Journey of the Magi

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (as you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

T. S. Eliot (1936)

Adam's words to Michael on leaving paradise

Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God, to walk
As in his presence, ever to observe
His providence, and on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good
Still overcoming evil, and by small
Accomplishing great things, by things deem'd weak
Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise
By simply meek; that suffering for Truth's sake
Is fortitude to highest victory,
And to the faithful Death the Gate of Life;
Taught this by his example whom I now
Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.

John Milton, Paradise Lost XII.561-573 (1674)

Martin Luther and the Priesthood of All Believers

"Now we, who have been baptized, are all uniformly priests ... The only addition received by the priests is the office of preaching, and even this with our consent... Thus it says in 1 Peter 2, "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, and a priestly kingdom." It follows that all of us who are Christian are also priests. Those whom we call priests are really ministers of the word and chosen by us; they fulfil their entire office in our name. The priesthood is simply the ministry of the word. So in 1 Corinthians 4 it says: "Let a man account of us as of ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God."
That being the case, it follows (i) that any one who has been called by the church to preach the Word, but does not preach it, is in no way a priest; and (ii) that the sacrament of ordination cannot be other than the rite by which the church chooses its preacher. That is how Malachi 2 defines a priest: "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts." ...
Therefore every one who knows that he is a Christian should be fully assured that all of us alike are priests, and that we all have the same authority in regard to the word and the sacraments, although no one has the right to administer them without the consent of the members of his church. ...
A joyful liberty would come back to us, in which we should understand that we are all equal by any law whatever; and, when the oppressive yoke had been cast aside, we should know that he who is a Christian possesses Christ; that he who possesses Christ possesses all things that are Christ's, and is able to do all things."

Martin Luther, Pagan Servitude of the Church (1520) part 6.

John Yoder on the Priesthood of all believers in the New Testament

"The work of Christ is described in Hebrews as the abolition of the priesthood. The perfect high priest, fully obedient among His brethren, by sacrificing Himself, puts an end to the recurrent functions of all priesthood, and gives us all access into the holy place. Priesthood, to the extent that it applies at all in the new covenant, is the character of the entire people of God, not of any single priestly person in the church. Thus Revelation 5 and 1 Peter 2 take up the mosaic phrase "a kingdom of priests" to designate the abolition of the distinct priestly role (whereas the prophetic role and the eldership, and something like the rabbinate, are carried over in the N.T. church). Priests joining the Jerusalem church did not create a Christian priesthood....
The conclusion is inescapable that the multiplicity of ministries is not a mere adiaphoron, a happenstance of only superficial significance, but a specific work of grace and a standard for the church ... We would expect, in a turbulent first-generation movement, that wisdom should call everyone to restrain his individualism; but the apostolic call is to each to be the most uniquely oneself. Not only should one not despise the other, not only should all work in unity like the organs of a healthy body, but each is invited to sharpen his or her distinctiveness (1 Pet. 4:10, Rom. 12:3, 6 ff). Harmony and diversity are not in tension but complementary."

John Howard Yoder, The Fullness of Christ: Paul's Vision of Universal Ministry (1987) 16-17

Avoiding epistemological suicide

"Reading the Gospels as eyewitness testimony differs therefore from attempts at historical reconstruction behind the texts. It takes the Gospels seriously as they are; it acknowledges the uniqueness of what we can know only in this testimonial form. It honors the form of historiography they are. From a historiographic perspective, radical suspicion of testimony is a kind of epistemological suicide. It is no more practicable in history than it is in ordinary life. Gospels scholarship must free itself from the grip of the skeptical paradigm that presumes the Gospels to be unreliable unless, in every particular case of story or saying, the historian succeeds in providing independent verification. For such a suspicious approach the Gospels are not believable until and unless the historian can verify each claim that they make to recount history. But this approach is seriously faulty precisely as a historical method. It can only result in a misleadingly minimal collection of uninteresting facts about a historical figure stripped of any real significance."

Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2006) p. 506.

