Words in the Sandbox

Metaphors Be With You

“Chinese, just like American English, has its own unique metaphorical idioms. The Chinese, however, do not view their world as a game. And so sport is not a dominant metaphor in China.What is central to Chinese life is family and eating. So while in America politicians are compared to sportsmen—they have to run for and win the election; politicians in China are regarded as parents, fumu guan, meaning father-mother officials. Chinese politicians run their country as a mother and father run their family. No wonder that in Chinese, the word for country is guojia, which literally means: guo = state—jia = family. The famous Chinese thinker Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) stated that ruling a large country is like cooking a delicacy dish. While Americans may view their life as business, Chinese view theirs in terms of eating.” HT: Ninah Beliavsky at the Department of Languages & Literature, St. John’s University, New York

The metaphorical jargon we hear relative to President Obama's fatherly care, “Who's Your Daddy?,” makes a little more sense, doesn't it? Mr. President, as dad, will bring the bacon home and provide enough for all.

G. Mark Sumpter

Calvin, Children and Hope

Eschatology and Children

Is there any staying power for those times when we think there's little hope? Maybe we think there's little reason to stay at our parental post, little reason to keep our hand to the plow.

John Calvin on children from Psalm 127.

“It is no small gift of God for a man to be renewed in his posterity; for God then gives him new strength, that he who otherwise would straightway decay, may begin as it were to live a second time….unless men regard their children as the gift of God, they are careless and reluctant in providing for their support, just as on the other hand this knowledge contributes in a very eminent degree to encourage them in bringing up their offspring. Farther, he who thus reflects upon the goodness of God in giving him children, will readily and with a settled mind look for the continuance of God’s grace; and although he may have but a small inheritance to leave them, he will not be unduly careful on that account.”

The Lord gives perpetuity of covenantal hope in and through our children. God has ordained them to preach the gospel of His faithfulness to us. Grace comes in generational doses, not quick-relief tablets of Advil. Stay at it moms and dads, stay at it youth workers, pastors, teachers and counselors!

Here, in eschatology, in hope and confidence with respect to the Lord's faithfulness and confirmation that our present labor is not in vain, God rears grace in those who come after us. Calvin says, tending to children gives a second wind, a second life; it's like being born again. It's the continuance of His grace.

G. Mark Sumpter

Some Dance to Remember, Some Dance to Forget

In hand to hand work around the rink, like these two guys, one of your objectives is to grab the backside of the jersey of your opponent and with lightning speed drape it over his head. Then it would be open season to get your licks in.

Look at the two guys down below. It's pretty much lights out for the headless player.

Jerseys can be a useful tool in taking the high ground. You can already see that the guys above are working angles for grip and leverage for that very advantage.

At heart, I am a hockey fan. This part of the game, however, is my least favorite. But it does remind me that hockey is three sports. 1. Skating. 2. The Game. 3. Body Checking.

I remember coaches hammering it into our heads to play all three games.

My favorite team in the National Hockey League since my upper elementary days in Anchorage has been the New York Rangers. Brad Park was my hero in the 1970s.
This year's season has just gotten underway. I am so amazed at the speed with which the game is now played.

G. Mark Sumpter

Movements and Youth Ministry

I think it was George Marsden in his Fundmentalism and American Culture who wrote of the intellectually well-grounded men of Fundamentalism who lived with a seeming paradox between their pessimism from the reality of seeing the loosening of the grip of the gospel in the church and American culture, and with that loosening grip, being tempted to give in and give up after seeing things getting worse and worse, and yet on the other hand, the radical, visible and ardent devotion of giving themselves with sweat, tears, time and money to the forward-looking, long-haul, multi-generational establishment of institutions, e.g. the Bible Institute and Bible College movement.

Why did these Christian fathers of the 19-teens and 20s, 30s and 40s live this way? These men gave themselves in spite of all the ecclesiastical and cultural discouragements and they did so in earnest because it typified the movement mentality that churchman so easily fall into.

When the church marginalizes herself with a neglect of faithful worship and preaching, she starts to grow arms as voluntary associations, groups and movements. If the church will not be who she is supposed to be, and if she will not do what she's supposed to do, then groups surface to the top. Something has to get done!

The movement mentality sports an episodic look. Movements come and go based on episodes in church and cultural life. Cultural episodes dictate the rising and falling of movements.

