Monthly Archives: October 2009

Cardinals Ready for Three In a Row

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Busch Stadium

The last couple of days have been filled with an unfortunate surprise for St. Louis Cardinal fans. The Redbirds head back to St. Louis for Game 3 of the National League Division Series after dropping two games to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday and Thursday.  With arguably the best 1-2 punch in baseball, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright were not enough as the Cardinal hitters simply did not produce. Over the past two games there have been 21 runners left on base. The Cards are just 3 for 22 with runners in scoring position.  They’ve got to swing the bat better.

If you believe in tempo, you could trace it back to the first inning of Game 1. The Cardinals got out to what seemed to be a commanding ‘first foot forward.’ The bases were loaded with no outs with our cleanup batter stepping up to the plate. I like Matt Holiday and I hope that he sticks around in St. Louis. At that particular at bat, he did not lift the bat off of his shoulder for six consecutive pitches. He struck out looking. I know that he was kicking himself. He knows better. I trust him there. But I think that it hurt us. The #4 guy has got to go up there hacking in that situation (like Holiday did afterwards). No one player is at fault here. There is just a fog that needs to be penetrated and hopefully being back home in the aura of Cardinal love will do just that.

Joel is set to start at this point. But I will not be surprised if Carp is penciled in after only three days rest. He did not throw an excessive number of pitches on Wednesday and he did not have his best stuff. He is due for a sharp outing. And with your backs against the wall, you have to throw your best. Although the Cardinals have put themselves in a tough spot, I think they can easily turn it around and take three in a row. And if they don’t, who cares? It is just baseball.

The Strange New World of the Gospel: This is Why We ‘Go To Church’

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The church is the showcase neither for moralism nor for civic religion, much less for technology or for individual personalities, but a theater of the strange new world of the gospel–a theater not of ethics or entertainment but of edification and eschatology…

The local church is that interactive theater where a distinct view of the world–as created for fellowship with the triune God–is remembered, studied, cultivated, and celebrated in corporate performance.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 457

Misplaced Laughter and the Wonder of Communication: John Piper at the AACC

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What do you do when you say something and your hearers completely misunderstand? I mean, perpetually misunderstand? I mean, your hearers just keep on not getting what you’re saying?

Consider September 16, 2009, John Piper spoke at the American Association of Christian Counselors. You can read the manuscript and hear the talk here.

He was being completely transparent with the assembled counselors. His heartfelt passion to call out his own sin, be vulnerable, and rest on God’s grace is deeply encouraging. But, the reaction of the counselors was an eruption of laughter. Repeated eruptions of laughter. It is weird. Just weird.

I do not mean to indict the counselors. In charitable judgment, I do not think they meant to be that way. They just missed it. The speaker and the audience were not on the same plane. I think that this happens often. What makes this noteworthy is the mass of misunderstanding that occurred in that room. There was a fog. More than one person did not get it.

The point that I want to make is the miraculous nature of communication, in general. We should not take for granted that God made us communicative creatures. We make sounds to one another with our mouths and it means things. That is amazing. That we can ever “get” each other is breathtaking. And even all of this is corrupted by sin. It won’t always be this way. The communication that exists in the Trinity is something that we can only dimly imagine now. The glory and harmony in that conversation is one that we don’t want to miss. Fortunately, authorial intent will not be inhibited in the new heaven and new earth. We will talk with Jesus and never misunderstand what He says. No blur, no fog, no variety of planes. We’ll hear His voice and understand everything He tells us. And the telling will last forever.

Biblical Studies, Systematic Theology, and Drinking Raw Eggs

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Biblical studies and systematic theology. These are understood to be two different fields. One is conceptual and focused and saturated with biblical languages. The other is conglomerate judgments on give topics in a holistic and applicable way. You specialize in one or the other. The effort to collapse the dividing wall between the two is an effort that I want to be in. And I realize that before I can hope to see a ‘reconciliation’ of these two fields on a greater sphere, it’s got to happen in me.

To be honest, there are many things in systematics that appeal more to me. There is something about studying the Trinity that I find more interesting than pin-pointing periphrastic constructions in Koine Greek. I’d rather memorize the Nicene Creed than Granville Sharp’s rule or the numerous uses of the genitive case. Now, I know that the two are interdependent. But I am just acknowledging which aspect excites me the most. I think that it is good that we do that. Don’t fool yourself. We probably lean towards one more than the other. It could be helpful to know which one that is as long as we do not jettison the other.

My particular interest in doctrine and judgment should serve to infuse my study of Greek, not stifle it. They are not two things, they are really one. Doing Greek for me is like the athlete drinking the raw egg. The pleasure is not immediate. The reward is felt later and then the yellow ball sliding down the back of your throat is validated.

May Jesus help me and us to do both, as really one, before and unto Him.

Psalm 119: Messiah and Word- Part II

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And so when we read Psalm 119 we are taught how to hope in the Messiah, too. The steadfast love of God to the Messiah that was supremely expressed in His atoning work and vindicating resurrection is also steadfast love to us. These are prayers that we don’t merely emulate, rather, we join in with them. We revel in the glory of what it means to be in Christ. Because God showed steadfast love to Jesus Christ, it is steadfast love to me. Because God comforted Jesus Christ, I am comforted. Because God upheld Jesus Christ, I will be upheld. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, I will also be raised.

Let us learn from Psalm 119 something about the Messiah and Word.

Feel the gladness of knowing that the only reason that we can pray “be gracious to me according to your promise” (v. 58) and “let your steadfast love comfort me” (v. 76) and “uphold me according to your promise” (v. 116) and “give me life according to your promise!” (v. 154) is because the Messiah prayed that… And God did it.

Psalm 119: Messiah and Word- Part I

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Psalm 119 is about the Scriptures. And it is so much more than that. The psalm is about the Lord’s promise–the communicative action of the sovereign God on which the psalmist’s very life depends. God’s word–His instruction, His rules, His promise–is the focus of the psalmist’s faith. Yet still, a close read will find that it is pointing beyond this. The word is not really the object of faith. Instead, the word is the lens through which faith seizes the One to whom the word refers. Psalm 119 is Messianic.

Allusions to Psalm 1 are sprinkled throughout, as is language from Psalm 19. I think that the psalm is prayed by the Messiah himself. The overtones are significant. He delights in the word. He meditates on it day and night. He is afflicted. He hopes in the Lord’s hesed. I think Luke reads it this way. Luke 2:46-47 appears to be a founded in Psalm 119:99-100.

Psalm 119 is prayed by the Messiah who is hoping in the very steadfast love of God that is supremely expressed in the Messiah’s own person and work.