Happy birthday, "Papa" Joe!

Today is the birthday of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), affectionately known to his fellow musicians (from a relatively early age) as “Papa” because of his good nature, his genuine concern for others, and his warm sense of humor.  (In a day when “the artist” is supposed to be neurotic, egotistical, and obnoxious, Haydn stands in marked contrast — a hardworking, generous gentleman.)

Though not as well-known as his contemporaries Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn’s music is delightful and of a consistently high quality.  He deserves more attention from music lovers (I’ve been bingeing on Haydn for the past month!).  You’ll know his music (though you might not know you know) through the tune he composed which became the Austrian national anthem and furnishes the tune to our hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken” (Trinity Hymnal Revised #345).

For much of his career (about 30 years) he created music for the wealthy Esterházy family (and the world).  He was also wildly popular in England, and made two trips to London later in his career in the 1790s (his twelve “London Symphonies” are among the great masterpieces of symphonic music).

As an example of the way in which his sense of humor came to expression in his music, Robert Greenburg relates,

Haydn was happy with the routine at Esterháza, and his sense of humor and wit are evident in his music, including the famous "Farewell" Symphony [#45].  This work was written to persuade the prince that Haydn and his musicians needed a well-earned annual vacation.  At its premiere in 1772, Haydn instructed the players to blow out their candles and leave the stage one by one as they finished their parts.  In the end, only Haydn and his concertmaster were left on the stage.  Finally, they too blew out their candles and quietly left the totally darkened stage.  The prince was delighted by the symphony.  He got the message and gave orders the next day for the musicians and their entourage to leave Esterháza. 

To say Haydn was prolific would be a huge understatement — 104 numbered symphonies, 68 string quartets, 62 piano sonatas, trios, concerti, masses, operas, oratorios, etc., etc.  You name it, he wrote it!

If you like classical music (and you should learn if you don’t!), you owe it to yourself to sample Haydn’s wonderful music.  The symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas are available in inexpensive, but critically acclaimed, editions on the Naxos label.  Of special interest to believers is Haydn’s oratorio The Creation based on a text adapted from Milton’s Paradise Lost (you can get it in an English version by the Robert Shaw Chorale, Telarc).  This piece provides (among many other pleasures) the tune for our hymn, “The Spacious Fermament on High” (THR #117) and a setting of Psalm 135 (#12).  He also wrote a string quartet (Op. 51) entitled “The Seven Last Words of Christ” which he later arranged for chorus and orchestra.  Very beautiful, very moving, and appropriate to the Passiontide season.

Enjoy!

A warning for leaders

“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.”  (Matthew 26:3-4)

Passover was at hand.  Jesus knew that very soon the Son of Man would be delivered up to be crucified (v. 2).  (That thought was never far from the surface of his consciousness, no matter what else occupied his immediate attention.)  Meanwhile the religious leaders of the Jews were plotting together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

This passage reminds us that religious leaders are just as capable as anyone (more so?) of breaking all the rules to get their way.  Jesus told his disciples that soon those who sought to kill them would do so because they thought they were offering service to God (John 16:2).  What was true for them was equally true for him (cf. 15:20).

Perhaps at no time are leaders in the church more dangerous than when they think they are offering service to God, and therefore that the ends justify the means.  Not only are they then willing to abandon basic brotherly love — treating others as they themselves would be treated (Matt. 7:12) — but they are also willing to “outface the truth,” refuse to hear a just defense, eagerly receive an evil report, and various other violations of the ninth commandment (cf. WLC 144-145).  They may not quite be up to putting a brother to death, but they are often willing to see his reputation assassinated and his ministry to the church crippled.

As Jesus moved deliberately toward the cross, the burden of suffering was laid upon him more heavily with every passing hour.  Certainly a most grievous aspect of his sorrow had to come from enduring the treatment he, “the Chief Shepherd,” received from those who had been called to be shepherds in Israel, but proved to be false.

Let us leaders take warning.

Your deaconal offerings hard at work

Deacon Daryl busily at work on the church beautifying project.

"Oh boy! Prepping the wood surface…my favorite!  I love sanding."

"I'd rather be a painter in the house of the Lord than to fly the friendly skies of Avjet."

On a related topic — "spiritual reading"

Spiritual reading, designated lectio divina by our ancestors, has fallen on bad times.  It has always been a prized arrow in the quiver of those determined to cultivate a God-aware life, but has suffered a severe blunting in our century.  This particular arrow has lost its point more through ignorance than indifference or malice, ignorance of the sense that "spiritual" carries.  For the modifier "spiritual" in spiritual reading does not refer to the content of what is read but to the way in which a book is read.  Spiritual reading does not mean reading on spiritual or religious subjects, but reading any book that comes to hand in a spiritual way, which is to say, listening to the Spirit, alert to intimations of God.

Reading today is largely a consumer activity — people devour books, magazines, pamphlets, and newspapers for information that will fuel their ambition or careers or competence.  The faster the better, the more the better.  It is either analytical, figuring things out; or it is frivolous, killing time.  Spiritual reading is mostly a lover's activity — a dalliance with words, reading as much between the lines as in the lines themselves.  It is leisurely, as ready to reread an old book as to open a new one.  It is playful, anticipating the pleasures of friendship.  It is prayerful, convinced that all honest words can involve us in some way, if we read with our hearts as well as our heads, in an eternal conversation that got its start in the Word that "became flesh."  Spiritual reading is at home with Homer as well as Hosea.

Spiritual reading, for most of us, requires either the recovery or acquisition of skills not in current repute: leisurely, repetitive, reflective reading.  In this we are not reading primarily for information, but for companionship.  Baron Friedrich von Hügel once said it was like sucking on a lozenge in contrast to gulping a meal.  It is a way of reading that shapes the heart at the same time that it informs the intellect, sucking out the marrow-nourishment from the bone-words.

— Eugene Peterson, Take and Read

The "moral imagination"

   We don’t say much in our circles about the “moral imagination.”  “That power of ethical perception which strides beyond the barriers of private experience and momentary events” to give us a moral vision of all of life.  Edmund Burke among others have written about it.

   In our circles we tend to favor the theological or ethical proposition, and, to be sure, we must understand God and his ways and his will for us on that level.  But knowing "the Truth" and "the Good" on that level is not enough.  We must desire the true and the good as well if we are to follow them consistently.  This requires that our whole soul — mind, affections, will, and imagination — must be engaged.  Hence the need for a “moral imagination.”

   The Bible is written in the way it is in order to re-form us, not only intellectually, but on all the other levels as well — as total persons.  We can abstract systems of theology and ethical standards from the Bible (“Reformed” people are particularly fond of and adept at that), but doing so is only one step in the process of our re-formation in Christ.  Our notion of semper reformanda (“always being reformed”) should encompass the totality of the individual, and not simply of the institutional church.

   Such individual re-formation is not quickly done.  It is not simply a matter of “time in grade.”  It takes many years (if God grants them), diligent effort, and wide reading — first in the Bible (and not just our favorite bits, or the “theological sections”), but also in quality literature that takes us “beyond the barriers of private experience and momentary events.”

   (There is a post by Travis Prinzi on this topic on the Rabbit Room blog by you might like to look at.  It says its “Part 1” so if you’re interested you might want to check back to see if he writes more on the topic in the future.)

Getting our hearts ready for tomorrow

Tomorrow we begin (now that we’ve finished looking at introductory matters) to consider the first section of the book of Hebrews.  Verses 2-3 are so packed with important teaching, that brief section is all we’ll tackle tomorrow.  

As I mentioned in our first message, the purpose of this book is to change the way you think and act.  Without Christ you are absolutely lost.  But it’s too easy for us to lose sight of that fact.  The more we live as believers in the believing community, the more we are inclined to take the Savior and his message for granted.  That is the beginning of apostasy.

The argument of Hebrews moves forward by the author’s pressing his multi-dimensional exhortation upon people (like us) who are tempted to ignore or depart from King Jesus, the final revelation of the Father.  

The exhortational thrust of this first major section of the book (1:1–2:18) can be summarized as follows:  “Since God’s final revelation has been given in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, we must pay careful attention to him and to his message, if we hope to gain the eternal, glorious inheritance prepared by God for his people.”

This exhortation comes to its focus in 2:1-3, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.… how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

Telling it like it is

When looking for the roots of sexual addiction we do not need to look any further than our own sinful natures.  The truth is that the problem is rather simple: by giving over to sin, people become increasingly prideful and self-centered.  Much of our lives have been dictated by these two base motives.  It is time to come to grips with what truly lies beneath the addict's lack of control.  In a nutshell, as he has indulged the desires of his flesh, pride and selfishness have flourished within him.  The more he gives his flesh what it demands in every area of life, the stronger the sin grows within him. 

Dealing with sexual addiction in the Christian's life can be compared to dealing with bedsores of those suffering from debilitating illnesses.  You can treat these painful lesions with the latest ointments, creams, and bandages, but unless you cure the disease, the patient will stay bedridden and continue to suffer with such irritation. 

In the same way, sexual addiction is a by-product of a self-centered lifestyle.  The person is addicted to illicit sex because he is consumed with SELF.  You can "treat" the sexual problem for the rest of your life, but until the selfish nature is dealt with, the propensity to sin will remain.  This is the reason Pure Life Ministries puts an emphasis on dealing with all the aspects of a believer's spiritual life.  As the believer matures as a Christian, he will become increasingly more interested in the lives of others.  The less self-centered he becomes, the less important self-gratification will be in his life.   

— Steve Gallagher, At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry (pp. 106-7, emphasis added)

The cross is not "emotional pageantry"

Because God is so great and His standards so high, and because we shall one day stand before Him, we do well to give heed to the situation in which our sin has placed us.  The sinner facing the prospect of judgment before such a Judge is in no good case.  The Epistle [to the Hebrews] leaves us in no doubt but that those who are saved are saved from a sore and genuine peril.  Christ’s saving work is not a piece of emotional pageantry rescuing men from nothing in particular.

— Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament, p. 274

Christ the final revelation

Apropos our study of Hebrews this Sunday, F.F. Bruce wrote in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (p. 3):

God spoke in His mighty works of mercy and judgment, and made known through His servants the prophets the meaning and purpose of these works; they were admitted into His secret council and learned His plans in advance.  He spoke in storm and thunder to Moses, in a still small voice to Elijah.  To those who would not heed the gently flowing stream of Shiloah He spoke by means of the Euphratean flood.  Priest and prophet, sage and singer were in their several ways His spokesmen; yet all the successive acts and varying modes of revelation in the ages before Christ came did not add up to the fullness of what God had to say.  His word was not completely uttered until Christ came; but when Christ came, the word spoken in Him was indeed God's final word.…  The story of divine revelation is a story of progression up to Christ, but there is no progression beyond Him.

The mystery of prayer

   Prayer is a great mystery.  The communion between the human and divine always is.  And in a matter of prayer, which is a deeply human action, and yet one in which everything depends upon the supply of divine grace, this mystery is especially acute.

   E.M. Bounds reminds us,

The value of prayer does not lie in the number of prayers, or the length of prayers, but its value is found in the great truth that we are privileged by our relations to God to unburden our desires and make our requests known to God, and He will relieve by granting our petitions.  The child asks because the parent is in the habit of granting the child's requests.  As the children of God we need something and we need it badly, and we go to God for it.  Neither the Bible nor the child of God knows anything of that half-infidel declaration, that we are to answer our own prayers.  God answers prayer.  The true Christian does not pray to stir himself up, but his prayer is the stirring up of himself to take hold of God.  The heart of faith knows nothing of that specious skepticism which stays [hinders] the steps of prayer and chills its ardour by whispering that prayer does not affect God.”   — The Purpose of Prayer (emphasis added)

Who is really praying?  Is it me, or is it God the Spirit?  Truly, it is both.  Effective prayer is a matter of the Spirit’s work within us, both to intercede for us (Rom. 8:26f) and to enable our own intercessions.  As J. Stuart Holden put it:

   The great subject of prayer, that comprehensive need of the Christian's life, is intimately bound up in the personal fulness of the Holy Spirit.  It is “by the One Spirit we have access unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18), and by the same Spirit, having entered the audience chamber through the “new and living way,” we are enabled to pray in the will of God (Rom. 8:15, 26-27; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 6:18; Jude 20-21).

   Here is the secret of prevailing prayer, to pray under a direct inspiration [perhaps we would prefer to say “leading” or “direction” — RW] of the Holy Spirit, whose petitions for us and through us are always according to the Divine purpose, and hence certain of answer.  “Praying in the Holy Ghost” is but co-operating with the will of God, and such prayer is always victorious.  How many Christians there are who cannot pray, and who seek by effort, resolve, joining prayer circles, etc., to cultivate in themselves the “holy art of intercession,” and all to no purpose.  Here for them and for all is the only secret of a real prayer life — “Be filled with the Spirit,” who is “the Spirit of grace and supplication.” (emphasis added)

I have long admired one of C.S. Lewis’ poems, entitled simply "Prayer," that expresses this profoundly mysterious aspect of prayer simply and so aptly:

Master, they say that when I seem 

To be in speech with you, 

Since you make no replies, it's all a dream 

—One talker aping two. 

They are half right, but not as they 

Imagine; rather, I 

Seek in myself the things I meant to say, 

And lo! the wells are dry. 

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake 

The Listener's role, and through 

My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake 

The thoughts I never knew. 

And thus you neither need reply 

Nor can; thus, while we seem 

Two talking, thou art One forever, and I 

No dreamer, but thy dream. 

The obedience of faith

   "The path of obedience in the pursuit of holiness is often contrary to human reason.  If we do not have conviction in the necessity of obeying the revealed will of God as well as confidence in the promises of God, we will never persevere in this difficult pursuit.  We must have conviction that it is God's will that we seek holiness—regardless of how arduous and painful the seeking may be.  And we must be confident that the pursuit of holiness results in God's approval and blessing, even when circumstances make it appear otherwise."  

— Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, pp. 139f

An important day in court this Thursday

   This Thursday morning at 9:00 AM, the California State Supreme Court will be hearing arguments regarding the constitutionality of Prop 8.  According to the ProtectMarriage people, state AG Jerry Brown will actually be arguing for and against Prop 8 (splitting a 30 minute period between the two — go figure).  There will be two other parties arguing against Prop 8, and then the ProtectMarriage representatives (Ken Starr and Andy Pugno) will argue for Prop 8.

   This is obviously a very significant day in court for the biblical view of marriage.  Pray earnestly that God will bless those who speak for the truth, and confound his enemies.  (And pray that Jerry Brown will be totally flummoxed and humiliated… he deserves it!)