Posts from — November 2003

For dessert tomorrow, Megan is making french silk pie. Yum.

The recipe requires three chunks of that unsweetened baking chocolate.

Well, Megan had just gotten them out, and they were sitting on the stovetop. Geneva, our two year old, comes along and sees something that looks pretty tasty. She grabs one, and backs away. At this point, she doesn’t realize that I’m watching her. She scoots out to the middle of the room, and then looks up at me and starts singing a cute song (of her own creation), and gives me a smile. I detect tools of persuasion, but don’t give in. I just watch her, without any real expression.

She continues across the room, where she reaches a toy kitchen thing. At this point she begins to take the wrapper off the chocolate. Megan spies her, and then looks at me. She realizes what I’m doing, and joins me for the show.

Geneva opens it up, looks at this huge chunk of chocolate, and her eyes light up. She sticks a little corner in her mouth, and says that she likes it. Megan and I look at one another and smirk. Geneva takes a bite. Her face changes completely. We both burst into laughter. She does not. Her face is contorted in a way I’ve only seen once before. She grabs the wrapper and starts putting the chocolate back. Before I take it from her I ask, “You don’t want anymore?” She, being the smart child that she is, refuses.

It was cruel, I know… but man, it was funny. And maybe now she won’t have this problem later in life.

I just read a comparison by my old friend, Phil. He said,

I am seeing more and more similarities between the clergy and medicine. Both are truly priesthoods. No other professions deal as intimately with life and death in the human experience. No one else is given the job of explaining the nature of life and death, even if it’s a bit mechanistic nowadays.

Now, Phil’s going to be a doctor one day, and he appropriately furthered the thought in the direction of medicine. And he made a good point. But my mind wandered off in the other direction, thinking about the clergy side (Not that I’m entertaining thoughts of entering ‘the ministry’).

I’ve never known someone that was excommunicated from the church. At least, I don’t think I have. I’ve definitely never known someone before and after they were excommunicated. No one’s ever been excommunicated from a congregation that I’ve been a part of – not while I was there, at least. My pastor has counseled individuals from other churches that were eventually excommunicated, but I never knew them. The closest I’ve ever been to someone that was excommunicated, actually, is via blogging.

Excommunication is being cut off from Christ; from life itself. It is death. And these matters pass through the hands of the leaders of the church. How can anyone bear such responsibility? It seems so daunting. And heartwrenching. They’re just men, but life and death are in their hands. Not ultimately, of course. But in a similar sense that physical life and death are in the hands of our physicians, spiritual life and death are in the hands of our elders.

I have known someone that died, physically. My mother died a few years ago. It hurt. But I can only imagine that the pain of seeing a loved one die spiritually is far more severe.

it must hurt exponentially more for someone to die spiritually.

Thoughts on the Matrix trilogy…

I agree with Steven Greydanus, who sums it up neatly and accurately by saying,

The original Matrix thus remains the most worthwhile, for it represents a stage in the story’s development when anything was possible and everything was interesting. The sequels merely squander the first film’s potential and erode what made it an evocative, interesting film.

Here’s the sermon from Sunday.

Sorry about the static sound that occurs periodically. I’m not sure what it is. I think I need a new mic.

I followed Mark’s recommendation suggestion (from comments below) and read Peter Leithart’s chapter in The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism. As I was reading it, I was definitly taking away good points, and learning, but thinking to myself that Niell’s chapter was far more fun to read.

Then I got to the last page or so. I finished, sat the book down, and said to myself, “Wow.”

It, too, was a really, really good read. In reading it, a recent exhortation posted on Leithart’s blog kept popping into my mind, and feeling so relevant. The way he presents the history of infant baptism, it seems like things kept going wrong when they could have easily gone right. But, in a way much like our God, Leithart fits it all together to deliver a wonderful and poignant exhortation to paedobaptists. He says,

Having conceded the point [that current paedobaptist practice places the 'unconfirmed baptized' in a sort of church limbo and reduces the significance of baptism], however, the answer is not to abandon paedobaptism, but to establish a more fully paedobaptist theology and practice. The most serious threat to paedobaptis is posed, not by Baptists, but by compromised paedobaptists, who shrink from the full implications of their position and fail to embody their theology in practice.

Wahoo, Dr. Leithart! I’m not sure he (or anyone else) could have made such a good and necessary statement. It’s just what we need to hear at this point in history. It reminds me of an equally true statement from Douglas Wilson’s paedobaptism book, To A Thousand Generations:
“Why do baptists not understand the covenant? The answer is not what many paedobaptists want to hear — the baptists do not understand it because paedobaptists do not understand it.”

