Confessing Evangelical

A poster on the Ship of Fools "Ecclesiantics" forum has requested information on the history of Lutheran worship. There aren't too many confessional Lutherans active on that board, so it would be good if readers of this blog could either contribute to the thread or leave suggested links etc in the comments to this post, which I can then post myself. Thanks!

Today is the commemoration of John Bunyan (1628-1688), pastor, writer and prisoner for the Lord. To mark this, here is an excerpt from Bunyan's spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (online version here).

Grace Abounding is a fascinating, if rather strange, book. If nothing else, reading it will make you profoundly grateful that you do not share the Puritan view of "assurance", whose emphasis on looking within for evidence of salvation, rather than looking outwards to Christ, tortured Bunyan for years - as did his tendency to assess words of Scripture by their subjective impact upon him rather than their meaning within the context of Scripture (the book is full of language such as, "these words broke in upon my mind", "that sentence fell in upon me", "now would that saying work upon my spirit to afflict me").

But the final section, "The Conclusion", is a cracker, and reflects the true assurance Bunyan later found as a mature believer in Christ (emphasis added; I can particularly identify with number 4):

1. Of all the temptations that ever I met with in my life, to question the being of God, and the truth of His gospel, is the worst, and the worst to be borne; when this temptation comes, it takes away my girdle from me, and removeth the foundations from under me. Oh, I have often thought of that word, 'Have your loins girt about with truth'; and of that, 'When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?'


2. Sometimes, when, after sin committed, I have looked for sore chastisement from the hand of God, the very next that I have had from Him hath been the discovery of His grace. Sometimes, when I have been comforted, I have called myself a fool for my so sinking under trouble. And then, again, when I have been cast down, I thought I was not wise to give such way to comfort. With such strength and weight have both these been upon me.


3. I have wondered much at this one thing, that though God doth visit my soul with never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet I have found again, that such hours have attended me afterwards, that I have been in my spirit so filled with darkness, that I could not so much as once conceive what that God and that comfort was with which I have been refreshed.


4. I have sometimes seen more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how to stand under, and yet at another time the whole Bible hath been to me as dry as a stick; or rather, my heart hath been so dead and dry unto it, that I could not conceive the least drachm of refreshment, though I have looked it all over.


5. Of all tears, they are the best that are made by the blood of Christ; and of all joy, that is the sweetest that is mixed with mourning over Christ. Oh! it is a goodly thing to be on our knees, with Christ in our arms, before God. I hope I know something of these things.


6. I find to this day seven abominations in my heart: (1) Inclinings to unbelief. (2) Suddenly to forget the love and mercy that Christ manifesteth. (3) A leaning to the works of the law. (4) Wanderings and coldness in prayer. (5) To forget to watch for that I pray for. (6) Apt to murmur because I have no more, and yet ready to abuse what I have. (7) I can do none of those things which God commands me, but my corruptions will thrust in themselves, 'When I would do good, evil is present with me.'


7. These things I continually see and feel, and am afflicted and oppressed with; yet the wisdom of God doth order them for my good. (1) They make me abhor myself. (2) They keep me from trusting my heart. (3) They convince me of the insufficiency of all inherent righteousness. (4) They show me the necessity of flying to Jesus. (5) They press me to pray unto God. (6) They show me the need I have to watch and be sober. (7) And provoke me to look to God, through Christ, to help me, and carry me through this world.
   
   Amen.

Amen indeed.

Wonderful cartoon today from Matt:


(Baffled? Click here.)

First Zizou, then Floyd, now this. This has been quite a summer for high-profile sporting fiascos.

ELS blogger Norman Teigen continues a series of posts taken from one of my favourite books, 1066 And All That, with this wonderfully deflating summary of the provisions of the "Magna Charter", "first of the famous Chartas and Gartas of the Realm", which was "invented by the Barons on a desert island in the Thames called Ganymede", and which stated as follows:

1. That no one was to be put to death, save for some reason - (except the Common People).


2. That everyone should be free -- (except the Common People).


3. That everything should be of the same weight and measure throughout the Realm - (except the Common People).


4. That the Courts should be stationary, instead of following a very tiresome medieval official known as the King's Person all over the country.


5. That 'no person should be fined to his utter ruin' - (except the King's Person).


6. That the Barons should not be tried except by a special jury of other Barons who would understand.

(I particularly enjoy #6.)

As the writers conclude:

Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and thus a Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People).

Worldmapper is a fascinating site containing a multitude of informative - if slightly odd-looking - maps. The maps use techniques based on the physics of heat flows to depict statistical information in a vivid and memorable manner.

