The Infinite Bridge of Everything

"All things with which we deal, preach to us."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson


Awake
Awake my soul, like the morning
Like the sun
Each day
Over the horizon at dawn
Even through the rain
An angel
A light
He sings each day
Speaks each day
So up, out of my bed
Rising from death
Yes, each day
That first moment speaks
Awake, my soul,
And sing like the morning

And every morning
A baptism
Warm water, and soap
The dirt from the day before
The dirt, the earth
Coming up from the ground
From cars, sawdust, and hurt
From a summer night sleep
The sweat
Like self-righteousness
Self-love
Covered in stuff
Yes, each shower speaks
Don't forget the dirt
I need to be cleaned
Baptize my heart, mind, soul, body
All of me

Every morning
Down a dark hall with doors
Past sleeping roommates
A passageway
A little tale
From death to life
To a morning meal
Awake with the Father at the feast
A small parable
Infinitesimal to the reality
But an image to enjoy
And I prepare a meal
Each flavor hits this tongue
Each a type of your Son
He is like cinnamon
Like bacon, eggs, bread
Yes, a profound reason
I must be fed

Into a car
With a friend
Suspended on a highway
Each morning commute
A risk worth the price
Of faith, of life
No certainty
Just probability
Just like everything
The price of each movement
Of motion
Each morning commute
Each 40 minute drive
I risk my life
Just like the hundreds beside

At work I create
Like the King, I make
Cabinets, each day
Each cabinet
Many parts to a whole
Put together by a craftsman
Not as skilled as he
Who has built me
My body
A part of his body
Joining ligaments
Joining boards with fasteners
And each cabinet comes together
Many parts make up one
A pervasive principle
Giving life and love

At the end a sense of release
Fills my blood
Like when you come
A time of rest
The day of Yahweh
To take a breath
Ripped away
Freed from idolatry
From these slave-traders
My wicked gods
Freedom indeed
Release

And at home, a good meal again
Wash it down like living water

All these hints
Preachers
Warnings
Their code not cryptic
Stories
Stories with morals
With subject matter
One mosaic
One Meaning
Pictures
Paintings
But each is aging
Each is moving away
Each a note, all a chord, each day

Read, story in a story in a story
Then sleep
Into a rest again
Like his rest
After the work day

Each of these
Each a lesson -
My day speaks
Proclaims, preaches, screams
"We are not the Son of God
But, 'Behold the lamb.'"
But I am numb
I am blind
I stifle their call
I interrupt their song
It is discord to me
I am content
I am free
And I walk in my sleep

Jesus and Meaning: Why Postmodernism Is Compelling and Why It Is Wrong

Signs point to other signs in an endless chain of signs. If you look up the word "rainbow" in the dictionary, you will not find a rainbow; you will find other words: color, light, rain, cloud, sun, etc. These words in turn point to other words. So postmodernism has pointed out that knowledge is impossible, since this stable dictionary definition that we turn to for meaning offers no stability at all. There is no such thing as a standard, official meaning of words. This whole notion builds on a foundation of absolutely nothing. 

Because of this, it cannot be said that there is meaning in this life, that is, it cannot be said that anything that happens, that any relationship, that any pain or suffering, that any book, that any job, that any song, that any word, or what-have-you, has any meaning at all. Fahrenheit 451 does not mean that America is a consumer culture obsessed with unhealthy efficiency and in need of serious reform, because this meaning itself must have a meaning, and that meaning must have another meaning, etc. Just as looking up a word in the dictionary points to other words which point to other words, so Fahrenheit 451 points to the above meaning, but what does the above meaning point to? The above meaning points to another significance outside of itself, and that significance in turn points to another significance, and the chain goes on infinitely. There is no meaning to life because every event, every story, every thing, every word, every person, relationship, etc., only points to other things in this endless cycle and chain of signs. 

