How many of the current fads are not much different than Aunt Polly's in Mark Twain's classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? You know if you're in danger of becoming Aunt Polly if the words "organic," "eco-friendly," "100% natural," and "free range" make you go weak in the knees. Does your expression become serious, do your eyes water, and do you sometimes speak with a quiver in your voice about the evils and dangers of processed foods and milk products and beef that was not certified organic? Please read on...
"His aunt was concerned. She began to try all manner of remedies on him. She was one of those people who are infatuated with patent medicines and all new fangled methods of producing health or mending it. She was an inveterate experimenter in these things. When something fresh in this line came out she was in a fever right away to try it, not on herself, for she was never ailing, but on anybody else that came handy. She was a subscriber for all the "Health" periodicals and phrenological frauds; and the solemn ignorance they were inflated with was breath to her nostrils. All the "rot" they contained about ventilation and how to go to bed and how to get up and what to eat and what to drink and how much exercise take and what frame of mind to keep one's self and what sort of clothing to wear was all gospel to her, and she never observed that her health-journals of the current month customarily upset what they had recommended the month before. She was simple-hearted and honest as the day was long. and so she was an easy victim. She gathered her quack periodicals and her quack medicines, and thus armed with death went about on her pale horse, metaphorically speaking, with "hell following after." But she never suspected that she was not an angel of healing and the balm of Gilead in disguise to the suffering neighbors." (88-89)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wizard Oil, Quack Medicine, and other American Cults
Comfort for You
This meal is God’s weekly assurance and promise to you that He is your God. We say week after week that this is the new covenant in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins, but we need to be reminded frequently that this means God is your God. God is for you. He is your Advocate and Defender. God rejoices over you with singing. And He does not rejoice over you because He does not notice the remaining sin in your life. He doesn’t rejoice over you because He has lowered the bar. No, He rejoices over you because you are in Jesus who is His beloved Son and because the Spirit has been poured out in our hearts to conform us to the image of that beloved Son. In other words, God rejoices over His people because He knows what’s coming. He knows the glory that He has prepared for us and in us. And so He invites us here week after week and insists again that He is your God and that He is for you. And He declares this so that you will not grow weary in doing good. He declares this so that you will be comforted in trials and place your hope in Him. So hope your God; believe that He rejoices over you. Be comforted and rest in Him. Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Follow Jesus
Jesus says that if we want to be His disciples we must leave everything behind and follow Him. He says we must take up our cross and follow Him. He says we must leave father and mother, sister and brother and follow Him. He says we must sell our possessions, give alms to the poor and follow Him. Jesus says, “Follow me,” and that command is universal. Every Christian is commanded to follow Jesus. It is true that Jesus calls us all to follow Him in different ways, different callings, different roles. But the command is universal and the command is absolute. Nothing may come between you and the Master; every Christian must follow Jesus wherever He leads. In the gospels many of the examples we see are startling. People are asked to sell all that they have, people are required to leave their parents and siblings behind. Let the dead bury the dead, Jesus says, not bothered by any appearance of disrespect. But we’re fairly quick to lay out all the qualifications. We’re very quick to point out the exceptions: the disciples who stayed close to their families, those who retained their vocations and so forth. And so the call to follow Jesus frequently dies the death of a thousand qualifications and footnotes. But this should not be. Jesus began his ministry calling disciples to leave their nets, to leave their fathers and mothers and vocations behind, he called the rich to give their possessions and wealth away, he called his disciples to lose their lives for His sake and for the sake of the gospel. And so the exhortation is to stop disobeying Jesus. Are you clinging to possessions that Jesus would rather have you sell or give away? Stop it. Are you resisting the call because you know that would mean moving or leaving? Obey the call. The call to discipleship is not a call to convenience or middle class stability. It is not assurance of air conditioning and steaks on the grill. The call of discipleship is the call to take up your cross. So drop your excuses and follow Jesus. And remember that He who calls you, also promises to grant you hundred fold in return both in this life and in the life to come. The call to discipleship is not a call to renounce pleasure and blessing; the call to discipleship is a call to greater pleasure and blessing in the Kingdom of God.
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple” (Lk. 14:26)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Eighth Sunday in Trinity: Job 42
Introduction
We finish our series in Job this morning considering the conclusion to the book. We know what happens, but it’s important to see how ‘what happens’ actually fits the narrative.
