Deutsch ist gut, aber ich wohl nicht bin

It's that time again to pray for Jackson who is taking yet another test in yet another language that he will yet again forget in a depressingly short amount of time. If you are joining us late, the language is German and the test is tomorrow morning at 9:45. The text we are translating is an historical text about an early church father consisting of about 25-30 lines. We will have a dictionary and we are allotted an hour and a half to complete it. If I pass this test, I will have successfully completed the language requirements of my program, which was (to me) the most daunting aspect of the PhD program.

Heading into this month, I was extremely intimidated by German. The only thing that I had ever heard about it is that it is completely foreign to any language (including English) with which one might have some experience. French, as an example, is part of the family of romance languages and as such is very similar to Spanish and more similar to English. In other words, one could conceivably pass a French test without a good grasp of the grammar. German is not the same. I knew a guy in seminary who dropped out of German even after he had paid for it because it was so hard. (Lee Harper, you are still my hero and not just because your name is opposite of one of the greatest American writers to have lived.)

The first few weeks of the class were overwhelming as they always are. Just when you think that you understand something, another point or exception comes along that fouls the whole thing up. We were learning 30 vocabulary words a day so one day off and you were incredibly behind. And most of the words look not a thing like English words. Eventually, though, you get into a rhythm. You realize that not every vocabulary word has to be memorized to succeed. You start to apply your knowledge of other languages. For instance, my deep studies of the Greek language helped a lot in understanding some of the peculiar aspects of the German sentence, crazy word order in particular.

Thankfully my supportive wife has again walked with me through it, has absorbed my inordinate amount of complaints and times of self doubt (which is par for the course). She has been a constant source of encouragement and I want to publicly thank her. Julie I love you.

Please be praying. I will report tomorrow or the next day with, hopefully, good results.

Let's Leave THEM Behind

Reader, pardon the following rant.

While perusing the aisles of our local Barnes and Noble, I paused at the embarrassingly massive display of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' not so critically acclaimed Left Behind series. The series is comprised of twelve volumes chronicling the lives of four people as they make their way through the dreaded seven years of post rapture tribulation somehow managing to survive (though everyone around them dies) and, furthermore, conversing in the most unrealistic dialogue to find its way to paper since the Dick and Jane series. The twelfth novel climaxes in the second coming of Christ who, I've been told, annihilates people through lasers emanating from his eyes (which is problematic on a number of different fronts).

To my shock and utter dismay, I discovered that the pair has released a thirteenth edition of the series. Apparently, it follows the same characters through their millennial reign with Christ on earth. One wonders if the paradise of the millennial kingdom will have any affect on the reality or intelligence of the dialogue. My guess is no. This promises to be the final chapter of the story, which, of course, we have all heard before. I think that it was originally supposed to be seven volumes (one for each year of the supposed tribulation ), but then it moved to twelve when it was such a hit. Apparently some of the middle volumes took 500 pages to narrate the action of two weeks time. And in addition to the thirteen volume series, there is also a Left Behind series for kids (get um young like the credit card companies) and a three volume "pre-quil" (presumptuous at best - the last thing I care about is how Rayford Steele became a pilot or how Cameron Williams - ironically played by Kirk Cameron in the equally distasteful movies - got his annoying nickname Buck.) I mean this isn't Starwars and Rayford Steele is a poor man's Lando at best.

There are so many areas that deserve reflection and criticism. In the first place, the series exhibits horrible theology. A few points to mention here: 1) The rapture (the premise on which the entire series is based) is a relatively recent theological idea, developed in the 1830s. None of the church Fathers or reputable theologians today believed in such an event. The Scriptural grounding for it is dubious and is often taken out of context. Additionally, it assumes a position toward suffering that contradicts the entirety of the New Testament. It assumes that God will spare his church of the final tribulation - God never promises we will be spared of any suffering! In fact, he promises that we will have suffering. Why should we assume that we will be spared of the great suffering? 2) The books are extremely critical of the Catholic Church as a whole. In fact, most (if not all) Catholics are left behind in the first volume. This includes the Pope and the Cardinals. The Pope than quickly becomes a corrupt leader of a one world faith that is basically Unitarian. This view of the Catholic Church is ignorant and presumptuous. It assumes that all Catholics have no understanding of Christ, salvation, and the like and that all evangelicals (or whatever tradition the books are endorsing) do. What an incredibly arrogant stance! Also, it shows a lack of understanding of the tenants of the Catholic Church, first and foremost of which would be the unique position of Christ as the way to the Father - if any denomination today is going to stand against a growing tide of inclusivism and diminishing of the role of Christ, I believe it would be the Catholic Church. 3) Any number of concerns could be further added, including a horrendous eschatology, which assumes a unique place for Israel (Galatians 3:28 aside) and the rebuilding of the temple in paradise. Apparently LaHaye and Jenkins never read the book of Hebrews. But these are issues for another blog, as they are too big to dispute and tackle here.

