Riverwood Presbyterian Church

General Theology

The Center of Creation

by Jimmy Hopper

In the extraordinary Sunday School series now playing at Riverwood, Faith and Science, Bob Thornton and Allen Powers spoke of the time in which it was proven that the universe didn’t revolve around the earth, as the religious dogma of the day believed. In fact, science now speaks of the complete insignificance of the earth; a dot of protoplasm swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Science says that there are probably many earths which support life, and the entertainment world has certainly bought into this idea, from Superman to Star Wars to the X-Files. Even C. S. Lewis conceded this possibility with his space series but indicated that, if they exist, God created them for His own glory even as He did our earth. Recently I came across a fantastic picture from the NASA web site that would seem to indicate the rather pitiful insignificance of the earth in the vast oceans of space.

This is a picture of an eclispe of the Sun by Saturn. It was taken from the Cassini space probe and it outlines the incredible beauty of the rings. As beautiful as it is (“The heavens declare the Glory of God”, I thought); one of the most interesting things about it is that it is a view of earth from behind Saturn. Look closely at the upper left outer ring of Saturn and you will see an infintesimal little light blue dot. This is our earth that Christians believe was created by God and upon whom live His chosen people. It could not possibility be more insignificant, could it?

The truth is that the world really is the center of the universe, the reason for its existence. No, the universe doesn’t physically revolve around the earth, as was believed in the Dark Ages, but the ordered beauty of the heavens does exist because the earth exists. And the earth exists because God conceived of and created it as a platform for our existence. If you are a Christian, the smallness of the earth in the vastness of the universe is a matter of joy and delight. It speaks of our importance, His people’s importance, in His eyes. This is the God who “Chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; the weak to shame the strong; the lowly, the despised, the things that are not to shame the things that are.” Man has determined the vastness and the power of the universe, and despises the lowliness of the earth and the God that made it; and yet this claim will also be shamed.

In his book, “Orthodoxy,” G.K. Chesterton ends with the idea that God has hidden something that He hasn’t revealed in any place. He revealed many things through Jesus’ incarnation but hid this from our view. Chesterton wonders if the hidden thing wasn’t God’s mirth. If Chesterton is right, this idea, a source of pride to men who think they understand; this idea of the unimportance of earth and of man almost appears to be a manifestation of God’s mirth.

Politics

Who Loves The Lord?

by Clay Staggs

Just when you think that politics can’t get any weirder when it comes to its intersection with religion, along comes something to prove you wrong. Perusing Hugh Hewitt’s blog (which I recommend to all interested in politics, especially on the GOP side of the aisle), I found a link to a little video of Harold Ford, Jr., who is the Democrat candidate for the Senate in Tennessee, giving a campaign speech. In it, he says:

My friend Lincoln Davis who chairs our campaign says there are, there’s one big difference between us and misfortunate Republicans when it comes to our faith: he said that Republicans fear the Lord; he said Democrats fear AND love the Lord.

Go watch the video if you don’t believe it.

As a Christian and a Republican, I probably should be offended by this. But, it’s so silly, and probably, from Harold Ford’s perspective, self-destructive electorally, that I can’t get too worked up about it.

Geez.

Children

Come Together. Right Now. Over Me.