Each country's surface area is smoothly deformed so that the area reflects the particular statistic under consideration - whether that is population, fuel consumption, car ownership (pictured above) or any of a multitude of other developmental measures. New Scientist subscribers can read a brief article from earlier this year which explains the techniques (developed by a team at Sheffield University) in a little more detail.

The reason for posting now is that some particularly interesting maps have finally arrived on the site (the team is posting a total of 365 maps this year, one per day). These show the relative wealth of each country at different stages of the past 500 (and next ten) years:

• AD 1500


• AD 1900


• AD 1960


• AD 1990


• AD 2015

Firefox users will find it particularly useful to open each of those links in a separate tab (work down the list clicking each item while holding the "Ctrl" key), and then using Ctrl+Page Down/Page Up to see a "flicker-book" animation of how wealth has ebbed and flowed over the past half-millennium. Note in particular the fall and rise of China, though the 2015 map is obviously rather speculative. Also, the collapse of Africa's position.

One of those sites you could probably lose yourself in for days...

A post by Josh combines praise for the new Lutheran Service Book with a (deserved) sideswipe at the very-odd-verging-on-deeply-disturbing hymn, "Earth and All Stars" (check out verses 4 and 5!). In the comments, there is some discussion comparing "Earth and All Stars" with the (it is claimed) similarly doctrine-free Psalm 150.

But is Psalm 150 really an example of "never mind the doctrine, just feel the praise" worship that it is sometimes claimed to be? Is it the biblical standard-bearer for songs of the "I just wanna praise you, Lord, just praise you all my life" (x30, to fade) variety?

Well, one of the best points I've heard about Psalm 150 (sadly, I forget the source) is that the most important thing about Psalm 150 is that there are 149 other psalms preceding it. Psalm 150 is a response to all the preceding psalms, with all their doctrinal content about the God of Israel and of the nations.

And anyway, Psalm 150 does have doctrinal content. It does tell us something about God, and what it is about God that we are specifically praising in this psalm: "Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!".

That's the difference between even the "least theological" psalms and many contemporary praise choruses: the "because", the reason why we are praising God. Psalm 117 manages this while still being only 28 words long (in the ESV translation):

Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!

I went to a talk once by the English hymn-writer Christopher Idle (who I believe has at least one hymn in the new LSB), who pointed out that there is a praise chorus based on Psalm 134, which goes like this:

Come bless the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord
Who stand by night, in the house of the Lord
Lift up your hands, in this holy place
And bless the Lord, and bless the Lord.

It's a nice, jolly chorus with a catchy tune, and one which I rather like. But if you compare it with Psalm 134 itself, you'll see there's something missing from the chorus:

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to the holy place
and bless the Lord!

May the Lord bless you from Zion,
he who made heaven and earth!

Spot the difference? Psalm 134, while being nearly as short as Psalm 117, still manages to squeeze in that "because". Why bless the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord? Because the Lord is "he who made heaven and earth", and who dwells in Zion to the blessing of his people. (Thus encapsulating in a single verse one of the central messages of the psalms: the creator of the world has become the gracious God of Israel.)

That's the difference between the psalmists and many (though by no means all) writers of contemporary worship songs: the psalmists were clearly obsessed with God, and with what he had done and would do for Israel, and couldn't even write a few lines of a psalm without their minds turning to these things.

The same spirit seems lacking in many contemporary songs, maybe because it is lacking in the contemporary church. We're satisfied with a song that makes us feel good and "spiritual", and sometimes we just don't notice if it's not saying very much about God, if it's lacking a "because".

I reckon there could be a sermon illustration in this.

This stunning painting is Jean Fouquet's Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (c.1450), which I'd never previously come across until Michael White mentioned it in a post on the Guardian's Comment Is Free blog today.

In the course of his "what I did in my summer holidays" piece, White writes:

In the brilliant Mauritzhaus gallery [in The Hague] the star of the show these days is the Girl with a Pearl Ear Ring by the long-unfashionable Vemeer. How fickle artistic taste can be! But the eye-catcher for me is Jean Fouquet's (1420-80) Madonna and Child, a striking composition in red, white and blue, severe but sensual. How did that manage to get painted before the 20th century, let alone survive so long? If you know, tell me.

While I can't answer White's question, a quick look-up on Wikipedia reveals that the model for the painting was one Agnès Sorel, an "extraordinarily beautiful young woman" (as if we needed telling!) who became the king of France's mistress and bore him three children before dying at the age of 28. It is believed she was murdered by someone (possibly the king's son) resentful of her "very strong influence on the king" and "extravagant tastes".

