For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:20
The entire universe is built around communicating to you that you’re tiny and you’re fragile and you control nothing. – Matt Chandler
As I think back over the past two weeks and the utter devastation that was wrought on Haiti, I can’t help but be a little saddened. The stories and images coming out of Haiti are truly heart breaking and challenging at many levels. It has also brought many “Christian” leaders out of the woodwork to explain how God could allow something like this to happen. I listened patiently as these people would espouse 1 of 2 theories:
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God had nothing to do with this, this was Satan. Or,
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This is direct punishment for sins committed by Haitians
It is frustrating to hear people either run away from God’s sovereignty and appoint the power to call creation into action to Satan, or to run from grace and appoint judgment onto Haiti; the same judgement that all nations rightly deserve and are under. It pains me to hear Christians disavowing the sovereign rule and reign of God over all creation, but it also disturbs me to hear Christians claiming they know why this happened. What a disturbing measure of pride in both reactions. The only response that I have read so far on the tragedy that is faithful to scripture and the gospel is by Albert Mohler. If you haven’t yet read his post entitled Does God Hate Haiti? I entreat you to go read it.
So I find myself asking and praying about what my responsibility is as a Christian in light of what’s happening? It was a very similar feeling I felt after 9/11, and the overwhelming sentiment I had then was that the church had no songs to sing, and nothing to say after 9/11. Though the Psalms are full of worship in lament, our churches are usually void of them. I feel it is important for churches to not run from the gospel and hide in either of the extremes I mentioned above. I believe that in light of what’s happening in Haiti we should respond corporately in a few ways.
First, we should grieve and mourn with those in Haiti. Romans 12:15 spells it out pretty clearly, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” Starting out the service with big smiles and happy clappy music seems ill-fitting at best when viewed in the shadow of 50,000 dead, with another 100,000 yet to be found. Paul says we should rejoice in our suffering, but doesn’t say we should rejoice in other’s suffering. In fact he says quite the opposite in 1 Corinthians 12:26 when discussing church unity, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”
The second thing we should do is worship an all-sovereign God. The church has to recognize God’s sovereignty in all things. That God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and He has plans and purposes that we don’t see. I don’t see the number of earthquakes God’s hand has held back. I don’t know the number of hurricanes he’s calmed, or the tsunamis he’s diverted. We are tiny, and God is great, all-powerful, all-sovereign and all-good. This earthquake, as well as all creation, should point us to God and illuminate his divine attributes, including his absolute sovereignty.
Next, we should proclaim a merciful, loving, and good God. God loves Haiti. He loves the people of Haiti and His heart is grieved. At the cross we see God’s perfect justice meeting His perfect mercy, grace and love. We live in the aftermath of that collision on the cross and our hearts should be eternally grateful. Ephesians 2:4-7 says:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Finally, we should serve the broken and minister to the lost. If all we have is great context and point of view without our hearts being impacted and propelled towards acts of kindness and mercy, then there’s a disconnect with the gospel. My heart is stirred by the tremendous outpouring from the Christian community towards Haiti. There are so many different avenues of service and help happening right now and they all are orchestrated under the mercy, grace and sovereignty of God. Two ministries that my wife and I have supported in recent days are the Sovereign Grace Ministries Haiti Relief Fund, and Churches Helping Churches. Both are great organizations, and if you haven’t given aid yet to help the crisis, then I would highly recommend either one of these organizations.
I fully believe that it is important in this day and age for our worship to not hide from any of these things. Our view of the gospel in our worship needs to be enriched, not diluted. We shouldn’t be trying to conceal God, or any of his divine attributes, to make it more palatable to the world. I implore churches to point their communities to the gospel in this season. There is a great opportunity for God to be magnified during this period of devastation and loss. There is a great opportunity for the lost to be pointed to Christ and for the church to be mobilized to show Christ’s love.
Shelby out!
How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it. – G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy
Following God’s lead is always good but never safe. When you commit yourself to do whatever God tells you to do and to go wherever God tells you to go, you inevitably experience ups and downs; highs and lows. 2009 was by far the hardest year my family and I ever experienced. It was filled with excitement and fear; misunderstanding and frustration; laughter and tears. I experienced moments of great desperation and great deliverance; grief and glory. God’s Spirit and God’s truth afflicted me in my comfort and comforted me in my affliction. As a result of this hard year, however, God and his gospel became more real and relevant to me than ever before. I’ve never felt so dependant on him. He’s never been so big; I’ve never been so small. The idea that Jesus plus nothing equals everything ceased being simply a cognitive truth for me; it became my functional lifeline.
Interestingly, the world would have us to believe that the bigger we get and the better we feel about ourselves, the freer we become. This is why so many worship services have been reduced to nothing more than motivational, self-help seminars filled with “you can do it” songs and sermons. But what we find in the gospel is just the opposite. The gospel is good news for losers, not winners. It’s for those who long to be freed from the slavery of believing that all of their significance, meaning, purpose, and security depend on their ability to “become a better you.” The gospel tells us that weakness precedes usefulness; that, in fact, the smaller you get, the freer you will be. Nothing makes you more aware of your smallness than pain and hardship. The trials and tribulations of 2009 helped me to recover a glorious sense of God’s size and sovereignty.