Youth ministry often falls right into step with movements; it is comfortable being an arm of the church. It's a group attached to the church, but not very church-like. As an arm, youth ministry becomes a cross-cultural ministry. She targets an age group and a language-group.

The paradox found in Fundamentalism plays itself out in youth work in the church. If the church has lost its grip on faithful worship, the gospel and discipleship, she starts to grow arms and she starts to forge ahead with institutions. It's a movement that gets fueled and fired up. In this case, the movement of youth ministry built the institution of a youth group. Youth groups have their wholesome and rightful place but they need to be church-like.

G. Mark Sumpter

Interpretation Required

Outside of the city, out in the rural domain of Oregon on a clear night we look up and see that the stars are brilliant. You can't miss their gussy dress delightful in their sparkle and shine. They sing and dance to the music that tells the familiar anthem, To the Glory of God. What about the words of the Bible? What about each word, each and every individual word? Do they sing and dance to the music, To the Glory of God, too? They do. "Your words, O LORD, give light."

Both forms of revelation from God, natural revelation and special revelation, have their job to be self-explaining, self-interpreting. It's tricky to be faithful, as fallen humans, when it comes to explanation and interpretation of general revelation. What about God's special revelation? The words of Scripture are wordy in their explanation! The Old and New Testaments relate to each other and they explain each other. Wordy, they are, as we say.

The non-inscripturated revelation, general revelation, requires the lens of the words of Bible to rightly explain and interpret the creation around us. Calvin spoke of the illustration of the spectacles of the Scripture. Look at the creation through the lens of the Bible, he taught us. Unfortunately, the spectacles of the Bible are put to the side by contemporary unbelieving scientists when they look at creation. Man, it is wrongly taught, can approach the creation naturally, unbiased and factually.

But words? Words need to be interpreted--after all, the Bible is merely a human book we are wrongly told. Therefore, spectacles of some kind are needed for the Bible they say; it needs interpretation.

But how about the creation? The stars, along with the rest of creation, well, they carry an objectivity. They get an immediate respect. Modern non-Christian science requires that we be scientific with the Bible, not so with God's other book--the creation.

G. Mark Sumpter

Jocks

My brother lived his dream for about two handfuls of months. He wanted to jock on an easy listening station, and he did so in Anchorage. I was driving around town recently and caught a little more talk radio. The news-talk jock hash that I hear from time to time attempts to coat the airwaves with analysis and commentary about the political landscape in America. Confession time. I rarely trust the work of the spin-grins, even the big boys. I rarely trust them because it's man's opinion and man's spin. I am from Missouri when it comes to accuracy, faithfulness, integrity and the whole banana from the guys behind the mic.

G. Mark Sumpter

Preaching Application

This quote and the next remind the preacher to be working at application in the sermon in ways that bear on the specific concerns and opportunities of the very day and generation of his very parishioners:

Martin Luther, the German Reformer, 1483-1546:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is more flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

G. Mark Sumpter

Preaching Application

A Second Quote...

Westminster's February 1645, Directory for the Public Worship of God:

“(The minister) is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so much cleared and confirmed, but to bring it home to special use, by application to his hearers: which albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, requiring much prudence, zeal, and meditation, and to the natural and corrupt man will be very unpleasant; yet he is to endeavor to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feel the word of God to be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart; and that if any unbeliever or ignorant person be present, he may have the secrets of his heart made manifest, and give glory to God.”

Evangelistic Study

When you meet your neighbor and you're building a friendship, it's not too long and the matter of needing good discussion material comes up. Here's an excellent way to explore solid teaching together and open up conversation about the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel.

Go here to Christianity Explored.

Christianity Explored, for you Oregonians, will be offering training in Estacada, just outside of Portland in November 2009.

It's definitely worth your time, and take four or five along with you from your home congregation.

G. Mark Sumpter

On the Rogue River

Our local river that runs through it, at the part of our rafting, has maybe 2, maybe 3 Class III rapids, but nonetheless, it's a blast. Around 25 attended today's river rafting. The folks were from Faith OPC. The older rafters' boat---the old geezers boat---supposedly a dry boat, got stuck on rocks 2 times. A few were dumped out in the drink! It was a great time. The stetch of the river that we float is about a 4-5 hour trip.

