one another's shoes. As the whole body suffers when one part suffers, so we must manifest this in our body life. If we do not feel the pain or suffering of other 'body parts' it is a valid question to ask if we are truly members of that body. Do we hold one another up in prayer and encouragement? Do we seek the good of others before our own? Do we come along side and weep with those who weep? Or do we insist on speaking the truth without love, declaring what we 'know' to be right without any regard to the frame of the brother or sister? One song puts it this way, "Don't read me pointless poems friend/Don't diagnose, don't condescend/Though you may be right to disagree/I need someone to weep with me." What character are we playing? Are we the one to diagnose and condescend, even though we are right? I forget who, but someone talks about a deeper right. The deeper right lays aside all judgments and sermons and simply enters into the grief and suffering of a brother. God's truth is bigger than us. We do not need to defend every last jot and tittle in the face of family suffering. There will be time for that another day.

Love the brethren. In other words, love one another as if you were family, because you are. In an age of broken homes, and destroyed families, it is not as easy to convey the meaning of this type of love. But regardless, we must love the brethren. What does this mean? I think one of the primary aspects of this type of love is simply joy. Do you enjoy your family? Do you enjoy the presence of the brethren? Or is your love more academic? Do you affirm your love for them in your head, and through a simple handshake on Sunday mornings? Or do you actually enjoy their company? Do you seek them out? Do you, so far as depends on you, seek to bless them out of pure joy? Love that does not include this is not love; it is tolerance. Enjoy the brethren is the heart behind Peter's exhortation here. Love them, and love being with them. So far as it depends upon you.

Be tender-hearted. There are not many words more rich with readymade implications than this. It is the word that describes a mother's first experience with her newborn child. Feelings of love, adoration, care, concern, and nurture. An immediate disposition of self sacrifice, of selfless giving for the sake of the other. A common theme runs through all Christian virtues, not least of all this one. That theme is anti-pride, death to self for the life of another. We saw it above in the relationships and roles we are to inhabit and perform. We see the epitome of anti-pride hanging on the cross. It was not with a hard heart the Jesus bore our sins. How can we do otherwise, when the sins against us are petty in comparison with the sins Jesus bore?

Finally be of a humble mind. Some manuscripts have friendly mind, but I think it amounts to the same thing. Does your mind, and therefore the extension of your mind, i.e. thoughts, words, and deeds, does your mind think of others first, or of your own self first. I like the idea of a friendly mind. A mind that is outward focused. A mind that is not overly concerned with self. That is the essence of humility after all. Humble people are not dour people. Humble people are friendly, joyful, and caring. They simply don't care about themselves, apart from the obvious necessities of food and hygiene. Even there though the humble is quick to invite you over for dinner, and pays attention to their appearance for the sake of the comfort of others. It boils down to this. Have this mind in you also. What did Christ do? What mind did He have? Should we not do the same?

Musings on 1 Peter (3:1-7)

2011-08-08T14:51:00.001-07:00

1-2: I am a young husband. Because of this I am approaching these verses with not a small amount of fear and trepidation. It is at this point I would like to remind the reader of the title above: "Musings." I am ill-equipped to teach with any real authority on these verses. I am more like a boy on the beach, dirty with sand and sea water, dried kelp stuck in between my toes, contemplating what clean skin after a shower would feel like. None of us is perfect in these things, however, and we wont be until glory. All of life to a certain extent is spent in the same place as the boy on the beach. It is in this that I take hope and proceed in musing on these first few verses.

Peter calls all wives to submit to their husbands. It is the same submission that we have been discussing above, Christian to human institutions, servant to master. The point there, as is here, is that the one submitting is no less equal to the one they are submitting to in God's eyes. They have equal value and equal worth, because they are both image bearers and servants of the King. What we have been talking about is a hierarchical world, one in which by God's design some lead, and others follow. Again, it is this way because God Himself embodies this, and all of the created order is a reflection of who the Creator is. Therefore, wives submit to your husbands. Not because they are worthy to submit to, not because there is something special in them. Peter anticipates this when he goes on to say that it is likely that your submission will be the very thing that God uses to bring about repentance and salvation in the disobedient heart of the husband. Here we find a marvelous paradox. True submission, true following will anticipate true leadership. If a husband is lousy, and we usually are, a submissive wife will often be the key player in bringing about repentance, and true headship. This is so because true following and true submission are in reality first and foremost a description of the follower's position before God. If you are not submitting to God, you cannot submit to your husband. We submit to God first, and manifest this through our willing and cheerful obedience to what He has told us to do. Therefore wives submitting to their husbands is in itself the cheerful act of submitting to the Higher Authority. (I am purposefully leaving out of this discussion the extreme cases of domestic violence, and hardened husbands; situations where a submissive wife should prove her submission to the Higher Authority by leaving her husband, and finding shelter among friends. These situations are very real, and require a different teacher to effectively offer light on that dark path.)

Therefore, wives be subject to your own husbands. God is the author of our lives. God has given us each the spouse we need to be shaped and molded into the image of Christ. When a husband is not obedient to the Word, Peter tells wives that it will not be their words that save their husbands. It will not be their pleadings or their requests, but their conduct, their pure and respectful actions. This takes tremendous faith on the part of wives. It acknowledges that God is the author and perfecter of faith, not us. He is the author of the faith that will fill an unbelieving husband. As Author it will be in His time and in His way. Wives are simply called to be subject to them, showing respect through pure conduct. It is not the respectability of the husband they are honoring. It is the authority of their God they are submitting to, trusting in His goodness and in His wisdom. It is the same phrase we discussed above, entrusting oneself to Him who judges justly. It is not within our power to make husbands more respectable. That is a work of the Spirit. Wives who desire this must depend fully on the work of the Lord, and thereby show their submissive hearts.

3-6: Peter anticipates one way in which wives might be tempted to misunderstand this calling. It is easy to do for it is the way the world works. On the heels of telling wives to submit, he asks that they not consider their worth, nor their glory to be in the main external. "Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-..." The world would say that to win a man, a woman must be externally pretty, wear seductive clothing, and act in a way becoming of such external trappings. But this is not how Christians are to act, nor even to think: "but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."Again we see our priorities need adjusting. God must be honored first. This is not done with braided hair, and gold bracelets while the heart is far from Him. Jesus called the Pharisees who thought this way, white washed tombs. We might call women who think this way gilded headstones. There is a way that seems right unto man, but it leads to death. In honoring God first, we address the main problem, which is our sin. When our sin has been dealt with by the blood of the Cross, we see how God uses inward submission to transform the whole man.
Wives are called to be beautifully adorned, but it is the gentle and quiet spirit that God finds precious. It differs from external prettiness in three ways. First it is imperishable. A gentle and quiet spirit will last for eternity, where as what the world considers beautiful is like a delicate flower; it blooms and promptly begins to fade. Secondly, inward beauty actually accomplishes things. Inward beauty, Peter says, is what will win people, men in particular, to Christ. It is the example of godly submission that declares the gospel. What the world calls beauty cannot do that. In fact it does just the opposite when pursued for its own ends, becoming an idol. Thirdly, inward beauty will always make true external beauty possible, and inevitable. This is most obvious in elderly mothers in the Lord. By the world's standards, they are not pretty, or beautiful. Their skin is wrinkled with age; their hair has gone grey if not blue; and gravity effects their bodies more than the body of a younger person. By the world's standard, this is not beauty. But here again we see the foolishness of the world, and the wisdom of God. Elderly sister saints, having lived lifetimes defined by inward beauty, with gentle and quiet spirits, are the most beautiful people this world can know. To look on them is to be warmed from the inside out. The beauty inside has transformed the wrinkles and gravity stricken body into gems of untold worth. It is the power of the gospel at work. It is the glory of earthenware vessels.

Peter calls on history to exemplify his admonitions. Sarah, and the women of old, showed this type of submission, trusting in God. Again it is faith that defines this type of life. Faith that the sinner of a husband you have will be transformed into the likeness of Christ, just as you hope and trust the Spirit to work in you. Going on mere outward experiences, there is not much to gladden the heart. Husbands screw up, and will continue to do so until glory. But the wife who in faith, submits in her heart and with her hands to God first, and husband second, finds that she can live without being afraid of what her husband might do. She knows that she belongs to Him who is the Author and perfecter of all faith, including the faith defining her husband's life. It boils down to trust. Do we trust God to be faithful, even when we are faithless? Do we trust Him to continue to work in our lives? Do we trust Him pick us up whenever we fall? We should, because He will.

7: Husbands do not get off as easily. Even though Peter gives them only one verse, it is quite a verse. First Peter begins by drawing an analogy to what he has been saying concerning faith, submission and obedience.'Likewise' he says, or 'in the same way'. Husbands must live this life just like their wives, submitting in cheerful obedience to the will and commands of God. This takes great faith, for there is a way that seems right to men. But God calls us back to Himself, to start there, and in the fear of the Lord, proceed. Peter calls husbands to live with their wives with knowledge, or with understanding. It is the greek word that, roughly translated means 'to click'. The lightbulb going on is a picture of this word. This is how husbands are called to live with their wives; i.e. in such a way that everything about them, not least of all their thoughts and emotions, clicks. We are to know who our wives are, understand what and why they are thinking what they are thinking. This is a tall order for husbands, because their thoughts are higher than our thoughts, their ways above our ways. But Peter calls us to grow up. The culture of this world delights in prolonged immaturity. It is one of Satan's primary weapons. 'If we can convince the men that they need not think, or mature, or grow in wisdom,' Satan tells his minions, 'then we can interfere with His plan for them.' Men have been told that women are inscrutable ever since we were little. "Just deal with it" is the attitude taken, which results in eye rolling disrespect on our part, and frustrated sorrow in our wives. But if God, through Peter, calls us to live with our wives with knowledge, and not just the hopeless pursuit of knowledge, then it must be achievable. We must actually be able to do it. If we are able, it will take patience, attention, listening, strength, and most of all, the will to do it. We must not be apathetic to who our wives are. It sounds harsh to say that aloud. To say it that way, makes us cringe and swear we have never been apathetic toward our wives. But we are. Constantly. Whenever we would rather watch the TV then spend time focused on their needs. Whenever we would rather put our nose in a book than take the time and energy to discover how she is doing. "Except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Husbands must die to self. Husbands must die to their own desires and needs. Husbands must die. Else they will abide alone, in the shell of their half-hearted marriage.

Peter continues. We must show our wives honor as a weaker vessel. As created beings, we have all been made to bear in a small and finite way, the attributes and image of God. Together, male and female He made them in His image. The feminine and and masculine together in correct arrangement showcase the fullest image we on earth can bear. Both sexes image both sides but with greater emphasis on one or the other. Generally speaking, men are created to be strong, enduring, leaders. Women are created be loving, compassionate helpers. Men and women have been given frames that aid and are suitable to our different callings. Men are given strong and hard bodies, whereas women are given bodies that grow and nurture others. The two bodies are as different in form as they are in function. Peter recognizes this and understands the female glory that is held in their weaker, less physically strong, frame. Husbands recognize this too, and should not take advantage. We must not strong arm our wives, even though we are physically able to do it. In respecting and honoring their weaker frame, we respect and honor the purpose and image they bear. In respecting them and lifting them up we honor and glorify the Maker, by honoring His great intentions and design. In dishonoring women in domineering and tyrannical ways, we dishonor God Himself, and seek to declare our rebellion from His wise and perfect ways. In obedience we consider our wives as Christ considered His bride. She (we) were helpless and weak, and Christ did not strong arm us into servitude. Rather He considered us, while dead in our sin, as worth saving by means of His own brutal death. This is how we show honor to the weaker vessel. We must die.

Peter concludes this thought with an odd phrase, "so that your prayers may not be hindered." To the thick of mind (husbands) these two thoughts don't belong in the same verse. Honor your wives, we can grasp, even if eventually. But to hear that 'hindered' prayers are a consequence of not doing so, we choke on our academic whisky. You mean to tell me that God takes this stuff seriously? Yes He does. Why? Of all the equally valid reasons that are out there, the one Peter uses is this: They are our co-heirs of the grace of life. They have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb as have we. They are sisters in the most real sense. And if we say we love God but hate our sister, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. If they are sisters, and share in the inheritance of life, then the same Spirit that dwells in us also dwells in them. If we refuse to honor the Spirit residing in our wives, why would the Spirit of God honor us? Christ gives us one another, and in doing so gives us Himself. We each are members of His body. How can a foot dishonor a hand, and expect to receive honor from the head? We are thick, as mentioned above, in that we do not connect these dots. Worse then thick, we are propping ourselves up as gods, even if unintentionally, in not showing honor to our wives, in not loving them as Christ loves His wife. Again, and always, the answer is to die. Husbands must die. We must die to our own ambitions, our own desires, our own thoughts of direction and purpose. Only then will the grace of Christ raise to new life our own complete persons. And when He does, He will do so in the context of our neighbors, in the context of our families, and in the context of our wives.

Musings on 1 Peter (2:18-25)

2011-06-22T10:15:00.001-07:00

18-20: We are a people, a holy nation, called to suffer for the sake of the gospel. If the world hated our Lord, then it will hate us. We are not immune to suffering. We live in a world plagued by the curse of the fall. Everything we do is made more difficult by the fall. Difficulties are hard and heavy, and they cause us to suffer, laden with weight and trial. But Peter calls us to endure, for this is what grace means. We have been shown grace, grace beyond comprehension, grace beyond our wildest dreams. Peter defines grace this way here: enduring while suffering unjustly. If we suffer as a consequence of our own stupidity, then what credit is that? It is when we suffer for doing good, for acting wisely, or for standing for truth, that is where we showcase grace. On the job site, do we showcase grace? In the home, do we showcase grace?

We live in a necessarily hierarchical world. What does that mean? God has, in His wisdom, created the world in such a way that some would have rule over others. It is not a value statement to say this. Each person is created in the image of God and loved by Him on an individual level. But to keep the world running smoothly, some must have authority over others. In the home, the husband leads the wife; on the job site, the foreman leads the workers; in the church, the elders shepherd the flock. This is so because our Triune God Himself models this for us. The Son submits to the word of the Father, and the Spirit obeys the will of the Father and the Son. They are each equal in their Divinity and equal in worth and power, but submit to one another in love, as if in a grand cosmic dance. One leads, the other follows. It is a beautiful thing, and the source of beauty in the world. We uglify creation when we ham handedly force our clumsy egalitarian mantras onto every situation. If all the contestants are given a gold medal at the end of the race, then there is no point in running, no matter whose self-esteem we artificially boosted. But beauty is found in the leading and submitting paradigm. It is the elegant waltzing couple, gracefully floating across the floor, in precise and practiced steps, made to look effortless.

Some lead, others follow. It is the nature of the world. It is also a fallen world, where leaders do not lead well, and followers do not follow well. Grace, as Peter defines it here, is following well when others do not lead as they should: when masters beat their slaves for doing good, when employers punish employees for acting wisely, when husbands brow beat their wives for being prudent. For sure, it is sin and it is wrong for those who lead to act in such a way. But believe God, and trust in Him. They will be held accountable for their actions. You, in the ways in which you are a follower, showcase grace. Submit, Peter says, to those who have authority over you, remember their authority is not theirs by natural right, but by God's wisdom and determination. Therefore, let us be subject to those we are underneath, and endure with joy, knowing that in doing so, we are proclaiming God's grace.

21-23: Enduring while suffering unjustly is not just something to be prepared for in case it happens sometime. It is a life we are called to. Again, "If the world hated Me, they will hate you also." Jesus Himself, paved the road for this type of gracious living. He suffered cruelly at the hands of wicked leaders. Not only did He suffer, He did so on our behalf, taking upon Himself the greater suffering that we deserved. He was unjustly murdered. We have been shown mercy through His healing wounds. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Peter says He did this in part to leave us an example. It is as if Jesus said to us, "Children, you cannot endure the suffering you deserve. I will bear that for you. In doing so I will pave the way for you to follow, guided and strengthened by My Spirit who I give to you. In Him you will be able to suffer the little things that life will bring. Many of them you will not deserve. Did I deserve the suffering I bore? Do not be anxious for them. Endure with Joy, seeing the end that is set before you. Follow after me. Pick up your Cross. Fear not, My burden is light."

The remarkable phrase in verse 23 is this: "but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly." Jesus had perspective. He knew that He suffered unjustly under the hands of small men. He knew His trials were "unfair." He knew they were not deserved. But He continued to entrust Himself to the One who judges justly. God is God. He judges the earth with equity. He also works on His timetable. Often we want the fire bolts of judgement to descend right now. We want God to act on our timetable. But He is God, we are not. He sees the end from the beginning. That is where we are required to trust. We believe that God is both just and the Judge. As God, He knows what He is doing. As Just, He will act well. As Judge, He will bring justice to every situation. These three things we must rest in. We must trust God to be God. A rather silly thing to have to say to ourselves, but we need to. God will be God whether we trust in Him or not. But trusting Him gives feet and wings to endurance.

24-25: Our father, Adam, fell at a tree. It was by a tree that the curse of sin and death entered the world. It was a tree that bore the tempting serpent. In the glorious providence of God, salvation came by means of that tree. The serpent was cast down, and God Himself was nailed in his place. The serpent had looked down from the tree, questioning Gods word. The Word looked up from the tree, trusting in Him who judges justly. The tree which offered the tempting fruit, now bore the fallen fruit of temptation. The tree at which our whole human race was wounded and cursed, now brought the healing sap. Christ reversed the effects of the fall. At His death, death itself began to work backwards. But Jesus did not die so that we might live. He died so that we too might die, but live again in His resurrection. We must die to sin, for Jesus died for our sin. We must now live in righteousness, for Jesus was raised to new life. By His wounds we have been healed. We were once lost sheep, straying far from the comfort of our shepherd. But we have been found. We have been brought back home.

Musings on 1 Peter (2:13-17)

2011-06-20T23:35:00.001-07:00

13-15: Peter continues to exhort us to live well in front of others. Submit, he tells us. It is not for our sakes, or for the sake of authorities either. We do not obey those above us in order to be praised, or well rewarded by them. We do not obey our earthly authorities because they possess in themselves the right to govern. We obey for the Lord's sake, whether it be the emperor, the king, the president, the prime minister, the governor, etc. We obey because the Lord tells us to. It is the Lord we are obeying. In this we recognize that all earthly authorities derive their power, not from the people, or from position, but from God. He sets kings on their thrones, and He brings them down. He establishes crowns and courts, and He dismantles dominions. Because all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Jesus. That means our current administration answers to Jesus. Our state and local authorities answer to Jesus. He owns them. He has given them authority to administer justice, to punish those who do evil, and to praise those who do good. When this does not happen, and evil is praised and good punished, those responsible will be called before the Supreme Judge, and will be held accountable for all their misdeeds. But it is not first and foremost our concern. We do not need to defend the King. He needs no lawyers. He has the power to judge, and will do so righteously. Therefore when we see injustice done, especially at a level where we can do very little, we can have a foundation of peace. We can rest knowing that justice will win. Recompense will be made.

By God's great wisdom, it is through rest and peace, and quiet living that true justice grows. The ignorance of foolish people will be silenced by our good works. The good work to be done in this context is to be subject to the powers that be. In our submission, and in our obedience to the one who rules the ruler, we prove the wisdom of the world to be ineffective in the pursuit of change. We cannot effect lasting change. For we are simple sinners, and wherever we go, there we are. But the one who rules the heavens and the earth, the one who declares, "Behold, I am making all things new," He can bring real, and lasting change. He can bring real and lasting justice. And so we trust in Him. Our weapons are not carnal. Our weapons are not merely political. They are Spirit and Truth. They encompass politics only in that they encompass all of life. We trust in the Lord of politics, the Lord of capitols, the Lord of legislations. Therefore, Christian, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. It is quiet submission that will turn the world upside down.

16-17: Our basis for living quiet lives is that we are in reality free. Though our external circumstances seem to be enslaving, what with taxes and regulations and inflation, we are at the core of reality, free. This requires some perspective to understand. If we really believe that Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, that indeed all authority has been given to Him, then everything we see is under His dominion. If everything is under His dominion, then that means everything. Every bill that is passed, every law that is established, every decision made by every cabinet in every country in the world. Let that sink in. Ponder the truth of that statement and how really real it is. It is not some sunday school truth that we nod at when we are six, only to realize when we are adults that, of course, its more complicated than that. Jesus is Lord. It is that simple. No fine print, no reading between the lines, not misunderstood subtext. Jesus is Lord. And here is the beautiful thing. We belong to Jesus. Here comes the perspective. If Jesus is Lord, and we belong to Jesus, and in Him is freedom, then we are free. The word Freedom has unfortunately been hijacked by our modern sensibilities. We have come to understand freedom as complete and utter autonomy, final say, total ability to choose our own destiny. Nothing could be more absurd. Not even God has this kind of freedom. He Himself is bound by His own Holiness, bound by His own nature. So we too are bound by our nature. We can only do two things: either obey God in conformance to how we were built, or rebel, and live life according to our fallen natures. Either way we are living bound lives. If we rebel, and live unto our own fleshly inclinations, then our very fabric begins to unravel, until nothing is left of us except a clump of dusty thread. But if we live by the power of the Spirit in a manner consistent with how we were created to live, then glory and freedom and peace are ours.

Peter defines freedom here as serving God. This is our creational design. To serve in the house of God as sons and daughters. True sons and daughters do not live as if some other house is their own, and follow the governance of some other father. True children serve their Father with joy, and in so doing find their freedom. Some, those whose hearts are carnal, would see the freedom grace brings, as an invitation to live in another father's house. There end is destruction. You cannot serve two masters. We are sons and daughters, a holy people, kings and queens in the House of the Lord. If that is true, then that is true now. As a plumber you are a king in the kingdom. As a nurse, you are a queen in the Holy City. Our freedom is real, for we really do belong to Jesus, and Jesus really is Lord of all. It is with this confidence that Peter tells us to, "Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." God is God. He does not share His throne with anyone. This means the emperors of our day are simply subordinates, vice-presidents at best. Therefore Christian, know that with Jesus on the Throne, we live our lives unto Him. In this we have the ability to honor our fellows, for they are put there by the King. If God deems it prudent to place a certain someone on the throne, or in the oval office, we fear God by honoring the emperor. Our freedom does not hinge on the whims of a vice regent. Our freedom is secure in Christ. In honoring the emperor we recognize and publicly declare that he is there only because Someone higher placed him there. Only if God is God can you honor the emperor, or love your neighbor. He is. So honor and love. We need fear no man.

The Fourth Day

2011-06-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

From outside the bright and unending light
The Spoken and the Speaker called to one
Another; it was so. In pure delight
The firmament gave birth to mighty sons
And daughters, too; empty space now undone.
Seven children did the Speaker make, to
Govern times and seasons; their course begun,
They will reign until the day earth, made new,
Is, of time, no longer in need. "TO YOU

MIGHTY SOLIS," He said, "I give the day.
You are the Son of Light, giver of Gold,
And wisdom, chasing mists of doubt away.
Like a man, strong in valiant youth, take hold
The reins your chariot offers and be bold
In your conquest of the sky. Come, Bridegroom,
Leave your nuptial tent and search out the cold
Surface of earth, her power to chill consume.
Kiss the earth with warm joy; bring her to bloom.

"LADY LUNA, silver huntress," said He,
"To you I give the long night, serve her well.
Though you wax and wane, through melancholy
Moods show inconstancy, and some compel
To madness, you impart through dewy spell
Rhythm and maturity, granting sleep
'And drench of dream' to weary heads. Farewell
To day and with him, hurried thoughts that creep
Across the mind. Mother, My children keep.

"SYLVAN MARTIS, to you I give mankind,"
Said He, "And all his efforts to succeed
In life. He will strive, mastery to find,
That his world may be without any need.
War will rise, for impossible indeed
This is apart from Me. With iron staff
You will teach him the art of planting seed;
Hands will work, discerning true wheat from chaff.
Come Harvest, hearts will cheer, red cheeks will laugh.

"BRIGHT VENERIS," He said, "Sweet Morning Star,
I give to you love and society.
Your beauty shining copper-like on far,
Distant fecund fields, in chaste piety,
Will bring them children in variety.
Awake to love, these I have formed from clay;
Teach them to care, and with propriety
To hold one another dear. I today
Have shown you love; love which they must obey.

"SWIFT MERCURIUS, "said He, "with winged foot
You will fly. To you I give mankind's Speech
That by your art they may learn to love what
I have Said. By words and sounds you will teach
Them the depth of creation's Beauty. Each
Of my words, the quicksilver-like glory,
Fill the earth; your words, they will use to preach
My grace, to train their youth, to bless the hoary
Haired heads; to live and to love the story.

"JOCUND JOVIS," He said, "To you I give
Life and laughter, and vernal jollity.
Winter is gone; teach your subjects to live
In light of the Great Feast. Eternity
Will be their end. With ripe hilarity
Share with them the Joke: red wine served in tin;
Mighty king, as bells sing and banners flee
Before the wind, teach my children to grin,
To laugh, and to love, for Me they will win.

"WISE OLD SATURNIS, Father Time, "He said,
"To you I give the leaden weight of age.
The fruit of the branch must yellow, and, dead,
Fall to the ground. But my children will wage
War with death. This they must not do. Assuage
Their fears. Tell them of seeds and how they grow,
For thus their bodies enter the next stage.
Bearing resurrected fruit they must go
To the four winds, and your full purpose show.

THUS HE SPAKE, and thus they were: sevenfold
Deities to rule the life-filled heaven.
They govern times and seasons from of old;
They are the captains of His Host. Seven
Lords and Ladies, formed for the sake of men.
Servants of all, they only bow the knee
To One. Before Him they have always been,
And in His presence they find they are free
To be what they were created to be.

For in Him is all Light; Golden and wise,
He keeps those who sleep 'neath the silver light.
He is true Man. With fire in His eyes,
Glistening love, and true solid delight,
He sends for His Bride, and all through the night
Feasts in the laughter and joy of His love.
For by Death He has bought her; death she might
Have tasted but for His grace. By the Dove
Death has died. Glory be to God above.

Day to day pours out speech that must be heard,
Their voice goes out through all the wind-blown earth.
Night to night reveals knowledge of the Word;
His heavens proclaim to all their worth.
His glory is seen in their very birth,
For He holds all of His creation dear.
There is no speech nor are there words whose mirth
Is not heard, by those who, in hearing, hear.
This is their song, sung in joy and in fear.

This song sung in seven part harmony
Joins the great dance, and calls all to the floor
To circle Him in great polyphony,
With ever increasing speed they adore
The risen Lamb who as King sits before
The Great Ancient of Days. Faster they dance;
Quicker, quicker they move. As planets soar
Through their planned steps, we are given the chance
To gaze with wonder on their great expanse.

