Living Wittily

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  • TFTD July 22-28: Your Lovingkindness is Better than Life.”

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    Monday

    Psalm 63.1 “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

    Forget the abundance of rain of Scotland. Real thirst is felt in the desert, in times of drought. The Psalm-poet understood the dangers of dehydration, and the desperation of thirst. Longing for God is a thirst only God can quench. “You are God, my God…” This is personal, a longing to know God’s presence, to be near God and know God is near. This verse is the prayer of the dehydrated soul seeking the life-giving living water to refresh faith and confirm once more the grace of “my God.”

    Tuesday

    Psalm 63.3-4 “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”

    Love inspires commitment, self-giving, devotion, and all of these growing out of knowing we are loved with an everlasting love. What can be better than to live in the love of God, to love and to be loved in return? “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4.19) There is in love a mutual exchange, a reciprocal relationship of lover and beloved. Except it is God who in His grace always takes the initiative in love. Our response is gratitude and praise, worship and obedience, for as long as we live.

    Wednesday

    Psalm 63.5 “I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”

    So we move from deserts and thirst, to a table spread with the kind of buffet you can visit till you are stuffed! The Psalm-poet finds in God the complete fulfilment of all that he is, and all he is called to be. The mouth isn’t only for eating, remember, it is also the organ of praise, the source of words that give thanks and celebrate the hospitality and welcome of God. These five verses are a rebuke to our complacency and familiarity, our taking for granted what is God’s always astonishing goodness.

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    Thursday

    Psalm 63.6 “On my bed I remember you: I think of you through the watches of the night.”

    Often enough it’s anxiety or an over-active mind that keeps us awake. The Psalm-poet recommends praise, thanksgiving, remembering God’s past blessings and trusting that the one whose love is better than life, has your back! Psalm 4.8 “I will lie down and sleep in peace.” Then there’s this, “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” As one elderly friend said of this verse, “If the Lord doesn’t sleep, there’s no point in both of us staying awake.” That said, the next best thing to sleep is to remember, think about and rest in the peace of the God whose lovingkindness is better than life Why? Because that love is life-giving and utterly to be trusted.

    Friday

    Psalm 63.7 “Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.”

    Four wings adorned the Ark of the Covenant held in the Temple. And we don’t need to be ornithologists to recognise the image of shelter, protection and motherly care for young chicks still vulnerable and dependent. Then the line from the hymn ‘O God of Bethel’, familiar to Scottish people of previous generations: “O spread thy covering wings around, till all our wanderings cease…” So we don’t cower under the protective care of God, we sing; we don’t panic, we praise. Because He is our help!

    Saturday

    Psalm 63.8 “My soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.”

    “Soul” means the whole of who we are, the essence of what it means to be you, or me. The Psalm poet is hanging on to God for all he is worth, knowing the safest place is to be in the presence of God, where we are held in the purposive love of our Heavenly Father. For the first time in the Psalm there’s a hint of trouble, threat, of life going wrong. He is holding on for dear life to the one whose strong right hand is holding on to him. Always it’s God’s hold that is the stronger, indeed the strongest.

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    Sunday.

     Psalm 63.9-11 “Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

    We’ve moved from safety to danger, from the shadow of God’s wings to the darker shadows of our deepest fears of whatever threatens us in life. Faith is not only believing that God can keep us and hold on to us. Faith is also trust that God undermines and overthrows the powers of evil in the world. The Psalm poet seeks God, knows God’s love is better than life, he lies awake in bed remembering his own story and God’s provisions. Now he faces his worst fears, and imagines his enemies judged and punished. But he teaches us to look for evil’s defeat!

    As Christians we look out on a world where so much is wrong. But we do so as a resurrection people. God raised Jesus from the dead. In Jesus Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, the victory of God is secured. God’s enemies are scattered, the mouths of liars silenced, and Jesus our King is at the right hand of God. He is our help; we dwell under the shadow of God’s wings; his love is better than life. Amen.