by Peggy Drinkard

There is only one man qualified, and worthy, of giving the above imperative; the Lord Jesus. Last night we observed Reformation Celebration. I think it’s fair to say “a good time was had by all” and it went well. Nonetheless, I found it frustrating that the adults in attendance were primarily those who were helping to put it on. Each year as I prepare for this event, I learn more about the Reformers and the Reformation, and realize what an incredible event it was in the history of God s people. Psalm 78 commands us to recount His wonders to our children, and consequently, to their children. A favorite part says, “We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strenghth and His wondrous works that He has done.” It also details some sad and dire consequences for failure to pass our inheritance in God along to our children. The Protestant Reformation certainly qualifies as one of His wonders. As time goes on I increasingly regard our own Reformation Celebration as less of a “Halloween alternative” and more of a genuine holiday in it’s own right that we really should celebrate as the people of God. (The advent of “Christian themed” horror houses and such in recent years disinclines me even further to try and “compete”with the world on the world’s terms anyway.) So, to my main point. ..On occasion I dismiss Covenant Kids’ Club on Sunday nights because of some event I REALLY WANT the children to participate in with the adults…something I want them to SEE and OBSERVE. The result is usually that the children AND their parents don’t attend because there is “nothing for the kids” that night. And conversely, when some event is held that is perceived as “for the kids”, the majority of adults don’t come. (Ive intentionally included some more sophisticated games in the Reformation Celebration that could be enjoyed by adults if only we had the childlike abiliity to enjoy playing.) We have become so acclimated to our culture’s system of “age-segregation” that even as Christians we have small regard for “coming together.” Recommendations on ways to help our church do this are most welcomed.

Education

Bulletproof Books?

by Clay Staggs

I know that everyone is concerned about school safety, but has it really come to this?

Education

Civic Illiteracy

by Clay Staggs

Here’s a link to an interesting article about the civic literacy of American college grads. If true, the fact that seniors only scored 1.5% better than freshmen is yet another devastating critique of the state of higher education in America.

The fact that the elite universities fared among the worst doesn’t surprise me, though. When Kimberly and I were at NYU, she looked into taking some extra classes at the law school while we were there. NYU’s law school consistently ranks in the top 10 in the US. Kimberly’s area of interest in the law is real estate, so we figured that there would be lots of really interesting classes there that wouldn’t have been available to her at Alabama.

Boy, were we wrong. There were two property related classes offered in the Fall of 1998. Basic Property (the class first year students are required to take) and Trends in Land Law in Africa. That was it. No course on mortgage law, no course on zoning and land use planning, no course on development (all of which had been offered at Alabama).

Sadly, I fear that this study is right on the money. It seems that our university system is abandoning the traditions of Western Civilization in favor of the fad du jour. I also fear that the author’s predicitions about the consequence of this trend are correct.

Education

I Was Eavesdropping

by Tim Lien

I was sitting in a booth, reading my paper—initially, minding my own business. A cell phone rang behind me. It started out as Inadvertent Overhearing. And then it progressed into Casual Curiosity. And then it ended with Intentional Eavesdropping:

“Hello.”

 [pause]

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with ‘er”

 [pause]

“She fine.”

 [pause]

“Y’all quit botherin’ my girl.”

 [pause]

“Amber doin’ great. She the homecoming queen.”

 [pause]

 [and then heatedly,]

“That’s y’alls’ problem for eight hours every day.
Don’t be calling me every 10 minutes everyday.”

 [pause]

“We’ll see, won’ we , we’ll see.”

 [pause]

“Ya’ll better be ready, ‘cause I’m gonna be there at 7:45 Monday mornin’.”

 [cell phone slams down on table.]

So I paused right there in the middle of the sports section. Sure, the lady behind me needed a couple of well-placed verbs. Sure, her logic wasn’t airtight. But she had a point.

Whether it was done purposefully, subconsciously, or accidentally, the lady expressed a fundamental flaw in the federal socialization of education. The System requests that you relinquish your God-given mandateto educate or supervise the education of your child. The System also politely requests that you remove yourself from being too curious, helpful, or inquisitive. Changes in the System’s curriculum are impossible to implement, because the System has its hands tied by the System. The System asks that you help with fund-raisers. The System asks that you join the PTA. But when it comes to the mind, the System will take it from here, thank-you-very-much. If your child misbehaves, the System will take disciplinary action utilizing all the pre-approved System-worthy procedures. However, if unruliness persists beyond the System’s capacity to direct behavior, then the System will give you a call. In other words, the System does not need help with education of the mind, just with discipline of the child.

And this is the flaw. True discipline had been inappropriately excised from education. Because if education is truly an education it will be disciplined, and if discipline is truly good, it will seek to educate. The lady behind me was expressing the logical end to institutional education—it must encapsulate both if it has professed superiority in the education of children. The System cannot have it both ways. They cannot demand parental involvement in discipline and then philosophically stop them at the training of the mind. The two are inseparable. They should come from the same hand.

