John Seel of Cardus, a Canadian based Christian think tank, has written an excellent analysis of the Tiger Woods fiasco and is very much worth the read.
Far more than being just another tragic fall of a superstar, the Tiger scandal is a cultural mirror that reflects our society’s deep flaws.
Check it out: “Notes from a Scandal: What Tiger Teaches.”
The prodigal son story of Luke 15 has traditionally been called evangelium in evangelio (the gospel with the gospel). It’s as if in Jesus’ parable we have a microcosm of the cosmic gospel. All the elements are there – a lavish Father, rebellion, repentance, and home-coming.
The story is familiar – it’s the story of a father with two sons. The younger son wishes his father dead in order to get his third of the estate. The father graciously, but no doubt with a broken heart, gives him what he wants – his share. But as Tim Keller points out in his short but powerful “commentary” on the parable (The Prodigal God), when the father granted the younger son his share of the estate, it cost the father dearly. The father’s reputation and wealth was tied up in his land. When the son asked for his share, he was asking the father to give up his reputation and to sacrifice his social-standing.
The son went off to live prodigiously in a distant land. While this is often translated as living wastefully, Middle Eastern scholar Kenneth Bailey suggests that a better translation might be that he lived “expensively.” He lived the “high-class” life, but this too led to emptiness and brokenness. Think Bernie Madoff. After plummeting from prosperity to poverty, he came to his senses and returned home.
The father welcomed him with open arms. Both Keller and Bailey state that the texts reads more or less as ‘the father ran out to him and wrapped himself around his neck.’ This was no guilt-ridden cautious embrace; it was a full-fledged grace-giving exchange. Such an embrace was not without its cost – it cost the father his honor.
But the story doesn’t stop there, although we traditionally leave the story there and hence call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son, as if the elder son played no major role. But the elder son perhaps is the true prodigal son. For he has it all – the Father and his inheritance – but has wasted it all. He refused to join the party; he didn’t understand the Father’s heart.
But again the Father. The father leaves the party; he leaves the guests that he invited to the feast. Even in our culture this is disgraceful, how much more so in the Judaic culture of the first century! The Father goes out to plea with his childish and sulking son. Once again, the Father sacrifices his reputation, but this time for his self-righteous son.
Indeed this parable is the evangelium in evangelio - the gospel within the gospel. It’s not a story about a prodigal son, but a FATHER with two sons. It’s a story about a lavish – indeed a prodigal – Father.
Henry David Thoreau famously wrote: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” Martin Luther King, Jr. was such a man.
A few days ago, we as a nation celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr Day. As a way to remember and to identify with the enormous societal upheaval that was associated with the civil rights movement of the ’60s and ’70s, I watched part of the PBS documentary, Eyes on the Prize.
I was struck with how clear of a contrast there was between King’s way of non-violence and the often brute force of the “authorities.” Time and again, eyewitnesses recalled King’s firm dedication to justice and peace. It struck me how radical his way of protest was – and is. On the one side were the segregationalists with thier way of oppressive violence. But on the other side, were many black activists eager to use retaliatory violence.
King’s third way was a way rooted in the tradition of Jesus. It was the way of the cross. King, arguing against the use of “Black Power,” said:
Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. To be a Christian one must take up his cross, with all its difficulties and agonizing and tension-packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering” (Quoted in David Garrow, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Spirit of Leadership).
King carried his cross; he had learned the way of humility. Prophetically, only a couple of months before his assasination, King stated what he wanted to be most remembered for.
“Say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major righteousness. … Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right side or your left side, not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your best side, not in terms of some political kingdom or amibition, but I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world” (Quoted in Ideas That Shape A Nation, 344).
Like King, may we keep the biblical beat “to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
In the May issue of the The Atlantic Monthly, Jay Parini writes about the recent popularity of historical fiction in his article, ”Making History: How Historical Fiction Went Highbrow.” In that article he has a wonderful quote about the importance of history and our draw towards it.
He writes, “In our high-velocity, high-volume world, the present can seem just too bright, too close. We need the filter of memory to pull reality into focus.”
That seems to me, to be exactly right. History – corporate memory – brings into focus our chaotic, “high-velocity” reality in which we live.
One of my favorite - alright, probably my favorite! - Christian musical groups, Indelible Grace, is offering a free or “pay what you want” sampling of their music. They are worth a listen. Here’s the link.
They are associated with RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) and are dedicated to teaching the “contemporary” (I’m fearful of using that word because I don’t want you to think that they are some cheesy lovey-dovey pop musicians re-making the hymns) church how to sing the hymns.
Thomas a’ Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ has good words for me and other bibliophiles: ”Certainly, when Judgment Day comes we shall not be asked what books we have read, but what deeds we have done; we shall not be asked how well we have debated, but how devoutly we have lived.” (1.3.5)
Hmmm…a good word for the day.
