Readings and Ideas for the week of July 21, 2024

 Sermon Notes

Douglas Wilson, listened on July 21, 2024
Acts of the Apostles #1  (Acts 1:1)

Luke is Volume 1- what Jesus began
Acts is Volume 2 - what Jesus continues through the expansion of His body, the Church
Luke and Acts, written by the same man, dedicated to the same mystery man, Theophilus

Connect the Gospel of Luke to the book of Acts of anointed and appointed servants who are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in us.

Jesus is in Heaven, His Spirit is in us, therefore Christ remains in the world completing His work.
Acts 16:8 - "They" came to Troas, 3rd person
Acts 16:9 - Paul's vision of the Macedonian (Northern Greece) man asking for help, possibly Luke
Acts 16:10 - "We", Luke joins Paul somehow

Luke was a sophisticated writer who knew Greek well and a first-class historian. (Ex. Herod the Tetrarch, more precise than 'King Herod'). Also a medical doctor as per Colossians 4:14, beloved physician.

Unsure of who Theophilus was, it's remembered that others have dedicated their Christian writings to unbelieving magistrates or public people as an apologetic work to explain aspects of Christianity. (Example: Jean Calvin dedicated Institutes to King Francis 1, Catholic King of France)

Luke answers two main questions as his own apologetic work:
1. Who was this Jesus?
2. Who are these Christians?

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Rodney on preparing for breaking of bread:
The Word of God as bread feeds us. We know it feeds us because it gives to us what we do not have already, understanding and nourishment.

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A Meditation on Psalm 8
Psalm 8:1
God set His glory, His radiance above the heavens, beyond the reach of men. They can ignore Him, but they cannot dethrone Him.
Psalm 8:3-5
When we view that which has been created beyond our reach in the heavens, it teaches us to remember how fragile and small we are, yet we are told that we were created by the same Creator of the heavens and that further, we are remembered by Him with care and covered with glory and honor. What an astonishing and humble act of goodness we have been given.
Psalm 8:6-8
And if that thought wasn't enough, God, the Transcendent Creator gave to His image-bearers, the responsibility and privilege to rule over His works of creation that He put into place before men and women were even created. Therefore any act of caring for creation must be rooted in understanding that we are acting on God's behalf in His creation. So rather than covering ourselves with our own virtue in caring for the earth, we see ourselves as caring for God's creation at His command.

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A couple of weeks ago, I listened to Ken Boa on The Theology Pugcast talk about beauty and science. It was at times a little more complex on science topics, but overall it was an excellent historical and theological primer on how science reveals in increasingly complexity the beauty and order that can be found. I plan to listen to it again.
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The concept of noblesse oblige has come up twice in the last week or so. First in an episode of To the Manor Born, where the previous owner of the manor admonishes the new owner of his responsibilities to do good with his estate for the benefit of the community. And second in a post on X discussing the regulating of vice.

 

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 15th, 2024

Sermon Notes

Douglas Wilson, listened to on July 14, 2024 
On Loving the Standard (Biblical Child Discipline in an Age of Therapeutic Goo #9)          Deuteronomy 6:1-9

The greatest commandment is embedded in instruction on child-rearing. 

Loving the standard is a higher calling than simply obeying the standard.

Your actual theology is what you do. These statutes for Israel were to be lived out in the land He was giving them.

In Ephesians 6:1, Paul repeats the commandment and expands the promise: "Children, obey your parents, honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth" which now encompasses more than the land of Israel.

Parents are to diligently teach their children, dominated by living out the Word of God. Love is indeed a thing that can be taught.
Whatever you are manufacturing in your life and heart is what you are exporting or giving to your children.

From your heart, to the mouth, to the environment of the home.
Consistent Christian living in the home with humility, not perfection, is the goal.
God is at work in us by His Holy Spirit and we work out what He works into us. If it doesn't grow organically, then it is not obedience.
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Doug Wilson used a phrase in this sermon (transgenerational transitions) that I had never heard him use before and it summed up what I have been thinking about as our children become young adults and we look to what comes next in the life of our family. 

I have been thinking of how in some families the faith of one generation is successfully passed on intact and enlarged and in other families, the faith is ignored or severely altered and produced disunity. I was also thinking of how living generations stay in fellowship and unity with one another even over distance.
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Luke 24:37-43

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish and He took it and ate it in their presence.

I never noticed before how Jesus doesn't say that they are foolish for believing in ghosts. He instead offers His risen body as proof that He can't be a ghost because they can see and touch his real body and then the second test is that He eats with them. A few years back, I realized that I had been more affected by pop culture ideas like Ghosts aren't real but that the Biblical accounts do not point in that direction. On the The Theology Pugcast, they have talked about the spiritual beings that exist in a way that we often cannot see or explain satisfactorily. 

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Even our workspaces can be infused with refinement and delight while we carry on with the work of homemaking. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, this milkhouse description feels like a combination of spaces and places I've been in: summer kitchens, fern-crowded stone steps, earthen floor cellars, glass-paneled French doors, wet dairy floors, moss-covered sheds, and wooden shelved pantries.

