"For educating characters you do not need a moral genius, but you do need a man who is wholly alive and able to communicate himself directly to his fellow beings. His aliveness streams out to them and affects them most strongly and purely when he has no thought of affecting them." Earlier he defines character as "the link between what this individual is and the sequence of his actions and attitudes." (Martin Buber in a speech called The Education of Character)
This is one of my all time famous quotes. It gives me hope and directs me in my pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge of many books and skills of rhetoric (quick mind and smooth tongue) are not central keys. When I read about a man "wholly alive" I imagine someone totally engaged in life, loving and caring for his family, meeting and seeing real people, taking care of responsibilities, actually praying and meeting with God. These are the things I am working on and pursuing.
(PS I do intend a second part to the beach walking ... just don't see myself having the time for another week or so).
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
TWO WAYS OF WALKING ON A BEACH
Part I
This morning I was walking on the beach with Cate, my 2 year old and here are some of the things I saw.
1. Undeveloped male body (skinny, maybe 15) and an over-developed female who were awkwardly flirting with the waves and each other.
2. Underdeveloped male body who had likely wasted hundreds of hours with weights so his body could be covered in tiny, but firm looking, muscles. He was playing dance music and talking with four bikini women.
3. A shirtless man wearing black cowboy boots and black jeans with a brown paper covered bottle at his side. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but I did wonder if he was alive, he was so deep in the sand.
4. Club La Veda with "party with thousands" on the sign and for some reason, the kind of ad billboards that you see at baseball games. I am disturbed at what games might be played there ... the main supporters were Trojan Condoms and American Eagle.
5. I saw other things not so bad, family playing together, leathered old people stretching out for another smoke, more bikini women.
It wasn't until we started back that I realized my daughter never saw any of these things. She was completely transfixed with delight and fear and wonder at the ocean waves. Or was looking down at her feet walking on the soft wet sand. There was something incredible and unusual before her eyes and feet and so she directed all attention toward the beautiful curiosity we call the beach.
I followed her lead and stared into the vastness of blue water and down at our wandering feet and down at her brown head. Wonder began to do its work and I felt more childlike. My daughter and I were both walking along the beach, but it took me watching her to be pulled into the present moment, a precious moment that would be over and done with within the week. The sea is vast and always moving. The waves roll and toss in joyful patterns, lapping at our feet and it took my daughter Cate to show me how to enjoy them.
This morning I was walking on the beach with Cate, my 2 year old and here are some of the things I saw.
1. Undeveloped male body (skinny, maybe 15) and an over-developed female who were awkwardly flirting with the waves and each other.
2. Underdeveloped male body who had likely wasted hundreds of hours with weights so his body could be covered in tiny, but firm looking, muscles. He was playing dance music and talking with four bikini women.
3. A shirtless man wearing black cowboy boots and black jeans with a brown paper covered bottle at his side. His sunglasses hid his eyes, but I did wonder if he was alive, he was so deep in the sand.
4. Club La Veda with "party with thousands" on the sign and for some reason, the kind of ad billboards that you see at baseball games. I am disturbed at what games might be played there ... the main supporters were Trojan Condoms and American Eagle.
5. I saw other things not so bad, family playing together, leathered old people stretching out for another smoke, more bikini women.
It wasn't until we started back that I realized my daughter never saw any of these things. She was completely transfixed with delight and fear and wonder at the ocean waves. Or was looking down at her feet walking on the soft wet sand. There was something incredible and unusual before her eyes and feet and so she directed all attention toward the beautiful curiosity we call the beach.
I followed her lead and stared into the vastness of blue water and down at our wandering feet and down at her brown head. Wonder began to do its work and I felt more childlike. My daughter and I were both walking along the beach, but it took me watching her to be pulled into the present moment, a precious moment that would be over and done with within the week. The sea is vast and always moving. The waves roll and toss in joyful patterns, lapping at our feet and it took my daughter Cate to show me how to enjoy them.
Monday, April 02, 2007
American Problems (are my problems)
A theory I have of late is that economy and capitalism, or more precisely the greedy men making all the money, are quite happy to push Americans (and maybe the whole world) toward more and more autonomy and individual choice, labeling it freedom. They have reason to do this on both sides of the equation. First, this creates loads of new business, not only through overbuying due to choice, but the service economy is booming due to the impoverishment of "relational capital." As more of us seek to increase our financial capital we do so at the expense of friends and family which increases our need to buy dinner, entertainment, sex, counsel and even kindness.
And on the other side of things, if we are split off from any deep human connection, specifically our spouse and children, even in a philosophical way, we are of better use to the companies of employment. With no one staying home with the children (that is another booming service) we have nearly doubled the work force. Beyond that, with no philosophical or religious lines drawn to protect the family, coupled with our desperate need to own all the new technology and services, the new cars and new houses, we will overwork and travel and relocate and are at the mercy of the companies will. All this we call freedom and democracy.
Wendell Berry comments that feminism may very well have "liberated" women from the home, but it has enslaved both men and women to the heirarchy of corporations. The average woman of the past was never as inhumanly treated as the typical employee and also was never as unquestionably obedient.
But before you (or I) let American capitalism form itself into a demonic giant pulling strings and drunk with power, consider this: Capitalism is not such an all encompassing philosophy and the business men are not that interested or capable of that level of control. They just keep an eye out for any opportunity to make a buck.
But what is all this rambling anyway. I have only cleverly asserted manivolent ideas about a pejorative entity. I have just capitalized on the cheap amen that America has gone way wrong and that big business (i.e. Whitie or The Man) are the source of our problem. I have not offered one shred of insight into the real problem, us, human beings. Why do we do these things? Why do we create such a culture? How can we see it change or be part of the change?
This is the point that I think too many modern writers are unwilling to concede to Jesus and the Bible and the secondary sources that stream from it. Jesus usually doesn't seem that concerned about these clever assessments of the larger problems. Instead of getting high fives for seeing through the Roman Empire or even the system of priests, he was able to cut right to the human heart of the individual and by doing so is able to cut to our hearts as well. Let us be clear, Jesus did want priest's to stop eating up the widows and orphans, but he knew that the real problem was the evil sea rumbling inside their chest ... that evil systems weren't evil systems, but the creation of fallen men.
I imagine he would turn and chastise all of us who continue to serve "the man" so we can have everything for ourselves. It is us that have the problem in that we don't lose our lives to save it ... we are all spending money trying to save our lives and so we find them completely lost and enslaved (to sin and system and systems of sin). We are all in need of repentance if the world is to change ... we must give our lives to community and family in order to serve Jesus.
And on the other side of things, if we are split off from any deep human connection, specifically our spouse and children, even in a philosophical way, we are of better use to the companies of employment. With no one staying home with the children (that is another booming service) we have nearly doubled the work force. Beyond that, with no philosophical or religious lines drawn to protect the family, coupled with our desperate need to own all the new technology and services, the new cars and new houses, we will overwork and travel and relocate and are at the mercy of the companies will. All this we call freedom and democracy.
Wendell Berry comments that feminism may very well have "liberated" women from the home, but it has enslaved both men and women to the heirarchy of corporations. The average woman of the past was never as inhumanly treated as the typical employee and also was never as unquestionably obedient.
But before you (or I) let American capitalism form itself into a demonic giant pulling strings and drunk with power, consider this: Capitalism is not such an all encompassing philosophy and the business men are not that interested or capable of that level of control. They just keep an eye out for any opportunity to make a buck.
But what is all this rambling anyway. I have only cleverly asserted manivolent ideas about a pejorative entity. I have just capitalized on the cheap amen that America has gone way wrong and that big business (i.e. Whitie or The Man) are the source of our problem. I have not offered one shred of insight into the real problem, us, human beings. Why do we do these things? Why do we create such a culture? How can we see it change or be part of the change?
