I am reading the latest book by Fox-Genovese. It begins with basically her lecture from Princeton (which you can access and was my first introduction to the brilliant lady. Go to www.princeton.edu/webmedia/lectures and search for her name. Here is some of what you will be in for:
"First, the human species divides into males and females who are at once mutually attracted and sufficiently different to be mutually antagonistic, but whose cooperation is necessary to the perpetuation of the human race. Marriage binds them together into what Willa Cather brilliantly called a state of mortal enmity as well as into the bonds of sacramental love. Second, and more importantly, from the perspective of civilization and the species, marriage proposes a reconciliation of the most fundamental natural difference among human beings--sex. For to flee from engaging that difference is ultimately to flee from all others."
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
something old that fell out of a book
I remember writing it in New York (upstate) during the summer
My eyes fell upon a ruined house,
A devastated temple
The flesh was old and thin
Something dark and sweet around the mouth
but the belly swollen
The eyes were red and darting about
as if looking for a lost occupant
the spotted skin seemed stretched
to reveal a crooked and falling frame
how old?
23 was his reply.
Its time to rebuild.
Christ was it your Life
that kept rot and decay from you
even in death.
But my composition is reversed
for in my living I have already begun to rot.
Although death may not be better
for this, my delicate skin and fragile frame.
So rebuild! Rebuild!
The words of Jesus are:
"Consumed with zeal for my house!"
Tear apart my temple and rebuild it Lord Jesus.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Life and Death
I just finished my first novel by Wendell Berry (did you know he hand-writes everything?)
Andy Catlett is about (I think) Berry when he was a boy. The novel is told as if Andy is now an old man, but is remembering a trip to his grandparents house during WWII just before he turned 10. These are some of his reflections toward the end of the book.
Time is told by death, who doubts it? But time is always halved--for all we know, it is halved--by the eye blink, the synapse, the immeasurable moment of the present. Time is only the past and maybe the future; the present moment, dividing and connecting them, is eternal. The time of the past is there, somewhat, but only somewhat, to be remembered and examined. We believe that the future is there too, for it keeps arriving, though we know nothing about it. But try and stop the present for you patient scrutiny, or to measure its length with your most advanced chronometer. It exists, so far as I can tell, only as a leak in time, through which, if we are quiet enough, eternity falls upon us and makes its claim. And here I am, an old man, traveling as a child among the dead.
Andy Catlett is about (I think) Berry when he was a boy. The novel is told as if Andy is now an old man, but is remembering a trip to his grandparents house during WWII just before he turned 10. These are some of his reflections toward the end of the book.
Time is told by death, who doubts it? But time is always halved--for all we know, it is halved--by the eye blink, the synapse, the immeasurable moment of the present. Time is only the past and maybe the future; the present moment, dividing and connecting them, is eternal. The time of the past is there, somewhat, but only somewhat, to be remembered and examined. We believe that the future is there too, for it keeps arriving, though we know nothing about it. But try and stop the present for you patient scrutiny, or to measure its length with your most advanced chronometer. It exists, so far as I can tell, only as a leak in time, through which, if we are quiet enough, eternity falls upon us and makes its claim. And here I am, an old man, traveling as a child among the dead.
We measure time by its deaths, yes, and by its births. For time is told also by life. As some depart, others come. The hand opened in farewell remains open in welcome. I, who once had grandparents and parents, now have children and grandchildren. Like the flowing river that is yet always present, time that is always going is always coming. And time that is told by death and birth is held and redeemed by love, which is always present. Time, then, is told by love's losses, and by the coming of love, and by love continuing in gratitude for what is lost. It is folded and enfolded and unfolded forever and ever, the love by which the dead are alive and the unborn welcomed into the womb. The great question for the old and the dying, I think, is not if they have loved and been loved enough, but if they have been grateful enough for love received and given, however much. No one who has gratitude is lonely. Let us pray to be grateful to the last.
We are alive in this flow of time ... I currently have four grandmothers, two mothers and two fathers, one wife (I'm not mormon you know) and three kids. This will change over time ... let us be grateful for this time that we live, for this present moment ... where we have the chance to be quiet enough to "let eternity fall upon us and make its claim."
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Power Games
I came across a quote by that deserves some attention:
"For once we have toppled God and nature as authoritative sources of the difference between the sexes, we are indeed left with gender understood as a conventional or 'relational' organization of the darkling plain of fluctuating relations among individuals, each of whom is jockying for maximum power."
Sadly, this is much of what is going on in our world between men and women. In one of Dallas Willards books he talks about how our throwing out of all authority and absolutes, even rites, rituals and customs, leaves us paralyzed in a vacuous freedom. It is as if becoming aware of violence and oppression perpetrated by our boney fists, we decided to remove the bones altogether. Once that happened we quickly sluffed off the filthy skin and now we are exposed and without shape in a world that seems more frightening (not less).
I don't know the best way to understand gender roles, but I think she makes an important point that if we throw out God and nature, we aren't left with much. If all roles, rites, inclinations, etc. are simply social constructs (arbitrary and disposable) how do we not end up in a power game. There is not time to go into it fully, but I like how Paul dealt with this massive problem.
The world of the first century was most certainly a time of male domination and female oppression. Women were not considered equal, as a gender or as individual wives or daughters. Fathers kept wives to bear sons and sought mistresses and concubines for pleasure. They had the power to literally, drop their daughters in the trash (one of the early Christian ministries was to save these forsaken orphan girls). Men, as husband, as father, as master, had all the power in that society. So Paul (see Ephesians 5) goes after them. He tells men three time to love their wives, in a culture were they didn't love their wives. Twice it is love your own wife, in a culture where faithlessness was the norm. He goes right at the powerful and tells them to love like Christ. He goes right at the powerful and explodes the power game by saying that you must follow Christ to the cross. Your love must be sacrificial. You must lay your life down.
