Christian Pogonology
November 30, 2006
The subject is the beard. ‘Are you going to grow a beard like Joe and Grant?’ I’ve been asked about a dozen times over the last month. I can still sense the itchiness of my 2001 goatee on a warm day. Then Joe shocks the church by shaving his off yesterday! These are confusing times, indeed. I love to quote the saints of days gone by, and here are some from an early Church father, Clement of Alexandria:
- “How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!…For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest–a sign of strength and rule.” Clement of Alexandria, 2.275
- “This, then, is the mark of the man, the beard. By this, he is seen to be a man. It is older than Eve. It is the token of the superior nature….It is therefore unholy to desecrate the symbol of manhood, hairiness.” 2.276
- “It is not lawful to pluck out the beard, man’s natural and noble adornment.” 2.277
OK, then–so Clement would think me effeminate for lathering up and using the razor every day. But what about the spirituality of curtailing those unruly nose hairs that make me twitch and those renegade eyebrow hairs that descend into my field of vision? Have the Amish been right all along?
This is a good time to remember a basic lesson or two in Christian ethics from the New Testament. First, the believer’s life is a life of Christian liberty in grace, governed by love. In Galatians 5:1 Paul asserts this in the face of those who would require circumcision of Gentile converts to the faith, and one could certainly make a better biblical argument for that than one can for the growing of beards! If I am reading Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 correctly, Clement has no biblical ground to judge me for shaving, nor should I enroll him in the Gillette shave test panel and have free razors shipped to his address in Alexandria every month. Shaving is a matter of ethical indifference. Clement is correct in his concern that men be men and not adopt effeminate ways. In our current cultural context, though, dragging a razor across my face in the morning seems pretty manly compared with the practices of the cross-dressing, trans-whatever subcultures in the West. Now there’s something to rail against!
We will always encounter issues in which we find fellow Christians condemning certain actions (wine, dancing, etc.) as always evil. What is condemned as evil may indeed be used wickedly, but that does not mean that it is evil in and of itself. Christ has purchased for us a liberty that is to be exercised for good of the Body of Christ. As we mature in Christ, we find ourselves seeing the world with new eyes. We see patterns of sin and unbelief where we never recognized them before. We find motives that are more mixed than we once discerned. We discover areas of our life which resist the lordship of Christ.
A believer is to endeavor to have and maintain a ‘good’ or ‘pure’ conscience before God and man (Acts 23:1; 24:16; 2 Cor. 1:12; 1 Tim. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:3; Heb. 13:18; 1 Pet. 3:21). Here’s a good summary from Carl F.H. Henry’s Christian Personal Ethics:
The great purpose of God in separating for himself a people is not that they develop a negative or passive attitude toward certain areas of life. Rather, it is that they be conformed to the character of the Living God. Jesus reserved some of his most scathing denunciation for those whose separation was only legalistic negativism. Separation unto God does not imply that separation fro evil is unimportant, but only that separation from evil is the correlate of an intimate personal fellowship with the Living God.
Clement was a vegetarian too–but, well, never mind…
Below are pictures of (L-R): Clement, Joe, and Grant:
The Waterboys–Revisited
November 27, 2006
The Smithereens sang, ‘It’s Time for Something New.’ But like most of the sweets found at The Sweet Dropper, old recipes are hard to beat. I haven’t indulged my 80′s “revisited” fancies in a couple of months, so let me sing the praises of another obscure ’80′s act that is still around and making some good music: The Waterboys. Click here to visit their official website.
Scotsman Mike Scott formed The Waterboys in 1983 and released three very good albums exploring what Scott had dubbed ‘The Big Music,’ which he described in a 2000 interview as ‘a metahpor for seeing God’s signature in the world.’ They gained my attention at this time when they were opening for The Pretenders and U2. After their 1985 release This Is the Sea (The single ‘The Whole of the Moon’ is, I think, one of the best songs ever written, and I was pleasantly surprised to read recently Scott’s comment that C.S. Lewis was a primary inspiration for that song.), the band dissolved and re-formed, pursuing a more Celtic-folk sound well-represented by Fisherman’s Blues (1988). During the 1990′s the band dissolved and re-formed a couple more times, sometimes reflecting more rock influence and at other times swinging back to the Celtic-folk roots.