This is the point that I think too many modern writers are unwilling to concede to Jesus and the Bible and the secondary sources that stream from it. Jesus usually doesn't seem that concerned about these clever assessments of the larger problems. Instead of getting high fives for seeing through the Roman Empire or even the system of priests, he was able to cut right to the human heart of the individual and by doing so is able to cut to our hearts as well. Let us be clear, Jesus did want priest's to stop eating up the widows and orphans, but he knew that the real problem was the evil sea rumbling inside their chest ... that evil systems weren't evil systems, but the creation of fallen men.
I imagine he would turn and chastise all of us who continue to serve "the man" so we can have everything for ourselves. It is us that have the problem in that we don't lose our lives to save it ... we are all spending money trying to save our lives and so we find them completely lost and enslaved (to sin and system and systems of sin). We are all in need of repentance if the world is to change ... we must give our lives to community and family in order to serve Jesus.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Oscar Arnulfo Romero
Oscar Arnulfo Romero was appointed archbishop of San Salvadore in 1977. It was a country of instability and civil war. By 1980, 3,000 people were dying every month. One of the priests serving under Romero was murdered because he was speaking on behalf of the poor against the landowners. This enraged Romero against the authorities and he began publicly denouncing their policies. He wrote President Carter, pleading with him to stop sending money and weapons to the El Salvador government. Every week, Romero made radio broadcasts in which he condemned the use of terror and government death squads and called on soldiers to disobey immoral orders. “Romero believed that the task of the church is to challenge sin in the world, which must involve attacking institutions that perpetuate sin. To ignore that sin is to be complicit in it and take the sin into the church itself.”
“On March 24th, 1980, he preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul states that before the body can be raised it must die, like a grain of wheat being planted into the ground. He told the congregation that those who dedicate their lives to the service of the poor are like the grain of wheat and are promised a bountiful harvest. Finishing his sermon, Romero stepped up to the alter to say Mass and was shot through the heart by a sniper.”
(This story is from What Has Christianity Ever Done For Us? By Jonathan Hill; P. 167-168)
“On March 24th, 1980, he preached a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul states that before the body can be raised it must die, like a grain of wheat being planted into the ground. He told the congregation that those who dedicate their lives to the service of the poor are like the grain of wheat and are promised a bountiful harvest. Finishing his sermon, Romero stepped up to the alter to say Mass and was shot through the heart by a sniper.”
(This story is from What Has Christianity Ever Done For Us? By Jonathan Hill; P. 167-168)
Monday, March 26, 2007
Tenant Farmers
So Kris spoke on the parable of the tenants on Sunday and it really made me think about a lot. Here are some of my notes while I was listening. Kris said that even though the Israel listeners would have wanted to assume the vineyard was them ... Jesus was, not so subtly, pointing out that the vineyard was the whole earth and the life of God at work, God's promises and that Israel and now the church are only tenants or stewarts.
He went on to point out that hypocracy cannot stop the life and promise of God. All it leads to is empty hands and hell-bound christian leaders. God will wrench the vineyard from their hands and kill them. But the vineyard will thrive and change the world. Definite wake up call on reality and who is in charge.
If Israel is the tenants and now the church is the tenants ... we are to be caretakers of the life and promise of God in the earth. This connects right back to the beginning. Adam and Eve were stewards and caretakers, leaders on the earth, farming leaders of living things. But when they chose to self-serve and eat what wasn't theirs, the garden (the promise of a blessed world) is wrenched from their hands. It had to be wrenched from their hands, they were killers who would go on to gut the whole world in order to feed their hunger to be God, instead of embracing the reality of being a tenant farmer.
And now Jesus has made another change of hands. The others are all of us, but we must continually remind ourselves that we are stewards, that is reality and what is most profound is that we are stewards who are made in the image of our master ... we are created to follow him and see the life and promise of God go out into the earth.
He went on to point out that hypocracy cannot stop the life and promise of God. All it leads to is empty hands and hell-bound christian leaders. God will wrench the vineyard from their hands and kill them. But the vineyard will thrive and change the world. Definite wake up call on reality and who is in charge.
If Israel is the tenants and now the church is the tenants ... we are to be caretakers of the life and promise of God in the earth. This connects right back to the beginning. Adam and Eve were stewards and caretakers, leaders on the earth, farming leaders of living things. But when they chose to self-serve and eat what wasn't theirs, the garden (the promise of a blessed world) is wrenched from their hands. It had to be wrenched from their hands, they were killers who would go on to gut the whole world in order to feed their hunger to be God, instead of embracing the reality of being a tenant farmer.
And now Jesus has made another change of hands. The others are all of us, but we must continually remind ourselves that we are stewards, that is reality and what is most profound is that we are stewards who are made in the image of our master ... we are created to follow him and see the life and promise of God go out into the earth.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Another take on the prodigal story
I was thinking about posting some more thoughts on the parable that I preached on this past Sunday ... there was so much there I couldn't get to it all, but this morning I read what my friend Bethany wrote to support the small group leaders and thought it was amazing. She leads the small group ministry at our church and writes weekly prompts with questions to help the groups to converse over the text and ask good personal questions. Her retelling of the story is definitely worth reading. The only change I have made is taking out the questions. The text is Luke 15.
I. Jesus is slandered (in mutterings) by the Pharisees. It's an understandable muttering. They don't say he smells or that he goes against God, but this time they are concerned w/ his company. To them, he hasn't drawn a line in the sand where people for God stand over here, and those that don't stand over there. I can see how they perceive him as a 'fence-sitter'; the worst kind to those devout. His behavior is a slippery slope. And somehow I can hear their nagging parental threat, " you'll turn out to be like the friends you keep."
I don't think they are muttering out of pure concern for Jesus' future. I think somehow they are upset that they, the faithful and the reverent to God, aren't being affirmed by this holy man. I mean, really, they've been putting in there time here! And instead of getting to be his buddy, he wants to be buddies w/ people who haven't put their time in at all!
(Note: this is the same heart of the older brother, the heart of the entitled and the presumedly jilted)
II. Instead of giving the brats a good talking to, Jesus tells them some stories. He never ceases to amaze me w/ his patience. And these stories reveal his heart. His heart is something that the Pharisees were missing. They got His law and His morality, but it was his heart (where he loves from) that they were missing - explains why I think they were so hungry, and therefore cruel.
III. So, there's a father and two sons. The youngest son, not entitled to a lot, asks for what he is due. He sees that he can get something out of being in this family, and he decides he wants to get it now; to cut and run. He sees the immediate benefit of the temporal gift and wants it, not seeing or understanding the heart of what it means to be given his portion. His portion is the composite of his father's life. His father's toils, his honor, his wisdom. To ask for it in cash contradicts the very gift. The gift is getting his father, not the material wealth that comes along w/ it.
The father gives it to him. Not gives it to him in a lecture or a swift beating, but merely, gives him what he wishes. The whole time the older brother stands by. The younger brother goes and loses it. He sinks lower than any good jew. He compromises what is important. And in the throws of starvation, he remembers his father. He remembers that maybe his father would take him back as a hired hand. He doesn't expect anything more, nor does he show signs of mourning for having lost his father to only potentially gain a new employer. He makes up a speech, a deal, a compromise.
IV. But God isn't a god of compromise and he doesn't make deals. The father in this story doesn't either. Before the younger son can speak the proposition, the father runs to him and embraces him. There is no room for the employee relationship. There is only the father/son relationship. A regal man of wealth, a man of respect in front of the whole village makes passionate spectacle of himself. There is no withholding. There is no pride that separates the two of them. Seeing the compassion that his father has, the son for the first time recognizes that it wasn't the money that he wanted and then lost, but it was his father, his relationship that he squandered. Here, the son understands the heart of his father, not one to hold something over his head, but a father who only cares about reconciliation.
