Casual Environment, Serious Faith
October and November Arts and Culture, Household Happenings, and Thoughts on Modern Materialism
Welcome to this month’s edition of Notes From the Fray. Thanks for coming back again, even for these less frequent and lengthier posts. We’ve got our usual lineup just with two months instead of one, so scroll on down to read about a little arts and culture, our household’s October and November, and some thoughts on the abstract and the concrete.
Arts and Culture
Books
If you follow my Goodreads account, you’ve seen that, now that I’ve resumed my drives to work, my reading has picked up. Here’s a quick overview of what I’ve been reading:
Early in October, I finished The Baptized Body, by Peter Leithart. I already discussed this book a little last month but it ended with an excellent story illustrating Leithart’s points throughout the book. Leithart definitely gave me a lot to think about throughout this book, and it was an enjoyable one to read. Occasionally, I get lost in Leithart’s train of thought, but this seems to be more of a reflection on my ability to keep up and less so on his ability to communicate clearly. All in all, I highly recommend this book if you’re considering what baptism means and what it does.
I then moved on to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation, which was a bucket book for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and this book had some excellent points that I’m somewhat surprised I hadn’t heard before. For example, Athanasius cites as evidence for the gospel's truth that people of all places and religions convert to Christianity. It’s not that the gospel was particularly agreeable or acceptable to a specific group or culture; rather, people from all religions and cultures turn to Christianity as the truth and are conformed to the teachings of Scripture. This alone is strong evidence for the legitimacy of Christian teaching. This is a classic, so stamping my recommendation on it feels silly. That said, if you were intimidated by it before, don’t be. It’s fairly simple to understand and enjoyable to read or listen to, especially if you enjoy apologetics.
At the same time that I was listening to that book, I was listening to The American Way, by Allan Carlson. This book was an excellent review of the history of the family-centered household in America. While I didn’t agree with all that Carlson asserts, especially his perspective on early feminism, this book was great for getting me to think more deeply about the household, how Americans have traditionally viewed it, and what Scripture says about it. While the book was more of a history, Carlson kept it interesting and lively as he recounted the different influences on and interactions between groups and movements.
Just around the end of October, I finished Repairing the Ruins, a collection of essays on classical education edited by Douglas Wilson. I’ve been feeling the crunch of only having a couple of years before my oldest child will enter the age for formal education, so I’ve begun reading and listening to more on Christian education to try to prepare myself for that process. Also, wanting to be a teacher in a classical school, I can kill two birds with one stone and get some reading in on my desired career. This was the first big book I took on since deciding to dedicate much of my reading for a while to education. It was great. I highly recommend it to anyone wrestling through what educational decisions they should make for their children. The essays are full of great tips, points, and suggestions. It truly laid out a philosophy of education and a very compelling one.
In November, I couldn’t read as much due to Hazel’s arrival, but I’m currently in the middle of listening to both Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Jayber Crow, and I’m reading Norms and Nobility and Shepherding a Child’s Heart when I have the chance.
Music
Brian Suavé released a new album in October, titled Hearth Songs. My household has been enjoying this album very much, especially the song titled, “Old Neptune, He’s Roaring.” The album is well worth a listen.
Beyond that, we’ve been learning hymns and psalm settings from the Cantus Christi 2020 hymnal. I purchased this hymnal when they had a sale on it last year, and the church of which we’re members now uses it during the service, so we’ve had plenty of opportunity to learn more of the songs it contains. It’s been eye-opening to notice patterns and themes throughout the rich inheritance of hymnody we’ve had passed down to us. I highly recommend beginning to familiarize yourself and your family with the hymns and psalters of the church, both ancient and more recent.
Household Happenings
Both October and November have been a whirlwind. The Lord provided a townhouse to rent only a few minutes away from my parents and the church we’ve been attending, so our month was full of trying to get things moved in and settled, all in between a busy work schedule. We also took our church membership vows in mid-October and are delighted to be members of this community. We’ve been so blessed by the church here and are thankful to have the opportunity to be a part of it. We enjoyed the little bit that we could participate in the church’s Ref Fest and, while we’re still getting connected with people, we have already been greatly blessed by this community.
