The Internet Monk Archives

That Great 70’s Sound Lives!

By Chaplain Mike

Some of my favorite music of all time came out of the “Laurel Canyon” folk-rock movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with artists like Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Here’s one of my NEW favorite bands that hearkens back to that sound. This is Dawes, and we will be reviewing their latest album in our third quarter listening review. For now, enjoy an acoustic version of one of the great cuts from this record.

I heard about Dawes through our good friends at Mockingbird, and you can go HERE to get more about this great band at their site.

iMonk Classic: A Theology of Everything

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
Series from Dec, 2004

This is an excerpt from a post Michael wrote in December, 2004. I think it may provide good food for contemplation and discussion at the start of this Labor Day weekend.

• • •

I have what I call a “Theology of Everything.” I don’t believe that everything is God. There is only one God. But I do believe that everything has to do with God, and the truth about God- particularly the Gospel- rescues everything from being meaningless, and infuses a new meaning into everything in life.

This Theology of Everything intentionally looks for God in the “non-religious” aspects of life. He is always there, and scripture gives us a grid for looking at anything in life through the lens of God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Instead of seeing the world separated from God, as so many evangelicals preach over and over, the Bible shows us a world that God refuses to desert; a world where God stays involved despite the sinfulness of people.

The idea that the world is tainted with sin and must be avoided is gnosticism, not Christianity. It is a kind of manufactured righteousness that specializes in religion being more significant than other human activities. Singing hymns is acceptable. Making three-pointers is not. Preaching and teaching- God thing. Cheering and playing the school song- not a God thing.

This is most clearly seen when we talk about something, but don’t talk about God. If God is not mentioned, it is assumed we have idolatry going on. God has been displaced. Of course, we have the Song of Solomon and Esther, neither with any mention of God. We have a lot of Proverbs, premised on God as the beginning of wisdom, that do not mention God at all. Can we talk about human experience, all the while believing in God, but not mention God at every opportunity? In fact, is it possible that the Jews, in their reluctance to speak the name of God, might have been on to something evangelicals could learn about: not trivializing God by making everything an opportunity to engage in God-speak?

…What has this way of thinking done to the Christian view or art? Creativity? Calling and vocation? Non-religious accomplishments of every kind? Obviously, it has elevated the mediocre (or the just plain bad) because God was talked about, and it has overlooked, ignored and rejected what was covered in the fingerprints of God, just because He wasn’t mentioned in every verse or every page.

In a recent discussion of one Christian filmmaker’s view that evangelicals refuse to see excellence where there is no explicit Christian content, a commenter went into the familiar description of such a view as worldly compromise with a sin-tainted world. I wonder… when you read the scriptures, who is the one who is really most tainted by the sin of the world? Good, moral Christians? Or the God who is there in the middle of the mess we call creation, providing His Son as a mediator who is both “untainted” and “very tainted” so the world can be redeemed? If I go into the world “as Jesus did,” do I go with the intention of being “untainted,” or of redeeming what is tainted by the transforming power of God’s Gospel?

Is this why so many Christian young people think that the only way to serve God and honor God is to talk about God? So they must become preachers and Christian singers? Is this why my school contains so few Christian students planning on a “secular” profession as an explicit expression of their Christian calling? We need a “Theology of Everything” if we are going to accomplish the Great Commission. Having a God of the Ghetto (Christianized version) won’t matter.

The Order of Christian Worship

By Chaplain Mike

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.

• Justin Martyr, First Apology c. 150 AD

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42, ESV)

I became convinced long ago…

That Christian worship follows a certain order.
That this order has been proven sound and salutary through the church’s history.
That the main parts of this order involve Christians meeting around (1) the Word, and (2) the Table (and Baptism on occasions when it is practiced).
That the purpose of these two main parts is to lead us to Christ through the retelling of the Gospel.
That the subsidiary parts lead to and from the main parts: (1) Gathering, and (2) Sending.
That whatever elements are practiced in worship should serve the liturgy (music, prayers, testimonies, readings, drama, etc.) by enabling the congregation to prepare for or respond to the revelation of Christ in Word and Table.

So, in my view, Christian worship follows this pattern:

Gathering
The Service of the Word
The Service of the Table
Sending

I guess that makes me a liturgical Christian.

Continue reading “The Order of Christian Worship”

Relishing Relics

A short post about bones, or, Bring Me the Head of John the Baptist.

To borrow a quote from Chesterton contrasting the suicide and the martyr, and the attitude of Christianity to both,

The Christian feeling was furiously for one and furiously against the other: these two things that looked so much alike were at opposite ends of heaven and hell. One man flung away his life; he was so good that his dry bones could heal cities in pestilence. Another man flung away life; he was so bad that his bones would pollute his brethren’s. I am not saying this fierceness was right; but why was it so fierce? (Orthodoxy, Chapter V, ‘The Flag of the World’, emphasis mine.)

