Beholding the Beauty

From the First Oration of Gregory Nazianzen (St. Gregory the Theologian), in 379 A.D. (found here [PDF], p.24) [There are] persons who in the theatres perform wrestling matches in public, but not that kind of wrestling in which the victory is won according to the rules of the sport, but a kind to deceive the eyes of those who are ignorant in such matters, and to catch applause... And now you know why I don't watch Pro Wrestling. :P

This is going to be quite short, since no less a luminary than John Calvin himself has already addressed this (which I discovered after posting Part 1). His commentary can be found here .

Preaching today has become, for an alarming portion of the church 1 , a circus. Preachers have the attitude that if they don't out-entertain everyone else, people will not listen. (This is largely true, if the "people" in question are unregenerate, which is, unfortunately, the case for the majority of people in "churches" nowadays. But I digress.) In the circles in which I personally ran (until recently), a solid exegesis of Scripture is almost unheard of. In fact, in that society, the more a preacher can manipulate the crowd's emotions through jokes, "tear-jerker" stories, etc., the more accolades he receives. (Off-topic: preachers should not be looking for accolades.) A couple of months ago (at the initial time of writing), I had the opportunity to converse with with a well-known (in his religio-social group) pastor over lunch. He is popular for his funny, upbeat, topical messages. I asked him why he preaches mostly topical sermons. His re...

In the course of research completely unrelated to this entry, I used e-Sword to search the Bible for the word "root". First item on the list was Deuteronomy 29:18: Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; I immediately remembered that Hebrews 12:15 is similarly phrased: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you , and thereby many be defiled; But they are not phrased exactly the same — not in English, at least. To determine whether the author of Hebrews was, in fact, quoting Deut. 29:18, I took a look at the Greek behind both verses 1 . Here is the Greek for the verse in Deuteronomy: μή τίς ἐστιν ἐν ὑμῖν ἀνὴρ ἢ γυνὴ ἢ πατριὰ ἢ φυλή, τίνος ἡ διάνοια ἐξέκλινεν ἀπὸ κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν πορεύεσθαι λατρεύειν τοῖς θεοῖ...

This article from Parchment and Pen is really good. I particularly like the quote at the end, from Thomas Oden: Because of piety’s penchant for taking itself too seriously, theology–more than literary, humanistic, and scientific studies–does well to nurture a modest, unguarded sense of comedy. Some comic sensibility is required to keep in due proportion the pompous pretensions of the study of divinity. I invite the kind of laughter that wells up not from cynicism about reflection on God but from the ironic contradictions accompanying such reflections. Theology is intrinsically funny. This comes from glimpsing the incongruity of humans thinking about God. I have often laughed at myself as these sentences went through their tortuous stages of formation. I invite you to look for the comic dimension of divinity that stalks every page. It is not blasphemy to grasp the human contradiction for what it is. The most enjoyable of all subjects has to be God, because God is the source of all jo...

Found this on another blog today: "A certain merchant in Caesarea sent his servant to the market to buy some provisions. Before very long, the servant returned looking frightened and pale. His master inquired of him the reason for his trembling. In a trembling voice he said, 'While in the market place I was jostled by a man in the crowd, and when I turned around I saw it was the Angel of Death. He looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse, for I must go to Samaria, where the Angel of Death will not find me!' The merchant agreed, and the servant mounted the horse and galloped away in great haste. Later that day, the merchant went down to the marketplace, and saw the Angel of Death standing in the crowd. He approached him and said, 'Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?' 'That was not a threatening gesture,' said the Angel. 'It was only a start of surprise. I was as...

A sick man turned to his doctor, as he was leaving the room after paying a visit, and said, "Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side." Very quietly the doctor said, "I don't know." "You don't know? You, a Christian man, do not know what is on the other side?" The doctor was holding the handle of the door, on the other side of which came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I shall pass through with no fear, but with gla...