  • In Praise of Garden Centres

    445382839_1285083979546141_3164806624404987221_nGarden centres have become leisure places of choice. Most of them have a coffee shop and restaurant. With coffee there are (usually) outsized scones, portions of tray bakes the size of small lock block units, and any amount of your coffee or tea of choice. 

    Over the years they have grown in size and range of facilities which can include women's fashion, outdoor clothing, brand food outlets described as high quality and correspondingly high priced. Then there's the full range of household bric a brac, greeting cards, house and garden ornaments, garden furniture and tools, and landscaping materials from compost to bark, paving stones to aggregates, and trees to turf.

    448751720_1193749418638098_2389168615505073418_nIn fairness, there are also wide stocks of garden plants and shrubs, household plants and seasonal bedding plants. We all go to such places, and not always for that packet of seeds, or the odd household plant. The garden centre has become a gathering place providing social space for families, couples, friends, business meetings, and all under one roof with an ever increasing range of retail options for those looking to wander around. 

    We go to such places for all kinds of reasons. I can end up there on a wet day because it's largely inside, there's a lot to browse, there's coffee and scone or a breakfast or lunch. Nearly always you see folk you know, and even if you don't conversations tend to happen when you're browsing around plants, tools, or food shelves. I've always thought it's worth asking why certain kinds of shop or service outlet becomes popular. With garden centres it's the attractive combination of good food, the buzz of a place that's usually busy, a well set out environment, and human company and activity. 

    450068522_336735906196799_2366927367644248510_nIt says something about our culture and our daily lives that social spaces like garden centres are important places of human intersection. Those who are lonely and simply need a sense of people around them; those looking for safe space and some peace and quiet; people whose spirits are jaded and in need of stimulus, something to take them out of themselves; and people like me, older, retired, active, interested in all things horticultural, partial to a a nice coffee or meal, or even needing somewhere to walk around out of the rain!

    One other quite small, but for myself significant benefits, is that there is so much beauty to see, and looking is free. The flowers in the photos were taken at one or two of our local garden centres. "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Indeed.   

  • Ecclesiastes, Eternity and the Transience of Time.

    P1010696Tucked away between the buttresses of the harbour breakwater at Stonehaven, is a relic from the past when hundreds of fishing boats filled the harbour. Its main purpose to give a secure anchor point for some of those boats.
     
    History requires both information and imagination. Over the 200 years since Robert Stevenson designed this phase of an already ancient harbour, and later generations expanded and strengthened it, it has provided a safe place for so many lives and livelihoods. This bollard has its own stories to tell. Imagine storms just as violent as recent weather patterns, and dozens of fishing boats heading out taking with them many of the men of the town as skippers and crew, and the risks that were a way of life.
     
    It could do with another coat of paint, though part of me has always acknowledged the appearance of rust as a natural reminder of the transience of things. That goes back to childhood days on the farms, and memories of old sheets of corrugated iron, obsolete implements lying in corners, 40 gallon drums once used for watering the animals, all of them marked by the encroachments of time, slowly rusting away.
     
    As a solid, rusting, but defiant reminder of former time, this old anchor pointit also reminds me of the elegiac realism of Qoheleth in Ecclesiastes 3 and his famous poem about time. He adds this reflection, which was somewhere in the back of my mind as I took this photo of an all but forgotten and hidden anchor point for generations before us.
     
    "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
    Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and God will call the past to account."
    Ecclesiastes 3.11-15

  • TFTD July 15-21 “Lord, Teach Us to Pray.”

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    Monday

    Luke 11.1 “One day Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 

    Like the intimate and open conversation between ourselves and our most trusted friends, prayer is both a gift and a discipline. In prayer we trust and entrust ourselves to Jesus our most faithful Friend, who has taught us to say “Our Father in heaven.” Be that disciple who isn’t embarrassed to pray, “Lord teach me to pray.” We learn by doing. And so we grow in the grace of Christ through constant conversation with God, before the throne of grace, where we are welcome, heard, and understood.

