The Publican Chest

Machen on the Dangers of Doctrinalism

2013-05-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

"In maintaining the doctrinal basis of Christianity, we are particularly anxious not to be misunderstood. There are certain things we do not mean. In the first place, we do not mean that if doctrine is sound it makes no difference about life. On the contrary, it makes all the difference in the world. From the beginning, Christianity was certainly a way of life; the salvation that it offered was a salvation from sin, and salvation from sin appeared not merely in a blessed hope but also in an immediate moral change. The early Christians, to the astonishment of their neighbors, lived a strange new kind of life--a life of honesty, of purity and of unselfishness. And from the Christian community all other types of life were excluded in the strictest way. From the beginning Christianity was certainly a life." -From Machen's Christianity and Liberalism, pg. 47.

A great quote from Machen. In wanting to rightly protect the sound doctrine of the church that was being compromised at the time, Machen was also aware of the danger of not connecting orthodoxy with orthopraxy. The sound doctrine of the church should always lead to a kind of living by the members of Christ's church. This is why Paul could tell Titus to "teach what accords with sound doctrine" (Titus 2:1) and then go on to give ethical instruction. There is a way of living that accords with sound doctrine and thus a way of living that is not in accord with it. May the Holy Spirit grant the church greater sanctifying graces as she seeks to walk in a manner that is in harmony with the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in so doing, may she then adorn the gospel in a way pleasing to our Lord.

From the Vault: Wine and Theology (first posted 1/16/12)

2013-04-11T08:54:00.001-07:00

*As I have been doing some reading on the idea of a "theology of the city", I thought it would be good to revisit this post. Hope you enjoy.

One of the central themes in Terry Theise’s new book Reading Between the Wines is the idea of connectedness. Throughout the book, Theise shows how globalization presents itself in the world of wine and creates disconnect and fragmentations not only in the business of wine, but also in the taste of wine itself.

With pun unavoidable, Theise longs for a rooted-ness in his wine. Practically, this looks like artisan wine makers who know their land, their family, and their role as a steward (not a master) of the vines and barrels.

Theise waxes poetic in his reflections upon the Mosel valley in Germany. Every March Theise travels to Mosel to taste the new vintages that at times have been world class. One wine family in particular, the Selbachs of Zeltingen, is his foil for explaining connectedness.

The Selbachs are a generational wine family, and in the 90’s Hans Selbach died and passed the torch to his son Johannes. Theise, in what proves to be a powerful section of prose, contrasts the death of Hans, and the death of his own father. Hans died in the living room surrounded by family, was wheeled through the house one last time, wheeled through the bottle cellar (with one of Hans’ other sons remarking that “it was as if you could see and hear the bottles stand and applaud papa”), and then buried on family property, in the same soil in which the vines grow. Theise’s father, unnamed, died in a hospital room in Manhatten, and is buried in an enormous cemetery in Queens. Theise doubts that he, “could even find the gravesite.”

Point being here, you can’t separate the Selbachs and the wine they make. There is no substitute. The two are connected in an invisible yet vital way. To disconnect the Selbachs from their land, would be to disconnect them from the world of wine. They could not, and would not, do wine anywhere else. Which is completely contrary to the way the world of wine is going these days, with “fly-around” vintners and transplants trying to make overpriced wine of all kinds.

Given this lay of the land, Theise describes the Selbachs kind of connectedness in wine and in life as one that, “salves a kind of loneliness. Though it isn’t my home, it is at least a home, and the people are particular people, and the wines are particular wines. I spend too much of my life driving among strip malls and their numbing detritus, and so when I descend the final hill over the Eifel and the village of Zeltingen comes into view, sitting peacefully along the Mosel, I have a momentary thrill of arriving. Here is somewhere. I see it, I know it, I will soon embrace people who embody it—and I also get to taste it.”

Too much of the wine world is defined by “international consultants” and wineries that import grapes from somewhere else, hire someone else to mix, and produce wines that taste like someplace else.

This is true in many fields of work today. Globalization has touched the world in an irretraceable way. There is no going back. But how do we go forward?

More important to my interest here, is do we, or how do we, see globalization in the church? How many pastors are trying to produce someone else’s community, and farm out the task of shepherding a particular people in a particular place to homogenous ministries that anyone can buy? To what degree does the church need a rooted-ness?

Given the fact that the Bible calls us pilgrims and exiles in this life, there is a certain degree in which Christians will always feel a longing to arrive. There is a tension between the already and the not yet. Whatever city or town you live in, that is not your ultimate home as a Christian.

This reality then causes me to question, in what sense do we as churches need to be raising up indigenous leaders to plant indigenous churches (churches that somehow “embody” the culture)? Does Theise’s kind of connectedness fly in the ecclesial landscape? Should it fly? How much is an indigenous leader blind to the defects in his culture so that he can prophetically speak the gospel in that soil, and seek to change it? In other words, in so far as a pastor is like a farmer (2 Tim 2:6), isn’t his job to till up the soil, and to produce a community that does not look like the world’s community in a certain place, but to produce a covenant community that is counter-cultural, and that stands out as a light in a dark place?