In addition to poor theology, I question LaHaye and Jenkin's motives in writing the series. Certainly it began well intentioned, but why the ridiculous proliferation of books? Why continue to write these novels and stretch them into such a long, expensive series? I hope that I am wrong, but it seems that much of the motivation was profit, which in my mind is untenable. But for some reason, Christians continue to make these best sellers! It saddens me that this is the kind of material that is so widely popular amongst Christians today, while names like Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the like are absent from most Christian bookstores.

Finally, I am disturbed by the low level of literature (if it can be called that) that is present in the books. As I said above, the dialogue is unrealistic. Moreover, the characters are paper thin, and the predicaments that they get into are often solved by unrealistic means. Why must we excuse this poor writing? As Christians, we should demand the best in everything, but so often we settle for something much less simply because it is, or purports to be, Christian.

To end my short rant in this vein (I thank the reader for his or her indulgence), I'd like to appropriate and alter a bit a line from the show King of the Hill: "Mr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins, you're not making Christianity better, you're making literature worse."

New Look

As the reader will have noticed, The Communion of Saints has received a little overhaul in its presentation. I added a few elements that I would like to explain. In addition to past posts, I have added to the side column a list of the Fathers, Theologians, and Blogs that I enjoy reading. I do not do this to puff myself up; rather, in keeping with theme of the Blog as a conversing communion, I decided to share with you some of the people with whom I am in conversation. In the Blog section, each name is linked to his or her particular blog and I would encourage the reader to check each of them out. Some of them are former teachers of mine, one of them is a pastor, and some of them are friends of mine. All of them are worth a read. The Fathers and Theologians are linked to a short bio and publications list that will provide the reader with books that are also well worth reading.

Finally, I have posted my list of labels on the side. I have labeled every blog entry I have written according to category. The reader can click on any category that interests him or her and every entry I have written under that category will appear. This will also allow some of you who are not so interested in my theological musings, but care a good deal about the progress of my program, to check periodically and click on that category alone to see what I have shared. I hope you find the new layout engaging and easy to navigate.

The quality of my blogs will not be affected by the new layout. This could be a good thing or a bad thing.

An Answer Remembered

As Christians, we are part of a long tradition of people who are intent on remembering their story, of remembering the points in our history where God has decisively and definitely acted on our behalf. This rich tradition, of course, began with the ancient Israelites who rehearsed their salvation story - the story where the Angel of Death "passed over" the Jewish firstborns killing the Egyptian firstborns, which ultimately led to their exodus from slavery - once a year at the Feast of the Passover. This was actually a law that the Lord God required of them, in order that they not forget the wonderful acts of their God.

Christians continue this tradition with the celebration of the Eucharist, which I would argue, is the central act of the church. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember the sacrifice of Christ - his broken body and his shed blood. We remember the story and we make it present once again for us. Christ also prescribed such an action when he proclaimed to his disciples: "Do this in remembrance of me."

One of the reasons that God has demanded such constant acts of remembrance is because we are forgetful people. We need to remember because it is so easy for us to forget - when we feel that God has not answered our prayers or that he has not been present to us for awhile, we quickly jump to the conclusion that he has never been there.

I think, therefore, that it is entirely helpful, and entirely biblical for that matter, to work at remembering the times in your life when God has clearly answered prayer. Such an act can increase your faith and inspire you to more prayer, though you may feel that no one is listening. In light of that, I would like to rehearse for you one of the times in my life when God most clearly and most lovingly answered my prayer.

