Only God is God

Tolkien, in a letter to his son, about government:

“…The proper study of man is anything but man. And the most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity…”

Updates

So a few updates - t-minus four days to our wedding! Staying very busy with that and anticipating the big day.
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Alright, my last post promised that I would finish the thought in the near future, which is clearly a falsity at this point! Though the intention was there, the time was not. I've read Margaret Farley's 'Just Love' and a collection of Meileander's essays the last couple of months so I'm ready to think about other things now!
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I've been reading 'To Live in Peace' by Mark Gornik. This is wonderful theological writing - very autobiographical (he "owns" the material), interacting with the grand theological frameworks (Moltmann on hope, Volf on church, Millbanks on sociology, etc), and oozing Scripture (especially Isaiah!).

I've thought about this book so far in this way: Tim Keller says that any passage of Scripture can be 'used' to speak towards 1) personal piety (individual human hearts), 2) faith (intellectual understanding of doctrine), or 3) social transformation (action in the community - ecclesial or secular). To be fair, Keller uses that framework to evaluate sermons, but he helpfully notes that preachers (and I think we could say writers as well) tend towards one of these three. The objective therefore is to force ourselves on occassion towards the other two as well. I think my weakest area here is the last one, and this is precisely where Gornik excels (though he certainly does not fail at the others). His uses of Isaiah are especially helpful to me so far, because he is showing me that Isaiah, for example, can be read as a missiological text for urban neighborhoods and community transformation.
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I should be back blogging here in a month or so. We'll see!

Augustine on Proper Sexual Desire

Augustine often uses the food appetite as an analogy to discussing proper sexual desire. He delineates two aspects of eating:

A1: The proper purpose or end of eating: nourishment
B1: The pleasure derived from eating

Augustine claims that seeking the pleasure beyond the proper end is sinful. We want to agree with this basic point. Meileander, however, wants to challenge what Augustine lists in “A1”. He asks, isn’t there more to eating than feeding to stay alive? Doesn’t it also cultivate human community and facilitate other important desires like symbolic representation and enjoyable conversation? Why else would we eat in heaven (see City of God, 13.22)?

Here is the parallel situation for sexual activity:
A2: The proper purpose or end of sexual activity between spouses: procreation
B2: The pleasure derived from sexual activity

To make the point again, when “B2” is pursued beyond “A2” then we have sinful sexual activity. In other words, according to Augustine, every time sexual desire is felt it must be for the purpose of procreation or else the desire is sinful. Augustine actually takes it even further in his commentary on Genesis. He notes that in the Garden (before the fall) Adam and Eve would have first desired children (“A2” would come first), and then they would desire to have sexual intercourse and enjoy it as a result (“B2” would follow as a decision of the will). In other words, the pleasure would be “a kind of bonus” (Meileander, pg 131) or side-effect and not part of the motivation towards intercourse.

But if we could include the good of human community, symbolic enactment, and edifying conversation in "A1" then maybe we could similarly include more in “A2” than merely procreation. Catholic theology itself has added in a very official way the sacramental good or, as Baptists would have it, symbolic enactment, to “A2”. But maybe enrichment of a marriage relationship (what some Catholic ethicists are now calling “the unitive good of marriage”) could also be added to “A2”. If we add these other two proper ends to sexual activity between spouses, we would have the following:

A2: The proper purposes or ends of sexual activity between spouses: procreation, symbolism of Christ and the church, and enrichment of the relationship

Meileander then turns (pg 136ff) to show how these three goods in “A2” must interrelate. More on this in the next post.

[These points are largely taken from 'The Way that Leads There' by Gilbert Meileander]

[In Margaret Farley's profound work 'Just Love', she makes the startling observation that the 'unitive good' and 'procreative good' may not be too far apart - if properly experienced, they both may be collapsed into the latter. I'll be quiet now and let her speak: "...it is possible that meanings of sexuality [what we've called 'purposes' in this post] come together - in passion, tenderness, and a love so full that sexuality mediates new being." (pg 163)]

The City of God

Peter Leithart, Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, & Hope In Western Literature (ix):

"Viewed as a whole . . . the Christian account of history is eschatological not only in the sense that it comes to a definitive and everlasting end, but in the sense that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. The Christian Bible moves not from garden lost to garden restored, but from garden to garden-city. God gives with interest."

(Thanks to - here - for this quote)

Wisdom and Trust

The two terms above could be understood as a hendiadys; so this post could be entitled: "Trustful Wisdom" or "Dependent Wisdom".