Meaning is relational. When we say something is meaningful, we mean that something refers to something other than itself, that something is like something else. Fahrenheit 451 is only meaningful inasmuch as it is like a concept outside of the text, most relevantly in America. If this concept were not real and true, Fahrenheit 451 would have no meaning. So a meaning of a thing exists in its relation to another thing. And because postmodernism has observed that every thing points endlessly to other things, they have concluded that there is no stability, and thus meaning is pointless. Everything stands on nothing. Yet the massive presupposition they make is that there is only the cosmos, that the only sort of things which are in existence are these very dependent material things.

But if the Triune God exists, and as the Bible describes he is meaningful in himself and not dependent on other things for his meaning, then this endless chain of signs comes to a very solid, stable, standpoint when they directly or indirectly point to him. The Triune God is perfectly united in meaning. A loving Father means a Beloved Son. The two forever relate to one another in perfect union of the Holy Spirit of love. These three persons are in happy communion always referring to the other (John 17:24). The Father, in that he is the Father, forever implies the Son. The Son, in being the Son, forever implies the Father. And since the Son is a Beloved Son, he also implies a Spirit of love. Since the Father is a loving Father, he implies the Son and the Spirit of love. These three forever define one another in their relationship; together in perfect unity and oneness they define God as love.

Meaning is relational. If God is one in the sense that Allah is one he would be meaningless. But since he is one in the way that Yahweh is one (in the same way man and woman are one flesh), he is full of meaning and life; he is forever defined as love and unity. 

Creation exists as a reflection of the Triune God. Creation is made by God the Father through his Word and his Spirit. God the Father designed Creation by his Word, his eternal Son. I take this to mean at least in part that the Word was the template or the model by which he designed every thing that exists; everything is an image of Christ: and that the history of this universe is the story of the Son. God's Spirit of love made the Creation so; he gives it life and dimension and reality. 

So Creation first points to Christ in that it is made up of images of Christ; the abstract systems by which all things within Creation operate are outlined after the story of Christ. Input and output, supply and demand, all these things are in existence not randomly, but specifically because they are a picture of Christ and help us understand him and his story. The reason that nothing is able to escape these systems is because creation is designed to proclaim Christ. 

Second, and not unrelated (in fact, the first demands the second), is that creation tells the story of Christ. The whole cosmos was setup and every event in history was ordained to display the cross of Christ; God spoke Creation and upheld it by his Word essentially to say at the cross, "This is what I am like; I am a God who gives." As Piper suggests, when speaking of the exhaustive sovereignty of God we must keep our eyes on the cross of Christ or else nothing will make sense. And Barth suggests that all of Christian thought is summed up in God saying, "I am gracious to you." 

When we "worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator," human beings ceased to acknowledge the meaning of Creation. Without this presupposition, they began living in a world designed to point to the Triune God, but they disbelieved in this Triune God; they began living in a world of utter chaos and meaninglessness. When they had taken their eyes off of the Creator and turned to created things, they indeed ran into the postmodern problem: the utter meaninglessness of a world of signs.  

Theology of Radiohead's "National Anthem"

One of my teachers says that Nirvana marks the turning upside down of an attitude towards music. Music, according to him, must be satirical after Nirvana. The rock and roll classics - the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. - were happily unaware of their music. Now, alternative music, like a modern Don Quixote, fails to achieve such blissful unawareness precisely because they are trying to be blissfully unaware like the great classics. Sure, there may be exceptions to what my teacher says, but for the most part I think he's right. And many bands really have not noticed this shift and continue their desperate attempt to be blissfully unaware of their own greatness (sort of like Don Quixote).

Radiohead is among the few artists who have effectively and confidently understood the nature of the times. Perhaps one of the most profound examples of this is the third track off of their 2000 album Kid A, "The National Anthem."

This track is highly satirical; it is perhaps a commentary on the myth of progress which has thrived in the west for the past few centuries - that myth which manufactures an optimism towards a progress which the 20th century has proved to be an illusion. Patriotism, the confidence that man is progressing, and that going to war is a totally necessary step to achieving a human utopia, is viewed in hindsight as a morbid optimism. 

