The Monsters We Become

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Bob Bjerkaas

We have just closed out a month that we often associate with monsters.  Halloween, together with October, is behind us and we are moving on to turkeys and pilgrims.  Not so fast!  Monsters are still with us – and I am not referring to recent and current politicians of your choice.  I am talking about you and me.

Over the past three years I have been revisiting the great canon of Western literature – rereading books I haven’t read since my school years and visiting some classics for the first time.  The latter was the case with Mary Shelley’s provocative Frankenstein.  Upon finishing the book, several thoughts occurred to me, but none more forcefully than the biblical truth that “He who builds a high tower invites destruction.”  (Proverbs 17:19).  Billed as a modern day Prometheus, Shelley’s Frankenstein serves as a warning against striving for such an elevated greatness that destruction is the outcome.

Having only been familiar with the film versions of the Frankenstein story, I was surprised to discover that the book is really a story within a story.  In much the same was as the Princess Bride is a story about Grandpa telling Max a story about Wesley and Buttercup, Shelley’s classic is about Victor Frankenstein telling Captain Walton a story about himself and his monstrous creation.  And the broader story – the story of Victor and the ship captain, demonstrates the dominant theme of the book and serves as an apt illustration of our biblical principle. 

Upon rescuing Victor from an iceberg in the North Sea, Walton relates his burning desire to be the first to sail to the north pole.  Walton writes to his sister that he told Victor “how gladly I would sacrifice my fortune, my existence, my every hope, to the furtherance of my enterprise.  One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.”

Hearing this, Frankenstein is overcome with a deep gloom and begins to weep.  With a broken voice he says to Walton, “Unhappy man!  Do you share my madness?  Have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught?  Hear me: let me reveal my tale, and you will dash the cup from your lips!”

And so Frankenstein tells the tale of how, driven by a desire to advance beyond all others and to increase humanity’s dominion over nature, he created a life – the monster we today popularly refer to as Frankenstein.  The tale grows dark, and although Victor succeeded in his undertaking, one by one, his monster claims the lives of all who are close to Victor.

Like many pastors, I have been listening to Christianity Today’s podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.  The ten episodes of that podcast tell the sad tale of a pastor (together with a church leadership and culture), who pursued success at all costs.  Likening his ministry to a bus, that pastor even boasted that there was a trail of bodies behind his ministry.  People run over, people burnt out, people cast aside….

Many, many good things were undoubtedly accomplished at Mars Hill.  But the single-minded quest for success ended up destroying the entire enterprise.  And what happened in Seattle is not uncommon. A well intended quest for great success turns monstrous all too often.

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, the story ends with Walton’s ship becoming ice-bound and in very real danger of being crushed with the loss of all hands.  Tragically, Victor urges Walton to press on regardless of the cost.  Walton decides to forego his quest and preserve the lives of his crew and sets his sails for England.

Victor Frankenstein appears not to have learned the lesson of his own tale.  He is all for building towers as high as they can be built – regardless of the risk, trauma, and even death his activities impose on others.  And so the reader is compelled to wonder which is the worst monster, Victor Frankenstein, or the zombie he created.

And what about us?  Is it possible that we value success and accomplishment so much that we treat others monstrously?  Is it possible that we expose our families, friends, and colleagues to miseries that are acceptable to us because our goals and values are being pursued?

Choose to build carefully.  Know that you can build too high and bring about a destruction that will touch more souls than your own.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The picture is a headshot of the statue of Frankenstein on display in Geneva at Plainpalais, the site of the monster’s first murder. Photo credit could not be l0cated in the CNN article that ran this image.

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In Praise of Logic

Posted on October 13, 2021 by Bob Bjerkaas

It may a strange thing to title a pastoral note “In Praise of Logic.” To some it may seem silly – wouldn’t it be absurd to hold logic in contempt?

Yet, sadly, there are those who do. In one of post-modernity’s strangest developments, there are voices today that claim that the use of logic is itself an instance of an oppressive hegemony holding the disadvantaged down. Is logic ever used this way? Absolutely, and as a pastor it both grieves and appalls me. But is the use of logic itself essentially oppressive and therefore morally suspect. Absolutely not, and this position horrifies me far more.