I thank God for the blessed freedom the gospel brings, good news which reminds me everyday that God is God and I am not; that in the person of Jesus Christ, God has already secured for me what I could never secure for myself.
Shelby out!
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12:19-21
I think this might just be my masterpiece. – Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglorious Basterds
So I finally got around to seeing Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie Inglourious Basterds the other night, in all its bloody, quirky, fiery beauty; and as with most good art, this film left me satisfied, yet deeply uneasy as I was forced to confront my own bloody, quirky, fiery beauty. In my opinion, there is no single director or writer that has the ability to write, or direct, a more memorable short sequence in movies then Tarantino. I would even go so far as to say that there has never been anyone more skilled at creating short memorable scenes than Quentin Tarantino. Unfortunately, while memorable movie scenes make for lasting memories and incredible movie trailers, they don’t necessarily make great movies; and for many, that has been one of the criticisms of Mr. Tarantino. Of course many of those have never sat through a full-length Tarantino movie, and those who go expecting nothing but blood, gore, in-your-face language and shocking reality have missed out on how incredibly talented Tarantino is.
Inglourious Basterds is a great piece of filmmaking. Tarantino here is at his best, showing his trademark style of being a cinema fan and aficionado, as well as a solid and visionary director. The guy has crazy skills, and there are plenty of original and reverential choices he makes throughout the film, as well as a number of solid performances of surprising depth and even understatement that display Tarantino’s brilliant ear for language, including the Nazi “Jew Hunter” Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz (I will be sorely disappointed if he doesn’t get an Oscar nod for this performance).
Now before this gets to sounding like a Quentin Tarantino man-crush, let me make clear a few things. While I have the utmost respect for Tarantino, while I enjoyed this movie, I have to say this isn’t my favorite Tarantino film as many have hyped. In fact, I don’t even know if this is among the top three or four. Still, I really enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. The scene with Brad Pitt speaking Italian in a Tennessee accent to a German officer is worth the price of the movie alone. Now that I have some of the pleasantries out of the way, let me move into some of the areas of this film that left me a little uneasy.
Inglourious Basterds presents a side of evil that in many ways resembles real evil. I couldn’t help but notice that evil, when confronted with revenge and hate, even under the guise of justice, often becomes a blurred, confusing reality. I found myself having a hard time enjoying the evil being perpetuated against even the Nazis in the film. I was also troubled by the joy I felt watching Nazis getting maimed and killed in the most horrific ways. I was silently cheering on the basterds as they scalped one Nazi, or beat another with a baseball bat. After all, they’re Nazis. They’ve got it coming. Right? In some ways I felt this was something of a cultural catharsis. Tarantino is going back and rewriting history in what my sinful flesh feels is a very satisfying way. There’s a strong feeling of satisfaction, even relief, at some of the most evil people in history getting what most of us feel they deserve.
In the end, I secretly cheered on the destruction and justice dealt out to the Nazis, which when I actually stopped to think about it, only brought an overwhelming sense of guilt my way. What if God gave me the kind of justice that I truly deserve? And with that question, I was reminded me that my sin is no less sinful than that of the Nazis, or even Hitler himself. I was reminded that if God dealt with me only according to justice, I would perish under His condemnation. I am guilty of treason against God in my sinful pride and rebellion. I deserve only judgment, and justice alone would condemn me to an everlasting torment.
Fortunately, God does not deal with me, and us, only in terms of justice. Without compromising His justice, He “justifies the ungodly.” That sounds unjust, and it would be if it were not for what God did in the life and death of Jesus Christ. The mercy of God moved Him to send His Son to bear the wrath of God so as to vindicate the justice of God when He justifies sinners like me who have faith in Jesus. So we have our very life because of mercy and justice. They met in the cross; and once again, because of a silly movie, I am reminded to not be quick to demand justice unmingled with mercy. When we live this way we magnify the glory of God’s mercy and the all-satisfying delight that He is to our souls. We show that because of His supreme value to us, we do not need the feeling of personal vengeance in order to be content.
To be fair to the movie though, Inglourious Basterds is not only about retribution and revenge, it is also a story about fighting for freedom. As characters on both sides of the divide find themselves cornered by their lies, confronted by their sin, or surrounded by evil forces they cannot seem to escape, they prove themselves worthy warriors with devious bargains, blazing gunfights, and selfless sacrifices. However, in the end, while many of their actions do manage to break the chains of evil and change history as we have always known it, each character in Inglourious Bastereds is either still marked by their sin or dead.
Nevertheless, even as we witness the losses the fight against evil inflicts and the lingering marks it cannot help but leave, we can also hold onto the truth that in our ongoing battle against sin, its greatest blows and its eternal scars have already been taken by another. Because Jesus gave his life to pay the penalty for our sins, no longer is one demanded of us. In fact, even in those areas, or eras, of our life in which sin has come to define us, if we truly repent, His forgiveness offers not only freedom that will extend into eternity, but forgiveness with the power wash away even the greatest sins of our past. Then even an inglourious basterd like myself will stand righteous before a Holy and Merciful God.
