In Lieu of Logos

This is a poem by Scott Cairns, found in his collection of poetry, Recovered Body, pg. 70-71 (The whole book is amazing!).  This is really a poetic rendering of Prof. Bosma's concept of "optionsville," and the reason I prefer Hebrew to Greek.

In Lieu of Logos

Let's suppose some figure more Hebraic

in its promise, more inclined to move

from one provisional encampment

to the next, then discover the effect

wandering tenders even as it draws

the weary hiker on to further

speculation, crossing what has seemed so

like barren country but whose very

barrenness proves a prod for yet another

likely story.  The old Jews liked davar,

which did something more than just point fingers

to what lies back behind one's fussy, Greek

ontology of diminishing

returns.  I have come to like it too, word

with a future as dense as its past,

a Ding Gedicht whose chubby letters each

afford a pause at which the traveler

rubs his chin and looking up entertains

a series of alternate routes, just now

staying put at the borrowed outpost,

but marveling how each turn of the head

gives way to distance, layers every term

of travel--each terminal--with reprieve,

invites indeterminate, obscure enormity

to gather at the glib horizon's edge.

Word and Deed Revisited

I preached on Colossians 3:1-17 on Sunday.  The final verse says, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.^”  This has been a key verse in my life for a long time.  I appreciate its call to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, whether that is studying, or teaching, or administrating, or preaching, or visiting.  And I both appreciate and am challenged by its emphasis on both word and deed. 

Last summer I reflected on what it meant for Madison Ave to be a “word and deed” church.  And that’s something I’ve been reflecting on this summer, too.  Hope, like many rural CRC congregations, is strongly a word church.  I am known as a preacher, and people appreciate my sermons.  The church expected me to preach and lead worship, and so I did.  I am thankful for the preaching experience I have gained.  But I have also really missed being able to serve in a ministry of deeds, as well.  I have missed being a part of the neighborhood events and have missed the sense that the church is an integral part of the community.  I have missed the sense that we are “making the most of every opportunity” in the ways we interact with “outsiders” (Col. 4:5, from my sermon text from this Sunday).

Different people come to their life of faith with different emphasis, and different churches have different strengths and images of what their congregation is.  I have learned this summer that holding word and deed in tension is really important to me.  I won’t do well in a church that doesn’t care about the community around them.  And although I will miss Hope, at the same time I am looking forward to MCC’s ministry in the community.

On the Holy Spirit

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The work of the Holy Spirit in preaching and worship has amazed me again and again this summer.  There is really no good way to describe it.  I faithfully research, pray, write, ponder, edit, and practice sermons, but it’s the Holy Spirit that gives a sermon wings.  It’s the Holy Spirit that gives me the words, but also the Holy Spirit that prepares hearts to hear it and applies it to each person’s life specifically. 

And the Holy Spirit often has taken threads of various parts of the service and gathered them together into one.  Yesterday, we heard from a group of young people who came back Saturday evening from a SERVE trip to Las Vegas about their “God moments,” many of which touched on the poverty they had seen and how blessed we are.  The children’s message was about how corn is planted in fields because one stalk by itself will get blown over by the wind.  I preached on Colossians 2:6-23 about false teachings that hold us captive and the freedom we have in Christ.  Two of the false teachings I identified were consumerism and individualism.  I didn’t know what either of the previous parts of the service would be like, but they all came together, thanks to the Holy Spirit.  It’s both humbling and comforting to be able to rely on the Holy Spirit and to expect things you weren’t planning to happen!