In this
issue:
i) To know the
Story - J. Carattini
ii) The Book of
Review (Deuteronomy - Chs 21 and 22) - Part 3 - C.E. Wigg
To know the
Story
Jill
Carattini
Science fiction novelist Kurt
Vonnegut once said of one of his most recurrent characters, "Trout was the only
character I ever created who had enough imagination to suspect that he might be
the creation of another human being. He had spoken of this possibility several
times to his parakeet." In a scene from the book Breakfast of Champions,
Kilgore Trout's haunting suspicion is unveiled before him. Sitting content at a
bar, Kilgore is suddenly overwhelmed by someone or something that has entered
the room. Beginning to sweat, he becomes uncomfortably aware of a presence far
greater than himself.
The author himself, Kurt Vonnegut,
has stepped beyond the role of narrator and into the book itself. The effect is
as bizarre for Kilgore as it is for the readers. When the author of the book
steps into the novel, fiction is lost within a higher reality, and Kilgore
senses the world as he knows it collapsing. In fact, this was the author's
intent. Vonnegut has placed himself in Kilgore's world for no other reason than
to explain the meaninglessness of Kilgore's life. He came to explain to Kilgore
face to face that the very tiresome life he has led was, in fact, all due to the
pen and whims of an author. In this twisted ending, no doubt illustrative of
Vonnegut's own humanism, Kilgore is forced to conclude that apart from the
imagination of the author he does not exist. Ironically, he also must come to
terms with the fact that it is because of the author that his very existence has
been ridiculous.
The Gospel writers tell a story that
is perhaps as fantastic as Vonnegut's tale, though it is one with consequences
in stark contrast. The Gospel of John begins with a story that is interrupted by
the presence of the author: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him
all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him
was life, and that life was the light of men… And the word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a Father's only son,
full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received grace upon
grace" (John 1:1-3,14). As Eugene Peterson translates, "The word became flesh
and blood and moved into the neighborhood." But in this story, the presence of
the author is our good.
Working in an urban ministry setting
many years ago, I saw a small glimpse of the strange effects of incarnation.
During the first year, I lived in an apartment just outside the city. But during
the second year I was able to move into the neighborhood where many of the
children involved in our ministry lived. The difference was profound. Teenagers
that previously had held me at arms length came closer. Kids continually came to
my door to ask if I could play. I was living among them and it was not unusual
for them to mention it. One girl told me that she knew I was real because I
stayed around after dark. In her eyes I was now interested in her life in a way
she could tangibly grasp. I was a hand to clasp on the way home, a next-door
neighbor to sit with on the porch, a heart that knew both the joys and fears of
the city. Stepping into their world changed everything.
How much more the author of life has
stepped into our world to change our lives. John relays as an eyewitness that
Jesus Christ, God incarnate, fully divine and fully human, came to live among
our world in flesh and blood. Eternity stepped into time bringing grace and
truth. The author of life stepped into the presence of creation bringing the
message of eternity, proclaiming the meaning of life. It is a story that turns
the mind inside out with questions of existence and truth. But in intense
contrast to Kilgore's conclusions of purposelessness, we are strangely called to
be a greater part of the storyline.
In the words of G.K. Chesterton, "I
have always felt life first a story: and if there is a story there is a
story-teller." Christ stepped into our world to touch the story of our lives
with a hand and a face, in order that we might know him, and grasp that we are
known. His is the story we are invited to see as our own.
How shall we respond? Let us not, as
Isaiah warned the people of his day, turn things upside down, regarding the
potter as the clay, or the author as man's imagination. Asks Isaiah, "Shall the
thing that was made say of its maker, 'He did not make me' or the thing formed
say of him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?" To know the author is to
know the story in its fullness and our lives as they were written. His presence
is our overwhelming good.
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[Copyright(c) 2005 Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with
permission.]
The Book of Review (Deuteronomy -
Chapter 21 and 22) - Part
3
Charles E.
Wigg
INTRODUCTION TO DEUTERONOMY
22: In this chapter are various laws, concerning care of a
neighbor’s cattle gone astray or in distress, and of anything lost by him,
Deu_22:1, forbidding one sex to wear the apparel, of another, Deu_22:5 and the
taking away of the dam with the young found in a bird's nest, Deu_22:6, ordering
battlements to be made in a new house, Deu_22:8, prohibiting mixtures in sowing,
ploughing, and in garments, Deu_22:9, requiring fringes on the four quarters of
a garment, Deu_22:12, fining a man that slanders his wife, upon producing the
tokens of her virginity, Deu_22:13 but if these cannot be produced, then orders
are given that she be put to death, Deu_22:20, then follow other laws, punishing
with death the adulterer and adulteress, and one that hath ravished a betrothed
damsel, Deu_22:22, amercing a person that lies with a virgin not betrothed and
she consenting, and obliging him to marry her, and not suffering him to divorce
her, Deu_22:28 and another against a man's lying with his father's wife,
Deu_22:30.
There are many laws
and regulations in this chapter, and from them we can easily see what is
pleasing to God, and what is hateful to Him, though we are not under Law but
under Grace, yet we would be wise to take notice of these things. If we fulfil
what is pleasing to God, and avoid those things that are hateful to Him, then we
will live holy lives, and bring glory to His holy name!
The firdst four verses
teach us about the care that we are to exercise both for our brother and his
goods. We can surely transfer this to ourselves, because if under the Law
the people were commanded to exercise a brotherly care, then how much more so
under Grace? Let us have a godly care and concern for each other! The end result
will be glory to God. The sheep restored will mean that our brother will have
something to offer to God in sacrifice. The ox restored will mean that our
brother will have power and ability, to serve the Lord in cultivating the
inheritance that God has given to him.
Ignorance is no
excuse, we all have eyes in our heads, and we can surely see if something
belonging to our brother wanders away. Though we are warned by Peter not to
suffer as busybodies in other people’s affairs, yet we are to exercise a godly
care and concern for our brother or anything that he has. We are not to hide
ourselves from any situation of need that may confront us. If we see our
brother’s ox fall, then it is obviously involed in some work or another, it is
commanded that we do not hide ourselves from the need at such a time. We are
often not slow to criticise or to condemn our brother, if he makes some mistake
in serving the Lord. The ass is also mentioned which is obviously the same
idea.
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[Reproduced by
permission of the
author]