"My Preciousssss!"

One of my favorite, if not thee favorite of mine, books to read is Lord of the Rings. I can remember as a little boy hearing of stories about hobbits and elves and wizards and dwarves; of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures; of Frodo and his quest to destroy the One Ring. Although I must say that it has only been in recent months that I have been able to read through Tolkien's masterpiece and enjoy it for what it is.

Why do I love this book so? Perhaps C. S. Lewis says it better than I will ever be able to; "Here are the beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron."

One of those beauties which burns like cold iron is Tolkien's profound ability to explain the themes of Pity and Mercy. Indeed these two themes are seen throughout the book, especially in regards to that despicable creature Gollum. To be honest, a creature, in many ways, no different than myself (although I like to think I am a little more handsome than Peter Jackson portrayed him!).

The themes of pity and mercy can be seen in the following dialogue between Frodo and Gandalf,

"What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!'

'Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.'"

Interestingly, as a reader reading from an omniscient viewpoint I disagreed with this at first. An evil creature like Gollum, who only does evil continuously, certainly deserves to die. It may be true that Gollum leads Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom, but in the end it is Gollum who turns on Frodo and tries to take his precious back. Certainly, we should not allow this creature to live. There must have been someone else who could have led these two hobbits to Mordor and Mount Doom?

Tolkien answers these questions if you read on. Gandalf says to Frodo,

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many—yours not least."

Perhaps there are some parallels here between the mercy of Bilbo and the mercy of God (This is not to make light of God's mercy; indeed, God's mercy goes beyond the mercy of a mere hobbit)?

Pity and Mercy, Gandalf says, is to stay one's hand. To not strike without need. This is precisely what we see in the Bible when God exercises His mercy. It is God withholding His Just Wrath. Grace, as one of our pastors has said before, is receiving something you do not deserve. Mercy is not receiving something that you do deserve.

Notice further how much more merciful God is. Gandalf says we should be merciful because even the very wise cannot see all ends. But God can see all ends and yet he still exercises His mercy.

Why is God merciful? Because like Gollum, whether for good or ill, we all have a part to play in this grand narrative. God withholds His judgment perhaps to see one "cured before he dies"? Perhaps God may withhold his judgment to lead someone to Mount Doom to carry out His will?

There are a number of reasons that God may withhold His judgment. When I think about this, and I think about God withholding His judgment on me, I think that Gandalf may not have been so wrong after all!

What are your thoughts?

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Good Quote

I came across this quote from Aristotle, and when I read it many thoughts came to me. The biggest thing that this quote does, I think, is forces a great deal of introspection...

"It is a mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Curious to see if any of you have any thoughts concerning this???

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Winking One-eyed Wonders

There's a very helpful post over at Pyromaniacs entitled "Sister, Have Mercy." I commend it to you, particularly to those of you (1) who have daughters who need some extra help in avoiding the clueless condition of their peers, (2) who have sons or brothers who need a lesson in how to combine candor and grace in discussing a touchy topic; or (3) who occupy positions of spiritual responsibility in your church or other ministerial settings.

As the father of four daughters who learned modesty from their beautiful and modest mother, I am well aware of the extra challenges, hurdles, and impediments to modesty that are faced by even the youngest girls. The sections of the main-line department stores (Dillard's, Foley's, Penny's) in our area are known in our house as majoring in the "Little Miss Ho" line of fashions. We have other colorful names for this style, but I hesitate to name them here, lest I trip any smut-filters that may be monitoring your internet use.

At any rate, the link above says it all, and it says it with grace and clarity, a rare combination these days, particularly in this topic.

BQ

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The Holey Grail

I don't read fictional novels very often, but because "everyone" is doing it, I decided to see what the Da Vinci Code is all about. I couldn't bring myself to buy the book, so I borrowed it from a friend last week.

The constant suspense and mystery combined with a lot of dialogue made the book a real page turner - I had no problems finishing the 400+ pages in just under 2 days. I imagine the upcoming movie will be an exciting mixture of Mission Impossible and National Treasure.

Without going into great detail, I can summarize the "secret" of the book by quoting a few passages.

The threat Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early Church was potentially ruinous. Not only was she the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the Church, but she also had physical proof that the Church's newly proclaimed deity had spawned a mortal bloodline. (254)

...you must understand the Church's powerful motivations to conduct such a cover-up. They could never have survived public knowledge of a bloodline. A child of Jesus would undermine the critical notion of Christ's divinity and therefore the Christian Church... (254)

...Jesus was a Father...Mary Magdalene was the womb that carried His royal lineage. The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships Mary Magdalene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the Rose and the Divine Mother. (255)

This is where Dan Brown shoots himself in the foot. Assuming that all the facts are correct about Mary Magdalene's marriage to Jesus, I see 3 ways of interpreting the relationship:

1. Jesus is God > His wife might be someone to honor
2. Jesus is just another mortal prophet > His wife might be special but not because of her marriage to Jesus
3. Jesus's supposed deity is a conspiracy of the Church > His wife is Divine and worthy of worship

Either #1 or #2 might be consistent beliefs to hold (assuming their facts are true), but option 3 is silly - if the Priory of Sion knew Jesus was not Divine, why would they or anyone care about Mary Magdalene? Not only that, if Christ is only important because the Church conspired to make him divine, then Mary is only important because of the Church they are trying to discredit. By denying Jesus' divinity, Dan Brown completely destroys the meaning of the conspiracy he is suggesting.

So, even granting that all of the facts in the Da Vinci Code are true (and they are not), the main premise of the story is nonsense at best.

-Vijay Swamidass

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Someone Post Something!

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As you've probably noticed, I have been offline for quite some time now. I'm just writing to let you all know that I'm still around, and to let you know why I have been absent as of late.

My daughter, Karis, has been quite ill lately, and to be honest, I'm a little worried about her. She has had a fever of over 105 for the past three days now, and much of our time has been spent at Kaiser trying to get treatment. She has had two catheters, eight vials of blood drawn, a throat culture, spinal tap, two very painful antibiotic shots, and is currently getting a chest x-ray.

After all of this, the doctors still don't know what is going on, and my wife is struggling to keep her spirits up. We would appreciate your prayers at this time.

UPDATE- Thank you all for your prayers, emails, phone calls, etc. It is great to know that so many people are praying and thinking of our little one. It appears that Karis' health is improving. This morning her fever was considerably lower than it has been since Sunday night, and her doctor was pleased with her vitals and her demeanor. Bekah and I are relieved that she is in much less pain, and we are hoping that she makes a full recovery soon. We still have no idea what caused all this, but hopefully it was just a stubborn virus that is on its way out. I'll keep you posted.

2nd UPTATE- Well, it looks as if Karis is out of the woods. Her temperature is back to normal, and she is back to her joyful self. Thank you all for your prayers; we are forever grateful. I'll let you know if there's any more info, but for now, it looks like she's made a full recovery!

Cheers.

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