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Two thoughts that came as I listened to the Book of Common Prayer service this morning:
Psalm 18:46 - "the foreign peoples"  
How can we have a concept of foreign peoples if we do not have nations that are bound together by an exclusive language and culture?
To look into: Was this concept of foreign peoples only understood after God dispersed the people by changing their languages in Genesis 10?

Ezekiel 20:12
"Moreover, I gave them my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, so that they might know that I the Lord sanctify them." (NRSV)
"Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I the LORD made them holy." (NIV)
The sabbaths were given as a means of setting God's people apart from the other nations. A day in which ordinary work and trade was suspended in order to worship God and meditate on His works. It wasn't a punishment, it was a blessing.
And it was a sign between Israel and God signaling an agreement or covenant that God had made with the people to be their God.

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I saw this CM quote shared on Goodreads and wanted to add it here to refer to. Ourselves p. 40-41

The thing is, to keep your eye upon words and wait to feel their force and beauty; and, when words are so fit that no other words can be put in their places, so few that none can be left out without spoiling the sense, and so fresh and musical that they delight you, then you may be sure that you are reading Literature, whether in prose or poetry. A great deal of delightful literature can be recognized only by this test. 

And here's one of the test passages that she asks her readers to consider with some instruction:

Try if the first gives you a sense of delight in the words alone, without any thought of the meaning of them, if the very words seem to sing to you;--

"That time of year thou mayest in me behold

     When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

     Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

(Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare)

Running Journal

I want to record the efforts of one of the physically hardest things I've ever done: trying to run as a fitness activity. On June 12th, I ran the loop (0.54 km) at a local trail near the river cove for the first time ever without stopping. I didn't think I could even do that. It took me 4 minutes. Two days later, on June 14th, I came back and pushed myself to run two loops(1.1 km) and did it in a little over 8 minutes. As I drove over to the cove, I kept telling myself not to expect too much, it was likely a fluke that I could run like that and probably not repeatable. So when I ran the two loops, I felt relieved that maybe it wasn't a one-off but something I could do again without letting myself stop to walk. Three days later on June 17th, I came back and ran two loops again in just under 8 minutes. This time I reversed the loop and saved the steep bit for the end rather than starting going downhill. I wanted to challenge myself. It felt great to be able to run it either direction. Shane said not to worry about time, just practice running with stopping. Speed will come, he said. The next day, June 18th, I decided to stay in our neighborhood and try to run up to the traffic circle and back something that I hadn't been able to do yet. But with my new goal of only doing distances that I could run without having to stop and walk, I picked that 1km segment to work on. It took me just over 7 minutes to run. Running on the road is distracting and without the beauty of the nature trail, but it's easy to do logistically. The next day we left for Caton's Island so I didn't do any more running until the following week, on June 25th, when I returned to the cove to run two loops again in just under 8 minutes. I was wondering if I could still do it since I had taken a week off from this endeavor, but was pleased to accomplish it. The next day I came back and thought I should try for three loops(1.6 km/1 mile) and although it felt very tough, I managed to do it in a little over 13 minutes. Now I was starting to build confidence since I finally could run one mile without stopping even if the pace was quite slow. The rest of the week was busy prepping for the upcoming Yard Sale Day at my in-laws and also trying not to come down with the cold that was threatening. By the Tuesday afternoon of July 2nd, I came down with a sudden onset sinus cold that left me very tired and I could only manage walks with the girls that week and next. I felt discouraged that I was going to have start all over and I had no motivation to do any running. But finally on Saturday, July 13th, I just put on my sneakers and thought I would go over and see if I could do it after being sick. I ran really slow, but I did the three loops without stopping and it took me over 14 minutes. But I was happy that I hadn't lost the courage to do it. Two days later, on July 15th, I ran here in the neighborhood again because only Kate was awake and Shane had left on his own run. I decided to lengthen my traffic circle road run by coming back by a side loop with a bit of a hill and adding a bit more to the initial 1 km. The total ended up at 1.23km and I did it in under 9 minutes. It felt good to be running in places I had only walked. The next day, July 16th, I went back to the cove to see if I could improve my pace on three loops and maybe think about pushing for four. But it felt very hard to finish three in under 13 minutes, so I didn't push for more. Two days later, on July 18th, I left the house to drive to the cove and it was already raining quite steadily. Two people were out walking their dogs in the rain but the path wasn't very wet yet. I completed one loop and then the rain just turned to a downpour but it wasn't really bothering me. On the second loop as I ran, I kept being distracted by how hard it was raining and I knew I wasn't going to be getting very far. So I finished only two loops in over 8 minutes, but pleased that I had actually run in the rain and not given up for bad weather.

