We Worship, We Cook!

Worship is the core of all meaningful theology.

This is sometimes difficult for those born and educated in the Western world.

In our culture, we tend to begin a spiritual journey by trying to “figure God out.”

Once I heard a popular preacher refer to the Bible as a “maintenance manual.”

“Just read it, praise God, it’s all here in the maintenance manual,” he said.

With all due respect to the preacher, the bible is not a maintenance manual.

Reading the Bible doesn’t give us a relationship with God any more than reading a cookbook produces a romantic dinner for two. Preparing a romantic dinner involves action and intention. And, it may involve a cookbook! However, we can study the cookbook all we like, learn the language in which it was written (French, most likely) reflect on its different recipes and talk about the origin of its preferred herbs and spices. All of that can be interesting and informative. None of it will prepare a dinner.

If we want a romantic dinner, we have to actually chop up garlic, marinate shrimp and chill the wine. We have to sit down. We must look into the eyes of our loved one and have a conversation. The meal becomes a setting in which a relationship may develop.

Reading about a relationship -- even studying intently about it – cannot be the main thing.

Western culture reaches us to define things.

I’m glad it does!

Defining terms and clarifying concepts is essential if one’s study and research is to result in science, technology or mathematics. These sorts of cultural developments have been the fruit of Western civilization because of its commitment to measurement and definition.

In the last four hundred years however, Westerners have learned to abhor mystery.

That is a spiritual and emotional disaster.

Somewhere along the way, we learned to define mystery as “something we haven’t figured out yet.”

However, God is—and will always be -- a mystery.

We cannot fit God into our minds.

Even if we were to learn everything that God has chosen to reveal about Himself, He would still be an incomprehensible mystery.

God is God.

He is beyond everything that is, seen and unseen.

How could we possibly understand this –at least understand it in the way we understand geometry or the use of a remote control?

What God reveals to us about Himself -- whether through nature, Holy Scripture, or any other vehicle of revelation – remains beyond our intellectual abilities.

Therefore, our spiritual journey always begins with, and continually leads us back to, worship.

Among other things, worship involves contemplating God’s revelation of Himself to us.

Worship involves our heartfelt expression of the awe that God’s presence invokes.

Worship leads us to meditate upon God’s perspective about the world and human nature.

Worship involves growing desire to trust God.

Worship gradually changes our behavior.

Above all, worship is a commitment: to keep stretching our understanding, emotion, actions; indeed, our entire being, toward God.

Worship involves reading the “cookbook,” but leads to gathering the ingredients, making a mess, cooking the food, setting the table, and sitting in the company of those we love. We do all we know to do to understand God and His people.

We know that we will never fully figure out what God is all about. However, it is a real question whether we ever really ‘figure out’ anyone.

Worship is a form of love. It is profound trust and mystery. It is awe and longing. It is an investment of time. It is listening.

Being with God in these ways is the way we “study God.”

Worship then is the only meaning the word “theology” can possibly have.

It is “stretching toward God,” emotionally, behaviorally, and intellectually.

Since worshipping God involves loving Him with our whole mind, soul and strength, theology becomes an essential ingredient of our relationship with Him. It is, as one great theologian put it, “faith seeking understanding.”

This year, the members of our church are planning to read the Bible together. As we do, we will learn how to allow the scriptural stories and lessons to penetrate our hearts and minds. That will lead us into worship. In worship, we will experience the presence of God. Experiencing the presence of God will raise new questions about life, vocation and eternity. That will point us back to the scriptures where we encounter mystery, presence and relationship with God.

It’s the journey of our life – knowing God, learning His ways and being transformed from glory to glory.

The Mind Boggleth: Bugs Bunny and the Nature of Theology

I once owned an old computer that simply couldn’t handle complicated programs. Anytime I tried to download software, it would whirl and buzz (I was going to add the word “smoke” here but that would have been artistic exaggeration). Finally the old computer would send a message to the screen: “inadequate capacity”.

That’s what we humans experience when we try to understand God: inadequate capacity.

The experience of hitting an intellectual wall can serve a very useful purpose in Christian life though. It can lead us to worship.

Discovering the limits of our intellect leads us to the door that opens us up to worship. The door is called humility, the most basic prerequisite for worship.

How can we really worship without humility?

Could we really worship a being that we totally understood? Wouldn’t such a “god” be anything more than human?

Would that “god” really be God?

Much of what passes for theology is just that: making a god in our own image; reducing the Creator to our own level of thought.

Such “theology” is useless and cannot lead us to worship.

Since worship is the central goal of theology, intellectual inquiry alone will not suffice. True theology is the fruit of a humbled intellect. A real theologian should be a saint, someone who is enlightened by God’s revelation through nature, human conscience, Holy Scripture and the communion of saints.

Without a doubt, the intellect is a vital component of spiritual walk. When ignorance reflects upon God it doesn’t get us anywhere good. Neither does an arrogant intellectual reflection upon God.

Christianity does not require us to park our brains outside the church. However, the intellect has its limits. We discover those limits when we try to understand the nature of God. We discover that we have “inadequate capacity.”

That discovery is what leads us to worship.

Worship leads us on to an authentic theology if we humbly apply our intellect to consider the implications of our faith.

Theology, then, is “faith seeking understanding.”

This approach to theology is certainly necessary when we ask questions about the nature of God.
We have been talking about the creeds and the early Christian formulations about how the One. True, God is at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As Bugs Bunny once said, “the mind boggleth.”

Once the early church counsels agreed about how to describe God, you would think that things would have settled down!

Hardly.

We Christians can be a fractious lot.

That’s why there were more councils.

Each of the early councils struggled with questions about the nature of Christ.

Was Christ “God,” or a “god?”

Was Christ a human being, or did He only appear to be a human being?

Was God created, or had He always been?

After years of struggle, the councils determined that the Scriptures teach that Christ is both “fully God and fully man.” They were saying, in other words, that Christ had two natures, one human and one divine.

Christians believe that Jesus is God who became a human being.

In other words, Jesus is the visible manifestation of God.

The Bible expresses it in Hebrews 1:3 by saying that Jesus is God’s “expressed image.”

When we try to imagine God’s face, we see the face of Jesus. When we talk to God, we use the name of Jesus. “Jesus” is the name of authority through which we address the entire Godhead.

When we pray in Christ’s name then, we are addressing God.

Jesus is Emanuel, “God with us.”

The Holy Spirit is the most difficult “person” of the Godhead to describe.

Jesus spoke about Him from the very beginning of His ministry.

St. Luke’s gospel (1:35) records the angel telling Mary that she will soon be “overshadowed by the Spirit.”

The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as the creative force of God, God bringing life, action, even a certain sense of divine unpredictability into the universe and into human affairs.

As you think about the One and Triune God, perhaps you will find it helpful to think of the Father as “God above us,” the Son as “God with us,” and the Holy Spirit as “God inside of us.”

Or, you can think of God consisting of “One who loves,” “One who is loved,” and “One who is Love.”

The Lord is the “God who creates us,” the “God who redeems us,” and the “God who transforms us.”

Thankfully, a day is coming in which we will understand all of this much better. In this present life we hit intellectual walls.

That’s because God is God and we are not.

We should keep that in mind as we enter this New Year.

Many of us are reading the One Year Bible. We will begin in Genesis and St. Matthew’s Gospel and work our way through the entire text this year!

Keeping a good attitude about mystery, holiness and awe will help us as we wrestle with the words and meaning of the Holy Scriptures.

God Becomes A Man: Part Two

Christians believe that the birth of Jesus, or the nativity, was the ultimate revelation of God.

In Christ, God became intimate with His people. (Intimacy is appropriate self-disclosure within a personal relationship.)

In Christ, God opened Himself up. He invited us to peer into His being because He wanted us to know Him better.

To our surprise, it turns out that not only is God different from us -- which we knew from the Old Testament -- think about how the word ‘holy” means “alien!” – His differences from us are beyond our comprehension.

In the Old Testament, God’s central message to His people was: “I am One.”

Israel’s God was unique.

One rabbi says that when God told Moses, “I am what I am!” He was saying something like, “If I told you what I was really like, you would never believe it!”

Another rabbi, writing about the shma, (“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One”) explains that He is saying in essence, “I am in a class all by myself. There is no one like me.”

