For those that have read this blog for a while, seeing the name “Derek Webb” AGAIN in the title of one of my posts probably caused you to at least roll your eyes, if not actually letting out a heavy sigh accompanied with an “oh Paul…”.  This is because in about a three month span, I wrote 8 posts all having to do with Derek Webb’s newest album Stockholm Syndrome (here they are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  Admittedly, I kept writing all those mainly because I was boasting record visits to my site because of those articles and I wanted to maintain that.  But eventually it got old, and I went back to my smaller numbers, though those article still rank as my highest visited even still.

but another reason I wrote all those articles is that I genuinely adore Webb’s music.  It’s incredible.  Every album is a completely different experience but it’s still Webb.  In honor of this, for My Fav Monday, I wanted to share with all of you my favorite song of all time.  It is a song by Derek Webb off of his first solo  album She Must and Shall Go Free and it’s called Wedding Dress.  Below, you’ll find a live acoustic recording of the song, the best YouTube video I could find of him performing it (sorry for the sort of cheesy intro/outro), and the lyrics.  This song has so much of my life and relationship to God attached to it.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

“Wedding Dress” by Derek Webb (from the album “The House Show“)

Wedding Dress

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
should that be all I’ll ever need
or is there more I’m looking for?

and should I read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
is that really what you want?

(chorus)
I am a whore I do confess
but I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle.
I’m a prodigal with no way home
but I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle to you.

So could you love this bastard child
though I don’t trust you to provide;
with one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side.
I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that I would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood.

(chorus)

Because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife.

Hey, at the behest of a good friend (you know who you are), I am putting up the links to the two articles I recently wrote on my magazine site, Reform & Revive.  I am currently reading a book called Perspective on an Evolving Creation, edited by Keith Miller.  It’s pretty phenomenal, and I’ve started blogging through the book.  I’m putting up articles concerning the better essays that could be the most helpful to everyone out there.  So, without further ado, here are those links:

Article #1: I’m Coming Out (Intro to an Evolving Creation)

Article #2: “An Evolving Creation: Oxymoron or Fruitful Insight?” by Keith Miller

Enjoy, and debate away!

I’m doing a lot of moving around the city and country this week, not to mention I have a really good friend from Richmond visiting all this week (and longer perhaps), so I’m not going to be as frequent with the blog this week (if at all). Sorry I’m a little late in getting this out. But, good things are in store in the weeks ahead: I want to get back to my Bible Study blogs, I have an article I’m working on for By Whose Authority?, and I have some posts in the works for this site that are a little more substantive than I’ve been posting recently. Also, I’ll be moving some of the Creation/Evolution discussion from Reform & Revive over to this site.  So, check back next week and I’ll be back in full swing.

Hopefully.  Bur in the meantime . . .

I just wanted to plug a new website that I am now contributing to.  It’s a site from the newest fellow Westminster dropout I’ve met, Allison Quient.  It’s a site called “By Whose Authority?” and it’s an ecumenical blog where people from varying theological perspectives write and discuss their respective views.  From the site:

This blog is devoted to addressing questions of Church authority and other doctrinal issues surrounding the Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Our hope is to foster a charitable and winsome dialog in the pursuit of God’s truth.

I haven’t written anything yet, but I’ll try to put up a post on the site in the next couple of days.  You can be sure I’ll let it be known here on this blog when that happens.  But in the meantime, please go and read some of the posts that have been put up so far.  They are pretty phenomenal.

Well, it’s Monday, so it’s time for My Fav Monday, my new weekly post where I plug or review one of my favorite things. I’ve been thinking all week what would be the first thing I would talk about to kick this whole thing off. I had some ideas early yesterday: a podcast, TV show, or musician, perhaps?

And then I got some lunch. And I saw it. And it was then I knew what I was going to write about.

Wawa Eggnog.

It only comes out for a few months out of the year, but when it does, I go kind of crazy. Seriously, it’s one of the best drinks I’ve ever had and every year it’s as good as the year before. No joke. It’s so thick and creamy and not too “noggy”. It comes in two varieties: Original and Pumpkin Spice. The latter is good to at least try once in your life, but really, Original is where it’s at.

Every year my brother and I have a bonding moment over our mutual love for this fine delicacy. We almost grow physically ill while we’re home with our parents from ingesting so much dairy. And it’s worth every bit of it. So drop by your Wawa today and pick up some of it to try. Or, if you are in Philadelphia and have never had it before, I’d be glad to buy you your first one.

