Language, Leaders and Love

Let me make something clear from the beginning. I have not read Rob Bell's new book. It will not be published on this side of the Atlantic until the end of March. I have not read any of Rob Bell's books and I think I might have seen one Nooma video. So why bother blogging about it?

What intrigues me is not so much the book itself but the nature of the controversy prior to its publication in the US. The internet was (and no doubt still is) full of people commenting on Bell's 'universalism' on the basis of one promotional video. Not only did Bell's opponents feel able to comment on his position without having read the book but so did his supporters. Anyone who has seen the video knows that Bell's position on anything at all was pretty unclear and hardly worth arguing about. Yet despite this the arguments started and some of it got pretty nasty (as online arguments have a way of doing).

The online atmosphere was so heated that by the time a reasoned, thought out (and admittedly overwhelmingly negative) review by someone (Kevin DeYoung) who had actually read the book came out the time for reasonable, respectful, critically engaged discussion had almost passed. And still very few people had even read the book in order to form their arguments!!

I would like to suggest some things that might improve such debates in the future:
1. How about reading the material before commenting on it?
2. How about not putting out vague and unclear promotional material which is only designed to stoke the controversy (and sell more books, of course)?
3. How about learning to listen to each other?
4. How about learning to disagree with someone's arguments without attributing sinister motives or descending to personal abuse?
5. How about saying what you mean and meaning what you say so that people can discuss substantive ideas and not just vague theories or intriguing questions?
6. How about being conscious in our discussions of the pastoral impact of both bad theology and bad behaviour from leaders when publicly discussing theology?

Let me finish by saying that IF Rob Bell is promoting a universalist theology then I strongly disagree with that position and I don't think it can be supported biblically. He has stated in an interview with Martin Bashir that he is not a universalist but doesn't seem to be clear about what he is. There are times when we need to admit mystery into our theological discussion but when it comes to 'heaven, hell and the fate of every person who ever lived' I think we owe it to people to be as clear as we can biblically be.

We must speak the truth and where we believe the truth is being compromised or distorted we must speak out. But we must speak the truth in love. It is this kind of truth-telling that Paul says will build up the body so that we grow up into Christ, our Head. What worries me is that we seem to be able to speak the truth more lovingly to our Islamic or atheistic neighbours than to people who themselves claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps in that way God might receive glory even in our disagreements both love and truth will win the day.

(PS Feel free to disagree with this post. I won't take it personally!!)

The Derby Fostering Case

There have already been a number of responses to this case - some of them more kneejerk than others - but I would urge caution in any response to cases like this. First, I don't think it is a good idea to respond to the case simply on the basis of the reporting in the media. Inevitably the media takes what is a pretty complex legal opinion and boils it down to an easily digestible (and not always accurate) headline. Secondly, there seems to be some evidence that some of the legal support for the couple at the centre of the case has come from Christian groups who are quite keen to take numerous cases to court simply so that they can cry 'persecution' when the judgment goes against them. Not all of these groups are immune from using the same kinds of tactics as the popular press if it appears to suit their cause.
I have glanced (and only glanced) at the judgment. It is long and complex and no firm principle in law seems to have been established by it. The common law of England and Wales regarding fostering appears not to have been altered by this judgment although the Judeo-Christian basis of the legal system in England and Wales does seem to have been called into question by it.
I don't want to be accused of making light of this case. There are some serious concerns that it raises, not least the implicit rejection of any real objective basis for making law. But I think that to suggest that this was the day when Bible-believing Christians stopped being able to foster or adopt children is wide of the mark.
The days of the marginalisation of the church and the Christian message are here and they will continue but let's be careful not to be led into using the weapons of the world - media spin, excessive political lobbying and heavily funded court cases etc. to fight for the cause of the gospel.
Instead let us remain faithful to the truth of God's saving grace in Christ, speak out for the poor, dispossessed and marginalised and depend on God's power which, according to the apostle Paul is made perfect in our weakness.

Reflecting on Psalm 19 with CS Lewis

‘I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.’ CS Lewis

The heavens and the skies – the stunning beauty of a sunrise or sunset, the child’s wonder at the sight of a rainbow (or even a double rainbow), the awesome power of thunder and lightning (especially during the snowfall this winter), the quiet brilliance of a clear but moonless night in the mountains when every star seems to be visible, the vastness and apparent closeness of a harvest moon in late summer - all declaring the glory of God.

