Auld Lang Syne

As the year winds down its only natural to want to reflect on the past year.  I tend to wax nostalgic as the year comes to a close. 

To keep it short, this year was a great year in many respects.  We Brittons made a big move up to the Northwest and shortly after we were blessed with an addition to our group, the beautiful and lovely Alethea Louise Britton.

Our Isaiah turned two and has developed quite well for a two-year old. 

God was gracious and took me many places to preach the gospel.  It has been a very edifying experience to see all that God is doing in his various local communions all around.  Grace abounds.

We have had to say goodbye to friends, and we have had the privilege to say hello to many new ones.  It has been a good year.

As a musician I have always tried to take some time to reflect on the most meaningful and enjoyable music I have heard in the past year, live or on record.  So here goes my take.

Perhaps my biggest darkhorse pick is the very young band (at least one high-school-ager I know) Riverview Cruise and their album “your not really there, and neither am I”.

Just a fantastic listen all the way through.  There is something on this record, that I believe captures the elusive ‘omaha sound’ better than anything I have heard out of Omaha in the past few years.  It is rough around the edges, it has space, it has philosophy bred with a resignation that savors of Simon Joyner era Omaha music.

Other good listens this year were:

Wilco- Whole Love

Feist- Metals

Big Harp- White Hat

Blind Pilot- we are the tide

Gillian Welch- The Harrow and the Harvest

Tune-yards- WHOKILL

Last year I spent New Year’s Eve in sub-arctic conditions (no hyperbole here, it was bout 25 or so below zero) outside of the fancy Hilton Hotel in downtown Omaha serving concierge and valet parking duties to partying patrons.  This year, I will spend it with family and friends in a warm house, with the prospect of preaching at Westminster OPC in Monroe, WA the following day on New Year’s Day.  Different year, different times.

So Auld Lang Syne from the NW, happy new year!

What is in God's Name?

I recently translated Exodus 3, and then ran across an engaging essay by Michael Allen on the topic of God’s name, all of which inspired this post (its also up at Grace’s website).

Juliet Capulet, Shakespeare's well-known character, famously asked, "What's in a name?"

For centuries, thoughtful bible readers have asked this question in light of God revealing his name in Exodus 3 to Moses at the burning bush. 

In this passage God calls Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his people from the cruel tyranny of Pharaoh.  Moses asks God the question, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God famously responds to Moses with the verbal clause, “I AM WHO I AM.”

If you are like some of my friends of the deep American south you might respond to God’s answer with, “Come again now?”

For the name God gives is quite enigmatic.  You could translate the Name with the past tense, present tense, and future tense.  “I have been whom I have been, I am who I am, I will be whom I will be” all fit the verbs here in the Divine Name.  So what is God really revealing here with this Name?

In short, God is revealing a mystery.  As the church father Augustine once wrote, God can only be known by comparison with himself.  God is wholly other.  He is transcendent.  He is not on the same plane with his creation in any way.  He is altogether his own category.  Indeed, classic, orthodox theology has often gone to Exodus 3 to teach the creator-creature distinction.  For when God reveals his name, he reveals that he is not quantitatively different than creation, but that he is qualitatively different.  This is a humbling truth.  The name God gives, following Augustine once again, is really all about God’s limiting human knowledge as it pertains to God.  As theology professor Michael Allen has observed about this passage, it shows us that our human limitations of the knowledge of God, “are not naturally apparent, but are revealed to us by God himself.”

So God reveals a name of mystery in Exodus 3:14, but as many commentators have pointed out, in the very next verse, God then reveals a second name of mercy.  Verse 15 reads, “God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘the LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.  This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations’” (emphasis mine).

God attaches himself to certain persons and events in Israel’s past as a very tangible way for the Israelites to identify him.  After all, if Moses would have simply told the Israelites God’s Divine Name, it probably wouldn’t have done much for them.  They needed something tangible to identify their God, and to know what divinity for whom Moses was claiming to speak.

Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson has said this twofold naming in Exodus 3 would help the Israelites to speak in this way about God in the future:  “Asked about who God is, Israel’s answer would have been, ‘whoever rescued us from Egypt,’ asked about her access to this God, Israel’s answer would be ‘well, we are permitted to call on him by name.’”

