Redemption by literature

The following is excerpted from Tony Rawson’s summary of a talk by Richard Rorty, which can be read here. Rorty, although unnecessarily being wary of redemptive truth, accurately identifies its distinct import into culture, and traces the movement whereby Modernist redemptive truth is giving way to the Postmodern disintegration of metanarrative into mere narrative, indeed, as many narratives as their are people.

[Redemptive Truth] brings a feeling of self-fulfilment. This is the sort of truth that Rorty regards as suspect and potentially harmful. He expresses it in this way “I shall use the term redemptive truth for a set of beliefs which would end, once and for all, the process of reflection on what to do with ourselves. Redemptive truth would not consist of theories about how things interact causally, but instead would fulfil the need that religion and philosophy has attempted to satisfy. This is the need to fit everything – every thing, person, event, idea and poem – into a single context that will somehow reveal itself as natural, destined and unique”…..

Rorty’s version of the history of Western philosophy he says that intellectuals in the West have, since the Renaissance, passed through three stages. In addition, that these three stages have been moving us ever closer to self-reliance.

Stage one: Redemption by Religion. The hope for redemption through entering into a new relation to a supremely powerful non-human person. Belief – as in belief in the articles of a creed – may be only incidental to such a relationship.

Rorty sees the transition from a religious culture to a philosophical culture beginning with, “the revival of Platonism in the renaissance, the period in which humanists began asking the same questions about Christian monotheism that Socrates had asked about Hesiod’s pantheon”. In other words, one should ask not whether one’s actions were pleasing to the Gods, but rather which gods held the correct views about what ought to be done.

Stage two: Redemption by Philosophy. This being through the acquisition of a set of beliefs that represent things as they really are. To agree with Socrates that there is a set of beliefs which is both susceptible of rational justification and such as to take rightful precedence over every other consideration in determining what to do with ones life.

Rorty would also claim that it is a mistake to look to science for redemption. That science has a function in improving our lives by providing us with better technology and that other than this, science books should be read as narrative along with all other works.

Stage three: Redemption by Literature. For members of the literary culture, redemption is to be achieved by getting in touch with the present limits of the human imagination. The literary culture is always in search of novelty rather than trying to escape from the temporal to the eternal.

In Rorty’s words, “the sort of person that I am calling a literary intellectual thinks that a life that is not lived close to the present limits of the human imagination is not worth living. For the Socratic idea of self-examination and self-knowledge, the literary intellectual substitutes the idea of enlarging the self by becoming acquainted with still more ways of being human.

For the religious idea that a certain book or tradition might connect you up with a supremely powerful or supremely loveable non-human person, the literary intellectual substitutes the Bloomian thought that the more books you read, the more ways of being human you have considered, the more human you become – the less tempted by dreams of an escape from time and chance, the more convinced that we humans have nothing to rely on save one another”.

What Redemption by Literature has right: It’s an epic story, not a scientific or philosophical “figuring out” of the world, that redeems us.
What Redemption by Literature needs: The right story.

APTAT (or, How to Wield Promises)

I don’t live the ideal Christian life.

I can’t count the missed opportunities, the unmet expectations I’ve had for myself. I can look at a dozen Christians I wish I were like, but I just can’t seem to get my daily life to look like theirs. I routinely commit sins with pervasive consequences. Freudian slips of the mind and heart make me wonder, “What really am I in there?” I get caught in eddies, stagnation, cycles. Even regression and backsliding from certain hills of discipline and joy I had once conquered. I go through many joyless, depressed stretches in my Christian walk, exacerbated by the realization that such stretches seem to have actually occupied the majority of my timeline. Sometimes I feel more like the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness than Joshua conquering the Promised Land.

Anybody with me?

Then I read verses like these:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
2 Peter 1:3-5

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.
1 Corinthians 1:20

What promises? Countless. Some of my favorites:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
Proverbs 4:18

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:4-9

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Psalm 73:23-24

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:7, 10, 15, 18

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Psalm 32:8

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
Psalm 103:13

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
Lamentations 3:22+

What do we do in the divide between these promises and our actual, often lower experience?

We strive.

This life is a process of character development, of learning faith, that happens in the gap between what is on earth and what waits to be in heaven.

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:24-25

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 2 Peter 1:6-7

How do we strive? John Piper offers a method, an acronym that thankfully is not alliterative or acrostic.