Day after day and night after night they speak the glory of their creator. It is as though their purpose is to produce awe in us that is then to be directed not to them but to the one who made them.

The mistake of the pagans is misdirected awe – worshipping sun, moon, stars and planets instead of their creator. The mistake of the secularists is misdirected awe – preferring to worship a random series of unrelated events than the person who brought it all together.

The voice or language of the skies is heard in every part of the earth where people can acknowledge it, ignore it or reject it.  And then there is the greatest of the heavenly bodies – the sun – completely magnificent, utterly unequalled in the physical universe of the Hebrew believer and completely dependable – rising and setting more regularly than clockwork. Nothing is hidden from its heat – this isn’t the mild heat of an Irish summer – this is the strong, penetrating 40-50 degree heat of Israel. ‘…the cloudless, blinding, tyrannous rays hammering the hills, searching every cranny.’ (Lewis)

Turning to the law of the Lord is a natural link from the searching, penetrating rays of the sun to the searching, penetrating light of God’s word.

CS Lewis at first seems to struggle with the idea that someone could delight in the law as the psalmist says he does. He gives the example of a hungry but penniless man in a shop where he can smell freshly baked bread or freshly ground coffee who may respect and obey the law that says you shall not steal but can hardly delight in it.

Lewis suggests that someone can only delight in God’s law the more they read, study and meditate on it. It is as we spend time with God’s word that it becomes to us more precious than gold and sweeter than honey.

When I was at Dundee University I fell in love twice. Once was with Paula, the other was with the Bible. I was already a Christian but it was only through teaching and study and preparing for things like Hall Bible Study groups that I really began to see how much treasure is here.  I truly believe that we want children and young people to get that long before they get to university age. And we don’t want to do it so that we can produce great theologians; ‘One is sometimes (not often) glad not to be a great theologian; one might so easily mistake it for being a good Christian.’ (Lewis again).

Look at some of these images of delight in God’s law

·        More precious than gold

·        Sweeter than honey

·        Like feeling solid ground under your feet after ploughing through muddy fields

·        Like pure mountain water

·        Like fresh air after a dungeon

·        Like sanity after a nightmare

Half a century ago Lewis gave us a description of the emptiness, uncertainty and general lostness of the society in which we exist today. It is a description of a society which desperately needed the solidity of God's unchanging word.

'Christians increasingly live on a spiritual island; new and rival ways of life surround it in all directions and their tides come further up the beach every time....Some give morality a wholly new meaning which we cannot accept, some deny its possibility. Perhaps we shall all learn, sharply enough, to value the clean air and "sweet reasonableness" of the Christian ethics which in a more Christian age we might have taken for granted.'

That was Lewis writing over 50 years ago. Tell me that this is not a description of the western world of the 21st century.

There is a danger here, (and Lewis recognised it) that we who recognise and delight in God’s law somehow begin to think ourselves superior to all those around us who don’t value or care about it. To guard against that danger we have the last few verses of the psalm.

Forgive my hidden faults – those things that the word relentlessly searches out.

 Keep me from wilful sins – my constant tendency to do what I know is wrong (the Romans 7 problem). May they not rule over me – my unceasing ability to let pride or bitterness or disappointment or anger or pleasure take the place of God’s word in setting the course of my actions must be guarded against.

Above all v. 14 needs to shape all that we are and do. ‘The best have their failing, and an honest Christian may be weak. Nevertheless, the goodness and sincerity of their hearts will entitle them to pray the petition of this verse. No hypocrite or cunning deceiver can ever use this prayer.’ (Thomas Sherlock - Bishop of London mid-18th century).

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (ESV) 

Welcome

Having promised I would do this from September I am finally getting round to starting a blog. The title comes from the Bruce Springsteen song 'The Rising' where he talks about living in a garden of 1000 sighs. It inspired me as a good way to look at our world. There is so much that is beautiful, admirable and noble in our world but also so much that causes us to sigh or groan with the rest of the creation as we look forward to the day when everything is made new. I hope to reflect on some of the beauty as well as some of the pain of living the Christian life in the second decade of the 21st century. I can't promise regular posts yet (I'm new to all this) but I look forward to seeing if anything I do write strikes a nerve or maybe even helps someone.