We behold their steps, their mighty reel.
By the light of their dance we reap and sow;
We love and laugh, we sleep and die; and feel
They were given so upward we might grow.
Therefore, Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
He is the only one in whom we boast.
Praise Him all creatures who are here below
Praise Him above, all you Heavenly Host
Praise the great Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Musings on 1 Peter (2:4-12)

2011-06-03T23:44:00.001-07:00

4-5: We are called to come to Jesus. There is no option. Peter treats it as a done deal. As you come, he says. He does not say if you come, but when you come. We must come to Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the one who shapes and molds us. He is the Master mason, taking the living stones of our lives, fitting them perfectly into His house. We are the very materials He uses to build His dwelling place, His spiritual home. As we come to Jesus we realize that we have been rejected by man. The world does not know what to do with love. It has no place for joy in its blueprints. But we are living stones, precious and chosen by God Himself, so that we might serve Him in His house. As priests we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, which is our spiritual worship. And through the completed work of Christ, our service becomes acceptable to God. This means our entire lives. Every moment of the day, every decision that we make, every thought that we have, must be taken captive, and be rendered as blood on the alter. We die, daily. We sacrifice the will of our flesh, and say no. It is malice that must die. Envy and slander, must die. Hypocrisy and deceit, die. We are no longer stones the world would be comfortable using. We are living stones, made suitable for use in the kingdom. Made suitable by the blood of the Lamb, who desires our service. If that isn't incredible to think about, I'm not sure what is. The Creator God, the Triune Majesty desires our service, not as slaves, but as precious and chosen heirs, as if we had something to contribute. He has made us His priesthood, and His temple. He has made us partakers of His very nature, inviting us into the very circle of His glory. It is no wonder Peter says As you come. How could we say no?

6-8: Scripture bears witness to this great edifice that is being built. The apostles and prophets laid the foundation with Christ as the chief cornerstone. From Him all lines are drawn, and on Him our foundation is secure. Christ is the Stone, and in Him we are living stones, chosen and precious. We will not be put to shame. The prophet knew that the gospel was foolishness to the world's mindset. He knew that it would be a stumbling block to those who do not believe. He comforts us then, insisting that those who trust in Christ, those who become stones themselves will not be put to shame. Their faith will not be in vain. The God they put their trust in will not be shown to be a sham at the last day. His word is sure. We believe in His word. Therefore we have honor. They who refuse to believe will stumble and fall. They stumble because they do not obey the word of the Lord, and the Chief stone has become a rock of offense. They will be put to shame. The god of their world will be shown to be a sham, for there is but one God in Heaven, and His Son Jesus Christ. We belong to Him.

9-10: But you. Words of mercy and of grace. But you. Those who disobey will fall. But you. We are a chosen race, the new humanity in Christ. When Christ rose from the grave, He became the first fruits of the new creation. He ascended into the heavenly throne room, sitting at the right hand of the Father, ruling over His inheritance. To Him had been given honor and glory, dominion and authority, in heaven and on earth so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. He sits on His throne and declares, Behold, I make all things new. He sits there now, and behold He is making all things new. He has begun with us, His Bride. Through us He is recreating the world. Once we were not a people, we were formless and void. Once we had not received mercy, like the earth without the light of the sun. But now we are a people, for He has spoken it with power. Now we have received mercy for the Son has risen and shines on our hearts and our hands. A second Adam has come. A second Eve has been brought forth, in water and blood, from His pierced side. A chosen race, made up of every color; a royal priesthood, both male and female, kings and queens; a holy nation, set apart with every language spoken; a people for His own possession we are. And we are called with purpose. We have been shown mercy and grace so that we might proclaim the Glory of God. We have been called out of darkness. We have been placed in marvelous light. We were once formless and void, and God spoke light into our very souls, and there was light. It is the excellencies of His majesty and power and grace that we proclaim. This is why we have been called. This is why we have been brought into His house, as priests and kings: so that we shout with our lives the living majesty of our God. We do not do this first and foremost with our own particular voice. Before all else we do this as a chosen people. Together we are the nation of God, and it is as a nation that we bear witness to His mercies. It is the reason we have been called, and when God calls, He does so with power and authority. Therefore we will not fail, for we are but the mouthpiece of God, and it His Spirit that goes forth drawing all men to Himself. We simply obey, honoring God and giving thanks with our lives, watching the leaven run through the loaf; watching the mustard seed grow into a tree so large, all the birds of the air find their dwelling place within its branches.

11-12: Peter reminds us that our home is Christ. Our center is found in Him. We are exiles here in this land, dispersed and yet still a people. We have not lost our identity though we be scattered across the land. In fact we identify more clearly with Christ as a dispersed people; a people sent to the corners of the earth, for in our dispersion we see our purpose. Here we find one of Heaven's paradoxes. As a sojourning people, sent from our home city to fill the earth, we find that we do indeed belong here. He who says this world is not our home and therefore we do not belong here draws a false conclusion. The earth was created for man, much like the sabbath, and so it is for man to enjoy. We were not created for Heaven, though that is where we find our head. Earth is the natural place for us to be, enjoying the fruit of its bounty. Though we be citizens of a better country, we have been given this land as a possession; and behold, it is very good. Therefore we can live our lives here with peace, knowing that we can feel settled here, on earth. We can plant vineyards, and harvest grain. We can build cathedrals and invest in our children. In fact it is in doing these very things that we bear witness to those who are spiritual gentiles, of the glories of our Creator. In their presence we abstain from the passions of the flesh. In their presence we do battle with our proclivity to sin. Keep your conduct in their presence honorable, Peter exhorts, so that when they slander you, they are without footing. When they revile us, and we show them love, the love our Lord has shown us, then they will know that we are truly disciples of Jesus, and they will glorify God. Our good deeds are to be seen. But not so that we may be glorified. Our good deeds do nothing but point to the mercy and goodness of God. For in our natural state, we are no better than those who revile. As children of grace good works have been placed before us, so that we might walk in them. This is our testimony to the world. It is with lives like this that we exhort the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus.

Musings on 1 Peter (2:1-3)

2011-06-01T22:21:00.001-07:00

Chapter 2
1-3: We come to Christ as newborn babes. When we are reborn in the Spirit, we begin again in spiritual infancy. This is the way God works. For those who would be proud, God humbles them, and brings them low. We were proud in our rebellion. We were stiff-necked like our brothers of old. We were haughty and looked down at others, considering them and their needs to be beneath us. But when God grabs hold of us in that state, in His grace, He does not destroy, but rather, brings us low. He in effect says, “My child, you may begin again.” But this time He does not leave us on our own. He has filled us with His Holy Spirit, enabling us to taste the Lord and discern His goodness. Therefore, having indeed tasted that the Lord is good, Peter calls us to put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. These are the tools of the old man. They are the utensils that he uses to prop himself up. They once were ours, but are no longer fitting to our new position as children in the house of the Living God. Let us spend some time on each one.

We are to put away all malice. We can no longer think of ourselves as more important than others. We can no longer look at others and see fellow contestants in the contest of self-exaltation. If we consider others to be simply co-contestants, constantly in our way as we pursue our own self-determined ends, we will only view them with an eye of contempt. Other people can do nothing other than impose their needs on us. Even a benign conversation is a small need the other person has that only we at that moment can fulfill. If we see that moment as a competitive move, as a grasping at our trophy, then we can only see them as enemies, and our hearts will be full of malice. Our only thought will be to obstruct them in some way so that they will fail in their perceived attempt to glorify themselves over us. But we are new creations. This is not what is going on. It is our flesh that blinds us to the reality of the real needs others have. It is our flesh that convinces us that in order to come out on top, we must first make sure everyone else comes out on the bottom. But we are to put away this attitude. It is not becoming, nor is it beautiful. It is ugly and petty. God’s way is much better. Jesus says that he who wishes to be first, should make himself last. God exalts the humble, but He brings down the haughty. Therefore let us humble ourselves, putting away all malice, and consider others to be more important than ourselves. If we do this, we just might see that it is God’s path to the ultimate trophy, the crown of life.

We are to put away all deceit. There are two types of deceit. There is the deception that we inflict on others, and there is deception that we inflict on ourselves. They naturally go hand in hand; there is no way to do one without the other. They are both expressions of dishonesty and we cannot be honest with one party while being dishonest with the other. Again, it is the flesh that tells us to deceive. We deceive others because we fear them. We are afraid of what they might think of us if they really knew what was going on inside our hearts. So we put up masks, making others think of us differently than if they knew the truth about who we really were. At the foundation of this fear is shame. We know our hearts, deep down. We know the disgusting thoughts that float in our mind, often uncontested. We feel that if we don’t keep up our façade, others might be ashamed of us as well, and would despise us. The devil, and therefore our flesh, hates nothing more than ridicule. Satan, and therefore our flesh as well, must have the fear and awe of others. Hence he is called the deceiver. Hence we in our flesh deceive others. We put up magnificent shows hoping beyond all hope that others will be so impressed with the outside of our cup they will assume the inside is just as grand. But magnificent as the outside may be, it is still a show. It is still a deception. And this is where we are deceiving ourselves as well. Everyone already knows it’s a sham. Everyone already knows it’s a façade because they feel the need to do it as well. We deceive ourselves most when we feel we are deceiving others well. There will always be some who fall for the trick. But we cannot deceive everyone all of the time. For God is watching, and He can never be hoodwinked into thinking you are someone other than you. Therefore Peter says, put away all deceit. Live life before God in front of others. Be ashamed of your flesh, but confess it, and rest on the complete forgiveness of Christ. There is not one sin that we commit that is not a forgiven sin. Therefore be free. Honor God and give Him thanks. We need not wear the mask anymore.

We are to put away all hypocrisy. This is one of the easiest sins to fall into. It has become cliché to ask if we can walk the walk now that we talk the talk. Inward belief and outward actions are the two sides of one coin. What our heart truly believes, our hands will do. What our hands do give true expression to what our heart truly believes. Our tongue plays no part except to either testify to the agreement between heart and hand, or to cover up the real intentions. If our tongue speaks consistently with the heart and hand, and makes no show to deceive others, then we are free of hypocrisy. But if the tongue seeks to cover up the intentions of the heart, making our hands look like they are doing something different than what we know them to be doing, then we are speaking out of both sides of our mouth. Hypocrisy says one thing, and does another. It is the war between the Spirit and flesh with flesh winning a battle. It is difficult to live honestly before God and before ourselves. Our flesh wants to glorify self, and our spirit wants to glorify God, our hearts and hands being the battlefield. We will always be tempted to hypocritical deceptions, because our flesh does not want transparency with others or with God. But Peter tells us to put it away, and so we must be able to. How do we do this? First we must remember what the Lord tasted like. Was He bitter or sour? Did He go down roughly? No. We have tasted the Lord, and indeed He is good. It is the goodness and grace of God that must transform our minds and hearts and be manifested in our hands. The heart attitude of forgiven-ness is a flame that we must continually fan, or else the coals will smolder. Has Christ covered all my sins? Yes. Am I fully and freely a child of God? Yes. Have I been given the Spirit to fight my battles alongside me? Yes. Then rest, Christian. Confess your sins regularly. Be at peace with the grace that has been shown to you in Christ. There is no room for hypocrisy in a grateful heart.

We are to put away all envy. It is really pettiness here that we must deal with. Envy desires the glory that comes with something someone else possesses, at the expense of the other person. In our flesh we cannot abide others being glorified while we sit by and watch. Our flesh convinces us that it is not fair, that it is we who deserve the accolades. But this is simply foolishness. It is triviality. We have been given every spiritual blessing in heaven. We have been given a host of physical blessings on earth. Eyes that see, ears that hear, noses that smell, tongues that taste, skin that feels, hearts that beat, lungs that pull in air, imaginations that can create worlds, minds that can process information and knowledge, souls that can enjoy created delights. All this freely given to us from a Father who loves us, and created us to enjoy His world. And we envy the promotion of our coworker. Is it not silly? Deep down at the bottom? So Peter tells us to put it away. Don’t, in other words. It’s almost easy if our minds and hearts are in the right place. A heart full of gratitude leaves no room for envy either.

Finally, we are to put away all slander. Slander is envy in action. It too is petty. We feel robbed of deserved glory when another receives what we feel is rightfully ours. And so we spread lies about them; we put them down, so that others will feel about them the same way we do, disgusted by the attention shown to them. This rarely works how we want it to however. Like deceit, we are only deceiving ourselves when we make this play. Our desire is that the people we tell lies to will suddenly feel we are the ones who deserve the glory instead of the ones we are slandering. But it cannot succeed. The minute we start slandering others we look aggressive and vindictive, and downright stupid. We cannot hope to win for ourselves the glory we sought to take away from others. Our intentions are plain for all to see. Therefore Peter says, put away all slander. Do not use your tongue as a weapon of self-glorification. It cannot work. As Jesus says, love your enemy, and seek to do them good. Remember who you are as a child of God.

How are we to put these things away? How are we to say no to the tools our flesh is so comfortable with? The answer is easy. It is the doing that presents difficulties. We must immerse ourselves in Christ. This means regular interaction with the Word. This means reading and grappling with our Bibles. This means regular worship with the Body, for this is where we meet Christ and dine with Him. This means regular times of prayer, both personally and with others. Put simply, we are to live a body centered life. Here is where we learn to live in the presence of others without resorting to malice and slander. It is in the warm and forgiving atmosphere of Christ's own family that we gradually come to find freedom from the old ways of life. It is living in the presence of the King and His kin that we find ourselves being renewed and transformed.

We are infants when we first come to Jesus. We are to long for the pure spiritual milk of the Word. We cannot digest the meaty truths that are revealed to us in Scripture right away. We need Christ and Him crucified. But we are to feed on the milk so that we may grow up into our salvation. One of the great failures of our modern culture is to downplay and marginalize maturity. Our elders are sidelined and ignored, and the youth dictate the trends and dynamics of our culture. We do not fear, or honor, or hold in awe anyone based on age or their wisdom. This mentality has crept into the Church to the point that we don't feel the need to go beyond the pure milk of the Word. But Peter calls us to grow up, and so we should.

Therefore put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. These tools no longer belong in our belt. Around our waist there is only room for love, joy and peace; for patience, kindness, and gentleness; for goodness, faithfulness and self-control. Let us strive for these things. Let us strive for Christ.

Musings on 1 Peter (1:13-25)

2011-05-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

13-16: With mercy as a backdrop, we move forward with gratitude. Having been given life, we must live it. Life looks different than death. Life takes action. Life works and acts. Not that works and acts are the basis for salvation. May it never be. But good works have been prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. We must work out our salvation, and we only work out what God is already working in. Therefore, Peter says, get up! Get ready! Set your Hope on Christ. Keep Jesus as your center. Rest fully in the grace that has been showered upon you. This requires sober thinking. We must concentrate, and understand it, chew on it and mentally digest it. For grace is a strange thing indeed to the unregenerate heart and mind. It doesn’t make sense. Even to the redeemed, grace has a way of undoing us. It is powerful, and strong. Therefore, be sober-minded, and set your hope fully on the grace that Christ offers. Grace is eternal. Grace has been extended to us from the beginning. Even the act of creation is an act of grace, an act of bestowing and giving. We have received grace upon grace. And yet we still are waiting for more grace at the appearance of Jesus. We have the grace of His second coming to look forward to. Then we shall know Him. Then we shall see Him face to face.

As we wait with eager expectation, we must be formed by the preaching of the word. Our lives are living testimonies of God’s grace. We bear witness of God’s grace with holy living. We are but children in the Lord, and as such are to be obedient to the desires of our Father. Much like earthly fathers know more than their children, and give them commands to follow in order to teach them to grow well, so our Heavenly Father has given us commands to obey, that we might grow straight and true. How can we who have been given a knowledge of the Lord, and have experienced His grace, return to acting as if we knew nothing of what we’ve been taught? How can we return to lives of ignorance? We can see now that it was not simple ignorance, but vile rebellion. How can we who have been shown such mercy, return to lives of disobedience? Is it not the core of ingratitude? Should we not say thank you in how we speak to one another? Should not our actions at work say thank you to a Father who provides? Should we not say thank you with the attitudes we harbor in our heart regarding life’s circumstances? Every breath we take is gift and mercy. Every moment of the day is a moment in which the Lord blesses us with grace and mercy. Should not every breath we take and every moment of the day be an opportunity for us to express our gratitude? In fact it is. We express either gratitude or ingratitude with every step we take. There are only two ways of doing/saying/thinking things. Either we do/speak/think by faith, or we do/say/think apart from faith, and anything not done in faith is sin. There is no middle road. Every thought/word/deed must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ; otherwise it is allowing ourselves to be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. Our Father is Holy. He is Holiness. We are to be like Him. We were created to be like Him, made in His image. But in the garden we despised the gift. Therefore a new image was needed. The image of God had been defiled. So God made Himself in our image. In Christ we have the first fruits of redeemed mankind. And so now we are remade in the image of Jesus, the image of an obedient and faithful Son. Therefore let all our conduct be reflective of the new life we have been given; let it be a reflection of the image we have been recreated to bear. Let us be holy, as our Father in heaven is Holy. By the power of the Spirit, we can.

17-19: The Lord God Almighty sits enthroned in the capitol city of Heaven. He judges the nations of men. He rules with a rod of iron, brings justice to the poor, and is the strong right arm of the weak. We call on Him as a Father, as our Father, for so He is. He created us. He brought us into being out of nothing. He formed us in our mother’s womb. Therefore let us fear Him. Let us honor Him as God and give Him thanks. Let us not despise His word, nor trample underfoot the vineyard of His mercy. For we were nothing, and He gave us everything. We were a pile of bones, and He wrapped us with sinews and flesh. We were empty of life, and He breathed into us the fresh wind of the Spirit. We were sons of Adam, and He has purchased us with the priceless blood of His Son, so that we might be the adopted heirs of His riches. The spotless blood of the Lamb of God cleansed us of our iniquities, purchased for us freedom, and redeemed us from the futile ways of our forefathers. Therefore, again, let us fear our God with every fiber of our being. Let us honor and obey His word. How else do we say thank you?

20-21: Our God is eternally triune. Father, Son and Spirit. From before time existed, God has dwelt in community and in fellowship. This is why He is love. The monotheistic god cannot be love in himself, for there is no one outside himself to love. And true love is never self-love. True love always has both a subject and an object. True love always flows out. In the mystery that is the Trinity, our one God exists as three Persons, able to show love for one another. In the Trinity love is modeled for us. Love was shown in the manifestation of the eternal Son of God in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He took on flesh and dwelt among us to show perfect love, to show the greatest love. In Love He laid down His life for His friend, His bride, His Church. The Father showed love in honoring the sacrifice His Son had made; raising Him in new life, He defeated the enemy’s last stronghold. He gave the Son glory so that we might find our faith and our hope in Him. For no man can thwart the plans and intentions of God.

22-25: We have been made new. We have been washed with the purified water of the Spirit. We have dedicated our lives to obedience and faithfulness. Therefore let us love one another. With obedience comes love. Love for God and love for each other. We are family, united by a stronger blood than our own. Let us love one another with a pure heart as well. Peter knows the inclinations of our flesh. He knows we lean toward selfish desires, even as redeemed children of God. Our desire to love will be beset with temptations to demand love in return. But that is not our calling. We are to love with a pure heart, a heart that truly loves others for the sake of others, and not for anything we might receive in return. Peter calls us to love with purity because we have been born again. It does not fit the born again to love selfishly. The husband, newly married, cannot return to pursuing other women. It does not fit. It is off-key and out of tune. Furthermore, we have been reborn from imperishable seed. We were previously born of our mothers like the withering flower of the field; delicate and beautiful, but unable to last. We are now reborn of the living and abiding Word, who was with God in the beginning, and who was God. In Him we will abide forever. Unlike the flower of the field, the one who abides in the Lord will never fall, but will flourish for eternity. This Word is the good news that was preached to us. This is our Gospel hope.

Musings on 1 Peter (1:1-12)

2011-05-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

Chapter One
1-2: Peter has written a letter. He has written a letter of encouragement to his brothers who can no longer live in their homeland. The people of God have been sent into the world. The end of an age is approaching; the end of temple worship is at hand. No longer will God’s people center around a particular place in geography. No longer will His children journey to a certain city on a map. They have been “dispersed” among the nations. And this, according to Peter, was accomplished by the foreknowledge of God the Father, so that they may be sanctified by the Spirit. The priestly people have been sprinkled with a blood better than bulls and goats, and therefore have been washed for worship. They have been prepared to kiss the Son, and obey His Word. They have been prepared to receive in abundance both grace and peace.

This is a good thing. This is a good place to be. This is a fertile field where the grace of God and the Peace of salvation can abound, and find increase. It is in the dispersion that we see God provide. It is in exile that we find our true home. For our home is no longer a place. It is no longer a destination. Our Home is a Person. Our Home is Christ. It is our purpose that we find here, surrounded by fields ready to be sown. Our theater for observing God’s abundance is on earth, but our Center is in Heaven. That is where we have citizenship. Therefore our calling is this: To go to all the nations with the grace and peace that has been bestowed upon us, and that is being multiplied within us. Being sent out of our ‘homeland’ we have been made priests, sanctified for ministry. We are to bring the nations before Him who dwells on the Mercy Seat. We hold healing and salvation in our hands, for we hold the blood that washes clean the covering that is cast over all peoples.

Still, life is difficult. We often find ourselves in spiritual, emotional or physical wastelands. Often we feel like exiles; sent away from the comforts and securities of home, be it our physical or emotional home. We have seasons of dryness; deserts, with oases few and far between. But this is where Peter encourages us. Though we find ourselves home-starved, and weary, we have been sent out by the foreknowledge of God our Father, for the sake of obedience to the Son, through the sanctification of the Spirit. This means our dispersion is purposeful. We are to remember that in Christ, we are never far from Home, because He is our Home. We are never truly exiled because the nations belong to Christ. We can never be completely undone because the circumstances we find ourselves in belong to the one who made us, remade us, and ordained us in the ministry of His life. Having been purposed for this world, we can understand our place in it. Struggles, trials, difficult circumstances are all avenues for the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They become the fire and the anvil and the hammer, as we are being shaped and honed. Being dispersed reminds us that the things of this world are not to be our primary focus. We have been foreknowingly sent into the world, exiled in strange and alien countries so that we may proclaim the glory of God. We do this with our lives, our actions, our words, our habits, our time, and our thoughts. As we find our home in Christ, our lives take on the shape of our home; as we focus on our center, our lives become centered on the Truth. This life is the life that is taken to the nations. This is the act of obedience that Peter speaks of. Not only are we sprinkled by the blood, being priests and living sacrifices, but we are to sprinkle the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, teaching them to obey all that we have been commanded. And behold, He is with us, even to the end of the age.

3-5: What joy we find in Christ. May our lives truly say, “Blessed be our God and Father.” It was His mercy that brought us life. It was His love that brought us hope. In the resurrection, and only in the resurrection, is found living hope, hope that does not die. Wishful thinking dies away. Hope, true hope, will never pass away, for it is grounded in the death of death, and therefore cannot die. Not only have we been raised to new life in this hope, we have been given an inheritance that cannot die either. Our inheritance sits at the right hand of the Father, and has already died once. The promise land of eternal life is freely given, and cannot pass away. Nor can we, for we are being guarded through faith, through the faithfulness of Christ, for a salvation that will come. Full and final salvation awaits, and is the answer to every question that arises in the desert. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. It makes every season worth it. It makes every trial and every struggle seem bearable, nay, hopeful.

Peter’s encouragement begs us to have this hope now, in the middle of the trials, in the middle of the struggles. To have the perspective of heaven means to see everything that happens here and now as a preparation for that day. These are the months and weeks and days leading up to the Royal Wedding. All preparations are being made. The heads of state are being notified. Invitations are going out. The Bride is being fashioned and beautified. All of it points to the day that is coming. Not one day of preparation is without purpose or importance. The Bride, pressured and stressed, sees the joy that is coming, understands the trajectory of it all, and rests in the faithfulness of the groom to be there at the altar on that coming day. To see Him there makes it all worthwhile. That is our unfailing hope.

6-7: In this we rejoice. We find joy in hope. When hope is sure, there is no room for despair. Even though the externals of this world and its circumstances are painful, difficult, or seemingly impossible. We have all been grieved by various trials. We have all seen and felt and undergone painful and trying events. Whether it be a loved one dying, loss of income, estranged friendships, infertility, family tragedy or whatever; life is hard, life is real, and the hardship and pain is real too. But the trials really do have purpose. Its one thing to say that, and another thing to have that be the mold that forms our attitudes while in the midst of the trial. But Peter declares that these trials, these very real hardships are testing the genuineness of our faith. This is not for God’s benefit either by the way. God knows if our faith is genuine. God knows better than we do ourselves. If our faith is genuine, our faith can only be strengthened that we might see God strengthening it. This changes us. It does not prove anything to God. God is proving something to us. This can only result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Peter may be referring here to the final coming of Christ, when all shall be revealed. But I believe it is also true that when we are being tested, and the genuineness of our faith is being proved, Jesus Christ is being revealed…in us! And this is what we give praise to God for. What started as a lump of clay, is now being fashioned and formed by the Master Potter into glorious vessels of mercy. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in and through us. This is the purpose of trials: that Christ may be revealed in us, that Christ might be shown to the world through our lives. This tested faith takes on more value than gold, which perishes though tested with fire. It is more valuable because it will not perish. It will go on, into eternity.

8-9: We have not seen Jesus face to face. Not then, not now. But we love Him. We believe in Him. This can only be a work of the Spirit. How can an unregenerate heart love someone they have never known? How can an unregenerate soul believe in someone they have never seen? Our hearts truly have been made new. How else could even the idea of loving and believing in Jesus sound plausible? Truly we have been reborn through the Spirit. In this love and through our faith, which is pure gift, not something we have accomplished, but rather something we have obtained, through this faith we have seen salvation. We have tasted life. Salvation has been given to us. And because of the pure grace of it, the undiluted mercy shown to us by God our Father, we find ourselves unable to adequately express the joy that fills our hearts. It is inexpressible. Joy cannot be explained or diagramed. It can only be eaten, laughed, shared, cried, drunk. Words fail our finite tongues. Raising a glass begins to scratch the surface of what this joy means. It means glory. Our lives now take on the weight and the purpose of glory. Our Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father, and the Spirit together is worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son. We now partake in that glory, for we partake of the Father, in Christ, through the Spirit. It is what we are saved to. This glory then fills our lives, transforming us from one level to the next, overflowing into our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and our markets. This salvation, this joy, this glory becomes the center that defines our lives. It becomes the mold that shapes our reactions to trials of varying degrees of difficulty. Salvation and glory and joy are the liquid that the sponge that is our life soaks in, so that when squeezed, the liquid of glory and joy comes rushing out. This is our gospel witness. This is true evangelism.