I can’t help but think of Abraham in this regard. Instead of God keeping him where he was as an indigenous leader, God called him to, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

In the NT we see Paul appointing someone like Titus who was a journeymen with Paul, to be a local pastor in a place different from his birthplace.

I guess I am wondering how much I too long, like Theise, for a connectedness and rootedness in culture, yet at the same time realize that in God’s wisdom, he constantly upsets our idea of “home” in the tender process of having us set our sights on the New Jerusalem that is yet to come.

In short, place can become idolatrous. The city can become idolatrous, a way of hiding our real need to be connected to each other in word and sacrament, rather than with the cultural affiliations of the world.

In a recent conversation I was reminded about Cain’s fear in Genesis 4. His fear was that, “he would be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth,” something too great for him to bear. God then graciously marks him. Then Cain has a son, Enoch (which means “to dedicate”) and he names the first city after his son. His fear was disconnect, his fear was to be a wanderer, to be fragmented from a place and from a people. So he builds a city.

In contrast, look again at Abraham. Hebrews 11 says that, “Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…living in tents…for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

In a very real way, the response of faith in a fallen world is that of accepting the role of exile, the role of wanderer, the role of fugitive in the world. In contrast, the other response is to cope by yourself, which is the response of Cain. Building a city and building a community dedicated to your own fear of being a sojourner, and thus dedicated to a fleeting city to try and stabilize the soul, is the response of fear and not faith. In contrast to Cain, we are called like Abraham to seek a lasting city yet to come, and let our fearful hearts find stability in the peace of Christ as he comes to us in our weak churches, and in our peculiar communities that the gospel (not the city) creates. Our lack of faith tends to want to build communities around something other than the gospel. We long to find identity in the structures of the world over-against the structures of the Spirit. May God grant us the faith to look at the city and see a phoney alternative, and may God grant us the faith to look at the wasteland and see the way home.

We all have this longing for a place. In the world of wine Theise puts it like this, “I don’t have time to waste on processed wines that taste as if they could have come from anywhere, because in fact they come from nowhere and have no place to take me. We crave spirit of place because of our own need to be located, which reassures us that we belong in the universe. We want our bearings. We want to know where home is. We can deny or ignore this longing, but it will scrape away at us relentlessly while we wonder why we feel so homesick, why we never feel whole.” From Cain to Theise, our great fear is to be a wonderer, consumed by our disconnect. By faith however, we connect to the world to come in word and sacrament, over-against the constant temptation to connect to the city by synchronizing its ways with the way of the gospel.

My, how I feel the tension….

One of Denver's Best covering one of The Best

2013-04-09T12:18:00.001-07:00

Sometimes someone comes along who can interpret a song arguably better than the one who composed it. Nathaniel Rateliff, one of Denver's best songwriters, went to a cathedral and played the heck out of one of Townes Van Zandt's gems "no place to fall." I hope you enjoy.

Kind of How I Envision Rap Music

2013-03-26T16:04:00.002-07:00

6 Ways To Serve Your Pastor's Wife on Sundays

2013-03-20T12:38:00.003-07:00

Read a great post on this subject here. Not a lot of folks think about this topic in depth, hopefully Ryan's thoughts can promote solid reflection on such an important aspect of church life.

Beauty, Being, Kenosis, ....and Lots of Words I Cannot Pronounce

2013-03-12T09:51:00.001-07:00

So, yea, as expected, I didn't quite understand most of what Dr. Hart was lecturing about. Yet at the same time, it was a fantastic lecture. Just like if you play basketball with those who are better than you it helps you elevate your own game, so too when you listen to people who are thinking on another level than you are, it hopefully has a positive impact on your own thinking.

Bottom line, Dr. Hart is interested in how Christian truth informs human reflection on aesthetics, or what is beautiful. One of the salient points that stayed with me from his lecture is the idea that Christ dying on the cross is more terrifying than any human tragedy. Dr. Hart, well schooled in classics, reminded us how in ancient tragedies (specifically Greek tragedies), there is a dirge written after the tragedy so that the characters can process and cope with the tragedy on some level. The dirge is meant to help the characters process and help humans come to grips with just how grim life can be on earth. So for Hart then, the reason Christ on the cross is more terrifying is because it is met with silence. Silence from heaven, silence on earth. There is no cantor, or dirge. It is the most terrifying silence in history, for it represents the greatest fear of any creature, the lasting death of their creator. Thus no law, no meaning, no relationship, no hope will ever be present again.

Yet, how great then the resurrection, and how grateful we are to be in light of Christ undergoing all the dreadful silence for us.

...

Another powerful part of his lecture was simply his unpacking of his idea of beauty as simply the appearance of the thing. Part of what makes something beautiful is that it wasn't there a minute ago. You hear a song you weren't anticipating, you see a sunrise unimaginable, you see the new clothes of your wife right before your eyes. It is beautiful in its appearing to you when you did not summon or anticipate that thing. That is why there is grace in beauty. It graciously appeared when you knew it not.

