Did Jonathan Edwards Tell Jokes?

"In the evening, after tea, he customarily sat in the parlour, with his family, for an hour, unbending from the severity of study, entering freely into the feelings and concerns of his children, and relaxing into cheerful and animated conversation, accompanied frequently with sprightly remarks, and sallies of wit and humour."

--Sereno Dwight, great-grandson of JE (Hickman ed. of Works, I:ccxxviii)

How I would love to have been there!

The Gospel of Ezekiel

Yahweh tells Ezekiel of his role as Israel's watchman, to turn the wicked from his way, since Yahweh has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. Then he tells Ezekiel:

"And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered . . ."
--Ezekiel 33:12-13

It seems many of the Jews of Paul's day, with whom he was in dialogue and by whom he was flogged five times, extracted passages like Lev. 18:5 and some passages from Deuteronomy and left behind passages like this one.

Isaiah 66:2

Here is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

I can't get over that.

Philippians 3:1-11

A great sermon from Zack Eswine last year at Covenant Seminary, on Philippians 3, called "What Do You Most Want? Eternity Is Coming."

'But my God lives'

Just finished Edwards' letters. Some of the family correspondence leading up to and in the wake of his death is very moving. I love especially the short note--short because she was debilitated by a "great deal of pain in her neck" (according to one of her daughters)--Sarah wrote to her daughter Lucy after hearing the news of Jonathan's unexpected death.

My very dear Child,
What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a very dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be.
Your ever affectionate mother,
Sarah Edwards

Strength in Weakness

McCheyne had some of us in 2 Corinthians 12 today.

Therefore in order that I might not be puffed up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, in order that he might torment me, in order that I might not be puffed up.

It's quite irrelevant what the thorn actually was (physical infirmity, persecution, temptation, etc). I wonder if Paul was deliberately ambiguous so that we wouldn't be distracted and miss his real point: not the content of the thorn, but the intent. He says it twice (some translations only have it once): "in order that I might not be puffed up."

On behalf of this three times I exhorted the Lord in order that he might take it away from me. And he has said to me, "Sufficient for you is my grace, for my power is completed in weakness. All the more gladly, therefore, will I boast in my weaknesses [general heading, followed by increasingly difficult experiences?] in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in anguishes, on Christ's behalf; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

I'm prompted to post this passage just because every time I read it (unless I'm too sleepy and not concentrating) I find it extremely deconstructive of my heart. Strength is found not by avoiding, overcoming, or denying weakness, but in it. It is a truth that is so counterintuitive. You think you've grasped it only to find a week later you're right back living out of strength, frustrated at the weaknesses in your life which seem to be keeping you from your goals. And Paul says, "You're denying yourself joy by resisting the very thing that will bring it. Living out of your own strength in order to make a difference with your life is like stopping up your cavities with sugar. So stop drawing attention to your strengths. Exult rather in your weaknesses. And then the pipes of your heart will be cleaned of all the self-sufficiency that has been clogging them up and real power will be able to flow."

What a blow to my pride, but what a comfort too! Because it means anyone qualifies. There's no minimum standard to acquire God's power. All it takes is weakness. And everyone has that. The only thing that disqualifies you is thinking you (yourself) qualify. The only thing that qualifies you is knowing you don't. Think God can't use you? There you go: he can. Think God needs you and that you have a lot to offer him, as I often do? Your pipes are clogged. Power won't flow.

I spent the last year of my life trying to figure out this passage. It's still sinking in and has a long way to go. But let's agree not to forget it. The world washes us in the message that strength is in strength. But the cross definitively tells us the folly and misery and emptiness of such a pursuit, giving us the supreme example of strength in weakness (2 Cor 8:9).

We sinned and thorns came up from the ground (Gen 3). Jesus wore a crown of thorns so that Paul's thorn, and ours, could strangely yet wonderfully result in good and fruitfulness. Praise his name.

Schlatter Again

Couldn't agree more with Alan Bandy's thoughts on Adolf Schlatter regarding Werner Neuer's short biography (translated by R. Yarbrough).

Althaus: Conversion

Found this wonderful statement from the German theologian Paul Althaus (1888-1966) while working on my German, from the first volume (1959) of Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie. It ties in to two projects I'm working on, one on motivation and one on Paul's understanding of zeal in Rom 10 and Phil 3. The title of the article is "Die Bekerung in reformatischer und pietischer Sicht" ("Conversion in the Reformational and Pietistic View"). Describing the Reformation's understanding of conversion, Althaus says:

Conversion is therefore much more than an ethical turning or reversion, for example the turning from ethical looseness or neglect to moral seriousness, from contempt of the commandments of God to obedience to them. Such an ethical conversion is also possible without Christ and the gospel and is not uncommon—for this one does not need Jesus Christ. Conversion in the Christian sense will also include concrete instances of ethical conversion, but certainly not in every case, as the example of the Apostle Paul demonstrates: conversion can also be for a "good man," a Pharisee, therefore an ethically superior person. Here too is it conversion of a sinner. But the sin is in this case not the lack of an ethic, but on the contrary the empty noise of morality, precisely in one’s height, the "erecting their own righteousness" (Rom. 10.3), and so the sin is against the first commandment. Conversion in this sense has a meta-ethical character, and so in this way it is a wholly "becoming new" of a man, a new birth. The man has now come out of unbelieving into believing, out of either unethical or ethical self-glory and security into the humble foundation of grace alone; out of reliance upon his own morality into the vibrant desire of God’s favor only in Christ. This means a transformation of life in the very depth of who he is. It is not to understand growth or development as simply a new step, not as simply a breakthrough into greater depth, stronger earnestness; it leaves its only mark as a break, as a total turning out of spiritual death into life.

Bonhoeffer: Listening

And a good, pastoral encouragement to listen by Bonhoeffer (especially for one who is not naturally a good listener: just ask my wife!) from Disruptive Grace.

Barth Inscription

Fascinating post from Ben Myers' Faith and Theology site exhibiting (credit: Kurt Johanson) a great handwritten note Karl Barth jotted down on the inside cover of a book owned by Klaus Bockmuehl (father of Markus Bockmuehl, NT prof at Oxford, formerly St. Andrews, formerly Cambridge, and author of this excellent book).