Books and More Books (4)

 

The excerpt below is from Parables of a Country Parson by William E. Barton. Vickie and I first read the book in April 1996, it was on the nightstand in the guest room where we were staying on the campus of Gordon – Conwell, and while we didn’t complete our reading on that trip, upon our return home we ordered a copy and it has been with us ever since then.

 

The layout, including the capitalization and punctuation, is as it appears in the book. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Rising Above the Clouds

 

By William E. Barton, Parables of a Country Parson [edited by Garth Rosell and Stan Flewelling]. Hendrickson  Publishers.

 

I rode upon a Railway Train; and we were in the Rocky Mountains. And we awoke in the morning, and the Train was climbing, with two Engines pulling us, and one pushing behind. And we were nigh unto Twelve Furlongs above the Sea.

             And it came to pass as we ascended, that there were clouds below us, and Clouds upon the sides of the Mountains, but there were no Clouds above us, but the clear shining of the Morning Sun.

            And there came unto me a small Girl and her younger Brother, who were riding upon the Train, and we talked about the Clouds. For so did John Ruskin and Aristophanes, and the little lad was very happy, and he said,

            I have never been above the Clouds before.

            And his sister was Worldly-wise. And she said, A Cloud ain’t nothing but just fog.

            And he said, Nay, but this is more. And behold now, how then is a Cloud just under us, and we ride upon the top of it?

            And she said, We are on the Rails, just as we always have been; and there can’t nobody ride on a cloud.

            And the boy said, Jesus can ride upon a Cloud; for I saw a Picture of Him.

            And the little girl said, Yes, but that ain’t us.

            Now the little girl may have been right; but I thought within myself that this world hath too many people who look out on Life through her windows. For they see no sunlit Clouds, but only Fog; and they have little faith in rising above the Clouds, but have confidence only in the Rails.

            And I do not despise the Rails, nor advise people to discard them and ride upon the Clouds. Nevertheless, I have seen people rise above Clouds, and live in the sunlight of God. And I have known others who, whenever it is said unto them, Thus have others done, or thus did the good Lord Jesus, make reply, Yes, but that ain’t us.

            And if it is spoken concerning the House of God, Thus did the Synagogue in Jonesville, and thus was it done by the Church in Smithville, they answer, Yes, but that ain’t us.

            And if it be said, Thou shouldest be a better person; for others have risen above thy Clouds and thine Infirmities, they say, Yes, but that ain’t us.

            And when it is said, Thus hath the grace of God abounded in other lives, they say, Yes, but that ain’t us.

            But if it ain’t, why ain’t it?

            For this cause did God dwell in human flesh that we should never count any good thing impossible through the dear Lord Jesus.

            For He is our peace, who hath broken down all middle walls, that we should no longer say, But that ain’t us.

Books and More Books (3)

 

Have you read Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman? It is a must read. Considering it was published in 1985, I can only imagine what Postman would say today, were he still living. If you want to read some real prophecy, read this book. This is an example of prophecy and discernment birthed by common grace and general revelation and God-given common sense, and it far surpasses most of what is marketed as prophecy by many pastors, teachers, and “Christian” authors.

 

“It is my intention in this book to show that a great media-metaphor shift has taken place in America, with the result that the content of much of our public discourse has become dangerous nonsense.” Postman, page 16.

 

Not just public discourse, but discourse within the professing church.

 

“Television is our culture’s principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore – and this is the critical point – how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse. It is that off the screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse…Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other.” Postman, page 92.

 

“What all of this means [our show business culture] is that our culture has moved toward a new way of conducting its business, especially its important business. The nature of its discourse is changing as the demarcation line between what is show business and what is not becomes harder to see with each passing day. Our priests [and pastors, and worship leaders, and evangelists, and small group leaders] presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship. Had Irving Berlin changed one word in the title of his celebrated song, he would have been as prophetic, albeit more terse, as Aldous Huxley. He need only have written, There’s No Business But Show Business.” Postman, page 98.

 

“…it is not that religion has become the content of television shows but that television shows may become the content of religion.”  Postman, page 124.

 

It seems as if Postman is hitting the nail on the head. Here’s one more that speaks not just to advertising, but to much of the professing church:

 

“The television commercial has oriented business away from making products of value and toward making consumers feel valuable, which means that the business of business has now become pseudo-therapy. The consumer is a patient assured by psycho-dramas.” Postman, page 128.

