Eighty-year old Pastor John Piper’s hometown Minneapolis’ newspaper, “The Star Tribune”, referred to him as: “The fiery preacher of hard-line biblical values.”
An interviewer asked him: “How would you describe yourself in seven words or less?
John: “Desperately dependent on grace and happy about it. That’s eight.”
And Pastor John continues: “When they say: ‘Hard-line biblical values’, I think to them that means I draw a line in the sand, saying, ‘This is right, that’s not; so they use words like ‘hard’, not ‘helpful’, nor ‘protective’, nor ‘healing’, nor ‘Christ-exalting’, nor ‘God-centered’, nor ‘biblically faithful’, but ‘hard’. So, yes and no. Yes, externally they ‘get’ things, but penetrating through to the beauty of what makes a hard-line a beautiful line, probably not.”
Friend, let’s explore a few of beauty’s hard lines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) wrote “Ode to Beauty”. In 44-rhymed lines, Emerson personifies beauty. “When first my eyes saw thee, I found me (in) thy thrall” (servitude). He calls Beauty his “sweet tyrant of all” and his “intimate stranger”.
How shall we attempt to express such distant/hard beauty?
One of our children majored in Art History at UNC, Chapel Hill. They declared individualized Beauty; there could be no objective Beauty. They would have us believe Beauty could be known but not communicated, not fully enjoyed together.
Similarly, my nephew, Ben Palpant, in “An Axe for the Frozen Sea”, interviewed poets including James Matthew Wilson. Wilson commented: “A work of art can change your life. But, when I went to graduate school, I found such convictions were looked upon with the ‘bemused scorn of the philosophical smile’ (Michael Foucault). Later when I encountered the word ‘beauty’, I sighed like some disillusioned critic who could see through everything. There I was some 23-years ago, giving that contemptuous smirk at the word ‘beauty’. But now I am convinced – more than ever – ‘beauty’ points us toward ineffable mysteries of the world. Thinking about ‘beauty’ and pursuing ‘beauty’ is our highest achievement”. (p. 304ff)
Beauty, stretch our souls, especially in marriage.
Friend, consider the 2026 romantic comedy, “Solo Mio”.
We first meet, “Matt,” our 60-year old American actor, at his destination wedding in a majestic cathedral in Rome. Our unlikely hero/never-previously-married groom, stands breathlessly awaiting his bride’s entrance. But, he remains alone. Expecting intimacy he finds humiliating rejection. Heather, his faint-hearted fiancée, has darted into oblivion.
Heartbroken, reluctant Matt stays in Italy, using his prepaid honeymoon package.
Then, out of the blue, in a cosmos where love truly exists, Matt embraces life. He begins a tenuous/thrilling romance with Gia, an Italian coffee shop owner.
In one striking moment, Gia abruptly realizes formerly despondent Matt is filled with love and offering her what she longs for – life together. Shocked at Matt’s transformation, Gia’s exceptionally articulate one-word-sudden-insight-response is: “Bellisamo!” “Beautiful!”
Such beauty is foundation enough for them to marry. And they do.
They join not in “so-called” marriage or a “civil” marriage but in Christian marriage, true marriage, holy marriage, biblical marriage. God, since Creation, You etched upon our souls: “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 1:24)
But to what extent can sinners truly marry sinners?
As Via and I raised our children, sometimes their approach into adolescence came earlier and more powerfully than I expected. I called it a rage for independence.
And such autonomy shows up in marriage. Awkwardly, still, Trinity, You are foundational for marriage. Father, Son and Spirit, I used to assume You were mostly similar. But, the first non-theistic Biblical comparison/clue to unity is: “The two shall be one.” Father, Son, and Spirit You are as different from each other as a husband differs from his wife. Personal dignity is real. Nevertheless, Trinity, You also revel in profound union!
God, help us!
Switch scenes to a Ministry to State Zoom call between pastors who serve those in government. As we talked about marriage, three of us had been married 50 years or more. Remarkable.
Another pastor, married 37-years, told about a difficult season of infertility. Then two daughters joined the family by adoption – followed by the birth of two sons – followed by an adopted child’s reactive displacement. And then my friend’s wife, an esteemed, experienced nurse, suffered a stroke and had to quit work.
As my friend described his marriage, he said: “There is a glory to marriage, but it is a ‘hard glory’.” Aha.
Now, friend, journey back to May 29, 1976, 9:00 AM, Village Seven Presbyterian Church, Colorado Springs, to a sanctuary filled to the brim. There three pastors performed the wedding of Steve and Via.
Wonder-full God, for 50 years You have bound us in the vows taken in Your name. What a marvel!
Looking back, we were naïve about many aspects of our glorious/fallen world. Newly imbibed experiences of marriage and parenthood and vocation had their own glory.
But not all glory is holy. Idols shine with false attractions. The Apostle Paul warns us to avoid pursuing “false/self-deluded/gambling” (“kenó”) “glory” (“doxa”). The old King James Version translates “kenódoxa:“ “vain glory”! (Galatians 5:26)
God, keep helping us.
You are. With You beside us, we’re still sorting out sacred glories and facing conflict together because Your glory/weight/splendor/honor/brightness fills the earth.
Nevertheless, we’ve witnessed evil and name it together: marriages split where trauma-bonding replaced initial love bombing. Childhood abuse brought Fearful or Dismissive Avoidant detachment. Narcissism fabricated Denying truth, Attacking, Reversing Victim/Offender (DARVO). Instead of heeding Paul’s warning not to let the sun go down on our anger, thus giving the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:26,27), some indulge grudges to the extent that their default mode becomes angry uncoupling.
Suitors beware.
What shall we do?
God, Your love is patient, longsuffering, slow to anger, uniquely kind, like Jesus. Holy(!) Spirit, fill us.
Friend, believe/receive the Gospel, desperately depending on grace – happy that such suspense, even hard beauty, extends God’s creative presence.
God, Your inspiring Covenant-making/Covenant-keeping beauty is God deep. Glory!