G. Mark Sumpter

Words and Christian Humanism

Taking a refresher in English Grammar and Creative Writing has the juices flowing. I sat in class thinking this is stout-hearted and stout-fingered sanctification, the real stuff. Our Triune God spoke creation into existence; Jesus Christ is the Word made living; God the Spirit carried men along as they penned the Book of the Covenant, the Bible. Man made in God's image speaks, writes and interpretes. He exercises dominion and in so doing, it's very creaturely. May this creaturely mandate be one that we do with faith and obedience in Jesus Christ. As we heard so often a few decades back, "Write On, Brother, Write On," or something like that.

G. Mark Sumpter

Homeschool Mothers, Shaping A Cult of Domesticity?

Have you seen this August 6, 2009 article about homeschoolers here?

Here’s one reader response to it that has a little kick…

…I see many women who have lived wild lives themselves come into the homeschool fold. I also know a couple who have taken their child no further than his 8th grade year and he is ignorant and lazy.

I agree that peer pressure in today's society, the drugs, and the bullying are enormous. But I think more universal educational standards need to be imparted on homeschoolers wherever they are. We as a society shouldn't be making it easy for parents to teach at home; we should be holding them to as high a standard as we do our educators. Yes, that system is flawed but I believe that studies will prove in the future that many of these homeschooled children of today are too sheltered from the world to be able to function well within it.

The mothers need to get a clue, deal with the fact that education is just that, and let their children help shape their own lives. In every case (except for a few women that were just lazy), homeschooling mothers whom I have met are in charge of their husbands, their families, and even speak for their children. It is a situation where they are shaping a new "cult of domesticity" and you'd think the 1970s Feminism is long gone. Forget the coastal influences, this is the reality of the American heartland and these people vote and they are increasing in number with their "babies for Jesus". Rather scary, don't you think?

This last thought: Mothers...shaping...a cult of domesticity….hmm. Two comments.

1) I have been aware of the susceptibility on the part of Christian homes to have a practice of a cultish-expression about the family. It’s idolatry of the family. This is when patriarchy of the home collides with the eldership of the local church. Why a collision? I believe because my generation of evangelical pastors has upheld the Word over the Sacraments. Rather than Word and Sacraments, it’s been Word over Sacraments. When we reduce the understanding of the faithful purpose and practice of the sacrament of infant baptism, when we reduce the importance of it or do away with it altogether, we lose sight of the role, support and mutually complementary function of the church and home. The practice of infant baptism keeps children before us; and it also keeps the mandate of their godly nurture before us. Lose infant baptism, and both the home and the local church lose. We lose and draw swords on the matter of the responsibility of the child's nurture. Conversely, when we practice infant baptism and take hold of its import, and the family and the local church take up and seize the covenantal context of a mutually beneficial role and function of each sphere, then we can keep working out the saving call of nurturing our children with fear and trembling. Infant baptism helps to draw the lines for the two spheres of the home and church and helps to advance the discussion and practice of nurture. Without infant baptism and it's reminder of our roles, it’s a free for all.

2) Fathers, reflect on this woman’s commentary above. There’s the on-going danger about our passivity or abdication regarding our charge to be shepherds in the home. Genesis 3 reminds us of our susceptibility to neglect the Lord's will about this. When God asked, “Adam, where are you?,” He addressed the man about his locality and proximity. As Steve Farrar reminded us years ago in his Point Man, we have to be creative with our faithful presence in the home. It might be early hours or late, a lunch hour, a Saturday morning, a Sunday evening, or maybe, it’s one morning a week you go to work late, or we take a child with us to work for a half-day, etc., etc. Men, we cannot be everywhere at the same time; we are limited by our finitude. We need a sound theology and practice of delegation, but we also need an intentional practice of domestic shepherding, of being there. We have to plan for it. Some weeks, we’ll hit homeruns and do well; and other weeks not so. Keep working at your kingly role, right alongside of your queen. Admit to her that you struggle with being torn between work outside of the home and your work within. Sort out your strengths, and harness them, to emphasize them. Make adjustments, ask for prayer and stay at it. Mothers are gifted nurturers, but they are not the head of the home. Praise God for faithful wives and mothers—they do have an eternally significant role in the lives of our children; they are builders for righteousness in the home. Let the world deride or pity the role of faithful Homeschool Moms, as this response above colors things. But men, we need to be there; we need to be present around our children as much as strength and schedule will allow. It starts with re-kindling vision.

G. Mark Sumpter