Descriptive—or Prescriptive?

Specifically, we began to treat the Torah as if it were prescriptive, codified legislation, though that concept did not exist in the ancient world, As commonly happens, interpreters were inclined to read the biblical text through the filter of their own cultural river—their own cultural context. As a result of such reading, people began thinking that the Torah dictated the law of the land to Israel. And since it was considered divine revelation, it was therefore construed as God’s ideal guide to society and morality. And if it is God’s guide to the ideal shape of society and morality, then all people everywhere are obligated to apply it; one must merely determine how to deal with idiosyncrasies and anomalies in order to apply it to today.—Walton and Walton, The Lost World of the Torah, 22

Tozer for Tuesday

Whatever makes God less important or less wonderful or less glorious or less mighty is not of God. The whole purpose of God in redemption and for sending the Scriptures and redeeming man is that He might be glorified among men. The glory of God is the health of the universe. Wherever God is not glorified, that part of the universe is sick.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 209

The People That in Darkness Sat

361 The People That in Darkness Sat

1 The people that in darkness sat
   A glorious light have seen;
   The light has shined on them who long
   In shades of death have been.

2 For unto us a Child is born,
   To us a Son is given,
   And on His shoulder ever rests
   All power in earth and heaven.

3 is name shall be the Prince of Peace,
   Forevermore adored,
   The Wonderful, the Counselor.
   The great and mighty Lord.

4 His righteous government and power
   Shall over all extend;
   On judgment and on justice based,
   His reign shall have no end.
                         John Morison
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
For a hymn only occurring in around 200 hymnals, this one sure has a lot of variations. I couldn't find a single one that aligned with this hymnal. There are also a bunch more verses:

2 To hail Thee, Sun of Righteousness,
   The gath'ring nations come;
   They joy as when the reapers bear
   Their harvest treasures home.

3 For Thou their burden dost remove
   And break the tyrant's rod
   As in the day when Midian fell
   Before the sword of God.

7 Lord Jesus, reign in us, we pray,
   And make us Thine alone,
   Who with the Father ever art
   And Holy Spirit, one.

</idle musing>

Read the text!

We can begin to understand the claims of the text as an ancient document first of all by paying close attention to what the text says and doesn’t say. It is too easy to make assumptions that are intrusive based on our own culture, cognitive environment, traditions, or questions It takes a degree of discipline as readers who are outsiders not to assume our modern perspectives and impose them on the text. Often we do not even know we are doing it because our own context is so intrinsic to our thinking and the ancient world is an unknown. The best path to recognizing the distinctions between ancient and modern thinking is to begin paying attention to the ancient world and at the same time imposing methodological constraints to minimize the impact of anachronistic intuition. This is accomplished by immersion in the literature of the ancient world. This would by no means supersede Scripture, but it can be a tool for understanding Scripture.—Walton and Walton, The Lost World of the Torah, 14

Watchman, Tell Us of the Night

358 Watchman, Tell Us of the Night

1 Watchman, tell us of the night,
   what its signs of promise are.
   Traveler, what a wondrous sight:
   see that glory-beaming star.
   Watchman, does its beauteous ray
   news of joy or hope foretell?
   Traveler, yes; it brings the day,
   promised day of Israel.

2 Watchman, tell us of the night;
   higher yet that star ascends.
   Traveler, blessedness and light,
   peace and truth its course portends.
   Watchman, will its beams alone
   gild the spot that gave them birth?
   Traveler, ages are its own;
   see, it bursts o’er all the earth.

3 Watchman, tell us of the night,
   for the morning seems to dawn.
   Traveler, shadows take their flight;
   doubt and terror are withdrawn.
   Watchman, you may go your way;
   hasten to your quiet home.
   Traveler, we rejoice today,
   for Emmanuel has come!
                         John Bowring
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Another Advent hymn, this one occurs in more than 850 hymnals. It's a pity that Advent hymns have been overwhelmed by Christmas carols and songs. There's something special about the lead-up to Christmas that we've lost.

Just an
</idle musing>

Of the Father's Love Begotten

357 Of the Father's Love Begotten

1. Of the Father's love begotten,
   Ere the worlds began to be,
   He is Alpha and Omega,
   He the source, the ending He.
   Of the things that are, that have been,
   And that future years shall see,
   Evermore and evermore!