Shelby out!
The following are excerpts from an essay I recently wrote on Ludwig van Beethoven and his Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 55, “Eroica.”
How does your worldview affect your art?
The concept of what a man believes affecting his work is clearly exemplified in the life and music of one of the most colossal figures in history, Ludwig van Beethoven. His motto was “Freedom above all.” He became a legend in his own lifetime, and his figure overshadows the whole of 19th century music, and much of 20th century music as well. The slogan of Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Myself alone,” became the rallying cry of all the new movements in writing, painting, and music. With “heroic man” at the center of the universe, humanism reached a pinnacle in the age of Beethoven and the writer Goethe.
Beethoven believed that it is the artist’s task to express both the turmoil and the peace within oneself, and to search for one’s own perfection, that’s why his music is full of violent contrast. Renoir, the French painter, observed that Beethoven is “positively indecent the way he tells us about himself; he doesn’t spare us either the pain in his heart or the pain in his stomach.” The music of Beethoven has a frenzied, “demonic” energy. It is volcanic and exuberant and suddenly melts into tenderness and sadness, then again bursts into fury. It is a direct outpouring of his personality.
Beethoven was one of the greatest thinkers in the realm of music. His intellectual curiosity was enormous, and he continued to learn all his life. If only subconsciously, he merged the two concepts of the Enlightenment and the Romantic movements, the clear resoluteness of the one, and the dark introspection of the other. Both are present in his music. Profoundly convinced of the dignity of man, Beethoven believed fanatically in freedom without limits.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770. He began studying music at the age of four, but under traumatic conditions. His father and a musician friend would return home late at night after visiting the taverns. They would awaken the boy and force him to have a music lesson until the early morning hours. Drinking was an accepted feature of the Beethoven household.
The young Beethoven was unmethodical, and even as a child, he was a prey to melancholy. But he had tremendous musical ambition and physical strength. While still very young, he was employed as an organist, though he later gained fame as a piano virtuoso. In 1787 in Vienna he met and played for Mozart who prophesied a bright future for him. Beethoven also had some lessons with Haydn, and he arranged for Beethoven to receive money for many of his compositions so he could continue his career as a composer.
Beethoven learned to compose like his predecessors before he found his own style. He never, like many of us, cut himself off from the past. Beethoven saw himself as a creator “set apart” from ordinary people. Anything or anyone who interfered with his creativity he brushed aside. He could be up in arms at the most trifling fancied slight to himself. He was full of scorn for nearly everyone: the poor, the aristocracy, those who admired him, those who hated him, common people, the weak and feeble.
Beethoven moved in the circle of the nobility, and a long line of influential people helped his career in spite of his outbursts of arrogance and blistering rudeness. From time to time he had a few pupils, but he must have been one of the most unsystematic teachers the world has known, being impatient, slovenly, quarrelsome, unbelievably sensitive, and never on time. That marvelous organizer of music was the most disorganized of persons.
Always an early riser (5 or 6 a.m.), Beethoven liked to work in the morning and had the habit of composing outdoors while taking long walks. He said, “I love a tree more than a man.” Beethoven loved the natural world, but as a pantheist who worships nature rather than the Creator. Beethoven believed in Rousseau’s idea that the creative person should not be at home in society, but seek solitude “to express oneself, one’s feelings” and to delve into the unconscious, to uncover the mystery in one’s inner self. On one occasion a friend made Beethoven a copy of one of his scores. He signed it, “With God’s Help.” Underneath it Beethoven scrawled, “O man, help yourself.”
He began to keep notebooks as a youth, and his notebooks are crowded with a welter of musical ideas in all stages of development which make them comparable to those of Da Vinci. He felt a titanic force of creation within himself, and his life was one of incessant creativity. If you did not know, Beethoven as a virtuoso pianist, but because of his deafness, which began when he was 28, he was forced to use his energy for composition. At one period he was tempted to commit suicide, “But only art held me back, for it seemed unthinkable for me to leave the world before I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce.” A little later when he began to take courage again, he uttered the famous words, “I will seize Fate by the throat. It shall certainly not bend and crush me completely.” He flung out this challenge to himself and a parade of Romantic artists after him. The burden of his deafness helped to bring to focus what was to become one of the themes of the 19th century, the loneliness of man.
Historically, Beethoven is a colossus. Before Beethoven musicians had been creators in an ordered universe. Beethoven wrestled with destiny, and his music became a means of expressing his ideas about humanity. Some of the authors I read in preparation for this referred to him as the prophet of self-will, and his weakness was his pride.
