All Saints Presbyterian Church

October 22, 2009

Admittedly, updates to this page have been a little slow lately. We’re averaging about one post per week. But we’re still at it. We have been working on a digest (or small journal of sorts) on the 7 Deadly Sins as we’ve considered them this fall. That work probably accounts for some of the scarcity of posts here lately. Hopefully this journal will become reality late this fall. In the meantime, here are a few things to take a look at:

This Sunday our series brings us to Luxuria, or Lust. The PCA magazine, byFaith, has a timely article on that topic - Lust: A Life and Death Matter. While there, you might also want to read Andrew Webb’s response to Bryan Chapell: Those Who Want to Revisit Women’s Roles Have Been Heard. If you’ve been following any of the PCA discussion around the topic of women’s roles in the church, this represents another piece of the puzzle. Incidentally, we still have the Tim Keller/Ligon Duncan discussion about women’s roles on our podcast page…I can’t link directly to it, but you can scroll down to find it on June 18, 2009.

Speaking of Tim Keller, Christianity Today recently spoke with him about idolatry in conjunction with his new book, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. You can read the brief conversation, as well as an excerpt from the book.

Finally, you might visit Duke Divinity School’s Call & Response blog. Officially designed to serve as “your space for daily insight, inspiration and discussion about Christian leadership," the site offers daily postings as well a small group of contributing writers who chime in occasionally. A good short read is Fuller Seminary President Richard Mouw’s post about Calvinism and grimness (written in response to a New Yorker review of the Kindle in which that device’s font was described as “grim and Calvinist”).

Thanks for reading and let me know if you see something else out there that you think might belong here.

Letterpressing the 7 deadly sins

From Beautiful Angle - Tacoma, Washington.

Curse your branches

It’s not like the late ‘90s were suffering from an absence of quality Christian musicians. Neutral Milk Hotel, coming out of Louisiana, released their acclaimed In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea, which remains required listening for any fan of independent music. At that time Nick Cave had been applying Christianity to more of his lyrics and released Boatman’s Call, one of the best albums of his career. And Johnny Cash, persuaded by Rick Rubin, was busy laying down more tracks for his legendary American Recordings series. But when David Bazan started releasing albums with his band Pedro the Lion, he managed to speak to a largely ignored element of the church that had been neglected by the big names in Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), like Michael W. Smith or Amy Grant.

Pedro the Lion’s music articulated a part of Christian experience that was intentionally and systematically ignored by 95% of Christian musicians - doubt. Their albums are a chronicled flight from a Pentecostalism that encouraged emotion and obscured the source. Bazan, the band’s lead singer and lyricist, wrote a number of songs that can only be described as Christian criticism of Christianity. If CCM was supposed to be a musical meditation on beauty, goodness, and truth, then, it was ultimately Bazan and not Christian pop superheroes who would fulfill that aim. Eventually, though, Bazan began to ask questions and failed to get the answers. He moved from accepting doubt as a raw material for faith to seeing the two as mutually exclusive, and the tenor of his lyrics changed remarkably.

Changing of the guard

Based on what I've heard from both Melissa and Bill, the All About All Saints membership class has enjoyed a good conversation about the role of women in the church - substantial and also gracious. That seems to be mostly true of the broader conversation going on in the PCA. To add to the mix is this brief article from Covenant Seminary President Bryan Chapell in ByFaith magazine.

"In essence, nothing changed at this year’s General Assembly regarding the role of women in the PCA. Attempts to limit roles were defeated. Attempts to discuss roles were also defeated. The only change that I observed was a changing of the guard. Beneath the notice of most was the clear evidence of a generational shift in those pastors and ruling elders who were serving on the Overtures Committee and many of the Committees of Commissioners. This can only spell good things for our church’s future as those who have often felt left out of denominational efforts clearly made an effort to make a difference with active participation, persuasive words, and significant numbers. Such efforts will guide where we ultimately go."

DeYoung interview & busyness

As mentioned earlier, one of the primary sources lending structure to our study of the 7 Deadly Sins this Fall is Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies, by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung.

Christianity Today recently interviewed DeYoung to talk about why she wrote a book about these sins; how we can identify them without becoming obsessed with them; and, once identified, how we root them out. Since we're considering sloth this Sunday, here's what she had to say about it:

"Once you take God out of the picture, there's really no good way to make sense of sloth. People have floundered to know what to do with that one and whether it belongs on the list. I say in the book, 'Oh, good, sloth—finally a vice I don't have to worry about having.' But when I studied the tradition, I realized that busyness, workaholism, diversion, and frenetic activities can all be symptoms of sloth, just as much as laziness or inactivity can be."

Her answer brings to mind these words from Eugene Peterson in writing about the "unbusy pastor:"

"I am busy because I am lazy. I indolently let others decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself...It was a favorite theme of C.S. Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone."

The sloth image is taken from the cover of Sloth by Wendy Wasserstein; part of Oxford University Press' 7 Deadly Sins series.

