Jesus, Civil Engineering, and Recycling

Among Christians who celebrate the liturgical season of Advent, reading chapter 40 from Isaiah - quoted by Luke in his third chapter - brings thoughts of December, even when read in July. But this famous passage has a meaning not confined to the weeks of Advent:

A voice of one calling:
In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Depending on which English translation you read, the wording will vary slightly; Luke seems to have used a Septuagint reading which yields a slightly different English rendering. In any case, however, the primary meaning of the text has nothing directly to do with Christmas, Advent, or the birth of Jesus. Perhaps even more surprisingly, its topic is civil engineering.

Planning and constructing roads, bridges, dams, and the foundations for large buildings - that is civil engineering. Knowing about different types of cement and concrete, steel and dirt - that's how a civil engineer calculates his designs. If you read our text from Isaiah carefully, that's Isaiah's theme as well.

Isaiah was writing about what would happen when the captives - Israelites who'd lived in the kingdom of Judah, but been taken as POW's to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian armies besieged Jerusalem - finally got their freedom back. When that city fell, the rest of the countryside was also taken by the invading army. Between 598 B.C. and 583 B.C., groups of Judaeans were deported. They lived in Babylon, at first under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, then under other later rulers, for approximately 70 years.

King Cyrus of Persia was bad news for the Babylonians, but good news for the captives from Judaea. In 538 B.C., he conquered Babylonia, and allowed them to return to their homeland. The Persians were known for building a system of roads which connected the various territories which they first conquered, and then incorporated into their expanding empire. It is about these roads that Isaiah writes.

Filling in low places, carving notches to create passes through hillsides, straightening winding roads into direct highways: Isaiah is describing the civil engineering projects of the Persians. The captives would have a good trip home.

Although this early freeway project is the primary meaning of the text, it is not the only meaning. Although "green" politics made its appearance in the second half of the twentieth century, God was already recycling long before that. Isaiah received a prophetic message, and even after the end of the Babylonian Captivity, the passage would be reused.

The first time that Isaiah's text was recycled was concerning John the Baptist, as Luke recounts. "Prepare ye the way for the Lord!" meant, not Persia building physical roads for Israelites returning from servitude, but rather now it was recycled to mean that the Messiah was arriving. John's task was to prepare Israel for the advent of its King.

But the recycling didn't stop there. This text finds a continual application in the heart and mind of every human: we are invited to receive the Messiah and the salvation He gives. We receive Him in different ways at different times - He is constantly approaching us - through His written Word, through bread and wine, through the water of baptism. Again and again, Jesus shows up in our lives. Prepare the way for Him!

And, of course, the text from Isaiah is recycled seasonally: every year during the time of Advent, the passage is read again, and we are reminded of God's magnificent sweep through history - He keeps approaching people with His saving love, rescuing the captives from Babylon, rescuing us from the consequences of our own sinfulness.

There are probably more and other ways in which this passage has been, is being, and will be recycled: other ways in which Isaiah's words, "prepare the way for the Lord!" break into earthly human existence with the power and light of God's gracious intervention in our lives.

Saved? Saving?

The verb 'save' and its various forms have been used - overused - in some branches of Christendom, and, as a piece of jargon, disputes rage over the slightest variants in the exact definition of the word - although, to the ordinary layman, its general meaning is clear: the notion that one will enjoy some better type of afterlife.

So, while an intuitive concept of 'being saved' is firmly in place, the details and specifics aren't. Textual evidence about the topic is interesting, in terms of verb forms.

The verb is used in the past tense 'saved' in loci like II Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5, Romans 8:24, and Ephesians 2:5-8.

The future tense appears in Romans 5:9-10, Romans 13:11, I Corinthians 3:12-15, and I Timothy 4:16, Hebrews 9:28, and Matthew 24:13.

Verbs hint at a present process of "working out one's salvation" in Philippians 2:12, I Corinthians 1:18, I Corinthians 15:2, and Acts 2:47.