I think if Paul were writing this letter today he would have to tell both men and women in the words of Christ from John's gospel; "you must love one another, as I have loved you." He would tell both genders to forget the power game and follow Jesus to the cross. He would tell both genders to lay their lives down. As Paul says, we preach Christ and him crucified.
"For once we have toppled God and nature as authoritative sources of the difference between the sexes, we are indeed left with gender understood as a conventional or 'relational' organization of the darkling plain of fluctuating relations among individuals, each of whom is jockying for maximum power."
Sadly, this is much of what is going on in our world between men and women. In one of Dallas Willards books he talks about how our throwing out of all authority and absolutes, even rites, rituals and customs, leaves us paralyzed in a vacuous freedom. It is as if becoming aware of violence and oppression perpetrated by our boney fists, we decided to remove the bones altogether. Once that happened we quickly sluffed off the filthy skin and now we are exposed and without shape in a world that seems more frightening (not less).
I don't know the best way to understand gender roles, but I think she makes an important point that if we throw out God and nature, we aren't left with much. If all roles, rites, inclinations, etc. are simply social constructs (arbitrary and disposable) how do we not end up in a power game. There is not time to go into it fully, but I like how Paul dealt with this massive problem.
The world of the first century was most certainly a time of male domination and female oppression. Women were not considered equal, as a gender or as individual wives or daughters. Fathers kept wives to bear sons and sought mistresses and concubines for pleasure. They had the power to literally, drop their daughters in the trash (one of the early Christian ministries was to save these forsaken orphan girls). Men, as husband, as father, as master, had all the power in that society. So Paul (see Ephesians 5) goes after them. He tells men three time to love their wives, in a culture were they didn't love their wives. Twice it is love your own wife, in a culture where faithlessness was the norm. He goes right at the powerful and tells them to love like Christ. He goes right at the powerful and explodes the power game by saying that you must follow Christ to the cross. Your love must be sacrificial. You must lay your life down.
I think if Paul were writing this letter today he would have to tell both men and women in the words of Christ from John's gospel; "you must love one another, as I have loved you." He would tell both genders to forget the power game and follow Jesus to the cross. He would tell both genders to lay their lives down. As Paul says, we preach Christ and him crucified.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Bishop Spong
I don't know how many of you have heard of Bishop Spong. Like so many popularizers of modernity, he is rather dated (modern equivalents would be Pagels or Ehrman). I am sure they still have all his books at Barnes and Nobles. His most famous was Why Christianity Must Change or Die. I am reading some essays from Gordon Fee (a New Testament scholar) and came across one where he was responding to a debate between Spong and Stott. I really liked what Fee had to say and what he pointed out about Spong.
Even though I see Spong like any boy band, destined for the dollar bin at the Book Nook, His bland attempts at saying something unique is actually repeated over and over (much like the LA created boy bands ... from N' Sync to Linkyn Park).
At one point Fee makes the comment that instead of having any real view on the Scriptures, Spong "is jousting still with the windmills of his past." I have not read Don Quixote, but think that image is fairly appropriate for this kind of scholar (Spong). But my favorite line and the one that made me want to blog is:
"In the final analysis, Spong pushes us to make a clearcut choice between him, with his obvious enchantment with modernity, and Paul, who says that when he proclaims Christ he speaks the very message of God. Faced with such choice, and it is the only choice Spong allows us, I will go with Paul every time. For in Paul I find the love of God and God's wrath against our sin brought together in the cross; in Spong I find merely soft mush."
There you have it friends. Me and Fee are going with Paul everytime.
By the way, I haven't forgotten about Wendell ... I will pick back up with part 4 very soon.
Even though I see Spong like any boy band, destined for the dollar bin at the Book Nook, His bland attempts at saying something unique is actually repeated over and over (much like the LA created boy bands ... from N' Sync to Linkyn Park).
At one point Fee makes the comment that instead of having any real view on the Scriptures, Spong "is jousting still with the windmills of his past." I have not read Don Quixote, but think that image is fairly appropriate for this kind of scholar (Spong). But my favorite line and the one that made me want to blog is:
"In the final analysis, Spong pushes us to make a clearcut choice between him, with his obvious enchantment with modernity, and Paul, who says that when he proclaims Christ he speaks the very message of God. Faced with such choice, and it is the only choice Spong allows us, I will go with Paul every time. For in Paul I find the love of God and God's wrath against our sin brought together in the cross; in Spong I find merely soft mush."
There you have it friends. Me and Fee are going with Paul everytime.
By the way, I haven't forgotten about Wendell ... I will pick back up with part 4 very soon.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Two Ways of Walking on a Beach
Part II
(Part one is from April 2007)
Have you ever heard that Augustine once wrote that "God is younger than all else." We know that Jesus warned us that unless we became like children we would never enter the kingdom of heaven. Augustine goes further and says that God is younger than us. That we have become older than God. Our minds so quickly wander and dwell on what is not, when what is is plainly before us.
I felt this quite often at the beach. How easy it is for my children to be present and engaged with the wonders of the ocean itself. I end up thinking about what I could be reading or what I might want to do with my life or that the water is cold. It is better to be young and jump in waves.
It is better to observe the firmaments and the division of the waters and be in awe.
The highlight for me this year was when Isaac saw a stingray in the shallow (and crystal clear water). It was big enough that Matt Yoder was watching it swim nearer and nearer to Isaac from his balcony on the 8th floor. The moment I saw it, I felt very alive. I started running down the beach with it watching it swim. If I am honest, I felt like I got a glimpse of why people travel to far lands to watch wild animals. It was amazing to see this wild and strange looking fish, flapping its wings in the water. I found myself looking for it the next day when I went out for a walk ... and actually I think I will look for it from now on. It was fascinating to realize that if I keep my eyes open I may just see some hilarious space-craft with wings in the water one day again.
