The Mockingcast

I don’t “read much” and I don’t “look the part” I’m not “seminary trained” or even “theologically inclined.” I don’t “know what ‘Pelagian’ means” and I “don’t look comfortable in front of an audience” I “sleep in my make-up” and “also with stuffed animals” I guess I “talk too much” and I “sweat when I’m nervous” and I “can’t remember names” because I’m “too concerned with myself” even though I “don’t bathe regularly” and I’ve “let myself go.” I haven’t “learned my lesson” my “coffee hasn’t kicked in yet” I haven’t “kept calm” or “found my bliss” but I’m “talking at this conference anyway.” On the surface of things, Moana (Disney) tells the story of a model-gorgeous Polynesian girl who saves her people through sheer grit and perseverance. Bennett Brauer would say: She “has what it takes” she “does her part” she “takes the bull by the horns” and “pulls herself up by her sandal-straps.” In our culture today – so driven and exhausted by the lie that our success (our salvation) is in our own hands – this is an incredibly seductive notion. (Don’t all of us, even we gospel-warriors at Mockingbird, operate under this impulse every day?) As we take a closer look at this beautiful film, what we will discover is a character riddled with self-doubt. She is neither capable nor equipped to offer life and rescue to her village (which is slowly being consumed by a “terrible darkness”). Moana, like me, like you, has only one credential: she is chosen. In this breakout session, we will explore how aspects of this remarkable narrative offer us – lowly, incapable, and weak – grace, hope, and a way forward in the grind of our everyday lives as Christians. We possess neither the ability, free will, power, nor the righteousness to repair ourselves and escape the wrath of God. It must all be God’s work, Christ’s work, or there is no salvation.” — Michael Horton.

It doesn’t take long at Mockingbird before one hears about… yes, here it comes… Law and Gospel. It is the name of the book after all. And while most of the fun is to be had in observing this versatile skeleton key to the human condition illustrated in everything from Finding Dory to David Bowie, or from Black Mirror to Axl Rose, the original Law/Gospel illustration, of course, came from Martin Luther’s BFF, Lucas Cranach the Elder, as evidenced below. On the left, expectation and obligation – with help from sin and death – send a helpless streaker toward an unwelcome barbeque (that’s Law). On the right, expectation is met by fulfillment. As the good news sinks in, a super-soaker of imputing blood jet streams from a side-wound, while sin and death get busted by a deputized sheep (that’s Gospel). It would be perfectly serviceable to offer an extended talk on such wonderful illustrations, one of which bedazzles the front of Paul Zahl’s Short Systematic Theology. Cranach, after all, painted several variations, each of which convey different nuances to Law/Gospel dynamic. Nevertheless, addled as I am by the oppressive law of academia, with its merciless demand for originality, I am incapable of delivering something so straightforward, which, at any rate, has been done well in several top-notch publications. Instead, I thought I’d look to artists from whom one would not expect such a message. Indeed, at the tenth anniversary conference I shall contend the Law/Gospel message can be found concealed in artists a long way from Wittenberg. The thrilling truth of grace emerges in art history just where you’d expect to hear something different (hence my title, “Hearing Law, Seeing Gospel”). What if the dynamic famously painted by Cranach could be found incognito in Orthodox icons, peeking from the unsurpassable achievements of Michelangelo and Pontormo, concealed in Catholic kitsch, even shining through the cult of creativity in contemporary art? It’s all succinctly conveyed in the witty title, “camouflage Cranach,” really, but my wife said that sounded terrible.

We’re living in an age of “subjective sovereignty,” where life is “all the feels” and emotional offense is king. It is a time less describable by policy discord and differences of opinion, but instead by vindictive joy and holy rage. Arguments are couched in first-person noise—disagreements have the sting of personal attacks—which means the arguments are, on the whole, harder to argue or critique. As we’ve become “touchier” about the things we care about, the logic behind those sensitivities has also faded. This trend goes hand in hand with another trend that’s been provoked, namely, that America is only becoming more spiritually bankrupt/unmoored. David Brooks recently wrote along these lines, that Religious frameworks no longer organize public debate. Secular philosophies that grew out of the Enlightenment have fallen apart. We have words and emotional instincts about what feels right and wrong, but no settled criteria to help us think, argue and decide. You’d think this would lead to the age of great moral relativism, where all the objective strictures are let go and the only mantra remaining is “You Do You.” But this hasn’t happened. Instead, Brooks writes, “society has become a free-form demolition derby of moral confrontation.” It seems we feel so much, but we can’t seem to agree on why we feel it and who’s to blame. So the answer, of course, is to get some Truth, right? Get to church! Fall on the Rock! God provides the mooring—the why behind your hurt—and the cross gives you your scapegoat. The Good News gives you your needed justification. But what do you do with all that rage? Therapy? I don’t know about you, but the term “therapeutic” has always bristled—it sounds like the hippy-dippy opposite of “grounded” or “objective.” It sounds a lot more like “You Do You”—do what feels good to you. But this is largely a misunderstanding, mostly because of counseling that truly hasn't helped. Just as God gives us the Good News, God also administers his healing in the gracious counsel of another. With the help of some of our favorites, let's look into the relationship between the objective News of the Gospel, and very subjective (though no-less-real) needs we carry around with us every day, and how those needs are addressed within the realm of pastoral care and counseling.

Closing Saturday morning talk at our 2017 Conference in New York City, given by David Zahl. Delivered April 29th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church.

Saturday morning talk at our 2017 Conference in New York City, given by Nicole Cliffe (The Toast). Delivered April 29th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church.

Saturday morning talk at our 2017 Conference in New York City, given by Duo Dickinson. Delivered April 29th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church.

Friday evening talk at our 2017 Conference in NYC, given by The Rev. Fleming Rutledge. Delivered April 28th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church.

Friday afternoon talk at our 2017 Conference in NYC, given by Oliver Burkeman (The Guardian). Delivered April 28th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church.

Second Friday morning talk at our 2017 Conference in NYC from Dr. Simeon Zahl. Delivered April 28th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church. Subtitle: "The Lost Doctrine of Sin.

Friday morning talk at our 2017 Conference in NYC from The Rev. Sarah Condon. Delivered April 28th, 2017 at St George's Episcopal Church. Subtitle: "The Losing Battle of Being in Charge".