If God’s mysterious name reveals his transcendence, then God’s merciful name surely reveals his immanence.  God is wholly other, but God is also wholly near to his people.  The God who is, is the God who heard Israel’s groaning in Egypt and rescued them. 

And so it is still today, that the all powerful, mysterious, transcendent God is also near to his people.  The mysterious God of creation is the gracious God of redemption.  We can also call on him by name this very day.  We also have access to him through the blood of Jesus Christ this very day.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8).  This is the name of our God who has done great things for us by sending his son Jesus Christ to rescue us from the cruel tyranny of sin and death.

So what is in a name?  When it comes to our great God there is great mystery, yet there is also great mercy.   Praise God for his Name and what he has done for us.

The Book of Books

Here is a great piece by Marilynne Robinson on what literature owes the Bible (ht: TGC).

Why We Need More Scrooge's

For years I have seen Dickens' play performed.  And in recent years I have had similar thoughts to Jim Lacey's found here.  Fantastic, provocative article that I think says what a lot of people think, but don't want to say (ht:  Wes White).

MEETING JESUS AT THE FEAST: Israel’s Festivals and the Gospel

If you are anything like me, your year-long bible reading plan can sometimes get bogged down in Leviticus.  Verse after verse of dietary restriction, cleanliness law, and grain offering instruction just doesn’t leap off the page like the great narratives of say, Genesis and Exodus.

So books like John R. Sittema’s Meeting Jesus At The Feast:  Isreal’s Festivals and the Gospel naturally appeal to me.  Although Sittema only deals with the festal sections of Leviticus, getting a solid, redemptive-historical understanding of these passages can only serve to help illumine the book as a whole.  That was my hope in purchasing the book, and I can say that this book served that end.

Sittema’s great strength as a writer is that he can take complicated material and make it more accessible to the lay reader.  So much so, I found myself teaching a Sunday School class on the topic of the Levitical feasts after being inspired by Sittema’s lay friendly style.

I must say however, that I did find at times Sittema’s illustrations to be a bit too lengthy and perhaps not as directly tied to his point as one would hope (the introduction serves as one example).  Nevertheless, the noble interest in bringing the riches of Leviticus to a broader audience is clear and appreciated, even when the bridges made to our contemporary context sometimes don’t connect as strongly as this reader would have liked.

Here’s how the book is structured:  Sittema takes Leviticus 23 as his main text for unpacking the Levitical feasts.  He spends the first chapter of the book explaining the command of the Sabbath and showing how Sabbath rest grounds all the festivals, and also displays the movement of redemption as a whole (i.e. bringing a restless people to rest).  Sittema then unpacks the seven feasts prescribed by God to Israel under the old covenant, and ends the book with a helpful discussion on the sometimes-enigmatic year of Jubilee.

Each chapter follows a similar path.  Sittema usually begins by placing the feast in its original historical context, then he shows how the feast developed over time up until the first century, he then seeks to show how Jesus embodied the feast, and then closes by reflecting on the implications for God’s new covenant people.

Even with this pattern in place, Sittema’s book never seems formulaic or unduly repetitive.  Rather, he freshly engages the Levitical feasts with an eye towards how they reveal Christ and the many facets of the gospel.  In addition, each chapter has study questions to help prompt further reflection, which is very helpful when using the book in a bible study, or Sunday School class.

If this book is used for a Sunday School class, note that Sittema doesn’t discuss every detail there is to discuss about the feasts and the biblical texts that are considered in the book.  As such, I suggest supplementing Sittema’s book with other works.   In my situation, I supplemented Sittema’s books with a couple of Leviticus commentaries as well as some other books on the feasts (i.e. Moishe Weinfold’s book Christ In The Passover has more details surrounding the Seder meal than does Sittema).

All in all, this book really helped to open up the design of the Levitical feasts in God’s purposes for his people.  It would be a good book for a bible study, Sunday School class, or the like.

How Bout' Them Clippers!

Wow, its been awhile since the NBA preseason has been this exciting.  Check out what's new in Los Angeles.  The Clippers.  Taking it to the Lakers.  This team will be fun to watch.  DeAndre Jordan is a beast.

