Where my house once stood. The tree on the left is the Mother’s Day maple
The house where I grew up in Youngstown is no longer standing. There is one thing that is still there–the maple tree we bought my mother for Mother’s Day, probably around 1970. You can see the trunk to the left side of the picture. I forget the name of the nursery where we bought it out in Austintown. All I remember is picking it out with my father and digging a very big hole in our devil strip (tree lawn for some) to give the roots plenty of room to spread out.
My mom loved that tree, guarding it as a young sapling and enjoying the shade it provided for our front porch in the late afternoons. In later years, it grew big enough that parts had to be trimmed out near the phone and power lines. The branches spread from our driveway to our neighbor’s. Mom passed in 2010 (though she’s forever in my heart). The picture reminds me of not only that particular Mother’s Day but all the pleasure that tree gave her over the years.
Mother’s Day for many of us meant a trip to the nursery. Maybe we would buy a rose for her rose garden, or a rhododendron (my mother-in-law used to have a big one in front of her house that was probably a Mother’s Day. Maybe you’d buy a flowering lilac, or perhaps like us that one year, a tree. And don’t forget the corsage for church! This J & J Gardens and Greenhouse ad from 1974 may remind you of some of those gifts.
That J & J ad also reminds me of many trips there with my mother-in-law on visits home. Sometimes, we’d take her to mass at St. Lukes, and then drive down the street to pick up some plants for around the Brownlee Woods house she lived in until she was 84 and moved near us in a losing fight with cancer.
I was delighted to learn there is still a garden center at that location, now operated by Petitti’s. We lived for nine years in Maple Heights near Cleveland in the 1980’s and bought many plants for our garden from the Petitti’s nearby. So learning they are in Boardman at the old J & J site brought two sets of good memories together.
We’ve carried on the tradition of buying flowers on Mother’s Day, usually perennials that we don’t have to re-plant each year, a reminder of our perennial love. We were at the nursery on Tuesday. So remember to honor the mothers in your life. And mothers–you are simply the best and I wish each of you a special day this Sunday!
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
My Life as a Prayer, Elizabeth Cunningham. Monkfish Book Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9781958972106), 2023.
Summary: A spiritual memoir describing the author’s journey from daughter of an Episcopal priest, through a variety of communities as a writer and multi-faith minister.
Elizabeth Cunningham may be known to many as the author of the fiction series, The Maeve Chronicles, in which Mary Magdalene is reconceived as the daughter of a line of Celtic warrior witches. This, her first non-fiction work, traces her spiritual journey from growing up in the home of an Episcopal priest to becoming a multi-faith minister. Throughout, she describes her life as a prayer and explains what this might mean toward the end of the book:
“The prayer of oblation may be what I mean by life as a prayer. It may be what in Judaism is called a mitzvah or Buddhists mean by mindfulness. Or what Brother Lawrence called practicing the Presence of God while sweeping the floor, of scrubbing pots. The attention of Miss Sang [a mentor] gave to setting the table. what if we made all tasks, each small act, an oblation? Nothing to do with success or failure, obscurity or recognition. Just an offering. I believe that the Dalai Lama once said that his religion is kindness, and religion is only useful in so far as it helps him to be kind. If it helps to make an offering to a deity, then good. An offering is an offering even if we never knew to whom it is made or who receives it” (pp. 254-255).
This gives a good flavor of her outlook. She grew up the daughter of an Episcopal priest. Even as a child she struggled with how God was portrayed in the Bible, but more comfortable with Jesus Her relationship with her father is complicated. She respects his social conscience and activism but his faith didn’t seem to find warm expression in their family life. He seems to have had anger issues and struggled with alcoholism. She grew more distant, eventually joining a Quaker Meeting. A further stage came about the time of her miscarriage when she discovered the Goddess, who became a guide to her. She recounts a decade of hosting with Miss Sang a multi-faith retreat center and community, High Valley.
An important part of her life is the enchanted character of the natural world from the forest next to her childhood home to the land around High Valley to her own garden. This reflects the neopagan influences that sees all things as animated by gods or spirits. She also recounts her writing efforts, the rejections and how she came to write the Maeve Chronicles.
I had several responses to the book. One was that I think it is a reflection of the spirituality of many who would say they are spiritual but not religious, involving both the rejection of some traditional belief while retaining remnants of that faith combined with other practices from diverse sources with self (or the god or goddess within) as the final arbiter.
I was saddened by the account of her childhood encounters with Christianity and found myself reflecting on my very different experience of parents, relative, and a number of adults in my life with vibrant and thoughtful and gracious Christian commitments. Working in collegiate ministry, I’ve been struck by how many who struggle with faith or have rejected it had negative childhood or teenaged experiences of that faith.