VI. And then there's the older brother. The one who was obedient, and who never left. The one who put his time in. He comes home from working and there is a great party. Right there there is a contradiction for him. He is a worker, he sweats his faithfulness and somewhere there's a party that started without him. And then he finds out it's for his loser little brother who humiliated his father and his family. And he gets rewarded w/ a party! So the older son refuses to join in the celebration on principle. Just like the Pharisees, he is standing on that side of the line, indignant that his father is partying w/ a man who blasphemed the family.
But when the father comes out to him (notice the father searched both of them out into reconciliation) we find that it's not that the brother is back, but it's the private feelings of the forsaken that are revealed. It's not about the little scoundral, it's about the older brother not feeling celebrated enough. He feels he deserves affirmation. He misses the heart of the father as much as the little brother.
And instead of giving it to him, he gives the older son what he desires: affirmation. And then he invited him to be reconciled to him, and his brother.
I. Jesus is slandered (in mutterings) by the Pharisees. It's an understandable muttering. They don't say he smells or that he goes against God, but this time they are concerned w/ his company. To them, he hasn't drawn a line in the sand where people for God stand over here, and those that don't stand over there. I can see how they perceive him as a 'fence-sitter'; the worst kind to those devout. His behavior is a slippery slope. And somehow I can hear their nagging parental threat, " you'll turn out to be like the friends you keep."
I don't think they are muttering out of pure concern for Jesus' future. I think somehow they are upset that they, the faithful and the reverent to God, aren't being affirmed by this holy man. I mean, really, they've been putting in there time here! And instead of getting to be his buddy, he wants to be buddies w/ people who haven't put their time in at all!
(Note: this is the same heart of the older brother, the heart of the entitled and the presumedly jilted)
II. Instead of giving the brats a good talking to, Jesus tells them some stories. He never ceases to amaze me w/ his patience. And these stories reveal his heart. His heart is something that the Pharisees were missing. They got His law and His morality, but it was his heart (where he loves from) that they were missing - explains why I think they were so hungry, and therefore cruel.
III. So, there's a father and two sons. The youngest son, not entitled to a lot, asks for what he is due. He sees that he can get something out of being in this family, and he decides he wants to get it now; to cut and run. He sees the immediate benefit of the temporal gift and wants it, not seeing or understanding the heart of what it means to be given his portion. His portion is the composite of his father's life. His father's toils, his honor, his wisdom. To ask for it in cash contradicts the very gift. The gift is getting his father, not the material wealth that comes along w/ it.
The father gives it to him. Not gives it to him in a lecture or a swift beating, but merely, gives him what he wishes. The whole time the older brother stands by. The younger brother goes and loses it. He sinks lower than any good jew. He compromises what is important. And in the throws of starvation, he remembers his father. He remembers that maybe his father would take him back as a hired hand. He doesn't expect anything more, nor does he show signs of mourning for having lost his father to only potentially gain a new employer. He makes up a speech, a deal, a compromise.
IV. But God isn't a god of compromise and he doesn't make deals. The father in this story doesn't either. Before the younger son can speak the proposition, the father runs to him and embraces him. There is no room for the employee relationship. There is only the father/son relationship. A regal man of wealth, a man of respect in front of the whole village makes passionate spectacle of himself. There is no withholding. There is no pride that separates the two of them. Seeing the compassion that his father has, the son for the first time recognizes that it wasn't the money that he wanted and then lost, but it was his father, his relationship that he squandered. Here, the son understands the heart of his father, not one to hold something over his head, but a father who only cares about reconciliation.
VI. And then there's the older brother. The one who was obedient, and who never left. The one who put his time in. He comes home from working and there is a great party. Right there there is a contradiction for him. He is a worker, he sweats his faithfulness and somewhere there's a party that started without him. And then he finds out it's for his loser little brother who humiliated his father and his family. And he gets rewarded w/ a party! So the older son refuses to join in the celebration on principle. Just like the Pharisees, he is standing on that side of the line, indignant that his father is partying w/ a man who blasphemed the family.
But when the father comes out to him (notice the father searched both of them out into reconciliation) we find that it's not that the brother is back, but it's the private feelings of the forsaken that are revealed. It's not about the little scoundral, it's about the older brother not feeling celebrated enough. He feels he deserves affirmation. He misses the heart of the father as much as the little brother.
And instead of giving it to him, he gives the older son what he desires: affirmation. And then he invited him to be reconciled to him, and his brother.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Lent Reader
Have you guys read any of this? Its the reader we have for sale in the bookstore. Truth be told, I didn't buy one until yesterday ... I thought I could just read the ones for sale ... but once I realized I was 80 pages in and really liking it, I thought it wrong to keep reading a book that was for sale.
Anyway, I knew I would like the entries by Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, Lewis, etc ... but there are tons of writers I have never heard of who are powerful to read. Stephanie, there is actually a Geoffrey Hill poem in here (Lachrimae Amantis).
The one I read this morning is by Barbara Brown Taylor. She writes about the Christian temptation to shift the killing of Christ off to the Jews and Romans, as long as they remain the villians, then we are off the hook. "Unfortunately, this is not a story that happened long ago in a land far away. Sons and daughters of God are killed in every generation. They have been killed in holy wars and inquisitions, concentration camps and prison cells. They have been killed in Cape Town, Memphis, El Salvador and Alabama. The charges against them have run the gamet, but treason and blasphemy have headed the list, just as they did for Jesus. He upset those in charge at the courthouse and the temple. He suggested they were not doing their jobs. He offered himself as a mirror they could see themselves in, and they were so appalled by what they saw that they smashed it. They smashed him every way they could."
She goes on to write about how dangerous it is for religion and politics to become mixed up ... but just before we get off the hook again (saying, but I am no Caiaphas or Pilate or Herod) she cuts in; "They may have been the ones who gave Jesus the death sentence, but a large part of him had already died before they ever got to him -- the part Judas killed off, then Peter, then all those who fled. Those are the roles with our names on them--not the enemies but the friends. ... Peter said. 'We weren't friends, exactly. Acquantances might be a better word. Actually, we just worked together. For the same company, I mean. Not together, just near each other. My desk was near his. I really don't know him at all.'"
And this was the part that hit me the most: "What happened then goes on happening now. In the presence of his integrity, our own pretense is exposed. In the presence of his constancy, our cowardice is brought to light. In the presence of his fierce love for God and for us, our own hardness of heart is revealed. Take him out of the room and all those things become relative. I am not much worse than you are nor you than I, but leave him in the room and there is no room to hide. He is the light of the world ... A cross and nails are not always necessary. There are a thousand ways to kill him, some of them as obvious as choosing where you will stand when the showdown between weak and the strong comes along [Judas chose the saftey of militia, guns and handcuffs] others of them as subtle as keeping your mouth shut when someone asks you if you know him."
Then, since she is writing this to be presented on Good Friday, she concludes: "Today, while he dies, do not turn away. Make yourself look in the mirror. Today no one gets away without being shamed by his beauty. Today no one flees without being laid bare by his light."
Anyway, I knew I would like the entries by Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard, Lewis, etc ... but there are tons of writers I have never heard of who are powerful to read. Stephanie, there is actually a Geoffrey Hill poem in here (Lachrimae Amantis).
