Leithart on Trial. Again.

Dear readers,

A resume of the trial of Peter Liethart (Presbyterian Church of America; my denomination) has been all but commenced. He is going on trial for five different points of doctrine whom certain members of Presbytery believe are at odds with the Westminster Confession of Faith. Your prayers for Dr. Liethart would be much appreciated, as well as wisdom for the SJC as well as the body of Presbytery. Humility on all hearts present, and especially on the part of Dr. Leithart, as well as his submission. These are important points of doctrine, and should be handled with care in both the cases of Dr. Liethart as well as the SJC & Presbytery. You can read the details here: http://theaquilareport.com/three-pca-presbyteries-overture-ga-to-assume-original-jurisdiction-over-te-leithart/

Thanks for reading.

Torn-Up and Beaten.

Torn-Up and Beaten.
An original poem by yours truly.

My friends, broken and weak and sad
Who have been there when I was weak and mad
Know they're sinners, but care
Not of reality. They feel not the tear
In their hearts. It could just be
In their minds which cannot see
The torn-up lives around them.

My fathers who are there for me
To guide my brothers, to keep them free
To love my sisters who are weak
And lonely and broken more than you'll ever be
Who fight with guilt and shamefulness
"Leave here alone! She's dangerous"
She is torn and beaten around them.

I want you to pull off your callouses
You hurt the children, numb to your malices
You starve the hungry, you feed the rich
You leave the oxen in the ditch.
"They never should have run," you say,
"Off the road. Let them stay
"Torn up and beaten among us."

But you don't see it, and that's okay
I know you love us anyway
You're afraid of sin, I understand.
So am I. That's why I land
Upon a Cross where I care less
Of sins in the past of those who transgress
And are torn and beaten around us.

Time is scarce! Is that why
My brothers who have wand'ring eyes
Are left to struggle in their sin
Alone and dead with no way of lookin'
Up and over and give up the lies
The paper girls feed their prides
Torn-up and beaten by them.

For a man to look upon his fellow
And to have a care and to say, "hello"
And to see His Savior in the flesh
Beaten, bruised, unloved and the rest
Will free his mind from idolatry
To fickle goddesses of harlotry
He was beaten and torn for them.

And how much longer must we wait
How long till you don't alienate
By not putting in the hands of others
Instruction in love to be the mother
Church she was called to be
In times of crisis - a family
To love the torn-up lives around them.

But take the sword of love and life
And pierce the soul and save the life
Crush the sin with grace. Cut me up
Lay me on the altar, fill the cup
With gasoline and pour it out.
Anoint my head and hear me shout
As I am beaten and torn for Him.

James Jordan Bible Series. Epic.

From: Emmanuel Evangelical Church

This is an awesome Bible Study series from Jim Jordan.... Everyone should hear it! That includes you, of course :)

Creative Theology.

Our Theology obviously must be orthodox, but often, a study of orthodoxy is a fallback for actually having orthodoxy in your bones. This may be a strange place to start with the concept of 'creative theology.' I contend, Authentic theology creates the atmosphere for artful worldview.

When I use the term, "Creative Theology," I do not mean we should leave our forebears in the dust, blazing new trails in our wagons of rebellion. A healthy grounding in the Historic (and Protestant) tradition of theology must be our lifeline. We do have a great 'cloud of witnesses' (Hebrews 12:1) who have gone before us, and give us gifts of history.

Yet, as with all historic documents, they become outdated, interpretations understood at the time lose their meaning in time. New books, new thoughts, new expressions of our love for God need to be written in our current engagements. We must talk about the 'now.' The beautiful thing about creativity is that Humanity universally speaks the language of art before they do argument. Often, it is the more beautiful, not necessarily the more true, that wins in the end. It may be argued that drab true cannot be consistently true, but that is another subject for another day.

My argument is quite simple. We are made in the image of a Creative God. Why should we fear to be like him? Why should we fear thinking and speaking creatively in theology? Below, I provide what I hope are useful tips and examples of what I mean.

1. Put your theology in the fire. If it burns up, you know it is useless. I listened to a sermon from Jim Wilson this past week about meditating on the word of God. You may keep it in your head by hearing, reading, memorizing and studying, but unless you meditate on the word, allow it to soak into your heart, the study does nothing. Oxygen in the heart is distributed to the body, to allow it to move and do. Oxygen in the head is used up. When you allow the heart to take in the word (Hebrews 3:15), you can do your theology. The stuff that is wrong, will just wither. That is the power of the Holy Spirit.
   