 

Whereas Dorothy L. Sayers wrote that, “The beauty is in the dogma,” we now preach that the “beauty is in the mirror of self.”

 

Well, if you want to get a clue or two about why we are Biblically illiterate in the professing church, Postman’s book provides valuable framework.

 

I recently had a church elder tell me, after I suggested a book to him, “I don’t read.” Once, during my annual review by church leadership, I was criticized for expecting the leadership to read material I was giving them. Considering that elders are to be “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:1) and that deacons are to be “holding the mystery of the faith” (1 Tim. 3:9); where do we get this idea that we are not supposed to read?

 

Yes Mr. Postman, we are indeed amusing ourselves to death.

 

 

 

Books and More Books (2)

 

When reading the Bible throughout the year I try to read from the Gospels and Acts, the Epistles (including Revelation, which is a letter), the Psalms, Prophets, books of Wisdom, and then the Pentateuch and history books at any given time. The number of places I read varies from time to time, but my point is that I want to read in such a way as to keep me continually exposed to all genres of the Bible so that the Word speaks to me as a whole rather than piecemeal. The Bible is a symphony and all the instruments are meant to play together, not in isolation. One reason that Revelation is usually misread and misunderstood, and that Hebrews is seldom read and nearly always misunderstood, is that we read them in isolation, we read them devoid of what is called “intertextuality.”

 

I suppose intertextuality is a fancy word which, in our context, means that we read any given Biblical passage in the context of all Biblical passages, that we participate in a dance of all Scripture and behold Isaiah interacting with Ephesians, and 1 Kings with Daniel, and John with Genesis and Psalms. This is not about using a concordance, though it does not rule out a concordance; it is rather about insights and concepts and “seeing” in and through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus Christ.

 

That is, methodology is not enough, for learning without the Holy Spirit makes us scribal people on the one hand, and antinomian people on the other…and I suppose everything in between. So when we read the Bible we cover the breath of the Bible, the genres of the Bible, so that the Holy Spirit can use the seed we’ve sown, by God’s grace, to reveal Jesus Christ to us. As Proverbs tells us, “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread.” When we read and meditate in the Word, we can trust our Lord Jesus to provide us with plenty of bread, and of course He is the Bread of Life.

 

What has all of this to do with reading books other than the Bible? Well, just as the Bible contains many literary genres, there are many genres in the world of literature and writing in general and it just may be a good idea to varying our reading diet, both within the religious world and the world at large.

 

One of the points in all of this is that we should be reading for a lifetime and not so much reading to meet an immediate need; not that the former doesn’t have its place, but it should be a secondary place. Yes, I realize that our culture, with its deemphasis on character development, does not value much that is long-term; if there is no immediate gratification or result then something has little value. However, this runs counter to the Biblical theme of pilgrimage, of being on a journey to the City of God, of growing in our faith and character, and of transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

And here is a warning for preachers and teachers, if we are not taking those we serve on pilgrimage, but rather feeding them piecemeal on Sundays and Wednesdays and at other times, if we are in effect “channel flipping” in our presentations, if we are not constantly referring back to previous teaching and seeking to integrate thinking and vision…then perhaps we have adopted the world’s ways. There may be times in life when we do need to sprint to accomplish a goal, but the fabric of a life of growth and character is that of a marathon – are we teaching others to run a marathon?

 

Are we reading as those running a marathon? Are we planting the Word of God deep within our souls? Are we helping one another in this planting?

 

 

 

Books and More Books

 

Yesterday a dear friend gave me the idea that I should mention that Vos’s message on Heavenly – Mindedness is available in a little book titled Grace & Glory, by Vos with an introduction by R. Scott Clark. This is a collection of six sermons preached at Princeton’s chapel. While I have not read all six sermons, what I have read is rich, rich, rich. The book is available on Amazon. If you don’t want the book, you can find a PDF of the sermon Heavenly – Mindedness on the internet.

 

If you want a high intensity workout with Vos, there is his The Pauline Eschatology. WARNING, this is a heavy – lifting book and it can be slow going. On the other hand, I felt like I was in a classroom with Vos when I worked through it. I actually did skip one section because it was focused on things Vos was dealing with in his own historical situation and I didn’t want the material to slow me down, so don’t feel guilty if you too decide to jump over a section. On the other hand, Vos displays his thinking and how he reads the Bible in such a way that, once again, I felt like I was in his classroom.