The one I read this morning is by Barbara Brown Taylor. She writes about the Christian temptation to shift the killing of Christ off to the Jews and Romans, as long as they remain the villians, then we are off the hook. "Unfortunately, this is not a story that happened long ago in a land far away. Sons and daughters of God are killed in every generation. They have been killed in holy wars and inquisitions, concentration camps and prison cells. They have been killed in Cape Town, Memphis, El Salvador and Alabama. The charges against them have run the gamet, but treason and blasphemy have headed the list, just as they did for Jesus. He upset those in charge at the courthouse and the temple. He suggested they were not doing their jobs. He offered himself as a mirror they could see themselves in, and they were so appalled by what they saw that they smashed it. They smashed him every way they could."
She goes on to write about how dangerous it is for religion and politics to become mixed up ... but just before we get off the hook again (saying, but I am no Caiaphas or Pilate or Herod) she cuts in; "They may have been the ones who gave Jesus the death sentence, but a large part of him had already died before they ever got to him -- the part Judas killed off, then Peter, then all those who fled. Those are the roles with our names on them--not the enemies but the friends. ... Peter said. 'We weren't friends, exactly. Acquantances might be a better word. Actually, we just worked together. For the same company, I mean. Not together, just near each other. My desk was near his. I really don't know him at all.'"
And this was the part that hit me the most: "What happened then goes on happening now. In the presence of his integrity, our own pretense is exposed. In the presence of his constancy, our cowardice is brought to light. In the presence of his fierce love for God and for us, our own hardness of heart is revealed. Take him out of the room and all those things become relative. I am not much worse than you are nor you than I, but leave him in the room and there is no room to hide. He is the light of the world ... A cross and nails are not always necessary. There are a thousand ways to kill him, some of them as obvious as choosing where you will stand when the showdown between weak and the strong comes along [Judas chose the saftey of militia, guns and handcuffs] others of them as subtle as keeping your mouth shut when someone asks you if you know him."
Then, since she is writing this to be presented on Good Friday, she concludes: "Today, while he dies, do not turn away. Make yourself look in the mirror. Today no one gets away without being shamed by his beauty. Today no one flees without being laid bare by his light."
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Poem about the Magi and Herod
I wrote this when I was preparing for a sermon on this text in Matthew.
Herod and Magi
Wandering nomads from the east. Like gypsies but more respectable. Like the Dali Lama coming to Bush to give him advise. And they come.
I see them with my two eyes and wonder at their search.
God did you send for these men or did they wander off through their own searching. Did you want them to come or did they come and you let them?
And what of this king who acted like the devil. Was he even a man? What possessed him to try to destroy the hopes of Abraham, David and Isaiah. The promise of messiah was so woven into the People of God and yet Herod the great would destroy it all.
Is this the evil end of a man who sought power and control his entire life ... to have as a last act the slaying of Jewish children with the thought that he would kill God's King? With one last thought of overthrowing the plans of God and having assalted the Great One take His seat?
What is it in him that is like us? Are there times when we should look to the skies or deep in the earth or into the heart of our brother with wonder, searching out a glimpse of the King ... but instead we seek to destroy that look in our blind search for more power and control.
God is at work in the earth, but do we look with our wideawake eyes and open up to joy and gladness at the wonder of God's glory ... or are we disturbed and angry and murderous?
Herod and Magi
Wandering nomads from the east. Like gypsies but more respectable. Like the Dali Lama coming to Bush to give him advise. And they come.
I see them with my two eyes and wonder at their search.
God did you send for these men or did they wander off through their own searching. Did you want them to come or did they come and you let them?
And what of this king who acted like the devil. Was he even a man? What possessed him to try to destroy the hopes of Abraham, David and Isaiah. The promise of messiah was so woven into the People of God and yet Herod the great would destroy it all.
Is this the evil end of a man who sought power and control his entire life ... to have as a last act the slaying of Jewish children with the thought that he would kill God's King? With one last thought of overthrowing the plans of God and having assalted the Great One take His seat?
What is it in him that is like us? Are there times when we should look to the skies or deep in the earth or into the heart of our brother with wonder, searching out a glimpse of the King ... but instead we seek to destroy that look in our blind search for more power and control.
God is at work in the earth, but do we look with our wideawake eyes and open up to joy and gladness at the wonder of God's glory ... or are we disturbed and angry and murderous?
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Helpful thought from Chekhov's phsyc ward
This is one of my all-time favorite dialogues (from Ward Six by Chekhov). It is between a doctor and a mad man (who lives in Ward six). The doctor sees him to be the only intelligent man in the town so he finds himself going down for a visit more and more often.
Doctor: Peace and contentment do not lie outside a man, but within him.
Madman: What do you mean?
Doctor: The ordinary man looks for good or evil in external things: an open carriage, a study, while the thinking man looks for them within himself.
Madman: Go preach that philosophy in Greece, where it's warm and smells of oranges; it's not suited to the climate here. Who was it I was talking to about Diogenes? Was it you?
Doctor: Yes, it was I ... yesterday.
Madman: Diogenes didn't need a study or a warm room, it was hot there anyhow. He could sleep in a barrel and eat olives and oranges. But you bring him to Russia to live and he'd be begging for a room, and not just in December, but in May. He'd be doubled up with cold.
Doctor: No. One can be impervious to the cold, as to any other pain. ... The wise man, or even the merely rational, thinking man, is distinguished precisely by his disdain for suffering; he is always content, and nothing ever surprises him.
Madman: Then I must be an idot, for I suffer, am discontented, and continually surprised by human baseness. ... All I know is that God created me out of warm blood and nerves--yes! And organic tissues, if it is viable, must react to every irritation. And I do react! To pain I respond with tears and outcries, to baseness with indignation, to vileness with disgust. In my opinion this is exactly what is known as life. The lower the organism, the less sensitive it is, and the more feeble its response to irritation; the higher it is, the more receptive, and the more energetic its reactions to reality. ... You must excuse me, I am neither a sage nor a philosopher."
He then breaks into a massive critique of Stoicism saying that it congealed 2000 years ago and has not progressed one particle and that it was always for the minority because it never took into account the majority of people who are in need and want of human things like food and shelter. It is for the wealthy academic and no one else. That's not even the best part ... its just so long I can't type more. He finishes by saying that all of the Doctors philosophy is really just convenience allowing him to lift no finger for other human beings ... "you have nothing to do, your conscience is clear, and you feel you're a sage ... No sir, this is not philosophy, not thought, not breadth of vision, but laziness, pretense, mental torpor ... "
The sad thing is that this danger of splitting mental thoughts and ideas from flesh and blood is a danger of all academic work, all rational, all philosophy and even theology. The Incarnation and the prophets before him remind us that we are to respond to irritants and outcries and that our minds must be alive and human.
Doctor: Peace and contentment do not lie outside a man, but within him.
Madman: What do you mean?
Doctor: The ordinary man looks for good or evil in external things: an open carriage, a study, while the thinking man looks for them within himself.
Madman: Go preach that philosophy in Greece, where it's warm and smells of oranges; it's not suited to the climate here. Who was it I was talking to about Diogenes? Was it you?
Doctor: Yes, it was I ... yesterday.
Madman: Diogenes didn't need a study or a warm room, it was hot there anyhow. He could sleep in a barrel and eat olives and oranges. But you bring him to Russia to live and he'd be begging for a room, and not just in December, but in May. He'd be doubled up with cold.
Doctor: No. One can be impervious to the cold, as to any other pain. ... The wise man, or even the merely rational, thinking man, is distinguished precisely by his disdain for suffering; he is always content, and nothing ever surprises him.