Miscellaneous

Unverschämt

by Clay Staggs

That’s the best word I know to describe the sentencing of Lynne Stewart to only 28 months in prison. I use the German word “unverschämt” because it lacks an English translation that conveys the exact combination of disgust, unconscionability, obscenity, and brazenness that it indicates. (For a full list of words that it may be translated as, go here.)

Stewart had defended Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was ultimately convicted of conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993, and other sundry terrorist activities, including the assassination of the president of Egypt. Apparently after his conviction, she passed messages from him to his followers in Egypt (and who knows where else) giving instructions to his followers, ultimately earning her own conviction for lending material support to a terrorist organization.

The federal courts have sentencing guidelines that provide a fairly standard sentence for convicts. The federal sentencing guidelines on Stewart would have indicated a 30 year sentence. The Clinton-appointed judge on the case, though, was persuaded to depart radically from these guidelines because of the defendant’s years of service to the poor and disadvantaged (many of which have been more political radicals than economically downtrodden). Making matters even worse, the judge released her without bond while she appeals.

I think this is utterly outrageous. This woman’s conduct indicates that she is a danger to innocents in this country and others. This judge ought to be ashamed of himself. I am a strong believer in grace and second chances, but I don’t think that means signing onto a suicide pact. She needs to be behind bars so that she can’t do any more damage than she’s already done.

Why is it that the most educated people in our society fail to grasp even the most basic concepts? This woman’s punisment should not be a function of how many pro bono cases she’s handled. It’s a matter of life and death. I wish we had judges that could, you know, get that.

Christian Chaff

Signs, Signs…

by Clay Staggs

I know, I know. Another post about a church sign. But the whole phenomenon both facinates and disgusts me at the same time. What is it about giving a church a signboard that impels them to put something irretreivably stupid on it?

Passing by a church on my way back home from vacation, we saw a sign that read:

“Salvation is a Gift from God - Assembly Required.”

Last week I posted on how often the church uses mass marketing tactics rather than eloquent persuasion. Does this not prove the point? Not only does it seem to contradict its own message, but its lame attempt at humor only reminds me of those toys that I’ve bought for my kids that have to be put together while they cry impatiently. Not exactly the kind of image I’d want to bring to mind.

Worse, though, is the contradiction. It starts out sounding like grace, but finishes up sounding more like something with strings attached. Which is it? Do you get salvation, full and free, or is there a requirement that you show up to church a few times to make God like you better before it’s complete? And if that’s not the type of “assembly” they mean, then that’s even worse.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m discounting the importance of regular attendance at church for believers. That’s not what the sign I saw talked about, though. It’s expressly referring to salvation.

I guess I’m just glad I don’t get gifts from these guys.

Miscellaneous

Cloudy Days

by Clay Staggs

Today is a cloudy and cool day at the beach.

This has somewhat frustrated my plans for laying in the sun and doing nothing. Instead, I’ve been forced to stay inside and do nothing. However, that doing nothing part is pretty good wherever you do it.

It has been wonderful to take a break from my busy life to recharge my batteries a bit. Here’s wishing all of you a great and restful weekend.

Books

The Monster of Me

by Tim Lien

There are many of you that know that I am currently preaching through the epistle of Philippians. A condensed summary of Saint Paul’s letter can be expressed with, “joy in suffering.” To accompany my sermons with illustrations, I started reading Elie Wiesel’s trilogy about the Jewish Holocaust during WWII. “Certainly,” I thought, “these horrific accounts will supply my need for illustrations that depict true suffering.” This past week I finally finished the third installment. (Book 1: Night, Book 2: Dawn, Book 3: The Accident)

As I was reading Night, I noticed that I had a wincing expectation for the graphic and horrible. I knew the Nazi concentration camps were ghastly libraries of sordid stories—I just needed solid facts, names, and eyewitness accounts to confirm this. All of the stories made me sick, sad, and angry. But I knew they would.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the hollow aching void I felt after I finished The Accident. It is a cruel, hopeless, and penetrating observation into the soul of man. Wiesel’s desperation with humanity, the inaction/non-existence of God, and final observations of meaning in the midst of depravity—lead him to a restrained and minimal hedonism found in friendship and “lies that breed true happiness.”

