God formed man
From the dust of the earth
Breathed into him the breath of life
Man became a human being.
Genesis 2:7
Humanity did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus like Athena or fall from the sky like one of the gods of Greek mythology. Humanity did not have a pre-existent state in the non-spatial, non-temporal realm of perfect forms as Plato imagined. Humanity did not come from somewhere other than the earth. Humanity's only home has been the spinning blue orb third from the sun. If this world is not our home (as the Gnostics claimed) we are homeless.
Humanity was formed.
Formed by God.
Formed from the earth.
All living things share common ancestry
The dust of the earth.
"No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied—
it speaks in silence to the very core of your being." -Ansel Adams
It's that time of year again. Time for our annual summer sojourn on Planet Romonapa. That's what we call our beloved Rocky Mountain National Park. We're in shape and ready to hike, climb, backpack and camp in the high country. I look forward to our annual family vacation in Rocky Mountain National Park all year long. It restores my soul in a way I cannot fully explain.
Here are some pictures from our vacation on Planet Romonapa last year.
I get lots of questions via Facebook. I can't answer them all. That's just the way it is. But here's one I'd like to address. The question goes like this...
Pastor Brian,
What is the one thing that motivates you everyday to live a radical life for Jesus? Is it the hope of glory? An experience you've had? The realization of your identity in Christ? The reason I ask is because it's not always easy to be radical for the Lord. It's easy when you get to surf the wave, but when you are paddling out to sea, it's rough... it's easy when you get the pools of breakthroughs and miracles... but what do you do when you're in a desert? what is it that keeps you pressing hard?
-E.M.
Well it's way past midnight and there are people all around
Some on their way up, some on their way down
The air burns and I'm trying to think straight
And I don't know how much longer I can wait
-Bob Dylan, Can't Wait
It's late. Way past midnight. I'm reading. Thinking. Praying. Trying to get it right.
Trying to get what right? Trying to get salvation right. Nothing matters more than this.
Popular opinions and cheap assumptions are not enough. Too much is at stake.
Simon Wiesenthal has a haunting story to tell. And an even more haunting question to ask. He tells his story and asks his question in his famous book,
The Sunflower.
Simon Wiesenthal is an Austrian Jew imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. As the book opens, Wiesenthal is part of a work detail being taken from the concentration camp to do cleanup work in a makeshift field hospital near the Eastern Front. As they are marched from the prison camp to the hospital they come across a cemetery for German soldiers. On each grave is a sunflower. Wiesenthal writes,
I envied the dead soldiers. Each had a sunflower to connect him with the living world, and butterflies to visit his grave. For me there would be no sunflower. I would be buried in a mass grave, where corpses would be piled on top of me. No sunflower would ever bring light into my darkness, and no butterflies would dance above my dreadful tomb.
While working at the field hospital a nurse orders Wiesenthal to follow her. He is taken into a room where a lone SS soldier lay dying. The SS soldier is a twenty-two year old German named Karl Seidl. Karl has asked the nurse to "bring him a Jew." He wants to make his dying confession and he wants to make it to a Jew.
I've got a new blog in mind entitled "Dear Mr. Wiesenthal." Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow. Maybe not. You'll have to guess what it's about. Here's a clue:
The Sunflower.
In the mean time I present to you guest blogger, PERI ZAHND!
Here's Peri on Smedes.
CLICK HERE
BZ
PS.......
On May 7, 2008 an
Evangelical Manifesto was published in Washington D.C. by a consortium of Evangelical thinkers and leaders. It is addressed not only to Christians and Evangelicals but to American citizens of all faiths and no faith. I would describe it as an attempt to re-identify, re-position, and perhaps re-energize Evangelicals in the contemporary American landscape. Most importantly though, I would say the
Evangelical Manifesto is an an attempt to untangle American Evangelicals from the apparatus of partisan politics -- something I have come to feel increasingly passionate about.
Here's my take on it.
I'm regularly asked about the books I read.
Some people think I preach vocationally. There is truth to that, but there's more truth in saying I
read vocationally. There's a sense in which I read books for others. I graze in the field of books and give the milk of sermons. John Wesley said, "Read or get out of the ministry." I agree. Yes, reading is a big part of what I do. I don't loan books for the same reason a mechanic doesn't loan tools. Books are the tools of my trade.
Recently several serious minded Christians have requested that I give them a recommended reading list. I don't feel like I can come up with a one-size-fits-all reading list; things vary too much from person to person. What I can do is comprise a list of the ten books which have most influenced me in the past two years -- the literary equivalent to my recent blog on Music.
So here it is: The Ten Books That Have Most Influenced Me In The Past Two Years
(No reviews...just a list with a few comments.)
