No Longer Torn (2006)

**
"Darla, say it with me, 'I don't owe him anything.'"

"I don't owe him anything."

"That's right, honey. He has no right to come around here demanding you do this or that. You guys were engaged and all, but you never tied the knot."

"That's true, Gwen. You're right. He never was right for me."

"He was only ever wrong for you and for any other girl, truth be told. On his best day he was just a charmer who could act the part of the nice guy when it suited him."

"He's dangerous that way."

"Now you're talking. He's going in a lot of ways, and all of them lead south, as in down the toilet. His luck's gonna run out."

"It scares me to even think about it."

"Speaking of scared, he met Brian, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"What was that like."

"What you would expect. Brian was very firm and Dwight most likely will not show his face around here any more."

"Good riddance."

"Amen."

"You don't need to be afraid any more, Darla. You've got a good man. It looks like he's gonna stay around. He's God-fearing and kind. He also looks like he can handle himself in a scrape, thank-you-very-much."

"He'll take good care of me."

"Isn't his father some kinda big wig?"

"Yeah."

**

Propers for Trinity 8

That Dreaded Word - Synergism (2006)

**
I have been thinking for some time now of introducing the word "synergism" to the vocabulary of the axegrinder blog. I have repeatedly been struck by the synergistic nature of the propers for Sunday worship. I have resisted using the word, though I have been using the concept for some time.

Basically, synergism is the idea that there is some kind of cooperative effort between God and man in salvation. God is always the initiator. He is always the perfecter. Nevertheless, man is not passive in his relationship with God. One passage that expresses Christian synergism is found in Ephesians 2:12b-13.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Synergism is anathema to most (all?) Calvinists and Reformed. Unfortunately, the idea is often misrepresented by Reformed people, and is therefore misunderstood by those under their tutelage. There is a Reformed website called "Monergism" that, predictably, misrepresents the orthodox, Christian idea of synergism.

1. Synergism is inferred by the Incarnation.
2. Synergism is clearly taught in the Scriptures.
3. Synergism is the overwhelming consensus of the Christian Tradition.

The propers for Trinity 7 also point to a synergistic relationship between God and man.

While not a dogmatic statement on soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), the two stories about Jesus miraculously feeding the multitudes with limited supplies are illustrative of the idea of synergism. Jesus does what only Jesus can do but he does it in cooperation with his followers. Someone else provided the bread and fish. Someone else distributed them to the crowd. Jesus initiated and perfected the work. Without the cooperation of the little boy who provided the food, the Lord and the Apostles the crowd's stomachs would have continued to rumble.

As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. (Romans 6:19)

We used to cooperate with sin. This manner of life led us into more sin which would have ended in eternal death. We have been made free from sin by the Lord. We may now yield to him and do works of righteousness.

Being made free from sin,
and become servants to God,
ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life.
Romans 6:22

John 17:3 says that knowing the Father and the Son is everlasting life. We are talking about quality of life as much as we are duration. The goal (end) of holiness is unimpaired communion with God and His Son, the God-man. If we have fellowship with the God-man then we have fellowship with God and man.

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We earn death by our career in sin. We are given eternal life through the Lord Jesus. Whatever our cooperation accomplishes, it is only possible as we live by the Spirit through the Son to the Father.

Propers for Trinity 7

Robert E. Lee Called It

**
“The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all that have preceded it.”

- General Robert E. Lee

found in a post about Lee on one of my new favorite blogs, Rublev's Dog

Thanks, Chuck. Keep on posting.

axegrinding from Austin

**
I am moved but not moved in. After spending a few refreshing and tiring days with friends in East Texas, I am now blogging live from the capital of the Lone Star State; don't mess. There are new sights to see, new people to meet, a new job to find, a new church to attend, a new diet and exercise regimine to start, new roommates to break in, and a pile of new stuff I can't remember at the moment.

The keychain that my new dwelling delivered to me has the following motto: "This is your key to happiness." Apparently, my apartment complex has a messiah complex.

I was supposed to go with a pastor friend to preach in a prison in Hendersonville, TX yesterday but misplaced my driver's liscense, so I couldn't. When my friend returned that evening, he informed me that I missed out. A muscle-bound, booming-voiced, tattooed convict named Deiter sang a special song before the sermon. It was something about being God's wilty little flower. The way my friend described the scene called forth from my innards gales of laughter. The feminization of American Christianity has reduced this mountain of a man to a pile of irrelevent, inauthentic, sentimental mush. I wish I had been there to exhort my brother in the Lord. "Deiter, I have trouble believing that you are anybody's wee precious pansy."

Before you remind me in the comments that the Isaiah compares our strength and longevity to flowers and grass, let me remind you that the prophet goes on to say that we will fly like eagles, run without growing weary and receive renewed strength. That part wasn't in the song.

"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might."

Wanted: Dead and Alive (2006)

**
Propers for Trinity 6

“Yeah, right. There are just too many stupid people in the world for that to be realistic.”

“I’m serious, Dietrich. It’s not OK to go around calling people “fools” and being angry all the time.”

“There are only two scenarios in which I can imagine what you are saying to be plausible. One - if there was a planet that I could go to that was entirely free of morons. Two - if I was dead. I don’t think I will be worried about idiots in the afterlife …”

Dietrich paused for a moment.

“… unless, of course, death does not cure bone-headedness.”

“You’re in a bad way, Dietrich.”

“Don’t I know it.”

**

“If Shirley thinks I’m going to attend her daughter’s wedding after the way she ignored me at church then she’s got another thing coming.”

“Wanda, please reconsider. You all have known each other forever. Can’t you just let it go?”

“Absolutely not. I’ve made up my mind. If she’s going to ignore me then I’m going to return the favor.”

“I think it was an honest mistake. She probably had a lot on her mind.”

“Well, my attendance at her daughter’s wedding and my talking to her at church are two things that she won’t have to worry about anymore.”

**

“You kids shut up!”

Jen-Jen and Danny froze in their tracks, but one of the balls they had been playing with got away and rolled down the stairs.

“I SAID ‘SHUT UP!’”

The children sat in their room trying to figure out what to do with their time. They couldn’t ask their father for permission to go outside when he was in this kind of mood. If they simply went outside he would either hear them and yell at them for “sneaking around” or he would yell at them when they got back for not asking.

Their father worked the night shift at the plant. Their mother worked the day shift as a cashier at Wal Mart. Jen-Jen and Danny were kids with a lot of energy and very few options.

It had been a long summer.

**

The Lord Jesus calls us to a very high standard of living. We are to be righteous people. The Sermon on the Mount is an exposition of the life that Christ’s disciples are to experience and express to the world. We are to be those who keep our cool, respect others and seek reconciliation with our adversaries. It sounds simple enough. While I do not believe that “hell is other people,” I do know that we provide each other with many opportunities to fail in our commitment to righteousness.

The sacrament of baptism ushers us into a new kind of life, a life that is as eternal in quality as it is in duration. “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

In my perambulations through Christendom I have heard quite a bit of talk about what it means to be “dead to sin.” I have heard people downplay the reality of it. I have heard others oversell it. I am not sure who hits the nail on the head regarding what it means to be dead to sin and liberated to live the righteous life that Christ has provided in his atonement.

I’ve heard it said that a dead man is non-responsive to the stimuli around him. The application is that we are non-responsive to the temptations around us. Maybe.

Is it possible that there is an experience in God that will be so dramatic that it could be compared to death? Why does Paul use such a striking metaphor?

What do you say?

I would like for you to weigh in on this issue. Explain to me what it means to be dead to sin.

Propers for Trinity 6

Moving to Austin

**
After 6 1/2 years in the capital of Mississippi, I'm moving to the capital of Texas. Other state capitals I've lived in are Richmond and Atlanta. I also worked in Baton Rouge. I plan to be in Austin for a year before I return to school in Fall '08. I don't know what I will be doing for a job, yet.

This will be my third brief stint in the Lone Star state. I lived in Fort Worth for two years as an infant. I resided in Longview (2 hours east of Dallas) for 8 months in '94-'95.

Anyone familiar with Austin should feel free to offer suggestions regarding recreation, employment, dining, logistics, entertainment, et al.