A college roommate of mine once derisively called The Waterboys ‘English major music,’ and yes, I hold a degree in English. What was intended as a dismissive comment from a banking and finance major actually contains a lot of truth. What makes their music fascinating and still worthy of attention beyond mere style and skill is the way that good literature has influenced the lyrics and music of the group–William Butler Yeats, C.S. Lewis, Robert Burns, George MacDonald, and James Joyce, to name a few. Christian symbolism and themes are scattered through every period of their music. It also needs to be noted that The Waterboys also show neo-pagan influences as well.
Mike Scott’s myspace.com site describes their influences as follows:
“Wind, sea, fire, earth, blood coursing through veins, bone, wood, Bob Dylan’s ‘reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it’, CS Lewis’s Further Up Further In, rock and roll, Steve Reich, Mark Helprin’s book Winter’s Tale, celtic fiddle and box music, the Isle of Iona, Joe Strummer’s stomping left foot, the Beatles doing ‘Hey Jude’ on TV with the audience on stage, Sitting Bull, Dion Fortune, gentle humour, unseen allies, all of the above and above all love.”
It’s music worth visiting and revisiting. Click on the album covers for Amazon listening and ordering info.
Thanksgiving or Grumbling?
November 21, 2006
Here’s a worthy quote from John Stott’s Baptism and Fullness:
We are to be “always and for everything giving thanks” (Eph. 5:20). Most of us give thanks sometimes for some things; Spirit-filled believers give thanks always for all things. There is no time at which, and no circumstance for which, they do not give thanks. They do so “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is because they are one with Christ and “to God the Father,” because the Holy Spirit witnesses with their spirit that they are God’s children and that their Father is wholly good and wise. Grumbling, one of Israel’s besetting sins, is serious because it is a symptom of unbelief. Whenever we start moaning and groaning, it is proof positive that we are not filled with the Spirit. Whenever the Holy Spirit fills believers, they thank their heavenly Father at all times for all things.
—John Stott. BAPTISM AND FULLNESS, Second Edition. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1976, p. 58.
Affections
November 17, 2006
A professor of classical literature told me about a conversation he had with a fellow Latin professor. The two were walking across campus, when my friend said, “You know, I was reading the most beautiful passage last night in Cicero….” “WHAT?” his colleague interrupted, “You don’t actually read that stuff at home, do you?” To one man, classical literature was the way he had chosen to make a living. To the other, it is a brilliant world in which he finds himself lost in wonder and excitement, even in his spare time. One man teaches a subject; the other bestows an infectious loveliness upon those who will listen. Which man would you rather have for a professor? Which would engage your attention and make you want to learn?
The best measure of the health of our souls is found in what we truly love. Right thinking is important, as is obedience, but of what value are these without our affections being captured with the majesty of God and the loveliness of Christ? That is what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength–all our deepest affections. Henry Scougal wrote some three hundred years ago: “The most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of, are those which arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection.”
Scripture describes godly religion as a matter of the affections and emotions: fear (Ps. 2:11; 19:9; 25:14; 33:8; 34:9; Lk. 12:5; Acts 9:31; Phi. 2:12; 1 Pt. 2:17; Rev. 14:7; 19:5), hope (1 Cor. 13:13; Ps. 146:5; 33:18; 147:11; Heb. 6:19; 1 Pt. 1:3) love (1 Tim. 1:5; Gal. 5:14; Rom. 8:8; Ps. 18:1; 31:23; 119:132), hatred (Pr. 8:13; Ps. 98:10; 101:2-3; 119:104), desire (Is. 26:8; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 119:20; Mt. 5:6) joy (Ps. 28:7; 37:4; 33:1; Phi. 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess. 5:16),sorrow (Mt. 5:4; Ps. 51:17; 34:18), gratitude (1 Chron. 16:7-41; Neh. 12:31,40; Ps. 28:7; 100; 107; 118) compassion (Ps. 37:21; Pr. 14:31; Col. 3:12; Mt. 5:7; 23:23; Mic. 6:8; Hos. 6:6), zeal (Titus 2:14; Rev. 3:15-19).