I also was struck with the indeterminacy of the object of her life of prayer. To God, to the spirit in all things, to herself, her Goddess, or even a type of well wishing to others (“sending prayer”)? It seemed all of this at various points. How different from a Christian understanding of knowing that we come freely and boldly to our Father, that we are heard, and that prayer is communing with the lover of our souls.
At the same time I loved the idea of life as prayer, in the language of St. Paul, “living sacrifices.” Cunningham offers an example, albeit multi-faith of living that out that is worth observing and affirming.
Flannery O’Connor wrote of the “Christ-haunted south.” There is a Christ-haunted character to this memoir, with snatches of Jesus’ life, of Episcopal liturgy, the writings of C.S. Lewis, of forms of prayer, and more. It feels like something from which she turned away but that still has a hold on her. I wonder what the author will make of that in time to come.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through Librarything’s Early Reviewers Program for review.
NPR recently posted an article titled How to Practice ‘Deep Reading.’ It’s a great interview available in both print and streaming audio. For any of us dedicated to what I like to call “the art of reading,” this is worthy of our intention.
One of the observations was that we were not pre-wired for reading–that for all of us, this is a learned skill, and like any learned skill, we have the opportunity to keep learning. It also suggests why reading doesn’t always come naturally for us. Neither does typing, playing a musical instrument, or painting. But we can develop our proficiency as we practice.
The interview explores the idea of deep reading, where we fully engage what is written with our thoughts, our questions, reflections, and even emotions–what does this evoke in me? In fact, reading with affect is one of the ways books become imprinted in our minds. I think this so true–whether I rhapsodized over the writing or an exceptional plot, didn’t like an ending, or got angry with an argument–those are the books I remember.
The article contrasts deep reading with the practice of skimming. And this caught me up short. I skim a lot of material–articles for posting, emails, and to be honest, some books, at least to a certain degree. I suspect many of you do as well. Since I read many books, an occupational hazard of a reviewer, I read books where people cover ground I’ve seen others cover before. I’m looking for what they bring to the conversation that is new.
What catches me up short is not that I do it, but seeing how doing it affects all my reading. This has been brought home to me recently by readingA Secular Age by Charles Taylor along with a friend. It is a long, dense but elegantly written book reflecting a great mind tracing an intellectual history spanning centuries and dozens of thinkers in several languages. I was trying to read 20 pages a day, and found it difficult to absorb. My friend told me, “I can only do 10 pages at a time, and I have to go back and re-read the 10 pages.”
I’ve decided that this book is my primer in deep reading. One of Taylor’s sentences often provides ample fodder for thought. I’m going to allow him to teach me to take the time to read him well and not read just to get the gist. And this practice is suggesting a rule worth applying to other things–if I only have a vague notion of what this book is saying or how this story is put together, I’m probably reading too fast.
The interview also suggests some form of note-taking helps us absorb and keep track of the flow of an argument and the things we remember. I don’t like to write in my books because I will re-sell many, and I don’t like slowing down to write in a journal. One suggestion from the article I might try is jotting down (maybe on a slip of paper) in the back of a book) page numbers of key thoughts, maybe with a key word or phrase. I’d love to hear how other note-takers do it.
Taylor will keep me busy for a while, so this will give me a good opportunity to practice deep reading. Perhaps after that, I may try to have at least one book where I follow a suggestion from the interview to “read at your own pace and the book’s pace.” Actually, it’s pretty exciting to be approaching my eighth decade and still be learning to read!
Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780062073846), 2011 (originally published in 1948).
Summary: A young widow and her brother inherit a family fortune, stirring family resentments until a mysterious figure threatens blackmail and is found dead.
Gordon Cloade was the benefactor of the Cloade family. During the war, he meets a young widow, Rosaleen Underhay on a ship, and marries her. Two days after they arrive in England, all but Rosaleen and her brother David, who has joined the household, are killed in a bombing raid. Cloade had not had time to change his will to provide for both wife and family. This meant that Rosaleen, for the duration of her life inherited the income from the capital of Cloade’s life, depriving the family of needed support.
But all may not be as it seems with Rosaleen. Her first marriage had been an unhappy one. Her husband separated and then was reported dead. But a conversation where a Major Porter was overheard by Poirot, while sheltering in a club from a bombing raid, suggests that Underhay never died, but was abroad under the name of Enoch Arden, a reference to a Lord Tennyson poem about one thought dead who was not.