Our boys have been slowly but surely getting adjusted to life here in Tennessee. They were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby sister and enjoyed getting to see and hold her very much. They’ve adjusted well to her arrival and it’s been a pleasure for my wife and I to see them be so gentle and kind toward her.
As for her birth, it went as well as we could’ve asked for. We are thankful that it was peaceful and uncomplicated, and Jen and Hazel are both doing well. It’s been a busy few weeks as I was off of work to stay home and make sure everyone was taken care of while Jen got the rest she needed postpartum. I return to work the day after this releases, which is necessary but not something that any of us are looking forward to.
In other household news, we’ve begun our Advent traditions, which began with our going to a Christmas tree farm and picking a real tree. Our household hadn’t enjoyed a fresh, real tree since our days living in Washington State (in Oklahoma we resorted to Home Depot trees imported from Oregon), so it was fun for our boys to get to experience it. My brother tagged along, as well, which was delightful.
We had Hazel baptized a couple of weeks after her birth. My parents and brother were able to be there, which was a blessing. Hazel is our first child whom we’ve had baptized as an infant, and it was wonderful to begin our relationship with her by recognizing her status as a covenant child and taking our vows as her parents to raise her in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are so thankful for everything with which the Lord has blessed us. We praise Him for a healthy baby and uncomplicated birth.
And with that, let’s move on to this month’s essay.
“Casual Environment, Serious Faith…”
So reads a sign outside a church I pass anytime I’m driving from our townhouse toward our city’s small downtown strip. It’s a small church building, and I’ve never driven by on a Sunday morning, so I don’t know how big or small the congregation is. While the saying isn’t one I heard growing up, it’s a good summation of the attitude that was popular as I was growing up in the church. I’m also guessing that many of you are either in or have previously been in environments like this.
The reason this sign stands out to me is that, over the month of October, this reality has been sinking into my bones: the words concrete and abstract are not synonymous with the words real and unreal. Part of this has been due to some episodes of Choc Knox Unplugged, and some of it has been due to my recent reading on education. So why do we think we can separate the visible (our environment) and the invisible (our faith)?
Visible and Invisible
I realize I’m treading on some tricky ground here, so let me begin by being very clear about what I’m saying: I am saying that the visible and invisible are so closely related to each other that you can’t separate them in the way a lot of us have tried to. The visible is a kind of poem that explains and helps us understand the invisible. The visible creation explains the abstract, or invisible, creation in concrete terms.
Oddly enough, we often think of it oppositely. We think God looked down on His creation and said, “Now, how can I explain these concepts to those pea-brains?” Then, post-creation, He proceeded to draw analogies from creation to try to help us understand what He was teaching us. In reality, God made all of creation to illustrate His character, attributes, etc., to bring Himself glory. God didn’t look at marriage and decide it was a good picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church; He created marriage with the explicit purpose of illustrating that relationship. This one is fairly simple and we conservative Christians don’t usually have a problem with it, but we’re often hesitant to let that principle play itself out.
For example, when Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd and says that His people are His sheep, we’re being told that God made a world where sheep and shepherds exist to display an aspect of God’s relationship with His people. Likewise, God made a world where Fathers exist to display the same. The list goes on, and training ourselves to see the world through that biblical lens is an ongoing task, especially in our (un)enlightened age.
Stuff Matters
The “enlightenment” has, on the secular front, resulted in a strict, scientific materialism. Even in popular culture where superstition is acceptable, people still see the unseen world as completely disconnected from the seen world. A Christian view is (or should be) that it’s all connected. God Himself became incarnate in the flesh. He ate physical food and drank physical drink. In doing that, though, He taught us about spiritual food and drink. His word illuminates the world so that we understand what it’s all about. All things point to Him and are under His authority. The authority of the stars given to them in Genesis 1 has been given over to Christ as the King of all. When He died on the cross, He reconciled all creation to Himself, including rulers, authorities, and powers.
