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.
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.
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the following day will be an historic inuaguration, the inauguration of President-Elect Barrack Obama. As many political commentators have already pointed out, the symbolism of the event will be striking. Just a day after honoring MLK, we will be welcoming as our commander-in-chief the first African-American president whose political hero and role model has been Abraham Lincoln, the great liberator of the slaves. It will no doubt be a sight to see.
One of the major reasons cited for Obama’s victory in 2008 was his stated concern for changing injustices here in the United States and around the world. We’ll see how he and his administration seek to do this, but what is incredibly striking to me is the absolute lack of talk of fixing the injustice of the widespread murder of (unborn) children here in the United States. In fact, even as he talks about working against injustice around the world, he seems to be working for this particular injustice through his positions on abortion. (See Obama on Abortion.)
What is more striking and alarming to me is that many Christians seem to have abandoned fighting for the unborn in order to carry the torch for the global poor and other injustices. On the one hand, I give thanks that these global issues are becoming increasingly important for the Christian church; however, on the other hand, many are blatantly seeking to remove the speck out of the nations’ eyes while we in the United States continue to stumble about with the plank of abortion in our own eye.
There are numerous Bible passages that call us to care for the weak – whether they be poor, widowed, fatherless, or voiceless. A nation and a church is marked by how well it cares for its weakest members. This was the sin of church in the 18th and 19th centuries in helping defend the enslaving of thousands of black people; this was the sin of the 20th century church in helping perpetuate systems that intentionally kept African-Americans down in society; the sin of the 21st century church will be to not care for the weakest, most vulnerable members of our society – the unborn children! My pastor recently quoted Jim Wallis, from Sojourners, stating that we ought to care for the “poor not because they are more honorable, but because they are more vulnerable.” I think the logic then ought to go to defend the MOST vulnerable – the unborn children.
Michael Gerson, a wise political commentator at the Washington Post, wrote a very nice piece showing the apparent incompatibility of the Democrat’s s0-called concern for the weakest members of our society and their their strident support of pro-choice polices. Let me quote an excerpt:
“Abortion is an unavoidable moral issue. It also has broader political significance. Democrats of a past generation — the generation of Hubert Humphrey and Martin Luther King Jr. – spoke about building a beloved community that cared especially for the elderly, the weak, the disadvantaged and the young.
The advance of pro-choice policies imported a different ideology into the Democratic Party — the absolute triumph of individualism. The rights and choices of adults have become paramount, even at the expense of other, voiceless members of the community.”
Obama ran on the strong promise: ”Change we can believe in.” I say let’s see the change. Let it be that the Democratic Party no longer defends the status quo of Roe v. Wade and the flippant culture of abortion that it promotes. Let it be that a Democratic president with an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress truly does seek to change. Let it be that we CHANGE our nation’s position on abortion.
That’s “change I can believe in!”
Last week American Christianity lost a great leader, thinker, writer, and activist in Richard John Neuhaus. (See Michael Gerson’s “Apostle of Life” for a summary of his life and work.) After reading Gerson’s reflections on Neuhaus’s life, I was drawn to First Things - an online journal on religion, culture, and public life – where I read one of Neuhaus’s articles (published just this month).
In his article, “The Pro-Life Movement at the Politics of the 1960s“, Neuhaus describes how ironic it is that the Left has abandoned their aims and objectives that they once held so dear during the 1960s. Instead, Neuhaus points out, the Left has become a “conservative” movement defending the status quo of pro-abortion. It is the Pro-Life movement that is the progressive movement chalenging the system and the established media in order to protect the rights of the society’s weakest members – the unborn.
It’s a fascinating read that highlights the intellectual sinking sand that pro-abortion folks seek to build their arguments. The “intellectuals” who argue in favor of abortion admit that there is NO logical way to define when a “fetus” decidedly becomes a person. (Some pro-abortion “intellectuals” are even as honest to say that their logic DOES lead to the conclusion that it would be okay to kill a newborn “fetus” !?!)
As we approach yet another anniversary of Roe v. Wade it is high time that our talk of social justice includes defending the cause of the helpless of the helpless – the unborn!
Tonight I went to a presentation by David Batstone, author of Not For Sale. The topic was on modern-day slavery; what a startling issue. Some 27 million people live in SLAVERY today around the world! Half of them are children! The startling thing is that this is not just an issue “over there” but right here in our backyards. Check out the following website that they (Not For Sale) recently launched that tracks human trafficking in the United States: http://www.slaverymap.org/
Maybe you watched it too. Millions around the world watched as nation after nation ceremonially marched in during the 2008 Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. It really is quite a spectacle when you think of it – people from around the world carrying their flag and representing their country. I love the Olympics!