Christie introduces us to the various Cloades, in various states of insolvency. Jeremy, the lawyer, has been pilfering funds, and a reckoning approaches. Lionel is a physician, and has become a morphine addict, to the detriment of his finances. Rowley has been able to eke by as a farmer but had hoped for more, particularly as he anticipates marrying the village girl, Lynn Marchmont, who has returned to live with her mother after Lynn’s service as a WREN during the war.
Needless to say, many wish Rosaleen dead, or at least her claim on the Cloade fortune disproven. Then a mysterious figure shows up in town, identifying himself to David, Rosaleen’s brother, as Enoch Arden, and threatening blackmail. When Arden is found dead, Rowley, acting in the family’s interests asks Poirot to confirm the identity of the man named Arden. He calls on Porter, who testifies at the inquest that he knew Underhay and that the dead man was Underhay, despite Rosaleen’s denials. David, as prime suspect is arrested.
There’s a tangled web that Poirot has to unravel before all becomes clear. Two more die along the way. Poirot will say one is accidental, one is a suicide, and one is murder. But which is which and how are they all connected is for Poirot to discover, as he talks to people and learns things, while those around him underestimate his abilities.
I thought this a cleverly written mystery that also offered an instructive tale on the follies of depending on the wealth of a benefactor–from family or otherwise. Along the way, there is a diverting subplot as Lynn, finding Rowley somewhat dull after her war adventures, is drawn by the allure of the roguish David. I’m not sure I like Christie’s use of partner violence in this plot. As a mystery, I think this one of her better efforts, written at the height of her powers in 1948.
What is Faith?, J. Gresham Machen. Banner of Truth (ISBN: 9781800403598), 2023 (First published in 1925).
Summary: An exposition of the Bible’s teaching on what constitutes vibrant and saving Christian faith.
“Believe in Jesus!” “Saved by faith!” “I don’t have enough faith.” “We just have to have faith.”
The language of faith, even in our secular age, is bandied about a great deal. But are we all talking about the same thing? Sometimes, it seems like faith simply means some sense of the transcendent or a “religious sentiment of the heart.” At the other end of the spectrum, “faith” may be connected with affirmation of a particular set of doctrines–the faith. Faith is spoken in Hebrews 11:1 as the “substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” and yet in many minds faith is a vague feeling rather than substance and a hope in what one is pretty sure is not true.
It seems that this treatise by J. Gresham Machen, nearly 100 years old has never been so needed. He decries the fuzzy thinking, the lack of clear thinking, and the attack upon intellect in general and among Christians specifically in his own day. Nowhere is this so evident as in understanding the true nature of biblical faith, and this is what he sets out to address in this biblically grounded and carefully reasoned work.
He begins by observing that faith must have some object. For the Christian, this is the triune God. To believe in God (or any personal being), one most know the character of the one believed. This is both “doctrine,” and as it is understood becomes personal trust. All this is predicated on the idea that God has revealed God’s self. It also concerns our standing with God as sinners and how God, consistently revealed as loving Father, has addressed that standing through his Son, in whom there is redemption.
What then does faith involve? Faith combines knowledge of the truth with belief that the God may be trusted, and acceptance as undeserved gift what God has accomplished through his Son. As he sets forth these classic ideas, he engages the modernist challenge of his day with its “Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man,” emphasizing humanitarian good works and imitating Christ as a good teacher. He speaks bitingly of the “Good American” character education of his day and argued that spiritual and moral education was not the work of schools but churches and comparable religious institutions. For those who think this is a way to Christianize society, he argues that this moralism inoculates people against a genuine awareness of sin and need of the saving work of Christ.
He continues to address modernist challenges in his chapter on faith and salvation, really a classic exposition of justification by faith, answering the question of how we may hope for right standing with God. He addresses the ever-present temptation to combine faith with our works as salvific. Rather, those saved by faith work, with work arising from, rather than contributing to their faith. In the final chapter he addresses “faith and hope” and the experience of “weak” faith. He emphasizes that while the object for all Christians is to grow in their confident faith in God, it is not the size of our faith, as if it were some spiritual force, but the gracious and powerful character off God that matters.
This is a rich work filled with practical examples as well as careful reasoning. While some of the controversies today are different (and some not so much), Machen’s insights are important to anyone committed to the task of making disciples: from communicating the gospel, through conversion, and in encouraging the life of faith. As with so many classic works, Banner of Truth has served the church well in the re-publication of this work, soon to be joined by two others, God Transcendent and The Christian View of Man.
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. Avon Fiction (ISBN: 0380789019), 1996 (Link is to 2016 edition).