2. O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
   Angel hosts, His praises sing;
   Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
   And extol our God and King;
   Let no tongue on earth be silent,
   Every voice in concert ring,
   Evermore and evermore!

3. Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
   And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
   Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving
   And unwearied praises be:
   Honor, glory, and dominion,
   And eternal victory,
   Evermore and evermore!
                         Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348–c. 413)
                         Trans. by John M. Neale
                         and Henry W. Baker
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
An old hymn, and as expected there are quite a few additional verses:

2. At His Word the worlds were framed; He commanded; it was done:
   Heaven and earth and depths of ocean in their threefold order one;
   All that grows beneath the shining
   Of the moon and burning sun, evermore and evermore!

3. He is found in human fashion, death and sorrow here to know,
   That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe,
   May not henceforth die and perish
   In the dreadful gulf below, evermore and evermore!

4. O that birth forever blessed, when the virgin, full of grace,
   By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;
   And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
   First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

5. This is He whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord;
   Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
   Now He shines, the long expected,
   Let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!

7. Righteous judge of souls departed, righteous King of them that live,
   On the Father’s throne exalted none in might with Thee may strive;
   Who at last in vengeance coming
   Sinners from Thy face shalt drive, evermore and evermore!

8. Thee let old men, thee let young men, thee let boys in chorus sing;
   Matrons, virgins, little maidens, with glad voices answering:
   Let their guileless songs re-echo,
   And the heart its music bring, evermore and evermore!

</idle musing>

The King Shall Come

353 The King Shall Come

1 The King shall come when morning dawns
   and light triumphant breaks,
   when beauty gilds the eastern hills
   and life to joy awakes.

2 Not as of old a little child,
   to bear, and fight, and die,
   but crowned with glory like the sun
   that lights the morning sky.

3 O brighter than the rising morn
   when He, victorious, rose
   and left the lonesome place of death,
   despite the rage of foes.

4 O brighter than that glorious morn
   shall this fair morning be,
   when Christ, our King, in beauty comes,
   and we His face shall see.

5 The King shall come when morning dawns
   and earth's dark night is past;
   O haste the rising of that morn,
   the day that aye shall last.
                         Anonymous Greek
                         Trans. by John Brownlie
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Not a very popular hymn; it only occurs in about 95 hymnals. I don't recall ever singing it. The translator translated and wrote quite a few other hymns, none of which has more than a few occurrences. Hymnary.org adds two verses:

6 And let the endless bliss begin,
   by weary saints foretold,
   when right shall triumph over wrong,
   and truth shall be extolled.

7 The King shall come when morning dawns,
   and light and beauty brings;
   "Hail, Christ the Lord!" Thy people pray,
   come quickly, King of kings!

</idle musing>

It's the motivation that's missing!

But there is also a more radical critique of such code fixation that Taylor’s really after: codes don’t make people care for their neighbor. In other words, codes are inadequate as moral sources precisely because they do not touch on the dynamics of moral motivation. It was not a code or a rule that produced forgiveness in Nelson Mandela. This points up precisely what's missing in modern moral philosophy: attention to motivation. “For clearly moving higher in the dimension of reconciliation and trust involves a kind of motivational conversion” (p. 707) — and no code can bring that about. So the “nomolatry” and “code fetishism” of modern liberal society are an inadequate source for morality. In other words, modernity can't have what it wants on its own terms.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 128–29 (emphasis original)

<idle musing>
That's the end of this book. Not sure that having read it will make tackling Taylor's massive book any easier! But hopefully you learned something. I know I did. Next up will be Walton and Walton, The Lost World of the Torah.
</idle musing>

O Living Christ, Chief Cornerstone

349 O Living Christ, Chief Cornerstone

Maud M. Cuninggim
The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Seems this one is still under copyright! Oh well. It only occurs in six hymnals. Take a minute to read the biography of the author. She's the daughter of a Supreme Court justice—and yes, that's how she spelled her last name.
</idle musing>

Whence violence?

And so the impulsion to violence cannot be effaced from our genes or our hormones or what have you.

