The Burr in the Burgh

Last week, I was interviewed on Issues, Etc., a Lutheran talk radio program on KFUO in St. Louis, MO. The topic was The Da Vinci Code. Rev. Todd Wilken and his trusty producer, Jeff Schwarz, like to scour Higher Things magazine for radio subjects. And last summer, I did a mega-sectional on DVC for the Higher Things youth conference in Colorado.

Issues, Etc. likes to regularly feature professors from Concordia Theological Seminary and they make tons of old broadcasts available on their website. It's really excellent. Now you can also access some of these interviews through the seminary website. Go here. Happy listening.

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One of the things I enjoy about Concordia Theo Seminary is that every Friday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. we have Gemutlichkeit. That's a German word meaning warmth and friendliness. It's used to refer to friends gathering over beer and food for conversation and happiness.

Every week, the kegs are brought in with local microbrew and munchies in the student commons. I'd say 80-100 people attend every week, students, professors, families, staff. It's really quite fun.

Today was extra good. We had a chili cooking contest. There were 19 entries. First the judges (5 profs) all got their samples and then everyone else got to try. I had four excellent bowls myself. I learned that genuine Texas chili does not have beans. While all the chilis I sampled were really very good, number 19 was definitely the hottest. It was like eating fire soup. And now it's like fire in my belly.

My hat is off to our weekly Gemutlichkeit. The seminary is a community of people gathered by Christ around His Gospel. We are devoted to rigorous study, edifying worship, works of service and enjoying one another and the good gifts of God. Pastoral and diakonal education is so much more than just downloading information. These social events on campus are, in my view, vitally important. The conversations, the laughter, the camaraderie. Friendships are built and strengthened, making our seminary community so much more than an academic enclave.

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Martin Luther talked about a profound distinction between different types of theologies. Simply put, he said that some are theologians of glory and others are theologians of the cross. His famous Heidelberg Theses remain some of the Reformer's most important insights.

The one on my mind today is thesis #21:
A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.

As he stands before God, a theologian of glory boasts of his own righteousness. He thinks his personal holiness commends him to God while the theologian of the cross realizes that his own righteousness is like filthy rags (Is 64:6).

We see this principle manifested in other ways as well. The hyper-pious insist that true faith sees all things as grace (gifts). Surely God can use terrible things to bring about a good result, but that doesn't make the terrible things any less evil. God is not the author of evil. The death of Christ saves us. But death is a curse, not a blessing. The painful sufferings you endure in this corrupted world can draw you closer to God. Sufferings can purify us. The eyes of faith do learn how to see God at work in every kind of circumstance. But some falsely pious Christians take this to a faulty conclusion, that evils such as injury, death and trouble are good things.

To suffer well - that is, in a way that leads to health and life - one must know how to "call a thing what it actually is." Name the enemy. He has won ground if we begin to count him our friend.

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I saw a catalog today that markets "decorative crosses." And the first thought that came to my mind was "what kind of sicko decorates their houses with crosses?" Then I calmed myself down.

We have crosses, crucifixes and religious artwork all throughout our house. My study at the seminary has several. And though they may be artistically stylized and may look nice, they should never be considered decorations. Jesus Christ died on a cross. Oh isn't that lovely?! The Son of God bled on the cross for my sins. Wouldn't that make a darling decoration?!

Maybe I'm getting to be more of a curmudgeon but I really can't tolerate "cute" religious artwork. I am often literally SHOCKED when I see Noah's Ark toys and cartoony chidlren's bedsheets and lampshades. Good grief! God violently destroys all living things on the surface of the earth. How adorable is that?! The flood was divine wrath upon mankind. God was sorry he ever created man. Isn't that sweet? Why don't we make Auschwictz action figures and Buchenwald bedsheets? Let's put a photo of a lynching or a burning at the stake in our parlour. Won't that be grand?

One of the causes of anemia within the Church today is the cute-ification of God. Cute kittens I love. Cute kids are precious. Cute teddy bears I could hug all day long. But God is not cute. The crucifixion is not mere decoration.

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Books

• Just finished A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe. I'd never read anything by Wolfe until this. What a terrific book! My travel companion in Siberia this summer was reading it and he recommended it. Sort of a modern Charles Dickens. Many richly drawn characters whose story lines overlap and intersect in interesting and surprising ways. Nice homage to good ol' fashioned Roman Stoicism.
  