Hearing Dr. Hart lecture made me want to go back and read some of The Beauty of the Infinite. Maybe I will understand 5.6% this time. Its just like when I want to go play basketball with those better than me even though I know I won't have the ball passed to me (until they find out I can hit the open 3-ball). I still want to play, and I know it will be good for me. So it is with the works of David Bentley Hart.

Beauty, Being, and Kenosis: the Aesthetics of the Incarnation

2013-03-01T15:07:00.001-08:00

Why are human beings prone to cult followings? It is a phenomenon that is common to human experience, and thus one of which theological students are not immune.

While a student at Westminster Seminary, a few classmates started randomly quoting to me passages by an author of whom I had never heard. After a couple of days I figured out the author was American theologian David Bentley Hart, and the work they had been quoting from was The Beauty of the Infinite: The Aesthetics of Christian Truth. And in the interest of full disclosure, I think there was a small but zealous "Bentley Hart" cult following that occurred over the next few months. Books and articles were mined, quotes were emailed, texted, and made the stuff of "insider" theological banter.

Well all good cult followings end in either death or deliverance-by-maturity, and thankfully it was the later that prevailed on campus. The end result was that there was a new theologian to read and a new appreciation of a writer from a different theological perspective. Ever since, I have kept the occasional ear to Bentley Hart's pen.

Which is why recent events could not have been drawn up more providentially. For Dr. Hart is blessing the Biola campus tonight by giving a free lecture open to the public titled "Beauty, Being, and Kenosis: the Aesthetics of the Incarnation." It is part of Biola's larger 8th annual art symposium. If nothing else, the lecture by Dr. Hart promises to be provocatively obtuse, poetic, and singular. I admire Dr. Hart's attention to aesthetics and beauty in the realm of Christian thought and I am looking forward to hearing him speak on a topic which has occupied much of his career.

If I can understand the lecture, I plan on posting a summary!

On the Importance of Colwell's Canon

2013-02-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

In 1933 E. C. Colwell published an article in the Journal of Biblical Literature titled "A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament." In this watershed article Colwell showed that in Koine Greek, the original language of our New Testament, definite predicate nouns that precede the copulative verb tend to omit the definite article even though they are specific in meaning.

Now, for those of you who are pastors or aspiring to be pastors, if you do not know what I am talking about, it points out the great need for you to go to seminary and learn the original languages of the Bible. And by that I do not mean you should just learn how to use computer software, but you need to learn the languages. Grammar matters because God's Word uses grammar to communicate meaning. Bibleworks, Logos, and Accordance are wonderful and amazing tools, but they don't tell you everything you need to know about the original languages of the Bible. Learn the languages, then use the software.

So, why then is this grammatical rule so important?

Its important because you might be doing a pastoral visit to a convalescent hospital to visit one of Christ's chronically-ill sheep entrusted to your care. And you might perhaps run into someone who shares a room with them who does not believe that Jesus is God. And said persons just might be wanting to debate the visiting pastor. It may sound far fetched, or it may just be something that happened to me, i'll let you decide.

At any rate, in such an instance, you have to be able to go John's gospel and show that in the first verse, the Bible teaches that Jesus was the Word who was with God in the beginning, and that the Word (i.e. Jesus) was God. Some (like Jehovah's Witnesses) want to say that "God" in the Greek doesn't have the definite article so its better to say that Jesus was "a God." But this false interpretation does not take into account the accepted rules of greek grammar. Fact is, Colwell's Canon helps us realize that nouns tend to be definite even if they do not have the definite article when in a predicate construction. The construction in John 1:1 fits the canon like a glove. And so I had to show this to my friend in the hospital who has been misled. Jesus is God. Its of the essence of Christianity. As the Nicene Creed puts it, Jesus is "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made."

Jesus isn't just some super human, he isn't some perfect human king meant to give us an example of how to live. No, Jesus was God who came to live for our righteousness and die for our sins so that we might have new life in his name. Yes, he was fully human but he was also fully divine. Jesus said that he and the father are one. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the "exact imprint" of God's nature and that he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

My friend in the hospital needs to know the biblical Jesus. And as a servant of the word I needed to show him from the source, the Greek New Testament, that God's Word says that Jesus is God, the eternal logos made flesh. Out of love I had to warn him that to believe in any other Jesus, is to forsake biblical Christianity. I pray earnestly that the Holy Spirit will freely blow upon him and do that miraculous work in his heart needed to reach out in faith to the real Jesus.

So, in a nutshell, this is why Colwell's canon is important: because Jesus is important. This is why those who are ordained servants of the Word must know this. We must be stewards of the mysteries of God and be able to defend the greatest of all mysteries from the depths of the Word, the mystery that God became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

Conference Round-Up

2013-01-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

It was a great week to be in California and to attend some conferences dealing with Christ and our confession of Christ. While every lecture is deserving of a whole blog post, I simply do not have time for that, but I wanted to post something general about both conferences.

First, a couple of thoughts about the first ever LA theology conference:

1) They should consider offering a clergy discount as the rate was kind of pricey.

2) They should offer pricing for attendees that may only attend for one day of the event. Thursdays are tough for some people to get off, and Fridays can be the start of a busy weekend. Allow people to attend one day, and change the price for that day.