March of 2006, Julie and I were in Kentucky, unsure of our next steps. I had been accepted to Marquette for doctoral work, but we had no provisions for tuition money. My last chance was the John Wesley Fellowship, but for various reasons, that looked very doubtful. I was scheduled to fly to Houston for an interview one Friday. At the same time, Julie was driving to Milwaukee to interview for a position. She left on Thursday morning and I had the evening to myself. With so much at stake, I decided that I had a lot of praying to do.

Around 9:00 in the evening, I headed to Asbury Seminary, about a mile from our house. I wanted to pray in a special place, which for me was Asbury's chapel, Estes Chapel. At 9:00 in the evening, I figured the place would be deserted and I would be alone with the Lord and my prayers. To my dismay however, as I approached Estes, I saw that all lights were blazing and there was some extremely loud, and rather poor, organ music emanating from the place. Disappointed and dejected, I considered turning around and heading home. Instead, I found a little prayer chapel just to the side of Estes, which I always knew was there, but in which I had never spent much time.

With the lights off, I kneeled at the small altar and began praying about all of the things that were heavy on my heart. I prayed for my wife and for her interview, for her calling in ministry and for our marriage. I prayed for my interview and my calling and for the challenges that a PhD program entailed. Finally I began to pray for the means to pay for the tuition. Knowing that the John Wesley Fellowship was unlikely, I simply began praying that the Lord's will be done. It became a refrain in my prayer: "Lord that you would provide the means to pay for this: your will be done." I remember simply repeating that phrase again and again. At one point in the prayer I looked up and caught my breath at the words engraved above the altar where I knelt:

"Thy will be done."

As most of you know, Julie got the job she interviewed for and I was fortunate enough to receive the John Wesley Fellowship, which has helped us so much this year. We often wonder how we could have done this without the Fellowship. However, I do not think that earning the Fellowship was God's answer to my prayer that night in March 2006. I believe that it was rather his words to me: "Thy will be done." Seeing those words were like God's arms around me, assuring me that he was with me in this walk. That he would not leave me. And though there have been times this year when I have forgotten - more times than I care to relate - I know that this truth remains. God is with me. God is with us.

We simply need to remember.

What should a Christian look like?

Throughout the years, Christians have spent a good deal of time and energy concerned with what a Christian should look like. That would be perfectly appropriate if I were talking about the inside, how a Christian should act, think, serve others, and the like. Unfortunately, history has shown us that Christians often seem more concerned with what a Christian looks like physically. Thus it is that we get such horror stories as white European missionaries making all Native American children cut their hair, and the horrendous and preposterous belief that African Americans are the cursed descendants of Ham (Gen 9:22-27) simply because their skin is dark.

This also comes through in many modern portrayals of Jesus. Many drawings of Jesus from the twentieth century portray Jesus as a white European. A more recent picture of Christ is more reminiscent of Michael W. Smith than a Palestinian Jew (my friend Jen always called it the "Brad Pitt Jesus"). I also remember an uproar over a picture of Mary on the cover of Time Magazine a few years ago because she looked "too dark." My friends, these were Jews who lived in the desert! Their skin was likely very dark. Jesus walked around in the desert and slept on the ground. If he wasn't dark from the sun, he was probably dark from the dirt. My guess is that he might look like someone whom many would turn away from if they saw him walking down the street; the same people who would do a double take if such a person walked into their church. The only reason? He doesn't look like us.

Jesus warned against this very thing in a parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14)

A slightly more contemporary story also captures the point: A few years ago a popular Christian singer/songwriter came to Asbury College to give a concert. Asbury College and Asbury Seminary both have ethos statements requiring their students to promise that they will not "drink, smoke or chew or run with the girls that do." (This comes from the Holiness tradition out of which the schools stem.) Although it is not the intent of the statements, they are often misinterpreted to be claiming that Christians never smoke and never have a drink and never consort with "those types of people."

It is said that that same week, a strange man was frequently seen around the campus of the seminary. He stood out because he had long hair, dirty clothes and he was always barefoot. He especially stood out when he smoked his cigarettes. Few put it together, however, that this strange man was the Christian artist himself. His name was Rich Mullins, one of the most Christlike figures of the twentieth century.

The Good News is that Christ came into the world to save all people of all cultures of all classes. Therefore, there can be no official "way" that a Christian should physically look. Because any possible way a person can look on this earth is a possible way for a Christian to look. That is the beauty of God's creation and will be the beauty of his kingdom.