Kierkegaard and Matt 11:28

"Come hither, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." A strange invitation. For commonly when men assemble for joy or for united labour they say, it is true, to the strong and the joyful, "Come hither, take part with us, unite your strength with ours." But of the afflicted person they say, "No, we will not have him with us, he only spoils the joy and retards the work." Oh, yes, the afflicted man understands this well enough without need of hearing it told to him; and so perhaps many an afflicted person goes off by himself alone, will not take part with others lest he spoil their joy or retard their labour. But then this invitation, however, to all them that labour and are heavy laden must apply to him, since it applies to all the afflicted; how could any afflicted person say in this instance, "No, this invitation does not apply to me"?

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Christian Discourses

The God of Remembrance

I do not mean that God would have even his closest presence make us forget or cease to desire that of our friend. God forbid! The Love of God is the perfecting of every love. He is not the God of oblivion but of eternal remembrance. There is no past with Him.

George MacDonald (1824-1905)

from: Unspoken Sermons, Series 3, The Displeasures of Jesus

Christianity or Religion?

Christianity is not a religion. For whatever is human about it, all the manifestations in which it may resemble a religion, are merely the echo or reflection of a movement that does not proceed from man or have to be carried out by him, but happens to him and has to be responded to by him, a movement by a being of an entirely different kind. Alone among all the religions, Christianity is essentially a pointer, pointing backwards and forwards and in either case upwards ... a movement that differs from all religions, all human leaps and superstructures, and is indeed opposed to all religion.

If Christianity is properly understood, that is, on the basis of the historical sources, the documentation of its origins in the Old and New Testaments -- and that, incidentally, is the task of theology -- it is impossible to shut one's eyes to the realization that, in contrast to religion, its essence is not man's arising to go to God, but God's arising to go to man....

"Christian", properly understood, means being governed by the message of Jesus Christ, the liberating discovery of God's gracious move towards humanity. But such discovery is an event, not a condition or institution, and thus is not an attribute with which human creations can be endowed or by which they can be distinguished.

Karl Barth (1963)

Kärleksbudet: Vad innebär kärleken till nästa?

Herre, vår Gud och Fader, du som har befallt oss att älska varandra, förläna oss nåd att älska varje människa som kommer i vår väg. Vi anropar din barmhärtighet för alla, men särskilt för dem som din kärlek har givit oss. Vår bön är matt och svag, men giv dem, o Herre, långt mera gott än vi bedja eller tänka. Ty din kärlek överträffar all mänsklig kärlek. Gör med dem efter din vilja, så att de alltid och allestädes står under din ledning och ditt beskydd. Hjälp dem att älska dig så att de endast vill, talar och gör sådant som behagar dig. Och låt dem till sist hinna fram till det oförgängliga livet. Dig vare ära i evighet. Amen.

Anselm av Canterbury (1033-1109)

A Puritan's View of Power

To suppose that whatever God requireth of us that we have the power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect.

-John Owen (1616-1683)

Advice to procrastinators

You will never be younger; if not done soon it [the work] will never be done, to the end of all eternity . . . You may indeed excuse yourself and see reasons why the work should not have been done, but it will not have been done.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), Letters.

Some books...

Sharers in Divine Nature: 2 Peter 1:4 in Its Hellenistic Context (Almqvist & Wiksell, 2000)
Finns till salu på http://www.bokborsen.se/ eller
http://www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~STASHARER

Early Christian Paraenesis in Context (de Gruyter, 2004)
Finns till salu på: http://www.degruyter.de/cont/fb/th/detail.cfm?id=IS-9783110181302-1



Partakers of the Divine Nature (Baker Academic, 2008)
Finns till salu på http://www.bakeracademic.com/

Martin Luther on why Greek is important (1524)

"All right," you say again, "suppose we do have schools; what is the use of teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and the other liberal arts? ... We do not see many instances where the devil has allowed them to flourish by means of the universities and monasteries; indeed, these have always raged against languages and are even now raging. For the devil smelled a rat, and perceived that if the languages were revived a hole would be knocked in his kingdom which he could not easily stop up again. Since he found he could not prevent their revival, he now aims to keep them on such slender rations that they will of themselves decline and pass away. They are not a welcome guest in his house, so he plans to offer them such meagre entertainment that they will not prolong their stay. Very few of us, my dear sirs see through this evil design of the devil....

