Snow storms, baseball, and the Word of God

They're saying we'll get some snow up here tonight.  Three to six inches on the coast, six to ten inland.  Can you believe that?

Congrats to the Cards.  I have admired the Cards since I was a kid, growing up a Phillies fan but totally in awe of a Cardinal by the name of Bob Gibson, still the best pitcher I have ever seen.  Other pitchers, at their best, may have been as good as Gibson at his best, but Gibson reached that pinnacle far more often than anybody else.  Gibson was "at his best" more often than any pitcher I've ever seen.

BTW, I just love to watch the celebration on the field after the last out.  Makes me laugh and want to join in.

Speaking of baseball, why is game 6 of the World Series always better than game seven . . . or so it often seems.  Anyway, it was nice to have a game 7 this year, the first since 2002!

Enough about baseball.  Did I mention that I love N. T. Wright's translation of the New Testament?  I did?  Well, I'm saying it again.

For a while now I've been writing my own commentary on the Gospel of Mark.  This is just a way of making myself really engage and think about the text in context.  Those words, "in context," are all important.  There's a lot of non-contextual interpretation of the Bible out there.  For me, as I write about Mark, I'm just trying to keep the context front and center, and ignore all possible interpretation that is not related to the context; that is, to the story being told by the author.

Another way of putting this is in the negative: how not to think about the Bible.  The Bible is not a giant literary grab-bag of allegorical tales intended to help me with my life.  It does get used that way though.  Typically, a preacher will take a passage, then find a way to draw a parallel with our own lives.  So if David did this or that -- and David after all is a man after God's own heart! -- then we ought to do this or that.  The sermon ends with a rousing encouragement for us all to go and do this or that, just like David!

Yuk.  I can't listen to that any more.  David was a real historical person, not a convenient flannel-graph illustration for my personal encouragement.  And furthermore, David was a gift of God to the people of Israel and the world, so that we might see in him a fore-image of what was to come.  That is, in him we see Jesus, before whom David now gladly bows!

The reason that we have to say so often, just give me Jesus, is that we are so often served up so much else besides Jesus, all because of a deeply-entrenched misusing of the Scriptures for purposes of our own.  But I find that the story is quite inspiring enough without having to make it be all about me and my issues.

There, I have managed to write a post about snow, baseball, and the proper use of the Word.  Blogging at its best!

Tom Wright's Kingdom New Testament

So I just bought N. T. Wright's newly-released translation of the New Testament, called The Kingdom New Testament.  I got it for my Ereader and have decided to just quickly read it front to back, and half way through Matthew I'm really loving it.  It's fairly literal, but with a tone all its own.  Not as loopy and "imaginative" as Eugene Peterson's Message--I love Peterson's books, but have mixed feelings about his translation--it has actually made me smile and even chuckle at frequent intervals.  Mostly, though, it's just simple and flowing and very "readable."  I don't want to put it down!

You can read Wright's preface here, and you can read Ben witherington's interview with Wright here.

Personal Worship

At church last Sunday the pastor spoke to us about having a personal private worship time. That's not something I've ever done much, and the truth is I don't own any worship music that I'm particularly eager to listen to. I wonder if there's a fix for that.

 When it comes to worship time at church, any church, I try to latch on to the message and meaning in the lyric and forget that the music itself (predominant in most churches anyway) is simply uninteresting to me. I know, I know, you want to sound “contemporary” to keep the kids from drifting away, but does that word “contemporary” have to be synonymous with the absence of creativity and the droning sameness of one song after another?

The best worship experience I've had in a church in recent years was in a Church of Christ, with the congregation singing unaccompanied by the usual combo of guitars and drums. The beautiful thing about it was, well, people were really singing, not just holding their hands up and swaying. We could hear ourselves and one another clearly (a novel idea). If you want to sing together with others, you're going to have to find some other place than church, which privileges amped up guitars and drums at the expense of the sound of a multitude of voices. This is simply the way things are, and I'm willing to go along, but I'm not likely to love it.

So the question is, what's out there that I can listen to in my personal worship time? By the way, I don't accept that the only alternative is churchy traditionalism (pipe organs and robed choirs). Dan at Cerulean Sanctum, in a post about the problem of aging congregations, speaking of the propensity of young people to flee the church (even with its "contemporary" worship style) elicited this response from one reader:

The first thing I would say about that is there’s got to be a way to do it without sanctifying whatever’s hip, and simply updating your program to make it entertaining to the Justin Bieber/Twilight crowd. If you want to attract a new generation, don’t simply pander to its shallowest, most entertaining elements.... I find that a lot of young people long for a sense of shared life- of community. They also seem to prioritize enjoyment of things like the arts and the outdoors over climbing the social ladder or accumulation.