 

Another WARNING with this book. It ain’t the candy cotton genre of material on prophecy that is so prevalent today, a mile wide and ¼ inch deep. It is comprehensive Biblical thinking with Christ as its center rather than speculation, nationalistic impulses, and fanciful schemes that seem to change with the headlines.

 

Discipleship on the Edge, by Darrell W. Johnson, is the best accessible book I’ve read on Revelation. If you are ready to look at Revelation with Christ as its center rather than speculation, this is the book for you. I highly recommend it. While I appreciate Vos’s The Pauline Eschatology, I’d go with Johnson first to help me with a framework prior to working with Vos.

 

The Divine Comedy, Dante. I really like Dorothy L. Sayers’s translation, which comes in three volumes. Sayers remains faithful to Dante’s poetic structure and the commentary and notes she supplies help the reader immeasurably. When Sayers died in the midst of translating Paradise, her friend and Italian scholar, Barbara Reynolds, finished the work which Sayers gave much of her latter life to.

 

Dorothy L. Sayers, Her Soul and Life, Barbara Reynolds. This is the best biography of Sayers that I’ve read, and it is by someone who knew her first professionally, and then in the bonds of friendship.

 

Creed or Chaos, Dorothy L. Sayers. This is a collection of essays and speeches by Sayers in which she remarkably and succinctly challenges the reader to think about the fundamentals of our faith, as Sayers said, “The beauty is on the dogma.”

 

I’ll have some more books in a day or two.

 

The Benedict Option

I don’t often read books “hot off the press”, but I recently completed The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher. I kept encountering references to it in my weekly reading, had a sense that I ought to read it and I am glad I did. Dreher argues, in my view persuasively, that Christians are called to live in distinct community, nurturing one another and their families, while engaging the world in mission. He also argues that our failure to do so will result in the continued collapse of the church and of society.

Since over the past couple of years I have been writing about Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, the Benedict Option dovetailed nicely into Life Together. I’ll also mention a book I read a few months ago, recommended by a friend, Desiring the Kingdom, by James K. A. Smith; the subtitle is “Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation”. Smith explores how our daily civic and social liturgies form us, how nothing is neutral, and how the Christian can be easily formed into the image of the world as opposed to the image of God. Smith’s book is a good companion to Dreher’s book because Dreher emphasizes viewing life sacramentally; in a sacramental sense we are either receiving the grace of God throughout the day as we interact with “life”, and are therefore being formed into the image of Christ, or, as Smith argues, we are allowing the liturgies of the age to form us into something else. The daily question is, “What liturgy will I join myself to today?”

When we learn civic liturgies at an early age we seldom challenge them and we come to worship that which the liturgies point to, this pulls the Christian away from desiring the Kingdom.

Dreher writes concerning some Christians today, “Instead of looking to prop up the current order, they have recognized that the kingdom of which they are citizens is not of this world and have decided not to compromise that citizenship.” Dreher then goes on to explore what this has looked like historically, what it looks likes in some places today, and what it might look like in our local environments. He looks to St. Benedict and his Rule as a touchstone, pointing out that, “The Rule teaches that God must be the beginning and the end of all our actions.”

The Benedict Option has two parts, the first is a social, philosophical, and theological overview of where we are today – it draws on the insights of a number of people and integrates them into a framework for thinking about where we are and where we are going – it is well done. The second part explores hard challenges facing us; education, sexuality, technology, economics, work.

Dreher is not a philosopher or a theologian, he is a politically conservative writer. He doesn’t always close the loop on some of his thinking, but this doesn’t happen often and it isn’t a distraction. The only real drawback for me in the book is that he uses political terminology at times, laying blame for certain problems on progressives – I find this unfortunate because no political or philosophical movement has clean hands and also because such thinking can alienate people that the book might help. There are certainly “progressives” in the Body of Christ.

This can be an important book for Christians, and whether one agrees with everything Dreher has to say, he raises questions and challenges that deserve our attention. It is a book that congregations ought to ponder – how do they measure up? If they think they have better benchmarks – what are they? Are we a distinct people? Are we living in the world but not of the world? Are we functionally the City of God? Are we Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., Stanford and Harvard, Hollywood, Wall Street…or the New Jerusalem?

