What Does the Gospel Mean? (Theology Thursday)

 The Meaning of the Gospel

Theology Thursday is a dull enough name, but I'm told we get more dull as we age. Also, echoing something I learned from reading Augustine, it's more important what you say than how you say it. The latter is the temptation and allure, the former the most elusive for many reasons.

I say all of this with a warm and happy smile, grateful to do this fortheloveofit.

This is perhaps a bit of free writing, certainly not like last last week which got long and laborious, and I don't know who would read it all. Often I go back and read what I wrote. But with last week's discussion of Gunton and gnosticism I could not stomach even half. Again, smile!

For this TT I remembered a discussion I had in the context of declaring for a secular audience the position of a para-church entity. We needed to choose our words carefully to avoid unnecessary trouble, while still being true to who we were as genuine Christian believers.

We were discussing whether to say we were followers of Jesus Christ or followers of the Gospel. It was a little more nuanced in my memory but that is the gist. I advocated for framing our position in terms of the Gospel. For ease of form I will express my reasons in bullets:

• We are to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” an admonition for prudence and wisdom. In some contexts naming Jesus can negate dialogue unnecessarily.

• If we are known as Christians it is unnecessary to use language any more direct or potentially provocative than necessary. We are not trying to make a scene or even “prove a point.” We are trying to humbly and prudently describe who we are.

• Saying “Gospel” helpfully implies all that is included in Scripture and the Christian tradition.

Thinking a bit further on this, I remember Chesterton's remark: “Nothing is irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true.” We are Christians who affirm the whole Gospel which is good for all of life. Is the same conveyed as well with the name "Jesus." Maybe, but I was suggesting otherwise.

If I were to try to say what the Gospel means without simply offering the creeds, I would say something like this:

• The Gospel means all creation has purpose and meaning because it is authored by an “infinite, personal God” revealed in the person Jesus Christ.

• All people are born sharing in the lostness that we all know to be true. We cannot set the world straight. There is something in our nature that always, eventually, goes awry, often catastrophically.

• Only the one who made the world can fix it and, to paraphrase the ancient understanding of redemption, “only what the redeemer takes unto himself can be redeemed.” The only one who can take all creation on himself is the one who made it -- the one to whom creation is subject.

• In the incarnation -- that central miracle of the Gospel --God took all creation on Himself. He became radically “with us,” took on flesh, became”very man of very man” whilst also “very God of very God.”

• In doing so God began the remaking of all creation, and of you and me.

This is the Gospel and the crux of it is the Incarnation – Christmas.

I confess, though I love analysis, I weary of formulae. Yet, subjective whimsy will not do either. This understanding of the Gospel, though not brilliantly or exhaustively conceived or conveyed, does reflect the gist of the what we mean when we say ”the Gospel.”

And it declares that blessed hope which we hold by faith in Him whom we dare to believe is indeed the son of God. He has accomplished that great work of redemption, the “now and not yet” of salvation. In Him is something vastly more than, yet suggested in, the incomparable scene at the end of Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Here we know Frodo triumphed and his friends, knowing this, exult in true praise, shouting “Frodo!”

As I say, it suggests the greater story in which the myth was made real. One day all will know Jesus has accomplished what only He could, and by His death and resurrection delivered the world from doom. All who believe and have trusted Him will find themselves rejoicing in the triumph he made on their behalf. They will exult in true praise, shouting, “Jesus!”

This is the Gospel, the “Good News” greater than any other!

Are All Loves Legitimate? (100 Word Wednesday)

Short and Sweet is Hard to Beat

Are all loves legitimate? Surely not. Or perhaps, since love, i.e., giving oneself for the good of another, is a fixed good, then the problem is with the disordering of love, a concept Augustine put forth.

The easiest way to dis-order love is to turn it inward, make it about feeling good, hold it for ourselves. Where does this leave us? What is love really and how can doing what we enjoy be properly called love? I will whittle down to 100 words and finish with this: when we love God first he helps make all the secondary loves whole.

Ten Minute Tuesday

 Deadlines help brevity. Maybe less really is more.

Never have there been more written words in the cosmos,

 never more digital-lingual competition for our attention.