God wanted His people to understand that He was not some celestial pagan king, capable of being bribed and manipulated. God was above all of that. He was in a class by Himself. One!

In the nativity however, God revealed Himself as a baby. As time went on, we discovered that this baby was not only God, He was also fully man. Not only that, this fully man/fully God person prayed to God and promised to pour out the Holy Spirit who will be “another Comforter.”

We have never understood it.

We never will!

God is beyond our understanding.

(I can hear God saying something like, “I told you that wouldn’t believe it even if I tried to tell you!”)

The bottom line is that we, like Jews, believe that God is One. Since the incarnation, we know that in some sense beyond our comprehension, He is also three.

It makes me think of the old book, Flatland. The circles try to understand spheres, who, in the two dimensional world of the circles, appear to mysteriously shrink or expand without explanation. Of course, the explanation is simply that the spheres come from a higher dimension where the apparent paradoxes and contradictions make perfect sense.

The baby came into our world from somewhere else. Plato called that other place “the realm of forms.” The writer to the Hebrews has this idea in mind when he tells us the Christ came from “the temple in the heavenlies that was not made with hands.”

It’s all beyond us.

Fortunately, we are not called to understand God. We are called to worship Him.

We make a decision to believe what He has told us about Himself. However, that is not the same thing as understanding what we believe. We make these choices about belief because we know that if we could understand everything about God, there would be no need for faith.

God is God and we are not. Our intellect will always struggle with the great paradoxes and mysteries of God’s nature that are beyond our capacity to figure out.

Faith is about trusting that our God will not deceive us.

He actually is what He reveals Himself to be.

After our Lord came to the earth, it would take Christians about three centuries to develop a language of faith to express what they believed about the nature of God.

Sometime in the second century AD, Christians begin to recite what we now call the Apostles’ Creed. It confessed a belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who was One God. However, the creed did not attempt to clarify the issue further.

As the years went by, Christian leaders and thinkers gradually began to use a new term to express their belief about God; 'trinity', a shortened form of tri-unity, or 'three in one'.

Then the Church Fathers (people who participated in early church councils) borrowed a Latin word from the theater to express how Father, Son and Holy Spirit were distinctions within God’s nature: 'persona'. Although we normally translate that word into English as 'person', the original word 'persona' never referred to an individual, as it does for us today. It meant 'mask' (as worn by an actor), 'character' (as in a play), station, rank or condition.

Obviously, when they decided to use the word 'persona', the Church fathers were using a metaphor. They wanted to help us understand the nature of God as He had revealed himself in The New Testament.

Like all metaphors, the word 'persona' has both strengths and weaknesses.

A mask hides the real face of a person.

A role is something an actor assumes, not his own personality.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit however, are not God’s masks; they are who He is.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not roles God assumes; they are revelations of His actual nature.

So, the word 'persona' has often confused as well as enlightened people about what we believe.

Greek speaking Christians decided not to use the word persona for those very reasons.

However, Western Christians have continued to use the word, despite its limitations. We really have no other word that works nearly as well.

I once heard an Eastern Orthodox theologian say that 'Father', 'Son', and 'Holy Spirit' are the interior names of God; they tell us what God is like inside Himself.

Anyway, if your mind is turning around and around, don’t feel bad! The fault is not with your intelligence. The best minds of the Christian church throughout history have found it difficult to express what the divine Godhead is like. They still do!

If God is really like the being that the Church Fathers proclaimed, it is important that we try to understand them. And if He is not, the sooner we know that, the better.

All Christians have to deal with the issue sooner or later though because it is so central to what most believers throughout history have confessed about the nature of God.

The important thing to know is that early Christians struggled with all of this and finally brought it to a conclusion. God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is One.

He is also, in some sense, three.

He is, to put it another way, a Triune being.

All Christians believe this, including those who deny it. Because even if we were to reject the 2nd and 3rd century terminology about the nature of God, we are left with Biblical passages like this one in Acts 2:33 to explain:

“This Jesus, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”

And just think: all of this once “lay in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding.”

God Becomes A Man! Part 1 of 3

Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper, the story of a prince who meets a poor boy who looks like him. The boys trade places so the pauper may experience royal life as the prince experiences the life of a commoner.

Christians believe that something like this really happened when God became a man.

God experienced human life so that human beings could experience eternal life.

Jesus was a Jew who claimed to be God (see John 10:24-34).

He was a rabbi, that is to say, a teacher.

He claimed to be the Son of David, the legitimate King of Israel.

Christians believe that He was fully man.

Christians also believe that this God-man, Jesus Christ, offered a way that human beings could become God’s immortal companions.

We believe that as King of Israel, Christ has granted citizenship – the covenant of Abraham -- to all who believe in Him.

In other words, Christians believe that the Christian church is the spiritual continuation of the ancient nation of Israel. Christians are citizens of that nation.

Sound preposterous?

It is preposterous...unless it is true!

The legitimacy of Christian faith rests on these teachings.

They also mold the ways Christians read the Bible, Old and New Testaments.

Since many of you plan to read with me through the Bible in the coming year, I thought I would give you a quick outline of the scriptures – a sort of Cliff Notes of the Bible.

The Bible uses narrative, poetry, allegory, prayers and apocalyptic literature to tell the spiritual history of Israel, the moral code of those who follow God, the life and teachings of Christ, and the history and teachings of the early Christian Church.

We Christians build the foundation of our faith on the Old Testament, which is God’s revelation of Himself to the ancient Hebrews.

However, we read and interpret the Old Testament through the writings of the New Testament. This second Testament tells us about the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Christ. It also introduces the Church, which God has called to shepherd believers as they learn how to follow Jesus Christ, grow in Him, and spread the news of his life, death, resurrection and teachings to the nations of the world.

It is important to realize that early Christians were building upon the teachings of God’s ancient Hebrew people. The early Christians certainly did not think of their faith as “a new religion.”

This commitment to the ancient Hebrew covenant created a major theological problem: what to do about their doctrine of God.

As Jews, the early Christian leaders often prayed a special prayer, called the shma. It served as sort of “Creed” in Jewish faith and says, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:1-4).

That prayer establishes our faith upon the belief of monotheism (the belief that there is only one God). It is a pledge of fidelity to One, Invisible and Almighty God.

Jews have always been willing to die for this belief, in ancient and modern times.

Christians had a dilemma.

They believed in God, to whom Jesus had prayed and called “Father”.

They also believed that Jesus was God who had “come in the flesh” (as St. John puts it (in 1 John 4:2,3).

They believed in the Holy Spirit, whom they had experienced after the resurrection of Christ. The Holy Spirit too was God!

So, did that not make Christians tritheists (believers in three gods)?

Were Christians monotheists or tritheists?

What a problem!

Christians believed in one God. However, they believed that the Father was God, Jesus was God and the Holy Spirit was God.

They believed that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were somehow distinct from one another.

Christians fiercely asserted that there were not three gods … only one!

Their Jewish brothers were continually asking “What could they possibly mean?”

How these questions were settled would require much more space and time than a blog can give! In coming days, I hope to keep your attention as we discuss such things.

For now, let’s just say that this is the heart of the Christmas season: God became a man. Not in appearance only, as a person might put on a new suit or assume a new role. God became a man in every way.

He was hungry.

He was thirsty.

He was tempted.

He was disappointed.

He was killed.

For us sinners he came down from heaven and was made man, as the creed puts it.

The prince became a pauper so that paupers might become princes.

Once again, I offer a Christmas carol as the best available statement on this subject.

In 1739, Charles Wesley wrote the lyrics to Hark the Herald Angels Sing. In 1840, the great composer, Felix Mendelssohn wrote the tune that we now use to sing Wesley lyrics. Read the stanza below and meditate on the words. If you allow the lyrics to sing deep into your heart, you will begin to understand the importance and the beauty of the doctrine of the Incarnation – that is to say the “enfleshment” – of God in Jesus Christ.


Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

What Is God Like?

A few years ago, a friend of mine wanted me to hear a Joan Osborne song. It was very popular at the time, but man, did it put me on tilt!

In a way, it’s a Christmas song. However, I doubt I will ever hear any church choirs sing it!


If God had a name what would it be?
And would you call it to his face?
If you were faced with him
In all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that
you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints
and all the prophets


It’s a great question!