Sourcing the 7 Deadly Sins

As was mentioned in the sermon last Sunday (and as evidenced on the map below), the 7 Deadly Sins show up everywhere – from Dante to Gilligan’s Island. So far a handful of books have been most helpful in lending a sense of direction to our study. If you’re interested in reading more on your own, the following (in alphabetical order) serve as good entry points:

Glittering Vices
“…along with Aquinas and many others in the Christian tradition, the present study will examine the vices within the context of spiritual formation. This book, based on his inspiration and insights, offers the conceptual tools to illuminate our personal stories, enable penetrating diagnoses of our struggles, and – more importantly – give us a glimpse of life beyond the entrapments of sin.” (from the intro., pp. 10-11)

The Seven Deadly Sins Today
“When a theologian says that 'in each of the sins, a man acts in such a way as to make his relationship to God precarious, frightened, suspicion-laden, deceitful,' it is not impossible for the irreligious to understand what he is saying, as they can also understand when he adds that 'sin is what a man is compelled to confess to God because his action has placed him in a crisis before God.' Certainly if one has no inkling of what he is talking about, one will understand why sin is more than moral evil, why it is commonly described as infidelity, why it has been said that sin is less like the act of a criminal than the act of a traitor.”  (intro. p. 4)

Mapping the 7 deadly sins

As we begin our look at the 7 Deadly Sins this Sunday, it might help to take a broader view. To see where we fit on the map. Wired magazine shared some recent work from Kansas State that offers a state-by-state plotting of 7 Deadly Sin patterns.  As they explain:

"We're gluttons for infographics, and a team at Kansas State just served up a feast: maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). Christian clergy, likely noting the Bible Belt's status as Wrath Central, question the 'science.' Valid point—or maybe it's just the pride talking."

Calendar and Calling

“Don’t pull back from evangelism, and don’t slack up in Christian education, children’s ministry, global mission trips, counseling. But do your best to dignify all Christian calling to serve God in all sorts of ways, commission and pray for your teachers and nurses and secretaries and accountants as well as your missionaries and Sunday School workers.”

John Yates’ 2008 commencement address to the graduates, faculty and families at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, is striking, not so much for what it says as for what it exposes. After all, as protestants, and in particular “Reformed” protestants, we readily acknowledge soli deo Gloria, “all things to the glory of God.” No sacred-secular dichotomy. Everyone, from pastor to portfolio manager, from attorney to entrepreneur, from “Mom” to missionary; everyone does what they do to God’s glory.

And yet, how many businessmen, middle school students, professors, health-care workers…get up each day confident that what they are headed to do is absolutely what God has called them to do? Or, how many of us still think that as Christians, we mainly do what we do in order to put food on the table, take care of our families, go on a vacation, make money to support missionaries and perhaps the church, and perhaps put something away for a rainy day? In other words, we have our normative duties and our spiritual service, and how does one have time for the latter when the calendar is so full of the former?

Politics and the Gospel

In the minds of many “politics” is a dirty word, in part because in the modern era we’ve reduced “politics” to “involvement in the government”. Originally it meant much more. The Greek word “polis” is “city”, so broadly defined “politics” is involvement, not just in the government, but in the community. Early Christians were known for their clear-thinking, but they were known for their practical involvement in their culture as well, out-thinking and out-loving those who opposed them. We can learn a lot from them about what the gospel means politically.

After worship on September 13, Steve Britt and I (and perhaps a few others) will begin a conversation on this topic that will, I hope, move us toward a better understanding of the relationship between politics and the gospel. Let me be clear: our goal in it isn’t just to define the right stance on certain issues. It’s to better understand what our Lord calls us to in our community and how we should respond. Will it be a lively conversation? Oh, yes. Will it teach us how to do politics better?  I hope and pray so. 

Knowing God

I first knowingly affirmed my faith in the gospel when I was nine years old. In the Baptist church I was raised in, I had been invited repeatedly to embrace “a living relationship” with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It was an invitation filled with promise. Other friends will fail you; he won’t. Other relationships won’t satisfy you; this one will. Want to be happy? Here’s the key.

I embraced it on those terms, and for a long time—years-- I was somewhat satisfied by it. The experience of worship filled an emotional need  in me and I interpreted that as what having “a living relationship” with Jesus was all about. But as I grew older I became more cynical. Those emotions I equated with relationship? They weren’t produced by the Holy Spirit; they were manufactured by a manipulative worship style. And, of course, seeing through it meant that it didn’t work any more for me. In a way my “living relationship” with Jesus died then, and what followed were some very dry, overly-intellectual years.

And, of course, lots of questions. What is a living relationship with God really like? What’s it supposed to feel like? And when those feelings are confused, what does that mean? My friend Denis puts it well: “Do I love him [Jesus] really, or am I in love with The Story that is so profoundly satisfying, speaking to every part of life and reality? Or are those the same thing?”