The “Eroica” (“Heroic”) Symphony, premiered publicly on April 7, 1805, is a work that changed the course of musical history. There was much sentiment at the turn of the 19th century that the expressive and technical possibilities of the symphonic genre had been exhausted by Haydn, Mozart, C.P.E. Bach and their contemporaries. It was Beethoven, and specifically this majestic Symphony, that threw wide the gates on the unprecedented artistic vistas which were to be explored for the rest of the century. In a single giant leap, he invested the genre with the breadth and richness of emotional and architectonic expression that established the grand sweep that the word “symphonic” now connotes. For the first time, with this music, the master composer was recognized as an individual responding to a higher calling. No longer could the creative musician be considered a mere artisan in tones, producing pieces within the confines of the court or the church for specific occasions, much as a talented chef would dispense a hearty roast or a succulent torte. After Beethoven, the composer was regarded as a visionary (a special being lifted above mundane experience) who could guide benighted listeners to loftier planes of existence through his valued gifts. The modern conception of an artist (what he is, his place in society, what he can do for those who experience his work) stems from Beethoven. Romanticism began with the “Eroica.”
The Symphony’s first movement opens with a brief summons of two mighty chords. At least four thematic ideas are presented in the exposition. The development section is a massive essay progressing through many moods united by an almost titanic sense of struggle. The beginning of the second movement, Marcia funebre (“Funeral March”), with its plaintive, simple themes intoned over a mock drum-roll in the basses, is the touchstone for the expression of tragedy in instrumental music. The mournful C minor of the opening gives way to the brighter C major of the oboe’s melody in a stroke of genius that George Bernard Shaw once admitted “ruins me,” as only the expression of deepest emotion can. A development-like section, full of remarkable contrapuntal complexities, is followed by a return of the simple opening threnody, which itself eventually expires amid sobs and silences at the close of this eloquent movement. The third movement is a scherzo, the lusty successor to the graceful minuet; the central section is a rousing trio for horns. The finale is a large set of variations on two themes, one of which (the first one heard) forms the bass line to the other. The variations accumulate energy as they go, and, just as it seems the movement is whirling toward its final climax, the music comes to a full stop before launching into an extended Andante section that explores first the tender and then the majestic possibilities of the themes. A brilliant Presto concludes this epochal work.
Musically the age of Napoleon is the age of Beethoven. Napoleon’s Revolution took place during the great awakening of the human ago in philosophy and in art. The philosophers of the 18th century Enlightenment prepared the way for the political explosion that is called the age of Revolution. The symbol of the Enlightenment was a question mark, and the star of the Enlightenment was Voltaire, one of the greatest of all French writers, who questioned the reliability of the Bible and placed his confidence in man’s reason. He believed in action, freedom, and the goodness of humanity, but his own character and life were something else.
Believe it or not, all of us have been influenced by the extraordinary talent and dedication of Beethoven. He was the most powerful disruptive force in the history of music. His music was beautiful, amazing, noble, and sublime. God is the giver of gifts, but not all gifted persons acknowledge and give thanks to God.
So what does your worldview have to do with music? The fact that Beethoven held a worldview that excluded spiritual wholeness caused his music to move in a direction of disintegration toward the end of his life. As a composer his was one endless quest for the ideal form that would completely express the humanistic unity he had envisioned from the beginning, but ultimately humanism fails to bring unity and does not answer life’s crucial questions. The revealed biblical truth of the Triune God offers the only world view that provides a unity between universal absolutes and the particulars of human existence. In Jesus, God offers an individual believer a spiritual wholeness and intellectual satisfaction that give meaning and content to life.
We all know and appreciate the music of Beethoven. His music appeals to us because much of it expresses his struggle and suffering, and we identify with him. Often in his letters, Beethoven would ask, “What is the use of it all?” But when composing he rarely asked the question until the latter part of his life. In much of his music Beethoven balanced suffering with solace which gave the impression of strength.
By all means, we should listen to the music of Beethoven. His music brings together thoughts and emotions that are often more intense than we can produce. But never listen indifferently and without discernment. Enjoy and appreciate that which is good, but hold in mind that it is with composers as it is with all of us: What we believe affects our total life.
Shelby out!
Thanks be to God for sending someone to protect this church.
I don’t believe He sent me.
My son, of course He did.
– Cardinal Strauss to Robert Langdon in Angels and Demons
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. – Ephesians 5:15-16
Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. All men, including this one. – Cardinal Strauss in Angels and Demons
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. – Psalm 2:11-12
When Ron Howard’s screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code premiered in the spring of 2006, some said that Sony Pictures delivered the Church an unexpected gift. People who never would have attended a weeklong evening series on Church History were flocking to seminars promising to expose The Da Vinci Code. As a result, millions of people learned more about the history of the Church, and delved more deeply into Christology than they otherwise might. A little confrontation is often just what the Church needs, as nothing raises the blood like battle, even in theological issues.
The follow up movie to The Da Vinci Code that I just finally got around to viewing is Angels and Demons. The movie version is treated as a sequel, even though the events in the book happen well before The Da Vinci Code. Now Angels and Demons wasn’t exactly the kind of heart-racing suspense movie that leaves you breathless; but at the same time, compared to so many suspense films that deal with no more than soap-opera drama, the one thing Angels and Demons remains holding onto even after two hours is a story that still offers some thought-provoking substance to chew on.