APTAT

Admit (you can’t do it)
Pray (“God, help me.”)
Trust (a promise)
Act (as you would if the promise were true)
Thank God (immediately after)

It’s a process of casting yourself on the future grace of the Lord, moment after moment. I haven’t arrived yet, but God’s in charge of this journey. What hope! So then, let us seek out the promises of God (we must know them to trust them) and then let us take them to heart, so they may energize our perseverance, even while we are waiting for our still-distant happy ending.

God has granted…I make effort

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

For this very reason,

make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love….be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. (2 Peter 1:3-8, 10)

God has given me everything I need to live out his salvation. I have all the access codes, all the resources, all the power. I just have to take advantage of them. Therefore, since all that stands between me and righteous living is my failure to take advantage, I must “make every effort.”

It seems that my Christian walk inevitably comes back to this: if I want God to move in a new way in me, I have to “just do it.” It comes down to whether I have the guts to take action or not. It doesn’t always make sense how Peter, James, Paul and the other NT writers can say, “God has completed your salvation in Jesus Christ, by his virtues, wholly apart from yours” and then follow that with “Now be virtuous!” — but that is universally what they say.

Somehow, the process of believing that Jesus has saved my life and the process of living a life that looks like his are one and the same.

Recently, I have failed to live in proper response to all that has been granted to me. God, give me grace as I roll up my sleeves and make every effort. Thank you for your gracious promises.

Injustice

There once was a young farmer named Jitandra who lived in the countryside of India. He came from a poor family. He grew rice on his family’s land and worked hard each year until his hands were rough and crisscrossed with scars.

Now there was a young woman named Aadab in the neighboring town whom this young man loved, and she loved him. They had known each other since childhood and dreamed of being married one day. The man’s family had arranged with the girl’s family to get her as his bride, after he earned enough money and established himself. So he labored hard year after year, and finally the year came when they could be married.

Their wedding day was a day of celebration for the people of both villages. Food and drink, song and dance, they lasted until the sun set, and after. Jitandra’s bride sat beside him on a cushion, with gold earrings and nose ring, with finely embroidered red, blue and gold cloth hanging elegantly over the smooth curves of her brown shoulders. Her eyes were vibrant and mesmerizing. Best of all, they looked back at Jitandra with joy and love.

Several months after the wedding, Aadab was walking to the creek near Jitandra’s house, with a pot for water. Jitandra was standing knee-deep in a rice paddy, watching her from a distance, daydreaming about how happy he was to have won such a woman. His contemplation was interrupted by a group of horsemen—maybe 10 or 15—approaching down the creek. By their elaborate colors and banners, he judged they must be officials of the king of the province. They halted in front of Aadab, and Jitandra suddenly felt nervous. He began wading hurriedly toward the edge of the paddy.

***

“What have we here?” said one of the men on horseback, eyeing Aadab with interest. Aadab bowed and nervously corrected the shoulder of her garment, which had slipped low.

“A fine blossom! What says the prince?” said another, with a red banner billowing behind his turban. A third rider kicked his mount forward and pressed out in front of the two. Aadab instantly knew this must be the son of the king, for he wore a red sash with a symbol that matched the banner, and there was a gold medallion on his turban. She lowered her eyes reverently from his gaze.

“Indeed, a fair flower,” said the prince. Aadab bowed lower, not out of respect, but to shrink away from their lustful stares. The first rider nudged the prince. “Better than that woman you got from the south province, in my eyes. I think she’d make a fine addition to the palace.”

“I am the wife of your servant, a humble farmer,” said Aadab, face still lowered, hear heart fearful. The prince was known to do whatsoever he pleased, caring little for the well being of his father’s subjects.

“Married – the blossom has to be plucked out of some weeds,” said another of the riders, and the group laughed. The prince dismounted and slowly encircled Aadab, his eyes evaluating her with growing interest.

“What is a rice-paddy rat to me? Such beauty is worthy of a nobler house.” He stood in front of Aadab now and lifted her chin with his finger until she looked back at him reluctantly. “Wouldn’t you say so?”

“My lord…” Aadab’s voice quivered fearfully. “I don’t…”

***

Jitandra saw the man with the medallion on his turban dismount and circle his wife. The prince,he realized, and scowled. Royal pickpocket, rather. Jitandrawas on solid ground now, and he broke into a sprint. But even as he did, the prince gestured to his retinue, and a mounted man grabbed Aadab and swung her onto his horse. The prince remounted his own horse.

“Stop!” he shouted. “My lord, wait!” Jitandra rushed up to the horses just as they were turning to leave. He slowed, panting, as the prince reared his horse around.

“The paddy rat, I presume?” said the prince.

“I am the humble servant of your father the king. That woman is no virgin, but my wife. We are only these three months married. Respect the gods, I adjure you! Return her.”

