A New Thing

Recently a friend of mine started reading books about psychology. One day she’d like to be a therapist or counselor and so she reads these books in her free time just to give her a sense of what she’s getting into. In one of the books she was reading the author discussed how as humans we are constantly taking in new information. The key to well-adjusted living is in our ability to make maps of the information we are processing, to sort through what information is important and how it might change our decision-making processes.

 I was going to give you an example of the time in our history when everyone knew the earth was flat and when new information as discovered, and that we literally had to re-draw our maps to reflect the new information we had. But my brother-in-law told me this week that that was a myth made up in the 1940s and that everyone knew the earth was round for a long time. 

Whatever the case is about people knowing the earth is round, the fact is that we are constantly gaining new information about the world we live in, about the geography of our world, and we do need to re-draw maps as we gain that information. Unfortunately, as individuals, this process of map-making is more and more difficult as we get older. My guess is that’s because the volume of information we make sense of only grows as we age and this is difficult work. We think we’ve got things figured out then everything changes and sometimes our whole paradigm shifts. Sometimes it’s easier to reject the new information as false and cling to our old maps.

When I think about examples of new map-making in Scripture, I think of Isaiah 43:18-19, when God says to the Israelites :

¹⁸ Do not remember the former things,   or consider the things of old.¹⁹ I am about to do a new thing,now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Or I think about the gospel of Mark, where for the first half of the book, everyone is trying to figure out who this guy Jesus is until chapter 8 when Jesus comes out and asks the disciples what they think. Peter says, "You are the Messiah." And that's great, but immediately Jesus begins to re-define the role of the Messiah. He teaches them that the Son of Man will suffer and die and after three days rise again. This isn't the Messiah they were expecting. Those who were able to integrate this new information about the Messiah were able to have a relationship with God and participate in building the first iteration of the Christian church. Those who weren't able to re-draw their maps lost those opportunities.

And to be clear, in many ways this wasn't new information. The Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah hadn't actually changed. But their understanding of those prophecies, their interpretation of them, had to change in light of the person of Jesus and the authority he demonstrated.

A few years ago a question began to ruminate in my mind: what does it mean for me (a woman) to be made in the image of God (who is only described with masculine pronouns in Scripture)? This question led me to areas that were uncharted on my map. You see, I grew up in a family and a church tradition that excluded women from church leadership. I was taught, and I believed, that women should probably not preach and definitely shouldn't be lead pastors. This question about the image of God on me led to new information that helped me see the scriptures which had seemed so clear in a new light. All of a sudden, my map was re-drawn, my theology shifted, and I now embrace the idea and the practice of women in church leadership roles. 

About a year ago I began to sense the Lord leading me back to school. I had planned to attend graduate school from the time I began my sophomore year in undergrad, but I was either not in a place where I could move forward or I was unsure what to pursue. As I asked the Lord for guidance, I realized that a new place on my map was now available. Looking back I reflected that if I had been a man I think I would have wanted to become a pastor. Might the Lord be leading me to seminary and full-time pastoral ministry? 

Through prayer and seeking counsel, the Lord confirmed the path. 

I am now one semester (three classes) into a Master's of Divinity degree (32 classes) and I will ring in the New Year preaching at a church in my husband's hometown.

Here's to new things.

P.S. A book I read that introduced me to this new perspective was Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist, which I highly recommend. In fact, I may have given it to my 17-year-old niece for Christmas :).

Book Review- Prayer by Timothy Keller

Every month I write a book review for my church's missions magazine, New Covenant. When possible, I try to relate the topic of the book I'm reading to the topic of that month's issue. I thought I would share some of them here. My goal is to post every week and to share things I've written in other places as well as new material.

At the beginning of each book review, I share a few "Fast Facts:" information about the book, its author, its length, the publisher, and where you can find it. I  try to touch on the structure of the book, the intent of the author, and the relevancy of the book to the church.

This one was originally published in the May 2016 issue of the New Covenant. You can read the full magazine for free here.

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Fast Facts:

Title: Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

Author: Timothy Keller

Publisher: Dutton

Length: 266 pages

Find it: wherever books are sold and the Pitt Co Library

Since this month’s New Covenant focuses on the topic of prayer I looked for a book on the topic that would be both instructional and firmly grounded in good theology. I found a book by Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and prolific author, at our local library and decided to check it out.

His book is broken into five sections with a total of fifteen chapters. The first three sections (nine chapters) focus on the theology and doctrine of prayer, exploring subjects such as why we desire prayer, how we converse with and encounter God, and what other “masters” have to say about prayer. The last two sections (six chapters) delve into teaching on how to pray, with chapters on three different kinds of prayer and suggestions on daily prayer routines.

Keller rejects most contemporary sources on prayer in favor of older, more historical works by authors such as John Calvin, Martin Luther, and St. Augustine. Anyone who has listened to Keller preach knows that he has a deep affinity for C.S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards and this book proved that to be true once again.

Keller endeavors to teach a methodology of prayer that is typified by both conversation and encounter with God, a kind of prayer that is both verbal and emotional. He specifically mentions a phrase from Scottish theologian John Murray, who describes an “intelligent mysticism” and he explains that this means “an encounter with God that involves not only the affections of the heart but also the convictions of the mind. We are not called to choose between a Christian life based on truth and doctrine or a life filled with spiritual power and experience. They go together.”

This idea of intelligent mysticism sets the tone for much of his book.  Keller indicates that God’s communication to us comes primarily through his Word and the Spirit’s work in us as we read and meditate on the Word. I believe that Keller would reject listening prayer—that is, prayer that focuses on impressions from the Lord rather than on the Word—and styles of meditation that lead participants to empty their minds rather than filling them with Scripture. Even with his strong suspicion of a mysticism that loses its grounding in rationality, Keller still cautions strongly against a purely intellectual pursuit that does nothing to move the heart.

The first nine chapters are a thorough exploration of how this kind of balanced prayer is accomplished. Drawing on works that had formed his understanding of God as a young Christian, he sites historical texts of Christian theology from people he trusts. The last six chapters focus heavily on types of prayer and suggestions for daily routines.

These last six chapters were where I found what I considered the most helpful information. Although the final sections could only come following Keller’s exhaustive instruction on the theology prayer, I personally had some difficulty retaining information from the initial chapters as they seemed to bounce from quote to quote and were filled with caveats and clarifications. I began to feel in those chapters as if there were one right way to pray and that I needed to manipulate my heart to be in a certain way before my prayers could be effective.

Thankfully it all seemed to come together at the end with a pattern of prayer that he suggests each person use in their daily prayer time. This suggestion (listed below) along with his descriptions of different types of prayer are the things that will affect my daily life moving forward.

1.)  Evocation—reminding yourself of who it is that you are praying to and how it is that you are able to come before him (Jesus’ work as our intercessor).

2.)  Meditation—dwelling on a passage of the Bible that you are already familiar with to hear what God is saying to you through it.

3.)  Word prayer—praying through the text of Scripture, paraphrasing each request and filling it out with the concerns on your heart.

4.)  Free prayer—pouring your heart out in prayer, while taking care to develop a habit of moving through adoration and thanksgiving, confession and repentance, and petition and intercession.

5.)  Contemplation—a time of reflection in which you dwell on who God is and invite the Lord to let you experience his presence.