Lover and Beloved

“Unfortunately, we have usually looked on the love of God for us as the love of a father for a small child. But that is not thoroughly scriptural. The grandest—and the final—imagery the Bible uses for his love is precisely that of lover and beloved, bridegroom and bride. It is the marriage of Christ and the church which is the last act of the long love affair between God and creation.”

– Robert Farrar Capon, Hunting the Divine Fox, 39

This observation is thought provoking for numerous reasons. First, the parent/child metaphor for the God/human relationship is employed with greater frequency, as Capon observes, for a reason. Why? We long for love, acceptance, protection, and security in a world that is often cold, calloused, hostile, and unpredictable. We not only longing for home and family, we yearn for a pervasive peace in all of creation we believe only God can establish and preserve. The parent/child image, however, is not the only one found in the Bible.

Capon is right to remind us of the bride/bridegroom as the grandest and final imagery of Scripture. The church as bride conveys not only radiance and joy, but preparation, maturity, and agency. In the backdrop, however, of this consummating image of Scripture is the return of Christ not only as creation’s ultimate home restoration expert, but judge.

There is much to be added here regarding the already/not yet eschatological dimension of the Christian claim to the present and coming kingdom of God. But for now, we stand in the tension. We are both children and the bride that is the people of God. We are both small and in need of warmth, love, provision, and protection, and radiant, the beloved, beckoned forth for union.

“I actually think the Christian faith has got all the resources you need.”

My final question to Keller during our phone interview was his take on the spiritual temperature of the nation. What sorts of yearnings does he see and sense, and how can Christianity, properly understood, speak to those yearnings?

“I think the perplexity I see is that people want to have a foundation for making moral statements, but at the same time, they want to be free, and so they want to talk about the fact that all moral statements are culturally constructed,” he told me. “And so when somebody pushes a little bit on their life, they’d say, ‘All truth and all fact, all facts and all moral statements, are culturally constructed.’”

As Keller pointed out, they’re creating, at least philosophically, a kind of relativism, though of course no one actually lives like a relativist. All except sociopaths believe in certain deep truths about right and wrong, human nature, justice and a good life. “What we need is a non-oppressive moral absolute,” in Keller’s words. “We need moral absolutes that don’t turn the bearers of those moral absolutes into oppressors themselves.”

Keller concluded our conversation with a sentence that summarizes his consequential life: “I actually think the Christian faith has got all the resources you need.”

– Peter Wehner, “The Moral Universe of Timothy Keller“

A Few Book Deals…

I’ve been home tonight watching the Dallas Mavericks, who destroyed the Golden State Warriors, and now I’m tuned into volleyball. The Baylor Lady Bears are squaring off against the Texas Longhorns. I’ve been pulling together Kindle book deals.

The following are affiliate links. Every click and purchase supports my book habit.

Not Influenced by Books, at all?

Alan Jacobs jokes (I think) in this very short post that “Christians are not influenced by books, at all.”

Asking if that assessment is true may be, and most likely is, the wrong question. But there is truth in it. Books, as a means of influence, appear to be far down on the list of sources shaping the heart, mind, soul and body of Christian people. Personality, various forms of popular culture, and the internet lead the way.

But there are still those of us who read books, are influenced by them, and then spread those ideas, either through lifestyle or in conversation, to those around us. The influence may not be direct, but indirect.

A Wesleyan Prayer for the Soon-to-be Wed

photography of man wearing white t shirt kissing a woman while holding bicycle on river dock during sunset
Photo by Asad Photo Maldives on Pexels.com

While browsing for a resource on family devotions I came across these prayers for couples, and this one, I liked:

A Prayer for a Couple About to Marry

“O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, bless these Your servants.
Sow the seed of eternal life in their hearts,
so that whatever they learn in Your Holy Word they will profit from it,
and bring their learning to fulfillment by their deeds.
Look, O Lord, mercifully on them from heaven. Bless this couple.
As You sent Your blessing on Abraham and Sarah to their great comfort,
so send Your blessing on these Your servants.
Help them to obey Your will and always live in safety under Your protection.
May this pair live in Your love to the end of their days.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.”

– From The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, 1784

Is He Worthy?

Truett Seminary held a convocation service yesterday at the First Baptist Church of Waco, marking the beginning of our twenty-fifth year of ministry.

Supporters of Truett, faculty and staff, leaders at Baylor, members of the community, many students, and members of the inaugural class gathered to dedicate the year ahead to God. This silver anniversary, as it is, presents the opportunity to look back and give thanks, to look around and take stock, and to look ahead and dream of what might be. The service and the luncheon that followed were wonderful from gathering to goodbye.

One particular moment of our time together, however, left a great impression upon me. Prior to hearing from Dr. William D. Shiell, President of Northern Seminary, who would offer our convocation address, we listened to the Truett Chapel Worship Ensemble present “Is He Worthy?” by Andrew Peterson.

I revisited the song today, paying particular attention to the lyrics, thinking carefully about the words themselves. My cheeks became damp with tears. The music is beautiful. The visuals are quite good. But the song’s power comes from the words. They are powerful because they are the truth about the deepest realities of existence, expressing not only the promises of God as they are found in Scripture that inspire hope in the deepest recesses of the human heart, but also by pointing us to the person who has fulfilled them all.

Jesus, indeed, is worthy.