In proportion then as we value the gospel, let us zealously hold to the languages. For it was not without purpose that God caused his Scriptures to be set down in these two languages alone--the Old Testament in Hebrew, the New in Greek. Now if God did not despise them but chose them above all others for his word, then we too ought to honour them above all others. St. Paul declared it to be the peculiar glory and distinction of Hebrew that God's word was given in that language, when he said in Romans 3, "What advantage or profit have those who are circumcised? Much indeed. To begin with, God's speech is entrusted to them." King David too boasts in Psalm 147, "He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation or revealed to them his ordinances." Hence, too, the Hebrew language is called sacred. And St. Paul, in Romans 1, calls it "the holy scriptures," doubtless on account of the holy word of God which is comprehended therein. Similarly, the Greek language too may be called sacred, because it was chosen above all others as the language in which the New Testament was to be written, and because by it other languages too have been sanctified as it spilled over into them like a fountain through the medium of translation."

And let us be sure of this: we will not long preserve the gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which this jewel is enshrined; they are the vessel in which this wine is held; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and, as the gospel itself points out, they are the baskets in which are kept these loaves and fishes and fragments. If through our neglect we let the languages go (which God forbid!), we shall not only lose the gospel, but the time will come when we shall be unable either to speak or write a correct Latin or German. As proof and warning of this, let us take the deplorable and dreadful example of the universities and monasteries, in which men have not only unlearned the gospel, but have in addition so corrupted the Latin and German languages that the miserable folk have been fairly turned into beasts, unable to speak or write a correct German or Latin, and have well-nigh lost their natural reason to boot.

For this reason even the apostles themselves considered it necessary to set down the New Testament and hold it fast in the Greek language, doubtless in order to preserve it for us there safe and sound as in a sacred ark. For they foresaw all that was to come, and now has come to pass; they knew that if it was left exclusively to men's memory, wild and fearful disorder and confusion and a host of varied interpretations, fancies, and doctrines would arise in the Christian church, and that this could not be prevented and the simple folk protected unless the New Testament were set down with certainty in written language. Hence, it is inevitable that unless the languages remain, the gospel must finally perish.

Experience too has proved this and still gives evidence of it. For as soon as the languages declined to the vanishing point, after the apostolic age, the gospel and faith and Christianity itself declined more and more until under the pope they disappeared entirely. After the decline of the languages Christianity witnessed little that was worth anything; instead, a great many dreadful abominations arose because of ignorance of the languages. On the other hand, now that the languages have been revived, they are bringing with them so bright a light and accomplishing such great things that the whole world stands amazed and has to acknowledge that we have the gospel just as pure and undefiled as the apostles had it, that it has been wholly restored to its original purity, far beyond what it was in the days of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. In short, the Holy Spirit is no fool. He does not busy himself with inconsequential or useless matters. He regarded the languages as so useful and necessary to Christianity that he ofttimes brought them down with him from heaven. This alone should be a sufficient motive for us to pursue them with diligence and reverence and not to despise them, for he himself has now revived them again upon the earth....

When our faith is thus held up to ridicule, where does the fault lie? It lies in our ignorance of the languages; and there is no other way out than to learn the languages. Was not St. Jerome compelled to translate the Psalter anew from the Hebrew because, when we quoted our Psalter in disputes with the Jews, they sneered at us, pointing out that our texts did not read that way in the original Hebrew? Now the expositions of all the early fathers who dealt with Scripture apart from a knowledge of the languages (even when their teaching is not in error) are such that they often employ uncertain, indefensible, and inappropriate expressions. They grope their way like a blind man along the wall, frequently missing the sense of the text and twisting it to suit their fancy, as in the case of the verse mentioned above, "Tecum principium," etc. Even St. Augustine himself is obliged to confess, as he does in his Christian Instruction, that a Christian teacher who is to expound the Scriptures must know Greek and Hebrew in addition to Latin. Otherwise, it is impossible to avoid constant stumbling; indeed, there are plenty of problems to work out even when one is well versed in the languages.