     

    Tuesday

    Matt 6.5 “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

    We pray for all kinds of reasons, some of them good and sincere, some of them not so much! God knows our heart, our motives and the things that drive us to prayer. Most of our prayers are tinged with self-interest – seeking blessing, praying for those we love, unburdening guilt or anxiety. That’s all fine, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” (I Jn 3.20) But prayer mustn’t be a put on performance to impress others. Always speak to God with confidence, and in strict confidence!

    Wednesday

    Matt 6.6 “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

    The reward is that we are heard, and that we know we have poured out our secret desires before the Love we trust, and placed our hidden longings into the safest of hands. We never pray but God is there, attentive and knowing, loving and forgiving, touching us with grace both gentle and powerful, holiness restoring our wholeness. Jesus is speaking from experience, his own intimate trust in God is to be the model for all our praying. When we pray we are enfolded in love, and upheld by grace. 

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    Thursday

    Matt 6.7-8 “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

    There’s no need to talk God to a standstill! We won’t wear God down with conveyor belt prayer requests. We don’t need to persuade, coerce or put pressure on God – as if we ever could! No, Jesus is telling us that prayer is more about letting God get a word in edgeways. Speak your heart, God already knows all that’s in there, even what we can’t put into words. Prayer is an act of trust, not an information bulletin to let God know what’s going on. Our every prayer is a confession of our dependence on God, and is an act of faith that God, in loving wisdom, knows what is good for us.

    Friday

    Romans 12.12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

    Joy doesn’t just happen, nor is hope mere optimism. Joy is a decision based on gratitude to God, and hope is faith arguing against leaving God out of the equation. Patience when life feels crushing draws its strength from persistent trust in the God of hope. But our faith, and hope and joy are sustained by God. So it’s when every aspect of our lives is faithfully brought before God that we receive the strength to go on trusting, grace to continue in hope, and develop resilience as disciples of Jesus.

    Saturday

    Ephesians 6.18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

    This is Paul in full-on mode! All occasions, all kinds of prayers and requests, always keep on praying for all the saints! Prayer isn’t confined to a quiet time, and once it’s done that’s it till tomorrow. Prayer is more a way of viewing the world with God on the horizon; meeting circumstances of crisis or routine with a prayerful disposition. Prayer is our second nature, a default Christian approach to problem solving, the fulfilling of God’s call to be a conduit of God’s grace, love and presence in the lives of others. “Be alert”, pay attention to the world around you – and talk to God about it.

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    Sunday

    Ephesians 6 19-20 “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.”

    This is the loveable, vulnerable Paul. Oh, he fully believed all he wrote about God’s grace being sufficient, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. But that’s just the point, it’s Christ who strengthens him, and God’s grace that is sufficient. In ways we can never know, but fully believe, our prayers give renewed faith, recovered strength, and fresh resilience, to those we know are struggling, and for whom we faithfully pray. There is a communion of saints that is both mystery and miracle. We are the Body of Christ and individually members of it – when we pray for each other we pray for ourselves, and our common life in Christ. We each have the right to ask – “Pray also for me.”  

  • Restoring Mercy to the Lexicon of the Good Life.

    Vellotton“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Jesus was a teacher who understood the importance of one liners, those short sentences crafted with such care that they stick like Velcro in the memory.

    We don’t use the word mercy much these days, more’s the pity. Actually, the word pity is at least part of what it means to be merciful, so yes the world would be a lot safer and less harsh if there was more pity. Compassion is another alternative word, mercy as feeling for and with others, caring about other people’s hurt, their daily struggles to make ends meet financially, emotionally, or socially. All four Gospels tell stories of Jesus being merciful, having pity for those who are suffering, showing compassion to the hungry, the wounded, the lonely, those on the margins, the easily overlooked.

