Mining Grace

Brad gave his fourth lecture last night on the works of CS Lewis.  He had planned to go over The Screwtape Letters but decided to call up The Chronicles of Narnia from the bullpen.  I have to say that I was highly impressed with the material he presented.  Of all of CS Lewis’s works I am most familiar with Narnia.  But as this series progresses, Brad is showing me that there is so much more depth to Lewis’s works than I had thought.

The two most interesting questions that Brad tackled in this lecture were:

1. Why would a famous 50 year old scholar and professor begin writing children’s fairy tales?
2. Why are there seven books in the Narnia series and what does that have to do with the themes of each?  (hint: it apparently has to do with Medieval Cosmology)

Listen and learn.

{right click to download}

I recently added The Sweet Dropper to my blog links in my sidebar.  It is the blog of Phillip Palmertree.  Other than being my boss he is the senior minister here at First Presbyterian Church in Kosciusko, MS.  You should check out his blog for astute thoughts on theology, music, and Mr. T.

You can also check out why its called The Sweet Dropper.

I love reading aloud to my kids.  They love it too.  Of course they love it in different ways.  My 6 year old usually sits right next to me on the floor in rapt attention occasionally asking his loquacious brothers to please be quiet–though the please isn’t always included.  My 4 year old generally chooses reading time to expend all left over energy from the day.  This usually includes covering every square inch of his bedroom with leaps, bounds, and general mayhem.  He is however listening and often proves it by interrupting at key moments to ask questions.  My two year old listens less but snuggles more.  He generally sits in my lap, not so much to listen to the story but to be close to his daddy.  My one year old is more oblivious and spends reading time exploring his brothers’ room with his new found skill–walking.

Each in their own way, my boys love listening to me read and I love reading to them.  We’ve been through the Narnia series and are now almost finished with the Lord of Rings trilogy.  We actually began in The Hobbit and have read straight through.  I love that my boys are growing up in Middle Earth.  I primarily love the times we spend in family worship studying the Bible but our secondary family stories of Aragorn, Ents, and Gandalf are sweet to a father’s soul.

I know I am only becoming vaguely aware of the power of stories in my own life.  I always loved nonfiction and intentionally majored in Chemistry to stay away from literature and history.  But reading to my children has changed my attitude to the whole thing.  I frequently get so caught up in reading that I have to stop for a minute finding my throat choked up with the thrill of plot or the poignant truthfulness of the moment.  My boys take note of daddy’s wavering voice and learn about bravery in battle, virtue towards women, and love for friends–and they’re learning how to feel about these things.

I love reading to my boys.  I hope to make it a long standing family tradition.  For whatever reason Middle Earth has become our staple.  I couldn’t be happier.  I close simply by asking, “Where are you children growing up?”

For further reading

• Enchanting Children by David Mills, in Touchstone Magazine
• The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
• Author of the Century, Shippey

Brad did another fantastic job last Thursday night.  He focuses each lecture on a different selection from Lewis’s works.  This past lecture focused in on “Learning in War Time” which is a lecture included in The Weight of Glory.  Brad pointed out that we often miss that Lewis’s life and works were drastically affected by two world wars.

Listen and learn.

{right click to download}

I preached this past Sunday evening from Matthew 16:13-18.  It was my introductory sermon to a series I’m beginning in October entitled, “Jesus, His Church, and His Mission”.  I’ve been fascinated with the strong lines that are drawn between these three topics–Christology, Eccleisiology, and Missiology. In my series I hope to examine how each of these themes builds on the other.

My main goal in this frist sermon was to give a taste of the series without preaching the whole series in one sermon.  The text I chose tied these themes together well.  First, Jesus receives Peter’s confession that Jesus was indeed “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Second, Jesus goes on to describe the church as a group of people that he himself builds.  Third he gives the church the mission of assualting the gates of Hell–a metaphor for death in all its manifestations.

{right click to download}

Therefore, all people are conceived in sin and are born children of wrath, unfit for any saving good, inclined to evil, dead in their sins, and slaves to sin; without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit they are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform.

Synod of Dort – 3/4.3

__________

This is a summary of Ephesians 2:1-10.  See in this God’s love.  God seeks out people who are described above.  Those are the only kinds of people he loves and lavishes his blessings upon.  There are no other kind of people.  All have fallen short.  I have fallen short.  What a rescue, what a redemption is Jesus’s triumph over sin!  What a rescue, what a redemption is Jesus’s triumph over my unwilling, unable heart.

Brad did a great job last night lecturing on CS Lewis’s work, The Weight of Glory.  I’m really enjoying this series.

