Cono Headmaster

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle?

Then Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword over his armor. Then he tried to go, but could not, for he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them. And David took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in his shepherd’s [lunch] bag [a whole kid’s skin slung from his shoulder], in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand, and he drew near the Philistine. 1 Sam 17.8a, 38-40 (AMP)

We strive, yet it seems we are outnumbered and under-equipped for our task. (Why have we come out onto this field?)

And, we look forward to future events.

This seems a paradox.

Yet, we believe the effort is worthwhile, and our belief not senseless. It is derived from knowing we have disproportionate prospects for success. Not better than even odds, perhaps, but a prospect of success that is disproportionate to the assessment you’d make of our position.

Strategy:
• We choose the wrong son(s). Whoever does not dwell in darkness may do.

• We don’t look at appearances (use the armor that everyone else is used to).

  Or, you might say that we don’t ex ante limit our degrees of freedom.

• We keep our weapons (hidden) in our lunch pail … four more after the first.

Pretty prosaic delivery system … might even be carried down that road by a Samaritan.

Thomas V. Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School

Notes:
Ivan Arreguin-Toft, How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict, Cambridge University Press (2005)
Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy, P&R Publishing (1997)
Doug Thomas, Walter Enloe, Ron Newell (eds.), The Coolest School in America, ScarecrowEducation (2005)

And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name. Gen 2.15,17 (AMP)

That first assignment for man was work. Work consisted of tasks of preparation. Anyone who has tended a garden understands that in order to obtain its fruits, the product of the garden, the work of preparation begins the process. That work is of a kind that would be ordinarily understood as unpleasant and not particularly easy. The lack of ease present in that first assignment was, perhaps, precisely the point. Man was to obtain understanding.

“Modern identities are more fluid than the … divisions of the past. Fluid can mean adaptable. But in another train of associations, fluid also implies ease; fluid motion requires that there be no impediments. When things are made easy for us … we become weak; … we lack understanding of what we are doing.” Sennett (1998)

After the period of work came the creative summons: He brought the living creatures to Adam, and whatever Adam called each living creature that was its name.

So it is for us. We are summoned to work. These tasks are not only difficult (and perhaps dangerous now that we find ourselves on the Jericho Road), but we cannot use methods that disclaim creativity, or introduce ease, and allow us to engage only in a superficial manner.

We have in our hands a creative summons.

Thomas V. Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School

Notes:
Richard Sennett, The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism, Norton (1998)

And He said to them, The harvest indeed is abundant [there is much ripe grain], but the farmhands are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Luke 10.2 (AMP)

Farmhands: are few. The passage is familiar, as is the prayer request following it. Are we using simply a figure of speech in parallel to the word picture of “much ripe grain?”

Not much further in this part of Luke is the story of a lawyer who poses clever questions in the attempt to justify himself. A man was on a dangerous road and was set upon, physically beaten, and robbed of possessions right down to his clothes. As bad as that outcome may seem to be, it was a commonplace to those who traveled on that way, a consequence of the choice that the man had made. He was passed “on the other side” by the priest and the Levite.

Another did not pass, acting when others did not. His actions are described in specific detail, giving regard to the quality of his efforts, to the significant commitment made to others in order to obtain their cooperation, and to his promise to return, like a farmhand who will return to the field to see the crop spring from seed.

Act (Venture) when no one like you would do so, when it is inconvenient, dirty and dangerous, and when it is not made easy for us. Like a farmhand.
Your credentials do not give you a “pass.”

“The relevance of massive chunks of Scripture hangs on our understanding of idolatry.” Powlison (1995).

Problematic desires usually and customarily motivate our behavior, but the example (in Luke) is in opposition to that difficulty and instead requires performance of tasks that we (lawyer types with credentials) are not ready to perform. To put away pretense, our reason from the inside, to venture when no other person does, wishes to, is put off by the risk, is what proves to have permanent effect.

“Even among God’s people, spectacular confrontations had no lasting effect. Remember the Israelite response when fire fell from heaven and devoured Elijah’s altar…. ‘The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!’ had as much staying power as shouting “USA! USA!” at victorious Olympic events: a feel-good moment that … won’t change a life.
“It won’t change a life. The only way God could do that was to live a life. Cheaney (2010).

Venture into difficult, dirty tasks when no one else does, conduct yourself in those ordinary tasks with the objective of delivering oil, bandages, conveyance.

. Enduring results take place in real space and time. Even cosmic demonstrations don’t have staying power. (i.e., Cheaney)
. Our expectations of what is important in our lives must be set, possibly even dramatically or expansively, aside. (i.e., Powlison)

To change a life, live a life: work as a farmhand would.

Thomas V. Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School

Notes:
Janie B. Cheaney, “Age of Miracles,: World Magazine, 25.7 (2010)
David Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair,” Journal of Biblical Counseling, 13.2 (1995)

Prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

And I will rebuke the devourer [insects and plagues] for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3.10-11 (AMP)

We are instructed about few permanent relationships, that instruction is focused upon the example from marriage, and that relationship is intended to bear fruit. Schaeffer, referring to Romans, terms it a double in order that. “The picture here is overwhelming. As the bride puts herself in the bridegroom’s arms on the wedding day and then daily, and as therefore children are born, so the individual Christian … will bear Christ’s fruit into the fallen, revolted, external world.” (Schaeffer, The Church Before the Watching World)

In the world, children are born when the picture is incomplete, defective, fallen, but a child is nonetheless the intended fruit of the relationship between a man and a woman. The incomplete and fallen relationship (I’m allowing here for fallenness to be attributed not just to matters arising within the relationship, but also to matters arising out of the intersection of the world and its nature with the individuals, relationship and the person of the child) is neither to be permitted to destroy the intended fruit nor cause it to be dropped before its time.

That is a powerful argument for acting to protect the legitimate interests of children, to introduce them to the world only when they are ready, and to respond when others are themselves unprepared, unable or unwilling to act.

To act, to tend that vineyard makes the door of hope.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. There I will give her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth…. Hosea 2.14-15 (AMP)

Sing and respond.

Thomas Jahl, Headmaster, Cono Christian School