10-12: This story is not a new one. It has been foretold from the beginning. The seed of the woman would destroy the seed of the serpent. Throughout history we see the two lines warring and attacking one another, with the seed of the woman always coming out on top. The prophets saw this, and proclaimed the Word of the Lord, declaring the coming sufferings of Christ along with His subsequent glories. Here we are again. Glory is not an add-on. Glory is not like a sticker that you put on your window. Glory does not adorn anything. Glory is the product of trial. Christ suffered, tremendously. Because of His suffering He obtained glory. We who are in Christ, participated then, through faith, in the sufferings He underwent on the cross. We also live out the cross in our daily lives, bearing the pain and trials of living in a sin cursed world. But we also, through faith, obtained the glories of resurrected life with Christ as He ascended and took His throne above. We also, having taken up our cross daily, and having died daily to the temptations of our flesh, join in the glory of the resurrection now. It was revealed to the prophets that we were the reason Christ would come and suffer. Their writings were intended for our elder brothers the Jews, so that they may obtain hope. We, as true Israel, are served by the prophets therefore in being the recipients of the good news which was preached to us. This gospel was brought to us through the Holy Spirit who was sent from Heaven. This story of grace is so marvelous, so stupendous, so ridiculously beautiful that angels long to understand the theme. They long to see what it is God is doing. They are desperate to look into the book of grace that is being enacted daily in our lives. We have experienced something that no other creature, in heaven or on earth, can experience. That something is mercy.

Living the Sabbath

2011-03-06T15:26:00.000-08:00

If anyone out there is interested in reading a 20 page response and commentary on Norman Wirzba's book, Living the Sabbath, there might be one found here.

Blessings

Bonhoeffer's words for Advent

2010-11-30T10:44:00.001-08:00

We shall ponder the incomprehensibility of our lot and be assailed by the question of why, over and above the darkness already enshrouding humanity, we should be subjected to the bitter anguish of a separation whose purpose we fail to understand...And then, just when we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.

-Letter to fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer from prison, December 13, 1943

Pain and Suffering

2010-11-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

(The following is an excerpt from a longer paper responding to the book Living the Sabbath, by Norman Wirzba.)

As Christians we are servants of a dying world, a world ravaged by the fall, ravaged by sin. A world that is full of injustice, pain, misery, suffering, and despair. Real life is hard. Real living is difficult. However, what we fail to see is that, though the pain is real, and not to be made light of, the despair is of our own making. The problem lies in how we understand the world: the presuppositions we carry concerning ourselves, our ‘natural and inalienable rights’ that we feel should naturally be a consequence of all the good we do in this world where there are so many worse sinners than us. Wirzba is quick to point this out, and reduce the problem to its core:

Especially in an era of individualism, we are readily tempted to reduce suffering to whatever impedes our freedom or brings us displeasure and discomfort. Think here of the common complaint that life does not go as we planned or expected. It is easy to interpret events as evil or to claim that the world we live in is rigged against our personal success. But is it really? The problem with this anthropocentric, even egocentric approach is that it assumes that the whole of reality should be geared to the satisfaction of our narrow wishes. This assumption is deeply at odds with the creation narrative that proclaims God’s [Sabbath rest] as creation’s ultimate goal, and with the experience of Job, who learns through his pain and suffering that the goods of this world are not tailored to his interests and that the scope of God’s concern extends far beyond humanity to include all of creation. Our best efforts to establish an accountant’s ledger of good and evil will often miss the mark. (79)

As Christians, we are servants of a dying world. Our purpose is to be a light, a city on a hill, leading the way for people who are fallen, broken and full of despair, bringing them to a place where pain and suffering are given meaning, and context. As Christians, we offer the only way of understanding pain and suffering that leads to hope and peace. It is simple. If there is no God, there is no final justice, where all that is evil and bad will be punished. More than that, if there is no God, there is no such thing as “evil and bad”. There is no fixed, absolute standard upon which to base any system of morality. Again, if the individual is king, and the independent mind is the final authority, you have simple chaos. If self and self’s desires are the standard upon which we build our moralities, our ethics, the basis for whether we do this or that where it regards others, then all is relative, and whether I shoot you in the head or bring you flowers doesn’t matter. They are potentially both equally valid actions consistent with the standards established by the reigning authorities: me, myself, and I. In this system, there is no hope for utter and final judgment, and all past atrocities simply become meaningless instances of the individual’s right to choose. If Darwin was right, why was Hitler wrong? In this system the death camps of 1940’s Poland become no better or worse than Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood. Both are equally valid expressions of the individual’s right to choose. And the freedom of the individual to choose as he or she desires, is, as we know, a “natural and inalienable right”. Pain and suffering therefore become meaningless adjectives, unable to hold any real significance.

There are, obviously, major problems with this way of thinking. First, it simply isn’t true. There is a God and He laughs at those who think and act otherwise. Second, it is inconsistent with how the natural mind works. Even pagans understand that what Hitler did was wrong. They understand pain to be painful, and suffering to be difficult. They are real experiences, the meaning of which transcends culture and language and time. This is so because all human beings bear the image of God, and in so doing know, deep down, the difference between good and evil. We know instinctually that shooting your neighbor deserves judgment and some form of justice. And so the disconnect becomes clearer. We want justice and desire punishment for the breaking of moral and civil law. We want the standards that make it possible to determine what is right and what is wrong. These are necessary for any civilization to endure and achieve peace. We want standards that apply across the board, and are a higher authority than our individual freedom to choose. We want the standards, but we don’t want the One who gives the standards, because He Himself is the Standard. So we are left with an inconsistent and dysfunctional society, heading inevitably toward dissolution. A house that is built on sand, no matter how stable it looks, and how close the builders copied the blueprints of the house built on rock, that house will fall. It may take longer for the siding to deteriorate because it borrowed materials from the other house, but it will, and must fall.

As Christians, we are servants to a dying world, a world whose foundation is sand; a society whose moral fiber is borrowed; a people who are blind to the ridiculousness of a Standardless-standard. But their blindness is self-inflicted. They suppress what they know to be true. A real problem arises, though, when the Church, who is not suppressing what she believes, acts in such a way as to offer no hope and no peace. We, as the Church, do this when we minimize the reality of pain and suffering. We know that our God is a God of love, and believe that He has created a world full of joy and delight, and trust that He desires our good in giving us Sabbath rest. But when we minimize pain and suffering, or define the offending events as random, meaningless acts, we betray a heart that does not trust God. We minimize pain by defining it as every instance in which we don’t get what we want. It is at these times that life becomes “hard”. Things are not going are way, and so we bring out our sheets of sanctimonious sackcloth. But this understanding of pain rests on the conviction that our needs, our desires, our wills and choices are the standard to which life must obediently play out. If this is our hermeneutic to interpreting life, then there is no room left for serving others. We need therefore to recover a biblical definition of pain.

The problem in the Church arises from our wanting to protect the holiness of God. There are two available options. Either God is a bystander, watching random and unfortunate acts occur, or He is sovereign, and the author of life, the difficult parts as well as the joyful ones. In the first instance, He is not really God at all, and so therefore if pain is the result of randomness, who cares. What does it matter, for there is no real god able to redeem or give meaning to the pain? But in the second, there is a Father who has created us for a reason. He has fashioned us and breathed life into us, so that we may glorify Him, and share His love with others. It is with this interpretive key that we unlock the meaning of pain and suffering in our lives. When we truly experience hardships, not the disappointments that come from our desires not being fulfilled, but from physical or emotional trials, we are being equipped for communal living. If the whole focus of life is outward, and not inward, every circumstance, and every experience is imbedded with an outward trajectory. The question should not be, “Why am I going through this?” Rather our inquiries should sound like, “What does this trial equip me to do as I live in fellowship with other people who will eventually face similar situations?” And more importantly, “How does this trial create in me and in my life an ability or opportunity to bring glory to the Author of all things, even this trial?” The real problem with pain is not that we experience it, but that we do nothing with it. In attributing it to blind forces of chance, we surround ourselves with purposelessness, and continue to feed the lie that what matters is our own comfort and security. As such pain and suffering become forces that need to be combated, like enemies. We must work hard to fend off the antagonistic attacks of hardships. But, as Wirzba notes:

Pain and suffering should not be cast as “problems” that need to be “explained” or “solved,” eliminated because they represent an affront to the world we would choose or make for ourselves. In fact, it is a mistake to look for a “solution,” since this becomes an excuse to avoid the communal disciplines of care and constancy that enable us together to bear, absorb, and grow through each other’s hurt. (79)

It is at this point that we see the connection between pain and suffering, and Sabbath rest. At first these two might seem to be at odds with one another. If all things in our life are meant to have an outward teleology, then certainly the Sabbath rest God has created for us must be seen in the same way. If Sabbath rest is Gods intention for all of creation, then our pain and our suffering play a part in achieving that end. This is true because the foundation for Sabbath Rest is the Cross of Jesus. Ultimate Pain and Ultimate Suffering was endured for the joy of Sabbath Rest. This act of the God-Man Jesus at once gave meaning to pain and gave purpose to suffering. In the cross of Jesus, and in the daily crosses we ourselves bear, we see Sabbath rest being brought to others. We see Him serving the dying world.

The dying world we inhabit is a system based on violence and death. A world in which the wills of every citizen compete for supremacy can have no other outcome. Wirzba comments,

Christ’s resurrection, as the revelation and overcoming of our death-wielding ways, makes possible a new kind of life, restoring creation to its original intent of participating in God’s own life of joy, peace, and [Sabbath rest]. The resurrection, in short helps us know what Creations is ultimately about as a forgiven and reconciled existence formed in grateful acceptance of gift upon gift. (83)

All of life is a gift from the hand of a Father who knows far more about ‘what is good for us’, and ‘what we really need’ than we ever could. As Christians, we are servants of a dying world. In picking up our cross daily, we are given the tools to appropriately understand the pain we experience, and are given the grace to come along side others and bear their burdens as well. Wirzba continues,

This humbling realization enables authentic thanksgiving and praise. It is also the basis upon which to build practices of forgiveness and reconciliation. Once we learn to appreciate our own lives and those around us as gifts from God, we do not need to enter into bitter struggle and inflict various forms of pain and suffering upon each other. The many relations that feed into our being and literally constitute it can now be embraced and celebrated as so many forms of manna from heaven. (83)

Our natural, unredeemed instinct is to find fault in others for our suffering. The Cross breaks this cycle by exposing the fact that true fault lies in ourselves. We are the fallen race of God-haters, worthy of the flood waters of judgment. But God in His grace has given Sabbath rest to us, His adopted children, through the sacrifice of Jesus. This means two things: first, “we have no right to expect a painless life, because Christ Himself did not” (83). “If the world hated me, they will also hate you.” Secondly, we have been lavished with rest, and when we least deserved it. In this we too have been given the ability, and the responsibility to give rest to others. This is done primarily when they need rest, or in other words, when they are suffering. Sabbath rest, again, does not mean escapism, or relaxation. It means a full awareness of who God is, what it is exactly that He has done for you, and a willingness “to be transformed by the suffering of God Himself, and then from the perspective of this transformation welcome the whole creation with humility, care, gratitude, and the overall aim of celebration” (88).

We must not minimize the reality or the depth of pain that suffering brings. We must understand its full weight. Therefore we must not see it outside the context of a God who Himself endured the full weight of suffering and loss, and in so doing gave rest, peace, wholeness, and joy to the very people whose suffering He bore. To minimize pain and suffering is to minimize the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is to remove completely the hope that we have; hope that was given to us so that we might bring it to a dying world.

Cosmology and Epistemology

2010-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

I just came across a quote from Garret Green’s Theology, Hermeneutics, and Imagination which made me put down my book and pick up a metaphorical pen and paper. The quote is this:

From Galileo and Newton to Einstein and Stephen Hawking, the reigning scientific
models of the cosmos have provided the larger culture with powerful analogies
and metaphors that shape its epistemology, its poetry, its politics, and its
religion…many of the leading postmodernist ideas borrow much of the their
imagery, and not a little of their social prestige, from scientific notions of
relativity, uncertainty, and incommensurability.

The thought that struck me was this: How might our reading of Scripture be different were we not living in and under an Einsteinian cosmology? How quick are we to allegorize and metaphorize passages of Scripture simply because we 'know better'? We know that the heavens have no vocal chords, they have no personhood, so how can they declare the glory of God (Ps 19) in any way other than a metaphorical one? How can they “day to day pour forth speech”? We know that space is simply a vast and immense void spotted with spheres of flaming gas and frozen rock? Right? Since we know that to be the case, Ps 19 must be speaking in a less than realistic mode. Right?

Here is my contention. It is not to argue specifically for a certain reading of Ps 19. It is much broader than that. It is to argue for the reigning paradigm that will necessarily shape our “epistemology, [our] poetry, [our] politics, and [our] religion.” From what paradigm does our epistemology come? Who determines the basic, most foundational, even subconscious, mode of our understanding? What well do we draw from to make our every day determinations as to what is real, what is symbol, what is metaphor, and what is hard, cold fact? What paradigm determines even our vocabulary for such discussions to inhabit?

Was the medieval church wrong to think of the cosmos in terms of reigning personalities? Was the Psalmist wrong to think of the heavens, day to day, pouring forth speech, “their voice [going] out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”? How do we understand the Psalmist? From what altar do we sit and judge?

More questions. Does Scripture ever speak in terms of facts? Did Paul ever speak in terms of discovery (as opposed to revelation – the distinction is important)? Did Abraham look up at the stars and see flaming balls of gas? Even if he knew that’s what they were made of (like we do), is that what he would have seen? Did David see a tree as simply a whole made of up of distinct parts (root, trunk, stem, branch, leaf)? Did John ever speak of 'inanimate objects'?

Is there room in our current cosmology for seriously thinking of the sun as a “bridegroom”, let alone as a “bridegroom leaving his chamber…running his course with joy”? Does our epistemology have a category for heavens which declare the glory of God with speech and words whose voice is heard? Does our understanding of planetary motion and heliocentricity leave room for concepts of planetary obedience, response and submission?

How would our worldview be different if we supposed these things to be true? How might we think of creation differently, were we to see the Creator/Creature dialogue occur even with ‘inanimate objects’? Do we really believe Jesus when He says even the stones would cry out in praise to their Maker?

The purpose of these questions is not so much to answer them, as it is to provoke thought. We necessarily sit on an altar and judge all that comes before our eyes. The question is what altar do we sit upon? An altar on which all is sacrificed to the Most High God, even our cosmology and epistemology? Or do we sit on an altar dedicated to the gods of science, realism, relativity, and cold, hard facts? We must sit somewhere. We must serve one or the Other.

Living the Sabbath

2009-02-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

This is an excerpt from a paper I am writing in response to Norman Wirzba's book Living the Sabbath. It is an excellent book, and comes highly recommended. I will post a link to the paper once it is completed. Please leave me your thoughts. Thanks

From Sabbath to Sunday
"Put succinctly, in the person of Jesus the Sabbath aspirations that heretofore guided the Israelites now find a most visible and compelling expression. If we want to see, feel, hear, taste, and touch what God’s delight in creation concretely amounts to, we can do no better than to consider the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. As the early medieval pope Saint Gregory the Great put it: 'For us, the true Sabbath is the person of our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.'" (43)

Many believers do not even realize that sometime in the first century AD, Christians began meeting on Sunday, instead of on Saturday, which was the Jewish Sabbath. From Creation on, the people of God celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday, which was, and still is, the seventh day. It was on Saturday that God created rest. It was on Saturday that God commanded our elder brothers to cease from all work, and to keep it holy; to turn back their feet from doing their own pleasure, and to call the Sabbath a delight. But if this was the day on which rest was created, which for thousands of years bore the name of Sabbath, then why have we all grown up worshipping on Sunday? The answer to that question is fully and completely one Name: Jesus. Wirzba notes, “Just as the Sabbath represents the climax or fulfillment of creation, so too Jesus reveals what God’s intentions for life have been all along” (43).

To understand this we must remember on which day Christ made all things new. It was on the First Lord’s Day, on the morning after the Sabbath, that Mary and the others came to visit the tomb, and found it empty. It was on a Sunday that our Lord was raised from the dead. And we find in this act, the central hope that we have, that the dead can be made alive. Death now is conquered. There have been two events in history that bear the authority to change everything, to reorient all things to themselves. The first is the birth of Christ, which has changed even our calendars. We live in the year we do, because Jesus was born in a manger 2009 years ago. The second is this day of resurrection, this day of new birth. It too has changed our calendars. We now worship our God on this first day of the week, instead of the last day, as did our elder brothers, the Jews of the Old Covenant. They looked forward to their salvation, they anticipated it, much like they anticipate the Sabbath throughout the week. Their mindset was “Salvation is coming, our Rest is coming, our eternal Sabbath is coming.” This was pictured for them in the structure of their week. Saturday, being the last day, was always before them, in front of their schedules. They continually moved toward it. In the world Christ has transformed, we have the honor of looking back at our salvation. Our mindset is, “Salvation has come, our Rest has come, our eternal Sabbath has come in the Person of Jesus.” This is pictured for us in the structure of our week. Sunday, being the first day, the day of resurrection and new life, is always where we start, and move out from. Our days start here, and move out into the world. We start in Christ, and take Him to the nations throughout the rest of the week.

It would be foolish to say that Jesus abolished the Jewish Sabbath, just as it is foolish to say that He came to abolish the Law. Rather he came to fulfill both the Sabbath, and the Law. In both cases his fulfillment meant a transformation. Which makes sense, for in the birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole world was made new. Therefore the Sabbath has not been exiled to the realm of ancient historical practices. Much to the contrary, it has been re-born in the very person of Christ, and on His day of resurrection. Seen this way, it is inevitable that Sunday has become the new Sabbath. It is the day of rebirth, of new life, of the hope of our eternal rest. Paul tells the Colossians,

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." (Col 1:15-20)

The world has been recreated, and once again, it takes place in a garden (Jn 19:41). As God, in and through and for the Word, created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1, so again, God, in and through and for the Word, recreates the heavens and the earth in John 20. It is why John tells us in his vision, the one sitting on the throne declares “Behold, I am making all things new.” All things, whether on earth or in heaven, are being reconciled to God, making peace by the blood of his cross.

So here we are now. We live and move and have our being in the new creation. This does not mean that the world will not be finally and completely transformed at the end of days. It simply means that the transformation has already begun. Just as our own bodies being in the end fully and finally transformed into the incorruptible does not contradict the truth that we are undergoing transformation this side of glory, so it is with all creation. What are the means God uses to bring about this transformation of all creation? It is clearly the Church, the new Israel. As Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). We are a nation of priests, and what do priests do? They go proclaim, and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to obey all that they have been commanded. Why? Because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to our Lord Jesus Christ, and Lo, He is with us always, even to the end of the age.
This is why it is inevitable that our Sabbath be transformed and reborn into the day of rebirth and transformation. Every week we celebrate a “little Easter.” How is celebration marked if not by and through feasting? As Isaiah says,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Is 25:6-9)

The central symbol of this feast is of course the Table that Christ Himself sets before us. It is at this Table, a Table we sit at every week, that we partake of the rich food of the body of Christ, and the well-aged wine of His blood. It is here that bread and wine become a feast of joy and resurrection, because “He has swallowed up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.” How does God accomplish this, if not through sending His Church to the nations, making disciples of them, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey Christ? It is to this purpose the Sabbath has been reborn. We come to worship, to start the week in Christ, in public, as a public proclamation that Christ indeed sits on His Throne. It is this reality that we take to the nations Monday through Saturday, proclaiming that the veil of death has indeed been cast off in the person and work of Christ. It is also how we must live locally, in the context of our local communities. If we do not live unto our neighbor as if death has been cast off, how will we ever be effective on the national scale? Living Christ to others starts where you are, and moves out. It starts in your own home with your own loved ones. Then it continues out to your neighbors, your community, your town, your city, your county, your state and so on. Salvation is not just a personal event. It happens in space and time, unto space and time. Our personal salvation recreates the world of our existence and reorients the time through which we pass. It gives us new purpose and new direction. It is not simply a blue ribbon that we attain, and pin onto our bulletin board of personal achievements. Wirzba again,
"[We] need to move beyond the highly individualistic notion of salvation that many of us assume – that Jesus is significant because of the salvation he makes possible for individual believers… The work of Christ extends to and links up with the whole of creation…Christ, in other words, does not take us out of creation to save us, but rather saves us precisely by enabling us to enter more fully and more harmoniously into it, and then to find in this deep immersion the reality of God." (45)
Wirzba continues,
"We do not live alone or as rugged individualists. We need each other and depend upon the sympathy and support we provide to each other. In a very real sense, the health of human living, its success and fulfillment, depends upon the health and wholeness of the many relations that bodily existence requires…All wholeness, in the end, is a reflection of a gracious God who cares for us all be showering us with the gifts of bodies, food, and community. To be healthy in any way whatsoever is, whether we appreciate it or not, to bear witness to God’s continuing involvement in the maintenance and wholeness of creation. If we are attentive, our whole lives should be long act of thanksgiving and praise." (46-47)

This long act of thanksgiving and praise is our Sabbath life. It is Sunday living itself out Monday through Saturday. To return to the Table, it is why it is called Communion. It is a public celebration done in Community. The table was never meant to be an individual experience, the same way salvation is never an isolated event. The Body of Christ is the new humanity. We are the new creation, recreated in the garden of the empty tomb. This is our hope and our rest. It is our eternal Sabbath.

"Sunday, far from being the obliteration of Sabbath teaching, represents a profound rearticulation of God’s overarching purpose and plan for creation. Sunday is our day of joy, for here we remember our memberships one with another and commit ourselves to the health and wholeness – the salvation – of physical and social bodies, of communities and creation, made possible by Christ’s resurrection power and redeeming love." (51)

Psalm 1 & 2

2008-11-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

I have often read Psalm 1 by itself, and felt a little daunted by the language used. It almost seems too black and white to be edifying. The call of the Psalm, taken by itself, is to be perfect. If you are, you will not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or sit in the seat of the scoffer. Rather, you will take delight in the law of the Lord, and be like a firmly planted tree. What happens then, if I, in my war with the flesh, temporarily stand in the way of sinners (because I am one)? I know I am forgiven, but does that mean that I no longer can be like a tree, planted by streams of water? It seems questionable at best.

What seems to be a better alternative is to read the first two Psalms together, as one complete song. The second Psalm completes the story arc of the first, and sheds light on this dilemma of personal application. From a literary perspective, they complement each other, as the second half picks up where the first ended, and brings it back around. Thus an outline of the two together would look something like this:

A: Blessed is the faithful, and obedient man (1:1-2)
B: He will be firmly planted, nourished, bear fruit and prosper well (1:3)
C: The wicked will not prosper, and they will perish (1:4-6)
D: The wicked rage, and plot in vain in their counsel together (2:1-3)
E: God laughs, plants His King on His holy hill (2:4-6)
F: The faithful and obedient Son receives inheritance and rules nations (2:7-9)
G: Application, Kiss the Son, Blessed are those who take refuge in Him (2:10-12)

When you read through Psalm 1, you end with the perishing wicked. It does not seem to be a proper conclusion to the beautiful imagery of the righteous man, planted by streams of water. However, it does lead perfectly into the first verses of Psalm 2. The Psalmist is commenting on these wicked men, and trying to understand why they speed along toward their destruction. As in the first Psalm, God sits on high, and sees all their wickedness. In fact He laughs at them, and holds them in derision. They think they can successfully bring about their own prosperity by breaking free from the reign of Gods Anointed. But He has set His King on Zion. And He will rule the nations. Those who remain in their wickedness, will not stand in the congregation of the righteous, but will be dashed to pieces like a potter’s vessel. Then the call is to Kiss the Son, to serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. We serve with fear and rejoice with trembling, for we know that we are sinners. But we serve and rejoice because we are permitted to take refuge in Him. These commands seem more doable than the picture of the man in Psalm 1. By grace (of course) we are able to cast ourselves on His mercy, and are able to serve Him.

This is where putting the two Psalms together makes Christ come alive. The Anointed One, the King firmly planted on the Holy Hill, He is the Man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He is like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. His leaf will never wither. All that He does prospers. This one complete Psalm becomes the story of Christ and the wicked. Christ bears fruit. The wicked do not. Christ is King over all the nations. The wicked in vain try to establish themselves apart from the King. The Anointed One is blessed of God Almighty, whereas the wicked are laughed at and derided. The leaf of the King will not wither, but the chaff of the wicked will be blown away, and come to nothing.

Reading the Psalm in this way allows us to see Christ even more clearly in the first half, as the Man who delights day and night in the Law of the Lord. We see Him more clearly as the True King of Kings, who conquers the wicked, and dashes them against the Rock. At the end, we are given the opportunity to meditate on this and are called to be wise. We must Kiss the Son, and find our refuge in Him, and in Him alone. And blessed are all who do so.

Here we find our place in Psalm 1. The Psalmist bookends this one complete Psalm with descriptions of those who are Blessed. “Blessed is the man who walks not…” and “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.” Those who take refuge in the Son are identified with the Man who does not sit in the seat of scoffers. As we serve with fear, rejoice with trembling, and Kiss the Anointed King, we become like Him, delighting in the Law of the Lord, and meditating on it day and night. This takes the moralistic impulses out of Psalm 1’s application. We can only be planted by streams of water, if we indeed kiss the Son, and find our refuge in Him. It is Christ who is found in the first Psalm, but by the end of the second, we are identified with Him. Therefore, in Him, we are righteous, and will not perish. Rather we will yield fruit in our season, our leaf will not wither, and all we do will prosper.

The Triumph of Secularism

2008-11-05T10:05:00.000-08:00

Wow. DUSTY
[cough]

Been a while - a long while - since I've been back to the old Abbey. Too long. Looks like the Minstrel has been around - though not recently enough to knock down the cobwebs - and been musing mightily about worship. Great stuff. The Abbey should put up a billboard down the mountain in Evangelicalville, to invite tourists up to do a little reading. But I hear the circus is still in town, so there probably wouldn't be much response.

Speaking of circuses. The election is now over, and I thought I might share a thought or two.

First off, though I am not (as this post will make clear) an Obama supporter, I believe the clear biblical mandate is that Christians honor their leaders - even the ones they disagree with. And I think that slogans like, "It's an Obamanation" are not only really lame double-entendres, they're just plain inappropriate. That said...

Sometimes when people are asked who they are voting for, and they don't want to share any specifics, they flash a coy smile and say something like, "I'm voting for the good guys!"

I've always wished I could say that, but honestly never really felt like it was fully truthful. This year, I really felt like I was voting for the not-quite-as-bad guys. Or that I was not so much voting for a candidate, as voting against an ideology. And the ideology against which I voted seems to have prevailed in the General Election, and seems to be prevailing more and more in our culture. It's the ideology of increasing secularism.

It's not that I really expected Sen.Obama to lose. It seemed to most people, myself included - based not only on polls, but also on the prevailing winds - that more people would put their support behind the charismatic, rhetorically polished, liberal secularist this time around. The truly unexpected and disappointing thing was how many professing conservative, Evangelical Christians got caught up in that hype as well. Too many people I know, and am close to, and had assumed were well enough moored to the sufficiency of God's Word for all of faith and life to see straight in the political fog, seem to have lost their moorings, and drifted with the current.

Too many Christians have bought into the liberal position that God's Word is only good for things you do at church. For "religous" things. For "matters of faith", as if matters of faith were limited to what we preach, sing, and teach children in Sunday School. As if "church" and "religion" were just extracurricular activities that we entertain our souls with when we have spare-time from Real Life. Apparently a lot of Christians have lost sight of how God's Truth defines all of life and provides the only sure framework for rightly comprehending issues like human responsibility, the purpose and role of civil governments, the definition of justice, the foundations of righteousness, the proper use of money, the importance of objective, moral law, the objectivity of beauty, the reality of holiness, etc., etc... The idea that God's Truth is only true for those who sign up for it like a high-school elective, is a fundamentally rebellious idea. The proposal that the Truth of Scripture should be limited to the practices of the Church is the credo of man-centered secularism (I know, I know... is there any other kind?)

And it's really, honestly not that I think that Sen. McCain is the exemplar of a Christian worldview in action in the realm of government and politics. Clearly not. God knows he's not my idea of the ideal candidate. But the simple fact is that his ideals and positions come ever so slightly closer to the biblical ideals on morality, social values, the role of government, justice, and Truth than do the President-elect's. And Christians who live in a democratic nation in this world, should cast their vote for the candidate whose positions most closely resemble the values of the world to come.

I'm not so much disappointed that McCain lost, as that Obama won. And I'm not so much disappointed that Obama won, as that his self-avowed secularist agenda prevailed - and did so in large part because to a greater and greater degree, it makes sense to people who call themselves Christians. The failure of the Church to comprehensively anchor Christians' thinking to the whole counsel of God, is the triumph of secularism not only in the world, but most sadly in the Church.

Thoughts on Worship: The Call, Confession

2008-07-02T23:11:00.001-07:00

Taking a deeper practical look at worship, as seen through the eyes of Leviticus 9, we find a pattern that occurs throughout the Old Testament. It is a pattern of Initiation and Response. God initiates, and we respond. The pattern of worship begins with God Calling us to His presence. We then respond with Confessing our sins, prostrating our broken souls before the Holy One. God again initiates then with Consecrating us by means of His Word. We respond to His Word by Communing with Him. He then Commissions us to go out into the world, making disciples. We respond by doing so, with His blessing. This is the broad outline to the Drama of God, a High Play by means of which He nourishes and completes His bride, perfecting her, and preparing her for the final wedding day. I want to put forward some practical ideas regarding how this actually would look in the context of our modern day service of worship. By no means do I put these forward with the understanding that this is the definitive, and only correct way to plan a service. In no way do I mean to be judgmental of other ways. These are simply personal thoughts and are very much biased by personal tastes. That disclaimer aside, I do think that these suggestions could be helpful, if done in a loving, gracious manner, for the church body desiring a more mature, rich, and meaningful service. Therefore I will argue for them, and seek to show their attentiveness to Scripture, hopefully shedding light on what it means to worship the way God intended.
The Call
It begins with God initiating the interaction. We cannot come to Him on our own merit, our own terms, our own anything. The only means by which we can approach the Father is through the Son (John 14.6). It is only in Christ that we have the ability to stand before the throne of holiness. It is only in Christ that we can know Him at all. Christ is the living Word of God, Spoken for our good, and for our Reconciliation. Therefore when He calls us, it is only through Christ, and because of Christ, that we have life and breath to respond with. This means when we respond to the Call of God, we come not on our terms, not on our timetable. We cannot simply make room for it amidst a schedule of things to do. This act of responding to God represents the single biggest, eternal component of your life: your status as a child of God. How do we then respond? Here are some thoughts.
1. Dress. How we dress speaks to the world and informs them of our priorities. When we wear pajamas, we are telling everyone we are going to bed. When we wear hiking boots and long pants, we are communicating our recreational destination. Not only do we communicate where we are going, we also tell people how important it is to us. If we show up at a funeral in flip flops and shorts, we are telling people how much we honor and respect the deceased. Our attire communicates much about our priorities and what we hold dear. If the worship of God holds any weight in our lives, should it not be reflected in how we dress for it? Obviously there is a major discussion regarding cultural relativity and appropriateness. In every culture however, there are levels of formality when it comes to clothing. It is simply how God made us tick. Understanding where those lines are drawn in our specific context is part of how we prepare ourselves for responding to the Call of God. Were the President of the United States to send us an invitation to come to the Oval Office, we would prepare long and hard with our appearance, before stepping foot inside the White House. But do we do the same when the Creator God of the entire Universe has called us to His presence? Or has our “familiarity” with Sunday Mornings bred contempt?
2. Reverence and Awe. The writer to the Hebrews commands us to come before the Lord, the King of an unshakeable kingdom, and worship in reverence and awe (12:28). The first part of the verse tells us to be grateful that we have received this kingdom. We do this because our God is a consuming fire. A consuming fire is not something that can be understood as trivial, or common. Moses beheld the consuming fire in the bush, and was consumed with fear and wonder. In obedience he removed his sandals, understanding that where the fire was, was now Holy. God Almighty, Creator of the Universe and everything in it, has called us to Himself, has called us to the Burning Bush, and bids us remove our sandals, for we approach Holy Ground. How do we approach the service on Sunday Mornings? With solemnity and understanding of what we are doing? Or does our familiarity perhaps breed a certain nonchalance that robs the worship of the Holy one of its full depth and life. If we come in a cavalier manner, we do not understand the nature of grace, the nature of the call. The only response to grace is gratitude. Anything else is simply presumption. But we have received an unshakeable kingdom. Does that resonate at all with us? What else can one be but grateful? Here we have the rock of Christ, peace and joy in its richest, fullest incarnation, and we take it for granted. This only testifies to the patience of our Father. Reverence and awe do not mean dour and grim, and fear and trembling do not mean panic and wailing. It is an attitude of honor, and respect, and gratitude that is focused on the reality of what is happening. We, according to Hebrews 12 have now ascended into the heavenly realms, and worship in the presence of the Father, who is a consuming fire. And we can only come on the good name of another, by the power of a third. We have no role to play in coming. We have nothing to offer, except that which has already been given to us. And to come, offering our gifts of praise and prayers, in a frivolous and unfocused, unconcerned, and unprepared manner, is to spit in the eye of God. Do we honor Him as God? Do we give Him thanks? In speech? In actions? In thoughts? In motives? We have much to confess.
3. The Call to Worship. The actual call to worship is an important part of the service. It informs the congregation that it is now, at this moment that we are leaving behind our earthly cares and contexts, and coming as one body, one bride, through the Spirit, on the good name of Christ, coming before the Father, coming to worship, and be fed. The worship of God is a serious, life sustaining ritual we perform every week. For those of us who have grown up in the Church, we know how funny it feels to miss church on Sunday morning. We feel weird, and the week doesn’t feel the same. It is because we have gone seven days without participating in the particular service of our God, ascending to His courts. This is what is initiated in the Call to Worship. The pastor calls us together, and declares that we are now ascended in Spirit and truth. Here a couple practical thoughts on this point.
a. Announcements are often a necessity, even though sometimes awkward and unwieldy in the context of communal worship. It is not inappropriate at all to give announcements, but the transition is where it gets sticky. One minute we are thinking about the potluck next Wednesday and what we need to bring, or remembering that baby shower and that you forgot to buy a gift, and then suddenly the pastor is reading a Psalm, having already begun, leaving you in the dust. Perhaps if there were an interlude, a Selah, for meditation and preparation. This could be accomplished by quartet singing one of the hymns that will be sung in the service, while the congregations prepares. Mind you, this is not a performance. It is an aid in worship. If not a quartet, an instrumental interlude is more than adequate. Giving the congregation that has now gathered, and has quieted down, time to refocus on what they are about to do. It is difficult to come in with an attitude of reverence and awe, with the powdered sugar left over from the doughnut that was on the patio, still clinging to your lips, with hands still sticky from the OJ that finished it off. If the congregation comes from pre-service fellowship times (which is another discussion altogether) straight into the worship of God, it will be very hard for them to transition, and come before the Lord with fear. Therefore a simply Selah, giving time between announcements and the Call for people to grasp what they are about to do, together as one body.
b. The call to worship should be distinct and clear. “Let us worship the Triune God.” It is a declarative statement (and imperative, of sorts) calling us to His presence. At this time it is appropriate for the congregation to stand, symbolizing the act of ascension, as well as the communal aspect of ascending together. We are one body, not simply a collection of individuals. We are a corporate body, a plural made into a singular. When God addresses us, He addresses us as His people. He addresses us as a body, the body, the Body and Bride of Christ. Psalm 95 bids us, “Come, let us worship the Lord.” We are commanded in Scripture to come, and the pastor repeats this command, bidding us come. We have been called. Come. Let us worship the Lord. The silence of meditation before this call, make the call more pronounced, communicating in the stark declaration, that what we are about to do is not only serious and meaningful, it carries weight. What we do is grace. Dangerous and consuming grace.
c. Following the call should be a brief description of what we are doing, why we do it, and on what basis we are doing this. Again this is declarative. It is happening. The pastor is leading us, and does so as the mouth piece of God. He leads, and we respond. This is not a casual performance that we sit back and watch. The congregation is an active part of the service, for we all have come to worship, and we are on stage, not in the audience. Using Scripture at this point is most appropriate. Responsively reading a Psalm, like Psalm 95, which again invites to “Come, let us worship the Lord, let us kneel before the Lord our maker,” has the effect of engaging the people, and drawing the congregation into the act and drama of worship. The readings should be quick and snappy, not allowed to drag and mumble. When a group of people try to read something at the same time, at a slow pace, they will all go at different speeds, trying to accommodate for one another, and it will get slower and slower, until the effect of the antiphonal call and response is lost. But when short segments (following the natural parallelism of the Psalms’ poetic structure) are read with confidence and strength, the responsorial nature is kept intact, and the Psalm is read as a whole piece, by caller and congregation, rather than verse by verse which tends to lose the rhythm and flow of the text.
d. After reading together the Word of God, we respond with praise and thanksgiving. A doxological hymn would fit well here. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” is cried aloud together, reminding us who has spoken. As I have said before, the service we render to our God is filled with the pattern of initiation and response. God initiates, we respond. Do not respond is to show ingratitude. In reading the Word, God speaks to us, and we hear His voice in the Psalm. We in turn respond with words of our own, words that give voice to our utter dependence and gratitude. This completes our ascension, our song joining the song of the seraphim, praising God who indeed is Holy.

Confession
When anyone in Scripture encounters God, is brought into His presence, or has a vision of the Most High, the immediate response is one of complete recognition of sin. Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.” He beholds the holiness of God, and cannot stand in His presence. We too, ascend and stand before the Lord God, and are naked before Him. We have been called, but as we enter the house, we must be washed. We do so in confession of our sins. Psalm 95 again, “Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” Our immediate posture upon entering the throne room must be one of prostration. We come and lay our hearts and souls bare before Him, acknowledging His hatred of our sins, confessing them, and grabbing hold of the blood of Christ. I am a fan of corporate confessions, because they again draw attention to the fact that we are a body, and come as such. But there is also a place for individual confession, and time should be given for it. Scripture again is used to confirm our status as sinners and teaching us how to repent. Psalm 51 is a perfect example of what a broken and contrite heart looks like, and we would do well to drink deeply of texts like these. As important as it is to confess our sins, corporately and individually, so it is also important to receive a statement of absolution. In this the pastor speaks the words of God, not finding any power to forgive sins in himself, but simply proclaiming the truth of what God has done. After confession, the pastor might say something to the effect of, “As a minister of the Word of God, having confessed yours sin honestly and before God and one another, I declare unto you, that your sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ.” To this the congregation gives their “Amen!” through a hymn/Psalm of thanksgiving, rejoicing in the fact that we have been made clean.
Of course in participating in a confession like this, I am not suggesting our sins were not forgiven before we confessed them, or before the minister says so. There is no magic in the act of our speaking, only in the act of God speaking. And that happened before time began. However, we follow a pattern like this for two reasons. The first is that, to my understanding, Scripture lays out this pattern in Old Testament Sacrificial practices, which we have already discussed. But secondly, God, in worship, is renewing His covenant with us. He is reminding us of who we are, where we came from, who He is, where He is taking us, how we get there, and what we are supposed to be busy with on the way. Worship is not just a time of superficial praise that leaves us with a good feeling. It is participation in God’s nature, it is being brought into the Triune dance, teaching us, shaping us, molding us, preparing us, and equipping us for taking that Triune dance of life into the world, and making disciples. In this way worship becomes a dialogue, constructed to remind us of every stage, lest we become proud in our status as children, chosen though we may be. We must always confess our sins, and we must always be reminded of our forgiveness. Our worship is full of symbols and acts and rituals that point and lead us to life. We participate in the drama, with all its plot developments, and are nourished.
Following a confession of our sins, it is right and fitting that we confess our faith. The use of one of the creeds of Christendom (e.g. the Nicene Creed) is appropriate as it unifies us with a much broader body of believers than simply the ones in our physical and temporal proximity. I am also a fan of using a catechism to help instruct the congregation concerning our faith. Catechisms such as the Heidelberg, for example, lead the believer through the various points of the faith, strengthening their understanding of what they believe. Again, doing this corporately builds unity, and binds the congregation together as a whole, treating them as one family, which they are. Again, a hymn/Psalm of response allows the congregation to say “Amen!” to what they believe and confess.

Thoughts on Worship: Part Two

2008-06-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Last time we discussed the relative levity with which we often approach the throne of God. We talked about our natural (old man/flesh) desires to do things that are easy, and come without much effort. We found that we cannot approach “as we are” and live. We need to be re-created in the image of Christ, and be given new clothes in order to stand before a thrice holy God (Zech 3). We talked mostly about why it is important to take seriously our call to worship, and to come ready to be stretched and taken out of our comfort zone. In this essay, I want to throw out some suggestions as to how to worship seriously, with reverence and awe, fear and trembling, and at the very core, real, meaty joy. Worship is at the heart joyful. But not a modern sense of joy, that is synonymous with a happy-clappy idiocy that doesn’t understand the world we live in. I’m talking about real joy, the joy that we defend in the midst of harsh persecution, and the joy we see in all sufferings and trials, the joy that produces steadfastness, and hope. This type of joy is not sentimental, it is not unrealistic, and it is certainly not frivolous. Like glory, it has weight. It is heavy and substantial. It is life altering.

A joyous worship, a joyous sacrifice of praise, sees all things as a gift from the hand of a loving God. Every minute of every day we are receiving from the hand of God. Our response in every such moment, needs to be gratitude. Even more so, gratitude must define our weekly ascension to the courts of heaven, where God meets with us. He visits us in a different way than through the course of the other six days. At the beginning of the week, He comes with a purpose to renew His covenant with us, to remind us that He is our God, and we are His people. He comes to enact on us, to change us. He does this (as pictured in the Old Testament sacrificial system) in three parts. He breaks us down, cutting us, and opening our hearts bare to Him. He then builds us back together, restructuring our hearts, and soothing our wounds with His Word. Finally He feeds us, nourishing our souls, fitting us for ministry, and equipping us for war; war with the flesh, war with the world. Our response at each point is one of gratitude. This is our hope and joy, that God Himself does this to us. We are not strong enough to bare our sin to a Holy God in our own strength. We have not the ability to turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. And we dare not come before the Bridegroom, ready for the wedding feast, in clothes of our own making. But here is the very essence of life, confessing our sin before the Father, being sanctified by the Word, and nourished, sacramentally by Holy Spirit. The gospel is this: the Father, Son, and Spirit give this to us as gift. How can we not but give thanks?

To reiterate thoughts from last time, giving thanks must mean obedience. How can disobedience imply gratitude? We must approach the throne of God obediently. This means doing worship His way. What is His way, you ask? The first 39 books of the Bible go into great detail as to the nature of God, what He likes, what He doesn’t like, how He is to be approached, and how He is not to be approached. And if we really believe that God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, we cannot dismiss the Old Testament as simply good, fun reading in between serious devotions in the New Testament. We take the whole Word of God as just that, the Whole Word. Modern Christians are often ashamed of the Old Testament because of all the violence toward minorities, strange temple behavior, and weird names from thousands of years ago. Just give me Jesus, they say. News flash folks: Jesus was Jesus even back then, in the “irrelevant” pages of Scripture. All this is to say that we find much instruction as to how God wants to be worshipped, how He desires to be approached, in the Old Testament.

With that in mind, let’s look at Leviticus. Leviticus was written, as the title implies, as a rule book for the Levites, the nation’s priesthood. Peter says, under the inspiration of the Spirit, that we, as Christians, are a royal priesthood. So it becomes more apparent that Leviticus was written for us, Christ’s priests. Leviticus 9:1-4, 22-24 reads:

On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and he said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with oil, for today the Lord will appear to you.’” ... Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

The order of worship we see in both texts (the middle portion is a description of Aaron actually doing it) is the same: Sin offering, Burnt offering, Peace offering. The sin offering was an act of confession, and absolution. The priest took hold of the animal, symbolizing a transfer of guilt and the atonement it would make, and killed it, symbolizing the death of sin. The animal would then be burned and the smoke would ascend to God, who would receive it as sufficient atonement for the worshipper’s sin, and therefore enact forgiveness. “And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven” (Lev 4:35). The sin offering could be and was then eaten, symbolizing an absolution, the worshipper once again being accepted before the eyes of God (Lev 6:24-26). This posture of eating is a posture of gratitude. We receive food (forgiveness), and therefore eat (give thanks). Ungrateful eating is presumptuous and turns the best of foods into ash inside our mouths.

The burnt offering is a mistranslation. The meaning of the Hebrew word, translated as burnt, is really ascension. This is an ascension offering. Burnt is redundant, as most offerings are burnt. What makes this offering different from the others is that the whole animal is burnt, and offered in smoke to the Lord. This symbolizes, especially in coming after the sin offering, the worshipper offering all of himself to the Lord’s service. We recognize that we are not our own, but belong to God, wholly. Therefore we offer ourselves entirely on the altar of living sacrifices, cut up by His Word, transformed by the fire of the Spirit from one state of glory to the next (flesh and blood to smoke), and enabled to ascend as a pleasing aroma, sacrifices of a broken spirit.

The peace offering was an offering of thanksgiving (or for a vow/freewill offering which is another form of gratitude; Lev 7:11-18). Like the Sin offering, it was to be eaten. The worshipper would bring loaves of unleavened bread with the animal that was to be sacrificed. Only in the peace offering was bread and blood combined. Bread was eaten and blood was poured out, together as one offering and as one act of thanksgiving. In this act of peace, God invites the worshipper to dine with Him. God nourishes His people and communes with them. The worshipper eats with God. This is different from the sin offering in that the sin offering is a succession. Man offers sacrifice, God eats, is pleased, forgives, and then the worshipper receives and eats. Here with the peace offering, man eats bread as God eats the sacrifice. They dine at a common table.

God throughout Scripture reveals Himself as Trinity, and does so clearly here. The sin offering is performed for and by the Father. We make atonement with the Father, and He then grants us forgiveness, and restores us to life. The ascension offering symbolizes the work of the Son. In Christ we are dressed and made acceptable to approach the throne as a pleasing aroma. Through the Living Word, we are cut up and transformed from one level of Glory to the next. In the peace offering the Spirit draws us to God, allowing us to dine at His table, filling the very distance that separate creature from Creator. Obviously this is not to say that all three persons are not at work in all three aspects, but God reveals Himself to us in these ways, pedagogically, teaching us who He is.

It is interesting, and very cautionary, that the story of Nadab and Abihu comes directly after the portions of Leviticus 9 quoted above. The moral? God tells Aaron through Moses, exactly how He wants to be worshipped. Aaron obeys, and they beheld the glory of the Lord accepting their offerings in the fire. Immediately after this, it is recorded that Nadab and Abihu offered strange (unauthorized) fire on the altar, with the intention of worshipping the Lord, it must be remembered. Their intentions didn’t hold much meaning in the final judgment. They then beheld the glory of the Lord consume them, bringing judgment on them for their disobedience. You would think that with examples like this we would learn to not be so flippant with how we approach the throne.

How does this all give us practical tools with which to define and design our worship services? The first thing to do is actually read the texts. Study them, imbibe them, and learn to speak Scripturally about all of Scripture. Then we pull out principles. Obviously, Hebrews says we are no longer to offer actual animal sacrifices anymore. But it is equally clear that we are still a sacrificial people, offering sacrifices of praise, and are ourselves living sacrifices. So how do we define sacrifice? How does God define sacrifice? This is why we go to Leviticus. I am indebted to people like James B Jordan, and Peter Leithart for their work in this area. They have dug and we students have been able to enjoy the fruit of their labor. The principles that we have talked about above, with regard to each sacrifice, fall out into five points that help us when it comes to our own modern day service. First, we are Called. God calls us to enter into His presence. He calls us to come before Him with thanksgiving and praise. He calls us to Himself. We cannot come of our own accord. Second, we enter a season of Confession. This correlates with the sin offering. We come before a holy God, and the first thing we do is remove our shoes. God is Holy, and we are not. We come acknowledging this, and asking for forgiveness. In response to repentance, God grants forgiveness, and we receive absolution. Next we are Consecrated. This correlates with the ascension offering. We are made holy and fit for the service of God. We receive His Word, both read and preached. The Word refashions us, restores us, and renews us, equipping us for service in the Kingdom. Following the tearing down, and the building up, we enter into Communion. This correlates with the peace offering. Here we dine at the table of the Lord, and receive nourishment and strength. We feed on Christ, and through the Spirit, dine with the Father. After being equipped and nourished, we are Commisioned to enter the world, fulfilling our calling to “Go and make disciples of all the nations.”

Here we have an outline from Scripture, from God’s own handbook on worship, no less, outlining a progression. We are called, we confess, we are consecrated, we commune, and we are commissioned. This is high drama, full of rising action, climax, and resolution. It is a progression from unsettled fear and trembling, to rest. We come as sinners, we leave as saints. It sounds trite, but that is what is happening. We come in need of cleansing, and leave refreshed and renewed. This is not to say that we are not still sinners when we leave. Or even to say that we are not perfectly accepted in Christ before we come. We are. But God is into picturing reality in actions. The worshipper was alive before he presented his animal sacrifice, a picture of God’s grace. And he certainly didn’t leave the sacrifice free from sin. Same with today. These dramatic pictures are here to involve us in the truth of what God is doing. He wants us not only to know it with specific head knowledge, but to smell it, to see it, to act it, to hear it, and to taste it. On Sunday mornings, God is drawing us into His presence and renewing before our very eyes the covenant He made thousands of years ago, that He will be our God, and we will be His people. That covenant has gone unbroken since Abraham. In Christ, we are the seed of Abraham, and that covenant is a covenant we cannot break. Abraham had no part in it. He was as asleep as Adam when Eve was taken out of his side. God brings this to us each week, to remind us, to cause us to partake in it, to find joy in it. But not only does He do this to remind us. This is His chosen means of grace. This is how He wants to do it. It’s not our deal to play around with. We don’t have the freedom to move it to Saturdays, so we can Sundays off. Nor is it ours to skip if we feel going to the beach is more important. This is our life. This is where God meets with us. He could have chosen any number of ways to commune with His people. But He didn’t. He gave us this. This is His day, given for our good. It would behoove us to pay attention.

Thoughts on Worship

2008-04-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

The Worship of the Triune God is the single most important recurring event in a Christian’s life. It is in the Worship of God that the Christian learns who he is, what he is, where he is going, why he should go, and how to get there. At the center of this worship we find that the One who sustains all of life, our every breath, and ordains our every step, providing for and protecting us in every way, reveals Himself to us. He reveals Himself in His Word, in the Sacraments He gave us as signs and symbols, pointing to solid Truth, and in His Body, with whom we fellowship. Here is the font of all hope, all healing, all comfort, all peace…and we arrive five minutes late.
There is an apathy-like attitude that we modern Christians have when we gather together on Sunday’s. I am hesitant to go all the way and call it apathy, for most of us are at least well intentioned when it comes to worship. But, well intentioned though we may be, we are prone to taking a lackadaisical view when it comes to our preparation for and participation in the Worship of God. We are content to do things that are comfortable, come naturally, seem easy, or that contain songs and ceremonies that a watching world would find interesting and inviting. But what about coming before God Almighty is comfortable? Is there anything about coming before a Thrice Holy God that comes naturally to sons of Adam, redeemed though we may be? Should worship be easy? What does that say about the importance we place on it? And why should the cares and sensibilities of a pagan, God-hating culture form the tastes and desires that dictate the manner of our Worship? These are important questions, and questions we are sadly slow in answering. But they are necessary to work through if we desire to be faithful to what God has called us to be, and that is homo adorans, worshipping man.

First, Should worship be comfortable? What is there that is comfortable in coming before the throne of the Creator of the universe, especially as we come on the merits of another? We cannot approach on the basis of anything we have accomplished. We can only come on the basis of Christ and His gift to us. How dare we presume on grace and come before the Father on Christ’s back, and then demand our own rights and our own way. But we do in worship. We find many things in Scripture that make us uncomfortable, and rather than trust God with them and embrace them, we shy away and refuse to deal with them. Certain portions of Scripture offend our modern sensibilities (Psalm 139, Song of Solomon, parts of Ezekiel), and so we gloss over them, and do not allow the living and active Word of God to transform our sensibilities, conforming us to the image of Christ. We are afraid of trusting God with the hard things, and therefore neglect being faithful to His Word. Instead, we need to obey and pursue faithfulness in all things, and trust God with the outcome. Worship is not social hour. Worship is not a tea party. Worship is not “Weekend at the folks.” The Worship of the Triune God is an event of cosmic proportions. Think about it soberly for one minute. We are approaching the omnipotent and sovereign God of all times, of all places, of all peoples, on someone else’s good name no less. Where do we get off that there is anything comfortable about this? Just the thought of it should put the fear of God into our hearts, and it is with fear and trembling that we ought to approach the Throne.

Second, Should worship come naturally? Our first assumption here is that God is honored by anything, regardless of what is presented to Him, so long as our intentions are right. But where in Scripture do we see this? Ask Nadab and Abihu if they would agree with that. They were fried by heavenly fire the very minute they offered strange fire on the altar. Strange fire meant anything God did not prescribe in His holy Word. In the Old Covenant, God was very exact with how He was to be worshipped, and gave a very detailed account of how things needed to be. One degree to the left or the right meant death. Do we believe this God has changed any since the Old Covenant? Is He not the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow? Does not Christ Himself display this zeal, twice, as He purges the temple of those who were misusing it? With a whip? And we approach this God expecting that the demands His Worship makes will come naturally to us, sinners whose thoughts are far, far below His thoughts. It seems pretty risky, knowing that God was extremely demanding in how He was to be approached, and that those demands are very narrow in nature. Am I to assume that what comes naturally to me will “fortunately” align perfectly with His will? That would sure be nice. It seems more likely, however, that the worship of God does not come naturally to me, and that I need to learn what He has prescribed. Learn who He is, and how he requires us to approach Him. This means study, this means hard work, this means practice, and above all this means humility. I do not have unilateral freedom to decide how I approach the Throne of God, especially, again, on the good name of another. Our second assumption is this: what we learned as a child is the purest and most honest form of worship and therefore is suitable for the rest of our lives. But this flatly denies Scripture. When I was a child, I thought like a child, I spoke like a child. But when I became a man, I put off those childish things. Children grow up. This is the natural order of things. We move on from milk to meat. We cannot remain at our mother’s breast our entire life. We are called to growth and maturity. This again means hard work. It means patience and striving after a goal. It means letting go of blankets and teddy bears, and moving on to cars and houses. We grow up. This should not be a bleak picture either. Our society has placed a great deal of importance and primacy on childishness. This is apparent by the rampant immaturity that surrounds us. Teddy bears and blankets are not a higher form. They are not the peak with life just going downhill from there. With maturity comes deeper enjoyment, richer fellowship, more solid relationships, and a joy that is more real than any childhood experience can offer. This depth is only available to those who dig. You can’t have a diamond without an extreme amount of pressure. You can’t have a mine without a lot of mining. You can’t reach a mature age without living. Growing up is a good thing, contrary to what this country believes. We are built by God to move from milk to meat. And the meat is good.