But for Taylor, “this seems radically insufficient. It’s not that body chemistry is not a crucial factor, but that it never operates alone in human life, but only through the meanings that things have for us. The hormonal explanation doesn’t tell us why people are susceptible to certain meanings” (p. 659, emphasis added). So the merely biological account is insufficient; we need a “meta-biological” account, a cultural account that explains how violence means in our secular age. If a purely biological account is what’s left to us in a “closed” take, then Taylor is scoring an apologetic point: maybe a “closed” take doesn’t really have the resources to make sense of our secular age; and maybe that opens the door for a closer consideration of an “open” take.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 118 (all emphasis by Smith)

On This Stone Now Laid with Prayer

348 On This Stone Now Laid with Prayer

1 On this stone now laid with prayer
   Let Thy church rise strong and fair;
   Ever, Lord, Thy Name be known,
   Where we lay this corner-stone.

2 May Thy Spirit here give rest
   To the heart by sin oppressed,
   And the seeds of truth be sown,
   Where we lay this corner-stone.

3 Open wide, O God, Thy door,
   For the outcast and the poor,
   Who can call no house their own,
   Where we lay this corner-stone.

4 By wise master-builders squared,
   Here be living stones prepared
   For the temple near Thy throne,
   Jesus Christ its Corner-stone.
                         John Pierpont
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
The other day I mentioned that I was in the wedding section of the hymnal. Well, that turned out to be only three hymns! Now I'm in the "Dedications" section, which is a good bit longer; in fact, the last one or two hymns were from that section.

This hymn is only in about forty hymnals. As usual, Cyberhymnal has a couple of extra verses:

2. Let Thy holy Child, who came
   Man from error to reclaim,
   And for sinners to atone,
   With Thee, bless this cornerstone.

3. Let the Spirit from above,
   That once hovered like a dove
   O’er the Jordan, hither flown
   Hover o’er this cornerstone.

</idle musing>

Hymn for today

I've posted this twice before, but it keeps coming to my mind today (I'd like to think it's a God-thing):

1 Rejoice the Lord is King,
   Your God and king adore;
   Rejoice give thanks and sing,
   And triumph ever-more.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

2 The Lord our Saviour reigns,
   The God of truth and love;
   When he had purg'd our stains,
   He took his seat above;
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

3 His kingdom cannot fail,
   He rules o'er earth and heav'n;
   The keys of death and hell
   Are to our Jesus giv'n.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

4 Rejoice in glorious hope;
   The Lord our judge shall come,
   And take his servants up,
   To their eternal home.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.
                         Charles Wesley

Thought for the day

I hear and my insides tremble.
       My lips quiver at the sound.
       Rottenness enters my bones.
I tremble while I stand,
       while I wait for the day of distress
       to come against the people who attack us.
Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
       and there’s no produce on the vine;
       though the olive crop withers,
       and the fields don’t provide food;
       though the sheep are cut off from the pen,
       and there are no cattle in the stalls;
I will rejoice in the Lord.
       I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
The Lord God is my strength.
       He will set my feet like the deer.
       He will let me walk upon the heights. Hab 3:16–19 (CEB)

The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong

346 The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong

1 The Lord our God alone is strong;
   His hands build not for one brief day;
   His wondrous works, through ages long,
   His wisdom and His power display.

2 His mountains lift their solemn forms,
   To watch in silence 'er the land;
   The rolling oceans, rocked with storms,
   Sleep in the hollow of His hand.

3 Thou sovereign God, receive this gift
   Thy willing servants offer Thee;
   Accept the prayers that thousands lift,
   And let these halls Thy temple be.

4 And let those learn, who here shall meet,
   True wisdom is with reverence crowned,
   And Science walks with humble feet
   To seek the God that Faith hath found.
                         Caleb T. Winchester
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I don't recall ever singing this song and it only occurs in about 44 hymnals. This appears to be the only hymn he wrote. The 1917 edition of the Methodist hymnal inserts this verse:

3 Beyond the heavens He sits alone,
   The universe obeys His nod;
   The lightning-rifts disclose His throne,
   And thunders voice the name of God.