The average layman is probably inclined to answer "yes" to the questions "Are you saved?" and "Will you be saved?" A slight rewording to "Have you been saved?" will probably also elicit an affirmative response. The question "Are you being saved?" might evoke more puzzlement than anything else.

These linguistic riddles may serve to remind us that there is a broader meaning to 'save' than merely a ticket into the afterlife. Salvation has implications for humans in this life as well. Aside from what happens to us after death, salvation is both a comfort and challenge in this life, as Kierkegaard put it - both a Trost and a Forderung or even a Herausforderung.

Being "saved" in this life is, then, both an asset and a task. Salvation, in the broader sense, involves the power of God in our daily lives here and now: the power to live through suffering without losing our inner peace. Salvation also includes sanctification, as the Holy Spirit works in us to continually refine us and make us into what God wants us to be.

What Jesus Never Said

Organized religion is constantly in danger of losing touch with its founder; the church must take care that it does not stray from who Jesus is, what He does, how He does it, and what He says. Institutional Christianity is an environment of jargon which is constantly developing - this might be a good thing, or a bad thing, but it is an inescapable thing.

Human beings are linguistic creatures, and also creatures of habit. The development of an "insider" vocabulary is inevitable. We must, however, monitor the emergence and use of this "church talk" to ensure that it does not begin a slow creep away from the documented way in which Jesus presents Himself in the New Testament.

When the habitual speech patterns of the institutional church drift away from the message of Jesus, instead of fulfilling Christ's mission of "drawing all men unto" Himself (John 12:32), we will push men away from Him - and sometimes 'men' specifically, inasmuch as some of the church's bad linguistic habits are gender-specific.

Author David Murrow notes several instances of such phraseology. For example, in some corners of the ecclesiastic

universe you have two kinds of people: the saved and the lost. Men hate to be both. Men can't stand being lost - that's why they don't ask for directions. And the only thing worse than being lost is being saved. Throughout the literature of a thousand cultures, men are always the saviors, while women are the ones being saved. Today's Hollywood blockbusters still follow this ancient formula - Spider-Man rescues Mary Jane, not the other way around. It goes against the cultural grain for a man to assume the feminine role.

While both 'saved' and 'lost' appear in the New Testament, and there is nothing wrong with the use of the terms, it is the elevation of them to technical jargon, and the ubiquitous use of them as primary categories, which strays from the more textually authentic use of Biblical vocabulary.

Another term from the feminine side is sharing. Christians often say things like, "Steve, would you please share with us what the Lord has placed on your heart?" Regular men don't talk this way. It sounds too much like kindergarten. Imagine a gang member saying to one of his brothers, "Blade, would you please share with us how you jacked that Mercedes?"

There really is no precedent for a Greek or Hebrew verb meaning 'share' being used in the sense of 'verbally communicate' - any such verb in Scripture means to 'participate' in an activity, e.g., to "share in work" (II John 1:11) or to "share in sin" (Revelation 18:4), or to 'co-own' something, e.g., to "share in glory" (I Peter 5:1) or to "share an inheritance" (Galatians 4:30). One might argue that to "share the Gospel" is such an instance of the verb being used for communication (I Thessalonians 2:8), but certainly the Gospel is more than words or a personal experience - it is here an objective reality being 'shared' - i.e., being shared as one shares a physical substance like water or bread, not being merely verbally communicated.

Jesus spoke constantly of the kingdom of God. Men are kingdom builders. They think hierarchically. But many churches have replaced the masculine term kingdom of God with the more feminine family of God. Jesus never uttered this phrase. Nevertheless, it's become a favorite of pastors worldwide. "We're a loving family of God, here to worship Jesus," they cry. "We're so happy you've chosen to join our family this morning." They prefer to speak of the church as a "family" because the word resonates with the feminine heart.

To be sure, the New Testament hints at the familial analogy - the noun 'brother' (also in its plural form) indicates this. Yet Jesus clearly leans on the phrase 'kingdom of God' - or its equivalent, 'kingdom of heaven' - more.

Twentieth-century evangelicals coined two phrases that attempt to separate living faith from dead piety. Both have become very popular, and unfortunately, both are somewhat repellant to men.

The first term is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's almost impossible to attend an evangelical worship service these days without hearing this phrase spoken at least once.

Curious. While a number of Biblical passages imply a relationship between God and man, the term "personal relationship with Jesus" never appears in the Scriptures. Nor are individuals commanded to "enter into a relationship with God."

The main stock-in-trade of folk Christianity, the 'personal relationship with' Jesus Christ, never actually appears in the New Testament! This is noteworthy.

David Murrow identifies the second offending phrase from contemporary evangelicalism:

Just like personal relationship with Jesus, the Scriptures never use the term intimacy with God. And lest you think I'm dirty minded, whenever the words passionate or intimate appear in the Bible, they always refer to sex or lust between humans.

When a man loves another man, he uses the language of respect. "Hey Joe, you're a stand-up guy. I admire you." Men do not speak of passionate, intimate, or even personal relationships with their leaders or male friends.

It is in this way that the church can - unintentionally - repel men. Women may be comfortable with vocabulary talking about 'intimacy' with Jesus, but men aren't. That fact is also a segue to the observation that, among the many things which Jesus never says are: "I'm feeling ..." and "I'm comfortable with ..." and "I'm not comfortable with ..." and the compounded expression "I'm feeling comfortable with ..." (along with its negation "I'm not feeling comfortable with ..."). Christ's earthly life is not about comfort. It's about hardship.

Correspondingly, Jesus never asked questions formulated this way: "Are you comfortable with ... ?" and "How are you feeling about ... ?"

To be sure, Jesus had feelings - emotions - and expressed them at times. It is moving to note that Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35). But Jesus did not privilege emotions, nor did He make them the focal point of many of His lectures.

Another gender-related fact about language is male terseness. Although there are conflicting statistical results, men often tend to be less wordy than women. This is not a value judgment, but merely an observation. But there is an ecclesiastical dimension to this fact:

In my thirty-plus years of attending church, I've heard many a story about some great man of prayer who rose daily at 3 a.m. and prayed four to five hours before beginning his day. These anecdotes are meant to inspire, but they always left me feeling inadequate - like I was shortchanging God if I only had, say, fifteen minutes to give him.

Then I read what Jesus said about prayer. He warned us not to keep babbling on, like the pagans, "for they think that they will be heard because of their many words." He followed with a model prayer of exactly sixty-six words. It can be prayed in fewer than thirty seconds.

Nothing in Scripture suggests that long prayers are better than short ones. The Bible recommends consistency and frequency, not length.

In fact, I'd say that Murrow is already stretching it at fifteen minutes. I'd go for ten. But his point is made. Murrow elsewhere notes other ways in which the institutional church repels men. But the lesson is clear: the church must choose its words carefully.

Heaven Hurts?

Heaven, according to popular imagination and Scriptural text, is a paradise - beautiful music, excellent food and drink, a pleasant garden, streets of gold. Surely, being there would be delightful.

Yet in the allegory written by C.S. Lewis under the title The Great Divorce, Heaven is actually painful, at least for those visitors from Hell who've been allowed to be there on a trial basis. The grass is like nails, the light too bright, the sounds too loud, and a small apple seems like a solid lead weight. Yet for the permanent residents of Heaven, it is indeed delightful.

What was Lewis implying by this detail in his parable? Why would heaven be painful?

Part of the answer may be in remembering that his writing is indeed fantasy. He's probably not making a literal assertion about experiences a human might have in the next life. Rather, he's embodied a spiritual thought in a concrete narrative.

Are there aspects of living as a follower of Jesus - aspect of life in the Body of Christ - which cause joy to those who've given up trying to justify themselves, but which cause discomfort to those who cling to the notion that their works will redeem their lives?

Imagine inviting a person to join an organization which allows him to set aside his own goals and desires, to set the needs of others ahead of his own, and to thoroughly internalize the view that his existence is characterized as service to his fellow human - that being a servant is the core of who and what he is.

