Youth ministry is its own reward

Yes, that is a pair of rubber-ducky underpants, discovered by a ministerial colleague between two boys' cabins, being immolated on the campfire just prior to the nightly preaching of the Word.

I love, love, love Bible camp. I think we should put this picture on all our advertising.

[UPDATE: View a video of the immolation here.]

Father Curmudgeon's Day

Thing 2 decided to make a play for "favorite curmudgeling" by suggesting a beer tasting for Father's Day this year. Mrs. Curmudgeon did the bulk of the legwork and preparation, of course, pairing each selection with cheeses and sausages (yum). Credit where credit is due: Thing 2 did put together a video presentation on the history of beer. The kid has potential.

That puts me in mind of a Father's Day project he did back in first grade, for which, for reasons I don't entirely understand, he was asked to describe the paterfamilias. Even several years later, his description remains accurate (although I have put on a few pounds since).

duh

According to the latest entry in the category "studies made necessary by the profound conviction that anything which makes people happy must be bad," coffee probably doesn't cause cancer. I've long know this. In fact, because colorful fruits are antioxidants, and because coffee is made from colorful beans, it's full of antioxidants. I can science too, people.

While we're on the subject, I love, love, love my pod coffeemaker, the most useful office supply in my study. Don't give anyone else this tip, but if you go to Starbucks the day after Christmas, you can get the Christmas blend coffee pods for half-price. Whilst doing this back in December, a store manager gave me, for free, a couple boxes of Thanksgiving blend pods. According to my daily afternoon coffee consumption rate, I calculate I'm set until August.

Coffee. Life is good.

Administrative & Substantial

The most eagerly anticipated item on the docket of the 83rd General Assembly of the OPC was the report of a special committee to study republication. “Republication” is the suggestion that, in some sense, the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai (Exodus) repeats the conditions of the covenant God made with Adam in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2). (Yes, OPC officers tend to have their attention piqued by somewhat unusual things.) 

As the attentive reader might guess, everything hangs on that “in some sense.” Through a close reading of Westminster Confession of Faith 7.5-6, the committee suggested that various views on the matter be classified as either “substantial” or “administrative.” “Substantial” would mean that the Sinaitic covenant, in its essential terms, promised reward in return for obedience. (Usually, Israel holding on to the Promised Land of Canaan as reward for keeping the Mosaic Law in its fullness.) “Administrative” would mean that the Sinaitic covenant had elements which illustrate and point back to the Covenant of Works with Adam while simultaneously pointing forward to Jesus Christ’s work which fulfilled the Covenant of Works, but for that very reason is, in its essential term, an administration of the Covenant of Grace by which God’s people are saved from their sins.

As a long-time student of covenant theology, I find these categories helpful for classifying the various views propounded on the subject of republication. However, they are relatively new, and so will have to be widely taught before they can be relied upon as a tool when preparing candidates for ministry. This suspicion of mine was confirmed when I heard the same from a more senior and august member of the Assembly than I at the supper break.

I recommend the report, although some basic familiarity with the republication “discussion” and, more importantly, the Confessional doctrine of the covenants will help. Also, an ability to wade through novel and creatively hyphenated theological terminology.

Presenting & Fundamental Causes

A special committee to advise a presbytery presented its report to the 83rd General Assembly of the OPC today. Said presbytery has been embroiled in conflicts for about the last decade, give or take a few years. The committee suggested those conflicts had a presenting cause (disagreement over a theological issue), but the more fundamental cause was a “a systemic failure to pastorally and effectively address concerns.”

In a floor speech, I suggested the committee members write up a case study so other presbyteries might learn how they can better address concerns within their own bodies. I may be cynical, but it seems to me many of our presbyteries may already share the “more fundamental cause,” and will similarly become embroiled in conflict should nearly any presenting cause emerge.

Peter Shaffer

I feel mildly insincere proclaiming my great admiration for a playwright’s work when I’ve really only carefully studied two of his works. But as both those works are undisputed masterpieces, I think it only right to note Peter Shaffer’s death last week by discussing Equus and Amadeus.

I can’t remember whether I saw the film or read the play (I believe in my college freshman English class) first, but I do know that the reading was when I was struck by the struggle of Amadeus’ lead character, Salieri. In exchange for musical gifting, Salieri had offered God piety and devotion, and so felt betrayed when the “obscene child” Mozart manifested an effortless genius which Salieri could never hope to attain. Salieri’s plot to avenge himself against God by destroying Mozart demonstrated a zealous adherence to the principle of justification by works seen only by the Pharisees and the counter-reformation’s inquisitors. That Shaffer could draw an entirely human portrait of such a man was itself a demonstration of apparently effortless genius.

Equus preceded Amadeus. Again, I can’t remember when I first encountered it, although I know it was during my university days when I was particularly preoccupied with how questions of theology and faith are worked out in the arts. In Equus, the only way a boy crippled by guilt and shame can think to save himself is by attacking a god of his own creation. In both Equus and Amadeus, the lead character locates the source of his turmoil not in himself or in his sin, but in the God who is his ultimate judge.

Shaffer’s characters toil beneath the gaze of a pitiless God, with no whisper of hope that he might have delivered himself over for the forgiveness of some. Nonetheless, Shaffer understood that humanity is, fundamentally, homo adorans. Our lives are measured, then, not by our accomplishments, but by our service and worship to the God who is.

Overture 1

This morning the 83rd General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church approved Overture 1, from the Presbytery of Central Pennsylvania. It asks the Committee on Christian Education to consider preparing a “modern English study version” of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. One might note there are already widely available modern English renditions of the Catechism; the grounds for the overture argued that because these are under copyright, the congregations of the OPC need another version which may be used for free.

As the case was presented by the presbytery, as I read the grounds, and as I heard the speeches in favor, it seemed to me the driving rationales for the action were two:

1. the English used in the Shorter Catechism is older and can be difficult for many Americans today;
2. it can be even more challenging for non-native English speakers, who are making up an increasingly large constituency in many OPC congregations.

I’m sympathetic to both those concerns, but I’m not persuaded another modern English version will address them. To the first, elders and pastors should be teaching the Catechism in their Churches, both in group settings (such as catechetical sermons) and in individual discipleship. As they explain the concepts in the Catechism, they will necessarily make the language more transparent. In other words, the better answer to the first problem is pedagogy.

With regard to the second, the Westminster Standards have been translated into many tongues. (I first memorized the Shorter Catechism in Spanish.) Rather than ask a new convert to learn the Catechism in the strange language which is English, provide the catechumen with a copy in his or her native tongue. The catechizer can work from the English, and even use catechesis to help the catechumen improve his or her English. But as the Scriptural doctrines in the Shorter Catechism are the truths precious to the believer’s heart, they may be best learned in one’s mother tongue.

A strange sign of the times

I've always been a touch mystified by fervor over the Olympic Games. Yes, all those athletes competing at the highest levels are very impressive, but if you don't watch swim meets on something like a regular basis, why would you get worked up by them on a quadrennial schedule? Moreover, given how massive sports infrastructure projects almost never lead to long-term benefits for hosting municipalities, I have to agree with Frank Deford that bidding to host the Olympics "is like bidding to host an epidemic."

That said, I was struck by a BBC article on a team of Olympic athletes, composed entirely of refugees from various conflicts, which is to compete in the Rio 2016 games. In some sense, I suppose it's a heart-warming and inspirational story. Nonetheless, it strikes me as a shocking indictment of the current age of horrors visited on too-large swaths of this sad world.