HOMILETICS

Calvin Is Dead

Calvin is dead. He died on this date, 445 years ago at the age of 54.

Calvin is the cover on the print version of the July-August issue of Homiletics. This is because 2009 is the quincentennial  anniversary of his birth, born as he was on July 9, 1509.

Calvin wasn’t that old when he died, although living to one’s fifties was an achievement in those days. Still,  Luther had lived until 62, and Calvin’s good friend, William Farel, was at least 80 when Calvin died. And it’s not like he was active in his last year of life. His last public appearance was in February of 1564. He’d been preaching, when he had a coughing attack so severe he was bringing up blood and couldn’t continue.

His death at the age of 54 might be a cautionary tale for preachers who suffer from Calvin’s affliction: working too hard, too long, under too much pressure, without properly delegating responsibilities while laboring under the misapprehension that your participation in crucial to the success of the cause. He was a driven man, says one writer, an over-achiever, a classic Type A, alpha male if there ever was one.

We know a lot about Calvin’s medical history, because he himself, provides us with considerable details including his intestinal parasites—which often rendered him anemic—and a persistent problem with hemorrhoids—which explains why in later years he didn’t travel so much. In his early life he loved to travel and go horseback riding. Later—not so much. He suffered from gout, which in Calvin’s day was often thought to be a rich man’s affliction—too much red wine, and expensive foods. He’d  get kidney stones from time to time and found that he could induce the passage of a stone if he went horseback riding—which presented a medical catch 22: Do I irritate my hemorrhoids or pass the stone? He suffered from persistent pulmonary tuberculosis which caused severe pain in his chest, and he often brought up blood. He also had migraine headaches, so he would fast to get rid of them. His eating habits were irregular. In his later years he was described as a skeleton covered with skin. He probably died of septicemia, or blood poisoning. By all accounts he was lucid until the end, doing some writing, (but never again—after the February episode—preaching from his Genevan pulpit), summoning local pastors and leaders to his house and offering final words of instruction.

So how did this man get anything done at all? Clearly the man needed a good HMO and a personal trainer.

He died almost intestate with only 225 crowns to his name.

On this day, 445 years ago, he remarked on the words of the apostle Paul, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be. . . . . . ,” at which point the Calvin legend, puffed by his successor Theodore Beza in whose arms he died, claims he breathed his last.

The very next day, Calvin was in the ground in a plain coffin in the town cemetery outside of town.
Check out Homiletics, July 5, 2009, for our tribute to Calvin’s life and theology, and be sure to read Travis McMaken’s Preaching Calvin column’s in both the May-June and July-August issue.

What To Do With All that Hot Air of Yours

Reports came out last fall that by this spring, there'd be a car on the streets of France and possibly New Zealand which runs on air.

Here's a blurb about it from one site (search the Web for "air pod" or "L'air pod" and you will get a lot of hits):

While outfits like Lightning and Tesla are attempting to make eco-friendly cars sexy, MDI is taking things in a completely different direction. The recently-made-official Airpod looks practically nothing like anything seen on American roadways today, which is probably why it's apt to hit the streets of France and New Zealand first. The oddly shaped automobile will reportedly reach a top speed of 70kmh (44mph) and cruise 100-kilometers (62 miles) on just $2. The secret? A minuscule compressed air-powered engine on each of the rear wheels, both of which get instructed by the car's joystick (Atari fans, rejoice!). We're told that reloading the engine with hot air takes less than two minutes, and if all goes well, the first of the urban vehicles will hit the cobblestones in the spring of 2009.

I don't know how the fool thing works. It runs on air. Compressed air I think. So do you have to go to the filling station and grab an air hose, fill up your tires and while you're at it, fill up a tank of compressed air too? Or does it just work on any air? Is humidity a factor? Does it require a lot of hot air? If so, I am pretty sure I know a good source.

The car is steered by a joy stick, not a steering wheel. Will I need to pass a special driver's license test before rolling out on the streets in one of these glorified balloons? Is that the way it works: You blow up the balloon and then let go, and the little thing just scurries all over?

I don't know what to make of this, really. It just seems like a car needs fuel, and I can't wrap my head around air being fuel, or that I can get a lot of energy out of this machine and it only costs me the air I breathe.

Seems like it should cost me a lot more.

Good Citizens-R-Us

Harvard University professor, Robert Putnam and University of Notre Dame scholar David Campbell argue in their book, American Grace: How Religion is Reshaping our Civic and Political Lives, that people with a strong faith-system make better citizens and better neighbors—and, since America is more religious than most countries—that should be a good thing. We should be a nation of good citizens and good neighbors.

