The problem with home schooling is that there are, at every given moment, too many good books to read, too many interesting things to do, and too many lines of thoughts interacting with each other whether in harmony or counterpoint. At present we are reading II Corinthians, memorizing James, listening to N.T. Wright’s lectures on Romans, reading Primeval Saints by James Jordan, and covering the Babylonian time period with Vision Forum History of the World Lectures (see the end of this post for a great giveaway offer). My mind is having a conversation about one book, hopping to another author’s point of view about a related topic, wondering what this author would think of that one, etc…
Reading James Jordan’s Primeval Saints aloud to the children, we have been analyzing our family’s thoughts, words, and actions, through the series of contrasts between the way of the pagan and the way of true faith presented in the introduction to his book Primeval Saints, an introduction which, in my opinion, begs to be classified as both poetry and prayer and, well, a beautiful, convicting rebuke (see here for more). And now, he’s got us analyzing our mealtimes, our arguments, and our schoolwork in other ways too. In the first chapter, Jordan delineates an inescapable six-fold rite in which we engage throughout life:
I. Laying hold of
II. Giving thanks
III. Breaking down and restructuring
IV. Distributing work to God (tithe), self, and others
V. Evaluating by God, self, and others
VI. Enjoying the work by God, self, or others
I particularly like this observation he makes: “Adam’s sin lay precisely at the second step of his rite. He refused to give thanks to God, because he could not do so. With the forbidden fruit in his hand (the act of taking), and intending to eat it (an act of restructuring), Adam could not give thanks to God.” This giving-thanks theme is also woven into N.T. Wright’s lecture pointing out the connection to Adam and Eve in Romans 1:21: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” It is also woven into what we are studying about the Babylonian Empire, of Nebuchadnezzar, thanking himself, glorifying himself for his impregnable city walls; of Belshazzar, his son, laying hold of the plundered Israelite tabernacle goblets and thanking gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
In contrast, God calls us, his creation stewards, to lay hold of this world and give him thanks—not to abandon it to the pagans, who can’t and won’t give him rightful thanks. Do we engage in this task? In his lectures on Romans and elsewhere, N.T. Wright correctly scolds that we Christians too often have been mis-occupied with an ethereal heaven in the sky, and not engaged in the task before us— “heavenizing” the physical world, or, in more familiar phraseology, Thy Kingdom Come on Earth As It Is In Heaven. And so, Christians unwittingly embrace pagan gnostic philosophy, mindlessly muttering excuses like, “Oh I don’t care about that, it’s not going to heaven…”, and shamelessly living out “I’ll Fly Away” theology, abandoning our God-given task to lay hold of and to take dominion of the cosmos. (Wright humorously states that when folks insist on saying that they are going to heaven when they die, he rebuts, “Yes, but you won’t be there forever.” 
See his book Surprised By Hope) We are called rather to actively lay hold of this real, physical, fallen-but-being-redeemed garden-world, and after having laid hold of all that is ours in Christ, albeit broken by the Fall—the arts, the sciences, culture, politics, architecture, technology, medicine, business, homemaking…the whole wide world—we are called to give him thanks for it, break it down and restructure it, gift it to him, to others, and ourselves in order to bless the world, so they can evaluate and enjoy. World Transformation in Six Easy Steps, One Task at a Time.
In Chapter 2 Jordan points out that, helping to restore us to our God-given pattern, our weekly worship is centered around the same six-fold rite of sacrament and Word. And, essentially, through worship, God ultimately is laying hold of us and restructuring us (God’s word is sharper than a two-edged sword) as we are broken down, reformed/transformed more into his image, and delivered back into the world as a restored new (re-) creation, again, and again, and again.
I. Laying hold of bread, wine, and God’s Word
II. Giving Thanks for it
III. Restructuring (breaking & renaming bread & renaming wine, breaking the Word)
IV. Distributing (giving bread, wine, delivering sermon)
V. Evaluating (Tasting, Psalm 34:8, hearing the word)
VI. Enjoying (integrating resurrection, life, & applied Word into the lives of self & others)
Christ’s body and blood (communion) and God’s Spirit-Sword (the Word), continually come to us, breaking us down and recreating us, transforming us week to week, year to year, from glory to glory. And more than that, he sanctifies the humblest of callings and accomplishes world transformation through all his image-bearing children with these thousands-of-times-repeated, sometimes mundane, six-fold processes in real-world-time (not I’ll-fly-away-to-glory-time).
I am a homemaker. My social security update rates my contribution to society for the last fifteen years at an echoing zero decimal zero zero US Federal Reserve Notes. I cook, I clean, I organize, I teach, I love, I scrub mud and grime off tubs, toilets, small feet, and stinky bums. I even leaf blow and mow sometimes. So, theology like this, to me, is utterly practical and essential. Why? It’s essential because, while my government tithing statement says I’m not delivering a recognizable contribution to society, books like this one remind me that God is the One for whom I ultimately labor. So, laying hold of a dish rag, laying hold of a book, laying hold of a bad attitude, laying hold of bread dough, laying hold of a cup of cold water to distribute to a little one—in laying hold of these small things, and in giving thanks, I take part in the recreation dance of heavenizing earth. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!
* Here’s something to lay hold of: Vision Forum has a Christmas giveaway going on. What a great way to stock your personal or church libraries with rich resources and Christian Books. Helping families seeking to be transformed by the renewing of their minds! For more information, go to Raising Olives!