3) Biola needs to do something about the parking if possible. The parking was far away from the actual site of the conference. This may be impossible, but if something can be done, it should be done.

And finally, I want to end on a really positive note: the conference was an amazingly constructive theological conference. Props to the organizers for setting this agenda and holding to it. The papers presented were trying out new and exploratory ideas regarding issues related to Christology. As such, each lecture I attended was very stimulating. This led to great conversation in the intermission periods which were very extended periods of time (in fact, they were the longest intermissions of any conference I have attended, which meant more coffee, pastries, book shopping, and conversations).

I can’t wait for the second conference next year which has already been planned. It will deal with Trinitarian theology, and I believe Stephen Holmes and some others have already been booked.

…

Now on to the whole armor of God conference held at WSCAL. There were some very solid lectures given at this conference as well. Lots of good food for thought regarding the nature of Christians confessing their faith and thus churches having confessions of faith as ecclesiastical documents. I think some of the lingering questions I have began to be addressed in the question and answer time. I would however, like to see them move towards having audience members ask questions instead of having the traditional question cards read and mediated. I think then, some follow-up questions could be asked and some more stimulating dialogue could surface. At any rate, it was a very solid time of reflection regarding our confession of faith as Christians.

A couple of general thoughts about the wscal conference:

1) Attendance seemed down this year. Not way down, but definitely down. There are probably a lot of factors to this. Hopefully it was just a one time slump. Only time will tell.

2) Catering chick-fil-a was cool. However $10 for a lunch was a bit steep. You can eat cheaper at the actual restaurant, and you can actually get their waffle fries. Not a biggie though.

3) I would suggest them trying to have one guest speaker each year not associated with the Seminary. Hopefully they could try and coincide this with some guest lectures during the seminary winter term so that cost could be kept down, but I think it could really boost the general ethos of the conference a little. Granted, I enjoyed every one of the faculty members, and they more than hold their own. But I had the thought it would be cool to hear someone else in the Reformed world speak about the confessions in addition to the wscal faculty.

All in all these were both great conferences. I learned stuff at both of them, and hope that many people watch or listen to the lectures online.

Salvatore Mundi-A Taxonomy of Christologies

2013-01-18T10:46:00.004-08:00

Just like seeing the same ol’ thing over and over again in the suburbs of any city gets old fast, so too does going to conferences where speakers merely repeat and regurgitate what many already know. Thankfully, the Los Angeles theology conference stated from the outset that it will not be that kind of conference, but that it rather seeks speakers that want to engage in the constructive task of theology. That is, they want people to talk about what is true, and not simply tell us what other people have said is true.

This constructive task got underway with a lecture by George Hunsinger which he titled “Salvatore Mundi: A Typology of Modern Christologies”. At first glance, you might think that this paper was a recital of views, rather than a constructive piece. However, it was quite the constructive taxonomy in that it was an attempt to taxonomize Christologies in a new way that allows for better analysis, reflection, and consideration of the doctrine of the person and work of Christ.

For this taxonomy, Hunsinger advocated the broad parameters of high, middle, and low Christologies. Not to be seen as black and white, nor as pots into which you put things, Hunsinger advocated not seeing these categories as any kind of tight and fixed organizations, but rather as different regions that can help denote differences, but that remain fluid. He warned not to see them as hermetically sealed, monolithic entities, but different shades.

The lecture began with the father of modern liberal theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher. Hunsinger began by tracing out Schleiermacher’s understanding of Christological taxonomies as found in his work The Christian Faith. It was interesting to me that Hunsinger located Schleiermacher as holding to the region of middle Christology. What is middle Christology? Well, let me start with low Christology first.

Low Christology has Christ as a mere moral example. Christ was a great moral teacher and lived an exemplary life, and he came to spur us on to exemplary human living.

Middle Christology on the other hand finds Christ as giving to us the blessed life of God, which is internally appropriated. That is, what matters in life is our spirituality, because what matters with Christ is his spirituality, or God-consciousness (Tillich), or his New Being (Bultmann) . And spirituality was then exemplified by Christ in an ultimate way for us to then follow after his spirituality ourselves. Here is where Schleiermacher fits in according to Hunsinger. This was helpful for me in seeing a distinction between the low moralistic/exemplaristic view of Christ, and this view of the spirituality of Christ as being separate and allowing for a supernatural element. However, as Hunsinger stated, the problem with both low and middle Christologies is that Christ didn't exactly need to be the God-Man in order to provide an example, or a robust spiritual life. Others could fit this role. Thus, if we take away the objective work of Christ, we also than take away the correct notion of the person of Christ.

What stuck out to me then was Hunsinger’s wonderful call for a high Christology which is all about Christ’s objective work on the cross on our behalf. In a wonderfully stimulating part of his lecture, Hunsinger asked the question of all the Christologies: How Does Salvation Take Place?

His answer was great.

For Low Christology, salvation is all about imitation. Imitating Christ in thought, word, and deed.

For Middle Christology, salvation is all about repetition. Repeating spiritual acts of inner discipline leading to formation is how we are delivered from sin. Thus, Middle Christology does not preach new life in Christ, but new possibilities in us.

