Words, Words, Words. (And a story about boycotting Harry Potter.)
Sacred Slang: Issue #1 (August 2024)
Welcome to “Sacred Slang.” Each newsletter has seven sections: Imagine, Interpret, Apply, Curate, Interrogate, Archives, and Horizon. I tried hard to make them all “I” words, but got stuck and gave up. Think of them like sections in a newspaper: read the ones that interest you, skip the ones that don’t. If you want to submit a question for next month’s “Interrogation” section - just reply to this email with your question.
Imagine.
Nobody asked me for more words. But, despite that, they keep bubbling up. Trying to keep the words from coming out is like trying to pin a beach ball to the bottom of the pool. Eventually, it’s going to surface.
Is it vanity? I hope not. But I hear the teacher saying, “Be warned, there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.”1
For years, I wrote two articles every week. I posted them on a blog with a name that I won’t repeat. When old friends speak it to me, I feel like they are saying the name of “he who must not be named.” (*Potter fans silently nod in approval.*)
I wrote then for the same reason I write now: all the ideas swirling around up there. They have to get out. I met a man who welcomed me into the great conversation almost twenty years ago. I never left. All the books, all the worlds. The wonder and the wounds, the brokenness and the beauty. I can’t shake it. And the words they just keep coming.
“But Kyle, why not just write them down in a journal?” Well, I do. If they ever find my journals (something I will do everything in my power to prevent), they will find boxes of ramblings, prayers, ideas, and half cooked stories. At the top of the page on a journal in front of me I read, “What if the villain ate pizza?” The next page says, “Jesus knew Martha’s name. And He knows mine too.” Pages full of prayer. Some have profanity. The pages, not the prayers. The journals are full and filling up. Their cup overfloweth.
What you will find here are the words I think you might be interested in, or profit from, or be eager to dispute. Read it or not, I’m going to write them. These are the words that spill out from those overflowing journals.
Alan Jacobs wrote in The Narnian, that C.S. Lewis had the unique ability to translate deep concepts into the “vernacular of the people.”
From the moment I heard this phrase, I knew what my purpose was: Invite people into reflection and participation in God’s big story by speaking “sacred slang.”
Do I compare myself to Lewis? Only in intent. As for impact and influence, I dare not rush in where angels fear to tread.
Read them or not, they will be here. Words in waiting. Words for the reading. Trying to slip the WORD underneath these words. (See what I did there?)
Words, words, words. All grasping for something that can’t be fully imagined. A glory and a grace that can never be completely caught. Like trying to trap the light of the summer sun in a mason jar. These words are bound to fail, but maybe failing words can still be a blessing.
Interpret.
My daughter and I are halfway through the Harry Potter series. She is loving it and I am loving it all over again through her eyes.
I read the first four books as they were released in the late 90s and early 00s, but then I stopped. Not because I wanted to, but because my mom got spooked by a run in with a Harry Potter book at a witchcraft store. My mom does not (and did not) frequent witchcraft stores. Her and her girlfriends thought they were walking into a cute candle shop, but surprise!, it was actually a witchy little candle shop. In that kooky and spooky little shop, they had a whole section devoted to Harry Potter, so she came back and confidently told me: No more Harry Potter in our house.
So I missed book five and six when they were released. Funny enough my first act of collegiate rebellion when I got to the little private baptist school in Dallas was to drive over to a local bookstore and pick up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book #5) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (book #6). I read them straight through over the next two days before classes started. What a bad boy, am I right?
But now, years removed from my first reading of these books and now reading them again, I have one thought and one regret:
The one thought: I truly believe that the Harry Potter series is a modern (and magical) retelling of the gospel story. (Potter spoilers ahead!) A boy from the house of the lion (Gryffindor - Harry) redeems a boy from the house of the serpent (Slytherin - Draco) by defeating a serpent tongued ruler. He defeats this great foe by cutting off the head of a literal snake and substituting himself through death to save his friends and triumph over his enemy. Is this ringing any bells at all?