   
2. Throw dirt at your theology. If you can't make it break a sweat, bleed, and live, there will never be beauty there- just a headful of ideas. You can describe a man as wearing a black coat, and people will get the idea. When, however, you narrate the way he coyly throws a midnight black cowhide over his broad shoulders, whole new worlds are opened before you- just don't jump on that aforementioned bandwagon with him- he may seem cool, but he's wearing black, after all. Use adjectives. Describe the feel of your thoughts and never allow them to stay thoughts.
   
   
3. Analogize. Always force yourself to think of new analogies and ways of explaining the Christian faith to people, especially to children. Their minds always catch the most profound things.
   
   
4. Tell, listen to, and read stories. If they must be true ones, make sure to embellish a bit. Involve your emotions. Stretch your mind. Understand typology. Get good at telling stories, and your theology will begin to bound in creativity. Think of the History of the Church from the time of Adam to today as The Mythology- in which all mythology warps or points to. Think of God's words as the words of the greatest magician who ever lived. In the beginning was the Word, and as it went in nihilum, life burst ex nihilo.
   
   
5. Read poetry everyday. Think of the Bible as poetry, and get used to reading it the same way. Poetry allows us to remember things very easily, the words that roll off the tongue can be stored in the heart most easily. Poetry holds within itself the ability to nuance truth in a few lines in a way it may take an entire book to stumble and bumble about. The word of God has much poetry within it. Look to the typology, and watch the story unfold in front of you. God's world is full of wonder, and can only be described as the greatest and most intricate poem ever told.
   
   
6. Express yourself. This is the same point as my last post's #5: Practice. In Wordsmithy, Doug Wilson makes the point well: we often think of grace as a pie. More now means less later. But God's world is a place in which pies grow, and we don't want to be an old walnut-heart, keeping our creativity to ourselves. As Jeff Bethke said, "If Jesus fully emptied himself for you, what's keeping you from emptying yourself for others?" He anoints our head with oil, our cup flows over. (Psalm 23:5)
   
   
7. Feel it in your bones. I'll simply end with some scripture. Proverbs 3:8 says, "It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones."  Hebrews 4:12 summarizes what I have written and grounds it in the word of God: "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Part two in a four part theology series.

1. Conversational Theology
2. Creative Theology
3. Commissional Theology
4. Consecrated Theology

Conversational Theology.

I don't remember where I heard the term, 'conversational theology,' but it really stuck out to me as an important discipline we should employ with our Christian brethren. I have found in my dealings with the world that many more people hold religion near and dear to their heart than you might expect. Although many of these people's Christianity has become lukewarm over time, their love for Jesus has been cooled in their comfort, all they may need is a simple nudge from a loving brother to get their minds and hearts active again. The secret to conversational theology I think lies in your ability to talk comfortably about theology with any person you come in contact with, especially with those you know you differ. So I am providing some guidelines for participating in this richly rewarding form of communication- and hope you can use it to your advantage in evangelism. Even the most devout Christian needs some evangelizing: our hearts are prone to wander.

Here are some helpful tips for conversational theology in no particular order.

1. Love is central. Before you talk about the things of Scripture, of Jesus, and of our life in the balance, make sure you love that person, not based on any similarity. Remember that all men have been made created in the image of God, not just Christians, and therefore are worthy of your love and respect- not because of what they have done, but because of who they are.
   
   
2. Listen. Those who love, listen. Let a man finish his thought... People say things that are important to them- especially in matters of faith. If he says something that seems unconventional or something that seems to contradict your tradition of faith, keep listening until he is done. Remember that "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) It also helps to think of this in the light of Matthew 25:40. "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." If you would give Christ all your attention and respect, do so for any other human you speak to: the least, even.
   
   
3. Speak of Jesus. We are the Church, and as the bride of Christ, we must have "the law of kindness on our lips." (Prov. 31:26) Her lips "drip with honey." A bride speaks of her husband with respect and love, a deep passionate love, for He has redeemed her from the gutter. (Ezekiel 16:4-5) He must be our focus and our passion. All other disagreements must be set aside when we meditate on the grace, love and beauty of our saviour.
   
