Suicide, Justification by Faith & Pastoral Care

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Ministry in the times of loss and death is one of the crucial roles of a pastor, so good examples of such ministry are indispensable.

Recently in our church a dear brother took his own life. Such a situation raises a host of challenges and questions. Many people continue to think that a person who takes his own life cannot go to heaven. What does the Bible say about this? For the pastor, how do you preach such a funeral? Do you directly address suicide? Every situation is different, but the video below contains one of the most powerful, pastoral funeral sermons I have ever heard. Even if you do not know Glenn Perry, this message by Lee Tankersley is a powerful example of several things, including:

–          how robust theology matters and can bolster us in suffering
–          justification by faith and the issue of suicide
–          the importance of really knowing your people
–          clear, direct, pastoral, humane address at a funeral
–          the value of the ministry of encouragement (e.g., Preston Atkinson’s letter at the end of the message)

The sermon begins at about 15:30.

“Both the believer who dies singing ‘Amazing Grace’ with his family at his bedside and the believer who dies by taking his own life, will stand before God saying, ‘All I have is Christ and what he did for me.’ And that is enough. In fact, that is the only thing that is enough. Our good works will not suffice before his demand for perfect righteousness, and our sins are not sufficient to triumph over his sin-bearing death and resurrection. Jesus is our righteousness. All we have is Christ. And that is enough. ”

(Lee Tankersley)

Jayber Crow to Pastors

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In his novel, Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry gives a significant critique which pastors ought to hear.  One need not agree with Berry at every point, but we ought to hear our critics to see if there is truth (even partial truth) in what they are saying. The main point here is not the youthfulness of the pastors, but their failure to pay attention to “place,” to recognize the particularity of a certain place and people, their beauties and tragedies, their strengths and weaknesses, their customs and traditions.

It is too easy to speak in generalities (as described below) without engaging the real, specific people in front of you. You need school or training to help you engage the text well, but then you must learn your own people. Fruitful ministry will take place not as we merely pass “through” or “over” the communities in which we minister, but as we take time to actually live there.

The preachers were always young students from the seminary who wore, you might say, the mantle of power but not the mantle of knowledge. They wouldn’t stay long enough to know where they were, for one thing. Some were wise and some were foolish, but none, so far as Port William knew, was ever old. They seemed to have come from some Never-Never Land where the professionally devout were forever young. They were not going to school to learn where they were, let alone the pleasures and the pains of being there, or what ought to be said there. You couldn’t learn those things in a school. They went to school, apparently, to learn to say over and over again, regardless of where they were, what had already been said too often. They learned to have a very high opinion of God and a very low opinion of His works—although they could tell you that this world had been made by God Himself.

What they didn’t see was that it is beautiful, and that some of the greatest beauties are the briefest. They had imagined the church, which is an organization, but not the world, which is an order and a mystery. To them, the church did not exist in the world where people earn their living and have their being, but rather in the world where they fear death and Hell, which is not much of a world. To them, the soul was something dark and musty, stuck away for later. In their brief passage through or over it, most of the young preachers knew Port William only as it theoretically was (“lost”) and as it theoretically might be (“saved”). [emphasis added]

“Learn it meekly on thy knees”

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Just last night I came across this poem and found it to be a wonderful statement on how we should approach the Bible, especially the last two stanzas. The fact that this poem was originally written for children will discredit it for some, but such an assessment would be unwise. I am currently reading Mark Gignilliat’s fine book, A Brief History of Old Testament Criticism. He describes key voices in biblical scholarship as they again and again began with rejecting the divine inspiration of Scripture. Such skepticism is usually in vogue, but the faith encouraged in this poem is the way to life and understanding.

“Taste”

O guide my judgment and my taste,
Sweet SPIRIT, author of the book
Of wonders, told in language chaste,
And plainness not to be mistook.

O let me muse, and yet at sight
The page admire, the page believe;
“Let there be light, and there was light,
“Let there be Paradise and Eve!”