Job is Comforted
Job’s answer to Yahweh should first of all be recognized as an answer – meaning that Job is having a conversation with the Lord of the universe. Second, Job’s response is really the only appropriate response to the glory of the Lord, and it’s the response that he vaguely knew he would give in this setting (9:2-21). While this short speech is primarily expressing awe, wonder, and appreciation for the ways of God which are past finding out, the conclusion is perhaps the most important point. Job says that he had “heard” of Yahweh by the hearing of his ear, but now he has seen Him with his eyes (42:5). This is a recognition that what Job longed for has been granted (19:26, 31:37) and reminds us again of Jacob who also saw God and lived (Gen. 32:28-30). Furthermore, Job’s final line needs careful consideration. He is commonly translated to say that he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes, but this seems antagonistic to the positive evaluation that God gives in 42:7-9. While humility and awe and thankfulness seem fully in order, why would Job “despise” himself and repent? A better way of reading Job’s concluding statement is to see Job saying that he still despises his physical circumstances, but he is “comforted” in his dust and ashes (cf. comfort: 2:11, 7:13, 16:2, 42:11; despise: 7:16, 9:21).
Friday, July 24, 2009
Job and Rene Girard
Some tentative thoughts on Job:
Rene Girard has pointed out that there is no mention of the calamities that befall Job in any of the dialogues. In all of the conversations between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, no mention is made of the great events of chapters 1-2.
I might suggest that there are a couple of possible allusions to the calamities (8:4, 15:34, perhaps others), but the point is still striking. If Job is primarily contesting those events why doesn't he bring them up?
So it seems reasonable to go back to chapter 3 where the complaint begins and ask, "What is Job actually complaining about?" Job's initial response to his wife is to insist upon receiving the evil from the hand of God. Then Job sits in silence and mourning with Eliphaz and company for seven days and seven nights.
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Economy of the Eucharist
Throughout Job there is something of an underlying debate over the nature of relationships. Are human or divine-human relationships founded on a principle of reciprocity or are they founded upon grace? Reciprocity means that relationships, however friendly, are fundamentally based on exchange, quid pro quo, commodities. I do this for you, and you do that for me. You invite me over for dinner, I’ll invite you over for dinner. You say something nice about my outfit; and I’ll say something nice about your hair. You know this principle is at work when a gift creates (or appears to create) an obligation. When you receive a gift, and your next thought is ‘I better make sure I get one for them.’ But this system is built fundamentally on the assumption that we are all a bunch of atoms, and we bump around and into one another, and in order to keep everything smooth and balanced, we just need to do our part. Injustice occurs when someone doesn’t do their part or get what they deserve.
From Glory to Glory
One way of looking at the book of Job is as a coming of age story. We have pointed out before that in the Bible, the categories of Priest, King, and Prophet can be seen not only as different roles but as steps in glory and maturity. We see this in Israel’s history: priests keep laws very carefully. They guard the sanctuary from defilement. Kings must build upon knowledge of the law, and apply it with wisdom. Solomon must judge between the feuding prostitutes in a case where this is no explicit command in Scripture. Kings must execute justice by applying the Scriptures to new situations. And finally, when God’s people have grown up in this wisdom, they are prepared to stand before God as prophets. Prophets are members of God’s court. They are God’s advisors. God tells them what he is planning to do, and they are invited to interact with that. Remember Abraham who discusses God’s plan destroy Sodom and Gomorrah or Moses on Mt. Sinai urging God to reconsider His plan to destroy the children of Israel. And because prophets are involved in the decision making process, they are authorized to speak on God’s behalf. Prophets bring and declare the word of the Lord with authority. They know what God is going to do because they were there when it was decided. Job’s story follows this trajectory. Job begins as an upright man who is blameless and shuns what is evil. He offers sacrifices for his sons who may have sinned; Job is introduced in the glory of a priest.
Seventh Sunday in Trinity: Job 38-41
Opening Prayer: Gracious Father, we thank you that you have sent your Son into the world for our salvation. We thank you that He has been raised to Your right hand and has poured out His Spirit upon us so that we might be faithful sons in Him. We ask that You would empower Your Word now, through the working of the Spirit that we might lifted up to Your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!
