Preparation

Study without Piety is worthless - Jacob Spener  Pia Desideria


There Cheers for our queer old dean! - William Archibald Spooner

The experimental composer and singer-songwriter Tom Waits will always have a special place in my heart (this very blog is, in fact, named after one of his many insightful song lyrics).  As a younger artist back in the mid 70's Waits' music was somewhat of a cross between piano ballads and folk-tinted jazz, often floridly filling his live shows with flowing dialogue about seedy characters and craggy late-night diners.  After a few albums and a decent amount of success on the nightclub scene Waits began drinking heavily which became blatantly apparent in his music and his oft befuddled stage presence.  It was during one of these shows that Waits staggered out this muddled one-liner:

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Clever or confused, either way its worth a sad laugh at what Waits later called in his more sober years a picture of a decrepit circus clown.  However, Waits can't take full credit for such a phrase, indeed the English construction was around before Waits was even the figment of imagination...

William Archibald Spooner was a Dean at Oxford in the early part of the 20th century.  He was a short man with a big head and a moderate case of Albinism but with a mind more brilliant than almost anyone else in the British Isles at that time.  Sadly, more often than not, Spooner's mind worked much faster than his mouth, often producing slip-ups which were nothing short of hilarious (if not utterly embarrassing).  These "spoonerisms", as they are now called, often involved the shifting of letters to form senseless phrases such as "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride" (It is customary to kiss the bride) or, my favorite, "Such Bulgarians should be vanished" (such vulgarians should be banished).

A brilliant man nonetheless, but a man whose mind often in his brilliance strayed fervently.  Letters of Spooner would request individuals to his office to settle some issue, only to have a postscript at the end of the letter saying that the matter had already been resolved.  In fact, Spooner even once preached an entire sermon about one of the letters of St. Paul, only to have substituted "Aristotle" for Paul.  It was only after preaching the entire sermon and descending from the pulpit before he finally paused, returned to the pulpit and said to his terribly confused congregation "Did i say Aristotle? I meant St. Paul" before finally returning to his seat.  Even more embarrassing was at a royal dinner where his toast for the queen ended in the same manner; saluting the "queer old dean" instead of her highness, the dear old queen.

Ouch.

Recently the question arose from one of my peers what were supposed to be doing here at Princeton.  Many nights end in fruitful and edifying discussion of theology, philosophy, and the many aspects of serving the Kingdom of Christ in a manner which is worthy and pleasing to our Lord and Savior.  Yet, he confided in me, how is this discussion, as verdant as it is, truly serving our Lord in spiritual acts of worship?  How are we truly practicing the life of Jesus upon this earth locking in babbling discussion when the world is in such dire need of the gospel?  Are we truly filling our purpose in each and every moment?


Preparation is important, but no so important that our entire life should be for that purpose.  Preparation is a means, never an end.  It is always anticipating a future, a goal, a trial, an event, a hope, a fear, a coming promise.  Yet even in the hard work of preparing ourselves for our spiritual acts of worship, the harder work is often the overcoming of the temptation to buckle down rather than jump to action.  We can study and meditate, ponder and conceptualize, theorize and discuss and dialogue until our faces turn blue and we hit our beds with a false sense of accomplishment as if we truly have been such "good and faithful servants."

God is good, so good that such pious activity and service pale in comparison to the grace of God which extends its healing and salvific hand as a balm to the burning guilt and torment of our sins.  Yet, to truly understand this gift of grace, to truly understand this hope of redemption and resurrection, to truly feel the love selflessly displayed on the cross we must become like Him.  It is when we finally allow the grace of God to truly sanctify and heal our broken selves and put away our foolish individuality and pride that we can finally witness the world through the eyes of the one who gave it all for us.

How differently we would view the world if we stopped mixing up our priorities, if we could somehow see the world not for it's bottom-lines, top-dollars, and its onslaught of flash and pizazz and could simply see even the tiniest of moments for its complete and utter significance.  How differently this world would look if it was viewed not through the jumbled Spoonerism that is our pride and the trinkets we grasp so stringently to and we began to let the Holy Spirit take control and put our preparation and our study to use.

If only such a world were easier to see...

Love each other, pray often, reflect your Savior