But the haunting of Wiesel is what haunted me after I had closed the cover. He writes that the survivors of the holocaust did not use their freedom to punish and hate the Germans. Rather, these “living dead,” who could show no capacity for truly living, were more saturated with the guilt, shame, and debasement that occurred within their own souls. They were consumed with self-hatred for every act they performed to protect their own lives. Wiesel mercilessly and accurately reveals the internal state of every “normal” human being. (And not the sadistic victimizer, but the victim!) And then he stops. No solutions. He offers only philosophical silence.

The lingering effects of Wiesel’s trilogy have been brutally helpful, in that, I have been reflecting long on the nature of my own heart. Of course, I have heard it said: “We are no different from Hitler, save the blood of Christ.” But embedded in those self-effacing statements is the assumption that we, too, are capable of atrocities given the same circumstances. However, Wiesel coldly and consistently points out that the human heart is the same under normal, urbane, educated, and cosmopolitan influences. The acts that were constantly relived with cold sweats and nightmares came from quiet, peaceful, small-town people. In other words they came from me, you, and the sweet lady up the street. And this is where Wiesel’s scathing blade cuts the deepest, leaving little hope for humanity and even less for life.

But as a believer in Christ as Messiah, I think that this is precisely where the Gospel is given any incredulous magnitude: when we see the great depths of the human capacity to manifest evil, while simultaneously seeing the hope granted by Christ to make us clean. Being able to say to the man who beat an old man to death for a piece of bread: “Believe, and you are righteous” To the men who pitched babies into the air for Nazi target practice: “Believe, and you are righteous.” To the man who wrung his own crying baby’s head off to protect his family from being discovered: “Believe, and you are righteous—your sins are no more.” To the girls tortured as sex slaves at the age of 12: “Believe, you are clean, virginal, and righteous.”

A saint who’s gone ahead…

by Peggy Drinkard

For our last Air Force assignment before retirement God led us to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. In His grace, before the boys and I arrived, He led David to visit a tiny PCA church pastored by Dr. Richard L. Summers, Th. D. One visit and David was sold…couldn’t wait for our arrival and our first intro to Dr. Summers. Beyond retirement age himself, Dr. Summers pastored this church with dedicated love and faithfulness, studying vigorously each week and preaching sermons very much worthy of publishing and a much broader audience. It was a mystery to me why Dr. Summers, such a treasure, was, in a sense, hidden away by God in this small congregation. It was also a lesson to me to observe his faithful labor and apparent contentment with the anonymous nature of the ministry God had given him, for he was an extraordinarily brilliant man, had served in World War II as an aviator, had been a POW three seperate times in Nazi prison camps (from which he escaped three times), and was highly decorated, including a Purple Heart. (Our boys were in awe of him, and he occasionally let them see his medals.)
One sermon that I continue to reflect on all these years later, was titled, “If you followed Jesus, where would you go?” The outline was A. You would go to church (he spoke of the many references in the Gospels that found Jesus in the Temple or a synagogue), B. You would go out among people (all kinds and types…rich, poor, brilliant, slow or demented, etc) and C. You would go to the cross..(death to self). Dr. Summers died a little over a year ago, shortly before Hurricane Katrina. I look forward to seeing him again. Never quite content with any of the communion hymns available, he wrote this one for the congregation’s use:

                                           COMMUNION HYMN
                                  Listen while now the Living Word
                                 Speaks to refresh our souls again
                             Calls to our faith through bread and wine
                                     Bidding us thus remember Him.

                              Come claim the grace that spilled to earth,
                                Out from the Father's boundless love
                                 Draw from the flowing fountainhead
                              With hearts confessed and purged from sin.