"The National Anthem" pushes an optimistic, major tune (the optimism/myth of progress) and slowly transforms the optimism to a chaotic minor (reality). 

Here are five examples:

1) The bass groove that runs throughout the song begins in the key of D hitting the major 3rd (F#) but then shifts to the minor 3rd (F) transforming the tune from a happy groove to a twisted groove. Augustine and Aquinas were both keen to point out that evil is simply a perversion of good. And the scariest, most wicked characters in stories and movies are often clowns, dolls, little children - those things that are supposedly innocent. They are the things that absolutely frighten us, perhaps more than a dragon or a transparently wicked monster. The song is built on this morbid bassline.

2) Thom Yorke's vocal line reaches up at first to the same F# (major 3rd), almost like an attempt to sing along to this deceptively happy tune, but as the song progresses this note slowly slips to the F (minor 3rd), as the singer - sort of a main character experiencing this morbidly optimistic tune - becomes aware of the perversion (first at 1:50).

3) The horns and trumpets carry this theme more obviously. Trumpets and horned instruments are generally supposed to be happy, reminding you of a parade, a celebration, or a national anthem. But Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have intentionally arrange the brass instruments to sound like "a traffic jam." This is one of the most effective methods in which they let the song slip into morbid optimism. 

4) Another obvious example is the background radio. When Radiohead performs this song live, Jonny actually plays a live radio station or t.v. channel over the sound system (at least I think that's what they do), tweaking it throughout the performance. This is the link between the morbid optimism of the song to the morbid optimism of political propaganda. This is important for Radiohead, as Thom Yorke often ends his shows saying things like "no more idiots in charge."

5) As the chaos of the song escalates, Thom Yorke transitions from singing a haunting "so alone" to screaming "turn it off!" This song builds gradually, but surely reaches its climax and sputters into chaos.

Theology:

Irony is when something functions the opposite of how it is supposed to function. In this song the major bass line and vocal line, the trumpets, the lyrics, and the radio sounds in the background all function the opposite of how they are intended to function. All of these are supposed to function to create a mood of triumph and happiness. But as they are tweaked in a sort of perversion, the function powerfully to create a mood of morbidity. 

In the same way, the pharisees' self-righteousness functions the opposite of how they intended it to function. All of their righteousness is in the end precisely their wickedness. It is the same with King Sennacherib in Isaiah 37; he will be "brought low" precisely because he exalted himself. And Jesus lowness and humility is precisely his glory, righteousness, and exaltation (Phil 2).

This is a pervasive biblical concept: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." 

Radiohead has created a masterpiece. This song exemplifies the depravity of humanity; it is a perverted depravity; it is a dent in a fender; it is the sort of depravity that takes good things (parades, major keys, etc.) as the pharisees took good things (prayers, knowledge of Scripture, etc.,) and twists them to be used for wickedness. This is propaganda and hypocrisy. 

Theology of Release

"Need some release, release, release /
We need love and peace!"
- U2


I work at a cabinet shop from 7 to 330. There are four times every day that I experience a sense of release: 10 am, 12 pm, 230 pm, and 330 pm. These are 10 minute breaks, a 30 minute lunch, and the end of the work day. Whenever the buzzer signals one of these times a certain emotion surges through my body. This emotion is especially strong on Fridays when the weekend begins at 330. This is the same emotion I experience when I finish a hard paper or a test. It is the same emotion I experience when make it past that section on 205 where traffic is merging, and I am freed to drive at a comfortable speed. All these things strike exactly the same feeling in my mind. These all have this feeling to different degrees. For instance, 10 am break isn't quite as exciting as 330 end of the day on Friday, or as exciting as graduating undergrad. But still, these all have exactly the same emotion. These are all communicating the same concept.

I think that the reason God designed this concept of release was to give us an infinitesimal picture of what it will be like when Jesus returns, and we are finally freed from sin: "...when he appears we will be made like him, and every who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (1 John 3:2-3). 

