The question of where to live and what to do is really insignificant compared to the question of how to keep the eyes of my heart focused on God. I can be teaching at Yale, working in the bakery at the Genesee Abbey, or walking around with poor children in Peru, and feel totally useless, miserable, and depressed in all these situations.
There is no such thing as the right place, the right job, the right calling or ministry. I can be happy or unhappy in all situations. I am sure of it, because I have been. I have felt distraught and joyful in situations of abundance as well as poverty, in situations of popularity and anonymity, in situations of success and failure. The difference was never based on the situation itself, but always on my state of mind and heart. When I knew I was walking with God, I always felt happy and at peace. When I was entangled in my own complaints and emotional needs, I always felt restless and divided.
It is a simple truth that comes to me now, in a time when I have to decide about my future. Deciding to do this, that, or the other for the next five, ten, or twenty years is no great decision. Turning fully, unconditionally, and without fear to God is. Yet this awareness sets me free.
Finished reading: The Doctrine of Scripture by Brad East đ
A joyous, lyrical volume on Scripture. Brad’s (enviably) clear prose, free of scholarly jargon or copious footnotes, could mislead readers as to the deep learning that undergirds all that’s said in these pages. But there’s a wealth of knowledge funding this lively book. Even as un-Protestant as it is (Brad denies sola scriptura and the scriptural attributes of clarity and sufficiency), it is still a marvelous book. I hope that tells you something. The chapters on “Ends” and “Interpretation” were highlights for me.
Currently reading: Gardner’s Art through the Ages: A Global History by Fred S. Kleiner đ
1947-Y-No. 2 by Clyfford Still
PH-218 by Clyfford Still
PH-21 by Clyfford Still
The home of Holy Scripture is worship. It is the public, not the private, reading of Scripture that is definitive for Scripture’s role in the life of the church. The assembly of the faithful gathered, in expectant silence, to hear the word of the Lord read aloud from the testimony of the apostles and prophets: that is both the initial and the enduring primary locationâin reality and in doctrineâfor encounter with and reception of the biblical text. […]
“Private” interpretation of Scripture, that is to say, interpretation of the text that occurs elsewhere than in the liturgy, is nevertheless always dependent upon and symbiotic with it. The further one moves away from the liturgy, the more one’s reading of the text will become detached from the nature, uses, and ends that the church confesses, by God’s gracious will, to be true of the text. Think of Scripture as a living thing: it requires its native habitat for deep roots, good light, and rich air. That habitat is the living people of God in convocation, eager to receive together the living word of God spoken aloud for all to hear. Removed from that habitat, text and reader alike grow malnourished, emaciated, desiccated. Neither can be transplanted to another environment without loss.
The problem here is not that Brad is wrong (he isn’t), but how strongly this line of thinking runs against the grain of evangelical piety. I imagine many churchgoers could begrudgingly affirm what Brad is saying here. But the reason it would be difficult for them to assent to it is because their entire practice of the faith has misled them as to the true ‘home’ of Scripture. Private interpretation, including quiet times and personal Bible reading, is not thought of as “dependent” on public reading; private interpretation is the main thing. To ask one of these churchgoers to endorse what Brad is saying is like asking a person who was taught his whole life that drinking alcohol is sinful if he wants to grab a pint with you at the local pub. Even if he can agree that the Bible does not condemn drinking as sinful, he still will be reluctant. His conscience has been malformed. I think evangelical piety creates a similar dynamic with respect to the Bible’s function within the church. If we agree with Brad that the gathered people of God is the primary location for Scripture to be read/interpreted/exegetedâand that reading it apart from that context is, at best, merely a means to serving that more primary functionâthen it would seem that our practice is leading us astray here.