                                 Take up the bread He broke for us
                                   That in one fellowship of love
                                  We all together might be bound
                                 In sweet communion with our God.

                                   Lift up the cup He holds to thee
                                    The pascal mark upon thy life
                                 In this rich sign preserved for life
                                  By His shed blood and sacrifice.

                                  Soon we depart, O pilgrim souls,
                               Back to the world, the walk, the cross,
                                 Take these provision for thy way.
                                   To keep thee in the wilderness.

General Theology

Identity Crisis

by Clay Staggs

One of the frequent themes that I hear in the preaching at Riverwood is our identity as Christians. Refreshingly, yesterday, the pope even got in on the act, urging Christians not to give up their unique identity for the sake of dialogue with other religions, which Reuters obligingly reads as Muslims.

This story both heartened and depressed me. On the one hand, it is a good thing to see the pope take such a stand. On the other hand, what a shame that any Christian thinks it necessary to give up our unique identity to engage the world and the adherents of other religions.

Undoubtedly, there is a political and theological angle to this. Many liberal theologians and liberal politicans believe that orthodox Christians’ claim to exclusivity of salvation is dangerous and arrogant.

It reminded me of an article that I read in USA Today a while back about three women, one Jew, one Christian, and one Muslim, who came together to discuss their various faiths. They called it the Faith Club, and wrote a book about it. The full article is here.

What got me was the quote at the end:

For anyone who reads the Quran or the Bible literally, rather than metaphorically or in cultural context, the women say, their views will be too liberal. For people who believe there is exactly one way to one heaven, described and delineated only by their own faith, The Faith Club may not offer a template. Yet to them, the women all offer a quote from Idliby’s imam, the prayer leader where she worships: “There is no temporal judge of faith on this earth.”

When Jesus Christ says that no one comes to the Father except through Him, I don’t know how to take that metaphorically or in cultural context. Moreover, there’s no reason that any Christian should take it at other than face value. After all, it’s pretty clear.

It’s good to see that this pope may not fall into the “Faith Club” muddle.

Christian Chaff

Vacation Musings

by Clay Staggs

Well, it has been a long time since I’ve had the chance to sit down and put up a post. However, this week, that should change. I’m at the beach this week, and will hopefully have the time to do some things that I really enjoy, and blogging has turned out to be one of those.

So, to start the week off, here’s the view from my balcony at sunset this evening:

Anytime you travel any distance, you can’t help but run across a couple of church signs of the type that Bryan Bond was so fond of, er, critiquing. We passed by a large community-type church this morning. Later in the day, we saw a billboard for this church that had its name and slogan. I’ll withhold the church’s name, but the slogan was “Bringing good people together.”

Ordinarily, it would be easy enough from our reformed perspective to ridicule this, and normally that’s what this post would be about. However, I’ve started reading a book that has given me a bit of perspective about why the slogan is so bad.

The Board at Riverwood Classical School (on which I am honored to sit) is currently reading a book entitled Widsom and Eloquence. The authors’ thesis, borrowing from Augustine, is that to truly make a difference in a disbelieving world, Christians must be not only wise, but also be eloquent, so as to enable them to persuasively communicate their wisdom to that world.

Now, consider the church’s slogan, “Bringing Good People Together,” in this light. Is it wisdom communicated eloquently? Perhaps that’s too much to ask from a billboard (which begs the question of using such a thing anyway), but, leaving that aside, I assert that this is neither wise nor eloquent.

It’s not wise in that it’s contrary to the plain teaching of scripture:

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10-12. Also, I’d argue that it’s not particuarly eloquent. What fraternity, sorrority, country club, alumni association, or any number of other social organizations wouldn’t say the same thing? What if you don’t happen to feel like all that great a person? Should you pass this place by? It may qualify as catchy in a mass-communications sense, but that’s not the same as eloquence. I fear that the church has bought into earthly advertising ideas as a replacement for true communication and persuasion.

I’m sure that some will read this post and think that it’s not particuarly brimming with wisdom or eloquence, and maybe that person is right. However, as an aspirational standard for Christians, I think it’s spot-on.