When we consider what the Bible teaches about what it means to be created in the image of God, we find three aspects of what it means to bear God’s image.  There are three aspects of our being that are being renovated as God does his work in us.  We are being renewed in “knowledge” (Colossians 3:10), “righteousness,” and “holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). From the perspective of a Biblical worldview, it is important to recognize that being human means, among other things, being an essentially cognitive creature.[1] That does not mean exclusively cognitive – we are not merely brains or simply intellectual beings. But we are never called to be less than cognitive, or intellectual beings.

The manner in which we think may be broadly considered to be comprised of our logic. In Ecclesiastes 7:27 we find an ancient Semitic reference to logic: “Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things…” There are times when the scripturally enjoined work of ‘adding one thing to another’ is clearly to be inductive (reasoning from the specific to the general). In Proverbs 6:6 we read, “Go to the ant, you sluggard, and be wise.” We are to recognize the instance of the hardworking and resilient ant and learn a general lesson regarding work ethics that applies even to us humans. Logic can also be deductive (reasoning from general principles to specific instances). Titus 1:12-13 says, “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons…’ Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” Here we have a general abstract statement about the Cretans own self-assessment being applied specifically to the new believers on Crete who will need to forge new behaviors as they learn to follow Christ.

And logic is specifically connected to faith itself. In Hebrews 11:17-19 we read that, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac… of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Did you catch that! Abraham ‘considered’ (some translations read ‘reasoned”) that the two apparently contradictory words of God (that through Isaac Abraham’s lineage would be multiplied and that Isaac should be sacrificed on Mt Moriah) could be reconciled by assuming that God could raise the dead. His logic bolstered his faith and led to obedience.

Be logical. Your critical thinking about the many messages that bombard us in this brave new century is essential to your effective participation in life as a child of God. You were designed to think – and to do so in a cumulatively increasing, logical manner. What you do with your thoughts or how you abuse logic is an entirely different matter. But it is never to be accepted that using logic is itself a bad or suspicious endeavor.

The capacity to think logically is a gift that God has, by his common grace, given to all people without respect to their socially constructed identities. So, dear Christian, think!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] Perhaps in another one of these notes I will address what it means to bear God’s image in righteousness and holiness. This note will focus on knowledge.

N.B. The image is Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” on display at the Peabody Essex Museum’s exhibit: “Rodin: Transforming Sculpture.” (Andrea Shea/WBUR)

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Systemic Blessedness

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Bob Bjerkaas

A couple of subscribers have noted that no posts have been added to this blog for a couple of months now.  All is well – but things have been oddly hectic and life has been distracting.  Today I am not distracted.  The Bjerkaas family is quarantined as one of us was exposed to covid.  But you know what the Bible clearly teaches: “God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”  (Romans 8:28).

That verse has actually been going through my mind quite a bit of late.  Last week I conducted services for one of my oldest parishioners – Marge Bancroft was 98 years old and succumbed to some combination of pneumonia and covid.  Romans 8:28 was her favorite scripture and I was asked to speak about that verse at her memorial service.  And in thinking back on Marge’s life, and her attachment to that verse, I have been thinking about my own systemic blessedness.

The word systemic is something of a trigger these days.  My use of the word here is not intended to be provocative, my use of the word is due to it being the most appropriate word I am aware of.  According to dictionary.com, the word systemic has two definitions that are particularly appropriate for understanding Romans 8:28.  These are: (1) of or relating to a system, especially when affecting the entirety of a thing; and (2) relating to or noting a policy, practice, or set of beliefs that has been established as normative or customary throughout a political, social, or economic system.

Now consider what the word system means.  Again from dictionary.com:  an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole.

Think for a moment then about who you are.  What are the things or parts that make you that person? And think broadly.  What abilities and disabilities, opportunities and obstacles, successes and failures have contributed to forming the complex unity that is you.? Think about relational and familial circumstances, your economic situation, your unique cultural or ethnic contexts and attributes.  These are all ‘things’ that contribute to you being the unique bearer of the divine image that you are.  And God’s word informs you that in all of these ‘things’ in your life, God is providentially working for your good.