Thirdly, Should worship be easy? It is a similar question as the one above, but from a different angle. Our economy and our culture thrives on everything that we have created to make our lives easy. Dishwashers, sprinklers, hot water heaters, cars, computers, credit cards, etc. The list is endless of the things we surround ourselves with to make our lives easier. This has trained our thinking to shy away from honest to goodness effort. Instead of doing something ourselves and be rewarded with the satisfaction of accomplishment, we are quick to go online and buy it. We say, “I don’t know how to do that. Shouldn’t I just let someone who knows how to do it, do it for me?” This is our attitude. Rather than learning how to do something, we settle for the work of others. This is not in and of itself a bad thing. I’m glad there are trained police officers roaming the streets. I’m in favor of car manufacturers being highly skilled and trained in what they do, so that I can drive in peace, not afraid of falling apart. But we cannot let this be our automatic response. We are called to be fruitful and take dominion over the earth. The Creation Mandate still applies today. This does not mean that every time I am in a position where something is required of me, I can bow out because someone else does a better job. That is called abdication of responsibility. And it runs wild in our culture. This is something that many Christians would see and lament with me about. But the truth is, a lot of times we approach worship with this same attitude. Learning to sing well is too hard, so we leave it to the choir. Studying the Word takes too much time, so we leave it to the Pastor. Reaching out and fellowshipping with others, sharing the love of Christ with the unlovely, is simply too awkward, so we leave it to the gregarious ones. But we are all called to sing, all called to study, all called to love the unlovely. It is not a responsibility we can push on someone else. We are called to do it. And if it means learning how to do it, that’s what it means. We go and learn. But not knowing how is no excuse for not doing it. What I am saying should not imply that we do not know how to work hard. We do and will work hard when we find something worthwhile. We put the most effort and the most hard work into what we find most rewarding, and most important. How much effort you put into something, how much time, money, or thought, reveals the level of importance that something holds in your life. How do we approach the worship of God? Willing to learn to do things God’s way, even though it may (and will) mean hard work? Or do we come ready to allow others to fulfill our responsibility.

Lastly, Why do we think the tastes and opinions of the world matter when it comes to the worship of God? Why do God-hating pagans get a seat at the table when we decide what Scripture dictates we do on Sunday Morning? Why do we find it necessary to be hip, cool, trendy, “with-it” when it comes to serving our Creator? Is Truth not eternal? Does Beauty change over time? We are called to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Is that just a cutesy phrase we put on our magnets with a picture of a sunset? Or does “the beauty of holiness” mean something? Beauty is defined by who God is. If it is otherwise defined, God would not be entirely beautiful. God is entirely beautiful and therefore the definition of beauty. This means our worship, first of all, is to be consistent with who He is. This should be obvious. We do not worship the God of life, with manners and rituals found in a Wiccan handbook. “The beauty of holiness.” If we are to worship in the beauty of holiness, it follows that we are to worship in holiness as well. Holiness first and foremost means separate, other, set apart. It also means moral perfection, but even that at the root means above and other than what is normal. Moral perfection is not achievable as children of Adam. Therefore He who can, namely God, is different, or other, than the rest of us. Our worship is to be holy. Our worship is to be set apart, different, other, above what is normal to us and our culture. This is why we do not (should not) sing Beatles’ songs in Worship. This is why worship does not consist of reading portions of Moby Dick. Worship is to be holy, it is to be different than what we do elsewhere. It is also to be in the Beauty of holiness, meaning as God defines it, not as we do. So why do we care about what the world says? This temptation to be sensitive to the world’s opinions stems from the idea that Sunday Worship is prime time for evangelism. The primary purpose of worship is to proclaim the gospel to the nations. But that is not the primary purpose of worship. That is what we do Monday through Saturday. On Sunday we come and are fed as the people of God. It is family time. Thus we should not be concerned with gearing the service toward unbelievers. Besides, the essence of worship is going to be foreign to them, no matter how much we dumb it down, unless the Spirit gives them a new set of eyes. The standards the world holds are consistent with their worldview, consistent with their foundation of life, namely, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. As Christians we have been given new hearts and new eyes to see the truth of Christ presented in the Scriptures. Here is where we discover God for who He is. In this discovery we begin to recognize His attributes throughout nature, and realize that Creation reflects its Creator. Here, through the natural and special revelation of the Spirit, we discover who God is, what He is like, how He thinks, as much as He has revealed to us. Here are our standards for life and worship. If God is Beauty, and our worship is to be beautiful, defined by who God is, then our worship needs to rest on the foundation of what is revealed to us about who He is, not in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.

We were created in the Garden to be a priesthood, to minister to all creation, and in turn serve God in obedience and thanksgiving. We were recreated in the Garden City of the New Jerusalem, the Church, to be a royal priesthood, ministering to all creation, proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord, to all nations, and in turn serve (worship) God in obedience and thanksgiving. We were created in the image of God. We are recreated in the image of Christ. We are given the Spirit to grow us, mature us, give strength and ability to obey, and comfort us at all times. It is the Spirit who is at work in us, focusing our eyes on Christ, teaching us that through Him we can approach the Father. But it is through Him, and therefore on His terms. We do not approach with strange fire, or with any sense of entitlement, expecting a comfortable experience, one perfectly suited to our needs. We come on holy ground, removing our sandals, and bowing our heads, for the one we approach is Holy. We come in fear and trembling, for we come before the One who is seated in the temple, high and lifted up. And His train fills the temple.

“Is He dangerous?” I asked. My pursed lips quivered, but not from the pain of fire.
“O yes, quite dangerous,” said the Seraph, still holding the burning coal plucked from the alter. “But He is good.”

Mystery

2008-03-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

There are many things that are wrong with our modern culture. Obviously this is a direct result of the godless lifestyle that our culture (and even much of the church, embarrassingly) has assumed is normal. If modern science is the "god" we say it is, and we really are just a bunch of protoplasm swimming around in epidermal sacks, then the amoral quality of our culture makes perfect sense. But this is simply not the case. We are creatures. That means we have been created. That means there is a Creator. That means the Creator had personal interaction with our coming into being. Not only did He personally oversee our entering creation, He personally sustains our every living moment. Were He to stop speaking us into existence, we would cease to be. We are completely dependent on our Creator for our every next breath. This also means we are bound by the nature and specifically moral quality of our Creator. But that is a separate discussion, though necessary to understand to see where we are going with this present discussion. If we do not take the absolute of God for granted, any number of questions will arise. But Scripture demands the absolute reality and absolute nature of our God, and so we can do no less, regardless of how many bumper stickers tell us otherwise.

This essay's main beef with modern culture is the complete misunderstanding of, and utter disregard for the nature and necessity of mystery between a man and a woman, specifically as it pertains to romantic, intimate relationships, and premarital relationships to be even more specific. Since the fall, man and woman have hid themselves from each other, recognizing, among other things, the shame that is associated with publicly exposing oneself. Hence the tradition of wearing clothes, beginning in the garden, has continued to the present day. This "tradition" of ours is the main contributor to the mystery that fills the spaces between a man and a woman. Co-contributors would be the difference in our hormonal/chemical make-up (fancy words referring simply to the way God made us), and the differences in our thought processes. This mystery that is plain to see, but difficult to understand, is the basis for every single romantic thought, action, development, desire, etc. Without our natural differences, bodily, mentally, spiritually, there would be no "not knowing" and no excitement over "finding out." This mystery is something that our God Himself created, and knowingly bestowed upon us. It is part of how we are made. Therefore we can infer that it is something good, and in essence a gift. It thus demands our attention and our respect.

The modern approach to this mystery stems from the very scientific outlook that gave rise to the descriptor, "modern." This approach says that if there is something going on that we do not understand, or cannot quantify in any objective way, than there is nothing going on. Nothing happens beyond what is explainable by chemistry and biology. Therefore, this mystery, which is necessary for the proper function of relationships, is completely explained away. This opens the door to sexual promiscuity (or sexual experimentation, fulfillment, activity – whatever candy-coated word we want to use instead). If this mystery, that is so obviously experienced, is not regarded as something special, then sex is nothing special either. Sexual tension is the basis of this mystery, and therefore part of the good gift. But when it is treated simply as a biological function, everything except the biological functions is missed.

The modern relationship despises this mystery, this sexual tension, and does away with it by the third date (if we are being generous). Men want the sensations of sex; women want the comfort of being needed and loved. But in this context, they are simply setting themselves up for pain and misery, no matter how far down they hide it. The mystery has a purpose, and here we begin to see the Hand of God. Mystery has the power to attract two people together; it also has the power to bond two people together. Before sexual union, mystery, the sense of unknown, creates a tension which prohibits a man and a woman from keeping their eyes off of one another. Until the tension is broken, the couple cannot be separated. They are constantly together, holding hands, going out on dates, etc. This is all good and holy, given the respect for God’s purposes, and His ways. And properly understood, this mystery drives a couple to marriage, a consecrated, public declaration of life-long commitment and fidelity. In the context of marriage, as the sexual tension is released, and the mystery, as originally perceived, begins to fade to comfort, God uses those differences to unite and bind, in a very unique and special way. In this context, mystery grows into something different, where, as the “not knowing” decreases, the hunger increases. In fact, it is the healthy participation in the rites of marriage that solidifies the bond, and strengthens the union that the couple has committed themselves to. This is only possible, however, in the context of life-long commitment and fidelity, consecrated in the sight of God.

Apart from marriage, when the “not knowing” decreases, the hunger also decreases, and the two lose interest in one another. This is the state of modern relationships. Here is where the disregard of the nature of this mystery has had devastating affects. Men need sexual release, and, not understanding the fruit of self-control, find it in women who are seeking protection, and a sense of being needed. The relationship will only last as long as the participants continue to keep up the appearance of interesting and novel. Thus women are forced to reinvent themselves, or at the very minimum keep up with the hottest, most provocative styles needed to “catch a boy” and keep him interested solely in her. Otherwise, feelings of despair and loneliness would rush in all too quickly. But as soon as she loses her mystery, and the tension that kept him looking at her dissipates, her chances of losing her catch increase rapidly, leading her to despair and loneliness anyway. It is a vicious cycle, destroying lives, and hardening the softest, and tenderest of hearts.

Here is the wisdom of God. Mystery is only healthy when it is tempered by the restraints of God’s law. When it is sinfully explored, it leads to pain and misery. These hard emotions cannot be explained away by science. Lab coats have no regard for the whole man, for the soul and heart of man. But God, who personally sustains us, has structured us in such a way that if we disobey Him, we will be doing things that are detrimental to our make-up. He knows how we tick, for He made us tick in the first place. It is similar to a watchmaker, building a watch, and then, giving it life, tells it to “Go and tick. Be a watch, and keep the hours, as you were made to do.” But the watch, despising the watchmaker, decides to swim in honey, deciding for itself, that honey would be much more pleasant than seconds, and minutes and hours, and days. But it finds that as it frolics in the honey jar, its parts start to freeze up, and the watch no longer works as it should. Had it listened to the wisdom of the one who made it, the watch would have lived a fulfilled and meaningful existence. But as it stands, the watch will simply cease to function, and have any ultimate meaning, or fulfilling experience. It must first be cleansed by the watchmaker, and re-wound, before meaning and purpose can be realized.

Paul tells us that marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church. So how does this idea of mystery play itself out in the meta-narrative? All men are created without excuse for they are witness to creation, and therefore are witness to the works of the Creator. All men are also created with a sense that there is a God, and He has spoken. This is suppressed in the hearts and minds of unbelievers, but is there nonetheless. This is obvious by a universal need for organized religion. Even anti-religious folks and atheistic pagans are religiously devoted to their beliefs. It is unavoidable. There is something in us, some mystery that draws us toward putting faith in something that is larger than our individual consciousnesses. When we explore this mystery and break the tension by participating in its practices, and do so apart from God’s design, we will by necessity, lose interest, and become disenchanted with that particular religion, if not with religion in general. This leaves us bitter and burnt. This does not mean that we will cease to participate in whatever religion we chose. Most unbelieving hearts are more bitter and spiteful of the one true God than of their play-religions, so even though they know deep down the unfulfilling nature of their practices, they prefer it to truth, and so therefore continue in it. But they will do so, disenfranchised and with a hardness of heart.

However, in the context of fidelity and life-long commitment to God’s design, when the mystery and tension is released in the participation in God-given rites (Baptism, Table fellowship), then God uses the decrease of “not knowing” and the excitement of “finding out” to strengthen the bond that unites the participants, namely Christ and the Church. In the context of Faithfulness, and here we mean specifically the faithfulness of the Husband which enables the faithfulness of the wife, unity and devotion grow in direct proportion to the active participation in the marriage rites. It is as we, the children of God, and the spouse of Christ, come and actively participate in the worship of our Lord, the singing of praise, the sitting at His Table, the going out into the ends of the earth, making disciples, that we are nourished and fed, and made able to continue in what we were made to do. Not only does our Watchmaker restore our parts, cleansing us and making us tick again, but He sustains us and continues to uphold us as we live as we were created to live, and do what we were created to do, honoring God for who He is, and giving Him thanks.

New Favorite Bumper Sticker

2008-01-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

Alright folks, this is my new favorite bumper sticker. I apologise if you are offended...well, not really.

Liberalism: Mental Erectile Dysfunction

Covenant Confusion.

2007-12-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

I was recently reading some things on the net discussing the Federal Vision. For those not familiar with this term, in January of 2002, the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Monroe, Louisiana hosted a conference titled "The FV: An Examination of Reformed Covenantalism" speakers at this conference (John Barach, Steve Schlissel, Steve Wilkins, and Douglas Wilson) highlighted the benefits of a covenantal perspective for issues such as the assurance of salvation and child training. Diagnosing a lack of these emphases in contemporary Reformed theology, the speakers presented their lectures as a healthy theological and pastoral corrective drawn from the wells of Reformed covenant theology.

Recognizing the serious need of the body of Christ and all the ways that the church falls short of properly ministering to the body should not be a surprise to anyone. As the Fair Minstrel eluded to in his last post, which has been a while now.....there is a cultural shift on the horizon and some of Modernity's answers to some of the issues we face need correction. That said, I do not believe that the F.V. folks have it right. Obviously this is a huge subject, but I'd like to comment on one statement, actually two, made by Doug Wilson from "The Auburn Avenue Theology"

"Are we asserting no distinction' between the apostate and the faithful son in the decrees? Absolutely not. But we are saying that when it comes to the covenant, the man who stands and the man who falls are distinguished in the standing and falling." Page 5...

"When a man falls away from the faith, there is clearly a sense in which he was never truly in the faith. But when a man falls away from the faith, in some sense he has to have been in the faith in order to fall away from it." Page 231...

I disagree. This boils down to what you mean by "in covenant" the distinguishment is either you are in the covenant or you are not. The falling away is an evidence that you are not. Not the other way around. Just as works are evidence of true faith in the heart, they are not what justifies, but rather evidence of a justfied person.

I do understand what these folks are reacting against, all the ways the Chruch has failed to properly minister to the people. The over emphasis on "personal salvation" at the expense of the covenant community of believers, but you don't have to redefine orthodox covenant theology to accomplish the task. You don't need to convince people that they are in convenant with God to love them and take care of them. We need to just love and take care of people and in the midst of doing that, share the good news of the gospel with them.

Obviously this is a complicated subject and one that requires much more depth than this contenxt allows. With the rise of the "Post-Modern" culture, the church must address a wide spectrum of issues, but what allows the church to effectively operate is not a constant re-definition of our Systematic Theology, but our unselfish application of the love of Christ working in us, doing the work of the kingdom. Correct theology is very important, but it is a means to and end, not the end itself.

We can treat people with dignity, love, and kindness, much better than we do now and accomplish the task without the convenant confusion that seems to be growing.

on culture

2007-10-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

“Personality and the Making of Twentieth Century Culture” by Warren Susman
(Source: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/readings/susman2.html)

I just finished reading this essay. The wealth of insights located here is more than enough to recommend itself to anyone serious about understanding where we are culturally and why, by understanding where we have come from. In this essay, Susman describes the two modes of selfconsciousness that defined the 19th and 20th centuries, and the shift in thinking that led from one to the other. To preface, both modes of understanding one’s self, in both centuries are unbiblical and man-centered. Neither reflected the Trinity, and the Trinitarian way of interaction, that is, pure gift, and selflessness. Self-awareness and self-consciousness is not the ultimate goal in the Trinitarian Christian’s life. Our only thought of self is who are we in Christ, and who are we in relation to neighbor. Christ and others form the web of our self-consciousness. Focus on self alone leads to idolatrous individualism and, ironically, self-destruction. But encouragement in that direction is not the purpose of Susman’s essay. His, rather, is to expose the modern (and in doing so, the post-modern) view of self, and how it has developed over the past two hundred years, having sustained a fairly drastic transformation at the turn of the century.

(Read the rest of my response here.)

Sense

2007-10-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this. One of my employees found this and tacked it to our bulliten board. It makes me smile.

Storms

2007-09-27T22:00:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite Rembrandts. It's his depiction of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, recorded in Matthew 8:23-27.

That's Jesus there in the back of the boat, lying down, just awakened by the panicked disciples.

Notice the two approaches to dealing with storms that Rembrandt captures in this painting. There are the disciples up at the bow of the boat, furiously trying to set the sails and right the vessel. And then there are the ones back at the stern. I think they realize just how hopeless their efforts will be against the storm - how absolutly futile it is to pull at those lines when you're up against the wind and the waves.

And they're almost certainly more afraid than they ought to be, what with the Son of God in their craft. But there they are, on their knees, looking to Him for help.

Where are you in this painting? Up at the bow, pulling and striving while the waves crash around you, threatening to sink your little boat? Or there with your Lord, crying out in whatever weak and broken way that you can that He alone is your rock, your refuge.

And now for something completely different...

2007-09-19T22:55:00.000-07:00

Just to lighten the mood a bit.

I was rummaging through my college poetry vaults, and came across this little gem. This has actually been published by an acclaimed literary journal... from Cabrillo College. Six popsicles go to the first one to catch the literary allusion.

Fairsized

The Cow

Once upon a mid morn sunny,
As I pondered over money
All alone my soul felt funny
For my friends went to the store.

I was left all by my lonesome
Hearing far off cattle groan some
Shaken by some sad unknownsome
I began to worry sore.

First of all, a cow was mooing
Then I felt some trouble brewing
For I saw that bovine chewing
Stately ravens, birds of yore.

Not the least obeisance made he
Not a minute stopped or stayed he
But with air of Marsha Brady
Sat upon my chamber door.

How he got there, ne’er he told me
Yet with harsh words he did scold me
Then his actions did enfold me
For my mind he did explore.

“Prophet”, said I, “Thing of evil!
“Leave me now you bovine devil”
So he left me, off to revel,
And I saw him, nevermore.

Beware of Democrats Wielding Alliteration

2007-09-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Thus far, the "Wierd News" category has been populated by some really great, fictional news metaphors that have illustrated some important facets of the life of the soul.

I'm going to deviate from that trend, though, with the following non-fiction story - because it's really, well, incredible. Not incredible like "great" or "fantastic" - incredible like in-credible. Un-believable. Oh no he didn't. This one can't be called anything but Wierd News.

****************
Nebraska State Senator Sues God Over Natural Disasters

Monday, September 17, 2007
Fox News

Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has decided to go straight to the top in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world. Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon, KPTM Fox 42 reported.

The suit asks for a "permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats." The lawsuit identifies the plaintiff as, "the duly elected and serving State Senator from the 11th Legislative District in Omaha, Nebraska."

Chambers also cites that the, "defendant directly and proximately has caused, inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plagues..."

Chambers says he isn't suing God because he has any kind of beef with the deity. He says the suit is to fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Chambers tells KPTM FOX 42 News that his lawsuit is in response to bills brought forth by other state senators to try and stop lawsuits from being filed.

"The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open, so you cannot prohibit the filing of suits," Chambers says. "Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God."

Chambers bases his ability to sue God, as, "that defendant, being omnipresent, is personally present in Douglas County."

****************

I think this proves at least two things. First, Democrats aren't really the intellectuals they've worked so hard to make us believe they are. Of course, Al Gore already has "Exhibit A" status there. Case in point here, though, (aside, even, from the clearly ludicrous nature of the claim itself)- Senator Chambers' stated purpose for filing this "suit" was, "To fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits." Yeah, bravo. The opponants of frivolous lawsuits are all gonna pack up and go home.

Second, when you see someone making their case through excessive and deliberate alliteration, their theology is surely in the pooper.

Freak Windstorm in Central Valley

2007-09-03T13:37:00.001-07:00

A homeowner near Patterson, CA experienced a freak of nature last night, and it seemed personal. Grover Adamson was doing a little house cleaning yesterday afternoon, placing everything on the front lawn. Being a calm evening, he decided to leave it there overnight, with the plan of going through it the next morning. During the night, a freak windstorm came and blew away the entire lot of goods he had out there. Every last scrap was gone, and still has not been found. No other houses on the block appear disturbed or even touched.

"I just couldn't believe it," said Mr. Adamson. "It was like an act of God had descended upon my front porch."

Whether really a sign from above or not, meteorologists are still trying to figure out how it started, where it went, and if it will come again.

"I was simply going through everything I owned," Mr. Adamson explained. "You know, the kind of deep cleaning that takes you under couches and in the cushions, in the corners of closets, the drawer in the kitchen nobody likes. I held nothing back. I put it all on the front lawn. And next morning it was completely gone. We know nobody stole it, because there were no tracks. It seems like a big vacuum cleaner came and just sucked it all up. Actually its sort of liberating, not having to deal with all that garbage."

The Divine Abundance: Part Six

2007-08-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

(Continued from Part Five)
So Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative. It is also diverse, copious, and harmonious. With Allah as God, only red is beautiful. All other colors submit in inadequacy. But with a Triune God ruling the heavens and earth, a rainbow of colors are considered equal in richness and beauty. Red and Blue can stand together and equally declare God’s glory in Beauty. But our God is three separate and distinct units, having no commonality. In like manner Red and Blue do not stand apart like in a debate, vying for the win. They are more like the two lines of music that when played together, harmonize. When something is beautiful, the individual aspects of that beautiful item work together to make it so. Take a beautiful tree. You do not separate the trunk from the branches, or the leaves from the ground its planted in. Every part plays its line in harmony. This is a microcosm of how the world works. There is a multiplicity of colors, textures, tastes, aromas, sights, sounds, that all work together in creation to glorify God. In their right created context, they are beautiful. This stems from the God we worship. Again, you cannot separate the creation from the Creator. A work always reflects its author.

Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse and harmonious. Beauty also carries an aspect of distance. Distance does not necessarily mean far away. It simply means space, and spatial relationships. In terms of our God, He is infinitely far, transcendent, and wholly other, and by the same token infinitely near, immediate, and within. Beauty therefore has these attributes as well. A painting perhaps best exemplifies this. To look at a painting one can see and touch the canvas, paint, frame, etc. In that sense it is near, close at hand. But it also has an aspect of distance, in that it takes you somewhere. From a Japanese bridge to a plaza in 18th Century Italy, to ancient Egypt (as with the pyramids). Beauty, in other words, is dimensional. Beauty has both the ability to transcend space and time, but also to locate one in a certain space and time. It not only remains beautiful through different cultures and era’s, but also takes the beholder and locates them in a different context. As I mentioned, this happens most readily with paintings, but architecture can have the same affect, both civic and landscape. Beauty brings the far near, and brings the near far away.

Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse, harmonious, and dimensional. Lastly, Beauty has context, and cannot be beautiful, at least in the same way, apart from its surroundings. To relate this directly to our God needs some clarification. God would still be God apart from His people, technically. But He Himself has chosen to irrevocably unite Himself to us, to identify Himself by us. Christ is now forever in human flesh. That cannot and will not be undone. To separate Him from that flesh would in some sense, hypothetically of course, diminish His beauty. In like manner, creation has context. The beauty of the trees in the mountains of eastern California could not be appreciated in the great plains of Nebraska. But in their context, they are some of the most sublime sights one can ever see on this earth. Likewise a Bach Cantata played at a hockey game, just does not fit, nor would the beauty be fully communicated and appreciated. Just because something works here, does not necessitate it working there. This is another way of joining the form/content debate. Form matters. The content is affected by the form. A cheesecake in a springform pan will look and taste different than a cheesecake in a meatloaf pan. The cheesecake needs its own specific context to function as it was meant to. Beauty works the same way. Beauty identifies with something. The point here is that the ‘something’ is important.

From this discussion, we have now a specific set of standards to judge beauty. These are objective standards that do not depend on taste. Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse, harmonious, dimensional, and within a specific context. Next time we will look at how if one of these aspects is distorted or maligned, the object no longer is beautiful. But for now, beauty is important, and how we understand it will affect how we live and relate with one another. And it happens whether or not we believe it.

The Divine Abundance: Part Five

2007-08-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

We have discussed the nature of the Trinity and its relation to Creation. The question then arises, what has this to do with aesthetics? What has this to do with beauty? The Creator God is Beauty, and there can be nothing more beautiful than God. Ultimate Beauty therefore must have the same attributes as the infinite God. If it did not, God could not be the Ultimate Beauty. In this way, we have an objective standard for Beauty. Beauty is not simply and only ‘taste’. Taste has its place, but it does not govern all areas of Beauty. Therefore, something can be truly, biblically beautiful, say a ripe peach, and not be pleasing to every single person on earth. If that example seems trite, think about it again. Peaches are an act of creation. They are created by God. God cannot make what is outside His nature. Hence, peaches reflect God’s nature, and are in that sense, Beautiful. But John doesn’t like peaches. And God has given him the freedom to not like them. Taste is a subcategory of Beauty, and not the other way around. Our modern/postmodern relativists have elevated taste above all, elevating their own decision-making abilities over and above what God has decreed. In this way they can look down on God and decide that He is not their type, just like John does not like peaches. But taste is not the heading, with beauty as bullet point number three, followed by truth, and flavors of ice cream. We must say that Beauty, who is God Himself, reigns and that all things flow from Him.

