By the signs that followed

So there is both the defense as well as the confirmation of the gospel.

Defense is something we prepare for. For example, Peter exhorts his readers to "always be prepared to give ... the reason for the hope that you have." This takes some work. At any moment, are we prepared to give the reason for our hope?

But then there is the confirmation portion of this formula. I've been tracking this word in the Greek: βεβαιόω. For example, here is how the Gospel of Mark concludes:

They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

Confirmation by the signs that followed. Now here is something ...

The disciples were busy, going everywhere to preach the gospel. They were prepared for its defense; they had all the reasons.

But it was the Lord with them who confirmed what they did -- and this by the signs that followed. These signs no amount of preparation can produce.

Indeed, the very nature of confirmation is that somebody else has to do the confirming.

This is what we should live for: the confirmation of our confession by the signs that follow.

Logos2Go

Philippians 1.7 ... both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers with me of grace.

Mark 16.20 And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

Categorizing out worship

It was most likely a responsive exchange in public congregation. The speaker points out an act of God: God does such-and-such. And the people would respond: His steadfast love endures forever.

What's remarkable are the many categories of God's actions the speaker intones -- all to which the response is the same: His steadfast love endures forever.

First there are the acts of creation: He created the heavens with understanding. His steadfast love endures forever. He made the sun to rule the day. His steadfast love endures forever. The moon and stars to rule the night. His steadfast love endures forever.

Then there are political actions: He struck down the firstborn of Egypt. His steadfast love endures forever. He overthrew Pharaoh, parted the Red Sea, allowed his people to cross, and so on. His steadfast love endures forever.

There are actions of kindness towards His people: He remembered us in our low estate. His steadfast love endures forever. He rescued us from our foes. His steadfast love endures forever.

Finally there is His care of all people: He gives food to all flesh. His steadfast love endures forever.

To all these categories of divine activity, the response is the same -- because the author is the same: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God of the Scriptures.

The result is worship: His steadfast love endures forever.

Fast forward to today.

Nothing created the heavens and the earth; it was a big bang followed by the random activities of atoms.

Political actions? Just be politically correct. Shut up about that overthrowing your enemies stuff. Strive for world peace. (Curious: if everything is random atoms bumping each other, why must we strive for world peace?)

Actions of kindness? Well there is some of that. But we have to have federal funding. It takes a village, you see.

Care of all people? It's a dog-eat-dog world.

It occurs to me that the word "worship" has pretty much been excised from our everyday vocabulary. Can it be because we have categorized God out of every domain of activity?

I am reminded of a remark made by C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image; something to the effect that when people in medieval times looked up at the stars in the sky, they felt they were in a cathedral.

When we look up, all we see are atoms.

And we don't even see them.

Logos2Go

Psalm 136:

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

4 to him who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 to him who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
7 to him who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
16 to him who led his people through the wilderness,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

17 to him who struck down great kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
18 and killed mighty kings,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
22 a heritage to Israel his servant,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
25 he who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

The defense and confirmation of the gospel

The "defense of the gospel" is a familiar term. It conjures up images of fortification: rugged bulwarks of logic able to withstand the onslaught of enemies of the Christian confession.

In theological seminaries the defense of the gospel is an academic department: Apologetics, which derives directly from the Greek word for defense, ἀπολογία. Apologetics teaches you to get your doctrine right every which way, so that you can be prepared against every which parry of the opposition. All of this is good as far as it goes.

But here I am struck by a phrase of Paul's: "... the defense and confirmation of the gospel."

Now this is a beautiful thing. I take confirmation of the gospel as not so much a successful logical defense of the gospel.

I take confirmation of the gospel as something that necessarily blooms on its own.

While defense can take place in academic settings, or at least within academic outlooks, confirmation blooms in the fields of daily life, usually without us knowing it.

Of course I am not suggesting that heretics can bloom successfully; a life that blooms in the gospel -- that is, a life that confirms the gospel -- is no doubt a life that reflects the correct doctrines of the gospel.

My point is simply that there are many whose lives are beautiful confirmations of the gospel -- who are not very good logical defenders of it, in the sense of knowing, for example, how to finely parse the finer points of infra- versus supra-lapsarianism.

Go ahead and defend the gospel.

But once in a while, don't forget to check for the blooms of confirmation.

Logos2Go

Philippians 1.7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

Artwork is oil pastel on poster board

A dense stretch of fresh green

When we last visited Yellowstone in1997, we saw the remains of a devastating fire:

Charred tree trunks as far as you can see, some still standing, but countless strewn on the ground like randomly tossed burnt toothpicks.

This time, thirteen years later, new growth is well on the way, a dense stretch of fresh green below the still visible charred stalks of the past.

You can't engineer the location of these new saplings. Each has a unique place, a unique look, a totally original disposition.

The only thing clear is that they are everywhere.

Logos2Go

Psalm 96.12 ... let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy ...

Bread and transformation

When we dine together, we don't break grain.

We break bread.

By the time we can break bread, an entire culture must be in place: a culture that knows how to plow the ground, plant, cultivate the land, pray for good weather, celebrate the harvest, grind the grain, knead the dough.

A culture that can bake and cook. And then dine and dream about what the future holds.

Only then can we break bread.

Given this, it is amazing that bread is universal to all cultures. I think bread is emblematic of how God made us different from the animals.

Animals simply eat the grain that nature yields. But we humans: it is in our very nature to transform the yield of nature into something new before we can be satisfied.

Grain is good. But bread is beautiful.

Logos2Go

John 6.35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

Luke 22.19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

Two views about blogs

While traveling I am reading R.W. Southern's Medieval Humanism and Other Studies and listening to Ken Myer's Mars Hill Audio Journal.

Southern underlines the importance of letter writing as a literary form in the 12th century. This is different, Southern says, from the subsequent 13th century, which saw more formalized systems of knowledge, conveyed perhaps by treatises and the like, rather than by letters.

Southern reviews a collection of letters exchanged between the French theologian Peter Abelard (1079-1143) and Heloise, a woman with whom he had a romantic liaison while they were young, only to be recanted by both sides due to their religious convictions. The letters span many of these later years, and paint a picture of the struggles of two people torn between love for each other and love for God -- a conflict which medieval theology was particularly ill-equipped to resolve.

The romantic interest aside, Southern's point is that the letters themselves reveal the learning of the day and, because of this, the gestalt of the times. This was the 12th century.

Fast forward to Ken Myers in the 21st century:

In Volume 90 of the Mars Hill Audio Journal, Myers is concerned about the decline of reading as a general practice. In interviews with various luminaries, I was struck by how regularly Myers denigrates blogging as a writing and reading activity. I think he twice invoked blogging with a guffaw, clearly implying it is not something any person serious about learning should be involved with. As I recall:

With Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, blogging is associated with the inability to string several thoughts together.

And with Eugene Peterson, emeritus professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in British Columbia and author of over 30 Christian books, Myers suggests that nasty people Peterson met at a party were probably bloggers -- or something to that effect.

I think Myers may be missing something here.

Future generations may well look back at our day and treat the contents of blogs with a little more respect. It is often the vernacular writing of an era that is most revealing about that era.

It surprises me that Myers, for whom I have general respect, misses this even as he promotes reading and writing.

If he were still around, I think R.W. Southern would be more insightful.

Logos2Go

2 Timothy 4.13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments ...

R.W. Southern, "The Letters of Abelard and Heloise" in Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1970), 88-104

Mars Hill Audio Journal, Vol. 90, March/April 2008

note: since I am traveling, it is difficult to cite specifically Myers' comments; I may be slightly off above, but Myers' gist is clear.