The word ‘all’ is a big word.  The apostle makes it clear that we are to understand this word in the largest sense conceivable when he goes on a few verses later to say that “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38-39).

In God’s providence and by his design, all of the things that contribute to your pilgrimage through this life are part of his purpose to bless you and not to harm you (Jeremiah 29:11).  Even when others actively and willfully seek your harm, God is in control securing your eventual and eternal blessedness (Genesis 50:20).  There is absolutely nothing about you or your life that can separate you from the grounds and source of your blessedness – the love of God; and there is nothing about your life that God is not actively “working together” for your good.

You, dear Christian, live in a world in which God himself is engaged in the business of systemically blessing you.  Whatever else you may think about the rights and wrongs being perpetrated by man against man in every conceivable relationship, never forget that the defining characteristic of the most important system in which you and I “live and move and have our being” is one in which God is working all things for our good.  His gracious favor is being expressed to you either directly or indirectly through every single thing – all things.  And there is nothing – no thing, that can separate you from the source of that wonderful blessing.   You are systemically blessed.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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Role Models

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Bob Bjerkaas

For the past twenty-five years I have selected one voice from the past to accompany on my pilgrimage through this often crazy world.  Each year I would pick one pastor or theologian and make it a point to read their sermons or books, study their biographies, and learn about their ministries – all in order to let them be a mentor and a pastor to me.  In so doing I have learned much from men like Calvin, Edwards, Augustine, Chapman Moody, Spurgeon, and, most recently, Thomas Brooks. Role models are important.

I have always believed that it is important to have role models.  I am not sure where I got the idea, but when I was in high school, I developed a list of ten men I wanted to be like.  I decided that I did not want to become someone by accident – I wanted to have a goal as to what kind of man I would be.  So I thought about my Dad – his greatest strength (and he has many) is his unmistakable love for his wife.  Dr. Olson from church was a model of humbly enjoying life.  I never heard Mr. Calvert speak a hasty word – he was very careful in his speech.  Mr. Dudek was the most generous man I have ever met.  Rocket Bergerson was compassionate to a fault.  Mr. Clifford was a model for my prayer life.

This past year I came across a very similar plan in Tomas Brooks’ appendix to his Memoir.  After a brief account of his difficult years of ministry, he attaches a summary of his final message to the church he pastored in which he offers his congregation a legacy that he wants them to embrace.  Writing in 1662, he says:

“I would leave you with this: Set the highest examples and patterns before your face of grace and godliness for your imitation.  In the business of faith, set an Abraham before your eyes; in the business of courage, set a Joshua; in the business of uprightness, set a Job; of meekness, a Moses, etc…  There is a disadvantage that redounds[1] to Christians by looking more backwards than forwards.  Men look on whom they excel, not on those they fall short of.  Of all examples, set them before you that are most eminent for grace and holiness, for communion with God, and acting for God.  Next to Christ, set the pattern of the choicest saints before you.”[2]

In the past I have challenged young folks I have mentored to make such lists and have often gotten a negative response: “I don’t want to have idols in my life, following Jesus is good enough for me.”

Well, this attitude is actually quite unbiblical!  In Philippians 4:9, Paul exhorts the church to make him a role model: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”  And in his first letter to Timothy, Paul instructs that young man to, “set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

Role models – examples of the Christian life well lived, are an essential part of healthy growth in godly living.  Who are your role models?  And what kind of role model are you?  To whom are you intentionally modelling the life of faith?