The prince looked over the poor farmer with legs coated to the knee in mud from the rice field. He sniffed in disgust. “Go back to your mud hovel before you regret this impertinence. The woman is mine now. You should be grateful that I have rescued her from your sad existence.”
Before Jitandra could reply, the prince kicked his mount with a “Hee!” His retinue followed, laughing at the poor farm boy as the hooves of their steeds began to thunder on the ground.
“Noo!” screamed Jitandra, following. He tried to reach Aadab, but the rider drew his blade and jabbed it at him threateningly. “Respect royal blood, dungheap!” In a moment, the horses were shrinking into the distance. Aadab craned her head around and met her husband’s eyes with a tearful gaze that cried out to him in desperation.
“No, no, no, no,” Jitandra mumbled incoherently as his head pounded in a mixture of rage and dread. His vision was blurring as the party disappeared in a cloud of dust. Disoriented, he fell to his knees.

***

Aadab’s parting glance haunted Jitandra as the moon rose. He couldn’t sleep. There was only one way to get her back – to appeal to the king himself. But a commoner entering the king’s presence without invitation could mean imprisonment or death, and if the commoner was bringing an accusation against the king’s son, then…. But then Jitandra thought about the prince lying with his beloved, while he lay there doing nothing. Death was better. Before dawn he rose and gathered rice cakes, a gourd of water, and Aadab’s wedding jewelry. Putting these three things into a small satchel, he set out on the three-day journey to the capital city.

Jitandra arrived there more dirty than usual, and his feet were sore and bleeding. His clothes puffed dust when he touched them. He found his way through throngs of people in the frenetic bazaar until he recognized the spire of the government citadel. He had seen it once when he was a boy, when his parents took him on a religious pilgrimage. The gate was guarded: half a dozen burly bronze-plated guards brooded with expressions that suggested they would gladly sculpt an impetuous commoner with their swords just to liven up their day. Jitandra decided to find an alternative route. Waiting until dusk, he left his satchel in a narrow alley that ran along the back side of the government citadel. He waited for silence, then climbed onto a cart and from there, and leaped up to grab an ornamental sconce of the wall. That provided a toehold from which he stood and extended himself another body’s length, until his fingers barely caught the top of the wall. A moment later he over, dropping into the shadows on the inside of the wall.

Nearby, an enormous building exuded light and sounds of mirth from its windows – the royal court. As Jitandra weighed out his next move, a guard appeared to his left with a torch.

“Ay! Intruder!”

Three guards stepped out of nowhere at the call and their eyes converged on Jitandra. He cursed. No time to think. Now it was either die in the courtyard, or in the courtroom. He sprinted for the glowing entrance to the court, guards on his trail. He made it there and the big doors creaked as he slipped inside.

In an instant his eyes took it all in. Guards, like statues, lined the sides of the long hall. Fires burned in braziers hanging from brass hooks on the sides of monstrous wooden pillars. Golden idols lined the alcoves between the pillars, and glowed, danced in the light of the fires. The room was filled with plumed magistrates, administrators, attendants, musicians, and servant girls bringing food and wine. At the far end of the room, the king’s throne towered over the scene, laid with intricate gold depictions of Vishnu and the ancestral gods, and atop the throne sat the king.

Before anyone knew what was happening, Jitandra ran past the dining lords and flung himself prostrate in front of the throne. The clang of plates and goblets, the chatter, all froze. Guards rushed toward him and were about to seize him.

“Justice!” cried Jitandra, so loud that the hall rang with it. “My lord, give me justice!”

The guards formed a circle around Jitandra and seized him, dragging him to his feet. The king size him up for a moment. “Peasant fool! Did you not know that the price of your caste interrupting a royal feast is your life?” He raised his hand to order the guards, but exchanged glances with his wife, who sat on a cushion beside the throne. His face softened slightly. “But we are beneficent and merciful, and so we will hear you first. Tell me, who is it who entreats the king’s justice?” he asked.

“My name is Jitandra Ahbaraja, of the northern province, your servant. My life is yours, my king, only correct the wrong that has been done to me.”

“What injustice?” asked the king.

Jitandra related to him the story, how the king’s son had three days ago stolen his bride of three months. “So my lord, there is none but you I can appeal to. Surely you know the love of woman, that is no different in noble or ignoble blood. Please give me back my bride!”

The king glared down at Jitandra. “A surf dares challenge the integrity of my son! For this dishonor, birds will dishonor your corpse in the city square!” He raised his hand to command, but stopped it in midair as his eyes made contact with his chief adviser. They exchanged a knowing glance, and the king’s voice became cool and calculated.