The young people I know are not abject suckers for the "contemporary." Walking through the Public Market in Seattle a couple of weeks back, I enjoyed several young buskers, one singing old blues numbers and playing slide guitar, and the other playing claw-hammer banjo, which is a style as old as the hills. Hmmm, I thought young people were only interested in the "contemporary"!

I'm not suggesting these styles of music as alternatives for worship, only asking where are these young people who insist on a standardized "contemporary" worship style at the expense of creativity? I don't think this sort of thing is as attractive to young people as our 40-something pastors think. That commenter at Dan's blog (okay, I admit, it was my own son) said this:

I’ve spent quite a bit of time now in primarily “young” churches, and I can say that they’re not going for the cheesy, canned, airbrushed, super-pious platitudes in loopy lettering. The felt banners and fake plants decor. What the last generation found to be counter-cultural and engaging actually bores the daylights out of young people much of the time. And if it sounds like you’re selling something,

Anyway, read the post and the comments too, because it's all very interesting and it ranges well-beyond the simple issue of worship style. But back to my own question. What music is out there that would be helpful in terms of personal worship? Taize music can be quite powerful in a meditative way:

 

 ... but I'm interested in finding out more. Any suggestions? I'd prefer harmony vocals but not necessarily churchy choirs like Taize, I like acoustic instruments and I like music that draws on tradition creatively without being enslaved by it. Of course it must be Jesus-centered. So if anyone has any suggestions . . . let me know.

It's all good!

After I left the church I'd been attending for ten years or so, there was time that I just didn't want to commit to any other church. I wanted to go very slowly. I didn't want to stay away from church forever, but I wanted to be patient. And the simple fact is that the things that made me unhappy in my old church were common to many churches. I was determined to watch and wait. Well, the neat thing is that now I'm somehow attached to two different churches at once: the one I've been attending on Sunday mornings (well, to be honest, I've been attending some Sunday mornings), and the other is a brand-new church-plant that exists as yet only as a small group who study the Bible together. The first is a Harvest Bible Chapel, and the church-plant is a Southern Baptist church called Christ Fellowship. I've been incredibly blessed by both of these. Sheesh, how He blesses us! I'm feeling gently and lovingly nudged. Hey, over here! Look at me! So I just wanted to say that. There are people everywhere lifting up the name of Jesus, dedicated to revealing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's pretty cool. I'm listening to Frank Viola's Epic Jesus talk on itunes just now. What an inspiring message! It's all good!

Push-Back

I've been reading John Piper's God is the Gospel (which I highly recommend, especially since it's a free download!), where Piper argues that the Gospel is ultimately a vision of the beauty and desirability of God above all other desirable things. His starting point for this:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6 ESV)

It is possible to present the Gospel in such a way that it simply compliments are selfish desires or assuages our fears, but the joy that such a gospel might bring is temporary at best. Although I suppose they may make strange bedfellows, Michael Frost seems to agree with Piper here. Frost argues:

When the contemporary evangelical church tries to present what it believes is the core message of the Bible, it nearly always does so in individualized terms, and it nearly always does so by presenting the message of Jesus as being about personalized benefit either in this world or the next.

That quote is from Frost's book, The Road to Missional. Both Piper and Frost are pushing back against the individualized understanding at the center of which is a self-interested decision to let Jesus come into our hearts. McKnight seems to be pushing back is his own way in his new book The King Jesus Gospel. The book's product description says it in a nutshell:

Contemporary evangelicals have built a 'salvation culture' but not a 'gospel culture.' Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. In the Beginning was the Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

These two books are definitely on my to-read list.

Three Things

The Gospel: The Story of Cosmic Restoration or the Plan of Salvation?

On the Way Teaching

Missional is not a Tame Lion
This last is the third in a series from Scot McKnight, referencing a new book by Michael Frost called The Road to Missional. [The first two in the series are here and here.] I love this post and I love the questions that McKnight asks. Here's a key snip:

Attracting members matters so much many churches have adapted and adopted market strategies. But Frost knows that the next generation knows marketing from missional, and it wants little part in the marketing and is up for the challenge to the missional.

Re-focusing Fandango

You know, I'm going to try to refocus Fandango on the Gospel, because that's the only thing that really jazzes me anyway.

I'm not much of a blogger these days.  Just figuring out a workflow will be a challenge, but what I hope to do is get two or three posts in per week.  Posts will generally be short and probably often merely link to what other bloggers are saying about, yeah, the Gospel.

That's it.

Along those lines, have you seen Nate's latest?  Nate has just read Scot McKnight's King Jesus Gospel.  I like his comments.  Well, I generally like Nate's blogging a lot.  I'm one of his keenest followers.