Introduction
As we saw last week, Job’s steadfast hope in the God who judges, the God who speaks, is finally vindicated in Yahweh’s answer from the whirlwind. But of course God is far more glorious, far more wonderful than even Job can hope for. Insisting that Mt. Everest is amazing is still nothing compared to actually climbing it.
The Sons of God
Remember Job is an Adam who faces what feels and looks like the unmaking of his world (Job 1-2). Job’s initial curse is an utterance calling for the reversal of creation: “Let there be darkness” (3:4, 5-6, 9). Job calls upon the “cursers of the day” to arouse Leviathan to do his part in unmaking the world (3:8). Remember that Job’s longing for death and darkness is ultimately related to his longing for a day of judgment, a day in which he might appeal his case to God (9:14-20, 32-35; 13:3, 15; 16:21; 31:35-37). Job is an Adam outside of the presence of God, the greatest of the “sons of the east” (1:3) but not among the “sons of God” who stand before Yahweh, who speak in his presence. But we detected hints even early on that the entire exercise of The Accuser was designed to draw Job up into the presence of God: As Job is a faithful father offering sacrifices for his sons, Yahweh is a faithful father who offers his son Job as a sacrifice. In order to stand before Yahweh one must be drawn up into the fiery storm.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Strangers are Family
Ezekiel says that in the New Covenant the land and inheritance will be divided by the twelve tribes of Israel, and that strangers will also be included in the inheritance: "'It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the tribes of Israel. And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,' says the Lord God" (Ez. 47:22-23)
Embrace the Mess
I wanted to say a few words directed at the growing opportunities many of us have with people in our churches with little to no church background. A couple years ago, I remember thinking at one point that we must be doing something wrong because of how messy everything was: custody battles, drunkenness, drugs, uncontrollable children, and so on. These baby Christians bring with them many years of sin and pain and ugliness, and even after they are converted and baptized, there is not usually an overnight transformation in every area of life. It’s only the beginning.
But I wanted to give three brief exhortations in this regard: first, our job is to love them, to befriend them, seek them out, invite them into our homes, eat with them, laugh with them, sing with them, and disciple them. And so the first encouragement is to continue in hospitality and love, despite their circumstances, despite the mess, despite the craziness.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Job is Comforted
The word frequently translated "repent" in Job 42:6 is used six other times in the book, and it is nowhere else translated "repent." It is always translated (in the NKJV anyways) as "comfort" or "comforted" or "comforters."
One of the great problems for Job is that he can find no real comfort, no true comforter. Rather then being helped, he is hounded by his comforters. The three friends gather around him to comfort him (2:11), and Job certainly was looking for comfort (7:13), but they are "miserable comforters" (16:2). After more of their accusations, Job concludes that they have tried to comfort him with empty [hebel] answers (21:34). Try as he may, Job can find no comfort. Job was once a great king who offered comfort to others in their mourning (29:25), but he has found none in his distress.
Helping Yahweh Make His Point
Curtis goes on to say that in order to follow the Yahweh speeches, we need to recognize that several sections are "secondary." For instance, the portions concerning the Bohemoth and the Leviathan are clearly "out of place in that they do not in any way serve to advance the argument." Curtis is also skeptical about the helpfulness of the "brief poem about about the ostrich (39:13-18)).
Yikes.
Job Rejects Yahweh?
John Briggs Curtis writes: "Challenged by God in such terms [Yahweh's answer from the whirlwind], Job must respond. Yahweh has focused the issues in the simplest possible terms: Job can either accept the divine appraisal of the universe and of Job's place in it, or Job can reject God. There is no middle ground left for compromise. Confronted by a choice so clearly defined, Job reacts, as he must: He totally and unequivocally rejects Yahweh." He continues, describing another article by Patrick, "There is nowhere in Job's final speech even the slightest suggestion that he either recants his previous position or shows remorse for all that he has said."
While I disagree with Curtis' conclusion, his honesty in dealing with the several pieces of evidence is helpful. The conclusion that Curtis does not appear to consider is the possibility that both God and Job are right.