What do you have to say about it, Mark?

On a lighter note, I just spellchecked that last entry, and the word blog is not in blogger’s dictionary. Funny, eh?

Kristen said something that deals with an issue that I’ve been rumminating on for some time.

I find it strange that christians think the authority of their elders doesn’t extend to all areas of their life. And particularly in situations where an individual is under church discipline.

What if a man is abusive to his wife? Should the elders take action and separate the couple? I think it is within the scope of their authority and duties.

The elders exercise authority in the lives of this couple outside their ‘church life’ (if such a thing even exists). And it was quite appropriate for them to do so.

These men are our elders. They are our examples and teachers. We have submitted to them, at least in theory. If we can’t submit to them in practice, then we shouldn’t say we will, and shouldn’t be members of their congregation.

Of course, this doesn’t mean they’re always right. We don’t believe in an infallible church authority. I disagree with my elders about paedocommunion, and I’m open about it. I post on my blog about it. I obey their decision, but I don’t pretend to think they’re correct.
If they told me to remove a post I made about it on my blog (which I don’t believe they would do, but if…), I would do so, and then bring it up at the next governmental meeting. And the next one. And the next one. Until it was dealt with. And it may be dealt with by my session telling me not to talk about it or teach on it to anyone (this, I should mention, does not include a prohibition over my own household). If I didn’t obey, then they ought to discipline me for disobeying their God-given authority. Of course, I consider this an impossible situation for me. I’m certain that it wouldn’t ever happen, about this issue, at least. But if I don’t submit to the church, then it’s pointless for me to even be there.
Further, it is the session’s duty to ban the teaching of error. That is within their scope of authority. Now, there may be a time where the elders are mistaken about a particular doctrine, and forbid something that is true. In such a situation, I don’t think our response should be to immediately leave the church, like so many evangelicals do. They encounter problems in a church, and then just hop down the road to another church…. problem solved.

There are situations that it would be appropriate for a family or individual to leave a congregation. I’m not denying that. If a baptist family comes to realize the truth of paedobaptism, and recognizes their need to have their children baptized, then they probably should move to a different congregation, where they can do so. And it isn’t a cut and dry. That won’t happen in every case. Just like my situation… I came to realize my baptized children should be admitted to the Lord’s Table. They aren’t, but I think it would be better for them to wait a year or for them to come to the Table than it would to move somewhere else. They are not being starved at Providence. Not by any means.

Anyhow… I’ve just been thinking about these things. I know I don’t have all the answers, and some small offerings I’ve made might not be right. But I see that it’s an effect of the widespread individualism in the church that people think their elders don’t have authority over them, and can’t tell them to alter their behavior in some way or another. And I see that it’s a bad thing, not healthy for our communities. We need to submit to our elders. And we need to have elders we can submit to.

Where is all the Matrix jibberjabber? People were all excited about the last one and had comments galore about it after they saw it. Now no one seems to care about it. Was Reloaded that much of a disappointment to everyone?

I’m thinking I might see Revolutions tonight.

Some of you may recall my blogging about listening to a tape series by Jeff Niell, pastor of Emmanuel Covenant Church. He talked about Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 in the series, expounding on them and explaining what is really being said. It is a great set.

I just finished his chapter in The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism (edited by Gregg Strawbridge), on the same topic, and it is just as amazing. Great, great stuff.

ahem.

my comments really do work.

If I’m ever in Moscow, ID, I need to make sure it’s on a Thursday, so I can crash the Canon Press Thursday Feast. It always sounds so tasty.

Speaking of Canon Press, I’m looking forward to Peter Leithart’s book on Jane Austen’s novels. I’ve only read two of them (Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice), but I’m still interested to see what he has to say about them. And I’m sure Megan will love it as well.

Oh yeah… work.

I’m beginning to feel a bit like Mike (or at least how I imagine he’s feeling). Only, different. Because I’m not a senior. I think I have endofsemesteritis. And I’m not even a student.

There’s just something about the three days off I get for Thanksgiving, and then working three weeks, and then not having to come back here for 18 days, straight. Having that much vacation so close is just ruining my desire to work. I’m waiting for it. Come to me vacation, come to me. No. That’s not it. I’m not calling to the vacation, the vacation is calling to me. See how that works? It’s calling to me, distracting me. Like my mother, when we lived in Hawaii. We’d be driving down the road at night, and the ocean would just call to her. So we’d stop and all go jump in for a little while. Man, that was fun.

But I can’t jump into my vacation. I guess Thanksgiving break is sort of like jumping into the vacation.

So… I guess I need to get back to work.