So in the past four discussions regarding the Divine Abundance, what framework have we given for our understanding of Beauty? We have looked at these each in their own place:

The ‘superfluousness’ of Creation
The necessary love of the Creator
The Triune nature and fellowship of the Creator
The divine dialogue and difference within the Trinity
The distance and immediacy of this Triune God
The identification of God with His people

What can we understand about Beauty from these things? The first thought to take away is that Beauty is real and present. It is not a figment of imagination, nor is it a created substance that will pass with time. Beauty surrounds us because it is emblazoned in creation. It follows then that Beauty does not need a subject to appreciate it to be beautiful. Creation was Good on Day 5. Creation was beautiful without Man. Now in the Almighty’s divine pleasure, it was not complete without man, but the presence of mankind does not suddenly give Beauty its life. Beauty has its life in that it reflects the nature of the Creator. Beauty is the very reflection. The Triune God was beautiful, was Beauty, from before the foundations of the world.

Beauty is real, and present, and independent from us. Beauty also gives and bestows. As the very reflection of God, it gives glory and bestows majesty on God. Acts of beauty then consist of bestowing on others. This is tempered and defined by the selfless love of the Trinity. The act of giving is an act free from selfish ends and desires. Beauty then is a selfless love, giving of itself for the pure reason of blessing others. This can be seen in music, to take an example from the art world. When various lines complement each other, and do not dominate, but harmonize and flow together, achieving a sound bigger than the individual lines, the overall product is beautiful, because it reflects the nature of Beauty, the nature of God, which involves a love which is directed outward, a selfless giving for the benefit and glorification of the other.

Beauty is real, present, independent, giving and bestowing. Beauty also is playful and creative. To look at the diversity of creation, and to speak of God as anything but playful, humorous, and creative, is to look but without seeing and understanding. Beauty then is rich in diversity (allowing for tastes), humorous, creative, and playful. I say playful in order to bring to mind images of delight and joy. God clearly enjoys His creation. Go to any national or international park, landmark, or reserve. From Yosemite, to the Fjords of Norway, to the (fill in your favorite desktop wallpaper). This again, speaks to the unnecessary nature of creation. God did not need to create 300,000 different types of beetles, but He did, and did so out of His own good pleasure and delight in creation. To watch antelopes and gazelles bounce and prance as they do over fields and hills, is a delight. Simply look at the giraffe for conclusive evidence that God is a comedian and enjoys playing. Beauty is a reflection of that playfulness. To watch the sun melt in a rainbow of colors, dripping down into the raising waves of a moving ocean, while the land and mountains behind you are seduced by the dark of night, is Beauty. It is beautiful because it is an exhibition of nature playing and enjoying the game of creation, the game God has given it to play.
(Part Two forthcoming…)

The Divine Abundance: Part Four

2007-08-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

We left off a couple of months ago with the idea of the God of Creation, the God who is infinitely beyond all, stooping into history, and approaching His own. In Christ, the Unapproachable One, becomes approachable, the God of all takes on flesh and tabernacles among us. This brings us to a fourth point in our pursuit of a paradigm for understanding the beautiful and our place in it.

The Lord of all Creation is infinite. This must be so, or else God would have a beginning or an end, and that is nonsensical. There are two sides to this coin. The infinity of God by definition means that God is infinitely above us, beyond us, transcending every thought, concept, imagination, or word we can give. This we know, and have dwelt on already. From this starting point we arrive at our own superfluousness, and the unnecessary nature of Creation.

Infinity also means however, that God is infinitely close to His creation. As far as He is distant, He is also near. In short, He is the distance that separates us. He is the distance that breaks through the Creator/Creature distinction. He is the God who, though being above all, has irrevocably bound Himself to His Creation. He has defined Himself, named Himself, with relation to His people. In Exodus He gives Moses the name by which He will be known, and remembered. “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations,” (Ex. 3:14-15). Even in the very name of God, He involves His purpose, His people. He is to be remembered throughout all generations as the God of a certain, particular people.

This God identifies intimately with His bride. He puts His reputation on the line, if you will. Here we have a clearer idea why the history of God’s people is so important. It is through God’s relation with us that His glory is made known to the nations. Two things we take from this. One, God uses weakness to confound strength. He uses broken clay pots to conquer the iron and steel of His enemies. The second thing we take from this is that God is not using the history of His bride apart from divine foreknowledge. In other words, He is not simply hoping the story of His grace will fall on sympathetic ears. He will be made known to the nations, and He will bring redemption to the world, placing His enemies beneath His feet. This will happen. And in order to accomplish this, He chooses to use us, the fallen and restored Bride.

This however, is more contextual, and tangential to our discussion of aesthetics, though not unimportant. To reorient us, work through this quote from David Bentley Hart’s book, The Beauty of the Infinite:

This is why consideration of the analogy of being concludes this long meditation on Trinitarian doctrine: the Father forever sees and infinitely loves the whole depth of his being in the Son, illumined as responsive love in the fullness of the Spirit, and in the always determinate infinity of His triune being God begets all the riches of being – all that all things might ever be – in the image and light of His essence; and thus God himself is already his own analogy, his own infinite otherness and perfect likeness. All things – all the words of being – speak of God because they shine within his eternal Word. This Trinitarian distance is that “open” in which the tree springs up from the earth, the stars turn in the sky, the sea swells, all living things are born and grow, angels raise their everlasting hymnody; because this is the true interval of difference, every metaphysics that does not grasp the analogy of being is a Tower of Babel, attempting to mount up to the supreme principle rather than dwelling in and giving voice to the prodigality of the gift. (The Beauty of the Infinite, 248)

This is a little thick, so lets work through it. The ‘analogy of being’ refers to the metaphysical concepts of difference and transcendence. Packed in the luggage of those terms are the two sides of the infinite described above. The triune nature of God is in essence, one of love. We have seen how this love overflows in rich abundance into Creation, showing God’s playfulness and intimacy within unnecessary gift. This is seen in “all the riches of being – all that all things might ever be – in the image and light of His essence.” All creation therefore sings in praise of who God is, for He is intimately united, by choice, and not by force, to all creation. “He is before all things, and in Him, all things consist,” (Col 1:17). “For in Him we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:28). Because God is infinite, and is the very space that separates us (‘even in the depths of Sheol, You are there…’), He gives life to all things. He is therefore that “open” space in which trees grow and sway in the wind, angels sing their hymns, and the oceans clap their hands in praise. Hence every metaphysic (paradigm, worldview, theology) that does not understand this, is by nature the tower of defiance and rebellion. To not recognize the ruler of heaven and earth, is to declare autonomy, which will necessarily bring confusion and exile. We cannot mount up to God. However, He can stoop down, and has in Christ. This is that gift that we are to dwell in and give voice to. We dwell in God’s bounty whether we like it or not. It is simply the way things are. We can however choose not to give voice to it. Either we refuse and climb Mount Babel, or we accept, and honor God as God, and give Him thanks.

Here is gratitude, the only word on our tongue fit for the Creator God, who is above all, and in all, and through all. Glory and power and dominion are His forever, and ever, world without end. Amen.

Emergent-See

2007-07-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

These are a must see. Take that Shallow Waters...

The Hairy Potter

2007-07-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome back Friar. After a long absence, we have all three abbey members posting in the same week. This is great!

Just so everyone is clear, I have not read any of the Potter books. However my opinions are not of the nature that make others think I wear tight pants. To address the fair friar’s first question, yes, there is a difference between Tolkien and Rowlings, and no its not simply a difference in gender. To put it simply, Tolkien and Lewis are 32oz Porterhouses, with AuGratin potatoes and a side of broiled asparagus, finished off with a fine, mellow glass of Pinot Noir. Rowlings is like Slimfast. There is still nourishment there, but of a different degree. This is explained by my response to his next question.

The presuppositionalist will readily see the underpinnings of Christianity in Harry Potter. This is natural, and holds true for any good story. Christianity is the only worldview that works, that is consistent with nature, and our experiences in this world. Science and the demigods in white coats, followed by the relativists of our own generation will say differently in print. However, they will not, cannot live their life consistently, if they wish to live their life. As I said, the story of Scripture is the only story that works. Therefore, if you wish to write a fiction that works, key elements of the Story need to be intact. For instance, if you end a story with a nihilistic death, with nothing afterwards and no meaningful outcome, nobody is going to read the book. It simply wont sell. However, if there is some sort of resurrection following the death, whether actual or symbolic, there is a sense of rest, that resolves the tension of death. You don’t have to be a Christian to understand this. This is something that is hardwired into mankind. Only believers, however, have the resources to explain why this is so.

So back to Harry and Frodo. The reason why Potter works (again, at least from what I have heard) is because it borrows elements from the Real Story, such as good beating evil, though evil is real and nasty. To my knowledge, Rowlings does this unintentionally, mixing in her own thoughts. To use another analogy, the Potter books are like cupcakes made with the flour and baking powder of Christian thought, but mixed with the flavor and frosting of Rowlings own personal worldview. Here is where we Christians practice our discernment. Just because she uses two cups of truth, does not make the whole cupcake good. There might be some redeeming value in reading it, and it can simply be a lark in a park. But if we only see the two cups of truth and not the sprinkles of disbelief, we are setting ourselves up for a fall. This is simply a call for us to be aware. Reading Potter is not a sin, and we should read them. But I agree with the JF that a steady diet, and a narrow diet of Potteresque books is dangerous for the soul.

That said, a few comments on Tolkien and Lewis. I have not read Potter, but I have had a steady diet of these two greats. Similar subject matter, right? So what’s the difference? Tolkien and Lewis both wrote their fictions from within the paradigm of faith. Their own personal convictions were such that they believed Scripture and the Story of the Gospel to be the Story of all Stories. This inevitably shaped and molded their own hand as they wrote. This is clearly evident in reading their works. The more Truth they personally took in, the more Truth came out through their fingers. It is simple proportions. Rowlings swallows two cups truth, and puts out two cups truth. Tolkien and Lewis daily eat loaves and loaves of truth, and therefore put out rich and meaty works, overflowing with the richness of their diet. We cannot separate a work from its author, as some have tried. We cannot separate a creation from its creator. Therefore we must study both, as each informs us of the other. So the call is to read, but to read wisely and with a mind to engage and discover.

Christian Presupposition in Harry Potter?

2007-07-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

As the hub-bub about the final installment, (at least in writing), is coming to an end, this Jolly Friar ponders on some things Potter. Views on this subject are as polarized as the ice-caps and no shortage of opinion exists among Christian circles. So for the sake of stirring up the pot here at the abbey, I'd like to pose the question to all those who ponder.

Is there a difference between Tolkien, Lewis, and Rowlings? (Besides the obvious male/female distinction.) Are the Harry Potter series of books the same as "Lord of the Rings" or "The Chronicles of Narnia"?

For instance, the hero in the "Lord of the Rings" is Frodo Baggins, the humble hobit, with great character and self-sacrifice. Is there a reasonable parallel between Frodo and Harry? Gandalf uses magic and so does Harry. Is there a difference between them? Some say that Tolkien is fine, but Rowlings is not. Why? or Why not?

Some assert that the Potter books makes no sense, or could not have been written without a Christian presupposition. See Harry Potter Meets Cornelius Van Til Obviously using the Potter series as a spring board or opportunity to discuss the important matters of eternity is something that all Christians should be prepared to do. We must engage the culture and be able to intelligently speak about what is going on. I don't know how many times I've heard people comment on things they haven't read or seen. That is just ridiculous. If you haven't read something or seen it, you have no business commenting on it as though you know what your talking about.

This humble Friar believes that Christians may freely read Potter, but should always be discerning and understand what is truly Biblical and what is not. Children should indeed find an interest in reading, but if all they read is Harry Potter and nothing else, is that interest in reading a real benefit? I've known many who said their Children are reading more due to reading Harry Potter, but when you examine the content of what they read, there is little redeeming value in the content. In the final analysis, it's not Harry that's the problem in that scenario, the problem is much broader than this simple minded friar's opinion and well beyond the scope of "To Harry or not to Harry," that is the question.

O My...

2007-07-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

My new favorite Modern Evangelical venture into Pop-Relevance:

T-shirt - "California rhymes with Jesus"

Jacques and Rich would be proud...

2007-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

Ah, it's good to be back at the Abbey.

I took a bit of leave to wander North and refresh my soul with my family. How good to see that the dialogue continues to be gracious and stimulating - not to mention diverse! From a Redemptive-Historical overview of Matthew's gospel to John Mayer - good heavens! A wonderfully full-orbed appreciation of the good and the beautiful.

What's with the redesign, though?! One might conclude that someone has been reading too much Derrida and Rorty, what with all the deconstructionist adjustments to the Abbey's appearance! Right-justified titles. Inconsistent margins. You aren't wearing baggy pants sagging below your hips, too, are you? Maybe I just have a touch of OCD, but I had to tidy things up a bit...

The first step

2007-07-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Mr. Hyper Wop wanted some online resources. This is the best start. Through New Eyes, by James B. Jordan. It is a full size book, close to 350 pages. But it the best launching pad to thinking this way about Scripture. It is a free PDF file too. Enjoy.

Matthew

2007-07-13T14:56:00.000-07:00

My wife and I had the privilege this past Lord's Day to sit under the teaching of our former professor, Dr. Leithart, at a local Church, near the Abbey. It was a pleasure to see him again, as we had not for over a year, and he was a friend, as well as an instructor. He spoke on Matthew. It is the substance of that sermon which I wish to share here at the table. So pull yourself a pint of something dark, drag one of those thick heavy chairs from the corner over to the table, and lean back. This might take a while.

Matthew’s aim, as is well understood, in writing his account of Jesus’ life, was to approach the Jewish nation with the Gospel. This is seen in his mentioning of Jewish customs, and not explaining them (23:5), and his constant use if the Old Testament, more than any other gospel (21 times; Mark, 15 times; Luke, 16 times; John, 11 times). Those are just the direct quotes. To understand Matthew well, a thorough knowledge of the whole Old Testament is required. This outline is one step in that direction.

Matthew begins his account of the Good News with a genealogy. This is extremely reminiscent of Genesis. To top it off the opening verse of Matthew, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ...” in the Greek reads, “The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ...” using the same Greek word that the LXX uses to give title to the book of Genesis. And in Genesis 5 (as well as nine other times throughout the book), the exact phrasing is used, βίβλος γενέσεως ἀνθρώπων, compared with Βίβλος γενέσεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Matthew is the story of a new creation, and a new “ἀνθρώπων”, Jesus Christ, the Creator God Himself. These are His generations, His “beginnings”. In Genesis, whenever a genealogy is given, the descendents are listed. But here in Matthew, the ancestors are listed. Could it not be that Matthew is hinting that they too are descendants, starting with Christ, and then Abraham? Abraham is a new Adam, the father of faith. Being a new Adam, he himself was a son of God, as Adam was. Abraham is a son of God, and therefore a son of the Son. Here lies a difference between the two genealogies of Matthew and Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham, and lists fathers. Luke starts with Christ, and lists sons. Matthew and Luke are doing two separate things. Luke wants to pick up where Mark left off, “Truly this was the Son of God.” But Matthew wants to show Jesus in a different light than Luke, with a different perspective. Perhaps this is to highlight the unity of the Father and the Son, showing the Jews this was written for, that Jesus is the “I AM” who was before their father Abraham, and greater too. But now we are approaching the skinny branches. What is clear is a harkening back to the first book of the Bible. Matthew wants us to view this story as a new Beginning for a new world, a new order, a new covenant.

The story of Matthew follows closely the story of Israel through their long and sordid history. To begin with, there is the genealogy, then the birth of Christ, His descent into Egypt, and His return followed closely by His baptism. Here we see a recapitulation of the birth of the nation of Israel, their time in Egypt, their exodus from the land, and their “baptism” in the Red Sea. It follows perfectly. What comes next is a time in the wilderness. As Israel wandered for forty years, so Christ for forty days. Matthew sets the stage in the temptation of Christ, showing us that not only is this a new Israel, it is an obedient Israel. Jesus rejects Satan on all the points Israel failed on. The grumbled for bread, the tested the Lord, they desired the kingdoms of Egypt. Jesus proves faithful, when the nation of Israel did not.

The next three chapters of Matthew, 5-7, are a record of Jesus, standing on a mountain, proclaiming to the people a new Law. This is exactly what happens after Israel finished their time in the wilderness. They were brought to a mountain, and the Law was recounted to them, full with blessings and curses. This also alludes to Sinai when I AM gave the law. Here Christ, who is the great I AM, gives the law. At the end of chapter 7 Jesus says this, “And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” This again, is a picture of the house of Israel. Jesus is alluding to their immanent and final fall, as he does more explicitly later in the book.

Then in chapter 10, Jesus gathers 12 disciples officially. He prepares them, and subsequently sends them out into the unconquered lands. This obviously looks like the 12 nations of Israel, being called out, equipped with the word in Deuteronomy, and sent into the promise land, to conquer it. Hence Matt 10:34, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus is a new Joshua, coming to bring the sword against Satan and his followers. He is coming to bring the sword against death itself. This also fits with Jesus using the examples of the old Canaanite cities of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom in chapter 11. But the new Conquest of Canaan, is not one of extinction, it is one of redemption. In chapter 11, Jesus tells John the Baptist that “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” Canaan is to be given new life. In chapter 12 this is made explicit with the quotation from Isaiah, which ends with “and in His name the Gentiles will hope.” Jesus has come to bring hope to all who are spiritually Gentiles, coming to conquer them, and kill them, but in order that He might raise them up again.

The second half of chapter 12 leads the people to be amazed and wonder if this Man is the Son of David (12:23). The Pharisees think he is of Satan. Jesus responds by telling them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. And then in chapter 13, Jesus, in concentrated form, is concerned with kingdoms, and explaining the kingdom of Heaven. This fits perfectly with Israel’s history. They conquer the land of Canaan, and not too long afterwards, desire a king. The kingdom of Israel grows to maturity under Solomon, the son of David. Jesus, here, in a very Solomon-like way, gives word-pictures of what the kingdom of Heaven is like. Jesus is the King of the Jews. In chapters 14-15 he acts like a king, providing for His people, bread for 5000 first, and then 4000. To confirm this, and to answer the question posed in 12:23, He is confirmed as the Son of David by the Canaanite woman (15:22). This comes to a climax in the confession of Peter in 16, and the transfiguration in 17. Christ is the ultimate King, the Son of God, and the three witness His glorious majesty. The King theme is carried through chapters 18-20. It reaches another climax in chapter 21, as the Son of David returns to Jerusalem, this time on the foal of a donkey. Jesus assumes the Kingship of Jerusalem, as He is labeled on the cross, and His disciples and worshipers flock to His side. Then in chapter 22 the parable of the wedding feast for the King’s son is given. This is an important parable on two accounts. One, the inclusion of the nations is explicit. Two, a wedding is coming. The Bride is alluded to, made up of every nation, and every tribe, and every tongue. The very final verses of 22 wrap up this Kingship section. It is where Jesus tests the Pharisee’s knowledge of the Psalms. “Who is the Christ,” He asks. “The son of David,” they reply. “How so, in light of Psalm 110:1?” He answers (paraphrase mine). They cant answer, and Matthew leaves it at that. The answer is of course, that the Lord is not simply a descendant of David, He is also the Father of David, and is Himself a greater David. All that David was points to Christ. Pharisees have no eyes to see this, however.

Then in chapters 23-25, Jesus takes a very different tone. He becomes like Jeremiah, standing outside Jerusalem, proclaiming its destruction. The kings of Israel were not faithful, and another exodus was coming. But this time it was back into exile and slavery. Jerusalem would be judged. Here in Matthew Jesus speaks of the final judgment to come on Jerusalem, a judgment that would abolish the old ways, and establish the new. This judgment would bring about a time when the Priest, the King, and the Prophet were all found in one Man, the God-man, the Son of David, the King of Creation, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. The second Moses, the second Joshua, the second Solomon, the second Jeremiah, has come and He is the true Israel, the true seed of Abraham. He has come to make disciples out the rocks of the earth.

Following the prophecy of exile, Jesus Himself enacts Israel’s death. He Himself experiences the departure of God the Father, as in Ezekiel 10. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He experiences the death of Israel, for Israel. But this death is a death of deeper magic. This is a death which brings the death of death. Faithful Israel is brought to life, and is Life Himself, never to die again. Thus we have in chapter 28, the rest of the story. The Old Testament leaves us unsure of Israel’s future. They come home from exile, but are still a mess. They need a lasting death, the death of something greater than bulls and goats. This finds its fulfillment in the Resurrection.

To end it all, Matthew copies the final verses of the Hebrew Scriptures which are found at the end of 2 Chronicles 36. They read, “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’” Does this have a familiar ring? Jesus final words in Matthew, and only in Matthew mind you, are, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus, here, is a greater Cyrus who has been given power and authority and sends his people out, with the purpose of establishing something. The old Cyrus only has authority on earth, where the new Cyrus has authority over heaven and earth. The old Cyrus tells them to establish a specific house in Jerusalem, whereas the new Cyrus tells his disciples to establish a new Jerusalem. Both declare that the Lord their God will be with them, and in the second case, the Lord their God is the one telling them that He Himself will be with them, lo, to the end of the age.

Matthew, with these thoughts in mind, is basically a recapitulation of the entire history of Israel, starting from the Garden. It is structured in such a way that we might catch this connection, and witness the new Israel Himself, live as the old Israel was supposed to. In so doing, this new Israel redeems His bride. He breaks down the walls of nationality, conquering the gentiles by baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded. This is the telos of faithfulness. This is the telos of Christ. Here is our call to go.

Again, many thanks to Dr. Leithart for his thoughts and insights. May we all seek to approach Scripture with Scripture in mind. That is the best hermeneutic.

Diamond in the Rough

2007-07-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Every once in a great while, a piece of pure pop art hits on a grain of truth, and simply knocks it out of the ballpark. One such moment is found in John Mayer’s new hit song “Gravity.” Mayer is known for a deeper, more thoughtful lyric than his contemporaries, and is also quite deft at metaphor, something we here at the Abbey are in favor of. The song reads as such, with a simple beat, and an uncomplicated progression played smoothly on the guitar.

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh I'll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

Oh Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

Oh twice as much ain’t twice as good
And can't sustain like a one half could
It's wanting more
That's gonna send me to my knees

Oh gravity, stay the hell away from me
And gravity has taken better men than me (Now how can that be?)

Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Just keep me where the light is
Ohh.. where the light is!

The first thing of note is the title/first word of the song: gravity. This word is a metaphor for nature, unhindered, unconquered. Gravity normally is an outside force working externally. Throughout this song however, it seems to take on a inward role, something inside the singer, working contra to the desires of the singer. It is “working against me” and it “wants to bring me down.”

The inwardness of this ‘gravity’ becomes clearer as the next stanza is sung. “This man…dream[s] of ways to throw it all away.” Those dreams are coming from the inside, and are not a product of external influences. Note the way Mayer describes the affect of this inward gravity: “I’ll never know what makes this man with all the love that his heart can stand dream of ways to throw it all away.” He hits our human nature square on the head, and speaks clearer truth than most Christians have the guts to even think, and does so unaware (to my knowledge) of our natural state of rebellion in Adam. We have been given far more than we could ever ask or think, and what is our natural response, apart from the grace of Christ? Throw it all away, hoping that we can find something more fulfilling in that pile of crap over there. We receive the God of all the heavens and earth, and despise Him so much, that we bow to the ‘more sacred’ gods of wood, stone, and TV.

The next stanza is an insightful note on our contemporary culture. “Twice as much ain’t twice as good, and can’t sustain like one half could. Its wanting more that’s gonna send me to my knees.” Our culture is a culture of gluttony. Gluttony concerns everything, not just food. Gluttony of every appetite: entertainment, sexual, financial, etc. We want it all, and then supersized. We are gluttons, hard and fast (actually more squishy and slow). We seriously think that more is always, and without exception, better. If one portion was good, two is better. If one woman was good, two is better. If one house was good, two is better. To hell with the cost. To hell with the consequences. Damn the torpedos! Full steam ahead! We are a thoughtless, futureless society. We have no notion of heritage or legacy. How do we live so that our children and children’s children live well? Does it matter how we live? Are those generations effected by our present actions? What is this ‘generation’ that you speak of? What is this notion of cause and effect? These are foreign concepts to my modern mind. Legacy? Isn’t that an SUV or something? Do not get me wrong. I am not on some neo-modern hippie crusade, proclaiming the barefooted good news of dreadlocked organic living. There is just one simple concept that is totally lost on this irresponsible, self-serving generation. That simple concept brings to mind the first command ever given us: stewardship. But that takes too much thought, work, selflessness (fill in the blank with your favorite virtue). That takes learning from those who have gone before, and caring for those who come after. But we have no thought of the past, and no hope in the future. We are a bastard generation, fathering another bastard generation.

The final lines show the fullest amount of common grace found in this song. Even the devil’s own become an unwitting prophet, declaring the way of truth. “Just keep me where the light is.” I doubt Mayer knows the fullest meaning of this phrase (may God grant that he someday will). Our only hope of salvation from this downward spiral is the Light Himself. This becomes our prayer, “Just keep us where the light is.” Who will accomplish this? Gravity? We have seen his trajectory. Furthermore, gravity resides within. Here Mayer makes his greatest insight, wittingly or not. Help must come. And help, in order to come, must come from outside. The line itself is addressing something/someone outside of the speaker. On top of that, help must come from something/someone in which/whom this ‘gravity’ does not reside.

Our only hope is Light Himself. Light is not affected by gravity. Light does not regard gravity as too great a foe. In fact Light comes to conquer gravity. We could almost say that Light is sent by the Sun for just such an errand.

Come Lord Light, keep us where you are.

Egalitarian or Hierarchicalist?

2007-06-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

While perusing the web (yes, we actually have internet here at the abbey), I came across an interesting article on woman in ministry. One of the local churches has taken the position of woman in ministry that I would argue miltates against Scripture. Naturally, they claim their position is supported by Scripture, however; they do recognize and state that this is a secondary issue and one that we need to have libertas in this area and that's a good thing.

Here's the trust of their argument:

"The classic text used to hold the line for a Hierarchicalist position (limited leadership roles for women) is 1 Timothy 2:12 where the Apostle Paul tells the young pastor Timothy, "I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man." Let’s quickly wade through the exegetical issues. First, it is not wise to build an entire position or a theological position around just one passage of Scripture as so often occurs with this passage. Second, since Paul did not teach against women prophesying when given the opportunity to do so in 1 Corinthians 11:5, we can see that 1 Timothy 2:12 is not a universal appeal against women teaching at all. Third, this leads us to the conclusion that 1 Timothy 2:12 is dealing with a unique pastoral issue. Fourth, we are left needing to understand the meaning of the term "authority" or "authentein" in the original Greek language. The clearest meaning of the term deals with the violent use of authority or inappropriately usurping or misusing authority for one’s own benefit (a prohibition Jesus Himself gave to His male disciples in Matthew 20:25–28). We believe this means 1 Timothy 2:12 is speaking out against specific women who were abusing or usurping authority, not presenting a universal prohibition against women having any leadership roles. Therefore, we believe this passage is more accurately addressing a specific pastoral challenge coming from a group of women Paul later referred to in 1 Timothy 5:11–15 who were doing damage to the Gospel and the church through their attitudes and behaviors. When all of these points are considered together with all other texts addressing this issue, we embrace the full capacity of women and men to serve together in the church. Articles on Hermeneutics and Women in Ministry in the New Testament, David M. Scholer, p. 192–196."

