The Center for Gospel Culture Blog
Friday Roundup! Week of 4/30/10
Lynn M. DunstonApril 30, 2010
Here's what went on this week!
Sermon
Leadership: Gospel Admonishing, Gospel Comforting - Stephen T. Um
Articles
Biblical Metonymy in "Reeds of Innocence" - by Noel Um
Rewoven into the Fabric of Redemption: Section 4 - by Richard Lints
Counting of the Costs of Place
Jeremy M. MullenApril 28, 2010
Recently the Boston Globe reported on the cost of suburban living in Eric Moskowitz’s piece “Travel Swells Cost of Housing.” In the article, Moskowitz cites a study completed by the Urban Land Institute (also available on-line) about the hidden costs of living in the suburbs. While many believe that moving to suburban environs saves them money by lowering housing costs, the costs of transportation significantly increase the cost. In many cases, the combined cost of housing and transportation – at least in the greater Boston area – makes the suburbs more expensive than living in the city. Why should the Christian care about it?
First, we’re beginning to see that the “conveniences” of suburban life are probably not as convenient as many believe. For some time many voices have been predicting the death of the American suburban ideal (due especially to rising energy costs), but here we see that one of the fundamental motivations – cost of living – has lost its validity. It might be that some issues such as safety, schooling, etc. may be motivations for families to msove to the suburbs; however, this study demonstrates that one major motivation is false. Therefore, any serious Christian consideration of stewardship will have to account for the waste involved in suburban living.
Second, a growing number of Christian voices – across a number of denominations – are recognizing that cities fill a significant social space which any strategic Christian action cannot ignore. While some try to make a more direct biblical mandate out of the matter than others, we have now reached an undeniable point in American society when the church can no longer afford to pretend that our cities do not matter. For too long, conservative Christianity has been closely aligned with the American dream. Yet that dream is crumbling as driving becomes more expensive, and so is the Christian cultural baggage Americans once held. Some Christians resent it, but such resentment is naïve about the past and (more importantly) discontent with God’s providence.
Third and most significantly, the urban environment is a much more powerful opportunity for the gospel to impact lives. In the suburbs, you can avoid talking to your neighbors. You can pretend that most of the world is like yourself since suburban neighborhoods tend to be monolithic. In the city, you cannot help but bump shoulders with other people – different people. In the city, problems cannot be plastered over so easily. In the city, the gospel shines – bringing together different ethnic groups, different socio-economic groups, different political groups.
Living in the city may always be a bit riskier than elsewhere, but the gospel calls us to live risky lives – as living sacrifices before God (Romans 12:1; cf. 2 Timothy 3:12-13).
Friday Roundup! Week of 4/23/10
Lynn M. DunstonApril 23, 2010
Welcome to Friday Roundup!
Hello friends! Every Friday, you can check here at the CGC blog for a complete roundup on the news, articles, and events of the week. So for this week, here's what we've posted:
Articles
Covenantal Shape of Redemptive History, Pt. 5 by Jeremy Mullen
Rewoven into the Fabric of Redemption: Section 3 by Richard Lints
Kingdom of God Part 3 by Stephen Um
Sermons
More Insights Into Suffering by Stephen Um
Enjoy and have a great weekend!
- The CGC Team
Supersizing the Last Supper
Justin RuddyApril 20, 2010
In an interesting piece for the LA Times, Melissa Healy reports on a recently released study that sought to measure the portion and plate sizes of artistic depictions of the Last Supper between the years 1000 and 2000 CE:
“In a bid to uncover the roots of super-sized American fare, a pair of sibling scholars has turned to an unusual source: 52 artists' renderings of the New Testament's Last Supper. Their findings, published online…in the International Journal of Obesity, indicate that serving sizes have been marching heavenward for 1,000 years.”
What were the results of the study?
“Over the course of the millennium, the [researchers] found that the entrees depicted on the plates laid before Jesus' followers grew by about 70%, and the bread by 23%. As entree portions rose, so too did the size of the plates -- by 65.6%.”
It's intriguing that the researchers saw their project as being important for understanding recent trends toward obesity rather than for grasping significant changes in theology that have taken place over the millennia. For one, it would seem that perhaps the emphasis on asceticism in early iconography was left behind more and more as the millennium marched forward, indicating a welcome affirmation of the physical body and material world.
I would like to think that perhaps the artists began to see that the Lord's Supper, along with being a commemoration of the already accomplished work of Christ, is an anticipation of the future meal that we will share with him upon his return. If one is depicting a meal that is not only past (and present), but also future, the depiction of that meal should portray the abundance of the anticipated festal celebration. While this is surely a stretch, it seems that the correlation between growing portion sizes and the eschaton is just as strong as the correlation between artistic depictions of the Last Supper and the relatively recent tendency among Americans to gorge themselves on large servings of fast food.
‘Up in the Air’
Jeremy M. MullenApril 16, 2010
An Aerial View of Life & the Calling of the Church
The other day I finally got around to watching Jason Reitman’s film Up in the Air. (I know I should have seen it six months ago.) As many of you will know, it got the round of award nominations for most of the major performances, screenplay, and even best picture – although it didn’t win them. There are plenty of great acting and cinematographic moments throughout; but one of them stood out to me… [Spoiler alert!]
The scene begins when Natalie, the apprentice to the main character Ryan, is dumped by her boyfriend, and she winds up in the corner of an airport talking with Ryan and Alex – who is something like Ryan’s girlfriend (it’s complicated – and a major plot issue). Ryan slowly gets pushed out of the conversation as the two women discuss their hopes for relationships.
