Cleverly Devised Myths

Cleverly Devised Myths.  Edelweiss isn’t an Austrian folk song. Take a few moments to register the shock of that revelation. When asked, locals in the village of Millstat, close to Salzburg, Austria, had never heard this folk song about the mountain flower, edelweiss, except as piped in via American film, The Sound of Music (1965), with their addition of an appropriate eyeroll. 

When Ronald Reagan quoted the movie’s lyrics back to Austrian President, Rudolf Kirchschlaeger, at a State Dinner speech (March 1, 1984), the Austrian press excoriated the song as “kitsch” and “sticky-sweet,” a sell-out by Austrian leaders for cooperating with ignorance. “If the world doesn't want to take us any other way, we just have to sell ourselves under a thick layer of icing” (Ruth Gruber, “Austrians Rankled at Reagan,” March 2, 1984, UPI).

Edelweiss, edelweiss / Every morning you greet me

Small and white, clean and bright / You look happy to meet me

Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow / Bloom and grow forever

Edelweiss, edelweiss / Bless my homeland forever

The film took liberties with the story, but the Trapp family exists, as does the Austrian state flower, edelweiss. Rodgers and Hammerstein commissioned the song, which was skillfully written by Bill Lee and Charmaine Carr, for their Broadway show (1959) and its film release.

“It is a love song,” said Baron Georg von Trapp of Edelweiss in the film (played by Christopher Plummer, though the singing was dubbed over with the voice of composer Bill Lee). Its lyrics were doubly meaningful, presenting a subtle protest. He sang of his homeland, like a mountain flower which had been mercilessly plucked by the Nazis, while pretending to be happy about it. Austria, however, will bloom again. The film was adapted from the memoirs of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949). In life, the von Trapp family emigrated from Austria to America, settling in Stowe, Vermont.

Now, take a few moments to prepare for the shock of this next revelation. The gospel of Jesus Christ isn’t like Edelweiss. Skillful artisans in the school of the apostles did not apply a backstory to make their narrative believable, even beautiful. Edelweiss, the fake folk song, might have sounded believable about Austria to Hollywood, but the Austrians knew better. The perennial accusation against the church is that the disciples fabricated a backstory to make their narrative believable, even beautiful. Critics might allow for the Jesus character but not the biblical Christ. However, the death and resurrection of Christ truly is a love song for the church. Its composer is God. It might sound kitsch and sticky-sweet to natural ears, but whoever has ears of faith knows better. “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). 

Make Me to Know Your Ways

Make Me to Know Your Ways. Starting in 1950, Jack Grout became “the first and only” golf teacher to legendary PGA, Hall of Fame, golfer Jack Nicklaus (Jack Nicklaus, The Greatest Game of All, [1969], 60). Already an excellent golfer at 10 years old in 1950 and throughout his amateur (1959-1961) and professional (1962-1986) careers, Nicklaus at the beginning of each golf season would nevertheless return to Grout and say, “Teach me to golf.” From scratch, as if unfamiliar, Grout would mentor and modify Nicklaus in the fundamentals of golf (Jack Nicklaus, My Story [2003]). It is easy to detect Grout’s coaching in Nicklaus’ explanation of his approach to the sport: “Focus on remedies, not faults” (Ken Bowden, Jack Nicklaus, [1990], 31). “[Grout] knew the golf swing probably as well as any instructor ever has … He wanted you not only to be skilled technically, but also to be so confident of your skills that you could identify and fix your own swing flaws even in the heat of battle, even without him there by your side. In other words, Jack Grout worked to be dispensable. He wanted his students to be able to function at the highest level without him” (Dick Grout, Jack Grout, A Legacy in Golf [2012].

I may know how to swing an axe and how to choke up on the bat to swing with two strikes, but I have no idea how to swing a golf club. I have never golfed. I’ve never even been on a golf course except once in the late 1980s for an afternoon of short-lived, unauthorized sledding. I don’t watch golf except when I want something calm on the television behind Sunday afternoon naps. To my chagrin, I had to research which Jack is the golfer (Jack Nicklaus) and which Jack is the actor (Jack Nicholson). Yet, I gravitate to Grout’s philosophy of coaching, working to be dispensable. In the realm of Christian ministry, for teaching others to follow not the human teacher but the Lord Jesus, dispensability is a must. Though the principle appears in Scripture, the practice is oddly absent in modern ministry. Dispensability works against building job security, I suppose. Yet the weight of the idea is enormous, teaching others how to think more than what to think. It is perfectly shaped for local pastoring and wonderfully adaptable to international missions. Yet even more than Grout, I galvanize around Nicklaus’ humility in learning, “Teach me to golf.” He was the opposite of a know-it-all.

