Have been on a Bret Lott kick lately, reading through his oeuvre. Not disappointed. Reading his body of work backwards, it’s been rewarding. I see the images, the sounds, the moods, etc. that recur.
The novel I completed this evening was the first one he published. It’s about marriage, trying to make it work, about losing a child, about how hateful spouses can sometimes be to one another, about grief and anger, and about the ache of it all.
But amidst, in, and among all of that, there is love. And friendship. And a kind word. And an invitation to go deer hunting with one’s plumber, and a revelation of hubris and human folly.
All that to say, it’s all here–in this first novel. It has its flaws, as does everything this side of Genesis 3, but it’s a fine story about tender matters. And I commend it to you.
“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear” (Coleman Luck, Day of the Wolf).
Paul wrote as much centuries ago:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4, ESV).
Introduction: When I was in graduate school in English, one term I took an entire semester in the poetry of William Butler Yeats. It was one of the most revealing courses I ever took. Revealing in the sense that we students had to learn the intellectual and spiritual wells from which Yeats drank, in addition to learning Yeats’ body of work. We studied not only Yeats’ poetry and other writings, but also the writers that Yeats read and the ideas he imbibed. Even those who may be largely unfamiliar with Yeats may have at least some relationship with Yeats’ oft-anthologized poem, “The Second Coming.”
Text:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Context:
Why do I share all this? Because even as unorthodox and convoluted as Yeats’ intellectual moorings were, his best poems (“The Second Coming” is surely one of those) do portend important themes. When I look around at all the violence being perpetrated in America’s cities by unhinged mobs, it grieves me. How does one reason with a mob? Obviously, one cannot reason with a mob, as they’ve foregone reason and descended into terror. This is what got me again thinking about Yeats’ poem.
Imagery:
The images are striking, are they not?
There’s a schism between the falcon and falconer.
A “rough beast” is slouching in pregnant terror, like a foretaste of what’s coming in formidable violence.
A “blood-dimmed tide” is washing over the shores.
On and on the images of madness and violence are put forth. Why? I would argue, to get us to see. Sometimes folks will refuse to see reality until it literally hits them in the face. It takes that for some people. When you have an undiscerning people, evil rides roughshod over the sheeple. Or as Yeats so beautifully phrased it, “the centre cannot hold” and “The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”
Takeaway:
When you study Yeats’ theological and philosophical moorings, he was awash in mysticism, the occult, some teachings of Roman Catholicism, and loads of Oneist paganism. His fractured worldview is instructive for us, though, in this regard. He understood that men can easily become beasts if and when they abandon truth and embrace the lie. This is the way Scripture teaches it:
18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?” (Eccl 3:18-21, ESV).
Solomon’s point in Ecclesiastes is to teach that when we embrace paganism, we actually end up empty. It is when we listen to and obey God that benediction comes. That’s sounds saccharine and anemic to a world that doesn’t want to hear.
But the question remains: How’s the lie working out in the world system? How’s secularism playing out? How’s cognitive dissonance working out in L.A. right now? Why are politicians protected by men with guns, by walls around their estates, and personal bodyguards, but the mobs simultaneously decry walls and borders and law and order? As Yeats would remind us, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.” Would that we learn from Yeats and Solomon. I am weary of the blood-dimmed tide.
Illustration: One of my favorite illustrations follows. You may’ve heard it before. It remains for me one of the powerful anecdotes I know: “Charles Francis Adams, nineteenth-century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered, “Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted.” His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary that is still in existence. On the same day he made this entry: Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!” (quoted in Making Sense of Your World, W. Gary Phillips, William E. Brown, and John Stonestreet, p. 234).
Teaching: Do we recognize the delicate responsibility we have to invest in the souls of men? It’s clear we address the externals of folks. We PT; we tend to the visible elements, etc. But what about the inner man, the spirit, the soul, the persons we are when we’re most ourselves?
Encouragement: I bet when we reflect on those who mean the most to us, I would venture to say that those who mean the most to us are the ones who feed our souls. For me, it was often my grandparents. They’ve since passed on, but their impact remains. I think of some professors, too, with whom I clicked; they invested in me, and I worked hard to please them. I think, too, of fellow elders-pastors, with whom I’ve deep spiritual kinships. I think of men who’ve served nobly in uniform and/or still serve today–men that influence me via their testimony. My list, like yours, could go on and on. The point? May we be a people who speak to others’ souls—not just to their veneers.
Quote from a Founding Father: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly unfit for any other” (John Adams).