Sixth Sunday in Trinity Season: Job 32-37
Opening Prayer: O God of our Fathers, please bless Your word now, teach us, correct us, train us in justice that we may be fully equipped for every good work. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we saw how Job emerges as a king in the midst of his trials. Job speaks the wisdom of nobility from the dust and ashes. This nobility is not a self-righteous pride; it is faith and hope in the God of the resurrection. Today we consider the last satan, a fourth accuser who rises against Job, the young man, Elihu. Elihu is a complex character in some ways; and many commentators have disagreed over him.
Elihu’s First Speech
Elihu is the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram (32:1). Elihu is a Hebrew whose name means, “He is my God,” closely related to the name Elijah. Elihu is furious that Job thought his righteousness was greater than God’s (32:2). Elihu is also furious with the three friends who have not found any answer to Job’s assertions and condemned Job (32:3). He is a young man who says that he has been listening and waiting for an appropriate opportunity to speak (32:4-14). He says that he will speak now since they have no more words to speak (32:15-16). He, on the other hand, is pregnant with words, and he will constrain the wind in his belly to rip open (32:18-19). Elihu insists that he is the answer to Job’s request. He is Job’s mouth before God (33:8). He insists that he is upright, and that it is the Wind/Spirit of God that flows through him (33:2-5). Elihu says that Job is not right to insist that he is innocent (33:8-12). God speaks sufficiently (33:12-18), and He even sends messengers so that after chastening a man, a man’s righteousness may be restored to him if he confesses his sins (33:13-30).
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Elihu's Four Speeches
David Freedman asks the question, why does Elihu have four speeches? But what's particularly striking about Elihu's four speeches is that his speeches are not broken up by responses or answers from anyone else. His speeches are only delineated by Elihu reaffirming that he has something important to say and that he ought to be listened to (32:6-33:1ff/33:31-33; 34:1-2ff; 35:1ff; 36:1-4/37:14). 35:1 doesn't include the usual profession of intelligence, but there is the introduction in which he is rather humorously said to "answer," which of course could refer to the entire collection of speeches (constituting an answer to Job and the three friends), but the immediate context suggests that Elihu is answering none other than himself! The dialogue has descended into a monologue.
Even Yahweh's two speeches are briefly divided by a short response from Job (40:3-5).
No Answer Elihu
Lynch again: "The lack of answer from the Almighty forms a void into which Elihu steps, assuming de facto that the Almighty will not verbally answer Job (33:13-30; 34:12-13; 35:13-14). As we later find out, it is Elihu who is not explicitly answered by the Almighty."
Pummeled with Words
In "Bursting at the Seams: Phonetic Rhetoric in the Speeches of Elihu" published in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Matthew Lynch says that the "'damage' to Job only begins in chs. 1 and 2." The calamity continues in the form of the verbal onslaught of Job's three friends. Lynch points out that "from the beginning, Job is assailed by words, by the breathless reports of his three servants, the biting words of his wife, and by his three companions." In a footnote, Lynch points out the repetition in chapter 1 of the phrase "while he was still speaking, another came and said..." The trials of Job in some sense always come in the form of words. From the beginning Job is pummeled with words. And as Lynch rightly sees, this is central to Job's plea for a resolution in words: "Oh that someone would give me a hearing! See my signature. Let the Almighty answer me, and my accuser write an indictment" (31:35).
Job's Repentance
In a 1976 article in Vetus Testamentum, Dale Patrick says that Job 42:6 is usually translated wrong. The most straightforward translation of the "repentance" is actually a statement that he plans to cease his complaint and mourning. He would translate the verse: "Therefore I repudiate and repent of dust and ashes." Patrick explains: "God has changed Job's lament into praise, and this last bistich expresses Job's intention of abandoning the posture of mourning."
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Catching Up
So those of you who check this blog with any frequency know that it was dead quiet around here for the month of June. And that was due primarily to the fact that we bought a house, worked on it for a couple of weeks, moved in, unpacked, unpacked some more, and somewhere in there managed to stay mostly sane. I was in Louisiana for a wedding for six days, and trying to keep up with the bare minimum of church duties.
But we are ever so thankful for our new place right smack dab in the middle of everything, right where we want to be. It's directly across from East City Park, and we have a goodish more space to spread out, put up out of town guests, and hopefully serve the community.
We have raspberry bushes, a strawberry patch, and a seedless blackberry bush all promising to leave their juicy marks on our fingers and cheeks for most of the summer. If you're in the neighborhood please stop by. Feel free to let yourself in the back yard and pick our fruit. There's plenty.