Future posts in this weekly series will be more substantive, don’t worry. Next week I’ll probably plug a podcast. Which one? We’ll see.  Maybe I’ll hide a hint somewhere in this post.

This was a journal entry of mine from yesterday.  Yes, this is how some of my entries look.  I’m also in the process of writing a new album called Skeptics & Saints and this might end up being one of the songs, so consider this a preview.

______________________

I know we’ve all had the followng experience: you’re in a group of people and someone makes a really good joke or pun.  Someone else in the group builds on that joke and the laughs increase.  Someone else does it.  This repeats itself over and over again as people build on the joke.  Eventually, the topic changes and the conversation moves on, but your mind is still churning, trying to figure out something else you could have said while the joke was going.  Sometimes you think of something that would have been truly brilliant and inspired if you had just thought about it a minute and a half earlier.  You consider saying it anyway.Whether or not you end up saying the joke says a lot about you, but either way you end up feeling pretty stupid.  You either say it and it’s awkward, or you don’t say it and then feel like an idiot for having exerted so much time and thought to a joke you knew you could never tell.  Why did I go through this whole scenario?

Because I had a thought today that I wanted some feedback on. I can’t remember what started it, but this morning I was thinking about some political idea and became more and more impassioned about it. I was angry and zealous, and felt like I had articulated in my mind the perfect flow of thought and nuanced argumentation that would convinced even my most ardent naysayers. I then thought (of course):

I should put this on my blog!

But then I felt a little absurd.  I felt that same absurdity one feels when the joke has already passed.  And this feeling struck me as a bit odd.  Has the national “joke” that is Politics passed (at least for a time)? Are we really in a relative political peace right now, where impassioned zealous political debate seems out of place?

I mean, the health care thing has quieted down, people seem to at least appreciate the time and consideration that’s being put into a decision on Afghanistan before it’s announced, the economy seems to be at least evening out if not moving back up now, and the biggest political frustration right now has to do with the administration’s opinion that Fox News isn’t a legitimate news organization.  Heck even things that you would think would cause uproar hasn’t.  Gay rights marches, talks with Iran, and the occasional “tea party” (I’m shaking my head right now) are reported on with a relative ho-hum sort of attitude.

Maybe I got too used to the absurdities and loss of decorum that have ruled the both sides of the political world since last November (I’m having flashbacks of a particular outburst during a speech by the President).  Maybe I’m just a bit too late to get in on the joke.  Or maybe I’m just a fighter by nature and I feel weird when there’s nothing for me to give my opinion on that seems relevant and timely.  Maybe I should learn to be content writing/thinking about seemingly inconsequential-to-everyday-life things like theistic evolution and the eternality of Hell.  But let me just ask all of you:

What’s the big political story right now?  Am I missing something?  Is the joke still going on, or has the punchline already passed?  Is the world finally settling in and learning what the rhythms of everyday life in an Obama world looks like? What do you think?

First off – yes, I know it’s Tuesday.

With that out of the way: now that the epic Beauty series is done, what on earth am I going to do with my blogging time? Well, I want to bring in some structure. If you look to the sidebar on the right, and scroll down a little bit (not yet!) you will see a section containing my favorite “Reads”, “Listens”, and “Watches”. I really want to start promoting those things. So, I hereby introduce:

My Fav Mondays

Every Monday, I will take another podcast, website, TV Show, Musical artist, or book and write about it. I’ve been wanting to support and plug these things for a while now, and this blog is a perfect platform on which to do that. It’s something that may be actually helpful to you, the reader, and these are topics I am naturally passionate about. It’s a win-win. So, starting next Monday, I will begin what I hope becomes a popular ritual for us all. What will I review first? Who knows? Heck, I don’t even know. Until then . . .

You may now view the sidebar.

[photo by David Schrott]

We’re done.  I promise.  Really.  I just wanted to do two things: First, offer this directory, or “Table of Contents” to the Beauty Series for a clear organization of the parts so people can navigate it more easily.  Secondly, below you’ll find not only the full audio and complete manuscript based off this series, but, for the first time, you’ll see a special appendix I put together.  It’s a complete breakdown of every word in both Greek and Hebrew that the English Standard Version of the Bible translates as either “beauty” or “beautiful”, broken down by frequency.  Along with those words (and all their forms), I’ve offered the most literal definition of each of those words so you can easily see the huge range of meanings that the Biblical words for “beauty” carry.  It took a while to put together so I hope it’s helpful.  You don’t need any knowledge of Greek or Hebrew to understand it or get something from it.  Enjoy.  And this is it for the series now.  I promise.