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (8)

Continued from the previous post in this series…

Along with the sense of the numinous, is the sense of opposing forces which we cannot see. Beneath the earth in The Princess and the Goblin are the goblins and their king and queen. I never lost sight, for indeed it was sight, of the Princess and Curdie in the bowels of the earth as prisoners of the goblins; their escape remained with me. When I read the story to Vickie a few years ago I revisited my experience when my mother read the story to me, and I kept thinking, “Oh yes, I remember that. Oh, that is the way it was, the mists of cloudy memory have disappeared. Why did I wait so long to read this myself? Why did I wait so long to share it?”

One of the marks of great storytelling is the ability of the narrator to portray the antagonist. An antagonist ought to be etched as deeply in our minds as the hero, for the hero’s heroism is framed within the evil which he or she encounters and overcomes. When evil and opposition are portrayed vividly we will not forget what we have seen and experienced. We may not dwell on it (hopefully we won’t), we will shut it in the abyss and throw away the key; but we will never forget what we have seen and the courage and faith it took to defeat it. MacDonald portrays evil in many forms in his writings, sometimes it is overt, at others time it is seductive – only a fool thinks that evil has a limited wardrobe.

Lewis does much the same in the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy; evil can be beautiful to the eye and pleasing to the senses, it can be logical and scientific, or it can be hideous.

MacDonald also portrays the good and courageous in various forms, as does Lewis. Is Irene’s grandmother old or young? Is she beautiful or ugly? What does the natural eye see versus what is really there? Is not this the way it was and is with Jesus? Isaiah says that He had no beauty or form that we should desire Him. What can we learn from this?

The Bible teaches us that we do not “see” all there is to see, it teaches that there is an unseen realm(s) of which we have limited awareness…and yet, it need not be so, at least to the degree that most of us experience. However, the Bible does not turn this into a religious or supernatural amusement park ride, it doesn’t entice us to “experience” the supernatural, for these are not playthings – better not to see these things than to see them and play with them…they can destroy you; or they can make you think you know more than you do. For the Christian, life must always be about Jesus Christ, loving Him and loving others and not thinking a great deal of ourselves or what we think we know. Better to be in love with Jesus than think we are something we are not.

Yet, the Scriptures pull back the curtain; in Daniel, in Revelation, in Zechariah, to name but three. Yet, Paul writes that we are to look at the unseen and not the seen – but he does this in the context of knowing Jesus and suffering for Him, he does this in the context of looking for our home, anticipating the day when we will put off this temporal dwelling and be clothed with heaven’s dwelling (2 Corinthians Chapters 4 & 4). Moses (Hebrews 11) sees “Him who is invisible”. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers in the unseen that manifest themselves in the seen (Daniel and Ephesians 6).

Children, as adults, need to know there is evil and MacDonald portrays just enough malice in the goblins to leave a lasting impression, an impression that’s been with me for 60 years or more. There is good and there is evil in the story; there is the guiding hand of Princess Irene’s great-great-grandmother, there is the capture and the escape, there is the defeat of the goblins in the king’s house – where are we in the story?

Where are we in the story of the Bible? In the story of life? Do we live as if what we see is all there is? If so, what is the point? If what we see is not all there is, then who will have the courage to live as if life matters? Will I have the courage? Will you? 

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (7)

Have you ever “felt” something and didn’t know what it was? Or perhaps tasted something that intrigued you and appealed to you, but didn’t know the ingredients? Have you ever been aware of “something other” than what you can touch and see?

When I was a very young boy my mother read a story to me; not a nursery rhyme, not a Little Golden Book, but a story that took me on an adventure beyond myself, and beyond anything I could touch with my fingers or see with my eyes…and yet…yet I could “see” what she was reading, I could feel it; it drew me, beckoned me, invited me. As she read, my mother’s words transported me beyond my surroundings and I found myself with the Princess Irene, and her grandmother, and Curdie, and with the goblins. George MacDonald’s book, The Princess and the Goblin, awakened the numinous within me – or perhaps better – the numinous broke through to me and touched something within me.

C.S. Lewis termed George MacDonald “my master”. When Lewis was an adolescent, after having rejected Christianity, he purchased and read MacDonald’s Phantastes (Lewis didn’t know MacDonald was a Christian); the story stirred Lewis and he excitedly wrote to his friend Arthur Greeves about it – he didn’t know what it was but he had touched something, or perhaps we should say that something had touched Lewis. Not until years later would Lewis understand what had happened with Phantastes, not until he was surprised by joy – the joy of finding his desire, the joy of finding that for which he had always yearned, and had often denied, in his struggle between materialism and the numinous. The seed planted by MacDonald would be nurtured by Hugo Dyson and J.R.R. Tolkien – and one day Lewis would know that “this is that which has been drawing me all these years” (my words) and he would surrender to God “a most reluctant convert” (his words).

