Frank E. Peretti's Blog

CATTLE, SHEEP, AND PIGEONS, Part Two

Hello, everyone.  I posted Part One of this yesterday, so if you haven’t read that yet, it should be the one before this one.  Anyway, here’s the second part.

One can imagine how the Temple became so cluttered. Jews coming from afar had to have animals to sacrifice, so it just made sense to make those animals available right there in the Temple. But you know how it is with manmade ideas and programs: They GROW.

I can imagine how difficulties arose over where to locate the tables – “Hey!  Why do YOU get to locate so close to the gate so everybody passes your table first?”

And where to get the animals: “Hey, not only will we lead them to the temple, we’ll throw in two free sheep plus a coupon good for two turtledoves!”

And if you’re selling you need customers which means you need hawkers and advertising.  “Hey, you!  Yeah, you!  You want a sacrifice?  Got the finest, right here, fresh from the ranch!  Such a deal!”

And all of this essentially became a part of the worship process; it became a gauntlet the worshippers had to pass through before they could enter the temple and worship God.

I can see why Jesus was so upset.  After all, He came to rend the veil that separated mankind from direct relationship with God, and as he told the Jews in John Chapter two, He, Jesus, was the temple (not to mention what Paul would say later in I Corinthians 3:17, “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple,” and in Ephesians 2:20-22, “… Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

What Jesus saw on that day was all our man-made enterprises and ideas standing between Him and those who would seek and know Him.  Relationship with the Father and with Jesus Christ is what Jesus was and is all about, not the stuff we make up, build, and adopt as tradition, our way of “doing Church.”

One could fill a volume with all the churchy things that actually clutter up our relationship with the Lord, that turn us into Marthas instead of Marys.  I’ll focus on just three because these are now clear enough in my head and heart for me to share about them:

TASK ORIENTATION

CUSTOM AND EXAMPLE

THE MEDIUM BECOMING THE MESSAGE

I’ll tackle TASK ORIENTATION first, in the next post.  See you there.

Frank, on August17, 2012

CATTLE,  SHEEP, AND PIGEONS, Part One

Hello again, everyone.  As promised, it’s time for a little more White Haired Wisdom.

This time I’m going to be talking about Church – not THE Church, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ to which anyone belongs who knows Jesus. No, I’m talking about the INSTITUTION we Christians have built around our relationship with Jesus: the building, the programs, the tasks and traditions, that thing we go to when we say we’re “going to church.”

Why?

Oh, just being a “grandpa,” I guess.  After 61 years of being a church-goer, maybe I can pass along some observations and advice to make your walk with the Lord a little easier and a little more sensible.

For this posting, let me start out with four illustrations that will help illuminate what I’ll be talking about in postings to follow:

Some of you have probably seen that weird musical, “The Little Shop of Horrors.”   It features a cute little plant that cries out in a squeaky, pleading voice, “Feed me, feed me!”   The unsuspecting shopkeeper starts to feed it – with drops of his own blood – and it grows.  By the end of the story the plant has grown into a monstrous man-eater and the shopkeeper has to feed it human victims as it thunders in a deep, basso voice, “FEED ME! FEED ME!”

No doubt most of you remember the tale of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, most famously   portrayed by Mickey Mouse in Disney’s Fantasia.  Mickey, the sorcerer’s apprentice, is tired of carrying water from a well into the sorcerer’s castle, so while the sorcerer is away Mickey uses magic to bring a broom to life and make it carry the water.  Things get out of hand, the one broom becomes several, then hundreds, carrying so much water that the castle begins to flood, and now Mickey discovers to his horror that he doesn’t know how to reverse the magic that brought all the brooms to life.

Then there is the scene in which Jesus comes into the temple and finds the outer court is filled with cattle, sheep, pigeons, merchants and moneychangers.  He fashions a whip from some ropes and drives out the animals and the marketers, saying, “It is written, My Father’s House shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a robber’s den!”

Lastly, let’s remember Mary and Martha.  Jesus had come over to visit and while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus learning from the Master, Martha was preoccupied with all the food and hospitality preparations.  “Lord,” Martha said, “do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me,” to which Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

In each of these examples, someone meant well, but before long, a little, seemingly good idea grew until it gained a life of its own and got out of hand.

After all, a plant that talks?  Wow, that’s special, that’s important.  It could prove useful.

And a broom that carries water?  Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, right?

And why not sell the worshippers their sacrifices right at the temple?  It would only take a little bit of space, it would make things easy, more inviting and friendly.  Come on, how much trouble could it be?

And Jesus is coming over?  Well, we can’t just have Him over.  We have to clean and vacuum and make the place presentable and get out the best dishes and the Julia Child cookbook and spend more time in serving Him than in just being with Him, and if someone isn’t as distracted and time-consumed as we are in the “service of the Lord,” then of course there must be something wrong with them.

In his book The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer wrote:

“Right now we are in an age of religious complexity.  The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us.  In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.  The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.”

And Tozer wrote that in 1958!  Just goes to show how subtle and gradual the plant can grow, the brooms can multiply, the temple can become a marketplace, and a hostess can become so busy serving her guest she never has a chance to visit with Him.

Anyway, that’s the topic I’ll be working on in the days ahead.  Please check back from time to time.

Frank, on August 16, 2012.

Lots of folks who want to be writers ask me if I have any advice for them.  Well, I could say a lot, but here are some of the first things that come to mind:

Know what you’re doing. Study all you can about the writing craft. Read books about story structure, writing a novel, character development. I’ve even read books on screenplay writing and found them helpful.

Be able to write good English.  There is no excuse for bad spelling, poor grammar, faulty sentence structure and so on.  I will grant that writers, especially fiction writers, use all kinds of devices and artistic license with words to tell their stories, but they know what they’re doing and none of it is by accident.  You need to know what the rules are before you can start breaking them.

Write, every day if you can. Start small, with short stories, essays on any subject you wish, a journal just for yourself, blogs like this one, and grow from there. Writing is like any other skill: you have to practice at it, so turn off the television and go to work.

If you plan to write fiction, read a lot of fiction to get a sense of how fiction should sound, flow, hold your attention, evoke emotions.   Always look for drama and how the author creates it.

Develop an ear for dialogue. It’s surprising to me how many writing students can carry on conversation and hear a conversation but they still can’t write it the way it really sounds. If you must, read your dialogue out loud to yourself, act it out, and keep at it until it sounds genuine.

Try to write for your reader and not just for yourself.  Some would-be writers are still on some kind of artistic ego trip, writing unintelligible glop that may satisfy their own impulses but which no one else can understand. That’s fine if you want to starve. If you want to get paid for what you do, have respect and regard for your customer the reader.

Quit dreaming and get to work. The only way to get a project finished is to get your rear end into that chair and your hands on the keyboard and keep them there  on a regular, disciplined basis until you’ve come up with something.

That’s it for now.

When I get any more “white-haired wisdom” to share, I think I’ll post it here.  Thanks.

Frank

Can you imagine!  There I was, reading, reading, reading for the audiobook version of Illusion, and when I came to the part where Mandy does her Elvis impression, singing “Heartbreak Hotel,” the director stopped me and said, “You can’t sing that, it’s copyrighted.”

Oh.  Well, right.  Sure.  I guess I knew that.  So I had to stumble through that song without actually singing it which had to sound kind of weird.  People might think, “This Peretti guy can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”

Then came a song by the Beach Boys and I couldn’t sing that one either.

Then … are you ready for this?  I was reading the scene in which Mandy bakes Dane a cake and sings him Happy Birthday and the director had to stop me again.  ”Sorry.  You can’t sing that either, it’s copyrighted.”

Happy Birthday?  Copyrighted?  That’s right.  Some outfit, in an exquisite showing of avarice, and hoping to leech royalties from anyone and everyone who sings that song in any recording or any public concert or movie or TV show, has bought the rights for millions of dollars.  Well.  Guess it’s time to come up with a new Happy Birthday song.  I’m working on one so my worship team can sing it to folks in church with birthdays.

And I’m NOT going to copyright it!

Just forgive me for not singing the songs on the audiobook.  I really can string notes together well enough for the song to be recognizable … you just wouldn’t know it.

Anyway, the audiobook is fun, fun, fun … unless your Daddy takes your iPod away …

Listen to an excerpt or you can order the whole thing here:  http://frankperetti.com/?p=353

Frank

Can you imagine!  There I was, reading, reading, reading for the audiobook version of Illusion, and when I came to the part where Mandy does her Elvis impression, singing "Heartbreak Hotel," the director stopped me and said, "You can't sing that, it's copyrighted."

Oh.  Well, right.  Sure.  I guess I knew that.  So I had to stumble through that song without actually singing it which had to sound kind of weird.  People might think, "This Peretti guy can't carry a tune in a bucket."

Then came a song by the Beach Boys and I couldn't sing that one either.

Then … are you ready for this?  I was reading the scene in which Mandy bakes Dane a cake and sings him Happy Birthday and the director had to stop me again.  "Sorry.  You can't sing that either, it's copyrighted."

Happy Birthday?  Copyrighted?  That's right.  Some outfit, in an exquisite showing of avarice, and hoping to leech royalties from anyone and everyone who sings that song in any recording or any public concert or movie or TV show, has bought the rights for millions of dollars.  Well.  Guess it's time to come up with a new Happy Birthday song.  I'm working on one so my worship team can sing it to folks in church with birthdays.

And I'm NOT going to copyright it!

Just forgive me for not singing the songs on the audiobook.  I really can string notes together well enough for the song to be recognizable … you just wouldn't know it.

Anyway, the audiobook is fun, fun, fun … unless your Daddy takes your iPod away …

Listen to an excerpt or you can order the whole thing here:  http://frankperetti.com/?p=353

Frank