</idle musing>

The anthropological turn in theology

Indeed, if one makes the “anthropological turn” and begins to affirm that all God really cares about is our flourishing, then aspects of Christianity begin to look untenable: “If the good that God wills for us doesn’t just include, but consists entirely in human flourishing, what sense does it make to sacrifice some part of this in order to serve God?” Sacrifice becomes untenable, even unthinkable (hence the rejection of traditional theories of the atonement). There is no room left in our plausibility structures to make sense of divine violence — which again undercuts any notion of “atonement” (p. 649). Indeed, the penal substitutionary account of the atonement can only look “monstrous.” Which is why the cross drops out; what becomes important is the life of Christ — what he says or teaches (p. 650). We're on our way to Unitarianism.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 115 (all emphasis by Smith)

<idle musing>
OK, I'm no fan of penal substitutionary atonement, especially as popularly understood, but he has a very good point here. As Simon Gathercole pointed out, there is some kind of substition in the atonement. My issue is w/the penal part. Scot McKnight is correct that there is no single theory of atonement that covers all aspects of atonement, so there is a place for substitionary atonement.
</idle musing>

Failure? (Tozer for Tuesday)

Failure sometimes is an evidence of the hand of God upon you, and we Christians can afford to fail because Jesus afforded to fail. He died out there on the cross, and it looked as if it was a battered tragic stupid end of a man who meant well but did not know how to handle Himself. On the third day, God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand and made Him to be head over all things to the Church and put all things under His feet, whether they be principalities, powers, or dominions, all are under His feet (see Eph. 1:19-23), and yet He died an apparent failure. Only “apparently,” for He was a roaring success before the world was created, and in this hour, and will be in all the worlds to come.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 203–4

Pour Out Thy Spirit from on High

337 Pour Out Thy Spirit from on High

1 Lord, pour Thy Spirit from on high,
   And Thine ordained servants bless;
   Graces and gifts to each supply,
   And clothe Thy priests with righteousness.

2 Within Thy temple when they stand,
   To teach the truth as taught by Thee,
   Saviour, like stars in Thy right hand,
   Let all Thy Church's pastors be.

3 Wisdom, and zeal, and faith impart,
   Firmness and meekness from above,
   To bear Thy people in their heart,
   And love the souls whom Thou dost love;

4 To love, and pray, and never faint,
   By day and night their guard to keep,
   To warn the sinner, form the saint,
   To feed Thy lambs, and fold Thy sheep.

5 So, when their work is finish'd here,
   They may in hope their charge resign;
   So, when their Master shall appear,
   They may with crowns of glory shine.
                         James Montgomery
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I've mentioned before that you should take a look at his brief biography, but I'll just grab line here: "Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries."

Would that there were more Christians like him today!
</idle musing>

Lay on the pressure!

In some sense, the challenge is actually intensified for exclusive humanism, precisely because it can only admit the immanent: if the maximal demand is going to be met, it has to be met by us and in “the here and now” (or at least within “secular” time). And if we don’t reach it, we have only ourselves to blame. Christianity, on the other hand, can be ambivalent, or even a tad pessimistic about the maximal demand being realized by us in the here and now because the transformationist perspective is also eschatological. For Christianity, “this is a transformation which cannot be completed in history” (p. 643). This is why “Christians don’t really ‘have the solution’ to the dilemma” either: because “the direction they point to cannot be demonstrated as right; it must be taken on faith”; and because “we can't exhibit fully what it means, lay it out in a code or a fully-specified life-form, but only point to the exemplary lives of certain trail-blazing people and communities” (p. 643, emphasis added). You might say Christian eschatology buys time to meet the maximal demand — time exclusive humanism doesn't (can’t) have.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 112–13 (all emphasis by Smith)

And Are We Yet Alive (Hymn)

336 And Are We Yet Alive

1 And are we yet alive,
   And see each other's face?
   Glory and praise to Jesus give,
   For His redeeming grace.

2 What troubles have we seen,
   What conflicts have we past;
   Fightings without and fears within,
   Since we assembled last.

3 Yet out of all, the Lord
   Hath brought us by his love;
   And still he does his help afford,
   And hides our life above.

4 Then let us make our boast,
   Of his redeeming pow'r;
   Which saves us to the uttermost,
   Till we can sin no more.

5 Let us take up the cross,
   Till we the crown obtain;
   And gladly reckon all things lost,
   So we may Jesus gain.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Hymnary.org inserts a verse:

2 Preserv'd by pow'r divine,
   To feel salvation here;
   Again in Jesus' name we join,
   And in his sight appear.

</idle musing>

O Perfect Love

333 O Perfect Love

1 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
   Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne,
   That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
   Whom Thou for evermore dost join in one.