The Parade of Nations reminded me of a different parade – the Parade of Nations before the throne of God. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah captures the beautiful picture of the New Jerusalem (when Christ returns again and finally and ultimately establishes his reign) in Isaiah 60:
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. … Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. …”
When the day of Christ comes, all the nations with all of their culture will be brought before the great King. Isaiah describes this in his day: herds of camels from Midian, gold and incense from Sheba, rams from Nebaioth, ships from far off Tarshish full of silver and gold, lumber from Lebanon will all be brought to the New Jerusalem. Today we might add to that list: oil from Saudi Arabia, computers from Silicon Valley, beer from Germany, cars from Detroit and Japan, etc…
The twist, however, is that right now the herds of camels, the ships of Tarshish, the oil from Saudi Arabia, and the cars from Detroit are all aimed at man’s glory, not God’s. Isaiah’s prophecy is that one day all nations, all cultures, all good things will be directed towards God’s glory, not ours. As Christians then, we are called to enjoy God’s creation – nations, cultures, and good things – but also work to direct these things to the glory of God.
Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.
Certainly the most familiar words from the 450 year old document come from this first quesion and answer – and for good reason! There is so much here to be packed that we could camp out here for a long, long time. In fact that’s just what I did for awhile during college. In a time of uncertainty in my life and deep worries, I turned to this Q&A for deep comfort. I memorized the lines: “I am not my own, but belong – body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” That phrase I turned into a breath prayer. Throughout the day I would pray it repeatedly – “I am not my own, but I BELONG to you Lord and you are faithful.” In this way, my heart did find comfort.
When I talk with people my age or older who grew up in the same church denomination that I did, they often cringe when they hear the words “Heidelberg Catechism.” Thoughts of rote memorization, cranky catechism teachers, and theological discourse with no connection to real life arise in their minds.
Although I grew up in the same denomination as those who speak bellingerently towards the catechism, I never actually had a Catechism class. I’ve only experienced the catechism informally. My goal – perhaps overly ambitious – is to go through the H.C. Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day (the Heidelberg Catechism is a 16th century document that attempts to summarize some of the essential teachings of Scripture. For teaching purposes, it is divided into 52 “Lord’s Days” – one teaching/topic for each Sunday of the year.). I want to read through the catechism and offer a brief meditation on one of its teachings.
My hope is that by doing this for myself will re-emphasize the real life applications of the catechism.
Today a fellow social studies teacher and I took thirty high school students to San Diego’s Museum of Natural History. They have an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls (essentially the same exhibit that was in GR a few years back). As I walked through the exhibit there were a number of things that caused me to stop, ponder, and stand in AWE.
1) God’s sovereign care of His scriptures. Before the 1947 discovery of the scrolls, the earliest extant Hebrew manuscript was the Masoretic text that dated to about 1000 AD. The Dead Sea scrolls date all the way back to 250 BC to 68 AD. What a discovery – and by happenstance! When one compares the Dead Sea scrolls (68 AD) to the Masoretic text (1000 AD) there is essentially NO difference between the text. The differences that do occur are mostly variations in spelling comparable to “Savior” to “Saviour.” Surely God’s word will remain!
2) The Qumran community and the other Jewish groups of the OT and NT times so reverenced the LORD that they would often refuse to write out his name. Instead they would write …. in place of the four Hebrew letters of God’s name. In comparison, I think of how flippantly we toss God’s name for this, that, and the other thing. The Hebrews knew the power of a Name. Throughout the OT we hear a phrase like “call upon the Name of the LORD.” There is power in God’s NAME.
3) Besides showcasing the Qumran scrolls, the exhibit included biblical manuscripts from the past 2,000 years. There were numerous illuminated manuscripts (biblical texts with decorated letters or illustrations in the margins). Included in this collection were sections of the first commissioned handwritten illuminated manuscript since the printing press known as the St. John’s Bible. (Click here to check out their website!) The illuminated page highlights the written word but accentuates it with imagination. Sometimes I think that in the age of the printing press, we have lost the abiliity to read the printed word with a sanctified imagination. One can’t but do that when confronted with an illumined page of Scripture.
I praise God for preserving these texts for 2000 years to be enjoyed and studied so that his Name may be praised.
