Why Do You Want To Go To Heaven?
I’m reading Pilgrim’s Progress for the first time, and I couldn’t improve on the answer Christian gives when asked this question.
PRUDENCE: And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?
CHRISTIAN: Why, there I hope to see him alive that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things that to this day are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there is no death; and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. [Isa. 25:8; Rev. 21:4] For, to tell you the truth, I love him, because I was by him eased of my burden; and I am weary of my inward sickness. I would fain be where I shall die no more, and with the company that shall continually cry, “Holy, Holy, Holy!”
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By The Wife of Uriah…A Christmas Story
Adultery. Betrayal. Deceit. Murder. These aren’t common themes for the typical ABC Family Christmas special. But the difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.
In his account of our Savior’s birth, Matthew begins with Jesus’ genealogy. Smack in the middle of all the begats is this statement:
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
(Matthew 1:6 ESV)
Why’d he have to bring that up? Isn’t that one of those little family secrets that every one pretends doesn’t exist? You know, the kind of secrets families protect with an unwritten code of silence. If nobody talks about it then everyone can go on pretending like we don’t know you-know-what happened with you-know-who. I mean who wants to mess up Christmas by dragging all our family dirt out in front of everybody?
Well, the Apostle Matthew does for one.
There’s a lot we don’t know about David and Bathsheba. Why was David on that roof instead of with his army out in the field? Was Bathsheba indiscreet in her choice of bathing spots? Why did no one confront David when he asked them to bring him another man’s wife? Could Bathsheba have refused David’s advances? He was the king after all, and refusing a king, even one as godly as David, could result in dire consequences for her and her family. Did Bathsheba refuse David’s advances? He was after all a charismatic figure, the warrior-poet who crushed opposing armies on the battlefield and composed beautiful hymns of praise to God. Why is David pursuing another man’s wife when he already has three of his own?
What is clear is that David and Bathsheba sinned grievously against Uriah both in their adultery and the ensuing conspiracy leading to his death. Bathsheba’s message to David warning him of her pregnancy kicks off a chain of events ultimately leading to David’s murder by proxy of Uriah. Were it not for Nathan’s courageous prophecy we might never know about this incident.
The whole story is a paradox of Israel’s (arguably) most godly king committing a scandalous atrocity. It’s even more unfathomable in light of God’s covenant with David:
Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”
(2 Samuel 7:11-16 ESV)
If God were anything like us, it would be game over at this point, but thankfully His ways are higher than our ways. And His promises hold true in spite of all our failings.
The story of Christmas is the story of God making all things sinful clean again. ”The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8 ESV), and nowhere is that more evident than in the genealogy of Jesus. God used David’s adultery with Bathsheba to fulfill His promise to David of a Savior. Look again at Matthew 1:1 and you’ll notice the first title Matthew uses for Jesus is “the son of David.”
There’s an intriguing symmetry to David’s “sons” – one conceived by adultery and the other conceived by the Holy Spirit. Both children were born to die – one in iniquity because of his parents’ sin, the other to take away the sins of the world. David murdered Bathsheba’s husband and took her for himself, and the biblical narrative of Jesus’ ancestry doesn’t shy away from this ugly truth. In spite of all that, God unwound this iniquity generations later when He brought another son into this world through the line of David and Bathsheba. Jesus’ story is our story – one of heartache and pain, of broken relationships and unthinkable decisions, of crooked things not set straight. And yet He came. And in His short time upon this planet He gathered up all our hateful, lying words, all our sexual wanderings, all our murderous treachery, and He carried it with Him upon His shoulders to the tree at Golgotha.
And when He screamed “It is finished!” the Uriah’s of the world had been avenged and the David’s of the world had been forgiven. That’s good news because if we find ourselves anywhere in this story, it’s in Uriah – and David. We’ve all been wronged, mistreated, dealt with unjustly, but we’ve also dealt unjustly with others, treated others in a way we would never wish to be treated, and looked upon that poor man and decided we’d rather take his one lamb than part with any of ours. Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf unravels both the pain we’ve received and inflicted, leaving us to work out this great salvation afresh every morning.
See the story isn’t finished. We’re in that great second act known as the already but not yet, and the plot twists through the lives of a multitude of characters moving inexorably to the act break of Christ’s triumphant return. Because there’s still one last part of that promise God made to the adulterer David that He’s yet to keep. There will be an ancestor of David ruling on the throne of Israel forever. Creation groans for that day when, at last, the not yet becomes the already and everything is as it should be. And on that day when David, Bathsheba, and Uriah kneel beside one another before the throne of Jesus we’ll be there to see it. And we’ll know what that means for them because it means the same thing for us.
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Everything’s Warm, Glowing, and Good (or Why Christian Art Sucks)
You can find out who these guys are and read Collin Hansen’s thoughts here.
Lest They Be Angels
The Oh-So-Lovely-Wife and I visited Paris in 2004 and happened upon this quaint little bookstore while wandering around the Left Bank. For a bibliophile like me it was heaven. Stacks of leaning books defying gravity, every little nook and cranny filled with dog-eared John Le Carre novels or fading nineteenth century biology texts. It was cramped, like all good bookstores should be, having given all available space over to its printed inhabitants. An air of timelessness permeated the space, as if it were a family reunion attended by hundreds of generations. Whitman and Clancy, Joyce and Rowling, Ginsberg and Dickens all mingled comfortably, oblivious to the humble patrons awed to stand in their presence.