Note that these affections are not merely warm, fuzzy emotions. A Hallmark greeting card is sufficient to produce those kinds of emotions. Feelings themselves are not adequate indicators of regeneration, for genuine affection leads to fruit: thoughts, words, deeds which reflect what the heart truly loves and desires. It’s like having a Southern accent. As hard as one might try to disguise it in front of others (Why would one want to do so in the fuhst place?), eventually a word or phrase will give it all away.
Inevitably we are transformed into the image of that which we love. If we love what is base and vulgar, we will be base and vulgar people. If we love what is honorable and righteous, we will be honorable and righteous people. We should not expect our children to love and honor that which elicits from us no demonstrable love and honor. We should not expect the world around us to be attracted to Jesus Christ when we show so little affection for him. We should face the facts: How often our complaints about the church arise from our boredom with God. How often dull sermons arise from boredom with God–on the part of the listener or of the preacher! How often private worship and family worship seem unbearable because we have so little fellowship with the Triune God to begin with, when the TV is a more familiar friend and companion.
How should we then live? We should seek those means which increase and stir our affections toward God, namely worship, prayer, meditation on the Scriptures. We should be ashamed of our cold, hard hearts toward God and the Gospel, especially in light of God’s creation of us as emotional beings. Jonathan Edwards observed, “God has given to mankind affections for the same purpose as that for which he has given all the faculties and principles of the human soul, that they might be subservient to man’s chief end, and the great business for which God has created him, that is, the business of religion. And yet how common is it among mankind, that their affections are much more exercised and engaged in other matters, than in religion.” What do you love? Or, more significantly, whom do you love?
Real Sex–a review
November 14, 2006
‘About 65% of America’s teens have sex by the time they finish high school….A 2002 study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 41% of American women aged fifteen to forty-five have, at some point, cohabited with a man. According to the 2000 census, the number of unmarried couples living together has increased tenfold between 1960 and 2000, and 72% between 1990 and 2000. Fifty-two percent of American women have sex before turning eighteen, and 75% have sex before they get married. According to a 2002 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Seventeen magazine, over a quarter of fifteen-to seventeen-year old girls say that sexual intercourse is ‘almost always’ or ‘most of the time’ part of a ‘casual relationship.’
If your internet filter let you get this far, let me suggest that you read the book from which I derived this information: Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity by Lauren F. Winner (Brazos Press, 2005). Dr. Winner speaks to the issue of chastity (which C.S. Lewis called ‘the most unpopular of the Christian virtues’) with a great deal of theological awareness, exegetical skill, wisdom, wit and healthy candor. Real Sex is an insightful exploration of the role of sexuality in the world-view of those under the age of 40.
Winner begins with personal testimony of her conversion during graduate school and the rather awkward transformation of her personal sexual ethics as a young disciple of Christ. She intelligently argues the case for the biblical view of sex (‘Without a robust account of the Christian vision of sex within marriage, the Christian insistence that unmarried folks refrain from sex just doesn’t make any sense’ [25]) and reasons wisely about why sheer determination or abstinence programs like ‘True Love Waits’ are such monumental failures.
The most intriguing and insightful chapter is ‘Communal Sex: Or, Why Your Neighbor Has Any Business Asking You What You Did Last Night’, in which she calls on Christians to reject the destructive lie of the culture that ‘it’s nobody’s business’ and embrace the vision of a community of believers who speak frankly and biblically about sexual sin and ‘the realities of chastity, about the thrills and tediums of married sex, about the rich meanings inherent in being sexual persons who live in bodies…to ask the church to serve as narrator, reminding ourselves who we are, and why we do what we do’ (60).
The remaining chapters speak about matters such as sanctification (‘Conforming Your Body to the Arc of the Gospel’), singleness, sex and idolatry in our hearts and culture, and repentance. A couple of other notes about the book: the edition linked above also contains a discussion guide (Invite me to that Sunday School class or small group!). Also,on more than one occasion she credits some wisdom from one of our RUF campus ministers–Rev. Greg Thompson, formerly at the University of Virginia (Do not become puffed up at the mention of UVa, Joe and Hallie!). Adults and teenagers need to reckon with the message of this book.