This is a look at why dry bones were and are considered to have a virtue in them that could benefit us (and I’m speaking of virtue both in the conventionally understood sense and the older sense, as when my granny told us ‘there’s great virtue in seawater’ for healing cuts and sores so we should go down and wash any injuries in the sea).

What exactly are relics? You may be interested to know that the Catholic Church classifies them by three kinds:

Continue reading “Relishing Relics”

R. C. Sproul Jr. Says, “Take Off the Gloves”

By Chaplain Mike

NOTE: As many readers have pointed out, the column at Ligonier was written by R.C. Sproul, Jr., not his father. Forgive my sloppy reading. I still find the fact that this was posted on the Ligonier website encouraging.

* * *

I have always liked R.C. Sproul and benefited from Ligonier Ministry and his teaching. I don’t share all his conservative and Calvinistic convictions, disagree with his approach to discussions with Roman Catholics, and have thought he may depend too much on mixing philosophy with his Biblical and theological views. But my shelves hold a lot of his books. He is a good thinker, a fine teacher, and he has helped me many times.

I’m not sure what prompted Sproul’s entry, “It Was Nice While It Lasted,” on the Ligonier blog this week (maybe someone else does), but it certainly got my attention.

R.C. writes about being tired of watching the same old boxing match between “truth” and “unity.” He notes that “unity” had been gaining ground and making progress among various factions of the Church, but “truth” (at least various parochial versions of it) has bounced back off the ropes and is fighting back with a vengeance.

Then he makes this appeal:

So what do we do? Can we get truth and unity to kiss and make up? Only if we Christians learn to grow up. We need to not only learn to distinguish between primary and secondary doctrines/practices, we need to learn to value them accurately. Can we both agree that being wrong on baptism is not a damnable heresy, and also affirm that it is an issue that matters? Can I seek to correct my Baptist brothers in a way that speaks to them as brothers who are wrong on an important issue? And can I in turn hear with grace my Baptist brothers as they lovingly seek to correct my error on the issue? Can I be concerned that my charismatic brother is leaving open the door for false prophecy and at the same time understand that he is concerned that I am boxing in the Holy Spirit?

I have an opinion on virtually every issue that is being argued on the internet. I think some positions being espoused are good, sound, biblical. I think others are fallacious, dangerous, and unbiblical. I know that whatever the Bible teaches, that is what’s right and true. And I know the Bible teaches that I am often wrong. It is not Rodney King that asks if we can all get along. It is Jesus asking, in His high priestly prayer (John 17). He is the Truth, and He calls us to unity. That comes in reflecting His character. He, even when He corrects us, is for us. He, even when we are wrong, loves us perfectly. He is lowly in spirit and will not break a bruised reed.

We will not change until we choose our heroes not by how cogently or fiercely they defend our position on this issue or that, but by how much they reflect the grace of Christ whatever their position.

Hooray for R.C. Sproul, Jr.!

Wednesday Morning

By Chaplain Mike

Monday, he spent five or six hours with a friend whose spouse, also a friend, had died. He sat while the grieving husband puttered and dealt with details. He made small talk, answered a few questions, and waited for an OK to call the funeral home.

Tuesday, he attended another death, this time of one of his favorite patients. The man’s wife had never seen anyone die before. She described his passing with wonder. The children left the room and the chaplain prayed with her alone at the bedside. He called the mortuary and sat with them until they arrived.

Wednesday, he visited the hospital. After a few moments of chit-chat at the nurse’s station, he went to see his patient. She was still. He watched for a few moments, put his hand on hers. Cold and still. He walked out and notified the nurse. Her husband lived alone, and the adult children were out of town. So he made the calls. The old man said no, he wouldn’t be coming to the hospital; he’d been there this morning and had said his goodbyes. He insisted he would be all right. The whole unit was extraordinarily quiet that day.

Continue reading “Wednesday Morning”

What We Could Have Heard on Sunday

lamentations-of-jeremiah-lamentaions-iii-1-9 — Lamentations of Jeremiah, Chagall

By Chaplain Mike

Instead of worship songs like the one we talked about this morning, how appropriate would the following Bach cantata have been in worship last Sunday, as Hurricane Irene was cutting her path of devastation up the east coast of the U.S.? As we remembered our brothers and sisters in the world’s troubled spots, like Syria and Libya? As we petitioned God on behalf of the starving and the refugees in the horn of Africa? As we thought about the wilderness places in our own lives and the personal griefs, sorrows, and fears we bear, along with our sins and idol-corrupted hearts?

How much richer and profound might our thoughts and meditations have been if we had been urged to contemplate these words? How much bigger our view of God? How much deeper our sense of need? How much more realistic our view of a world groaning in travail, longing for God to put it right?

These are the lyrics to Bach’s Cantata, ‘Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott’ (BWV 101), for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (which was this past Sunday, Aug. 28). If you would like to listen to a full recording as you read the words you can hear this version from the Bach Harmony channel on YouTube.