Brad split his lecture up into two parts examining the prevailing themes of The Weight of Glory: joy and heaven.

CS Lewis Lecture 2

{right click to download}

I was just thinking yesterday what book I would suggest instead of The Shack.  I decided to break that answer apart into two books.  The Shack attempts to scratch two evangelical itches.  First, folks want to know how to enter into and cultivate fellowship with God.  More specifically–as The Shack highlights–Christians want to know how they relate to the different members of the Trinity.  Secondly, The Shack is theological fiction–a genre that evangelicals have been glutting on for the past few years.

There hasn’t been anything better written on the believer’s fellowship with God than John Owen’s Communion with God.  In it Owen examines how a believer communes with God and more specifically with each member of the Trinity.  But be warned, Owen is a reading work-out.  You won’t breeze through it but the effort you put toward it will be reimbursed 100 fold.  I recommend the Taylor, Kapic version for the average reader but will include a few others below.

John Owen, Communion with God

• Online version at ccel.org
• Vol 2 of his works which includes Communion with God
• The abridged version of Communion with God in the Puritan Paperback series
• Communion with God updated by Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic
• An examination of Owen’s theology in Communion with God by Kapic

Make note that Owen’s work is not fiction.  So what is the greatest work of Christian fiction that all Christian’s should read?  And I mean that with no qualification.  Beyond any question it is Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.  If you have not read this book then you should order it today and read it the day it arrives.  In fact, order a few copies and give them out to your friends.  Bunyan sets the bar for Christian allegory.  His work oozes Christ-centered, pastoral theology.

But don’t take my word for Bunyan.  This is what John Owen had to say of John Bunyan when asked by King Charles why he, a world class scholar, went to hear Bunyan, an uneducated tinker-preacher.  Owen replied,

I would willingly exchange my learning for the tinker’s power of touching men’s hearts.

If you’re looking for two good books to read, you couldn’t do better than Owen’s Communion with God and Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.  Though you could do a whole lot worse.

I just finished reading The Shack.  To be honest, I really didn’t want to read it.  But I decided to read it for two reasons.  First, people in my congregation were reading it.  Second, men that I respect are divided on the merit of the book. I knew that if I was going to speak about it, I should read it myself and make an informed judgment.

To be both blunt and clear, I do not recommend The Shack.  I agree with the assessment and reviews of Tim Challies.  Tim–an avid reader, reviewer, and author–has spent a good bit of time in dialog with people who both appreciate and do not appreciate The Shack.  The result of these dialogs can be found at his site and on amazon.com.  I will not repeat what Tim has written, so please follow the links below for his helpful analysis on The Shack.

• Original Review
• Follow Up #1
• His updated review in pdf
• Follow Up #2
• His Amazon review (second reader review)
• His pamphlet review of the book sold on Amazon.com

Because Tim has done such a thorough job, I’m only going to add my own particular thoughts on The Shack.

The Dangers of Fiction

The common retort to negative reviews of The Shack is, “But it is only fiction.”  The assumption behind this plea for unconditional grace is that fiction 1) can’t be that bad and 2) should be judged by different standards than other written media.  I disagree.  My disagreement was further solidified by a quote from CS Lewis I heard this past Thursday night.  Lewis said,

…any amount of theology can now be smuggled into people’s minds under cover of romance [romantic, imaginative literature, fiction] without their knowing it.

Lewis saw that an author could “smuggle” truth into people’s heads and hearts through fiction.  He sought to use this profoundly influential genre of literature–theological fiction–to introduce hundreds of thousands of people to Christian themes.

Lewis was not perfect and had his faults just like any other author.  My purpose is not to compare Aslan to Papa.  My purpose in quoting Lewis is simply to convince you that when you read theological fiction you should be more discerning and not less.  The response to The Shack should be, “Hey, this is theological fiction, we really need to read this carefully and be discerning about what is being ’smuggled’ into the minds of those who read this book.”

What is the author saying

I have yet to see a good summary of The Shack from the point of authorial intention.  A plot summary and the intention of the author are two parallel but different things.  Theological fiction–especially of the more allegorical ilk–takes an incredible amount of forethought and planning.  To some degree authorial intent is only inerrantly found in the author’s own skull.  But reading as a medium exists as a conversation between author and reader.  At the end of a book, a reader should be able to answer the question, “What is the author saying.”  So what exactly is the author of The Shack intending to do with his characters and plot line?  The following is what this reader saw in the book.

