Every marriage is a living picture, and a picture is worth a thousand words.
Which means it is beyond words.
It is a feel. It is an aura unique to the man and the woman that has become one flesh.
There is such a thing as an aesthetics of couples.
We are talking about much more than a decorative picture. The aesthetics of couples is a powerful principle. It is the very key to replenishing the earth, and having dominion over it. We can only imagine what the beauty of an unfallen Adam and Eve would have been.
But that is why Christ and the Church, ultimately, will be a marriage. It will mean rulership of the cosmos.
But today we see many small microcosms of this picture. We see it in every marriage, for better, or for ill, clearly, or weakly. When a man leaves father and mother and cleaves unto his wife, that one flesh emits a cosmos-shaping power, however small that cosmos may be.
Think about all the marriages you know. Take a tally. Consider the influence of each, the legacy of each, the fruits borne, the lives shaped. Or the damages done.
Logos2Go
Genesis 1.26-28 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominionover the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 2.24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto hiswife: and they shall be one flesh.
Ephesians 5.31-32 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
The aesthetics of couples
Peking duck and seeing and tasting
You first order the duck; usually a half or a whole. Order the whole if your party is more than 2.
At a better than average restaurant, the chef wheels the roasted whole duck to your table and carves it in front of you. He is usually accompanied by a small troupe of young waitresses, placing dishes of the crispy pieces on the table.
You then wrap the pieces into a doughy crepe, along with black bean paste, scallions, and a variety of other fresh condiments.
Peking Duck.
And for any civilized Chinese meal, this would just be one of several dishes you must of course order. But WAIT!
Would you like the chef to make a soup for you from the remains of the duck? Why yes! Usually the soup comes last; no extra charge.
Chinese food is an exercise in tasting and seeing.
Not only tasting -- which is enough in a pinch -- but tasting and seeing. I would say it is a peculiar feature of many of the cuisines of the world. Tasting and seeing.
You can taste very quickly. But to taste and see, you'll need to slow down. The meal cannot be a quick pit-stop you make while on your way to something else.
The meal is the something else.
The whole experience must be played out over a good stretch of time if you are to get your fill of tasting and seeing.
American cuisine -- and usually you don't come across the words "American" and "cuisine" side-by-side -- American cuisine is somewhat weak on the seeing part. That's because we always think we've got other places to go and other people to see.
This affects how we understand this:
Taste and see that the Lord is good.
This sentence was not written by an American, but by someone from one of those cultures with a cuisine.
Logos2Go
Psalm 34.8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Who says God is fair?
Where do we get this idea?
Consider one of the most extraordinary passages of the Bible; it is about Isaac the son of Abraham:
And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great.
Well, I guess Isaac became great.
We shouldn't begrudge him this, should we? Most likely Isaac deserved to be great, didn't he? He must have lived a righteous life; he must have worked hard for his greatness; he must have been an example and a leader in his community ... and all the rest of what we think it takes to become a great person.
But wait...
This passage about how Isaac was so great, greater, very great -- just Tony-the-Tiger GRRRRREAT! ... comes right after he tells a lie about his wife.
In the true tradition of his father Abraham -- who also was a great man; after all, Abraham is the father of all those of faith -- in the true tradition of his father Abraham, Isaac tries to pass Rebecca off as his own sister.
This just so as to protect his own great hide. Truly an act of greatness. And then, right after this noble act:
And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great.
And what does the rest of that chapter say about Isaac?
It seems that all Isaac did was dig wells. Wells upon wells. That's all he seems to have done. And make no mistake: Isaac didn't do the digging; his servants did it.
And then the chapter concludes by saying that Isaac and his (ahem) wife Rebecca had a real problem with one of their sons, a guy named Esau ...
That's it. That's the chapter. But Isaac was one of the greatest men in the Holy Scriptures.
Who says God is fair? On the evidence of Genesis chapter 26, He is not.
We insist on a fair God because we insist on the myth of a level playing field. You see, if the playing field is level, then scrubs like you and me can have a chance in life. If the playing field is level, then it's UP TO ME to make myself a success.
We like that. We just want God to be a benevolent umpire on the sidelines, making sure that everything is FAIR.
We want God to be fair because we really don't want Him to interfere with our own efforts at success ... even with our own efforts at holiness. It is as if we are saying to God:
"Now you just stay over there and watch us; if the other guy cheats, make sure you throw the flag and penalize him ...! Just be fair!"
But God is not the God of FAIR.
God is the God of GRACE.
And because we never know how His grace will play out ...
God is a God to be FEARED.
Logos2Go
Isaac lying about his wife: Genesis 26.6-11
Genesis 26.13 And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great.
Isaac's people digging wells: Genesis 26.15, 18,19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 36
Genesis 26.34-35 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Abraham lying about his wife: Genesis 12.11-13
Abraham lies again about his wife: Genesis 20.2
Romans 5.16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
The normal scattering of seeds
The sower sows the word; this is what the Scripture says.
But we often think of this parable as only describing the Word of the initial Gospel, and the fruit that results as those who receive the Gospel. In other words, we think the parable of the sower is "only" a picture of evangelism.
Until we ourselves are scattered.
Then it occurs to us that scattering not only applies to the word of the Gospel; it also applies to those who have the Word of the Gospel in them.
Those who receive the Gospel themselves become bearers of the seed of the Word.
And in this life, it is normal for seeds to be scattered:
For everything there is a season ... a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain ...
The stones of the house of God are not only to be built together, and built up; seasons will come when those stones need to be scattered ... so that more stones might be built up.
It is a historical fact that whenever the people of God were scattered, the Word also scattered, and the Church ultimately advanced.