I set my timer and dive in. Why do this? I don't know but it is ok to ask. I love to write though I'm probably average in the discipline required. And it is a real discipline, with all the components.

Some are practical, as real as the need for purpose. Why should I even write? Are ideas enough impetus? Yes, indeed, they are. When one thinks, the thoughts cry for clarity. When one attempts to force concepts into syllables, clarity is a necessary by-product, or should be. Just as I paused for 10 seconds trying to conceive the last sentence, so most writers must give the mental sweat to be worth reading.

Worth reading? That's a tough one. Never have there been more written words in the cosmos, never more digital-lingual competition for our attention. Since I've only 10 minutes and this amounts to an almost forced free-writing exercise, I will opt for slowing down and only attempt the thinnest, and hopefully most obvious, point of analysis.

"Worth reading" brings to mind the phrase "most compelling analysis" a particular news outlet uses to promote their work. I submit trust is also involved. Trust is earned in various ways, certainly through exposure to ideas that seem to comport with reality. But we also tend to trust those who speak well and who tend to agree with our own premises. 

This last is bias in a basic sense but also as natural as thinking, quite literally. No one can exist well with constant re-examination of their own primal ideas. Imagine constantly questioning the law of gravity, testing it, listening to objections. Ok, that may be too easy an illustration.

But for another example, if I must constantly re-consider my love for and reliance on the premise of liberty I will be very frustrated in my thinking about, or reading/listening to another's essay. 

I'm out of time. Will have to keep working at this "10 minute idea." All fortheloveofit, and grateful.

Meandering Monday

 Essaying from side to side, looking for meaning in the middle

I've been working with this idea of a structure for writing, trying to produce something 6 days a week working with the grid below.

Yes, this is an all-too typical overly-ambitious idea. And no, it is not a New-Year's resolution. :) I hold it loosely and will see what I am able to do. If you read along from time to time I am grateful to be sharing the journey with you!

• Meandering Monday: A pushing of the rope with more or less random thoughts to see if it can land anywhere worthy. Of course, as always, the joy is in the journey.

• Ten Minute Tuesday: In this I will take 10 minutes, plus "a bit" of editing, to write about whatever comes to mind. It is rope-pushing (again) but with a quite brief deadline. I think I will attempt poetry in this, as well as a slowing down. Less is more, or so they say.

• One Hundred Word Wednesday: This is quite the trick and I've got to find a shortcut key for checking word count! The idea is, well, to cut the word count, to be brief, to avoid wordiness, to abbreviate, to....

• Theology Thursday: This is obvious I suppose, but I hope to take brief forays into theology proper, and some lesser-than. My first musing dealt with Colin Gunton. I will hope to deal with some richness in my own Wesleyan heritage, as well as classical literature like Imitation of Christ, Dark Night of the Soul, Confessions.... The well is deep and wide, for the Subject is infinite.

• Fun Friday: The world of ideas is endless, or seemingly so. To think is to love the good and the God who is source of all. So on Fridays I want to morsel some idea that intrigues me in the moment, that has troubled me for years, or lands somewhere in between. I will also likely do some bio and story-telling.

• Shabbat Saturday: Here I hope to do some meditative poetry, free verse, praying in print, no doubt preparing for my duties on the Christian Sabbath.

• Sunday: This is my shabbat, interpreted “break.” So I will lay off writing.

Psalm 131

I recently experimented, quite briefly, with what could be said in 100 words that might be worth reading. Of course countless intellects are capable of that. Whether I am is another matter. This morning, with limited time and grace for knowing I mustn't linger, I thought to myself, "What could be said in 10 minutes that might be worth reading?

Perhaps this is a new high, or low, for ephemerality. The absolute avalanche of words unleashed every day has little worth, mostly due to the impossible volume. How can one possibly sort out what is worth reading, and not?

Perhaps this Psalm helps, my daily reading:

Psalm 131 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.

The pronouncement of self is either hubris or humility or, likely, something in between. I'm afraid I can't pray the Psalm without repentance; without asking, "Lord, make it so of me, deliver me from haughtiness, of thinking the words I have to say are the last word, have any true freight at all."

And then I am mercifully brought back to two things:

    1. The unabashed, innocent attitude of a child. the daring to be as we are with a miraculous lack of self-awareness that says, "I can trust God to do with me as he will and that He will do good." So maybe all the self-worry and over-seriousness can dissolve in a childlike trust of my heavenly Father.

    2. "Let Israel hope in the Lord." Which is to say in another way what #1 already said. At the end of the day, at our last breath, at the end of ourselves in any fashion -- the happiest of places to be -- we find our only hope really ever was and is in God.

That is enough -- 10 minutes with a bit allowed for editing.

Love to all, and to all a good morning!

 

Saturday Shabbat: Note to Self on Pride

I thought this may be an apt day for meditation, quiet, preparation. The musing below came a few years ago after I had nearly complicated a project way beyond necessary. Why had this happened? Because I did not want to ask for help. The man behind the counter knew the exact answer, and turned an $80 project into $20. Why don't we ask for help? Many reasons I suppose, but when I received help I stopped and wrote down the effect on my soul, heart and mind.

Note to Self on Pride

Pride likes to masquerade as independence, even resourcefulness.
Be humble, ask for help, for information. Allow yourself to imagine you may not know the
answer. At all.

Allow the other person to help you. Maybe, just maybe, they know something you don't. Let them
share your life by making it better, more rounded, happier, freer, because better informed and
more connected.

Some lessons, through dint of repetition, finally sink in. The soul-tears are real, but happy.

Fun Friday

 The world of ideas is infinite -- enjoy the journey!

I am often saying, with a smile, "We'll see how this writing thing goes." The week between Christmas and New Years is often slow, a very welcome slow. And so one imagines doing things not considered in normal days. Every year I imagine the summer will be different, more will get done, normal routines will continue, and especially it will not be so hectic!! Again, warm smile of realization. The most difficult is the loss of routine. Somewhere in April the season begins to take charge and by June you just hang on. Maybe it will be different this year. Best to sort of go with it, insist on a few fixed things, and enjoy the magic of summer in the land of the midnight sun! All to say, if I am able to maintain this routine in any suitable fashion it will be nigh unto a miracle.

But that is not the subject for these notes. Travel is. Today our younger son and I will go on a road trip beyond the Arctic Circle. I have made this trip three times, once going all the way to Prudhoe Bay during the peak of Fall. That was spectacular! 

If you know much about Alaska you remember the oil pipeline built in the mid-70's, one of the greatest engineering feats in the world, traveling near 900 miles through extreme climates, over rivers, underground, and scaling three mountain ranges. The road to the Arctic Circle and beyond to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay was established so the pipeline could be be built, and it included the first and only bridge over the Yukon River. 

From our house the Arctic Circle is a little over 200 miles. From there we will likely go to Coldfoot, a truckstop with cafe near Wiseman

and then, depending, may go on to Atigun Pass before returning home. If we go the farthest it will be about 700 miles round trip.

What is the Arctic Circle? Some may wonder if it is a physical marking of some kind. No, it is not visible and in fact they say it moves slightly each year. The Arctic Circle is the line above which Winter Solstice sees the sun fail to crest the horizon and Summer Solstice sees it fail to dip below the horizon. One day the sun never rises, one day the sun never sets: that tells us where the circle is. I'm glad we don't have to figure out where that happens. There's a sign, a small park, even a camping area.

Since we are only one week past the Winter Solstice, the days are still quite dark. We will be strategic about travel so we have optimal light for various locations. We'd like some light when we cross the bridge, for example. Atigun is far enough north the sun will not rise tomorrow, but it is scheduled to rise for the first time in one week on January 5th. The days get longer by a shocking 30 minutes each day, but it can't keep that pace. Some times of the year days gain or lose only one minute change and we are told the average is about 7 minutes. 

Weather is supposed to be a manageable - 9 F, and the skies are supposed to be clear. For this we are glad. The moon will be a few days off full, but it sets for a few hours in the afternoon, giving us black skies for star gazing and potential Northern Lights.

That's all for now. We've done our due diligence and look forward to leaving at a very early hour. Maybe I'll share some pictures next week. Prayers appreciated!

[Below is a chart for sunrise/sunset at Atigun Pass for December 2023.]