Mack is a sporadic church attender who despite seminary training is disillusioned about Christianity and particularly the church.  Haunted by an alcoholic and abusive father he has difficulty in conceiving of God as a loving Father.  He undergoes a tragic event that causes his apathy toward God to turn into profound anger.  God enters into Mack’s life inviting him through a written note in his mailbox to meet him at the very heart of his tragedy–The Shack.

The time Mack spends with God at The Shack serves the author’s purpose of challenging the reader’s view of God by bringing into question orthodox teaching on various biblical themes–especially Trinitarian theology.  Some of these include…

• Should God the Father always be thought of in masculine terms? (personal properties of the persons in the Trinity)
• Did God the Father and the Holy Spirit suffer on the cross?  (perichoretic union and the communicatio idiomata)
• Does God really judge anyone?  (God’s justice and a theology of Hell)
• What is the relation between Jesus’s manhood and divinity?  (hypostatic union)
• How does someone come into a saving relationship with God?  (soteriology)
• What happened on the cross?  (penal substitutionary atonement)
• How does God communicate to men?  (authority and inspiration of the Bible)
• What is the church and should someone be a part of a local church?  (eccleisiology)

These are just a few of the questions that the author wants you to ask.  I included applicable orthodox doctrines in parenthesis so that you see the range of fundamental truths this book attempts to address.  None of these questions are answered clearly.  Because they are not answered clearly, they obviously are not the content the author wants you to remember.  A good author is clear about what he wants you to take away from his work.  Instead, in light of questioning biblical orthodoxy a few other themes develop with more clarity:

1. Hierarchy is a sinful human creation designed solely for power plays
2. Human suffering must be allowed by God because God’s intervention in suffering would violate man’s free will
3. Man’s free will is important because it is the potential to enter into a forgiving relationship with others
4. The cross is how God forgave all men, leaving the potential for them to respond to God with a desire for relationship
5. The church is fundamentally flawed and Christians should instead gather in groups built solely on relationship

If you consider carefully these five themes, you shouldn’t have any doubt why people are flocking to The Shack.  Anit-theology, anti-authority, forgiveness and relationship without addressing sin–these are seductive but sinful themes.  It is also shouldn’t be any wonder that people are scooping up a similar book published by the same publisher of The Shack entitled, So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore.

The author intentionally questions major theological doctrines without providing clear answers.  He also posits several unhelpful views of biblical hierarchy (ie elders and deacons), God’s sovereignty in suffering, salvation, the cross, and the church.

I now ask the questions, “If you were writing a book trying to help people understand God’s character in the midst of intense suffering, would you write The Shack?”  I wouldn’t.

Its not what you write its what people read

The question of orthodox theology in The Shack is appropriate and entirely merited.  People respond to this by saying that the author has clearly denied–in internet posted interviews–any supposed heresies associated with the book.  That is good to hear.  But….art is not what the author would like to communicate but rather what the reader actually reads.  Why hasn’t the author issued a retraction or apology at being unclear about important biblical truths?  Readers are confused.  Readers–this one included–find themselves at multiple points in the book questioning the author’s orthodoxy.

Impractical

What does this book make a reader want to do?  This book has struck a nerve among readers because so many people have undergone tremendous tragedies in their own lives that have lead them to doubt God’s goodness or sovereignty or both.  As a pastor, I hurt for these people.  I talk to these people week in and week out.  I am one of these people.

But what is our counsel? Basic biblical counsel would lead us to say to someone in Mack’s position,

1. Open your Bible and remind yourself of the truth of God’s character even when circumstances don’t make sense.
2. Go to the Psalms and use the language of the psalmists to give a prayerful voice to your sorrow and suffering.
3. Think about the cross.  Remember that Jesus has accomplished what sinners cannot.  He has suffered for their sins to cancel their debt with God and bring to them a righteousness not their own.
4. Respond to the truth of the cross in faith and repentance, confessing that you deserve even more than your current suffering for all the ways that you have sinned against God. Yet God in his mercy has given you boundless grace instead.
5. Remember that God brings suffering into the lives of his children so that they can be more like Jesus and be sanctified.
6. Remember that all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
7. Seek out Christian community to support and encourage you in this time of suffering.
8. Seek out the help of an elder in your church to help shepherd and guide you through this hard time.

These are the things that someone in Mack’s situation needs to hear.

Now I realize that The Shack is fiction.  The author is not suggesting that anyone should try to find the God of The Shack or in the way that Mack finds the God of The Shack.  But if it doesn’t encourage the hurting reader to do anything listed above then what good is it in the end–even as fiction?