Putnam and Campbell say, according to a report from Religious News Service, that “their studies found that religious people are three to four times more likely to be involved in their community. They are more apt than nonreligious Americans to work on community projects, belong to voluntary associations, attend public meetings, vote in local elections, attend protest demonstrations and political rallies, and donate time and money to causes—including secular ones.”

Well maybe. The other thing Putnam says is that the generation growing up behind older Americans are “vastly” more secular. And chances are, these kids aren’t going to grow a faith as they grow older.
So what does that mean? That 30 years from now, we’re going to be a nation of unruly citizens and grouchy neighbors?

Many would argue that, Putnam’s research notwithstanding, we’re already there.

I think I agree with Putnam’s central thesis. It should be true of Christians, clearly.

Justin Martyr made a similar argument to the Emperor, saying in effect, “You have nothing to fear from us. We are good citizens”

But Christians also know how to protest when government is bad. That’s what good citizens do. No, said Justin, we’re not going to bow the knee to your image, but we will pay our taxes.

The key, say Putnam and Campbell, is the influence of church, synagogue or mosque. People who are a part of faith communities tend to get involved. It’s just a bit different if someone from church asks you to help out at the food bank, than say, if the same request was made by your bowling team.

Obama’s Open Mind

Okay, I guess I will weigh in on the Obama speech at Notre Dame.

First, I really can’t get all worked up about it. If you are a single-issue voter, as evidently many pro-lifers are, then perhaps this is the battle you choose to fight.

But how can it be strange for a major U.S. educational institution to invite THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES to give the commencement address? Surely the president might have something to say unrelated to the abortion debate in this country that would be worth listening to.

According to a TIME survey, “Three-quarters of Catholics either approve of or offer no opinion on Notre Dame's decision to invite Obama, and the same percentage of U.S. bishops have opted to stay out of the fight.”

Maybe the silent majority has it right here. Ho hum. Obama is our president, and he’s accepted an invitation to speak at Notre Dame. Bully for Notre Dame. Maybe next year Harvard will invite Sarah Palin to speak at its commencement.

Nah.

Obama’s clever. He knew that he’d have to acknowledge the controversy.  He said, according to one source, that "no matter how much we want to fudge it ... the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." He went on to urge the graduating class to have  “open hearts, open minds” and to use “fair-minded words.”

I think Obama is sincere.

But I gotta tell you: Usually when I hear someone urge someone else to have an open mind on a particular subject, what the person really means is: “Please take some time to explore all the reasons why you should believe as I do.”

Perhaps this is what Bishop Samuel Aquila of the Catholic Diocese of Fargo, N.D., had in mind when he discussed the controversy surrounding President Obama's commencement address when he appeared  appeared Thursday (May 14) on Fox News' “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” "Certainly NARAL or Planned Parenthood would never invite (Pope) Benedict XVI, much less extend an award to him. And essentially, Notre Dame is ignoring their Catholic identity and who they are, their Catholic character, by giving an award to him." (And speakin of the pope, doesn't Obama in this photo look like a Catholic prelate? All he needs is a crozier and a funny hat.)

Having an open mind is not necessarily a virtue. I think Obama knows this. His concern is that we forge a way to continue the discussion without demonizing those who disagree with us. To have an open mind is just a polite way of saying that you have a hole in your head. And, as someone has observed, if you have an open mind, someone’s sure to come by and drop a lot of nonsense into it.

The Bible doesn’t call on us to have an open mind, but an understanding mind. We should be people who know what we believe and why—and leave it there.

The final word comes from George Bernard Shaw—someone who was a fer piece from the kingdom himself, but he understood the fallacy of the “open mind”: “The open mind never acts: when we have done our utmost to arrive at a reasonable conclusion, we still must close our minds for the moment with a snap, and act dogmatically on our conclusions.”

The Shaq on Performance Enhancing Drugs

Shaq on his Twitter feed today: "Confession I admit to taking performance adhancing cereal....Frosted Flakes mixed with Fruit Loops and Bananas. Pls dnt judge me."

Funny. You remember Shaq, right? The big basketball guy. The Big Aristotle, Big Daddy, the Big Agave, the Big Cactus, Big Shaqtus, the Big Galactus, the Big Baryshnikov and so on.