Did you hear the story about the lady who found her grandson drawing on the wall with his crayons?

“What are you drawing?” she asked, before reminding him not to mark on the walls.

“God!” he replied.

“But dear, no one knows what God looks like,” the grandmother said.

“Yeah, I know. But they will when I get finished!” the child said.

We laugh at the little boy but do exactly what he did! Aren’t our conceptions of God mental pictures of our own creation?

Who knows if the saints in glory are not as amused with us and our mental pictures as we are of the little boy?

It is actually presumptuous to claim to understand God. Even though He tells us what He is like, can we, intellectually and morally limited beings as we are, fully understand what He reveals?

Still, the Bible claims to teach about God, and we are supposed to stretch or hearts and minds to understand this teaching.

I can’t go into all the ins and outs of why we claim to know God in this short blog. There are entire books dedicated to that. However, since you are reading this, chances are you have already accepted that the Bible is an accurate source of information about God and that something of what it teaches can be conveyed to others.

We can always begin describing God with a list of attributes.

Christians believe God to be Almighty. We believe He is the origin of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.

We believe that He is One.

We believe that God is the cosmic composer of a great symphony, called a universe, in which we are called to play a part. We believe that we gain understanding about this symphony – and of the conductor who composed it -- by paying attention to what He reveals in history and by listening to that echo of His truth, which He has placed within our own being and which we call conscience.

In other words, nature around us and conscience within us, leads us to understand our Creator. That’s how human beings all over the world, in many cultures and religions, have come to know that God is True, Good and Beautiful.

Since God reveals Himself through the universe and human conscience, then everyone who has access to these two tings already know a lot about God. St. Paul clearly says this very thing In Romans, chapter one.

We often hear people blame Christians for saying that every other religion but our own is wrong. Actually, we don’t believe that, at least if we have much understanding of our own faith!

We believe that most religions say similar things about the basic moral message that God has revealed to all people through His creation and human conscience.

Christians go on to say that the great religions and philosophies of the world, while contributing much to our moral instruction, have also come to erroneous conclusions. We make that judgment because we believe that there is a standard of Truth by which all ideas can be compared and evaluated: what God has spoken in history through His chosen people, Israel.

All other teachings about God, including what we learn through creation and human conscience, must be judged by that spiritual standard.

This assertion sounds terribly narrow in our times. We have gotten used to the idea that in religion and philosophy, one person’s ideas should be as good as another person’s ideas. But please notice what we are not saying.

We are not saying that Israel is a more important people than the other peoples of the world. We certainly do not believe that Israel has been a perfect people. Far from it! Israel was always nation of sinful men and women. Nonetheless, by the grace of God, Israel has been called to make the ways of the Creator known to all other nations.

God chose to make His covenant first with the servant people we call the Jews.

And here we should stop to take note of something: the most important word in the Bible. Without this word, the Bible just doesn’t make any sense.

The word is “covenant.”

A “covenant” is a special kind of agreement.

In our time the thing most like a covenant is marriage.

For many centuries, knowledge of God’s covenant was largely confined to the physical descendants of Abraham and to those few gentiles (or non Jews) who were willing to become Israelites.

That doesn’t mean that other people knew nothing about God, or that everything they thought about God was wrong. It means only that God has established a standard, against which all other beliefs about God were to be judged.

Christians call God’s revelation to the ancient Hebrew people the Old Testament. (Naturally enough, Jews call this collection of writings, the Hebrew Scriptures.)

The writings contained in the Old Testament tell us what God is like, how we should live, and how we should worship.

Christians revere these writings as God’s Word, on an equal plane as the New Testament. However, unlike Jews, Christians believe that God has revealed Himself not only through nature, human conscience, and Holy Scripture.

We believe that God has revealed Himself through a special man.

Indeed, we believe that this special man was God.

God once decided to draw upon this cave in which we live. We call what He wrote, The Holy Scriptures.

Then, one day in the middle of human history, God decided to do something else. He became one of us. We could now touch Him, hear Him and see Him.

All this occurred because God wished to be known. Not just “known about,” but known.

And so, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory. No one has seen God at anytime. But the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

If we want to know what God is like, we have a perfect picture:


"This is Christ the King;

Whom shepherds guard and angles sing;

Haste, haste to bring Him laud, the babe the Son of Mary.”

Snakes, Shakespeare, Saints...and My Daughter

Have you ever picked up a poisonous snake?

Have you ever done it in church?

Me neither. But I have always found it fascinating.

At my suggestion, a book discussion group I am a part of recently read Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington. It’s a book about snake handling.

Our group meets every Wednesday morning. We usually read business books because most of us are business owners of some sort.

As the group reads the books, the members wrestle with what it means to be both a believer and a business owner. Do we run our businesses differently than the unbelievers? Should we? In what ways? We still have to hire and fire people. Do we hire and fire for competence? Character? The need of the individual? What do we do in really difficult times; watch out for our company or care for the individual workers in the company? Are we really looking out for our workers in the long run if we do not mange the health of the company? How does one deal with the pressure of making sound business decisions that are at the same time ethical and Christian?

Those are usually the sorts of issues we discuss.

Not this week. This week it was about snake handling.

The actual practice affects very few people. So why bother? I wanted the group to read Covington’s book because the cult’s attitudes and values reflect those held by millions of Americans.

Let me say it plainly: the people at the bottom half of American culture do not play with a full deck. They do not learn the same rules, absorb the same lessons, or use the same language as other Americans. They do not know the unwritten processes and values that govern social, relational, financial or educational life. Often, they do not learn the principles of cause and effect, individual responsibility, or the value of planning. To millions of Americans, life just happens and one adjusts to it as it occurs.

My daughter, Talitha, has a burning drive to make classical education available to the poor. She is a world-class teacher and has already sent out dozens of young people who have received scholarships and awards that they would not have received without her mentorship. I’m very proud of her.

Talitha’s central idea is this: upper and middle class Americans begin absorbing the values of Western Civilization in their mother’s milk. Clichés and jokes, meals and movies, even clothing and home décor teaches the little urchins the unspoken language of the tribe.

The children of the poor and minorities rarely receive this subtle education. As a result, they miss the unspoken messages, send the wrong signals and find themselves offending and being offended from the time they enter school until they get their gold watch at retirement. (Except now there’s no gold watch.)

She says (again and again) that classical education deliberately ensures that every student gets the same chance at culture.

There are many classical schools now. Many of them are even Christian. Almost none of them have a social conscience that compels them to find a way for as many students from the margins as the school can handle. Thankfully, there are a few.

Our churches are in the same shape.

Two generations ago, every church of every kind could be reasonably sure that the people knew the Bible stories and the basic teachings of the Christian faith.

This is no longer true. It is no longer true among liberal Christians because they’re not sure the Bible is anything more than a collection of fairy tales anyway. But it’s also true of conservative churches. In fact, the real difference between liberal and conservative churches in America is that they vote differently.

In a way, I guess my pastoral agenda is the same one my daughter has for education: I want to teach the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. I want our people -- upper, middle and lower classes, majority and minority, male and female, to know the Bible and what it means.
I don’t want to be a part of dumbed-down, consumer-driven, entertainment addicted Christianity. I want a church that teaches the Bible, worships a God we expect to show up, and expects that its members will form real community.

Snake handlers risk their lives every time they go to church. They are, one might say, a “peculiar people.” I don’t want to be one and I doubt that you do either.

The point is though, snake handling is one of the things that occur when Christians lack a foundation. The reason it hasn’t caught on is not because Christians know better. It hasn’t caught on because its dangerous, and, even more serious, because its socially unacceptable. It is admirable in certain kind of way though. People can’t be just horsing around who stick their hand in a box and pull out a water moccasin.

Snake handling reminds me of the Book of Judges. That book tells us what happens when God’s people remain sincere but yet fail to learn what God really wants.

Snake handling is not the only example I can think of when I think about sincere but uninformed Christianity. When ignorance masquerades as piety all sorts of stupidity occur.

I’m trying to make a difference by studying for myself and by teaching what I learn to those who care enough to listen.

I wish Dennis Covington had met me first, or had the good fortune of having my daughter as a teacher.

Now, if she will only forgive me for writing this!