Comparisons to Pilgrim’s Progress

Finally, with all due respect to Eugene Peterson, can we please stop comparing The Shack to Pilgrim’s Progress.  Ignoring the chronological snobbery of such a comparision, it is grossly offensive to one of the greatest works of English/Christian literature.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then go read Pilgrim’s Progress.  Now that is a work of theological fiction I can heartily recommend.

I love preaching and teaching.  I miss it when I’m not doing it and preparing for it.  I’ve just passed through one of those lulls where my teaching and preaching opportunities were minimal.  But thankfully, all of that is coming to an end very soon.

Next week I begin back a lunch time Bible study I’ve been leading on the book of John.  I’ve relied heavily on DA Carson’s commentary for study preparation.  I relish spending time in John’s gospel mining the deep truths about the beauty of Christ.

I also get to preach this Sunday evening.  This sermon will be introductory for my sermon series beginning in October entitled, “Jesus, his Church, and his Mission.”  It will be my first attempt at preaching an extended topical series.  My goal in the sermon series is to spend four sermons on each of the three topics of Christology, Eccleisiology, and Missiology.

The concept for this sermon series came out of reading a few missional authors like Mark Driscoll and Ed Stetzer.  They talk about the importance of a church understanding three crucial concepts.  Who is Jesus?  What is the church?  What is the mission that Jesus wants the church to be about?  I wanted to craft a topcial series attempting to answer these questions for my congregation.

I remain amazed that my job is to study and teach God’s word about salvation in Jesus Christ.  And I can’t wait to get started on these new opportunities.

Man brought forth children of the same nature as himself after the fall. That is to say, being corrupt he brought forth corrupt children. The corruption spread, by God’s just judgment, from Adam to all his descendants – except for Christ alone – not by way of imitation (as in former times the Pelagians would have it) but by way of the propagation of his perverted nature.

Synod of Dort, 3/4.2

__________

Somehow I take comfort in the fact that the first experiment in parenting ended up in one kid killing the other.  Adam’s sinful nature did not stay with Adam.  It flowed from that Edenic peak down to the ocean of humanity, extending to me and my children.  And as far as the age old question of nature versus nurture, sin is definitely passed on by nature.  It is that nature that is redeemed and made new by God.  Jesus died on a cross to rescue men and women from their birthright of sin.  He died so that they could be born again to an untainted blood line.  Blessed be the gospel of our redemption.

We have a tradition here at FPC, Kosciusko to host a Fall Lecture series.  For the past two years we have had Dr. Derek Thomas come and present lectures on Pilgrims Progress, parts one and two.  This Fall we asked Rev. Brad Mercer to come and present six lectures on the life and works of CS Lewis.

I served with Brad at First Presbyterian in Jackson, MS.  Brad is an excellent scholar, pastor, and friend.  He is currently pursuing his doctorate in Lewis studies.

The task we gave him for this six lecture series was to acquaint us with the life and works of CS Lewis.  He organized last night’s lecture around three points.

1. A Question
2. An Illustration
3. An Introduction

I’ll try to post the audio as we move through the series.

Last night’s lecture embarassed me with how little I thought I knew about CS Lewis.  You owe it to yourself to listen and learn more about the man who Brad called, “arguably the most influential Christian of the 20th century.”

CS Lewis – Lecture 1

{right-click to download}

I’m sick again.  That makes twice this month.  I’ll spare you the diagnosis.  However, this morning I was thinking on 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.  Now, I have no idea what Paul’s thorn was exactly.  I also don’t know if my illness is rooted in spiritual warfare.  But I do know that Paul’s physical trial was meant to lead him to humility.  Humility I do need.  So along with the three bottles of medicine I’ll be taking over the next few weeks I’m hoping the Lord will throw in a good dose of soul humbling.

I hope to learn by experience what I know to be true in my head, “God’s grace is sufficient for me.  His power is made perfect in my weakness.”

We watched him come.  And we did nothing to stop him.  Gustav plowed his was across the Gulf and we all knew that he would cause destruction.  No boats could alter the storm.  No jet propelled armaments could change its course.  And we were fascinated.

I love weather, especially storms.  They are a symptomatic of man’s inability to draw his attention away from that over which he has no power.  The sovereign is captivating.  Like watching a car wreck in slow motion, we just can’t avert our gaze.  This terror filled fascination finds its culmination in the glory and power of God.  He just is.  He does what he wants.  And we simply can’t avert the gaze of our hearts from God’s mighty hand.

So as you watch with rapt attention storms troll through the Gulf and Atlantic remember deep down that your weather channel fanatacism will eventually lead you back to consider God, indomintable and omnipotent–worthy of all fascination.