The one regret: I was foolish to blame my mom for restricting these books in our home. She suggested that it was possible that Satan and dark forces could work through something as silly as children’s books. In all my middle school wisdom, I thought she was being a prude. I was the fool. Do I think the Potter books are possessed? I do not. Do I think its possible that evil spiritual forces could directly impact the minds of people through books? I do. She was right and I was wrong. Sorta.
We live in a world marked by evil magic. Not the kind we find in fantasy books, but something more true and more terrible. We remember and embrace the freedom of the gospel: Truly we have a King who has triumphed over “he who must not be named.” And at the same time: There are still death eaters among us.
We should be brave and wise. Courageous and careful. “Innocent as doves and shrewd as serpents.”
Apply.
Where I pastor, we are about to spend the next 18 months in the book of Exodus. So I am spending lots of time with Moses these days. Knowing Faith just did two whole seasons on this weird and wonderful book which you can discover here.
There is a little detail in the Exodus story that I think we overlook too often. As God brings the Israelites out of Egypt, He allows them to “plunder the Egyptians.” When I hear “plunder” I think pirates. Jack Sparrow. Too many self serious mentions of “booty” unaccompanied by immature laughter.
When God allowed Israel to plunder the Egyptians, he is replacing their slave chains with gold chains so to speak. They have been suffering slaves, now they will live as the bedazzled beloved. (“Bedazzled Beloved” trademarked - Kyle Worley).
In all seriousness, the gold they took from Egypt was intended to serve as a sign to Israel: You are not slaves, you are Yahweh’s people. You are the royalty who God has called to reflect His character and kingdom in the sight of the nations. The gold was a symbolic gift that was to be a picture of Israel’s deliverance.
But, what’s the first thing they do with that gold? Once they get a distance away from Egypt, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, when Moses stayed up with God too long: the former brick bakers become the new idol makers. And where did the gold for the golden calf come from?
Egyptian gold, given to former Israelite slaves, is now fashioned into a false god.
It’s tragic. Moses is heartbroken and angry. God’s holy wrath is kindled against Israel’s wicked work. The people are judged. The people are forgiven. Covenant love goes on.
But we can’t overlook the lesson: It is terribly easy to turn God’s gifts into false gods. I wonder how I am doing this right now? I wonder how you might be doing this?
Curate.
For years, I prepared a weekly brief of the most significant cultural “artifacts” for a strategic group of Christian leaders. In an age of endless information, curation is crucial. Each month I am going to point you towards what I believe to be articles, books, albums, and “artifacts” of consequence.2 (Read the footnote if you are the kind of person who needs caveats.)
We are in the midst of a wave of “post-Christian” art. It’s worth asking: What can we gain from listening to the voices of those who have “walked away?” Is it worthwhile to listen to the hymns of heretics?
In short: Yes. Two standouts here: Petey’s “Freedom to F*** Off” and Medium Build’s “Gimme Back my Soul.” (STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING FOR BOTH SONGS)
Both of these songs are “Christ haunted.” You can tell that both songwriters are grappling with the loss and the longing of life without God. At one point, in a song that prominently features the “F” word, Petey sings, “And I read the Bible sometimes, please don’t make fun of me, And I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” He goes on to admit, “I wanna be a real man, I wanna be a father, I’m so tired of thinking’ ‘bout me, man, I think I need to worry about a daughter.”
What is Petey admitting? He abandoned the values he heard about when he was younger, the vision of the good life that was put in front of him (God, family, purpose), but now he’s thinking maybe there was something beautiful about all of that. It’s a very honest song. Turns out the quest of self-fulfillment is a bit exhausting.
In Medium Build’s “Gimme Back My Soul,” we are forced to grapple with his anger at what has been lost. The very same things Petey looks back on with nostalgia are the things that Medium believes have “trapped his soul.”
What do we discover in these two songs? Anger, nostalgia, and longing are apart of “deconstructing.” We should expect that as we go deeper into this season of “winnowing/deconstructing” in the global west that we will see people’s anger turn to longing. Let us pursue those in the desert with patience.