We assume otherwise: We think of ourselves as the fruit of the seed that was sown, not as the seeds themselves. After all, the seed of the Word bore us. We simply want to grow in place. We want to flourish where we are planted. Be comfortable. Grow our gardens. Coast to retirement and beyond. Well, these are all normal expectations.
But scattering is also normal.
Logos2Go
Mark 4.3 "Listen! A sower went out to sow ...
Ecclesiastes 3.1 ..., 5 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing ...
1 Peter 2.5 ... you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Zechariah 13.7-9 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," declares the Lord of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. "In the whole land, declares the Lord , two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. "And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'"
On art and being proportional
If the Christian life is nothing more than just a journey through a fallen world, what is the role of art, and art-making, while on this journey?
If we are not to assign eternal meaning to the temporary furnishings of this world, what kind of meaning should we assign to art, and to art-making?
And if for this journey we are only to bring a little money for our needs, and even a sword or two for our security -- but if these bare essentials are "enough" -- how do we account for art?
After all, isn't art the emblem of a life that is furnished with more than just the bare essentials?
During the Reformation, in response to the excessive use of objects of art in the Roman Church, John Calvin not only rejected art-forms of any kind as unbiblical, he even said this: “we must hold it as a first principle, that as often as any form is assigned to God, his glory is corrupted by an impious lie.”
This seems extreme to our ears.
Recent commentaries on the arts have been more accommodating. But Calvin's "anti-aestheticism" persists in overall Protestant understandings of the Bible.
I don't think we should see this cautionary view of art as merely some form of Protestant prudishness. Jesus was very clear that our time here is only for "a little while." Paul also spoke of urgency: the time is short ... if you are sad, don't be too sad; if you are happy, don't be too happy; if you buy something, remember it is not really yours. Don't even think of marriage as the be-all and end-all of contentment.
In all of this, where is art and art-making?
I think one answer is proportions.
Look at the creation of which we are a part. Everything fits together with every other thing so perfectly -- from sub-atomic particles to galaxies -- everything fits together so perfectly it is beyond comprehension. And this is in a fallen nature. What would a restored nature -- an unfallen nature -- be like? It would be all new beyond comprehension.
And who or what has Christ's work already made new?
Us. "Behold if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation..."
So art begins with proportional beauty in who we are and in what we do.
The art of being practical is the art of being proportional, in right relation to all else, even if everything else still bears the taint of the fall.
A being that is proportional in who he is and in what he makes. I think a Christian understanding of art-making begins with this, at least for this little while.
Logos2Go
John 16.16 "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me."
Luke 22.38 The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords." "That is enough," he replied.
1 Corinthians 7.29-31 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
2 Corinthians 5.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975), I.xi.1, 91.
Bonhoeffer on being practical
As I've been saying here and here, Jesus was a realist. Which is to say, God is practical.
Yes, we are on a journey to eternity. But it is a journey to eternity. This means you can't expect the rewards of eternity to be available now.
As for now, as for this journey, take along some money if you can; sell a thing or two to buy a thing or two. Be sensible with the sense God gave you, and protect yourselves from obvious danger.
Don't look at life through rose-colored glasses; which is to say, don't think of the Gospel as imbuing everything in this life with the value of eternal life. As a matter of fact, the Gospel is what makes clear that nothing in this life equals the joy of eternal life.
That there is no eternal joy here is the Good News, not the bad news.
Happy is the person who does not try to squeeze the eternal weight of joy out of every two-pound piece of land, or bank account, or house, or career, or relationship, or whatever, this life offers.
Here is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it:
... wherever it is recognized that the power of death is illumined by the miracle of the resurrection and of the new life, there no eternities are demanded of life, but one takes of life what it offers, not all or nothing, but good and evil, the important and the unimportant, joy and sorrow; one neither clings convulsively to life nor casts it frivolously away. One is content with the allotted span and one does not invest earthly things with the title of eternity; one allows to death the limited rights which it still possesses. It is from beyond death that one expects the coming of the new man and of the new world, from the power by which death has been vanquished...
So take along a sword or two. Oh, you already have two swords? That's enough ...
Logos2Go
D. Bonhoeffer, Ethics, quoted by Richard John Neuhaus in First Things, No. 163, May, 2006, p64. (Neuhaus does not give the pagination in Ethics).
Luke 22.35-39a And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough. And he came out, and went, as he was wont ...
For the things concerning me have an end
And right in the middle of this curious conversation, Jesus said: "For the things concerning me have an end."
What does this mean?
The conversation, again, involved Jesus telling his disciples they should sell some garments to buy swords. This is different counsel than when he sent them out before, telling them to not take any provisions. But now, before he was to be crucified, it seems he wanted them to look out for themselves a little by buying a few swords, and also to take along some money. Why the change?
And then: "For the things concerning me have an end."
Does this mean that the things prophesied about his earthly ministry in the Old Testament have a finite end at the time of his death and resurrection? If so, how does it shed light on the need to buy swords? Certainly Jesus' own actions a few verses later, when he healed his attacker's ear and told his disciples to put away their swords, do not support this view.
After all, "the things concerning me have an end" gives us no warrant to say that it only refers to the things at the end of the first advent. Many things concerning Christ are applicable throughout the church age.
I think it means we need to take a few things along -- in other words, to be prepared to live in this vale of tears in a reasonable, practical manner -- throughout the church age ... until all that has been prophesied about the Christ has been fulfilled.
But Jesus also underlines to not go overboard. Don't make the things you take along become the be-all and end-all of your journey -- as if you've forgotten you're on a journey, and have ended up parked in one place just accruing things.
Two swords on hand? Ah well, that's enough. And he moved on ...
Logos2Go
Luke 22.35-38 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here [are] two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough. And he came out, and went, as he was wont ...
Luke 22.50-51 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.
1 Timothy 6.7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.