    The Psalm-writing poet links our ability to be merciful to the character of the God we believe in and worship. “You Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86.15) That is what God is like, and Jesus shows us what that looks like in practice when mercy becomes a way of life.

    We could do with a rediscovery of mercy, a word in danger of falling out of our daily vocabulary. Mercy is the tilt of the heart towards those whose lives can be made better by our kindness and generosity. Mercy is compassionate practical caring about what is happening to folk who are struggling. By the way, Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful!” God blesses merciful actions. Indifference, selfishness, carelessness, not so much! Hearts closed to mercy are closed from the inside.

  • Tracing My Intellectual Footsteps 1. Evelyn Underhill.

    After a lifetime of reading it's a good thing to look back at your footprints, and at the paths that have led to the here and now of life. Then to reflect on who were were, and who we are, and who we might yet become. 

    We all have our 'favourite' books, intellectual debts to various writers and thinker, poets and novelists, theologians and historians. They too can seem like so many mountain footpaths, winding towards each other and finally converging on the place we are now standing, or sitting.
     
    My reading journey has involved a lot of meandering, an enjoyment of variety, places I've stopped a while and others I quickly passed through. Some writers changed the direction of my thinking, others enriched my inner landscape, many I enjoyed at the time but moved on, one or two mattered so much I have gone back to re-read. Looking back, some of those paths were a diversion without adequate reward, others took me to places which changed the way I look on the world.
     
    We each have our network of paths, the unique pattern of our own footprints, our own journey to make. My list is not your list. But in the spirit of appreciation, I'll offer a short series of brief appreciations of those writers who I believe have helped to form the ways I think and feel about God and my own journey in trying to follow faithfully after Jesus Christ. 
     
    In the early 1980s I discovered Evelyn Underhill, the Anglican spiritual writer who was an authority on mysticism, and especially in later life, a leader of retreats that focused on the contemplative life. I read most of what she had written and published. At one point I had half a shelf of her books, all of which I read, each of them a further education in a form of spirituality not often encountered within the evangelical tradition. The titles give an idea of what she was about: Mystics of the Church; Practical Mysticism; Concerning the Inner Life; The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today; The School of Charity; An Anthology of the Love of God. And a couple of dozen more, from the esoteric to mainstream Christian devotion. 
     
    Underhill was an upper middle class woman of independent means, married to a barrister, Hubert Moore. Reading her can be an exercise in patience, her tone at times can seem quite condescending. That's to misunderstand her. She wrote for the academy one kind of book, and for ordinary Christians seeking a deeper devotional life, she wrote quite differently. At her worst she can be annoyingly homely, at her best she wrote with devotional power and psychological insight and as one who practised what she wrote. That's what made her such an effective and popular retreat leader.
     
    A good sample of her best writing is contained in An Anthology of the Love of God. One of her best poems, Immanence, shows off the contemplative theology that informed so much of her devotional and spiritual writing. From Evelyn Underhill I learned that prayer is less about speaking than listening, less about my needs and more about spending time in the presence of the God of grace and love. There is a practicality that never depends on a simple 'how to' approach – she was not writing at the 'Mysticism for Dummies' level. 
     
    It would also be true that, true to her Anglican and Prayer Book commitments, she gave considerable weight to God as Creator and Christ as God incarnate. While not neglecting the cross as sacrifice, she interpreted the whole work of God as the Eternal purpose expressed in the very nature of God as self-giving love. The poem Immanence is a beautifully expressed theology of divine humility and the willing kenosis of the Eternal God whose name and nature is self-giving love.
     
    While my own theology has a stronger rootedness in atonement expressed in Trinitarian terms, I owe to Evelyn Underhill a sense of the love of God made actual in Christ, and by grace replicated in 'the little things' that become sacraments as we sense and see the presence of God in the actualities of existence, in the moments of prayer, in our kneeling in worship, in bird song and sunset, and in crib and cross.     
     