For High Christology, salvation is not about imitation nor repetition, but expiation. Salvation is Christ taking upon himself our sins, paying for them, and giving to us his righteousness as a gift. Thus High Christology preaches actualities (i.e. redemption accomplished) not new possibilities (i.e. redemption in process). Thus, a High Christology calls us to repent and believe, not to repeat and repeat. In High Christology, there is a break from moralism and from salvation by spirituality. High Christology proclaims the justification of the godless and the resurrection of the dead.

Another great highlight of this lecture for me was the lengthy Q&A time afterwards during which the question was raised as to the connection between the person and work of Christ and the Lord’s Supper. Hunsinger gave an equation at the outset of his lecture regarding the Person and Work of Christ. He said it goes like this: If P (person) than W (work), and vice versa. You cannot separate the person and work of Christ as I stated above.

The question was then raised whether Hunsinger would approve of the equation If P than W than E (eucharist, or Lord’s Supper). Hunsinger said that was an interesting proposal in light of his book that he wrote on ecumenism and the Eucharist. Unity in the church is something that should be dear to our hearts, and it definitely is near and dear to Hunsinger who believes there is a way forward to church unity in our theology of the Lord’s Supper. He thankfully displayed some righteous outraged that the sacrament meant to unify the church has been used to fracture the church.

At any rate, Hunsinger was in favor for seeing the Lord’s Supper as a non-negotiable aspect of our worship. High Christology means that Christ has done something outside of us. Yet now he does come to us in the present through word and sacrament. So, for Hunsinger if P than W than yes, E as well. If Christ comes to us now by the Spirit through the preaching of the word and the Lord’s Supper, than we absolutely should have worship services that have Word and Supper as the chief pattern. That is Christ-centered worship.

At the end of the day, Hunsinger believes different Christian traditions can be moving towards one another without theological compromise through the means of the Lord’s Table. He mentioned something I would like to look into myself, which was that the prevailing understanding of the Lord’s Supper by the Eastern Orthodox at the time of the Reformation, was something that you don’t see the reformers rejecting, and according to Hunsinger, something even Calvin doesn’t find problematic in his Institutes. Hunsinger believes there can be a broad understanding about what happens in the Lord's Supper so that we can commune with Christ and each other as a catholic (i.e. universal) church.

It was a great way to start off the conference. Bravo to Dr. Hunsinger.

I’ll hopefully have more to say about this conference later....

LA Conference on Christology

2013-01-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

As people start to gather into Calvary Chapel on Biola’s beautiful southeast Los Angeles campus to discuss Christology (i.e. the study of Christ), I am a bit struck by the nature of these kind of events. That is, when I stand back for a second and realize that people are gathering together to talk about Jesus Christ, the God-Man, there is a certain sense of awe that I feel (and its definitely not the Starbucks coffee).

What I mean is, on an ordinary hum-drum day in SoCal, people gather to talk and discuss the fact that God incarnated into human flesh and dwelt amongst us. Indeed it is the great mystery at the fullness of time. And for the believer it is the great hope of humanity, that the miserable human condition has been “put on” by God himself in the person of the son, and dealt with decidedly, and redeemed at the cross on a normal Friday afternoon in Jerusalem. To paraphrase Richard Neuhaus, as kids were likely walking home from school on a Friday afternoon, Jesus cried out “it is finished” marking the climax of history.

So too today now, as people of all stripes walk past this campus, and students go to their various classes, a group of us are gathered around microphone and lectern (the only stage props we get in the drama of theological discourse) to consider how “these things were so”, that God tabernacled amongst a motley group of rebels to bring about redemption.

That’s my pre-game analysis. Now we’ll see what the theologians have to say. As reported yesterday, Princeton’s new lion George Hunsinger lectures first.

CONFERENCE SEASON

2013-01-16T16:44:00.004-08:00

The 111^th psalm proclaims, “great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.”

Beginning tomorrow I will be attending two conferences that seek to glorify God by studying his works in depth. The first conference is sui generis in the sense that it is the very first Los Angeles theology conference. Biola University, just a bike ride away from home, will be hosting this conference which seeks to explore issues in Christology. The keynote speaker of interest to me is Princeton’s own George Hunsinger who will hit the floor first.

Needless to say, I am very excited to attend this inaugural conference and hope it grows over the years into a good tradition of having deep theological reflection in the Los Angeles area.

The second conference comes to us from the best seminary in the world, Westminster Warm. Celebrating the 450^th anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession, The Whole Armor of God conference advertises connecting Ephesians 6 with the confessional Reformed heritage. This conference begins Friday night with lectures by the good and esteemed Drs. David VanDrunen and Bob Godfrey. I wait with baited breath to see what shape the collegial insults will take this year!

At any rate, as a pastor, I look forward to continuing my education and my sharpening in God’s Word through these conferences, so as to be a better servant of Christ’s flock.

I also hope to post some highlights in the coming days.

That’s all for now…..