I'm leaving Jackson on Saturday. I will look back fondly on this town. I've made some lifetime friends. I unexpectedly converted to Anglicanism here. I received my first taste of formal theological education, which was my original intention in moving here. Jackson, you've been good to me.

Help Yourself (2006)

**
Propers for Trinity 5

Holiness is a good idea. Sometimes, in the darkness of our hearts, it does not seem so. We manufacture (or co-opt) excuses, reasons, schemes, apologies, ad nauseum for why a particular instance or practice of sin is okey-dokey:

"I can look at porn because my wife is frigid."

"I can fib on my tax returns because the government is corrupt."

"I can leave off church attendance because I've got to get rested for the week ahead."

[Tell me that I didn't just say that laying out of church on Sunday is a sin.]

Holiness is a good idea for very practical reasons.

Have I lost you, yet? I'm talking about sin. I've started off my post with the word holiness. Is there anyone left reading this post that is not already a Christian? Stick with me. I'm trying to say something good to you.

The Apostle Peter knew from experience that sin does not end well. It is a distraction. It causes unnecessary pain in a world that has plenty of pain to go around. There is much suffering in the world. We do not need to pile it on ourselves through misdeeds.

Peter was distracted by his own sinfulness at times in his life. He comes around to writing his epistles and draws on his own experience in at least one place to illustrate a point (see 2 Pt 1 about the Transfiguration). I think that he drew heavily on his experiences with Jesus in order to teach his readers.

He knew that virtuous living makes life better. Such living makes it all the more likely that we will get along with our next-door neighbor. We’ll take our knocks if we are committed to doing what is right before God and man. Our lives will be much more meaningful if the sufferings that come to us are not on account of our sins.

There is so much work for us to do. We do not have time to be laboring over our own sins. Peter knew this better than anyone. Early in his career Jesus was being thronged by crowds. He asked if he could use Peter’s boat as a pulpit. After class Jesus told Peter to take him on a fishing expedition.

They got out deep in the lake and took quite a haul of fish. The problem was that Peter and his crew had spent all night fishing and had been unsuccessful. Peter saw what was going on and begged Jesus to leave him alone. Peter was distracted by his sinfulness when he should have been rejoicing over a giant haul.

Here’s the point I’m trying to make: Jesus wants us to work with him. He wants us to do good unto others. Sin distracts us from our work, makes it drudgery and spoils the joy that we should have from a job well done. Also, there will be plenty of suffering in this life. We only increase our tears by continuing on in sin.

Holiness is a good idea for very practical reasons.

Propers for Trinity 5

Radley Balko on SWAT Teams

**
Happy Independence Day. I'd like to offer something pertinent.

Below is a taste of Radley Balko's Testimony Before the House Subcommittee on Crime:

The military’s job is to annihilate a foreign enemy. The police are supposed to protect us while upholding our constitutional rights. It’s dangerous to conflate the two ...

Those are the approximately 40 cases where a mistaken raid resulted in the death of a completely innocent American citizen ...

I’d estimate I find news reports of mistaken raids on Americans homes about once a week ...

800 times per week in this country, a SWAT team breaks open an American’s door, and invades his home ...

There are appropriate uses for these kinds of tactics. But the bulk of the dramatic rise in paramilitary police operations is attributable to inappropriate use of SWAT teams for routine warrant service ...

Read it all.

Here is Balko's 103 page study of the rise of paramilitary police raids in America.

Here are 3 more articles on this subject at Reason Online.

Here are the archives on his blog concerning this subject.

Just Trying to Make a Point

**
I come to you in emptiness
At the beginning of the day
So many time I lack the words
When it's time to pray
I come in low humility
And this is what I say

Chorus:

You are holy
You are lovely
You are worthy
You are God

My day is filled with many things
That distract and oppress
I try to offer prayers to you
But they're always second best
I take a moment anyway
It's you I want to bless

Chorus

You meet with me despite myself
And oft to my surprise
The clouds disperse; the light shines in
And I realize
That it's OK that all I say
Before I close my eyes
Is ...

Chorus

*

I wrote this "song" in less than ten minutes. If I could stomach it, I am relatively certain that I could write an album's worth of this pabulum in less than two hours. I guarantee that it would get radio play if marketed through the right channels.

