Perseverance, by George Herbert

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I have enjoyed reading through the poems of George Herbert with my sons the last week or so. They are rich, full of the struggles of life and conscience and full of hope. I was struck by how often the word “mirth” appeared.

My poem of the week this week has been his poem titled, “Perseverance.” I love the determination of faith shown here, particularly in the last stanza.

My God, the poor expressions of my Love
Which warm these lines, and serve them up to thee
Are so, as for the present I did move,
Or rather as thou movedst me.

But what shall issue, whether these my words
Shall help another, but my judgement be;
As a burst fowling-piece doth save the birds
But kill the man, is sealed with thee.

For who can tell, though thou hast died to win
And wed my soul in glorious paradise;
Whether my many crimes and use of sin
May yet forbid the banes and bliss.

Only my soul hangs on thy promises
With face and hands clinging unto thy breast,
Clinging and crying, crying without cease,
Thou art my rock, thou art my rest.

Paul, the Pastor of Particular People

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One key point I have sought to make here and elsewhere is that Paul models a pattern of ministry which is attuned to each individual in the church and not just to a corporate mass. He conceives of ministry as serving particular people not simply people in the abstract. I think his language bears this out, though this is new to some people and they are uncertain.

A student of mine, Caleb valentine, is writing a fine honors thesis on Paul’s pattern of ministry as found in 1 Thessalonians. In his work he pointed out to me the following great quote from Paul Beasley-Murray.

“Paul was concerned not just for the corporate health of the churches in his care, but also for the well-being of individuals. People mattered to Paul… In 1 Thessalonians 2:11 Paul declared: “We dealt with each one of you like a father with his children,” implying that he had concerned himself with his converts on an individual basis.  Similarly, Paul emphasized the personal character of his work in Colossians 1:28: he sought to promote individual maturity by “warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom.” All this is in line with Luke’s account of Paul’s speech to the Ephesian elders, which suggests that his normal practice was to combine preaching to the church at large together with the visiting of individual church members (Acts 20:20).”

[Beasley-Murray, P. “Paul as Pastor.” In Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid. Downers Grove: Intervarsity, 1993.]

Amen. Let us do likewise.

Broadus on Puns

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Next to my enjoyment of puns themselves is the delight in finding so many worthies of the past extolling the virtue of puns. I should have been collecting these statements along the way, but here is one recently sent to me by Greg Wills. John Broadus, whom Spurgeon deemed the “greatest of living preachers,” second president of Southern Seminary, said of puns:

A pun now is regarded almost with contempt, but it was not so in ancient times. Punning was very common and indulged in by the best writers and speakers. Really, the Bible is full of puns. Jesus said to Peter, ‘Thou art a rock (petros) and on this rock (petra), etc.’ Other examples are Luke xxi, 11; Heb. v, 8; Rom. i, 29 and 30; 2 Cor. ix, 8; x, 12; Matt. xxi, 41; Gal. v, 7; Rom. i, 20; Phil. iii, 2; 2 Thes. iii, 11; Acts viii, 30; Rom. xii, 3.”

(Seminary Magazine, April 1, 1891, p.157)

 

Nice!

Chesterton, “O God of Earth and Altar”

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My friend, Greg Thornbury, mentioned this poem recently, and it grabbed me as a fitting poetic prayer for our time. So, this poem from Chesterton is on my door as the poem of the week.

“O God of Earth and Altar”

by G.K. CHESTERTON

O God of earth and altar,

Bow down and hear our cry,

Our earthly rulers falter,

Our people drift and die;

The walls of gold entomb us,

The swords of scorn divide,

Take not thy thunder from us,

But take away our pride.

 

From all that terror teaches,

From lies of tongue and pen,

From all the easy speeches

That comfort cruel men,

From sale and profanation

Of honour and the sword,

From sleep and from damnation,

Deliver us, good Lord.

 

Tie in a living tether

The prince and priest and thrall,

Bind all our lives together,

Smite us and save us all;

In ire and exultation

Aflame with faith, and free,

Lift up a living nation,

A single sword to thee.

 

Book Review: Home Again, A Civil War Novel

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Home Again: A Civil War Novel, Michael Kenneth Smith
(Create Space, 2015), pb., 251 pp.
List $13.95 paperback

I was attracted to this book because it is primarily set in Tennessee and deals with the Battle of Shiloh. So, when I was offered a review copy I took it.

The story centers on two boys who live in Tennessee and meet each other once just before the outbreak of the War Between the States. One boy ends up fighting of the North and one for the South, and the story follows the adventures of each. This is a good narrative set up as you anticipate how the two might meet one another again. The author also strives for historical accuracy, and in places the story is compelling. However, in the end it was disappointing. The two boys do encounter one another towards the end of the story but never know it. And the story ends suddenly with too many loose ends still hanging. This made it less than satisfying to me as a story, though the author does well in communicating the horror of war.

It also needs more proofreading for typos.

“A Sovereign Protector I Have”

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A lesser known contribution from Augustus Toplady is my poem of the week this week. It is a wonderful reflection on the comfort and assurance of the fact that in Christ the Almighty is our Protector.

The bedrock truth of God’s sovereign care over his people rooted in his covenant love is ever the foundation of true perseverance. Any sensible person is too aware of his own frailty and faults to bear up long if all he has to depend on is himself. The awareness of God’s presence, throughout the Scriptures, motivates believers to stand fast. If God is for us who can be against us.

A Sov’reign Protector I have,
Unseen, yet forever at hand,
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command.
He smiles, and my comforts abound;
His grace as the dew shall descend;
And walls of salvation surround
The soul He delights to defend.

Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,
Thou Shepherd and Guardian of Thine,
My all to Thy covenant care
I sleeping and waking resign.
If Thou art my Shield and my Sun,
The night is no darkness to me;
And fast as my moments roll on,
They bring me but nearer to Thee.

Kind Author, and ground of my hope,
Thee, Thee, for my God I avow;
My glad Ebenezer set up,
And own Thou hast helped me till now.
I muse on the years that are past,
Wherein my defense Thou hast proved;
Nor wilt Thou relinquish at last
A sinner so signally loved!

Augustus Toplady

James Stalker’s Beautiful Portrait of Pastoral Ministry

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This past week Justin Wainscott sent to me and several others the following excerpt from James Stalker, which is a beautiful, powerful portrait of pastoral ministry. If you have read Eugene Peterson on pastoral ministry you will have seen him echoing many of these images from Stalker. There is so much good here:

 

  • the pastor is first a member of the congregation;
  • not above them, but as one of them he is set aside for this specific purpose;
  • indebtedness to the people to bring to them the fruit of the work he has been freed up to do

Here is Stalker:

I like to think of the minister as only one of the congregation set apart by the rest for a particular purpose. A congregation is a number of people associated for their moral and spiritual improvement. And they say to one of their number, Look, brother, we are busy with our daily toils and confused with domestic and worldly cares; we live in confusion and darkness; but we eagerly long for peace and light to cheer and illuminate our life; and we have heard there is a land where these are to be found—a land of repose and joy, full of thoughts that breathe and words that burn: but we cannot go thither ourselves; we are too embroiled in daily cares: come, we will elect you, and set you free from our toils, and you shall go thither for us, and week by week trade with that land and bring us its treasures and its spoils. Oh, woe to him who accepts this election, and yet, failing through idleness to carry on the noble merchandise, appears week by week empty-handed or with merely counterfeit treasure in his hands! Woe to him too, if, going to that land, he forgets those who sent him and spends his time there in selfish enjoyment of the delights of knowledge! Woe to him if he does not week by week return laden, and ever more richly laden, and saying, Yes, brothers, I have been to that land; and it is a land of light and peace and nobleness: but I have never forgotten you and your needs and the dear bonds of brotherhood; and look, I have brought back this, and this, and this: take it to gladden and purify your life!

James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures in Preaching (A. C. Armstrong and Son, 1891), 282-83. [free online]

Yes, brothers, yes! This is it! Let’s us go and do likewise.

Packer on the Doctrine of Adoption

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“Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are”- 1 John 3:1

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.[1]

 

[1] J. I. Packer, Knowing God (InterVarsity Press, 1973), 182.

Luther’s Hymn, “In Devil’s Dungeon Chained I Lay”

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In his classic biography of Martin Luther, Here I Stand, Roland Bainton records Luther’s hymn, “In Devil’s Dungeon Chained I Lay.” What a beautiful, poetic proclamation of the gospel! How I need to be reminded that God “turned to me his father heart” and then to hear the Lord Jesus say, “Hold thou to me, from now on thou wilt make it”!

I have posted it on my office door for this week’s poem of the week.

“In devil’s dungeon chained I lay
The pangs of death swept o’er me.
My sin devoured me night and day
In which my mother bore me.
My anguish ever grew more rife,
I took no pleasure in my life
And sin had made me crazy.

Then was the Father troubled sore
To see me ever languish.
The Everlasting Pity swore
To save me from my anguish.
He turned to me his father heart
And chose himself a bitter part,
His Dearest did it cost him.

Thus spoke the Son, “Hold thou to me,
From now on thou wilt make it.
I gave my very life for thee
And for thee I will stake it.
For I am thine and thou art mine,
And where I am our lives entwine,
The Old Fiend cannot shake it.”

– Martin Luther

Church Plays in the 14th Century

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Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is an impressive, compelling work with amazing breadth and detail. Though this is not its intended aim, it is very valuable for anyone studying the Reformation because it tells so well the story of life in Europe leading up to the Reformation. Tuchman tells of the amazing insight and advances in technology and medicine, but tells most of the decay of the culture, the abuse of power, the corruption of the church and the despair that came as ceaseless war and the Black Death decimated the population.

This book brought to light in a new way for me the crying need for Reform in the Church as there were rival popes, heavy taxes and the Church most often engaged in political maneuvering to protect its institutional prestige and wealth. Tuchman writes:

“In the distracted 14th century, when God seemed hostile to man or else hidden behind ecclesiastical counting of coins and selling of benefices, the need for communion with God was never greater, nor less satisfied by His appointed agents.  A Church preoccupied with war in Lombardy and revenues in Avignon and the mundane necessities of maintaining its position was not ministering to popular need.” (316)

It was interesting in this setting to read this description of miracle plays:

 “In the miracle plays and mysteries staged for the populace, realism was the desired effect. A system of weights and pulleys resurrected Jesus from the tomb and lifted him to a ceiling of clouds. Angels and devils were made to appear magically through trapdoors; Hell opened and closed its monstrous mouth, and Noah’s flood inundated the stage from casks of water overturned backstage while stone-filled barrels turned by cranks resounded with thunder. When John the Baptist was decapitated, the actor was whisked away so cunningly in exchange for a fake corpse and fake head spilling ox blood that the audience shrieked in excitement. Actors playing Jesus sometimes remained tied to the cross reciting verses for three hours.” (312)

It sounds a lot like what some churches do today as we too chase excitement and distraction, quite possibly failing, as the 14th century church did, to provide the substantive help which people in a decaying culture are longing for.