May we all become like children and so become like God.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
W.B.3 - Television and Advertising
"Television is the greatest disrespecter and exploiter of sexuality that the world has ever seen; even if the network executives decide to promote 'safe sex' and the use of condoms, they will not cease to pimp for the exceedingly profitable 'sexual revolution.'" (P. 124)
I think we all know the first phrase is true, but it is interesting to see him accuse the media executives philanthropy (in donating air space and money to educational commercials for safe sex) as fulfilling a further purpose of furthering our national sexual addiction ... and that he even comments that the musician led sexual revolution of the 60s was a welcome addition to the ad industry.
This reminds me of something I read by Fredrica Matthews-Green about the troubling conformity that was happening during the fifties. Goods were being mass-produced and were cheap ... so everyone was buying, turning us into a nation of mere consumers. The term for this was conformity and there was much talk about what to do to stop it. Fortunately (read: unfortunately) this dilemma is forgotten because it was resolved.
"Advertising developed the brilliant solution of presenting the consumer as rebel. Customers could prove their independence by buying goods that demonstrated defiance of fashion. Such fashionable goods were akin to talismans, keeping the specter of conformity at bay. Especially fashionable were those products that appeared to repudiate fashion, implying that you were too cool to care whether you were cool. Yet because these goods could still be identically mass-produced, they remained affordable and of reassuringly familiar quality. The goods had never been the problem; anxiety about consuming them was the problem. This problem was eliminated through the magic of marketing, by invention of the consumer-as-rebel persona."
Think about that next time you are shopping for something unique and stylish.
I think we all know the first phrase is true, but it is interesting to see him accuse the media executives philanthropy (in donating air space and money to educational commercials for safe sex) as fulfilling a further purpose of furthering our national sexual addiction ... and that he even comments that the musician led sexual revolution of the 60s was a welcome addition to the ad industry.
This reminds me of something I read by Fredrica Matthews-Green about the troubling conformity that was happening during the fifties. Goods were being mass-produced and were cheap ... so everyone was buying, turning us into a nation of mere consumers. The term for this was conformity and there was much talk about what to do to stop it. Fortunately (read: unfortunately) this dilemma is forgotten because it was resolved.
"Advertising developed the brilliant solution of presenting the consumer as rebel. Customers could prove their independence by buying goods that demonstrated defiance of fashion. Such fashionable goods were akin to talismans, keeping the specter of conformity at bay. Especially fashionable were those products that appeared to repudiate fashion, implying that you were too cool to care whether you were cool. Yet because these goods could still be identically mass-produced, they remained affordable and of reassuringly familiar quality. The goods had never been the problem; anxiety about consuming them was the problem. This problem was eliminated through the magic of marketing, by invention of the consumer-as-rebel persona."
Think about that next time you are shopping for something unique and stylish.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
W.B.2 - Economy of Households
"The conventional public opposition of 'liberal' and 'conservative' is, here and elsewhere, perfectly useless. The 'conservatives' promote the family as a sort of public icon, but they will not promote the economic integrity of the household or the community, which are the mainstays of family life. Under the sponsorship of 'conservative' presidencies, the economy of the modern household, which once required the father to work away from home--a development that was bad enough--now requires the mother to work away from home, as well. And this development has the wholehearted endorsement of 'liberals' who see the mother thus forced to spend her days away from her home and children as 'liberated'--though nobody has yet to see the fathers thus forced away as 'liberated.' Some feminist are thus in the curious position of opposing the mistreatment of women and yet advocating their participation in an economy in which everything is mistreated." (P. 122-23)
There is a lot here that is strange and new to our 2008 eyes. Berry understands that historically (before the industrial revolution ... at least in the rural setting) the household had its own economy. The father and mother and the children all worked together. Even if the father was a cobbler or a blacksmith, his children were around pretending to be like dad and the store and the house were usually the same thing. That world is behind us (his "economy of the modern household" where the dad must go away to work ... sometimes even miles away, to return on the weekends or late in the evenings). Now both parents do this journey and there is less and less anything that could really be described as a home or community.
I can't remember if it was him or Fox-Genovese that made the comment that the women's liberation movement was very profitable for Wall Street ... effectively doubling our work force. She said it goes beyond that because it brought with it a greater degree of separation, indeed, willingness to travel and work away from home because there wasn't one anymore.
NOW, I realize that these are larger trends and are not true of every modern household. On my street (with both Christians and non-Christians, in the city of Atlanta) all the mom's stay at home. I also realize that while it might be nice to have this kind of life, it is not possible for some people ... poor families have always had to have both parents work. But I think Berry's comments (and he has plenty more to say ... I am a mere 7 pages into this essay) are worth hearing out as much as we can.
It also makes an interesting point about the appearance of choice we have between "conservatives" and "liberals". Another wild thinker who I am still not sure how to take is Chomsky. He says that this is typical of American propaganda. We have the appearance of choice, when really both sides are saying the same thing in two different ways. Berry says a little farther down on page 123 that while conservatives attack homosexuality, abortion, and pornography, they don't usually oppose sexual promiscuity, because "sexual discipline would reduce the profits of corporations, which in their advertisements and entertainments encourage sexual self-indulgence as a way of selling merchandise." This may seem far to skeptical for some ... it is coming from a farmer who has seen first hand the physical and communal devastation of the modern economy.
I think we ought to listen and try and take it into account as we think through our own choices.
