Taking every thought captive

I came across ‘The Cross Still Stands‘ as I’d been reading several other things that meshed with its message. The song seemed to draw them all together.

These hands that should embrace You, Lord
Instead have drawn a rebel’s sword.
My wayward will has dealt the blow
That pierced Your son so long ago.

My actions, Lord, should build Your name,
Instead they labor for my fame.
While outwardly I bless the Son,
I seek man’s praise for what I’ve done.

Chorus:
Lord, this glory-seeking hunger tries
To pull my heart from You:
Such a dark, unwelcome guest who hides
In everything I do.
But Your grace remains and pleads for me:
“Destroy this enemy!”
For the cross still stands
And meets my deepest need.

This heart should worship You alone;
Instead to trifles it is prone.
My tears are drawn by earthly things
But flee when with the saints I sing.

My words should tell of all the grace
You’ve shown in saving me by faith;
Instead I use my tongue to spin
A web to minimize my sin.

David Ward’s haunting melody is well-suited to the equally disturbing words he has drawn from ‘The Dark Guest’ (in The Valley of Vision). It is a song that any congregation should be able to learn to sing easily. And it is a song with which every Christian can easily identify, since the dark, unwelcome guest is no stranger to any of us. (David’s site has an mp3 recording, a lead sheet, the words of the original poem, and an introductory comment.)

I’ve been pondering the raging opposition to God portrayed in Psalm 2. And though, as Christians, we belong to those who have kissed the Son, yet how often we still find the rebel’s sword in our hands. We toy with it at our peril. And all the while we have a greater, finer sword at our disposal, the Spirit’s sword.

The chorus well captures the essence of total depravity as we contemplate the dark, unwelcome guest who hides in everything we do. But despite the realism of the problem of continuing sin, the song finishes on a high note that cuts away all reliance on self. The focus is the cross, the remedy for all spiritual ailments.

The third verse is a great encouragement not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Carl Trueman makes a similar point about prayer, less poetically, but no less powerfully, in his latest Minority Report article, “A Lesson From Peter the Barber“  in Themelios (April 2009, 34:1, pp. 3-5). “Church is not somewhere where Peter should go once he has sorted out the problem of this lack of enthusiasm;” writes Trueman, “it is the best place to go precisely to sort that problem out.”

The final verse is a vivid portrayal of self-justification. We’re familiar with the wages of spin, but again, the high note of grace in the chorus lifts the tangled heart from despair.

I found the song’s realism refreshing and thoroughly biblical. The carefully crafted phrases fire the imagination, and yet are not fanciful. They describe reality with an intensity sadly missing in so many modern songs of worship. I don’t think it is too much of an exaggeration to see this song as standing in the tradition of the Psalms. I recognized myself in every line. I find that true of the Psalms. The triumphant “destroy this enemy!” was stirring. The note of grace left me in a hopeful and sober reflective mood.

“For the cross still stands and meets my deepest need.”

I’ve appreciated some miscellaneous postings and sites over the past week:

• Philip Brown has written a good summary article about capital punishment, entitled ‘Capital Punishment within a Christian Worldview‘ (Exegetical Thoughts & Biblical Theology, 24 Apr 2009). While I would largely agree with what he says, I found he came up with some fresh and stimulating arguments.
• Tim Challies had a stimulating reflection on/quote from Ligon Duncan’s book Fear Not!, entitled ‘Eternity Without a Mediator‘ (26 Apr 2009). Hell is a provocative subject, but Duncan has some fresh thoughts that are pretty thought-provoking.
• 360 Cities is an impressive site of panoramic views at various locations worldwide. James Darlack has some targetted links to areas of biblical interest in ‘Panoramic Views on 360cities.net‘ (Old in the New, 12 Mar 2009).

  
  Ephesus at 360Cities

• Reformed Praise is a site with new and updated hymns, mainly by David L. Ward. I liked many of the hymns, and most are easily learned by any congregation. Most come with mp3 and piano score or lead sheet.