Our family continues to be healthy and happy, and I'm thankful to report that Tovia Ann is now officially walking or toddling as they call it. But she has definitely graduated to being a fully initiated bi-ped, and is quickly leaving crawling behind. River will be in Kindergarten this Fall and Felicity is just a few weeks away from turning 3. God continues to pour out his goodness and mercy on us, and if I can get my act together, I'll try to have more pictures of the family up soon. But for now, you can see our new house.
Happy Summer and Cheers!
Littlejohn on Mercersburg Theology
My friend, Brad Littlejohn, has just had his first book published through Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock. The book, The Mercersburg Theology and The Quest for Reformed Catholicity, looks like a great introduction to John Williamson Nevin, Philip Schaff, and the 19th century conversation surrounding ecclesiology, sacraments, and what it means to be "Reformed and Catholic." Peter Leithart writes the forward of the book, and he says:
"For an increasing number of Protestants, the dismemberment of Protestantism is a scandal, an oozing wound in the body of Christ, leaving behind a twisted Christ as painful to behold as the Isenheim altarpiece. But what is a Protestant to do? The Reformation was itself a rent in the vesture of Christ, so how can Protestants object to the tin-pot Luthers and Machens who faithfully keep up the Reformation tradition of fissure and fragmentation? ... We need an American Reformation that recovers the original catholic vision of Protestantism, and in pursuing this, American Protestants do well to take a page from early-twentieth-century Catholics and embark on a program of ressourcement, and to this program Littlejohn's book is a valuable contribution..."
So go get your copy already.
The Prince and the Princes
Toward the end of Ezekiel, the "prince" is described, the descendant of David who will rule Israel in accordance with the law of God. It's interesting however that he is given particular liturgical duties. After the vision of the temple is described in detail, the prince is said to have rights to eat of the holy bread in the presence of the Lord (44:3). Likewise, the prince leads the congregation in offering sacrifices and celebrating the feasts and appointed seasons "to make atonement for the house of Israel" (45:16-17). The prince's role seems to be as a representative of the house of Israel. He has not been merged into the priesthood, but as the representative of Israel, he is granted specific privileges which verge on priestly duties. Whereas the people must enter and exit through separate gates, the prince may come and go through the gate where the priests come and go (46:1-11).
Pascal on Happiness
"All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." -- Blaise Pascal
(Cited in Desiring God by John Piper, P. 19)
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
YHWH in Job
The name of Yahweh is used exactly 24 times in the book of Job. It shows up 11 times in the prologue and 12 times in the epilogue. It occurs once in the arguments of Job and his three friends, invoked by Job himself recognizing that all that has befallen him is from the hand of Yahweh (12:9).
Fifth Sunday in Trinity Season: Job 22-31
Opening Prayer: Almighty and gracious God, we know that you have predestined the salvation of this world through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that you have determined that this salvation will come about through the preaching of the gospel, through the declaration of your word. So we come before you humbly, as your people. Save us from our sins and equip us to be grace for the world.
Introduction
We come now to the third cycle of discourses. During the last cycle we noticed the trajectory of Job’s speeches leading through death looking forward to the resurrection where “there is a judgment.” At this point it’s worth remembering that Job’s struggle runs parallel in some ways to the life of Jacob, whose wrestling culminates in being crowned a “prince” (Gen. 32:28).
Eliphaz’s Last Speech
Eliphaz says that even if Job was righteous it wouldn’t matter (22:2-3), but the bottom line is that Job isn’t righteous and that’s why God is correcting and judging Job (22:4). It’s interesting that Eliphaz says that God “enters into judgment” with Job since that is what Job has been asking for (e.g. 9:19, 13:3-19, 19:7). But Job seems to recognize this too (14:3), and it’s this judgment that he wants a further judgment on (23:4). He wants an appeal. Eliphaz finally gets specific and says that Job has oppressed the poor (22:5-20). Eliphaz says that Job should acquaint himself with God (22:21ff). He says that if Job does this, not only will Job be blessed materially (22:23-25), but Job will also pray and be heard (22:26-28). Eliphaz at least understands that this is Job’s chief desire: the ability to speak to God.
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