Ordinary Days #29: Chapel

The place God chooses

    as a dwelling for His name.  (Deuteronomy 26:2)

Dear Priscilla,

How was chapel? So, you are required only two semesters of chapel. I suppose that’s the way it has to be in a big school of over 14,000 students. A chapel of over 14,000 isn’t a chapel. There were less than 300 students at Papa’s college. So, we were required to attend chapel every day of every semester. I fussed some; but looking back on it, that’s when I learned great hymns like For All the Saints, and Jesus What a Friend for Sinners accompanied by a grand pipe organ.

The first universities were formed by the Church—monasteries in particular. Monks collected, preserved and taught the ancient texts of antiquity. As one of the best of them taught, “Faith seeks understanding” (Anselm, 12^th cent.). That means, authentic faith in God causes us to seek knowledge and understanding of all God’s creation.

Chapel is the place God has chosen as a dwelling place for his name: “I AM WHO I AM” and “I WILL DO WHAT I WILL DO” (Ex 3:15). That’s the Divine Name God gave to Moses out of the burning bush. The name gets summed up as YaHWeH, the great I AM who IS and DOES. The name is so precious you best not just blurt it out. It’s THE NAME we must never use in vain (3^rd commandment). So, just in case we misuse the name, we use the word “Lord” when we speak the unspeakable name. That is the first confession of the church: “Jesus is Lord” (Ro 10:9). It requires the Holy Spirit’s prompting to actually say it: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1Cor 12:3). Someday, “every knee will bow, …and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11).

In chapel we listen again to God’s Word—the Gospel; and we speak, sing, and praise His name: Lord our God, Father, Son, and Spirit; One God, forever blessed. And then, in the classroom we ponder the wonder of God’s doings. Chapel and classroom are meant for each other. Real universities have a chapel. Even Stanford has a chapel—a beautiful chapel as you might guess.                                                                                                    

Love, Papa

 

Ordinary Days #28: University

 How manifold

   are thy works! (Psalm 104:24)

 Dear Priscilla,

So your Calculus class didn’t seem too bad, but your Computer Science class and lab scared you some. You’ll get it. It’s the kind of knowledge that will give you great vocational opportunities. That’s good. But, beyond these technological skills, the university requires you take classes from the “unified core curriculum.” These are traditional liberal arts courses like your classes in English Literature, Religious Studies, and Cultural Anthropology. Such courses develop personal skills—what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “the polyphony of life.” 

“Polyphony,” as you know, being a musician yourself, speaks of songs or instrumentals that have multiple parts that weave together to form one song as in a fugue. It’s boring just to be a one note person. There is more to you than a single predictable note. It’s what the Bible calls “manifold;” meaning all sorts of various and interesting parts that make up the whole of God’s universe. There’s nothing boring about God.

      -God’s manifold creation (Ps 104:24).

      -God’s manifold mercies (Neh 9:19).

      -God’s manifold wisdom (Eph 3:10).

      -God’s manifold grace (1Pt 4:10).

“University” like “manifold,” speaks of the numerous, varied and distinct parts of study from calculus to literature that make up God’s universe. That means all of your varied studies find their place amidst God’s manifold creation.

 Am I rambling? I’m encouraging you to engage in all your varied classes. If you just learned computer science you would miss the universal in the university. The purpose of attending the university is to learn more than a trade. You are attending university to learn of the manifold wonders of God’s Creation. Such learning has a way of forming you into a wise and beautiful person.

Love, Papa

 

Ordinary Days #27: Calculus

Who determined

   creation’s measurements?  (Job 38:5)

Priscilla, 

Today you start your first class: “Calculus,” you tell me. The fun and games of orientation are over. The time has come to sit in the classroom and learn and learn and learn. Your Aunt Jen can tell you the story of how I made her take calculus her first semester. She’s still mad at me about that. She might have some tips for you.

“Out of the whirlwind,” God begins his confrontation with Job by asking, “Where were you when I determined creation’s measurements and stretched out its boundaries? …When the morning stars sang together and the heavenly host shouted for joy?” (Jb 38:1-7). I’m told Isaac Newton invented calculus as a way for measuring God’s creation. Yet, Newton knew better than anyone, that God’s creation remains immeasurable—“incalculable.”

I suppose we learn calculus because we bare the Image of God. Like Him, us humans like to calculate things—things like computer architecture. Isn’t that your major—Computer Science? Of course, God is always bigger than our calculation. God remains always and forever the Incalculable One.

Love, Papa

Ordinary Days #26: McLane Stadium

 Athletes compete

   to win the prize. (1Cor 9:24)

Dear Priscilla,

The hand-off is complete. Mom and Dad are heading home without you. They sent me a picture of you at the door of your dorm: “Ruth Collins Hall”—your new home. They tell me it’s part of the old campus, a big old six story brick building.

I woke up in the middle of the night wondering how far away you were from McLane Stadium where you run the lines and cheer on the Baylor Bears Football team. I managed a Baylor Campus Map download. It looks like the stadium is on the other side of the river, maybe about a mile or less walk from your dorm?

That caused me to download the football schedule. I see your first game is against Texas State—your sister’s school. You can’t walk to that one. It’s an away game. Your first home game is against Texas Southern on September 11. You’ll have to tell me all about your walk across campus and about “running the lines” and what it’s like to go to a big time college football game.

Why should such trivial things as college football keep me up all night? Maybe it’s because I never experienced such a thing, and am a bit envious of my friends who wear their Cal or Stanford sweatshirts on game day. On game day, I just pretend like I went to Cal; whereas, you really are going to a big time football college. You’ll be able to wear your colors for real.

The Apostle Paul admired those athletes who competed in the Isthmian games, just down the road form his church in Corinth—like walking to McLane Stadium. “The runners all compete to win the prize,” the Apostle noticed, and encourages us to notice. “Athletes exercise self-control in all things to receive a perishable wreath. … So I dare not run aimlessly less the gospel I proclaim be discredited” (1Cor 9:24-27). We do not have to win anything to be a Christian—we are saved by God’s grace as is. But once we enter the Kingdom of God; a certain gracious competition is in order. You are an athlete. You’ve learned to compete gracefully and with grace—beautiful.

Love Papa

Ordinary Days #25: Journey Mercies

 May God send his Angel

   before you. (Genesis 24:7)

Priscilla is on her way to Baylor University in Waco, TX. She’s driving her car down Interstate 25 for some 13hrs filled to the brim with her stuff, while Brandon follows behind. Rachel flies down tonight so Mom and Dad can be with her tomorrow morning for that hand-off into a new world. I’ve been on both ends of the hand-off—as a professor welcoming freshmen students with their parents checking me out and wondering about the whole thing. And, as a parent dropping off our children as they began their college adventure. There’s something precious about the hand-off that causes me to tear-up.