Questions:
What standard does the mob go by?
Do you think the mobs will suddenly lay down their arms if the U.S. government folds?
Is it possible the mob’s ultimate standard is power?
If mobs get what they want, what message does that send to the citizenry?
Remember what Solomon asked God for? It’s relevant for us today, too. Here’s the text:
“Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” (1 Kings 3:9, ESV).
For what did Solomon ask the Lord?
Wisdom
Discernment
To be able to distinguish good from evil
To be able to govern wisely
Does this not seem relevant in our day?
I tell my class almost every time we assemble that we flounder when we lack discernment. Why? Because folly and evil then triumph. Wisdom gets banished by the wicked.
But in addition to discernment, we also need courage.
Solomon petitioned the Lord, and the Lord answered him.
Would that we, too, had the discernment and courage of a Solomon in our land today–wisdom from God, a discerning people, and the transcendent unchanging standard by which a moral and Christian people might not only distinguish good from evil, but have the courage to love the good, and thereby govern themselves and their land with sagacity.
Text: “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” (Eccl 1:9, ESV).
Connection to Today: Literally, America is aflame. The nation’s flag is being burned. Law enforcement personnel are under assault. Mexico’s flag is being paraded through the streets of Los Angeles, CA.
Does any thinking person think it’ll be long before the same violence plays out in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, et al?
It’s so predictable.
Like clockwork.
Scripture’s teaching: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5, ESV).
In short, don’t say God didn’t tell us. He did–over and over again.
Questions: Do we learn? Do many care to learn? The questions answer themselves.
This is why I find Ecclesiastes germane each day. Human history is the same bloody and foolish story, again and again.
“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” (Eccl 1:9, ESV).
Introductory Question: How should the Christian view the intentional shattering of law and order?
Connection to Daily Events: Don’t worry; I’m not going to go on a political screed. I only want to ask the above question and take you to Scripture. First, I think it is incumbent upon all to tell the truth. The Christian and non-Christian alike should admit what is obvious—namely, that there is a civil war underway by certain elements on American soil.
Exhibit A: When I read the news this morning on my laptop, America’s flag was being covered in lighter fluid and set on fire in downtown Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Mexican flag was being held high on staffs and run through the streets. One of America’s largest cities where the American flag is desecrated? Regardless of our political affiliation, does anyone deny that this is serious? Some illegals demand the abolition of ICE and at the same time herald Mexico’s flag. If the flags of other nations represent your values, why not live there? Why destroy L.A. and harm law enforcement officers and destroy property in the city to which you have fled? If it’s so horrendous here, why come? Why stay?
My fellow soldiers are deployed to try and restore some semblance of law and order. This is a civil war. When you have (un)civilization that refuses to manage itself; when America’s flag is burned on the streets; when law enforcement officers are under attack; when public and private property are destroyed by thugs; when America’s military has to be activated to quell violent criminals from destroying the very nation to which they’ve come illegally, how should the Christian view this? Below are some initial thoughts from Scripture:
All of us are fallen; all men are sinners (Rom 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”)
All cultures have a “God of the system”; if and when cultures abandon the true God, God’s judgment falls (I’ve linked Deuteronomy 12:29-32 below for you.)
When evil is not punished, ruthless power is the idol, the “God of the system.” (Hosea 4:2-3 reads, “there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.”
God calls all men to repent and believe (Acts 17:30 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent …”)
Text: 29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. (Dt 12:29-32, ESV)
Encouragement: Again, this is not a political cheer for any party; there’s more than enough culpability by every political identity. This is meant to go deeper—to the heart of the issue. How should the Christian respond? Prayerfully, winsomely, courageously, and with biblical conviction. Everyone surely knows the bromide about what happens when good men do nothing. Evil triumphs. May we not be a people like that. I hate it when I see my country ripped asunder by violence, by people who ostensibly have no sense of self-discipline or commitment to much of anything but the god of their appetites.
I don’t know what it will take for Christians and non-Christians to admit the reality of man’s depravity, man’s fallen condition. Most folks simply don’t grasp it until it comes to their doorstep. But that may be much closer than you think. There’s wisdom—always—in doing things God’s way. When we fail to address human fallenness properly, a democratic republic can be replaced by a thugocracy. I, for one, do not want that; we are a better people than that, sinfulness notwithstanding.
Introduction: In preparing to teach Sunday, I’ve gone through Matthew’s gospel again and again. Each time I read through it, I discover what I believe to my core: God’s wisdom is unending. He cuts to the heart of the matter, which is the matter of the heart.
