All Things Seen & Unseen

Writing on tsunamis and other similar catastrophes, John Piper has written, ' [ t] he point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son. This is the point of all pleasure and all pain. Pleasure says: “God is like this, only better; don’t make an idol out of me. I only point to him.” Pain says: “What sin deserves is like this, only worse; don’t take offense [sic] at me. I am a merciful warning.” '  Piper correctly summarises accurately one of the emphases of the Holy Scriptures about disasters. When Jesus was told about Jewish zea...

Recently, I found myself in a situation where unsavoury things were being said in a semi-public group. I felt trapped as a Christian. I knew that I didn't want to be identified with what was happening but also was embarrassed about lacking the know-how to dissociate from the comments. Church reminded me of this situation when the preacher spoke about Jesus' wish to remain incognito at times. The priest contrasted that with our wish sometimes to be incognito when we should be taking more affirmative stand for the gospel and its implications. Although the priest's comment wasn't germane to the bible passage, it was germane to my situation and I felt appropriately chastened by it. It's good when one can go to church and have one's sin brought to one's attention knowing that the rebuke of the Lord is always designed to be merciful!!

What view do the Scriptures take of the everyday things of life? Sunday's readings (30th Sunday after Pentecost, an ordinary* Sunday) give an answer to that question: Song of Songs (2:8-13, intimate love), Psalm (45, marriage), James (1:17-27, God's good gifts) and Mark 7:1-8;14-23 (all foods are clean). Each of these passages either declares a particular thing good (Song of Songs, Psalm) or generalises about the goodness of creation's gifts (James and Mark). However, Song of Songs and the Psalm go further. Both are passages have more than one apparent level of meaning. If we examine Psalm 45 at first glance the psalm is a song about the King's marriage to his Queen. But the New Testament in Hebrews 1 takes the words of Psalm 45:6-7 and applies them to Jesus. So this Psalm is a Messianic Psalm. One writer has made the excellent point that all the kings were "messiahs". They were all anointed to rule for God, which is the essence of what Messiahship is. In...