The McKnight book looks really interesting.  I think the dude's right on.  The Gospel is not primarily about my opportunity to make a decision for Christ, saving me from my sin.  It is that, but so much more.  C. S. Mann's commentary on Mark states it this way:

The Gospel . . . is the message that God's righteous purposes for Israel have reached both goal and climax in and through the ministry and person of Jesus; the Gospel is the assertion that in and through that ministry and person of Jesus, viewed as messiah and harbinger of a New Age, the reign of God is declared to all people willing to submit to its demands.

You betcha. God is restoring his broken creation.  And in the end his creatures will once again reflect the glory of the creator.  This he does in and through Jesus, his life, his death, his conquest of death, his present work.

Nate's rather long rant is also really good.

Hey, I just bought 28 books for 2 dollars!

So today is the last day of my local library's semi-annual book sale.  That means you can get a grocery bag full of books for a buck.  One George Washington greenback for one bag-o-books!  That's all! So I'm sitting here with two stuffed-to-bursting bags next to me.

When the books are that cheap, you tend to pick up whatever catches your eye.  It's like picking apples.  this one, this one, this one, that one.

So well, I bought 28 books.  Here are a few:

C. S. Mann's commentary on Mark.  Since I've pretty much decided to make the Gospel of Mark the subject of study for the foreseeable future, this was a fortuitous find.

John Eldredge's Wild at Heart.  I wouldn't have paid more for it, and I'm afraid it might make me cranky.  I mean, I don't really think the Braveheart guy is such a great hero and I don't dream of being a warrior, etc.  But, well, you can't beat the price....

In then there's Mark Buchanan's The Holy Wild, which was probably an attempt to catch the same lucrative wave that Eldredge has been riding for years.  After Wild at Heart, "wild" became the word every publisher tried to fit into every book aimed at the Christian guy market. Christian writers and publishers are nothing if not emulative.  Still, this might just be a worthwhile read, and Phillip Yancey praises Buchanan.  I'll give it a shot.

Kathleen Norris' Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.  Maybe I'll never read it.  In a year or two it'll just get re-donated to the library for another booksale.  This blogger calls the author "snotty."  Hmmm.

Elisabeth Elliot's The Path of Loneliness.  Subtitle: Finding Your Way through the Wilderness to God.  I think Elliot is a wise woman, but this book may just be another that I have acquired only to give away again.

Then there's the Mary Heart/Martha World book that has been  around for years.  Thought my dearest would like to have that.  Also, Kay Arthur's Walking in Power, Love, and Discipline, and Beth Moore's Breaking Free.   Again, hey, they were very nearly free, and might be okay.  

Finally, I found R. C. Sproul's Knowing Scripture and John Stott's Favorite Psalms.

That's it for the religion/spirituality department.  The rest of my haul is mostly history books, and something about the "art and science of home improvement" (because our home needs both the art and the science, let me tell you), and a book of poems by Mary Oliver (Blue Iris), and something called The Book on the Book Shelf, by Henry Petroski.

Random Thoughts Thursday

A lot of people were truly saddened by the death of Steve Jobs, almost as if a close friend or relative had died. This surprised me a little, never having been much a Mac guy.

I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow.  Haven't flown in, oh, maybe seven years.  My lovely wife hasn't flown in over thirty.  We're kinda homebodies.

Cold this morning.  I mean, for the first time this Fall it was actually cold.  Frosty.  I love this weather!

Bible study with the Christ Fellowship crew last night.  Scott, our teacher, handles the Word with loving care.  I'm very thankful to have found these folks.

I've been reading James Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno, about Guadalcanal.  Hornfischer writes really well about sea battles in WWII.  Amazing and horrifying stuff.

I'm always amazed that people actually "follow" me on Twitter, given my inaction there.  Still, it's nice.  One of these day I may figure out how I want to use it.

I don't have Internet at home anymore, so just hanging out online is now an infrequent activity for me.  Just now I'm sitting at the campus center at the university where I work.  Anyway, this means I'm not keeping up with the news anymore.  And I don't miss all that, actually.

Check out Nate's post about N. T. Wright.  Speaking of whom, I'd like to read his latest, Simply Jesus, which is due out in a few weeks.

There.  That about does it.  This post, by the way, was inspired by Steve Scott's Friday posts at From the Pew, which I always enjoy.  Steve likes to end with a music link.  Me too:

Americana Monday returns!

Birthday post

So it's my brithday, and I'm sitting here concocting a Saturday post.  Because, well, Saturday posts are all I've can muster these days.

Last night I saw Rodney Crowell in concert.  Small room, Rodney and his guitar alone on stage.  He was wonderful.  I can't tell you how much I admire his story-telling skills in song.  I think he's right up there with John Prine and Townes van Zandt as one of the best songwriters of our era.  I may have posted this before, but it's worth repeating.



Sweet.

So here I am, two nickels back to back make 55, and that's what I became today.  I'm two nickels old.  Went out for breakfast and had steak and eggs!  Now I'll go for a run, sit and read.  See you next week!