If you are not familiar with the current hoo-hahs within the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), then for minimum context you will want to read Peter Leithart’s letter to Presbytery following the 2007 General Assembly, Rob Rayburn’s supplemental brief to the NW Presbytery Standing Judicial Commission (SJC) regarding their decision and the eventual final ruling by the SJC from this past March 2010. I had been waiting to hear something on the appeal — though, I must confess, I wasn’t expecting (arrogantly and sinfully, I should confess) anything much different than that they would walk in lockstep with the “9 Declarations” (which, I think I recall, were not to be used as the basis for judicial cases … alas … we knew it would happen) but it hurts my heart to the point of sleeplessness to read some the reasoning.

tan·gent
idiom– 7. digressing suddenly from one course of action or thought and turning to another: The speaker flew off on a tangent.

The quoted article below is by Leithart, The Cross of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, in (of all places …) Credenda Agenda. It’s an excellent article, host magazine notwithstanding (its association with Doug Wilson makes me more than a little nervous … but I suppose that puts me in the same boat as those who railroad Leithart without actually taking the time to listen carefully, huh?).

“The Crucifixion is the fountainhead of all my values,” wrote the German-American philosopher and historian Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “the great divide whence flow the processes most real in my inner life, and my primary response to our tradition is one of gratitude to the source of my own frame of reference in everyday life.” He adds, “our chronology of B.C. and A.D. makes sense to me. Something new came into being then, not a man as part of the world but The Man who gives meaning to the world, to heaven and hell, bodies and spirits.” A bride who receives her husband’s name is set in a “new realm” and all her actions are “credited” to that realm. In the same way, “in His name we [as His bride] enter a realm of freedom unknown to mere heirs” (Christian Future, hereafter CF, p. 102).

This paragraph neatly captures the pace and sprawl of much of his writing. He begins with the historical event of the crucifixion, and immediately goes existential, describing how the cross is frame for his own experience. In the next sentence he has moved from inner life to the crux of history, endorsing the division of time between B.C. and A.D. Characteristically, he employs a marital image to describe the historical change that comes with Christ, and, obsessed as he is by speech, he cannot stop himself from inserting something about new names.

From here Leithart continues to touch upon several themes with which I find myself perpetually and persistently grappling with, not least of which is, on the one hand, the pressing sense of urgency to speak of the existential, moment-by-moment reality of the cross for life coupled with, one the fore-finger of the other hand, my own frustrating inability to find words to make that connection and, on the thumb of that second hand, the complementary frustration of our cultural inability – and impatience – to try to hear and understand the connection. Alas …

I am a technology junkie, a natural introvert and an internet addict. Sitting in front of a computer and cranking out carefully crafted blog posts is easy; I am in my element. Surprisingly (especially to those who truly know me), I have been called to a position which reveals my pastoral ignorance. But by God’s grace in Christ working in me by the power of the Spirit I love people and long for them to know the reality of the gospel.

In my stumbling, bumbling efforts I have been intrigued by how far “old world” technology goes: a hand-written note here, a personal email there, a direct look in the eye there. What is happening at our church is nothing more than God’s simple, original design for the Body of Christ: “behold, how they love one another.”

All of that to say, I suspect that the Ron Paul R[3VOL]UTION is tapping that very thing: people are longing for a simple, original straight-shooter. Someone who wants to be in Washington not for any reason but that which motivated the legendary (though fictitious) Mr. Smith: to simply serve by leading with integrity and vision. In reading Dr. Paul’s note regarding this past Sunday’s outpouring of support, I find his humility and astonishment and consequent enthusiasm refreshing.

December 17, 2007

What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.

On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the “spammers” I keep hearing about!

The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it’s real: as real as the American people’s yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.

And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.

As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us “angry.” Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic “angry” movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.

Said the local newspaper (http://www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=36475b4d132fc0a1): “The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led.”

Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.

A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.

All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

Ron

In about five hours I will be boarding a plane bound for Charlotte. There I will connect to Philadelphia. Then it is on to Scranton where my oldest sister will eventually pick me up. The last time I visited her was under similar circumstances. My sisters and I had gathered to see dad for what we thought was the last time. The diagnosis was lung cancer. By God’s grace the disease has been in remission for over three years.

However, for the last few months my dad says he is “tired” a lot more. Recently, he has repeated the phrase “living on borrowed time.” While the death of my aunt a couple months ago is part of the reason we are convening to talk about “the future” (i.e., my dad’s business affairs, personal wishes, etc.), I wonder once again if this will be the last time we meet face to face? Please pray for us, especially that the walls would come down and that we could have an open and honest discussion about everything.

Abba, Father, fulfill the meaning of Thy name towards Thy servants; do Thou govern, protect, preserve, sanctify, guide, console them; let them be so enkindled with love for Thee, that they may not be despised by Thee, most merciful Lord and most tender Father.
– Gallican Collect

By the sincere working of the Spirit most of us really WANT to sing the hymns, pray the prayers and extend the blessings as they are written, but we are so passionately addicted to ourselves that we simply do not (cf. Romans 7).

Below are some of the Trinity Hymnal selections that readily come to mind (please feel free to add to the list with your own observations by using the comments).

Related malapropisms:

And the classic Aaronic Benediction from Fiddler on the Roof:

If there is any humor to be found here (largely the self-depricating kind), it is in admitting that I have actually caught myself repeating (several times) some of these malapropisms in worship (classic Freudian slips). In fact, I must confess that for the last hour Matthew Smith’s voice (from the Indelible Grace IV album) will simply not go out of my head: “More love, more love, more love to me …” Sounding somewhat like the word intended, it is ludicrously wrong given the context. It’s all about who? What seems like a harmless mistake is instead after reflection a view into the depravity of my heart and picture of my need for grace.

“I think the secret to Osteen’s success is this: he teaches self-help but wraps it in a thin guise of Christian terminology. Thus people believe they are being taught the Bible when the reality is that they are learning mere human wisdom rather than divine wisdom. Osteen cunningly blends the wisdom of this age with language that sounds biblical. He blends the most popular aspects of New Age and self-help teaching with Christianity. And his audience is eagerly drinking this in.”
Tim Challies review of “Become a Better You” by Joel Osteen