The Friday Update - non semper sicut erit

— September 20, 2024 —

Happy Friday,

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The Apostle John

I thought a Quantum Leap was a big move. No. Quantum is a particle physics term denoting the smallest move possible. The term’s punch comes from highlighting that a small move can have a large impact. In a similar manner, I thought I John 1:9 taught that if I confessed my sins, God would be merciful and forgive me. No. What the text says is that if we confess our sins, God will be just and forgive. Justice and mercy are miles apart. The punch of this passage comes in highlighting that when we confess our sins, Christ assumes the debt, making it unjust of God to hold it against us.

Et Cetera: Readers responded to my Latin with Latin of their own—e.g., carpe diem, Ad hoc, pro bono, de facto, magnum opus, etc. (make that et cetera, which is Latin for “and the rest”). In addition to sending in their favorite terms, some sent phrases, like Ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of the law is no excuse), which came in second. The big winner was illegitimi non carborundum—which translates as “don’t let the bast@#$s get you down.” I understand its appeal, but I’m sticking with non semper sicut erit, which means it will not always be this way. Because, as I noted last week, it will not. God’s kingdom will come. 

WOTW: Honorable mention goes to stonks, a deliberate mis-pronouncement of stocks that is either funny or cool (I’m too unfunny or uncool to know), experiangst, which is buyer’s remorse for an experience, and funflation (a WSJ term bemoaning the spike in the cost of things like Taylor Swift concerts, NFL games, or Taylor Swift appearances at NFL games).  Full honors this week are being shared by mindful underparenting (a concept explained in this NYT piece) and le grand renversement, a term Dr. John Lennox—the Emeritus Oxford math professor turned Christian apologist—says is being used by the French to describe the growing movement of academics coming to faith in Christ. 

BTW: Although my mastery of 20 Latin phrases might not justify my claims of being bilingual, it does remind me of a joke. Q: If you call someone who speaks two languages bilingual, and someone who speaks three languages trilingual, what do you call someone who speaks one language? Answer below.

Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) “This is God’s universe, and He is doing things His way. You may think you have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.” J. Vernon McGee; 2) “Freedom and equality are natural born enemies.” Will Durant; 3) “Your actions speak louder than your intentions.” Carey Nieuwhof; and 4) “I was given the impression that Jesus was a gentle creature…Then I looked at the New Testament. There I found an account, not in the least of a person with his hair parted in the middle or his hands clasped in appeal, but an extraordinary being with lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision, casting out devils, passing with the wild secrecy of the wind.… He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. He said such weak and innocuous things as ‘I’ve come to set the earth on fire.’ The diction used about Christ has been, perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque, it is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea.” G.K. Chesterton

Overheard: 1) Though marriage rates are down, the union of Ignorance and Arrogance seems strong; 2) It takes courage to speak the truth to your enemies, but it takes more to speak it to your friends. Peter Vardy 

JRRT Related: I’m not saying I won’t try again, but for now, I’ve given up on The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime’s Lord of the Rings prequel). Though cinematically impressive and occasionally clever, the series lacks the loveable characters and theological heft of Tolkien’s work. I miss the friendship of Sam and Frodo, the brilliance of Gandalf, the display of power’s power to corrupt, and, well, fifty other things. 

Without Comment: 1) When it was first published, Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament cost 40 percent of a teacher’s annual salary—i.e., 17 fat geese; 2) One of the problems with money is that it allows us to become too insulated and isolated from the problems of the under-resourced; and 3) the number killed or wounded in the Russia-Ukraine war has reached 1M. (It is estimated that 180M people have died in war in the last 200 years.)

The Answer: The answer to the question—what do you call someone who only speaks one language—is not monolingual. The answer is “an American.”

One More Thing: It takes effort to pay attention to the world these days, especially the Middle East. I am praying. Also, I am waiting for someone to note that the exploding handheld tech pieces wreaking havoc on Hezbollah and in Lebanon are a metaphor for what handheld electronics are doing in the rest of the world, only in slow motion.  

Resources: I’ve heard eight to ten sermons on hell in my life, and I preached most of them. I’d rather chew sand than talk about hell, but I feel the need to because Jesus had a lot to say about it. Should you care to listen to last week’s sermon––the fifth in the Afterlife series––it’s here. 

Closing Prayer: Lord! Going out from this silence, teach me to be more alert, humble, expectant, than I have been in the past: ever ready to encounter you in quiet, homely ways: in every appeal to my compassion, every act of unselfish love which shows up and humbles my imperfect love, may I recognize you: still walking through the world. Give me that grace of simplicity which alone can receive your mystery. Come and abide with me! Meet me, walk with me! Enlighten my mind! And then, come in! Enter my humble life with its poverty and its limitations as you entered the stable of Bethlehem, the workshop of Nazareth, the cottage of Emmaus. Bless and consecrate the material of that small and ordinary life. Feed and possess my soul. Amen. (Evelyn Underhill, 1875-1941)

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