Calfornia Names

2013-01-02T16:15:00.001-08:00

Upon arriving back in California from our jaunt to Omaha, I felt inspired to start off this new year by educating myself a little about our new surroundings here in the Golden State. The catalyst for this was the Flower Pot’s amazing find at our favorite used bookshop in Omaha, that little one on Jackson Street in downtown. In one of the dusty corners of the shop, she picked up California Names: Pronounced and Defined by Harry L. Wells. Reading this has already proven to be a good way to understand the surroundings a little better. And I can’t help but to share here the foreward of the book, which speaks in no uncertain terms about the way things are and why the book was written. So, Harry L. Wells starts off his little primer on California names in this way:

Be he native or foreign, the average individual is much puzzled by the variety and strangeness of a great many words and proper and place names in California. He can neither spell them nor pronounce them, nor does he know what they mean. Tourists and visitors are unable when they return home to pronounce many names when undertaking to tell their friends where they went and what they saw in the Golden State.

A typical story of this sort of bewilderment is that of the man who told a group of friends when he returned home from enjoying the beauties and wonders of the Golden West, that we have very queer names out here. “Why,” said he, “there is one place there they spell La Jolla and pronounce San Looy Obispo.” This book is for him and for all the others who want to know the spelling, pronunciation, and definition of the multitude of unfamiliar words in the California vocabulary.

It is also for new residents, and old as well, particularly for the many thousands of children in the public schools, who should become familiar with everything Californian. So to young and to old, to resident and to visitor, this little book of names and words is dedicated. May it add to their fund of useful knowledge and answer some of their questions.

Perhaps I doubt that this book will add to my fund of “useful” knowledge, but I do have the hopeful expectation of finding new supplies of knowledge for small talk of various kinds.

Now, what does La Mirada mean…….

Calvin on Joshua

2012-12-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

As I have been making my way through the book of Joshua, I have often come back to the words of Calvin as he talks about the benefit for those who engage the contents of the book of Joshua. His comments come at the very beginning of his commentary on Joshua when talking about who wrote the book. Regarding this, Calvin writes:

“As to the author of this book, it is better to suspend our judgment than to make random assertions. Those who think that it was Joshua, because his name stands on the title page, rest on weak and insufficient grounds….Let us not hesitate, therefore, to pass over a matter which we are unable to determine, or the knowledge of which is not very necessary, while we are in no doubt as to the essential point—that the doctrine herein contained was dictated by the Holy Spirit for our use, and confers benefits of no ordinary kind on those who attentively peruse it.”

Indeed, my prayer is that these "benefits of no ordinary kind" will be granted to me and the saints at Calvary OPC as we seek to pay attention to what the Holy Spirit wrote in this wonderful book.

Mt. Vernon and Old Highway 99

2012-11-30T08:06:00.000-08:00

As the Britton troupe made its way down the "main street" of the West Coast (interstate 5), I couldn't help but recall a poem by Gary Snyder entitled night highway 99. It was the only poem I could think of that made references to a town that is now dear to us in the Northwestern patch of Washington state, the town of Mount Vernon.

I thought I would post a section of Snyder's poem to give ode to Mount Vernon, ode to the great strip of highway that preceded interstate 5, and ode to the stream-of-consciousness that is beat poetry, that wonderful and great American art form......here goes:

We're on our way man out of town go hitching down that highway 99 Too cold and rainy to go out on the Sound Sitting in Ferndale drinking coffee Baxter in black, been to a funeral Raymond in Bellingham- Helena Hotel- Can't go to Mexico with that weak heart Well you boys can go south. I stay here. Fix up a shack- get a part-time job- (he disappeared later maybe found in the river) In Ferndale & Bellingham Went out on trail crews Glacier and Marblemount There we part.Tiny men with mustaches driving ox teams deep in the cedar groves wet brush, tin pants, snoose- Split-shake roof barns over berry fields white birch chicken coop Put up in Dick Meigs cabin out behind the house- Coffeecan, PA tin, rags, dirty cups, Kindling fell behind the stove, mice****, old magazines, winter's coming in the mountains shut down the show the punks go back to school and the rest hit the road- strawberries picked, shakeblanks split fires all out and the packstrings brought down to the valleys: set loose to graze. Gray wharves and hacksaw gothic homes Shingle mills and stump farms overgrown.

Fifty weary Indians Mount Vernon Sleep in bus station Strawberry pickers speaking Kwakiutl turn at Burlington for Skagit; Ross Dam under apple trees by the river banks of junked cars BC Riders give hitchhikers rides "The sheriff's posse stood in double rows Everett flogged the naked Wobblies down with stalks of Devil's Club; run them out of town" While shingle weavers lost their fingers in the tricky feed and take of double saws. Dried, shrimp Seattle smoked, salmon -before the war old Salish gentleman came; sold us kids rich hard-smoked Chinook from his flatbed model T Lake City, waste of trees; topsoil, beast, herb, edible roots, Indian field- farms; white men dances washed, leached, burnt out minds blunt, ug! talk twisted a night of the long poem and the mind guitar "Forming the new society within the shell of the old"

---From the book "Mountains and Rivers without End"

Moses, Jesus, the Glory and the Veil

2012-11-23T15:48:00.004-08:00

“Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

(2 Corinthians 3:7-18 ESV)

In the recent biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Issacson describes the great spectacle that surrounded the unveiling of the Apple iie. At the unveiling ceremony, the glory of the machine wooed the crowd into an uncontainable frenzy.