First of all, I know for a fact that the abbey does not "cherry-pick" this verse out in support of men-only as Elders. I think woman may become friars, in some limited fashion, but that is another discussion for another time.

Secondly, I find it interesting that someone uses an argument of "not using a single verse to build a position on..." and then provide only that verse in support of their position! There's no mention of 1 Tim 3:1-13, Titus 1, mandates in creation, roles of men/woman, submission of wives to their husbands, etc...

Shouldn't we consider the entire panoply of Scripture to base our understanding on this issue (and any other for that matter)? I should think so, nay, I know so. In order to have fidelity to biblical truths, you actually have to deal with the ALL the texts.

The Nature of Grace

2007-06-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Right now I am reading Leithart's new book, "The Baptized Body" (published by Canon Press). So far an excellent read, very thought provoking, and assumption shaking. One thing he reminds us concerns the nature of Grace. It comes as part of a discussion surrounding the usage of the phrase "means of grace" and its reference to the sacraments (which he is not in favor of, the phrase that is. He still likes the sacraments.) The complaint comes from the word 'means.' To speak of grace as needing means, he says, conveys a notion that grace is its own entity, needing transportation. Grace is a passanger in need of a car, such as the table, to get from God to us. But this is not biblical. Grace does not come through the table. Grace is the table. The fact that God dines with men, is Grace. More specifically, "in the sacraments, there is a personal encounter with the Triune God through the particular agency of the Spirit" (pg 18). God shows grace, through grace itself, not through some vehicle created solely for that purpose. The sacraments are holy not because they are tools, ordained by God, to transfer favor to us. They are holy because they are themselves the favors of God, given to His children to bless them.

A Feast of Well-Aged Wine

2007-06-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 25

O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners' palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

There are words that are spoken at the grave. There are words that are spoken in memorial. There are words that wait until the shadow of grief has passed.

Witnessing the death of a family member, someone close and dearly loved, brings out one of two responses. For the one who trusts in the Lord Jesus, and believes the words of Isaiah, it is a strange mix of deep, heartfelt sorrow, and rich, abundant joy. To the ears who have not heard, and to the heart that will not listen, there is nothing but frightening blackness.

This blackness, I can only imagine, produces the deepest feelings of fear, despair, and meaninglessness. What is the point of all of life, after all, if all we are, all we ever become, all we remain for endless days, is simple clay? To watch a loved one enter into oblivion, if there is no hope in Christ and therefore life ever after, must unearth in the very core of a crying man, the terror of mortality. We die. We must die. It is one of the worlds most certain of facts. We are mortal creatures. Witnessing the finality of that aspect, reminds us that this is the case. We cannot live forever, on this earth, and we should not live as if we could. But the heart of man is wicked, who can comprehend it? We want to live as if death were not a factor. Hardened hearts will quickly forget the lessons learned at the side of the grave.

Deep inside every person, there is a God-given instinct, which assures us that we have meaning. We instinctively know that killing innocent people is wrong. We know that death is sad, and final. However, apart from Christ, death obliterates all meaning, putting us deep into the ground, never to resurface. There is no point to life, if there is no point to death.

The "fortified city" in the beginning of the passage above is a metaphor for man. God is the one who brings the man back to a pile of earth, never to be rebuilt again. This is why the peoples and nations will fear the Lord. He is to be feared for He has the power to destroy not only the body, but the soul as well. But our God is a gracious God, and good. He is "a shelter from the storm, and a shade from the heat." This testifies to God's Godness. Were He not God, He would not have the power to save, and bring new life. But He is God, and He desires that not one should perish, but that all reach repentance. In God-given repentance, we find that we will be rebuilt, but not in the same way, nor in the same place. The construction will be eternal, and will shine in the glory of the Christ.

Therfore, death in the eyes of the believer is rich in meaning. It is the doorway to the better country. It is the passage from a sin-cursed world, to eternal glory in Christ the Lord. John 12:24 assures us of this meaning: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Our own passing is a picture of the death of death, the death brought on the shoulders of Christ. In that death, “the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations,” is swallowed up forever. That death is what grants us confidence, assurance, and hope.

Thus we can stand at the side of the grave, and mourn the loss of a friend, but at the same time we see the glory of God reenacted. It is the portal through which we ascend from glory to final glory. It is fitting that God should use the instrument that separated us from His presence in the Garden, so long ago, to bring His children home. By means of the death that entered the young creation, we were expelled from our place of rest. By means of that same death, the recipients of God’s grace are returned to a place of final rest. Rest from sin. Rest from sorrow. Rest from the veiled reality of God’s loving immediacy.

Here we find a mountain where the Lord of hosts has made for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And it will be said on that day,

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

2007-06-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

That's the Minstrel there in the middle.

Not Omnipotent, But Neither Impotent

2007-05-30T12:31:00.001-07:00

Well, good Minstrel, you said 500 words or less – and I count more than 900 in your post! That’s a relief, because it gives me license to ramble a bit, since it was your gauntlet and all! This will be a response to your musings on the Evil One; my first contribution to the discussion. Should only be about twice as long as yours. ;)

First off, I think it’s essential to this discussion to properly understand the statement in Revelation 20:3 regarding the binding of Satan. I completely agree with you that this is a reference to the present age, and not some future, utopic Millennial kingdom – whether it be a premillennial or a postmillennial one. It is my belief, from the Scriptures, that this 1,000 year binding of Satan is a reference to the “Church age” – that is, the age intervening the Ascension of Christ and His Second Advent. The age in which we now live. But how are we to understand Satan’s binding during this present age? As you note, John’s words are clear – he is bound “So that he would not deceive the nations any longer”. But this is not the complete context. In order to understand the nature of his binding (what he is prevented from doing), it is critical to understand what he does do once he is let loose (“After these things he must be released for a short time”).

When he is released – Revelation 20:7, “And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations…” - it is what he does specifically in his deception of the nations that defines the nature of his binding during the 1,000 years (what he is kept from doing during the Church Age). Is it a general, absolute binding, where he is prevented from doing anything? From deceiving anyone to any extent? It can't be, because throughout the book of Revelation, Satan – the Great Red Dragon – is portrayed as being closely allied with the Beast and the False Prophet to persecute and deceive people throughout the Church Age (described also as a period of great tribulation, when the Dragon himself deceives and persecutes the Church, which is sovereignly protected by God - cf., Revelation 12:13-17). Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 – forewarning his disciples of what will come after His death and Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven (between then and His Second Advent) – are, “False christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” This supplies context to John's Revelation, where Satan’s ally, the Beast of Revelation 13, “Performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work … it deceives those who dwell on earth…” So, active Satanic deception is a reality in the Church Age, which is why Paul admonishes Christians to “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil… In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one…”

Satanic deception and scheming is specifically said to go on during this period of time, meaning that though he is bound and kept from deceiving the nations, his deceptive influence is not rendered completely impotent. Again, it is the specific goal of his deception that he is prevented from accomplishing during the Church Age. That specific goal is revealed in Revelation 20:8 as his primary agenda once he is released; “And he will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle…” In other words, in putting these scriptures together, we learn that Satan is active in the Church Age – scheming, deceiving, persecuting, tempting, etc… But he is kept from being able to accomplish his ultimate goal in all of that. He is kept from being able to engender such global rebellion against God and His Church that the nations would band together in an all-out effort to utterly overthrow the Kingdom of God and His Church, and build a counterfeit, Satanic Kingdom. That is the nature of his "binding". It is not an absolute divesting of his power. It is a sovereign limitation of Satan's power in fulfillment of Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” And that binding will remain until God sovereignly releases Satan, allowing him to gather the nations in outright war against God and His Kingdom - the result of which will be Satan's utter, final, eternal destruction when Christ returns (Revelation 19-20).

So, in this present age, even though God has bound Satan, limiting his power, he is none the less prowling about like a roaring lion, seeking whom to devour. He is active in deception and persecution and plaguing even Christians with his scheming and his flaming arrows. I don’t believe that Peter can be said to be speaking of the flesh as the "roaring lion", because he specifically makes reference to the “devil”, and not the “flesh”. (Grammatically, "The Devil" is the subject of the verb, "To Prowl". He - the Adversary - the Devil, is the one prowling. Not us, prowling around like the Devil, or devilishly). The English word "Devil" is a translation of the Greek, "diabolos", used 37 times in the New Testament, 34 of which are masculine nouns which refer to the Devil as a person, Satan. (The other 3 are used in the pastoral epistles with respect to human beings who are described as "malicious gossips", because of the character of their speech. Cf., 1 Timothy 3:11, 2 Timothy 3:3, and Titus 2:3). Elsewhere, Satan’s name is used specifically to speak of his influence in today’s world – he is a “tempter” in 1 Corinthians 7:5, who has designs for our defeat, 2 Corinthians 2:11. He sends messengers to “harass” Christians, 2 Corinthians 12:7, and hinders the ministry of the gospel when he can, 1 Thessalonians 2:18. When the Antichrist comes, it will be because of the “Activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders”, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, again giving context to Jesus’ warnings of Satanic influence in this present age, in Matthew 24. He wields the power to blind the eyes of unbelievers 2 Corinthians 4:4, and keep them in darkness, Acts 26:18.

He is bound, but he is still the powerful "Prince of the power of the air", Ephesians 2:2; the "god of this age", 2 Corinthians 4:4; and the "ruler of this world", John 14:30. He is not omnipotent, but his armies are strong, and we must stand "Against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" - not just those fleshly rebels here on earth. Jesus' own binding of the Strong Man in Matthew 12 did not consist of a complete divesting of Satan's power and influence, but in the casting out of demons so that the proclamation of the Kingdom would be effective. It was a sovereign limiting of Satan's influence, not yet his utter destruction which is still to come (Revelation 20:10). Yes, Satan has been defeated (Hebrews 2:14, Colossians 2:15). But like the flesh which has been crucified (Galatians 2:20), and yet still wages war against God's Spirit within me (Galatians 5:16, Romans 7); So Satan's defeat at the Cross 2,000 years ago doesn't mean that he is no longer at war with God prior to Christ's Second Coming, when his defeat will be consummated in everlasting perdition.

Over and over, God speaks in the New Testament scriptures of Satan having this type of influence now, in this present age, even though he is “bound”. So, his binding is real – and he is kept from accomplishing such rebellion and deception that he would destroy the Church – but his binding is not so absolute as to prevent him from doing anything by way of temptation, deception, persecution, etc… All of these verses refer to him either by name (Satan) or by title (the Devil). If the Apostles wanted to attribute the wickedness of those verses to the flesh only or primarily, they would have said that specifically and clearly. Yes, in Ephesians 4:26 Paul does say to us "Not to let the sun go down on our anger", so as not to "Give opportunity to the devil" in verse 27. This doesn’t mean that it is only our flesh that is responsible for evil – but that the devil actively takes opportunity to propound wickedness on the earth primarily through our flesh. Through tempting our weak, sinful, rebellious hearts. That is the avenue that presents him with the greatest opportunity to rebel against God and His Kingdom in attempting to do what he tried to do the day that he fell from heaven – dethrone the King of Kings and enthrone himself. But he is bound from being able to do it. For all his deceptive, scheming efforts, his purposes will fail and he will eventually be utterly vanquished when, at that climactic battle of Gog and Magog, “The devil who had deceived them [is] thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever”, Revelation 20:10.

Does he know my name? He knows enough about me to tempt me strategically, according to the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of my flesh – targeting them precisely with his flaming arrows, Ephesians 6:10-18. In Acts 19:15, the demons know Paul’s name – why not mine? Does Satan know my thoughts? Surely not as God does – but Satan was capable of filling Ananias’ heart with lies against the Holy Spirit, Acts 5:3, and he was able to “enter into” Judas, influencing him to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3). In John 13:2, John says that "The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot... to betray Him". So even if he can't be said to make us sin, Satan does have access to our thoughts and desires in some way, so as to tempt us to do his evil will. At the same time, Satan's estimation of the condition of Job's heart, and of how Job would respond to tribulation proved to be inaccurate (Job 1:9-11) - proving that Satan is not omniscient, and that he does not have comprehensive knowledge of our thoughts.

There is prolific demonic activity recorded throughout the book of Acts – subsequent to Jesus’ ascension, and those demons are clearly personal, intelligent beings who know things about the people they possess or oppress. Satan is not omnipotent, but it is a mistake to argue that he is impotent. He is clearly a powerful, active, intelligent being. Not even Michael the Archangel would speak personally against him, but pronounced the Lord’s rebuke on him in Jude 1:9. Satan's demonic emissaries are manifold – and though they are not omniscient (as only God is), they know a great deal about us and work through Satan’s influence to tempt and pester us regularly. I don’t believe that Satan is capable of knowing my thoughts as God does – but he is extremely crafty and understands the basic roots of evil and the nature of sin far better than I do (he's been at it longer), so as to be able to exploit my flesh through temptation in a highly efficient and effective manner. And we mustn't forget that Satan is a (fallen) angelic, spiritual being. His knowledge and understanding of the spiritual realm, where the true battle is fought, is far superior to our own, and we shouldn't underestimate it. And all of that means that I must be aware of his desire to tempt and deceive me. I must be acquainted with his strategies. I must realize that not only is my flesh wicked, but that I live in a wicked world in which Satan, the Devil, the god of this age and the ruler of this world, is presently active.

But of course the good news is that he was defeated at the cross, rendering his eventual and final destruction an absolute certainty. And, God’s wisdom and knowledge are boundless, and He is sovereign. Sovereign enough to guarantee that all of the resources that we need to resist the schemes of the devil are at our disposal through faith in Christ. Sovereign enough to guarantee that Satan cannot succeed in destroying Christ’s Church, or the life of any soul for which Christ shed His blood. Sovereign enough to promise that if we, "Resist the Devil," He will "Flee from us" (James 4:7) God is even Sovereign enough to utilize Satan’s purposes of deception, temptation, and persecution for His own glorious purposes – to sanctify His people through fiery trials, 1 Peter 4:12. To discipline His people through divine love, Hebrews 12:6. The violence of Satan is even used against him in God’s purposes of judgment, which is – I believe – one of the central themes of the whole book of Revelation. It is one of the primary reasons why evil continues to exist by Satan's agency – because it is inherently self-defeating. By continuing to rebel, Satan is ensuring his own eternal doom, and that of all those who will sinfully cooperate with his rebellious agenda. And that doom will accomplish God's Glory in the demonstration of His justice. In short, even though Satan is active and capable of great spiritual harm, the Christian need not fear - for our comfort is that even though Satan does roams as a ravenous, roaring lion – “We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 The biblical doctrine of Satan is not the Persian doctrine of dualistic deities - one good, and the other evil. He is a lion, but he is leashed by the sovereign hand of God.

Through the strength of God's Spirit within us, if we remain faithful - even through the worst that the Devil can throw at us - if we remain faithful even unto death, He will give us the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

A New Cosmology

2007-05-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

So what about the bad guy? As a disclaimer, these are the thoughts of a layman. My study on this does not reflect years of training, and tomes of reading. These are simply thoughts, though spoken with confidence, sparking discussion and further clarification of my own personal questions.

Lucifer began as an angel, created in the Garden as an archangel, much like Gabriel and Michael. Ezekiel 28 (if we can understand this passage this way) describes him as "full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty... blameless in all [his] ways till unrighteousness was found in [him]." But his "heart was proud because if [his] beauty." Therefore, because he attempted to set his throne on high (Is 14), "above the stars of God," he was cast to the earth, with all his minions. Michael and his angels (Rev 12) defeated the Accuser, and there was no longer any room left in heaven for him. "Woe to you O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short."

In the old times, nations were governed by powers and principalities. Each nation had an angel, sometimes called gods, who guarded, governed them. Michael was the angel for Israel (Dan 10:21). Satan had been given real authority on earth, and had accumulated nations. Daniel 10 describes Michael and the linen clad man (Jesus) fighting against the prince of Persia for 21 days. The Lord's army of fire was very active in the days of the kings (2 Kings 6). The world was full of what moderns call "supernatural" activity, as if anything that we can't see under a microscope isn't natural.

So the world was governed, in a finite sense, by these created, angelic principalities. The Daystar, and the false "Bright star of Morning" was the leader of all these powers, excepting Michael, who was true to his Creator. This is why Satan could tempt Jesus, with some legitimacy, with the kingdoms of the earth, if He would simply bow down and worship him. But Jesus knew that He was receiving the kingdoms anyway, and so remained faithful to His Father. On the Cross, Satan was conquered (Heb 2:14). The strongman was bound, and his goods were plundered. He was cast into the abyss, and the door was shut and sealed. This is for a time, until the thousand years are ended. During this time the Church reigns with Christ as a holy priesthood. The dominions and powers have been cast down, and Christ sits on His thrown, making the nations a footstool for His feet.

So what of evil and the devil now? Satan is bound and "cannot deceive the nations any longer," (Rev 20). Why then are there still evil men? Well that's because there are still men. Our unhindered, unredeemed flesh is one of death and rebellion. Our flesh still wages war against the Spirit. Our flesh still desires power and thrones above the "stars of God." To put it tritely, in an oft used cliche, we are our own worst enemy.

Could not passages such as Ephesians 4:27, James 4:7, and 1 Peter 5:8 be understood this way? Ephesians 4:26 says to not let the sun go down on our anger, and then in 28, to not give any opportunity to the devil. In Galatians 5:13, Paul tells us to not give opportunity to our flesh. Could not the flesh be understood as the one who seeks to devour us, prowling like a lion? Our flesh craves the "schemes of the devil," and it is against the "schemes of the devil" for which we gird ourselves with the armor of God.

What is making me think all this? I am doubtful that Scripture teaches a theology of Satan which says that he knows my name. Why does he know my name? If he knows my name, what is to prevent him from knowing everyone in the world, from every age. Do angels have that kind knowledge, that kind of capacity. Does Satan know the thoughts of my heart? Can angels see into the heart of man? Does Scripture uphold that, and if so, where?

Would it not be wiser to locate our enemy in the old man which Christ bought, and is renewing by the Spirit? Is Satan really not bound and sealed up like Hebrews and Revelation say? Christ says "how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house," (Matt 12:29). Which is true? To me, Scripture seems to reiterate that Satan has been vanquished, and bound, though his servants still roam the earth, wrecking havoc. If what I have said is true, which I would not go to the wall for, the current Christian notion of Satan might be causing unnecessary fear and anxiety. If we believe that Satan has the power to know my inward thoughts, and affect them for his own design if we are not careful, there is no end to what oppression that could cause. Now if it is true that he does, our answer is obviously Christ, and the sovereign power of God. In Him alone rests ultimate power and authority. But if it is not true, why do we allow ourselves to think that way? Why would we ascribe to him knowledge that, we thought, God alone had, if he does not really have that knowledge? Again, it is obvious that if it is true, only God could have given him that knowledge. That is not the discussion. The discussion is if our beliefs about Satan are not true, why do we believe it?

Answer me this my pretty...

2007-05-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

Alrighty. Just to break the non-posting streak, I have a topic I would like my fellow ponderers to chime in on with their two or three cents.

Challenge: In 500 words or less, give a description of an orthodox theology of Satan, touching on the following points: What were his origins? What was his status in the Old world? What is his status in the New world? Is he omniscient? Does he know everyone's names, fears, temptations, etc.?

The gauntlet has been verifiably thrown down.

The Divine Abundance: Part Three

2007-05-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Following our discussion of Christian Aesthetics, we began with the unnecessary nature of creation. We then talked about the divine fellowship within the unity of the Godhead, and the nature of their love for one another, and what implications that had on our lives. This installment will address the divine difference within the Trinity. Hart continues discussing the Trinity, for it is the foundation of our understanding of all of life, and therefore our appreciation of life: beauty. Lets begin with two quotes.

Theology can speak of being as rhetoric and see in the surface of being a kind of intelligible discourse – not one concerning the scale of bare substances, but a doxological discourse, an open declaration of God’s glory, by which the God who differentiates speaks his beauty in the groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity, artistry, and unnecessary grace. The occurrence of difference as difference, as the reverberation of the variation in the very event of difference expresses – not dialectically, but aesthetically – the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.

[On our journey called life, we are continually] discovering and entering into greater dimensions of His beauty. This is so because God is always beyond, and still above the beyond, but also because God abides in absolute intimacy with creation as the infinite of surpassing fullness, whose beauty embraces and exceeds all that is.

In that first quote, Hart is basically saying that we can understand God as a form of divine dialogue. In Himself is drama. There is assertion and sacrifice, give and take, love and surrender. This dialogue defines the nature of the Triune relationship (if I may be so bold to say ‘define’). The three persons glorify one another, love one another, and are satisfied completely in one another. Their dialogue comes to us as distinct difference. The Father speaks to us (loves us) differently than the Son speaks to us (loves us). The Spirit relates to us (loves us) differently than the Father and the Son. And yet, in their difference, the mutually indwell one another (perichoresis) and are one. This essential difference that lies at the heart of their unity, gives creation the abundant difference it enjoys. God imparts His attributes to creation. Hence male and female. Hence sun and moon. Hence lions, tigers, and bears.

This difference is the foundation for beauty and our appreciation of that beauty. Beauty comes in the interplay of difference, and again, reflects the interplay of the Godhead. It can either reflect well (say in a Bach Cantata) or not so well (pick a Picasso, any Picasso). There is a reason Picasso’s later works are just plain ugly. He (intentionally) distorts the natural interplay of difference within creation. Take the face. The difference that lies in the human face between the eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, and so on, gives the face a beauty. Some faces are more beautiful than others, because the interplay of the differences are such that they are more pleasing. This distortion of Picasso’s is a direct attack against the God of creation, and the beauty that He built in. It is interesting to think that the degrees of beauty are also built in. They are not just a result of the fall. For example take a male lion in full maturity. There is a cross-cultural agreement that that image inspires awe, and is, frankly, beautiful. Compare that to a hyena. Just as much God’s creation as the lion. Cries in affirmation of God’s glory just as much, but the difference is very noticeable. This difference is built in to creation, and gives testimony to the ‘groundless play of form and action, the free movement of diversity and artistry’ in which we witness our God bestow on His creatures, an aspect of Himself. This leads to that third clause of the quote, the unnecessary grace. This unnecessary grace is what calls us to a ‘divine playfulness.’ If we were made in the image of God, and are recreated in the image of Christ, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, made partakers in the very life of the divine, then how can we not join in “the superabounding joy, delight, regard, and response that is God’s life.” This response to God’s life is defined by the love the Father shows the Son shows the Spirit shows the Father and the Son. It is again, the selfless love, a love that is eternally bestowing to another.

Bringing us to the second quote. As our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies are enlightened more and more by the Spirit, we will see clearer and clearer the Divine Abundance that covers everything, enfolds everything, encompasses everything, upholds everything, breathing everything into life. The God of true diversity, a unified diversity, this God who is eternally beyond everything, purposefully stoops into human history. The completely Transcendent One has become flesh and blood in Jesus, thus introducing intimacy with His creation. Through this intimacy with the Holy God of all, we, His beloved, join in His beauty, which pervades all of life.

Makes getting mad at the guy who cut you off on the freeway this morning, look kind of petty.

Oh No...

2007-05-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is bouncing around the Internet today:

NEW YORK, May 3 (UPI) -- Actor Kirk Cameron and author Ray Comfort will square off in New York with two atheists to debate the existence of God live on ABC.com.

The debate will be Wednesday after the network rescheduled it from Saturday to capture a larger audience, Comfort said in a news release.

Comfort, who says he can prove God exists scientifically, said ABC originally offered him four minutes to present his case. After conferring with Cameron and the atheists, the time was raised to 13 minutes.

"I'm ecstatic. I can prove the existence of God in that amount of time," Comfort said.

Now, here at the Abbey we are, of course, always enthusiastic when people take a stand for the truth of God and His Word and Gospel. We're not fond of atheism, and believe it to be an arrogant, dishonest and silly thing. We're all for the enterprise of apologetics and think it's important that all Christians be "Prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [them] for a reason for the hope that is in [them]." (1 Peter 3:15)

But when we hear of apologists who say that they "Can prove God exists scientifically" (emphasis added) and claim to be able to do so in 13 minutes flat, some deep misgivings begin to rumble within our collective gut. This is because we've seen and heard quite a lot of indisputable nonsense get passed off as Christian apologetics. Like, for example, this charming but frankly embarrassing attempt to prove the existence of God from the shape of a banana.

The thing is that apologists have been using cosmological arguments and arguments from design for centuries, and not too many atheists have been persuaded. First off, to reduce all that down to 13 minutes seems sort of cocky. If only Aquinas knew of the simple splendor of the humble banana. He could've saved a lot of ink on the whole five-arguments deal. The contemporary 'ID' (Intelligent Design) movement has been making a lot of great arguments which show that the irreducible complexity of interdependent systems that undergird all of creation points to a creator more reasonably than it does a blind, naturalistic process. And those arguments are, frankly, much more elegant than Mr. Comfort's banana. I really feel kind of silly for even having to say that.

The point is that the enterprise of apologetics cannot be simply evidentiary demonstration for two reasons. First, because the nature of unbelief is not primarily rational - it is ethical. The unbeliever is not ignorant of the truth such that when you show him the irreducibly complex interdependent systems of, say, the human body or the magnificent and highly sophisticated symmetry of the cosmos, or even the admittedly convenient, ergonomic design of the banana, his eyes will pop open in shock and he will exclaim, "By Jove, old boy! You've really got something there!" Nope. That's not what they do. Instead they write books like this and this.

They do this because in their sin, they are so ethically committed to "Suppressing the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18) that their response to every evidentiary "proof" in the universe of God's existence is, "Hogwash." Secondly, then, apologetics needs to transcend the rationalistic, evidentiary realm because in their unbelief, unbelievers have built their own philosophical foundation on their own set of epistemological rules. For the Christian apologist to try to prove the existence of God empirically, see, is to concede to the empiricist that his rules - his foundation - his epistemology - is the best one. The final one. The only one trustworthy enough to build a belief-system on. And at that point, we've given away the game and might as well just go home and console ourselves by watching strange Christian films conceived out of the same sort of biblical erudition.

How To Make an American Layer Cake

2007-05-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

I recently happened upon a book that was lying around the abbey. The title was "How To Make an American Layer Cake." Now, this isn't the sort of thing we read around here, but one of the introductory paragraphs was quite interesting, here's the text:

"These days, cake making has become something of a dying art. Too many home cooks rely on boxed mixes, which are not much less work than a good from-scratch recipe, or cakes purchased at local stores. But nothing matches the joy and taste of a good homemade layer cake. It is an honest, forthright expression of the American kitchen, a delicious celebration of simple ingredients with universal appeal."

