Wallowing in the Scriptures

On Sunday in his sermon, my minister passed on a few comments from a young man that he's been mentoring for less than a year. Oliver is an intelligent and kindly Englishman who I've had the privilege of getting to know a little bit too. In our first conversation, we somehow got onto the topic of books and authors that have made an impact on us, and he said, almost immediately, "CS Lewis and JI Packer." So I knew we'd get along!

Apparently, it was only eight months ago that my minister introduced Oliver to the Old Testament, and since then he has read most of the bible, intensively studied many new testament epistles, read Packer's Knowing God twice, and whiles away leisure hours listening to podcast lectures from Ridley Hall Cambridge and reading the works of Cranmer and Aquinas and asking my minister tricky questions about them.

Here's what Oliver said about reading the Bible:

"You know, I've realised that when I spend just half an hour at the beginning and end of each day wallowing in the scriptures, I am a more useful person in everything else I do all day, like all my interactions are coloured by God."

I love the image of indulgence this paints - that reading scripture is a surreptitious luxury, a covert vice! I ought to be watching my tv program, but ah, just one more page! I should be getting ready for going out, but let me sit here and finish this chapter...!

St Patrick's Breastplate

Every time I read this hymn, commonly attributed to St. Patrick (but probably written later, in the 8th Century), I get shivers. The language is so fierce, so aware of wind, earth, darkness and strangers. It's a prayer for preparation on a journey, copying the Druidic style of an incantation.

It's been put to music and here's a nice version.

(NB: A long hymn, but worth the effort!)

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the Cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour;
The service of the Seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death-wound and the burning
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Bones to Philosophy, Milk to Faith

Today the Western Christian church celebrates the doctrine of the Trinity: that God is three, yet one. Distinct, yet united, co-eternal, and co-equal.

We've been studying the Trinity in class all semester, but its inner workings still does my head in. Yet we cannot do without it, else our faith falls flat. It scaffolds our understanding of the unique relational Christian God. But it's so confusing, something luminous that is beyond our reason, tho' not irrational.

So I rejoiced in hearing these serpentine lines being read in church today. I echo something of dear ol' John's sentiments: even if I am too stupid to fathom the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit nevertheless surround me, and invites me to enter into their eternal dance of love, power and joy.

O Blessed glorious Trinity,
Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith,
Which, as wise serpents, diversely
Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath,
As you distinguished undistinct
By power, love, knowledge be,
Give me such a self different instinct,
Of these let all me elemented be,
Of power, to love, to know, you unnumbered three.

- John Donne.

Are you ready?

I've been preparing like mad for impending ... doom? No, not quite. for an theological exam, actually. Which is about the closest thing to doom, at this stage! (So life is really very good, in my first-world life).

In the process, Herr Karl Barth reminds me to prepare for joy: the mystery, wonder, radiance, refreshment and consolation in the gift of life that God gives us. And to be ready for joy, even when it presents itself, as Barth puts it, "in its alien form":

"We think we should seek pleasure here or there because this thing or that appears as light or alleviation, as warm, benefit, refreshment, consolation and encouragement, promising us renewal and the attainment of what which hovers before us as the true goal of all that we do and refrain from doing. But do we really know this true goal and therefore our true joy?

God knows it. God decides it. But this means that our will for joy, our preparedness for it, must be wide open in this direction, In the direction of His unknown and even obscure disposing, if it is to be the right and good preparedness commanded in this matter. It should not be limited by the suffering of life, because even life's suffering (or what we regard as such) comes from God, the very One who summons us to rejoice. He has given to the cosmos and therefore to our life an aspect of night as well as day, and we have to remember that His goodness as Lord and Creator is the same and no less in the one than the other."

- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 3/4, p377.