There is a lot here that is strange and new to our 2008 eyes. Berry understands that historically (before the industrial revolution ... at least in the rural setting) the household had its own economy. The father and mother and the children all worked together. Even if the father was a cobbler or a blacksmith, his children were around pretending to be like dad and the store and the house were usually the same thing. That world is behind us (his "economy of the modern household" where the dad must go away to work ... sometimes even miles away, to return on the weekends or late in the evenings). Now both parents do this journey and there is less and less anything that could really be described as a home or community.
I can't remember if it was him or Fox-Genovese that made the comment that the women's liberation movement was very profitable for Wall Street ... effectively doubling our work force. She said it goes beyond that because it brought with it a greater degree of separation, indeed, willingness to travel and work away from home because there wasn't one anymore.
NOW, I realize that these are larger trends and are not true of every modern household. On my street (with both Christians and non-Christians, in the city of Atlanta) all the mom's stay at home. I also realize that while it might be nice to have this kind of life, it is not possible for some people ... poor families have always had to have both parents work. But I think Berry's comments (and he has plenty more to say ... I am a mere 7 pages into this essay) are worth hearing out as much as we can.
It also makes an interesting point about the appearance of choice we have between "conservatives" and "liberals". Another wild thinker who I am still not sure how to take is Chomsky. He says that this is typical of American propaganda. We have the appearance of choice, when really both sides are saying the same thing in two different ways. Berry says a little farther down on page 123 that while conservatives attack homosexuality, abortion, and pornography, they don't usually oppose sexual promiscuity, because "sexual discipline would reduce the profits of corporations, which in their advertisements and entertainments encourage sexual self-indulgence as a way of selling merchandise." This may seem far to skeptical for some ... it is coming from a farmer who has seen first hand the physical and communal devastation of the modern economy.
I think we ought to listen and try and take it into account as we think through our own choices.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Wendell Berry (Part 1)
Wendell Berry is a farmer. He is a poet and essayist and novelist. He is a critic. He is a husband and father and grandfather. He is very tall and a very good talker. He is coming from such a different perspective and has so committed himself to an older way of life and so he becomes a voice for true local culture. I have been reading him for a couple years now and feel like I owe him quite a lot for stretching my brain ... possibly even helping me to imagine an entirely new way to see the world.
The next few posts are all going to deal with his essay "Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community".
He begins the essay with a relatively modern example of a public failure regarding private matters ... stating that this convolution of the two, which is missing any concept of community is just one more example in the long line that represents the disintegration of community ... the spending of social capital (with the only result being the lining of profit-lined pockets).
Ok, so here is your first quote: "As our communities have disintegrated from external predation and internal disaffection, we have changed from a society whose ideal of justice was trust and fairness among people who knew each other into a society whose ideal of justice is public litigation, breeding distrust even among people who know each other."
This is most certainly a sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in. But look how he connects it to sexuality.
"Once it has shrugged off the interests and claims of the community, the public language of sexuality comes directly under the influence of private lust, ambition, and greed and becomes inadequate to deal with the real issues and problems of sexuality. ... 'Sexual education' carried out in this public language, is and can only be a dispirited description of the working of a sort of anatomical machinery--and this is a sexuality that is neither erotic nor social nor sacramental but rather a cold-blooded, abstract procedure that is finally not even imaginable."
to be continued ...
The next few posts are all going to deal with his essay "Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community".
He begins the essay with a relatively modern example of a public failure regarding private matters ... stating that this convolution of the two, which is missing any concept of community is just one more example in the long line that represents the disintegration of community ... the spending of social capital (with the only result being the lining of profit-lined pockets).
Ok, so here is your first quote: "As our communities have disintegrated from external predation and internal disaffection, we have changed from a society whose ideal of justice was trust and fairness among people who knew each other into a society whose ideal of justice is public litigation, breeding distrust even among people who know each other."
This is most certainly a sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in. But look how he connects it to sexuality.
"Once it has shrugged off the interests and claims of the community, the public language of sexuality comes directly under the influence of private lust, ambition, and greed and becomes inadequate to deal with the real issues and problems of sexuality. ... 'Sexual education' carried out in this public language, is and can only be a dispirited description of the working of a sort of anatomical machinery--and this is a sexuality that is neither erotic nor social nor sacramental but rather a cold-blooded, abstract procedure that is finally not even imaginable."
to be continued ...
Thursday, April 17, 2008
cursed reading
Does anyone else struggle with writing cuss words in the books they are reading? I don't struggle with it very often ... only when I don't like the way someone is arguing (I struggle with cussing when listening to politicians too). A while ago I read a book by Donald Bloech (I think that is right). It was one of his shorter ones and I still hear he is highly recommended and respected, but I found him making ridiculous arguments and throwing some of my other favorite people under the bus (old dead people who I have never met, but love nonetheless) and I would write out very mean things in response. Sometimes I erased them after I wrote them ... I am not sure why. I don't suspect anyone will ever read my copy of the book, I just felt like it was too much to leave in the margin. Other times, I left it ... feeling like it was justified. Occasionally I will read these to Tara to try and make her laugh at me. Sometimes she does.
But maybe I have said to much. Please don't read this as condoning cussing. I will not tell you which words I use (I mean who knows ... maybe I am referring to horrible things like "darnett all"). Seriously, I don't believe that cussing in general adds very much color to things and often is massively over used. So don't use this blog to justify anything.
I am reading a book now that is making me mad. I had to put it down for a while ...
I guess I am just posting to let people know how worked up I get about books. Do you guys experience that too?
I am definitely a nerd.
But maybe I have said to much. Please don't read this as condoning cussing. I will not tell you which words I use (I mean who knows ... maybe I am referring to horrible things like "darnett all"). Seriously, I don't believe that cussing in general adds very much color to things and often is massively over used. So don't use this blog to justify anything.