Madman: Then I must be an idot, for I suffer, am discontented, and continually surprised by human baseness. ... All I know is that God created me out of warm blood and nerves--yes! And organic tissues, if it is viable, must react to every irritation. And I do react! To pain I respond with tears and outcries, to baseness with indignation, to vileness with disgust. In my opinion this is exactly what is known as life. The lower the organism, the less sensitive it is, and the more feeble its response to irritation; the higher it is, the more receptive, and the more energetic its reactions to reality. ... You must excuse me, I am neither a sage nor a philosopher."
He then breaks into a massive critique of Stoicism saying that it congealed 2000 years ago and has not progressed one particle and that it was always for the minority because it never took into account the majority of people who are in need and want of human things like food and shelter. It is for the wealthy academic and no one else. That's not even the best part ... its just so long I can't type more. He finishes by saying that all of the Doctors philosophy is really just convenience allowing him to lift no finger for other human beings ... "you have nothing to do, your conscience is clear, and you feel you're a sage ... No sir, this is not philosophy, not thought, not breadth of vision, but laziness, pretense, mental torpor ... "
The sad thing is that this danger of splitting mental thoughts and ideas from flesh and blood is a danger of all academic work, all rational, all philosophy and even theology. The Incarnation and the prophets before him remind us that we are to respond to irritants and outcries and that our minds must be alive and human.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Figs (another old poem, 2001)
Where is Bob Dylan?
Anyone to feel,
Anyone to imagine,
Anyone with strong words?
Young Eliot in the doorway,
But he will not take the step.
And we are the same,
Except lacking such daring imagination.
We repress the calling Christ,
Our disturbing Messiah.
We are uneasy and harassed,
But we pretend security.
Will we find our way?
The End
Is always coming because we don’t learn our lesson.
And in our end will a prophet come?
Will anyone prophesy our destruction
And offer a new beginning?
Is Moses among us?
Will anyone imagine something better?
And true peace is always offered
And this is for our Return.
The sword comes
Because what we think is life is death.
What we think is God is our own order,
Our own arrangement of things.
But in our end, Ezekiel offers resurrection.
Jesus feeds dry bones his own blood and flesh.
We must decide
We must leave our nets and follow
Leave my father in the boat
Leave my dead father.
We must bear fruit.
Please, let figs grow
Give us figs for our Lord.
Otherwise we will be cursed forever.
Otherwise we will be cast into the sea.
Anyone to feel,
Anyone to imagine,
Anyone with strong words?
Young Eliot in the doorway,
But he will not take the step.
And we are the same,
Except lacking such daring imagination.
We repress the calling Christ,
Our disturbing Messiah.
We are uneasy and harassed,
But we pretend security.
Will we find our way?
The End
Is always coming because we don’t learn our lesson.
And in our end will a prophet come?
Will anyone prophesy our destruction
And offer a new beginning?
Is Moses among us?
Will anyone imagine something better?
And true peace is always offered
And this is for our Return.
The sword comes
Because what we think is life is death.
What we think is God is our own order,
Our own arrangement of things.
But in our end, Ezekiel offers resurrection.
Jesus feeds dry bones his own blood and flesh.
We must decide
We must leave our nets and follow
Leave my father in the boat
Leave my dead father.
We must bear fruit.
Please, let figs grow
Give us figs for our Lord.
Otherwise we will be cursed forever.
Otherwise we will be cast into the sea.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Feathered Pilgrims
Something dark is about in our souls. We wander aside and run like chickens with empty heads from snakes in dusty roads to thorns and hornets on either side. Our heart will not rest, but flees in terror ... in the wrong direction. The fire that blazes is cold and dark like the longest night. But then, turning we are stopped and flattened. Our eyes rise to the hill and at just that moment the morning sun breaks in reds and pinks, pouring its light down on us tiny things ... and suddenly the snakes are the ones in terror and we are in presence and heat. We swim in morning glory and long for this dawning to destroy forever the sleepless nights. It would seem our brains are filled with this light as long as we walk its way. The sun is coming down the hill to meet us and does meet us (though not in its fullness) and we are revived. We see the path before us and we must focus on our journey. We must walk and not falter. This path seems long and other yellow pilgrims are coming alongside. There are some who are teetering, there are some afraid and shuddering. We must speak and walk, we must carry each other as much as words and friendship can ... and we must all walk this path.
God, may your glory inspire our feathered brains with the dawning of the morning sun, with the reds and pinks and golds of glorious morn, still distant, but coming closer.
God, may your glory inspire our feathered brains with the dawning of the morning sun, with the reds and pinks and golds of glorious morn, still distant, but coming closer.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Lenten Journey
Just a short list of observations:
1. More easily brought to tears (in reading or watching or talking ... i was having trouble not crying when watching Nemo with my kids, and I have seen it a few times).
2. More drawn to silence and more aware when I talk too much.
3. More aware, in general, of myself as a person in relationship to other people and to God. More aware of anger and frustration and more quick to ask God for help and forgiveness.
I definitely feel it. I am glad I am participating in Lent and that the church has something like this.
I am also, looking at the long road (Lent is almost 6 weeks!!) and thinking it is a long road. But I do feel like it will end in something glorious and this is the only road to that for me. I must go this road so that I may enter into a renewed life with God and with others, as a pastor, as a worshipper, as a husband and a father.
1. More easily brought to tears (in reading or watching or talking ... i was having trouble not crying when watching Nemo with my kids, and I have seen it a few times).
2. More drawn to silence and more aware when I talk too much.
3. More aware, in general, of myself as a person in relationship to other people and to God. More aware of anger and frustration and more quick to ask God for help and forgiveness.
I definitely feel it. I am glad I am participating in Lent and that the church has something like this.
I am also, looking at the long road (Lent is almost 6 weeks!!) and thinking it is a long road. But I do feel like it will end in something glorious and this is the only road to that for me. I must go this road so that I may enter into a renewed life with God and with others, as a pastor, as a worshipper, as a husband and a father.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
So I just picked up a reader of Mr. Chesterton and it is incredible. First essay is the story form of the shift from paganism to Christian gothic to modern realism. "The old Greeks summoned godlike things to worship their god. The medieval Christians summoned all things to worship theirs, dwarfs and pelicans, monkeys and madmen. The modern realist summoned all these million creatures to worship their god; and then have no god for them to worship. Paganism was in art a pure beauty; that was the dawn. Christianity was a beauty created by controlling a million monsters of ugliness; and that in my belief the zenith and the noon. Modern art and science practically mean having the million monsters and being unable to control them; and I will venture to call that the disruption and the decay. ... Christianity, with its gargoyles and grotesques, really amounted to saying this: that a donkey could go before all the horses of the world when it was really going to the temple."
And then he picks up in the next essay with a criticism of modern decor. He is thankful for being laid up in bed so he can star at the empty ceiling rather than the ridiculous wallpaper surrounding him. (He is actually pondering the possiblity of using a broomstick to draw on the ceiling). The man is a Brit from 1910 and he says the following about wallpaper: "I found the wall-paper to be already covered with very uninteresting images, all bearing a ridiculous resemblance to each other. I could not understand why one arbitrary symbol (a symbol apparently entirely devoid of any religious or philosophical significance) should thus be sprinkled all over my nice walls like a sort of small-pox. The Bible must be referring to wall-papers, I think, when it says 'Use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do.'"
There is tons more hilarity ... he goes on about the evil in the world and he says it is never better described than in the horror of having to listen to loud music while eating dinner at a resteraunt. I should include more, but for time sake, this is all I got for now. I expect Chesterton will come up now and again though.
