Truth Hates Delay
Thank you for reading Tentmaker, where I find snippets of culture that are nourishing or informative and share them with others of a like mind. I publish one or two times a month.
I think of it as a snack for the Christian soul.
If this is even slightly interesting to you, consider sharing Tentmaker.
Don’t be put off by skulls and bones. I use them a lot. They remind me of Golgatha, the early Christian witness, what we all must face, and what Christ overcame.
A healthy remembrance of death is thoroughly Christian.
What I noticed in Scripture this week
Matthew 25 - Parable of the talents
I can’t help but feel bad for the guy who was given one talent.
It seems harsh to punish someone for returning to them what was given, but this is one of those stories where I’m sure I’m missing context. My ESV study bible didn’t help much so I turned to the Catenta Bible, which is an online resource with an app for phones as well.
While I cannot say that I am particularly comforted, I can say that what I have read about this is consistent. Here is John Chrysostom:
Let us therefore, knowing these things, contribute whatever we have—wealth, diligence or care giving—for our neighbor’s advantage. For the talents here are each person’s abilities, whether in the way of protection, or in money, or in teaching or in whatever thing you have been given. Let no one say, “I have but one talent and can do nothing with it.” You are not poorer than the widow. You are not more uninstructed than Peter and John, who were both “unlearned and ignorant men.” Nevertheless, since they demonstrated zeal and did all things for the common good, they were received into heaven. For nothing is so pleasing to God as to live for the common advantage. For this end God gave us speech, and hands, and feet, and strength of body and mind and understanding, that we might use all these things both for our own salvation and for our neighbor’s advantage. Our speech not only is useful for hymns and thanksgiving, but it is profitable also for instruction and admonition. And if indeed we used it to this end, we should be imitating our Master; but if for the opposite ends, the devil.
I understand: use what we have or even what we have may be taken away. Use what you have and you may get more to use. I get it. Really awesome all on its own.
Still, I feel like I’m the one-talent guy.
Perhaps the master gave instructions that we don’t know. Perhaps it was implicit to the hearers and needed no explanation. One thing is for certain: the master had expectations.
I have to believe that all the servants knew the master had expectations, even if he didn’t spell it out for them (or for us). We know something must be done, not just intended. Intentions are wonderful, but make no difference unless the intangible, immaterial, spiritual parts of our person make the physical body and mind take action.
We have to act -
to use our hands and feet, our minds and monies, to seek and serve. This is difficult.
Part of that acting, that putting intentions into practice, is trusting that the master is good and just and fair. It is knowing fully that he is to be feared (as our guy knew well) but more than that, he is to be trusted to do what is right.
That is extremely challenging when circumstances in our lives turn foul. When we get punched or when a loved one or loved family gets bad news, it is very hard to imagine anything good being multiplied, but this is where we must keep our eyes on the Resurrection and trust the Master. No sticking our heads in the dirt.
The hands that wrote in the dust, spread a spitball over blind eyes, held children, and multiplied what was given them also shared wine, broke bread, turned over tables and rebuked the storm.
The Master’s hands took the nails.
The hands that are returning in terrible glory - the hands that sway over a robe dipped in blood - the hands that will judge the living and the dead -
those hands have scars in them.
Such is love. I shudder.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.
Don’t be idle. Don’t be a busybody. Serve the ones you want to win.
Now, excuse me while I go dig up my talent. “Veritas odit moras”
TEE
Ignatius of Antioch is a central figure in my story of faith, so I thought I’d make a shirt to encapsulate a bit of his story. But first…
Years ago, I was occasionally asked to lead Sunday and Wednesday night classes at our small, rural church. Growing up in such an environment was wonderful, but we had no teaching in theology or Christian history. The general idea was to take the bible and apply it to our lives.
That’s great as far as it goes, but I loved history, and where things come from was important to me, so I naturally started asking questions. That led to my reading various portions of church history.
There I discovered stories of people that I’d never heard of. Some parts seemed fantastical, but the core was irresistible.
And so I came to Ignatius of Antioch.
There are so many places online to read about him (just read the letters he wrote along the way to Rome to die). A quick search pulls up more than you’d want to read, probably, so I will not re-tell his story here. 3 links (of many) that are useful to me are listed below.
Do yourself a favor. Read what he wrote. Here is a taste.
“Earthly longings have been crucified (ho emos erōs estaurōtai) and in me there is left no spark of desire for mundane things, but only a murmur of living water (hydōr zōn) that whispers within me, ‘Come to the Father’.”
Hauntingly beautiful. Those words have hung in front of my mind since I read them years ago.
The idea that a picture of death loomed in front of Ignatius is what inspired the images on the front and back of this shirt. I imagined Ignatius traveling under guard along a bumpy road, wobbling with every step of the horses that pulled his cart (he may have sailed, but still…), thinking of his beloved children in the faith, how they would intervene to save him, how he must have longed for them, how gruesome the specter of being eaten alive surely was, and how much he wanted to be with Jesus.
The letter to Rome said this:
“Allow me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose means it will be granted me to reach God. I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.”
Pure Bread. The Wheat of God. Amazing.
He sent 7 letters. This part of the story is what makes up most of the back graphic. That he was to be thrown to wild beasts to die under tooth and claw is represented by the 2 lions on either side of the brand name, Apology.
TRUTH HATES DELAY is something I ran across while searching for ancient Roman quotes. In Latin it is, “Veritas Odit Moras.” It fits perfectly with the will of Ignatius, who told his supporters to not interfere with his journey.
Ignatius of Antioch learned from the Apostle John. He and his friend, Polycarp, I believe were both disciples of John. That’s amazing! Very early witnesses. To have such a close account of the early church was very influential in my life. Read through the following links, especially www.earlychristianwritings.com, which is a treasure trove.1
GEOGRAPHY
Here is a basic map that shows a possible route Ignatius took to Rome. He may have sailed from port to port. I don’t know.2
Poem
Good to forgive
Best to forget!
Living we fret,
Dying we live.
—Robert Browning.
That short poem seems to go well with the following quote
Patristics
Troubles remind the wise man of God, but crush those who forget Him.
St. Mark the Ascetic
History - On this day
1573
Lutheran scholar Stephen Gerlach delivers a letter on behalf of Lutheran leaders to Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II to feel out the possibility of a Lutheran-Orthodox union. The overtures eventually fail because differences are too great.3
NEWS
It is difficult for me to write about Hamas attacking Israelis. War is terrible, horrible, sometimes senseless, and always powerfully saddening, but what I know about the initial attacks by Hamas has nothing to do with war as we’ve come to know it.
It is a war we ignore.
We are willing to ignore words and ideas in an environment where everyone gets a say because - so long as they are just words, we can all just go about our business unchanged.
But people tell you who they are.
Hamas told us who they were and then acted.
Listen to what people say so that - before the next missile flies or the next school shooter fires or the next act of everyday violence occurs - you can do something to alter the path of wrongdoing. Very few people are completely unknown to others. Listen when people speak. Speak up in love with compassion. Do you think you have high moral character? Not if it lives only in the terrarium of your mind. Give your heart a spine. You will not get it right all the time, you will not have the right words, and you will be uncomfortable (ostracized and eye-rolled), but moral clarity unaccompanied by physical acts like speaking up, standing up, and lifting up is the same as reading something good and then just turning the page forgetfully.
Hamas has a will and they acted. What is our will? What will we do? Will we dive back into history to find the seed of hatred? Will it be fixed if we can identify that original seed? What must be done in order to get along?
Did Hamas act reasonably? If we are simply biochemical entities responding to biochemical stimuli and physics, then yes. Why not? Who is to say? If it makes them more fulfilled, then sure. If whoever Hamas worships and honors is truly God, then yes.
So, what is true? Are those who say we’d be better off if we’d all come to our senses and realize that religion is the cause of all the trouble (see above)?
It seems to me that no amount of peeling back the layers can help us because the answer is not logical. Logic is too small a box to fit the whole human person.
We need Truth, and Truth is a person.
Thank you for reading Tentmaker, where I find snippets of culture that are nourishing or informative and share them with others of a like mind. I publish one or two times a month.
I think of it as a snack for the Christian soul.
If this is even slightly interesting to you, consider sharing Tentmaker.
Prayers I pray most:
How I need you
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Other cultural inputs: