Classic Literature & the Apostle Peter

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Today I presided as the chaplain for three–yes, three–military funerals. It is one of the duties and privileges I relish as a minister of the gospel and as a military chaplain. Between the first and second funeral, I had a two-hour break. As we waited for the next family of the deceased to arrive I completed my reading of Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun. Typical of Ishiguro’s style it was sublime and understated. But his theme was commanding–the human need for and power of love.

What’s important to understand, however, is that the protagonist in the novel was an “AF,” (Artifical Friend). The main character was Klara, an AI android machine, that was so evolved and perceptive that she (yes, she’s portrayed with a female pronoun) had learned human emotions, human spirituality, and the capacity for self-sacrifice and love. When the vast majority of people abandoned the girl character of Josie, Klara was the noble and sacrificial one. Ishiguro masterfully explored the cruelty of mankind by portraying how androids are brought in to supplement and/or replace what other people should be, namely, a friend, who loves at all times.

What does this have to do with the apostle Peter? A great deal. This coming Sunday, I am slated to teach 2 Peter 1:1-15 to the saints of Christ Covenant Church (3cs-canton.org). What’s Peter’s topic in those verses? It’s what the Christian life is to look like. He lists several traits that evidence the reality of being a Christian:

  • Faith
  • Virtue
  • Knowledge
  • Self-control
  • Steadfastness
  • Godliness
  • Brotherly affection
  • Love

Ishiguro is a wise writer. Peter was an apostle of Christ. He was Jesus’ lead apostle. Peter, though a fallen man like the rest of us, triumphed in the end. He persevered in the faith. He penned two New Testament epistles that bear his name in church history. He equipped the saints. He taught. He shepherded. He labored in the truth for the sake of his people. He died a martry, being crucified under Nero in Rome, Italy in the mid-60s A.D.

And how did Peter end this section of his second letter? With these words:

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things (2 Pt 1:12-15, ESV).

Encouragement: Great literature is great because it deals truthfully, wisely, and beautifully with the enduring realities of human experience. Ishiguro’s novel was about the need for love, the beauty of self-sacrifice for a higher cause, and for connection. Peter labored and spent himself for the sake of Christ and those Christ ransomed from the talons of Satan and hell. In both cases, what was necessary was sacrifice, denial of self, and love. In short, the gospel.

Empty Ritualism vs. Full Worship

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Questions: Have you ever endured a gathering where the spirit that was supposed to be there was absent? Have you ever felt like you were supposed to come away feeling filled but you departed feeling empty, as if you’d just gone through the motions?Probably, many people have shared this experience.

There is a danger associated with this, too, however–namely, that we can go chasing adrenaline experiences that are intellectually insipid and spiritually vapid. Many folks are caught up in that pattern. They doomscroll for entertainment to stave off having to engage with serious thought or reflection. Many people cannot endure silence. To be stuck alone with oneself is torture because they might not like what they see. It might drive them to self-reflection and accountability. So, the response is to turn away, to engage in more distraction, to deflect, to be entertained.

Scripture Speaks to This: When the prophet Isaiah wrote in the 700s-600s B.C. he addressed the culture of his day with these same hard sayings. He spoke the truth. And the people didn’t like it. Prophecy is not for the morally weak. Engage in a prophet’s work and you might get the prophet’s reward–stoning, shunning, beheading, exile, or murder. But if you’re God’s man, all will be made right. But there’s a lot of pain involved.

When Isaiah opened the book that bears his name in the Old Testament, he rebukes Judah (the southern kingdom) straight out of the gate: “Why will you still be struck down?” (Is 1:5). It’s a rhetorical question that is a clear rebuke. And Isaiah rebukes empty ritualism–this going through the motions–that characterized so much of religiosity:

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
    says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
    and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
    or of lambs, or of goats.

12 “When you come to appear before me,
    who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
13 Bring no more vain offerings;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
    I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
    I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
    I will not listen;
    your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
    plead the widow’s cause. (Is 1:11-17)

Empty Ritualism: Like many others, my wife and I enjoy live music. Over the many years, we have seen some great shows–B.B. King, John Mayer, Selah. I remember seeing Pink Floyd (yes, I’m that old); Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Billy Joel, the Eagles, Kansas, Willie Nelson, and many, many more. And what set some of those shows apart was that there was a sincere love and communication going on between the musicians and us (the hearers). We knew their words; we knew their tunes; their songs played a big part in shaping us as individuals. Our memories played their tunes in the soundtrack of our lives. And the best of these individuals and/or groups got it. They understood that music is more than just sound; something spiritual is going on.

Segue: How much more important, therefore, should be our relationship with God? Is it not the most important issue? “Who do you say that I am?” is a life-altering question. That’s what Jesus posed to Peter, you’ll remember (Mt 16:15-17, e.g.).

Takeaway: God spoke through Isaiah. God’s message was that he hates “vain offerings” (v. 13) and that’s he is “weary” of all the ritualism (v. 14b). What God calls for is pure worship from hearts and minds purified by the refining fire of gospel truth. That’s not ritualism. That is full worship. In Hebrews 12:28-29, the writer says, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverance and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

The kingdom of God is received; it’s not something we sinners manufacture or gin up. But if we have been born again by the Spirit of God, our worship will be theocentric and full–not of entertainment and filler, but of depth and a reverence for the holiness of God. Empty ritualism is a sign that Ichabod is writ large upon the door. But where God’s Spirit is at work among his people, we will bless the Lord at all times, with all that is within us (Ps 34:1).

Reflecting Upon Ecclesiastes 1:9

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There’s so much wisdom in Ecclesiastes. This morning I was reflecting upon Ecclesiastes 1:9. Solomon writes, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

The Hebrew term for this is hebel. Its close equivalent in English is vapor, mist, or breath. In some English translations, it is translated as “vanity.” Have you ever tried to rope the wind? That’s the image. It’s vanity to pursue such a thing.

The irony was so piercing. I had just checked the headlines in today’s news. They were what you might expect–more spectacles from Washington D.C.; more promises about the war in Iran; more violence in Detroit and Chicago; more outlandish sports bloopers. On and on they went. Another day’s headlines, another day’s drivel. Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes. In 30 seconds, most readers have forgotten what they read, and just drive on without giving it so much as a nod.

That’s what Solomon was teaching in Ecclesiastes. Today’s headlines are just that–temporary, fleeting, hebel.

In looking at my calendar I have two funerals already for this week. We come, we spend our days, and someone presides over us as we’re either laid in a coffin or put in an urn. Hebel. Our boots are filled by another before we’re even cold. This reality should humble the wise in order that we might invest ourselves in the immortal things–the souls of men. This is why truth matters–because it will endure when all else fades.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #454: The Really Real; Thoughts Upon Connection

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After a two-and-a-half week separation from CJ, I am back home. As Frank Baum wrote, there’s no place like home. When I got home, it was just what I had hoped for: CJ came down the garage stairs as I pulled in. And Ladybug, our Cavalier, stepped down, too, and sniffed me and cuddled as soon as I opened the car door. CJ’s pretty toes were painted bubble-gum pink, and her skin was her familiar soothing brown, her hair recently washed and in brown layers over her left shoulder.

She helped me lug my ruck and rolling duffel bags into the house, and I took Ladybug out to do her thing in the yard. CJ had laid out some of the books I’d ordered during my time away on the kitchen table. I touched each volume, eager to dive in–Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and others. There are important writers, still.

I showerd and we patronized our favorite Mexican eatery for a shared meal of chicken enchiladas and rice, then returned home. Another book had been delivered upon arriving home. “Here’s your next one,” CJ said, laughing.

“Don’t worry, love; that one’s this week’s,” I said.

Now I’m into Ishiguro’s contemporary tale about the longing for human connection. Ishiguro gets it.

I’m beyond tired now. Enervated is probably the best word. Spent might work, too. Long days and nights with fellow soldiers. Then protracted rides back home. But we did it. Little sleep. But . . . mission accomplished. Another one down, as the saying goes. And it’s back to work tomorrow.

But not before I rejoice at the kindness of providence in my absence. When I walked upstairs to throw dirty socks and boxers in the laundry basket, CJ had long before changed the linens and made the bed and vacuumed and dusted everything. The bed was taut-clean sheets, my sundry pillows stood up like ramparts upon a castle for sleep, and the comforter fluffy and clean. I was home.

How does one express the embarrassingly simple joys of coming home to one you love? My only answer: words. Just write. Maybe someone else gets it, and cares. She’s precious–this one who labors for me, in my absence, who endures so much time with my being away–good for a paycheck but deprived of my physical presence.

It’s this connection to glorious beauty of the mundane I miss–the fluffed pillows, my wife’s pretty pink toes, the nuzzle of my dog, the brush of the family cat upon my calf. Call it sentimental, but it’s home. And as Baum accurately captured, there’s no place like it.