Fast-forward 20 or so years down the road to when Steve Jobs introduced the i-pad. The same type of awe-inspired reaction ensued.

Imagine, however, if some of the same people who were at the Apple iie event crashed the introduction of the i-pad by telling the participants that the Apple iie was still a better machine, that its glory surpassed that of the i-pad. Those folks would be considered rather crazy, or antiquarian holdouts at best.

Well, in 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul in speaking about the glory of the Lord, makes a comparison that resembles the hypothetical scenario above. Paul argues that the glory of God was very much present with Moses, so much so, that Moses had to veil his face before the Israelites. Paul then says that the glory of God in Christ Jesus far surpasses that glory, and the veil of Moses can then be removed in Christ, because now with unveiled faces we can behold the glory of God in the person and work of Christ.

As Michael Ramsey summarizes the argument, “if the dispensation of the law, with the condemnation of sinners as its outcome, was glorious, how much more glorious is the dispensation of the holy Spirit with, as its outcome, the conferring of righteousness upon mankind…Christians can see the glory of God, mirrored in Jesus Christ, and can be transformed into its likeness…we need now no veil, like Moses who put a veil on his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the glory fade away from it. But the Jews still have a veil of ignorance resting upon them—for this veil is lifted only by the Gospel of Christ. Still the veil is there, whenever they study the law in their synagogues. But when one of them turns to Christ, as a Christian convert, then the veil goes.”

So you see what Paul is saying here is that either the glory of God goes and the veil remains, or the veil goes and the glory remains and shines forth. Yet, while the veil remains the glory of the Lord fades away. So, what was once a protection for the people of Israel, is now a blindfold. The spectacular truth here is that we can behold the glory of God without a veil. We can see all the glory of God in Christ as his work culminated at the cross in his bitter passion. The new and greater Moses, Jesus, is the glory of God made flesh. No longer do we need someone to go and speak to God for us, Jesus has opened up a new living way for all of God’s people to enter into the holy of holies and speak and commune with God when being found in Christ.

Just as someone who has holed up with their Apple iie and resisted the gigantic advances that Apple has made with their new products would be seen as tragic, so too is the one who sees the glory of the Lord in Moses, yet who fails to recognize the greater glory that is found in God’s second Moses, Jesus Christ.

Called and Ordained

2012-11-13T11:16:00.001-08:00

After years of doing internships both in and out seminary and searching for a call, I am happy to announce that I have been called and ordained to be the next pastor at Calvary OPC in La Mirada, CA.

Needless to say, I am very excited to serve this congregation. The church was planted in 1958, and I was called to be their 6th pastor. It is very humbling to now be pastoring a church that was planted when my dad was 8 years old!

At any rate, myself and the elders are excited about what the Lord will do in this new season of Calvary's life. If you know of anyone in the La Mirada area who is looking for a church, or needing ministry, or wanting to talk to a pastor, please point them our way. We'd be happy to minister the gospel of grace to them.

Heckler Humor

2012-10-16T09:16:00.002-07:00

Before Mystery Science Theater 3000, or Beavis and the other guy, there was Statler and Waldorf. I couldn't resist...I watched these guys as a kid and I still think they are hilarious. The original hecklers...

"its either this show or indigestion....i hope its indigestion"

"why?"

"because it'll get better in a little while?"

...hey-ooooo......

Exitmusic

2012-10-15T10:46:00.001-07:00

In approximately one week, we Britton’s will be exiting the Northwest for the Southeast corner of LA county where I will take up labors at Calvary OPC in La Mirada, CA. Due to the great generosity of some, we were able to get in one last date night before more upheaval ensues. So we decided to make it down to Seattle to see the band Exitmusic, which we thought was a very fitting name for a band that would play the last show we were able to catch before our own departure.

Thankfully, we were not disappointed. We didn’t care if Bob Dylan was croaking down the street at Key Arena, Exitmusic was the perfect show for a dreary, rainy Seattle evening, they really put on a powerful performance. The one question I had going in was whether or not Aleksa Palladino’s vocals would carry in the live setting. That question was answered emphatically in the affirmative, and as we stood right up next to the stage, we were blown away time and again by the power of her voice.

It is a power that is all the more profound when she belts out vulnerable, honest, engaging lyrics. Lyrics such as “hold back the curse of life, hold back the curse of life, you’re so incredible, yet why can’t I touch you” which bled over a receptive audience that was allowing everything to sink in.

There is a tragic hopefulness to Exitmusic’s songs. In one breath there can be a devastating confession of resignation or failure, matched with a shocking word of a desperate hope, a hope against all odds, which is likely why I find their music so appealing. They are daring enough to sing about despair without throwing away the more hopeful lights they see in the world.

And all this is soaked in the mildly epic, pulsating, patient, and economic musical soundscapes created by Aleksa’s husband Devon Church and their backing band.