“However…so that royal blood can be vindicated before the gods,” he indicated the golden figures that surrounded the room, “we shall bring the woman here, and she shall declare to us which of you is her rightful husband.” The king gave orders that the woman be found and brought to the king’s court.

The courtroom was bubbling with murmurs among the nobles when the woman was brought in the next hour. The prince was with her, his red sash glistening confidently. He stepped up to Jitandra almost lazily and spat at his feet.

Aadab was wearing a thin, golden band around her forehead, and a blue dress. Her eyes flicked upward to Jitandra, but she lowered them almost immediately.

“Tell me, Aadab daughter of Kurshan,” called the king from the throne, in a regal bellow directed as much to the gathered nobility as to her. “Who is your husband, this peasant or the prince?”

Aadab didn’t move. Jitandra could see her body trembling.

The king grew impatient. “Kurshan’s daughter, who is your husband?”

Aadab slowly raised her arm toward the prince. “The prince is my husband, my lord.” She faced Jitandra. “I have never seen this peasant in my life.” The nobles erupted in approval, and the king clapped his hands, satisfied. Jitandra could not believe what he had just heard.

“Aadab, my love, do you not know me?” he pleaded to her.

She looked back at him, brow furrowed, jaw set. “I’m sorry,” she said. The prince’s lips curled upward into a grin and his eyes feasted on Jitandra’s ghastly expression.

The king slammed his fist. “This lying scum has wasted enough of my time. Go and hang him in the city center!” The guards began to drag Jitandra away. He let his feet slide limply – at Aadab’s denial, all energy had drained out from him.

At that moment a Buddhist priest approached the throne. His head was shaved, a rich, maroon cloth his only garment. From his careful shuffle and reptilian skin, he seemed to be as old as the wooden pillars that lined the courtroom. Jitandra’s mind was reeling so much that he did not hear what the priest was saying to the king, but when the guards let him go and bowed low before the priest, things came back into focus. This was Saji-dulal, the Great Sage, who some people in the mountains even called an avatar of the gods.

“My Lord the King, I suspect that this woman is lying,” said the sage. “My wisdom tells me she cannot be trusted. However, I have here a potion,” he held up a small onyx vile, “that causes a man to speak the truth, compulsively, once he drinks it. Let us administer it to the two men, the prince and the peasant, and in half an hours’ time they will speak the truth for themselves. After all, the king knows that the testimony of a man is more valuable in the royal court.”

The king squirmed, but his counselors nodded in approval. Finally he agreed. “The royal family will be vindicated,” he said confidently. “Let the potion be administered.”

So the prince and Jitandra approached the old priest, and he poured half of the potion into each of their mouths. Jitandra swallowed it with a bitter gulp. “Now, my lord, let each of these men be put into seclusion with the woman, each for a quarter of an hour, while the potion does its work.”

“Why is that necessary?” demanded the king.

“This truth potion requires the presence of lies, my lord, in order to mend them. When the woman speaks to each man, the power of the potion will perceive that which is false, and when its effect ripens, it will speak that which is true instead.” So the king allowed the woman to be taken to the storage chamber adjoining the courtroom. The prince was admitted first, and spent the allotted time. When he returned to the room, his eyes were as infuriatingly lazy and confident as ever.

Then Jitandra was admitted to the room. It was full of large barrels of wine and crates of food. As soon as the door was closed, Aadab lept into his arms. “Oh Jitandra, I’m so sorry! They made me say that I was the prince’s wife. They made me say that I didn’t know you!”

Joy and disbelief washed over him. “What?”

Aadab explained how the prince had threatened to kill Jitandra if Aadab did not disown him. “It was the only way to keep you alive!”

Jitandra exhaled, relief washing over him. “You still love me,” he smiled.

“More that life. I would gladly bear imprisonment in the harem for you sake, but I could not see you die for mine.” Jitandra embraced his wife, afraid it might be the last time he would touch her.

***

“The time has passed. Have them speak!” said the king. The nobles were on edge, the room was quiet. Jitandra and the prince stood before the throne, with Saji-dulal between them, sitting on the floor, his hands supine in meditation.

“Come, priest!” the king said again.

Saji-dulal opened his eyes. “Bring me largest wine-barrel in the cellar where the woman was.” Bewildered, the king nodded nonetheless and guards went and brought the barrel, placing it in front of the priest. The priest stood up, took a deep, slow breath, then said, “Riki! Come out!”