Irenaen Wisdom

Irenaeus has, in my mind, the greatest understanding of the incarnation of all of the early Fathers. I am prepared to argue for that. For the time being, I just wanted to give you a snippet of the kind of thing that makes this man's theology imminently beautiful and at the same time practical:

"So He (Jesus) united man with God and wrought a communion of God and man, we being unable to have any participation in incorruptibility if it were not for His coming to us, for incorruptibility whilst being invisible, benefitted us nothing: so He became visible, that we might, in all ways, obtain a participation in incorruptibility." -Irenaeus

That, my friends (with all apologies to Dorothy Parker), is true poetry.

And now for something totally different . . .

Here is a poem from one of my favorite poets. There is no hidden meaning or message - I just kind of like it.

A Very Short Song

"Once, when I was young and true ,
Someone left me sad---
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.

-Dorothy Parker

Mein Kampf

Perhaps it is in bad taste to label a post with the infamous title of Hitler's manifesto. However, I find that the title aptly catches the nature of my month of June. The phrase means, simply, "My Struggle." My struggle for the month of June is the German language itself. That's right - it is not enough that we need to know Greek, Latin and French, but now they thrust upon me this most difficult of languages, a language that requires a gutteral spit every third word, a language that sounds best when spoken while pounding a table with a fist. There is nothing mystical about the language, as there was for me with Greek. There is nothing divine or classical about the language, as there was for me with Latin (or what I now refer to as our Lord's language). There is not even anything elegant or beautiful about the language, as there was for me with French. Its just a confusing, angry language where the verbs are, for some unknown reason, split up and most of them come at the end of the sentence! My apologies to German speakers. Ich bin traurig.

To top it all off, we are given only a month to learn enough to pass an efficiency exam. That means an hour and a half of class a day, four days a week, followed by a good five or six hours more of study a night. And even then one feels continuously behind. Mein Gott! Deutsch ist nicht gut! The situation is what my cousin Mark Farrell calls "the firehose experience." In other words, open your mouth wide because the water is coming at you full blast!

Some while back, a famous American writer catalogued his struggles with this peculiar language. Anyone who has tried to learn this language will be able to relate. The following is a great quote from "The Awful German Language" by Mark Twain:

"Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me."

Of course, he wrote the thing in German.

Top Ten Experiences

Since we are in the "Top Ten" genre, I thought that I would add one more personal list for your enjoyment, chastisement, what have you. These are the Top Ten Experiences (events, activities, or places) I want to have before I die. (Of course these experiences do not include the obvious ones like graduating, having kids, etc. All of these I want to do, but I think these are assumed.) As always, I welcome any of my readers' "experiences goals" or if you have done something amazing that ought to be on this list, please let me know. I am nothing if not malleable.

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1. Visit the Holy Land.

(Unfortunately this may never be a possibility in my lifetime due to safety precautions. This is unfortunate because I would love to walk those streets, to see the Garden of Gethsemanie, the supposed sights of all of the events of Christ's life. I'm sure that this experience would move me to tears.)

2. Visit Rome.

(Actually I hope to visit all of Italy. However, Rome tops my list for its history. I specifically want to visit St. Peter's Basilica and take the tour down to the original tomb of St. Peter. I would also hope to visit the Coliseum, where many early Christians lost their lives, and the Catacombs where they were buried and where the early Roman Church met.)

3. See a Sunday of the Masters in Augusta, Georgia.

(Actually, I'd settle for any day of the Masters. But my hope would be to do this when Phil Mickelson is still playing. I could give a rip about Tiger.)

4. Watch the annual two act play of To Kill a Mockingbird in the courthouse square of Monroeville, Alabama.

(Monroeville is the hometown of the book's author Harper Lee. She envisioned this square when she wrote the book and waxed eloquently of the sagging courthouse. Since my friend Matthew Eubanks is from the mecca, this might be a possibility sooner than later.)

5. Go to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York with my father and my son.

(I'm a sucker for sentimentality.)

6. Visit Paris

(Back on the traveling train - there is too much history, literary and otherwise, not to see it.

7. Attend a Papal Mass in Vatican City.

(This might go hand in hand with goal number one. Of course I would prefer to experience this while Pope Benedict XVI is still alive because I think he is amazing, but we will see. My friend Christine experienced mass in a small setting of about twenty people when Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict), and apparently he is a wonderful man.)