    Immanence, Evelyn Underhill
     
    I come in the little things,
    Saith the Lord;
    Not borne on morning wings
    Of majesty; but I have set my feet
    Amidst the delicate and bladed wheat
    That springs triumphant in the furrowed sod—
    There do I dwell, in weakness and in power;
    Not broken or divided, said our God!
    In your straight garden plot I come to flower;
    About your porch my vine,
    Meek, fruitful, doth entwine,
    Waits, at the threshold, Love's appointed hour.

    I come in the little things,
    Saith the Lord;
    Yea, on the glancing wings
    Of eager birds, the soft and pattering feet
    Of furred and gentle beasts, I come to meet
    Your hard and wayward heart. In brown bright eyes
    That peep from out the brake, I stand confest.
    On every nest
    Where feathery Patience is content to brood
    And leaves her pleasure for the high emprise
    Of motherhood—
    There does my Godhead rest.

    I come in the little things,
    Saith the Lord;
    My starry wings I do forsake,
    Love's highway of humility to take;
    Meekly I fit my stature to your need.
    In beggar's part
    About your gates I shall not cease to plead
    As man, to speak with man
    Till by such art
    I shall achieve my immemorial plan;
    Pass the low lintel of the human heart.

  • “The lion shall lie down with the lamb…”?

    450405938_448813968060685_4245311797889220579_nI omitted to note the artist of this sculpted relief in the first gallery of Aberdeen Art Gallery. (I'll put that right next time I'm there.) This relief was on the reverse side of a main sculpture, and I was intrigued by the image of lion and lamb. "The lion shall lie down with the lamb" is a frequent misquotation of Isaiah 11.6. But here's the full text:
     
    "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
    and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
    and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
    and a little child shall lead them."
     
    But allowing for the misquotation, and remembering that the Lion and Lamb are key symbols in the book of Revelation, for the risen Christ and the sacrifice of Christ, I read verses like this as intentional subversion of our pessimism, despair, resignation and culpable giving in to the dominant realities of our times. You know them; they dominate our ever-present news feeds.
     
    Isaiah, and the book of Revelation are texts that teach us to question and resist those dominant realities, ideologies of oppression and greed, political and military actions of violence, and the use and abuse of words and images to foment hate and cruelty in order to dehumanise other people and peoples.
     
    Time after time the Prophets point to an alternative way of ordering our politics and power in ways that make for peace. Of course, the Prophets looked on the world and history with God on the horizon. I confess, so do I – "God help us" is less a pious expletive than a genuine cry of the heart.
    And so I pray "Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And yes, allowing for the slippage of images, I can settle for a vision of the lion lying down with the lamb, because I pray to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and to the Lion of the tribe of Judah who triumphed over death.
     
    And so I pray for our world, its wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, lions and calves. And I do so because in ways beyond our knowing and his, Isaiah looked to the impossible possibility of a child leading and saving a broken world; "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself…" Or so it seems to me.

  • TFTD July 8-14 “The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof…”

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    Monday

    Psalm 24.1-2 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.”

    In the face of human wastefulness and carelessness about the health and future of the planet, the Psalmist is unequivocal. Every acre of land, every human being, every living creature, belongs to God. Our world is created, set in place, and sustained by the power of God. That it is now threatened in its future, is cause for human repentance. It is God’s world, not ours. We are stewards, not owners, curators of God’s great work of art. All life, including our own, is gift, for which to be grateful.

    Tuesday

    Psalm 24.3 “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?

    This Lord who made heaven and earth, who is on the guest list of worship? Who is invited and welcome? To even ask the questions reveals at least some humility. In the presence of the Holy One there is no place for those who don’t first recognise God as gracious Creator, the One on whose goodness and mercy we daily depend. So who may come near? Who is welcome to worship? That question matters to those whose hearts are familiar to reverence and awe, and for whom worship is privilege.

    Wednesday

    Psalm 24.4 “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol, or swear by what is false.”