Suddenly, the top board of the barrel popped off, and a small boy jumped out. Before anyone could wipe the bewilderment from their faces, the boy handed Saji-dulal a piece of parchment. “Did you write just as you heard?” asked the sage.

“Yes, master, every word spoken. Although it was hard to write with one slit of light–”

Saji-dulal unfolded the parchment and examined it. After a long squint he nodded. “Well done, boy.” Then he turned to the king and spoke as loudly as his frail form allowed. “My lord! That potion was not no more magical than the triumph of wisdom over foolishness.” He raised the parchment in the air. “My servant has procured the words spoken in secret between the woman and these two men.” The sage spun around to face Jitandra. “This man spoke love with her…” Then he turned to face the prince, “…while this man spoke threats, lest she confess her heart!”

The nobles gasped. The prince turned as red as his sash and seemed to puff like a peacock with indignation. Saji-dulal raised his hand as if to stifle a retort, turning back around to face the king. “My lord, administer of justice: as surely as I live, this woman is the wife of the peasant man. Your son is a liar and adulterer, whose penalty shall be death.”

At this, pandemonium struck the court. The nobles all stood and began pushing each other and yelling, as if debating whether to defend or accuse the prince. The prince was bellowing and spitting curses at the priest. Shielded by the cacophony, and liberated by the proclamation of truth, Jitandra and Aadab rushed to each other clasped hands, eyes bursting with joy.

The noise suddenly ceased when the king bellowed, “Enough!” The court watched him silently. “My son wishes to speak.”

The prince stood at the foot of the throne and bowed. “My father, these men have conspired against you! This boy has written lies, and the sage lied to you about that potion! They are in league with this peasant!” Murmurs spread throughout the court. Jitandra couldn’t believe his ears. The prince was breathing heavily, still red in the face, and his eyes were on fire with malice. His words tumbled out fast, as if he were improvising to stay one step ahead of panic. “Saji-dulal’s wisdom has inflated his ambitions, father. He has enlisted this peasant boy to play a false role, so that your house would be defamed! He’s creating an opportunity to seize power – seize the loyalty of the nobles!”

“That’s outrageous!” shouted one of the magistrates. “Saji-dulal is a peaceful sage!”

“I have intelligence, spies among you, who say otherwise!” He continued, gathering confidence. “On my honor as the son of the king, this woman is my wife! This filthy priest and his cohorts have failed to defile noble blood. They are conspirators and liars!”

The prince leaned close to the king. The feigned confidence in his eyes flashed to pitiable pleading for an instant. “Father, don’t you see – how this peasant scum will ruin me—us—damage the magistrates’ loyalty to your power? Defend me!” The king’s eyes widened, and he stared back at his son, calculating…thinking. Finally, his expression hardened. He avoided eye contact with the queen as he stood and raised his hand in proclamation.

“A servant boy, an old man, and a peasant are unfit to bring a death sentence upon the heir to this throne. They have dishonored themselves by intruding into this court and levying rash accusations, and they shall be punished accordingly. This is my decree: execute them all!”

Jitandra’s heart sank into black despair even as his veins boiled in rage. He couldn’t hear the roaring of the nobles, or feel the rough grip of the soldiers as they grabbed him and pulled him away from Aadab. He was only aware of her eyes. They were as vibrant and mesmerizing as they had been on their wedding day. But this time they were moist, and her pupils were doors into an abyss of sadness.

As the knife neared Jitandra’s throat, to force life from his body before it was hung up in the city square, one word throbbed in his head with every throb of his pulse. Justice. Justice. Justice.

“I am but a simple farmer, just these three months married,” he whispered to no one.

Pictures of how God relates to us

(cf. the categories in the last post, by C.S. Lewis)
1. Tree and Gardener

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

The Lord tends us, gives us fertilizer, prunes our bad spots, nourishes us, and cultivates us to yield fruit pleasing to him.

2. Potter and Clay

But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (Romans 9:20-21)

The Lord molds us, shapes us. We are his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). He makes us for his uses, and our glory consists in our serving of his purposes and ornamenting his glory.

3. Shepherd and Sheep

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise. (Psalm 79:13)

We are as dumb as sheep, and as vulnerable to predators. The Lord is our keeper and protector; he preserves our life, and our life in turn benefits him as the flock benefits the shepherd (because he has graciously chosen to make it so, even though he has no ultimate need of us, or any of his creation). The sheep develop a trust relationship with the shepherd (albeit quite one-sided, which also compares to us and God).

4. Father and Child

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

Fathers are both authority and love – they are tender with their children, expressing love that penetrates perhaps deeper than any other into the heart of a child. They also discipline them. Why do they discipline? Also because of a love motivation: they see a vision for the kind of adults they want their children to grow into, and they discipline them in order to create in them the necessary virtues and character. God does the same for us.