James by Percival Everett will be one of the (if not the most) significant novel released this year. I am giving you a cheat code here. People will be talking about this book a decade from now.
The book is written from the perspective of “Jim/James,” the slave who accompanies Huckleberry Finn on his adventurous escape. Go ahead and go read this book, because if you don’t, people are going to be saying to you a decade from now, “Wait, you haven’t read James?!” Beyond just being in the loop, it’s actually a fantastic and subversive book about story, race, and humanity.
Over the summer, the New York Times released a list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.
To make this list, they asked over 500 literary luminaries to give them top ten lists. And these lists are fascinating. You can discover what Stephen King thinks are the top ten books of the 21st century (which interestingly enough includes one of his own books - the confidence!), RL Stine (of Goosebumps fame) and I agree that The Thursday Murder Club is something special, and James Patterson included Keith Richard’s autobiography (which is a legitimately insane choice.)
I love lists like this because they provide a shorthand summary of what the larger culture (at least in the global west) views as important and influential.
Interrogate.
The question this week comes from Chris in Nebraska. I know two things about Nebraska: There is a city named Omaha there. And corn. Chris’s question: What is something you have changed your mind about?
This is a very long list. I imagine the last thing I’ll ever write will be some kind of Retractions essay where I catalogue all the things I previously believed or claimed. My sense is that there will be many many things on that list.
I changed my mind about the TV show “Friends.” My wife loves this show and she tried to introduce it to me many times and I could not have been less interested. Then one day I saw the first episode and I was hooked. But I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you are angling for with your question.
I changed my mind about Nickelback. Yes, the band. At one point I, like many others, pretended that I didn’t love Nickelback’s hits. But I was lying to myself. It was hypocrisy. The world is really split between two kinds of people: The people who are honest about their love for “How you Remind Me” and the people who are still trapped in the lie of pretending like they don’t. But again, I think you are looking for something serious.
Here is an incomplete list of the “serious” things I have changed my mind about:
I once confidently believed that whatever the Nephilim in Genesis are, that they were DEFINITELY NOT the result of some kind of evil sexual activity between spiritual creatures and humans. I now believe that is almost certainly what happened. Don’t ask me for details, I truly don’t know more than this.
I used to believe that if we found one of Paul’s missing letters to the church in Corinth that we shouldn’t include it in the canon. I now believe that we should. My friend JT could not disagree with me more on this point.
I changed my mind about about the “eternal subordination of the Son of God.” I used to believe that the Son of God eternally submitted to the Father within the “interior” life of the Triune God. I worked for an organization that published this position and I was eager to defend it. I no longer believe this.
One of the mottos of the Reformation was “semper reformanda = always reforming.” Changing one’s mind seems both inevitable and healthy. At present, we see in a mirror dimly. How could we expect to get it all right the 1st time? Or even the 100th time?
So, there’s still time. You could get it right today. Just click here and start nodding your head to the beat. Thanks Chris for remind me of my many failures! Great question.
If you want to submit a question for next month’s “Interrogation” section - just reply to this email with your question.
Horizon.
The topic of September’s newsletter is “Presence in the Panopticon.” I’ve got bad news: we live in a prison and we love it. Send a question
If you want to preorder a copy of my forthcoming book on union with Christ. You can preorder Home with God from Amazon, Lifeway, or Barnes and Noble.
Knowing Faith Podcast season 13 kicks off with all new episodes on Thursday, August 15th. Subscribe and follow along here.
Qoheleth, Ecclesiastes
Three notes:
Some of these will be behind a paywall (I’ll let you decide whether or not you want to burn a “free article” on them or finally do your duty and subscribe).
You should anticipate that I do not endorse any of them in their entirety. If you read, watch, or listen and find them in some way objectionable. Be an adult about it.
They will not all be “new.” I may point you to an article I read last week or I may recommend an album from 35 years ago. Deal with it.
Yes! Give me all the words! Excited to follow this, Kyle.
Wow! I'm surprised that you would consider publishing your own version of Retractions, (*stomps on distortion pedal*) it's not like you to say sorry...
Keep it up Kdubs.