Did the clock on the wall still work, or had it simply stopped marking the minutes and hours out of respect for the time it had already taken from the authors, now willing to give that back to those who would appreciate their work?
A cramped staircase led to a second floor filled with even more shelves stuffed with even more books. There was only the most modest of organizational systems in use, leaving bookworms to hunt for their precious treasure. There is nothing like books to make us realize the value of time. A book is not just words and paragraphs and coffee-stained pages. It’s a commitment of our most precious commodity – time. If Anna Nalick‘s right and life is an hourglass glued to the table then each line we read is another grain of sand that’s moved from the top to the bottom of that hourglass, never to return again. Places like Shakespeare and Company make you long for the time to sit and hunt and read and hunt some more and read and read and read.
So why am I telling you about some bookstore in Paris?
Because lost amidst the clamor surrounding Christopher Hitchens’ death was the news of George Whitman’s passing. Whitman founded the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in 1951 and through it encouraged the creative output of any writer that passed through its doors. He even went so far as to set up beds and let them stay and work as long as they liked. I don’t know that Whitman was a Christian, but in my view anyone who pushes back the darkness of this world by encouraging the search for beauty and eloquence has brought glory to God. Whitman famously kept a William Butler Yeats’ quote on display: “Be not inhospitable to strangers / Lest they be angels in disguise.” Makes you wonder how many angels made their way through Shakespeare’s in its sixty year history…
You can read more about Whitman and his passing here. And learn more about the history of the place at the Shakespeare and Company website.
What Is Union With Christ And Why Should You Care?
Trevin Wax interviews J. Todd Billings about his new book Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church. This looks to be a fantastic book on an important but oft-neglected topic. It’s vital for us all to remember the gospel isn’t just information to digest, rather we are united to a living Savior by His Spirit. Here’s a quote from the interview. You can read the rest by following the link at the beginning of the post.
There are several dimensions of good news relating to union with Christ here. First, we are not just given a ticket to heaven and then told to try really hard to act like Christ. By the Spirit’s power, we are given justification and sanctification as gifts. Thus, even our new life in Christ is a gift, not an achievement.
Second, we don’t follow Christ at a distance, but by the Spirit’s power we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection – Christ isn’t just a distant model from history, Christ lives in us by the Spirit. At the same time, this union remains a differentiated one so that we don’t confuse the work of Christians with the work of Christ.
Third, in light of union with Christ, we can go beyond the sermon punchline of “try harder to do good,” the moralistic preaching that is so common today. Instead, in gospel proclamation our true identity is held before us – that we are adopted children of the Triune God, whose true identity is in Christ by the Spirit. The exhortation becomes: live into this new identity, which is your true identity. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ because you have been united to Him in His death and resurrection.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Why Stories Are Important
For any fiction haters, here’s why stories (even made up ones) are important:
The best stories produce a transformed vision. S. T. Coleridge, to whom all our beloved fantasy authors should be traced, believed that great stories are icons of reality, that the imaginative work done in the stories is a way of knowing and understanding the world. Of course, all of the best stories are echoes ofthe best story, the one that starts with Advent.
This is from a post by Travis Prinzi at The Rabbit Room. You can read the rest here.
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Song of the Stars: A Review
One look at the cover for Song of the Stars, Sally Lloyd-Jones’ new book, is enough to know it’s a Christmas story book. Alison Jay’s illustration of an animal menagerie gazing skyward at the shimmering Christmas star captures the longing, the awe, the wonder so beautifully conveyed through the simple yet powerful prose contained in the book. Sally builds anticipation through creatures great and small repeating the refrain “It’s time! It’s time!” At the midpoint of the book, a lion begins the second movement of the chorus of creation by shouting “The Mighty King! The Prince of Peace!” With that cry stars, sheep, cows, goats, foxes, rabbits, horses, wrens, and all of creation proclaim the many names of Jesus.
“The Bright and Morning Star!”
“A Light to light up the whole world!”
“Our Rescuer!”
Ironically, or maybe I should say appropriately, for an author whose previous book bore the subtitle Every Story Whispers His Name, Jesus is the one name never mentioned in Song of the Stars. And yet it’s beautifully fitting for that to be so as the book lacks nothing for it. Such subtle adoration reminds me of the scene in BenHur when Christ disregards the centurion’s order and gives BenHur a drink of water. It’s a powerful scene made all the more powerful for what it doesn’t say, and so too Song of the Stars benefits from tight, powerful prose that never overdoes it. I won’t spoil it in this review, but the nine – yes, nine - words on the final page are a profound statement of the mystery of the Incarnation.
The colorful illustrations are packed with visuals and accentuated with a cracked plaster effect. Our children made a game of finding all the animals named in the story pages, making the reading experience fun and meaningful. Their favorite was the ocean scene teeming with undersea life.
If you have young children, Song of the Stars is an excellent book to share the meaning of Christmas with them. And it just might deepen your appreciation of Jesus’ birth, too.