I am reading a book now that is making me mad. I had to put it down for a while ...
I guess I am just posting to let people know how worked up I get about books. Do you guys experience that too?
I am definitely a nerd.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
For Families
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary
in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in
which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee,
every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride
of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance,
patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those
who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the
hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the
children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among
us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one
to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Please hear our prayer.
(From the Book of Common Prayer; P. 828)
in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in
which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee,
every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride
of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance,
patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those
who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the
hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the
children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among
us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one
to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Please hear our prayer.
(From the Book of Common Prayer; P. 828)
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Commandment: God Speaks to Us
In continuing thinking on the psalms, I read a chapter of Bruggemann this morning. He reminded me of something that others have written about as well ... that the God of Israel (who is the God of the NT as well) is interested in morality. There is a powerful statement in Deuteronomy 6:20-25
20When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”
The God of the Bible is particular. He is love as John tells us, but part of that definition of his character is concern for justice and righteousness. And so we and the world around us are constantly addressed by this particular, the true God's, "summons to obedience" as the ultimate way of knowing Him (in Walter's words).
And he quoted from another book I really like (and happen to have a summery of on my computer). "Who Is Man?" by Abraham Heschel. Heschel says that central to understanding man (humankind) is his sense of personal indebtedness, that God is not only a power we depend on, but "He is a God who demands." He even uses Decartisian language to define man "I am commanded -- therefore I am."
While we like to think of salvation and redemption being wrought by God alone (and in some sense, rightly so), we forget that his saving deeds (saving Israel out of Egypt or the world out of perishing in sin and death) is a summons to obedience. And there is a profound dignity here if we can see past our modern disdain for words like command, duty, even righteousness. As Moses preaches to those children on the eve of entering the promised land "The Lord commanded us ... for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive."
20When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”
The God of the Bible is particular. He is love as John tells us, but part of that definition of his character is concern for justice and righteousness. And so we and the world around us are constantly addressed by this particular, the true God's, "summons to obedience" as the ultimate way of knowing Him (in Walter's words).
And he quoted from another book I really like (and happen to have a summery of on my computer). "Who Is Man?" by Abraham Heschel. Heschel says that central to understanding man (humankind) is his sense of personal indebtedness, that God is not only a power we depend on, but "He is a God who demands." He even uses Decartisian language to define man "I am commanded -- therefore I am."
While we like to think of salvation and redemption being wrought by God alone (and in some sense, rightly so), we forget that his saving deeds (saving Israel out of Egypt or the world out of perishing in sin and death) is a summons to obedience. And there is a profound dignity here if we can see past our modern disdain for words like command, duty, even righteousness. As Moses preaches to those children on the eve of entering the promised land "The Lord commanded us ... for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive."
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The Psalter
I started reading the daily office of psalms two days ago and it has been very powerful to me. Yesterday I read 5,6,9 and 10 and today was part of 119, 12, 13, and 14. I feel like, among other things, it roots me in the larger world. Reminds me that God is the God of the whole earth and his concern is for everyone. He really wants to rid the world of wicked men and wicked deeds so that the orphan and oppressed may receive justice. These words sort of galvanize me in prayer for our broken world.
This morning on NPR they were talking about Tibet and China and the horrible relations and sounds like atrocities that China is perpetuating over that nation. Something so distant and involving the persecution of people of another religion (Buddhist persecution), and the psalms remind me that God is furious about it and he will respond.
"Oh, that the Lord would cut off all smooth tongues,
and close the lips that utter proud boasts!
'Because the needy are oppressed,
and the poor cry out in misery,
I will rise up,' says the Lord,
'and give them the help they long for.'"
From psalm 12
Or from psalm 11 which expresses doubt about the future of mankind.
"see how the wicked bend the bow
and fit their arrows to the string,
to shoot from ambush at the true of heart.
When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?"
Things seem over ... the wicked are winning ... the very foundations are being destroyed, but the next verse:
"The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord's throne is in heaven."
(more powerful words)
concluding with
"and the just shall see his face."
This morning on NPR they were talking about Tibet and China and the horrible relations and sounds like atrocities that China is perpetuating over that nation. Something so distant and involving the persecution of people of another religion (Buddhist persecution), and the psalms remind me that God is furious about it and he will respond.
"Oh, that the Lord would cut off all smooth tongues,
and close the lips that utter proud boasts!
'Because the needy are oppressed,
and the poor cry out in misery,
I will rise up,' says the Lord,
'and give them the help they long for.'"
From psalm 12
Or from psalm 11 which expresses doubt about the future of mankind.
"see how the wicked bend the bow
and fit their arrows to the string,
to shoot from ambush at the true of heart.
When the foundations are being destroyed,
what can the righteous do?"
Things seem over ... the wicked are winning ... the very foundations are being destroyed, but the next verse:
"The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord's throne is in heaven."
(more powerful words)
concluding with
"and the just shall see his face."
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Silent Windstorm
20 minutes of writing in the coffee shop ... the first writing I have done in a long time.
Why can't you see that you are lost
in the quiet windstorm of our age.
These are the dust bowl days,
but the wind blows so powerlessly,
so odorless and flavorless,
that it sneaks in past your coat,
or convinces you to go without one
and it it seeps into your pores
A toxin inside your body.
Your mind finds a new center,
All outward attention dilates with new focus
On a very surface level
this new center is simply yourself.
What used to be the wonder of the great outside,
what used to be a magnificant world of the great "Others"
Subtly shifts to the world of "providers" or "products" or "rivals"
The world shrinks as our need shifts
What used to be seen and understood and lauded,
Is now only stolen, consumed and destroyed.
