It may be Pope John Paul’s cannon-happy legacy that’s now holding up his own path to “sainthood.” This from the Washington Post article, “Charting a Path to Sainthood“:

John Paul, who canonized more people than any pope in history — 482 — has entered the system just as it is slowing. In February, the Vatican issued a document calling for the consideration process to be followed more stringently, apparently responding to worries that perhaps John Paul’s numbers were too high. … In his three years as pope, Benedict has canonized just 14. Although he has said he favors John Paul being named a saint, he has not exercised his right to make it happen immediately.

PS – A simple scan of the term “saint” in Scripture makes clear that each genuine Christian is a true saint. And death is no prerequisite for “sainthood” (2 Thessalonians 1:10).

Baltimore, MD—Last week our neighbors graciously surprised my son and I with a pair of tickets to Friday’s Red Sox v. Orioles game at Camden. We took full opportunity of our first trip to Baltimore’s inner harbor—we played games and ate lunch at the ESPN Zone, walked through a civil war ship, explored the shoreline of the inner harbor, and shopped at a Barnes & Noble bookstore housed in an old converted power plant.

The inner harbor area was crawling with Red Sox fans, and the game later that evening confirmed there were more Sox fans than Baltimore fans. The chants, “Let’s Go, Orioles” were all drowned out by “Let’s Go, Red Sox.”

It was Manny Ramirez’s birthday and his career home run total stood at 499. Camera bulbs popped like little flashes of lightning from the crowd upon each pitch, hoping to capture the swing of number 500. Manny didn’t come close to hitting home runs that night, ending the evening with a pop-up about 200 feet in the air which the O’s catcher caught standing on home plate. The next night (Saturday) Manny connected on 500. One day too late. The Sox won the Friday game 5-2 in 13 innings.

On the late, hour-long ride home my son and I concluded one of the highlights of the day was our stop before the inner harbor and Camden.

About a half mile North of Camden Yards sits The Green Mount Cemetery, an old, 60-acre plot of land, established in 1839, separated from the rest of the world by a stone wall perimeter. The cemetery is the final resting place of the famous (Johns Hopkins) and the infamous (John Wilkes Booth). It’s also the final resting place of Baltimore native, J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937).

Machen, who never married, was laid to rest here on January 5, 1937 next to his father (Arthur Webster) and mother (Mary Gresham). (See map).

Machen’s life and ministry were prolific. He contended for the faith at Princeton Seminary, eventually established Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929, supported and trained global missions, and wrote books like What is Faith? (Banner of Truth 1925) and Christianity and Liberalism (Eerdmans, 1923) that remain readable and relevant today. It’s no surprise to read Machen’s books quoted throughout Why We’re Not Emergent (Moody, 2008). Machen’s books speak to contemporary issues nearly a century later.

So last Friday, in the same manner as our trip to Princeton Cemetery in 2006, my son and I spent a few moments photographing Machen’s grave and reflecting on God’s graciousness to the church. Here are some pictures (mostly b/w) of our time at Green Mount.

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“Augustine’s sermons on the Psalms are difficult for the modern reader, for in them the preacher’s love of allegory often leads him far from the literal sense. His understanding of the psalm titles had a tendency to encourage him to the wildest excesses of allegorical interpretation. The Latin translation he used was often so misleading that even the ingenuity of an Augustine was taxed to make some sort of spiritually edifying sense out of the text. Yet, nevertheless, this collection of sermons is a fascinating mural of theological and devotional insight. More even than a mural, perhaps it should be compared with a complete city, with its marketplaces, its fortresses, its courtyards, its tenements and sacred sanctuaries.

“Augustine’s cycle of sermons on the Psalms is a veritable theological Jerusalem of heavenly meditation and celestial praise. It has fortresses of moral instruction, luxurious palaces of rich doctrinal theology, brilliant vistas of typological insight, pious parks and playgrounds of allegory. For the theologian, yes, even for the modern theologian, reading these sermons is like a vacation in Venice. It is a marvelous fantasy, a very classical fantasy, which somehow points to a reality beyond the fantasy and which is so much more true than the more mundane type of reality; it is a reality everyday shopping-center reductionists will never understand.”

-Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Volume 2: The Patristic Age (Eerdmans, 1998 ) pp. 357-358.

Mark Dever answered questions at the Whiteboard sessions on current hot topics.

[YouTube http://www.youtube.com/v/zxSeamqaQes%5D

[YouTube http://www.youtube.com/v/V4wFWbNDUZQ%5D

Louisville, KY—Arrived in town this morning for the New Attitude conference. It’s my first Na and anticipate the firsthand experience I’ve heard for years from my friends. I’m especially jazzed to hear Devon Kauflin (Bob Kauflin’s son) lead worship after his excellent new album, Looked Upon. I believe the album is released publicly at the conference. I highly recommend it, having listened to it 20+ times. You can download a free copy of one of the songs here: What A Savior.

Today between the airport and hotel, we (Dr Dever and CJ) stopped at the SBTS bookstore, another first for me. In the entrance stands this nice display of Dr Tom Schreiner’s new book, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Baker, 2008). I’ve read bits of the 1,000 page tome that is getting nice reviews around the blogosphere. Well, here’s an iPhone pic of the SBTS bookstore display:

And here is a pic of CJ’s recommended Summer reading that sits off to the side in the SBTS bookstore:

That’s all I got. I’m off somewhere in Louisville to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and my very first taste of Barth (Church Dogmatics IV.2). It’ll be a day of many firsts.

Thanks for reading.

Tony

Herman Bavinck on building the kingdom:

“The history of the world which intervenes between Jesus’ ascension and return is a continuous coming of Christ, a progressive gathering of His church on earth, a continuing subjection of His enemies. Often we do not see it, we do not understand it, but Christ is in very fact the Lord of times, the king of the ages; He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22:13). Because the Father has loved the Son, He created the world in Him, He elected the church, and all those who are given Him, to behold His glory with Him (John 17:24).

The completion of the kingdom of God is therefore not the result of a gradual development of nature, nor a product of human effort. For, even though the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, like a leaven, and like a grain of corn, it nevertheless grows without the knowledge and contribution of men (Mark 4:27). Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but it is God alone who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6). Scripture knows nothing of a self-sufficient nature and an autonomous man; always it is God who keeps the world in force and who makes history. And especially as the end approaches, He will in an extraordinary way intervene in history and by the appearance of Christ cause it to stand still and to have time pass over into eternity. That will be an awful event when Christ, sent by the Father (Acts 3:20 and 1 Tim. 6:15) will appear on the clouds of heaven. Just as on His leaving the earth He was taken up into heaven, so upon His return will He come back from heaven to earth (Phil. 3:20). At His ascension a cloud removed Him from the sight of His disciples; and on the clouds of heaven, spreading themselves out as a great chariot of victory underneath Him He will return to the earth (Matt. 24:30 and Rev. 1:7). It was in the form of a servant that He appeared on the earth the first time, but the second time He will come with great power and glory (Matt. 24:30), as a King of kings and as a Lord of lords…”

–Our Reasonable Faith: A Survey of Christian Doctrine (Baker, 1956), 559.