Who his soul’s rapture can refrain?
At Joseph’s ever-pleasing tale,
Of marvels, the prodigious train,
To Sinai’s hill from Goshen’s vale.

The Psalmist and proverbial Seer,
And all the prophets’ sons of song,
Make all things precious, all things clear,
And bear the brilliant word along.

O take the book from off the shelf,
And con [learn] it meekly on thy knees;
Best panegyric on itself,
And self-avouch’d to teach and please.

Respect, adore it heart and mind,
How greatly sweet, how sweetly grand!
Who reads the most, is most refin’d,
And polish’d by the Master’s hand.

—from Christopher Smart, Hymns for the Amusement of Children (1771)

“It Is Glory Enough”

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I read this poem tonight and was taken with its spirit. I don’t know authorial intent, but it strikes me as a compelling portrait of life lived without regard for the shifting winds of public opinion, standing for God’s truth regardless of the cost.

“It Is Glory Enough”

IT is glory enough to have shouted the name
Of the living God in the teeth of an army of foes;
To have thrown all prudence and forethought away
And for once to have followed the call of the soul
Out into the danger of darkness, of ruin and death.
To have counselled with right, not success, for once,
Is glory enough for one day.

It is glory enough for one day
To have marched out alone before the seats of the scornful,
Their fingers all pointing your way;
To have felt and wholly forgotten the branding-iron of their eyes;
To have stood up proud and reliant on only your soul
And go calmly on with your duty —
It is glory enough.

It is glory enough to have taken the perilous risk;
Instead of investing in stocks and paid-up insurance for one,
To have fitted a cruiser for right to adventure a sea full of shoals;
To sail without chart and with only the stars for a guide;
To have dared to lose with all the chances for losing
Is glory enough.

It is glory enough for one day
To have dreamed the bright dream of the reign of right;
To have fastened your faith like a flag to that immaterial staff
And have marched away, forgetting your base of supplies.
And while the worldly wise see nothing but shame and ignoble retreat,
And though far ahead the heart may faint and the flesh prove weak —
To have dreamed that bold dream is glory enough,
Is glory enough for one day.

–          William Herbert Carruth

“Reliant on only your soul” may be taken as a sort of self-reliance which minimizes God, but it could be taken in terms of standing alone, without the support of others (like, e.g., Daniel, his three friends or Martin Luther). Count me in for fitting a “cruiser for right,” considering what is right and not just what will succeed, and standing for the name of God regardless of the contempt of the worldly wise. That will certainly be glory enough.

Pastors, Physicians of Souls

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There is a striking analogy between the office of a pastor and that of a physician They both have respect to the welfare of men and while the one seeks to heal the diseases of the body the other aims at restoring to health the disordered souls of men. It belongs to each not only to cure but to prevent diseases and to soothe and comfort such patients as it may be found impossible to cure As the physician cannot safely follow his profession without an accurate knowledge of the human frame so the pastor ought to be well acquainted with the constitution of the mind and with all its faculties susceptibilities and passions And as the body and mind are intimately but mysteriously united, it appertains to both these professions to be acquainted with the effects of this union in their reciprocal influence on the constituent parts of our nature; therefore the knowledge of physiology is important to both. I have often been struck with admiration at the ardour and self-denial manifested by the students of medicine in acquiring the requisite knowledge of the anatomy of the human body and in making themselves acquainted with the pathology of the most loathsome diseases. They learn to enter cheerfully into the wards of hospitals almshouses and asylums for the insane that they may become acquainted with the symptoms of all classes of disease to which the human frame is liable, and they spare no pains in making experiments and ascertaining the efficacy of particular remedies and modes of treatment. And I have desired to witness something of the same diligence and self-denial in candidates for the holy ministry that they might become better qualified to deal with the moral diseases of those souls which are committed to their care. Every pastor should study to become a skilful casuist for if he is a faithful shepherd he will meet with a great number and variety of cases of conscience which will call for both his tenderest compassion and spiritual skill in the treatment.

