Putting the Name on Them
Almost every Sunday I end the worship service with the same words.
Numbers 6:24–26 (NIV)
24 “ ‘ “The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’
I do this like my father did it, and his father before him. What does it mean?
“No Longer Axiomatic”
Over the last year or so I’ve been on and off wrestling with a very large and difficult book. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor wanted to answer one of the most puzzling questions about our times. Why is it that 1500 years ago almost everyone believed in God in a very basic way, but today it is not so simple. He says it this way.
… the change I want to define and trace is one which takes us from a society in which it was virtually impossible not to believe in God, to one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is one human possibility among others. I may find it inconceivable that I would abandon my faith, but there are others, including possibly some very close to me, whose way of living I cannot in all honesty just dismiss as depraved, or blind, or unworthy, who have no faith (at least not in God, or the transcendent). Belief in God is no longer axiomatic. There are alternatives.
Charles Taylor. A Secular Age (p. 3). Kindle Edition.
Axiomatic means “self-evident” or “unquestionable”.
Last week we looked at the practice of implicitly bargaining with God. As we saw in the opening illustration even in 1978 the character of Wendell Lawson in “The End” unself-consciously connected the medical news of his imminent death with a response towards God. By 2013 another Hollywood comedy “This is the End” would treat the end of the world but in this case God was not so much the figure you expect at the end of the hall but an intruder. Even in the middle of the 20th century most people would expect to see God at their death, today it would come as a great surprise to many. In 1978 most might question God’s judgment on their lives. In 2013 most might image they could demand an explanation by God to justify his own existence. It all just simply comes as a surprise.
Given this change for a minister to stand up in front of a church, raise his hands and make this pronouncement upon the people seems anachronistic, superstitious and just plain odd.
A Scientific Approach Continue reading →