These are great questions to be asking yourself right now.  Here in sunny, southern California, things are finally opening up – folks are beginning to ‘dine in’ at the favorite restaurants, limited crowds are watching high school football and lacrosse games, classrooms are filling up.  People are reconnecting.  Each of the men who have served me as role models share something in common – they connected with me.  Mr. Calvert hired a fourteen year old kid to help him with his yard work.  Mr. Clifford got involved in high school ministry at our church.  Mr. Dudek and Dr. Olson took a special interest in their own children’s friends.  None of them needed to do such things – but they made a heavenly difference in more lives than my own.  As we reconnect, how can you be intentionally and personally present in the lives of those who can benefit from your example?  And post-Covid, how can you seek out the company of those whose example you might benefit from?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] The word ‘redounds’ is not so common today!  It comes from the same Latin root as our word ‘redundant’ and basically means to cause as an effect of; to return, or recoil.  A dictionary example is “Glory redounds to the brave.”  Glory is the effect caused by bravery.  Brooks’ statement means that the effect of only comparing yourself to Christians whom you perceive to be below you in gifts and graces will bring a disadvantageous effect.

[2] Thomas Brooks, “Appendix to Memoir,” The Works of Thomas Brooks, Vol. 1 (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1980) p. lxiv.

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Not a Pretty Look!

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Bob Bjerkaas

One of the things that I love about the English language is the way in which it freely borrows words from other cultures and languages in its quest for clarity and specificity.  From the French language we have bon voyage and faux pas.  From the Italian, prima donna.    The Greek language gives us hoi polloi.  Yiddish offers kitsch.   Aficionado comes from Spanish.  Latin is the source for phrases like pro bono and bona fide.  All of these words, technically called loanwords, come more or less directly from their original cultural and linguistic contexts because the receiving language or culture doesn’t already have a single word or conventionally understood phrase that is as clear and specific as the foreign option.  One such loanword that has come to mind in my studies on the book of Job is from the German language: schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is the feeling of pleasure one gets when someone they do not like experiences misfortune.  From the German word schaden (which means damage) and freude (which means joy), The word means to rejoice at damage done to another.[1]  We live in a cultural moment in which schadenfreude is all too common.  We see it when folks are glad that a star athlete from an opposing team is injured or unable to compete due to COVID.  Politics is rife with it – your opponent’s pain is your pleasure.  Pastorally I see it in the smirking smugness some express when someone who hurts them “gets what they deserve.”

So what does this have to do with book of Job?

Well, Job is introduced to us as a man who is “blameless and upright, who feared God and turned away from evil.”  (Job 1:1)  God himself says of Job, “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”  (Job 1:8).  In short, Job is, by the Lord’s own assessment, the godliest man alive in his day.  Nonetheless, Job suffers greatly, and the balance of the book of Job consists of Job’s rather intense and polarized conversation about the cause of his suffering that he has with his three friends.  After his three friends have exhausted their arguments against Job, Job offers a lengthy speech in his own defense which concludes with a final appeal in Job 31.  In this last chapter of Job’s speech, the godly man defends his integrity by offering a list of sins that he has not committed – sins which, had he committed them, might have warranted his great and many afflictions.

In Job 31:29 Job says:

“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of others, or exulted when evil overtook him. I have not let my mouth sin by asking for his life with a curse.”

When Job considered repugnant sins which might account for a punishment as severe as the suffering he was experiencing, schadenfreude made the list.  Would it make your list?  Have you rejoiced at the ruin of someone who hurt you?  Or experienced pleasure at some opponent’s misfortune? 

We live in very polarized times.  In a culture in which outrage and disrespect for others are becoming virtuous when expressed towards your opposites, schadenfreude is there as well.  Do you resent your enemy’s successes, and hope for their ruin?  When they suffer do you smile inwardly?  The example of Job anticipates the teaching of Jesus: Love your enemies.  Bless those who curse you.  (Luke 6:27-28)  Who do you need to bless today?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] American heritage Dictionary, s.v. “Schadenfreude.”

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“Where Ox and Ass are Feeding…”

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

The leftover turkey, cranberry salad, and pumpkin pie are gone and after a long and hard year, we are beginning our celebration of Advent.  The lights are beginning to go up on our streets, and the sweet sound of carols can be heard in our homes.  Christmas is coming!

Among the carols we love to sing is a rather old traditional English carol: “What Child Is This?”  The second verse begins with an interesting image.  After the first verse establishes who the child we celebrate is, the second verse asks, “Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?”

What do you think of that?  I must confess that for years I never gave these lyrics a second thought.  But then I stumbled across a short monograph entitled No Trace of Christmas? Discovering Advent in the Old Testament.[1]  Written by Christopher Dohmen, professor of Old Testament at the University of Osnabrück, this book, without so much as a mention of our English carol, has illuminated this verse for me.

In describing the early Christian representations of the manger scene, Dohmen makes an interesting observation.  “It is surprising,” he notes, “that long before the shepherds’ sheep can be found in these Christmas scenes, not one of them lacks an ox and a donkey [emphasis his].  We could almost get the impression that some one or other knew something about this ox and donkey that the evangelists no longer remembered, or had overlooked.  A search for this apparent lost tradition about the ox and ass at the manger is pretty exciting.  We find no story or reference to anyone at all who at any time might have retained a memory of an ox and a donkey; nevertheless, what we do find are the oldest pictorial representations of the Christmas message in Christianity – and they do not show what we would expect, Mary and Joseph and the child in the manger, but only the child in the manger, flanked by – an ox and a donkey!”

The early Christian tradition of the infant Christ being placed between an ox and a donkey finds what may be a representative explanation in an eighth or ninth century text anachronistically attributed to Jerome.  Sometimes known as “The Infancy Narrative,” this text reads:

“And on the third day after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most blessed Mary went forth out of the cave, and entering a stable, placed the child in the stall, and the ox and the ass adored him.  Then was fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’”[2]

The value of this late, apocryphal work lies in its connecting the early Christian association of the ox, the ass, and the manger with a particular scripture.  Isaiah 1:3 tells us that, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

The earliest Christian artistic reflections on the birth of Christ, rather than focusing on a historical representation of what that scene looked like, focused instead on a theological representation of the significance of what that scene offered.  For the early Christian community, the infant Christ was the true owner and sustainer of his people.  The ox and the ass are visible invitations to understand and acknowledge who Christ is and what he offers to all who humbly receive him.

Our old English carolers understood this.  “Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?  Good Christian, fear; for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.”

May your December be bright and full of music.  And may you find joy in taking your place alongside the ox and the ass this Advent season.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] Christopher Dohmen, No Trace of Christmas?: Discovering Advent in the Old Testament, trans., Linda Maloney (The Liturgical press: Collegeville, Minnesota, 2000).

[2] The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Chapter 14, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8, p. 375.

N.B. The image is the earliest known representation of the manger scene.  It is an engraving from a sarcophagus lid of a Roman general, Stilicho, believed to have died in 408 A.D.

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November 4th

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

When I was a boy I had a dot-matrix printed image on my bedroom wall.  I do not recall when or how I got it, but it was a two page long printout that had, in x’s and o’s a picture of John F. Kennedy together with a quote that I would have seen and read a thousand times during my elementary and middle school years: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  A patriot does things for his or her country.  A citizen ought to himself be an active agent in accomplishing the work of maintaining civilization – law and order, charity and justice.

This is doubly true for the Christian.

Although it is imperative that we maintain an unqualified commitment to be first and foremost “citizens of heaven” (Philippians 3:20), we are also called to submit to our local governments (Romans 13) and we are commanded to pray for our local rulers.  (1 Timothy 2)

There are two things about praying for your rulers that are important to note.  In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, tat we might lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

The first thing we should notice is that this is extremely important to Paul.  When he writes to Timothy and gives him instructions on the public worship that Timothy is responsible for, the first thing he talks about is prayers for all – singling out and explicitly noting the necessity of prayer for ALL secular authorities.  Isn’t it fascinating that in addressing the subject of worship he doesn’t first discuss the role of scripture reading, the length of the sermon, or the question of whether or not contemporary music can be sung?  It is important that when we worship, we, as a matter of first importance, pray for all of our leaders.

Sadly, this has ceased to be characteristic of many churches that I have visited.  During the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, dozens of orders for worship (liturgies) were crafted by reformers and counter-reformers alike.  Every such liturgy that I have ever read (and I have vast resources in that department!), included what John Calvin’s order for worship called the “Prayer for all Estates” – a prayer for all men, especially the secular authorities.  Such prayer is a mark of New Testament worship.  Do you participate in such prayers?

The second thing we should notice is that these two verses with their explicit command to pray for secular authority were written to Timothy when he was working in Ephesus (see 1 Timothy 1:3).  Ephesus was as secular and pagan a city in the Roman Empire as any.  It can scarcely be imagined that the “kings and all who are in high position” were either particularly godly or – more importantly, even interested in securing justice for the fledgling Christian community!  In a very real sense, especially during times of persecution (which at times included torture and execution), the church was commanded to pray for her enemies. How very like Christ, who, from the cross prayed about his executioners: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  (Luke 23:34).

Dear Christian, whether you are Red or Blue – and whether Trump or Biden wins, you have a job to do on November 4th.  Put aside this childish business of supposing that so-and-so is not your president. Whoever wins this election, your job is to pray for the president. Your commitment to this is not a measure of your affection for the winner on November 3rd, but of your obedience to the God who has given you salvation and called you to live a life that is increasingly out of step with the angry, partisan, and immature culture in which we live.  Pray for your president on November 4th  And on Inauguration Day, keep praying, whether it is the same man or not. This is one of the greatest things that you can do for your country.

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

N.B. The banner is clipped from an uncredited work called “red and blue abstract” in the free art collection hosted by Getty Images online.

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Are You Wearing Your Mask?

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

Among the many things that we will never forget about the year 2020 is the ubiquitous mask.  Masks are everywhere.  They are in the car on the dashboard or center console.  They are on the end table, the kitchen counter, and the hutch in the dining room.  They are on my dresser.  They are in a pile on top of the clothes dryer.  They are everywhere.

And they are uncomfortable.  They make your glasses fog up.  The straps chafe behind your ears.  All of this is particularly unfortunate because they are required to be out and about in public.  Going shopping?  Don’t forget your mask – you won’t be allowed into the store without it!  Going out to dinner – bring your mask.  Going to church – masks required.  And should you be so unfortunate as to forget to put your mask on, prepare for our oh-so-polite culture’s stare downs and passive aggressive commentary!

But one thing that I appreciate about masks is the way they have reminded me to be careful what comes out of my mouth.  In Psalm 39:1, David says, “I will guard my ways, that I might not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle.”

Much like the purpose of our 2020 masks, the purpose of David’s muzzle was very simple – to keep bad stuff from leaving his mouth.

Think about how many times the things that you have said have either caused or contributed to some of your worst difficulties.  How often have your words caused others unnecessary stress and pain?  Your tongue is described in the Bible as either being a “tree of life” or a weapon.   You bless people with your tongue but you also use it to curse them.  (James 3:10).  You, dear friend, need to put a mask on!

For the foreseeable future, you and I will need to put masks on whenever we go out into public.  And we will get nasty looks when we forget!  Up until this year I never knew what an N95 mask was – or why they were so important to our medical professionals and health service providers.  Do you as a Christian know how important the PS39 mask is?  As you minister to the people around you by what you say, will you be sure to wear it?  Will you, like David in Psalm 39, guard your ways – avoiding sin with your tongue by wearing a muzzle?

I think that there has been a shortage of PS39 masks this year.  This is especially important in your homes.  Be careful and intentional in the way that you speak to your spouse and kids.  And carry that diligence into your workplace and neighborhood as well!  Just think of how the virus of hurtful and useless words could be reduced if we all wore the PS39 mask!

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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Black Beauty and Cultural Creation

Posted on September 3, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

When we see things around us that we do not approve of, one of our first instincts as human beings is to complain.  Complaining comes more naturally to the human being than breathing itself.  Many of us had to be spanked by a doctor to start breathing.  I have yet to see the small child who needed coaxing before uttering his or her first critique of the world around them.

 Some of the things we feel moved to complain about are trifling.  In all honesty – most things we complain about today will be a profound embarrassment to us in the world to come, should we even remember them!  But some of the things that we see in the world around us are not trifling.  Some of them are quite serious and should not be meekly accepted.  Some things (for me things like abortion, slavery – yes, it is still practiced in the world today, – and pornography) require some intentional response and active opposition.

But how should we as Christians respond to things in our broader culture that we simply cannot condone?  Two biblical principles bring to mind a prime example of one way to productively engage our culture in a manner that transcends the anger, hatred, and merely destructive critiques that come from every corner of the political spectrum of our day.  These principles are: (1) don’t complain, and (2) actually love your enemies/opposers.

Philippians 2:14 commands us to “do everything without complaining or arguing.”  The scriptures repeatedly require us to love our enemies and to repay no one evil for evil. (See, for example, Matthew 5:43 and Romans 12:14,17).  So how can we respond to injustice or depravity as it occurs all around us?  By graciously and respectfully loving those with whom we disagree.  Please read that again.

“But that would never work!” you say.  “I need to rant against them, ‘cancel’ those who oppose my views, and maybe even burn their house and business down!”   Well, allow me to introduce you to a remarkable woman: Anna Sewell.

Anna Sewell

Anna Sewell was a devout Christian woman who grew up in England in the nineteenth century.  She was the eldest of two kids born into a poor family.  Her mother, Mary Sewell, was a children’s author who wrote a series of evangelical stories that Anna helped her to edit.  During her childhood, Anna suffered a crippling injury that made her dependent upon a crutch for walking and required her to rely upon horse drawn carriages for moving about in public.  Throughout the nineteenth century, one of the less well-known issues that many Christians responded to was animal cruelty – especially the cruelties that were directed at horses.  As early as 1820, the English Parliament had considered legislation to curb the abuse of horses – but such efforts always failed.  And as Anna’s life was drawing to a close, she resolved to do something – to create something – as a way of redressing an ill that she perceived in her world.

Anna, at the age of 51, was bed-ridden and was still living with her parents (she never married).  In 1871 she began dictating the story of Black Beauty to her mother.  In so doing, Anna Sewell wrote what would become a best-selling work of children’s fiction that has continually been in print since its publication.  She also created an entirely new genre of modern fiction.  Black Beauty is the first book in which animals are the speaking protagonists!  Everything from Wind in the Willows to Watership Down follows the literary track she pioneered.  And the book made (in historical perspective) an immediate impact on the treatment of horses in England – and in the English-speaking world generally.  Within a few years of the book’s publication in 1877, the cruelties that Anna so mildly and graciously addresses in her story became unpopular and faded away.  Horses were no longer subjected to things like bearing reins and arbitrary beatings.

Pick up a copy of this wonderful book.  Don’t settle for the movie version or waste your time with some abridged children’s’ edition.  And notice the respectful dialogue, the sympathetic portrayals even of some characters who deal harshly with their horses.  And notice the balanced and apropos use of scripture as the human cast of characters engage with the issue!

The pen is mightier than the sword.  Put more broadly, I would suggest that creation is more powerful than destruction.  Everyone can merely complain and critique.  Anyone can destroy.  And destruction brings only ruin.  You can see something you disapprove of in your spouse, your kids, your community, your nation, your church…, and you can give full vent to your complaints and critiques and proceed to metaphorically or literally burn the house down.  Anyone can do that.  We have all done so at various times.

But what if instead of tearing something down, you decided to actually do something positive – to use whatever gifts and abilities God has given you to build a new reality in which people are able to imagine or experience a better version of their world?  A world in which they can be and do differently than whatever they have settled for instead?  Anna Sewell, who by the mid-1870s was bedridden and had trouble speaking clearly, spent the last years of her invalid life stammering out the story of a speaking horse.  And she was able to inflame the passions of an entire linguistic world to come alongside her in her quest for a more biblical society.[1]  And with respect to the estate of horses, she was wildly successful.

Dear Christian, how can you begin creating culture today?

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

[1] If you read Black Beauty, you will also see that she was concerned about the rampant alcoholism in London and the way in which the working class was de facto unable to enjoy a day of Sabbath rest.

N.B. The images, in order, are (1) a picture from the front cover of the edition of Black Beauty that I recently purchased from Barnes & Noble – a great valuel and, (2) one of the few photographs of Anna Sewell.

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Motorcycle Clubs and Deacon Boards

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Bob Bjerkaas

On the weekend of our friend Jake’s funeral, we got to know a group of men called the Michigan Dressers.  For those of us who are not initiated into the world of motorcycle clubs, the name seems odd.  But to those in the know, it means that they were all Harley Davidson enthusiasts based in Michigan and committed to one another enough to buy matching leather jackets and spend weekends together.

We were staying right on the shore of Lake Huron in Oscoda, Michigan in a 1950s style establishment – the Lake Trail Lodge.  The lodge consisted of two long rows of adjoined two-bedroom cabins separated by a parking loop and a small green space.  Our unit was at the inland end of the southern row – the entire remainder of the row was fronted by Harleys and occupied by bikers.  On Saturday night, various subsets of these guys went out for night rides.  Being on the inland end of our row, they all rode by a couple feet from my bedroom window – so I spent the night dreaming that I was front row at a NASCAR event.

Sunday morning comes early and I step out wearing my suit and tie – ready to preach at Grace Community Church in front of actual live people for the first time in months!  And between me and the guest lounge across the parking loop (where the coffee is) are about fifty bikes and bikers – freshly returned from their night rides!  Beautiful bikes – and really great guys.  We talked about their club, their families, my brief career as a biker (it ended when due to a visual oversight I had to lay my buddy Ricky Lee’s Honda down…  I figured visual impairments and motorcycles don’t mix well..).  And I invited all of them to church with me.  Sadly, they were too tired.  But in speaking with them I learned something about the nature of their club – and perhaps other motorcycle clubs as well.

It turns out that if a member of the Michigan Dressers needs something – another Michigan Dresser steps up.  I heard stories about club members who were lawyers, dentists, tow truck owner/operators, general contractors, and electricians.  If a club member was in a bind and another club member had the resources or skill set to help – they did.  My primary conversation partner told me about his wife breaking down (driving a car) in Indiana – and a club member took the day off and drove his tow truck down to get her taken care of.  They see themselves as family and choose to act like a functional one.

Amazing.  When the Bible calls us to “contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13) and to “show hospitality to one another without grumbling,” (1 Peter 4:9) – this is what is meant!  Hospitality in the culture of the Bible is so much more than inviting folks over for Sunday lunch.  It involves discovering their needs and sacrificially – inconveniently – meeting those needs.

And, like a functional bike club, the church steps up and steps in to help those who are in dire straits.

This past weekend, my daughter Maggie and her college roommate were driving from Saint Louis to Los Angeles – and broke down just outside of Albuquerque.  First thing I did was go to our Presbyterian Church in America website, clicked on the “church finder” tab – and started calling PCA churches in Albuquerque.  Before I finished leaving my third message, I got a call back from a deacon named Steven.  Forty five minutes later Steven, a firefighter by vocation and a deacon in the church, was sitting with the girls, helped them get the car towed to a Toyota dealer (it was an ’03 Camry), and dropped them off at a reputable hotel in town.  And he arranged for another couple in the church to come pick them up for church on Sunday morning (he was working on Sunday).  As I write this note, the girls are five hours away and will get here in time for my beautiful wife’s birthday dinner (it’s a BIG one – starts with a 5 and ends with a 0…) 

This is one of the ways that we “pay forward” the love of God that he has shown us in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  How can you help others?  Do you know others enough to know what their needs are and how you might be able to help them?  Do you have skills or resources that you can share?  The deacons here at Church in the Canyon do a lot of work helping people – not simply in our church family but in our community as well.  Pray for them, support their ministry, and if you are interested, contact them and let them know that if anyone needs _____________, you might be able to help with that! 

So, if by any chance any Michigan Dressers stumble upon this post via a google search, I was inspired to meet you all – what a great bunch of guys.  And be sure to plan on visiting Grace Community Church the next time your ride takes you through Oscoda.  And for the rest of us.  Let’s be like a bike club.  Let’s cultivate and exercise a diaconal, sacrificial, hospitable love for one another.  And I will let you know when I figure out how to order us matching leather jackets…

Your Pastor,

Bob Bjerkaas

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