The text for Sunday is Matthew 20. Specifically, Christ is nearing Passion Week, his week of suffering in Jerusalem, Israel, where He would give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). But in Matthew 20, Jesus continues to teach on how human pride is rooted in something even worse–envy. God hates it because it destroys everything it touches.
Context, context, context. Look at the last verse of Matthew 19: “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mt 19:30, ESV). The same principle Jesus repeats in Matthew 20: “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Mt 20:16, ESV). Important? Yes.
In Christian theology, one of the most deleterious sins, one that corrupts everything and everyone it infects, is envy. It’s one of seven deadly sins, in certain traditions. It is, of course, addressed in the Decalogue: “You shall not covet . . .” (Ex 20:17, ESV). Envy reveals a spiritual insecurity that God detests.
Rather than finding one’s identity in Christ, envy reveals that one is looking to fellow sinners for approbation. It reveals that one is being a, to use biblical language, man-pleaser (Gal 1:10). Envy reveals a longing for praise from men rather than commendation from the Lord.
That’s why Christ hammers this point to His people. He is saying via gentle rebuke: “Who is your audience? Who are you aiming to please?”
When Jesus teaches via the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), he’s teaching that Christians are not to envy others’ giftings, influence, or blessings. Rather, be content with God’s grace towards you. Rejoice for those whom God is using to grow His kingdom; don’t envy them. The Lord does not need any of us, so just be faithful in the area of influence God has for you, be that vast or small. That’s the whole point: Many who think they’re first are actually last, and vice versa.
In one of the books I read recently, the author wrote the following: “The antidote to envy is security, the kind of security that allows us to rejoice in the strengths of others while realizing our own uniqueness in Christ.” That’s bull’s-eye, spot on.
Encouragement: It is understandable why the unbeliever would envy. He has no transcendent standard to which he thinks he is answerable; therefore, he measures all things via fluctuating preferences. That’s secularism in a nutshell.
But for the believer, for the man who is a true disciple of Christ the Lord, he knows that his giftings are by the sheer grace of God. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7, ESV). Humility, therefore, not envy, is the posture of the Christian. God invariably brings the proud low and exalts the humble. Just ask Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Ahab, Jezebel, Saul/Paul, etc. The list could go on and on.
If and when we come to understand our sufficiency in Christ, envy will recede and be replaced by humility, selfless service, and our identity being in the One who came down to us to rescue us from ourselves.
Bottom line up front: Keeping the main thing the main thing
Historical context: Paul’s last words in Scripture (2 Timothy 4). There are entire libraries filled with books about the Apostle Paul, about the New Testament (almost 2/3 of which Paul penned), about profound theological works like Romans and Colossians, etc. But for me, the heart of Paul comes across perhaps most powerfully at the end of his second letter to Timothy. How can one be unmoved by such a mind and heart as Paul had in these closing words? Indeed, these were Paul’s final words before he was martyred in Rome, Italy:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,[b] Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. (2 Timothy 4, ESV)
Pauline Wisdom:
Daily loyalty (2 Tim 4:1-2)
Expect opposition (2 Tim 4:3-4)
Embrace suffering (2 Tim 4:5-7)
Entrust yourself to God (2 Tim 4:8)
Work hard developing yourself & others in Christlikeness (2 Tim 4:-9-22)
Encouragement: I have preached/taught/written/spoken from 2 Timothy 4 many, many times. Why? Well, because they’re Paul’s last words, yes, but also because he knew his death was close. He was about to pass the theological baton to the next generation of elders (men like Timothy), and he was urging Timothy to keep the main thing the main thing, to not lose focus. Focus beats talent. Keeping faith with the truth is what matters. We can so easily become distracted from the mission. In military circles, we term it “mission creep.” In theological parlance, it would be akin to having a façade of truth but being cancerous underneath the veneer. We’re not to be like that. We’re to be the genuine, the real deal, knowing that the Lord sees and will do what is right. Our duty is fidelity to His revealed will.
In some of my studies this week I came across a real keeper from Dorothy Sayers. What struck me so powerfully was the recognition that throughout history, we see the same trends and pendulum swings recur. We go from strong voices in the pulpit (one thinks of Edwards, Whitefield, and Spurgeon) to those who know neither the message they’re to proclaim nor how to proclaim it.
Just listen to this from Sayers:
“[We are] constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine–dull dogma as people call it.
The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man–and the dogma is the drama.”
MIND & MATTERS 