But again, this is only the surface,
This is the initial stage of the sickness
The first happenings of this nothing poison
blowing into our soul.
There is another level of realization:
All of these demanding needs
at the very least the form they take
while born in your body,
born in your heart
were planted from the outside.
There is a larger business at work
These "needs" are imports,
and there is a sickening sameness about them.
Creativity is hardly allowed
for someone full of this empty wind.
Like the wash of a suburban commercial skyline
is our souls laid together shopping.
But we must recover, and quick.
I will wear an iron coat,
but what of my insides?
How to be cleansed and changed and saved?
Why can't you see that you are lost
in the quiet windstorm of our age.
These are the dust bowl days,
but the wind blows so powerlessly,
so odorless and flavorless,
that it sneaks in past your coat,
or convinces you to go without one
and it it seeps into your pores
A toxin inside your body.
Your mind finds a new center,
All outward attention dilates with new focus
On a very surface level
this new center is simply yourself.
What used to be the wonder of the great outside,
what used to be a magnificant world of the great "Others"
Subtly shifts to the world of "providers" or "products" or "rivals"
The world shrinks as our need shifts
What used to be seen and understood and lauded,
Is now only stolen, consumed and destroyed.
But again, this is only the surface,
This is the initial stage of the sickness
The first happenings of this nothing poison
blowing into our soul.
There is another level of realization:
All of these demanding needs
at the very least the form they take
while born in your body,
born in your heart
were planted from the outside.
There is a larger business at work
These "needs" are imports,
and there is a sickening sameness about them.
Creativity is hardly allowed
for someone full of this empty wind.
Like the wash of a suburban commercial skyline
is our souls laid together shopping.
But we must recover, and quick.
I will wear an iron coat,
but what of my insides?
How to be cleansed and changed and saved?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Ash Wednesday Eve (Fat Tuesday (Super Fat Tuesday))
Well tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I played with the ashes tonight ... trying to make sure we had the right mixture of oil to ash (the oil just helps it stick to foreheads). The ash is jet black and looks like solid smoke on my forehead. Is my life on fire or is it burned out? Some of both when I am honest. Some of both when I take the time to look close.
If God took the dirty earth and breathed life into it to create our ancient father, then maybe there is hope for the blackened ash in the hollow places of my heart. The only thing more lifeless than dust is ash.
I don't feel that black most of the times ... most of the time I think I am doing pretty well. I honestly am looking forward to my fasting and slowing and focusing so I can see the black parts a little better.
I am trying an interesting fast this year. I continue with dropping sweets and alcohol and snacks (the first I use for escape, the second for celebration and the third for boredom). None of those things I want to distract from facing my sin and mortality as I look upon the death of Christ. But I am also fasting from reading books.
I got the idea from Lauren Winner in her book "Girl Meet God." By the way, that is the worst title ever ... so misleading! It is an amazing book and probably the most literate and honest conversion story I have read. But she is a big reader and her priest challenges her to give up books for lent. I read that at a time where I felt quite overwhelmed with an overstrong desire to consume books. I literally am reading at least 10 different books and don't have any plan for why or which one when. And on top of that 50 more get stared at each week because I can't wait to start them. But worse than all that is that when I don't know what to do with myself ... when I don't want to pray ... when I don't want to think or write or do some financial planning or whatever ... I just read one of the ten books I have going.
So Lent will be a time for me to put all those wonderful people and their published thoughts aside too see what happens if I only have myself to live with. And of course ... it isn't just myself ... it is my family and God and the Bible ... etc. I am looking forward to the change.
If God took the dirty earth and breathed life into it to create our ancient father, then maybe there is hope for the blackened ash in the hollow places of my heart. The only thing more lifeless than dust is ash.
I don't feel that black most of the times ... most of the time I think I am doing pretty well. I honestly am looking forward to my fasting and slowing and focusing so I can see the black parts a little better.
I am trying an interesting fast this year. I continue with dropping sweets and alcohol and snacks (the first I use for escape, the second for celebration and the third for boredom). None of those things I want to distract from facing my sin and mortality as I look upon the death of Christ. But I am also fasting from reading books.
I got the idea from Lauren Winner in her book "Girl Meet God." By the way, that is the worst title ever ... so misleading! It is an amazing book and probably the most literate and honest conversion story I have read. But she is a big reader and her priest challenges her to give up books for lent. I read that at a time where I felt quite overwhelmed with an overstrong desire to consume books. I literally am reading at least 10 different books and don't have any plan for why or which one when. And on top of that 50 more get stared at each week because I can't wait to start them. But worse than all that is that when I don't know what to do with myself ... when I don't want to pray ... when I don't want to think or write or do some financial planning or whatever ... I just read one of the ten books I have going.
So Lent will be a time for me to put all those wonderful people and their published thoughts aside too see what happens if I only have myself to live with. And of course ... it isn't just myself ... it is my family and God and the Bible ... etc. I am looking forward to the change.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Walker Percy
I wish he were still alive ...
Percy was a southern Catholic novelist and very acute in his ability to see around him. He understood that one of the large problems with Protestant Christianity ... maybe particularly in America was its enlightenment duality ... its distrust of mixing spirit with things ... with the body.
"she mistrusts the Old Church's traffic in things, sacraments, articles, bread, wine, salt, oil, water, ashes."
But he was also very aware that this distrust was not Christian. In fact, he saw the great work of Christ as uniting man within himself by uniting him to God. All Catholics have a better appreciation for the Incarnation and the great meaning that gives to the world of things ... and it has always been a part of the Hebrew understanding with their poetry of trees clapping and fields singing.