Further, imagine that this organization to which you inviting a person will also require him to state - publicly, repeatedly, and frequently - that his innate character is permanently flawed, corrupted, and sinful; that he can never do anything which will atone for, or make up for, his sinful nature and the sins which he has actually committed; and that the best he can do is thankfully receive forgiveness which he has in no way earned or deserved.

Some people will respond to such an invitation eagerly - for some, such a place would be a joy. Yet others will quickly and decisively decline the invitation, seeing such a place as extremely uncomfortable. So, in this life, having a chance to participate in a lifestyle which offers a foretaste of heaven is in fact painful to those who expend energy denying the truth about their sinful natures and their inability to help themselves.

Spener's Plan

Faithful Christians through the centuries have reliably identified, and drawn attention to, the church's flaws. It is the sincerity of faith, not the lack of faith, which motivates the sharpest critiques of the church, and it is the sharpest critiques which yield concrete steps for improving and reforming the church.

The history of Christianity is filled with reformers, from William of Aquitaine's Cluny movement, to the Cistercians, to the Franciscans and Dominicans, to Karl Barth's neo-orthodoxy. All of these efforts were directed toward recalling the church to its original mission and ridding it of errors or corruptions.

Philipp Jakob Spener is no exception. Until his death in 1705, he led the Pietistic movement which he largely created. Although scholars dispute exactly what Pietism is, and whether it is truly orthodox, the sincerity of Spener's faith in manifest in his main text, Pia Desideria.

The last third of that book presents a clearly stated program for reform. In five sections, it can be summarized thus:

1. A more extensive use of the Word of God among us; because nothing good will arise from our nature, something of God must be worked into us. Faith will be ignited by the Gospel, and the Law serves as a rule for good works and gives a drive toward them.
• Preaching services, or services of the Word, alone are not enough. Spener praises the fact that services of the word are found daily in his town (Frankfurt), but more is needed. Even though preachers examine all the pericopes, and even additional texts beyond the pericopes, the listeners are given only small chunks of Scripture at any one time, and those texts are examined only from whichever limited aspect of them is considered in the sermon.
• Everyone should take the Scriptures into his own hands for himself and read it. The father, as head of the family, should read aloud from the Scripture to the family daily; if he cannot read, he can have someone read it. Andreas Hyperius (1511 - 1564) stated the importance of this practice, Georg Nigrinus translated it into German, and Elias Veyel republished it.
• Congregations should meet to read the Bible aloud. Spener advocates for a Bible study program which is a separate event from a worship service.
• Congregations should follow an ancient apostolic pattern for discussion and study of the Bible; a practice is suggested, that under the supervision of the preacher, faithful Christians discuss and mutually edify each other according to an apostolic institution (I Cor. 14).
• Clergy should lead such discussion and study to avoid quarrelsomeness, self-glorification, or self-seeking; the hoped-for benefits of such corporate study.
• Corporate study is crucial in fostering fellowship and spiritual growth; the necessity of diligent engagement with the divine Word.
• Luther considered the reading of Scripture so important that he was hesitant to publish his own books, in case they would detract from people's reading of the Bible; Luther's wish concerning such congregational study.

2. Institution and diligent exercise of the spiritual priesthood
• The papacy had un-empowered the laity; the priesthood of believers was utterly hidden for reasons of worldly politics.
• The laity have become sluggish; Luther demonstrated this priesthood from the Scripture.
• The priesthood does not detract from the office of preaching, but rather supports it; the benefit and usefulness of this priesthood.
• After Luther's death, the laity's priestly work and their diligent study of the Bible has been largely forgotten.

3. Diligently teaching the people that Christianity consists not of knowledge, but in actions.
• Skip no opportunity to do good to one's neighbor; the distinguishing mark of true Christians.

4. How we ought to behave in religious disputes
• Pray for those who err.
• Be a good model for them.
• We should show them their errors.
• But above all demonstrate sincere love.
• A first step toward reuniting the churches; disputation is a proper means for the preservation of the truth.
• Disputes can ruin hearts; not all disputation is useful and good.
• We want to help people in every way; many errors common to disputations and disputants; even the best disputation is by itself the sufficient means; how necessary is the true love of God, and leading people to it.
• Dare the experiment of faith! What the hoped-for results of this may be.

