Donkey's Delight

In C.S. Lewis' wonderful poem "Donkeys' Delight" the Oxford don likens salvation to entering into "the excellent joke" which at first glance seems a tad strange, or at the very least, a little trite. But when you consider the essence/makeup of jokes it actually makes perfect sense. Every joke has a "setup" which takes the hearer in a particular direction. The "punchline" is simply an unexpected diversion from the path established by the "setup." Here's an example:

Setup - "When I die, I want to go like my grandfather did, in his sleep..."
Punchline - "Not like all the other people in the car, screaming and yelling."

The setup establishes certain stock scenes and/or motifs. The punchline wrenches us from those scenes and takes us (quite unexpectedly) to an entirely different scene. And when it does, we laugh, giggle or guffaw.

Now, this being the case, Lewis is spot-on. Salvation is the ultimate "excellent joke."

Setup - Adamic and personal sin against a three-times holy God invoking His just and holy wrath.
Punchline - Free grace, pardon, cleansing and adoption as sons.

And so Lewis concludes:
I repented, I entered
Into the excellent joke
The absurdity. My burden
Rolled off as I broke
Into laughter; and soon after
I had found my own level;
With Balaam's Ass daily
Out at grass I revel,
Now playing, now braying
Over the meadows of light
Our soaring, creaking Gloria
Our donkeys' delight

Hmm...no wonder we Christians laugh/bray so much, and so heartily...

321 from Jeremy Poyner on Vimeo.

Reading the Gospels Wisely

Reading the Gospels Wisely from Greg A. Cash on Vimeo.

In a Byre Near Bethlehem

Tradition meets Celtic meets Indie. Nice. Enjoy. You can download the lyrics and guitar chords here.

Like the Dew of the Morning Hour...

To listen click here: Psalm 110

THE LORD HAS SAID TO MY LORD (PSALM 110)

Metrical Adaptation: Doug Wilson

(To the tune of “I Love Thy Kingdom Lord”)

Intro: E   B7   E   G#m7  A   B7   E  A  E

      E                             B7

The Lord has said to my Lord

       E              A          B7

“My right hand is Your seat

    E    B7              E   G#m7

Until I make Your enemies

        A            B7   E

Your footstool in defeat”

The Lord shall send out the rod, all strongholds shall He seize

The rod comes forth from Zion’s hill, and rules your enemies

Your people have one will, in the day of Your mighty power

Arrayed in majesty and might, like the dew of the morning hour

The Lord will never relent, through an oath His Word protects --

“You are a priest forevermore, in the line of Melchizedek”

          (a cappella)

At Your right hand is the Lord, He shall shatter rebellious men

He comes to execute His wrath, on nations and kings, amen!   D7

          G                                  D7

When our Lord’s wrath is complete

                G    C           D7

When His enemies are dead,

           G                 D7                  G            Bm7

He will drink from a stream by the way, and then

   C           D7      G

In triumph lift His head     (repeat last two lines then C G)

Liturgy and Slow Growth

We follow an ancient liturgical pattern in our worship, drawing from the wisdom of Christians who have gone before us. Every Sunday we renew our commitment to God, offer him our prayers and gifts, confess our sins, receive forgiveness, hear from God’s word, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

In other words, not much changes from week to week. Sure, we sing different songs, pray slightly different prayers and hear from different parts of God’s word, but the weekly pattern is the same.

In a culture obsessed with the novel and unique, we should ask a very important question: What is the wisdom in this?

God generally doesn’t work through seismic spiritual events in our lives. True, most of us can look back to significant turning points in our lives that were profound and maybe even “out of body”. But the vast majority of the growth God brings is the result of slow, plodding work.

Think about the Bible’s dominant metaphor for spiritual growth—it is the growth of fruit. When you grow fruit, you don’t just plant some seeds and expect immediate results. No, you plant seeds and then you do a lot of the same things—watering, fertilizing, pruning—over, and over, and over again. Then you will have fruit. French winemakers are said to not really take a grapevine seriously until it is at least 20 years old. I think we need that kind of perspective when we think about growing as disciples.

Grapes growing. Riveting, huh?

By worshiping liturgically, we are doing the same things over, and over, and over again. We do this with the belief that, over time, God will bless these practices with fruit in our lives. Sure, there will be some seismic moments of profound change. But, for most of us most of the time, change will happen in a much more deliberate fashion.

And how does this spiritual growth manifest itself? It manifests itself when we actually “become the liturgy”. It happens when our liturgical actions—like  responding to God’s word, confessing our sins, praising God for his goodness, pouring out our sorrows at his feet—become second nature to us.

Think about our liturgy and the actions we practice. Every week, we confess our sins. We confess our sins on Sunday morning because we want confessing our sins to become second nature on Thursday afternoon. We sing our praises to God on Sunday morning so we can learn how to instinctively praise him on Friday nights. We pour out our hearts in prayer to God on Sunday morning so that we can turn toward him in prayer when our lives fall apart on Wednesday.

Is it the sexiest way to worship? Not by a long shot. However, worshiping in this way helps us be shaped and formed by a God who grows his people slowly and steadily.

Written by John of Grace Church Seattle

The Other 4th of July

(1 Timothy 6:11-12) But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.


And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.


And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.


And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

____________________________________________________

In AD 325 the Emperor Constantine sent out an invitation to 1800 bishops to assemble in Nicea (present day northwestern Turkey) to settle once and for all some doctrinal issues that were threatening the unity of the Church. One of these issues was the “Arian controversy.” 220 bishops accepted the invitation, among them Arius and Athanasius.


The Arian controversy was a Christological dispute that began in Alexandria between the followers of Arius (the Arians) and the followers of St. Alexander of Alexandria (now known as Homo-ousians). Alexander and his followers believed that the Son was of the same substance as the Father, co-eternal with him. The Arians believed that they were different and that the Son, though he may be the most perfect of creations, was only a creation of God the Father. A third group (now known as Homoi-ousians) later tried to make a compromise position, saying that the Father and the Son were of similar substance.


For about two months, the two sides argued and debated, with each appealing to Scripture to justify their respective positions. According to many accounts, the debate became so heated that at one point, Arius was slapped in the face by Nicholas of Myra, who would later be canonized and became better known as "Santa Claus".

So, was Jesus of:

Different substance?

Homo-ousia – “of one substance…”?

-         i.e. Jesus is God

Homoi-ousia – “of similar substance…”?

-         i.e. Jesus is “god-like”

The council got it right, and agreed, and then decreed on July 4, AD 325, that Jesus is God of God and of one substance with the Father.  So fire up the grill and light off some fireworks tonight to celebrate this historic day and this wonderful reality: Your Savior Jesus Christ is fully man and fully God, and thereby fully qualified to save you to the uttermost!