Summary: When Richard Mayhew rescues a bleeding girl in the streets of London, he finds himself drawn into a world under London, the quest she is on and the evil forces set against her.
You have embarked on a conventional but successful career, are engaged to a fashionable and beautiful woman, living in urban London. Then on a date one night, it is as if a door opens in a wall, and out tumbles a disheveled girl, bleeding from a stab wound in her arm, lying in the street in front of them. This is the situation that confronts Richard Mayhew and his fiancée, Jessica. She wants to quickly move on from an awkward situation for dinner with her boss. Richard cannot. Despite the threat (carried out) of a broken engagement, he takes the girl back to his apartment. And everything in his world will change in consequence.
He quickly learns both of a world under London from which the girl has come and that she is being pursued by two sinister assassins who have already killed the rest of her family. The assassins, Croup and Vandemar, show up at Richard’s apartment but the girl, named Door (so named for her ability to find and open doors), makes herself scarce and eludes capture. Richard agrees to help by finding a figure from the underworld, Marquis de Carabas, who helps Door escape. Only Richard is changed–he has become invisible to the overworld of London. He eventually finds Door in the underworld and joins her in the quest to find the entity who ordered the death of her family–and hopefully to find his way back to his life in London above.
This will take him on what is alternately a quest and a flight from Croup and Vandemar in this dangerous underworld of phantom subway lines, courts in rail cars, mysterious night time Floating Markets in the overworld, and sewers. He faces life and death ordeals and encounters with everything from rats and their Rat-speakers, the fierce warrior woman, Hunter, who becomes Door’s bodyguard, and an angel and a hideous beast. Most of the time, he feels himself a loyal but useless appendage, yet eventually finds in himself resourcefulness and courage unknown to him. It’s a quest in which it is not always clear who may be trusted. Yet a bond grows between Door and Richard.
Gaiman does an incredible job of world making in the London underworld he creates, both the physical space and the characters with which he populates it. If you think Croup and Vandemar sinister, wait until Door finally finds who they’ve been working for! The one other fascinating aspect of the world Gaiman creates are the characters who have lived in the underworlds of other cities, including mythical Atlantis, and the mythical foes like the Beast of London, that roam the underworlds of these other cities. Having previously read American Gods (review), I appreciated being introduced to this earlier work, a novelization of a TV series.
Gaiman almost makes one wonder what lurks below our own cities….
The Wick name is one of the most well known names in Youngstown. As it turns out there are a number of Wicks who rose to prominence in Youngstown. Perhaps it has already been done, but a genealogical work showing the family lines and relations of the various Wicks would be a great asset for anyone who writes about Youngstown.
Henry Wick is a case in point. He might easily be confused with Henry K. (H.K.) Wick. The two men were born six years apart. H.K. was born August 31, 1840, the son of Col. Caleb B. and Maria Wick. Henry Wick was born born May 13, 1846, a son of Hugh Bryson and Lucretia Winchell Wick. As it turns out, this part of the family tree is relatively easy. Caleb and Hugh were both sons of Henry and Hannah Baldwin Wick, who came to Youngstown in 1801, establish a mercantile business, making Henry and H.K. their grandchildren and cousins to each other.
Henry was educated in the Youngstown schools of the day and graduated from Western Reserve College. He began working as a coal operator in Youngstown and Pittsburgh, forming the Witch Hazel Coal Company, of which he was president most of his working life. This led to an interest in the growing iron business. He organized and ran the Youngstown Rolling Mill Company, an early successful company in the iron business. He then joined forces to incorporate The Ohio Iron and Steel Company, serving as its vice president for many years. He also organized the Ohio Steel Company, a pioneer in Bessemer steel in the valley. A few years later they merged with the National Steel Company, of which he became president. Later this company was absorbed by Carnegie, which in turn became U.S. Steel. He also bought and reorganized the Elyria Iron and Steel Company, supervising its operations until his death.
He also was engaged in mining, lumber, and ranching operations in the west as well as operating several large farms near Youngstown.
If that wasn’t enough, he was involved in several key financial institutions in the city beginning with his partnership in the Wick Brothers & Company, and as an officer in the Wick National Bank, which was the successor of that firm. He also served was a director with First National Bank, Dollar Savings and Trust, and Youngstown Sheet and Tube.