I never forgot my experience with The Princess and the Goblin, but I didn’t understand it – not until in my 50s, and even now I am still discovering its depths and heights. When Chesterton writes that all he needed to know was to be found in the nursery, he is writing about the numinous, the sense of “other”, the experience of adventure and journey, of being surprised by joy. Alas, as Chesterton also writes, the world does its best to extinguish it, it educates it out of us, it shames us, it tells us to grow up. Lewis’s tutor, Kirkpatrick, educated the sense of the divine out of Lewis…or at least tried to…it was nonsense, illogical (really?), you couldn’t see it or touch it. But Phantastes remained with Lewis, lingered, hung in the background; and it would knock on the door, whisper its voice, beckon him to come…Lewis thought that there must surely be something more than the material world, he knew there would be no surprises of joy in materialism but he felt constrained to force himself to think like an atheist or agnostic…and yet his heart told him that there must be something more.

I never forgot The Princess and the Goblin, and there were times I would sense that experience I had when listening to my mother, but like a fool I sought to find it in places where it was not to be found – sometimes in frivolous places, sometimes in sinful places, many times in places where the world told me that I should go, such as career, position, recognition, accomplishment, material things.

The church was not helpful either, for coming to know Jesus in the context of my experience was like joining a subculture among a subculture with competing subcultures. Intellectual theological propositions have their place, but in and of themselves they are at best Stoicism; spiritual/emotional experiences have their place, but in and of themselves they are akin to riding a roller coaster – perhaps we can call them religious Epicureanism. I had a longing for “home” but I didn’t know it, and had I known it I may not have known where home was.

How many times did I read Hebrews Chapter 11 and miss the theme of “longing” for home? The men and women of faith longed for their true home, they lived with a sense of the numinous – and yet I reduced what I read to either the intellectual or emotional and did not see the holistic, did not see the cosmic. I thought I was living in the penthouse, or at least a floor or two below it, when all the time I was in the basement depending on artificial light.

We underestimate what happens when the numinous is educated out of us – whether by the church or by the world. As Lewis wrote, we are men without chests; without hearts, without souls, without higher desire, without a sense of who we really are. It is not my intention to offend, I write this clinically, but when I see the drivel contained in popular catalogs of “Christian” books, enticing us to engage in the latest and greatest revelatory teaching, or self-help program, I want to shout – “We are being dumbed-down in an opium den of the little universe of self and religious entertainment – we are reinforcing heavens of brass and shutting the Divine Presence from our lives, obscuring the call of Jesus Christ to belong to Him and to Him alone.” Yes, there are substantive writings, past and present, to be had but the general “Christian” population is generally unaware of them and has little patience with that which does not appeal to our short-attention spans and obsession with self.

Are you longing for home?

A few years ago I read The Princess and the Goblin to Vickie, and then its sequel, The Princess and Curdie; I highly recommend them to you.

I will return to The Princess and the Goblin in my next post in this series.

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (6)

My earliest books were Little Golden Books. I don’t know if parents give these books to their children anymore, or grandparents to their grandchildren, but I am thankful to have not only read them but also to have seen them. If you read them as a child, can you still see them?

I couldn’t find any recent statistics on the bestselling children’s books of all time, but as of 2001 it was not a Dr. Seuss book; it was a book written by Janette Sebring Lowery and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren. The cover of that book is still in my mind, I can see it after all these years. I also recall the covers of The Tawney Scrawny Lion, and Tootle. A quick search on the internet brought up other book covers that I immediately recognized and which evoked memories. I am glad to see these books still in print, I hope they are still being purchased and shared with children.

But it is images that I have been thinking about, for in a world of visual filth and pollution, in which children are daily exposed to visual toxins, it is good to have pure and innocent images in one’s internal art gallery. A little adult reflection on the cover of Tootle or The Tawney Scrawny Lion can be a fine respite for the adult living in a world of filth and who is willing to say, “There must be something more than the acquisition of things, of power, of position, of money.”