Music

• Color me happy. I noticed that my favorite Pittsburgh band, Good Brother Earl, is now available from iTunes. I immediately submitted a review. Buy their music. Be happy.


• The new Mindy Smith CD is out. I've lately been exploring some of these neo-folk and alt-country artists. Neko Case. Lucinda Williams. Kasey Chambers. But right now for me, Mindy is the top.


• It probably doesn't classify as music exactly, but I've been enjoying What's He Building in There? by Tom Waits. It's like an Edgar Allan Poe short story. What a weirdo.
  

TV

• I hate watching TV. It's a gigantic waste of time. HOWEVER, there are some shows that I consider worthy. So I get them on DVD. I can't tolerate sitting through the advertisements. So, I just finished season 2 of Lost. Now I'm nearing the end of the second season of the new Battlestar Galactica. I think it's interesting that the humans are polytheists and the robots are monotheists.
  

Film

• Re-watched To Kill a Mockingbird. First, the novel by Harper Lee is genius. I love it. Can't believe she only wrote one book. Second, Gregory Peck IS Atticus Finch.

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I always enjoy reading Frederica Mathewes-Green. Her movie reviews, in particular, are always engaging. Read here to see what she thought of Open Season.

It touches upon the question of the coarsening of American culture. In my view, Americans are increasingly base and trashy. Pop culture is largely to blame. But that's a chicken and the egg quandary. It's also a failure of the schools, families, and churches to teach morals and manners. Another symptom of the whole trend is the growing rush to intimacy we see in all aspects of American life. The car salesman immediately wants to be my chum and call me by my first name. Men used to wear suits and ties to baseball games and now they won't even do so to church.

By the way, I'm not saying men must wear suits to church. I am saying that our culture's growing casualness affects manners.

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I posted the text for the chapel homily I preached on Monday. I may as well give you the link at the seminary website where you can listen to it. Go here and click on Monday. It'll probably only be there for the rest of this week.

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Last Friday night, there was a family fest here at the seminary. Beer and brats and apple pie. The guy in the background is holding a scoop and standing in front of a bucket of ice cream. We showed Lion, Witch and Wardrobe.

The strapping young lad you see here is my Jacob surrounded by his friends playing a mean game of air hockey.

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Seminary Chapel Homily
October 9, 2006
Text: Hebrews 11:8-16

There is a scene in The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, part of The Chronicles of Narnia, where three of the characters face a dilemma. They’d been given a set of commands to follow from Aslan the Lion, Lewis’s Christ-figure. But there is one moment when to follow the command of Aslan appears as if it could mean their destruction. So the characters debate amongst themselves. Should we obey the command of Aslan or not? What will happen to us if we do?

So the first character asked the second, “Do you mean you think everything will come right” if we do this. And second character responds, “I don’t know about that…. You see, Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow should be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the Sign.” We are told throughout the Narnia series that Aslan is not a tame lion, but he is good.

In a similar way, there is no guarantee that following the commands of God will cause all things to go well in your life. In fact, you can almost count on the opposite to be true, that obedience will lead to suffering. Abraham did not know where God was leading Him. He did not know what would happen. For all he knew, God could have been taking him toward violence and disease and unhappiness. But then the words of Job come to mind, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him (Job 13:15).” We follow Jesus, not because He promises us an easy life, but because He is good. And because He has been good to us. Most especially by dying for our sins.

The Christian life can be compared to a journey. We are nomads who like Abraham walk by faith, who live in tents and look forward to a city with solid foundations. God has called us out of Harran toward the Promised Land. Out of darkness into light. Out of idolatry into truth.

Of course, when you travel, you can never be sure of the condition of your accommodations along the way. You might stay in a dilapidated place with cockroaches and dirty mattresses and stains on the carpet and no hot water. The smart traveler soon learns to bear such conditions because he knows them to be temporary. He knows that tomorrow night’s accommodations could be better or they could be worse.

Don’t become too settled in. For when you stay in a fleabag hotel, you don’t want to spend a lot of effort making the place more suitable. You won’t go out and buy new furniture for your room. You won’t paint the walls and replace the carpet. You won’t do those things, even if you could, because you know that this is just a stop along the way. Likewise, the Christian is an alien in a strange land. He’s never quite at home in this world.

So why set your heart on things which moth and rust destroy? The luster of this world’s treasures and trinkets has begun to tarnish already. We clamor foolishly for things which have no lasting value and neglect the eternal things.

