New Collection of Wendell Berry Poems Is Worth a Look
Monday, October 06, 2008

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the work of Wendell Berry. I was thrilled to see a new collection of Berry's "mad farmer" poems published by Counterpoint Press.

I picked up two copies of The Mad Farmer Poems, one for myself and one for my favorite fellow Berryphile, my colleague Don Whitney.

This edition is a beautiful large volume with engravings by illustrator Abigail Rorer. My favorite work in the collection is Berry's poem "Some Further Words," which includes these lines:

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Read My Fish: Surrendering Our Freedoms to Follow Our Christ
Monday, September 22, 2008

Johnny Cash once said that he believed the First Amendment to the Constitution gave you the right to burn a flag, and that the Second Amendment gave him the right to shoot you if you tried to burn his. I don't agree with his interpretation of either amendment, but one could fill days and days with arguments about the precise rights granted by the writings he mentioned, and their limits.

Rights are important. I'm glad for the Boston Tea Party and Rosa Parks. Often, though, our rights talk is about much less than social justice. It's often about personal prerogative. As followers of Christ, we know, though, that we're more than just a collection of our individual, personal rights. The call of Jesus means walking away from some things, including our craving to cling to some of our personal freedoms.

Yesterday at Highview, I preached on this call to walk away from some of our personal freedoms. In Matthew 17:24-27, the Spirit shows us something of the Christ-life in the most ordinary of circumstances: the paying of a bill. You can listen to the audio of "Read My Fish, Some New Taxes: Surrendering Our Freedom to Follow Our Christ" here.

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Should a Minister Preach the Funerals of Unbelievers?
Monday, September 15, 2008

In the last commentary, I argued that a Christian minister ought not to officiate at wedding ceremonies for unbelievers. These weddings, I argued, represent the trivialization of the Christian ministry and a loss of pastoral courage. Since then, I've received lots of queries about funerals. Should a Christian minister preach the funeral of an unbeliever? That's a very good question.

Some of the saddest moments of my ministry have been in funeral homes, preaching for people I didn't know. Early on in ministry, I became the "go to" minister for a local mortician when one of his deceased passed away with no religious affiliation. I've seen almost empty chapels, with no one to do the eulogy but me. And I've seen full chapels of family members who clearly hated the deceased. I had one deceased woman's daughter tell me there was nothing positive she could think to say about her mother, nothing at all, except that she did feed the birds in her backyard.

Do I think it was biblically acceptable to preach those funerals? Yes. Would I do it again today? Yes.

A funeral is an entirely different matter than a wedding. A wedding is about the near future (near meaning the next thirty to seventy years or so). A funeral is about the past, and about the ultimate future (the resurrection from the dead). A wedding is the witnessing of vows, the calling together of a covenant between two persons. A funeral doesn't call any reality together. It commits the body of the dead to the earth and awaits the resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

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Should a Minister Officiate at the Weddings of Unbelievers?
Thursday, September 11, 2008

Early in my ministry, I found myself staring at the ceiling for hours each night, night after night. I had a decision to make, and I didn't know what to do.

A couple, both of whom I cared about, asked me to officiate at their wedding. Neither of them were followers of Jesus. It was a torturous quandary because I wanted an ongoing relationship with them, as an inroad to the gospel.

This couple wasn't in disobedience to the Word of God. This wasn't the "unequal yoking" of a believer to an unbeliever. That would have been an easy decision, since the Scripture forbids it as sin.

Marriage though, unlike baptism and the Lord's table, is a creation ordinance, given to all people (Gen 2:23-24). It is good for unbelievers to marry rather than to live in immorality. It's good for them, for their children, and for society as a whole.

If I'd been in another Christian communion, I guess I could have called my Bishop. I'm a Baptist though. I was the bishop.

I called several pastors I know. One told me he marries virtually whoever asks, provided it fits with his schedule, but he saves the "really nice" ceremony for those who are believers. Another told me he routinely married unbelievers, as a means of sharing the gospel with them in premarital counseling.

I went away from these conversations depressed. It seemed to me there was something trivializing about these conversations, trivializing of both marriage and the call to preach.

Now, a dozen years later, I find that this question, should a minister officiate at the weddings of unbelievers, remains one of the most pressing questions for young ministers. So many have asked this question, that I've decided to put my counsel in print and say to young ministers what I wish someone had said to me.

No.

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Kingdom First: How the Reign of Christ Transforms Our Lives, Our Churches, and Our World
Monday, September 08, 2008

In the pre-World War II era, those opposed to war in Europe dubbed themselves "America Firsters." They argued that "foreign entanglements" overseas would divert the loyalty of Americans from their own land and their own Constitution. Their opponents, of course, argued (I think rightly) that "America First" merged instead into an "America Only" attitude that endangered the world and, ultimately, America itself.

We hear an awful lot these days about the Kingdom of God, and rightly so. Jesus himself calls us to seek first the Kingdom and God's righteousness, even before such primal necessities as food and clothing (Matt 6:25-34). Often, though, the Kingdom is defined in decidedly boring terms... another denominational program, another political slogan, another campaign for more private devotional times or community improvement projects.

The Kingdom of God, though, is an explosively veiled inbreaking into the present world order of the reign of Jesus himself as emperor of the cosmos. It ought then to change the way we see ourselves, and our place in this age and in the one to come.

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Southern Seminary and the ESV Study Bible
Friday, September 05, 2008

I received in the mail yesterday sample selections from the upcoming ESV Study Bible, and was proud to note that a number of faculty members here at Southern Seminary were involved in this project.

New Testament scholar Thomas R. Schreiner, who serves as one of my associate deans here in the School of Theology, served as the New Testament Editor for the ESV Study Bible. Duane A. Garrett contributed the notes for the Book of Proverbs, John Polhill wrote the study notes for the Book of Acts, and Professor Schreiner wrote the notes for the Books of Luke, Romans, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude.

The ESV Study Bible also includes numerous articles on various topics, and several faculty members contributed to the project in this way.

Mark Dever, the chairman of the board of trustees at Southern Seminary, wrote the article, "God's Plan for Salvation." Professor Schreiner wrote articles entitled, "The Theology of the New Testament" and "Reading the Epistles," Peter Gentry wrote an article on "The Septuagint," Gregg R. Allison wrote an article on "The Bible in Christendom: Roman Catholicism," and Bruce Ware contributed two more articles: "The Bible in Christendom: Liberal Protestantism" and "The Bible in Christendom: Evangelical Protestantism." James M. Hamilton, Jr. was also consulted on New Testament charts and timelines.

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Browse Past Commentaries · Search Commentaries

• Predestined to What? Why the Doctrine of Election Is So Hard to Believe

• You Cannot Serve Both God and Mummy: Pharaoh Hunger and the Draw of a Golden Calf Spirituality

• I Want to Be in That Thunder: Why We Can't Hear the Great Commission

• Have Baptists Changed or Has Culture? The Baptist View of the Family

• Disposable Communion Sets and Other Signs of the End Times

• Jesus, Take the Meal: Why We're Afraid of the Lord's Table

Henry Institute Audio

• Palin pick divides Baptists
The Tennessean NEW

• Obama risking pro-life backlash
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• The right's Wrights
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• Jeremiah Wright & conservatives who preach like him
Florida Baptist Witness

• Faith healer Todd Bentley called a fraud, false teacher
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• SBTS prof: McLaren 'Serpent-sensitive'
Baptist Press

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