5. Husband and Wife

“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. …And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (Hosea 2:16-20)

The Lord has prepared an intimacy of union with him, which romantic love between man and woman was made to echo. We are to love and be loved for all eternity by the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and the Great City of his people will be the bride. God refers to our love for him in romantic terms, and our abandonment of him in terms of adultery.
_________________________

These and many other images are just the shadows of the one true Ultimate Relationship that we were made to enter into (Colossians 2:17). If you were to put these images on a graph with a myriad other comparisons in the created world, they would all be lines pointing in the same direction, illuminating the various facets of that glorious epicenter of purpose for which mankind was created – to relate to the Existing One, YHWH, in such a way that we both glorify and enjoy him forever. Take us up, O Lord, into the reality which all of these images are whispering to us.

The intolerable compliment

[Largely plagiarized summary of select portions of the third chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain.]

How can we define the goodness of God? One one hand, his ways are higher than ours, and what we call good might be bad, and vice versa. On the other hand, our concept of good must not be entirely off.

“If He is not (in our sense) ‘good’, we shall obey, if at all, only through fear–and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity–when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of good is worth simply nothing–may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship.”

The fascinating middle ground is that, although we have an imperfect understanding of God’s good, it is not ever confused with bad. In fact, men are (many of them) in a process of gradually discovering good, and as they do, they know immediately that the new law they encounter is good and real, and they feel a sense of guilt at not complying to it. The example is of an adopted child pulled off the streets, who gradually learns his manners, but recognizes them as superior to his former ways, with the humble sense that he has “blundered into society he is unfit for.” In this sense, God’s goodness is different that ours, but as the Platonic form differs from the physical object, or as a child’s scribbled circle differs from the perfect circle he has in his head. Even in the discrepancy, the superior standard is affirmed.

So how can we describe good in the ultimate, divine, “ideal” sense? When we say God is good, we mean that he is loving, and that is true. But by saying that he is loving, we mean he is “kind” and that he wants our happiness at all cost, like a benevolent and somewhat senile grandfather. And that is a poor definition of love. Kindness is not good when separated from the other virtues. “It consents very readily to the removal of its object” (e.g. the euthanasia of an animal). Furthermore, parents who are so kind to their children that they will not cause them pain raise the worst brats and in spoiling them, ruin their character. There is more to love than kindness. So what is God’s love like, then?

We are given in Scripture various modes, of varying analogous depth, which capture aspects of the unfathomable depths of God’s love for us, and thus his goodness as we may know it.

Artist and artifact
We are God’s workmanship. The sculptor or painter who loves his masterpiece, his life’s work, works with it, and will not be satisfied until it has achieved a certain character. In a sense, God is likewise not content with us until we have achieved a certain character.

Man and beast
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. The owner of a dog tames the dog primarily for his own sake, that he may love it (not that the dog may love him); yet, the man’s interests in the dog are the dog’s best interests. The man is not content with a mangy, smelly, unruly mutt – he trains the dog’s behavior and cleans it to make it more lovable. Although to the dog, this process would seem quite unagreeable, the tamed dog achieves the healthiest, longest life, with the most comforts, and the noblest sense of self and loyalty. (In vague analogy, borrowing from the end of the book, a dog truly lives in his master as we truly live in God – reaching our potential and purpose when rightly submitted to our master.)

Father and son
God is our father, and we his children. This symbol means essentially an authoritative love on one side, with an obedient love on the other. Familial affection is mixed with a sense of submission, duty, which produces a relationship engendering a strong sense of honor and rightness in most men, when it is observed among them.

“The father uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he, rightly, and in his superior wisdom, wants him to be. Even in our own days, though a man might say it, he cold mean nothing by saying, “I love my son but don’t care how great a blackguard he is provided he has a good time.”

Man and woman
We are the bride of Christ. In this symbol we see that true love demands the perfecting of its object.

When we fall in love with a woman, do we cease to care whether she is clean or dirty, fair or foul/ Do we not rather then first begin to care? Does any woman regard it as a sign of love in a man that he neither knows nor cares how she is looking? Love may, indeed, love the beloved when her beauty is lost: but not because it is lost. Love may forgive all infirmities and love in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.

God’s love contains the kernels of all these earthly loves, and far surpasses them. Ultimately, God loves us more than we want to be loved. We would like a mild, emasculated, wimpy bit of love, love that either made us the center of everything, or else left us alone. But a look at the world can see that this is a contemptible perversion of love – witnessed either in those who are too fearful and self-centered to love courageously, or those that excessively dote upon the object of their love. I am afraid God loves us more truly and fervently than we would like.