The entire visible creation is meant to teach us about things that we can’t see so that we might grow up into maturity, living in this visible world in light of those invisible things. So, when we believe that we can dress slovenly or disrespectfully without it affecting our attitude as we come to worship the one true and living God and to fellowship with His people, we are displaying our immaturity. Now, there are those for whom it is reasonable and understandable that they would be immature, and I’m not saying that failing to dress well on Sunday morning is equivalent to grievous sin. But what I am saying is that we should not think that how we dress for anything, especially for Sunday corporate worship, is meaningless.
Most of us know this intuitively when it comes to the workplace. We wouldn’t dream of showing up to work in our pajamas and house shoes, arguing that our attitude and mentality are unaffected by our change in wardrobe. If nothing else, we at least know that other people’s perceptions of us will be affected. And as much as some of us may wish it wasn't that way, we know that it is. We know that people judge others based on their clothing because we do it ourselves.
This goes beyond dress, though. Our culture is casual about everything, which is simply another way of saying that nothing is important. When we treat sitting on the couch to watch a movie on Friday night the same way we treat fellowshipping with God’s people on Sunday morning, we’re saying that they are of equal importance. Again, we know this intuitively. Very few and far between are the people who would use the same kind of language, mannerisms, and dress at a dinner with the governor of their state or even the mayor of their town as they would with their buddy over a beer.
Okay, but…Materialism?
You may be asking at this point how the above-mentioned behavior is a brand of materialism. Isn’t it the opposite? Isn’t it just an emphasis on the spiritual? And if it is, how is that bad? Those are all reasonable questions.
When Christians start to treat visible, material things as if they have no relationship to invisible things, we’re saying that how we treat and interact with the world God created has no bearing on our spiritual health and well-being or the spiritual health of those around us. Yet, James says this:
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what [does it] profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. - James 2:15-17 NKJV
Clearly, material things matter, not just for our understanding of the world, but for the well-being of those around us. Providing for the needs of a Christian brother or sister is of just as much importance as the encouragement and prayer we can provide.
We need to remember that God has created us in the visible world, in this life, for a reason. It is part of our sanctification, our growing up into the image of Christ, that we live in these bodies and enjoy and bear all of the blessings and burdens that come with them. One day, we will shed the sinful and immature nature of this body and receive a new one that will be as different from this body as the seed is from the stalk of grain. On that day, we will be completed in the image of Christ and made like Him in His glory, and it will all be to His glory.
Concluding Thoughts
The truth that how we live in this world is a witness to what we believe about spiritual things is inescapable. It’s even true for the materialist, for they live in the world as if there is nothing but what they can see (and feel, and reason, etc., but that’s a different discussion). How we eat, drink, work, relax, speak, sleep, treat our kids, treat our spouse, treat our fellow church members, everything we do in this body, is to be submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There is a Christian way to sleep and work, to eat and drink, to walk and rest, and to celebrate and mourn. We often hear encouragement that all of life’s ups and downs come from the hand of a loving, sovereign God, and that is a true and necessary reminder at times. But it is also important to remember that all of the seemingly mundane things of this life are given by that same hand. There is a Godly way to brush your teeth in the morning and an ungodly way to do it.
I’m not saying that you need to be memorizing scripture while you brush your teeth (although, I’m not saying you shouldn’t, either). I’m simply saying that we need to recover a worldview that causes us to consider what Scripture says about our day-to-day lives, which causes us to turn to Scripture when we’re faced with decisions throughout our day. Living a life of complete, joyful submission to God in even the seemingly small things, like how you tend your garden or cook a meal, is one of the best apologetics and encouragements possible.
So, take this as a reminder that the daily grind matters, and God has something to say about how we should go about it.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, so feel free to start a discussion!
In Him and for His Glory