Of all the books in the Bible, Proverbs holds a special place in my mind and heart. Probably, this is because I've read this book more than any other. For many years I read the chapter of Proverbs that corresponded to each day of the month. I still go back to this on occassion, since it is so easy to pick up at any point. In addition to reading the book, two commentaries especially opened my eyes to depths I never would have seen on my own - Van Leeuwen's commentary and articles and William McKane's commentary. The motivation for studying Proverbs, and more importantly for seeking wisdom, began when I read through Proverbs 2 one morning. Here, a choice is laid before a young man - pursue money with all your might or pursue wisdom with all your might. Both will require late hours and constant attention. But the yield which comes from wisdom will far exceed monetary blessings.

However, a couple of years ago a mentor of mine gave me a warning (I don't think he knew it was a warning, but God's Spirit impressed it upon me in that way). He mentioned that Solomon's life shows that wisdom alone will not save. He was noting the necessity of Christ's sacrificial love in addition to wisdom.

As I was studying Isaiah 29 last week and Isaiah 30 this afternoon I noticed another quality that must be added to wisdom. In Isaiah 30:9 the words "ben" (translated "sons" or "children") and "torah" (translated as "instruction") take us back to Proverbs 2:1. Here, it seems that Isaiah is addressing a situation where wisdom teachers (those that were probably even quoting Scriptures like Proverbs 2!) were counseling Judah to a course of action that was contrary to God's ways. They were not disagreeing with God that He should save them. But they disagreed with God over how they should be saved. They were the clay speaking back to the potter, saying that the form is all wrong (29:16). In the historical context, some political counselors suggested making an alliance with Egypt. But God said, no. This was not the form of salvation He had chosen.

This shows that two things are true, though they appear contradictory - 1) according to Proverbs 2 we should pursue wisdom with the vigor of a young investment banker trying to work his way up the ladder of success, and 2) we should not rely upon our own wisdom in making big decisions. It's almost like God is saying 'get it but don't rely upon it'. In other words, it is possible to know how to make your ideas stick and to make big things happen in this world that God has created and yet still miss God's pathway of salvation. The problem with the leaders in Judah during Isaiah's time was that they were overusing their wisdom.

In addition to pursuing wisdom, we must maintain a deep sense of the fact that God's Wisdom is always higher than ours. The danger always exists for misusing wisdom (that's why we need sacrificial love). But there is also a danger of overusing wisdom (that's why we need trust/dependence also). We must consistently pursue keeping our spirits humble before God, knowing that He is the One who controls the future. This should not make us timid but trusting, acknowledging Him in all of the steps that we take. We need a trustful wisdom, a spirit that is both dependent and wise.

(Footnote on wisdom literature: I was delighted to see that in the well-known book Made to Stick they make significant references to proverbial conventions...they note that what made proverbs so useful was that they were so easy to remember since they were stated in a pithy way. They were the "Just Do It" phrases of the day that everyone knew. But people also remembered proverbs because they were considered helpful and true. I wish the authors would have explored the connections between truth and the "stickiness" of an idea - Augustine explores this in detail in 'On Christian Doctrine'.)

Temptation (And Wisdom) as Female

Proverbs 1-9

I've always been fascinated by the imagery used in the Book of Proverbs to describe the crucial choices which young men make. The wise biblical author(s), inspired by the Holy Spirit (see last post...this must mean revealing Jesus and His work for us as the life-giving source), lay out a number of images:
-They talk about two paths.
-They talk about two ambitions or vocations, both of which requires late nights of work and pursuit - the vocation of gaining more money or the vocation of gaining more wisdom.
-They give the option of a feast at the perfect house (with seven pillars...heavy symbolism) of Woman Wisdom or an escapade at the house of Woman Folly.

The last image depicts the choice for wisdom or folly as two potential relationships, either with a woman who has no sense or with a woman who has great sense. The former appears and smells more attractive than the latter. But surprisingly, while things get worse and worse if in a relationship with Woman Folly, one's experience of Woman Wisdom gets better and better. Woman Wisdom is a thousand times more attractive two years into the relationship, and the exact opposite is true of Woman Folly. (Young guys reading this - This is why you don't base your selection of a mate on appearance.) Ever since I began to understand this way of thinking and took it into my heart a few years ago, things have been different for me. Not perfect, but I find myself on a different road and I'm "holding out" for deeper pleasures and experiences. I've experienced that there is a logic to the arguments for wisdom in Proverbs 1-9 that you can actually live within, and live with great freedom.