First, Natalie – a recent Cornell graduate – goes through a laundry list of what’s significant to her:
“You know, white collar. College grad. Loves dogs. Likes funny movies. Six foot one. Brown hair. Kind eyes. Works in finance but is outdoorsy, you know, on the weekends. [Pause.] I always imagined he’d have a single syllable name like Matt or John or…Dave. In a perfect world, he drives a Four Runner and the only thing he loves more than me is his golden lab. Oh…and a nice smile.”
Second, Alex – well into her 30’s – begins to describe how expectations change.
“Well, by the time you’re 34, all the physical requirements are pretty much out the window. I mean, you secretly pray he’ll be taller than you… Just someone who enjoys my company. Comes from a good family – you don’t think about that when you’re younger. [Pause.] Wants kids…likes kids…wants kids. Healthy enough to play catch with his future son one day. Please, let him earn more than I do! That doesn’t make sense now, but believe me, it will one day. Otherwise it’s just a recipe for disaster. Hopefully some hair on his head…but it’s not exactly a deal-breaker anymore. Nice smile…yep, a nice smile just might do it.”
What is so provocative about the scene is the way expectations change. On the one hand, Alex’s perspective seems disappointing, even depressing – and Natalie certainly feels so. On the other hand, what time and aging has begun to impress upon Alex is a sense of the weightiness of some matters over others.
In a similar way, the church is a place to gain perspective. First, in worship we gain a heavenly perspective on our lives – that is, a vision from the angle of God’s heart. So we’re reminded (whether we’re ready or not) of the burden of sin, of the weight of God’s glory, of the passing nature of so many of our desires and commitments.
Second, in the community of believers we have a variety of experience. While I am not so very old – although the college students I work with probably think I am – I’m learning more and more to listen to those with experience. (Age and experience aren’t always the same things. There are some young people who have a lot of experience, and some older people who don’t seem to have any. In biblical terminology, the kind of experience that matters is trials.) The beauty of the church, which transcends race, class, and eventually time and space is that it gives us perspective. We think that things like money, sex, image, and so on matter most; but the experience of the church reminds us that there is only one thing that is needed: the presence of God.
A Community of Witness, Part 1
David ChoApril 14, 2010
Every Sunday morning, millions of Christians across the globe gather together to celebrate the event which changed the course of human history. No other event in history has garnered such an extensive and continual gathering of its supporters. And yet, in all of our church going, it is far too easy to lose our grasp on our church being. What are we called to be as a church? What purpose to we serve in this world?
Jesus provides us the answer to this question in a small excerpt from his sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
Jesus provides us the answer to this question in a small excerpt from his sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
But what does this mean? I'd like to focus this time specifically on what it means to be the salt of the earth.
The primary function of salt in ancient times was to preserve meat from rotting. Thus, Jesus is suggesting that we as the church ought to preserve something. But what is that? The passage immediately before this one is the Beatitudes, which provides a picture of a community flipped by grace. It is precisely that counter-culture of grace that Jesus is telling the church to preserve.
But here was the problem - this counter-culture of grace in many ways was at odds with the society which surrounded it. This counter-culture of grace was to value the poor as the blessed of God, while the society at large commanded exploitation of them for personal gains. Similarly, this subversive community was to treat the meek as honorable and esteemed, while the society at large encouraged domination of them in a "dog eat dog" world.
Salt in ancient times was in danger of being so mixed with impurities in the Sea from which it was obtained, so influenced by its surroundings that it looked like salt, perhaps even tasted like salt, but ceased to work like it. This was precisely the same danger the church then, and today, finds itself in. But Jesus is telling his community to preserve the counter-culture of grace - to preserve a positive difference and a warm distinction that runs precisely counter the culture.
But perhaps salt's gravest danger was not to become so compromised as to be useless, but to be used so improperly as to be fatal. This is precisely the gravest danger of the church as well. For in all of its efforts to preserve difference and distinction - this counter-culture of grace - the danger that this subversive community faces is the temptation to do violence to the society which runs counter to it. Miroslav Volf in his article Soft Difference writes, “There is no doubt that [the Bible] stresses the church’s difference from its social environment. [But it] is significant [that it does so] positively, not negatively. [For] when [difference] is forged primarily through the negative process of the rejection of others, violence is unavoidable. [For we find that] we have to push others away from ourselves and keep them at a distance [through either] subdued resentment [or] aggressive and destructive behavior. But [the church’s call] is instead to encounter this violence with an embrace.”
It is true that the church is to be a community that is distinct, that is different. But the purpose of this difference is not to reject world, but to embrace it, not to distance self from world, but to draw the world in. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth. Nothing more, nothing less.
Love Books?
Tim ChangApril 07, 2010
The Gospel Coalition has a couple of useful resources that they have implemented.
10 Million Words is a project undertaken by Tim Challies where he will write reviews of non-fiction books that make it to the New York Times Bestsellers list. You can read Challies’ post about this project here.
TGC Reviews is a recent initiative where a team of reviewers will periodically provide “helpful appraisals of books and other resources.” The blog post introducing this initiative can be found here.
About
The Center for Gospel Culture exists to establish the centrality of the gospel as the basis for developing a gospel culture worldview in renewing every dimension of an individual's life, so that individuals would be able to think, act, and live in line with the truth of the gospel.
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe via Email