Ephesus on 360Cities

I found Sven Birkets’s essay on Resisting the Kindle in The Atlantic (2 Mar 2009) a useful reflection on page-to-screen transfer. I, too, am uneasy. But as I read the essay, it struck me that many of the things he says have implications for Christian worship as well.

He makes a compelling point about the the loss of context by using such technology. And when we take context down to the immediate context of any part of a work the loss of context become much more apparent.

Birkets’s story about the Blackberry search for a line of poetry reminded me of a similar circumstance several years ago. I was walking with a group of friends after evening worship when someone mentioned a verse of Scripture, but couldn’t remember the exact wording or reference. One of the group immediately whipped out an electronic Bible he had just bought, and tried to find the verse. Much to his annoyance, I was able to turn it up in a pocket Bible well before he could locate it.

My friend was simply locating information in an amorphous mass, however sacred. As I recall, I had a rough location in terms of the book concerned through knowledge of the text, and a memory of a position on the page. These two pieces of immediate contextual information enabled rapid discovery. There is no such thing as position on the page with electronic text. Even a large monitor still leaves a tiny window on the text (I find 24 inches still not enough). But a physical book enables much more of the immediate context of a work to be visible.

That’s why I’m not entirely convinced about projecting the words of hymns for church services. Each verse becomes disconnected with those preceding and following. Singing from a book gives the overall context of the stanza in the hymn, and enables the worshipper to interact with the hymn as a whole, rather than verse by verse or line by line, however the hymn is projected. Not even a Kindle hymn book would convert me. I have the same concerns about both ways of displaying text, when access trumps content.

Kindle may not be the Devil’s calling card, but we ought not to embrace it unthinkingly with evangelical zeal. All technology has implications and consequences. All things may be lawful, but not all things are helpful. Projecting a song’s words for a karaoke session is probably useful, though I have no experience of it. But Christian worship is not like karaoke, and projection of hymn words can make it seem little more. It takes more than a reminder of the words to make for effective worship.

Birkets also talks about the loss of historical reality to the author that is likely to take place if we become Kindlized (well, a horrible condition deserves a horrible word to describe it). Christian worship is grounded in the historical reality of God’s salvation. Dare we use means that erode historical connections?

This morning we sang this hymn in our gathered worship. It was a powerful reminder of just what the resurrection means.

The final triumph won,
the full atonement made,
salvation’s work is done,
redemption’s price is paid:
the morning breaks, the dark is fled,
for Christ is risen from the dead!

The tomb in which He lay
lies empty now and bare;
the stone is rolled away,
no lifeless form is there:
the sting is drawn from death and grave,
for Christ is risen, strong to save!

For us the Saviour died,
with us He lives again,
to God the Father’s side
exalted now to reign:
to throne and crown by right restored,
for Christ is risen, Christ is Lord!

As one with Him we rise
to seek the things above,
in life that never dies,
in righteousness and love:
let praise unite our ransomed powers,
for Christ is risen, Christ is ours!

Timothy Dudley-Smith, b. 1926

A hymn to put Calvary in perspective.

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended,
That man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? who brought this upon thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee:
I crucified thee.

Lo, the good Shepherd for the sheep is offered:
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered:
For man’s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

For me, kind Jesus, was thine incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and thy life’s oblation:
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will ever pray thee
Think on thy pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.

Johann Heerman, 1585-1647
tr. Robert S. Bridges, 1844-1930

A hymn for Good Friday.

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he.
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
By his Son God now has spoken:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning,
Was there ever grief like his?
Friends through fear his cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress;
Many hands were raised to wound him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost;
Christ’s the Rock of our salvation,
His the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on him their hope have built.

Thomas Kelly, 1769-1855

Nathan Pitchford has just posted the text of a sermon he preached on Sunday past on Lamentations 4:20-22 — Christ the Breath of Our Nostrils. I’ve only read the introduction, and it prompted me to read Lamentations before I continued with his sermon. I only managed the first chapter today, and it prompted me to reflect on it in the light of Holy Week.