And then he picks up in the next essay with a criticism of modern decor. He is thankful for being laid up in bed so he can star at the empty ceiling rather than the ridiculous wallpaper surrounding him. (He is actually pondering the possiblity of using a broomstick to draw on the ceiling). The man is a Brit from 1910 and he says the following about wallpaper: "I found the wall-paper to be already covered with very uninteresting images, all bearing a ridiculous resemblance to each other. I could not understand why one arbitrary symbol (a symbol apparently entirely devoid of any religious or philosophical significance) should thus be sprinkled all over my nice walls like a sort of small-pox. The Bible must be referring to wall-papers, I think, when it says 'Use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do.'"
There is tons more hilarity ... he goes on about the evil in the world and he says it is never better described than in the horror of having to listen to loud music while eating dinner at a resteraunt. I should include more, but for time sake, this is all I got for now. I expect Chesterton will come up now and again though.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Something
Why is it that struggle induces sleep ... passivity, longing to sit still and think about nothing or sit and listen to music. I think it is the weight of thoughts that weigh us down at time ... But honestly that is seldom true, thoughts alone are nothing ... no real weight and no real lift. It is life and reality and people that weigh us down or lift us up.
Mind splits as I ponder my place,
heart and water spill around and slosh out,
wandering feet would like to walk in a forest,
Something peaceful and pretty
even if it is cold.
But instead I am here and I must find my place right here.
This is always the solution,
Escape is rarely a solution ... only when you are on your way to murder
or theive or pillage,
should you flee with quick feet.
All other times you must plod directly into life,
whatever life will meet you.
You must believe that even if the times are dark and cool,
Even it is is many nights that pass before there is a spouting,
You must believe.
God will grow you if you believe.
Plant yourself, one foot after another and God will give increase.
This isn't all, it never is, but it is a big part.
It is a hard lesson to learn in our time of constant illusion
and corporate day dreams,
When imagination can actually be your problem.
God take our imaginations,
right now they are worth less than dung.
May we have dreams of your kingdom and seek it with sweat and tears.
May the gospels grant substance to our tireless imagination,
Tempered with the prophets and the epistles and the Old stories.
Mind splits as I ponder my place,
heart and water spill around and slosh out,
wandering feet would like to walk in a forest,
Something peaceful and pretty
even if it is cold.
But instead I am here and I must find my place right here.
This is always the solution,
Escape is rarely a solution ... only when you are on your way to murder
or theive or pillage,
should you flee with quick feet.
All other times you must plod directly into life,
whatever life will meet you.
You must believe that even if the times are dark and cool,
Even it is is many nights that pass before there is a spouting,
You must believe.
God will grow you if you believe.
Plant yourself, one foot after another and God will give increase.
This isn't all, it never is, but it is a big part.
It is a hard lesson to learn in our time of constant illusion
and corporate day dreams,
When imagination can actually be your problem.
God take our imaginations,
right now they are worth less than dung.
May we have dreams of your kingdom and seek it with sweat and tears.
May the gospels grant substance to our tireless imagination,
Tempered with the prophets and the epistles and the Old stories.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Old Notes (same Jason)
I am reorganizing my personal library (hopefully to make it easier to reference and find things) and just came across a note in my copy of "The Prophets", by Heschel. Its on Lee University paper, so it must have been while living in Cleveland just after I graduated. It has two things written on it with numbers out beside them:
1. "Ideas are dangerous, but are often treated lightly and glibbly ... especially in academic circles. There is hardly such a thing as a "merely academic" discussion. "The killing fields of Cambodia come from philosophical discussions in Paris." (Paul Johnson)"
Yep, I still agree. I think that quote is from when I attempted to read Johnson's "Modern Times" a giant history of our centure (1500 pages or so) ... maybe I should pick that one back up. It sounds good.
2. "You no longer have to be brilliant, intelligent and elite to come to the conclusion that life is meaningless ... that message is spoon-fed to millions."
Yep, that's still true as well ... except people seem to care even less that this is happening. Well I add to that as a further wake up call from Abraham Heschel "Are we alone in the wilderness of self, alone in this silent universe, of which we are part, and in whihc we feel at the same time like strangers? It is [precisely] such a situation that makes us ready to search for a voice of God in the world of man: the taste of utter loneliness; the discovery that unless God has a voice, the life of the spirit is a freak"
God help us.
1. "Ideas are dangerous, but are often treated lightly and glibbly ... especially in academic circles. There is hardly such a thing as a "merely academic" discussion. "The killing fields of Cambodia come from philosophical discussions in Paris." (Paul Johnson)"
Yep, I still agree. I think that quote is from when I attempted to read Johnson's "Modern Times" a giant history of our centure (1500 pages or so) ... maybe I should pick that one back up. It sounds good.
2. "You no longer have to be brilliant, intelligent and elite to come to the conclusion that life is meaningless ... that message is spoon-fed to millions."
Yep, that's still true as well ... except people seem to care even less that this is happening. Well I add to that as a further wake up call from Abraham Heschel "Are we alone in the wilderness of self, alone in this silent universe, of which we are part, and in whihc we feel at the same time like strangers? It is [precisely] such a situation that makes us ready to search for a voice of God in the world of man: the taste of utter loneliness; the discovery that unless God has a voice, the life of the spirit is a freak"
God help us.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Augustine and Everything After (by the Jason Crows)
Aren't blogs the right place for woefully cheesy titles like that?
Let me preface by saying that I imagine many people will find this stuff very boring so don't read it if you don't want to. Blogs are for thoughts and these are definitely thoughts I have. On the men I talk about (Augustine, Luther and Calvin in particular), I automatically have great respect for well-repected men ... what I mean is that I am pretty new into this information and processing it as I can, but know I am far from getting the full picture. I intend to do a lot more reading on this topic and hopefully will be more estute as I go.
I have found that if I wanted to I could spend hours and hours writing and re-writing and I don't have the time for that ... so here is random thoughts on church history part 1 and I will either clean some of it up later with an additional post or make a more complete statement.
So I have almost completed two pocket history(s) related to Christianity; A History of Theology and a History of the Church. I love reading this stuff because I love seeing where all the modern thoughts came from and seeing how some of them are not new even when we think they are or they are new and ridiculous because of being new.
The biggest trouble I am currently having is figuring out what the truth is with Augustine's Grace vs. Free Will discussions and with Luther and Calvin's formulations of salvation. I honestly don't think they are straightforwardly dealing with the reality of our world or with the reality of the scriptures. They both get some grace because they formulated their thoughts as reactions to heretical thoughts ... Augustine to the british monk Pelagious and Luther and Calvin to the out of their mind at the time Roman Catholics. All of them want God to have absolute sovereignty and human beings to have absolute depravity. The only free will we have, according to Augustine, is the choosing which sin we want to pursue.
I understand the philosophical problem completely ... well as much as someone who has never taken a philosophy class. The philosophical picture needs to be black and white and very tidy ... so if God is to be in absolute control then that must include control over human will, individual or otherwise. The formulation becomes that we are completely passive while God's grace is active in saving, redeeming and everything else. Luther even says that repentance is a gift ... which follows right along with Augustine's argument.
So, it comes down to the elect and the damned, predestination or what Augustine called monergism (which I think refers to the fact that only God has any power). But, what about the Bible? All Christians are quick to say that you can only get so far with philosophy so why do all these guys keep going back to it before the Scriptures. They seem to figure it all out philosophically and then try and make the scriptures support it.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that philosophy is bad in any way and the people that push for only learning from the Bible or only using biblical language get pretty confused as well. There are times when philosophy and rational discussion is our only recourse to make sense of the world and even our task as followers of Christ. BUT, these giant systems of interpretation that have greatly influenced the church, especially Protestant thought, don't seem to line up with the Scriptures very well at all.
I mean, what about the constant call for repentance. Why do all God's men, Jesus included, always walk around telling people repent? How does this system fit, in any way, with the story of the Prodigal Son? Can you imagine Augustine's view of God (at least in this aspect) being the same father Jesus describes running down the road to meet the lost son and falling on his neck with tears ... and then turning to the older son and inviting him in as well? I imagine if Augustine had to re-write the story it would have to include a little less choice on the son's part.
But it seems the biggest problem with all this is the obvious one ... how do you establish any real human responsibility if absolute power and control and action is given to God. That is what set off Pelagious in the first place ... coming into town and finding a lot of indecent behavior and then reading Confessions with Augustine saying that decent behavior (or self-control) was a gift from God ... so instead of putting forth moral effort, we are left to wait like a bunch of island charismatics for the gift of continence.
And then the same rap could be said about Calvinists ... don't know how true it really is, but i have heard that Protestants didn't do any missionary work for nearly 200 years after Calvin worked out double predestination. There is just no way that fits with the Bible.
Let me preface by saying that I imagine many people will find this stuff very boring so don't read it if you don't want to. Blogs are for thoughts and these are definitely thoughts I have. On the men I talk about (Augustine, Luther and Calvin in particular), I automatically have great respect for well-repected men ... what I mean is that I am pretty new into this information and processing it as I can, but know I am far from getting the full picture. I intend to do a lot more reading on this topic and hopefully will be more estute as I go.
I have found that if I wanted to I could spend hours and hours writing and re-writing and I don't have the time for that ... so here is random thoughts on church history part 1 and I will either clean some of it up later with an additional post or make a more complete statement.
So I have almost completed two pocket history(s) related to Christianity; A History of Theology and a History of the Church. I love reading this stuff because I love seeing where all the modern thoughts came from and seeing how some of them are not new even when we think they are or they are new and ridiculous because of being new.
The biggest trouble I am currently having is figuring out what the truth is with Augustine's Grace vs. Free Will discussions and with Luther and Calvin's formulations of salvation. I honestly don't think they are straightforwardly dealing with the reality of our world or with the reality of the scriptures. They both get some grace because they formulated their thoughts as reactions to heretical thoughts ... Augustine to the british monk Pelagious and Luther and Calvin to the out of their mind at the time Roman Catholics. All of them want God to have absolute sovereignty and human beings to have absolute depravity. The only free will we have, according to Augustine, is the choosing which sin we want to pursue.
I understand the philosophical problem completely ... well as much as someone who has never taken a philosophy class. The philosophical picture needs to be black and white and very tidy ... so if God is to be in absolute control then that must include control over human will, individual or otherwise. The formulation becomes that we are completely passive while God's grace is active in saving, redeeming and everything else. Luther even says that repentance is a gift ... which follows right along with Augustine's argument.
So, it comes down to the elect and the damned, predestination or what Augustine called monergism (which I think refers to the fact that only God has any power). But, what about the Bible? All Christians are quick to say that you can only get so far with philosophy so why do all these guys keep going back to it before the Scriptures. They seem to figure it all out philosophically and then try and make the scriptures support it.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that philosophy is bad in any way and the people that push for only learning from the Bible or only using biblical language get pretty confused as well. There are times when philosophy and rational discussion is our only recourse to make sense of the world and even our task as followers of Christ. BUT, these giant systems of interpretation that have greatly influenced the church, especially Protestant thought, don't seem to line up with the Scriptures very well at all.
I mean, what about the constant call for repentance. Why do all God's men, Jesus included, always walk around telling people repent? How does this system fit, in any way, with the story of the Prodigal Son? Can you imagine Augustine's view of God (at least in this aspect) being the same father Jesus describes running down the road to meet the lost son and falling on his neck with tears ... and then turning to the older son and inviting him in as well? I imagine if Augustine had to re-write the story it would have to include a little less choice on the son's part.
But it seems the biggest problem with all this is the obvious one ... how do you establish any real human responsibility if absolute power and control and action is given to God. That is what set off Pelagious in the first place ... coming into town and finding a lot of indecent behavior and then reading Confessions with Augustine saying that decent behavior (or self-control) was a gift from God ... so instead of putting forth moral effort, we are left to wait like a bunch of island charismatics for the gift of continence.
And then the same rap could be said about Calvinists ... don't know how true it really is, but i have heard that Protestants didn't do any missionary work for nearly 200 years after Calvin worked out double predestination. There is just no way that fits with the Bible.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
A Christmas Poem (2005)
I wrote this poem last year and gave it to Tara as one of her Christmas presents ... but I thought it would make a nice post for the holidays.
I don't know anything about formating text ... but everything is supposed to be centered and the scriptures at the beginning are supposed to be smaller font and act as quote introductions like Eliot uses in all his poems (except he usually uses quotes in latin or french)
"As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it ...
be constantly on watch! Stay awake!
Mark 13:32-33
"Peace is my farewell to you,
my peace is my gift to you;"
John 14:27
Snowfall is a soft sound---a softening sound---smoothing
out the dissonance of an auto-crowded city.
Does anyone listen during these quiet sky-sent moments?
I whispered to my lover,
something about the mood of the moment.
I spoke in hushed speech,
preserving as much of the silence as I could,
but I was excited.
(whisper)
"Into the darkness of winter,
falls a precious white.
Into the blackness of the longest night,
is sent us something pure.
When ugly things bare their teeth
and wicked men attempt to hide their dirty deeds,
a savior is born."
We sat there a long time,
still throughout our entire bodies.
Except for the quivering hairs,
the listening hairs inside our ears.
They were enjoying the sound of the snow.
We had our blankets piled up,
to offer us protection from the winter cold,
the white cold,
the silent cold.
As everything was being covered outside,
we lay covered and quiet.
But we did not sleep.
No, we were much alive.
And then there was a rush of wind,
and a voice, almost audible,
saying,
"The war was won,
but the war is still fought,
Men love war but God loves life.
PEACE ON EARTH
PEACE ON EARTH
Peace on earth."
With this last line singing loudly in our ears,
we decided to go and find our children.
They also laid under layers of blankets,
but with open eyes.
They were watching and they were waiting.
Little had they slept,
refusing to forgot their task.
With tired, but joyful eyes
they watched and waited
for Christmas morning to come.
I don't know anything about formating text ... but everything is supposed to be centered and the scriptures at the beginning are supposed to be smaller font and act as quote introductions like Eliot uses in all his poems (except he usually uses quotes in latin or french)
"As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it ...
be constantly on watch! Stay awake!
Mark 13:32-33
"Peace is my farewell to you,
my peace is my gift to you;"
John 14:27
Snowfall is a soft sound---a softening sound---smoothing
out the dissonance of an auto-crowded city.
Does anyone listen during these quiet sky-sent moments?
I whispered to my lover,
something about the mood of the moment.
I spoke in hushed speech,
preserving as much of the silence as I could,
but I was excited.
(whisper)
"Into the darkness of winter,
falls a precious white.
Into the blackness of the longest night,
is sent us something pure.
When ugly things bare their teeth
and wicked men attempt to hide their dirty deeds,
a savior is born."
We sat there a long time,
still throughout our entire bodies.
Except for the quivering hairs,
the listening hairs inside our ears.
They were enjoying the sound of the snow.
We had our blankets piled up,
to offer us protection from the winter cold,
the white cold,
the silent cold.
As everything was being covered outside,
we lay covered and quiet.
But we did not sleep.
No, we were much alive.
And then there was a rush of wind,
and a voice, almost audible,
saying,
"The war was won,
but the war is still fought,
Men love war but God loves life.
PEACE ON EARTH
PEACE ON EARTH
Peace on earth."
With this last line singing loudly in our ears,
we decided to go and find our children.
They also laid under layers of blankets,
but with open eyes.
They were watching and they were waiting.
