Confessions Yesterday, Today

& Tomorrow: Augustine’s Big

Word

Welcome to our first edition of 5 Minutes in Church History. Let’s start with one of
the towering figures in church history, Augustine. Now, first things first. How do you
pronounce his name? I had a church history professor in seminary who liked to say
St. Augustine is in Florida, St. Augustine is in heaven. Let’s go with that.

I’m struck by the very first word in Augustine’s classic, the Confessions. The word
usually gets translated “Great.” A recent translation has the word as “Vast.” The
Latin is “Magnus.” And Augustine uses it to refer to God.

This is why we need church history. We need to be reminded of what matters and
what matters most. Do you know a sociologist of a few decades ago called us the
belly-button generation? We are so consumed with our own selves, so captivated
by our own selves.

This sociologist was saying we’re like infants when they first discover their own
belly button. They’re utterly fascinated by it. Okay, when you’re an infant. But, as
we grow up if we fail to see there’s a world around us, we are living pretty shallow
lives. If we’re still fascinated by our belly buttons, something is wrong.

St. AugustineEnter Augustine and his opening word, Magnus, in Confessions.

There is something and someone far greater than us. The Greatest, in fact. This
first word and the truth it represents controls Augustine’s great book. After
Augustine calls God the Greatest, he refers to himself as a mere segment, a dot.
Now that’s perspective.
Historians tell us Confessions is the first true autobiography. Kings had written
chronicles of their exploits and conquests. But Augustine writes the first
autobiography.

True enough. But we would be wrong to assume that Augustine is the main
character. That role belongs to God. Augustine calls God the “Hound of Heaven”
who relentlessly tracks Augustine down, and draws Augustine to himself. God
made Augustine, and God made us, too, for himself. But we run the other way. And
our restless hearts propel us in the opposite direction.

So the first paragraph ends:

“You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless (unquietam—in the
Latin), until they find their rest (pace—peace) in you.”

We are not at peace.

But, this God who made us, desires to remake us. Augustine liked to call humanity
“Adam’s sinful lump.” And this Great Potter, the Magnus, pulls some clay from this
lump and reshapes it. He redeems sinful hearts through the atoning blood of the
sacrifice of the God-man on the cross. He gives us peace. So Paul says in
Romans 5:1:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yes, this is a Great God. The Greatest.

Our very first word should be none other than Augustine’s. Our reflex should be I
am but a mere segment a dot. And you, O God, are Great.

The Confessions is more than an autobiography, it’s even more than a classic
text—perhaps the finest text in all of Christian history. Augustine’s Confessions is a
prayer. And it should be the prayer of all of us.

So now we can reenter the 21st century. Now we can come back to a place where,
as Ed Welch put it so well in a book title:

Where people are big—they are magnus—and God is small—he is the segment.

We can come back to this world that has it so mixed-up with the far better
perspective. And say, “Magnus.” Vast and great are you alone, God.

What a challenging, and comforting thought for us for the week.

 Lost Letter to the Corinthians

A little known book on Calvin, John Calvin and the Printed Book by Jean Francios
Gilmont, tells a rather intriguing story. But first, we need some background.

Calvin, after he was kicked out of Geneva in 1538, went to Strasbourg. While
there, he published his first commentary, on the Epistle to the Romans. It rolled off
the press in 1540. The next year, 1541, the city of Geneva begged Calvin to come
back. He wrote to a friend, “There is no place on earth I am more afraid of.” But, he
felt called by God, and so he went.

When he published his Romans commentary he was determined to keep going

through Paul’s Epistles. But, a roadblock got in the way, a roadblock named
Geneva. The church needed Calvin’s full attention, and he gave it to them. So
these early years of the 1540s were much consumed by church work. The
commentary writing went to the back burner. Calvin eventually managed to find
some equilibrium, and started writing again. His commentary on 1 Corinthians
came out in 1546.

John CalvinAnd now we get to our story. After he sent off 1 Corinthians to the
printer in Strasbourg, Calvin set to work on 2 Corinthians. He finished it in a flurry.
From what we can tell, Calvin’s record was 17,000 words in about three days.
That’s 100 pages.

So he finished 2 Corinthians. In late July 1546, he sent the manuscript—the only

copy of the manuscript—by way of a courier to Strasbourg. It was hand-written. No
back-up. It went missing for over a month. Another roadblock.

Back in Geneva was a very anxious Calvin. He wrote, “If I find that my commentary
is lost, I have decided to never return to Paul again.” His friends weren’t of much
help. Rather than console him, Farel wrote to him, “Given that mothers do not
neglect their children, you too should have sent out this fruit of the Lord with
greater care.” Ouch. Apparently, Farel was reading the account of Job’s friends
and mistakenly thought it was a command.

But, on September 15, 1546, the word reached Calvin that the manuscript was
found safely at Strasbourg and being set to print. No explanations have come
down through history, so we’re not sure what the manuscript was doing. It might
have had something to do with the Shmalkaldic Wars—wars between the Holy
Roman Empire—or what was left of it—and the league of German and Swiss
princes known as the Schmalkaldic League.

We don’t know. What we do know is that it caused Calvin a month-load of grief.

I like this story because it shows us a Calvin we can relate to. One who frets and
worries. One who says desperate things—”I’ll never touch Paul again.”

I don’t know what image you have of Calvin. I hope it’s not the wrong-headed
caricature of a dour and mean prophet of gloom. I suspect we tend to think of him
as living a somewhat ivory tower life, immune from the challenges we all face in
life. Immune from disappointments and roadblocks, frustrations and anxieties. He
was not.

Maybe we think of him as a Super Christian, always living out the commands of
Christ. No, he wasn’t that, either. Yet, it is precisely in his humanity that we not only
need to see him, but we see him as an example for us.

I like stories like this because I lose everything. Keys. I misplace my wallet at least
three times a week. I don’t like gift cards because, well, I lose them. And I get
anxious.
If Calvin is known for anything, it’s reminding the church of a bedrock faith, God is
sovereign over his universe. God is even sovereign over so-called lost
manuscripts.

We fret and worry and get anxious. We even say desperate things. All the while,
we need to rest in God. To trust him through the roadblocks.

As Paul says in the opening lines of 2 Corinthians:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and God of all comfort.”
 A Book in His Hand: Visiting
the Grave of John Bunyan

Historians are rather curious people. They like to visit curious places. Like
graveyards. Apparently, there’s something about tombstones.

When it comes to Great Britain, there are a number of places you can visit to pay
your respects. Two in particular stand out. First, of course, is Westminster Abbey,
the burial place of Kings . . . and Queens . . . and poets . . . and scientists . . . and
statesmen . . . and, well, you get the picture.

But, the place I prefer is outdoors—and it’s free, too. This place is known as
“Bunhill Fields.” It likely stands for “Bone Hill.” It was a burial ground as far back as
1,000, if not even earlier. From the 1660s on, it became the place for the
nonconformists to be buried. These were the church leaders who would not
conform to the Church of England. We know them as Puritans.

Many nonconformists are buried there. John Owen, the great Puritan theologian, is
there. Isaac Watts, the hymnwriter. Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles
is there. And there are others. The writer of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, is
there. And so is the poet William Blake.

And there is one more worth mentioning. His remains lie but a few feet from John
Owen, and he is the author of the second most popular book in the English
language. This is John Bunyan, the man who gave us Pilgrim’s Progress.

John Bunyan's GraveBunyan died on August 31, 1688, while in London on a

preaching trip. He was buried in Bunhill Fields. Much later, in 1862, a statue was
installed over his grave. It is a man lying down with a book in his hand. Two
carvings on the sides depict scenes from his book. In the one, Christian is weighed
down by the heavy burden on his back. He’s hunched over, feeling the full weight
of the burden. Bunyan describes him that way to represent his sin. On the other
side the carved figure is standing upright. He’s free of the burden as he clings to
the cross.

Bunhill Fields was on the outskirts of the city at the time of Bunyan’s death. But the
city grew out and around the cemetery. A sidewalk runs through the middle of the
cemetery and Londoners use it as a shortcut as they go about their business. A
few apartment buildings and offices stretch into the sky around it. The streets lining
it are full of busses, taxis, bikes. All busy, all on the move, all running here and
there.

Last time I visited Bunhill Fields I sat for a while on the bench beside Bunyan’s
grave and watched streams of people go by. I wondered if any of them ever pause
to glance over at Bunyan’s grave, or if any take the time to see the carvings of the
man so burdened and of the man set free. I wondered if they ever took a few steps
out of their way to look at the statue adorning the top. Do any ever think: What is
that book he’s holding? Do they know what the Bible contains?

You might remember that when Christian first set out on his journey, he was aware
of his burden. But his friends and his family couldn’t understand why he was so
upset, why he was so bound and determined to seek freedom from his burden.
They couldn’t understand why he had a book in his hand, much less why Christian
thought that book was of any importance or urgency.

And there Bunyan is today, still raising his prophetic voice, still reminding us that
we do indeed have a burden on our back. That there is but one solution to freedom
from this burden, and there is but one Book which has the answer.
 Jonathan Edwards’ Favorite
Word

Let’s take a quiz. This is a simple one. Only one question: What is Jonathan
Edwards’ favorite word?

Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if some answered anger, or mean, or sin, or

judgment. Some might even have said spiders. Those who answer this way likely
know of Jonathan Edwards through a single text, a single sermon he preached
during the Great Awakening. That sermon got published and has been
anthologized in just about every American history or American literature textbook.
This is his sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.”

Jonathan EdwardsNow, I wouldn’t be surprised if you guessed those words, but I

need to tell you something, and I hope we can still be friends. You would get an
“F.” You would fail our one question quiz. I’ll give you the answer. Actually, the
judges would accept quite a few variations as the answer.

Joy, sweetness, delight. These would all count. Even relish would count—and
that’s not the stuff you put on a hot dog at the cookout. Here’s one that would even
count: happified. What great word, happified. How are we made happy?

This little quiz and this question—How are we made happy?—is of utmost
significance. For one, it helps us understand Jonathan Edwards. But for a far better
reason, it helps us get at that nagging, ultimate question: Why am I here? What is
my purpose?
Jonathan Edwards grew up on the Westminster Shorter Catechism—and whatever
else they fed kids in the 1710s. And he learned that the chief end of man is “to
Glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

There is this idea that true happiness and true joy comes from serving the self. But
it’s a false idea. Jesus put the irony this way:

Whoever seeks his own soul will lose it.

Whoever loses his own soul, for my sake, will find it.

We were made for God, made with a singular purpose, to glorify him. And as we
glorify him and as we live for and live toward him, we find our soul’s true joy.

This is how we are happified. And this is the key word of Jonathan Edwards. Let
me just whet your appetite for you to go exploring him a bit more.

Edwards said:

“The doctrine of God’s sovereignty has very often appeared an exceeding

pleasant, bright, and sweet doctrine to me; and absolute sovereignty is what I love
to ascribe to God.”

“God himself is the great good which [the redeemed] are brought to the possession
and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good and the sum of all that
good which purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of
their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling
place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory.”

By talking about joy and sweetness and relishing and enjoying God, Edwards was
in good company. So David tells us in Psalm 34:
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed—happy, truly happy—is the man who takes refuge in him.”

A bit further on, at Psalm 63, David writes:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you.

As in a dry and weary land where there is no water,

so I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

A few lines later, David adds:

In the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

Edwards knew about sin. He knew of God’s wrath against sin. He preached about
this often, no doubt. But comb through his sermons and books and you’ll see he
gives far greater room to the good news of our happiness and joy in God. So, be
happified. Serve and love and enjoy—and even relish God.