Can You Hear The 12 Drummers?

You can’t live through many Christmas seasons without hearing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” You remember … “seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden riiiiiiiigs.”

(By the way, the twelve days of Christmas refers to the period between December 25th and January 6th. For many centuries, Christians exchanged gifts on January 6th, or Epiphany.

December 25th was the first day of Christmas and was usually celebrated at midnight on the 24th, in a Christ –mass. Thus, the English word “Christmas.”)

I had mentioned in an earlier blog about the old legend connected to this carol; the story that it was written during a time when it was against the law to practice Roman Catholicism in England. The legend claims that English Catholics used the carol as a mini-catechism (which is a method of teaching theology.)

Each line of the song was supposed to stand for some important doctrine.

The legend claims that the line about the “twelve drummers drumming” stood for the Apostles’ Creed.

What a great story!

I so much want it to be true.

True or not, believers must train their ears to hear the “twelve drummers drumming.” Otherwise we will never learn how to march to the rhythm of the apostles.

In contemporary culture, it has become increasingly difficult to hear the steady beat of our faith. The ancient beat gets drowned out by all the noise of contemporary life.

We also know that if we really do decide to march to the ancient beat of the twelve drummers, we are going to look very different than the people around us.

All of us – even Christians – are more naturally in step with the unbelieving crowd around us than we are with the apostles. The rhythm of those twelve drummers is so alien (when compared to the rhythms of contemporary life) that it requires a serious commitment to listen and adjust our movements to match their teachings.

I decided to dedicate my blogs to doctrine for a year because I wanted to keep my sermons and thoughts in tune with “that which has at all times and in all places been believed by the whole people of God.” I am growing anxious that I will end up with three readers – two of them being family members who disagree with me! I wonder how many believers are really interested in exploring the foundations of their faith.

But that’s hardly the point, is it?

If I am trying to serve those who are searching for the faith “once and for all delivered to the saints,” then this exercise is certainly worth my time.

I need to remember – and I hope you will – that a study of doctrine can only become spiritually profitable, if it is much more than an intellectual exercise.

To gain anything spiritual from the study of theology, we must have a humble heart and a yearning for God.

Some of history’s greatest minds have dedicated themselves to the study of Christian theology. Nonetheless, theology cannot degenerate into a mere intellectual exercise. We must approach God’s Word “with our shoes removed,” as it were. We must approach the intellectual history of God’s Church believing, in spite of all the nasty stuff we encounter there, that the Church is what St. Paul claimed: “the pillar and ground of truth.”

Only with such attitudes will we have ears to hear and, by God’s grace, the courage to understand and obey, the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Only then will our lives become seriously impacted by the things we learn.

On December 14th, 1591, a Spanish poet and a mystic named St. John of the Cross, died. I disagree with several things he taught. I love his poetry though. John of the Cross’s grounding in Christian theology pours through nearly every poem. For him, doctrine and devotion ought to form a single pattern of life that works to bring one’s thoughts, actions, and art into harmony with Christ.

I am concluding my blog today with the Apostle’s Creed to help all of us do that same thing.

Please note that although in our church, we usually use the word “Christian” instead of “catholic” when we recite the creed, we do so in order to avoid the backlash of those who assume that “catholic” means “Roman Catholic.” The words original sense is important to the meaning of the creed however (and no other word fully communicates what the fathers intended) so I am sending the creed in its most standard and accepted form.

I would hope that those who have not memorized the creed will do so and then think about what each line says to you. As these blogs continue, you will be able to follow my thoughts as I meander my way through the central beliefs of the Christian faith.



I believe in God the Father Almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth;


And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord;

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell;

the third day He rose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,

and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.


I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Hey! I Thought You Said....

I was not blessed with immaculate perception. I read and understand the Bible through a set of lenses that color its pages and ideas.

Between me and the text are personal experiences, customs, sectarian biases, and the era of history in which I was born and raised.

You are in the same boat! Even if you claim to read it just like it’s written!

No; especially if you claim that!

My mind restructures the word of God as I read it.

Reading is never a passive exercise. To some extent, we all shape the ideas of a book as we read them.

When I realized that I was doing that to the Bible, I decided to weigh my personal perception against the teachings held in common by God’s people through the ages.

If the church is indeed the “pillar and ground of truth,” as St. Paul claimed, I can trust the teachings that had endured age after age and culture after culture. I can trust those teachings more than I can trust my own limited viewpoint.

Keeping this in mind is easier said than done! As time has passed though, I have discovered that this way of reading the Bible is a place where all believers can meet.

A church like mine, where people come from all parts of the body of Christ, can build doctrinal unity on this common deposit of faith.

This conviction – that we should evaluate our private, sectarian, and cultural views of the faith by a common core of beliefs – has become deeply head conviction. That is why I make a big ado about the Apostles Creed. I believe the doctrines of this creed to be the steady beat of the apostles – the “faith once and for all delivered to the saints.”

The creeds have a history of their own and I enjoy talking about it. However, for our purposes here, it is enough to say that they arose from pastoral concerns. A believer coming from paganism, for example, needed to know that One God created the world, that sin had entered that world and that Jesus Christ had come to reconcile us to God.

There would be no bibles for centuries. Scrolls of various biblical books were scattered here and there with no known way to bind them together – much less to make them available for everyone.

Beginning with the Bishop of Antioch, in about AD 98, church leaders began to find ways to teach the people statements of faith that would help them retain the basic beliefs of Christianity. They formed these statements in poetic ways so they could be memorized, sung, and prayed. These “poems” were soon used in public worship. We call those doctrinal poems "creeds" because the first word is the Latin word "credo," which means, "I believe."

The first and most important of these creeds is called the Apostles’ Creed. Christians were quoting it extensively by the second century. A couple of centuries later, the church fathers added the Nicene Creed to the Christian arsenal of faith. Christians everywhere, with all our differences, still accept the doctrines contained in these creeds.

Therefore, we can say that the creeds express the common doctrinal heritage of all followers of Christ. They teach what C. S. Lewis called, “Mere Christianity.”

What is Mere Christianity?

At Christmas, Baptists, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics sing the same songs.

Most of the time, we hardly know that we have anything in common. We can’t receive communion together, we baptize differently, and man, do we ever sing different songs!

At Christmas however, of that all changes. We visit each other’s churches. We enjoy the sermons, dramas and music in all sorts of churches.

So why are Christians so different one from another during the rest of the year?

Well, we’re not really that different. It’s just that some groups are old and maintain forms of worship and musical styles from centuries past. Others are new and create new forms of worship based on musical styles from contemporary cultural environment. Many churches are based on ethnic backgrounds that mold the expression of faith in ways that seem strange to outsiders.

What Christian often argue about is the difference between eternal values (things that must not change) and temporal values (things that change from culture to culture and age to age). Is the way we celebrate Holy Communion a Biblically-mandated issue or a time and cultural thing? How about sermons? Or pastors, for that matter.

I doubt that I can settle any of those things in this blog!

What I can do is identify the core beliefs that unite all Christians. Those are the things at the core of the covenant God made with His people.

It is irresponsible to even call oneself a Christian without knowing them.

So, what are they?

Ahh, glad you asked! After all, many believers no longer know what they are. They are even surprised that it matters.

Most of you reading probably attend a non-denominational church. So it might surprise you to know that churches like these are quite new. Non-denominational churches tend to be independent and made up of believers from every conceivable background.

A young, independent congregation does not offer a common root system to its people. Therefore, it tends to be cautious about doctrine. The unity of such churches is built on an unspoken compromise. The believers in them have enjoyed a generation of unity because they once decided not to discuss doctrinal differences. The problem is, most of them have now come to the time when they must decide what to teach their children, or to their new converts.

C. S. Lewis called the common core of faith, those beliefs that we recognize together (especially at Christmas time) “Mere Christianity.” Previous generations called those common beliefs “orthodoxy.”

How they came to be identified is interesting.

Even during the lifetime of the apostles, Christians often disagreed among themselves about how to interpret the Scriptures or to explain the nature of Christ. Such differences led to divisions and strife.

Believers began to hold special meetings (called councils) to settle their divisions. Churches from all parts of the Mediterranean sent representatives to these counsels in order to define their common faith.