Basically, Angels and Demons is the story of the Vatican in peril. When the movie begins, the Pope has just died. Several days later as the College of Cardinals prepares to elect a new Pope, the four favorites for the position are kidnapped. Throw in a ransom video promising the hourly execution of each Cardinal followed by the destruction of Vatican City by a canister of antimatter; sign it all with the brand of the Illuminati, an ancient society of scientists once condemned and persecuted by the church, and what you’ve got is pretty much a late-night scavenger hunt through Rome led by symbologist Robert Langdon, punctuated by several gruesome deaths, and topped off with a final revelation that doesn’t really deliver.
Now every movie is a fictional depiction of someone’s reality. Every movie exalts something as a god. Every movie has a savior, a devil, a deep problem, and a redemptive solution. In effect, every movie calls you to make a decision about who or what you will worship. In Angels and Demons, the classic battle between good and evil comes to the forefront as themes of man’s depravity and redemption cover the movie’s narrative landscape. Tom Hanks is our Christ figure. There is a devil. There are people who need to get saved. There is evil redemption, that is, revenge. There are wicked attempts at atonement for past sins. There are professions of total depravity by the Catholic Cardinals.
Now I understand that there are some professing Christians out there that feel movies like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons somehow preach an anti-gospel, and I have addressed this issue in a previous post. The bottom line is this: Angels and Demons has no more false ideas about God and religion than Indiana Jones, City Slickers, or Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. If you are really a Christian, there will be parts of this movie that will make you shake your head with its false assertions, and I’ve done this just as often while watching a romantic-comedy and being disgusted at the false reality of how relationships work.
As for the core of the narrative, central to Angels and Demons from beginning to end is the notion of an almost cataclysmic conflict between religion and science; however, with a few late-act twists and unmasked villains thrown in, almost more prominent in the unfolding story is another conflict. You could call it the battle between good and evil. You could look at it as the clash of saints and sinners; or as the movie puts it, you can see it as the problematic coexistence of both angels and demons. Out of the body of the Catholic Church arises the movie’s villain. Out of proclaimed devotion to God come acts of violence and self-promotion; and from the hands of those who preach peace and goodwill toward all comes a threat to deliver death and destruction to thousands.
But while the relationship between good and evil and science and religion is not the same, just as science does not destroy religion, neither does sin destroy faith. As the seemingly wise Cardinal Strauss tells Langdon, “Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed. All men, including this one.” In the same way that not all scientific endeavors will be right and good, not all men who proclaim faith in God will actually represent His heart. Yet just as all science should not be disqualified as immoral and evil on the basis of one theory or practice, neither should entire religions or faiths be destroyed by the actions of individual men.
All the marketing leading up to Angels and Demons is supposed to leave the viewer with this sense that the movie is poised to somehow upset the church; but in reality, the image it portrays might actually be the best marketing that the church will ever receive. Sure, one of its members almost destroys all of Rome. Yes, the Vatican covers up a vile, murderous conspiracy; but in the end, the film’s message is one that is refreshingly honest about the flaws and ugliness that exists even within the body of religion. It speaks truthfully to the fact that no man, and especially no religious body, is immune to sin.
We are quick in the 21st century to say that God is a loving God, yet in the 18th century, people were quick to say that God is an angry God; and both of these things are absolutely true. Depending on where you are between the 18th and 21st centuries, you need to hear one of those messages. My guess is that most of us who live in the 21st century have heard, almost ad nauseam, that God is love, God is love, God is love, and we have not dwelt very long on fact that God is against sin. He is angry at sin. God is angry every day, Psalm 2 says. He is angry every day at sin, and the cross of Jesus Christ is the outflow of the anger of God; not just of the love of God, but of the anger of God. The cross is the fruit of the wrath of God against sin. Why is that true? The anger that he feels against sin is what brought his Son to suffering and death; but if he had had another way to deal with sin, he would have done it another way. The cross is an expression of two things, not just one thing: A just anger, and an incredible mercy towards sinners. So let’s not short-circuit the gospel, let’s reckon with the truth: We’re sinners and God is angry at sin. Sin is a great offense against him.
But sin will never be a testament to who God is. The proof simply lies in the fact that sin has not destroyed our world, every person in it, and every shred of faith any of us has ever held. The evidences of God’s grace is everywhere in creation; and in the cosmic battle between good and evil, heaven and hell, and angels and demons, His grace and sovereign power over evil promises that in His hands, the demons will never win.
Shelby out!
If it is true that there are sudden conversions whereby in men, thinking of nothing less than of lifting themselves above the finite, in a moment, as by an immediate, inward illumination, the sense for the highest comes forth and surprises them by its splendour, I believe that more than anything else the sight of a great and sublime work of art can accomplish this miracle.
– Friedrich Schleiermacher
Sometimes, it’s the boring stuff I remember the most. – Russell from Up
It is slowly becoming a Murphy family tradition to get the latest Pixar offering from Santa every year. This year was no exception. Under our tree this Christmas was Pixar’s latest film Up, and the family and I finally got around to watching it the other night. To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the film. I had read some reviews and knew the critical consensus was almost universal in its praise of the movie. Still, I doubted that it could better than some other recent Pixar outings, like The Incredibles or Finding Nemo. I could not have been more wrong. Sure it’s an animated movie and is touted as a kid’s movie, but it is the farthest thing from a kid’s movie. The story is timeless, the visuals stunning, and the emotions that it produces are palpable.
