Randy Greenwald

In this post I thank Elsa for recommending the book All over but the Shoutin’.

However, as it turns out, Elsa claims it was not she who recommended the book, as she has never read it. However, I can find no record on the blog or in any email communication of who might have recommended this.

Now I’m really, really puzzled.

Whoever you are, you also recommended Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia, a fairly odd and unique recommendation in itself.

I’d appreciate it if you would step forward and identify yourself. Before I completely lose it!

Until you do, this is really going to bother me.

For those of you who attend Hope Presbyterian Church, you heard me reference a book about a man’s rural Alabama upbringing. If you are clever, and like to follow the clues of a mystery, I gave you sufficient hints to track down the book I referenced.

But I can save you the trouble.

A number of months ago, a friend (thanks, Elsa!) highly recommended All over but the Shoutin’by Rick Bragg. Though I can’t recall the occasion for her recommendation, it probably was in response to my just having read The Color of Water by James McBride. Both books are tributes to mothers raising sons alone.

I read many well written books. This one, however, is beautifully written, a tale told with an honesty and passion that is gripping. I’m sure that before I finish it, I will have much more to say about it.

And oh, yes, there was another book I mentioned this morning. I have more to say about that one, and hope to have something posted on that soon.

Norrie Epstein’s The Friendly Shakespeare is really a wonderful book. Instead of watching SportsCenter today over lunch, which I usually do when eating at home, I continued my perusal of this fascinating and fun resource. It is, as the subtitle tells us, “A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard.”

I was fascinated to read in this a list of expressions and phrases which we use all the time that apparently trace their first usage to one of Shakespeare’s plays. Things such as ‘household words’ (Henry V) and ‘bated breath’ (The Merchant of Venice) and ‘dead as a doornail’ (Henry VI, part 2) all were first used by Shakespeare, according the author.

I say ‘apparently’ because my confidence in Ms. Epstein was shaken by her claim that ‘the apple of her eye’ (Love’s Labour’s Lost) belonged on the list. The Bible attributes this to an older poet, a man named Moses, perhaps 3000 years before Shakespeare strutted and fretted upon his stage:

“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:10)

Admittedly, there is a change of pronoun. But certainly he cannot be given credit for the image, can he?

Three other times, this expression, “apple of ___ eye” is used in these Scriptures. Shakespeare certainly knew where the image originated. I hope that someone has told Ms. Epstein.

Makes me a bit tenuous on the rest of her list, but not the rest of her book. As I said, it is not only a fascinating resource, but full of fun and delight as well.

The frequency and intensity of conflicts over worship wear us down and threaten to steal our joy. When men attempt to write on the subject, often their works carry a sharp polemic edge which is quickly dulled by the perceived need of addressing the controversies which swirl about.

Bryan Chapell is the president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri whose book Christ-Centered Worship avoids those pitfalls. He pushes hard to get to the heart of what worship is all about, and then from that vantage point begins to address secondary matters as their priority demands. This is a very important and a very wise book.

Some readers will be too quickly put off with the ‘textbookish’ feel of the early chapters. That would be a mistake. His argument needs careful attention.

He first walks us through an evaluation of the history of Christian worship. He does so to show that cutting across generations, denominations, and theologies, Christian worship has always been structured around a re-presenting of the gospel. God is revealed and praised; his people humbled, confess, and receive assurance; a redeemed people are instructed in his word and fed on his grace; and they are dismissed into the world refreshed and renewed in the gospel.

Worship has maintained its commonality throughout history because it is responding in every context to the same gospel. The heart of Dr. Chapell’s argument is then to show that this gospel is the biblical theme behind all worship in the whole Bible. Those who scan the Bible for precise liturgical forms err. What the Bible reveals is a gospel orientation to God which dictates every response to him. The gospel is the heart of worship.

If we are persuaded that it is the gospel that guides our liturgical construction, it is simply, then, another step for us to begin to face the difficult cultural and stylistic questions with the same gospel-centered thinking. Though Dr. Chapell’s position on certain issues is not disguised, what matters to him is that we begin to ask ourselves ‘gospel’ type questions in evaluating issues, and not simply questions of preference.

His approach cuts a sharp path to the heart of many questions. His challenge should shake us all up, no matter where in the discussions we find ourselves. Years of arguing can tend to polarize even the best of men. Chapell’s gospel-centered methodology should draw us all back to the table with repentance and humility.

Bryan Chapell is not only “an ‘ell of a chap” (sorry – that is the only way I’ve been able to remember how to spell his hame) but he is an imminently wise writer.

I long for the day when the polemics of worship will cease, when writers empty the vitriol from their pens and speakers lose the sarcasm in their speech and we can center our discussions of worship on the degree to which the gospel is re-presented, grasped, and understood. This book is a huge step in that direction.