2 O perfect Life, be Thou their full assurance
   Of tender charity and steadfast faith,
   Of patient hope, and quiet, brave endurance,
   With child-like trust that fears no pain nor death.

3 Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow,
   Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,
   And to life's day the glorious, unknown morrow
   That dawns upon eternal love and life.
                         Dorothy D. Fuenwy
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Now we're heading into unfamiliar territory for me: the wedding hymns. I don't recall ever singing a "wedding" hymn at a wedding.

As a kid, I only remember attending one wedding (although I'm sure I attended more), and the reason I remember that is because it was a Roman Catholic one, pre-Vatican II. It was all in Latin and long. I was only about 8 at the time, so anything over 30 minutes would have seemed long to me : )

By the time I and my friends were getting married, everything was more contemporary stuff, be it Paul Clark's "Climb the Hill Together," or Paul Noel Stookey's "Wedding Song." But no wedding hymns. To be sure, there were still hymns sung, but not wedding ones.

All that to say, I've don't recall ever singing this one : )
</idle musing>

O the Depth of Love Divine

332 O the Depth of Love Divine

1. O the depth of love divine, th’unfathomable grace!
   Who shall say how bread and wine God into us conveys!
   How the bread His flesh imparts, how the wine transmits His blood,
   Fills His faithful people’s hearts with all the life of God!

2. Let the wisest mortals show how we the grace receive;
   Feeble elements bestow a power not theirs to give.
   Who explains the wondrous way, how through these the virtue came?
   These the virtue did convey, yet still remain the same.

3. How can spirits heavenward rise, by earthly matter fed,
   Drink herewith divine supplies and eat immortal bread?
   Ask the Father’s wisdom how: Christ who did the means ordain;
   Angels round our altars bow to search it out, in vain.

4. Sure and real is the grace, the manner be unknown;
   Only meet us in thy ways and perfect us in one.
   Let us taste the heavenly powers, Lord, we ask for nothing more.
   Thine to bless, ’tis only ours to wonder and adore.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Not exactly one of Wesley's better known hymns—it only occurs in six hymnals and they are all Methodist ones as far as I could tell.

It's also obvious that Charles wasn't a Zwinglian! For him, and for John, Christ was present in some special and unique way during communion. As far as I've been able to discover, they never tried to explain it; they were content to allow it to remain a mystery.

That's pretty much where I come down, too. But, I've only ever felt that special presence when sharing communion in groups smaller than fifteen—and not always or even frequently then. A lot of it depends on the group and their openness to the ways of the Spirit. And I don't mean they have to lean Charismatic/Pentecostal! Some of the most meaningful experiences of the presence of God in communion happened in a Plymouth Brethren body—and they were very strong cessationists!
</idle musing>

Beyond humanism

If Enlightenment humanism is itself a mode of “transcending” humanity, then it’s not surprising to see in modernity a reaction to this internal to immanence — that is, reactions that have no interest in affirming transcendence but are nonetheless responding to the pressures of humanism. So, Taylor suggests, this is not simply a binary debate between belief and unbelief; it is a triangular debate between (1) secular humanists, (2) neo-Nietzschean antihumanists, and (3) “those who acknowledge some good beyond life” (p. 636).—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 110 (emphasis original)

Jesus Spreads His Banner o'er Us

331 Jesus Spreads His Banner o'er Us

1. Jesus spreads his banner o’er us,
   Cheers our famished souls with food;
   He the banquet spreads before us,
   Of His mystic flesh and blood.
   Precious banquet, bread of heaven,
   Wine of gladness, flowing free;
   May we taste it, kindly given,
   In remembrance, Lord, of Thee.

2. In Thy holy incarnation,
   When the angels sang Thy birth;
   In Thy fasting and temptation,
   In Thy labors on the earth,
   In Thy trial and rejection,
   In Thy sufferings on the tree,
   In Thy glorious resurrection,
   May we, Lord, remember Thee.
                         Rowell Park
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I'm certainly on a roll for not picking popular hymns. This one occurs in under 100 hymnals. According the Cyberhymnal, the usually omitted first verse is

While the sons of earth retiring,
From the sacred temple roam;
Lord, Thy light and love desiring,
To Thine altar fain we come.
Children of our heavenly Father,
Friends and brethren we would be;
While we round Thy table gather,
May our hearts be one in Thee.

</idle musing>