Performance enhancing drugs. You can’t read the sports pages these days without reading about P.E.D.

But you can also read the gospel lection for this Sunday, where Jesus talks about the biggest P.E.D. of all.

Love. The Big Love. Big Jesus Love. The Homiletics commentary reads in part:

First, it is the greatest love because it comes to expression in the greatest act of giving, the giving of his own life (see also 10:11, 15, 17). Second, Christ’s love creates a relationship of openness in which he discloses everything he has heard from his Father. Finally, it is a productive love because his love that chooses and appoints his disciples brings forth their production of abiding fruit and their reception of whatever they ask (see also 15:7). Hence, in order to love others like Jesus has loved them, the disciples will be asked as Jesus was to reveal what they have seen and know (15:27), and may even be asked to give their lives (15:20; 21:18-19) all so that they might give out love to others.

A little love can go a long ways to boosting one’s performance.

Smash Your Cooking Pots and Sink Your Boats

Here’s a short sermon series idea for you: A study of the “make no provision” texts of the NT. Or “Give no occasion” texts. Roughly the same meaning.

I did a quick search. I found rather quickly the well-known “make no provision” text of Romans 13:14 — “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”

Then, you go to 1 Corinthians 10:32:  “Give no occasion to stumbling, whether to Jews, or Greeks, or the assembly of God.”

Then, to 1 Timothy 5:14: “Give no occasion to the adversary for reviling.”

Finally, to 2 Corinthians 6:3: “Giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministration be not blamed.”

There might be other such references of course. But this will get you going.

These texts essentially argue that part of Christian living is to put the chocolate, or alcohol, or crème puffs under lock and key and throw away the key.

All of us understand—or must understand—that there are certain things we just don’t fool around with. These “things” might differ from person to person (“All things are lawful”) although doubtless you have a list of the absolutes: these vices, habits, behaviors have no place in the life of a professing Christian.

So, the NT argues, you “give no occasion,” or “make no provision.” You burn your bridges behind you. You have committed your life to following Christ, and Christ is your leader, and he calls you to leave behind the stuff that might bog you down.

A reference to Chinese folk lore might help here: In 207 BC, a Chinese rebel, Xiang Yu fought a decisive battle against the troops of the Qin Dynasty. It was a peasant rebellion, the first of its kind, and Yu, although of noble birth, joined them as a deputy commander-in-chief.

As the decisive battle loomed, it became apparent that the battle would be fought near the Zhang river in northern China. The head commander, Song Yi refused to attack, because he was afraid his peasant soldiers would not be able to prevail against the well-trained Qin soldiers.

A standoff ensued that lasted 46 days. The weather had turned bad and the peasants began to complain. Xiang decided that it was time to act. He killed Song and took control of the army. He led the army across the Zhang river and then he issued a most startling and unusual command to his peasant troops:

“Po fu chen zhou.” (Sounds like: Poe fu shun joe)

Translated it means: Smash your cooking pots, and burn your boats.

The meaning was clear. “We now have no means to retreat. There is no way to survive and eat again unless the enemy is defeated. We are now committed. This is the path we’ve chosen.”

Yu and his peasant army were victorious and that victory led to the ultimate collapse of the Qin dynasty.

So—when we face the journey before us, when we come up against our foe—moral, spiritual, or otherwise, perhaps Xiang Yu’s advice—not to speak of the Word of God—is helpful.

“Smash your cooking pots and burn your bridges.” Retreat to our former life must be removed as an option.

The July-August issue of Homiletics in now online

The July-August issue of Homiletics in now online.

The cover story is CALVIN, 500 years old July 9. Inside you’ll find a July 5 treatment of Calvin that you can work into a Sunday sermon. The Preaching Column likewise features Calvin, the second of a two-part series by Ph.D. candidate (Princeton Theological Seminary) Travis McMaken.

Also: Five of the gospel lections in July and August are taken from John chapter 6. So we developed a five-part series to help you preach from this chapter of John in the late summer.

There’s much more including “G-Force,” “Genes and Grace,” “The Art of Gratuitous Praise,” “The Compliment Machine,” and “The Liquid Armor of God.”

A Mother’s Face

I got an e-mail from a subscriber wondering where our Mother’s Day material was located for the May-June issue of Homiletics.

Well, gulp, we didn’t include any material to help pastors cook up a Mother’s Day reflection this year.

Actually, we have only offered a special treatment for Mother’s day twice in the past 20 years: 2005, and 2003 (“Wisteria ” [May 8] and “Your Family: How It Works” [May 11].