Not so long ago, I was speaking to a brother about the finer points of the Council of Chalcedon, and his remark to me was "If you’ve got the time to ponder these things, more power to you. I think most people have trouble just managing their lives with the daily demands of work, family, etc., let alone completing the daily devotionals." Now what else is there to do at the abbey but ponder "these things"? There's an argument to be made that not every layman needs to understand the distinctives of the pronouncements of Church Councils, but the brothers comments do point to a growing problem in Christendom that seems to be affecting, or should I say infecting, more and more people. People don't have time for God. I find that very, very strange, not to mention disturbing.

I do not see or understand how it is possible for creatures, made in the image of God, who are chiefly here to mirror and reflect God's holy character, can possibly do that without an ever increasing knowledge and awareness of that character. More and more, people are spending lots of time doing "things" or keeping themselves busy, and their devotion to God is like the cake mix from a box. The ingredients are inferior and they don't really save much time, but by taking short-cuts, they miss out on the rich, authentic experience with God.

Nothing matches the joy of spending time with our Lord. To have an honest, forthright expression of the devotion and love for God, a "delicious celebration of truths," is what we were created for. Throw out the "cake-mix" Christian mentality and spend the time to pursue the things of God. Your spiritual taste-buds will come alive like never before, and once you taste the sweetness of the true and living God, you'll never want to return to the "cake-mix" again.

City outraged at Nebraskan man for tearing down his own mausoleum

2007-04-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Custer, Nebraska –

They city of Custer received complaints from several outraged citizens, last Thursday. Their complaint: a man bulldozed his own Mausoleum. Fred Appleton, fourth generation Nebraskan, bulldozed his family gravesite, and made preparations for planting a garden.

“I didn’t like the idea of all those folks just lyin’ there, ya know?” Appleton told reporters. “Seems like they would feel silly if they saw themselves.”

Citizens of Custer take pride in their cemetery. They hold all their civic celebrations in an amphitheater located on the back lot of the burial grounds. Their Fourth of July parade begins at the town hall, near the north end of the grounds, and comes to a climax at the cemetery’s picnic fields.

“Our cemetery has been awarded the blue ribbon no less than 47 times in the annual Midwest Cemetery Extravaganza,” Joe Mitchell, Custer Citizen, claimed. “Every family has their own space, and the grave houses are absolutely beautiful. The architecture varies from Victorian to Modern to Classical. Half of them are two stories high.”

The town’s Mausoleum Architecture and Care firm is the most thriving business downtown. Not only are they responsible for designing and constructing the houses of those who have passed on, but they have teams attending to the daily upkeep. Fresh paint and new shrubberies are always in order.

So imagine the surprise of the town folk last Thursday morning when they woke up to the sound of Fred Appleton revving up his bobcat and leveling his beloved house of rest.

When asked what his plans were, he replied, “I’m thinkin’ of lots of flowers, maybe even an apple tree. I was thinkin’ of buryin’ my family underneath it all, so perhaps their old bodies will finally bear some type of fruit. They didn’t do much of that when they were livin’.”

The judge declined to comment on the direction the case is going. He did say that, “This rashness opens up a whole new can of worms.”

Mr. Appleton goes before the town council next Tuesday.

The Divine Abundance: Part Two

2007-04-27T16:54:00.001-07:00

In the next section, Hart discusses the fellowship enjoyed within the Godhead. To say God is love, which we must, we automatically make certain tangential assumptions, which, when flushed out, show that our God is unique in being love. If God is love, and we take our former point that we are unnecessary for God to be who He is, then we are saying that God is love with or without us. Before the creation of time, God was God and He was love. But love, biblically understood, must have an object. It is not just a good feeling. Love must be directed outward. If God is love before the creation of the world, His love must have been directed at Himself. This leads us to the triune nature of our God. This is why no other god can be love. Allah certainly can’t. He is a monopod, and cannot show love before the creation of objects. There is only self-love, which is no real love at all, just another phrase for self-gratification, and self-service.
But our God is Love, true outward love, from before the beginnings of time. This outward love can be understood as selfless love, or rather, a giving love. The Father gives to the Son, and the Son gives to the Father, and Spirit gives to the Father and the Son. They are eternally concerned with the other. This is how it plays out in history. The Father, Son and Spirit together, as the One creating God, made the world. The world falls into sin. The Father gives to the world His Son, conquering. The Son gives to the world His Spirit, enlivening. The Spirit gives back to the Son, the world, transformed. The Son gives back to the Father, the world, robed in righteousness. There is no ‘keeping for self’ in this picture of God’s glorious drama.
Another way of describing this divine fellowship, is to touch on the presence of Speaker and Spoken. We cannot deny the unity of God, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” But throughout Scripture God speaks, and at the same time is spoken and spoken to. Take for instance the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Jesus, the fullness of God, Immanuel, rises from the water, and is blessed by His Father, in a voice from Heaven. This voice is accompanied by a dove, descending. The Father speaks, the Spirit is Spoken, and the Son is Spoken to. This reveals that God does not only give, but also receives. Love must give, but love must also receive, and respond. Jesus immediately goes out into the desert, following this baptism, to complete the initiation of His ministry. He has heard His Father, and knows He must respond. He does not simply accept, but acts. Love is not given to the other for the other to have good feelings, but for the other to be equipped for action. Our love towards others must be so minded. God loved us, not simply to save us from sin, which He did, but to transform us into the image of Christ, which in God’s glory requires our action, or obedience. We do not simply accept salvation, and nothing else. We accept love with the purpose of responding accordingly.
What does this mean for our discussion of the Christian Aesthetic? Let’s first define our premises. Premise number one: God is the ultimate Beauty. If beauty (or anything for that matter) dwelt outside of God, His Godness would be immediately destroyed, and the world would spin helplessly into meaningless oblivion. Premise number two: God’s character and attributes are the standards by which we judge beauty. In other words, we look at the world, and can objectively say that something is or is not beautiful based on how well it reflects God’s nature. Hence we can call sexual fidelity in marriage a good reflection, and rape a bad reflection. Giving a thirsty man a glass of water is beautiful. Charging him for it is ugly.
If these assumptions are true, then beauty must necessarily consist of selfless love. This selfless love also must be given with the purpose of equipping. The result of this love, is a worldview which sees God’s love to us in everything, and leaves us therefore, with no excuse to sit on our duffs and watch it pass by. God’s love necessarily calls us to action. Whether that be translating the Word in Africa, or sipping scotch with a brother on a back porch, love requires action, and direction. In this worldview, life will be lived to the glory of God, and will necessarily be filled with the beauty of His Holiness.
This takes time to understand, let alone bearing fruit in our lives. Not just time either. It takes the Spirit’s gift of transformation. It is this gift by which all is understood, and life is completely and fully enjoyed.

The Divine Abundance: Part One

2007-04-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

One of the 7 or 8 books that I am reading right now is The Beauty of the Infinite by David Bentley Hart. It is an excellent book by any standard, though thick at times with a temptation towards headiness. Hart is of Eastern Orthodox persuasion, and has taught at many higher up establishments such as Duke Divinity School, so that may explain some things.

Regardless, it is an excellent book. Its purpose is to present a biblical paradigm by which we Christians may understand beauty. This is a topic which I will frequently be posting on, as it is one that is close to my heart and thoughts. But as I said, I am currently reading it, meaning I have not read it fully yet. I would however, like to comment on sections as they are being read.

The first chapter begins where all things begin: the Triune God. His first subheading is labeled the Divine Apatheia. In essence this section is explaining God’s complete and utter satisfaction in Himself, and need of nothing that is not already contained within the Godhead. This thought has at least two ramifications. The first is that God is complete. He needs no one, is dependant on no one, and finds utter fulfillment in the divine community.

Secondly, and logically following the first point, we His creation, are completely unnecessary to God’s existence. Any ontology other than this necessarily denies God’s omnipotence, and to do that denies the existence of God Himself. If He is not above all, who is, and so on. This statement has many implications, but I want to talk about only one.

If we are completely unnecessary, and if creation is completely, in an ultimate sense, unnecessary, what is the purpose of it all? In a very real sense, creation is superfluous. It is extra, it is divine abundance. What does this say about the Triune God we worship? One thing it definitely does not say is that God is a utilitarian pragmatic. If our God is not, why should we?
If God did not create the world out of some sense of duty, or some world shaped hole in His heart, why did He create it? The only other option is to say that God created out of pleasure, desire, and love. This is consistent with the Creation story, and all of Scripture.

It follows then that all of creation was given in love. All matter, both organic and inorganic, speaks to the love and pleasure of our Father. This is how we must understand creation. Out of any number of possible options, God chose to make the world this way. He could have given us one tree that grew one thing, which contained, nutritionally speaking, everything that was necessary to our survival. But He didn’t. He made apples and oranges. He gave us plethora of edible leaves. We only need one type of lettuce. But He gave us Red leaf, Green leaf, Romaine, Kale, Arugula, Red Kale, and so on. How many different types of fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, etc. are there? And those are just food groups. Look at the rock world, the tree world, the animal kingdom. The superfluousness is staggering. To our modern eyes, it is all simply excess or unneeded waste. But in God’s eyes it is Good.

What does this say about the God we worship? God enjoys difference. He enjoys playfulness. He enjoys interaction and community. Developing our understanding of these characteristics, and the many more that creation presents to us, takes us a step closer to developing a distinctively Christian Aesthetic. With this tool we will be able to have a clear understanding of what beauty is, why it is not completely relative, and how we are called to live and worship in such a way that reflects this beauty to the ugly and disfigured world we live in.

Archetypal Residue

2007-04-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

That's the good stuff. Maybe not the best stuff, but really good stuff.

Bowmore, single-malt. From the oldest operating distillery on the island of Islay. The second oldest in all of Scottland.

Aged for 12 uninterrupted years in a single sherry barrel. Slowly, patiently absorbing the warmth of oak and salt air.

Islays are known for their intensely smokey, peaty aromas. This one is not as sharp as some (Laphroaig and Lagavulin reign as most distinctly flavorful). But Bowmore is full of character and flavor, while remaining extremely well balanced and very smooth.

It rolls around on the tongue, dangling a hint of honey behind rich smoke that disolves into flavors of pear and - if you wait for it - dark chocolate. Close your eyes and savor it, and you can smell the Scottish sea-mist wafting over the malting floor.

Bad scotch is like so much "Christian" fiction. Bland, convoluted, uninspired, soul-less. Great scotch drinks like Edwards reads. Resonating echoes of the better country. Steeped in archetypal residue. Passing from lips to tongue, evoking the depth of goodness and beauty that must been seen and tasted, not merely told of. Smoothly but resolutely warming as it goes down, it inspires contemplation of the mysterious currents of Word and Spirit.

The Beauty of the Gospel

2007-04-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

Fear not, O ye of faint heart. That title sounds more exhaustive than I mean to be here. I merely wish to bring up another side of this toast and ode to Dispensationalism. In continuing this discussion on premil eschatology (as specifically endorsed by Dispensationalists) I wanted to follow up on the Blind Sage's comments (which were totally sagacious, dude!).

As committed Sola Scripturians, we are to rely on Scripture for interpretation. This means at least one thing, and that is this: reading post-revelatory history into revelation is bad. When the Holy Spirit completed the canon with Revelation, He completed the canon. There was nothing more to say. The entirety of Scripture was complete, sufficient, and thorough. Whether or not Israel has lived as a people group since that time, as apposed to say the Hittites, is irrelevant. That isn't proof of their Scriptural significance. It can be reduced to the old problem of the horse squarely resting behind the cart. The horse is Scripture and our understanding of it. The cart is our method of interpretation. I mean to tread lightly here, for all who seek to interpret Scripture are susceptible to this problem. Nonetheless, we are required to read and understand Scripture, and the Spirit comes along side us and enables our minds and our hearts to soak in its truth. But we must not allow our method of interpretation to be the absolute authority. Obviously we have to start from somewhere, but our methods are the malleable part, not the intention of Scripture.

The Word of God comes to us in different clothes. In Genesis it comes dressed as a tidy, three-piece suit of historical, reliable narrative. The Psalms come to us flowing in gowns of rich imagery, painful emotions, and the raw, unashamed truth of life. The Prophets approach, warily but with perseverance, the essentials barely covered with unadulterated animal skin. We cannot deny the differences between these styles/genres. They are as different as David and John the Baptist.

Here we catch a glimpse at the Triune Beauty. Does God reveal Himself to us employing only one method of revelation? Not at all. We look at the mountains and see His majesty, we enjoy the privileges of marriage, and are witness to the community of love our God shares in Himself. We read the Word of God and the Spirit enlightens our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. In other words, we do not look at a mountain, or marital bliss, and literally interpret creation with respect to God. We do not look at the ocean and see God face to face. We see Him, but through a deeper beauty. God has revealed Himself to us in all of life, but restrained, and through veils of sign and symbol. That's what language is after all, verbal and written signs, signifying something real, and weighty. Therefore we see God in all of creation, or Natural Revelation, but through metaphor, and not by explicit, undiminished, raw vision. And praise God for His kindness in this. The same is true with Special Revelation. God explains Himself, as far as He does (Deut 29:29), through different forms, enabling us to see different sides of His glory. The mountain does not mean the same thing as marital bliss. Nor do we interpret it in the same way. Thus Ezekiel's vision of God in His glory, reveals a different side of God than Paul's Epistle to Titus, and thus needs to be interpreted differently.

Here we see an aspect of the beauty of the Gospel. God in His wisdom, spoke to us in His Word. But He did not speak to just part of us, the historico-grammatical part up in our left brain. He also spoke to our emotions, our desires, our hopes, our spirits. Every aspect of our whole body is given a mode to understand God in. To limit the interpretation of Scripture to one mode, denies the trinitarian make up of our own body. It places undue emphasis on one way of understanding, leaving the other ways weak and starved. But God did not intend for this to be. His Gospel, which extends from Genesis 1 through to Revelation 22, is full of rich and varied texts, all of them interacting with all of us, heart, soul, mind, and body. Here we find a Triune God not interested in one aspect of His creation, such as their historical sensibilities, but a God who loves all of life, and gave all of life to His creation. Here we find a God who enriches His creatures with not just a rational brain, but with emotion and senses as well. Here we find not a dry and arrid text, full of strict and literal non-sequitors, but the tremendous and humbling complex beauty of the Gospel.

Toddlers and Elephants

2007-04-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Jolly Friar made a great comment about Fairsized's great post, regarding hermeneutics. This does seem to be one of the central issues in the debate between premillenniaism (especially the Dispensational variety) and the other main views (postmillennialism, amillennialism).

In short, different genres of literature require different reading strategies. If we don't employ reading strategies appropriate to particular genres, then we necessarily flatten those genres out and reduce all of them to the level of our (lack of) literary sophistication. Friar's point is exactly this - that a firmly held belief in the doctrine of sola scriptura includes a conviction that the scriptures are God's Word. If they are God's Word, then they need to be interpreted and understood as God intended when He inspired them. This includes the agency of the human authors who, under divine inspiration, penned the original texts.

The question is not - cannot - be, "What does it mean to me?" Or, "How do the principles of common sense determine the meaning of the text?" Interpretation cannot be primarily reader-centric. It must be governed by authorial intent. What did John intend for his readers to understand? What did God intend? How would those original, 1st Century Jews living in the Roman Empire understand the Apocalypse? Just like we 21st Century, post-Enlightenment, Western Americans understand it?

When you read Moby Dick for the first time, did you think of it as being primarily a great adventure story about a big whale? Maybe so - but if so, you missed much of what Melville intended to communicate to you. Maybe then you became better versed in literary symbolism, and were able to go back and re-read the story with an eye for all of the authorially intended messages below the shallow surface of the story itself.

God's Word is marvelously, beautifully, magnificently deep. Perspicuous, yes, as Dr. MacArthur is keen to remind us of, because he believes that a non-dispensational approach to interpreting books like Revelation and Zechariah are the result of denying the perspecuity of scripture. Not so. Perspecuity does not mean simplicity or shallowness. Look - just because when I look at a page full of Newtonian Physics, and all I see is a "muddle" (that's Dr. MacArthur's word to describe amillennial hermeneutics) of numbers and symbols, it doesn't mean that Newton has muddled the field of mathematics and physics. I mean, really. Someone standing back and saying that most interpreters of prophetic scripture - in the history of the church - including Calvin - until the 1800s - have simply muddled those passages, is a bit like a 5th Grader passing judgment on Einstein because he can't make sense of the whole General Relativity bit. As Leon Morris said of the Gospel of John, God's Word is a pool shallow enough for a toddler to wade in, but deep enough for an elephant to drown in.

Dr. MacArthur himself, in his lecture on the subject of Israel and Sovereign Election, acknowledged at least two distinct genres present in scripture - Historical Narrative and Poetry. His minor point was that we can't read the Historical Narrative passages as if they were Poetry. We can't read Genesis 1-3 in the same way we read the Psalms. His major point was that this is what amillennialism does to the book of Revelation, and to all of the OT promises made to Israel. But, see, he's assuming that those passages belong to the genre of Historical Narrative. Why? Because they're not Poetry? Are those the only two options? Are there no other literary styles employed by the writers of scripture?

The amillennialist says that there are, and that interpreters like Dr. MacArthur have been guilty of reading passages that belong to one genre as if they belonged to another. We all sort of sense that this is a bad idea, don't we? We don't read the newspaper in the same way that we read Chaucer. We don't read a love letter in the same way that we read a history book. Well, maybe some of us do, and that's the reason why so many wives are so frustrated with their husbands. The point is, there are lots of different flavors of literature, and exegesis is as much an art as a science.

One of the other genres employed in God's Word is the Apocalyptic, Prophetic genre. These would be passages like Zechariah's night visions, Daniel's dreams, Joseph's dreams, Ezekiel's magnificently indescribable visions, and major portions of the book of Revelation. Passages where God isn't just speaking to and through a prophet, but showing the prophet something through prophetic, apocalyptic vision. These visions normally carry a symbolic meaning beyond the surfacy appearance of them. They are normally intended to point us far beyond visual appearances - what something or someone looks like - to communicate on a very deep level what something or someone is like. And so, where the Dispensationalist says that scripture should be read according to the "literal wherever possible" hermeneutic, the Amillennialist simply says, "Amen. It's just not possible in apocalyptic passages where the intention of the author is to speak symbolically through visions." In other words, when we come to these portions of scripture, we need to read the author literally - that is, we need to literally understand that the author is writing symbolically.

For example. Revelation chapter 1 records John's vision of the glorified Christ. He has eyes aflame with fire, glowing white hair, legs which gleam like burnished bronze, a sword protruding from his mouth, surrounded by lampstands, etc... Here's what far too many people reduce a vision of such magnitude to:

Maybe it's a nice, artistic rendition and reflects a fair amount of skill and talent on the artist's part. But it falls far short of what God want's us to know about His resurrected, glorified Son through this vision given to John on Patmos. Is our understanding of Him really to be limited to His visible appearance? Are we really to think that He has this sword poking out of His mouth, and that it's swinging around as He turns His head from side to side? Or like Melville's whale and the Pequod's crew, does the vision signify something far more important? Like the glory of His holiness, and His omniscient gaze, and the character and power of His Word (which, Hebrews reminds us, is "Sharper than any double-edged sword.")

Are Zechariah's lampstand and olive trees (Zech. 4) simply that? Literal, physical lampstand and olive trees? If so, then really, so what? So there's a Mennorrah flanked by trees in the Temple. Big deal. But it is a big deal. Such a big deal that the meaning of that vision, as stated by God Himself, is, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD." (v.6) It's what they signify and symbolize that's important - not the things themselves. And that's the nature of Apocalyptic, prophetic literature. It employs imagery that points to something other - something greater - than itself.

Indeed, all of Scripture operates in this way. We must interpret the historicaly-narrative portions as history, as events that actually happened as revealed. But especially in the OT, those events themselves - those people and those things - were all significant of something far greater than themselves. Physical sacrifices that foreshadowed a greater sacrifice. A physical temple that anticiapted a greater reality (Christ's own body, John 2:19-21 - and His Body the Church, Ephesians 2:19-22). A priesthood that was but a glimmer of Christ's. On and on and on, God orchestrates His Word and history itself as a grand, spectacular revelation of His Son and His Kingdom. Not just what they look like. But what they are like in the beauty of holiness.

My one and only thought on Macarthur's lecture

2007-04-24T18:18:00.001-07:00

As we were listening to the tirade against some form of eschatology, which can only be classified as non-premil, I was thinking about two of Dispensationalists biggest sine quo non's. Those of course being 1) the unwavering necessity of interpreting Scripture strictly literally, without regard for various forms of genre (beyond poetry and plain speech); and 2) that the nation-state of ethnic Israel is really, in the end, what the whole of special and natural revelation is about. Israel can mean nothing else than blood descendents of Abraham. Really, this second point is just a logical outflow of the first. There is no other possible explanation, interpretation.

My purpose here is not to refute this point by point. Others have gone before and have shown quite plainly that a strictly literal interpretation is indeed not necessary, nor even helpful. A study of the Prophets, both minor and major, Romans 9, Galatians, Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, and especially John's Apocalypse will show that there is something bigger going on than merely the restoration of an earthly temple.

In fact this is what I want to talk about. This view of Scripture, in the end, completely strips Christ of the glory of His work. The beauty of His earthly work, from advent to ascension, from incarnation to intercession, is reduced to the system He came to destroy. Christ, in His earthly ministry, did not hold back in His condemnation of where Judaism was headed. He stood on the Mount of Olives and prophesied their complete destruction.

These passages are the very passages which are contented I know. Consider though, the trajectory of God's Story. Man is created. From his side comes that which makes him complete, woman. They are given dominion over earth. They screw up. They choose love of self over love of God. Idolatry enters the picture. We raise idols (money, sex, power, all things revolving around self) and worship clay pots over the Potter. We, the virgin, have played the whore, and have spit in our Husbands eye. We were banished from our garden, and in our own strength, have been running away ever since.

But God's great mercy is this. From the very beginning He has prophesied that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. As mankind grew, God continued to reveal this promise to men of faith: Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the Prophets. Over and over again, God tells His people, I will be your God, and you will be my people. This promise came in the middle of different contexts, and built on the previous promise. To Noah was promised salvation and a new World. To Abraham, salvation and a new People. To Moses, salvation and a new Priest. To David, salvation and a new King. To the Prophets, salvation and the coming of the Prophet. God's Story played out in the context of the Jewish nation, but it did not originate there, nor did it remain there. From the very beginning, the trajectory of God's mercy was for the whole world. "In you all the families of earth shall be blessed." Even in the Mosaic era, Israel was a light to the nations, to the gentiles, to the World. God blessed Israel with His personal attention. He sanctified them, and blessed them, making them a royal priesthood. He dwelt in their midst. Through separation and shadow, the thrice-holy God of the universe pitched His tent in their camp. He surrounded Himself with pictures and copies of His own throne room. But the whore still played her games. Israel as an ethnic nation was the bride of God. They were married at Sinai. Those vows, she broke. That covenant, she despised. And so God picked up His tent and moved out. The marriage was over. However, God's eternal plan was unhindered. His vision was never limited to simply one ethnic group. He was never that focused. His vision was for the world.

Enter Christ, the fulfillment of all God's Promises. He is the ultimate Priest, the everlasting King, and the eternal Prophet. In Him all things consist. He is the seed of Abraham, and in Him salvation is brought to the nations. The covenants all point to Christ, from Adam through to the prophets. All look forward to a New Covenant. Israel was finished as God's bride. Jeremiah makes that plain. But they were never the final show anyway. They were a picture, a shadow as all the accoutrements of their priesthood were. They as a people pointed to a new bride. A second Eve that came from the side of her husband, as water and blood flowed from the pierced side of Christ. This is the trajectory of God's Story.

This was the message of the Apostles. Paul over and over again explains this. John, in his Apocalypse shows in graphic, pictorial detail this entire history. The great Divine playwright has given us the first two acts of his play. The first act tells the story of the whore, who was an outcast on the side of the road, rescued and nourished by her future husband. She rejected her husband. The second act portrays the Husband himself dying to make her clean again. In making her a virgin, he grants her great glory, and increases her scope. To say that the third act reintroduces the whore as the final heroine, who all along is the star of the show is nigh unto blasphemy. It misses the glory of God's grace, and rejects the story of Scripture. Christ has fulfilled all that was spoken in the name of Israel. In Him we find our Husband. In Him the story finds satisfaction.

What would Calvin say?

2007-04-23T16:29:00.001-07:00

We also hope that our contemplations transcend those of the monkey, fair as it is. Yes, much luminosity and pulchritude indeed. Boy, I've always wanted a proscenium arch.

Speaking of simian musings. The Minstrel and I were just listening to the MP3 of Dr. John MacArthur's opening address at this years Shepherd's Conference. It's caused quite a flap, which is understandable just given the title. "Why Every Self-Respecting Calvinist is a Premillennialist". Hmm. Indeed, as early as the 11 minute mark (of nearly 80), Dr. MacArthur states his title and comments, "Now, it's too late for Calvin, but it's not too late for the rest of you. And if Calvin were here, he would join our movement."

As I was listening, I thought to myself, "Too bad Calvin's not here, because it sure would be great to ask him if he would, in fact, join the premillennial ranks."

I thought, "Perhaps if there were something that Calvin wrote, indicating his sympathy for premillennial eschatology."

Then I remembered a little book that he wrote called "The Institutes of the Christian Religion"

In Book III, Chapter XXV, Section V, Calvin speaks briefly about the Chialiasts ("millenarians") of the early church. They were the ones who, beginning in the first Century, held to a belief in a literal 1,000 year reign of Christ on the earth, subsequent to His second-advent (pre-millennialism)

Let's see what Calvin says about them;

"Their fiction is too childish either to need or to be worth a refutation."

Oh, dear. That doesn't appear to be very sympathetic at all. At least not according to the "normal meaning" of his words. Maybe I need a new hermeneutic. Or perhaps I missed something. Let's see here... oh, yes. He refers to the book of Revelation.

"And the Apocalypse from which they undoubtedly drew a pretext for their error does not support them. For the number 'one-thousand' (Rev. 20:4) does not apply to the eternal blessedness of the church, but only to the various disturbances that awaited the church, while still toiling on the earth."

Now just wait a minute. "The number 1,000 applies to the various disturbances that awaited the church." Not a post-millennialist. "That awaited the church while still toiling on the earth." Prior to the second advent. So... not a pre-millennialist either. Calvin was born in 1509, Church still toiling and all. Not a 'literalist' then either, exactly. Hmm.

Well, maybe Dr. MacArthur hasn't actually read the Institutes. It is kinda old.

Pulchritude and Luminosity

2007-04-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

A fine example of male pulchritude and luminosity. Obviously contemplating his global perambulations to this proscenium arch.

All the better to listen with, my dear.

2007-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thus we begin this inagural post on this inagural posting page. It begins with contemplation. On this page we will seek to aquire the position and attitude of this fair mammal. Our one wish is that while assuming this particular posture, we will not go too far, and allow our ears to grow three times the size they already are.