There is a vast difference therefore between a simple preacher of the faith and a person who expounds Scripture, or, as St. Paul puts it, a prophet. A simple preacher (it is true) has so many clear passages and texts available through translations that he can know and teach Christ, lead a holy life, and preach to others. But when it comes to interpreting Scripture, and working with it on your own, and disputing with those who cite it incorrectly, he is unequal to the task; that cannot be done without languages. Now there must always be such prophets in the Christian church who can dig into Scripture, expound it, and carry on disputations. A saintly life and right doctrine are not enough. Hence languages are absolutely and altogether necessary in the Christian church, as are the prophets or interpreters; although it is not necessary that every Christian or every preacher be such a prophet, as St. Paul points out in I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4....

Hence, it is also a stupid undertaking to attempt to gain an understanding of Scripture by labouring through the commentaries of the fathers and a multitude of books and glosses. Instead of this, men should have devoted themselves to the languages. Because they were ignorant of languages, the dear fathers at times expended many words in dealing with a text. Yet when they were all done they had scarcely taken its measure; they were half right and half wrong. Still, you continue to pore over them with immense labour even though, if you knew the languages, you could get further with the passage than they whom you are following. As sunshine is to shadow, so is the language itself compared to all the glosses of the fathers....

Here belongs also what St. Paul calls for in 1 Corinthians 14, namely, that in the Christian church all teachings must be judged. For this a knowledge of the language is needful above all else. The preacher or teacher can expound the Bible from beginning to end as he pleases, accurately or inaccurately, if there is no one there to judge whether he is doing it right or wrong. But in order to judge, one must have a knowledge of the languages; it cannot be done in any other way. Therefore, although faith and the gospel may indeed be proclaimed by simple preachers without a knowledge of languages, such preaching is flat and tame; people finally become weary and bored with it, and it falls to the ground. But where the preacher is versed in the languages, there is a freshness and vigour in his preaching, Scripture is treated in its entirety, and faith finds itself constantly renewed by a continual variety of words and illustrations. Hence, Psalm 129 likens such scriptural studies to a hunt, saying to the deer God opens the dense forests; and Psalm 1 likens them to a tree with a plentiful supply of water, whose leaves are always green.

(Utdrag från Martin Luther, "To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools [1524]," Luther's Works vol 45.)

Why read old books?

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books....This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology....But if [a beginner] must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light....
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books....We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the 20th century...the blindness about which posterity will ask, 'But how could they have thought that?'...lies where we have never suspected it .... None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past, ... People were no cleverer then than they are now, they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.

C S Lewis, "Introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation" (1946)

Easter: When God wins back lost ground

"From Plato's cave to Lewis's Narnia, ordinary religious metaphors tend to employ the literal and familiar to speak (however truthfully) of an otherworldly reality. The New Testament witness to the resurrection of Jesus, by contrast, redescribes earth in terms of heaven and history in terms of eschatology. For the early Christians, this marks the place in which God's world irreversibly invades the world of violence and corruption, planting here the flag of redemption."

Markus Bockmuehl, Cambridge Companion to Jesus (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 117

William Morris on Fellowship

Forsooth, brothers, fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell,
fellowship is life, and lack of fellowship is death,
and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye do them,
and the life that is in it, that shall live on and on for ever,
and each one of you part of it,
while many a man's life upon the earth from the earth shall wane.

Dream of John Ball (1888)

Chrysostom on the Resurrection

Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed,

that mortality might be swallowed up in life . . .

We do not wish to cast aside the body, but corruption;

not the flesh, but death.

The body is one thing, death another . . .

What is foreign to us is not the body but corruptibility.

De resurrectione mortuorum 256-274 (4th century)