5. Reforming the Study of Theology; the training of preachers at the universities.
• The example of the professor; a good example provided by the professors is necessary.
• Studying and Christianity in action belong together; to impress upon the students that a spiritual life is as important as diligence in studies.
• Theology is a habitus practicus; why theology students should be admonished to this.
• The Holy Spirit is the only true teacher; theology is not merely a body of knowledge; the professors are to supervise the lives of the students.
• It's not a question of the philosophy of religion, but of studying theology; various methods of bringing them to the desired result.
• Professors should not advance students solely on the basis of their giftedness; how far ought one to engage students in controversies?
• Discussions should be conducted in German, in order to learn how one speaks intelligibly to a congregation; what other types of harm might arise.
• The budding student needs a loyal mentor; Luther recommends Johannes Tauler and the anonymous book Theologica Germanica.
• The sum of theology can be brought again to apostolic simplicity; Thomas à Kempis, and the usefulness of similar books.
• Luther recommends the sermons of Tauler; practices which attain to practice as well as theory.
• Theology is not merely an academic structure.
• A proposal: founding Collegia Pietatis for students.
• How can one engage such practices?
• A brotherly fellowship of students could grow out of this.
• The function of the professor.
• Instituting practical exercises.

6. Institution and alignment of preaching toward edification instead of toward theologically educated splendor.
• Never tire of teaching the catechism; common mistakes.
• Sermons should strengthen the inner man; directing toward the inner or new man, and toward the worship service occurring in him.
• Johann Arnd's postil; the blessed Johann Arndt (1555 - 1621) is an example of this; how the current edition of his postil has been improved; comments to the reader of Arndt's works; Bernhard Varenius (1622 - 1650) rescue's the true Christianity of Arndt; the reader is encouraged to pray.

Specific Instructions

The church is always in need of tweaking - semper reformanda as the theologians say. The need for adjustments is nothing new, and history gives us many examples. Philipp Jakob Spener, born in 1635, led a movement called 'pietism' and gave instructions about how to renew the church of his day - and perhaps of our time as well.

The pietist movement is to some extent controversial, and there are competing understandings about what pietism is. Sidestepping those questions, however, we can simply look at some of Spener's texts directly, and not worry about the larger constructs and disputes surrounding them.

One of his most famous books is entitled Pia Desideria, in the last third of which he makes concrete suggestions about ways to improve the church:

Thought should be given to a more extensive use of the Word of God among us. We know that by nature we have no good in us. If there is to be any good in us, it must be brought about by God. To this end the Word of God is the powerful means, since faith must be enkindled through the gospel, and the law provides the rules for good works and many wonderful impulses to attain them. The more at home the Word of God is among us, the more we shall bring about faith and its fruits.

Spener here rightly and powerfully states the case about our original sin, and God's active role in sanctifying us. Where he wrote that Scripture is "the" means by which this can be brought about, we might wish that he had written "a" means - if Word and Sacrament are the means of grace, then are they not both also a means by which God can make it so that there is something good in us? Spener also touches upon the three uses of the law, but in stating that the law "provides ... many wonderful impulses," he might have stretched the law a bit further than it can go. Is it not the Holy Spirit which provides such impulses?

It may appear that the Word of God has sufficiently free course among us inasmuch as at various places (as in this city Frankfurt am Main) there is daily or frequent preaching from the pulpit. When we reflect further on the matter, however, we shall find that with respect to this first proposal, more is needed. I do not at all disapprove of the preaching of sermons in which a Christian congregation is instructed by the reading and exposition of a certain text, for I myself do this. But I find that this is not enough. In the first place, we know that "all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Accordingly all Scripture, without exception, should be known by the congregation if we are all to receive the necessary benefit. If we put together all the passages of the Bible which in the course of many years are read to a congregation in one place, they will comprise only very small part of the Scriptures which have been given to us. The remainder is not heard by the congregation at all, or is heard only insofar as one or another verse is quoted or alluded to in sermons, without, however, offering any understanding of the entire context, which is nevertheless of the greatest importance. In the second place, the people have little opportunity to grasp the meaning of the Scripture except on the basis of those passages which may have been expounded to them, and even less do they have opportunity to become as practiced in them as edification requires. Meanwhile, although solitary reading of the Bible at home is in itself a splendid and praiseworthy thing, it does not accomplish enough for most people.