The opening montage alone is among the most moving scenes I have seen in a long time. Through a series of images the viewer watches a young couple (Karl and Ellie) grow old together. We see them get married, continue to date each other during their marriage, dream of children, discover that they are unable to have children, dream of travel, and continually have life interfere with those dreams until the wife passes away. This sequence of images combined with the simple soundtrack was so effective because it showed, not a fairy tale life, but a life full of trials and heartache that the couple endured and that through it all continued to love and value each other.
I don’t really want to provide a synopsis of the movie for you, suffice to say that Up explores many deeply emotional topics such as love, death, mourning, learning to let go, learning how to continue living after a tragic loss, in addition to asking some really difficult questions: How faithful are we in the promises we make? What happens to a boy when his father abandons him? How do we sustain our dreams when life disappoints us? What happens when we shut ourselves off from human community, focused on controlling the world around us? What happens when we open ourselves to the risk of relationship? While these might go over the heads of some kids, the messages are firmly planted throughout the whole of the movie.
Also, everything along their adventure, from the talking dogs to Kevin the Bird monster, helps us understand the hearts of our human characters. Kevin is more than just an exotic bird. She (yes, she) is trying to get back through the wilderness to her crying babies. Her primal attachment to her chicks reminds us of our own fundamental responsibilities. In trying to help her, Karl and Russell are expressing their own desire for family. Kevin also asks us to consider how we respond to all that is wild, beautiful, and mysterious in the world. When the adventurers run into Charles Muntz, the legendary explorer who was a hero to Karl and Ellie, we quickly see that there is a right way and a wrong way to respond to mystery. Karl and Russell want to help the bird thrive, but Muntz wants to claim the creature as a trophy to advance his own maniacal ego. Muntz has a balloon of his own: an ominous, missile-shaped zeppelin. He patrols the wild in search of new conquests for his own exaltation. He’s cut himself off from human community, surrounding himself with obedient dogs. To his troubled visitors, Muntz boasts that he plans to “keep the best for himself.”
During their wild adventures in the air, Karl and Russell are learning how to live exciting lives while earthbound. It also becomes clear early on that their adventures merely serve as a MacGuffin to the relationship that is forming between them, a relationship in which sharing makes everything meaningful. At last, Karl can let go of his baggage and fulfill the dreams that he and Ellie shared. Russell finds the father figure he needs, an adult who will succeed where his biological father failed. Our last glimpse of them, as they play a mundane game on an ordinary street corner, tells us that the “Spirit of Adventure” is alive and well in their friendship.
One might speculate that Up succeeds because of the way it brings these questions to life through story instead of sermonizing. And that’s true. I am once again reminded that a lot of Pixar’s success relies on their ability to bring tough questions and themes to the forefront through the use of mysterious and fantastical stories. These magical stories are usually about finite people and things, that also operate on a mythical level that points to something far greater, dare I say infinite, than themselves. Pixar films are able to capture the painful aspects of human existence, life and relationships, even if they are acted out by toys, race cars or even talking dogs. I also find it extremely interesting that two of Pixar’s most recent films have delved so deeply into silence. Similar to the almost wordless first half of Wall-E, the height of Up’s brilliance lies in the wordless opening montage that re-creates Ellie and Karl’s life together. In the montage, the filmmakers use lighting, music, and editing to draw us further into Ellie and Karl’s relationship, literally guiding us through their world together in a matter of minutes. Though this sets up the audience for a powerful emotional experience, it also makes us care more deeply about Karl throughout the rest of the film as well.
Over the past decade or so, Pixar’s films have, perhaps unwittingly, operated in this fantastical, mythical realm. Just like we can never look at toys, bugs, or a closet the same way after watching some of their films, we should not look at our everyday experiences with the ones we love as ordinary after viewing Up. Rather, when lived to the fullest, these experiences can become extraordinary adventures themselves and, perhaps, gateways to the infinite. Up, like most of Pixar’s films, transforms the finite into the infinite and takes us on a magical ride in the process. I believe the storyteller and listener in all of us yearn for these monumental tales of adventure. Deep down, we know that there are core, pivotal events upon which all of human history swings, and that the narrative of existence we share as mankind has a beginning, an end, and a fulcrum upon which the story swings. It is upon this fulcrum where the infinite hero is revealed, and that hero is Jesus.
Shelby out!
Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul. – Johann Sebastian Bach
In 1747, Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, patron of Enlightenment rationalism, and military strongman, invited Johann Sebastian Bach, now an old man three years from his death, for an audience. Frederick thought of himself as a musician, and scorned the old-fashioned polyphony that Bach was known for in favor of music with a singular melody. Frederick, who enjoyed humiliating his guests, had composed a long melodic line full of chromaticism that he thought was impossible to turn into a multi-voiced canon, and told Bach to turn it into a fugue. At which point Bach, on the spot, sat down at the piano and turned it into a three-part fugue. The stumped King then asked him to turn it into a six-part fugue. A few days later, Bach sent him more than just a six-part fugue, but “A Musical Offering” that rebuked Frederick and all of his Enlightenment notions with the Christian faith.
Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment talks about this confrontation, and the events in each man’s life that lead up to it. The author, James R. Gaines, gives us a dual biography, with alternating chapters on each subject. We learn about Frederick’s miserable childhood with an abusive father, the previous king (who, at one point, had his son’s best friend beheaded and made him watch, thinking that he would be next). Then we learn about Bach’s happy childhood in a Christian home. We learn about Frederick’s unhappy and childless marriage. Then we learn about Bach’s family, in which he was a loving husband and father of 20 children. We learn about Frederick’s decadent love of the arts and his infatuation with the Enlightenment, and his mutual admiration society with Voltaire. Then we learn about Bach’s deep Christian faith and his orthodox Lutheran theology. We learn about Frederick’s ascension to the throne, his turning Prussia into a military powerhouse, and his unprovoked wars against his neighbors for nothing more than his ego. We learn about Bach’s career at courts and churches, his stubborn integrity that caused him to battle with virtually all of his employers; and, despite occasional musical respect, how he died in obscurity with his music all but forgotten. We also learn about the aftermath, how Frederick’s legacy would blossom but burn out under Hitler, and how Bach was rediscovered by Mendelssohn in the 19th century, at which point he became recognized as arguably the greatest musical composer and one of the greatest artists in any form ever.
Gaines is a journalist and an amateur classical musician himself, and what makes this book truly remarkable are the conclusions he draws about the relationship between Christianity and art. He suggests that Bach was a greater man and a greater creator than Frederick precisely because of his faith. Bach was transcendent because he built his life on something transcendent. He shows how Bach’s view of music goes right back to Luther; as for them and other Christians of their time, music was quite literally a sign and measure of God’s created order in the universe. Bach and Luther favored polyphony because it imaged forth the unity-in-diversity that is found everywhere in creation; indeed, in existence itself; not only that, but in the Godhead Himself.
Gaines also draws on Bach scholarship to demonstrate how music in this tradition encoded specific meanings. In Bach’s final “Musical Offering” to Frederick, he includes 10 canons, which are emblematic of the Ten Commandments. He includes a caption in one section that refers to how the notes ascend like the King’s (Frederick’s) glory, except that the notes go nowhere and turn into the most melancholy of melodies. He is therefore saying through his music that Frederick may think himself “Great,” but is life doesn’t stack up well against the Ten Commandments, and his glory will ultimately go nowhere and end in his death. Yes, Bach was using his music to witness to this imposing secularist King in his palace of reason.
Evening in the Palace of Reason is a wonderful historical book that also happens to be one of the best books I have read recently about the relationship between Christianity and the arts. If you consider yourself an artist, a Christian, or both, consider giving this book a whirl.
Shelby out!
Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil. – Psalm 36:1-4
Before reading any further, I would encourage everyone to read C. J. Mahaney’s excellent blog on Tiger Woods, entitled Hunting Tiger Woods. It is a scathing reminder of the power of sin and the grace of God. After reading it myself, I wanted to weigh in briefly with a few additional thoughts of my own on the situation.
There has been much has been made of Tiger Woods and his admission of sins and our collective gasp at the seemingly frequent and foolish indiscretions. I admit to not only being saddened, but even shocked and thoroughly disappointed at these revelations. My disappointment, however, is not only at Tiger, but even at myself. The disappointment I feel is the lack of time I really give to consider the nature of my own sin. If I was given Tiger’s situation and opportunity, how would I fair?
I am only left to ponder what my heart would be be without the grace of God and the restraining power of the Holy Spirit. The truth is, because of the nature of sin, I am often more like Tiger than I care to admit. To look at Tiger’s life and then to think of him risking all of it for a few fleeting moments of pleasure is to think of only one word, foolish; yet, sin makes fools of us all. And whether it is David, Nebuchadnezzar, Tiger, or me, foolishness is only a sinful thought or action away.
The good news is that because we are fools, we are prime candidates for the redeeming grace of God. The Bible reminds us that God redeems the foolish, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the everyday reminder that I have been graciously received into God’s recovery program for fools.
Shelby out!
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. – Jesus in Luke 6:40
Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. The word itself comes from the Latin “adventus,” meaning “coming,” referring to the coming of Christ. On the calendar, it is the four week anticipation of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and ending on Christmas with his birth. The main thing I love about this season is that we are constantly reminded that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and our only true hope. Our world today seems riddled with reasons not to have hope, and the question we need to always ask ourselves is, “What is our hope really in?“
Josef Pieper, a German theologian, wrote a book in the middle of the 20th century called On Hope, and in it he argued that we all tend towards hopelessness in one of two directions. Hopelessness, he says, has two forms: despair and presumption, and we all bend one way or the other. Presumption, he says, “is a premature, self-willed anticipation of the fulfillment of what we hope for from God.” To put it another way, presumption is a leap into the future, an insistence that the future be the present. Heaven on earth. It bypasses hope, insisting we have heaven on earth now. Instant fulfillment and gratification.