The Outline for the Entire Series:

• Why do we long for Beauty?
  • Eternity in Our Heart: The God of Beauty, the Beauty of God
  • Why We Long (Setting the Stage) [Eccl.2+3] |Beauty{1}
• What is Beauty?
  • May I Offer a Definition of | Beauty{2}
• What Things are Beautiful, and why are they Beautiful?
  • The Triune God is Beauty{3}
  • Nature, Science, & the Structure of Time | Beauty{4}
  • Human Beauty{5} | (Anthropological Aesthetics)
  • Ah, the Beauty{6} of Art
  • (Review: John Navone’s “Toward a Theology of Beauty”)
• How do we respond to this Beauty?
  • How Do We Respond to Beauty{7}?
  • The Contemplation of Beauty{8}
  • Enjoying Beauty{9}, Part I: Praise it.
  • Baptized in Beauty{10} (Enjoy, Pt. II)
  • Proclaiming & Producing Beauty{11}
• Conclusion
  • The Gospel is Beautiful{12} | it is finished

Language Appendix

Full Manucscript

Full Audio

Well, it’s done. This is the end of the Beauty series. I won’t say too much, because this part is long enough already. I would just remind all of you of two things. Firstly, this whole piece began with the story of the most beautiful thing I have ever seen: the city of Edinburgh as I stood above it on top of a hill in the city. Secondly, our definition of Beauty: Beauty is the attribute of something that expresses complexity, simply. It what takes the complex strands of the world, reality, experience, or God and weaves those complexities into a simpler tapestry which we can perceive with our physical and spiritual senses. The more complexity expressed more simply, the more beautiful something is. And with that, let’s finish this thing out. What’s coming next? I have a post ready for that that I’ll post up in a couple of days. We pick up right where we left off…

In conclusion, I want to talk about the thing that ties every one of these things together. The thing in which there exists in a glorious and beautiful harmony between all the different things we’ve talked about tonight. The last part of our text tonight, Ecclesiastes 3:15 says “That which is, already has been; and that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.” “God seeks what has been driven away.” In conclusion, the Gospel is Beautiful. The Gospel, in short, is the story and message of Christianity. It comes from the Greek word meaning “good news”. So what is this good news for us? The news that God did the ultimate act of beauty. The ultimate act of condescension of filling this finite world with the most Infinite of Beings for the sake of knitting it together again, and actually ultimately filling it with Himself. You see, God began History and ordered it in such a way that it was beautiful. He filled this simplicity with the marks of Himself, so all things pointed to Him and reflected Him perfectly. Humans came on the scene and were made in His image so that they as well truly and purely reflected, represented, and “Imaged” (that would be the theological term) this God on earth. But sin entered into the world, and made this world fallen from its original place of beauty. And we have followed suit. You see, sin is not finding certain things, people, or places beautiful. It’s that we find them more beautiful than God and these responses that are due God, we give to other things. We worship and “image” and express fallen simple things rather than the Holy complex God. We all have done this. I have done this. You have done this. You have soiled your beauty and abandoned it to your lusts! You no longer represent the One whom you were meant to mirror and reflect and therein find your beauty! You merely represent the world. The lowly fallen world. Fallen people imaging fallen things. There’s no beauty in that.

But God, being rich in mercy. Though we have abandoned God’s beauty and our own true beauty, God has not abandoned them. He loves His Beauty. And He loves the Beauty of His creation. So this God, for the sake of the worship His own beauty, and our own own joy in His Beauty, comes. The most perfectly knit together tapestry in the universe chooses to come and express the most Holy Complexity in the most intimate simplicity. This perfectly woven tapestry walks the earth, lives the perfectly woven life, and then stares into the cup of God’s perfectly woven wrath reserved for all things and people that are not beautiful in this world. And he drinks it. This perfect tapestry of complexity expressed simply goes to the cross willingly and allows the tapestry of His soul to be torn apart strand by strand by strand as the wrath of God that hung over everyone who would believe was gathered by God and poured it on Himself. That wrath that hung over many of us in here. That wrath that hangs above some of us tonight, that will be poured out on something. Either on Christ at the cross, or in you in Hell. Did you know that Hell is beautiful? Not for those that are there, but it is. It is pure, white, Justice and Wrath poured out on all that was wrong in the world. So God’s wrath will be poured out either in Hell or the Cross.