Thoughts on ‘Confirming One’s Calling’

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When I was a boy, the house I grew up in had a black iron bell on the front porch. In the afternoons after school, and especially during summers, I would be outdoors most of the days if the weather was right. The other boys and I in our postage stamp of soil would be outside like little Huck Finns–building forts, making ramps on which to jump our bikes, fishing, camping, hunting, exploring the woods and the many fields, scouting for deer, trying to trap rabbits. On and on it went. A boy’s paradise in smalltown rural life. We didn’t have much money. I didn’t know that at the time. We were simple people with simple pleasures, and I was filling my boy soul with sights, sounds, and smells that shaped who I am.

Currently I’m away from home as part of my military duties, but at night I’m able to read Scripture and study. When I return to Christ Covenant Church (3cs-canton.org), I will resume teaching through Peter’s two epistles. The next text is 2 Peter 1, the opening chapter, where Peter writes about evidences of Christianity. He lists multiple qualities/characteristics of believers (2 Pt 1:5-7).

And then in verse 10, it struck me like Mom’s ringing the black iron bell on the front porch when it was time for me to come in. When she’d ring that, the sound would travel across the ponds, through the pines, across the fields. I knew it was time to get home. “Dark-thirty,” is the phrase that was used.

In verse 10, Peter writes, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” There’s something about that calling that summons the soul, that brings me back to the clear sound of that bell I heard countless times as a boy.

Chaplain Daily Touchpoint #453

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“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls is wise” (Pr 11:30).

Intro: Jesus taught a great deal about being a fruit inspector. You hear this sometimes if you are in church circles. The reference is to Jesus’ teaching: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits” (Mt 7:15-16a). And “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Mt 7:20).

This is the same truth as Solomon teaches in Proverbs 11:30, namely, that the godly, truth-bearing person is “a tree of life.” He/she bears godly fruit. His life bears the evidence of rooted gospel transformation (fruit) because he is rooted in the truth of being conformed to Christlikeness. The root leads ultimately to the fruit. 

And the capturing of souls is a picture of attracting and winning hearts and minds by way of a godly life. How do you contradict a godly life? How do you besmirch a life that is beyond reproach? Ad hominem attacks won’t find traction against such a man, at least not to those with discernment.

A reason we are commanded to study to show ourselves approved by God as workmen who need not be ashamed (2 Tim 2:15) is because we have been assigned the high calling of being part of God’s plan to redeem men and women. God uses our skills he has given to us to persuade, to win souls, to bear godly fruit in a fallen world in desperate need of rescue. 

Labyrinthine with Hawthorne

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My third time through Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables and it was as cryptic, phantasmagoric, and spectral as ever. Ghosts of judges past, fair Phoebe, lonesome artists, and lingering sins of the past possibly made right in the end, but not before heart-wrenching tortures of soul.

Pressing On

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With less than a week to go in this current iteration of military training with my unit in Pennsylvania, soldiers’ spirits are beginning to rise. They can see the end. They are envisioning getting on the buses for the all-night drive back to Macon. They are envisioning hugging their wives and holding their children. They are longing to lie down in their own beds, in their own homes, and shower in their own environs. It’s amazing how the quotidian pleasures of life grow precious when you’re deprived of them–the voice of a loved one, a hot shower, a meal that doesn’t come out of a plastic MRE bag. 

When the apostle Paul was imprisoned, he penned several epistles known appropriately in history as “the prison epistles.” One such letter was Philippians wherein he addressed keeping the long-term goal in mind: “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:13-14). 

Paul had learned what it means to “press on.” I love that phrase. He didn’t just use it cavalierly; he made it his character, his pattern, his way of living the Christian life. He kept the main thing the main thing. If you are tempted to capitulate to self-pity, despair over the day’s headlines, or doubt your efficacy, remember what God has said to you in his Word: press on, pilgrim. God is always and forever good and wholly trustworthy. Lead into the truth; trust the Lord with the results; and press on. 

Not Mythical Hopes but Historical Facts

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Who: In a few hours I will open my Bible to 2 Peter and minister to fellow soldiers, NCOs, and officers.

