Month: November 2007

The Year of Living Biblically

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The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
by A.J. Jacobs
Simon & Schuster
October 2007
388 pages
 
 
I heard about this book by A.J. Jacobs a little over a month ago and knew I would read it. Two days ago I picked it up at the local book store and literally just finished it. You have to understand I am a slow and deliberate reader, really a plodding reader. To have completed this book in two days for me is a feat. I attribute this to Jacobs writing style. Periodically I will read an author whose talent with words makes me unhealthily envious – Jacobs is one of those.
 
The book is Jacobs’ journal of his attempt to follow the Bible as literally as possible. He documented more than 700 rules in the Hebrew and Christian bible. As a pastor you can imagine why I needed to read this. Jacobs starts his Biblical journey (as I started mine as reader) as a bit of a skeptic. He describes himself as a secular Jew but says "…I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant." A self-described agnostic – religion, the Bible and God had not taken up a lot of thought room in his life up to this point.
 
Jacob’s research is very well done. He does not simply read the Bible but draws upon over a hundred Jewish and Christian resources as well as creating and regularly seeking the counsel of a spiritual advisory board made up of conservative and liberal rabbis, mainline and evangelical pastors. His bibliogrpahy is neither staunchly left or right but a mix of both and the middle. I especially appreciated a referance to Dennis Covington’s fantastic book Salvation on Sand Mountain (which I have also read) and Jacobs’ own visit to Appalachia. He also variously speaks to Tony Campolo, Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis), an Amish innkeeper, as well as visits Jerry Falwell’s church, and several Bible study groups that cover the spectrum from conservative to liberal, etc. You get the idea.
 
The insights that Jacobs has into religion, the Bible, God and believers in general are quite incredible. Many of them are very affirming for me as a pastor and a Christ follower. As a believer, one cannot, no matter how hard one tries, fully put themselves into the shoes of a non-believer and see what they see or understand as they understand so the book does a great service in this sense.
 
Aside from the insights Jacobs’ journey is incredibly humourous and at times quite poignant as well (the impact on his wife and family plays a major role). His openess and honesty are disarming and refreshing and his writing style is very approachable and easy to slip into. I won’t tell you what the impact this experience had on Jacobs except to say it was definitely a perspective changer.
 
This book is a great read and will spark many a lively discussion (good book club material). I highly recommend it.

The Fallen Sky

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To walk the fallen sky
a fractal white and grey
is no easy thing
 
the darkened stone
cold, hard, unforgiving
maps the paths
between the clean
small islands of purity
 
where foot falls –
is mine alone
leaving scuff and scratch
and sometimes
signs of life in snow

What I’m Listening To…

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First I have discovered a great singing duo originally out of Calgary called Tegan and Sara ( http://www.teganandsara.com/ ). They are twin sisters and have a great and distinctive sound. If you listen to them or have heard of them let me know what you think.
 
Since we’re on the subject of music here’s some music I’m listening to right now. I recently found a version of a song I have been hunting for quite a while. It’s called Lord of the Dnace (I Danced in the Morning) and it was written in 1963 and put to the tune of a 19th century composition by the Shakers called Simple Gifts. The rendition I’m listening to now is by the Ennis Sisters of Newfoundland. You can find their website at: http://www.christmas-tree.ca/music/dance.html. We used to sing this at Northland Community Church ( http://www.northlandchurch.net/ ) when we lived in Florida and it was a perennial favorite of the congregation. The lyrics are as follows:

I danced in the morning
When the world was begun,
And I danced in the moon
And the stars and the sun,
And I came down from heaven
And I danced on the earth,
At Bethlehem
I had my birth.

Dance, then, wherever you may be,
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he,
And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be,
And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said he

I danced for the scribe
And the pharisee,
But they would not dance
And they wouldn’t follow me.
I danced for the fishermen,
For James and John –
They came with me
And the dance went on.

Chorus

I danced on the Sabbath
And I cured the lame;
The holy people
Said it was a shame.
They whipped and they stripped
And they hung me on high,
And they left me there
On a Cross to die.

Chorus

I danced on a Friday
When the sky turned black –
It’s hard to dance
With the devil on your back.
They buried my body
And they thought I’d gone,
But I am the dance,
And I still go on.

Chorus

They cut me down
And I leapt up high;
I am the life
That’ll never, never die;
I’ll live in you
If you’ll live in me –
I am the Lord
Of the Dance, said he.