But today, on July 20th, I was able to push myself to do the four loops(2.17km). I did it in a little over 16 minutes. It seems unreal to me that I was actively running for a whole 16 minutes after never having run at all. I was very hot and very tired, but triumphant. A walker who came to the narrower footbridge at the same time I did, paused to let me run across so I thanked him. He said "You're doing a great job!" And I thanked him again and felt humbled that for the first time someone was cheering me on as the runner. That was in the middle of the third loop and maybe that's what I needed to attempt the fourth one, I don't know. But by just looking at the path right in front of me and not looking to see how far I had to go, I managed to start that fourth loop and then finish it knowing I had done something very hard for me. After stopping and sitting shakily with my water bottle and phone on the bench completely red-faced and exhausted, I got up to go visit the buck who kept crossing the path I was running on. He was eating the grass just over the first footbridge and he let me walk very close to him and take photos and a video of his fine antlers. Then after chatting with another dog owner, I remembered the raspberry patch I had found earlier this week and waded through the tall grass to pick some more. To be able to run and compete against myself in a place surrounded by beauty and created life really does give me the mental stamina to keep returning and keep trying to do my best. Here's my Strava post for today:

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 7, 2024

Water running under the footpath bridge at Matthew's Cove

In reading through Luke 24, I thought about how Jesus  seemed to be trolling to the two travelers when he asked, "What things?"
When I mentioned this to Shane, he said that  Jesus was asking Socratic (!) questions because Jesus knew all things including the thoughts and conversations of people when he interacted with them he needed to follow normal speech patterns in dialogue to make the conversation flow naturally. 
If you look at other dialogues Jesus has, you can see how he accomplished this and depending on who he is talking to, how gentle or admonishing he is.

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In researching a term used by Tolkien, I read this article which alluded to authors 'borrowing plot structures from classical dramas". 

https://lithub.com/jrr-tolkien-invented-the-term-eucatastrophe-what-does-it-mean/

Curious about what the writer meant about classical plot structures, I found this paper simply called The Classical Plot. And on the very second page, I found a reference using a quote from Aristotle to explain his definition of a plot. And the citation listed Aristotle's Poetics which having never read Aristotle, I was surprised to see it wasn't poetry discussions which I had wrongly assumed all this time.
So now I have Poetics on my list to read to help me understand plot structure better.

https://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/71764/sample/9780521771764wsc00.pdf

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I found this book in the Free bin by the exit doors of our local Habitat for Humanity store where I sometimes go to look for used books. I gave it a quick look through and thought it maybe had some interesting church history in a different format which the Reader's Digest editorial team had done justice to. I'm only two pages in and I have found the retelling of the founding of Christianity compelling in it's presentation.

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This week, I listened to an episode of The Literary Life Podcast with Dr. Vigen Guroian on Fairy Tales and Children's Literature. I was already familiar with his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination and had perused it several years ago, but hearing him discuss it in person was a great refresher on this topic.
The show notes linked to an article in Touchstone magazine, The Fairy Tale Wars which goes into more detail on some of the topics he touched on. And it references an article by Dickens that I also read entitled Frauds on the Fairies from October 1, 1853 and which the first paragraph honors the fairy tales passed down in various retellings.

It would be hard to estimate the amount of gentleness and mercy that has made its way among us through these slight channels. Forbearance, courtesy, consideration for poor and aged, kind treatment of animals, love of nature, abhorrence of tyranny and brute force--many such good things have been first nourished in the child's heart by this powerful aid. It has greatly helped to keep us, in some sense, ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children, sharing their delights.

Dickens goes on to lament how illustrator Mr. George Cruikshank has altered versions of fairy tales so that he can incorporate moral lessons on "Total Abstinence, Prohibition of the sale of spirituous liquors, Free Trade, and Popular Education" to which Dickens protests that Cruikshank has "no greater moral justification in altering the harmless little books than we should have in altering his best etchings". 
One of my favorite lines in the essay was his recalling this bit of lore: " like the famous definition of a weed; a thing growing up in a wrong place". The opinions Cruikshank interpolates into the esteemed fairy tales may be good, but they are in the wrong place, Dickens argues. That use of the word interpolates carries the same meaning that Charlotte Mason warned about teachers and parents placing themselves and their thoughts in between the text and the student so that a disruption between the mind of the writer and the mind of the student occurs.
From School Education, p.177

Again, as I have already said, ideas must reach us directly from the mind of the thinker, and it is chiefly by means of the books they have written that we get in touch with the best minds.

Earlier on the same page, she remarks that the right books have their power of giving impulse and stirring emotion. Dickens considered that fairy tales are the slight channels in which inestimable amounts of gentleness and mercy have reached us. 
I'm not aware of Dicken's theology of how these good traits come to readers of fairy tales, but I do know that Charlotte Mason attributed this to the work of the Holy Spirit.

(Parents and Children, p. 270-271)

...but the great recognition, that God the Holy Spirit is Himself, personally, the Imparter of knowledge, the Instructor of youth, the Inspirer of genius, is a conception so far lost to us...

By trying to force our opinions, ideas and concerns of coaxing the child's character towards the good by the stories and books they are exposed to, we usurp the role of the Holy Spirit who knows exactly when and how to bring to mind the ideas necessary to instruct the conscience in the best and most meaningful way. By limiting our own flow of explaining and talk, we can instead share what Mason calls, an appreciate look or word and thus, we ensure that we leave a generous avenue for even the slightest nudge of the Holy Spirit to do His work when the child can benefit from it the most.
So much more could be said, but I will leave these unoriginal ideas here for now.