Theology of Ipods

Music declares the glory of God because it depends upon dynamics like harmony and rhythm. Harmony and rhythm are always reflections of the Triune God, who is three persons in perfect harmony and rhythm; they are perfectly in sync, perfectly united; they create a perfect chord in the unity of love; they are beautiful. So the reason that music is beautiful is because it reflects and points to this God. We hear music and it brings us into a certain mood, emotion; it will bring us into a tranquil mood or get us pumped to exercise or work hard. This is an image of the Spirit's influence on a human being; he brings the harmony and beauty of the love of the Triune God to bear on our heart and excites us to faith and good works: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

It's no surprise that humanity has invented a thing called an ipod, or things like MP3 players, walkmen, etc., so that we can always access music. God has made music to be a booster; it is something to motivate us to push through our day. This is because it is a reflection of the love and harmony of the Triune God. 

I am saying that the reason that God has created a world and guided its history in such a way that the 21st century would witness the popularity of these things called ipods is to demonstrate and dramatize humanity's need to be sustained and motivated by the Holy Spirit who is the love and harmony of the Father and the Son. 

Ipods are sort of like prayer, Bible, or community; as ipods give us access to music, which motivates us to push through our days, so these things give us access to the fellowship of the Triune God throughout, who is the one which music points to and proclaims. This access to the Triune God gives us spiritual motivation and excites us to display self-giving love towards our neighbor. 

TULIP: five pillars for a robust evangelism

TULIP is an acronym for the five points of calvinism; they are Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints, and these have become increasingly precious to me. 

I do not view Romans 9 as the slam-dunk calvinist passage, although I do think that it teaches unconditional election. Probably what most strongly convinces me of the reality and truth of these five points is Romans 1, which I believe outlines a radical total depravity. Here Paul is speaking of all humanity. To quickly summarize Romans 1:18-32, humanity has committed idolatry; we have worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, and the result is hardness of heart. God's punishment for idolatry is an increasingly wicked heart. God's punishment for idolatry is more idolatry, essentially. "God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts," "God gave them up to dishonorable passions," and "God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." 

This is the result of idolatry, and we are all guilty of idolatry. In fact, this is precisely Paul's point, viz., there is no human being whether Jew or Gentile (3:9) who is not guilty. We are guilty, and the result of our guilt is an inability to love God, and inability to choose God; we are consumed by our pride. As Lewis outlines in The Great Divorce through the words of George Macdonald: "Hell is where God says to man, thy will be done." And he shows in this novel characters like Napoleon, who desperately resist the incessant grace of God towards them in their pride and self-justification. 

All humanity is guilty. All humanity is like Napoleon. We desperately resist the grace of God for the sake of our pride. 

If all humanity is under the condition that Paul describes in Romans 1, then only the reality of the remaining four points of calvinism could possibly save us:

The Unconditional Election of God the Father, that does not depend on our choosing to love and trust Jesus, but produces it,

The Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption of God, in which Christ crucifies precisely the sin of rejecting him as savior; he has forgiven God's elect precisely for the sin of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, 

The Irresistible Grace of God, in which God the Holy Spirit overwhelms our sinful hearts with the truth of the cross and the heart of God the Father towards humanity in Jesus Christ, and

The Perseverance of the Saints, by which the Holy Spirit sovereignly brings the work he has begun in these elect to completion.

These things ought to drive our personal evangelism, because they mean that the Triune God is able to save any human being we speak to, no matter how hard-hearted and depraved they may be. In fact, it teaches me that all humanity is totally depraved anyway, and so my faith can never be in how good a person may be, but it must be in the work of the Word and the Spirit alone. As Barth outlines so well in his commentary on Romans: with no possibility on our side, God's great possibility comes into view. 

Even if you are an arminian, you should evangelize like a calvinist, with no hope at all in the goodness or freewill of humanity, but with a robust faith in a sovereign God who is able to save any human being you are speaking to through the preaching of the Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:23).