You can read the minutes of the very first church council! They are recorded in Acts, chapter 15. St. Luke sums up the spirit of that meeting by remarking, “There was no small dissension!” (I bet! I have been in some of those kinds of meetings!)

Over the next few centuries, Christians would call several more councils. They would decide such things as which writings would be included in the New Testament, which Jewish practices would or would not be retained in Christian worship and what they would teach about Jesus Christ.

Through the centuries, the overwhelming majority of Christians have agreed with the decisions of these early church councils made. They have stood the test of time. They have become the common heritage of all believers. They are the things we sing about during Christmas.

You can learn the vocabulary of orthodox Christianity in a few hours. In fact, you can do that just by memorizing the two great creeds. However, defining the meanings of these beliefs, deciding how they should impact everyday life and what level of authority one grants to them– that’s another thing!

All Christians believe in the “communion of saints,” for example. But the phrase means something very different to a Roman Catholic than it does to a Southern Baptist! To acknowledge “one baptism for the remission of sins,” takes us into arguments about the meaning of the word “for!”

So Christian creeds both celebrate our unity and expose our differences.

(Sigh)

But leave all of that for the other months! This is the season to smile at one another as we go into our various churches.

We know that one service will open with a pipe organ and the other with a guitar; that one will involve dance and the other silence; that one will be held in a warehouse and the other in a cathedral. But during advent we also know that these are surface matters. They conceal a massive body, consisting of the living and the dead, gathered from every tribe and nation under heaven.

The guitar strums. The pipe organ bellows. For a moment the voices of a boys choir in their while robes join with the voices of young people in jeans:

“Oh Come Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!”

Theology is for Eggheads?

On December 7th, 374, St. Ambrose became the bishop of Milan.

He is known for two things: he was the greatest preacher of his age, and he discipled a young convert who would be known to history as St. Augustine.

Ambrose was a great man. We would probably realize this more than we do if he had not been eclipsed by his famous convert.

St. Augustine became one of Christianity’s most influential thinkers. In fact, both religious and secular scholars think of him as one of history’s most brilliant men.

We rarely honor theologians like Augustine and Ambrose now. We tend to deride them for being out-of-touch with “real life”. (Whatever that is!)

The timely use of the word “theologian,” can evoke laughter from pulpit and pew. We think of 'theologian' the way one writer described an ancient Egyptian philosopher who became so enthralled by observing stars that he slipped in cow manure and broke his leg. Philosophers, theologians and other sorts of theoreticians are poor dreamers, captured by the smell of old books and the sounds of dead languages. Their irrelevance is so staggering that we shake our heads in disbelief when we realize they are still around.

This is a relatively new attitude though. Past generations of Christians held their scholars in high esteem.

I would like to convince you to do that too.

With that, I may have already lost most of you. But I hope not.

I do understand that the very word “theology” makes many people want to die from boredom!

I think I know why.

Sometimes “theologians,” get a kick out of using highly technical jargon. That lets them know who is or is not “in their club.” They throw around Latin and Greek. They quote obscure thinkers we have never heard of. We think we could understand them if they would just speak in plain English. But they don’t.

Theologians often make theology sound like a root canal!

All I can say is “don’t let their poor communication skills keep you from learning about God!”

That is, after all, what “theology” means: “the study of God.” Therefore, if you have ever prayed, you are already acquainted with theology!

So why would we need formal theology in that case? Isn’t devotion and piety enough?

“Theology just makes simple things complicated,” many people claim.

Is that true? Do theologians just make simple things complicated?

I think they often do and they shouldn’t.

However, there is a real difference between being “simple” and being “simplistic.”

Who wants to hear someone say, “Will you please engage the switching device for the purpose of making a positive connection for the flow of electricity to the incandescent filament?”

We want them to say: “Please turn on the light.”

That’s simple.

We don’t want to hear them say, “Don’t worry about the electric bill, or an old light bulb, or a switch that overheats. Such things take care of themselves. Let’s not worry about all of that. Let’s just enjoy the light.”

A person who talks like that is not “simple,” he’s simplistic.

In fact, he may even be a simpleton!

Simple people are virtuous; simpletons are slothful.

Some Christian leaders are simple. Some are simplistic. Some are simpletons.

A theologian should learn to be simple, like Jesus. He should not be simplistic, like Larry the Cable Guy.

Being simplistic you see, is just another name for sloth.

Theologians must not be slothful; but they must learn how to communicate with the rest of us.

That’s what Ambrose did.

Augustine did too.

And C. S. Lewis!

Sometimes, I even do it. (I just had to work my way into this illustrious club.)

Theology must, in as simple a way as possible, help ordinary believers understand the implications of God’s Word. That sometimes requires an explanation based on the Bible’s original languages, or a quote from a person who lived in another century. It never calls for humiliating others because they do not understand the theologian’s specialized vocabulary.

You may ask, “Why do Christians even need theologians? Don’t we all have the same Bible?”

Well, yes. We do.

Unfortunately, reading the same Bible does not automatically lead us to doctrinal unity or to the essential teachings of scripture.

We would all like to think that we (unlike others!) always let the Bible speak for itself. However, the truth is, we all read the Bible through the lenses of our own private experiences and personal opinions. We tend to be loyal to the views of whatever branch of Christian faith we encountered as children or as new believers. Because of these human elements, despite our sincerity, we often reach different conclusions about the things than the writers of the Bible intended.

A godly and humble theologian can help us untangle the knots that time and custom can wrap around our minds. They can help us discern the difference between “orthodox” and “obstinate, and between “simple and “simplistic.” They can teach us the history, language usage and purposes behind a particular Bible story or teaching.

Most importantly, a good theologian can help us see Jesus, like Ambrose did for Augustine; like Augustine did for Medieval Europe; and like C.S. Lewis did for many of us.

During Advent, we will talk a lot about the shepherds and how those poor and unlearned men recognized the Lord of glory in the face of a little child.

However, there were other people in that story.

At the center of the nativity was a little baby boy, kissed by a star. The light of that star wooed wise men from far away in the East.

When they saw that light, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

Some of them still do. And when they arrive at the cradle, they say the most wonderful things, like St. Augustine, Ambrose’s famous disciple:

“Late came I to love thee, Ancient Beauty; late came I to love Thee.”

Buddha and The Manger

Several years ago, while studying comparative religion, I read a Buddhist prayer.

“I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Buddha’s teaching.
I take refuge in the Buddha’s community.”

The prayer moved me.

It lead me to ask myself, “Can a Christian make less of a commitment to the Lord Jesus? What do we say about the Lord’s teachings? What do we say about His church – his community?”
So I adapted the prayer and often pray it, usually with considerable feeling:

“I take refuge in Jesus.
I take refuge in His teaching.
I take refuge in His church.”

If you think about it, the prayer describes the meaning of authentic theology, to “the study of God.” Studying God involves listening to God speak through the scriptures and His church. It involves coming to know Him through prayer, worship and obedience.

Today is my wife Trish’s birthday. We have been together for thirty-six years now. That’s a long time. When I married her, I had no idea that my reactions to her would gradually mold my own personality and make me into a different person. However, that is what has happened.

When we were newly married, I found comfort and pleasure in her company, especially in erotic life which was a new experience for both of us. As the years went by, we had children and formed a family which became a different kind of comfort – a place to root my soul in the deepest kind of human love possible. As we continued our journey, we discovered knew things about one another – some things that we liked and others we did not. Each discovery provoked a response and molded our lives in a different way.

I am a different person than I would have otherwise been because of who I married. Where one takes refuge gradually creates him or her into a new sort of person.

Some people have claimed that Martin Luther wrote the carol, Away in a Manger, for his children. That’s very unlikely. The carol is not that old. It doesn’t matter though. The idea is that even one of Christianity’s most influential theologians might well have written such a simple childish song, is important.

It is a song about taking refuge in the family of Jesus, into which we have been invited. We don’t have to be Roman Catholic to feel deep appreciation and honor for the Mother of the Lord who is, in some sense, a mother to all those who believe. We learn from her to say “let it be done unto me according to your will.” We can all feel secure and safe with an example of Joseph the carpenter who will guard and defend the world’s most precious gift with his life.

So we join the holy family in our hearts and imagination. We take refuge in the gift of all ages and commit ourselves to learn the ways of God and to follow them, even if it takes us – like it did the three kings – through field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.