Despairing souls made happy
November 9, 2006
I am grateful that Derek Thomas recently reminded me of this portion of a sermon by Charles Spurgeon (substitute “Kosciusko” for “London”):
We long to have this great joy in London. We want to see despairing souls made happy. My friend over yonder, who has been indulging in dark thoughts about whether he can manage to live any longer,–his hand almost feels for the fatal knife,–live, pour soul, live! There is hope, there is joy even for thee! Jesus Christ is willing to forgive the chief of sinners, he is ready to renew the most debauched and depraved of men. He is able to make a saint of thee; he can at this moment take the burden from thy heart, and commence a work in thee which shall make thee a totally new man. What sayest thou to this? If thou canst beileve in Jesus, there will begin to be a joy in this city, for there will be a joy in thy heart. I remember the day when I despaired of finding salvation, when I could not think that my sin would ever be forgiven; but that voice, ‘Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth,’ was a word of life and love to my soul; and I would repeat it to-night to those in this audience who are in the depths of despair. Do not give yourselves up; God has not given you up. Do not sign your own death-warrant; God has not signed it. ‘Come unto me,’ says Christ, ‘all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’
Making Room–a review
November 6, 2006
What comes first to your mind when you read HOSPITALITY? If Martha Stewart comes to mind, then you have a problem. Hospitality is a wonderful word and a blessed Christian practice. Dr. Christine D. Pohl, professor of Christian social ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, has written Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition to reacquaint us with the history and current value of making room in our lives to show kindness and welcome and to meet the needs of others in the name of Christ.
Oh great, you may be thinking, something else for me to feel guilty about…Now look here, ye guilt-prone and danglers of prepositions, note Pohl’s words: ‘Hospitality is not first a duty and responsibility; it is first a reponse of love and gratitude for God’s love and welcome to us…Grudging hospitality exhausts hosts and wounds guests even as it serves them.’ Our welcome of strangers ought to mirror the welcome of the Lord our Shepherd, who sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies, anoints our heads with oil and pours our cups past the brim. Pohl works skillfully with biblical texts and concepts, church history (she is exceptionally good at quoting John Calvin and John Owen!) and contemporary life and traces how the ancient practice of welcoming the stranger and demonstrating the love of Christ has decayed into what we often call ‘hospitality’–showy, lavish displays of our wealth and/or skills, which actually become avenues of pride rather than of welcome. She also looks honestly at the difficulties of showing hospitality in our world and surveys some current Christian communities who seek to cultivate the heart of offering a generous welcome ‘to the least of these my brethren’–L’Abri (founded by Francis Schaeffer), L’Arche, the Catholic Worker, and Benedictine abbeys. Finally, she gives some insights into how we can develop our homes, churches and communities into places of greater openness and welcome in Christ’s name.
Two other things about Making Room are worth mentioning. One is a negative: Christine Pohl is a scholar, and, unfortunately, she writes like one. The book reads more like a research paper than a compelling piece of Christian literature. The other is positive: Pohl warns us not to view hospitality as a means to an end, even good ends such as evangelism, outreach, church growth, etc. Instead, she argues that we must take hospitality ‘as a way of life, as a tangible expression of love.’ This, certainly, is good advice for us all.
God’s guest list includes a disconcerting number of poor and broken people, those who appear to bring little to any gathering except their need. The distinctive quality of Christian hospitality is that it offers a generous welcome to the “least,” without concern for advantage of benefit to the host. Such hospitality reflects God’s greater hospitality that welcomes the undeserving, provides the lonely with a home, and sets a banquet table for the hungry.
As 5th-century Christians lives through the alarming collapse of the Roman Empire, Augustine urged them to ‘be meek, sympathize with the suffering, bear the weak; and on this occaion of the concourse of so many strangers, and needy, and suffering people, let your hospitality and your good works abound.’