What: Chaplain roles and responsibilities; religious support of Service Members

When: 1230

Where: In front of the Tactical Operation Center (TOC)

Why: Religious Support (RS) of America’s U.S. Army

Context: The bottom line up front (BLUF): “Provision, Progress, & Certainty of the Christian’s Pilgrimage”

Text: 2 Peter 1:1-15

When I was working on this homily, one quote from Warfield I discovered in my studies struck me with special power:

“The gospel does not offer us beautiful ideals or poetic myths; it offers us historical facts. The apostles were not men of vivid imaginations, but witnesses of an objective, shattering reality.”

God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,” Peter writes (2 Pt 1:3). In other words, what we have, we have received. We have been granted it by God’s grace. Human boasting is therefore forbidden.

Then Peter lists evidences of true saving faith:

  • Virtue (v. 4)
  • Knowledge (v. 5)
  • Self-control (v. 6)
  • Steadfastness (v. 6)
  • Godliness (v. 7)
  • Brotherly affection (v. 7)
  • Love (v. 7)

Peter teaches the same principles as James does, namely, that faith without works is dead (Jas 1:17).

Encouragement: How does the Christian pilgrim persevere? By recognizing that God has granted to him/her the needed strength to live the Christian life. By recognizing that Christianity is historically true. We worship not an idol of wood, hay, or stubble, but the resurrected, living Savior.

Stagnant faith is dead faith. Active faith brings assurance. “The used key is always bright,” Ben Franklin wrote. Why? It shines because of its repeated use. Lean into the Christian battle, fellow pilgrim, knowing that the conquering King has prepared a place for you at his table.

Hope: Rediscovering Light Through the Darkness

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“Hey, sir. Got a minute?” the soldier asked.

“Of course. Have a seat.” He pulled out one of the silver folding chairs and sat down.

He got right into it. No small talk. I liked him right away.

“You ever feel like God is silent?” he asked. “I mean, I pray. I repent daily. I really do. But sometimes I keep praying and asking God to show me, and it’s just silence.”

Through previous conversations, I knew him to be a believer, a Christian, a man familiar with Scripture. And he has always had, since I’ve known him, a quiet and dignified, serious way about him. He struck me always as a thoughtful man, not one skating upon the surface of things.

“You remember the persistent widow in Scripture, right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Remember what Jesus said at the end of that illustration about her, the persistent widow?”

He thought in silence.

He said, “‘And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?'”

“I know.”

“Remember David?” I asked, “that he sought the Lord and the Lord answered him and delivered him from all his fears?”

“I know,” he said. “I just feel like God is silent, like he won’t confirm things to me.”

“I hear you. May I ask you something else?”

“Yes.”

“Are you seeking something in addition to Scripture, some sign or voice to make it all real to you?”

“Yes, exactly!”

“Again, I know you know Scripture, but didn’t Peter speak to this tendency we have–to want something additional?”

He sat in silence, looking at me, and looking inward.

“In his second letter, Peter wrote as a man who’d been with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was an intimate friend of Jesus, one of his inner circle . . .”

“Yes,” he said, leaning in.

“But what did Peter remind us of if not the prophetic word more fully confirmed?”

“I know. It’s just . . .”

“What does Jesus tell us again and again in his Word if not to ‘Fear not’ and ‘Be not afraid’ and that he’ll not forsake his sheep?”

“I know,” he said.

“Let me propose an either/or. Is it wise to be led by our feelings and external signs or by his Word?” I asked.

“I just feel like he won’t answer,” he said. “And I’m just so tired.”

“Is the cross not the answer? Is not the Holy Spirit inside of you the answer?” I asked.

“I see,” he said.

We spoke for over an hour–about his past, present, and future. We spoke of our ministries. We spoke of our families. We spoke of military life and the tolls it exacts.

His shift was nearing its end, and we shook hands yet again. “You speak truth, chaplain. I appreciate it.”

“If I don’t do that, brother, I’m in the wrong lane.”

“We’ll talk more,” he said.

“Yes, we will, brother.”

He grabbed his ruck and exited to go get a shower and some rest. I opened my pocket Bible I keep in my right cargo pocket and turned to Romans: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom 8:33-35)

Lord, thank you for times like this–times I could never orchestrate in my fallen, sinful, human strength. Teach me to be tender to those you’re dealing with, so that they discover the light in the darkness. You are not far from each of us. We just have to listen. You were here, are here, and will be here. Grip this man, confirm your Word to him, encourage him, and surround him with your presence. You intercede for us when we can’t find even the words to express the anguish we all sometimes feel. Intercede, Lord, for my brother. Comfort him.