As you meditate on these profound words, note especially how, in part six, Bach turns our eyes to Christ and the Cross.

• • •

1. Chorale
Take away from us, Lord, faithful God,
the heavy punishment and great suffering,
which we, with countless sins
have too much deserved.
Protect us against war and precarious times,
against siege, fire, and great sorrow.

Continue reading “What We Could Have Heard on Sunday”

Someone Has to Put a Foot Down

By Chaplain Mike

I haven’t really offended anyone for awhile, but I’m pretty sure that streak stops with this one. Sorry, but somebody must speak up and draw a line somewhere when it comes to what some call “worship” music.

Today, I’m writing about one song.

Churches everywhere sing it these days.

Many, many well-known artists in the Christian music industry have covered this song.

It has a pious, emotional backstory that people find inspiring.

It rose to #8 on Billboard Christian Songs in 2009.

It was #4 in the US iTunes Top 100 Christian Songs for 2010.

The David Crowder Band version of the song was a big hit that was nominated for a Dove Award in 2010.

It was #16 in the CCLI Top 25 Songs used by churches and ministries in the period between October 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011.

I have read comments about this song like this: “This song is starting a revolution. Simply singing it can change your heart. Continue singing it throughout your day and you find yourself intimately in God’s presence.”

No one seems to have a bad word to say about this song, except during a tempest-in-a-teapot controversy that arose over one line in the lyric that was deemed too “mushy” for worship music.

Continue reading “Someone Has to Put a Foot Down”

IM Book Review: Counterfeit Gospels

By Chaplain Mike

In my opinion, Counterfeit Gospels: Rediscovering the Good News in a World of False Hope, by Trevin Wax, represents the best kind of thinking and presentation that evangelicalism has to offer the broader church today at a level that pastors and serious laypeople can appreciate and find useful.

It is written in simple, clear language, yet represents solid, informed thinking.

It is well-organized into a presentation that is readily understandable, logical, sensible, and easy to teach.

It communicates a clear perspective and strong convictions, yet does so in a gracious and winsome manner.

It interacts well, not only with the New Reformed doctrinal positions that the author clearly sympathizes with, but also with many ideas and trends in other contemporary evangelical movements.

It remains tightly focused on problems inherent in today’s evangelicalism. It does not deal with other questions that might be asked regarding corruptions of the Gospel in the broader Christian family, but this allows Wax keep his diagnostic and prescriptive energies pinpointed on his target audience without trying to do too much.

• • •

The Threefold Nature of the Gospel
The foundation of Counterfeit Gospels is an explication of the true Gospel. Using the illustration of a three-legged stool, Trevin Wax asserts that the Gospel must be viewed as having a threefold nature.

The Gospel as Story
The Gospel as Announcement
The Gospel as Community

The gospel is a three-legged stool. There is an overarching story, which recounts our history from first creation to new creation and demonstrates how God will be magnified as our all in all. Then there is an announcement about Jesus Christ — His obedient life, His substitutionary death for sinners, and His resurrection and exaltation as king of the world. This announcement finds meaning within the story. The announcement elicits a response that then births the gospel community, the church that puts on display the gospel announcement by holy living that provides a foretaste of heaven here on earth. (p. 26)

I find this to be quite helpful, and a welcome corrective to the truncated Gospel found in many evangelical circles, where there is at best an unclear connection between the story of Jesus and the bigger story of God’s creative and redemptive purposes, and a sense that belonging to the church is an optional, personal matter of subsequent obedience after conversion rather than an organic part of what it means to trust in Christ.

Continue reading “IM Book Review: Counterfeit Gospels”

A Taste of Fullness

chagallruth&boazmeet — Ruth and Boaz Meet, Chagall

By Chaplain Mike

Ordinary Time Bible Study 2011
The Book of Ruth (9)

We missed a week in our Ruth study and this morning it is time to go back to Bethlehem to find out what is happening.

What have we seen so far?

A family from Israel, forced to move to Moab in a time of famine, suffered unimaginable loss. Elimelech, the family patriarch, and his two sons died, leaving Naomi and two daughters-in-law bereft.

Naomi decided to return to Israel. One daughter-in-law was persuaded to stay in Moab to rebuild her life, but the other — Ruth — insisted on returning with Naomi, showing a spirit of extraordinary faith and love.

Back in Bethlehem, God had blessed his people with harvest, and Ruth took the initiative of going out to the fields to take advantage of laws that allowed the poor to glean from a portion of the fields. She found herself in the field of a man named Boaz, who turned out to be a relative of Naomi’s. He showed extraordinary kindness to her and commended her for her faith and loyalty to her mother-in-law.

Let us go back out into Boaz’s fields and continue to observe Ruth at work and the further encounters she has with Boaz.

Continue reading “A Taste of Fullness”