Chesterton said that all he really needed to know he learned in the nursery of his childhood. Images of innocent beauty, ideals of courage and honor and virtue, visions of hope and destiny and calling – these are (or were) the elements of childhood. But of course, as Chesterton continues, adults soon tell the adolescent and young adult that they must forget all that nonsense and get on with life, get on with getting the most toys, the most accolades, the highest position – forget childhood – be a man…be a woman!

Today we rob children of childhood in myriad ways. We give them a compass that points not to the north of virtue and character and calling, but one that points to money and things and success – not success as a person of integrity and selflessness, but success in a promiscuous materialistic world. We give them electronics instead thoughtful art and books and the exploration of nature; we give them activities instead of relationships. Children may know how to play organized and competitive soccer with one another, but they do not know how to build friendships with one another, how to go on an adventure in the backyard with one another. Children may play on a baseball travel team and win trophies, but they do not know how to play a pickup game in a neighbor’s yard with Bryce Harper or Derek Jeter – their imaginations lie dormant.

The image of The Poky Little Puppy is an image worth pondering, a drink of pure water in the cesspool of society.

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (5)

One of the earliest books I remember was an illustrated book on the Civil War. The illustrations were not childish, they didn’t look inviting or warm and cuddly, but neither did they portray war – a subject I’ll get to below. I just took a quick look on Amazon for children’s books on the Civil War and found that many of them had cutesy illustrations, childish – why? Peter Rabbit ought to look cutesy, not a soldier and certainly not a slave.

I am a bit sorry I had that Civil War book – it didn’t portray the horror of war. Better to have a book without pictures than a book with illustrations that do not show war as war. One of the results of Matthew Brady’s photographs during the Civil War was that they brought home to those civilians removed from the war the horror of war.

As a young boy I recall watching a television program about the Holocaust. I don’t know if my mother gave any thought to allowing me to watch, but in retrospect I’m glad she did because I never forgot the images of the concentration camps. Could not I have seen Matthew Brady’s photographs as a young boy? Perhaps they would have guarded against me glorifying the Civil War.

There is a popular Civil War artist in Virginia whose paintings are sought after. I noticed in my Amazon search that he has illustrated children’s books about war, including the Civil War. I have never been drawn to his work, in fact I’m repelled by it. It is too clean, too mythologically “noble”, too deceptive. I’m not suggesting he means to be deceptive, I’m not sure what he means to do, but I do know that both children and adults are living in a fantasy land if they think this artist’s portrayals are the way the Civil War was or the way any war has been.

It took me most of my life to see the Civil War for what it was, and continues to be – a tragedy, a horror, with slavery running before it, through it, and after it. If we’re going to have children’s books about war they ought to be ones that cure children of any idealistic ideas about killing people and devastating families…same for adults. I never had any idealistic ideas about the Holocaust, I wish that I had never had any idealistic images or ideas about the Civil War…or any war.

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (4)

Now I’m looking at one of my favorite books, one that I’ll keep; A Fly Went By, by Mike McClintock with illustrations by Fritz Siebel. First published in 1958, it is still available, which says something about its staying power. I love the rhyme and rhythm of the book, wonderful for reading aloud. It also lends itself to profitable instruction, beginning with:

“I sat by the lake. I looked at the sky, and as I looked, a fly went by.

“A fly went by. He said, “Oh, dear!” I saw him shake. He shook with fear.”

And the story rockets from there. A fly running from a frog who is running from a cat who is running from a dog who is running from a pig who is running from a cow who is running from a fox who is running from a man…and what is the man running from? Well, I can’t be a spoiler and tell you, now can I? Everyone running from fear, yet at the end there is nothing to fear – but there is someone who needs help.

Fear drives so much of life, and yet what people ought to fear they don’t, and what they often fear they shouldn’t. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – no doubt about that…yet few fear the Lord. People fear what others will think, they fear they won’t measure up to the world’s expectations, they fear they won’t look just right or have just the right things or be thought important or attractive or…well the list goes on doesn’t it?

People fear each other, sometimes with good reason, but most times with no reason at all other than we may look different or talk with different accents or prefer different foods or music or dress. We fear the unfamiliar. We fear failure and therefore often don’t move out of our comfort zones.

Jesus came to destroy the one fear that pervades humanity – the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14 – 18; 2 Timothy 1:8 – 12); He did this by conquering death, by dying for us and rising for us. When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ we share in His victory over death and the portal of death is transformed into a portal of eternal life in the presence of God. Followers of Jesus Christ need not fear death – Christ awaits us as we pass through its portal. A Day will come when death in all its forms will be manifestly defeated (1 Corinthians Chapter 15).