This morning I was working through Isaiah 30. I'm just now beginning to understand how deeply a natural law (at the maximum) or a wisdom/creation-order approach (at the minimum) undergirds Isaiah's prophecies. He begins the book by appealing to the heavens and the earth (1:2), and there is a sense in which he appeals to our common knowledge of things throughout the book (potter-clay imagery, living like a rebellious teenager, etc). And to my surprise, this morning I discovered (I think) a reference in Isaiah 30:7 to the same argument used in Proverbs 1-9 about Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly.

Isaiah 30:7 reads, "Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her 'Rahab who sits still.'" This is a profound verse and in many ways a summary of a good portion of Isaiah's prophetic efforts in Isaiah 1-39 (the tone changes in 40-66). But notice what Isaiah is doing. He is saying that Egypt is like Rahab. It is important to note that in the Hebrew, "Rahab" is spelled differently than the Rahab we read about in Joshua 2. He's not talking about the Rahab that lived in Jericho and was saved because of her faith in the God of the Jews. The verse would make no sense if that were the character referred to here. Rather, the author is alluding to the same figure described in Job 9:13 and Job 26:12. Here, Rahab is a "mythic female force" (Isaiah by Goldingay, pg 167). In Psalm 89:10 Egypt is seen as the earthly embodiment of Rahab. In other words, Egypt is Woman Folly for Israel because she is constantly tempted to think that relying upon her and engaging in a relationship with her would be more exciting and satisfying than a relationship with Woman Wisdom.

This connection in Isaiah to the Woman Folly/Woman Wisdom framework makes us realize that anything we are tempted to rely upon other than God is a seductress. And Proverbs warns us: "Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes" (Prov 6:25). Instead, let our trust be in the LORD! For He is our protection and One that gets better and better as we continue to desire Him. He satisfies ALL our desires...and then some.

If you made it to the end of this post, I commend you!

Rightly Handling The Word of Truth

In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul writes, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

What does it mean to rightly handle the Word of Truth, the Scriptures? Here are a few thoughts that have been edifying and helpful in my attempts to present myself to God as one approved:

My overall thesis: We must first understand the nature of the Scriptures before we treat them properly. The way that you treat anything properly is by treating it according to its nature. You don't put a fish on land if you're trying to treat it properly! That would be contrary to its nature. And so we must also know the nature of the Scriptures to handle them properly. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "all Scripture is breathed out by God..." The metaphor being used here is of Scripture as a living organism, created by God's life-giving breath. The result of God's breathing the Scriptures into existence is that we possess "a living and active" word (Hebrews 4:12).

This imagery of God's breath giving rise to a living organism brings two important points to mind about the nature of Scripture:

First, the Bible grew and came into being in connection with concrete historical situations. Living beings grow over time, and so did Scripture. The various historical situations which an organism grows within shape and color its development and existence. And so interpretation of Scripture is something more than merely scientifically dissecting a thing that was mechanically produced or that is dead. It takes great care to understand the historical shadings, to learn the history so as to discern the life breathed into it.

Second, Luther's concept of a canon within a canon is simply a recognition of how any living organism has parts that function differently. There are some parts that are of ultimate and some parts of penultimate importance. A hair on one's head is less important than an eye-ball (trust me, I'm bald!). Here we must remember that the central thread of life in the Bible, the most important line that we must never tire of tracing, is the work of God in Jesus Christ. If we don't discern this as the central thread of life that distinguishes the Bible from all other literature, we are not able to properly handle the Word of God. We could add to that slightly and say that it involves unfolding the salvation of humanity in Jesus and the lives of the saints in heaven. There can be a tendency to look for moral teaching or words of judgment from Scripture and then to be done with it. Morality and judgment are both present. But those who have most thoroughly explained and understood Scripture are those who have never tired of proclaiming the message of hope and life that is to be found there. The morality and judgment (and every other element) must serve that end. As we pay attention to this thread, we can say with the Apostle Paul that we have not failed to proclaim "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), which consists of announcing the implications of the kingdom of salvation and eternal life that Jesus brings and reigns over.

Augustine has an almost extreme way of stating this - he claims that a preacher who gets many facts wrong but leaves her hearers with a deeper love for God has indeed grasped the point of Scripture and has rightly handled it. However, a preacher improperly handles the word of truth if he has all the facts right but does not impart something of the new life to his hearers.

And so to treat the Bible according to its nature is to unfold the message of salvation and the eternal life offered to us in Him. The Bible is a living and active word, and just as God has breathed into the Word, so He desires to breathe through it into our own communities and impart new life.

(I thank God for bringing me across Andrew Zenos' excellent article entitled "Inspiration and Inerrancy" where I learned many of these insights.)