Making the transition from sport to Scripture is smooth. It is easy to detect God’s heart in David’s appetite to learn. “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long” (Psa. 25:4-5). In a time when the priesthood was decimated (Saul’s massacre of the priests at Nob) and way-laid by sin (Eli’s long-lasting curse on his branch of the high priestly line), David was a principal teacher in Israel. Yet, his posture was that of a learner first, wholly dependent upon God to teach him about God in view of teaching others about God. “Make me to know,” from scratch, as if unfamiliar, David returns humbly to God for review of the fundamentals about God.

New Year, New You

New Year, New You.  Every January the multibillion-dollar self-improvement industry adopts the same marketing strategy from diet plans and vitamin supplements to gym memberships and day spas: Be the best version of yourself. This January alone, I have seen many versions of that tired slogan. Sadly, even sacrilegiously, a billboard for a church stands above I-40 in Greensboro, NC, preaching a startlingly similar message to the self-improvement mantra of the world, “A place to belong and become a better you.” No worries if you missed that sign because other similar signs wait for you in every city large enough for a downtown district: Winston-Salem, Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, Marion, etc. “Come to Jesus and solve all your problems.” Wait a second! Is self-improvement what the church is peddling?

From cover to cover, the Bible and therefore the church teaches a totally different message, starting with the bad news: New Year, Same You. Wardrobe upgrade or not, humans cannot change their nature just as surely as a leopard cannot change its spots (Jer. 13:23). Humanity cannot reforge its identity just as surely as it cannot revise its history. Men, women, boys, and girls might be able to turn over a new leaf relative to other humans, but biblically speaking, they cannot improve themselves spiritually with respect to God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). At our very best while we exist apart from Christ, we are as Christ summarized it in Matthew 23:27. “For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

If it were not so tragic, then it might be comical how much unredeemed humans resemble zombies—animated but not alive—the walking dead who paint their cheeks with rogue and attempt to reverse their decay with B-12 injections. Death is not the cessation of biological life but the absence of spiritual life. Spiritual death limps along until biological death catches up, somewhat active and able to do certain functions but spiritually disconnected from the source of true, eternal Life, who is Jesus Christ (John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6; 1 John 1:1-2; 5:11-12).

The good news (i.e., the gospel) answers that bad news. “The wages of sin is death but the free gift from God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Death isn’t the end but, by God’s gracious intervention, merely the middle. Jesus conquered his own grave and conquered our death, too. By grace through faith in him, he unites us to himself so completely that the Bible calls it regeneration, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Just like the first creation in Genesis, God makes something from nothing in the new birth, too, a re-genesis. In that sense, we are not better, renovated, cosmetically altered versions of our old self. We are totally transformed, forgiven, adopted, accepted, and spiritually resurrected with Christ. 

Snow Day

Snow Day.  One person’s grand adventure is another person’s mega clean-up operation. I mean, who sews all those buttons back on Clark Kent’s shirts? Who washes all those dishes after each round of The Great British Bake Off? Every teacher must still accomplish the same amount of work regardless of the number of snow days. Truck drivers, switchboard operators, traffic incident police officers, electric company linemen, doctors, nurses, postal workers, etc., have arguably more work to do when the snowy adventures begin for others. But who among us doesn’t enjoy a grand adventure, especially when someone else cleans up afterward?

In the theological sphere of the gospel of God’s grace the distinction between general work and the redemptive work of Christ comes into greater focus. Someone must do the necessary work eventually. That “someone” ultimately is Christ. He doesn’t sew buttons or deliver the mail on snow days, per se, but he does the necessary work of redemption that not only saves humanity from sin and death but also restores humanity to harmony with God and unity with one another. Before accomplishing ten thousand other benefits to us such as bestowing forgiveness and imparting eternal life, Christ’s redemptive work pleased God.

General work, because it preceded the Fall of humankind, is a blessing from God. Clearly, work was not a result of sin, though it was complicated and frustrated by sin. Adam and Eve were given a two-fold responsibility in their idyllic setting: “to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15)—a job description that interestingly applies directly to shepherds, kings, and pastors. Truly, all people have the privilege and responsibility to cultivate and care (i.e., work) for their entrusted section of God’s creation as his representatives. Every vocation is a sacred duty since the basis of all work is to please God who made us and gave us work. However, sin renders us incapable of pleasing God although we remain accountable to please God. 