When Christianity says that god loves man, it means that God loves man: not that He has some ‘disinterested’ because really indifferent, concern for our welfare, but that, in aweful and surprising truth, we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God: you have one. the great spirit you so lightly invoked, the ‘lord of terrible aspect’, is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artists’s love for his work and despotic as a man’s love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father’s love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes.

God loves us more than we would like. Praise be to Him.

“Divine freedom”

Perhaps this is not the “best of all possible” universes, but the only possible one. Possible worlds can mean only “worlds that God could have made, but didn’t.” The idea of that which God “could have” done involves a too anthropomorphic conception of God’s freedom. Whatever human freedom means, Divine freedom cannot mean indeterminacy between alternatives and choice of one of them. Perfect goodness can never debate about the end to be obtained, and perfect wisdom cannot debate about the means most suited to achieve it. The freedom of God consists in the fact that no cause other than Himself produces His acts and no external obstacle impedes them–that His own goodness is the root from which they all grow and His own omnipotence the air in which they all flower (Excerpt from C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, second chapter).

“I am that I am” (Ex 3:14).

“See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me” (Deut. 32:39).

Not only is there no other god beside him; there is also no other possible universe beside that which he rules, no other possible existence beyond him, no other meaning of good. He is what is.

The inevitable possibility of bad choice

[Largely plagiarized summary of select portions of the second chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain.]

If you say “God can create a creature with free will and at the same time withhold free will from it” you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words, “God can.”

Intrinsic impossibility
“In ordinary usage the word impossible generally implies a suppressed clause beginning with the word unless.” For example, it is impossible for Johnny to win [unless Mark, Brian and Tony are all disqualified]. However, there are some kinds of impossibility that are intrinsically self-contradictory, and are thus absolutely impossible. That is, the sentence has no qualifying clause, and is impossible in all worlds under all conditions for all agents. For example, “That square box is round.” The only way this could be true is if the nature of space were different from that we currently experience; but such a condition is entirely outside the realm of scientific speculation.

The omnipotence of God does not mean that he can do the intrinsically impossible. “You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense.” The old question “Can God make a rock that is too heavy for him to lift” is mere wordplay. “It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities.”

What comes with our self-identity
Any attempt to remove from the existence of free beings the possibility of bad choice is intrinsically impossible in the sense above.

I cannot be me (or at least be self-conscious) unless I perceive myself in contrast to non-me (e.g. you). If we had at all times identical thoughts, passions, and choices, then how might I comprehend my individuality apart from you?

If we are able to perceive each other, to have a mutually conscious co-relation between our beings, then we must exist in an environment which enables a contrast between us. “The minimum condition of self-consciousness and freedom would be that the creature should apprehend God and, therefore, itself as distinct from God.”

This environment which enables yours and my mutual perception and relationship must be objective, that is, of a fixed nature and distinct from either of us. If, as the existentialist says, I create reality, then you don’t really exist; you are a mere character in the play which I am writing. Similarly, if we both exist, but the environment is entirely in my control, then you would be quite incapable of communicating with me or making your presence known to me, because you would be unable to manipulate matter, i.e., the means of communication between our selves. I would be animate, but you would be trapped inside a manequin. Therefore, two souls must meet in a world that is objective and “fixed”, that is, not entirely subject to my will or yours.

Now, if we are truly agents of choice created to choose, or relational beings created to relate to God, and if choice or relationship requires an objective medium through which two beings interact, then the ability to choose that which is not God, comes as part and parcel, quite unavoidably.

Now, could God have created a world in which all our bad choices would have been obviated and all bad consequences evaporated immediately? Well, if we could abstract this scenario, we would find our choice, our identity, our very selves, to be quite stripped away. If only one of our options would actually have a result, and the other action would have its effects slurped up by divine benevolence, then we would really only have one truly option. The right to choose includes the right to have the results of your choice. It seems God is not interested in pandering us as little children; he gives us, Lewis says in another chapter, the “intolerable compliment” of a world that allows the effects of our choices to play out without his (direct) interference.

So we conclude simply this, that our mere existence as free, self-conscious individuals contains within it, naturally and inseparably, the possibility of bad choices. This seems to be simply “how things are,” woven into the fabric of the universe in which our minds can operate. There are no alternative “ways it could have been.”