Joseph Butler, in History of Youngstown & The Mahoning Valley, Ohio – Vol. II, summarizes his portrait of Henry Wick:
“Henry Wick was a vital and compelling force. He was a tireless worker and a natural leader of men. He was a hater of sham and show, and a lover of truth and justice. He was loyal to friends and just to every one. He had a veritable passion for home and for the near ones who are the life of home. His domestic life was one of peculiar charm and unusual happiness. He was an active and influential member of the First Presbyterian Church, and an interested and liberal contributor to substantially all of the welfare agencies of his home city, and an active worker in many.“
Henry Wick died of pneumonia December 22, 1915. His wife, Mary Arms Wick, passed five days later. The Vindicator for December 23, 1915 published a story, “The Death of Henry Wick” which included this story, suggesting the character of the man:
“Speaking of how he stood steadfast to his principles, a close friend said that it was never better demonstrated than when several years ago he allied himself with a cause, in the winning of which he thought the community was to be bettered and benefitted. In support of the cause he gave unsparingly in money and indefatigable personal support. He was assailed by opponents but never faltered in the fight. The cause for which he battled went down in defeat, but he was never heard to criticise or complain. He fought for a principle and that it was not by the majority accepted may have caused him regret, but the defeat left no rancor with those he disagreed.”
How rare this is today! Perhaps this explains why he was so sought out to lead companies and sit on boards and enjoyed such success. His business interests included coal, iron, steel, mining, ranching, livestock and agriculture. One wonders how he crowded all this into one life. He is one of the reasons the Wick name enjoys such a reputation in Youngstown to this day.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
Summary: A study of the tabernacle and sacrifice connections drawing out the idea of the incarnational presence of God in the physical structure of the tabernacle and the significance of the daily sacrifices for our understanding of atonement.
The passages detailing the construction of the tabernacle and the institution of sacrifices for many of us are a “flyover zone” in our reading. After all, the tabernacle instructions are repeated twice in almost identical detail. Yet Gary A. Anderson proposes that these passages are rich with detail for the development of the Old Testament theology of both incarnation and atonement that will become important in our understanding of the person and work of Christ.
Regarding the tabernacle explores how in the construction, layout, and furnishings of the tabernacle, God indeed dwells among Israel in physical form. The tabernacle in some sense participates in the deity of God. Anderson shows evidence for this in the language used to describe the proper handling of the physical articles that furnish this “house.” While Anderson would certainly not confine God to this structure, he would suggest that in it God is in some way “embodied” in the midst of his people.
He then explores the sacrifice instructions arguing that the central sacrifice is not that of atonement but rather the daily offerings each morning and evening that began on the eighth day of the inauguration the tabernacle and the Aaronic priesthood. In his discussions he explores the intricacies of the procedures, the problem of the “strange fire” of Nadab and Abihu, the golden calf, and the connections in language between the tamid instructions and the Aqedah of Genesis 22. Ultimately, Anderson argues that what is central in sacrifice is the self-giving of Israel rather than the substitution of the death of an animal for sins.
While there was much in Anderson’s study of the tabernacle and in the connections he draws to Abraham, his de-centering of atonement in favor of tamid seems to me driven by his idea that penal substitution must be cruel and we can’t have that. Certainly it is true that there is a self-giving, indeed self emptying aspect to the work of Christ. Might this suggest ways that all the sacrifices from tamid to atonement point to him? But why does Jesus self-empty but to die for sin, acting both in love for the father and humanity through the instrument of the genuinely cruel human actions of whipping and crucifixion that brought about his death? Penal substitution actually makes sense of the cruel death Jesus died, that he could have evaded. Anything else to me appears masochistic on the part of Jesus and truly cruel of God.
What Anderson does offer is an invitation to closely study these “flyover” passages, pointing to their central importance in the life of Israel and in the theology of the church. In particular, he shows how there is no divorce of matter and spirit, no distant deity of the deists in scripture. He insists that we ask what the meaning of Israel’s sacrifices are and that their relevance hasn’t ceased even though they have.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Brooklyn Museum – The Tribute Money – (Le denier de Cesar) – James Tissot, Public Domain via Picryl
On Sunday April 28, I gave the message at our church on the theme of “Discernment in Politics.” It’s been a crazy day and because of that, I do not have a book post prepared so I thought I would share a transcript of the talk. This is not a message about what person or party to support or even how to make those choices.It’s more about living with wisdom and peace in this fraught political season.I hope you find it helpful.
Discernment in Politics: Matthew 22: 15-22
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. (Matthew 22:15-22, NIV)
Introduction
Have you ever noticed how when you are anxious in anything that it helps to take some deep breaths, to step back, and understand what is going on. Recently, I had a physical exam, and my blood test results show a particular measure out of whack. These days, you often get this info before hearing from your doc. Of course I go on the internet and discover all the dire things this could mean. So I wrote to my doc. It turns out he ran a follow up test that was finer grained, identifying a condition, probably genetic, that was benign, and sent me an educational article. My doc’s discernment and the educational info he sent greatly reduced my anxiety and gave me a few things I could do and watch out for.