–          Archibald Alexander, found in Princeton and the Work of Christian Ministry, 191-92

Rootedness & Trust in Times of Trouble

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Several weeks ago now, John Crowder, pastor of First Baptist Church in West, TX, where the fertilizer plant exploded, wrote a moving and very useful column about ministry in the aftermath. He mentions a number of lessons he drew from the event, and several are useful for pastoral ministry. Here, in his words,  is one that stuck out to me:

Another lesson I’ve learned is that it helps for a pastor to be somewhere for a while. It helps build the trust of your community. Then when disaster strikes, you’ve got that trust, and the community knows it can depend on you. If you’re always moving to work your way up to a big church, you lose that opportunity to minister to folks. You haven’t been there long enough to build trust. I’ve been here for 18 years. At times I’ve thought, I wonder why I have to stay in this little church, this little town. I wish I could move on to bigger and better things. But now I know that God was having me build a long tenure so I’d be ready for this. (emphasis original)

Thanks to Mike Garrett for pointing this article and this paragraph out to me.

Once to Every Man and Nation

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My poem of the week this week is James Russell Lowell’s “Once to Every Man and Nation.” This version, which appears in some hymnals, is edited from Lowell’s original, and I have left out some verses which are problematic.

These three verses powerfully communicate the need to stand for truth whether or not you will be successful. They communicate in verse a principle I state often with my kids and in classes- better to die nobly than to survive ignobly.

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

 

– James Russell Lowell

 

Audio from “Read, Pray, Sing”

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ReadPraySing_header-400We had a blessed time at our conference, “Read, Pray, Sing: The Psalms as an Entryway to the Scriptures.” One of my favorite comments was from a man who said he and his wife had been attending conferences for 35 years, and this one was “the most reviving to our souls of any we have attended.”

I am excited to post that the audio is now available from our sessions. All the plenary sessions and most of the breakout sessions are available (we had technical difficulties with the recording of a few sessions). By common assent, one of the most powerful parts of the event was the Psalmfest, where we had the opportunity to put into practice what we talked about, singing the Psalms corporately. I am glad that we have audio of that portion as well.

Here is what is available in audio:

Ray Van Neste- Theme Interpretation, “Read, Pray, Sing: The Psalms as an Entryway to the Scriptures”

Chris Mathews, leading, Psalmfest

Plenary Sessions:

Heath Thomas, “God, Israel, and the Nations: Praising God and His Salvation in Psalm 117”

Andy Davis, “The Sufferings of Christ and the Subsequent Glories in the Psalms”

Breakout sessions:

Heath Thomas, The Magnificent 7: Seven Ways of Reading (or Misreading) Scripture 

Andy Davis, The Bible Comes to Life: How Scripture Memory Transforms One’s Life

Harry Lee Poe, “C.S. Lewis on the Psalms”

Paul Jackson, Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees

Kevin Chen, God as a Poet: The Poetry of the Psalms

Be Strong!

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My poem of the week this week is another on the theme of perseverance. I am finishing out the school year with my boys memorizing these as an aid to stir them on to difficult tasks- and to stir me on as well!

Be Strong!

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle―face it; ‘tis God’s gift.

Be strong!
Say not, “The days are evil. Who’s to blame?”
And fold the hands and acquiesce―oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.

Be strong!
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not―fight on! To-morrow comes the song.

–          Maltbie Davenport Babcock

Humility and Manhood

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My boys & I recently read George MacDonald’s Phantastes. C. S. Lewis famously said this book baptized his imagination. I can’t say our experience was so lofty. It is a challenging book to follow, though there are beautiful and wise comments along the way. The last portion of the book is quite good as the young man who is the main character accomplishes his quest for maturity and finds true manhood not in his conquests or his prideful pursuits but in humility, service and work.

The quote below captures the point of the conclusion of the book and is worth contemplation.

Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, “I am what I am, nothing more.” “… I learned that it is better, a thousand-fold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly, to set myself for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal.