Colin's Corner - February 2021

My Dear Friends,                                                                   

You’ve got to reckon with three central truths in order to navigate through life properly, according to Proverbs.  First, the universe operates on the principle of cause and effect; or to apply the truth more directly to human action: the principle of action and consequence.  Or sowing and reaping.  This explains the Proverbs’ preoccupation with metaphors of development.  “A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth.”  “The root of the righteous bears fruit.”  “The righteous will flourish like a green leaf.”

Seeds grow into fruit.  Roots branch out.  Things develop for better (“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until full day”) or worse (“The way of the wicked is like deep darkness”).  Whatever the effect, Proverbs tells us that it did not eventuate in a vacuum, but only after a series of causes.

Not only do actions lead to consequences, but inactivity, also, leads to…nothing.  Sometimes that nothing is good: “For lack of wood the fire goes out/ and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.”  Sometimes that nothing feels unpleasant, like after the lazy person refuses to act: “The sluggard does not plow in the autumn/ he will seek at harvest and have nothing.”

You should buy into this law.  Accept it and don’t chafe under it.  Life is, to a large degree, predictable.  The diligent will have.  The man who cultivates wise speech succeeds.  The person who works on causes can (to a large degree) fashion particular effects.

Secondly, the universe functions this way because the Creator made it this way: “The LORD by wisdom founded the earth/ by understanding He established the heavens/ by his knowledge the deeps broke open/ and the clouds drop down the dew.”

So, behind (or in, or whatever preposition you want to use!) this principle of cause and effect is a Person, the God.  God is not confined!  He doesn’t live and act in some so-called spiritual world where the laws of cause and effect turn to mush and everything becomes unpredictable.

Truth # 2 renders things more complex.  For example: Let’s say we buy into truth # 1, the rule of cause and effect.  We enjoy the fact that the universe is predictable.  We take a deep dive into causes and come up with a list of winners and losers in life.  And according to our calculations, the fatherless (especially in the ancient Near Eastern world) would come out a loser.  He has no protection against the strong, little opportunity to develop causes that will lead to success, little guidance.

But lo! “Do not move an ancient landmark/ or enter the fields of the fatherless/ for their Redeemer is strong/ He will plead their cause against you.”  That’s what I call a Variable!  Part of understanding the universe of cause and effect is being told there is a God (here, the strong Redeemer) who takes up for the fatherless.  Here is a Cause, or better, a Causer, that we didn’t reckon with in our original calculations!  This truth of the Causer (pardon the awkward, unbiblical title) does not negate the law of cause and effect, but it does expand it and personalize it.

Part of the savvy and cunning of living well is factoring in a God who has declared His investments and opinions, and then making decisions accordingly. In other words, living well is not just doing the smart thing, it is also doing the good thing.

Thirdly, because of the combinations of truth # 1 and truth # 2, life is, to some degree, inexplicable.  “It is the glory of God to conceal things...”  You can never totally figure out life.  First round draft picks are sometimes busts.  The laboratory cannot simulate life.  Did you hear the Scottish poet: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley”.

But Proverbs is no house of cards that collapses with truth # 3.  Life is still largely predictable.  It is still wisdom to work the causes, to develop a work ethic, a careful speech, a self-control, qualities that comprise the righteous roots of the good life.

And now, a repeated proverb for you: “The sluggard does not plow in autumn/ he will seek in harvest, and have nothing.” There it is, a good wall to lean against, something that we can stop wondering: The tedium of plowing and sowing must precede any harvest – in child rearing, prayer, personal wisdom, understanding God, vocation, etc.

According to truth # 1 we will plow.  According to truth # 2 we will hope that the effort of our plowing will be outmatched by the harvest’s bounty, because there is a Redeemer.  According to truth # 3, we will not busy ourselves with comparing the effects with the causes, but we will work the causes.

Brothers and sisters, let us believe in a process.  Let us not be the sort of persons who are dissatisfied unless they meet with the spontaneous and unexplained.  Let us not neglect the process and then hope for a miracle.  Sometimes God works miracles but always He commands work.  Then, let us believe God.  And our faith is neither in a miracle nor in a process but in the God who has spoken – yes, even in Proverbs.

Yours sincerely,

Colin Landry

Colin's Corner - January 2021

My Dear Friends,

The new year is upon us, and naturally we think of how 2021 could be better than 2020.  One place that always could stand some improvement is mentioned by our Lord in Matthew 6,6: your room. 

When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

Where is your room for prayer?  Of course, we can speak to God so that he listens anywhere and anytime, but here Jesus refers to a specific place to routinely enter in order to say some things to God.  Not a church building, though; this is a place where it’s in your power to enter and exit, where it’s up to you whether the door is shut against any disturbances, or not.  A private and quiet place. 

Fill in the blank: My place of prayer is __________________________. 

Throughout my years and with contributions from various people, my list of possibilities for  rooms for prayer grows longer. 

  • Even in the tiniest of houses, there’s normally a small closet.  In his Autobiography, the missionary John Paton spoke movingly of the effect of hearing his dad in his prayer closet:

Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, were blotted from my understanding, my soul would wander back to those early scenes, and shut itself up once again in that Sanctuary Closet, and, hearing still the echoes of those cries to God, would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal, "He walked with God, why may not I?" 

  • The Victorian era English preacher Charles Spurgeon said that the prayer room could be, ironically, downtown.  In the middle of the anonymous crowd truly no one will disturb you… get to praying!

  • In the shower, away from the badgering kids. 

  • In the walk-in closet off the MBR.  

  • In the car, while commuting to work. 

  • In the car, parked in some quiet place.  I’ve hit upon one such – the back of Newton Andover Seminary in the early morning.  Don’t join me there: find your own place.  I found it first!    

  • Early morning or late-night through the neighborhoods or winding through forested paths. 

  • The “wee small hours” and the “midnight oil” hours themselves can be sectors away from people and distractions.  Mark 1:35: And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

  • Some cold, out-of-the-way section of your house, equipped with a space heater.

Really, the possibilities of what constitutes a good prayer room are endless.  And your place to pray can change over time.  What can’t change, though, is the determination to return over and over to the place where you meet with God.

“Father who is in secret” is entrancing, isn’t it?  In some respects, God is off the maps, “dwelling among untrodden ways.”  You don’t stumble upon him but must go searching for him.  And this particular kind of seeking him (the kind we’re discussing) must always be a solitary pilgrimage. 

Or, using our Lord’s imagery, our contacts and friends and Siri are on the other side of the door doing their things, and you – body, soul, and spirit- are alone going after the God who hides.

That point can’t be stressed enough: Jesus is instructing us to place a barrier before the external noise so we can better concentrate in our prayer.  Thing is, we have enough of a problem to quiet or ignore the internal noise arising out our own heads: plans, fears, reviewed conversations, etc etc.  Add the smart phone with all its distracting potential to our runaway thoughts, and more than likely you can kiss your prayers goodbye.    

And “reward you” is tantalizing, isn’t it?  We all stand in need of a few of the same things from God, plus each of us has a few particular hankerings.  God does hand out things, some of those come our way only after privately meeting with him.  And even though meeting with him is as simple as entering a room and shutting the door, something or other makes those simple actions to be pretty durn difficult.  So, as it is, God ends up giving us a reward for doing something childishly simple, yet hard.

What are the Almighty’s prizes?   A raise?  Increased will power?  Muffin top gone?  Or being reconciled to the idea of the muffin top?   Spark in the marriage?  A gentler disposition?  Debts eradicated?  Good ideas?  Converts?  Steadiness?  Erased shame?  Obedient dog?  Relationships eased and honest?  Projects completed?  Children walking in the truth?    

Well, reward is left open-ended, so we can figure generally that things will improve once we get to praying.  So my vote is “yes” to all the above queries. 

What’re your choice phrases for the blessing-reward you’d like from God?  Here’s mine, for myself and others: “I will run in the way of your commandments/ when you enlarge my heart” and “I shall walk in a wide place/ for I have sought your precepts.”   

As never before, in 2021 may you find room and the room to meet with God.  May you be given the will to and the actual shutting of the door.  Then may God Himself be your reward and also give you the reward, either the one you’ve sought after or the one you should have. 

Yours sincerely,

Colin Landry 

Colin's Corner - December 2020

My Dear Friends,
 
It hasn’t been the easiest year, but let’s remember and thank God for two major building projects completed in 2020.  In March, the week after we shut the doors on normal church operations due to Covid, the organ repairers finished their multi-week renovations.  And this week (D.V.) the front and middle doors have been replaced and hung, and the long punch list to finish the project will have been checked off. 
 
So for those keeping track at home, toward the start of the year the old doors were closed…and now at the end of the year we’re opening the new doors!  Hallelujah!
 
Especially from the outside, just looking at our new doors one doesn’t notice that much of a difference, except everything seems a little more ship-shape, not as tired.  But then go to open them and you’ll be struck by how substantial they are and how smoothly they swing on their hinges.  A big improvement, actually.  Sure, they’re just new doors, but they give off the impression that, with their arrival, 23 Chapel has taken a large forward step.  We congratulate and are thankful to Sten Havumaki, the craftsman who fabricated and installed the doors. 
 
Exterior doors are a very minor piece of a building’s entire structure, but their relatively small size belies their importance.  I’ve walked around a lot of Newton, and I’m sure you’ll agree that the city possesses some beautiful houses.  But occasionally, one comes across this kind of disappointment: a beautifully proportioned house with elegant, tasteful landscaping that’s spoiled by an ugly or tawdry or wimpy door.  What were the builders or owners thinking?  When you’re deciding on the focal point of the house it’s not the time to suddenly lose your architectural vision or go cheap.  Doors – their existence, their function, their look – are quite important.
 
Doors have a way of occupying a chief position in our consciousness and recollections.  Consider movies: Can you envision the gates leading into Jurassic Park?  (Thought so.)  Ok, then, how about the walls around the park? (Didn’t think so.)  When I think of the Shire of Middle Earth, my mind goes straightaway to those cozy circular doors built into the earth through which you’d enter a hobbit’s home.  Or how about the Wardrobe in the attic, the doorway into the land of Narnia? 
 
And in real life, when you’re driving from the home you’ve just visited, your last real look isn’t toward the roof or arbor leading to the back yard or anything else… but to the door.  And often you’ll see, silhouetted in the threshold of that door, your host waving goodbye… Goodbye, goodbye.  And then as you pass the door she turns away into the house, perhaps sighing to herself, Well, that wasn’t so bad.
 
The Scriptures confirm our sense that doors have an outsized importance; indeed, they’re significant enough to function reliably as symbols and metaphors.  Probably the most familiar metaphorical use of doors is to connote opportunity.  A few times Paul speaks of “open doors” for ministry.  On the other hand, in Jesus’ parables of the ten virgins, the door that closes on five of them implies that their opportunity has run out. 
 
I recall that Mrs. Viall, EBC’s founding pastor’s wife, used to insist that the gate to 23 Chapel be left open.  By that open door, she wanted to portray to the public that, no matter how dismal their situation had become, God offers hope for change: changed marriages, changed thoughts, changed offspring…opportunity of salvation!   May the arrival of these new doors be accompanied by God opening new opportunities for ministry. 
 
In the Scriptures, doors also speak of impending change.  “The Judge is standing at the door,” James writes, speaking of Jesus’ approach toward the Church.  The door is about to swing open, and the Lord will come through, and then who knows what things will happen then?!  Yes, the door opens, and sometimes Blessing walks through.  Many of us remember the first time we grasped the handle and entered through the old doors of 23 Chapel, and truly that passage has altered our life for good. 
 
On the other hand, God tells Cain that “sin is crouching at the door,” ready to enter and wreak havoc.  Good can come through the doors; so can evil.   Doors remind us to be both eagerly watchful for new positive developments and unceasingly vigilant against threats.  May God send through these new doors new blessings while also shutting evil out. 
 
I could go on with “Scriptures and Doors” for a long while.  But I’ll conclude with this prayer:
 
Our Father in Heaven,
We thank you for new doors.
May your name be hallowed in our church, corporately and privately.  As we recited on Sunday, may we “open wide our doors” to the King of Glory. 
May your kingdom come.  May many of our family and friends enter your household through Jesus Christ, the Door to eternal life.
May your will be done.  Especially, grant to your church the heart to regularly find some seclusion, to “shut the door” to the noise of the world, and pray in secret to our Father who is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread.  Bless the passages of our lives: our going forth and our coming in.
Forgive us our trespasses.  Lord Jesus, forgive us when you stand and knock on the doors of our heart, in order to come in and fellowship, and we be too disheartened to open the door to you.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us: Open a door for us, that no man can shut. 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Colin Landry