Gadfly's Muse

1 Thessalonians 3:1 - 4:12: This Is God's Will... For You!

Image: "Potential Beauty", 2021, Hellebore, Severna Park, Md

1 Thessalonians 3:3–4  that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you, yourselves know that we are appointed to this. 4 For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.

1 Thessalonians 3:8  For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:1–3  Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: ...

1 Thessalonians 4:7–8  For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

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It is a matter of some astonishment, how plainly and practically God communicates with us.  Yes, there are sublime depths to His word that no mere mortal can ever plumb, at least in this life.  He causes us to rise on the wings of eagles (Isa. 40:31) as we ponder the depths of His love, the surpassing excellence of His purposes, and the awesome extent of His power.  Like some of those monks who spent their lives in monasteries, fasting and praying and meditating, we could spend years in mental and spiritual seclusion, seeking and perhaps finding a degree of ecstasy in the process.

But God will not have that.  His plans are for us to "soar a little, serve a little" (to suborn a silly song).  God's will for our lives is that we are to live in the "real world", fallen as it is, frustrating as it is, discouraging as it is, in such a manner as to make a difference.  His purpose for our lives is directed toward how we live, not in our gaining some ethereal, near-mystical, piety.

How much clearer can He be than what is expressed in these verses?

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: ... (4:3)

God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness... (4:8)

Paul goes even further.  Any person who rejects this teaching is not rejecting Paul but God Who sent him and inspired him.  That should get our attention.

Paul gives us some particular examples of what this should mean.  In 3:13 Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to "abound in love to one another" unto the end that their hearts would be "blameless in holiness ... at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ..."  He calls them and us to "abstain from sexual immorality" and turn away from the sordid passions that were so prevalent in that society.  We should note that this depravity is still all around us.  He teaches us that we must be scrupulously honest in our business transactions, even to our own hurt.  He calls us to aspire to a quiet life... to mind our own business... to work with our own hands... and walk properly toward all men, even those "outside." (4:10-12)

This is about as clear as anything can be.  It's not rocket science.  it's not some tediously involved philosophical treatise.  it is a plain picture of a plain life... a life that is growing in sanctification and illustrative of the witness God desires to be furnished by His people.

What God is here commanding is an attitude toward right and wrong.  Paul tells the Thessalonians that he doesn't want them to be discouraged (3:3) by the afflictions that he was suffering.  He was worried that they might see what he was enduring and somehow think that there must not be any truth to what he had taught them.  Their reasoning would have been straightforward:  If what Paul taught was true then why would the Christ he proclaimed allow these things to happen to him?  It's a thought process that is not uncommon even today.

Paul says to "stand fast", don't weaken (3:8).  They must know that he was "appointed for this" even as he had previously told them.  And how would they "stand fast?"  It would be by a renewed antipathy toward the degrading sexual practices in which they were immersed.  It would be by pursuing a sincere and passionate love for their brothers and sisters in the faith so that they would discover a new joy, completeness, quality of life, that would make that life found "outside" appear repulsive.

But most of all, they would stand fast if they understood that purity before God was what God deserved from them.  They should understand the pursuit of holiness as the simple reflection of a heart's desire to please its master. (4:1) 

Jesus taught that His yoke was easy and His burden was light.  This is what sanctification really entails.  It is not a giving up of joys and pleasure at all.  it is replacing old sordid pleasures with new ones that remove any passing desire to go back.  Think of a man growing up in the trash dumps of India (they are hideous) who fought starvation by eating half-rotten food other people had discarded.  He might, at the time, have gotten some pleasure from eating those things.  But then, if he was invited to a feast and was given well-prepared and delicious dishes, would he have any desire to return to the trash heap?  I don't think so unless he was truly depraved.

So it is with God.  He desires our sanctification because it not only brings glory to His name but it also is the pathway for our greatest delight and well-being.  What He commands is our blessing.  Let us fortify our will to be ever more concerned to reject the various practices the world about us commends.  Those things are not God's will for us.  His will is for our holiness and He is worth whatever effort it calls forth in us to pursue it.

 

 

 

 

Christian Nationalism: We Ought To At Least Understand The Label

Image:  "Beginning of the End", 2009, near Bar Harbor, Me

More and more we are hearing "Christian Nationalism" being bantered about in a vaguely dismissive and smearing manner.  It seems that anytime a person mentions politics or law, and God in the same breath they are immediately lumped into the same category as rabid zealots seeking to tear down the constitutional separations and bring back the inquisition.  

Yet, we have to admit, that some Christians have gone way over the line in identifying their support for President Trump and his "MAGA" agenda as being almost messianic in its essence.  It is always problematic to anoint a politician with holy oil. To declare that a particular legislative or political agenda as being "God's will" must conform to very stringent criteria before any Christian, or the Church as a whole should buy into it.  Furthermore, Christians have been too quick to equate "Americanism" with Christianity, either in its origins, its history, or its declarations.

First, let me attempt to define "Christian Nationalism" as it is manifested in our current circumstances.

Michelle Goldberg invented the term in her 2006 book "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism".  Goldberg used the term to describe people who think this way:

“Christian nationalists believe in a revisionist history, which holds that the founders were devout Christians who never intended to create a secular republic; separation of church and state,  according to this history, is a fraud perpetrated by God-hating subversives … The goal of Christian nationalist politics is the restoration of the imagined Christian nation.”

This is a reductionist formulation to say the very least.  However, if it was universally adopted then it could only be consistently applied to a very narrow segment of American Christianity.  In application, modern leftists have sought to caricature every Christian attempt to influence policies and laws (e.g. abortion laws) in a manner consistent with Biblical principles as bowing to this "Christian Nationalist" creed.

Ralph Drollinger and the organization "Capitol Ministries" has published a paper called "Better Understanding the Fallacy of Christian Nationalism." [Link Here]  This paper furnishes some good background for understanding the various approaches Christian political activism or exhortation may take and clearly states that not all such attempts should be called "Christian Nationalism".  However, this paper errs, in my opinion, in its conclusions about how Christians should think about the whole subject.  After essentially defining Christian Nationalism as the sum of its individual components (Dominionism, Reconstructionism, and Theonomic Importation), the paper concludes that the "only" use of Christian doctrine that should be advanced into the political/legislative sphere is the "Moral Law of the OT" because it is "a reliable informant for civil government leaders in their lawmaking."  The authors advance this idea because this Moral Law is "installed in everyone He has created" as a "conscience chip" written on our hearts.  

Thus, these authors essentially say that Christians have common ground with Pagan unbelievers because we all have the "law" written on our hearts and thus reason can build on this common ground and Christians can influence government without actually prophetically speaking to it.  There is no room, in this view, for "Thus saith the Lord."  I find this analysis more disturbing than Goldberg's.  At least, in her formulations, there is no blurring of the issues.

I would propose the following definition for how "Christian Nationalism" ought to be understood.

Christian Nationalism is a perspective that calls for an activist proclamation of the Christian world view into the public sphere with the goal of exhorting laws or policies which are more consistent with that view, as well as prophetically reminding those in government that they are responsible to God for their conduct in office, specifically in that they are to promote justice as Biblically understood.

Let's add clarity by analyzing the terms:

"Nationalism" is used to speak of a distinct cultural social order wherein members of that order identify with it as well as participate in its goals and activities.

"Christian" is used, in this context, to speak of a comprehensive, over-arching framework for viewing all things through the lens of Biblical Christian teaching.  It is characterized by a reliance on the authority of Scripture as superior to all other foundations of reasoning.  It does not deny natural revelation but it subordinates any interpretation of natural revelation to Scripture, rightly understood.

This view, though it does not embrace "Dominionism, Reconstructionism, and Theonomic Importation" as Drollinger, et al, define them, does recognize that not everything that the proponents of those views said is inherently wrong.  Nor does this view accept Goldberg's narrow characterization. Though every world-view, including Christianity, reflects a spectrum of opinion, her definition is only true for a fairly radical fringe in Christianity.  True Christian Nationalism, or perhaps Christian Political Activism, does not equate the United States to the Israel of God or even as a nation particularly beloved of God beyond all others.  True Christian Nationalism believes that this is a nation "under God" and accountable to Him.  Since this is true for every political magistrate and authority, of whatever nation, then this does not equate to a narrow view of American exceptionalism in a religious sense though "exceptionalism" in a political/historical sense may very well be in order.

Second, let's consider the following quote:

Every social order rests on a creed, on a concept of life and law, and represents a religion in action.  Culture is religion externalized.  [reference, pg. 219]

Now the author of this statement is not highly regarded in modern Christian circles but perhaps this statement ought to be given some consideration.

First of all, its truth appears to be self-evident.  Though some may dispute whether a God-less social order "represents a religion in action", all that is needed is to replace the word "religion" with "practical philosophy" and it fits.  What the author declares is that there is no such thing as a "value-neutral" social order.  Life, in community, is constrained by that community in a thousand different ways, not all of which are verbalized or even consciously held.  Every person born into society is socialized according to the mores and values of that social order.  The implicit notions of what constitutes life, the goal of life, the practice of life, etc. are part and parcel of that social order.

As such we can see that other than quibbles about words, each social order is a religion in action.  Its members conform to the common expectations or are marginalized or institutionalized.  Thus American Nationalism seeks to influence that social order so as to move its "religion in action" along more Christian pathways.

This does not mean that this action, in and of itself, is evangelistic.  If anything it is more apologetic.  It does not promise salvation if the culture does move in the directions it advances.  It simply understands that such directions are more pleasing to God than their opposites would be.

Second, it must be said out front that all such endeavors presuppose that the Christian will be in conflict with the social order.  The social institutions of any secular culture are controlled by the Satanic "principalities and powers" which are diabolically used to suppress the truth of Christ.  However, every institution is made up of people and therefore the Christian Nationalist seeks to undermine the Satanic agenda wherever it is encountered.  Thus questions of pragmatic "best methods" in finance, administration, etc. which do not directly endanger a Christian worldview, are understood as areas where common-cause can be won.  

However, where there is a distinct moral component that runs counter to that Christian world view, then it is the duty of the Christian to oppose it in a distinctly Christian manner.  The sovereignty of God over all human endeavors must be acknowledged by the Christian as a core aspect of his/her actions and statements.

So, I believe there is ground for Christian activism in all spheres of the social order including the political.  I do not believe we should ever equate "Americanism" with Christian Nationalism but neither do I believe that Christians can rely only on some "common ground" with non-Christians for advocating only moral law issues.  

This is not the place for a more definitive discussion of the Christian Worldview.  That is a far more extensive topic.  If any reader has a question about some aspect of that worldview, it might prompt some further elaboration.

 

Romans 15 & 16: Fights Not Worth Picking!

Image: "Through the Barn Door", 2009, View from Covenant Village Retreat Center, Clearview, Pa

Romans 15:1–2  We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

Romans 15:5–6  Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:27  It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.

Romans 16:17  Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them.

Romans 16:26–27  but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.

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In my years of pastoral ministry, a recurrent difficulty was "differences of opinion" that became much more than that.  Most of the time these "differences" were not over some clearly understood doctrinal issue.  Those are, believe it or not, relatively easy.  No, the really tough ones had to do with "feelings" which weren't so much about actual emotions but rather moral perceptions.  Whenever someone says: "Well, I really don't think so-and-so ought to be like that!", generally occasioned by some cultural or personality expression, then you can be sure "mine-fields" lie ahead.

Paul in these chapters talks about difficulties in the congregation.  Interestingly his teachings require a pretty large degree of mature judgment.   In 15:1 he teaches that we are to "bear with the scruples of the weak", and then down in 16:17 he says that we should avoid those who cause "divisions and offenses."  Paul is clearly an experienced pastor.  He knows that dealing with disputes or differences among the congregation is not often a "black and white" issue.  Most of the time we have to determine where on the spectrum a question falls and then deal with it appropriately.

Let's take up those questions that fall under "fights not worth picking."  Paul is pretty clear.  Smile, swallow your prideful desire to set the poor ignorant brother or sister straight and get on with the job of loving him/her.  It's not worth the heartache and can very well be counter-productive.  My mother used to say that such questions "don't amount to a hill of beans."  I've never seen a hill of beans, but I think such a hill would not be (comparatively) very valuable.  

I actually think that one such question is rising all around us.  I see people on TV getting very upset when they are told to wear a mask.  No matter how irritating those things are, and I admit I dislike them very much, when it comes to wearing them in public it is a matter of "bearing with the scruples of the weak."  Even if it proves out, which to my mind has not been done, that masks really aren't that effective, what's really important is that we don't make other people unnecessarily uncomfortable in our presence.  As Gov. Hogan said: "Wear the ..... mask!"  Christians ought to be the examples for this kind of humility.  It's a fight not worth fighting.

Now, there are other fights that are worth it.  There is no room here to develop the categories of necessary fights.  Paul says that we are not to tolerate "divisive" statements that are counter to "doctrine."  We might wish he was a bit more precise.  We know that when it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Gal. 1) that we are not to have anything to do with those that teach "another gospel" and Paul's identification of the "Judaizers" as one such sect is a lot more difficult than you might think.  It was not a matter of simplistic reductionism as is often stated.  Rather, it required a clear penetration to fundamental issues to distinguish what was, in fact, the divisive doctrine.  Romans chapters 1-8 pretty much provide that penetration.

So, it is necessary for Christians to be clear thinking and principled in the doctrines of our faith.  Every doctrine that we embrace must be embraced as "truth", else they become meaningless.  That means that every counter-doctrine must be viewed as "error."  This provides the "continuum" I spoke of earlier.  Judgment is required to distinguish which "errors" have to be hit with a hammer and which we are to tolerate in the hope that the individual will see the truth more clearly in time.

A good rule of thumb is that any "question" that needs answering in the church ought to be rooted in doctrine.  Political arguments that are not reflective of a doctrinal issue must not be allowed to rise to divisive status.  Our goal is to show forth good judgment in things that matter... we must not show forth an image of constant contention.

And as Forrest Gump said: "And that's all I've got to say about that!"

 

 

Lamentations 1-3: Why Should Any Living Man Complain?

Image: Monarda Didyma (Bee Balm), 2020, Severna Park, Md

Lamentations 2:22 “You have invited as to a feast day The terrors that surround me. In the day of the LORD’s anger There was no refugee or survivor. Those whom I have borne and brought up My enemies have destroyed.”

Lamentations 3:21–23 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:31–33  For the Lord will not cast off forever. 32 Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion According to the multitude of His mercies. 33 For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.

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When major life upheavals occur, either personally or corporately as in a nation, it often results in what Peter Berger and other sociologists have termed "alienation."  Imagine yourself as a teenager in London just before the Blitz.  You live in the same community wherein you were born.  Your neighbors all live, as do you, in nice row houses and a very British idea of life very much controls your life.  There is a war going on but it is somewhat remote to you.  Like most Brits, you think of it as a very "unpleasant" circumstance.  And then, one day, the air raid sirens sound and you run to your underground bomb shelter.  You shiver in fear throughout the night and then, in the morning as the "all clear" sounds, you go up the steps and step out into the daylight.

Your life and everything you ever thought about your life suddenly collapses.  Your neighborhood is in ruins.  Rubble and smoking timbers now have replaced the homes of your life-long neighbors.  People you knew are dead.  A kind of shock grips your soul and for some period of time, life consists in "going through the motions."  This is "alienation" and it doesn't really end until a new life order, a new way of looking at the world, a different perspective on all things takes over.  People cannot live without some basic "framework" in which to understand things.  When the old "passes away," something "new" must take its place.

Jeremiah, in these chapters, is telling us of how he went through "alienation."  You can hear the shock and grief in his voice.  His heart is breaking and it seems like nothing beautiful remains in his world.  It is a time of terror.  Law and order, to the degree that they had been present, are now a memory.  Evil men use whatever force and power they possess to strip goods and food from the weak.  The old and the very young have become prey.  The foundation of order in Judah had been Jerusalem and the temple.  They represented the best and most noble hopes of mankind in his day.  Now, this beautiful virgin "daughter" was metaphorically dressed in rags and defaced with the filthy evidence of her prostitution.  In what seemed a mere day, Jeremiah's world had changed forever and everything that had seemed so secure, so stable, so dependable, was gone.  He was not a happy camper.

In the throes of his anguish, the Holy Spirit speaks through him.  As God is so wonderfully prone to do, Jeremiah's mind is directed away from the ruins which lie about him, upward to the One who "commanded" the destruction which brought about those ruins.

Lamentations 3:37–39  Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, When the Lord has not commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High  That woe and well-being proceed? 39 Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?

Jeremiah was called to shift his eyes heavenward.  All of this destruction has happened because our Sovereign God has commanded it.  Whether "woe" or "well being", do not both proceed from the same Source?  If any man stands naked before God, stripped of all his pretense to inherent righteousness or nobility, can any such "living man complain?"  When we behold the punishment for sins are we to be surprised and perhaps even angry at the Just God who worked that punishment?  

The answer is obviously "no."  A great unchanging truth is simply this:  "We will get what we deserve!"  Any man or social order, that thumbs its nose at Almighty God will not do so with impunity.  Our Lord proclaimed that the "wages of sin is death."  He was not joking or speaking metaphorically or making a wish.  This is THE fact of our lives.

And when we, as individuals or as a society, awaken to find that all we had ever supposed to be permanent, solid, dependable, noble, good in our social culture, has been rudely turned on its head, then we ought to hearken back to Jeremiah's day.  We need to hear his exhortation to "search out and examine our ways and turn back to the LORD; to lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven." (3:40-41)

He has told us that He will not "cast off forever... "; that He will "show compassion"; and that He does not "afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."  Our God does not delight in human suffering even when He brings it.  His purposes always are to bring about restoration, redemption and blessings on His people.  This is the unchanging truth that will never bring alienation.  A world view built on the basis of God's sovereignty directing all things to His good ends will inform and guide us no matter what earthly things pass away before our eyes.

Perhaps some of us are going through "alienation" right now.  There are certainly valid grounds for it.  Perhaps Jeremiah's "Good News" is what we need to hear.

 

Jeremiah 7-9: Has Truth Perished in the Land?

Image: "Relics in Time", 2020, Severn River, Annapolis, Md

Jeremiah 7:5–7  “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

Jeremiah 8:22  Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?

Jeremiah 9:23–24  Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.

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Jeremiah is an uncomfortable read.  That's not a new insight, ... virtually everyone who studies the book in anything other than a superficial manner, gets a bit antsy.  It's just so vivid in its descriptions and it is just so easily recognized as reflecting our own time.

Take, for example, Jeremiah 7:28:  “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

"Truth has perished!"  Do we not recognize the prevalence of that judgment all about us?  

What does this mean?  Basically, when truth departs from a society the people do not recognize or embrace any proposition or judgment that is higher than mere "opinion."  The idea of convincing others of a position or statement based on some considered perspective such that it becomes morally imperative for them to believe it... because it is the truth... is rejected.  In its place is colorful, emotional, passionate rhetoric that is almost entirely subjective.  Some person declares: "This is right!" and "That is wrong!" on no other basis than their own authority and desires and demands agreement by rousing up similar passions in their audience.

Counter arguments are shouted down because no opposing passions or positions are to be considered.  "Truth", understood as ultimately able to withstand all counterarguments because it is, in fact, true, is rejected.  It is no longer about seeking truth but rather manipulating an audience.  

The Scriptures teach us that we reap what we sow and this is happening now.  Decades of corrupting rhetoric passing for "education" in our colleges and universities have indoctrinated almost an entire generation with self-referential ideas and policies.  The most discouraging aspect of this is that it almost eliminates the possibility of dialog even as "dialog" appears at the top of the list of every demand.

The Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be the "pillar and ground of the truth" in every society (1 Tim. 3:14-15).  Our current circumstance in this country, just as it was in Jeremiah's day and society, is a blazing indictment against the Church.  God did not point Jeremiah's finger at those nasty pagans in other countries and declare that they were what brought on this sordid situation.  Rather (9:3) God clearly pointed at His own people and those over them and declared: "They are not valiant for the truth on the earth."  He goes on to say "they do not know ME."  This is the severest indictment that can ever be registered against God's people.  To not "know" the living God is to be cut off from the whole idea of "truth" itself.

There is no "truth" unless that "truth" is absolute, eternally valid, and ultimately victorious.  Of course, we may have to resort to "provisional" truths on occasion in areas where no certain authority can be established.  But even then, we, by that very method, assume that acting in accordance with "provisional truth" will lead us to see it more clearly and establish its truth content more certainly or reject it entirely.  

The bottom line is this.  When God's people think of "faith" as more akin to "opinion" than embracing "truth", then we no longer are salt and light, a city set on a hill, or prophets of the living God.  We must be convicted of truth, convinced of truth, enthralled with truth, and inspired by truth.  The living presence of a separate people manifesting this character will make a difference in the world around us.  Such a people can be hated, despised, and ridiculed but they cannot be ignored.

Jeremiah spoke to his people of his day but in doing so he spoke to every generation of professing God followers that followed him.  And through him, God is speaking to us today.  

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day: Here Lies a Warrior

Image: "Here Lies a Warrior," 2007, United Nations Memorial Cemetery, Seoul, RSK

1 Chronicles 11:10–14  Now these were the heads of the mighty men whom David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the LORD concerning Israel.
11 And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam the son of a Hachmonite, chief of the captains; he had lifted up his spear against three hundred, killed by him at one time.
12 After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men. 13 He was with David at Pasdammim. Now there the Philistines were gathered for battle, and there was a piece of ground full of barley. So the people fled from the Philistines. 14 But they stationed themselves in the middle of that field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the LORD brought about a great victory.

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If you travel to the other side of the world and visit the Republic of (South) Korea, do not miss the opportunity to go to the only United Nations cemetery in the world.  It is an honored burial ground, respectfully maintained and constantly under military guard.  It bears silent witness to the combined forces that fought the Korean War and preserved the freedom of at least half of the Korean peoples.  I have known a couple of men who fought in that war.  One only recently died.  His memories of the hardship, terror and inhumanity of the conflict readily sprang to his mind as he spoke of how it was only by the grace of God he survived.

I do not know anything about the man buried beneath the marker above. It just stopped me in my tracks as I walked down the rows and rows of the dead.  Here lay a man who was born only a eleven years after my grandfather in 1896.  He was a kid when the Wrights flew the first airplane.  He remembered Teddy Roosevelt and saw the automobile transform the nation.  When he was 20+ years old he went to war in the "War to End All Wars", WWI, from 1914-1918.  It was not the last war and neither was it the last in which he fought.  He went to war in WWII and then, when his country again needed him, he went to Korea.  There his fighting ended and there he returned to be buried 10 years later, with carefully tended roses testifying to the honor in which he is still held.

On Memorial day it is right and good to stop and remember the price paid for the liberties and prosperity we have inherited.  This should not be just some artificial bit of maudlin romanticism.  Honoring the dead doesn't mean that we attribute to them some beyond human purity.  As a career military officer I can truthfully say that few military men, including me, were saints.  They were and are fallen sinners just like we are and each had his or her own foibles and perhaps even serious moral failures.  But there is a kind of nobility that military service can bring out in a man, especially in wartime.  There is when courage is glaringly evident or equally glaringly absent.  In the heat of battle men lay down their lives for their brothers, often in deliberate actions which they knew they would not survive.  The image of a battle blackened soldier emerging from the jungle carrying his wounded brother on his shoulders is a haunting reminder of Viet Nam.  

This man saw three major wars.  He knew death up close and personal before it finally claimed him.  He was nearly 60 years old when the war in Korea heated up.  I imagine he could have stayed home if he wanted.  But he didn't.  He was moved by some principle that was greater than his life.  There was some imperative that drove him to lead men again in harm's way.  I cannot help but think, for men such as he, that it was a genuine sense of duty.  We can call it love of country... we can call it loyalty to his calling... we can call it by many names but it represents one necessary aspect of the kind of nobility that fallen men can exhibit.

David's three mighty men probably had a lot in common with this soldier.  They were fierce warriors but they were more than that.  When David expressed a desire for water from a particular well near Bethlehem, these three men broke through enemy lines to retrieve some for him.  They were not ordered to do this... they just wanted to show their affection and loyalty to their king.  Their names are not inscribed on a plaque in a cemetery.  They are written by the Spirit of God into His eternal Scriptures.  

I think God has a special place in His heart and in His Kingdom, for those of His elect, who are willing to lay down their lives for their country and their king.  He has honored the memory of some of these by keeping their names alive.  If God thinks this way then so should we.

Song of Solomon 1-3: His Banner Over Me Is Love

Image: "Softly", 2020, Severna Park, Md 

Song of Solomon 1:1 The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

Song of Solomon 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, And the lily of the valleys.

Song of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, And his banner over me was love.

Song of Solomon 2:16  My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies.

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Any pastor who undertakes to explain or preach the "Song of Solomon" faces a formidable task.  The text just doesn't lend itself to an immediate spiritual examination.  What we read is a fairly passionate expression of human love and pathos but what are we to make of it?  There is the literary form in which it is cast.  It has various first hand speakers, the exact number of which is debated.  There are those "Daughters of Jerusalem" who pop in and out of the dialog and have a likeness to ancient "choirs" in stage plays, what are we to make of them?  Finally there is a serious question regarding its inclusion in the Bible.  What importance did the ancient Israelites put on this work?  Did the include it, as with the Proverbs, as promoting piety in practice or did they, in contrast to virtually every other Old Testament book, think of it as composed entirely of metaphor?  

All of these considerations come into play before any Christian approaches this work.  There are four basic ways of understanding it: is it to e taken as (1) allegorical, (2) liturgical, (3) dramatic or (4) lyrical.  If allegorical then every element in the book represents something/someone else (hence the Shulamite represents the church, the beloved / Solomon represents Christ, etc.)  If understood as liturgical then the book is part of a religious ceremony that was intended to be re-enacted in some form of worship (e.g. similar to other religions re-enacting fertility rituals).  If dramatic then it is a play presented to tell the story of passionate love between Solomon and a wife or, more dramatically, ill-fated love where the woman actually loves a shepherd boy but she is bound to the king.  Lastly, if taken as lyrical then the book is exactly what the opening statement says it is: "a song of songs."  In other words it is a collection of songs, grouped together like the book of Proverbs, but without any specific storyline or allegorical content.  As is readily apparent, how one conceives the entire book will dramatically affect how one reads it and what benefits one draws from it.

I think that either of the last two concepts, or a combination of them, is the best we can do.  Certainly it is the best I can do.  There are just too many sensual elements and double-entendres in the book to push the allegorical interpretation very far.  We would have to ignore quite a few verses.  The "liturgical" idea is repulsive.  So, if we look at it along the lines of 3 & 4 then we can in fact find some commonality of emphasis.  Taken as drama we could ask what is this drama all about?  Taken as a collection of songs, we aks what unifying theme that caused them to be grouped together?  The answer to both, quite simply and clearly, is human love between man and woman.

There is, of course, the clear teaching of scripture that human marriage itself is a metaphor for the love Christ has for His Church and so we can draw inferences about spiritual truths from the reading but we are not required to find an exact analogy between the ordinary marriage relations, especially sensual relations, of a man and his wife with a corresponding truth about Christ and the Church.  That keeps us out of the "allegory" trap.  But there is no question that this book celebrates the heart searing passion of human love between man and woman.  It celebrates the ecstasy of it and also the painfulness of it.  This book is about us... and the kind of deep emotional and passionate love that we are to encourage and promote in ourselves within the marriage bond.  If we don't try to force it into some mold that doesn't fit then we can be instructed and motivated to develop the kind of deep passion in ourselves that best represents that passion with which our Christ holds His Church.

The Shulamite is never identified explicitly.  The word "Shulamite" itself may be derived from the same stem as "Solomon" so the composer may be playing on the two words.  She would essentially be "Solomonette" of something of the sort.  If we take it that way we see the extremely close connection that is being presented to us.  When she, in 2:16, says that "I am his and he is mine" we are seeing the "one-flesh" relationship that is the goal and purpose of marriage being thrust upon us.  Even their names represent their deep bond.  Their souls are so interconnected that each is said to possess the other.  His words of endearment to her and her responses to him are the stuff of romance novels.  For those of us who have left our early years far behind they may seem too "touchy feely", almost childish.

But what is God really celebrating here?  He inspired this book.  He sanctioned it.  Therefore we have to ask ourselves, have we let the embers of love cool and perhaps die?  Are we embarrassed by deep emotions and therefore suppress them before they are expressed?  Have we become so desensitized by the modern demystifying of sexual relations that we no longer see that it celebrates something far deeper than mere pleasure?  

This book does not allow us to pass over such questions.  It calls us to celebrate love, to honor it, to indulge it and to cherish it.

Certainly the more we grow in this regard the more we might gain insights into the quality of love that moved our Savior to lay down His life for our salvation.  Now there are faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.  This book starkly depicts the human analogy to Godly love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalms 144-150: Happiness & The Pleasure of God

Image: "Glowing Pleasure," 2020, Severna Park, Md

Psalm 144:15 Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Psalm 146:5 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God,

Psalm 147:11 The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.

Psalm 148:14 And He has exalted the horn of His people, The praise of all His saints— Of the children of Israel, A people near to Him. Praise the LORD!

Psalm 149:4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.

Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!

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If it were possible for plants to express or sense pleasure, I think this little leaf would be an example.  It fairly pulsed with delight as the warming rays touched it and it gladly spread its petals to soak it all in.  But what completes the picture and warmed my heart as well was the certain knowledge that God was delighting in that little pair of leaves also.  Pleasure is a two way street as far as God is concerned.   I think we ought to think about that more often.

"Pleasure" and "Happiness" are not quite synonymous but they overlap quite a bit.  I am not speaking of "guilty pleasure" because, quite frankly, it is a contradiction in terms.  Moving on, thinking this way, it is perfectly correct to say that the goal of life is "to be happy."   Many great men have defined the "good life" in this way and have equated that "good life" with one which maximizes our pleasure.  On the whole, Christian ethics agrees with this as long as it is understood through the lens of Scripture and thus properly to understand what constitutes "happiness" and true "pleasure."

John Piper in his book "The Pleasures of God" says that for us to understand these things we don't start first and foremost with ourselves... we start with God.  We need to understand that God is "happy" (understood from our perspective) and that the pathway to happiness is to actually participate in and be conducive to, His happiness.  Piper says it this way:

"What the church and world need today, more than anything else, is to know and love—

behold and embrace—the great, glorious, sovereign, happy God of the Bible."

 

Imagine that!  Have you ever stopped and thought of God as "happy?"  What does it mean for God to have "pleasure?"

 

Our psalms today give us insights into a robust and vibrant "happiness of God."  God "takes pleasure" in stuff, His people for example (149:4).  Psalm 147:11 focuses on God's pleasure in those "who fear Him ... who hope in His mercy."  There is something of that two way street I mentioned above here.  Can there be anything more pleasurable to us than to come face to face with our own weakness and guilt and then to suddenly be awakened to hope that God is showing us mercy?  We, at that moment are like those leaves, spreading our arms to heaven and basking in the warming glow of God's restoring grace.  

 

But our joy would be diminished if we had some idea that God was doing this grudgingly.  We are so used to how other sinners "forgive" us when we err.  The forgiveness is often accompanied by clenched teeth and we know it was prompted by some imposed discipline and not from the heart.  That severely detracts from our own pleasure in forgiveness.  The great news is GOD IS NOT LIKE THAT!  God loves to forgive those whose hearts are sincerely repentant!  He takes pleasure in seeing His Warmth, shall we say His Pleasure, flooding down on that broken soul and commencing to heal and comfort it.  Like a loving parent He rejoices in wrapping His arms around His son or daughter and whispering to them:  "It's alright... I forgive you... it's going to be OK!"

 

This is His pleasure... His delight.  Is it not clear to us, in this example, that a general truth is evident?  We find true happiness, true pleasure, when we, in effect, enter into His happiness, His pleasure.  Let's build on that for a few words.

 

That plant was being obedient to its Maker.  It was opening its leaves so that it could grow, that the tree might prosper, that flowers might bloom and ultimately fruit may be borne.  This is God's delight.... to see His creation responding to His eternal will, fitting into His eternal pattern, pursuing His great purposes and doing so with pleasure.  God's delight is to see His creatures doing His will with delight.  What is true for all nature is most certainly true for those created in His image.

 

Psalm 145:10 proclaims: "All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, and Your saints shall bless You!"  See how God is pleased when all of His creation "joins in manifold witness" with His special children leading the pack.  This is His great pleasure, to delight in the perfections of His own work, yea and amen, but at the same time to see how His creatures delight in those same perfections.

 

Psalm 144:15 brings it all together.  "Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!"  God has no delight in our misery.  The scriptures plainly teach this.  He weeps when we weep, but God's sovereign power is always directed toward restoring joy... happiness... delight, because, in some mysterious way, we can say that He desires His own happiness and that comes from bringing happiness into the lives of His people.

Judges 7-8: The Victory is the Lord's

Image: Eternal Victory, 2017, Severna Park, Md

Judges 7:7–8 (NKJV) ⁷ Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man to his place.” ⁸ So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And he sent away all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, and retained those three hundred men. Now the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

Judges 8:12 (NKJV) ¹² When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army.

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 (NKJV) ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The old hymn "Victory in Jesus" is very special to me.  It was sung at the first service of our church plant and became our theme song.  Every first Sunday in March is our anniversary service and though the church has changed in some ways since 1991 yet still that hymn is sung gladly and with true thanksgiving at the close of the service.

Certainly the Scriptures are concerned with "victory!"  From beginning to end they speak of the spiritual warfare that constitutes the subject matter of all human history.  Historians seldom write their books and papers organized around this principle.  Virtually all of them, to some degree or another, are concerned with the "progress of history", looking at the developing nations and events as sequentially and humanistically advancing from lesser to greater.  Most histories are entirely man-centered, pragmatic and technologically centered.  What is lost in these is the true reality that has governed the history of man ever since Adam sinned in Eden. 

There is a battle raging around us.  God declared this in Genesis 3 when he clearly stated that "enmity would exist" between the sons of the serpent and the offspring of the woman.  "Enmity" is unrelenting antagonism, ceaseless resentment and murderous motivations.  History is the outward manifestation of this on-going battle. 