And yet…and yet…there are those who ought to fear death, they are those who choose to continue living life outside of Jesus Christ, outside of a relationship with God – they live in denial of God, of their sinfulness and rebellion, and of the eternal trajectory which they are on – separation from God. If this sounds harsh to you, it is no more harsh than the observation that people on an airplane ought to fear if they have engine failure at 30,000 feet – their fear ought to motivate them to do something.

Some people fear what they ought not to fear; others do not fear what they ought to fear.

I need to go now, I just saw a fly go by and want to see if it’s running from a frog. 

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (3)

I’m looking at Green Eggs and Ham, and also at A Fly Went By. These are keepers. I’m not keeping them for kids that might visit us, I’m keeping them for me. Oh I guess if we don’t have kids visit that I might have to borrow or rent a kid now and then so that I can read them aloud, but the truth is that I’ll get more pleasure reading them than any child will get listening to them.

Many folks are familiar with Green Eggs and Ham, especially on Saint Patrick’s Day, or annual days that celebrate reading in school. It could be a manual for sales, marketing, evangelism; it could be an example of the delight we can find when we try new things…even green eggs and ham. The eggs were still eggs, the ham was still ham – I don’t imagine they tasted any different than usual eggs and ham…but then again, maybe they did. Once one of the cola companies came out with a “clear” cola – it flopped…looks matter when it comes to food and drink.

Green Eggs and Ham is an example of persistence and of continually seeking new avenues of communication – what is the best way to deliver the message of green eggs and ham? On a boat? With a goat? In the rain? On a train? In a tree? In a car? In a box? With a fox? In a house? With a mouse? We must not dilute the content of the message, and not confuse the method of delivery with content – and if our content is clear, such as in Green Eggs and Ham, then those to whom we are communicating will hopefully understand both the content and the response that is required of them.  

Well, I am going to close for now and pick up A Fly Went By in a future post. In the meantime I think I’ll drive over to the seminary library and research an ancient Ugaritic text that has much the same message, some of the text is obscure since we only have fragments, but I’m told that there are similar Hittite and Egyptian and Babylonian stories – and that similar stories also exist in the hollows of the Blue Ridge.

Too bad the professing church doesn’t have the passion of Sam-I-am in sharing the Gospel; come to think of it…I’d better look in the mirror.

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (2)

I have three books about wedding ceremonies; while I am sure that I glanced at them at one time, I’ve never used any of the ceremonies – so they are going in the trash. I’m sure the authors meant well, and it isn’t that there aren’t useful tips in them, but weddings are so personal that I can’t imagine using something canned; same with funerals – but I don’t have any books on funerals. I’m told that there are preachers who use Sunday messages prepared by others – I don’t get that either. I’ve carried these three books too many miles, it’s time to say “goodbye”.

Here is another book that is going in the trash. It is written by a well-known ministry leader in the Richmond region…very well known. The author makes it clear that he does not believe that Jesus is God. I have a problem with someone in “Christian” ministry not believing in the divinity of Jesus Christ. I have a problem with that person teaching that Jesus isn’t God and yet holding himself out as a minister of the Gospel. A friend of mine, who heads a Christian organization, once endorsed a ministry partnership with this author’s organization – when I pointed out to my friend that the author did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and that I found it difficult to see how my friend could endorse a partnership with the author’s ministry, I was in effect told that there were donors that had ties to both organizations and that no one was going to rock the boat. Well, it can be all about money can’t it? Anyway, no need to hang on to this book.

Ah, here’s a book on Ezekiel’s Temple; it’s about a secret to be found in the temple. I met the author a few years ago and he gave me a copy of the book. I read it and sent him some thoughts. They were gentle thoughts, but they did point out some concerns with the book. He was gracious and surprised, he told me that no one had ever given him any criticism of the book – he thanked me and I think he meant it. I didn’t get the impression that he thought I might have a point or two, but he was nice about it. Anyway, I hope the brother is doing well these days. As I said in my last post, when I see the word “secret” I become skeptical.

Here are two face books from seminary. It’s nice to reminisce when flipping through them, but hey, we’ve moved on haven’t we? Memories are nice, and that was a sweet time, but these two thin volumes need to take a journey out of the house.