A quick summary of Lamentations 1 might go like this:

1. Zion’s situation graphically portrayed (Lam. 1:1-4). We get a detailed picture of how dire the situation is.
2. Zion’s situation theologically explained (Lam. 1:5-11). We realize, as does Jerusalem, that the affliction has a two-fold cause: YHWH has directed it, and the people’s sins have caused it. The situation is deserved, but it is not impersonal, God is behind it all.
3. Zion’s witness to the nations (Lam. 1:12-19). Zion is able to explain that she is being punished by God because of her rebellion. God has done it. I have deserved it.
4. Zion’s prayer to God (Lam. 1:20-22). In contrast to the brief prayers in verses 9 and 11, Zion is able to pray a more extended prayer that asks for God to be just and punish all sin.

But is all this just about Jerusalem? There are distinct echoes of this scene in another. The latter is more distressing, and differs in a fundamental way.

“Is it nothing to you who pass by?” triggers the link, not to a solitary city in distress (Lam. 1:1), but to a solitary man in terrible anguish. Not to the victims of war, but to a victim of justice. Just like the city whose majesty had departed (Lam. 1:6) “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him” (Isaiah 53:2).

The city could witness, “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.” (Lam. 1:12). And of him it was said “it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:10)

The more you read the lament, the more you see the parallels. A word here, a phrase there, sends you to Calvary.

But among the parallels is the stark contrast. The city could declare with absolute justification, “The Lord is in the right, for I have rebelled against his word.” (Lam. 1:18) Jerusalem deserved God’s punishment, but Jesus deserved nothing that he suffered. Pilate said more than he realised when he declared, “I have found in him no guilt deserving death.” (Luke 23:22)

Pilate was unable to punish and release Jesus because it was not God’s will. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Zion’s lament brings us face to face with God’s justice. Zion deserved her punishment, and it serves as a warning to every nation and every person that God will punish sin.

Jesus’ punishment brings us face to face with God’s mercy and grace. But God’s will to crush Jesus was not all that he had in mind. “The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. ” (Isaiah 53:10-11)

Zion prayed for God to punish, but Jesus prayed for God to forgive. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” he said (Luke 23:34). Surely these words were not for the soldiers alone. He died not that four men might be forgiven, but that many might be forgiven, and more than that, many might be made righteous. The delightful blessing of Jesus’ death was that while we are able to offload our sin on him, he makes us as righteous as he himself is. Calvary is not tit for tat, an eye for an eye. Calvary is lop-sided, it is a Great Exchange, where we gain much more than we lose. In his mercy God withholds the punishment we deserve, and Christ suffers in our place. But in his grace God clothes us with righteousness we certainly don’t deserve.

Zion’s call to look (Lam. 1:12) can only bring judgment and despair. The message of the lament is the certainty of God’s deserved punishment for sin.

But the call of Calvary is one of life and hope. To the dying thief Jesus could say, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43) and to us, as we look today he says, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!” (Isaiah 45:22) The message of the cross is the certainty of God’s loving forgiveness to the repentant sinner.

The hymnwriter summed up the Easter message well when she wrote:

There is life for a look at the crucified One,
there is life at this moment for thee;
then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

Look, look, look and live!
There is life for a look at the crucified One,
there is life at this moment for thee.

It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,
but the blood that atones for the soul;
on Him, then, who shed it, thou mayest at once
thy weight of iniquities roll.

His anguish of soul on the cross hast thou seen?
His cry of distress hast thou heard?
Then why, if the terrors of wrath He endured,
should pardon to thee be deferred?

Then doubt not thy welcome, since God has declared
there remaineth no more to be done;
that once in the end of the world He appeared
and completed the work He begun.

But take with rejoicing from Jesus at once
the life everlasting He gives;
and know with assurance thou never canst die,
since Jesus, thy righteousness, lives.

Amelia Matilda Hull, c.1825-82