   
4. Confess the Trinity. I know I already covered this somewhat in '3', but I wanted to use the word 'confess' to emphasize our need to realize who Jesus is, as part of the blessed Trinity, perfect, truly man and truly God. This must be constantly on our lips not as an argument, but as a joyful truth, a work of art, a beauty of orthodoxy. Our God is One and Many, and this is not simply true, but it is good news. Talk like it is good news, for that makes it contagious.
   
   
5. Practice, practice, practice. Practice speaking theology everywhere you go. Take it outside your comfort circles. James McDonald delivered a sermon to my congregation on Sunday in which he explained the planting of the Mulberry bush in the sea as an image of our faith in Christ. Even though our faith be as a mustard seed, we will be taken up by our roots from our comfort zone, and planted in the sea. Not cast or thrown, but planted. In discomfort, you become comfortable. Talk theology like you talk business, food, hobbies, or anything else. No need to force it, to be incredibly up front about it, but just let it emanate from you. Sometimes a little comment from the heart about Jesus, in passing, is enough to start a beautiful conversation with someone you would typically avoid in all things theological.
   
   
6. Confront in Love.  "And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  (Mark 10:21 ESV) The only way to do this is to look into your own heart, and confront your own sin and wicked tendencies- not what you see in (any) others. Remember that you can offend others, but by taking the fault, you can kill sin without alienating a brother.

Part one in a four part theology series.

1. Conversational Theology
2. Creative Theology
3. Commissional Theology
4. Consecrated Theology

A Truly Blessed Man.

On the Eucharist.

I wanted to give you all some of my thoughts on the Eucharist, as I have had opportunity for some serious thinking on the subject in the 'hood.

The Eucharist can and is horribly abused, and this (in my opinion) is due to over-philosophizing and intellectualizing the subject. As in the arguments surrounding the divinity of Christ, all this debate can fill up and overflow in jargon and much controversy, when a return to a simple understanding of the subject is often (if not always) the safest way to engage the muddled subject. Sometimes this can be disappointing, especially to intellectual types like myself, because we like "reinventing" the theological "wheel."

Creativity is good, and should be involved in our theology, but reinventing is altogether different than refining the current model. We don't like running out of controversy, because we don't want to be tied down to reality, we don't want to nail the sucker down, because after all, there is a thrill of the chase.

In the end, such discussion deserves a simple distillation out of respect- a common, practical application for any of this to be profitable in any way. I have attempted to do just this. I am about to confront some misunderstandings, explain the history of sacrifice, and what all of this means to us in a brief way, so bear with me.

The Eucharist is often the victim of hyperbole concerning what the elements are. Do we believe in transubstantiation (God Forbid!) or consubstantiation (in other words, was Luther a nut?) or is it merely symbolic (raising strong suspicions of gnosticism)? I propose the elements to be themselves. There is no need to think of them as anything more than bread and wine for them to be important. Yet the bread and wine is important. If it wasn't, if the eucharist was a merely spiritual act,  there would be no reason or profit to be gained in the serious discipline of being barred from the table.

This of course ties into the next point. I believe that much of this controversy can be resolved by protestants stepping back and looking at Old Covenant sacrifice like protestants and not like Roman Catholics. Lest you think I be changing the subject, look at communion like a non-bloody sacrifice before our God in this age of the "New Jerusalem." Catholicism teaches that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant (and therefore the Eucharist of the New) had the power in and of themselves to remit sin. But the Bible teaches (as in Psalm 51:16-17) that the sacrifice was not the payment for sin. As James Jordan has pointed out in a study in Acts, sacrifice reminded God of the Covenant -as Noah's sacrifice, for example, so clearly demonstrates.

These things have always reminded God of the promise of His Son, through whom all men have and will be saved. As the sacrifice of the old days, so the sacrifice of the New. The lamb, though it symbolically pointed to Christ, was never understood to be transubstantiated into Christ as it lay on the altar. Or maybe Catholics do understand this to be the case. I reject it utterly.

As my friend Bethany astutely pointed out, "we like to slash a line through what we rationally explain and understand and the magical." She further made the point that "just like baptism" it can change us "both spiritually and physically." I completely agree, and sometimes it is better to let your friends explain your points for you. Gnosticism and dualism (as I have been studying recently) really play into all of these "off" opinions.

Gnosticism. I'll hit this point briefly. Generally, we think of Communion as a spiritual (only) exercise. This cannot be, since a barring from the table is a real judgement, a real separation from the communion of our Lord and Savior, from the communion of His Saints. The elements mean an awful lot, and to experience that sort of separation is a painful, lonely experience. To be 'handicapped' in the way of not being able to 'draw near' --to take of those sacraments, and enjoy the offering, and the relationship of "son" at his table-- is a true sadness.

In other words, there is joy in the Eucharist. Don't lose it to learn it.

Bob Dylan's Love Songs.

Currently Reading Dylan's Visions of Sin by Christopher Ricks. Excellent book about Bob Dylan's songs- what the lyrics mean. From the preface I gleaned this interview from the Los Angeles [(16 Dec. 1965); Bob Dylan in His Own Words, p. 53]

Q. What does the word 'protest' mean to you?

Dylan. "To me? Means uh... singing when I don't really wanna sing."

Q. What?

Dylan. "It means singing against your wishes to sing."

Q. Do you sing against your wishes to sing?

Dylan. "No, no."

Q. Do you sing protest songs?

Dylan. "No."

Q. What do you sing?

Dylan. "I sing love songs."

I actually am really used to his folky version, but I saw this, and loved the rock-and-roll vibe! This song is important to me mostly because of the last verse which is about what he will do in response to the darkness he found in the world. He reveals that he will unflinchingly go to where there is evil, and "tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it."

Enjoy :)

Our God Can Die.

"The Church has insisted that none of this compromised the utter and complete leadership of God in the least. On the contrary, Jesus' life as the incarnate Son reveals the Lordship of God. It is one of Barth's most invigorating contributions to theology to insist that, far from being a compromise of God's sovereignty, the incarnation is proof of God's sovereignty. God the Son is so utterly and completely Lord that He can enter a womb and be born as man, hunger and suffer weakness, die on a cross, and yet all the while remain wholly Himself, the living Creator of heaven and earth who needs nothing of what He has made. To heretics who can't bring themselves to believe that God can so thoroughly identify Himself with His world, and to the timid orthodox who want to maintain a buffer (however thin) between God and His creation, the orthodox answer is, our God is great enough even for this; He is great enough even to become weak, poor, empty, man. To those outside the church, who scoff at our crucified God, we can boast: "Our God can die. Can yours?" Thus, and only thus, do we make our boast in the Lord, our Lord Jesus."

~Peter Leithart, The Four

Kyrie Eleison.

“A paradox is a truth standing on its head to get our attention.”

~G.K. Chesterton

 I have been presented with one such paradox, and in its wake, I don't know whether to be terrified or comforted. My epiphany comes from Revelation 5:

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,

     “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,

for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

     and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

(Revelation 5:1-10 ESV)

After listening to a sermon by Dr. Warren Gage, which may be boring to you (it certainly isn't for symbology nerds like me) I have come to a fuller realization of who exactly Jesus is.



Dr Gage makes the point well that Jesus is the book of seven seals. John in his Gospel goes out of his way to make us aware the Jesus is the 'Word of God,' and that the seven seals that are broken are the seven wounds Jesus receives the day of his crucifixion. Typified in the ten commandments, broken before they are even received, are remade and received by Israel. This all means that we are the ones who have broken the law with our sin. Every time I sin, I break the law, and therefore I break Jesus.

I am not simply a law-breaker, but a Jesus-breaker. And because the Lamb is the only one worthy to break the seals of book, I am not only a Jesus-breaker, but I have dared to break Him, break His seals unworthily. I am not the Lamb, and so when I break Jesus, I am horrified.

You can imagine my consternation, because in Jesus we have life, and freedom, and in the law we have death for our sins. Before I knew and realized I broke the law, but now to realize that I have not only broken the law, but have rebelled against grace, it is absurd and horrible as a man pardoned of a huge debt, and to murder his pardoner shortly after for no better reason than to satisfy his own selfish desires. To be guilty of breaking Jesus, my response can ever only be, "Kyrie Eleison." "Have Mercy." "Spare us, O God."

Today, pray for forgiveness, pray for your God to spare you. Don't forget that you are a son, and that Christ has made you free despite your breaking him. And though it be difficult in this truth, rejoice. Always. This is the message of Communion. For us, He has worthily broken the seals, and invited us to commune with Him. We are redeemed by the selfsame blood that condemns the world, so that it may be shown that His salvation is not by the will of man, or of flesh, but of God. We break the seals unworthily, but he breaks them and shares with us His blessing in them, and we are spared. We have all the reason in the world to be thankful and rejoice.