I am not a musician. I hack and bang out a few chords on the guitar now and again, but have no training. If I could get the right guy or gal to put these lyrics to music, you would be hearing it at the next Vineyard/Emergent/Church Growth gathering due to its relevance/authenticity/intimacy.

I just threw up in my mouth.

I did not say anything heretical in the song. I am trying to make the point that Praise and Worship songs are ridiculously easy to write. (If I had my guitar with me, I would be willing to wager that I could set this thing to music in another 5-10 minutes.) Does this bother anyone?

Finally, a taste of what you're missing as a devotee to the cult of Praise and Worship music:

"Thou within the veil hast entered,
robed in flesh, our great High Priest.
Thou on earth both Priest and Victim
in the Eucharistic Feast."

Alleluia! Sing to Jesus! by William Chatterton Dix

The Scar (2006)

**
Propers for Trinity 4

There is a scar ripped right across the face of creation. I trust that you have seen it. I know that you have felt it.

It is the tsunami. It is Hurricane Katrina. It is every flood and landslide in the third world that is slightly reported or ignored by the American media and by us. It is every natural disaster that afflicts the world.

The scar is also 9/11. It is the recently remembered London bombing (7/7). It is abortion. It is Fidel Castro's prisons. It is every evil perpetrated by man against man.

The scar is a man beating his wife. It is a mother ignoring her daughter. It is a business owner cheating his employees. It is the sins that make us cringe. It is the pecadillos that we have made peace with. It is all the things that we do to one another.

The scar is a man at the Picadilly eating himself to death. The scar is his girlfriend in the bathroom purging and starving herself. It is drug abuse and alcoholism. It is cutting. It is pornography. It is prayerlessness. It is all the things we do to ourselves.

The scar is real. The scar speaks of pain and privation and corruption. The scar is visible on me. You will see it in the mirror and in the faces of your friends. The scar is on your newborn baby struggling to focus on his Winnie the Pooh mobile.

The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.

We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. The Incarnation has taught us that God is going to redeem the creation. The Resurrection announces that death and its comrades are defeated. We may participate in that process now as we look to its final realization.

We show mercy, forgive and give generously. We do not judge or condemn.

Yes, we fail. Yes, we fall short. Yes, our lives are a mixture. At times we forgive. Then we hold a grudge. Today we are tight-fisted. Tomorrow we write a check to support a South American orphanage. We're a mess but we're God's mess.

Without God nothing is strong, nothing is holy. Without the Incarnate Christ we are all blind men falling and causing others to fall into ditches. Take heart. There is a balm in Gilead. We have a Great Physician who has provided the medicine of immortalitt. We receive it as the Eucharist. It may take time, but we can be healed of our blindness. We can take part in the healing of others.

There was a man named Jesus who lived with his eyes wide open. He saw the scar and did not flich. He put his hands on those who asked him to heal them. Those who denied that they were scarred killed him. In the end, he embraced the scar. He bears it forever. He lives forever to help those who want to be healed and who want to see others healed. His Father sends his Spirit to gather whoever will be gathered into his Body, the place where healing is accomplished.

I wish we could attach a ritual to our Rogations Days, the days when we thank God for the fruits of the earth and pray for his blessing upon it. It would be similar to the ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. I want us to pass a bowl of ashes around the congregation. Each person must apply the ashes is a slash mark across the face of the person next to them.

We pass the peace to one another. We light one another's candles at the Tenebrae Service. We should also recognize that we are responsible for scarring one another. A ritual and a sign would help.

At the end of the day we could go to a family member or friend. We could wipe the scars off of each other's faces. In doing so we would be proclaiming the fact that as we have hurt one another, so we may participate in God's healing of one another. The working out of Christ's atonement takes place in community, in the sacramental life of the Church.

I do not really want to invent a new ritual for the Church. I am too young and too ignorant to be responsible for adding or subtracting from our worship. However, I thought that painting a picture might serve our "faith seeking understanding" as we see the scar and move towards its final healing.

The scar is not the final word. Thanks be to God.

Propers for Trinity 4