A good example of this is popular televangelist Joel Osteen who wrote a bestselling book with the title Your Best Life NOW! It’s a theology of glory, a gospel of prosperity. He wants you to focus on the journey instead of the destination. People who say that the journey is the best part of the trip don’t really want to get to their destination very badly. The point of running a race is not the running. It is the prize at the end. Keep your eye on the goal, the fulfillment, the consummation. At best, people like Osteen will distract you and at worst, they’ll destroy your faith in God. One of the reasons people become disenchanted with Christianity is because they listen to fanatics who tell them to expect things from God which God has not promised to give. So one of you needs to write the book entitled Your Best Life is Yet to Come.

This is not mere escapism either. Pie in the sky when you die. Although what’s so wrong with escapism anyway? Is it strange for captives to desire to escape? Would it be better for prisoners instead to think only of prison cells and guards and bars on their windows? Doesn’t it make more sense for prisoners to look forward to the day of their release when they can see the blue sky and walk on the green grass? My friends, the stink of decay is all around us. It is a mark of true enlightenment to see that what the world calls progress is really regress, what the world calls life is really more akin to death and what the world calls freedom is really just another form of captivity.

That restlessness you feel, that sense that things aren’t right and that you don’t belong, that weariness with the world. To some extent, that is your heart pining for heaven. But sometimes I think we are not restless enough or at least not restless in the right ways.

Part of your task as preachers will be to stir up a sort of holy restlessness. In the liturgy, we have the sermon before the Eucharist for a reason, to make you hungry. Your preaching should make people desire the sacrament and likewise it should make people long for heaven, which is really pretty much the same thing. All good preaching is eschatological in the sense that it prepares us to die well.

Father Abraham was looking forward to the city … whose architect and builder is God. Many men throughout the ages have sought the golden city, the Shangri-La, the place where there will be no tears, or death, or sorrow, or crying. Sounds like Utopia. The word “utopia” comes from the two Greek words ou and topos, meaning “no place.” But there is such a place. Christ is preparing this place for us. You have a destination. You who have been baptized into Christ, you who have been pardoned by God. Your sins are forgiven. The power of Christ’s resurrection is pulsating through your bodies. You have been liberated from the tyranny of death and made free citizens of the Kingdom of God.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet fears the afterlife and calls it the undiscovered country and says the thought of death “makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others we know not of (Hamlet).” But death is not just a big dark mystery to us. The undiscovered country Hamlet refers to has been pioneered for us by our valiant Savior Jesus Christ. We have nothing to fear. He has civilized the wilderness. So we do not cling desperately to this mortal existence. No, the true sons of Abraham are longing for a better country – a heavenly one. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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• Some pretty interesting information about the Australian Lutheran Church's recent debate over women's ordination. See here.


• Southern Baptist Theological Seminary discusses Holy Trinity and gender roles. Here.


• A nice memorial for Professor Kurt Marquart. Here.
  

On a personal note, yesterday CTS had Lutherfest. I think there were 300-400 guests who enjoyed good brats and beer. Then the recent film version The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was shown. And yours truly was invited to give a commentary at the end. In a day or two, if I get a chance to polish them up, I'll post my remarks here. It was a fun event and a fund-raiser for the sem.

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In Lutheran theology, we speak of God's strange work (or alien work) and his proper work. His strange work refers to God's work of wrath and condemnation. His proper work - or that which most clearly reveals His character - is when He creates and pardons.

This manner of speaking can be seen in Isaiah 28:21:

The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon—
to do his work, his strange work,
and perform his task, his alien task.

I think C.S. Lewis also figures this distinction out. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan gives himself as a ransom to pay for the sin of Edmund. This must be so because, the story informs, of the "deep magic from the dawn of time" inscribed deeply upon the stone altar and upon the scepter of the Emperor Beyond the Sea. Aslan cannot and would never disregard this deep magic. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. So the evil characters murder Aslan on the stone altar.

But then, Aslan overcomes death and is raised back to life. And when that happens, the stone table, the one with the deep magic deeply inscribed is broken in two. There's a loud noise. And to the surprise of the White Witch Queen, Jadis, Aslan is alive according to a deeper magic from before the dawn of time.

The breaking of the Stone Table signifies the passing of the old order and the dawn of the new. It is the sound of the stone rolled from the tomb. It is the curtain being torn. It is the the sound of the temple in Jerusalem being knocked down in AD 70.

Any thoughts on my comparison of the Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic with God's alien and proper work?

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