But—I do have a suggestion if you’d like to have a sermon this Sunday on the Mother’s Day theme. Consider the case of Connie Culp.

Five years ago Culp, a mother of two, was shot in the face by her husband, who then turned the gun on himself. He survived and went to prison.

Culp also survived, and went to prison—a prison of nightmarish proportion. She clung on to life, but the attack completely demolished her face, shattering her nose and cheeks, the roof of her mouth and one eye. Shotgun pellets were embedded deep into her skull. It was awful. Neighborhood children thought she was a monster.

She went through 30 operations to repair what could be repaired. And then, last December, in a 22 hour operation, a team of doctors replaced her face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from a woman who had just died. 

Yesterday, she went public with her new face.

Your heart goes out to her. She’s a mom, and her heart is just as big and loving as it ever was. You have to wish her the best.

I am sure that the face that we see today of Connie Culp does not in itself give us an idea of her true face, except that it surely testifies to her courage, perseverance and sense of optimism.

And it could raise the question for us: What does the face of a mother look like?

Think of some biblical moms, like Hannah. Or Mary boxing Jesus by the ears after his dalliance in the temple, but a mom who treasured her moments with her son and “kept all these things in her heart.”

Think of moms in history, like Monica, the mother of Augustine. What that woman went through. Or, Susannah Wesley.

And then think of—perhaps—some moms in your own congregation.

What are the striking features we see on these faces?

And because, no doubt, your congregation will consist of women who are not moms, and because you’ll have dads listening too, ask if there is some way in which the features we see on the face of these moms, should not be features we all endeavor to emulate.

Mine That Bird

This little reflection should be filed under “Never, never, never give up.”

It was the most astonishing finish in the Kentucky Derby in memory. I think on only one other occasion has a horse at such long odds (50-1) won the race.

I’m not sure how often a horse that has been dead last finishes first, but it can’t be often. The track announcer mentioned Mine that Bird only once early on and that was to note that the nag was in last place. The name didn’t come up again until the very end when Mine that Bird shot through the pack to win easily.

If the race had been another half mile, Mine That Bird would’ve lapped the field. Incredible finish.

So here’s the deal: Do you feel like you’re struggling and can’t seem to make any progress? You’re getting nowhere fast, and you’re never going to be a winner?

Do you feel like you’re at the back of the pack and all you can see ahead of you is about 20 horses’ as----, er, rear ends? If you like what you see, well you can just stay there.

But if you’d prefer not to have your face in other people’s business, what are you going to do?

You’re going to move to the inside rail, and start running like God made you to run, that’s what you’re going to do.

Sure, you can feel the crack of the whip a little. And sure, it stings.

But compared to the thrill of victory, it’s nothing.

Calvin at 500

It could only be of interest to theologians and the residents of Grand Rapids, Michigan, wherein is located the liberal arts institution Calvin College: the year 2009 is the quincentennial year of the crusty Genevan reformer’s birth.

And if that isn’t a reason to have a party, someone’s not trying.

The next issue of Homiletics which you should have in your hands in about three weeks, and which should be online in about three days, features John Calvin. We plastered his picture, pointy beard and all on the cover.

This is the year of Calvin. There’s a lot of buzz in the theological corridors of the academy and Presbyterian-land. Calvin scholars have had their calendars full with speaking engagements for about three years out.

When I made the decision to do something about Calvin in Homiletics, I turned to the lone Presbyterian on our writing team, the Reverend Henry G. Brinton, Senior Minister at Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. Henry doesn’t have the pointy beard, and isn’t at all as grumpy as Calvin reportedly was, but he knows a thing or two about Calvin. I asked Henry to write something for pastors across America that would help them share with their congregations the importance of Calvin and the enduring thrust of Calvin’s theology that can still inform and strengthen our faith today.

This he did. Also, in the same issue, a bright young Ph.D. candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, Travis McMaken, give us in the Preaching Column, the second of his essays on Calvin, the emphasis in this second piece being on Calvin’s theology (the first essay focuses on his life).

Henry’s not making a living off of Calvin, but close to it. His most recent article about Calvin appears today, Monday, May 4, 2009, in USA Today. You can read it here.

Finally, a couple of Calvin quotes:

“Man with all his shrewdness is as stupid about understanding by himself the mysteries of God, as an ass is incapable of understanding musical harmony.”

“I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels”

“Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a day; set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.”