In Love in Ruins Percy's character thinks he has invented technology that will reunite man with himself. "my lapsometer, the first caliper of the soul and the first hope of bridging the dread chasm that has rent the soul of Western man ever since the famous philosopher Descartes ripped body loose from mind and turned the very soul into a ghost that haunts its own house."
and toward the end ...
"For the world is broken, sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel, half beast, but no man. Even now I can diagnose and shall one day cure: cure the new plague, the modern Black Death, the current hermaphroditism of the spirit, namely: More's syndrome, or: chronic angelism-bestialism that rives soul from body and sets it orbiting the great world as the spirit of abstraction whence it takes the form of beasts, swans and bulls, werewolves, blood-suckers, Mr. Hydes, or just poor lonesome ghosts locked in its own machinery."
"Some day a man will walk into my office as ghost or beast or ghost-beast and walk out as a man, which is to say sovereign wanderer, lordly exile, worker and waiter and watcher."
At another point in the novel the protaganist's wife asks her Roman Catholic husband: "My God, what is it you do in Church?" More explains, "What she didn't understand, she being spiritual and seeing religion as spirit, was that it took religion to save me from the spirit world, from orbiting the earth like Lucifer and the Angels, that it took nothing less than ... eating Christ himself to make me mortal man again and let me inhabit my own flesh and love her in the morning."
I heartily agree. It is eating Christ in the bread and wine and loving my wife and my children who are real ... it is acknowledging God's presence with me now as my fingers hit these shiny keys and my eyes look upon technology--technology surrounded by human mess an empty glass containing watery lime (my new experiement in drinking fruit every day) and the multiple papers covered in messy ink and the flower-laden sheep that dance around my coffee mug and the tattered postcard from Iran in 1994 and the smooth wax candle handmade by Ryan ... it is all these things and these things present to God, God present to them, God praised through them, God given to them ... that make me a man and make me whole.
The last line of my book makes me cry when I read it ... I don't know if its because I have been through this novel a couple times or if you will get it reading it ahead of time ... but I write it anyway as the profound beginning of redemption in a fallen world. It is a domestic scene where the hero, finally married to one women, denies his old temptations and goes home to his wife.
"To bed we go for a long winter's nap, twined about each other as the ivy twineth, not under a bush or in a car or on the floor or any such humbug as marked the past peculiar years of Christendom, but at home in bed where all good folk belong."
Amen.
Percy was a southern Catholic novelist and very acute in his ability to see around him. He understood that one of the large problems with Protestant Christianity ... maybe particularly in America was its enlightenment duality ... its distrust of mixing spirit with things ... with the body.
"she mistrusts the Old Church's traffic in things, sacraments, articles, bread, wine, salt, oil, water, ashes."
But he was also very aware that this distrust was not Christian. In fact, he saw the great work of Christ as uniting man within himself by uniting him to God. All Catholics have a better appreciation for the Incarnation and the great meaning that gives to the world of things ... and it has always been a part of the Hebrew understanding with their poetry of trees clapping and fields singing.
In Love in Ruins Percy's character thinks he has invented technology that will reunite man with himself. "my lapsometer, the first caliper of the soul and the first hope of bridging the dread chasm that has rent the soul of Western man ever since the famous philosopher Descartes ripped body loose from mind and turned the very soul into a ghost that haunts its own house."
and toward the end ...
"For the world is broken, sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel, half beast, but no man. Even now I can diagnose and shall one day cure: cure the new plague, the modern Black Death, the current hermaphroditism of the spirit, namely: More's syndrome, or: chronic angelism-bestialism that rives soul from body and sets it orbiting the great world as the spirit of abstraction whence it takes the form of beasts, swans and bulls, werewolves, blood-suckers, Mr. Hydes, or just poor lonesome ghosts locked in its own machinery."
"Some day a man will walk into my office as ghost or beast or ghost-beast and walk out as a man, which is to say sovereign wanderer, lordly exile, worker and waiter and watcher."
At another point in the novel the protaganist's wife asks her Roman Catholic husband: "My God, what is it you do in Church?" More explains, "What she didn't understand, she being spiritual and seeing religion as spirit, was that it took religion to save me from the spirit world, from orbiting the earth like Lucifer and the Angels, that it took nothing less than ... eating Christ himself to make me mortal man again and let me inhabit my own flesh and love her in the morning."
I heartily agree. It is eating Christ in the bread and wine and loving my wife and my children who are real ... it is acknowledging God's presence with me now as my fingers hit these shiny keys and my eyes look upon technology--technology surrounded by human mess an empty glass containing watery lime (my new experiement in drinking fruit every day) and the multiple papers covered in messy ink and the flower-laden sheep that dance around my coffee mug and the tattered postcard from Iran in 1994 and the smooth wax candle handmade by Ryan ... it is all these things and these things present to God, God present to them, God praised through them, God given to them ... that make me a man and make me whole.
The last line of my book makes me cry when I read it ... I don't know if its because I have been through this novel a couple times or if you will get it reading it ahead of time ... but I write it anyway as the profound beginning of redemption in a fallen world. It is a domestic scene where the hero, finally married to one women, denies his old temptations and goes home to his wife.
"To bed we go for a long winter's nap, twined about each other as the ivy twineth, not under a bush or in a car or on the floor or any such humbug as marked the past peculiar years of Christendom, but at home in bed where all good folk belong."
Amen.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Waiting dinners
About two weeks ago I had a Thursday night to myself and so I decided to read some scripture and try and ready myself for Christmas. I read Luke 14 a couple of times because of the upcoming Lazarus dinner with the homeless. I also read Isaiah 25 a couple of times ... I am fascinated with that text and Kenneth Bailey connects it to Luke 14. So here is my results ... my new art form is poetic sketches. Or maybe they are just first drafts ideas to be taken up by someone more sure with the pen and paint than I am.