The next book cover tells the reader that the author “shares the secrets of church growth”. There is that word “secret(s)” again. Why did I purchase it? I must have been looking for a secret, a quick fix, a shortcut, a formula. Why do we think that if something “worked” there that it will “work” here? Isn’t that word “work” the problem? Aren’t we called into relationship with the Trinity and with one another? Can’t we trust our Lord Jesus to build His Church? Can’t we rely on the Holy Spirit to do “here” what He desires to do, which may not be what He is doing “there”? This is not to say that we can’t learn from one another, that those “here” cannot learn from those “there” – but it is to say that when we package how-to formulas that we run the danger of seeking to manipulate the One who cannot be manipulated; we run the danger of descending into the realms of sociology and marketing. We would never do that…would we? When Jesus Christ ceases to be our focus what do we become? What happens? This book is exiting the library. 

A Lifetime of Books – Musings (1)

Next week I’ll get back to Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, and perhaps other lines of thought as well; sometimes life’s interruptions give us a break from rhythms which in turn provide new perspectives. While interruptions may be unwelcome, they need not be unprofitable.

In preparation for “retirement”, a word I find obnoxious because I hardly plan to retire from life, I have been agonizingly evaluating and downsizing my library. If you do not love books this may make no sense and you may classify me as a loony; but if you love books, if you love to read their titles, to ponder the journey you’ve taken through them; if you have come to call some of them “friends”; if, when you scan your bookshelves you relive decades of reading and life’s experiences…well then…you know what I am talking about. Just the way an old song may remind us of a season of life, a book may remind me of the season of life I was in when I read it.

I had a forlorn hope that my books may one day be in a library, a church library perhaps, a mission-school library, someplace where others could enjoy them and learn and make their own friends. Maybe when I leave this place for Narnia my reference books will find a home in such a place. I had also hoped that some of my more personal books, both from childhood and adulthood, would find homes with special people – maybe that will happen when I move to Narnia, one can only hope.

I asked my brother Jim about some books the other day, telling him that I would send them to him – I was especially asking about Sandburg’s multivolume biography of Lincoln (we both love history); alas his own books, he says, are mostly in boxes and he now uses Kindle. I use Kindle too, but I’ve never made a friend of a book on Kindle – I can’t hold it or smell it or finger its pages or underline it or make notes or write symbols in its margins (yes, yes, I know you can highlight and make footnotes in Kindle – but that is worse than kissing your cousin).

Some books I am throwing away. There are two reasons for this, one is that used books have, as a rule, no value and that they are not likely to interest anyone should I donate them – a particularly sad thought for a booklover; the other is that some of the books, in and of themselves, are not worth reading – I kept them for reference so that I could use them as teaching examples of poor thinking, heresy, and downright weird “spirituality”. I guess it is like the CDC keeping strains of germs that, should they escape, could sicken and kills thousands of people. Among the former are books that are simply not well-written, among the latter include a volume that was a New Age bestseller that came into my possession (I can’t recall if I purchased it or it was given to me) years ago so that I could try to help a friend who was caught up into its message. Also among the latter is a book that was, as I recall, at the top of the “Christian” bestseller list and whose author was touted on the front page of Christianity Today – that was the year that I canceled my subscription to CT; that front page article along with other editorial choices was just too much – I don’t care about what is popular, I care about what is true.

I have been struck by how much of what I have accumulated is ephemeral. This isn’t always a criticism; some books are written for certain times and places, but then some are simply faddish. Am I reading anything today that will be with me 10 or 20 years from now? If not, then perhaps I should broaden my diet.

Augustine wrote a lot, some of what he wrote has a long shelf-life, some is almost impossible to relate to because it was written for a certain time and place. It’s good to know the difference.

Any title that has the word “secret” in it is probably not worth keeping. Why do Christian publishers use that word? Why do Christians run after this secret and that secret? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus Christ (see Colossians Chapter 2). Sometimes “Christian” publishers will take something written decades ago and repackage it with the word “secret” – they take something someone wrote who lived 100, 200, 500 years ago, something that was never meant to be presented as a “secret”, and put the word “secret” on it to get Christians to buy it. What is that all about? It’s about money…and about professing Christians not knowing that Jesus is all in all.

Some of my faded books are good books, but folks don’t read faded books. I guess that’s age discrimination.

I wonder if UPS delivers to Narnia? If so I might ship some of these volumes ahead so they will be there when I arrive.