This train of thought – the inexorable existence of the possibility of bad choice in the world, and its seeming inevitability – brings us to question why God decreed that we would be such dreadfully free creatures (us). We thus take a step up from questioning the omnipotence of God, to engage the more challenging and intriguing question of his goodness.

Three strands in all religions (and the one with a fourth)

[Largely plagiarized summary of select portions of the first chapter of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain.]

“In all developed religion we find three strands, and in Christianity one more.”

The first strand is the numinous, or, that thing which produces a sense of awe of the supernatural. Man has believed in “spirits” as far back as history goes. The numinous can be imagined if I told you that there was a ghost in the next room. You would perhaps experience fear at that moment. Now, if I told you that there was a “mighty spirit” in the next room, your feeling would be fear, flavored more like awe and reverence. The source of that emotion is the numinous.

The second strand is a sense of moral obligation, or, that which produces the sense behind the feeling I ought not do that. Although the specific mores of cultures may differ, they have basic commonalities, and more interestingly, they share the attributes of being affirmed by the members of that culture and yet not being adhered to by members of that culture. They are unattested archetypes, like the “perfect body” of fashion. This sense cannot be inferred from the facts of our physical experience, and is either revelation or inexplicable illusion.

The third strand is the linking and identification of the numinous with the sense of moral obligation. Although to do so is quite natural among religions, it is not obvious why it should need to be so. It is certainly not desirable for natural man, for the power which condemns him to be “armed with the power of the numinous.” Many cultures have rejected this union, producing either immoral religion, or nonreligious morality.

Perhaps only one race of people, the Jews, made this connection perfectly; but great individuals in all times and places have made it also, and only those who take it are safe from the obscenities and barbarities of unmoralized worship or the cold, sad self-righteousness of sheer moralism….And though logic does no compel us to take it, it is very hard to resist–even on Paganism and Pantheism morality is always breaking in, and even Stoicism finds itself willy-nilly bowing the knee to God. Once more, it may be madness–a madness congenital to man and oddly fortunate in its results–or it may be revelation. And if revelation, then it is most really and truly in Abraham that all people shall be blessed, for it was the Jews who fully and unambiguously identified the awful Presence haunting black mountain-tops and thunderclouds with ‘the righteous Lord’ who ‘loveth righteousness’.

The fourth strand is one possessed only by Christianity.

There was a man born among these Jews who claimed to be, or to be the son of, or to be ‘one with’, the Something which is at once the awful haunter of nature and the giver of the moral law.

This claim has not been made by any other religious leader. Buddha, Krishna (as he teaches in the Bhagavad Gita) and Eckhart Tolle claim to be part of an omni-deity along with everyone and everything else, not ultimately different in essence but different in form. But they do not claim in the same sense that Jesus did, namely, “I am part of the supreme divine essence, and you are not. I am wholly other from you, I am creator, and you are creature. I am the supernatural, being above the natural, and I am the law giver, being the ultimate authority of measure.” That’s the kind of language you find inevitably implied in Jesus’ teachings, and it is almost crazy. Either you believe that he was a lunatic or a fiend, or that he was indeed the incarnation of God.

This last point is what distinguishes Christianity from every other religion and at once makes it unique, extravagantly presumptuous, dangerous, mysterious, and fascinating. All religions are men describing how to get to divine enlightenment; but Christianity says that divine enlightenment Himself showed up among us, walking the dirty streets of an old Jewish town, to make with his own hands and by his own blood the only way to himself.

Public and private empowerment

Elijah prayed boldly to the Lord that He would answer, devour the offering on the altar, and prove himself God. “Let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word.” God answered. Fire consumed the bull. Elijah commanded that the 450 prophets of Baal be seized and executed in the plain below.

The next thing we hear, Elijah is terrified of the ruthless queen Jezebel and is fleeing for his life. He wishes to die to be put out of his misery. He’s burnt out, and he’s cynical because he’s the only prophet left (a fact he had mentioned with charisma in front of the altars). And there again, God answered, causing raisin cakes to appear, which sustained his 40-day journey to Horeb, the Mountain of God. At Horeb God appeared to Elijah as a still, small voice, giving him hope. He tells him of the next king, a king who will restore justice, and of the prophet who will succeed him, Elisha. God tells him that there is hope, for he has reserved a remnant that have not bowed to Baal.

Praise be to God, because he empowers us both in times of public ministry and power, and in times of personal emptiness, exhaustion, and depression. He answers in the times of bold proclamation, with fire, and when we’re slumped down in the middle of a wilderness, with raisin cakes. He strengthens not only the ministry, but also the personal heart, of those who do his work. Thank you Lord.