Book Review: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
published by Scribner in 1926

Summary and Review: It is difficult to summarize a book that has no plot, but that is exactly the kind of book The Sun Also Rises happens to be.  It is in essence the story of Jake and Brett, an Englishwoman and an American that have connected in Paris.  The book unveils the complexities of their lives with each other, with their friends Mike, Bill and Cohn, and with figuring out life and God and the future.  The book moves from Paris to Pamplona for the annual bull fighting festival that includes the running of the bulls and finally to Madrid. 

At its best the book tries to capture the disillusionment of the young generation that has just come through World War I as they try to discern who they are, what their moral and value system is going to be, and how to prioritize their lives for today or for the future.  At its worst the book is minimalist strings of dialogue where the reader gets lost halfway through the conversation and can no longer recognize who is speaking.  This has been historically hailed as one of Hemingway's best works, even called a masterpiece by some, but sitting here 86 years removed from its first publication I have to admit to struggling with the "greatness" of the book.  I did enjoy the read and the characters, but the book never captured me and pulled me into the story.  I was always an outsider looking in trying to figure out what was going on with the characters rather than being a companion on their journey. 

Now that may be a characteristic of classic writing that differs from more modern styles of which I have grown up with.  I think it is important for us to read the classics, not just in high school, but through out our lives so we can not only relate to the influential writings of past generations, but equally so we can see how the art of writing and the crafting of novels has evolved over the years.  I am curious to talk to someone in their sixties or seventies who read this book decades ago to hear their perception of the book.

Reading Recommendation: A reluctant yes, it is a classic and thus worth reading, but I do not find it to be a spectacular book where you will finish it thinking, "I am so glad I read this book."

Look at Me.....Not!

Greetings All,

Let's begin with Scripture once again reading from the Book of Deuteronomy:

NLT

Deuteronomy 8:7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with springs that gush forth in the valleys and hills. ⁸ It is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, olives, and honey. ⁹ It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. ¹⁰ When you have eaten your fill, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ "But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and laws. ¹² For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, ¹³ and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, ¹⁴ that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. ¹⁵ Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! ¹⁶ He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. ¹⁷ He did it so you would never think that it was your own strength and energy that made you wealthy. ¹⁸ Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors.

Moses has been giving a speech to the Israelites to prepare and encourage them to enter the Promised Land.  He begins by acknowledging how great a land this is that God has promised them and pointing them to the reality that when they move into the fullness of God's promise they will find themselves with plenty to eat, with nice houses and with flocks and wealth that seem to ever increase.  The reason for the acknowledgement is to present a warning.  Whether it is the Israelites or us, whenever we find ourselves in a comfortable and prosperous place we are faced with the great temptation to think, "Look what I have done!  Everyone, look at me and see how awesome I am!  I have worked hard and made myself rich!" 

We get in those comfortable spots and forget how God provided for us in the tough times which is the foundational evidence that it is Him that is providing for us in these prosperous times.  We want to believe that we did it, we earned and that we deserve it, but the truth is we didn't do it, God did; and we don't deserve it, for it is God's gracious gift.  Moses tells the Israelites that God has tested them in the wilderness so that they will never be tempted to say, "look at me!" nor be tempted to think they accomplished all of this in their own strength and energy. 

It is equally a message for us today.  The longer we walk the Christian walk, the more likely we are to find ourselves in a more prosperous life, but let us never be fooled to think that we have some how accomplished this, earned this or even deserve it.  God has done and incredible thing for us and we need to always give Him the credit.  It should never be the case that we say, "look at what we have done," and always the case that we say, "look at what God has done in our lives and through our lives!"

