The Church's One Foundation

The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord
She is his new creation by water and the word
From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride
And with his blood he bought her and for her life he died.

Elect from every nation and one o'er all the earth
her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food
And to one hope she presses with every grace endued.

The church shall never perish her dear Lord to defend
To guard sustain and cherish is with her to the end
Though there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale
Against a foe or traitor she ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed
Yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, "how long?"
And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song!

Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore
Til with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious, shall be the church at rest.

Yet we on earth hath union with God the three in one
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won
O happy ones, and holy, Lord give us grace that we
Like them the meek and lowly may dwell on high with thee.

Loneliness

Loneliness is a universal experience; some cultures embrace it (like Eastern cultures, heavily influenced by meditative religions promoting the loss of self into the great consciouness or Western monasticism, seaking solitude to avoid contamination by the world), some eschew it (cultures that emphasize large families or communal living). 21st century America, especially on college campuses, has definitely moved into the embracing side of the continuum, though, perhaps, unwittingly.

Perhaps we should blame the media, for, indeed, the media does play a huge role in creating an environment wherein isolationism is feasible. Take, for example, the Internet. It is possible, with a good connection, to order food and clothing to be delivered, to downlaod any music you could want for immediate consumption, to "interact" with people in chatrooms, on IM, playing chess through Yahoo!, or, in the countless video games available, create your own reality with a group of people who totally "get" you. In theory, nothing else would be necessary for you; you could live completely dependent on the computer.
This is extreme, but the point is made. Technology encourages isolation in other ways as well, as Doug has often commented: iPods and Walkmen ensure that we are never without noise (a music "addiction" according to Allan Bloom of The Closing of the American Mind); cellphones allow us to avoid the people who may be around us; constant images of other people, other times, other places, other cultures, other music, other beliefs, other, other, other, make us forget the here and now. The media bombardment definitely contributes to the isolating of American college students.

Doug made a startlingly adept observation in his article today in the OUDaily:
We have 20,000 students at OU, but what sort of community do we have here? What binds us together? Football, perhaps, because we have something in common to care and talk about. But most of the time most students pursue un-connection, un-integration in their lives. We watch our own shows; we listen to our own tunes; take our own classes; eat our own foods; travel to our own apartments.
Shallow friendships and tenuous intra-personal ties mask, but do not cure, loneliness. How often, especially my freshman year, I have assumed that proximity and length of time spent with someone meant friendship and community! But no - I was an entity to myself, unattached and unresponsible.

For when you get down to it, being alone is the opposite (in as sense) of responsibility. When I don't want to own up to something I've done, I run from friends, I run from church, I run from accountability. The church was given to us so graciously so that there might be a check on our tendency to run, to flee penalty. (Perhaps then, a church that promotes community without active discipline is promoting shallow fellowship, based more on similar likings than a desire to promote holiness.)

Thanks be to God for His great gifts to us: His Spirit, His Word, and His Bride, the church. Never must I be truly alone, for the Lord speaks to and nourishes me through His Word, indwells and animates me by His Spirit, and hugs and comforts (as well as confronts) me by His church.

Is loneliness then the Lord's method of prodding us back into the fold? Does he use it to remind us of how much we lose in running from him, from the church? Like hunger alerts us that our bodies need food, is loneliness our alarm that we need fellowship?

Go on up - you bald head!

Isaac Watts (of Joy to the World fame)

Our tongues were made to bless the Lord,
And not speak ill of men:
When others give a railing word,
We must not rail again.

Cross words and angry names require
To be chastised at school;
And he’s in danger of hell–fire
That calls his brother fool.

But lips that dare be so profane
To mock, and jeer, and scoff
At holy things, or holy men,
The Lord shall cut them off.

When children, in their wanton play,
Served old Elisha so,
And bade the prophet go his way,
‘Go up, thou bald head, go!’

God quickly stopp’d their wicked breath;
And sent two raging bears,
That tore them limb from limb to death,
With blood, and groans, and tears.

Great God! how terrible art thou
To sinners e’er so young:
Grant me thy grace, and teach me how
To tame and rule my tongue.

C.S. Lewis

Why is it that Lewis is the greatest author ever?

Is it because he so effectively, as he called it, "redeemed" different genres of literature: the short story, the science fiction novel, the children's story, fiction, non-fiction, prose. He was a master of the airwaves and of the pen. He taught by allegory, by speeches, by academic articles, by radio talks, by lectures. Truly a versatile wit.

The prolific nature of his writings also lends itself to praise: reading the "complete works of Lewis" would be a task indeed.

Another feather in his cap, the man wrote for everyone: children, adolescents, lay people,
professors; the hurting, the joyful, the questioning, the knowledgeable and the beginners. Never does he seem condescending; indeed, as he said in "On Stories", "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty - except, of course, books of information." To Lewis, good literature is good literature. And the Narnia chronicles are just that. In fact, I would pay good money to find a better series of books that can be so enjoyed in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, on so many levels.

Lewis also addressed so many topics, even in just his fiction. Just a short list: government systems in Voyage of the Dawn Treader; the Adam and Eve story in The Magician's Nephew; the Greatest Story in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; perseverence and friendship through great adversity in The Last Battle; faithfulness and trust in The Silver Chair; acceptance and tolerance of gender and station in The Horse and His Boy. Lewis also tackled the "diamond in the rough" story over and over: Edmund in the first novel, Caspian as the untried king in his novel, Eustace in the Dawn Treader. The unlikely heroes: David and Goliath themes run throughout his works (especially in the space trilogy).

Lewis took on the conventional epic journey in Dawn Treader, redeeming that genre (like Bunyan, but he's for another time).

So, what makes C. S. Lewis the greatest author? Well, I'll tell you: no one makes me long for heaven more, nor makes me more thankful that I have time left here to work for the kingdom. I love Ransom, who is shocked, and rather infuriated, to find that he is Maledil's representative, that the fate of Perelandra rests on him, that Maledil had chosen to work through him for His own glory.

Paige (Benton) Brown, in her Road to Emmaus lecture on evangelism, gives an incredible defense of evangelism, given that God is sovereign. She argues that evangelism without God's sovereignty would be an exercise in futility: how can anyone convince or connive another into the kingdom? Thank the Lord that He is the author and perfector of our faith: if it rested on us, we should be in very poor hands.

Praise the Lord for a teacher like Lewis: the man had a powerful gift which has so encouraged me and blessed me.