And history revolves around this cross. Because at the same time that Christ, Beauty Itself, was literally being torn apart, he was reconciling all things to Himself. In other words, he was taking every stray strand in the universe – every bit of evil, suffering fallenness there will ever be in history - and reserving its proper place in the final tapestry of History that we call heaven. He was making Himself the common glorifying thread that would reknit the broken fabric of a broken creation. And so we live now in the process and story of God putting all those strands in their proper place. As more and more beauty floods the earth He is still inviting his people to join Him in this epic story. He is calling his people to praise Him and draw near to Him, and out of the overflow of that to proclaim His Beauty to others and make more beauty, so as to usher in this new creation – or to put it in our terms tonight – the New Tapestry of Creation. Better than before. It is the one that has woven in it the purpose for all pain, sickness, death, and dying that God has ordained and allowed to take place so that this tapestry might make good on it all to the praise of the Beauty of God’s name.

And we, His people, His Bride, those that are “in Christ”, that are simple people Imaging and expressing the most complex of Beings, are woven into that tapestry that is Heaven and the New Creation. We’re not just going to live in it, we are part of it. Second Corinthians 5:17, in most Bibles reads: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” But that’s not what it says in the Greek. It doesn’t say “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”. There is no “he is”. The Greek literally says “If anyone is in Christ: new creation!” More accurately, I think it should be translated “If anyone if in Christ, this is the new creation. he old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I remember an old professor at Westminster named Richard Gaffin. He used to go up to students, stop them, and just say to them “you are just as resurrected now as you will ever be”. We often forget that. Yes, we will get new bodies and the penalty, power, and presence of sin will be done away with, but as far as our souls go, we are as resurrected now as we will ever be.

We are the new creation. The new tapestry. We have been woven into the fabric of this ever-increasingly redeemed world that is being flooded with the Beauty of God. The new has come in Christ. Through the Gospel. The good news of our salvation is that all that has been ugly with the world and in ourselves has been conquered. Beauty is here, and Beauty is ever increasingly filling the earth, and this Beauty is our salvation from ugliness and sin. George Marsden in his incredible biography of Jonathan Ecdwards ends the whole book with this summary of Edwards’ view of all of life and salvation. He says that

“[Edwards believed that] God’s trinitarian essence is love. God’s purpose in creating a universe in which sin is permitted must be to communicate that love to creatures. The highest or most beautiful love is sacrificial love for the undeserving. Those. . . who are given eyes to see that ineffable beauty will be enthralled by it. . . They will not be able to view Christ’s love dispassionately but rather will respond to it with their deepest affections. Truly seeing such good, they will have no choice but to love it. Glimpsing such love . . . they will be drawn from their self-centered universes. Seeing the beauty of the redemptive love of Christ as the true reality, they will love God and all that he has created.”

The Gospel, this salvation, is beautiful.

And we receive this salvation by seeing its Beauty, turning our stirred affections toward this God, and trusting that we cannot reknit our own souls but Christ has reknit them for us. And as our affections are further stirred we press into Him ever increasingly as He draws ever-nearer to us. I pray, I plead, that those in here tonight that have not done so, would trust this beautiful God to have accomplished for them what they could not do for themselves. Please, consider this story, this message. See if it is not the most beautiful thing you could ever conceive. Just for a moment, see if something in you is stirred for this God. Even if you don’t believe He exists, or that He is this particular God that I have spoken of tonight, is there something in you that at least wishes it were true? Wishes it were this way? Wishes that God did in fact arrange everything to make it all beautiful in its time? Even if you won’t admit it, if that’s true, if you did wish this were the case, don’t ignore that. You have been designed to long for the Beauty of this Gospel, this story. Don’t ignore it. Sovereign, Beautiful Father, Lover, and Lord, save people that read this.

In conclusion, I’m going to break every rule I learned in my preaching class this last semester about how to end a message and end mine tonight with a poem. But not someone else’s poem. This is a poem I wrote in one take one particular afternoon through broken tears standing on top of a hill looking out over the city of Edinburgh as I was taken over by the most beauty I’ve ever seen. Let this encourage the weary saints reading this blog post, and let it perhaps woo those that have yet taste what these words are about. You can find the poem here, or just click in the section above entitled “The Site”.

Here are the links to the full manuscript and the full audio of my presentation of this material:

Manucscript

Audio