Thus, original sin was our rebellion against God’s created order, which incurred guilt and resulted in death. But original sin also forfeited our countless joys of fellowship with God and others. When Christ accomplished the work that the Father had given him to do, which was to please God (i.e., “the Son of Man must suffer many things” [Mark 8:31]), he obeyed completely where we disobeyed entirely. His work of pleasing God was accomplished so perfectly that he effectively shares it with those of us who believe in him as our substitute.

Peace

Peace.  Certainly singable, it is also generally agreeable that, as Jackie Shannon sang in 1965: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” But a necessary precursor to love is peace. Love could walk up to our door and knock, but it is peace who opens the lock and welcomes love inside. However, real peace and genuine love are in short supply on earth. What the world has now is hate, bitter hate. The wars that exist in various places are merely the inevitable ramifications of hate-filled hearts. “Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (Psa. 120:6-7).

At best, peace is elusive. It appears here or there in pockets, but it is rarely a constant companion if peace is defined as warlessness. Even the famous Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome, that covered the ancient Mediterranean World from 27 BC to 180 AD was enforced by the unrivaled Roman Army who, on their extensive road system, could travel anywhere in a few days, squashing mercilessly any whiff of uprising. Is that peace? It seems like thuggery.

Biblically speaking, peace is not the cessation of hostilities but the relational and spiritual harmony with God, self, others, and even the created world. Peace is a Person. “For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Eph 2:14-17). It is Christ who brings to earth the peace from God (Eph. 1:2), who makes peace with God (Rom. 5:1), who offers the peace of God which passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7), because he is the God of Peace (Phil. 4:9).

Everyone's Got a Plan

Everyone’s Got a Plan.  “Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face” (Mike Tyson). I had a plan for this year, sort of a lighthearted resolution, but I got punched in the face. This was the year to dust off my good camera and carry it with me, resuming my interest in amateur photography. Many things last year made me regret not always having my good camera with me, like many unexpected Americana landscapes across all four seasons of the year, lovely old barns, wildlife, and still shots of the “sound of freedom” near the end of the runway of the 4th Fighter Wing.

Alas, I didn’t have my good camera as I drove to church this morning. For the first time in my life, I saw a bald eagle finishing his breakfast barely 15 feet off the road. He was impossible to miss, but I missed my chance. My dinky camera phone was inadequate, even though I turned around and pulled over. Opportunity lost: the blurry eagle image looked like a large chicken.

So, I’m starting off 2025 with photographic regret. But what will I do with this self-inflicted punch in the face? Will I freeze, quit, or adapt? Regret can be a huge motivator! I will adapt, optimistically, that my next fifty years will see another bald eagle in the wild, 15 feet away. Have you already broken a New Year’s resolution, too? Were you caught unready for the opportunity? Will you consume the rest of the cake because you already ate one piece too many? Will you crumple up your plan because you got punched in the face? No! The point of the plan is not to attain perfection but to retain pliability to variables outside the plan.

A plan without flexibility is rigid; it has a glass jaw to continue with the boxing phraseology. Or, as Solomon in Proverbs 16:9 wrote: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps,” which sounds a lot like the Yiddish saying, “Man plans and God laughs.” A wooden translation of the biblical proverb shows its agility: The heart of man himself reckons his road, but the Lord fixes his life-course. God grants genuine though limited agency to us to “live, move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28b), but we do not exist in an open system absolutely. We are contained “in him” (Acts 17:28a). Based on the available data, wise and capable humans should make their plans, but it is the Lord who steers their paths according to his grand purpose, even when they get punched in the face. Punches do not surprise God!

Making a plan is neither wrong nor unwise, but worshiping a plan is both. In life, we should carefully navigate the landmarks and negotiate the terrain with advanced thought. But by faith, we understand that God moves or removes the whole map according to his good pleasure. God does not mock our plan, though he holds every right to mock our belief in it when it eclipses his sovereignty. That is why, whichever plans we might activate, it must be our primary purpose to know God as we are known by him, and to make him known by others.

Happy New Year

Psalm 90:1-17 – A Prayer of Moses, the man of God 

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

3 You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" 

4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 

5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 

6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 

7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 

8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 

9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 

10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 

11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 

12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 

13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 

14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 

16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 

17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!