Detail from Crucifixion (Oil on wood) by Jacob Cornelisz Van Oostsanen 

I felt this painting to properly communicate the image of the breaking of the seals and the communion table and the preciousness of His blood.

A Christmas Present to My Readers.

I wish I could actually give it away instead of simply recommend it, but alas, I cannot.


Ô toi l'au-delà de tout,
quel esprit peut te saisir?
Tous les êtres te célèbrent;
le désir de tous aspire vers toi.


You who are beyond all things,
what mind can grasp you?
All that lives celebrates you;
the desire of all reaches out to you.

Text: Gregory of Nazianzus


 
Ô toi l'au-delà de tout from taize echoes on Vimeo.

Christmas Celebrations.

It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
     for his steadfast love endures forever;
and rescued us from our foes,
     for his steadfast love endures forever;
he who gives food to all flesh,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
(Psalm 136:23-26 ESV)

Possibly the greatest gift we can give this advent season, though it is nearly over (thank goodness we still have Epiphany ahead of us to redeem this '9th-hour' post) is the gift of our gratitude to God. After reading this wonderful post from Peter Leithart about gifts, I wanted to focus on how we can recount the days of the past, and be thankful, "for His steadfast love endures forever."

There is much pain to be had. Simply the awareness of sin and its effects is a painful experience to us who have been given so much by the Father of Lights, the Father of truth. We have been given every kind of salvation, from enemies political, spiritual, personal, economic, elemental. Psalm 136 recounts all of these. Jesus Christ subjected Himself to all of these, and His coming, His birth is good news in and of itself. The fact that Jesus became a human, flesh, bone, knitted in his mother's womb like any other human, born, raised, in a world which rebels against him ever and always, to soften our hearts and give us freedom from everything that He won victory over.

We have in our collective recent memory the mall shooting in Clackamas, as well as the Connecticut 'massacre' ending the lives of many small children. We have questions as a people of America, questions concerning the reason things are going 'more and more badly.' We ask about the legitimacy of arms, assault weapons and many other things. But the fact is that time has never been so good, we can hardly expect it to last. I want to assure the older generation not to fear for my own, for times have been far worse, and humanity, though frail in some ways, is very resilient when we need to be. Evil is always before us, always one choice away, literally under our noses. They are not simply in far off places like Iraq and the far East and China. They are in near places like Connecticut, Clackamas, Church.

The evil is not within the weapons, either. This is important for voters, because we need to understand that outlawing the tool, even if it could be realistically done, does not destroy the evil. G. K. Chesterton describe aptly the attempts of legislating morality in one sentence: "If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments." On the other hand, Christians need not be worried whether our guns are taken from us or not. The presence or absence of the AK-47 makes no impact on my ability to love God and my neighbor. This is how we destroy evil. We need to think clearly about these things. Ask yourself if you are doing what is loving, humble, holy, and pleasing to your Saviour at every moment, and we chase away evil by the very presence of light.

I hope this illustrates the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His very presence chases away the darkness that we constantly live in. His arrival is that which shakes the heavens, and the wicked tyrants (Like Herod) shiver in their boots at the sound of His name, for He is a consuming fire, a light to lighten the Gentiles. This removes the chaff, refines the gold. This fire, this light, is what reverses the forces of the world, and reforms them into His image. His law is a yoke of wood, compared to the worldly government's laws: yokes of iron. Our (His) resistance is grace, the world's, retaliation. He is here to take away our sin, not destroy us for it.

Exultet! Rejoice! For Peace is here, amongst chaos and powers and principalities, all to be chased away by the radical hope and joy in Jesus who has conquered it all.

**Please leave a comment and tell me your Christmas day traditions that you and your family participate in every year.

For my Christmas, We always have omelettes. (my mother is the best omelette cook) We stay in our pajamas. We open presents and stockings mid-day, and just enjoy the day. We watch "White Christmas". We have a great feast- (amazing) steak, potatoes, asparagus, and yorkshire pudding. Lemon meringue pie for dessert. This year we also began a new tradition: visiting Christmas Midnight Mass. Go. It's worth it.