This little child came to “fit us for heaven,” as the older lyrics claims, not just “take us to heaven,” as the newer (and poorer) version puts it.

We comfort ourselves in this refuge, the family of Jesus, to which we now belong. In their company we are being fit for heaven and delivered from evil. We feel such things in the depth of our soul as we sing the simple lyrics:

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray
Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And fit us for heaven
To live with Thee there

Creeds and Carols

According to the legend, the twelve drummers drumming represent the Apostles, as well as the early Christian creed that bears their name.

Well, advent is a wonderful time to think about what we say we believe.

Christmas carols are excellent teachers too! Of course, you have to actually listen to the stanzas of the carols – especially to the ones we don’t usually sing anymore.

To see what I mean, just Google Hark the Herald Angels Sing and read the old lyrics.

Then try Joy to the World. Meditate on the words.

The carols are theologically richer than most of our sermons these days. If you take the time to digest them, they will feed your soul.

Obviously I’m not talking about singing merely the bits and pieces of cannibalized lyrics that pass for modern Christmas music! I’m talking about learning the blood and guts of ancient Christian culture.

You could make this one of your Advent adventures: to finally understand the lyrics of the carols. Read through all the stanzas of We Three Kings. Read over the words of more obscure carols, such as Once in Royal David’s City. Expand your spiritual perception beyond the doctrinal provincialism of our age as you listen respectfully to past believers.

Once you understand the lyrics of the great carols, you will have no problem understanding the meaning of any of the great creeds.

You’ll also come to know why the creeds are important for cultivating a healthy spiritual life.

Of course, creeds bore people.

That’s just life. Learning the multiplication tables bored me too, once upon a time.

Heck, paying bills bore me! But if you ever want to advance beyond coloring Sunday school pictures and really develop a robust adult faith, this may be the place to start: with the doctrines of our faith that the carols express. Then, perhaps, you may take a few minutes and memorize the two central creeds of the church.

That’s a very subversive thing to do now. Modern Christians don’t tend to like anything structured, formal or (gasp) “historic.” Creeds can be downright creepy for modern Christians.

You’ve probably heard people say something like, "Christians don’t need creeds or doctrine! They just need Jesus!"

I have certainly heard them say things like that.

It sounds good, even pious. But just ask another question,

“So, who is Jesus?"

A fervent believer will usually say something like “well, the Jesus of the Bible, of course."
Then ask, "And what does the Bible say about Jesus?"

You will soon realize that any answer to these simple questions reveals a doctrinal viewpoint.

So we all have doctrine!

Some of our doctrines are “homemade,” just pieced together from our life experiences, old teachers, preachers, and, frankly – and much more than we realize -- our personal preferences.

All believers will, sooner or later, develop a theological system, formal or informal, that form his or her beliefs and practices.

The question then is not whether we have a doctrine or not. It is impossible not to have doctrine.

Therefore, a conscientious Christian will ask, “How does my doctrine compare to what the Bible teaches? Secondarily, he or she will ask “what have the saints through the ages believed?”

These questions reveal whether we are (or are not) marching to the steady beat, the common rhythm, of our faith, the one St. Jude claims was “once and for all delivered to the saints.”

As we really meditate on the teachings of THAT faith, we may discover how seriously we have tended to erode that faith and to morph it into something that past generations might not have recognized. After all, if their words –as we experience in the carols and creeds – seem increasingly alien to us, perhaps it is because what we normally practice and preach is increasingly alien from them.

Why is this important? It is important because beliefs have consequences. It is, therefore, important to consider the implications of a belief before we adopt it. And, to claim to believe something without understanding the implications lacks integrity. If the child born long ago really was God, and the early followers of that child really received what He wanted the world to know, then we should dedicate at least a part of our lives to understanding their message.

It is also important to review the beliefs we unconsciously collect. We all do that. Then, we have a habit of continuing to believe those things simply because we already believe!

However, what we believe determines how we behave. If our beliefs are not sound, how can our behavior be otherwise?

These are the reasons why a Christian should periodically do prayerful thinking about Christian doctrine. That way, he or she can live in peace and integrity with what he or she claims to believe.

Memorizing and meditating on the creeds will help you form a healthy doctrinal foundation. However, learning the lyrics of the carols will do it too.

Even the apparently silly ones, like “five goooood ---en riiiiiings!”

It makes me think of something that my true love once gave me, and which I hope will be the words of my dying breath:

“I believe in the Jesus Christ … who was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under Pontius Pilate, who died and rose again. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

Or, if you prefer, you can use the piecing words that Isaac Watts wrote in 1719:

"No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as, the curse is found."

Copyright © 2009 Dan Scott. All Rights Reserved

Listening for the Beat of the Drummer Boy

Yesterday we entered Advent.

Unbelievers will now begin their annual marketing orgy. Hopefully, it will explode into the orgiastic delight of getting more cool stuff.

For Christians, Advent is something different; it is a fresh look at the holy family, the incarnate God, and the dawn of redemption.

And, getting some new stuff!

The noise of secular Christmas/Winter solstice/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/who-cares-just buy-me-some stuff-and-pass-the-toys-and-booze is a loud continual buzz that can easily drown out a Silent Night. It takes spiritual work to listen for a fair rhythm played by a distant drummer boy. But listen intently, and you can follow that beat all the way to a manger. There, you will also hear the twelve drummers drumming.

The ancient music reminds the saints of all time that another world once broke through ours. One midwinter’s evening in Roman Palestine, God became a man “to save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray.”

Advent is about remembering who we are, whose we are, and to where we are headed. It’s about knowing what it means to serve the incarnate God who once became a tiny child.

In a world that has lost much of its magic and mystery, it is increasingly difficult to hear the sound of a drummer boy, or the twelve drummers drumming.

We need to hear it though: it’s the sound that has in all times and in all places been believed by the whole people of God.

Advent is not just about Christmas. It’s the beginning of the church year.

On this very first week of the Christian year, I am beginning a series of blogs that will explore the doctrines that all Christians hold in common. I will be trying help us hear the steady beat that defines how we are called to walk, pray, think and live.

To do that, I will ask you to memorize the Apostles Creed. It summarizes the core teachings of our faith and will give us a framework on which to place our discussions this year.

As we celebrate all the craziness of this wonderful season, we can also examine anew what it means to be a Christian.

The Apostle’s Creed can help us do that.

Why the Apostle’s Creed?

Well, president Reagan once told the story about an American Marine who died after fighting for several days against a superior force. When the Americans found his body, they discovered a message he had written on the wall; two words in his own blood: Semper Fideles (always faithful).

That Marine used his last burst of energy to reveal his soul. When a person is dying, he doesn’t fool around. He gets right to the point. A short statement like the one he used to do that is called a “creed,” a steady beat for those who want to walk in step with one another.

Semper Fideles is the creed of the United States Marines. A young recruit learns the words when he enlists; it takes him years to discover what they mean. The marine creed leads a young person into a rigorous training program and way of life. They mold the recruit into a different sort of person: a marine.

The dying marine knew in advance that he would give his life if it ever became necessary. He used his last measure of devotion and strength to write those two words on the wall merely to let his comrades know that he had kept his commitment. The agony of death would not deter him from keeping the steady beat of The United Sates Marines.

Christians too have a creed, a steady beat to which they play their score and regulate their march through life.

In its most basic form, the creed is simply: “Jesus is Lord!”

We say the words the moment we decide to become a believer but we have no idea where they will finally lead us.

The carol of the drummer boy is a touching story about a child who is shamed because he has no gold, frankincense or myrrh. His heart aches because he can’t find a way to contribute and to show his love to this holy child and his holy parents.

“I have no gift to bring, pa-rum pa pump um
That’s fit to give the king, pa rum pa pump um”

So he decides to beat on his drum.

“I’ll play my drum for him, pa rum pa pum pum
I’ll play my best for him, pa rum pa pump um.”

As the carol continues, we learn that the ox and lamb kept time.

And so do we all, marching century after century to a music the world cannot hear and does not comprehend. The story is so simple and the carols merely flesh out its meaning. But we sing them year after year because we are recalling something that is easy to forget, although it is precious beyond words.