Here Spener correctly points out that the Scriptures - pericopes or otherwise - read in regular services, or in additional preaching services which were common in his day and in his town, are not enough. They are good, but there are more and different ways to come into contact with God's Word. It is worth remembering that there is a difference between, for example, devotional reading of the Bible on the one hand, and Bible study on the other. To explore the richness of God's Word, and to allow the Holy Spirit to work through that Word in our hearts, we must encounter the Word more often, and in more different ways, than worship services. In regular worship, we do not encounter all of Scripture, for some passage are not in the pericopes, and will never occur even when the preaching adds extra texts from beyond the pericopes. In worship services, too, we are not exposed the text in its context, but rather it is isolated, and we are not exposed to the text for its own sake, but rather for the purposes to which the sermon will use it.

Body and Soul

The faith given to us through the Old Testament and the New Testament is a faith which recognizes both the balance of, and the complexity of the relation between, man's physical nature and spiritual nature. Rejecting the materialism of a Karl Marx, rejecting the overly-spiritual approach of the some of the gnostics, and even rejecting the overly-simplistic dualism of Plato, the Hebrew worldview sees man not as a soul, and not as a body, but as the sum of body and soul.

Thus is not sufficient, in caring for a human being, to find a teacher for one's mind, a physician for one's body, a psychologist for one's emotions, and a pastor for one's spirit. While seeming to provide for every need, such an approach would forget that the whole is more than the sum of the parts - the human cannot be disassembled like a machine, having each part cleaned and oiled, and then be reassembled. It is in the intersection of body and soul that we find the man.

In the late 300's A.D., or perhaps in the early 400's A.D., an anonymous author living near the river Zab in Persia wrote a spiritual classic called The Book of Steps, also sometimes cited as the Ascents. This writer looked at the complex relation between body and soul, particularly in the context of the practice of fasting:

There is a hidden self-emptying of the heart when it leaves the earth and is raised up to heaven, it is right that we should empty ourselves in the body too of our possessions and inheritance. Then we shall be keeping the commandments of him who gives life to all, and we shall realize that the person who is bound up in our Lord and ponders on him continuously possesses hidden prayer of the heart. Let us pray with our body as well as with our heart, just as Jesus blessed and prayed in body and in spirit; and so too did the apostles and prophets pray. We should not be fools who fail to listen to their parents: we should not lose our spiritual parents and acquire false parents who belong to the flesh, who will cause us to stray from the truth of our Lord and those who preach him.

The text speaks of a 'self-emptying' of the heart - that it surrenders all desires and loves God above all things. The physical analogue is that we rid ourselves of 'possessions and inheritance' - material benefits. In this way, the corporeal body and the metaphysical soul are joined in purpose, in placing Jesus higher than any other affection.

There is a hidden fasting of the heart, fasting from evil thoughts, we should also fast openly, just as our Lord fasted and as did those who have preached him, of old and more recently. Since we know that the body is become a hidden temple and the heart a hidden altar for ministry in the spirit, we should show our eagerness at this visible altar and in this visible temple, so that, as we labor in these, we may have rest for ever in that church in heaven which is free and magnificent, and at that altar which is adorned and exalted in the spirit, before which the angels and all the saints minister, while Jesus acts as priest and effects sanctification before them, above them, and on every side of them.

The author shifts from 'self-emptying' to 'fasting' - perhaps these are mere synonyms in a Semitic parallelism, or perhaps there is a distinction: a self-emptying to prepare for new content, versus a fasting which is an abstinence. The heart empties itself of all other affections, so that it may be filled with affection for Jesus; the heart fasts from evil thought, meaning simply to rid itself of such. In either case, the continued theme is parallel and coordinated action between body and soul, a pious inspiration for all the faithful.