And what about the “backing band”?

You might call it the “apple-ization” of rock music, but I couldn’t help but notice that there were as many macbook pro’s on stage as there were band members (3 people, 3 macbooks). At least one computer was solely dedicated to the video collage that showed behind the band. As for the other machines, they ran programmed effects and loops to flesh out their sound. However they did it, it did not sound as cheesy as I thought. This speaks highly of the advances in technology. They didn’t sound digital even though they had their macbooks (and at least one i-pad I saw) backing them up just as much as anything else.

The band played most of the songs of their latest record Passages as well as a few older tunes. I was grateful as all the songs I wanted to hear were played and played well.

I should also mentioned I was pleasantly surprised by the club Barboza. Its right underneath another Seattle club, Neumo’s but that doesn’t mean it was beneath Neumo’s in quality. It was a small, swanky little venue. It had a standing bar with big booths in the back, mirrors on both sides, and an open space to stand for the bands. It was very classy and intimate. I was pleasantly surprised a band like Exitmusic would gig out at Barboza. I would have thought they would play a bigger venue. But I am not complaining because this made the night all the more enjoyable since I like seeing great bands in small places without the chaos of large crowds (there were about 70 or so on hand, which made the room seem full). They have nowhere to hide. And thankfully Exitmusic didn’t need to hide because they delivered a fantastic show.

The Church and Relevance

2012-10-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

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There are many, therefore, within the Church who believe that its relevance must be found in its ability to take a lead in social and international policies, and who would meet the situation by attempts to make the Church ‘up to date’ and ‘broad-minded’ and ‘progressive’ in the cause of peace and economic reform. The Church in their view must bestir itself to provide such remedies as thoughtful men outside the Church demand, and to answer the questions that such men are asking; and if it fails to do this it remains a scandal, ignored by this generation.

But the New Testament suggests that the right answer begins at a very different point. For the relevance of the Church of the Apostles consisted not in the provision of outward peace for the nations, nor in the direct removal of social distress, nor yet in any outward beauty of the Church itself, but in pointing to the death of Jesus the Messiah, and to the deeper issues of sin and judgment—sin in which the Christians had shared, judgment under which they stood together with the rest of mankind. In all this the Church was scandalous and unintelligible to men, but by all this and by nothing else it was relevant to their deepest needs.

-Michael Ramsey (quoted from The Gospel and the Catholic Church, pgs. 3-4)

A good word here from the 100^th Archbishop of Canterbury. I find it particularly relevant right now in the United States as we are in an election season. May the church not seek to be relevant on the world’s terms by offering worldly solutions to worldly problems. But may the Church seek her relevance by the only thing she really has to offer, the unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, which meets man’s deepest need. My prayer then is that pastors will preach King Jesus on November 4^th and every other week for Jesus is the winning ticket, he will never fail, his throne will remain forever and ever.

Put not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;

on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the LORD his God,

(Psalm 146:3-5 ESV)

A Few Recent Photos

2012-10-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a few recent photos we took up here in the NW.......

Children Crossing

2012-09-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Recently we spent some time at the Everett Museum and the Ballard Locks. We had a great time....If you want the slideshow version, go here.

Catholic quote of the day

2012-09-27T10:12:00.001-07:00

"Catholics....should be careful to respect the lively faith of other Churches and ecclesial Communities which preach the Gospel, and rejoice in the grace of God that is at work among them."

-quote from Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism (1993), 206.

That's good to hear.

Embarassed for the NFL

2012-09-25T08:42:00.001-07:00

I have not watched an NFL game this year. However, I have listened to some NPR, and over the past few weeks they have ran stories about the replacement referees in the NFL.

Well last night, I was able to watch the entire fourth quarter of Monday Night Football. And all of a sudden I realized what NPR was talking about.

There were many egregious calls by the replacement refs. So much so, it seemed more profitable to laugh about them than to argue over them.

To top it all off, two of the worst calls came at the end of the game, and played a decisive role in the game. A defensive pass interference that was clearly offensive pass interference, and the call that Seattle scored a touchdown on the final play, were unbelievably atrocious calls and they happened to decide the outcome of the game.

Simply put, I was embarrassed for the NFL. You can't take it seriously right now. It went to the level of WWF "wrestling" and what the "referees" do in that "sport." Which is a shame. The NFL players deserve better. I wouldn't be surprised if teams stopped showing up for games. What's the point? The game can be decided by other means now. Bad calls.

Needless to say, I was just as shocked as anyone last night. I was pulling for Seattle even, but Seattle didn't win the game, even though the refs declared them to have won.

I woke up this morning to the LA Times and found Bill Plaschke's article to put it well.

Lets hope this never happens in the NBA. The calls are already bad enough.......

Shuttle Landing

2012-09-21T12:43:00.001-07:00

We're having to circle LAX to make room for the space shuttle Endeavor to land. We'll get it to see it on the south side of the runway. The space shuttle is off from its tour and being retired at the LA museum. This is the first time I have ever thought a delay was worth it. Our pilot is trying our to direct our sights so we can see it land from our plane. We're at 16k feet now.