So a (deliberately?) ironic choice of model for a painting of the Mother of our Lord. But it's still quite a painting, and quite a story behind it.

The Guardian continues its campaign for women's Tour de France winner Nicole Cooke to be recognised as Britain's top sportsperson of 2006 (see previous post). As the article concludes:

In any year it would a crime that the towering achievements of this talented, intelligent and tenacious woman should be obscured by the refusal to take a cyclist as seriously as a tennis player or a track athlete. And given the current gloom surrounding British sport, it seems simply perverse not to recognise that, by any measure, Nicole Cooke is the best we have.

The article opens with a reference to Mont Ventoux - notorious as the mountain on which the greatest British cyclist of all, Tom Simpson, died in 1967 - and its "legendary moonscape shimmering with menace". For photographs of this strange and desolate place, see this site devoted to "the giant of Provence".

Meanwhile, The Onion chips in with its own thoughts on the "winner" of the men's Tour de France this year: Millions Of Americans Buying Floyd Landis-Inspired Bracelets.

You scored as 5th Doctor. Always a little confused and vulnerable you never always help. All the same you are good at Cricket! 5th Doctor 67% 3rd doctor 58% 1st Doctor 50% 4th Doctor 42% 10th Doctor 42% 7th Doctor 33% 9th Doctor 25% a Dalek 25% 2nd doctor 25% Davros 8% 8th Doctor 8% 6th doctor 8% What Doctor Who character are You? created with QuizFarm.com

HT Jason, whose result came out as Christopher Eccleston, though I wonder how many times he had to retake the test to swing that one. ;-)

You scored as Luther. You are Martin Luther. You'll stick with the words of Scripture, and defend this with earthy expressions. You believe in an orthodox Christology. You believe that the bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, but aren't too sure about where he goes after the meal, and so you don't accept reservation of the Blessed Sacrament or Eucharistic devotions. Luther 75% Calvin 56% Catholic 6% Zwingli 0% Unitarian 0% Eucharistic theology created with QuizFarm.com

So I'm not a heretic, but it turns out I'm actually no more Lutheran than Al, who really ought to get the hint at some point. ;-)

An eloquent testimony to (i) a generally dismal year for British sport, and (ii) our collective celebrity-obsession, is the fact that a comedian, David Walliams, is currently the bookies' favourite to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year this December. I haven't felt quite so depressed by a popular vote of this type since Princess Diana led the early voting for "Greatest Briton" a few years back (leading me to vote early, vote often for Isambard Kingdom Brunel, with occasional side-bets on Churchill).

A spokesperson for one bookmaker comments that Walliams' achievement in swimming the Channel (and, to be fair, raising £1m for Sport Relief in the process):

...compares very favorably with anything that any UK sportsperson can boast so far in 2006.

Of course, despite the use of the word "sportsperson", what the spokesperson means is sportsman. As the BBC gratifyingly reminded us on its website yesterday, there is a sportswoman whose accomplishments this year outshine anything achieved by David Walliams: Nicole Cooke. Today's Guardian joins the chorus.

Nicole Cooke is Britain's leading cyclist (without any gender-based qualification being necessary in that statement), and has had an astonishingly successful year, winning the Grande Boucle Feminine (the women's Tour de France), rapidly approaching a second World Cup title, and becoming the first British cyclist to top the world rankings.

What's more, in contrast to (ahem) many leading male cyclists, she is universally acknowledged to be "clean". Indeed she is "vehemently anti-drugs", to the extent she even refuses to inject legal substances such as sugars or amino acids, "or to share a room with anyone who does so" - since she sees this as the start of a slippery slope.

Of course, as the Guardian points out, the reason Cooke is not a household name, with "her picture on the back of cereal packets", is simply that "In this country, women's cycling is a Cinderella sport within a Cinderella sport", and a sport that does not have a great record on encouraging women's participation (though one of the most famous and well-loved British cyclists was also a woman, the legendary Beryl Burton).

Despite the opening couple of paragraphs, this post isn't about having a minority-sport whinge. Being realistic, the prospects of Nicole Cooke winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year are minimal, and I'm sure Cooke herself is more focused on getting a few more yellow or rainbow jerseys in her wardrobe, or the Olympic gold that she missed out on in 2004.

But it was good to have a reminder that this year has seen at least one remarkable sporting achievement under British colours, and to see Nicole Cooke being a little more widely celebrated.