"Distance is the soul of beauty." (Simone Weil)
I came across this quote a while ago, but thought about it again this advent. It seems to make a lot of sense and be hard to grasp at the same time. It has something to do with desire and the place of desire in life and hope and love. The 12th century monks used to spend a lot of time in the Old Testament and would say that desire was one of the key themes there. It taught them to wait and long for the messiah, for peace, for the promised land. When they finally opened the gospels, the desert bloomed.
But what if waiting creates anxiety of abandonment? What if waiting never feels secure, only painful. Bonhoeffer said that only the uneasy can wait. He said that celebrating advent was only possible to those who are "troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come." It is important to have a troubled soul. It shows you that your eyes work and your heart hasn't been cauterized or dulled or frozen. And so we wait.
In this waiting, I can't help but put together the picture of the future banquet where the Lord will swallow death and wipe away tears as one filled with the kind of people Jesus wanted to invite to his table. This is really the inspiration for my poetic sketch. It speaks of uneasy waiting and returns us to the longing of the early church which cried Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Banquet
There will be weeping and chattering of teeth
when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,
and you yourselves thrown out.
And they will come from the East and West
and from the North and South
and sit at table in the kingdom of God.
And then there is Isaiah 25 where God sets down a fat banquet, a wine banquet. The people swallow the banquet and God swallows up death.
I just think this is incredible and intense. But I really wanted to write about Luke 14
Jesus said:
"Whenever you give a lunch or dinner,
do not invite your friends
or brothers or relatives or wealthy neighbors.
They might invite you in return and thus repay you.
No, when you have a banquet,
invite beggars
and the crippled,
the lame
and the blind.
and you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you.
For you will be repaid
at the resurrection of the just."
These are the words of Jesus and I am thankful to be able to have the slightest participation in their fulfillment this Saturday.
when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,
and you yourselves thrown out.
And they will come from the East and West
and from the North and South
and sit at table in the kingdom of God.
And then there is Isaiah 25 where God sets down a fat banquet, a wine banquet. The people swallow the banquet and God swallows up death.
I just think this is incredible and intense. But I really wanted to write about Luke 14
Jesus said:
"Whenever you give a lunch or dinner,
do not invite your friends
or brothers or relatives or wealthy neighbors.
They might invite you in return and thus repay you.
No, when you have a banquet,
invite beggars
and the crippled,
the lame
and the blind.
and you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you.
For you will be repaid
at the resurrection of the just."
These are the words of Jesus and I am thankful to be able to have the slightest participation in their fulfillment this Saturday.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Marcello
It was very challenging to hear the stories again that I heard long ago ... almost at the beginning of my own Christian walk. The picture above is from a postcard Marcello gave me the first time I met him. It was to remind me to pray for the country of his heart and the people he loved. He still loves those people and still has a heart for that country more than thirteen years later.
I had many thoughts listening to Marcello tell his story. That he was a man who spoke with his life. I know these stories to be true and have known about his brave quests for a long time (and been challenged by them). God has watched over him all this time and it is ultimately because God does care about the forgotten church in the middle east. I saw this again last year when I was reading the scholar Kenneth Bailey. He says "there are more Arabic-speaking Christians in the Middle East than Jews in the entire world. This demographic fact is generally unknown in the West, where all Arabs are often assumed to be Muslims. The result is that even though there were Arab Christians in the Upper Room on Pentecost (Acts 2:11), millions of Arab Christians today are almost invisible to the Western world."
The one thing I don't want to, especially after hearing Marcello speak, is forget our brothers and sisters in this part of the world. That really is a huge way for us to grow is by becoming more aware of the rest of the earth.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Reflection on Sign Four from John's Gospel
I think my favorite part is right after it says that the Great Passover Feast was near ... John describes Jesus looking up and seeing a great crowd coming toward HIM. The hungry pilgrams are going to their yearly feast in Jerusalem and man they look like they are starving ... and there is so many of them. So Jesus' sense of humor or maybe just playfullness kicks in and he says to Phillip: "Where should we buy bread for these people?" They are looking for a feast right, well, how are we going to provide it for them?
While Phillip is expressing his dumbfoundedness, Peter's brother speaks up, "There is a little poor boy who has offered his meager barley loaves and small fish ... but I don't know what that means." Do you think Jesus smiled about the young man who has more faith than his disciples? There is a lot missing here for me ... did they talk long enough for the boy to get that they were trying to come up with the food. Who was this young boy anyway and why was he so close to the disciples (not with the great crowd of people).
Jesus provides from this boys lunch a feast for over 5000 people with plenty left over (all that they want). Jesus is definitley pointing to his ability to feed our hunger. This always make me think of the verse in the Old Testament that "Man cannot live by bread alone, but needs the word of God." I think Jesus is setting up to teach about how he is the bread of Life ... the word of God that will cause us to live.
While Phillip is expressing his dumbfoundedness, Peter's brother speaks up, "There is a little poor boy who has offered his meager barley loaves and small fish ... but I don't know what that means." Do you think Jesus smiled about the young man who has more faith than his disciples? There is a lot missing here for me ... did they talk long enough for the boy to get that they were trying to come up with the food. Who was this young boy anyway and why was he so close to the disciples (not with the great crowd of people).
Jesus provides from this boys lunch a feast for over 5000 people with plenty left over (all that they want). Jesus is definitley pointing to his ability to feed our hunger. This always make me think of the verse in the Old Testament that "Man cannot live by bread alone, but needs the word of God." I think Jesus is setting up to teach about how he is the bread of Life ... the word of God that will cause us to live.
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