8. Have a short story or book published.

(The New Yorker has already turned me down. Perhaps I will aim lower next time.)

9. Visit Savannah, Georgia.

(The city that began my love affair with the South. There would be a lot of sweet tea drunk and perhaps a little bourbon.)

10. Watch a football game in Notre Dame stadium.

(Despite popular Catholic belief, this does not equate with #7 on this list, but it is still pretty darn good.)

Top Ten Favorite Books

Per a recent request of one of my readers, I would like to now list the top ten favorite books that I have already read. I have found this an infinitely harder exercise than the previous one because it necessitates picking and choosing between works of literature and theology, which ought to stand on their own merit and not be judged by such an unworthy and fickle reader as myself. I have found that this list has changed over the years due to the change of my interests, rereads, ruminating on the material, etc. As such, I offer this list with the following caveat: it is not written in stone, and there are many other works that I have read quite deserving of the list. However, thinking about it at this particular point in my life, here are my top ten favorite works in no particular order (though the first two are fairly cemented):

1. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

(Launched a new genre - writing a true event as a story. Beautifully written and spellbounding. Of all the books on this list, I found this one the most difficult to put down.)

2. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

(Paints a beautiful picture of the South - and may have begun my love affair with it. Somehow weaves together the two seemingly unrelated stories of carefree childhood summers and racial injustice. It also gives us, in my opinion, one of the great characters of American literature, Atticus Finch. If my wife would let me, I would name my dog Boo Radley.)

(A side caveat, both writers hale from Monroeville, Alabama, the same town from which my great friend Matthew Glen Eubanks hails. I have told people that he will be the third famous writer from that town. A fine biography on Harper Lee, which includes her significant contribution to In Cold Blood is Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields. Though not making my top ten, it is a great read for anyone interested in those two figures.)

3. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

(Paints a picture of 1920s America almost as effectively as Harper Lee does of the South. Though simple enough for a high schooler to appreciate, the layers in this book are thick. Worth a reread if you haven't read it since high school. We never abandon our first love.)

4. Against Heresies - St. Irenaeus

(Written at the end of the second century to combat the rising heresy of Gnosticism, it is rightfully hailed as the first work of systematic theology. Irenaeus shows how the resurrection is God's redemption of creation, instead of its overturning. This book is one of the reasons I fell in love with theology and the Fathers of the church.)

5. The Confessions - St. Augustine

(This is the first, and still the standard, spiritual autobiography. It shows us that even a giant of the church, as Augustine was, still struggles and still needs to find solace in the grace of God.)

6. The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

(A modern classic. Absolutely captivating piece of mystery and historical fiction. I recommend reading it with a group of friends in order to discuss it. This is how I read it and I think it made the read much more valuable.)

7. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

(An allegory of heaven and hell; the symbolism is thick and rich. Paints a beautiful picture of God and his hope for humanity.)

8. The Jungle - Upton Sinclair

(Singlehandedly led to meat packing reforms of the early twentieth century. Weaves together historical fact and the struggles of a fictional immigrant family struggling to survive in early America beautifully.)

9. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

(An unbelievably fascinating read. A must for anyone who is the lover of quaint characters and the South, particularly Savannah. The town itself is the main character. Solidified the mystique of the South for me.)

10. The Seven Storey Mountain - Thomas Merton

(The late Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk at a monastery about an hour and a half from where I lived in Kentucky. This is the story of his life to the point of his entering the monastery. While Augustine's might have been the first, Merton's in my opinion is the best sample of spiritual autobiography. You will fall in love with the man and, hopefully, his God.)

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As I recently wrote to an anonymous post, I would encourage my readers to post their favorite reads. Sharing our favorites with one another will encourage us to read and spark other ideas of what we have read that we have loved.

Top Ten Books I Want to Read

We recently had some dear friends from seminary stay at our house. One afternoon when we were talking, we decided to list the top ten books we would like to read in our life times. It was a great exercise and I encourage all of you to do it. The following is my current list in no particular order (which I hope to start working on this summer!):

1. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

2. City of God - St. Augustine

3. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

4. Summa Theologiae - St. Thomas Aquinas

5. Moby Dick - Herman Melville

6. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe

7. The Institutes - John Calvin

8. The Divine Comedy - Dante

9. The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper

10. Church Dogmatics - Karl Barth

People of the Book

Historically, both Jews and Christians have been known as "People of the Book." The reason for this is that both religions are based, not in a direct experience of God (which was the claim of Paganism and much of today's so-called "New Ages" religions), but in an experience that is mediated through a story preserved for them in a book. Much of the opposing groups' stories are exactly the same. The one God created the heavens and the earth, was rebelled against by sinful humanity, and now pursues a salvific relationship with them (a salvation which finds its paradigmatic episode in the Exodus of the Hebrews from the slavery of Egypt). Of course, the story diverges at just the crucial point (the "climax" in narrative terms). For the Jews are still waiting for their final restoration in a Messiah who has not yet come. The Christians believe that their restoration (and the restoration of creation) has already begun - it began with the coming of Jesus the Messiah (Christ is the Greek term meaning "Messiah").

Because much of their story, and therefore their Scriptures, are the same, it is not surprising that the debates between Jews and Christians in the first few centuries were exegetical in nature. That is, the debate hinged on the correct way to understand and interpret the revelatory story God gave them. (We must remember that, though all of the documents of the New Testament were written in the first century, it took much longer for the church to recognize that God had spoken authoritatively in them. When the early Christians - and the New Testament writers for that matter - speak of their Scriptures, they are speaking only of what we now call the Old Testament.)

You might be wondering or have thought before that the Old Testament does not say much, if anything, about Jesus. But for the early Christians, everything that they needed to know about the nature of Jesus had already been revealed. We can see this in the pages of the New Testament. Consider the parable of Lazarus and the rich man and Abraham's solemn warning to the rich man concerning the fate of his unbelieving brothers: "[The rich man] said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house--for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to them, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" -Luke 16:27-31

Or Consider Jesus' words to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: "'O, how foolish you are, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?' Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures." -Luke 24:25-27

But to the Jews, it was anything but obvious that the Messiah should suffer; and herein lies the single greatest point of differentiation between the Jews and the Christians of the first centuries. The Jews were waiting for a triumphant, warrior Messiah who would come in and forcibly set up the kingdom of the Jews on earth. Conversely, the Christians proclaimed that a crucified man was the Messiah. Thus, the text that created the most controversy in those early debates was Isaiah 53: "He was despised and rejected by others; a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity . . . surely he has born our infirmities and carried our diseases . . . but he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed."

In this amazing passage, written hundreds of years before Christ, the Christians discerned the identity of their savior - not a warrior Messiah, not a triumphant king, but a suffering servant. They clearly saw the cross - the punishment that made us whole. The New Testament writers refer to it frequently (cf. 1 Pet 2:21-24). In a mid second century debate between the early church father Justin Martyr and the Jew Trypho, Justin quotes or refers to it in excess of twenty times including a full quotation of Isaiah 52:10-54:6. This was obviously the foundation of the Christians' claim that the cross was prophesied by the prophets.

Incredibly, the Jews also discerned the Messiah in this passage; however, they saw not a suffering Messiah, but the triumphant Messiah that they so longed for. They concentrated on other parts of the passage: "Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong." It is not until the fourth century that Rabbinic exegesis begins to concede that the Messiah figure might be a suffering one.

I imagine that most of us would find it unimaginable that the Jews cannot see the cross in this passage; it is so clearly there. But the reality is that one's interpretations of Scripture are always guided by his or her presuppositions. The Jews saw a triumphant, warrior Messiah in Isaiah 53 because that is what they already expected. Only those who had undergone the radical conversion to Christianity could look upon the Scriptures through a new lens, and see so clearly what was previously thought impossible.

The same remains true for us today - for our interpretations of Scripture are just as surely guided by our presuppositions. Many of these presuppositions are ungrounded and can be harmful; they can lead us to find things in Scripture that are truly not there. Thus, we in America can interpret our riches as the blessings of God, while the poor in South America can interpret them as signs that we have forsaken God. Suspending judgment on either claim for the moment, the lesson is that we need to read Scripture with the knowledge that we have presuppositions, and we need to pray that Christ will continue to open our eyes as he opened the eyes of those first Christians, that we too may see things we have never seen. And that we might be converted. And that we might still be known as people of the book.

A Bit of Levity

Prior to entering seminary, I spent about eight months as a youth pastor at a First Evangelical Free Church in Boone, Iowa. Since many of my readers did not know me at that point in my life, I thought I would give you a little idea of the kind of youth pastor I was. This video pretty much sums it up, wouldn't you agree Kelli B.?

End of the Year Reflection

I am happy to announce that I have turned in my last paper and finished my last test and the first year of my PhD program has officially come to an end. There are many ways that a man like me could reflect on this last year. If you've been reading since September, you have heard the majority of my reflections. I have learned a lot and I have grown a lot. I feel more confident in my vocation and in my giftings from the Lord to complete this process. (Translation: I'm no longer waiting for them to kick me out.) The things that I have learned will stay with me; some of them I will be ruminating on for the remainder of my life. But all those things, I am certain, will come out on these pages sooner or later.

I thought, therefore, that a more appropriate approach to this year's assessment would be to share with you some of my observations of being in a PhD program at Marquette University, particularly as they differ from my Masters program at Asbury Theological Seminary. Take the following with a grain of salt. I assure you that they are all true, but none of them reflect on the quality of the institution, individual, or education and experience I received or am currently receiving.

Top Five Differences Between Asbury and Marquette:

1. Asbury is an Evangelical Protestant Seminary; Marquette is a Catholic University.
2. Asbury is outside the official ranks of the Methodist Church because it is viewed as "too conservative"; Marquette is outside the official ranks of the Catholic Church because it is viewed as "too liberal".
3. Asbury professors wear collared shirts and occasionally business suits; Marquette professors wear the Collar and occasionally Monastic robes.
4. Asbury's end of the year party consists of a barbecue and Diet Coke; Marquette's consists of a smattering of Wisconsin beers and a selection of fine wines and liquor (provided by the department).
5. Asbury's Final Greek exam was a sight translation of John 15; Marquette's final Greek exam was a sight translation of a passage from Diogenes (I don't even know who that is).

Top Ten Marquette Experiences that would never happen at Asbury:

1. Taking an entrance exam after I had already been accepted.
2. Writing a 25 page paper and being told that not even this is enough space to make a substantial argument.
3. Finding no research in English for a paper I had to write.
4. Hearing the "F Bomb" in class from a professor.
(I did hear an Asbury professor say "Darn it all" once.)
5. Being assigned a new paper (in addition to the impending final) in the final two weeks of the semester.
6. Readung the "F Bomb" in an email from a professor.
7. Hearing the statement: "I can say that the resurrection was probably physical, but that's about all I can say."
8. Facing a professor's look of incredulity when I told him I couldn't read French.
9. Having a meeting with a professor while he had a smoke.
10. Being told I was a "schismatic."

These are the shockers of the year. But I hope you have been able to tell from my posts that the majority of students and teachers at Marquette are strong and faithful Christians, even if they have a beer or a smoke once in awhile.

Voulez-vous etudier avec moi, ce soir?

I'm happy to announce that I passed the French language exam! (And I didn't even have to re-write it due to poor penmanship.) Thanks to all my faithful readers for your prayers. I don't think that prayer can make someone pass, however, I do believe prayer can help someone to do their best. And I believe that I did that day and these are the good results. For those of you keeping score, that's two languages down (French and Latin) and one to go (German). I will be taking German this summer (an intensive course) so I will be asking for continued prayer. These language requirements were the most intimidating thing to me coming into this program, and it is amazing to think that I am 2/3rds of the way there to completing the requirements.

The Crimson Stain

Today we celebrated the Eucharist. I love how our church does communion. After reading through the Communion Liturgy, the ushers dismiss the pews one at a time to the front of the church where we each stand or kneel before the altar. The Pastor and another helper serve each person in succession reciting those beautiful words: "The body of Christ given for you; the blood of Christ shed for you." The helper, who always carries the chalice, holds a white cloth under the cup in order to catch any drops of wine coming off the morsel that the communing one has dipped into the cup. This is done either for practical purposes (so that no wine gets on the carpet of the church) or for theological purposes (so that the precious blood of Christ is not spilled on the ground). Personally, I hope it is for the latter. After the congregation has communed, the Pastor slowly and deliberately covers the remaining elements with the white cloth.

Today, as I sat in the pew, I noticed the white cloth covering the cup. It was stained with several drops of crimson wine. It occurred to me that the scene was a perfect reminder of the sacrifice that was made for my salvation and for the salvation of all those sitting around me. For it is the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, remembered and recalled anew this day that gives us life. That crimson stained cloth was beautiful - he became crimson that my sins could become white.

"Make them be for us the body and blood that we might be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood." -United Methodist Communion Liturgy

"This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." -Luke 22:20

"The punishment that brought us peace fell upon him, for by his stripes we are healed." -Isaiah 53:5

Dead Week?

I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I have indeed arrived at the end of this semester, and therefore, the end of my first year of PhD work. It is not quite yet time to send in the clowns or the undertaker as it were. I still have a week and then finals. At Iowa State, this week before finals was aptly named "Dead Week." And though the subjects have changed (and the workload has certainly increased), I think that "Dead Week" is an appropriate title for this week at Marquette as well.

If you are confused as to the meaning of Dead Week, don't feel alone - I too was confused at the onset of my freshman year at Iowa State. But I found out pretty quick. If you'd like to read my thoughts on this subject back when I was a mere 19 year old college freshman, you can check them out here. It's funny to realize that, though it is - incredibly - ten years later, I still have many of the same thoughts. (Enter horrible cliche here.)

Rendez Compte de l'essai Francais

Translation: "Wasn't someone taking some exam?"

I am happy to report that I think that the French test went well, though I can't say a whole lot for the experience itself. We were all crammed in this little room and we're given these desks, which, I'm sorry, might as well have been built for a hobbit, in which to write out our translations. Also, we were required to write in pen, which is odd for a translation assignment, since you are constantly changing words and phrases etc. At the end of the testing period, I realized that my sheet looked about as clear as Lake Michigan. In fact, for a moment I wondered if I had actually written in English or simply copied the French from my test sheet as is. Remembering an awful experience in which I had to rewrite three essay questions due to poor handwriting (the Marquette entrance exam), I quickly grabbed another blue book and recopied carefully.

But all in all, I finished the translation, it made sense, and anyone should be able to read my writing - these are good things. So, for all who prayed and thought about me: merci beaucoup. (Translation: "you guys rock".)

One side note that you might find a bit entertaining as these are the kinds of things that just happen to me. We were given a slight hint about a week before the test of where the passage we needed to translate would come from, Dictionnaire de Spirituality. The prof who was picking the passage told another person that the passage would be from a major theme in the Old Testament. So, I chose the section on faith, "Foi" copied the article and translated a bit of it each night.

The morning before the test, I was translating the article and stopped short of the final section of the article in order to give myself a break. The name of the section, now blazoned in my memory, was: La situation de la foi. When I opened my test, my heart sank as I saw those same words at the top of the passage. Miraculously, I had chosen the very article that was on the test. Somewhat less than miraculously, I had translated every part of the article except the part that was on the test. Quelle chienne!

Je Dois Avoir la Priere

Translation: "I need me some prayer!"

I am taking my French examination tomorrow at 3:00. Why do I need to know le francais (Translation: "that stinkin' language) you may ask. Great question, and one which is particularly forefront on my mind right now. The sinple answer is je ne sais pas. (Translation: "I don't have a dang clue.") Are you confident that you are going to pass, you may ask. The simple answer is: non. (Translation: "Are you drunk?")

All kidding aside, I have realized this year that a reading knowledge of other languages is essential for good scholarship. Not only are the ancient languages important (which for me means Greek and Latin) so as to be able to read the documents of the fathers in the original languages in which they were written, it is also important to know modern research languages (French and German) because much scholarly work is being produced in those languages and it takes a long time for them to be translated into English. Many critical works have never been translated at all! In my field in particular, Patristics, so much work is done by the French that if you are unable to read French, you will never be able to have a good command of scholarship. Additionally, the best modern translations of the ancient documents are not made in English (of course not) but in French - quel dommage! (Translation: well you figure it out). So though it is a pain, it is a necessary.

So all that to say, pray for me - s'l vous plait. Pray not that I would pass because I'm not hoping to be bailed out here. I have worked hard this semester. Just pray that I would be able to think clearly and remember. As always I thank you for these prayers. I feel that you as a community are a big reason that I am able to persevere through this.

Au revoir! (Translation: "HELP!)

Peace

A poignant word from a second century saint in these war torn times:

"Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of Jacob and the God of Israel; and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons, - our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage - and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father himself through whom he was crucified."

-Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho