Form and Content....a Californian interp. of Pilgrim's Progress

When we were candidating for the church in California, Aliso Creek Presbyterian, in Mission Viejo, Steve Ritchie who was on the pulpit committee with his wife, and after we left, he wrote to ask us to come, even if we didn't feel like we'd fit in to the California "style" of preacher or family.  Here's what he wrote:

"The big question, then, is Can you overcome the language barrier?   To aid you, I've translated the first page or so of Pilgrim's Progress into Californian- I trust you have the original, outdated version:

"Like, I was cruisin'along in the fast lane and the next thing you know I'm in the box, so i think "It's casual" and decide to crash there; so while I'm catchin' some Z's, like, I had this dream.  Like, there was this dude standing there out front of his house, lookin' like maybe he's goin' someplace, holding this book, and this awesome load on his back.  Like, I'm watching him and he opens the book and starts to read, and, man, he just starts freaking out, saying "I cant handle it.  I can't relate!"  So he goes home, tries to be cool in front of the wife and kids, but finally he can't cope any more and he tells them: "Listen up! Like, bad news. Like, we're history.  Like, it's all over.  Like total fire city!  Like, give us a break. " 

Like, they thought he'd totally O. D.'ed...."

Funny thing is, I was just today reading my notes from my mother's wonderful class at Gordon-Conwell Seminary on Christian Expression, which, as she described it, was "the presentation of ideas, through speech, writing, and behavior." I had audited the class, and guess who was in there- Walt Shepard, and Tim and Kathy Keller.  (The latter two are quite famous now) Here's what some of the notes were:

"Vision is a condition of the heart.  Eccles. says "he has put eternity into man's mind."  Do you see?  Do you know? Do you understand?: 

The word is expressed in your manner of life!  What you are determines the effect.  Style takes its final shape from the attitude of your mind.

"Truth can be transmitted by 3 things: Receive>manifest>communicate....style must come out of what we are; concentrate on the TRUTH.....style also distinguishes.....do not aim for distinction and elegance, but aim for TRUTH.  John was told in Revelation, 'Write what you see.'

As Christians - does your posture in this world reveal who you belong to? FORM and CONTENT are ESSENTIAL!  The form of your life is the product of your content.

[my mother was reading Leopold Tyrmand and quoted from him here] answering the question "what do we mean by civilization?" ......"the full authority of the human spirit over all externals in their crude and unconscious state"...."we agree not to burden each other with our excessive humanity."   Unfortunately, in our society, the externals are worshiped, rather than 'controlled' (my word there, trying to read between the lines from my notes!)  We need lines drawn, barriers- the wall is one of civilization's best inventions- we need privacy!" 

And my thoughts- yes!  There's too much, way too much shown in the media, which we do not WANT to see, nor do we NEED to see. I have been violated time and again, by scenes that I should not have to "experience," because they are not my own, which need to be kept private, or there is too much horror, words and violence, that I do not need to dwell on, because of Phil. 4:8-9.  When we see these; the media's blatant exposure, my mother either quoted here, or her own words were, "we have a vague sense of becoming unbecoming."  Tyrmand (who was in a prison camp) saw our society from a different perspective.  He used words such as "invisible, intensity, fascination, rectitude, privacy, exclusivity, exceptionality, depth..." all referring to some of the good elements of civilizaton, I believe. The reality of the prison camp, was the opposite of all these ponderous words.  

So, because my mother's class dealt with form and content, and the expression of truth,  I offer these notes and thoughts as maybe an antidote to the crassness, or un-civilization of our society.

As my Uncle Tom would say, "Onward and Upward!"  Or, from Narnia, "Further up and Further in!"