#your humble correspondent
Might have a little too much going on here. But grey herringbone blazer with a purple-and-blue striped shirt and a dark blue/black tie with little purple owls on. The Citizen watch is uncluttered, if a little larger than I like (I have a small wrist). I do love the blue hands.
The blazer and tie were both thrift store finds.
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This popped up on Feedly recently, linking to this sermon by John Piper, a leading evangelical and neo-Calvinist. As a convert, it kinda sums up my problem with Protestantism, or at least one of them. (Protestants who don’t know what they’re protesting are another story.)
To read this blurb, Christianity seemingly begins in 1517. Jesus is absent, and St. Paul is only invoked insofar as he was used by Reformers to support their arguments fifteen hundred years later. Granted, Piper alleges that the Reformers “recovered” the true Gospel, linking them with Christ. But this is an assertion rather than evidence. What Piper means is: “There are various ways to interpret the New Testament. Luther’s way hadn’t been used by virtually any of the Church Fathers in fifteen hundred years, but I believe it so by gum it must have been the true gospel.”
Ok, then. I’m sure if I listen to the whole sermon that Piper reaches the conclusion above (which most Protestants have, in my previous experience) with a great deal of sophisticated hermeneutics. But still.
Small disclaimer: I subscribe to the Desiring God RSS feed because the site frequently does feature good articles. And whatever my quibbles with neo-Calvinism, I think it is good for evangelicalism, which is often captivated by theologically vapid and even heretical fads.
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Going a little 80s. Red striped oxford with the beige foulard tie and grey corduroy blazer. The watch is my favorite: a 50th Anniversary Seiko 5 with a unicorn crown. The watch has black PVD around the face and down the middle of the steel bracelet.
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It is not for his gifts
that I continue in my prayers,
but because he is true Life.
It is not so much by hope
as by bonds of love that I am drawn.
it is not for gifts,
but for the Giver that I ever yearn.
It is not glory I aspire to,
but it is the Glorified One whom I wish to embrace.
It is not by the desire for life,
but by the remembrance of him who gives life
that I am ever consumed!
it is not for joyous passions that I yearn,
but it is because of a desire for him who is preparing them
that my heart bursts out in tears.
It is not rest that I seek,
but it is the face of him who offers rest
that I seek in prayer.
It is not for the nuptial banquet,
but it is for the Bridegroom that I long.
Despite the weight of my transgressions
I believe with an indubitable hope,
trusting in the hand of the Almighty One
that not only shall I obtain pardon,
but that I shall see him in person,
thanks to his mercy and pity,
and that I shall inherit heaven
although I completely deserve to be banished.
…Receive with sweetness,
O powerful Lord God,
the prayer of him who was bitterness for you.
…Grant that through remembrance of your hope
I may remain unscathed, protected by
You. Amen.
– St. Gregory of Narek (quoted in Fr. Cameron’s Made for Love, Loved by God)
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