    Clean hands are free from actions of hurt and dishonesty. Perhaps when our hands are raised in worship they are being examined by the God who knows all our actions, public and secret. A pure heart is about holiness, and involves devotion and glad obedience. “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” (Kierkegaard) So to stand in God’s holy place, requires of us transparency of heart, honesty in our words, integrity of mind, or to put it in other words of the Psalmist, “truthfulness in the inward parts.”

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    Thursday

    Psalm 24.5-6 “He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Saviour. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face O God of Jacob.”

    Blessing and vindication means being given the right to be in God’s holy place. Grace, all undeserved, except we are the objects of a love that is eternal and faithful, and therefore utterly to be trusted. We have come to know God as Saviour through Christ. He too ascended a hill of the Lord, carrying his cross, “becoming obedient to death…” Now that same Christ is in the holy place, making intercession for us. This Psalm is played on a deeper key when you read it alongside Hebrews 4.14-16.

    Friday

    Psalm 24.7 “Lift up your heads, O you gates, be lifted up you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in.”  

    This is the great praise song of Israel, her city and her temple. Remember where this Psalm started, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it…!” Everything owes its existence to the Lord, Creator and Saviour. We who stand this side of the resurrection of Christ hear, read and sing these words, and they vibrate with faith, hope and love. The Psalmist’s words reverberate with Israel’s faith; and the God of Jacob is also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are Easter words, calling us to worship and service of the crucified, risen and ascended Christ.

    Saturday

    Psalm 24.8 “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”

    We are still in Easter mode! “Death is dead, Love has won, Christ has conquered!” And yet. Glory is shown in the shame of the cross; strength and might are revealed in weakness. Paul wrote, “No matter how many promises God has made, they are “YES” in Christ.” Jesus is the full revelation of the glory of God, the one “in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Or as John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” YES! He is the king of glory!

    Kings crown

    Sunday

    Psalm 24.9-10 “Lift up your heads, O you gates, be lifted up you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord Almighty — He is the King of glory.”

    These last two verses repeat almost the same words as verses 7and 8. Almost. Imagine this whole Psalm being sung with joy and confidence in God, to whom the whole world belongs, including us. The choir sings the question, “Who is the King of glory?” The congregation give reply in full volume praise, “The Lord Almighty – He is the King of glory.” Worship is rooted and grounded in the earth of our daily lives, but it is simultaneously focused on the King of Glory. Worship goes with stewardship, praise arises from gratitude, carefulness before the Lord Almighty compels us toward care of the earth. The earth is the Lords. It belongs to the Lord Almighty. “Who may stand in his holy place?” Those with clean hands. Pure heart. No idols. Inner integrity. And those who remember, “The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”   

  • Of the writing of commentaries on Romans there is no end…thankfully!

    449133148_482362344285366_2507888830903914853_nThe first major commentary on Romans that I owned was volume one of the New International Critical Commentary by C. E. B. Cranfield. I found it in mint condition in the Oxfam book sale, in Woodlands Road, Glasgow, in 1976. It must have been a review copy. The cost new was £6 and the price on the shelf was 10 pence! A few years later I bought volume II when it came out, at £10. I've used these for the last nearly 50 years, and I still trust the careful seriousness of what has become Cranfield, the classic. They are now £90 per volume.

    Since then as major commentaries have been published they have found their way to my shelves. I tried with Ernst Kasemann's translated volume which was described as epoch making, but which I found hard to use. In 1988 came the two volume Word Biblical Commentary by J. D. G. Dunn, the first major commentary from what Dunn himself called 'The New Perspective on Paul'. It too has been a faithful companion on my expeditions into Paul's letter, along with Dunn's Theology of Paul which is itself a classic exposition of Paul's letter to the Romans. Joseph Fitzmyer's Anchor Bible commentary, written by a Catholic scholar of immense learning, was described as all but indistinguishable from a deeply informed and theologically rich exposition of justification by faith from the older perspective. It is remarkably readable. 