Are we insisting on the future in the present? A little heaven on earth? Are we stockpiling assets for our own security? Are we, in essence, eliminating the need for hope in our quest for security and wealth? The bottom line is that presumption refuses hope. It rejects the persevering and arduousness nature of hope, which makes it so admirable. As a result, according to Pieper, presumption becomes “the fraudulent imitation of hope.” In complete contrast to this, true Christian hope should forgo present joys for the greater future joy. It should sacrifice present comfort for the sake of others. It shouldn’t go into irresponsible debt, but into deliberate generosity.
So what can we do this Christmas to express true Christian hope? Pieper notes: “In the sin of presumption, mans desire for security is so exaggerated that it excels the bounds of reality.” I would also add that our material desires are exaggerated beyond God’s promises as well. God never guaranteed a mansion this side of glory. Somehow we forget that Jesus was a homeless messiah, who told us that no disciple is above his master. Somehow we forget that he was born in “shit and straw,” surrounded by animals. Somehow we reject the hope of the world in favor of the illusion of security. Choose hope this Christmas. Live like you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Instead of hording be giving. Let your life stand out in hope, in the Hope of the World.
Shelby out!
And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. – Colossians 1:18
I have been meaning to follow up on all my hymn postings recently with a posting about having a meaningful and authentic “contemporary” worship service. Now that word “contemporary” is full of all kind of negative connotations with me, but I also understand that is the imperative forced upon many worship leaders today in modern evangelicalism. A recent comment on my blog summed up the phenomenon nicely for me with the term “7-11 songs.” Seven words sung eleven different ways. While I am not completely jaded towards “contemporary” church music (yet), I would like to pen a modest open letter to all worship leaders about the songs they select for their Sunday morning gatherings.
Dear Worship Leaders,
I am writing today to encourage you to play songs that your congregation doesn’t like. I mean it. Literally. I know playing songs your congregation doesn’t want to hear sounds like a horrible idea and flies in the face of many years of your contemporary worship training, but I don’t know when your job became more about pleasing man instead of Jesus. Now before you get all huffy, let me explain.
First, I don’t mean purposefully playing songs that your congregation doesn’t like stylistically; although, if people only worship Jesus when they hear a Chris Tomlin song, then I’d say you have really big idolatry issues to tackle, so maybe purposefully not playing Chris Tomlin is a good idea.
Secondly, I don’t think being a contrarian is a sign of leadership maturity. I’m not advocating simply doing the opposite of what other churches are doing, or constantly trying to throw off your congregation in worship simply because seeing them squirm makes you feel like you’re really doing God’s will. Here’s what I am saying: As worshippers we are constantly battling idols taking the place of Jesus. The idols that we tear down inevitably take new shape and present themselves as something new, and more worthy, and acceptable of worship. If anything takes our worship away from Jesus, it is idolatry; or more importantly, sin. Our congregations worship a lot of things over Christ, and it should be a worship leaders job to expose idols in our worship, tear them down, and place Jesus above them as our focus of worship.
Probably not too many of you have any problems with the above paragraph, but here’s where it gets messy. For the families that worship their own comfort, rest and individualism by showing up 15 minutes late, do you think they want to sing about how there is no rest outside of Christ? That even in our sleep we toil; or that they’ve forsaken the gathering because they worship their individuality and comfort? Show them by singing that we only enjoy peace and rest in Christ because of the bloody, violent, death of Christ on the cross that now they’ve been saved to community, the body of Christ, to sacrifice, serve and worship together.
For the high school and college kids that show up right on time because they love the music, but spent last night partying hard, indulging in their sinful passions, do you think they want to sing about how they are slaves to sin, deserving of death, and that unless they get a new heart in Christ, their posturing in worship (the jumping, the singing, the Passion choruses) are worthless clatter? That they worship themselves and can’t atone for their sins by singing loudly? Show them by singing that Jesus is their propitiation, that they are dead in their sins, but that there is life in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That if they truly encountered Christ they’ve be given a new heart, and that they’d no longer desire to live a life of sin.
For the religious church couple that just walked in dignified, that has no reason to get uncomfortable because they were “saved” at a youth camp at age 10 and baptized in the pool. Show them by singing the psalms that our hearts cry out, our soul thirsts for Jesus, that we fall at the feet of Jesus and cry “Hosanna”; and that if they don’t, the rocks, even the chairs they comfortably sit in, would cry out for Jesus. Their dispassionate hearts ultimately show that they worship their dignity, which all through scripture is shown to be folly.
Worship leaders, don’t make yourself a petty entertainer. Don’t seek to satisfy your congregation’s idols. Lead your congregation to worship the real Jesus. Show them who Jesus is and what He has done. If they get that, they’ll see themselves for who they are, repent and become new creations in Christ. Sing the songs their flesh doesn’t want to hear, sing the songs that wreak havoc in their hearts. Our worship should be a dance of repentance, praise and honor. Worship leaders, seek to have Jesus preeminent in all things. All things.
Shelby out!