Once in royal David's city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
He came down to earth from heaven
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour Holy.
And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in heaven,
Set at God's right hand on high;
Where like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.

That is the beat, the creed to which we pledge our live and which we recall during advent with our ancient songs and mysterious customs.

To all who believe, it is truly tidings of comfort and joy!

Holding Out

Many Christians are celibate.

Some choose celibacy, in order to give themselves completely to some cause.

Others do not have high relational or sexual needs.

Some have never found a husband or wife.

Some are widowed.

Some are mentally, emotionally or physically disabled.

Some are married to people for whom sex is difficult, impossible or unpleasant.

Some are celibate because they believe – emotionally if not intellectually – that being holy is incompatible with being sexual.

All of these situations can be lonely or painful at times, even if they are the results of a deliberate choice.

Some of these situations can infect one’s everyday life with a sadness and emptiness that becomes increasingly difficult to overcome or to express.

The truth is, most of us are all sexual beings, even if we intentionally chose to be celibate. If we make our own choice about it, the frustration can be offered up to God, for who we have made our choice. However, if the choice is made for us, frustration often turns to bitterness. Bitterness, in turn, can lead to a sense of entitlement: the belief that we deserve whatever sexual experience we can find, even if it is addictive and dark.

Patrick Carnes’s books are exceptionally helpful for understanding all types of sexual addiction. However, his most perceptive book may be the one he called, Sexual Anorexia.

His concept is simple: the sexual anorexic does to sex what other anorexics do to food. An anorexic demonizes his or her own desire for, taste of and consumption of food. A sexual anorexic looks at his or her own sexual desire as disgusting.

Christians can disguise this illness behind spiritualized god-talk. They can sanctify their repudiation of sexual life with high-sounding words and religious emotions. When they do this though, the suffering they inflict upon themselves and others becomes an invisible poison. Their cruelty continues its destructive work, defended by their denial of responsibility and adulthood.

There are always emotional bills to pay for becoming sexually anorexic. Even if the sexual anorectic is single, his or her denial of reality can only last so long.

If the anorexic is married, the damage is multiplied may times over.

The sexual anorexic leaves his or her Christian partner without legitimate options. The emptiness at the core of marriage may feel like God’s fault. While the sexual anorexic may feel spiritually superior, his or her partner spirals downward into sadness, rage or even addictive behavior.

It does not help if the anorexic (with a sigh) gives in occasionally. The partner senses the disdain and spiritual condescension. It becomes easier to give up sex altogether that to endure the unspoken judgment that accompanies the begrudging “gift.”

Meanwhile, the Christian community urges the couple to maintain their fidelity. To unknowing eyes, the frustrated partner looks like the irresponsible and unstable person. Not knowing what goes on behind the couple’s public masks, the congregation praises many unions that has become little more than endurance contests. “Being faithful” becomes a mere “not acting out with others.” But what could be more faithless than holding out intimacy from one’s beloved? And if we do this in the name of holiness, what could be more a betrayal against the God of love than to blame him for one’s own coldness and hardness of heart?

We rightfully condemn society’s immorality and sexual addiction. Internet porn is especially a cultural curse and a humiliating private disease. All too many of us – male and female – are vulnerable to its allure. And, we must say, no one else is to blame for the addicts own plunge into that darkness. But in a Christian marriage, there should be a joyful, adventuresome and intimate alternative to a private theft of illegitimate pleasures.

For all too many Christians, there is not.

When we speak about sin, we immediately think of the many wrong things we do. Perhaps we should turn our attention sometime to those things left undone.”

Will We Ever Get Naked?

A few days ago, I met with a group of therapists and church leaders to discuss a thorny issue: sexual dysfunction and addiction in church leadership and congregational life.

There has probably not been an era (or a culture) since Canaanite times in which such a wide spectrum of sexual experience is so readily available to so many. Ancient cultures were often promiscuous. However, sexual energy in them was channeled through such agencies as temple prostitution. Incest and rape were often unreported and thus unrecognized by society.

The Old Testament is clear that prostitution existed among the Jewish people. In fact, many of the heroes of faith visited prostitutes. If the women were not temple workers, in which case the sexual experience would have religious significance; it appears that Jewish culture viewed these indiscretions as misdemeanors.

My point here is this: during their brief and brutal lives, ancient peoples found outlets for sexual expression within the structures provided and approved by their culture.

In the New Testament, believers also lived in a world in which sexual experience was readily available for most people. The city of Corinth, for example, was famous for its promiscuity. However, Christ and the apostles taught clearly that sexual purity was foundational to holy living. Believers were invited into a struggle, in which learning how to govern sexual life was vitally important.

Christians were not transformed into angels, nor could they revert to prepubescent life. Somehow, they had to learn to be mature sexual adults who both acknowledged sexual desire and governed it.

They did this in cities like Corinth. In that respect then, there is some parallel between our Christian experience in a sexualized culture and that of the first century believers. However, there is a big difference as well.

Believers in ancient times had to cross real hurtles in order to participate in the kinds of sexual experiences offered by their cultures. They could rarely be anonymous -- or even discrete -- in the villages where they had lived their entire lives. Sexual indiscretions were not private. They could not be. Crossing a sexual line meant the loss of Christian community and open shame.
As Christianity replaced paganism, Europe became increasingly guarded about sexuality. The display of nudity and sexuality, so prominent in pagan art and writing, became forbidden and even criminalized. This was the way things were from late antiquity to modern times.

To a great extent, this was true even for our grandparents.

If granddad wanted to see nudity or have sex with someone other than his wife, he had to go far away or to a part of the city where no one knew him. If he wanted pornographic material, he had to buy it from people and in places that society judged as criminal. Good people didn’t visit such people or go to such places. We can assume that granddad sometimes thought about what a prostitute would be like. If he were a Christian however, he would quickly dismiss the thought and pray for forgiveness. The price was too high. He just didn’t go there.

With all due respect to granddad, he didn’t have access to a computer. He didn’t see billboards, magazines, and television advertisements promoting sexually explicit messages. Granddad had his own private sexual struggles, surely. But they nearly always remained there: in the privacy of his own heart.

Privacy and anonymity is what makes our experience with sexuality so different from any other age and culture.

Would granddad always refused to see a naked body had he been able to do so in private and without being known? Was his degree of holiness that much higher than ours?

I really doubt it!

The average age that an American child first views pornography is eleven.

The fastest growing porn market in America is young adult women.

Women, as it turns out, are as susceptible to private and anonymous sexual temptation as men. Removing the fear of pregnancy and of being socially ostracized has revealed that they too are also fallen creatures!

We are not acknowledging these things.

Believers are suffering from the church’s silence but church leaders hardly know what to do.
Our congregations are full of gender and sexual-preference confusion – in the pews and in the pulpits.

Liberal churches deal with these issues by rewriting the Bible.

Conservative churches deal with them by not dealing with them. Or, by getting angry at the people who struggle.

The clergy and other church leaders are as likely to act out (or to cover up) their sexual issues as anyone else. The real problem is the silence, denial and avoidance surrounding our people’s sexual pain and misconduct. We are passing through an epidemic that few people seem willing to address. Our churches tend to pour their passion into church business, workaholism and concerns about national and local political matters. They go on crusades against societal ills. They get involved all sorts of things that seem noble and grand. In the meantime, the levels of sexual pain in our congregations, staff and clergy continue to rise.

A large percentage of the people we see on any given Sunday morning are dealing with some sort of sexual struggle. They want to serve God and be faithful to Him. But they don’t know what to do with their temptations, hunger for intimacy, sexual dysfunction in their marriage, addiction, or sexual emptiness that eats away at their thoughts and emotions.

The people who lead us are not different in this regard than the ones in the pews. Many church leaders are also lonely, isolated, confused about their role in this emerging culture, sad about what may be missing in t heir private lives, trying not to fall into the pit that seem to surround them every time they leave the sanctuary.

One wonders if we will ever have the courage to care for one another by addressing one of our greatest sources of pain: the struggle between the way we ought to be and the way we actually are.

Well, La, Ti, Da! Or, On The Importance of Culture

When I was a child in West Virginia, if someone used a highfalutin’ word, someone else would inevitably respond, “well, la, ti da!”