Chorus

Notes on Harmony

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In my relatively short tenure as a pastor here in Morden (a scant 2 ½ years) I have come to notice a couple of things. One of the things I have noticed is that whenever two or more churches in our community work together (i.e. the Community Christmas Dinner spear-headed by the St. Paul’s United Church) people become enthusiastic and somewhat optimistic. There is something attractive in these periodic shows of harmony that draw people’s gaze.
Now I am hardly what you would call a "musical" person in the sense that I have absolutely zero capability in terms of musical instruments (we won’t talk about my singing). That being said I recently attended the Brian Doerksen concert in Gretna and on the way home had a great and varied conversation on music with my friend T. The conversation wandered all over the place (as conversations with me are wont to do) and hovered for a while on musical concept of harmony; more specifically the incredible harmonies of the Beach Boys and the Beatles. With Christmas coming the idea of harmony rises briefly to the surface of people’s minds and my conversation with T. led me to think about harmony and its meaning.
The Oxford dictionary defines harmony as follows:
 harmony
  • noun (pl. harmonies) 1 the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords and chord progressions having a pleasing effect. 2 the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. 3 agreement or concord.
This definition works well (harmoniously one might say) when considering ways to describe a vision of a healthy community (or family for that matter), one that has a “pleasing effect”.  A community built on the principles of harmony is a community that recognizes that such harmony cannot exist in isolation. Individuals, alone and in concert with no one, cannot create harmony, as beautiful as a solo can be it cannot compare to the harmony of many voices (to feel the full effect of this idea buy John Rutter’s new rendition of Handel’s Messiah on CD). So – with this in mind the individual who steps into the community must recognize that in order to lend their voice to the chorus they will have to adjust the pitch and tone of their life to the unique sound of the larger group. If they do not, the result is divergence and eventually a parting of ways.
As true as this is for the individual it is just as true for the community. Harmony cannot exist without many and diverse voices. When a new voice enters the chorus the chorus itself must adjust to allow for this new sound. If the community and the individual do not adjust to each other’s uniqueness through a certain compromise – what arises is dissonance and discord.
Harmony is a mutual recognition of value, a mutual willingness of the individual and the community to change for the sake of one-another. Out of this mutual sacrifice arises harmony.
Of course in our many (and often failed) attempts at harmony God Himself has played no small role and leant no small voice the grand chorus. You might say that the voice of God is foundational to the dream of harmony being realized. God has demonstrated how participation within a harmony works by offering Himself as a sacrifice and emptying Himself through Christ (the divine kenosis). This act of sacrifice is God’s work in the harmony, it is God’s voice being made accessible to our voices, without which (or against which) discord reigns supreme in lives.
Our discussion of harmony has now happily become a trinity – God sings and sacrifices holding, surrounding and enlivening us with His voice while we attempt to do the same with Him and our fellow brothers and sisters all the while offering Himself as the perfect example of harmony in the eternal three-in-one relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So what can we say at this point? As we enter the Christmas season and Advent approaches we are distracted on all sides by rampant consumerism and worldly noise that threaten to drown out the harmony. In this time we would do well to ask ourselves (individuals, churches, families, towns etc) what we need to sacrifice for the sake of harmony.  Harmony requires personal, corporate and Godly sacrifice for the sake of the other…always…but the peace and beauty that results is worth it.
This season I urge you to join in community and with the heavenly host in harmonious praise and sing of the advent of God’s voice to the grand chorus –
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:14

BS

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I just realized the Bard, the great poet, Bruce Springsteen’s initials are – BS…yes…I am a little slow. I was listening to Bruce (Mr. Springsteen to the rest of you) the other day as a spiritual meditative technique. Now don’t get all freaked out – the idea of meditation is essentially to clear your mind and listen for the voice of God and see what thoughts might come your way. Listening to Bruce may not have been the first choice for many but it seemed to work for me.
 
Here are my thoughts from those few moments. I was listening to Bruce’s song My Hometown (which is the theme for this website lately) and it occured to me that this song would make no one happy. The back story to the song is that Bruce wrote it in response to actual factory closings in his hometown. People were losing their jobs and having to move away.
 
Anyhow – as I was listening to the lyrics of the song I began to realize that this song would not cheer anyone up. If anything the song was likely responsible for making a lot of people feel worse about their situation. I began to wonder what the point of that would be. I know enough about Springsteen to realize he’s no fool when it comes to music. If he wanted to make a song to cheer people up he would have done that…so what was he up to with this one.
 
Maybe – the song was not written to make people feel better. Maybe the song was written to simply make people feel. Maybe the song was written to drive people away from apathy and indecision and simply feel something, anything.
 
Then it occured to me that perhaps the Bible is not very different in this regard. I often think as I read the Bible that this is a book that can’t possibly have been written to make people feel better. Oh – don’t get me wrong, the over-arching theme of redemption and salvation is the most powerfully motivating positive message I have ever heard. But it seems that in the details the intent does not seem to be to make people feel happy but to make them feel. The psalms alone are a manic ride from joy to depression to anger to vindictiveness and back to joy again. There is an emotional journey in the details.
 
