In Other Words

I have come to the discovery that I like…words. This will come as a shock and surprise to more than a half dozen English teachers I have frustrated over the years.   This word interest must have come from my grandfather who enjoyed crossword puzzles, Scrabble and his unabridged Webster’s dictionary.  He commanded a large repertoire of word definitions and their etymological roots.  I on the other hand prefer word play, the turn of a phrase and creative expressions. 

Words paint pictures and articulate ideas.  They parse nuanced meaning and convey emotion.  They are inspired and inspirational. 

At their most basic level words are used for communication – to teach algebra, give directions, sell tomatoes and buy insurance.  At a much deeper and personal level words are used for communion – to develop trust, nurture intimacies, express love and give affirmation.

Poets, song writers and novelists have been conferred the guardianship of imaginative word use.  Maybe it would be more precise to say that guardianship has been abandoned to them.  William Safford was once asked in a interview, ‘When did you decide to become a poet?’  He responded that the question was put wrongly: ‘Everyone is born a poet –a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words.  I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing.  The real question is why did other people stop?” 

Of all people we have reason not to abandon a romance with words.  After all the total package of the gospel is best given in a way that captures the heart.  God’s plan for human flourishing is best wrapped in a way that engages the mind.  The biblical narrative arc of redemption and restoration is best told when it captures the imagination.  In other words we have an adventure to convey, wonder to express and an epic to tell.   

Sin's Impact on the Social Fabric

My typical consideration of sin centers around the individual.  This is in keeping with my western civilization mindset where the individual trumps the collective group.  The separation it inflicts between the person and God, the individual consequence it brings or how a person can be restored is how the furniture in my mind is arranged.  Seldom is its consequence on the society as a whole considered.  The following are additional thoughts from last week’s post by Tim Keller:

“Sin does not only have an internal impact on us but also a devastation effect on the social fabric….human society is deeply fragmented when anything but God is our deepest love.

“If our highest goal is the good of our family, then…we will tend to care less for other families.  If our highest goal is the good of our nation, tribe, race, then we will tend to be racist or nationalistic.  If our ultimate goal in life is our own individual happiness, then we will put our own economic power interests ahead of those of others.  Only if God is our…ultimate good and life center will we find our heart drawn out not only to people of all families, races and classes, but to the whole world in general. 

“How does this destruction of social relationships flow from the internal effects of sin?  If we get our very identity, our sense of worth, from our political position, then politics is not only really about politics, it is about us.  Through our cause we are getting a self, our worth.  That means we must despise and demonize the opposition.  If we get our identity from ethnicity or socioeconomic status, then we have to feel superior to those of other classes and races.  If you are profoundly proud of being an open-minded, tolerant soul, you will be extremely indignant toward people you think are bigots.  If you are a moral person, you will feel very superior to people you think are licentious.  And so on.

“There is no way out of this conundrum.  The more we love and identify deeply with our family, our class, our race, or our religion, the harder it is to not feel superior or even hostile to other religions, races, etc.  So racism, classism, and sexism are not matters of ignorance or a lack of education…it is far harder than we think to have a self-identity that doesn’t lead to exclusion.  The real culture war is taking place inside our own disordered hearts, wracked by inordinate desires for things that control us, that lead us to feel superior and exclude those without them, and that fail to satisfy us even when we get them.”

Currently Playing: In My Mind

Reason for God by Tim Keller is currently playing in my mind.  Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  He is answering questions and presenting the gospel in a way that connects to the post-modern generation.  Following is a small sample:

“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is something wrong with the world.  According to Christianity our biggest problem is sin.  Yet the concept of “sin” is offensive or ludicrous to many.  

“The primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things.  It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God.

“Defining sin this way, we can see several ways that sin destroys us personally.  Identity apart from God is inherently unstable.

“An identity not based on God also leads inevitably to deep forms of addiction.  When we turn good things into ultimate things, we are, as it were, spiritually addicted.  If we take our meaning in life form our family, our work, as cause, or some achievement other than God, they enslave us.  We have to have them. 

“A life not centered on God leads to emptiness.  Building our lives on something besides God not only hurts us if we don’t get the desires of our hearts, but also if we do.  Few of us get all of our wildest dreams fulfilled in life, and therefore it is easy to live in the illusion that if you were successful, wealthy, popular, or beautiful as you wished, you’d finally be happy and at peace.  That just isn’t so."  

Avoiding the Rut Problem

“A rut is a grave with the ends kicked out.”  Ruts keep us from seeing things from a wider angle with little hope of breaking out of normalcy.   Ruts place us in a perpetual tunnel vision.  They are the death of aliveness.

Ruts happen in the church.  We find authors and teachers that represent our “position” and dub them our official communicators.  We turn to them to discover what we are supposed to believe.  They give a precise, coherent, well articulated understanding, but they can also limit our ability to see things from a fresh perspective.

When it comes to pursuing our understanding of God there is no room for ruts.  Contemplating infiniteness requires more than one “position” can bring to the discussion.  It requires a look from different angles much like looking at a diamond.  There are a multitude of angles with each giving a different sparkle, a richer color, a fuller clarity, a greater appreciation.  

Community provides these out of the rut insights.  While laid solidly on a foundation of biblical truth each individual brings unique study, distinct perspective and personal experience that enriches our understanding of the Gospel.

Other cultures also bring a fresh perception to our biblical understanding.  Much of the Christian world today is not North American western.  We need the humility to become learners from our African, Chinese, Latin American brothers and sisters.  Cultural diversity in the church gives us a new lens through which to understand God. 

Can I go out on the limb and say that we can benefit from a wide range of denominational viewpoints as well?   We get our theological understanding by the questions we ask the Scripture.  Nobody and no one group can ask all the questions or have all the answers.  Which of course means that no one’s perspective or theology is complete (not even our own).  Surely then there is much good and godly insight to be gleaned from the universal church with the Holy Spirit as our safeguard.     

In welcoming the diversity of community, culture and the church we avoid the rut problem that so easily becomes a grave to growth.