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Greetings All,

Let us start with Scripture again reading from The New English Bible:

"It is not by hearing the law, but by doing it, that men will be justified before God.  When Gentiles who do not possess the law carry out its precepts by the light of nature, then, although they have no law, they are their own law, for they display the effect of the law inscribed on their hearts."  Romans 2:14-15

One of our first reactions to reading this might be to ask if those who have not heard about Jesus can be saved if they have lived a life that reflects Christian principles?  The best answer I can give is "maybe," but that is not the pit I want to root around in this morning.  More than anything I want us to see the truth that Paul is proclaiming regarding the relation of our hearts and our lives.  Whether the question of the one who has not heard being saved or not is answered here, what is professed with great clarity is that when "the law is inscribed on our hearts" our lives will display the effects!  If we have embodied the truth of Christ in our heart, our lives will display that truth in the way we live, the way we love, the way we serve.  It is just another way of stating that when we truly allow Christ to transform our lives that we cannot help but live lives that make it easy for others to believe in Him.  Here Paul is letting us know that when our heart has been transformed by  the truth of God in Christ our lives will display the effects!  The question for each of us today then becomes, "What effects are we displaying?"

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Looking Back to Move Forward

Greetings All,

It seems that I have been a bit absent from blog posts for the last week.  I apologize, but I do have one to share with you today.  Let us begin with a scripture reading from Deuteronomy:

NLT

Deuteronomy 4:31 For the LORD your God is merciful-- he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors. ³² "Search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now. Then search from one end of the heavens to the other. See if anything as great as this has ever happened before. ³³ Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire-- as you did-- and survived? ³⁴ Has any other god taken one nation for himself by rescuing it from another by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, awesome power, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your very eyes. ³⁵ "He showed you these things so you would realize that the LORD is God and that there is no other god. ³⁶ He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it. ³⁷ Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants and personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power. ³⁸ He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as a special possession, as it is today. ³⁹ So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other god!

This comes from the early parts of Deuteronomy where Moses has been recalling all that God has done for the Israelites and all that He has instructed them to do, but now he is preparing them to enter the promised land.  He has talked about land divisions and sacred vows, but now he needs to give them the confidence they need in God to be able to move forward into the promise of God.   To do this he actually tells them to look back; to remember that God is merciful and that He will never abandon you, look back to the very beginnings of creation.  He asks them if there has ever been anything as incredible as what God has done for the Israelites?  Has any other nation heard the voice of God from fire and not been destroyed?  Has any other nation been chosen by God to be saved from another and then let the world watch as God does exactly that in spectacular ways?  The implied answer is "NO!"

Moses tells the Israelites that when they look back at the evidence of God working in their midst they have all of the evidence they will ever need to trust God that He will do what He says He will do when He promises to give them this land flowing with milk and honey, even if it is occupied by giants!  They are part of this story of God that has been going on since before they even existed as a nation.  As they choose to trust and follow God they become part of that story to which others in the future will look back on God working with them and be able to move forward into their own promises.

That is us!  We are the future people who look back to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness; to the miraculous things God did for them, but more importantly how God was always faithful to them.  We too place our stories in the story of God.  First we look back and see how God has worked not only in Israel but through out the ages since then.  Second we look back on our own lives and see how God has been working in it.  Then and only then can we have the confidence to move forward into whatever God has in store for us next, because we have been reminded that He is trustworthy, faithful, merciful and strong and that He will sustain us in all He calls us to do.  Will we look back today so we can confidently move forward into tomorrow?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Sermon: Sunday, February 19, 2012

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from Sunday's sermon. It is titled What We Win! and the texts are Mark 9:2-9 and Numbers 21:4-9.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Stubborn Ears!

Greetings All,

It has been one of those weeks, with meeting after meeting that eats into my time to make blog posts and I would like to tell you that it is slowing down, but the Lexington District Clergy have a meeting with the Bishop this afternoon, but I wanted to share this with you from my quiet time this morning. Let's start with scripture:

Num 24:10 "At that Balak was very angry with Balaam, beat his hands together and said, 'I summoned you to denouce my enemies and three times, you have persisted in blessing them.  Off with you to your own place!'" from The New English Bible

 Balak has brought prophet Balaam to curse Israel before they go into battle.  We all know Balaam from the story where his donkey speaks to him to chastise him for his behavior, but this is the rest of that story.  Despite beating his donkey, Balaam in coming to Balak has professed that he will only speak the words the Lord gives to him and that is what he does.  The Lord speaks only blessings of Israel to Balaam and those blessings are what he has professed before Balak.  Each time those words are professed Balak gets upset and brings Balaam to a new place to look at Israel from a different angle hoping that in seeing them in a different light Balaam will profess what Balak wants to hear, curses against Israel.  Each time Balaam professes only the words of the Lord and not what Balak wants to hear so Balak finally gets mad and sends Balaam away.  He refuse to listen to God because God is not telling him what he wants to hear.

How often is that true for us?  How often do we ask for a word from God, words of encouragement, direction, decision, or even of blessing and God does speak to us, but not what we want to hear so we ignore Him?  God will respond to us when we call upon Him, but we must be prepared to accept what He has to say.  He is the creator of the universe and He knows what is best for us; yes, even better than we know for ourselves.  Balak's stubborn refusal to listen to God doesn't end well for him and the same is true for us, when we persist in our stubbornness and refuse to listen to God because we don't like what He has to say, it will not end well for us.  The question before each of us today is simply this: "When we seek God's face and word are we willing to accept what he has to say, or will we persist with our stubborn ear, refuse to listen and go our own way?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Admitting Inadequacy

Greetings All,
Once again let's start with scripture.

NLT

Numbers 11:10 Moses heard all the families standing in front of their tents weeping, and the LORD became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated. ¹¹ And Moses said to the LORD, "Why are you treating me, your servant, so miserably? What did I do to deserve the burden of a people like this? ¹² Are they my children? Am I their father? Is that why you have told me to carry them in my arms-- like a nurse carries a baby-- to the land you swore to give their ancestors? ¹³ Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep complaining and saying, 'Give us meat!' ¹⁴ I can't carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! ¹⁵ I'd rather you killed me than treat me like this. Please spare me this misery!"

 I love this pericope of scripture because it completely captures Moses' blunt and honest feelings.  He has been in the wilderness with the Israelites for over a month, they have seen the incredible providence of God as He brings water forth from rocks and makes manna fall from the sky, not to mention parting the Red Sea, yet they continue to grumble and complain about him (Moses) leading them into the wilderness.  Moses has been quietly stuffing his feelings and putting one foot in front of the other, but this time it has proven to be too much and he decides to lay it all out before God.  

"Lord did you call me to be a babysitter?  Is this your plan for me, to coddle and carry these ungrateful people?  Where do you expect me to get meat for all of them?  Is this really a burden I deserve?"  The true feelings of anger and frustration come pouring out, and rightfully so.  Moses feels responsible for the entire nation of Israel, for their well being, for their hope and even for their position before the Lord.  God called him and gave him Aaron, but even Aaron proved to be less than an effective helper as he makes a golden calf for the Israelites.  The burden is huge and Moses is trying to shoulder it alone.  He has come to that place where he tells God that he can't do it anymore, so God might as well just kill him now and get it over with, because the complaining of the Israelites is sure to kill him and death by the Almighty has to be a better death!

The question that seems to be right between the lines the entire discourse is simply, "God was this your plan for me?"  Was it God's plan for Moses to shoulder all of this burden alone?  Or has Moses taken on way more than God ever planned in his pride and desire to control?  My guess this morning is that this is Moses doing.  Like many of us and especially me, Moses has taken on more than God or anyone every intended and tried to get it all done.  The problem with folks like that is that you cannot tell them they need help, they have to come to the realization themselves.  God knows this and based upon His quick and immediate response He has merely been waiting on Moses to come to this conclusion.

The moment that Moses cries out and admits that he cannot do this by himself, God immediately responds and tells him to raise up 70 elders on whom God will share some of the leadership spirit that He has bestowed upon Moses.  It was never God's plan for Moses to do it all, but Moses needed to know that he couldn't do this without God and the help of others.  Do any of us find ourselves in the same kind of place today?  Have we taken on way too much out of our own pride?  Has that created frustration and anger with others and with God?  If that is the case, let us each learn from Moses this morning and cry out to God asking for help and then let us be ready to accept that help from whomever God raises up.  We can do all things through God who strengthens us, not through us who strengthens us!

Your brother in Christ,
Faron