So why do this? To move us out of apathy and listlessness? To awaken one who appears to be sleeping (or dead perhaps)? I’m sure there is a Lord’s Day response written down somewhere or a catechismic statement that properly responds to all this…but this is not really what I am looking for. If the intent of scripture is to awaken in us a yearning of some sort; a yearning for God and a response then I’m not so much interested in the written responses of others who were awakened by scripture (as valuable as they are) rather I am interested in my response. Have I been awakened? What does that mean to me?
 
Maybe I don’t always feel better when I read scripture but I do feel and I need to explore that more.

Hmmm…what do you think?

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A recent study commissioned by ChristianityToday and Zondervan reveals the following cross-section of American Christians (based on a survey of 1,000 people over the age of 18). What do you think?

Active Christians 19%

  • Believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ
  • Committed churchgoers
  • Bible readers
  • Accept leadership positions
  • Invest in personal faith development through the church
  • Feel obligated to share faith; 79% do so.

Professing Christians 20%

  • Believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ
  • Focus on personal relationship with God and Jesus
  • Similar beliefs to Active Christians, different actions
  • Less involved in church, both attending and serving
  • Less commitment to Bible reading or sharing faith

Liturgical Christians 16%

  • Predominantly Catholic and Lutheran
  • Regular churchgoers
  • High level of spiritual activity, mostly expressed by serving in church and/or community
  • Recognize authority of the church

Private Christians 24%

  • Largest and youngest segment
  • Believe in God and doing good things
  • Own a Bible, but don’t read it
  • Spiritual interest, but not within church context
  • Only about a third attend church at all
  • Almost none are church leaders

Cultural Christians 21%

  • Little outward religious behavior or attitudes
  • God aware, but little personal involvement with God
  • Do not view Jesus as essential to salvation
  • Affirm many ways to God
  • Favor universality theology

Heart’s East

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Heart’s east echoes
sounds of silent prayer
sights of subtle sacrifice
and silver oxide memories
of inhuman joy paint the walls
 
and
 
in the silence of the unbeating
there is something coming
a memory of salvation
while a candle is struck
bringing gold-tongued hope
life renewed in Word –
sleeper awaken!

Thought

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I was talking with fellow book nerd BD tonight about a new book I got for ordination – Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig. After the discussion I was inspired to dig into it a bit and ran into the following quote (very long) which lays the foundation for the rest of the book. These days I am often caught between a desire to teach deeply or to try to be culturally relevant – as though the two were mutually exclusive. Of course I am beginning to realize they are not mutually exclusive but rather very dependant upon each other. Unfortunately we often take two things that are meant to be held in tension with each other (or balance) and create a dichotomy of them – forcing them apart and forcing a choice of one over the other. Check out the following quote which I think is reasonably brave and too often describes myself:
 
"Our churches are overly populated with people whose minds, as Christians, are going to waste. As Malik observed, they may be spiritually regenerate, but their minds have not been converted; they still think like nonbelievers. Despite their Christian commitment, they remain largely empty selves. What is an empty self? An empty self is a person who is passive, sensate, busy and hurreied, incapable of developing an interior life. Such a person is inordinately individualistic, infantile, and narcissistic.
 
Imagine now a church filled with such people. What will be the theological understanding, the evangelistic courage, the cultural penetration of such a church? If the interior life does not really matter all that much, why should one spend the time trying to develop an intellectual, spiritually mature life? If someone is basically passive, he will not just make the effort to read, preferring instead to be entertained. If a person is sensate in orientation, then music, magazines filled with pictures, and visual media in general will be more important than mere words on a page or abstract thoughts. If one is hurried and distracted, one will have little patience for theoretical knowledge and too short an attention span to stay with an idea while it is being carefully developed. And if someone is overly individualistic, infantile and narcissistic, what will that person read, if he reads at all? Books about Christian celebrities, Christian romance novels imitating the worst that the world has to offer, Christian self-help books filled with slogans, simplistic moralizing, lots of stories and pictures, and inadequate diagnoses of the problems facing the reader. What will not be read are the books that equip people to develop a well-reasoned theological understanding of the Christian faith and to assume their role in the broader work of the kingdom of God. Such a church will become impotent to stand against the powerful forces of secularism that threatens to wash away Christian ideas in a flood of thoughtless pluralism and misguided scientism. Such a church will be tempted to measure her success largely in terms of numbers – numbers achieved by cultural accomodation to empty selves. In this way, the church will become her own grave digger; for her means of short-term "success" will turn out in the long run to be the very thing that buries her."
 
I can’t help but hear a certain intellectual arrogance in the text which may be one of the things that keeps people from embracing such a perspective in the first place.