The ancient inscription on the Delphi Temple read, “Know thyself.” That two word command (or is it an invitation) summarizes
almost all of ancient philosophy; all the great thinkers beginning with Plato sought to do just that – to “know thyself.” It wasn’t just the pagan philosopher either; Christian theologians quickly adopted the motto and reoriented it towards knowing thy true self along with true knowledge of God. Here is a sampling of Christian theologians on “knowing thyself.”
Clement of Alexandria: ”If one knows himself, he will know God.”
Augustine: ”I desire to know God and the soul.” Nothing more?” ”Nothing whatever.”
Augustine (again): ”Let me know myself, let me know Thee.”
Calvin: “Nearly all wisdom we possess … consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
What does it mean, then, to “know thyself” and how does it help us know God? Calvin gives a couple of suggestions. First, to “know thyself” is to consider how we were meant to be when first created. We are to ponder all of the great gifts that God gave to us in creation – intellect, creativity, dominion, love, justice, relationships, etc – and to realize that none of these came from our own hand, but by the gracious hand of God. In like manner, the Psalmist bursts into song: ”What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands…” (Ps. 8:4-6). What a delight to contemplate our intended place in God’s good creation!
Seconldy, however, Calvin points out that in “knowing thyself” we understand our “miserable condition” we now find ourselves in because of sin. An honest assessment of who we are now, says Calvin, will reveal to us a “sorry spectacle of our foulness.” (This, I suppose is where we get the image of all the sour-faced Calvinists!) But, thankfully, we don’t stop there. Calvin writes, “From this source arise abhorrence and displeasure with ourselves, as well as true humility; and thence is kindled a new zeal to seek God…” (II.I.i). Earlier he states, “No one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he ‘lives and moves’” (I.I.i).
So, with a healthful look at thyself, seeing thy intended beauty and realizing thy “sorry spectacle,” turn thy gaze from thyself to the Living God.
Time magazine has an interesting article on the “10 Ideas Changing the World” – #3, interestingly enough is “The New Calvinism.” It’s fitting, I suppose, that Calvinism is making a comeback on his 500th birthday.
Also checkout this blog by Ray Pennings in which he reflects on perhaps why there is a growing appeal for Calvinism.
I was doing some reading and came across some helpful words from a Puritan, Lewis Bayly. One of the chapers in his book, “The Practice of Piety” is called: “BRIEF DIRECTIONS HOW TO READ THE HOLY SCRIPTURES ONCE EVERY YEAR OVER, WITH EASE, PROFIT, AND REVERENCE.” He outlines six guidelines for profitable Bible reading. Although they seem profitable, I’m not sure they make reading the Bible in a year “easy” as he claims. Regardless, I offer them as suggestions for reflective Bible reading.
I’ve taken the liberty to “”modernize” and paraphrase what Bayly wrote.
“Just as faith is the soul of Bible reading, so reading and meditating on the Word of God are the parents of prayer, therefore, before you pray in the morning read a chapter in the Word of God, then meditate on all the excellent things there are in that passage. The following is a guide for meditation:
First: How is the passage challenging you to live a holy life filled with good works?
Second: Are there any warnings of God’s judgment on particular sins that you need to hear?
Third: What blessings does God promise to those who demonstrate patience, chastity, mercy, gift-giving, zealous service, love, faith and trust in God, and other Christian virtues?
Fourth: How is God the gracious deliverer and gift-giver to his faithful people in this passage?
Fifth: Apply these things to your own heart; don’t read the passage merely as history, but as God’s letter sent from heaven to you.
Sixth: Receive God’s Word with reverence as if God stood by your side speaking His word directly to you. Apply all that you read in Scripture to yourself and respond appropriately – either growing in faith or in genuine repentance.”
I loved the section: “reading and meditating on God’s Word are the parents of prayer…”; what a great metaphor!
History is sometimes said to be “His story”; the story of God acting in and through time. But is also said to be the accounts of man throughout time. With these two ideas in mind, I believe that the study of history is one of the best uses of our mind (perhaps you can sense a bit of a bias coming from a history teacher!). As we study history, we learn what it is to be human – who we are as a race.
John Calvin, in his Institutes, says of man: ”We must now speak of the creation of man: not only because among all God’s works here is the noblest and most remarkable example of his justice; wisdom, and goodness; but because, as we said at the beginning, we cannot have a clear and complete knowledge of God unless it is accompanied by a corresponding knowledge of ourselves” (1.xv.1). Humanity, the apex of God’s creation, demonstrates God’s justice, wisdom, and goodness. The more we study the history of man, the more we come in contact with examples of these God-characteristics (of course, in history we encounter fallen man so these characteristics are severely marred and blurred by sin) And as Calvin explains, the more we know ourselves the more we are able to know God.