Little had they slept,
refusing to forgot their task.
With tired, but joyful eyes
they watched and waited
for Christmas morning to come.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
the tension of the age
The biblical account of the earth really makes sense to me. The old story about creation being blessed and then given to human beings so they could wisely stewart and care for it. And then when they rebelled and sinned everything fell downward and death and darkness began to grow where there used to be blessing.
This is our world. Our world is covered in both beauty and terror. there is light so rich and full that no imagination is wild enough to contain it, there is dark so evil and destructive that no shrewd wisdom can overcome it.
This world of ours is very complex. It is so bright and vibrant, full of rich colors and diversity ... and brilliant inventions. Even within the world of humans I am constantly astounded by the creativity of human beings, from the cd player that reads code and translates it into music, to the music itself. From the jet liner to the literature of the brilliant men and women scattered over the earth and throughout time.
But in those very same places (the earth and humanity) there is a terrible darkness, pockets of fear and evil machinations. People using their creative power to control and manipulate others so they can have transient pleasures. Even the world itself seems to be turning on inward with violence, destroying anyone in its path. There is flying sickness and death. There is pain and loss and suffering. And there is just void and unknowing. There is emptiness and desperation. There is loneliness.
This is the reality that must be held in our minds as we look upon the old gospel story. The good news that Jesus is a great warrior, who in God's strange way fought evil and death itself through suffering and dying innocently ... and that his walking out of the tomb was an open door to new creation, restoration of the blessedness of the old creation ... that the Creator God had found a way to work within the messy world itself to bring about a light and life that would win over darkness and death ... it is more breath-taking for facing the whole story.
This is our world. Our world is covered in both beauty and terror. there is light so rich and full that no imagination is wild enough to contain it, there is dark so evil and destructive that no shrewd wisdom can overcome it.
This world of ours is very complex. It is so bright and vibrant, full of rich colors and diversity ... and brilliant inventions. Even within the world of humans I am constantly astounded by the creativity of human beings, from the cd player that reads code and translates it into music, to the music itself. From the jet liner to the literature of the brilliant men and women scattered over the earth and throughout time.
But in those very same places (the earth and humanity) there is a terrible darkness, pockets of fear and evil machinations. People using their creative power to control and manipulate others so they can have transient pleasures. Even the world itself seems to be turning on inward with violence, destroying anyone in its path. There is flying sickness and death. There is pain and loss and suffering. And there is just void and unknowing. There is emptiness and desperation. There is loneliness.
This is the reality that must be held in our minds as we look upon the old gospel story. The good news that Jesus is a great warrior, who in God's strange way fought evil and death itself through suffering and dying innocently ... and that his walking out of the tomb was an open door to new creation, restoration of the blessedness of the old creation ... that the Creator God had found a way to work within the messy world itself to bring about a light and life that would win over darkness and death ... it is more breath-taking for facing the whole story.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Josef Pieper Quote
"We have, he writes on one occasion, 'lost the awareness of the close bond that links the knowing of truth to the condition of purity.' That is, in order to know the truth we must become persons of a certain sort."
In order to know the truth we must become persons of a certain sort. This is profound and rubs against most current understanding of knowledge. Knowledge is only knowledge when it is lived. You can know something, but you only know it as much as it affects the way you live or informs the way you live. Truth of this sort places a demand on us and if we say "no" to the demand with our actions we can't claim to know the truth at all.
Heschel says it this way: "Deed and thought are bound into one ... Spiritual aspirations are doomed to failure when we try to cultivate deeds at the expense of thoughts or thoughts at the expense of deeds." Then he asks a question to further make his point "Is it the artist's inner vision or his wrestling with the stone that brings about a work of sculputre?" The art is not disconnected from the artist's mental vision, but it also will never be art if the mental vision isn't brought forth through a physical medium. "Right living is like a work of art, the product of a vision and of a wrestling with concrete situations."
This is it.
Merton's prayer for us: "Untie my hands and deliver my heart from sloth. Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity when activity is not required of me, and from the cowardice that does what is not demanded, in order to escape sacrifice."
In order to know the truth we must become persons of a certain sort. This is profound and rubs against most current understanding of knowledge. Knowledge is only knowledge when it is lived. You can know something, but you only know it as much as it affects the way you live or informs the way you live. Truth of this sort places a demand on us and if we say "no" to the demand with our actions we can't claim to know the truth at all.
Heschel says it this way: "Deed and thought are bound into one ... Spiritual aspirations are doomed to failure when we try to cultivate deeds at the expense of thoughts or thoughts at the expense of deeds." Then he asks a question to further make his point "Is it the artist's inner vision or his wrestling with the stone that brings about a work of sculputre?" The art is not disconnected from the artist's mental vision, but it also will never be art if the mental vision isn't brought forth through a physical medium. "Right living is like a work of art, the product of a vision and of a wrestling with concrete situations."
This is it.
Merton's prayer for us: "Untie my hands and deliver my heart from sloth. Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity when activity is not required of me, and from the cowardice that does what is not demanded, in order to escape sacrifice."
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Life vs. worthless fantasy
"I learned that it is better, a thousand-fold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero, will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work, is sure of his manhood." (the artsy fellow from "Phantastes" by George McDonald)
The hero or anti-hero is a romantic who sets out to wander in a fantasy land on his 21st birthday. He sets out like any young punk, full of himself and ambitious to share his gifts with the world ... you know write a great novel, paint a great picture, save a few women. By the end of his journey he has finally learned that none of this was the way forward. "He that will be a hero, will barely be a man" so full of fanciful dreams of glory and fame there is no place to walk on the actual road touching his feet. I have been in that place. I have spent many afternoons with my head full of vain dreams of glory and fame. Far from actually thinking about the world that needs saving, my time is consumed by thoughts of me being the one to save it.
It has been only recently (within the last few years) that I am starting to understand the calling to be a doer of my work. To take what is within my path and carry it forward. To keep my hand to the plow and make sure the rows are straight. Not that this is always as obvious as I would like ... but I am attempting to live within my body and not just in my head.
Life must be lived to be meaningful. Thought and deed must go hand in hand. I have found that the artist and the intellectual and maybe the mystic, have a common struggle with these connections. Contemplating, thinking, feeling, are often a way of looking at life and it is hard to look and live at the same time.
There is a tendency to miss one for the other. We must always use our skills of thinking or feeling or contemplating to work with the stuff of reality. Otherwise we easily drift into worthless fantasy.
The hero or anti-hero is a romantic who sets out to wander in a fantasy land on his 21st birthday. He sets out like any young punk, full of himself and ambitious to share his gifts with the world ... you know write a great novel, paint a great picture, save a few women. By the end of his journey he has finally learned that none of this was the way forward. "He that will be a hero, will barely be a man" so full of fanciful dreams of glory and fame there is no place to walk on the actual road touching his feet. I have been in that place. I have spent many afternoons with my head full of vain dreams of glory and fame. Far from actually thinking about the world that needs saving, my time is consumed by thoughts of me being the one to save it.
It has been only recently (within the last few years) that I am starting to understand the calling to be a doer of my work. To take what is within my path and carry it forward. To keep my hand to the plow and make sure the rows are straight. Not that this is always as obvious as I would like ... but I am attempting to live within my body and not just in my head.
Life must be lived to be meaningful. Thought and deed must go hand in hand. I have found that the artist and the intellectual and maybe the mystic, have a common struggle with these connections. Contemplating, thinking, feeling, are often a way of looking at life and it is hard to look and live at the same time.
There is a tendency to miss one for the other. We must always use our skills of thinking or feeling or contemplating to work with the stuff of reality. Otherwise we easily drift into worthless fantasy.
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