Can anyone deny the ruthless and bloody nature of secular human history?  Has there been any "just" governments that did not, to a greater or lesser extent, use power abusively, if not at first then in time?  Has not both prosperity and rank poverty both served to bring out the worst in human nature for the majority of those experiencing either one? 

No, history is the continuing outworking of the shifting theaters of a constant war and this war is a central tenet of the Scriptural story.

We have to understand this in order to appreciate Gideon in context.  The history of Israel in Judges is explicitly the story of the ebb and flow of warfare.  Behind each "side" in this war stands the spiritual forces that constitute their 'strength.'  The victories that Gideon wins are vindication of the God of Israel as being the One, Ultimate Power in the universe.  The proclamation of Judges is that this Ultimate Power will have Ultimate Victory though it shall involve many battles and prolonged warfare.

When the Lord Christ came into the world He preached victory.  He preached that God was in the world reconciling men to Himself and that when He was raised up He would gather men from all the nations to Himself.  He said that any man that came to Him, came because God hauled him to Jesus and that "on the last day" He, Christ, would raise that man up.... in victory.

This is the victory that Paul celebrated in the passage above.  There is a sense that the victory has already been won in that the resurrection of Christ established Him as preeminent in all things.  Thus He has won!  His victory, like Gideon's, was the victory of all His Israel.  He did it decisively, as did Gideon, through the way of human weakness.  He defeated death by dying.  The weakness of His body, like the mere 300 men of Gideon's army, proved conclusively that the battle is the Lord's.

The great covenant plan of God, His eternal counsel, expressed in His Covenant of Redemption was to do it just this way.  To exalt Himself in the eyes of all creation by delivering His people from the battle by leading them through the battle.  The way of victory is through deadly struggle.

This view of history is sadly lacking in our day and time.  Our young people are infatuated with the "now" and they see this "now" often only in terms of how their prosperity has been handed to them.  They need to see that prosperity, like all good gifts, are to be enjoyed but it also must be understood in terms of being a battle.  If it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven then we must see prosperity as often being employed as a weapon against us.

Victory!  That should be our goal and motivation.  There will time enough for resting when the war is over. 

"The Crown" and Other Pleasurable Absurdities

Image: Royal Replicas, 2019, "Costumes from 'The Crown' Exhibit", Winterthur Museum, 2019

If you are "into" that kind of thing, the traveling exhibit of the costumes used in the PBS series is very interesting.  Great attention was paid to creating as exact a replica for the various items of clothing worn by the Queen and other members of the Royal Entourage as possible.  Some freedom had to be taken to account for different body sizes.  For example, who knew that Princess Margaret was only 5' tall?  The woman who played her in the series was about 5' 7" or so.  The bottom line is the historical interest that this display arouses.

Queen Elizabeth has been around a long time.  It is kind of nice to be reminded that there was a time when a certain elegance was not only demanded but displayed by people in the public eye.  The Queen was very aware that when Jacqueline Kennedy was coming with her husband for a royal visit that she had to match the competition.  She did.  

It was also nice to see how the other folks dressed.  I think we all yearn for a taste of the kind of life that would allow us to "dress for dinner" or get on our riding habit and go for a gallop around the estate.  Rich folks just don't live like the rest of us.

Now I am not, in the least, jealous of these folks.  They are born sinners just like the rest of us and as even a casual reading of history will demonstrate, their acquaintance with elegance did not necessarily translate into being the kind of person we would even like much less want to imitate.  Still, there is the appeal of the whole ethos.

Americans are very susceptible, I think, to this kind of yearning.  American capitalism has produced the most affluent society the world has ever known, but a certain price has been paid.  All too often our affluence has not brought about the kind of sophisticated leisure that translates into cultural progress.  We Americans are intolerant of introspective and informed conversation.  We think we always have to be "doing something."  We have, in large part, even abandoned the traditional family dinner in the sense that we just eat up what's before us without any notice really of the opportunity that a meal provides.  If we had cultural institutions like "dressing for dinner" and the polite expectation that everyone was to contribute to the atmosphere and conversation at the event, then a certain depth would obtain in our lives.

I think, at some level, Americans yearn for some of this.  What else would explain the cult like devotion to the 'Downton Abbey' series?  Why is it that we Americans seemingly care more for the foibles and eccentricities of the Royal Family than do the average Brits themselves?  Just bring up Prince Charles in some circles and there will be a rolling of eyes and a shaking of the head that tells you all you need to know of the person's opinion.

Oh well... the funnest things in life are those things which are the most absurd.  The maintenance of the Royalty certainly falls into that category.  I enjoyed watching "The Crown" and I thought it did a pretty good job of showing us just how trapped is the Queen in her position.  She is the titular head over all the English government and royal possessions, yet she cannot do anything in government that might, in any way, convey an opinion about a current political issue.  She is told this explicitly and forcefully by the Queen Mother when she became Queen.  She is not a Royal Person... She is a Royal Institution..  This to me is absurd.  What is pleasurable is that somehow or another she matters.  

Queen Elizabeth is a great lady.  I don't know what will happen to the Royal Institution when she goes... whatever does happen we know this: that it will be great entertainment for us on this side of the pond.