This Rules--Glass Harp Performance

I just think this rules.  Now, lets pour wine for everybody in those glasses and have a Christmas party.

The High Drama of Free Agency

One could well make the case that perhaps the NBA free agency season is sometimes more exciting than the actual regular season of basketball.  With an NBA lockout, a shortened season, and thus a shortened free agency season, high expectations have been fulfilled in this years free agency circus.

Needless to say, the LA clippers win big time with Chris Paul, Billups, and Blake Griffin.  They should be an exciting club to watch.  Their biggest piece in question now is the defensive coordinator.  Can they play defense?

As for my Boston Celtics, well, they continue to be the team with great obstacles, yet who still seek great goals.

Fact is, life is short.  NBA life is even shorter.  The hall-of-famers Garnett, Pierce, and Allen have only gotten older.  Their minutes will have to be shortened in a shortened season.  The Celtics bench has been somewhat encouraging: Dooling, Brandon Bass, and Chris Wilcox are all tough defenders who can rebound and contribute offensively. 

Yet, as one columnist correctly points out, the Celtics championship window ended with the biggest mistake Danny Ainge has ever made in trading Kendrick Perkins.  Chemistry is harder to build than a roster.  Doc had built it with Perk and the other 4 starters.  That just isn't there anymore, although I expect J.O. to go out with a bang.  And to the naysayers who argue that Perk would of left at the end of this year and so Danny had to get something for him.  What did he get?  Jeff Green is the only one still around, and now his season is up in the air after failing his physical (this makes any celtic cringe, if you followed the Reggie Lewis story in 93...on the day Lewis, our star player, was set to go in for his last set of tests, he collapsed and died in a shootaround at the age of 27).  So we hope Jeff Green's life is ok.  And, then we hope he can play ball.

Being a fan, I of course cast my lot again with the Celtics this year.  I cast my lot with a team that looks at the impossible and counts it as their goal.  I cast my lot with a new bench that is hungry, unselfish, young, and athletic.  So the Guiness will be poured once again on Christmas day, the Green will be worn, and I will route for a team that everyone counts out.

I also will enjoy watching the Bulls, Thunder, Heat, and the Knicks, all of whom got way better.

Despite the NBA being a really stupid league right now, at the end of the day, I am excited to watch the best basketball in the world.

Benny Hinn and the Gospel

I am no fan of Benny Hinn.  I have major problems with his ministry.  I wouldn't recommend his books or his church or his ministry to anyone.  I also have problems with some of what is said in this clip.  But there was something in this clip that got me a little excited about the gospel, gospel preaching, and my savior Jesus Christ.  So for the sake of conversation:  what do you think?  Should Benny feel like punching preachers more often?  Maybe some more sola Christus preaching would emerge.     

...I also wonder how it would effect my preaching if I had some organ punches during my sermons for emphasis...

This Week at the Beach (2)

Here are a few more pics.  You can see that we went to the Seaside Aquarium which was really cool.  Isaiah got to feed seals, and we got to see the largest octopus we've ever seen.  Here are a couple of videos:  this one of the beach, and this one of the starfish in the tide pools.

This Week at the Beach (1)

Off to Cannon Beach

We're off to Cannon Beach Oregon for a few days of pastoral refreshment.  Packed up the van, the kids, the new tunes, and we head down south this morning.  We are looking forward to a nice time of R&R, and stopping at Stumptown coffee in Portland (yes!).

New blog posts likely resume at the end of the week, which is of course when NBA training camp begins, so there is actually something to write about again;)

tUnE-yArDs

So I didn't make it to the Buffalo for Blind Pilot.  But I did come across the happiest thing on Earth today, a tUnE-yArDs tiny desk concert on NPR.

This is simply brilliant.  Absolute statement.  When are they having their next saxophone audition?  Geesh, I am already there.

Merrill Garbus is a genius.  General Revelation is absolutely revelational and revolutional.  Every pastor should buy, own, and digest tUnE-yArDs.  It will help one's preaching and ministry, seriously.  Hyperbole is only in the eye of the reader....