It was an insult, and often a devastating one. Roughly translated, it meant, “Something is seriously wrong with you for using that word. A refined vocabulary puts the rest of us down and makes us feel bad. Lower the level of your conversation if you want us to like you.”

Sometimes it was deserved. There are those who deliberately use obscure words to put others down through feelings of inadequacy.

However, “la, ti da,” can also be used to resist refinement.

The establishment or continuation of culture can be undermined by such things.

I think that the ‘la, ti, da response’ is a great and present danger to the future of Western Civilization, which is the accumulated culture of six thousand years.

My definition of “culture” is “nature colonized by intelligence.”

The most basic form of culture, I submit, is agriculture: the purposeful management of soil and plants to maximize food production.

Even in their natural state, soil and plant life provide food. However, in that state, food must be sought and gathered from large tracks of ground. This requires most of the waking hours of anyone who wants to eat.

Agriculture makes it possible for a few people to feed many people. That, in turn, allows the many people to build material things and to create the kinds of immaterial things that make human life meaningful and joyful.

Agriculture moves human life beyond mere survival. It allows people to congregate in large numbers, where they can create cities. The cities can then form networks that can become civilizations.

This is what culture in all its aspects does for human life: it keeps us moving from mere survival and toward meaning and enrichment. It turns isolated brutes into cooperative citizens.

For example, education cultivates natural human intelligence. When we educate a child, we are maturing his or her raw intelligence. It moves from a preoccupation with mere survival into a focus upon artistic, spiritual, economic, and social concerns.

This is the way all kinds of culture work.

Culture develops individuals.

In turn, cultured individuals develop culture.

Therefore, we may say, culture tends to create a self-perpetuating cycle of development.
This cycle will continue unless and until individuals within a particular culture begin to resist it and to prefer a state of raw nature. It is at this time that culture begins to disappear.

This occurs when a substantial percentage of a people within a given culture adopt a “know-nothing” attitude. They begin to take pride in being unlettered, uneducated, or uncultured.
Religious people may express this attitude by disdaining their own scholars who study their own scriptures. They may begin to view ignorance as a form of piety.

Politically minded people do this when they seek their information only from those sources in agreement with their own political ideology.

These choices disrupt the cycle of cultural development. Culture begins to unravel. Things begin to head toward the state of raw nature: barbarism.

This is a serious trend. Unless reversed, it suggests the approaching fall of a culture because civilization is too frail to survive the state of barbarism.

A man or woman in a state of nature cannot do arithmetic.

For that matter, a man or woman in a state of nature cannot decide when and where to empty his or bladder. When the urge strikes, it must be obeyed. That is “what is natural.” One must belch when he wants or shout when he pleases.

Both arithmetic and toilet training are fruits of culture. They are behaviors we deliberately produce through the willful colonization of our natural human drives. They develop when we invite the collective intelligence of human society to influence and challenge our natural ideas and mental states.

Learning to navigate within and to make meaningful contributions to human society never comes naturally. It requires deliberate training. Those who ignore this cultural training, resist it, or disdain it, remain locked in the lower levels of intelligence and skill available to those who prefer states of nature. There are many ways we can do this.

One of the most disturbing trends of our times is the acceptance (and even celebration of) states of barbarism. The uncouth, the uncivil, the rude and the rash, are everywhere celebrated for their courage and forthrightness. Meanwhile, the measured and the cautious, the moderate and the considerate, the polite and the gracious are often taken as cowards and compromisers; unworthy of respect.

I have lived in a state of nature with Stone Age people. I have learned from them that civilization is fragile, that culture is precious. I know how raging fools, spilling out venom and vitriol, can stir up a mob that will develop the courage to kill. A blood lust can develop in the soul of a people that propels those people into states of insanity and mass hysteria. This can occur even to ordinarily gracious and generous people, if they adopt a know-nothing philosophy of life.

It happened once in Europe. A highly educated population began to tolerate the shouts of angry, hurling insults against Jews. The mob soon arose and carried Jews to ovens, where they baked and turned into smoke as their countrymen cheered.

It happened once here. A populist president drove an entire race of people across the continent as old people and babies died by the thousands. The path those people marched is a mere five miles from our church. Our culture –through our highest court -- said “don’t do it.” But the mob said “go ahead” and the deed was done. Our nation sinned against God and against an entire race of people. We then covered up the deed in the history books and our political speeches.

Art and Science, Athletics and Spirituality, Agriculture and Medicine; all require stability, civility, moderation, manners, discussions that honor difference and definitions of terms. Such things do not arise from states of nature. They are the deliberate fruit of intentional cultivation.

Their continued existence is dependent upon our steadfast resistance of any romanticizing or celebration of states of barbarism.

La, ti, da is not an innocent jingle. It is an insidious call to return to the jungle.

What Is Real, Really?

So much of what we think is valuable is, in a sense at least, a figment of our collective imagination.

Human beings do not live merely as natural beings in a natural world; they live in a natural world overlaid with meanings they pour into it.

Our interpretation of things, events, motives of others – even of our own emotions – are often as real to us as any tree or bird. Thus, a robin is pleasant and a vulture is not. We can be as wise as an owl or as self-deceiving as an ostrich; stubborn as a mule or free as a bird.

Wisdom is the process of distinguishing between useful and delightful thoughts on one hand, and absolute reality on the other.

We live within a web of mental constructions that can seem as real to us as brick houses. In fact, most of us live in houses that others constructed. In many cases, the houses were here before we were born, just like the mental constructions that were given to us by culture, nation, family and religion.

The houses are made of natural substances. However, even those substances are prepared by human hands. Brick is clay that people have cooked according to recipes passed down and refined by generations of people since the days of ancient Babylon. Nonetheless, we soon invest these houses – at least the ones we actually inhabit – with affection, memory and meaningful artifacts and so, in time, these “houses” become “homes.”

The same sort of process transforms a piece of dirt into a “motherland” or a piece of cloth into “Old Glory.” It even transforms a nasty piece of cloth-paper into “money.”

It is all “art,” a shortened word for “artificial”: that is to say, “man-made”.

Art is the purposeful arrangement of materials in order to communicate emotion, idea or meaning. It is the imposition of human imagination upon nature. It is the process of transforming a piece of imagination into a piece of matter.

So what is imagination? The word means “image-making.” It describes the greatest power of human life: our ability to “see things that are not as though they were.”

Isn’t it great? Well, most of the time.

The Bible continually warns us against idolatry, which is the elevation of man-made things into the category of “absolute.” Idolatry erases the border between God-made and “man-made.” It makes the figments of our imagination as valuable, or even more valuable, than the world of nature. Thus, a national border, which human minds conceive and then project upon the natural world, can become more valuable than human beings, who bear God’s own image and likeness.
Our greatest president recognized the point I am making here when, in his most famous speech, he acknowledged that this nation was “conceived and dedicated to a proposition.” The proposition to which he refers is noble, even godly: “all men are created equal.” Nonetheless, the president’s assertion exposes the nation’s foundation: ideas.

The true borders of our nation are not latitudes and longitudes but ideals: a democratically governed republic, a portion of the world in which people make the most important decisions of life according to the dictates of their own conscience, a contract among all the generations that “this government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth,” a promise to “provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare for ourselves and our posterity,” and so forth and so on.

My mind is filled with all these phrases and customs, explanation and emotions, arguments and historical events. Every time I cross the border from another country into this one, this web of patriotic constructions shudders with delight. “This land is my land (not so sure these days that it’s your land) from California to the New York islands.”

This land is my home: “land where my fathers died; land of the pilgrims’ pride.”

My ancestors were all here before the revolutionary war. They fought and died in all its wars. They tamed a wilderness and left home places that I treasure.

It’s wonderful. But it’s not holy.

When patriotism becomes holy, the darkness of idolatry leads to purges, concentration camps and persecution.

The first two commandments are clear: we are forbidden to worship the things we create.
When we blur the distinction between creation and art, we get into dangerous territory.

Fantasy is another form of imagination; little private movies that we play for our own amusement, instruction or horror. When the fantasies turn dark, they can exert great power over our actions.

“May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, Oh Lord.”

May we have the wisdom to discern the difference between art and nature, between that which is holy and that which only deserves respect, and between fleeting notions and ideas which need to be nourished, developed and imposed upon the world.