Much of our political discourse, particularly in advertising and on social media, is designed to arouse our anxiety. Part of this is to keep us clicking. It appeals to more primitive parts of our brains involved in protecting ourselves, bypassing the parts of our brain that think. There are times when we need that part of our brain. I’d like to suggest politics is not one of them and the example of Jesus in Matthew offers us a lesson in political discernment.
Some Background
A little background might help us in understanding the passage. First of all, it is part of a section from Matthew 21:23 through 22:46 where Jesus is engaging various opponents in the temple during the week before the crucifixion. After responding to a question on what authority he does things like cleanse the temple, he tells three parables about the two sons, about the wicked tenants in the vineyard, and about the wedding banquet where his opponents recognize that he is speaking about them.
So we come to this passage where the Pharisees and Herodians get together to trap him. What’s curious about all this is that they are usually political enemies. The Pharisees are the people’s party while the Herodians support the Roman establishment. The trap they come up with is ingenious. Rome levied a special poll tax on subject peoples that Roman citizens did not need to pay. It was a reminder that they were under the thumb of Rome.
The question they come up with is a “gotcha” question, at least if you just stuck to “yes” or “no.” Answer yes, and Jesus would alienate many Jews who resented the tax, including some of the Pharisees. Answer no, and Jesus could be charged with treason.
When Jesus asks for a coin, they probably gave him a denarius that had an image of Tiberius Caesar on one side. The image alone would be offensive to Jews who were told to “make no graven images” and the inscriptions were equally offensive: “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” on one side and “pontifex maximus” or high priest on the other. Which begs the question of why they have these coins!
So what may we learn from how Jesus handles this?
Jesus discerns their intent. He recognizes they are trying to trap him. Now the intent of our politicians is not always evil, but it is good to listen to the intent behind the words. Another word for this may be interests. Around most political issues there are various interests including our own. The question is whether the interest or intent is merely personal advantage for one group or the common good of all. If a political position advantages some at the expense of others, there is evil or unjust intent.
Jesus discerns ways they are trying to manipulate him. They say some very nice things about his integrity, his teaching, and that he will not be swayed by attention-getting. This can happen through flattery, fear or false promises. There may have even been a temptation for Jesus to be an “influencer.” The invitation to be on the inside, to have influence can be intoxicating. Jesus resists it.
Jesus discerns the false and reductive binary they offer him. So much of our political polarization has to do with turning nearly everything into one of these binaries. Do you know that there was a time in the 1960’s and 1970’s when environmental measures were supported by both parties and a Republican president established the EPA? Then the environment was politicized, and you had to choose between being pro-business and pro-environment, which is like saying, you must choose between walking and chewing gum. And so we are either pro 2nd amendment or for government confiscating all our guns. We are pro-life or pro-choice. We must choose between open borders or building the wall.
The reality is that choosing one side of these binaries excludes the interests and concerns of a lot of people. They also oversimplify the world. Real solutions are often both more complex and creative.
Jesus discerns a kingdom alternative that is far richer. Jesus recognizes the reality that there will always be government. His reply is kind of matter of fact. Give Caesar what is his. Caesar made the coin. The Roman empire is just an earthly power, no less no more.
But he also speaks to what ought to be on the heart of every Jewish listener. What belongs to God? Actually, what doesn’t belong to God? He is Creator. He gives life and land, the cattle on a thousand hills are his, his eye is on the sparrow, he knows the number of hairs on our heads. Sure, let Caesar have his pocket change. And let God have all of your life! Embrace all that is God’s! No wonder people left amazed.
Rather than taking sides, might the role of Christians be to work with both sides, whether locally or nationally to find richer alternatives? One local example I think of is the service of Pastor Rich Nathan on the Columbus Civilian Police Review Board, both supporting the work of police and providing civilian accountability for how they police to restore trust between police and the community.
Jesus discerns ultimate allegiances and our only hope. Any government, nation, or political party are ”just” politics, “just” government. They don’t hold a candle to God’s everlasting global kingdom. They only have a limited function under God. They are not unimportant and we should seek the best people we can find to serve in positions of public trust. But if you are a professing Christian, you have sworn absolute allegiance to the king of kings and lord of lords and there is no part of our lives exempt from that allegiance: our money, our time, our possessions, our sexuality, our ambitions, our work, our retirement, and our politics.
He is also the one we trust absolutely for not only our salvation but for our life and health in the world. I wonder if this is so for us. I wonder if some Christians have embraced the politics of right or left with such a religious fervor because they don’t believe that God can save. They don’t believe the gospel’s power.
I suspect all of us here love our country and all of us may have concerns and anxieties about it. The question is, do we trust God implicitly with that or have we placed an inordinate trust in our politics? If I’m anxious about politics, that is a signal that it is time for some kingdom discernment. Will I trust that God really is in charge, that God will always work for the good of those who love him? Nations rise and fall, and this could even be the trajectory of the United States. I don’t like that idea, and I would work against it happening in my generation, but if it comes, I recognize that my real hope is in the everlasting kingdom of the everlasting God.
Conclusion.
Discerning intent
Discerning interest
Discerning false and simplistic binaries
Discerning the richer kingdom alternative
Discerning our ultimate allegiances
These are the things that enable us to live as people of wisdom and peace in our anxious political season. But if you can’t remember all of that, remember the last and pray to always discern your ultimate allegiance. What does God want? What would Jesus do? What has God said in his Word? What does absolute allegiance to Jesus require of me today? For what am I’m anxious that I will trust him, including my anxieties in this political season?
I would suggest two practical tests to help us assess where we are tending toward:
What are we taking in more? Scripture, good Christian reading or excellent writing in general, sermons and podcasts or Fox or CNN, talk radio, and political memes and posts and arguments on social media.
What are we talking about more? God and God’s goodness, and the ways we can live our lives loving God and neighbor, or the latest political news, what we don’t like about a candidate or party?
What we are taking in and what we are talking about most reveals where our heart is. I wrestle with this personally. As I turned the calendar to 2024, I recognized what a fraught year is ahead. I challenged myself with regard to these questions with the simple resolution, more Jesus, less politics! Finally, my wife reminded me that one other way we express our absolute trust and know freedom from anxiety is to live joyful and grateful lives for all the good, true, and beautiful things we see and experience each day. That’s another way of saying, “Our God reigns!”
I set a new record for books reviewed in a month in April–twenty-one. So I’ll just highlight a few that stood out. I like anything that Richard Mouw writes and his Divine Generosity breaks the Reformed stereotype that only a few will be elect in exploring within the doctrines of the Reformed the idea that God will save widely. As is always the case, N.T. Wright brought new insights to one of my favorite passages, Romans 8, along with new questions. Edith Humphrey’s Down the Valley is a delightful children’s story introducing us to the lives of the saints and a wonderful family, that I suspect mirrors her own. David Brooks strikes me as the consummate learner and in How to Know a Person, he takes us along his own learning journey of what it means to know and be known deeply. Finally, I cannot say enough good about Moms at the Well, a new Bible study addressing with great sympathy and constructive hope, the struggles of every mom I know. The guide offers creative exercises for personal reflection and for rich group experiences and is an exquisite piece of work typographically as well.
I’ve made a change in the publication data I include. Following the move of The Chicago Manual of Style that has made place of publication optional, I am no longer including this. Instead, I am including ISBN numbers, which seem more useful in searches for a book. Of course, I continue to link in the title to the publisher’s website. I do this to avoid preferring a particular bookseller as well as offering you the resources the publisher offers for the book (sometimes excerpts or book trailers, or even supplemental free material). Let me know if you have an opinion about these changes.
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, Daniel G. Amen, MD and Charles Fay, PhD. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2024. Two clinicians, one a neuroscientist and the other a mental heath practitioner, explore how the findings in their two fields may combine to raise mentally healthy, loving, responsible, and resilient children. Review
An Excellent Mystery, (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #11), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road Media, 2014 (first published in 1985). A dying monk, a refugee from Maud’s wars, arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey with a mute brother as helper and a former aide of the monk discovers that the monk’s former betrothed is missing. Review
Blessed Are the Rest of Us, Micha Boyett. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. A mother with a Down’s Syndrome child discovers in the Beatitudes a relationship with God based on God’s love rather than our accomplishments. Review
Divine Generosity, Richard J. Mouw. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883902), 2024. A discussion from a Calvinist perspective of how widely God’s saving mercy extends. Review
Passenger to Frankfurt, Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780062094452), 2012 (Originally published in 1970). Sir Stafford Nye helps a woman in the Frankfurt airport by giving her his cloak, passport, and boarding ticket to England and finds himself caught up in a global plot. Review
Creator: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1, Peter J. Leithart. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514002162), 2023. Considering philosophical discussions of the being of God, turns to Genesis 1 which reveals the Triune Creator who speaks and sees, who loves and is good. Review
The Case of the Late Pig(Albert Campion #8), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087308), 2023 (Originally published in 1937). When Campion is invited to the second funeral in six months for an old school acquaintance, he finds him drawn into a murder investigation where the murders keep coming. Review
The Spirituality of Dreaming, Kelly Bulkeley. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9781506483146), 2023. A dream researcher explores both the science and spirituality of dreaming. Review
Into the Heart of Romans, N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310157748), 2023. A close reading of Romans 8, focusing on the purpose, presence, and profound love in Christ for all who believe meant to assure them of not only their ultimate destiny but of God’s favor even as they share in the sufferings of Christ amid a groaning creation. Review
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride. Riverhead Books (ISBN: 9780593422946), 2023. A story centered around a grocery store in the midst of Pottstown’s Chicken Hill district, inhabited by immigrant Jews and the local Black community. Review
Beyond Ethnic Loneliness, Prasanta Verma. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514007419), 2024. An Indian American immigrant describes the distinctive experience of ethnic loneliness and steps those experiencing that loneliness and those who care for them can take toward healing. Review
Down the Valley, Edith M. Humphrey. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781666772067), 2024. Further adventures beyond the gate of the white fence where the children at “Gramgon’s” house and an older friend meet the saints after whom they are named. Review
Fundamentalists in the Public Square (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology), Madison Trammel. Lexham Academic. (ISBN: 9781683597186) 2023. A counter-argument to the contention that fundamentalists retreated from activism in the public square after the Scopes trial, based on a study of newspaper reports. Review
Hope Ain’t a Hustle, Irwyn Ince (Foreword by Christina Edmonson). InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514005743), 2024. A series of messages from the book of Hebrews making the case for the confidence we may have in Christ, our great high priest who endured the storm, who sustains our hope, and calls us to enduring faithfulness. Review
Ethics@Work, Kris Østergaard, ed. Re:humanize Publishing (ISBN: 9788797284100), 2022. An anthology of essays on workplace ethics in the context of near future challenges, focusing on the systemic context, the inner life of an organization, and the humans at the core of every enterprise. Review
How to Know a Person, David Brooks. Random House (ISBN: 9780593230060), 2023. An exploration of how we might see people deeply and help them know that they are seen. Review
God’s Revolution: Justice, Community, and the Coming Kingdom, Eberhard Arnold. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636080000), 2021. A collection of the writings of Eberhard Arnold, describing the life of discipleship embodied in the Bruderhof, as a radical alternative to the institutional church. Review
Character in the Garden, Doris Erika Brocke. Brocke House Enterprises (ISBN: 9780991835515), 2021. A compilation of photographs from the author’s surroundings combined with quotations focusing on the qualities of character. Review
The Raven in the Foregate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #12), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781497671386), 2014 (Originally published in 1986. A graceless priest comes to Holy Cross church in Foregate and alienates his parish and is found dead, while a young man who came with him, assigned to Cadfael, is not what he seems. Review
Moms at the Well, Tara Edelschick and Kathy Tuan-Maclean. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 781514006788), 2024. A seven week Bible study experience addressing the struggles moms face in parenting, looking at women in scripture and how God encountered them. Review
Book of the Month. James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an exquisitely told story of how two minority communities, connected by the generosity of the Jewish proprietor of the title grocery store, come together to right an injustice (or two). This book won all kind of awards, which doesn’t surprise me a bit.
Quote of the Month. I had the chance to read Prasanta Verma’s Beyond Ethnic Loneliness, which talks about the distinct forms of loneliness Blacks and other persons of color experience as they struggle with the question “What Am I?” Verma wrote poems at the end of each chapter on this theme and here’s one:
So, What Are You?
You are beloved You are not invisible You are whole You are wanted You are seen You are loved Just the way you are You belong to yourself You belong to others You belong to God So, what are you? You are a gift of joy You eat at the table Of belonging You are a Home Of belonging To others And yourself
And if the topic is of interest to you, I also had the chance to interview the author and here is the interview:
What I’m Reading. I’m wading through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age which may take a couple more months. His learning is so vast and he brings all of it to bear to trace the intellectual and cultural shift from a cosmos filled with the grandeur of God to a universe with either a distant deity or none, and without relevance to daily life. I’m most of the way through Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, an early work set in an underworld beneath modern London into which a young man from the upperworld falls and becomes part of an epic conflict. I always enjoy a good Poirot, and Taken at the Flood is one I haven’t read. I most of the way through J. Gresham Machen’s What is Faith? and just beginning My Life is a Prayer, a memoir by Elizabeth Cunningham and C. Ryan Fields’ Local and Universal, a book on the doctrine of the church.
The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014!It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book.
"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." - Philippians 4:8
Bob on Books 