    Then came Douglas Moo's hefty NICNT volume which remains, in its second edition, the premier commentary from a Reformed and traditional perspective, though interacting both negatively and positively with what are more recently called 'the new perspectives' on Paul. N. T. Wright has spent a lifetime on Paul, and his Romans contribution to the New Interpreter's Bible is a scintillating combination of theological exegesis and explanation of how the text applies to church and world. Ben Witherington's more Arminian socio-rhetorical take on Romans is at times combative with those who beg to differ and retain a Lutheran or Reformed position on election, justification, and Christian existence under the Gospel in the power of the Spirit. But Witherington has his own helpful take on what Paul is about in Romans.  

    Jewett's Hermeneia was long awaited, and in 2008 appeared as a massive treatment of the social / historical context of Rome and Greco-Roman mediterranean culture. While not ignoring theological interpretation, the emphasis throughout is on Paul and the Roman Christians and the social and historical situation of the early communities at the centre of Empire. It's a tour de force that sparked international conferences to explore further the implications of Jewett's work for ongoing Romans exegesis. I gave away my copy to someone who would get more use from it as an academic and technical commentary.

    51l9loGBnxL._SL1400_And so the procession goes on with Colin Kruse in the Pillar series, another who leans heavily to the older or more traditional perspective. In 2016 Richard Longenecker's NIGTC on the Greek text landed with a thump on the already crowded desks of Romans scholars. It is huge, rich, detailed, offering almost everything you could ask for, and quite a lot we neither asked for nor knew enough about to ask, but which lie within the legitimate parameters of technical exegesis, reception history, ecclesial appropriation and personal application. 

    The came Frank Matera's Paideia with its accessible length, clear writing and fruitful engagement with social context and rhetorical analysis. Mike Gorman's stand alone commentary is self-consciously written for the church and for Christian formative engagement with a text which embodies Gorman's distinctive emphases on cruciformity and the resurrectional power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

    And so to Beverly Gaventa's much anticipated volume in the New Testament Library series published by Westminster John Knox Press. It has just arrived, and this will be my summer read. I plan to write several review posts of my progress through what promises to be a rich gift to academy, church and preacher – Gaventa is one who has exemplified the rich interweaving of these three spheres of learning and teaching in her own calling and career.

    With apologies to John and adapting what he says at the end of his Gospel, "there are many other books written on Romans, but the world is barely large enough to contain them!" Perhaps so. But I for one am delighted that such scholarship keeps coming to refresh and nurture the church, and open further the deep wells of the biblical texts for each new generation.     

  • Belden Lane and his two best books – or so it seems to me.

    81VnENmy3OL._SL1500_Years ago (mid 1990s) I discovered Belden Lane. I was in the big, big bookshop in Hanover, New Hampshire. There I found Lane's newest book, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes. Beautifully written, theologically alert and aimed at helping us understand the deserts and wildernesses of both the world and on our life journey. I wrote to him in appreciation and got a lovely reply.
     
    In 2011 Lane published another volume, Ravished By Beauty. The Surprising Legacy of Reformed Spirituality. Lane shows us a Calvin who was 'ecologically sensitive'; Puritans who dug deeply into human affections and creaturely joy in the wonders of creation; Jonathan Edwards who urged a 'sensuous enjoyment' of God's beauty revealed in the intricate marvels of the created order.
     
    81gNR1tECrL._SL1500_Both books weave theological and biblical reflection, with Lane's own encounters with wilderness and creation as places where God is to be sought, and perhaps met. Lane has since moved to a much broader and more progressive position though he still identifies as a Presbyterian. His more recent work reflects more of Richard Rohr's elusive spirituality than the more clearly delineated contours of Reformed spirituality.
     
    But The Solace of Fierce Landscapes, and Ravished by Beauty remain rich and provocative contributions to desert spirituality and Reformed Spirituality respectively, as resources for a green theology earthed in Christian traditions and practiced by Lane whose other books include Backpacking with the Saints!.